American Family Association offers Christian response to issues of the day

>> Ed Vitagliano: The mission of American Family association is to inform, equip and activate individuals to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture and give aid to the church here and abroad in its task of fulfilling the Great Commission. Further, AFA believes this ministry, as well as everything in the heavens and on the earth, belongs to God. And AFA's role is that of a trusted manager. Thank you for standing with the American Family Association.

>> Fred Jackson: Welcome to Today's Issues. Join us for the next hour as we offer a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Ed Mantagliano.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And welcome to Today's Issues. Ed Battagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon for the next couple of days. And I am joined in studio by Fred Jackson, who will be my co host today. Good morning, Fred.

>> Fred Jackson: Good morning to you, Ed.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And Chris Woodward, news reporter extraordinaire. Good morning and birthday boy, thank you very much. Say, this is a big day for you, 44 years old.

>> Chris Woodward: You're reaching that point in life where you thank God that you live to see this far and you stop celebrating the milestones.

>> Ed Vitagliano: The milestones? Yeah, you get to a certain age and the milestones are. I made it, I made it. 44. You'll probably make it to 88, maybe beyond. So this is like middle age for you.

>> Chris Woodward: If the Lord tarries, make sure we are living longer. But I do work in the news and there's a reason I look twice my age now.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You looked twice your age when you first came here though, Chris.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I did.

>> Fred Jackson: In your 20s, right?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: I went gray in my 20s. Straight, up. I'm waiting on the day where somebody, you know, a server in a restaurant or something asks me if my daughters are my grandkids because it's gonna happen. I actually got carded, a few years ago when you know, during COVID everybody was wearing masks or whatnot. I went to one of the stores over here, to buy something because it was spirit week at my kids school. So I went there to pick up a few items for their, like their outfits that day.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: And the lady that was checking me out, she said, how old are you, sir? And I went, excuse me. And she went, nevermind. And I went home and told my wife and my wife told me she was gonna give me the senior discount.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, well, listen, my wife and I get the senior discount without them even asking. Enjoy it. That's when you know, you're, you're up there in age Hey, I gave you that, that old person discount already. Oh, thank you very much.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep.

>> Ed Vitagliano: My wife, I'll just say this and then, Fred, I'll let you talk a little bit. My wife constantly wants to get the little senior citizen discount, and I don't like it. I don't like doing that. it's just a pride thing, you know, I don't. I don't like. I just. It sounds like we're saying to them, hey, we can't afford the real price. Can you. Can you knock a little bit off? We're old people. But my wife says, I don't care. I m. Don't care what they think. We get the whatever, 5%, 10%.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, today is Tuesday. There is a grocery store nearby here, and Tuesday is Seniors Day. And if you think I'm going to give up on that 10% at the.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Grocery store, that's serious money.

>> Fred Jackson: It's serious. And I wait and I make sure and I sometimes m. Thank, you very much for not saying, you're getting the seniors discount, but I want it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. There's a grocery store that gives a.

>> Fred Jackson: 10% discount on Tuesdays. 10% on Tuesdays.

>> Chris Woodward: I will test it out after the show. AFN investigates.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, now, see, now, when you talk about grocery money, that's serious stuff. Oh, yeah, that's serious money.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. I'll go there usually most Tuesdays. And if there's something, I'll call my wife. Will you? Anything. I'm going to that grocery store.

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right. Then after. During the break, I want you to tell me what grocery store that is.

>> Fred Jackson: I can do that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So, Or is that something we can say publicly? Can we say that on the air?

>> Fred Jackson: Or. What's another name for a stream?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, a Brook Brooks, locally. All right. Okay. All right. Interesting. Very interesting.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

We might have a severe weather storm here later this month

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, folks, it is Tuesday, February 3rd. We're starting to motor on through the month. And, we're not deep into 2026, but we're starting to get there. by the way, just want to let you know that at 10:30, we're going to have Steve Tyber on. He's president of Eight Days of Hope, that organization Christian. Ah, organization, has been in Mississippi and in a few other places hit hard by the storm of 2026. Or the storm of 26. and hopefully, it remains. I was thinking about this this morning. I was thinking the storm of 26. Let's hope it's not storms of 26, because we're early in the year we may have other storms that wreak havoc. So hopefully there's just the one big ice storm and. And we'll be done with it.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I mean, it's. It's very possible. I mean, we're getting up into the 60s, praise God, later this week, and into next, which generally when you have some warm weather and some cold weather, they, they. They get along about as well as Democrats and Republicans. So.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Chris Woodward: We might, we might have a, you know, severe weather storm, here later this month. It's certainly possible, which is what people without power don't need right now.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right? That's absolutely right. And that is why Eight Days of Hope has been here, because a lot of people have been without power. I think it's getting, A lot of it is getting cleared up. But there are some people who've had so much disaster, that, there's still, you know, power companies still trying to get. And, the. Not power companies, but, just city, workers trying to clear streets. And this was pretty devastating for a lot of people and very inconvenient for most people who were in the path of the, ICE part of Fern Storm named Fern.

At issue is DHS funding; test vote on bill expected later today

All right, Chris, let's, start with whatever news you've got.

>> Chris Woodward: Well, I mentioned, Republicans and Democrats don't get along. And one of the things that they've been divided about in recent weeks has been dhs, specifically ICE patrols and Border Patrol efforts to find and remove illegal immigrants and, lawbreakers here in these United States of America. the divide is so great that for a few days now, we've been in what's called a partial government shutdown. And at issue is DHS funding. And the reason I bring all this up is because today there is going to be a test vote, on some legislation, that Democrats want Republicans to agree to in the way of some concessions, with ICE funding and dhs, policies. and so there's going to be a test vote on this later today. One of the sticking points here, there are some Republicans that want something called the SAVE act to be included in this bill. The SAVE act would basically be another stopgap measure to ensure that illegals are not voting in our federal elections, something that has been, rumored or documented for a few years now. Democrats say we're not going to vote on this. If you guys include that. President Trump does want them to make that a separate issue. And he's actually been talking to a few House members, including Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who seems to have come around on this issue on a promise that perhaps they'll vote on that later this month. So all eyes are on Washington today, because again, there's a test, vote which will lead to another vote, perhaps this afternoon.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Fred, this is, yet again, another, opportunity for Republicans to show their great resolve that they have in these battles. I mean, they stick to their guns and they stick to their principles. Whenever it comes to government shutdowns, the Democrats, I'm, joking, folks, but the Democrats always seem to want to use the threat of a government shutdown as a way to, rest, concessions away from the Republicans. And listen, it is a, first of all, a big deal that the Democrats want to, put on the table the discussion about whether funding should continue for ice and if so, what limitations. I mean, they are at war with Immigration, and Customs Enforcement. I'm not sure if they want to starve that, agency out. I don't know what they would replace it with. I'm also frankly confused why Republicans and Democrats, why, keeping illegals from voting in federal elections is not a bipartisan issue.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, well, we have to start our discussion in Minneapolis.

Republicans are losing the PR battle on that front with the mainstream media

it is safe to say the Republicans are losing the PR battle on that front. I always have to remind people the Democrats have a tremendous ally that you should never underestimate. They have the mainstream media on their side. So the images coming out of Minneapolis, for the most part, whether it's, tv, whether it's print, very liberal, you know, Pew Research, I like to remind people, Pew Research several years ago, did a survey of journalists in this country. 90% of them vote Democrat. All right, so you. You've got to understand, the other part of this is that the discipline that used to be in place amongst journalists to keep your biases out of your political reporting is gone. All right, so you have the Democrat. The. The Democrats and the media are. Have been working in concert, to show the worst that they can, that the ice, agents working in Minneapolis are the bad guys. All right? Just to put it plainly, because they are the bad guys. They're doing terrible things. we, played an audio of a Democrat senator yesterday. You remember that on the program, where he says they're bursting into elementary schools and all of this kind of thing, which was absolute nonsense. but when you have the media on your side, they're not going to check you for this, these lies that are being told. So, Chuck Schumer a minority Senate leader says, aha. Uh-huh. here's an opportunity for us to look like the good guys in the eyes of many Americans, and we're going to carve out the DHS funding out of this bill. And he has succeeded in that. now they're going to have to debate that two weeks from now, but he succeeded in that. Republicans have gone along with it. President Trump is okay with that. So now it's gone to the House with that DHS car vote in it. And of course, what Republicans wanted was this safe, act, which SAFE stands for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility. Basically, what Republicans want. When you show up to vote, you have to prove you're a citizen of these United States.

>> Ed Vitagliano: For federal elections.

>> Fred Jackson: For federal elections, yes. So Democrats, said, we don't want that. Chuck Schumer says that's voter suppression. And so now Trump has been on the phone. He's actually, we had audio this morning of Trump saying he's been on the phone with Chuck Schumer and, they have a deal. Now the pressure is coming from the White House on House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republicans today to pass this test vote and get us out of this government. Shutdown President Trump, it's midterms. We don't want to shut down, because we, the Republicans will get blamed for it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: So that's where we are. So it is likely. What we're hearing is, from some of these Republicans this morning is that Mike Johnson, who perhaps has one of the most difficult jobs in Washington, House speaker, he is a good man. He's a born again believer.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: He's working hard, and I don't know why he wants this job. because the poor man has got to be stressed all the time. It appears that he's been able to corral enough Republican forces. Remember, the voting margin in the House right now is super thin.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: the Democrats were able to swear in, from a special election in Houston, I think, on the weekend. Somebody today. So we're down to one or two votes. That's all there is. It looks like. It looks like this test vote will pass. And so we'll get through. The government will be back in action again.

>> Chris Woodward: But.

>> Fred Jackson: But we're going to have a debate on the Department of, Homeland Security budget coming up in the next two weeks.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and obviously the SAFE act, too. Is there any idea? I know sometimes we hear there's a deal, you know, Schumer and President Trump. Do we have any idea what the deal is?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, you keep the SAFE act out. Safe, act is going to have to wait for another day. so they want that, that out of there. And, it looks like the DHS funding is carved out for now.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Carved out? What does that mean, carved out?

>> Fred Jackson: Well, right now DHS is funded from the reoccurring.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: So they're, they're taking that out of the question right now. And it's, but it's got to be debated within a couple of weeks.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And the, the alternative would be that whatever the Republicans remove from this bill, they could reinsert, for example, reinsert. I don't know what the right language is in the reconciliation bill that they are allowed once a year to vote where you don't have to deal with filibusters and so on and so forth.

>> Fred Jackson: The other thought is that the SAFE act could come up as a standalone bill. so that's kind of where it's being sold to Republicans right now, that instead of trying to tie this in, that we wait and we'll debate the SAFE act somewhere down the road.

Fred Ball: Any city or state that currently allows illegal immigrants to vote

>> Ed Vitagliano: Chris, let me ask you this now. We didn't discuss this in our story meeting, so if, if you don't know the answer to this question, I fully understand. There's a lot of details to keep, you know, juggling. A man of your age probably can't always do that, but not like you could when you were a younger guy. But, are there any. I hear these, this kind of language sometimes. I'm not sure. It's a fear official for any city or state in America that currently allows illegal immigrants to vote or non citizens, not just necessarily illegals, but people who are here.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Is California, for example, do they let illegal immigrants vote? There's always this talk about we're going to give them driver's licenses and then the question is, well, can they use that to show up at a poll and vote? because, Fred, while Chris, I think is looking something up, I'm looking it.

>> Chris Woodward: Up to answer your question.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. So my personal belief is certainly the SAFE act would be a stopgap measure to keep illegals, for example, illegals from voting in a federal election. But I've got to think that even in city and state elections there would be a legitimate Supreme Court, or at least federal judiciary, review. A legitimate review of whether or not the Constitution is being violated. Because you're essentially giving non citizens the right to disenfranchise my vote if I'm a voter in San Francisco, for example, and San Francisco says we're letting, as long as you show up with the drivers license, you can vote. Then we're not checking your citizenship status. California allows illegal immigrants to get us to get, a driver's license, therefore we're letting illegals vote. If I was a conservative, I would, I'd take that to court.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And I would say, I know it's a state election, I know it's not a federal election, but you're still violating the Constitution by disenfranchising citizens who are allowed to vote.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, you, you, you, you give the principal, the principled answer there. But here's the issue. the Democrats argue that if we demand somebody to show up and vote with a passport, Right. Prove you're a citizen or a copy of your birth certificate, a lot of people don't have those documents. A lot of people don't have passports.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: Et cetera, et cetera. Their argument is, they may be American citizens, they don't have those documents. So you're suppressing their vote. That is the argument from the Democrats. All right. that's what they say. So they would never admit that we're allowing, they wouldn't say, voice it. They wouldn't say we're allowing illegal immigrants to vote in this federal election.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: They would simply say we cannot suppress this vote just because they don't have a passport or a copy of their birth certificate.

>> Ed Vitagliano: The counter to that is obviously that I know you're not advocating, for this, but the counters is pretty simple. We require people to have a passport or a driver's license to get on a plane.

>> Fred Jackson: That's right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Are, ah, we arguing that by doing that we're suppressing people who don't have those particular documents? You got to have those kinds of doc. Now, I don't have to have those kinds of documents. If, if folks, just as an example, if I were to go into a convenience store and want to buy a six pack of beer, okay, I'm older, maybe they would card me just because it's the law. But, there may be people who are in their 20s saying, you're suppressing my right to engage in commerce because I don't have those kinds of documents. so it's a tricky argument that the Democrats are making. And these kinds of arguments are always tricky when you're actually trying to accomplish A, B and C over here. So you make the argument about X, Y and Z to take the eyes off what you're actually trying to do. Why would you Find.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. So this is from Ballotpedia, which is a fantastic source on political ballot type issues. this data is current as of January 20, 2026 and I'll post this on our Today's Issues Facebook page. California, Maryland and Vermont do have jurisdictions allowing non citizens to vote in local elections. There's approximately 18 or 19 states that explicitly prohibit non citizen voting in state constitution. and a handful of states are actually voting on non citizen voting measures this year. Those include Arkansas, Kansas and South Dakota. There's a whole bunch of states that don't have anything on the books about all this. Yeah, I would guess including Mississippi.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I would guess because nobody thought it would be possible that someone would be trying to allow non citizens to vote.

>> Chris Woodward: Well, that's because when the framers wrote everything down and then the state started to join the union, you know, people governed with common sense, which has been lacking for generations in this country.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, in Tim's absence, as he's often said, why do you think Joe Biden allowed 15, 20 million people in the country illegally? the goal is, these people will vote.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: And they'll vote for us because they're going to be so grateful that we allowed them in the country.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right, right.

>> Chris Woodward: Well, I guarantee you, that at least in some places, whether it's intentional or by error, somebody that's a non citizen that goes to vote, let's say on election Day for, you know, he or she is going to vote for mayor. But then their ballot includes things like the Senator and the President of the United States. Yeah, nobody's going to, I mean, nobody's going to take that from them in a place like San Francisco or Oakland where it's allowed to happen.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: Because they want them to vote.

President Trump is meeting with the president of Colombia to discuss drug trafficking

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, what else we got?

>> Chris Woodward: Well, I will say this President, Trump, is also meeting today with the President of Colombia. this is, ah, an interesting, meeting given the fact that the Trump administration has been involved in trying to change Venezuela, and change the political climate of that part of the world. but President Trump says he's looking forward to today's meeting, which is supposed to involve things like, efforts to combat drug trafficking and also trade deals. Clip 6.

>> Steve Tybor: Somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice, he changed his attitude very much. So.

>> Ed Vitagliano: No, I look forward to seeing him. He's coming in, we're going to be talking about drugs because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country.

>> Steve Tybor: And I look forward to see, we're.

>> Fred Jackson: Going to have a good meeting.

>> Chris Woodward: He says that often.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Chris, I want you to. Who is the. Who's the president?

>> Chris Woodward: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Of Colombia?

>> Chris Woodward: Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego.

>> Ed Vitagliano: yeah, that's him.

>> Fred Jackson: How do you sign that check without a name?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Gustavo Petro. Ah, that's. That's a great name. I always thought. I like Gustavo as a name. So he's the current president of Colombia.

>> Fred Jackson: They call him Gus.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I'm sorry, President Pedro, if I butchered your name.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So if. If President, Gustavo Petro, if you need to borrow a dollar for the snack machine, does he give you a petrodollar? Is that how, that. How that works?

>> Chris Woodward: perhaps.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You know what a petrodollar?

>> Chris Woodward: I sure do.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes. Yes.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I sure do.

Fred Kaplan: Trump is getting what he wants without admitting it

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right. So he is coming to meet with our president.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And, so, Fred, is there any chance that President Trump could wind up being the acting president of Columbia, too?

>> Fred Jackson: Well, I think what you're going to see coming out of this is, without him admitting it, you're going to see a capitulation. As you've seen in Venezuela, Trump is smart enough. You know, he's a smart enough businessman. He's getting what he wants without. And we look at Venezuela as the example. He is allowing Maduro's, what I call 2ic second in command, to continue to run the country. That has some controversy in it, because the lady who many people believe really should be the head of Venezuela, who's been kept in isolation last couple of years, won the Nobel Peace Prize, et cetera. we're still not sure, where Trump is with her. She came to visit President Trump there a couple of weeks ago. She gave him a copy of the Nobel Peace Prize. She's an admirer of Trump, but Trump, being the businessman, says, okay, what I want out of this deal with Venezuela is oil. And he's getting that right. Basically, he has been able to work a deal that sees all of these big oil companies taking control of the oil industry in Venezuela. And, Madam Rodriguez. Rodriguez is happy with that because it's going to be a whole lot of money for that government and for the people of Venezuela. So I think you're going to. He has put in place a pattern which I think he's going to copy in Colombia. That will help. We'll do great trade with you, Colombia. but by the way, fentanyl, any other bad drugs, cocaine, coming from your country ends right here.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, it's clear that the Trump administration and I like what President Trump is doing in our hemisphere because he is making it clear to Latin American countries that he's not going to tolerate China being a major player in our hemisphere. He's also making it clear he doesn't want communist dictatorships existing in our hemisphere because they foment problems in our country and throughout Latin America. And so I like this as part of President Trump's foreign policy. We did, we talked about Cuba yesterday, and, hopefully that's all going to continue. All right, we're going to take a short break. When we come back, we'll talk to Steve Tiber for a few minutes.

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Eight Days of Hope helping people recover after devastating winter storm

>> Fred Jackson: To more of Today's Issues.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And welcome back, folks, to Today's Issues. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon for the next couple of days. I'm joined in studio by Fred Jackson and Chris Woodward. Well, everybody, unless you have been living the last couple of weeks under a rock somewhere, you have heard, you were aware of the approaching storm, named Fern, which was a just a brutal winter storm, and it has ravaged a lot of places, including places in the Deep south where people are not generally prepared for those kinds of, frigid temperatures, ice and snow. And so there's been a lot of work to do to help people kind of work their way back to normalcy. And one of the groups doing that is Eight Days of Hope. And Steve Tyber, the president of that, Ministry, no stranger to the AFR listening audience, is on the phone with us to talk about what eight Days of Hope is doing to help people, following the storm of 26.

36,000 Mississippi families still without power as of this minute

Steve, welcome back to, Today's Issues.

>> Steve Tybor: Yeah, guys, thank you so much for having me. I'm praying that there's someday you just invite me as a guest and we're not talking about a disaster because, oh, my gosh, I tell you, the last nine days, it's been a whirlwind with this storm from Texas to Maine. Tennessee, and Mississippi have seen some huge power outages. And even just two minutes ago, I logged in in Mississippi, where American Family Radio and 8 Days of Hope, both of our headquarters are at 36,000 families as of this minute have no power and there's no end in sight for some of these families. So, yeah, a lot going on down here.

>> Ed Vitagliano: so 36,000 families still in the state of Mississippi without power. Because it was a stat.

>> Steve Tybor: Yeah, yeah, that stat was just literally five minutes ago. There's, an outage map that you can go to the state and see where they're at. And you know, right now we're deployed to two different areas of the state. We're in NewSong Albany, Mississippi and Oxford, Mississippi are. Heavy equipment is in NewSong Albany with a smaller amount, smaller amount of volunteers handling just heavy equipment. We're in Oxford. We've already seen about 300 people volunteer. We're going to be there at least until, February 14th. Probably will end up extending it to some extent, but, yeah, the damage is surreal. the power outages, no access to food. We launched our mass feeding arm. We've now served food in nine different communities over the last nine days. You know, every morning, at our headquarters in Tupelo, we're making thousands of meals and you know, at lunchtime people are getting hot meals. So it's a little bit of this in this region and a little bit of that in that region. But, boy, the need is real.

Fred: How do you deliver food to people who may be isolated

>> Fred Jackson: Steve, Fred here, tell, us a little bit about how you get, for instance, food to people who may be very isolated in those places. I know Oxford is a good sized city, but we're being told there are people just on the outskirts of these areas, that are in desperate situations.

>> Steve Tybor: Yeah, Fred, great question. So eight days of hope. For the last 20 years, whenever we serve a community, we look for a way to work with a local church because at the end of the day we're going to be moving on to the next city. And the next disaster, we want the local church to shine and develop those relationships. So, you know, the food that we've been delivering today, I think it's five or six different sites. the majority of those sites are churches. So if people can make it to the church, there's a hot meal waiting for them. But the churches themselves have people ready to deliver the food to their own community. And so that's real important. Again, we're not looking for an atta boy or nice job, eat diesel. We're not looking for any of that. We want the local church, the local Christian Bible believing church, to develop these relationships. So we think by Saturday, this upcoming Saturday, we would have made and have delivered about 20,000 meals. And so it's been, again, it's been an eye opening experience for us and just so thankful we could be a small part of that healing process for these families.

Chris: One of the things we discussed ahead of the storm was prayer

>> Chris Woodward: Hey, it's Chris here. one of the things that you and I discussed ahead of the storm when you were here on campus, was, the need to pray, for, you guys, the ministry, the people that you're trying to serve. I bring that up because a lot of people, myself included on social media have talked about how we need to pray for, these people, and other storm victims. take a moment just to tell us, what prayer has meant to you over the years.

>> Steve Tybor: You know, I'll tell you what, doing what we do can be very exhausting. And sometimes when you do disaster work, you better be ready to pivot on a moment's notice. You know, you think you have a plan, you develop a plan, and then to no fault of your own, the plan changes. So, you know, one of the things I've been praying for, our volunteer leaders, our small staff, and the hundreds of volunteers that are making food, the hundreds of volunteers that are in Oxford and NewSong Albany, is don't be so focused on the task or the, excuse me, don't be so focused on the task. Be as focused on the journey. Look for ways to encourage each other and the people we're serving. And so for us, we try to practice what we preach. I mean, every day we start with prayer. Every night we end in prayer. Every site that we go to serve, we start in prayer. We invite the family to pray with us as well. We invite the family back, for dinner and we give them a hot meal and that's where they hear the gospel. And once again, we're praying. And so there is power in prayer. There's so many things that we can't do. We convince ourselves we can't do this, we can't do that. Oh, I don't have the time, I don't have the money. I get all that. But we can pray. We can pray and so be praying for the families in Tennessee and Mississippi that are waiting for a helping hand. Pray for the volunteers that are traveling, as I speak from all over the country to come to northeast Mississippi to love the brokenhearted. Please bathe this whole project in prayer.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Steve.

Sometimes Christians are at odds over what the gospel is and what Christians should do

sometimes Christians are at odds with, one another over, what the gospel is and what Christians should be doing. You might have one side that says we should only deal with preaching the gospel. Usually those are folks who don't want any Christian involvement in politics. But it's also, they say, ah, you're doing that social gospel stuff. You should preach the gospel, not provide a sandwich. Then you have folks on the other side who say, no, you got to feed people and you need to do it without, trying to manipulate them with the gospel. Just feed them if they're hungry. You guys do both. What is the kind of the biblical approach that you take? I know that you don't necessarily, parse this when you're on the ground in Oxford or NewSong Albany, Mississippi, but this is obviously the foundation of your ministry. Why do you combine both of these things? Helping people with their physical needs and their homes and so on and so forth, but also offering the gospel?

>> Steve Tybor: Well, let me share, a statement with you. The greatest sermon I ever heard, and I've heard some amazing preachers. I've heard Billy Graham in person. I've, you know, Don Wild, you know, you can go. I've heard so many amazing preachers preach, but the greatest sermon I ever heard is the one I saw when a family who has nowhere to turn meets strangers who've come around the country to love on them and serve them, they see Jesus. So maybe not a scripture verse, at least in the beginning, is even mentioned. But here's what happens for us. Almost 90% of the time, the family will say, hey, why did you come from Wichita, ah, Kansas to northeast Mississippi. You live in Buffalo and you came to Mississippi. Why did you come from Texas? And I tell the volunteers, be ready with your three minute testimony. Just three minutes. Not 38 minutes, not 16 verses, not, hey, I saw, beer cans on your back porch. I used to be an alcoholic. And you're gonna go to hell if you keep drinking. We just want to be, we want to be the hands and feet of Jes. And when people see something that they're not used to seeing, like the greatest sermon that I ever heard is the one I saw. They're drawn to that. And here's what happens. They ask questions, hey, why did you come?

>> Chris Woodward: Really?

>> Steve Tybor: You met Jesus when you were 33 and you were an addict? Gosh, I battle addictions, too. Sometimes it opens up conversation. And when the conversation opens up, that's when we get to share the biblical truth. I tell the volunteers, be ready with a three minute testimony and maybe one Bible verse. Maybe let him ask a question, and then they've given you permission to pour into them. So we've seen thousands, thousands and thousands come to meet Christ over the last 20 years. That's what we've done. It seems to be working out pretty well.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, the folks here at AFA and American Family Radio are huge. Eight Days of Hope fan. Hope fans. They're big Steve Tiber fans. Although you're a very, humble guy.

How can people find out more about eight Days of Hope?

Steve, let me just give you this last question, and we'll, we'll let you get back to the work you're doing. How can people find out more about eight Days of Hope? I'm sure there are people listening right now. Never heard of eight Days of Hope. Never heard of what you guys are doing. They may want more information or there may be others who, do know who you are and are saying, you know what, I got a couple of days here I might want to pitch in Mississippi. How do folks find out and get involved?

>> Steve Tybor: First of all, you can text the word HOPE to 86373, pull out your phone, put 86373 where you normally put a name. Text the word HOPE. Whenever we go anywhere, we will invite you to come whenever you volunteer with us. It's free and we provide food and lodgings. So go to 8daysofhope.com on the top of the website. On the landing page is how you can volunteer and learn more about either helping us feed people or serving people in Mississippi. We know that we're going to be here at least a week from Saturday, but it looks like we could extend that. But again, go to the website eight Days of Hope Calm like us on social media, Facebook and Instagram, and text the word Hope 86373. It's free. We provide food and lodging wherever we go.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Thank you, Steve. God bless you guys in your work. stay safe out there, okay?

>> Steve Tybor: Thank you, guys. Appreciate your support. We love you all so much. Thank you.

36,000 people in Mississippi still without power after devastating ice storm

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, that's Steve Tyber, president of Eight Days of Hope. Fred.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, also helping in Mississippi. we just found this out in the last day or so. probably the richest man in the world that everybody's heard of, Elon Musk. He is sending more than 500 generators to Tippa County. It's one of the counties about, I'd, say 10, 15 miles from where we're sitting right now. That's been hard hit. so he is sending 500 generators to that area. So this, what's going on right now is getting the attention of the world. and they're seeing the images and folks. And I want to draw attention to the fact there's still 36,000, I think was what Steve said, 36,000 people in this state. It's a small state that still don't have any power. There are people who live in rural areas, with a lot of pine trees in this state. And pine trees are a magnet for ice.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They're the first to go when there's an ice storm.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Because it's soft wood.

>> Fred Jackson: It's soft wood and they, they, they have foliage on them. Yeah, Maybe that's the wrong term in botany terms, but, but it holds the ice.

>> Ed Vitagliano: The pine needles.

>> Fred Jackson: You mean the pine needles. Yeah. And so you've got these pine trees, talking to a gentleman this morning. He's got four down on his property. And then his neighbors, two big pine trees came over and toppled on his property as well. And so there are people out there right now, they have, they don't have water, they don't have electricity, and they, a lot of people haven't been able to get in to help them.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right. Because the roads are blocked.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep. So the military is getting involved. We have helicopters that, I live out near the airport here, have helicopters that are going out on missions right now, National Guard helicopters going out to try to get to those areas, to get them some food.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: And perhaps a little generator so they have some heat, that sort of thing. So this, this is quite dire. and for us, sometimes the story gets old, right? It's not old for those folks.

>> Ed Vitagliano: No, that's still, that's still about a third of the people who originally lost power over a week ago still, like you said, in dire straits. And there's all kinds of. Listen, we've had, a, we have prayer requests and have devotions every morning here at AFA when we start our day. And I think this is something I heard in devotions. It might have been something I heard at church, but a family came through, they got their power turned on and then their house burned down because the power came back on and something had happened to some of the wiring. People find out their pipes burst, all that kind of thing. this is kind of an ongoing disaster and for some people it just won't let up. One thing after another.

>> Chris Woodward: I am looking at power outage dot us, specifically Mississippi. And in Issaquina county, which is on the Mississippi river, just across from East Carroll Parish, Louisiana. they are still reporting a 100% power outage in Issaquina County.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Wow.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's not, it's not a huge population there, but it's still human beings.

>> Fred Jackson: And we want to remember our friends in Tennessee too.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Fred Jackson: Because a lot of those folks are still suffering as well. And even in Nashville, Nashville was hit hard.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, the Carolinas here just Charlotte got.

>> Fred Jackson: A foot of snow. This was a separate system. so we've got friends all across this area. and we say this, we need to keep praying, but we really do need to keep praying for these folks.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes. And praying for groups like Eight Days of Hope. I think Samaritan's Purse is also involved. And that is interesting which you shared about Elon Musk. donating the generators are pretty expensive for folks and when you're in the middle of a disaster like they've been involved in, you don't have a lot of extra cash floating around. So this will be a big help for a fair amount of people.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. One thing that might be, if you're looking to help serve or pray for people in your neck of the woods, wherever it may be, is to take care of the families of the linemen. I've got a couple of linemen in my, that are in my in laws extended family.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You're talking about that work with power.

>> Chris Woodward: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. These are the people that like climb the pole and go up way higher on a ladder than I ever will.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Chris Woodward: to, to help make sure that people have electricity. And a lot of these guys haven't been home like at all in a week and several days. And you've got you know, a wife and a couple of kids at home. So you know, if you can pray for those families as well because mama is raising a couple of boys or girls or whatever and you know, dad hasn't been home because he's out trying to help other people.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. All right, Chris, let's, let's move on.

The Trump administration is still arresting people who disrupted a Minnesota church service

>> Chris Woodward: Alright. Speaking of other, people, the Trump administration is still out there arresting folks, that disrupted that church service at city's church in St. Paul, Minnie, Minnesota, a couple weeks ago, if it's been that long. the latest, arrestees have been identified as Ian Davis Alston and Jerome d' Angelo Richardson. And I've got some audio here of Attorney General Pam Bondi. She said early on, we are not going to tolerate this. We are going to go after those people that Don Lemon and others caught on camera disrupting the church service. What they did was wrong, and we're not going to stop with, just these latest arrests. Clip eight.

>> Fred Jackson: these parishioners thought they were going to get shot. One of the people with Don Lemon screamed, quote, this ain't a house of worship. This is the house of the devil.

>> Steve Tybor: There were children crying. There were parents blocked from getting upstairs to take their children out of Sunday school.

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, so, Chris, let me, let me ask you this. There have been arrests that have already been made. Yes. Of some of these that they've been able to identify as being interesting, by the way, that Don Lemon, with his little camera crew or whatever, he had, going there to play the part of a journalist, actually helped provide imagery of people who are breaking the law.

>> Chris Woodward: Oh, sure.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So he's partly, partially responsible. Are the. Here's my question. And you m. Again, I'm just tossing this out because it just came to me. We may have to revisit this later in the week and find out, are judges letting these people go or. I mean, these people stay charged. They may not stay in jail, but there are. I'm paranoid about liberal judges saying, you can't arrest these people for, any of that happening.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. I can't speak to every person arrested that's appeared before a judge yet. Some people, I think, have not yet appeared in court based on the charges they've been brought up on. But it would not shock me in a place like Minnesota, which has been one of the cash, cashless bail type havens, that some people will get a slap on the wrist.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I do know, Fred, that Don Lemon was. He was indicted by a grand jury.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes, he was.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That. That was a little bit, surprising.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: really. But, I think it's clear that he was involved, folks. What Don Lemon is arguing is that he just played the part of a journalist and he just wanted to document from a journalistic standpoint what was happening. But the fact was he had met with this group that was going into the Church in advance. You can't embed yourself, quote unquote, with, with a gang that's going in to rob a bank.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And if you know about it and you can't just say, well, I'm just there to document it. If you're a part of the gang going in there, you can be arrested as being an, an accomplice. And that is apparently what has happened to Don, Lemon.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, I saw a bit of the interview that, air quotates, journalist Don Lemon did with, I think it was the pastor of the church that morning when this disruption occurred. he was asking aggressive questions, I'll put it that way. And, this church was chosen, we have to keep reminding people, because, one of the staff members of the pastorate, works for ICE. He's a part time pastor and he works for ICE there in St. Paul.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And they found out.

>> Steve Tybor: Out.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes, they found out. And that's why that church was targeted. And targeted is not too strong a word. They went in and invaded. They. They were not invited into the church.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, they were. They were certainly not invited in to disrupt the service.

>> Fred Jackson: That's.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Some people have made the argument. Well, churches invite people to come in to the church service, but they don't invite them to come in to disrupt it.

>> Fred Jackson: Listen, they, they're going to be charged. There's, there's civil rights charges. There's also. Under the FACE Act.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Fred Jackson: The Face act primarily was designed to go after pro life people who might protest outside an abortion clinic. All right. and they get arrested for simply sometimes just praying outside the abortion clinic. Let us remember when Joe Biden was president and we had attorney, General, Garland.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Merrick Garland.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, Merrick Garland. He was charging these pro life people. In fact, you may remember one pro life person from Pennsylvania, his house was surrounded by 20 FBI agents.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Was that Hauk?

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Last name Mark.

>> Fred Jackson: Maybe he was having a meal with his kids in his house. All charged on the Face Act. So also the Republicans, in order to get the Face act passed, Republicans inserted in there also disrupting a church service.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: You cannot deny the church service was underway. It was disrupted.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: By this group of people. So if they get off on this, that that is maybe as a result of some liberal judge somewhere who just.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You know, disregard that.

>> Fred Jackson: Disregards the law and disregards the obvious.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: On this.

>> Ed Vitagliano: In favor of criminals.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That becomes their modus, operandi.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

Billie Eilish claims her mansion is on stolen Native American land

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, all right, what else we got?

>> Chris Woodward: Well, this one is, an interesting story. I Don't have the audio of her speech here, but it's gotten a lot of coverage since a few days ago when Billie Eilish, the singer, that's won several awards over the length of her short career, she's, she's back in the news because during her Grammy speech, like a lot of celebs, over the weekend, they all bad mouthed ICE and had some nasty things to say about ICE and the Trump administration's efforts to find and remove illegal immigrants. the reason Billie Eilish's stuff really stands out is because she talked about how this is stolen land, which is a phrase and a term a lot of liberals have been using, saying that the US government, like a lot of Western Europeans, stole land from the natives that were here or whatnot. What's very interesting and perhaps humorous here is that Fox and some other news outlets did a few minutes on Google and basically found out that her million dollar mansion is sitting on what she herself calls stolen land. And to my knowledge, yeah, to my knowledge, Billy has not apologized for that yet.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, listen, let me just tell you my two cents. People, have all kinds of ideas about this kind of thing. The United States, broadly speaking, and the Europeans that came over to this country, they did drive out Native Americans. They did steal their land. There were wars, they were conquered, they were sent to reservations. That's not a thing we should be proud of, but it's the way that all peoples have operated. And when you, and I'm not saying it's right and God's the one who judges, but Native, Americans did the same thing to one another. and I always mentioned the Comanches in this country annihilated tribes and took their, and then took their lands and ward. So this is the way human history has gone. all of Europe is, listen, England invaded by, by Anglo Saxons and, and Vikings and normans, in 1066, the Norman invasion. So you can go on and on and on, go all the way back and you find, hey, this used to be our land, now it belongs to somebody else. There's nothing you can do about it. And it is clearly virtue signaling. Fred, I'm going to get off my soapbox here. This is virtue signaling by Billy Eilish. I've heard of her. I am, I don't know much about her. it's virtue signaling. And now she's been, as the French would say, hoisted on upon her own petard. Because now what she was trying to use as virtue signaling to slap America is now coming back on her. There are members of the Tongva tribe who have confirmed that her mansion is. Sits on ancestral land. And I saw a picture of several of them, reminding her that, she could give. She could deed her land back to that tribe if she was being honest.

>> Fred Jackson: This is, the funny part of the story. They get up and virtue Signal, make these speeches and they think, nobody's going to check up on me.

>> Chris Woodward: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: You know, they're just so arrogant. But somebody is checking up on her. yeah, this happens all the time. Time with the Hollywood crowd. I. I've just reached the point where I don't pay attention to them. I really don't. I haven't a clue who this lady is.

>> Chris Woodward: I have reached that age in life where I'm like, who are these people?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, listen, I, I don't particularly pay attention until they get caught, okay? And listen, I didn't pay much attention to Al Gore with his Inconvenient Truth, but I did pay attention when everyone found out that he had three. Three or four big homes burning. All that electricity. These people fly all over the country. Listen, it's a cottage industry for these folks, and I'm glad when they get caught.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: all right, folks, five minute break for news. We'll be right back.

>> Fred Jackson: The views and opinions expressed in this.

>> Steve Tybor: Broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of.

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

Ed and Fred talk with Chris on top news headlines of the day including a discussion on the possible government shutdown and the SAVE Act. Also, Steve Tybor joins the program to discuss what his ministry is doing for the folks impacted by the recent ice storm.