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>> : 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 Vitagliano.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And welcome to Today's Issues. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon. for the remainder of the week. I'm, joined in studio by Tony Vitagliano. Good morning, Tony.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Good morning.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And Fred Jackson. Good morning.
>> Fred Jackson: Good morning. Good morning.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Steve Jordal, Steve Paisley. Jordal will join us for the segment starting at 1105. But, it's just us three guys. We have a lot of folks out. Wesley Wildmon's out. Ray Pritchard is in transit as he, and his wife Marlene move to Florida permanently. They'll be their permanent home. So we've got a bunch of folks out and it is summertime. That's what happens during the summer. It is Wednesday, of course, June 17th, which means we have passed the halfway point of the halfway month.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Wow.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Of the year.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Incredible.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yep.
Fred Kion: Luigi Mangione plans to plead guilty to manslaughter
So, a lot of things, happening in the news. Fred, let's start us off. You said you get some breaking news?
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, some breaking news out of NewSong York. it seems not that long ago, but in December 2024, the then CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson, walked out of his hotel room in NewSong York. And eventually we saw videos of this. Someone walked up behind him and pumped bullets into his back and murdered him right on the streets of NewSong York. Brian Thompson was off to an investors meeting of some type. a young man by the name of Luigi Mangione was arrested. A short time later he was at a, I think a McDonald's down in Pennsylvania somewhere. And he was arrested and, was charged initially, with murder. that charge remains in place. right now there are state, cases and federal cases against him in connection with his assassination. But the breaking news this morning is that, he plans to, at his trial, make a plea of extreme emotional disturbance. Extreme emotional disturbance. Now, I, was listening to some legal analysis just before Coming into, the studio. That is not the same as insanity. it is, a temporary emotional state. Apparently, Mancione had a operation, a fusion operation, back sometime before, the event in NewSong York.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Like a fusion in his back or.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes, yes. and I guess an allegation of pain and frustration, stress, etc. Etc. The legal beavers say, okay, this is a move by his lawyers to have the charge reduced from murder to manslaughter. he's. The judge has already taken the death penalty off and even perhaps the life in prison off because of some technical problems with the investigation. Okay. But now, there seems to be an attempt by his lawyers to move to this extreme emotional disturbance. Is the legal language being used, from, from the legal beavers that I've seen, reacting to this in the last 20 minutes or so. They don't think this is going to fly just because of the evidence that's in place. This was, the evidence they say this is. According to these lawyers, the evidence is overwhelming that this was well planned, that he had a gripe, against insurance companies, medical insurance companies. I think he's even had cheerleaders in the courtroom in initial appearances, prior to today. So, and they say, you know, if the court was willing to go along with this, does, this give license to anyone. Let's think of Charlie Kirk's murder, right? Does it give license to anyone to say I was under real, a lot of stress and that caused me to go out and shoot this person?
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: So, it's, it is an attempt, as I say, to get the charged reduced to manslaughter so that it will not be any life sentence of any type. Reduce the sentence, you get some treatment and you're released at a fairly early date.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and those words caused me, Tony, that, that I remember way back in the, in the 60s. Now you don't obviously Fred and I do, but there was a move in this country came from the Democratic Party to give, to create more understanding those people who commit crimes affected, by poverty. We see this, it continues, that people are not as culpable as the evidence may seem because circumstances, created the mindset or the feelings in the person that, as Fred said, caused them to commit this crime. And I think Fred's exactly right. If the judges allow this and if this were to spread, then what you're saying is that people are less responsible for the crimes m. For which they are being tried and therefore murder, can be cut down to Manslaughter. That's a huge drop in terms of how much time Luigi Mangione would spend in prison if he, in fact, he were found to be guilty.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. So, manslaughter.
>> Ed Vitagliano: The.
>> Tony Vitagliano: The significance of this is manslaughter cannot be premeditated. Right. Under current US law. That's what that would mean. So in trying to push this defense. Ah, it's.
>> Ed Vitagliano: It is.
>> Tony Vitagliano: I'm with Fred.
>> Ed Vitagliano: It's.
>> Tony Vitagliano: It's a hard sell. I think it would be a very hard sell because the. The evidence based on video evidence that we see, if. If the person in the video is in fact Luigi Mangioni, and it's determined then that person was. Knew where the CEO would be.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Tony Vitagliano: What time he would be there, and how he wanted to carry out the act. And if that's not premeditated and planned, I don't know what would be. And, and the significance of getting. If he was able to. If the court were to go along with this and drop that down from murder, to manslaughter. you've got to your point about Charlie Kirk. We have a. A growing, population in this country of people who are mentally unstable. And then they're put on, SSRIs, sometimes powerful SSRIs.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And what are SR?
>> Tony Vitagliano: so copy the. The acronym. It's basically.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, you don't have to explain the acronym.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, it's just, there's a. Strong. Medications that are often used to treat psychiatric. Severe psychiatric issues. not now. They're lesser. Lesser forms and doses, obviously that people take for. For valid reasons. But I just say that to say you could. You would. Could possibly see an increase of people carrying out similar acts and making this a similar case in defense.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, you could say I have this person derangement syndrome.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I was so angry with the president. All that he's done.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's why I tried to shoot him.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Tony Vitagliano: I was so angry with him in the.
Fred Mangione is accused of using a 3D printed gun against Brian Thompson
In the throes of passion. I, went and hid in a bush and waited for him, right. To come out on the golf course and try and take a shot at him. You know, that, that type of.
>> Ed Vitagliano: By the way, Fred, this, the gun that, Mangioni used, I'm guessing that was a legal weapon or was this something. Was this a legal weapon that.
>> Fred Jackson: What do they call it? a computer generated.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, 3D.
>> Tony Vitagliano: 3D printed. Oh, a ghost gun.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, I believe in this.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So. But it's still illeg. Illegal. But that adds to this Is, in other words, this isn't somebody who had an enhanced carry permit. And then he saw the CEO, Brian Thompson on the street. And then in a. In a fit of rage, he pulled out a legally owned weapon that he had for his own protection. No, a 3D printed. Tony, you know more about this kind of thing than I do. You. You have to go. You talk about planning.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You. You are actually going through the effort and using the technology to create a weapon that you know is illegal to own.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So I, I hope this fails and fails utterly. I guess his attorneys, Mangione's attorneys or attorney. I'm not sure how many he has, if he has a team of attorneys or whatever, but, they have a responsibility to try anything. Yeah. And if the video evidence is so clear, you know, if he, if he said something to people, I'm going to kill this guy. All that goes into premeditation. If that evidence is so overwhelmingly against Mangione. The attorneys only have this kind of, card, ace in the hole kind of thing.
>> Fred Jackson: You know, he's pleaded not guilty to this. but for those of us who just observe, we're not lawyers. It's strange the way the legal system works. So his lawyers are now saying he was under extreme emotional disturbance.
>> Tony Vitagliano: I was thinking the same thing about the.
>> Fred Jackson: That's an admission of guilt. Now we're saying our client did it.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yes.
>> Fred Jackson: But he wasn't in his right mind. Right. Okay. so this is a step. We now. We now his lawyers are saying, yeah, he did it. But.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: All right, so it's going to be interesting to see where this goes, because I don't know if you can back this up. Why not put it in reverse?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, but you can. I think. I think you can. Again, none of us are lawyers here. Either of you can jump in here. But I think that the way the legal system works, it's not unusual for an attorney to tell his or her client, say, not guilty. We make sure this goes to trial and then we will figure out the defense. I think they are allowed to change some of that up. However, if you're on the jury.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You, you figure out what's going on, that his attorneys, Mangione's attorneys have looked at the evidence and said, we're in big trouble here.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: Ah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Because in parentheses. Because you're guilty.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: It's.
>> Tony Vitagliano: To me, it's an indication that, both the defense and the prosecution see the direction. They have a feeling of the direction that the the trial and the verdict, is going to go at this point.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, anyway, this, this is breaking. It's on the, we have several news stations on, here in the studio, and a lot of them were talking about that, but they've moved on, so I guess we will as well.
>> Fred Jackson: We can move on.
Fred Kaplan: There's a lot of anxiety over alleged details surrounding Iran deal
All right. President Trump had the G7 meeting in France. That big meeting is about to wrap up. And as we're sitting here, we're just waiting for President Trump to have his last words at the closing news conference. the French leader Macron, has been speaking at this news conference over the last couple of minutes. but President Trump is going to get up, I assume he had a pre. Last news conference, news conference a few minutes ago where he talked about the leader, from India and what good friends they are, and we stand behind India, et cetera, et cetera. He talked a little bit about this memorandum of understanding, which is what everybody really is interested in. And, there's a lot of. There's a lot of anxiety over the alleged details. And I say alleged details because we haven't seen the actual document yet. We were just talking about CNN a few moments ago, said we have a copy. And I've heard other news agencies say we have a copy or, we have a source that tells us this. We really don't know yet, but it would seem there are a few details that are pretty clear, and the President has addressed this already, is that once this is signed, and right now it's scheduled to be signed in Geneva on Friday, Friday morning, our time.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: At some point that, the president has confirmed that once this is signed, he says what happens? Immediately the Strait of Hormuz opens. The, big ships can haul all the oil that they can handle out there. There's not going to be any interference.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Gentlemen, start your engines.
>> Fred Jackson: Gentlemen, start your engines. What he said the other day, the US Blockade will come down and the
>> Ed Vitagliano: mines that Iran has laid will be removed.
>> Fred Jackson: Now, I did see it was, speaking of the Strait of Hormuz and what's been going on there, there was one news agency that was reporting this morning that in this deal, Iran still the ability to some kind of charge to vessels leaving there so that. I don't know, it's one of those flies that gets in the ointment and messes things up. I'm not sure. but that's, That's a possibility. So right now we want to caution our listeners, we are reporting what other news agencies are reporting. What they say they know. All right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And sometimes the way this works, Fred, I think you confirmed this, if this is accurate, is that the Trump, administration or all administrations will release documents like this to the news agencies and do what's called in a place, an embargo.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: On it. You, you can't release it until we sign the deal. and, but then these news agencies do talk in generalities about what might be in it. Is that the way these embargoes work?
>> Fred Jackson: That is true. And the other, the other practice is that governments, will release a few details. They'll get somebody to say to a reporter at cbs, hey, this is in it. But you can't quote me.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: This is an effort to get some of it out there to see how the public reacts initially and then they can change the final document.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So it's, and my understanding is, as far as we know, this is a pretty short document. Right. Couple pages, maybe.
>> Fred Jackson: Pages, that's what we're told.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So all the devil will be in the details as they take 60 days to hammer this out.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.
Tony Christians: There needs to be more to this deal than just nuclear concessions
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, so Tony, we don't, we don't, and we're trying to be disciplined, ourselves here and not talk about what we don't absolutely know for sure. All while we're going on is what other people are saying is in it or probably in it, or a source said is in it. But we do know for the war to come to an end, there are certain things that both sides have to agree to, and the Strait of Hormuz is one of those. now there are people on the conservative side of the spectrum. I think Lindsey Graham and some others have been critical, in advance, that the strait was open before the war.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So that part we're only going back to what the status quo was before the war started. Certainly there has to be more to this deal than just that for America, for the Trump administration to declare any kind of a, of a victory. But I haven't heard. All we hear is rumors regarding, you know, money that's going to be channeled, assets unfrozen, those kind of things.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, I, I don't. Unless I could be. We all could be surprised. There could be some very serious concessions that Iran makes in the final memorandum of understanding. But everything that I've seen being leaked, and I think has been confirmed by some members of the administration. Like the $300 billion. I believe that was confirmed by Vance in an interview, you know, so that's not There are some leaks that are rumors, and then there are leaks that get confirmed. so what I've seen being leaked, I have yet to see something. maybe, you know, I want to see what the nuclear concessions are that Iran makes the details of.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's got to be important.
>> Tony Vitagliano: That's got to be important. There needs to be. For Trump to have any. Be able to claim any semblance of victory in this situation. There, there needs to be a big bullet point and other details can be hammered out over the next 60 days, but there needs to be a big bullet point that Iran will hand, you know, be great. They will hand over, you know, uranium dust or Iran has agreed for, you know, 10 years, 20 years, whatever, to freeze their nuclear program or, you know, submit, independent, inspections. But I, from what I've seen, there's not a lot in there that looks like. That looks like we're getting anything from it.
>> Ed Vitagliano: We have to. I think the Trump administration has to have.
>> : That.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Has to have something. Has to have something regarding the nuclear program. yeah, I. Listen, I don't know a lot scientifically about the, the difference between having, And Fred, maybe you can jump in here having, the development of nuclear power plants and how much, how far you have to go beyond that to enrich the uranium. My understanding is that's a pretty big leap, pretty big difference. So, you know, that's probably something that we could very. Either have outside verification or we could pretty well know from intelligence assets within Iran. If there's a distinction, I would be okay. And, you know, who cares what I think? But just personally, I would be okay if we, if we said, if Iran says, 10 or 20 year moratorium on enrichment of uranium. M. Yes, we agree. Here's the steps for verification. But we want to be able to develop nuclear power, which I think is smart for any country. If they can afford to do that, I would be okay with that. But we've got to have some sort of win here with regards to their nuclear program.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. And the problem is, as some people have pointed out, you're dealing with Iran.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: And Iran has a history of saying, yep, yes, sir, we're going to do that.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: And then they don't. the other thing that is clear, there will be no regime change. Right. That was a big selling point. Yeah. When all of this started, you know, Trump's famous words, help us on the way, and, we need to be praying for those dear folks.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: In Iran, the Christians. Yeah, a lot of Christians in the last three months, the Iranian government, army, whatever the case may be, they've killed thousands of their own in brutal fashion.
>> Tony Vitagliano: We don't even know we have because the Internet's been blacked out there. We have no idea what's been going on within the borders of Iran.
>> Fred Jackson: So far more than the deaths that have occurred because of Israeli and US Bombings has been the thousands and thousands of deaths at the hands of the regime.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: And so, that is going to be talked about because regime change was a big selling point. We're going to go in there and we're going to rescue these people and we're going to go back 49 years and bring in, remember, the relative of the Shah that was there in 1979. He was interviewed constantly. we did interviews with ministries that represented Christians in there and their hopes were really, really high.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: That that was going to happen. and the other element, and I know we have to go to a break here in a second, but the other element is there's a lot of tension right now between President Trump and Israel.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Let's hold that part for after the break.
It's increasingly unlikely that military force could be used to punish Iran
Let me just, let me just add to what you were saying. And Tony, we got a minute or two here. one of the things that seems obvious since the regime has got even more of a death grip on that country, that, it's going to be in the future, I'm not going to say impossible, but increasingly unlikely that military force could be used in the future to punish Iran or to try to get regime change.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, look, everybody's today, everybody's getting. Calm down, Tony. Whenever I got the details of the $300 billion going to Iran, I was a little, I had a different reaction, than. I'm a little more measured right now, because I know and everybody here knows, including the Trump administration. And people can think logically that $300 billion, do we honestly think it's going to go towards, I mean, some of it will go towards building, rebuilding some infrastructure and helping the people of Iran, but a lot of it's going to go into jump starting back the military, industrial complex of Iran and that regime, and it's going to go back into, their proxy groups, it's going to go back into their, into their drone and missile production. And I agree, I. Iran is going to come out maybe controversial, they're going to come out of this stronger. And let me explain why is because in war, you, when, when the war first starts, nobody knows what the other's going to do. Right. But now Iran has seen what it actually looks like for both the United States, the number one military in the world, and Israel, the number one military in the Middle east, most technically advanced and in size, to attack you. And they see what that attack looks like. And so now, in addition to knowing what that looks like, they're going to be, producing more weapons that are relevant to what that looks like. And that regime is going to decentralize even more. It wasn't enough to collapse the regime to decay. It wasn't enough to take out the, the Ayatollah. Wasn't enough to collapse it. That goes, that just goes to show that the IRGC so decentralized their leadership that they managed to stay in place during all of this. And they're going to do it even more. I think they're going to split up the, the, the people they had over these groups, militias, whatever it was, all over the country. They're going to split those up even more so that if, you know, if you take out the head of this, you know, guy, we've got two more underneath him.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Tony Vitagliano: So I agree. I don't think there's going to be. It would be very hard in the future to uproot them. It would take a, probably a collapse from within. that's just my opinion. $300 billion is plenty more than enough to jumpstart the IRGC's plans. And, and we are all, we're all delusional if we think they're. That's not what they're going to do.
Tony Bennett: Iran has been preparing for this eventuality all this time
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, well, that just seems to me the hardcore, reality on the ground. This was always kind of a long shot. I think that Israel and the US probably thinking that Iran was built like other countries and you decapitate the leadership and you can sow enough chaos that the people could take over. But Iran has been. I think they've been preparing for this eventuality all this time, right. And they, they decentralized enough to survive. And I think you're exactly right, Tony. They're probably going to learn from that. Hey, listen, this may be a job only for God, right? You know, top military in the Middle east, top in the world. Hit you with everything they've got and you survive. Maybe this is something only God can do. All right, take a short break. We will be right back with more.
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>> Jeff Chamblee: this has been my
>> Tony Vitagliano: turn with Don Wildmon, a, production
>> Jeff Chamblee: of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildman: We are going to Italy and Greece in 2027
>> Tim Wildmon: Hello everyone, Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. We are going to Italy in March of 2027. We're also going to Greece in March of 2027. And we're doing those tours back to back. If you want to do both of them in Italy, we'll be going to Venice by the gondola, and see all the sights there. And we'll go to Pisa and walk on the leaning tower of if you fall off, we're not responsible. Also, we're going to Rome and see the Sistine Chapel and the, Coliseum and all the catacombs. We'll see all the sites of Rome. And in Greece, it's the footsteps of Paul trip. So the places where Paul went in the Bible mentioned in Greece. If you want information on any of these tours, go to tours.aca.net tours.afa.net tours.afa.net
>> Jeff Chamblee: you are my refuge and my shield. I have put my hope in your word. Psalm 119, verse 114.
>> : 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 to more of today's issues.
Fred Jackson: Iran has learned from conflict with Israel over Hezbollah
>> Ed Vitagliano: And welcome back to today's issues. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon today, joined in studio by Tony Vitagliano and Fred Jackson. By the way, folks, we do, recommend that you get the AFR app from your regular, app store, whatever that might be. afr, uh.net is a place where you can go just to listen to the show, but if you want to carry it with you, you get the AFR app and wherever you have, good signal, you can listen to this program and others on American Family radio and let your friends know about American family radio. And even if you're not around a terrestrial radio station with the, old fashioned tower, you can still listen to afr and you are our best advertisement for American family radio. So let your friends and family members know, about the AFR app so that they can listen as well. All right. Fred?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: We were talking just before the break, what Iran has learned from this conflict. We talked about the. They learned that if, they control the Strait of Hormuz, that has a, that's a tremendous economic weapon, against the whole world because we depend on oil. And that applied a lot of pressure, to the United States to resolve this because. And they also, hey, United States is heading for an election, right? And, so. And they've got the Iranians. And understand, what I'm saying is the Iranians also knew they had the American media on their side for the most part. It was amazing to watch the coverage of the Associated Press of this on a day by day basis. They talked about, what the Israel and the United States was doing to these individuals, you know, Israel in Lebanon, et cetera, et cetera. So you had the American media, because they hate Donald Trump, right. Cheerleading almost for the Iranians in this and cheerleading the fact that, okay, Donald Trump is having to pull back now. Donald Trump is in trouble because of the strata Hormuz.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: But I think one of the things that shocked me, and I'm not sure if the Iranians, well, they probably did plan this. They found a way to divide the United States and Israel. Remember when all this started on February 28th, it was a joint bombing effort. Israel together with the United States, Israel going after the regime leaders and killing them off, and the United States going after the Iranian military. And if they were meeting in a room somewhere, the leaders that were left after all of that, they said, let's find a way to divide Israel and the United States. Here is how we are going to do it. We are going to tie. Removing Israel. That was having to go after Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is just an arm of the Iranian regime. That's all they are. we're going to have Hezbollah keep sending missiles into Israel, which forces Israel to respond. And they did. Israel has responded. They actually moved troops into Lebanon. So Iran has been able to tie the, memorandum of understanding to, Israel's response to the terrorist group Hezbollah. And so that's what we have.
President Trump has turned against Prime Minister Netanyahu and turned against Israel
Perhaps what has surprised some people is that President Trump has turned against Prime Minister Netanyahu and turned against Israel. That's what it appears like. I want to play you just a montage of audio from President Trump in recent days of what he's saying about prime, ah, Minister Netanyahu and what he's saying about his importance in his mind to the future of Israel. Cut number two.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president who was willing to do what I did. We had a great relationship. I didn't like that he did an attack based on a, you know, there was a very minor little thing with some drones that were released, and he ends up doing a very. I saw that attack. I saw where that bomb went. Did you see what happened? That was not. That was a vicious. That was too much.
>> Jeff Chamblee: He described Netanyahu, to the NewSong York Times as a very difficult guy. Went on to say, to be honest with you, he should be very thankful for us, to us for doing this, because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn't be around for two hours.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I'll never forget that. Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The comments, a reference to the US Operation to kill Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, which Trump says Israel backed out of.
>> Fred Jackson: All right, so, the. I think at the very least we can say there is a great deal of tension right now, between President Trump and Prime, Minister Netanyahu. The comment that, you know, Israel's existence depends on me, if Joe Biden had said something like that, oh, I mean, there would be an uproar over that. So, whether that relationship can be repaired, remains to be seen.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Tony, I actually, I can see both perspectives, on this, what, President Trump was saying and Benjamin Netanyahu's, firmness. I don't know what the right word is in terms of, you know, prosecuting, his.
>> Fred Jackson: It's.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm not sure it's technically a war, but his efforts against Hezbollah. So in the first place, Netanyahu has to do what he thinks is best for the survival of Israel. and on the other hand, I think President Trump. Here's the thing about President Trump. We say this fairly frequently. President Trump is going to be President Trump. He, when he says a lot of things off the cuff, sometimes they can be misunderstood. And those things are played up by the news media. Like when he said, I Love inflation.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Nobody, nobody thought he actually meant he loves inflation, doesn't care about what people are going through because of it. But he speaks off the cuff and, you know, in the, in the middle of answering a question, maybe he isn't as precise as he should. we talked about this this morning in our story meeting, and after listening and reading some more about what he was saying in terms of the existence of Israel, it is probably true that if there is a country in the world that has, whose closeness to that country, has helped guarantee its existence to it is the United States. I think we talked about, you know, Great Britain. The UK is probably second, but probably not a close second. By the way, folks, I do want to make it clear that what I'm about to say is not meant to discount the hand of God in protecting Israel. and let me just take a little detour here. when my wife and I first got married 45 years ago, for about the first two years of our marriage, when I would tell my wife, for example, I love you my whole. I would always say, except for Jesus. And my wife would say the same thing. I love you more than anyone, in the world, except for Jesus. Well, after a couple years of that, we said, okay, in parentheses, whatever I say, I love you more than anyone else. You will understand that Jesus is accepted. Okay. So that we didn't have to repeat it.
Fred Kaplan: President Trump said Israel wouldn't exist without him
So coming back to Israel, I want our, listeners to understand, in parentheses, I always mean that God himself protects Israel. God himself is the one who reconstituted that nation. I think it was a divine act in 1948. So just please understand, that's always in parentheses, I think the United States, the fact that we have been an ally, a close ally of Israel since 1948, including Harry S. Truman. Shocking, really, the. Shocking the world by recognizing the new state of Israel, that if we had not been by Israel's side, other countries probably would have invaded a long time ago. I think Turkey would have. I think Russia, the Soviet Union would have. And the fact that, the shadow of the United States military has always kind of been over that country, I, think has helped preserve it. When President Trump said himself, he said Israel wouldn't exist without me, I think what he meant was that above, beyond other presidents, President Trump has been the strongest in support of that country, including moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. So I think that's what the President was saying. But in terms of the. So I'm. And Fred, you. And I'm going to turn to you in a second. Feel free to disagree. I'm fine with that. This is what this show's about. But in terms of the President criticizing publicly Benjamin Netanyahu, that's a mistake. I mentioned in our story meeting this morning, I'm sure Dwight Eisenhower said a lot of things to George Patton and, Bernard Montgomery. Those were always feuding generals. Montgomery for the, for the British.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Huge egos.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Huge egos.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: But you don't do it in public.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I think that's the mistake of what President Trump did. You talk to Netanyahu privately.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You want to cuss him out. That's when you do it. you don't do these things publicly. Anyway. I've, I've said my. Had my. Say. what do you say? And then, Fred, I'm sure you've got a perspective on this as well.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. So two things can be true at once. I, I tend to lean more towards what, you've kind of laid out. the context matters. So here's the reality. Trump is faced with. the spr, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, would be empty in about. Is estimated to be empty in about 80 days. Okay. And the reason why gas prices. Now we're all saying gas prices have been kept low. The reason why they're at the level they are. We are all paying more. I understand that they're too high right now. The reason they're not higher is because we've been releasing from the SPR for the last, since this conflict started. We have 80 days left. But. And then once, once that's empty, inflation really takes off. Trump's in a pinch, and he has got to get something done with Iran. And I think in his fashion, he gets frustrated easily. And so while he's trying to get this deal hammered out with Iran, you know, Israel and Hezbollah are still exchanging blows. And I think his frustration, which is, short. He has short fuse, gets the best of them. And he spoke, like you said, spoke in a manner publicly that you just shouldn't, and said things that you shouldn't say out loud. I, I don't think anybody here, and maybe I could be wrong, would disagree that, that he embellishes. So maybe in saying that Israel wouldn't exist, if it weren't for me or if it weren't for the United States, really probably actually means. And like you said, this is probably something you should have said to Netanyahu. If there's a disagreement, you should say it in private. Is Israel would have. If if we hadn't put our assets over there, our two carrier groups, all our assets at our bases, Israel would have taken big blows from Iran.
>> Ed Vitagliano: It would have taken a beating.
>> Tony Vitagliano: They would have. A lot of Jews would have died. I mean, that's just, that's the reality now.
>> Ed Vitagliano: We shot down a lot of missiles and rockets from offshore right?
>> Tony Vitagliano: Now, can God. God, could intervene and do. He could do as he pleases. And, obviously, so maybe that wouldn't have happened. But, the reality is that our assets were over there helping to protect Israel. And I think what Trump meant, and like I said, again, shouldn't have said in public, but I think what he meant was if it weren't for us helping you at this time, a lot of bad things would have happened in Israel. This would have been, worse than it, than it was. So that's, that's kind of where I stand.
Section 13 of the Iran deal says the deal is off if Israel responds
Again, shouldn't be said, out in public. but, you know, the context of it. I understand the context of it. Now, Mr. Fred may disagree, but what's
>> Ed Vitagliano: your perspective on it?
>> Fred Jackson: Well, a couple of things, and again, we're waiting to see the details in this memorandum of understanding. But if Iran has won this concession that the deal is off, if Israel, continues sending missiles and soldiers into, Lebanon in response to an attack from Hezbollah, if, if the Iranians, if that's in there and the United States has agreed to that, then at any time Iran can call up their Hezbollah leaders and say, hey, throw some missiles into northern Israel, because we want to stir the pot again.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right?
>> Fred Jackson: And, here's a proviso. Cut. You know, section number 13 of this agreement says the deal is off if Israel responds. So I think if that is in there, that leaves the United States very vulnerable, because what are you going to do then?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Personally, I think that's why the money is in play. This deal is because I think the us, The Trump administration, whoever, the strategist, whoever's. I'm sure there's many voices speaking to the strategy involved in this. I think that's. They understood that, that vulnerability, because I think you have absolutely accurately described what the mindset is in Tehran and what they would do once they wanted the deal to be off. They would do exactly that with Hezbollah. And I think the US has said, and this is part of why I'm going to give the Trump administration some time here to make its case, if there is money involved, even unfreezing assets, because that's the only card the US has to Play. Because we are stuck, Tony, to your point, we are stuck and the world is, is on the verge of, you know, escalating inflation with, you know, the, the Strait of Hormuz. The only thing we really have that we can put in play is Iran. We will continue to dribble out money to you and unfreeze this asset and then unfreeze this asset as long as you're playing ball. And that's the only thing card we got to play.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Tony Vitagliano: And I think Mr. Fred makes. I agree with Mr. Fred that you
>> Ed Vitagliano: can just call him Fred. You're very respectful.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Slip back into it.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You're very respectful.
>> Tony Vitagliano: I, I agree with Fred and I would be surprised if the concession for the money is in this deal and any type of agreement that Israel won't attack Hezbollah is in there. I think Iran wanted one or the other. You give us the money, you don't question what we spend the money on. You can keep doing your thing in Lebanon, you know, with Israel, can keep attacking Hezbollah because we're going to keep paying Hezbollah and we're going to keep providing with munitions. We're going to keep that going. Or, Iran would have said, sure, don't worry about the money. But, Israel can't do anything in Lebanon or it's a violation of this agreement and we start things back up again. I think Iran probably wanted one or the other. And so if both are in there, if we agreed that Israel is not to intervene and attack Hezbollah and Lebanon, whatever that would look like, and we're handing them money, that would be m a lose. That would be a lose lose in this, as far as this area, I
>> Ed Vitagliano: don't think Netanyahu agrees to that. The US can't tell Israel what to do.
>> : No.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And Netanyahu's not going to agree to that either.
>> Tim Wildmon: No.
>> Fred Jackson: And he's held several news conferences, I mean, obviously in Hebrew. but we've heard the translations and the Israeli people, given what happened with Hamas in 2023.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right, right.
>> Fred Jackson: The Israeli people aren't going to agree, saying we're not going to respond to anything coming in from Hezbollah.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: They're not going to agree to that.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and I think this is, this is why Benjamin Netanyahu said maybe several weeks ago that we are going to be working towards being self sufficient.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Remember he said that?
>> Fred Jackson: Yes, absolutely.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I think he understands that you can't. That the danger posed to their own survival does not allow you the luxury to be dependent upon the U.S. because President Trump, like we've said he may fluctuate in terms of his support. Certainly if you get an AOC and it becomes president. I know that's a long shot, but we were talking about that yesterday. Polling numbers showing her. But you get someone like that in the White House, they're going to abandon Israel altogether.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And so Israel really has no choice. They can welcome the, alliance that they have with the United States, but they cannot depend on the goodwill of whoever's in the White House, because one day that may disappear.
>> Tony Vitagliano: It could, yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: one other thing I would add to this is that I hope when President Trump comes home from the G7 meeting, he has a spiritual advisor team that's there. I would love to see a meeting, with our ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, sits down with the president, maybe a Franklin Graham, a Gary Bauer, somebody like that, and sits down and goes to scripture with him on where God stands with Israel.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: read a little bit about what the Assyrians were going to attack Judah and what happened to those 180,000 Assyrian soldiers. You know, the Jewish people got up the next morning, and there were 180,000 dead bodies because the angel of the Lord came in. And that's very real. And he needs to be aware of that. I don't think he has any deep biblical teaching, and I think he needs to be aware of that.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and also, let me just say this. you know, we said earlier that the US has been a great friend to Israel.
>> Fred Jackson: Absolutely.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Since 1948. and listen, I can't speak for God. I can't. I'm not a prophet, so I can't tell you, because we did A, B and C for Israel, X, Y and Z happened, or X, Y and Z didn't happen to the United States. But biblically speaking, it seems clear to me that God has blessed our country during that time and perhaps has protected our country so that we would be available. Listen, folks, I hope you understand there is no contradiction between saying God protects Israel, and God uses human beings to protect Israel, to enforce his decree.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
Fred Pierce: If President Trump were to ever say, we're not supporting Israel
>> Ed Vitagliano: you know, you look at, World War II, there's no contradiction between saying God defeated Hitler and God used to, members of the US and the British and the Canadian and the Australian and the French, used men who died on beaches and died on battlefields to defeat Hitler. There's no contradiction between saying those things. And there's also no contradiction between saying, Israel's not always right in what it does.
>> Fred Jackson: That's Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: But God still blesses America, standing by her and being God's shield. And the day we stop being that, we may find out, yes. What it costs us as a nation to turn our back on Israel. But I do, I do like what you're saying, Fred. I hope that there are those who will talk to the President and at least encourage him to keep those kinds of criticisms private. If President Trump were to ever say, and we need to listen, we need to be praying for the President so that he had, so that he listens to the right voices.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: But if the President were to ever say, we're not standing with Israel anymore, they're on their own. Okay. That would be. I would be terrified.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: To hear that come right from a President of the United States. Some people don't, don't think it matters. I do think it matters. when you stand with Israel, I think God takes that into account in his dealings with you. We've got a lot on our plate. If God wanted to judge the U.S. we've got a lot of stuff, including something be talking about in terms of Pride Night for Major League Baseball when Steve Jordal comes in. But, folks, pray. Pray not only for the peace of Jerusalem, as the Bible commands, but pray for President Trump, members of Congress who make decisions about allocating funds. And, pray for the people of Iran who are stuck, at least right now, under a very totalitarian and brutal regime.
>> Fred Jackson: Amen.
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, we're going to take a five minute break for news and when we come back, Steve Paisley Jordal will be here for more of what's happening here and abroad.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
