Tim Wildmon: Hey, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Today is Thursday, September 24, 2026. Again, I'm Tim Wildmon. Welcome to AFR. In the studio with me, joining us remotely from the Sunshine State, Florida, is our good friend Ray Pritchard. Good morning, Ray.
Ray Pritchard: Hey, good morning, Tim. How are you doing today?
Tim Wildmon: I'm doing great. It's a beautiful day here in Tupelo, about 70 degrees, maybe.
Ray Pritchard: Sixty-one this morning.
Tim Wildmon: Sixty-one?
Ray Pritchard: Sixty-one.
Tim Wildmon: That's what they call Indian summer, isn't it? The last few weeks before winter?
Tim Wildmon: Fred Jackson, good morning.
Fred Jackson: Morning. How are you?
Tim Wildmon: Good morning, Steve.
Steve: Good morning.
Tim Wildmon: Early, 72 degrees in Tupelo. Traffic next, all the eights. Backed up on West Jackson. We don't have freeway traffic reporting like they do in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta.
Steve: I can do it, though, over the helicopter.
Tim Wildmon: That's why we use KRAP in Cincinnati. He will not be dropping any turkeys out of the helicopter.
Fred Jackson: I thought turkeys could fly.
Tim Wildmon: You see? What a show WKRP in Cincinnati was. It has a lasting impression on our memories.
Steve: WKRP in Cincinnati. That's a great song, by the way.
Tim Wildmon: All right. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Tim, Fred, Steve, and Ray. If you're going to apply for a job on this show, you need to have a one-syllable name, and you need to probably be a male in your sixties or early seventies.
Fred Jackson: We do have younger people. Tony's in here. Wesley's in here.
Tim Wildmon: The youngsters are all away.
Fred Jackson: Yeah, the young bucks are around.
Tim Wildmon: We just don't let them have the reins too much. They'll kick us out of here. Before we jump into the news of the day, I had a science question for you, fellas.
Fred Jackson: Oh, I know. That's what I said. I'll do high school.
Tim Wildmon: A science teacher said, "I have a question for you," and I said, "What is it?" Oh, no. So I come to work this morning and get ready to pour my coffee, right? Well, I don't really pour my coffee. I pump the container. What do you call it?
Steve: Dispenser. The coffee dispenser.
Tim Wildmon: Right. Somebody came into the break room, and I have a stainless steel cup. At this time, I was considering putting it in the microwave. I know you're gasping. This is my science question. I didn't, because somewhere in my brain I'm thinking, "I was told somewhere in my life, in the last 63 years, don't put stainless steel in a microwave, or metal."
Tim Wildmon: I was by myself, and I wanted my coffee warmed up. So I'm thinking to myself, "Do I remember that right?" I almost Googled it, but then one of the ladies who works here walked in. She's about 20 or 25 years younger than me, and I said, "I ask unto thee, can you put a stainless steel cup in the microwave?"
Tim Wildmon: She did what Fred did. She said, "No, I don't think you can. Don't do that." So I said, "Well, here's a Styrofoam cup. Can I put a Styrofoam cup in the microwave, pour my coffee in there, and then pour it back into my stainless steel cup? Would that work?"
Tim Wildmon: She said, "Yeah, you can put Styrofoam in there." This is my science question: Why? Would it not seem logical, Ray, that you could put something as tough as a stainless steel cup in a microwave and it would be able to handle it? You would think if you put a Styrofoam cup in a microwave, it's going to melt. So do you have the answer to why that is?
Ray Pritchard: I don't know.
Tim Wildmon: I do. All right, well, Ray, you haven't helped so far. Hang on. I'll ask you a Bible question in a minute, and maybe you can help us out. Fred, go ahead.
Fred Jackson: Electricity, conduction, metal. Think about why you don't go out in a lightning storm and put up your metal umbrella.
Tim Wildmon: Because it attracts lightning.
Fred Jackson: Potentially, anything metal. That's why I don't throw my seven iron up when a thunderstorm is coming.
Tim Wildmon: That's right. What about a microwave?
Fred Jackson: You'll have an explosion inside your microwave.
Tim Wildmon: You mean it will explode this stainless steel cup?
Fred Jackson: You'll have what's called arcing. The way the microwave works is that it passes microwaves through whatever you want to heat up. That energy gets the molecules moving, which is heat, basically. Metal reflects and refracts. It doesn't allow the microwaves to pass through. They bounce off the metal.
Fred Jackson: This is courtesy of ChatGPT: Metal reflects microwaves instead of letting them pass through. Thin metal or sharp edges, such as foil or fork tines, can concentrate electrical energy and cause arcing, which is what I was talking about. Those sparks can start a fire or damage the microwave.
Tim Wildmon: It's a good thing I didn't do it, I guess. God sent that employee at exactly the right time. She walked in when I was contemplating putting my stainless steel cup in there. I wasn't going to do it before I Googled it and looked it up, but you know how you have things stored back in your memory? You think, "I remember I'm not supposed to do this, but I really want to, because I really want my coffee warmed up."
Fred Jackson: It will melt if you leave it in there long enough.
Tim Wildmon: That's what I'm asking. What would have happened if I had put this stainless steel cup in the microwave for 30 seconds?
Fred Jackson: About five seconds in, you would start to get sparks and arcing.
Steve: Oh, my word.
Fred Jackson: You might have had to get a new microwave.
Tim Wildmon: Would it have ruined the cup?
Fred Jackson: Not the cup. It would have ruined the microwave.
Tim Wildmon: At that point, I probably would have written a note, put it on the microwave, and walked out, signed "Anonymous." "Somebody else did this. The microwave has been ruined by some idiot. Signed, Anonymous." Sorry, you can't heat up your lunch. You brought it from home. You just have to eat it cold.
Tim Wildmon: I think what we've just discussed here is of some value to our listeners. Understand the science.
Tim Wildmon: All right, you're listening to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Something you do study and know about is the Word of God, the Bible. Give us a good word, if you would, this morning.
Ray Pritchard: Yesterday, Marlene and I were reading through the end of the book of James, and we finished it. Marlene commented on this. At the end of James 5, I'll just read what James says: "Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other that you may be healed."
Tim Wildmon: That's good.
Ray Pritchard: Then there's the line we're all used to in the King James Version: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." But the example, and this is what we talked about, is Elijah. He was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain and the earth yielded its crops.
Ray Pritchard: When we were talking about this, Marlene said, "It's very interesting that James uses the example of Elijah praying." Here's the fascinating part: If you go back to 1 Kings chapter 17, the passage that introduces Elijah, there's not a word said about Elijah praying. James picked it up, and obviously Elijah did pray, but I think that knowledge was handed down through the generations. Elijah was a man of prayer, even though that's not literally mentioned in the story of his life, especially the early part.
Ray Pritchard: I draw a couple of quick conclusions from this. Number one, you can pray even when you're not saying a word. Sometimes we get hung up on things like posture, eyes open or eyes closed, how loudly we pray, and how many words we use. Prayer begins in the heart. Even if your lips don't move, if it's just the movement of your heart toward God, the tiniest whisper on earth is shouted in the courts of heaven.
Ray Pritchard: One other thing: the effectual fervent prayer. What's a fervent prayer? James uses a word that means boiling, the boiling prayers of the righteous. We hear that and think, "Oh, that's somebody who prays very loudly, raises his voice, walks around, or raises his arms." There's nothing wrong with any of those things. What's a boiling prayer? It's a prayer that comes from the heart.
Ray Pritchard: My friends, sometimes we worry that we don't use the right words. Tell Jesus what's on your heart. Sometimes we worry that somebody is going to mistake something we say in prayer. No, take it to the Lord in prayer. You don't need to worry about anything. The Lord Jesus is seated on the throne of grace in heaven. He welcomes your prayers. He invites you to pray. God in heaven wants His children to call out to Him.
Ray Pritchard: Don't worry whether it's loud or soft, or whether you speak with any words at all. Let your heart cry out to Jesus. The cry of your heart will be heard in heaven, and God, who is in heaven, will answer you from heaven and meet your needs.
Tim Wildmon: Amen. So, what Bible verses are you citing here?
Ray Pritchard: James chapter 5, verses 16, 17, and 18.
Tim Wildmon: Encourage people to read those.
Ray Pritchard: Read the Scriptures daily.
Tim Wildmon: All right, you're listening to Today's Issues. Steve, what's our next story?
Steve: All eyes are on Washington this morning as President Trump is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. They have a whole lot of things to talk about. This is the second meeting they've had this year. President Trump went to Beijing earlier, and now President Xi is returning the favor. They are in Washington, D.C.
Steve: There are a lot of things they could be talking about, and many people are giving the president advice on what he should say and what he should be cautious about. One of those people is a gentleman we talk to every so often, Gordon Chang.
Fred Jackson: Gordon Chang is with the Gatestone Institute. He's also the author of Plan Red: China's Plan to Destroy America. You can tell from that title what Gordon Chang thinks of the Chinese leadership.
Guest: We've just made the situation worse because we have relentlessly pursued the Chinese, and that has inflated their already large sense of ego. They know they've killed Americans in the Iran conflict by sharing that targeting data, as Senator Wicker said, and yet we still give them a state visit. I think Xi Jinping thinks we're weak. President Trump obviously doesn't, but that's the way the Chinese view it, and that's the way many people around the world will view it.
Guest: I'm afraid that what this does is undercut President Trump's diplomacy by making countries around the world think that the Chinese own us.
Steve: You heard Gordon Chang make reference to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He got up in the Senate the other day and was appalled by the lavish welcome President Trump gave President Xi of China.
Steve: For the first time in 50 or 60 years, a president actually went to the airport to greet a visiting leader. Normally, as we pointed out yesterday, these leaders roll up in their limousines at the White House. President Trump actually went to Andrews Air Force Base last night to greet Xi.
Steve: The other thing you may have heard from Gordon Chang is that China has been using its satellites to help Iran target American military bases in the Middle East and target our ships that have been fired on. Gordon Chang and some other people are very upset that the president of China is being welcomed with open arms. The red carpet has been rolled out for a leader who is actually helping the Iranians fight American forces in this war.
Tim Wildmon: I'm not questioning you, Fred. I'm just saying, who is saying that China is aiding Iran?
Fred Jackson: Gordon Chang just said that, and others have pointed that out as well.
Tim Wildmon: Are we even surprised by this?
Fred Jackson: I guess I'm a little surprised by it. I would have thought China would stay out of it, unless there's some economic advantage for China in its relationship with Iran. Do they get oil from Iran?
Steve: China is a big customer of the Iranian oil establishment.
Tim Wildmon: Ray, you're not surprised?
Ray Pritchard: No, not at all.
Tim Wildmon: Let me tell you why I'm surprised a little bit, and then you can tell me why you're not. I know people will say I'm a little naïve, and maybe I am. I was the one who wanted to put a stainless steel cup in the microwave, but I didn't do that. Something in my brain said, "Don't. You've been told not to do that."
Tim Wildmon: China and the United States have completely different systems of government. One is a totalitarian, communist, repressive, state-controlled country. Together, we have freedom and liberty, freedom of movement, and constitutional rights. Everybody knows that. However, China makes things, and we buy them. The United States and China are joined at the hip economically.
Tim Wildmon: If China wants to destroy us, it doesn't make sense on their side, because they would destroy the American economy. Nobody would buy their stuff. They sell to other parts of the world, but we're their number one customer. It would be self-defeating, in my mind, for China to want to destroy the United States of America. To what end? So they can destroy their own economy? Do you see where I'm coming from here?
Ray Pritchard: That's a good point.
Tim Wildmon: Go ahead, Ray. Tell me why that doesn't make sense.
Ray Pritchard: It makes perfect sense. My general comment is that China cares about China. I don't think they care about much of anything else except burnishing their own image.
Tim Wildmon: China first?
Ray Pritchard: Oh, yeah. They probably look upon this whole war that America and Israel have with Iran, this military action, as a useless exercise. For the very reasons Fred mentioned earlier, the oil and the other trade they have with Iran, they are going to support it. I think it's despicable, dangerous, and evil for them to share targeting information with Iran, but I wonder if Trump will even ask him about that.
Tim Wildmon: Do you think, Fred? Will he ask him about it?
Fred Jackson: Maybe. But it appears that the Trump administration, at this point in this visit, is more interested in talking about the economic benefits of trade. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, announced late last night that they agreed to put off some of the tariff impositions from November to January to allow time for a broader and possibly better deal.
Fred Jackson: Right now, for this visit, they seem to want to concentrate on artificial intelligence, who is developing it, and how much is being developed. There's talk of setting up a hotline between the two countries so that when AI goes rogue, they can get together and try to figure out a way to stop it. That's one of the things that will be discussed.
Fred Jackson: Certainly, the trade issue will probably be the dominant discussion, because the way the Trump administration is behaving with this visit is as though they are good friends. We want to be nice to them because trade is so important between the two countries, and that seems to be the priority.
Tim Wildmon: Steve?
Steve: I agree. AI is high on the agenda, and so is the hotline. It has been described as a possible kill switch for AI, something they are hoping they can build in.
Steve: I saw a headline, I think Tim sent it around before we came here, that OpenAI was out in the wild again, or they were finding more of the same attack. It might have been that same attack, but they were finding that it had now compromised the Australian government. There is a lot of concern right now with AI, and even China cannot guarantee that it can control what's going on. That is high on the list of discussion items.
Tim Wildmon: I guess I don't understand what Senator Wicker was saying, and the gentleman whose comments we played.
Steve: It does bother me that we have all the pomp and circumstance and lay out the red carpet for the number one repressor of people in the world.
Tim Wildmon: China.
Steve: And then we treat Canada like garbage.
Tim Wildmon: I wouldn't say we treat Canada like garbage.
Steve: Well, Trump has. He wanted to make it the 51st state and talked about Lake Ontario becoming the Lake of America.
Tim Wildmon: Lake of America, yeah.
Steve: He's been very demeaning toward Canada and other countries, including Greenland, but with China he's complimentary. It's a strange action.
Tim Wildmon: I do think I'm probably going to get in trouble with a lot of President Trump supporters, and I am one of them on his policy for the most part, but I think he has a reverence for power. Maybe that's not the right word. An admiration for power, kind of devoid of the morality of it.
Tim Wildmon: That's why President Trump said President Xi is a great leader when he was over there in China. We're talking about communists who kill people who disagree with them. He rules with an iron fist in China, and President Trump calls him a great leader. That's what I mean when I say I think President Trump has this respect for power that is sometimes devoid of whether that power is good or bad. Does that make sense?
Steve: Yes, it does.
Tim Wildmon: I hope I don't come across as completely criticizing President Trump on this visit with the Chinese government. It just seems like he shies away from being critical of China while he's critical of people who have been our traditional friends. Go ahead, Fred.
Fred Jackson: There seems to be a contradiction sometimes, and I notice it that way.
Steve: He did the same thing with President Obama, when Obama did the exact same thing, am I right?
Fred Jackson: Oh, yeah, no question. But I noticed what you're talking about when Trump went to visit Turkey a couple of months ago. President Trump was so impressed with Turkey's leader, Erdogan. Erdogan is a friend of Hamas terrorists.
Steve: Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children.
Fred Jackson: Erdogan hates Israel.
Tim Wildmon: To be fair to President Trump, it's the same way with all past presidents. They also have to deal with the real world. If you want to accomplish things with President Xi, you don't want to be necessarily offensive to him either. It's a fine line you have to walk when you're the president of the United States, whether it's Trump, Bush, Obama, or Nixon, in dealing with our adversaries.
Tim Wildmon: We'll be back momentarily.
Host: You say it occasionally. It makes you sick at your stomach. It makes you hurt down deep inside where the pain cuts. It makes you wonder about what we call civilization and justice, and even sometimes humanity itself.
Host: I saw it the other day. It was in the paper. You probably saw it also. It wasn't headline news, but it might have served a good purpose if it had been. It read something like this:
Host: "Sensation-hungry spectators, disappointed when a 19-year-old gas station attendant abandoned a suicide attempt, taunted him into jumping to his death from a 104-foot water tower Thursday. A fire department official said the youth, Jürgen Peters, climbed an iron ladder to the top of the tower and threatened to commit suicide following a dispute at the filling station where he worked. He changed his mind and was climbing back down when the taunts began."
Host: "Jump, you coward. Jump," shouted someone from the crowd. As Peters moved lower, the taunts became louder. He hesitated, looked at the crowd, and then began to climb back to the top. At the top, he moved out on the edge and flung himself off.
Host: I'm sure the crowd went home with a sense of satisfaction and real fulfillment. They could feel something like what the Romans used to feel when Christians were thrown to the lions. The sight of twisted, crushed, broken, bloody humanity must be a very enjoyable sight to such people.
Host: We speak a lot about living in a civilized world. We brag about our scientific advances and revel in our mechanical accomplishments. We've learned more in the past ten years than men had learned in all of recorded history up to that time. Yet with all our marvelous wonders, we sometimes are nothing more than bloodthirsty animals.
Host: We've counted the church and its Christ out in our world. There's no place for Him, not in our modern world. He was a good crutch for the ignorant ages gone by, but the myth of Him just doesn't have any place in our world today. Puny indeed are those who really believe that He has anything to offer our age. Most people have just outgrown the need for Him.
Host: Let us suppose, and I know it is purely speculation, that those people who stood on that sidewalk beneath young Jürgen Peters were real followers of the Way and had decided to live by His will. Peters would be alive today if that were the case. Have we outgrown Him, or have we merely become more ignorant with all our learning?
Host: At least one thing is clear when you look at the incident: All murderers aren't arrested. Some can walk away, perhaps to taunt and kill again.
Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Fred, Steve, and Ray. We thank you for listening to American Family Radio. What's the next story, Steve?
Steve: We have a campaign of midterms coming up in November. Every congressional seat is up for grabs, and a lot of Senate seats are up for grabs. One of the races we're watching is in Michigan, where a socialist candidate named Abdul El-Sayed is running against Mike Rogers, who's a Republican.
Steve: We're seeing everybody do what they do now that the primaries are over. Everybody is moving to the center. El-Sayed, and I've seen other headlines of Democrats now flip-flopping on their more radical ideas and saying they are more middle-of-the-road. Republicans are doing the same thing.
Steve: Fred, I know you noticed that Mike Rogers, who has been a very strong supporter of President Trump, is now saying we need to stop this war in Iran. It is hurting us and hurting our oil and gas prices.
Fred Jackson: He has become the latest Republican to express concern with some of President Trump's policies, particularly with Mike Rogers and Iran. What you're going to hear is what he had to say yesterday at a news conference while he was on the campaign trail in Michigan. He is calling on President Trump to wrap up what's going on in Iran.
Fred Jackson: His particular concern is what it is doing to fuel prices in this country, especially diesel prices, because farmers in Michigan are heading into their biggest time of year when it comes to harvesting crops. Let's listen to Mike Rogers.
Guest: I think the best option now is to wind it down. There's still other things you can do to make sure that they can't hurt their neighbors and can't pursue a nuclear weapon. I just argue the time is now.
Guest: This is the most important harvest time of the year in Michigan, September and October. Diesel costs are pushing over six bucks. That is going to take a horrific toll, not only on our farmers trying to get the harvest out of the field, but certainly on grocery prices.
Guest: My argument is you just can't let it linger. Now's the time to start winding this thing up. I'm doing this because my conviction tells me it's time to start wrapping this thing up. I don't worry about what other Senate candidates do around the country. I know it's putting undue pressure on us here at home on prices.
Steve: That sentiment from Mike Rogers, who is running for the Senate in Michigan as a Republican, was echoed by the Republican Senate candidate in Iowa. Help me out here. What's her name? Is it Joni Ernst?
Fred Jackson: No, no, no. But she was saying the same thing two days ago.
Steve: So there are a lot of Republicans breaking rank with the Trump administration over the war in Iran. They're saying it's time to get out, time to leave, and wrap it up.
Fred Jackson: There are other concerns. Maria Salazar, the Republican congresswoman in Florida, has gone public with her concern about the aggressiveness of the crackdown on illegal immigrants. She said that's hurting President Trump and the Republicans within the Hispanic community.
Tim Wildmon: Ray, did you know that a lot of school districts are concerned about the cost of their buses now? Can you imagine the chaos that would happen if the school buses no longer ran because they couldn't afford diesel or fuel? This is on the edge of a major crisis.
Tim Wildmon: I was reading something yesterday that said the midterms come down to this: the existential question of whether gas is too high. If prices don't come down, this fellow said the Democrats are going to sweep to victory. I don't know if that's an oversimplification, but he's right about one thing. People vote with their pocketbooks. They always have and always will. The general public votes its pocketbook.
Ray Pritchard: Right here in Florida, not that long ago, we had finally made it under four dollars a gallon. I checked a second ago, and all around me here in Florida it's $4.50 a gallon. People notice that. People remember that.
Tim Wildmon: Remember those stickers we saw when Biden was in office, pointing at the price of gas? I guess we're going to see Trump stickers.
Ray Pritchard: I did that.
Tim Wildmon: That's for regular gas, correct, Ray? Four-fifty?
Ray Pritchard: Right.
Tim Wildmon: Where you are?
Ray Pritchard: Right. It was under four just a few weeks ago.
Fred Jackson: I was in Asheville, North Carolina, last week. It was $4.59 at one station for regular gas.
Tim Wildmon: What is it if we drive down the street here?
Fred Jackson: It ranges anywhere from about $3.88 to about $4.10, I think.
Tim Wildmon: We haven't gone over four yet.
Fred Jackson: But the big thing is diesel.
Steve: Yeah.
Fred Jackson: Diesel is what these school buses run on.
Steve: Diesel in our market here in North Mississippi, I checked one gas station this morning, was $6.09 a gallon. The average price of diesel in the nation, according to AAA, is $6.51 a gallon. Regular gas is $4.48 a gallon.
Tim Wildmon: Let me ask you this question, trying to be fair to President Trump and his administration's policies. He would say, and he has said, that we started this to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, correct?
Steve: Correct.
Tim Wildmon: That was how many months ago?
Fred Jackson: January?
Steve: We first started going to war with Iran in February, around February 20-something.
Tim Wildmon: So March, April, May, June, July, August, September. Seven months. Here's the problem. Everybody understands the objective President Trump started with. Everybody in the world, especially the American president, Democrats, and Republicans, has said we can't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. That must never happen.
Tim Wildmon: But here we are seven months later in a quagmire. The problem is that President Trump is not articulating to the American people what we're doing now, why we're doing it, why we have to stay the course, and what the objectives are. I fault him for that. Maybe he has, and I missed it, but he hasn't done a good job of updating the American people on why we're continuing to do this.
Tim Wildmon: All I hear is, "It's going to be over soon. Maybe after the election we're going to make a deal." We're not going to make a deal. It's just the ambiguity.
Ray Pritchard: Ambiguity.
Tim Wildmon: Ambiguity. Am I the only one who feels this way? Do you think we're getting good leadership right now?
Ray Pritchard: I think the president spoke the truth when he was at the United Nations two days ago. He said, in essence, Iran is trying to run out the clock. They think the situation will be different after the midterms, especially if the Democrats sweep.
Tim Wildmon: So we're going to keep going until November?
Ray Pritchard: Essentially, yes. Iran doesn't want to make a deal now because it thinks it can get a much better deal if it waits until after the midterms. That means this thing is going to drag on.
Tim Wildmon: If you take the president at his word, I think that analysis sounds right, because Marco Rubio said the very same thing. The Iranians want to run out the clock, get past the midterms, and then they think the president will be weakened.
Ray Pritchard: He will be. They're right.
Tim Wildmon: So we will be having this same discussion two years from now. As a matter of fact, he's going to be a lame-duck president. That's not disparaging President Trump. It's a fact. Every president who serves two terms is considered a lame-duck president during the last two years, because nobody is trying to curry favor with him because he may be reelected.
Steve: James Carville said, "It's the economy, stupid." I think that was James Carville.
Tim Wildmon: Right.
Steve: It was many elections ago, but it's still the economy. A lot of people are hurting because of oil and gas prices. That's the main trigger point.
Steve: The reality is that people aren't looking down the line at what would happen if the Democrats gained control. They're going to bring socialism in. There's no question. When you have the AOCs and the El-Sayeds talking about universal Medicare, and when there's a story out of California about billions of dollars being spent on medical care and housing for illegal immigrants, all of that is going to be on steroids if the Democrats gain power.
Steve: The problem is that the voter is looking at where we are today with the economy, and that's what is going to drive this election.
Tim Wildmon: What have you done for me lately? That's the mentality of my vote. That's where it is, and that is causing problems for Republicans right now.
Tim Wildmon: The other thing I always want to remind myself when I think about Iran is that we're not talking about a Western country. We're not talking about a country where, if things get dire enough with its economy or infrastructure, it is going to cry uncle and surrender. They want the pain. They're not looking for a way out. They're looking for the end of the world. They're looking for Armageddon.
Tim Wildmon: They really think that if they can make the world catch fire, that's the best thing for their theology, and they are all about their theology. We can't apply the same standards as if we were fighting England or France.
Tim Wildmon: I just think President Trump himself needs to do a better job, if he can, of articulating on a regular basis what we're doing, why we're there, and why we need to stay. I use the word quagmire, and that harkens back to Vietnam.
Tim Wildmon: We're not in a Vietnam situation in the sense that we have thousands of troops on the ground in a quagmire, but we are in a situation where we seem to be stuck and spinning our wheels. If we're not, that is my opinion. If I'm incorrect, I need President Trump and others to lay out the plan. Does that make sense?
Fred Jackson: I said it a couple of months ago. I think there was a workable exit strategy back then. The president could have spoken to the nation and said, "Our goal was to ensure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. We have succeeded, folks." He could have claimed victory a few months ago and moved on. Mission accomplished and moved on.
Fred Jackson: But we've hung around, and now we're into this whole blockade on oil and gas. What is that doing? The Houthis are now getting involved and are going to stop oil from traveling through the Red Sea. It seems to be getting worse instead of better.
Tim Wildmon: Yeah. All right, you're listening to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Steve, do you have any happy news over there?
Steve: I will get to it later.
Tim Wildmon: I do have some positive stuff, but I'd like to go back to the Michigan Senate race and the Democratic candidate. He's a Muslim Arab from the Detroit area, an American citizen, and a doctor running for the Senate. He had a town hall yesterday, and he has been currying favor with terrorist supporters. He has been going around with Hasan Piker and all these people, and he will not criticize the terrorists.
Tim Wildmon: Specifically, he would not criticize the death of the Iranian leadership, which was terrorizing the Iranian people. He was confronted by an Iranian student at Michigan last night. It's a two-minute cut. I had to cut it down from about five minutes because El-Sayed could not answer the question directly. You're going to hear El-Sayed talk, and then the audio will get soft and loud again where I cut out a minute and a half of him wandering around the question because he cannot answer it. Let's listen to it.
Guest: Abdul, my name is Iman Dashi, and my question for you is about Iran. My cousin was hunted in the streets of Iran by the IRGC because her hijab was incorrect. My uncle was sentenced to die and received 50 lashings by Ali Khamenei's government. The terror that we have experienced is insurmountable.
Guest: You can imagine our surprise and sadness as Persians when we heard a leaked audiotape of you saying that you didn't want to comment on Supreme Leader Khamenei's death and that people in Dearborn were sad when he died.
Guest: I have a simple question, Abdul. That silence had a gaping hole in our community. Do you regret that silence? Do you renounce the people who held vigils and supported this terrorist for all the things he has done? Do you stand unequivocally against the IRGC and against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has killed 50,000 protesters? I haven't heard anything from you about the protesters.
Guest: Please.
Guest: I appreciate your question, and thank you. What I will tell you is this: For too long and too often, when we think about our role in the world, we have turned ourselves into the world's policeman. I think that natural-resource interests become a ploy for the interests of our corporations, and that's what I worry about.
Guest: Do you know what I mean?
Guest: You still haven't said it. We're dying. I don't see you standing with us.
Guest: I will always stand with movements for freedom and democracy. But again, I want to be careful because I want democracy for the Persians.
Guest: Again, I want freedom and democracy for the people of Iran. No question.
Tim Wildmon: That's interesting. Some more context here. What you heard was an exchange. The gentleman in the audience is Iranian, or at least he has Iranian family members, and 50,000 or more citizens have been slaughtered by the Iranian regime. These are people who wanted freedom and democracy.
Tim Wildmon: The student asked El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for the Senate, who is a Muslim himself, whether he condemns the leadership of Iran that has killed all these people and his family members. I didn't hear him answer. He could not answer the question. He just said he was for freedom and democracy for the Iranian people. That's broad and general. That's not condemning the Islamic Republic leadership in Iran.
Steve: Why not?
Tim Wildmon: Why not?
Steve: Because he doesn't. He does not condemn the terrorist regime.
Fred Jackson: He couldn't say what the young man wanted him to say because everybody knows it's not true. He's a radical Islamist. He is on the side of the Iranian regime that's in power now, and he doesn't dare speak the truth. It was a bunch of double talk saying nothing really.
Steve: It was interesting that the young man drew attention to Dearborn, Michigan, which now has a Muslim mayor. They felt sorry when this mass murderer, Khamenei in Iran, was killed by Israelis early on in the war. They felt bad when this mass murderer was killed by the Israelis. They favor the butcher of Tehran because they hate the Jews so much.
Fred Jackson: But the other aspect is that El-Sayed talks about being for freedom. The problem is that in Iran, when you fight for freedom, you are executed.
Tim Wildmon: Was there anything in that interview exchange that would have made El-Sayed seem any more reasonable or sympathetic to the Iranian people?
Steve: No. What he said was that he was for freedom and democracy in general, and that every time the United States gets involved, we're doing it for corporations and greedy purposes and to make money. We're never there for the right reason.
Steve: Still, as the gentleman said, that had nothing directly to do with answering the question. He answered the question by not answering the question.
Tim Wildmon: You're listening to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Next story, Steve.
Steve: We have a couple of minutes before we end here. The president has kicked a couple of outlets out of the White House press pool.
Tim Wildmon: Who did he kick out?
Steve: Last week he tossed out CNN, Politico, and MSNBC.
Tim Wildmon: They used to be called MSNBC.
Steve: The administration said, "You can't cover the White House." You can print whatever you want, but you can't cover the White House.
Fred Jackson: Yesterday, J.D. Vance was doing a press conference. I want you to hear how he started it.
Guest: I have my notes here that I'm supposed to take questions from CNN and Politico. Is anybody from CNN or Politico here? No? Okay. All right, in the green jacket.
Steve: A little trolling by J.D. Vance. It was a press conference, but I don't know where he was.
Steve: A federal judge, a Trump-appointed federal judge, ruled that CNN, MSNBC, and Politico could go back and that you could not forbid them from covering the White House.
Fred Jackson: That was the ruling last night from this Trump-appointed judge. However, as of an hour ago, Fox was reporting that the White House still had not issued the hard passes to allow reporters into the events happening today with the Chinese leader at the White House.
Tim Wildmon: Somebody has to make a call. You can't let every press organization in the world in.
Fred Jackson: Every administration does that, except with the ones that are friendly to them.
Steve: Barack Obama and Joe Biden had their favorites. They didn't kick them out or call them names, but they didn't allow every press organization in. It's common.
Tim Wildmon: So we'll see what happens. A federal judge ruled in favor of these news agencies that President Trump booted out. We'll see whether they're able to come back or not.
Fred Jackson: Does it really matter? Everybody knows that the press is liberal, and they've been doing this for years. The president is more open. He has more scrums, as they're called, than any president in history. He is more accessible to the media than any president has ever been.
Steve: President Trump is, you're right. He's not filtered in the sense that he talks all day, every day, to everybody.
Fred Jackson: He didn't say they couldn't cover him. He just didn't want them to cover him from his bedroom, basically.
Tim Wildmon: All right. We'll be back in a few minutes here on Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. We've got a lot more stories to talk about. We'll also discuss a story that made national news at Ole Miss two days ago. Two students died, and kratom was found near the bodies. Kratom is an over-the-counter herbal supplement, and it's a nationwide problem. We're going to talk about that when we get back.
Tim Wildmon: Hey, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Today is Thursday, September 24, 2026. Again, I'm Tim Wildmon. Welcome to AFR. In the studio with me, joining us remotely from the Sunshine State, Florida, is our good friend Ray Pritchard. Good morning, Ray.
Ray Pritchard: Hey, good morning, Tim. How are you doing today?
Tim Wildmon: I'm doing great. It's a beautiful day here in Tupelo, about 70 degrees, maybe.
Ray Pritchard: Sixty-one this morning.
Tim Wildmon: Sixty-one?
Ray Pritchard: Sixty-one.
Tim Wildmon: That's what they call Indian summer, isn't it? The last few weeks before winter?
Tim Wildmon: Fred Jackson, good morning.
Fred Jackson: Morning. How are you?
Tim Wildmon: Good morning, Steve.
Steve: Good morning.
Tim Wildmon: Early, 72 degrees in Tupelo. Traffic next, all the eights. Backed up on West Jackson. We don't have freeway traffic reporting like they do in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta.
Steve: I can do it, though, over the helicopter.
Tim Wildmon: That's why we use KRAP in Cincinnati. He will not be dropping any turkeys out of the helicopter.
Fred Jackson: I thought turkeys could fly.
Tim Wildmon: You see? What a show WKRP in Cincinnati was. It has a lasting impression on our memories.
Steve: WKRP in Cincinnati. That's a great song, by the way.
Tim Wildmon: All right. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Tim, Fred, Steve, and Ray. If you're going to apply for a job on this show, you need to have a one-syllable name, and you need to probably be a male in your sixties or early seventies.
Fred Jackson: We do have younger people. Tony's in here. Wesley's in here.
Tim Wildmon: The youngsters are all away.
Fred Jackson: Yeah, the young bucks are around.
Tim Wildmon: We just don't let them have the reins too much. They'll kick us out of here. Before we jump into the news of the day, I had a science question for you, fellas.
Fred Jackson: Oh, I know. That's what I said. I'll do high school.
Tim Wildmon: A science teacher said, "I have a question for you," and I said, "What is it?" Oh, no. So I come to work this morning and get ready to pour my coffee, right? Well, I don't really pour my coffee. I pump the container. What do you call it?
Steve: Dispenser. The coffee dispenser.
Tim Wildmon: Right. Somebody came into the break room, and I have a stainless steel cup. At this time, I was considering putting it in the microwave. I know you're gasping. This is my science question. I didn't, because somewhere in my brain I'm thinking, "I was told somewhere in my life, in the last 63 years, don't put stainless steel in a microwave, or metal."
Tim Wildmon: I was by myself, and I wanted my coffee warmed up. So I'm thinking to myself, "Do I remember that right?" I almost Googled it, but then one of the ladies who works here walked in. She's about 20 or 25 years younger than me, and I said, "I ask unto thee, can you put a stainless steel cup in the microwave?"
Tim Wildmon: She did what Fred did. She said, "No, I don't think you can. Don't do that." So I said, "Well, here's a Styrofoam cup. Can I put a Styrofoam cup in the microwave, pour my coffee in there, and then pour it back into my stainless steel cup? Would that work?"
Tim Wildmon: She said, "Yeah, you can put Styrofoam in there." This is my science question: Why? Would it not seem logical, Ray, that you could put something as tough as a stainless steel cup in a microwave and it would be able to handle it? You would think if you put a Styrofoam cup in a microwave, it's going to melt. So do you have the answer to why that is?
Ray Pritchard: I don't know.
Tim Wildmon: I do. All right, well, Ray, you haven't helped so far. Hang on. I'll ask you a Bible question in a minute, and maybe you can help us out. Fred, go ahead.
Fred Jackson: Electricity, conduction, metal. Think about why you don't go out in a lightning storm and put up your metal umbrella.
Tim Wildmon: Because it attracts lightning.
Fred Jackson: Potentially, anything metal. That's why I don't throw my seven iron up when a thunderstorm is coming.
Tim Wildmon: That's right. What about a microwave?
Fred Jackson: You'll have an explosion inside your microwave.
Tim Wildmon: You mean it will explode this stainless steel cup?
Fred Jackson: You'll have what's called arcing. The way the microwave works is that it passes microwaves through whatever you want to heat up. That energy gets the molecules moving, which is heat, basically. Metal reflects and refracts. It doesn't allow the microwaves to pass through. They bounce off the metal.
Fred Jackson: This is courtesy of ChatGPT: Metal reflects microwaves instead of letting them pass through. Thin metal or sharp edges, such as foil or fork tines, can concentrate electrical energy and cause arcing, which is what I was talking about. Those sparks can start a fire or damage the microwave.
Tim Wildmon: It's a good thing I didn't do it, I guess. God sent that employee at exactly the right time. She walked in when I was contemplating putting my stainless steel cup in there. I wasn't going to do it before I Googled it and looked it up, but you know how you have things stored back in your memory? You think, "I remember I'm not supposed to do this, but I really want to, because I really want my coffee warmed up."
Fred Jackson: It will melt if you leave it in there long enough.
Tim Wildmon: That's what I'm asking. What would have happened if I had put this stainless steel cup in the microwave for 30 seconds?
Fred Jackson: About five seconds in, you would start to get sparks and arcing.
Steve: Oh, my word.
Fred Jackson: You might have had to get a new microwave.
Tim Wildmon: Would it have ruined the cup?
Fred Jackson: Not the cup. It would have ruined the microwave.
Tim Wildmon: At that point, I probably would have written a note, put it on the microwave, and walked out, signed "Anonymous." "Somebody else did this. The microwave has been ruined by some idiot. Signed, Anonymous." Sorry, you can't heat up your lunch. You brought it from home. You just have to eat it cold.
Tim Wildmon: I think what we've just discussed here is of some value to our listeners. Understand the science.
Tim Wildmon: All right, you're listening to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Something you do study and know about is the Word of God, the Bible. Give us a good word, if you would, this morning.
Ray Pritchard: Yesterday, Marlene and I were reading through the end of the book of James, and we finished it. Marlene commented on this. At the end of James 5, I'll just read what James says: "Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other that you may be healed."
Tim Wildmon: That's good.
Ray Pritchard: Then there's the line we're all used to in the King James Version: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." But the example, and this is what we talked about, is Elijah. He was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain and the earth yielded its crops.
Ray Pritchard: When we were talking about this, Marlene said, "It's very interesting that James uses the example of Elijah praying." Here's the fascinating part: If you go back to 1 Kings chapter 17, the passage that introduces Elijah, there's not a word said about Elijah praying. James picked it up, and obviously Elijah did pray, but I think that knowledge was handed down through the generations. Elijah was a man of prayer, even though that's not literally mentioned in the story of his life, especially the early part.
Ray Pritchard: I draw a couple of quick conclusions from this. Number one, you can pray even when you're not saying a word. Sometimes we get hung up on things like posture, eyes open or eyes closed, how loudly we pray, and how many words we use. Prayer begins in the heart. Even if your lips don't move, if it's just the movement of your heart toward God, the tiniest whisper on earth is shouted in the courts of heaven.
Ray Pritchard: One other thing: the effectual fervent prayer. What's a fervent prayer? James uses a word that means boiling, the boiling prayers of the righteous. We hear that and think, "Oh, that's somebody who prays very loudly, raises his voice, walks around, or raises his arms." There's nothing wrong with any of those things. What's a boiling prayer? It's a prayer that comes from the heart.
Ray Pritchard: My friends, sometimes we worry that we don't use the right words. Tell Jesus what's on your heart. Sometimes we worry that somebody is going to mistake something we say in prayer. No, take it to the Lord in prayer. You don't need to worry about anything. The Lord Jesus is seated on the throne of grace in heaven. He welcomes your prayers. He invites you to pray. God in heaven wants His children to call out to Him.
Ray Pritchard: Don't worry whether it's loud or soft, or whether you speak with any words at all. Let your heart cry out to Jesus. The cry of your heart will be heard in heaven, and God, who is in heaven, will answer you from heaven and meet your needs.
Tim Wildmon: Amen. So, what Bible verses are you citing here?
Ray Pritchard: James chapter 5, verses 16, 17, and 18.
Tim Wildmon: Encourage people to read those.
Ray Pritchard: Read the Scriptures daily.
Tim Wildmon: All right, you're listening to Today's Issues. Steve, what's our next story?
Steve: All eyes are on Washington this morning as President Trump is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. They have a whole lot of things to talk about. This is the second meeting they've had this year. President Trump went to Beijing earlier, and now President Xi is returning the favor. They are in Washington, D.C.
Steve: There are a lot of things they could be talking about, and many people are giving the president advice on what he should say and what he should be cautious about. One of those people is a gentleman we talk to every so often, Gordon Chang.
Fred Jackson: Gordon Chang is with the Gatestone Institute. He's also the author of Plan Red: China's Plan to Destroy America. You can tell from that title what Gordon Chang thinks of the Chinese leadership.
Guest: We've just made the situation worse because we have relentlessly pursued the Chinese, and that has inflated their already large sense of ego. They know they've killed Americans in the Iran conflict by sharing that targeting data, as Senator Wicker said, and yet we still give them a state visit. I think Xi Jinping thinks we're weak. President Trump obviously doesn't, but that's the way the Chinese view it, and that's the way many people around the world will view it.
Guest: I'm afraid that what this does is undercut President Trump's diplomacy by making countries around the world think that the Chinese own us.
Steve: You heard Gordon Chang make reference to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He got up in the Senate the other day and was appalled by the lavish welcome President Trump gave President Xi of China.
Steve: For the first time in 50 or 60 years, a president actually went to the airport to greet a visiting leader. Normally, as we pointed out yesterday, these leaders roll up in their limousines at the White House. President Trump actually went to Andrews Air Force Base last night to greet Xi.
Steve: The other thing you may have heard from Gordon Chang is that China has been using its satellites to help Iran target American military bases in the Middle East and target our ships that have been fired on. Gordon Chang and some other people are very upset that the president of China is being welcomed with open arms. The red carpet has been rolled out for a leader who is actually helping the Iranians fight American forces in this war.
Tim Wildmon: I'm not questioning you, Fred. I'm just saying, who is saying that China is aiding Iran?
Fred Jackson: Gordon Chang just said that, and others have pointed that out as well.
Tim Wildmon: Are we even surprised by this?
Fred Jackson: I guess I'm a little surprised by it. I would have thought China would stay out of it, unless there's some economic advantage for China in its relationship with Iran. Do they get oil from Iran?
Steve: China is a big customer of the Iranian oil establishment.
Tim Wildmon: Ray, you're not surprised?
Ray Pritchard: No, not at all.
Tim Wildmon: Let me tell you why I'm surprised a little bit, and then you can tell me why you're not. I know people will say I'm a little naïve, and maybe I am. I was the one who wanted to put a stainless steel cup in the microwave, but I didn't do that. Something in my brain said, "Don't. You've been told not to do that."
Tim Wildmon: China and the United States have completely different systems of government. One is a totalitarian, communist, repressive, state-controlled country. Together, we have freedom and liberty, freedom of movement, and constitutional rights. Everybody knows that. However, China makes things, and we buy them. The United States and China are joined at the hip economically.
Tim Wildmon: If China wants to destroy us, it doesn't make sense on their side, because they would destroy the American economy. Nobody would buy their stuff. They sell to other parts of the world, but we're their number one customer. It would be self-defeating, in my mind, for China to want to destroy the United States of America. To what end? So they can destroy their own economy? Do you see where I'm coming from here?
Ray Pritchard: That's a good point.
Tim Wildmon: Go ahead, Ray. Tell me why that doesn't make sense.
Ray Pritchard: It makes perfect sense. My general comment is that China cares about China. I don't think they care about much of anything else except burnishing their own image.
Tim Wildmon: China first?
Ray Pritchard: Oh, yeah. They probably look upon this whole war that America and Israel have with Iran, this military action, as a useless exercise. For the very reasons Fred mentioned earlier, the oil and the other trade they have with Iran, they are going to support it. I think it's despicable, dangerous, and evil for them to share targeting information with Iran, but I wonder if Trump will even ask him about that.
Tim Wildmon: Do you think, Fred? Will he ask him about it?
Fred Jackson: Maybe. But it appears that the Trump administration, at this point in this visit, is more interested in talking about the economic benefits of trade. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, announced late last night that they agreed to put off some of the tariff impositions from November to January to allow time for a broader and possibly better deal.
Fred Jackson: Right now, for this visit, they seem to want to concentrate on artificial intelligence, who is developing it, and how much is being developed. There's talk of setting up a hotline between the two countries so that when AI goes rogue, they can get together and try to figure out a way to stop it. That's one of the things that will be discussed.
Fred Jackson: Certainly, the trade issue will probably be the dominant discussion, because the way the Trump administration is behaving with this visit is as though they are good friends. We want to be nice to them because trade is so important between the two countries, and that seems to be the priority.
Tim Wildmon: Steve?
Steve: I agree. AI is high on the agenda, and so is the hotline. It has been described as a possible kill switch for AI, something they are hoping they can build in.
Steve: I saw a headline, I think Tim sent it around before we came here, that OpenAI was out in the wild again, or they were finding more of the same attack. It might have been that same attack, but they were finding that it had now compromised the Australian government. There is a lot of concern right now with AI, and even China cannot guarantee that it can control what's going on. That is high on the list of discussion items.
Tim Wildmon: I guess I don't understand what Senator Wicker was saying, and the gentleman whose comments we played.
Steve: It does bother me that we have all the pomp and circumstance and lay out the red carpet for the number one repressor of people in the world.
Tim Wildmon: China.
Steve: And then we treat Canada like garbage.
Tim Wildmon: I wouldn't say we treat Canada like garbage.
Steve: Well, Trump has. He wanted to make it the 51st state and talked about Lake Ontario becoming the Lake of America.
Tim Wildmon: Lake of America, yeah.
Steve: He's been very demeaning toward Canada and other countries, including Greenland, but with China he's complimentary. It's a strange action.
Tim Wildmon: I do think I'm probably going to get in trouble with a lot of President Trump supporters, and I am one of them on his policy for the most part, but I think he has a reverence for power. Maybe that's not the right word. An admiration for power, kind of devoid of the morality of it.
Tim Wildmon: That's why President Trump said President Xi is a great leader when he was over there in China. We're talking about communists who kill people who disagree with them. He rules with an iron fist in China, and President Trump calls him a great leader. That's what I mean when I say I think President Trump has this respect for power that is sometimes devoid of whether that power is good or bad. Does that make sense?
Steve: Yes, it does.
Tim Wildmon: I hope I don't come across as completely criticizing President Trump on this visit with the Chinese government. It just seems like he shies away from being critical of China while he's critical of people who have been our traditional friends. Go ahead, Fred.
Fred Jackson: There seems to be a contradiction sometimes, and I notice it that way.
Steve: He did the same thing with President Obama, when Obama did the exact same thing, am I right?
Fred Jackson: Oh, yeah, no question. But I noticed what you're talking about when Trump went to visit Turkey a couple of months ago. President Trump was so impressed with Turkey's leader, Erdogan. Erdogan is a friend of Hamas terrorists.
Steve: Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children.
Fred Jackson: Erdogan hates Israel.
Tim Wildmon: To be fair to President Trump, it's the same way with all past presidents. They also have to deal with the real world. If you want to accomplish things with President Xi, you don't want to be necessarily offensive to him either. It's a fine line you have to walk when you're the president of the United States, whether it's Trump, Bush, Obama, or Nixon, in dealing with our adversaries.
Tim Wildmon: We'll be back momentarily.
Host: You say it occasionally. It makes you sick at your stomach. It makes you hurt down deep inside where the pain cuts. It makes you wonder about what we call civilization and justice, and even sometimes humanity itself.
Host: I saw it the other day. It was in the paper. You probably saw it also. It wasn't headline news, but it might have served a good purpose if it had been. It read something like this:
Host: "Sensation-hungry spectators, disappointed when a 19-year-old gas station attendant abandoned a suicide attempt, taunted him into jumping to his death from a 104-foot water tower Thursday. A fire department official said the youth, Jürgen Peters, climbed an iron ladder to the top of the tower and threatened to commit suicide following a dispute at the filling station where he worked. He changed his mind and was climbing back down when the taunts began."
Host: "Jump, you coward. Jump," shouted someone from the crowd. As Peters moved lower, the taunts became louder. He hesitated, looked at the crowd, and then began to climb back to the top. At the top, he moved out on the edge and flung himself off.
Host: I'm sure the crowd went home with a sense of satisfaction and real fulfillment. They could feel something like what the Romans used to feel when Christians were thrown to the lions. The sight of twisted, crushed, broken, bloody humanity must be a very enjoyable sight to such people.
Host: We speak a lot about living in a civilized world. We brag about our scientific advances and revel in our mechanical accomplishments. We've learned more in the past ten years than men had learned in all of recorded history up to that time. Yet with all our marvelous wonders, we sometimes are nothing more than bloodthirsty animals.
Host: We've counted the church and its Christ out in our world. There's no place for Him, not in our modern world. He was a good crutch for the ignorant ages gone by, but the myth of Him just doesn't have any place in our world today. Puny indeed are those who really believe that He has anything to offer our age. Most people have just outgrown the need for Him.
Host: Let us suppose, and I know it is purely speculation, that those people who stood on that sidewalk beneath young Jürgen Peters were real followers of the Way and had decided to live by His will. Peters would be alive today if that were the case. Have we outgrown Him, or have we merely become more ignorant with all our learning?
Host: At least one thing is clear when you look at the incident: All murderers aren't arrested. Some can walk away, perhaps to taunt and kill again.
Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Fred, Steve, and Ray. We thank you for listening to American Family Radio. What's the next story, Steve?
Steve: We have a campaign of midterms coming up in November. Every congressional seat is up for grabs, and a lot of Senate seats are up for grabs. One of the races we're watching is in Michigan, where a socialist candidate named Abdul El-Sayed is running against Mike Rogers, who's a Republican.
Steve: We're seeing everybody do what they do now that the primaries are over. Everybody is moving to the center. El-Sayed, and I've seen other headlines of Democrats now flip-flopping on their more radical ideas and saying they are more middle-of-the-road. Republicans are doing the same thing.
Steve: Fred, I know you noticed that Mike Rogers, who has been a very strong supporter of President Trump, is now saying we need to stop this war in Iran. It is hurting us and hurting our oil and gas prices.
Fred Jackson: He has become the latest Republican to express concern with some of President Trump's policies, particularly with Mike Rogers and Iran. What you're going to hear is what he had to say yesterday at a news conference while he was on the campaign trail in Michigan. He is calling on President Trump to wrap up what's going on in Iran.
Fred Jackson: His particular concern is what it is doing to fuel prices in this country, especially diesel prices, because farmers in Michigan are heading into their biggest time of year when it comes to harvesting crops. Let's listen to Mike Rogers.
Guest: I think the best option now is to wind it down. There's still other things you can do to make sure that they can't hurt their neighbors and can't pursue a nuclear weapon. I just argue the time is now.
Guest: This is the most important harvest time of the year in Michigan, September and October. Diesel costs are pushing over six bucks. That is going to take a horrific toll, not only on our farmers trying to get the harvest out of the field, but certainly on grocery prices.
Guest: My argument is you just can't let it linger. Now's the time to start winding this thing up. I'm doing this because my conviction tells me it's time to start wrapping this thing up. I don't worry about what other Senate candidates do around the country. I know it's putting undue pressure on us here at home on prices.
Steve: That sentiment from Mike Rogers, who is running for the Senate in Michigan as a Republican, was echoed by the Republican Senate candidate in Iowa. Help me out here. What's her name? Is it Joni Ernst?
Fred Jackson: No, no, no. But she was saying the same thing two days ago.
Steve: So there are a lot of Republicans breaking rank with the Trump administration over the war in Iran. They're saying it's time to get out, time to leave, and wrap it up.
Fred Jackson: There are other concerns. Maria Salazar, the Republican congresswoman in Florida, has gone public with her concern about the aggressiveness of the crackdown on illegal immigrants. She said that's hurting President Trump and the Republicans within the Hispanic community.
Tim Wildmon: Ray, did you know that a lot of school districts are concerned about the cost of their buses now? Can you imagine the chaos that would happen if the school buses no longer ran because they couldn't afford diesel or fuel? This is on the edge of a major crisis.
Tim Wildmon: I was reading something yesterday that said the midterms come down to this: the existential question of whether gas is too high. If prices don't come down, this fellow said the Democrats are going to sweep to victory. I don't know if that's an oversimplification, but he's right about one thing. People vote with their pocketbooks. They always have and always will. The general public votes its pocketbook.
Ray Pritchard: Right here in Florida, not that long ago, we had finally made it under four dollars a gallon. I checked a second ago, and all around me here in Florida it's $4.50 a gallon. People notice that. People remember that.
Tim Wildmon: Remember those stickers we saw when Biden was in office, pointing at the price of gas? I guess we're going to see Trump stickers.
Ray Pritchard: I did that.
Tim Wildmon: That's for regular gas, correct, Ray? Four-fifty?
Ray Pritchard: Right.
Tim Wildmon: Where you are?
Ray Pritchard: Right. It was under four just a few weeks ago.
Fred Jackson: I was in Asheville, North Carolina, last week. It was $4.59 at one station for regular gas.
Tim Wildmon: What is it if we drive down the street here?
Fred Jackson: It ranges anywhere from about $3.88 to about $4.10, I think.
Tim Wildmon: We haven't gone over four yet.
Fred Jackson: But the big thing is diesel.
Steve: Yeah.
Fred Jackson: Diesel is what these school buses run on.
Steve: Diesel in our market here in North Mississippi, I checked one gas station this morning, was $6.09 a gallon. The average price of diesel in the nation, according to AAA, is $6.51 a gallon. Regular gas is $4.48 a gallon.
Tim Wildmon: Let me ask you this question, trying to be fair to President Trump and his administration's policies. He would say, and he has said, that we started this to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, correct?
Steve: Correct.
Tim Wildmon: That was how many months ago?
Fred Jackson: January?
Steve: We first started going to war with Iran in February, around February 20-something.
Tim Wildmon: So March, April, May, June, July, August, September. Seven months. Here's the problem. Everybody understands the objective President Trump started with. Everybody in the world, especially the American president, Democrats, and Republicans, has said we can't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. That must never happen.
Tim Wildmon: But here we are seven months later in a quagmire. The problem is that President Trump is not articulating to the American people what we're doing now, why we're doing it, why we have to stay the course, and what the objectives are. I fault him for that. Maybe he has, and I missed it, but he hasn't done a good job of updating the American people on why we're continuing to do this.
Tim Wildmon: All I hear is, "It's going to be over soon. Maybe after the election we're going to make a deal." We're not going to make a deal. It's just the ambiguity.
Ray Pritchard: Ambiguity.
Tim Wildmon: Ambiguity. Am I the only one who feels this way? Do you think we're getting good leadership right now?
Ray Pritchard: I think the president spoke the truth when he was at the United Nations two days ago. He said, in essence, Iran is trying to run out the clock. They think the situation will be different after the midterms, especially if the Democrats sweep.
Tim Wildmon: So we're going to keep going until November?
Ray Pritchard: Essentially, yes. Iran doesn't want to make a deal now because it thinks it can get a much better deal if it waits until after the midterms. That means this thing is going to drag on.
Tim Wildmon: If you take the president at his word, I think that analysis sounds right, because Marco Rubio said the very same thing. The Iranians want to run out the clock, get past the midterms, and then they think the president will be weakened.
Ray Pritchard: He will be. They're right.
Tim Wildmon: So we will be having this same discussion two years from now. As a matter of fact, he's going to be a lame-duck president. That's not disparaging President Trump. It's a fact. Every president who serves two terms is considered a lame-duck president during the last two years, because nobody is trying to curry favor with him because he may be reelected.
Steve: James Carville said, "It's the economy, stupid." I think that was James Carville.
Tim Wildmon: Right.
Steve: It was many elections ago, but it's still the economy. A lot of people are hurting because of oil and gas prices. That's the main trigger point.
Steve: The reality is that people aren't looking down the line at what would happen if the Democrats gained control. They're going to bring socialism in. There's no question. When you have the AOCs and the El-Sayeds talking about universal Medicare, and when there's a story out of California about billions of dollars being spent on medical care and housing for illegal immigrants, all of that is going to be on steroids if the Democrats gain power.
Steve: The problem is that the voter is looking at where we are today with the economy, and that's what is going to drive this election.
Tim Wildmon: What have you done for me lately? That's the mentality of my vote. That's where it is, and that is causing problems for Republicans right now.
Tim Wildmon: The other thing I always want to remind myself when I think about Iran is that we're not talking about a Western country. We're not talking about a country where, if things get dire enough with its economy or infrastructure, it is going to cry uncle and surrender. They want the pain. They're not looking for a way out. They're looking for the end of the world. They're looking for Armageddon.
Tim Wildmon: They really think that if they can make the world catch fire, that's the best thing for their theology, and they are all about their theology. We can't apply the same standards as if we were fighting England or France.
Tim Wildmon: I just think President Trump himself needs to do a better job, if he can, of articulating on a regular basis what we're doing, why we're there, and why we need to stay. I use the word quagmire, and that harkens back to Vietnam.
Tim Wildmon: We're not in a Vietnam situation in the sense that we have thousands of troops on the ground in a quagmire, but we are in a situation where we seem to be stuck and spinning our wheels. If we're not, that is my opinion. If I'm incorrect, I need President Trump and others to lay out the plan. Does that make sense?
Fred Jackson: I said it a couple of months ago. I think there was a workable exit strategy back then. The president could have spoken to the nation and said, "Our goal was to ensure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. We have succeeded, folks." He could have claimed victory a few months ago and moved on. Mission accomplished and moved on.
Fred Jackson: But we've hung around, and now we're into this whole blockade on oil and gas. What is that doing? The Houthis are now getting involved and are going to stop oil from traveling through the Red Sea. It seems to be getting worse instead of better.
Tim Wildmon: Yeah. All right, you're listening to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Steve, do you have any happy news over there?
Steve: I will get to it later.
Tim Wildmon: I do have some positive stuff, but I'd like to go back to the Michigan Senate race and the Democratic candidate. He's a Muslim Arab from the Detroit area, an American citizen, and a doctor running for the Senate. He had a town hall yesterday, and he has been currying favor with terrorist supporters. He has been going around with Hasan Piker and all these people, and he will not criticize the terrorists.
Tim Wildmon: Specifically, he would not criticize the death of the Iranian leadership, which was terrorizing the Iranian people. He was confronted by an Iranian student at Michigan last night. It's a two-minute cut. I had to cut it down from about five minutes because El-Sayed could not answer the question directly. You're going to hear El-Sayed talk, and then the audio will get soft and loud again where I cut out a minute and a half of him wandering around the question because he cannot answer it. Let's listen to it.
Guest: Abdul, my name is Iman Dashi, and my question for you is about Iran. My cousin was hunted in the streets of Iran by the IRGC because her hijab was incorrect. My uncle was sentenced to die and received 50 lashings by Ali Khamenei's government. The terror that we have experienced is insurmountable.
Guest: You can imagine our surprise and sadness as Persians when we heard a leaked audiotape of you saying that you didn't want to comment on Supreme Leader Khamenei's death and that people in Dearborn were sad when he died.
Guest: I have a simple question, Abdul. That silence had a gaping hole in our community. Do you regret that silence? Do you renounce the people who held vigils and supported this terrorist for all the things he has done? Do you stand unequivocally against the IRGC and against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has killed 50,000 protesters? I haven't heard anything from you about the protesters.
Guest: Please.
Guest: I appreciate your question, and thank you. What I will tell you is this: For too long and too often, when we think about our role in the world, we have turned ourselves into the world's policeman. I think that natural-resource interests become a ploy for the interests of our corporations, and that's what I worry about.
Guest: Do you know what I mean?
Guest: You still haven't said it. We're dying. I don't see you standing with us.
Guest: I will always stand with movements for freedom and democracy. But again, I want to be careful because I want democracy for the Persians.
Guest: Again, I want freedom and democracy for the people of Iran. No question.
Tim Wildmon: That's interesting. Some more context here. What you heard was an exchange. The gentleman in the audience is Iranian, or at least he has Iranian family members, and 50,000 or more citizens have been slaughtered by the Iranian regime. These are people who wanted freedom and democracy.
Tim Wildmon: The student asked El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for the Senate, who is a Muslim himself, whether he condemns the leadership of Iran that has killed all these people and his family members. I didn't hear him answer. He could not answer the question. He just said he was for freedom and democracy for the Iranian people. That's broad and general. That's not condemning the Islamic Republic leadership in Iran.
Steve: Why not?
Tim Wildmon: Why not?
Steve: Because he doesn't. He does not condemn the terrorist regime.
Fred Jackson: He couldn't say what the young man wanted him to say because everybody knows it's not true. He's a radical Islamist. He is on the side of the Iranian regime that's in power now, and he doesn't dare speak the truth. It was a bunch of double talk saying nothing really.
Steve: It was interesting that the young man drew attention to Dearborn, Michigan, which now has a Muslim mayor. They felt sorry when this mass murderer, Khamenei in Iran, was killed by Israelis early on in the war. They felt bad when this mass murderer was killed by the Israelis. They favor the butcher of Tehran because they hate the Jews so much.
Fred Jackson: But the other aspect is that El-Sayed talks about being for freedom. The problem is that in Iran, when you fight for freedom, you are executed.
Tim Wildmon: Was there anything in that interview exchange that would have made El-Sayed seem any more reasonable or sympathetic to the Iranian people?
Steve: No. What he said was that he was for freedom and democracy in general, and that every time the United States gets involved, we're doing it for corporations and greedy purposes and to make money. We're never there for the right reason.
Steve: Still, as the gentleman said, that had nothing directly to do with answering the question. He answered the question by not answering the question.
Tim Wildmon: You're listening to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Next story, Steve.
Steve: We have a couple of minutes before we end here. The president has kicked a couple of outlets out of the White House press pool.
Tim Wildmon: Who did he kick out?
Steve: Last week he tossed out CNN, Politico, and MSNBC.
Tim Wildmon: They used to be called MSNBC.
Steve: The administration said, "You can't cover the White House." You can print whatever you want, but you can't cover the White House.
Fred Jackson: Yesterday, J.D. Vance was doing a press conference. I want you to hear how he started it.
Guest: I have my notes here that I'm supposed to take questions from CNN and Politico. Is anybody from CNN or Politico here? No? Okay. All right, in the green jacket.
Steve: A little trolling by J.D. Vance. It was a press conference, but I don't know where he was.
Steve: A federal judge, a Trump-appointed federal judge, ruled that CNN, MSNBC, and Politico could go back and that you could not forbid them from covering the White House.
Fred Jackson: That was the ruling last night from this Trump-appointed judge. However, as of an hour ago, Fox was reporting that the White House still had not issued the hard passes to allow reporters into the events happening today with the Chinese leader at the White House.
Tim Wildmon: Somebody has to make a call. You can't let every press organization in the world in.
Fred Jackson: Every administration does that, except with the ones that are friendly to them.
Steve: Barack Obama and Joe Biden had their favorites. They didn't kick them out or call them names, but they didn't allow every press organization in. It's common.
Tim Wildmon: So we'll see what happens. A federal judge ruled in favor of these news agencies that President Trump booted out. We'll see whether they're able to come back or not.
Fred Jackson: Does it really matter? Everybody knows that the press is liberal, and they've been doing this for years. The president is more open. He has more scrums, as they're called, than any president in history. He is more accessible to the media than any president has ever been.
Steve: President Trump is, you're right. He's not filtered in the sense that he talks all day, every day, to everybody.
Fred Jackson: He didn't say they couldn't cover him. He just didn't want them to cover him from his bedroom, basically.
Tim Wildmon: All right. We'll be back in a few minutes here on Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. We've got a lot more stories to talk about. We'll also discuss a story that made national news at Ole Miss two days ago. Two students died, and kratom was found near the bodies. Kratom is an over-the-counter herbal supplement, and it's a nationwide problem. We're going to talk about that when we get back.
Tim Wildmon and the Today's Issues panel discuss President Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the competing priorities of trade, artificial intelligence, national security, and diplomacy. Gordon Chang questions whether the United States is projecting weakness by warmly welcoming China's leader while China is accused of aiding Iran. The program also examines the war with Iran, rising gasoline and diesel prices, and Republican concerns about the economic and political costs of continuing the conflict. The panel considers how the war and the economy could influence the 2026 midterm elections, including the Michigan Senate race between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. Additional topics include El-Sayed's response to a question about Iran's government and religious persecution, a federal judge's ruling involving White House press access, and a Christian reflection on prayer from James 5.
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