Transcript

Today's Issues offers a Christian response to the issues of the day

>> Ed Vitagliano: If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic, humanistic, society. Discover the story of the culture warrior, Don Wildmon and how he went head to head with Hollywood playboy, the homosexual agenda and the Disney empire. The movement Don started paved the way for Christians to boldly stand for truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture Warrior today for free. Visit culturewarrior movie.

>> Fred Jackson: Welcome to Today's Issues. Join us for the next hour as

>> Ed Vitagliano: we offer a Christian response to the

>> Fred Jackson: issues of the day.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Here's your host, Ed Vitagliano. and good morning everybody.

American Family Radio kicks off spring Share a Thon tomorrow

Welcome to Today's Issues. It is Monday, April 6th. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon.

>> Chris Woodward: Today.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm joined in studio by Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.

>> Fred Jackson: Good morning, Ted.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And Krish Woodward, who's going to be our news guy today.

>> Chris Woodward: Good morning.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And folks, you know that tomorrow starts our spring Share a Thon. this program will be on for two hours tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, just during those Share a Thon days. And of course, Trivia Friday. On Friday we go back to our regular 90 minute schedule. But, love Sheriathon, Fred. it's refreshing. It's a lot of extra work for the staff, to go through all the things we need to do for Sheraton. Our whole devotion room. For example, the engineers have Share A Thon central. They set all that up usually in about two days. it already was set up last week. But it's very refreshing too for us here at American Family Radio. we so enjoy hearing the listener testimonies and hearing from folks and being able to get some feedback, as it were, from folks who listen. We don't see them. Sometimes it's hard for us to know if we're having any kind of impact.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, we sit in a studio each day and do our programming. that's what we're here to do. But it is really rewarding.

American Family Radio will broadcast twice a week starting Wednesday and Thursday

and I'll speak to our listeners right now to hear from you, our listeners and as you say, the testimonies that we get, the testimonies of people listening at, ah, just the right moment in their lives many times. And they're hearing a preaching program. the testimonies that we, you know, Brother Bert and Alex, they do exploring the word right, and they tell stories of people and they, people call in and saying at ah, just the right moment. You were dealing with just the right verse.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: On your program. Listen, these are things that we don't organize. We don't organize for a particular person to be listening at a particular time. You know, God arranges this. That's what's thrilling for us.

>> Chris Woodward: Right?

>> Fred Jackson: And you know, and you know, we get testimonies from people. the only, contact they have with the outside world has a prisoner somewhere.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That is true. We get a surprising number of those.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, we do. We get letters from folks and we've even heard testimony of somebody. A prisoner gets saved and they start, a Bible study group at prison. And I mean, we will not know to eternity the impact of American Family Radio. So we're excited about it. We're excited about what God can do. And we're not just saying that. We're excited about what God has been doing, is doing and will do.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Amen. Amen. Well, that starts tomorrow. We almost got into Sheraton mode, here. Just very excited about that. That's tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. And so we look forward to our time together with you, our listeners and listeners, supporters. And, that starts tomorrow. 6:00am Starts six.

>> Fred Jackson: I'll be here with brother Bert at 6:00'. Clock.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And I will be, I'll be coming in. Tim, Wildmon normally sits in on the 7 o' clock hour when with Jenna Ellis. I will be sitting in for Tim, for those three days at seven. But Tim will be remote with us, at the 10 o' clock hour for today's issues. Again, that'll be a two hour slot rather than our typical 90 minutes.

The United States pulled off a daring rescue of two aviators in Iran

All right, Krish Woodard has been sitting here patiently. let's go to our first story.

>> Chris Woodward: We have a lot to go over this morning in the way of news out of Iran. for example, Israel has done some things that I'll get into, I'll mention, if the Lord tarries, what the President plans on doing later today and tomorrow, what the President has said on Truth Social. But first, we'll begin with the good news about the rescue of the, pilot over the weekend. for those not aware, Fred has posted this on our AP, on our AFN uh.net website and I'll share it on our Facebook page. The United States pulled off a daring rescue of two aviators whose fighter jet was shot down by Iran from plucking the pilot from behind enemy lines before setting off a complicated extraction of the second service member who hid deep in the mountains of Tehran, called for Iranians to help capture him. The President, posted some stuff about this and said this is the first time in military memory that two US Pilots have been rescued separately deep in enemy territory. All caps. We will never leave an American war fighter behind. Exclamation points. Very, very good news. Certainly, very tense. A lot of us, I think, tend to think the worst when we found out that a, plane has gone down and a pilot is missing. But in this particular case, we have some good news to begin the show with.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, Fred, this was just crazy because the Iranians, of course, desperate for whoever's running the country and we, none of us are really sure, I'm sure the Trump administration has a good idea maybe who they're dealing with. But whoever's running the country, they, they desperately wanted a quote, unquote win. Yeah, I think they had $60,000, you know, what do you call it? bounties.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: On the heads of, these pilots. They would have loved nothing better than to parade two US Pilots in front of the world and who knows what unspeakable things they would have done. and so to, so to have a, to have rescues, operations that were successful while not only the Iranian military, but, villagers. Everyone's looking for these guys and for us to be able to get in to a country that is seething with anger and wanting. I'm not talking about the ordinary people, but in terms of those running the country just desperately wanting to find these guys. This was, this is going to be turned into a movie. It is at some point because this was that kind of, spine tingling, suspenseful tale. I'm reminded of the, Mark Wahlberg movie. the name of it escapes me at this present time. But this was, I think in Iraq or Afghanistan where special forces were caught. And Mark Wahlberg's character was the only one who made it out. But this was an extraordinary, event.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, this all began to unfold late Thursday night, early Friday morning. an F15 Eagle, was out on a mission, over western Iran and was brought down by a missile. The pilot of the aircraft, this F15, was a two seater. The pilot of the aircraft was able to punch out and he was rescued fairly quickly. The weapons specialist, was in the back. Something happened with regards to his ejection. The whole procedure, it did not go well. So that's when they realized that they had a major rescue effort that had to be launched. And you know, this, this man, was able, he was injured, but he was able to climb a mountain there in western Iraq. 7,000ft.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Iran.

>> Fred Jackson: Iran.

>> Chris Woodward: Pardon me.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, Say the same thing.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes. 7,000ft. He's able to climb up. At one point, it was described, he climbed 7,000ft. And he hid, one of the media outlets said, a cleft of the rock. And I thought, wow, I think I've heard that somewhere. But he had on him a revolver. They pilots, fighter pilots, have things, that they carry with them. he had a revolver and he had a small transponder. But, also this, this. There was a, a large force involved with this rescue, including the CIA.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: It will not come as a shock to most people. Do we have CIA agents in Iran? Yeah, we've had them for years.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: All right, so the CIA is involved, and a rescue mission is. Is launched. The initial wave of this rescue mission, they land it in the desert with a, Hercules aircraft, a C130. And it got stuck. And what I thought when I first heard this, I remember Jimmy Carter.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Fred Jackson: the rescue of the Iranian captives or the US captives.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: Back 79, I guess it was. And I said, oh, no, not again. that's not what you want. but they were able to launch another effort. And, in the midst of all of this, the CIA operatives, somewhere, somehow were able to put out a false message that we had rescued the second guy.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. So hopefully people would stop looking.

>> Fred Jackson: Hopefully they would stop looking or at least go to another direction or something of that nature. So they were able to do that, which gave them time. this guy with his transponder, was able to put out a few beeps, and they were able to locate him, rescue him, get him home safely.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Because they have to. They have to. A few beeps and then shut it down so that they don't draw the Iranians.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. The bad guys can pick up the beeps, too.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: All right, so they're able to get this guy out. I think he is in a Kuwaiti hospital right now. He did have some injuries, but an absolutely amazing rescue effort. And there were two Hercs that had to be left behind, a couple of helicopters, and our guys destroyed those because they don't want the sensitive equipment on board those things.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: And, you know, I was scared. We're going to have another Mogadishu.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Fred Jackson: If the Iranians had got a hold of this young man, they would parade him for all the world to see. And the Western media being the way the Western media does, they hate Donald Trump.

The lone survivor is out safely; there were some injuries

this would be played up by the Iranians big time. But I just was celebrating yesterday. We'll find out the news. We got the guy. He's out safely. And you're right, this is going to be a movie.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Absolutely. By the way, lone survivor is the movie I was thinking about with mark Wahlberg. That's from 2013. It was about special forces caught in Afghanistan.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep.

>> Ed Vitagliano: so, you know, listen, we have people, the rescue effort, they had a couple of helicopters going in. They took fire.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: As well. There were some injuries, just the, the courage of members of the military, to, to bring home, those that are behind enemy lines in a case like this. Just extraordinary. Listen, we are talking, have been talking, will continue to talk about this Iranian war and shoulda, woulda, coulda, all that kind of stuff. That's just part of being an American and talking about political, science and foreign policy and wars and all that kind of thing. But once the president of the United States tells our military, go, we're gonna do this, they do it. Yeah, you know, my heart goes out to them. Tip of the hat, whatever you want to say. Kudos. we should all be very proud of the men and women who serve this country, put themselves in harm's way not only to get the military strategy and tactics accomplished, but also to care enough about one another to put yourself in harm's way to bring those people home. It's an extraordinary thing, that this happened. I don't know that if more of this might occur. this was a shoulder fired missile, I think I've read. So when the president says, you know, their capability of knocking down aircraft has been shut down, I've taken that to mean he's talking about, you know, anti, air batteries, systems like that. Anyone can have a shoulder fired anti, air missile. And what I also read was that the u. S. Military thinks this may have been very updated, very new equipment perhaps provided by China or Russia to test. And it was, I think that in this article I read, they said it was, passive radar missile, where you don't have to have a little battery pinging out to find out where aircraft are because then you get a missile coming your way. So this was, technologically advanced, we think. I say we are military.

President Trump sets a tomorrow deadline for Iran to open the strait

>> Chris Woodward: In related news, Israel has killed another two iranian military officials and taken at a petrochemical plant. this is in the south pars national natural gas field. And that story is also on our website to go with this, the president himself has set a tomorrow deadline for Iran to open the strait of hormuz, that's that body of water, just south of the nation of Iran, where A lot of other countries, oil and gas flows, not necessarily the US but other nations do, get a lot of oil and gas from that part of the world. And the President has set a deadline for Iran to open that strait. last week we all know the President delivered a national address and he called on Iran to, open the strait. He called on other nations to defend their own tankers and whatnot going through that body of water. And, to add to the expectation that the President himself is going to deliver some sort of a deadline by tomorrow, over the weekend also, President Trump posted on his Truth Social and I'm going to have to clean this up and ad lib a little bit. the President said on his Truth Social, quote, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the straight, you crazy people. He said something else or you'll be living in he double hockey sticks. Just watch President Donald Trump. Donald J. Trump. He also, appears to issue some sort of sarcastic reference to the false God Allah, in his truth, social post. a lot of people are scratching their heads over his use of language and the various things he just read that I paraphrased.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Fred, we all know that President Trump, I kind of snickered there, not at the language he used, but we all are, we all have said many times President Trump just says what he's thinking or what he's feeling. No filter. I have no doubt that presidents in wars past have said to their own staff and you know, the Joint Chiefs, similar kinds of things. in using pretty, what we, we used to call, colorful language, euphemistically colorful M language. But President Trump just says it out loud. And when I say out loud, this was his social media post. I'm not, I'm not sure why he does that. I'm, I'm guessing that they are communicating with Iranian officials at some level and all that kind of thing can be said privately. but the President doesn't really do anything private. It's all out in the open. So I guess at least Iran knows every. And maybe he does it so that the Iranian people find out what's coming. I'm not sure that the Iranian people can do anything at this point, but he may want the Iranian people and everyone else to know what's coming if Iran doesn't make a deal.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, I think the President is anxious for a lot of different reasons for this, this campaign to wrap Up.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: and move on. You know what I did find kind of interesting is that he's setting, I think seven o' clock Central tomorrow evening as a deadline for the Iranians to respond by making safe the Strait of Hormuz. That's what he wants. Now last week he was kind of leaving it up to the European nations that tend to use, that oil from that area of the world, along with China. they depend on that oil as well. But he seems to have switched a little bit for whatever reason. We've talked about this before, that oil and gas are global commodities. And even though we are independent here in the United States, because there is a jam up of oil getting out of the Persian Gulf right now, it's raising oil and gas prices all over the world. So I think the President is anxious to curb that. so he is once again focusing on the straight of hormone moves now. and then he says if they don't comply, then he's going to start blowing up power plants and more bridges. He got one big bridge the other day. he's going to go after that. I always in the back of my mind, hope it doesn't get to that because ultimately when we went into this, there was a hope for regime change. And the Iranian people need an economy after all of this is over. If the good guys in Iran manage to take over, they still need to run a country, they still need jobs, they still need to produce something to sell to the rest of the world. So I hope it does come to this. so we'll have to wait and see. But I think the President wants to get to that point where he can wrap this up. He can say we've, and I think he can say now that they've crippled the, Iranian economy, the weapons, the navy, the military, etcetera, to the point where it's going to take decades to recover. But the Strait of Hormuz is what everybody is focused on. We'll have to wait and see, where we are with this. There are negotiations going on in the background. Pakistan is involved, Turkey is involved. They are apparently exchanging papers on, you do this, we'll do this. it's going to be an interesting 24 hours.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I, I'm with you. I hope that this can get solved. there was a point when I thought it would be great for the Iranian people to have regime change, and I know that wasn't init what President Trump was looking for. He wanted to keep them from getting a nuclear weapon, which I am in full agreement with as a strategic goal. But it started to become evident and, you know, none of us here are experts on foreign policy or Iran. So we read people who are and we watch videos and podcasts, for. With people who are experts. And I know you have to sometimes be careful because sometimes a particular person speaking on a podcast may have their own agenda. You have to kind of sift through some of that. But it seemed that, those who were in charge of Iran and had access to not just their military, but the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core, the irgc, that you're not getting rid of those people. No, easily.

>> Ed Vitagliano: estimates of the IRGC strength. 250 to 3 to 600 to 500,000, I think was the highest number I saw. That's a lot of people sold out to this ideology. They're in charge of large swaths of the economy.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: and Iran is twice the size of Texas. It is three times the population. You can't just take, you know, 10,000 Marines and Special Forces, 82nd Airborne, and take over a country that size. So it was becoming more and more likely, at least m, from what I'd read, that regime change was going to happen. So at this point, I think it would be great if the president can, after degrading their military, after at least setting back their nuclear ambitions, by years, that they can bring this to some sort of conclusion with, you know, favorable terms. Because I'm not sure at this point that regime change would be a possibility. Even with. I've just been reading experts saying, listen, even with, even if you had a million troops on the ground, which I may be close to what we have in uniform, it would still be very difficult to uproot the ideologues who run that country. It's a shame for the Iranian people. They want to be free. They don't want to live under mullahs, at least a large percentage of them. But other than a bloodbath that could bring down the entire world economy and lead to the destruction of the Middle East, I'm not sure that that is possible at this point.

>> Fred Jackson: What I think we have learned over the last four to five weeks is that Iran was much more military capable than a lot of people thought. Yeah, because they were dropping bombs on Tel Aviv again this morning. And so they're still very capable. I think when it comes to goals, Israel may have a more pointed reason for saying we want regime change.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: because they're in the neighborhood yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And Iran has been busy for decades trying to destroy them.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

Chris: More on Iran and the war there. We're going to take a short break

>> Ed Vitagliano: And, so I'm not sure what the outcome will be. Maybe we take, maybe we take a quarter of a loaf or half a loaf, and that'll be the best we can hope for at this point. But anyway, folks, more to come, more news. Krish. we got more on Iran. We do all right. We got more on Iran and the war there. We're going to take a short break and we will come back.

American Family Radio Network thanks its sponsor, preborn

You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, preborn. When the mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time, she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial 250 and say the key word baby or visit preborn.com afr the AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app.

>> Chris Woodward: enter his gates with Thanksgiving, go

>> Fred Jackson: into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

>> Chris Woodward: Thank you. Psalm, 100, verse 4.

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

>> Fred Jackson: to more of today's issues.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And welcome back. Ed Vitagliano and Fred Jackson, your hosts today. Tim Wildmon is out of pocket. Krish Woodward is our news guy. And as, is typical at, 1105 Central Time, Steve Jordal will mosey in and, pick up the news discussions from there. But, Krish, let's continue with the news of the day.

President Trump tweeted some words I can't use on American Family Radio

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, so we were before the break talking about President Trump's truth, social post about how Iran has until tomorrow to open the strait. And he went on to say some words I can't use on American Family Radio. Not that I would use them anyway.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, thank you for that clarification.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. Yeah. Colossians 3, 8 dabbles into that. So if anybody wants to study, words you shouldn't use.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Colossians. Dabbles, huh?

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it does.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says Christians should repent for supporting President Trump

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. All right. somebody that didn't care for what President Trump had to say on his Truth Social post is, former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Green. She, issued a rather lengthy post. I'm not going to read it word for word. but here are some of the, high points or low points, if you want, however somebody wants to look at them. she says, on Easter, this is what President Trump posted. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshiping the president and intervene in Trump's madness. I know all of you and him, and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit. She goes on to say, I'm not defending Iran, but let's be honest about all of this. The strait is closed because the US And Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies they've been telling for decades that any moment, Iran would develop a nuclear weapon. You know who else has nuclear weapons? Israel. They are more capable, more than capable, of defending themselves without the US Having to fight their wars, kill innocent people and children, and pray for it. Near the end of her very lengthy post here, she goes on to say, our president is not a Christian, and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians.

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, where to begin, Fred? first of all, I'm. I'm not taking advice from Marjorie Taylor Green. She's got her. She's got her own brand of crazy that you can pull off the shelf. And, but it is a free country. You get to say whatever you want. Maybe the most ludicrous. I don't know whether President Trump is a Christian or not. And on social media, after President Trump posted this, on Easter Sunday, okay, social media was aflame with people defending the president, saying he is a Christian. People saying, well, he's obviously not. How can you say that? You repent. No, you repent. Okay. I don't know whether President Trump is a Christian. The. The only way for me to know if someone is a Christian is like, you guys, I know you're Christ because you testify to that and your lives demonstrate a changed, a person who has been changed. All right? Now I can look from afar and see the kind of things that President Trump says and does some of those things. I question if that is a Christian, but I don't know from how far back in the race he started. Sometimes people start from way back, and they become Christians, and you look at their lives, you go, wow, that person's not very holy. Well, yeah, you know what? Maybe you didn't start as far back as they did. So, So I don't know whether the president is a Christian, but for Marjorie Taylor Green to be calling people to repent for supporting him, accusing Christians of worshiping President Trump. I don't know anyone who worships the man. this is the kind of m. Like I said, she's free to say it, but this is the kind of, internal, fighting that we see on the conservative side of the. The aisle.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. just quote her again. She talked about this was an unprovoked war.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That might have been the craziest thing.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay.

>> Chris Woodward: And we fell for it because of the lies they've been telling us about how Iran was days away from having a nuclear weapon.

>> Fred Jackson: They. They being the United States and Israel.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay.

>> Chris Woodward: That's the way it reads. She said, I'll read it again. The strait is closed because the US And Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lives they've been telling for decades that any moment Iran would develop a nuclear weapon.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, let's focus for a moment on the term unprovoked.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

Steve Wyado: Iran has been supporting terrorists for decades

>> Fred Jackson: All right. Iran is a sponsor of state terrorism

>> Ed Vitagliano: and has been on that list for decades.

>> Fred Jackson: For decades. They support Hezbollah terrorists. They have supported Hamas terrorists. The Hamas terrorists who carried out that massacre of 1200 Israeli men, women, and children in October of 2023. That was perhaps the major one. But, I mean, they have been supporting terrorists. They hate Israel. They hate the Jewish people. They hate America. All right. To say it's unprovoked. You know what? I'm not the first to say this. If Iran was able to get to that point and they were very close to having a nuclear weapon, and they used. And we now know, because they've demonstrated in recent weeks, they can fire missiles that go 2500 miles.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: Can you imagine the reaction of the Marjorie Taylor Green's if there was a missile that hit the United States.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: Why didn't you do something, President Trump? You knew they were developing this. Why didn't you do something? So the hypocrisy meter is pegged.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: You know, when they talk that. But also, I, mean for. I get a sense of the way she's talking about Israel as well. That a big problem has developed within certain circles of the conservative movement against Israel. You know, we shouldn't be helping Israel. We shouldn't be involved with this. Let them look after their own backyard. Well, the problem is the people, as Netanyahu says, we have a very rough neighborhood.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: The problem is, for Israel is also our problem. Because of a nation like Iran. People have to step back. They're very sophisticated. These people are very smart. But they're evil. Yeah, they're evil smart.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Now, who are you talking about?

>> Fred Jackson: Iran again? All right. They're evil smart. All right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: They have the capability of developing weapons that could attack the United States of America. They've proven that through the years.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They call us the Great Satan.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Which is target number one.

>> Fred Jackson: Target number one. So to say it's unprovoked. No steps had to be taken to stop them now because they, soon as the, the big attack that we had against them several months back, as soon as that was done, they simply moved the operation to develop uranium.

>> Chris Woodward: Ah.

>> Fred Jackson: To a nuclear level, to another location. So they, they were, they were planning an attack against us. Planning an attack. Another attack against Israel. Look what Hezbollah has been doing in the last three or four weeks. They are using weapons provided by Iran to attack Israel from the north, from Lebanon. That's why Israel has had to go in there in the last couple of weeks to try to stop them. They are, Iran is evil to the very core. They had evil intentions against the United States and Israel. And when you know that you have an enemy, that is getting ready to attack you, do you sit back and wait for them to attack you? No. You take steps to deal with them right now, and they've proven they have the capability. And if we had not taken the steps that we have had done in the last four weeks, the United States and Israel, I think within months, we would have had another major attack from Iran. Hm.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, you got the Houthis. I mean, this is. Iran is part of that. I was going to say triad, but it's probably better to call four nations Russia, China and North Korea. North Korea. I'm not sure what their capabilities are, but anyway, that's four nations that hate the west, and they hate us. And they hate any nation, like, in the Middle east that is pro western Israel. They, hate Israel for more than just the fact that they're pro Western. look, I, I, History will have to decide whether this was the right move. maybe we'll find out, that Iran wasn't close to Having a nuclear weapon. I tend to think from what I've read, they were. but if for no other reason, they apparently told us diplomats who were in the back and forth. Wyckoff was his first name. Steve. Steve, Wyckoff. That they were close within weeks, of having 16 nuclear weapons. Maybe that's bragging. Maybe it's bravado, maybe it's lying. I don't know. But you have to act on that kind of information if the other side is telling you they have it.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: and we are finding that Iran is a tougher nut to crack in terms of regime change than maybe we had anticipated. but at this point, I do support the president. How does Marjorie Taylor Green know that they were not close to getting a nuclear weapon? You telling me that everyone in the administration knows they're not close and they're just lying about it?

Democratic candidates being asked if they would support continued funding for Israel

But Marjorie Taylor Green knows.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, okay, well, how does she know?

>> Chris Woodward: And the other thing, too, about, Ms. Greene is that, she's now going on TV networks to talk about things involving President Trump when a few years ago she was out there saying that they were spewing lies and they were fake news.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. So she's going. She's going where her next paycheck is coming from. Listen, and I'm not necessarily saying a person doesn't have a right to earn a living, but to go to the people that you were basically calling the scum of the earth and now your best buds, because you both have the same axe to grind, is not going to win her, many fans in the intellectual honesty department.

>> Chris Woodward: Right. And, you know, it was, when Joe Biden was in office, President Joe Biden was in office and was delivering State of the Union addresses, she and some other members of Congress would shout things from where they were sitting at him during his message.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Which I didn't like either. Yeah, I don't like either side interrupting the State of the Union address.

>> Chris Woodward: And, as far as, like, the war in Iran goes, Walker and I talked about this last Friday on his. At the Core program. Like, are we kind of in a messy situation right now in Iran? Yes. Is the messaging all over the place from M. Where it was on the first few days? Sure. But I still sleep better knowing that this administration is handling it versus what we. I mean, imagine the conversation we could be having. We could be having right now if we had a Harris Wall's administration. I would not rule out Iran doing something just because a female president was telling them they couldn't do Something. I mean, their regime is sexist.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They would not. You're saying they would. They, The Iranians, would not disrespect, Would not respect women. Not that you are disrespecting women. I want to clarify that for our women. Listening.

>> Chris Woodward: I respect all women, first and foremost my wife. Great human being there, who has guided me through a lot of things. And Lord willing, if the Lord tarries, she'll continue to do so. I value her. Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. No more apologizing.

>> Chris Woodward: My point was, a radical Islamic regime that looks down on women, and that's being kind.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Chris Woodward: Would probably have nuked somebody already if Kamala Harris said, you shouldn't do that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Fred, listen, I was reading this morning that, the group of expected candidates from the Democratic Party are now being asked if they would support continued funding and military assistance to Israel. People like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have already come out and said no way. So this is going to be a litmus test for the Democratic Party candidates.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And it's kind of startling that we've come to the place where the Democratic Party is probably not going to select as a nominee for the presidency anyone who continues to support Israel because they just won't be able to convince their base to do that. And now we have a split on the conservative side and the Republican Party, where people are arguing whether we should continue doing it, ourselves, quote, unquote.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. there's the long history. And we always go back to Genesis 12, don't we?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: The Abrahamic covenant. I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you. And some people say, well, that's not in place anymore. you know, we've moved on to other things, and I won't get into that theology. But, you know, there's. There are just. And I'm saddened. I am saddened when I hear people who call themselves Christians and maybe but say we don't have any obligation to help Israel. Well, I, think we have. I think this country has been blessed, I really do, because of our aid for Israel. But, you know, it's not surprising when it comes to the Democratic Party, they are moving further and further to the left. In fact, I think I was. Fox this morning played a clip of Gavin, Newsom, who would like to be the next president.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: Of the United States. he's getting worried about moving too far to the left. He's getting very concerned about, you know, and, who else was it who said. Former chief of staff guy From Chicago for Barack Obama.

>> Chris Woodward: Rahm Emanuel.

>> Fred Jackson: Rahm Emanuel, he was on this morning. He's looking really old, by the way.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Fred Jackson: he is just tearing his hair out about where the Democratic Party is headed.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: So far to the left.

>> Chris Woodward: I think he's doing that on purpose to try to appear as the moderate. Because if you'll remember several months ago and we talked about it on the show, Rahm Emanuel has done a couple of op EDS that the Wall Street Journal published.

>> Fred Jackson: Ah.

>> Chris Woodward: Where Rahm Emanuel was saying Democrats need to come around on things like school choice. And he, he praised Mississippi for having significant improvements in reading and math scores. We're nowhere near the bottom anymore as a state.

>> Ed Vitagliano: and we're up in like, number. The number four spot or something.

>> Chris Woodward: It's been referred to as the Mississippi miracle. So Rob Emanuel, the never let a crisis go to waste, might be trying to make us think there's a crisis amongst all of his Democratic colleagues that he'll use to try to leapfrog them. Well, nobody's told me that.

>> Fred Jackson: Bravo. Emanuel wants to win an election. He wants Democrats to win, and he knows that they can't win with a current platform that's bubbling to the top thanks to their far left. they can't do it. They can't do it with, you know, allowing boys and girls sports and allowing

>> Ed Vitagliano: boys and girls bathrooms or having an

>> Fred Jackson: open border and having an open border. They know this and so, and they want to win election. But right now, the Democratic Party is in real trouble. I think the element inside the Republican Party that seems to be moving away from Israel, I think that is, that is a problem. But I don't think they're going to be a dominant voice in the Republican Party. I cannot see anybody coming to the forefront.

JD Vance or Marco Rubio are pretty good contenders for 2020 Democratic nomination

I can't see, J.D. vance. I can't see Marco Rubio ever conceding, that it's time for us to move away from Israel. That's not going to happen, I think. I just happen to think JD Vance or Marco Rubio are pretty good contenders.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They're pretty high on the, on everyone's list.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: When you look at, straw polls, and that's where even before the midterms. So who knows, over the next two and a half years. But, anyway, good insights.

>> Chris Woodward: I took the liberty, a moment ago, to figure out which of the Democrats are perhaps leading in the polls. there is a website called racetothewhitehouse.com which kind of like real clear politics. They take a bunch of polling data. And they do the numbers in a way that I don't understand. And they come out with basically who's leading the pack here? And according to race to the White House dot com. Kamala Harris is the number one contender, for the 2028 Democratic national, nomination, followed by Gavin Newsom, Pete Buddha, Judge Aoc and Josh Shapiro.

>> Fred Jackson: Wow, what a lineup. You know what, what conservatives are going to say. Bring it on.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: Kamala Harris.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Kamala Harris.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Brent Creely, our producer, was just laughing at this. I think that's all about name recognition at this stage.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I think people, they're asking people and they're going, oh, I don't know. who's the woman who is Vice President Kamala Harris. Yeah, I like her.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: you drill down with people on the street. They don't, they don't know. They don't know what she believes. Gavin Newsom is a little bit, more well known than, some of those. I see Mark Kelly down there on the list.

>> Chris Woodward: That's interesting because Mark Kelly was the one that made headlines earlier this year when he did a social, media post with other senators and members of Congress, representatives, in which Kelly, urged members of the military to refuse illegal orders.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: Remember that? And then JB Pritzker, recently the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, recently blamed the Trump administration for the Venezuelan illegal immigrant shooting the girl from Loyola. He blamed, Trump for that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Ah, that's a list of left wing loons. like, like you said, Fred, conservatives are saying, bring it on. I will say this, though. The is almost always the biggest factor where when people vote and prices going up on everything or at least not coming down, it's very difficult for people to make ends meet. That almost, you know, when people vote, that becomes. Well, the Clinton campaign back in 92 said, it's the economy, stupid. That's what people are going to vote on. and so we'll have to wait and see. We're a long way from it. But anything, anything and everything could happen before that. True.

>> Fred Jackson: I think we have to get out of this, war with Iran.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: In the next couple of months, before we get into primary season and all of that. I think Susie Wiles, who is the president's major advisor, she's a smart lady.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: You know, real smart lady. She wants to get the president out on the road with an improved economy and making that the focus, not what's happening in Iran.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: So I Think you're going to see things wrap up there? I'll go three weeks.

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right. All right, what else you got?

Today our astronauts are going to break records on Artemis ii

>> Chris Woodward: All right, well, we need to continue praying for the astronauts aboard Artemis 2. I say that because they're continuing to. I can't talk today. Continuing to make history aboard Artemis ii. This is the, the capsule, if you will, that's going the long way around the moon before coming back here, Lord willing, towards the end of this week. I've got some audio here from former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine on what the astronauts are doing today.

>> Fred Jackson: Clip 6 so this is what it's all about. Today our astronauts are going to break records, again, as this whole mission has been doing at least since 1972. But tonight, around 6:47pm our astronauts are going to lose communications with the Earth for a period of about a half an hour. At about 7:02pm they're going to fly closer to the moon than at any point during the mission. And, and not only that, they're going to fly further than any humans have ever flown from the Earth before.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, that just, just, that just blows my mind. By the way, I saw a pretty funny meme that was going around or someone posting something on social media starting last week somewhere over the weekend or whatever. But they were suggesting that we all. That a bunch of people buy monkey, suits that look like from, Planet of the Planet of the Apes. So when they come back and they land, they're greeted by people in those kind of monkey suits. Because that was something of the theme of that original movie with Charlton Heston. I thought that was pretty funny. But this is really, this is I. Fred, the age in which we are living.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Has changed so rapidly and so dramatically. We're talking about. I know we got a story we're gonna be talking about, mentioning. I'm not sure when we'll get to it but, about the Associated Press and laying off human writers. They're going to start using AI for that. All the stuff we're talking about with AI, all the technology, driverless cars and And now we're talking about human beings going further than any human being has ever gone in space. We're not even sending monkeys first anymore. That's what we did when the space program first started. We're sending human beings past the moon.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Elon Musk talking about, you know, a base on the moon and eventually a base on Mars.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: This is what a stunning. This era to be alive and this

>> Fred Jackson: is a really cool crew. Yeah, they really are. I don't know if you've seen some of the interviews that they've. They've been doing on the way. they're. They're hanging out.

>> Ed Vitagliano: There's three Americans and a Canadian, right?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, that's right.

>> Chris Woodward: It's like the beginning of a really good joke.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Three Americans and a Canadian walk into a capsule.

>> Fred Jackson: But there's. They're so cool about. This, Canadian guy's been. He's been in the space program now for 17 years. This is his first flight. Can you imagine? The first time in space you're going further than any man has gone before. As far as.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Sounds like Star Trek.

>> Fred Jackson: Sounds like Star Trek. Hey, the other cool. One of the other cool guys on this is the, He is the pilot. They have designations. He's the pilot, and his name is Victor Glover, and he gave an Easter message yesterday. I want you to have a listen to this guy. Cut number seven.

>> Speaker D: I think these observances are important. And as we are so far from Earth and looking at, you know, the beauty of creation, I think for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. And, you know, when I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, it's you. You have this amazing place, this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we're in a spaceship really far from Earth. But you're on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we're doing is special. But we're the same distance from you. And I'm trying to tell you, just trust me, you are special in all of this emptiness. This is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe. You have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter

>> Fred Jackson: Sunday, thinking, yeah, we can talk a little bit more about this later. But his, observation, you know, Earth is sitting out there. They're getting to look at us. We have. We're on this oasis, folks. We're not as special as we think we are sometimes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Beautiful sentiments on a beautiful day for the Christian. All right, folks, five minute break for news. We'll be right back.

>> Chris Woodward: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of

>> Fred Jackson: the American Family association or American Family Radio.