At Wesley Biblical Seminary, we believe God is raising up a movement

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Do you believe in the absolute inerrancy of God's holy word? Do you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to radically change lives and empower us to live like Christ? At Wesley Biblical Seminary, we believe God is raising up a movement of people across our nation and across the world. And if you believe these are the kinds of pastors we need leading our churches in the future, we invite you to learn more about partnering with us through giving. Learn more about Wesley Biblical Seminary at wbs Edu today.

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

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

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

>> Tim Wildmon: issues of the day.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Here's your host, Ed Battagliano. And welcome everybody, to Today's Issues. Ed Battagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon this week. I'm, joined in studio by Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.

>> Fred Jackson: Good morning to you.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Now, normally we have Fred Jackson for the first hour and then Steve Paisley jordal for the third segment. We have Steve also for the full 90 minutes I am here.

>> Steve Jordahl: I've been, I did, some stair climbing yesterday just to work out to make sure. There you go. The cardio, capacity to do an hour and a half here.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So I think I always thought you would be prepared for that. Anyway, now the reason they're both on for the full 90 minutes is we have so many people out on vacation. We just started. It was, it was either draft these guys for the first 90 minutes or start pulling people out of their offices just to, just to join us. And so speaking of pulling someone out of their office, Dr. Alex McFarland joins us from his office and Slash studio in North Carolina, correct?

>> Alex McFarland: that's right. Good morning. Ed Vitagliano. Steve and Ed. Ah, ah, I'm, I'm sorry, Fred. Ed and Fred.

Alex joined us remotely via Zoom and had his cat Alexa in the background

>> Ed Vitagliano: Now, this morning when we had our, our Today's issue story meeting. So folks, probably most of you figured this out. We, we do go over a lot of the stories we'd like to. We usually get to about a tenth of them.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: But Alex joined us remotely, via Zoom and had his cat Alexa, in the background there.

>> Alex McFarland: That, that's true. Alexa likes to photobomb Zoom M meetings,

>> Ed Vitagliano: you know, and well, look, I very beautiful cat.

>> Alex McFarland: Oh, well, thanks. Yeah, she just wandered up one day and she was a little kitten. And thank you for referencing our pets. You know, Tim very often referred to references my dog Esther. And Esther is getting very elderly and so. But, there is extra credit for all Esther related content.

>> Fred Jackson: Thank you.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay, well, listen, I used to, you know, young man, used to kind of poke fun at older folks, and now I are one. So, Esther being, older, it touches me, Alex. Well, the best. The best to your dog.

>> Alex McFarland: Thank you very much.

Alex Mcfarland: We communicate. Amen. Trivia question for Friday

>> Steve Jordahl: Trivia question for Friday, Ed. both, Esther the cat and Esther the Bible. Neither one mentioned God.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You mean Esther the dog?

>> Steve Jordahl: It was the dog. Yes, the dog.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Neither one mentioned God.

>> Steve Jordahl: Neither one mentioned God.

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right.

>> Steve Jordahl: I don't think your dog talks, does he?

>> Alex McFarland: well, we.

>> Steve Jordahl: We communicate.

>> Alex McFarland: I'll put it that way.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Communicate. All right. Well, Alex, thank you for. For joining us. I, are busy and have been busy. Don't you have some, big, thing going on this weekend?

>> Alex McFarland: Well, thanks, Ed, for mentioning that. Yeah. We've been doing a series of meetings all around the country called Revive Us, and we've got one in North Myrtle Beach. Myrtle beach is kind of like Branson, Missouri. There's all these music theaters, and we've done a lot of events. We had Charlie Kirk last summer in his last American appearance before that tragic day in Utah. But, yes, Saturday night, June 20, 7pm we have a Revive Us. It's free to the public. Just a big meeting. we're going to show some videos, play music. I'm going to speak, but we're going to pray for our nation. So, complete information on that [email protected] but thanks for mentioning that, Ed.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So folks can still go to it, right? I mean, this is not something that gets, you know, sold out or turn people away. This is open and remains. All right, so what's the website again, if folks want to know, like, the address, so they can plug it into ways or something like that.

>> Alex McFarland: Just, Alex mcfarland.com and my complete travel schedule is on there. I'll be in Texas next month and, just all over the country lifting up the gospel.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Amen. Amen. Well, we. Our country sure needs it, always does. But especially, during these, times when darkness, seems ascendant. All right, Fred, what's our first story?

President Trump answers more questions in one news conference than Joe Biden did

>> Fred Jackson: Well, we're still talking about the U.S. iran deal. if you were near a television yesterday that was covering the G7 meeting in, eastern France. Eastern part of France. you saw President Trump at the closing news conference. now, Macron, the French leader, he took about 20 minutes. He was hosting the thing. but Trump went on for about an hour and a half or so. of course, talking about this U.S. Iran deal, which everybody's been talking about the last several days and, he was peppered with questions. I, give credit to President Trump. He is not shy about taking reporters questions, never has been. Yeah, he answers more questions in one news conference than Joe Biden did over two years.

>> Alex McFarland: Right, exactly.

>> Fred Jackson: It's quite amazing. So, kudos to him for doing that. but you know, he was looking a little tired yesterday and I thought he is. You know, after the news conference, it was like 9 o' clock over there, 9:30. I thought maybe he's going to go home and go to bed. But no, he went to the airport and got on Air Force One and flew to, he had a get together at the palace of Versailles last evening. By the time he got there, it was 10:30 at night and they hadn't had dinner yet. He was greeted by Macron on the steps there. Ah, Versailles. And then when I got up this morning, I found out there was a big signing ceremony. And what happened was President Trump, I guess while we were sleeping, but he wasn't, he signed this memorandum of understanding. Now we understand that it's about a page and a half, it's a summary, a very kind of bullet point. I think there's about 14 points to it or something like that. And at the same time the President of Iran, and if I'm saying his name wrong, my apologies. Massoud has Ash Gian. All right. He was signing the same thing, in Tehran electronically. And this Iranian leader, he said in signing this, he said Iran remains committed and steadfast to global peace, end quote, while preserving its dignity and independence. Steadfast to global peace? No, no, no, no, no. but, anyway, it has been signed and our understanding is that, immediately upon signing that, and I'm a little confused because we've been told all week there'd be a big ceremony in Geneva tomorrow on the signing. So I'm not sure If Vice President J.D. vance is flying overnight to go to Geneva to do another kind of signing of whatever, but this, upon this signing last night, overnight, apparently, the Strait of Hormuz is now opening up and the United States is dismantling that blockade. And so things are moving along. Now, part of the agreement is this 60 days of negotiations of all the little points that we have been talking about. So as I say at the G7 closing this long news conference with President Trump, he was peppered a lot, some particular things. In particular, what we have heard about this 300 billion dollar investment to help rebuild Iran now, what a lot of people want to know is, well, is any of that money coming from American taxpayers?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: Where's that $300 billion going to come from, Mr. President? So here's a little bit of his response to that cut. Number one, it's a memorandum of understanding.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: If it doesn't get done in 60 days, that's all right.

>> Fred Jackson: We go back to bombing. You know, I don't want to do that because it's so good, but, we might have to because we're never going to let them have a nuclear weapon. But they've agreed not to. And you'll see that very clearly in the agreement. We're not putting up money only if they're doing things right. If they're doing things right, if people want to invest, they can invest. Now, again, this thing is unfolding, lots of rumors and that sort of thing, but some of the questions are along the line. The United States, we've issued sanctions against Iran over the years. So is the United States putting the green light up to lift those sanctions? And does that mean that, all right, maybe tax m US Taxpayers dollars are not being used, but are we green lighting money? Some of this $300 billion to go to Iran to rebuild? Some people are concerned that, you know, in some fashion, are we going to help Iran rebuild its military?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, there's more than one thing you can rebuild using $300 billion.

>> Fred Jackson: Exactly. Now, there's positive and negative reaction

>> Ed Vitagliano: to all of this.

>> Fred Jackson: KT McFarlane, who is a former Trump deputy national Security advisor, she absolutely loves this deal. Cut number two.

>> Alex McFarland: Is this something you would have signed?

>> K.T. McFarland: Absolutely, because we have the ability to enforce it. You know, as President Trump says, if Iran steps out of line, if they don't behave, boom, we come right back with military options. The other thing is that the money that you've mentioned, the investment funds and all that, we can see where Iran is using its money. Now, we couldn't do that a year ago, but the countries where it keeps a lot of its money, the Gulf Arab countries, they've opened their books to us. So if Iran says, oh, we're going to use it, like you said, to build sewage plants and hospitals and. But they really are going to give it to Hezbollah, we'll see it move, and then what happens? Boom, we can enforce the agreement. The difference of all the agreements anybody's ever tried to do with Iran, we have the enforcement capability now because that armada is going no place. And we also have the enforcement capability because the Gulf Arabs, for the first time ever. They usually sit out any conflict in the Middle East. This time, they're on our side.

Katie McFarland says she likes the Iran nuclear deal

>> Fred Jackson: All right, so that was Katy McFarland. She likes the deal.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: She thinks that we can enforce the restrictions that President Trump and others talked about. Now, our reporter Chad Groening, interviewed last evening. Brigitte, Gabrielle. people who have listened to AFR through the years know Brigitte. she is. She was born in Lebanon. she lives here in the United States now. She's a conservative commentator. She had some interesting remarks about this. She doesn't like the fact that Israel was not at the negotiating table for this, and she feels that Israel could be a loser in this because Iran still is able to have ballistic missiles and that there's. They're being told they're not allowed to deal with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. She also says. You're going to hear this. She also says the, head of the Lebanese government, who she describes as a Christian, he doesn't like this deal either, because it leaves Hezbollah embedded inside his country.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: Which Lebanon has been wanting to see Hezbollah exit.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They just don't have the military ability to uproot.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. Because Hezbollah is a cancer. Yeah.

Brigitte Gabriel: I'm disappointed with the whole deal

All right, so let's have a little bit of, what Brigitte Gabriel had to say. Cut number four.

>> Jeff Chamblee: I'm disappointed with the whole deal. And it's not just Bibi against this deal. Actually, for the first time, you're seeing that the Lebanese government and the Israeli government are aligned on their disagree. Remember, the president of Lebanon is a Christian, and the Christians are working with the Israelis. They want to get rid of Hezbollah, and they do not want Lebanon to be a part of a deal made between Iran and the United States, basically throwing under the bus Israel as well as Lebanon. You cannot throw Israel under the bus. We heard. We don't even have to imagine the Israeli reaction on all levels. It's a betrayal for the people of Israel. It's a betrayal to the people of Iran. It's a betrayal of the friendship that we have between Israel and the United States.

Steve Rosenthal: What do you think about the Iran nuclear deal so far

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, Alex, I don't believe when I've been on the show we've had you on to talk about the war that's been going on since February 28th. What. What do you think about the last three months plus? And what's your take on this, this deal, at least as far as we know in terms of how much has been made public on the, memorandum of understanding?

>> Alex McFarland: Well, incremental progress is still progress, you know, and, and my goodness, I don't know that Solomon in all his wisdom could really navigate any better. The sticky, wicket that is Israeli Islamic joint presence in the Middle east, obviously the land of Israel, that is the ancestral homeland of the Jews. Israel has mercilessly been attacked and persecuted by the surrounding Arab nation nations for centuries. And so, if KT McFarlane's M words are right, which I hope they are, that they can watch, they can monitor, they can en, then this is great. is it everything that we would want for peace in the Middle east and our defense of Israel right this minute? Maybe it's not perfect, but, you know, the old saying, the perfect is the enemy of the good. you know, there's nobody on the planet and no president of the last 100 years that could probably do any better. I don't think Reagan could have done better. you know, if Trump said it, Iran is not going to be permitted to have a nuclear weapon. That alone is an accomplishment.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and he's not been the, he's not the only president who has said Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon. He's the only president who went to war over it. Yeah, you know, you got to hand it to President Trump on, on, you know, others have tried, you know, freezing assets and, you know, hammering them with, you know, this economic disincentive, all these kind of things that have been tried in the past. and that's probably restricted Iran's ability. But it became clear Iran was getting closer and closer to having a nuclear weapon. And the strike last summer and then the war initiated by Israel and, the US at the end of February seems to have, done a great deal to degrade the military. We've talked about this on the show numerous times. Significantly, degraded Iran's ability. Military, and at this point perhaps has, put a stop to the nuclear program. I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. So, to your point, Alex, what other presidents said Iran wasn't going to do, President Trump said it and then took the military action, perhaps that was, necessary to put a real dent in that program.

>> Steve Jordahl: Go ahead.

>> Alex McFarland: To get an agreement with somebody, especially when you have just a completely adversarial posture. I mean, the person with whom you're negotiating has to feel like they're getting something. And in the president, I'm not going to try to pronounce his name. Fred, you did good. but he said, something about the honor of the Iranian nation or something. the person that is the weaker party at the table. The only way to hope to get any progress is for them to at least feel like they're getting something. And I would. I would say this, and I'll throw it back to you guys, but in trying to negotiate with Iran, I hope Israel doesn't perceive that as a betrayal of Israel. It's not just either or, you know, it's both, and. And to try to have, this, fragile balance of civility and peace. You know, I'm not saying Trump is perfect, but I just. I don't know any leader of the last century that could have done any better.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Steve, one thing is for certain. There are two things that countries generally in the Middle east understand, okay? Just simply because of the culture there. And I'm including Iran in the Middle East. I'm not sure that's technically in the Middle east, but close enough. they understand military might and they understand money. now, Iran, we've talked about this on the show for a couple of weeks. They have taken the best that Israel, the top military in the Middle east, and the US the top military in the world. They took the best both of those could send their way, and that regime has survived. Okay? That is, I'm not sure what else you can do other than invade the country, which is very problematic with boots on the ground. But they also understand money. And it seems that President Trump is. Has one card that he can use to try to keep a. Mixing metaphors here, but try to keep Iran's feet to the fire, and that is the flow of money into, Iran through unfreezing assets and what have you. So what's your take on this?

>> Steve Jordahl: Well, I'm thinking back so many thoughts. the one distinctive, I think, that we haven't talked about yet about Middle east countries and the culture is that they are incredibly patient. They take the long view, and if something is, they can look, look five, ten years down the road and think that they have won something if 10 years down the road, they will be able to resume in their thinking, the nuclear ambitions. so, yes, to a certain degree, President Trump has, the purse strings as a tool. The ultimate tool, as which the president first mentioned, was he can go back and start bombing again.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So that military option, the military option is still there.

>> Steve Jordahl: Thinking back to the very beginning of this thing, and we were told that Iran was within a couple weeks of having a nuclear bomb and that they would use it. And I have not heard anybody credibly dispute that. So I don't know that he had a choice about whether to initiate some form of, action to try to stop that. the criticism from me, I think, comes in the very first. I'm reading this memorandum of understanding they finally, published, at Fox News. And the very first item says, the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war, by signing this MoU, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Well, they can't declare that because Israel is the ones that are being bombed from Lebanon. And, Bibi, Benjamin Netanyahu has been very clear. He is not going to, allow the United States or Syria, as we've been talking about, or any other country to be responsible for Israel's safety. Israel alone is responsible for the safety. And I don't think anybody at this table has any doubt that, if bombs start coming from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, bombs will start going the other way to try to take those out. Israel will defend itself. So, I don't know.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Israel has not withdrawn yet. Right. From Lebanon. Well, they're still there.

>> Steve Jordahl: They're still. They're still there. They haven't moved. so this. If. If everybody's got a hair trigger, I expect this deal to last about a week. If. If we're lucky. I'm sorry, that's about where. That's my current thinking. I hope I won't.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, listen, you. You made an excellent point about the culture of that part of the world. I would say the same thing is true about China and, some of the Eastern Asian countries, especially China, though, in terms of taking the long road, the patient road. That is also true of Iran, just thinking back. And they are very ancient, culture. The Persians were the same way they would, you know, in Roman times, for example, they would draw foreign armies into the desert and trade time and ground in order to wear out their opponents. Afghanistan, all these kinds of ancient cultures have that in their kind of in their blood. Another thing they have in that part of the world, and that is a temper.

Fred Rothenberg: Nothing that Iran signs is worth the paper

M. Okay, so it remains to be seen, just how short the fuse is in terms of, you know, missiles, going this way, missiles going back. Okay, now we're back at war.

>> Steve Jordahl: I will also say, say that given the history of Iran and the mullahs there, this piece, of paper is not worth the price it cost to print the paper. Nothing, that Iran signs. Can you believe that they will, keep their word is worthless.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and I think part of the reason for that is this is still a revolutionary regime. When I say revolutionary, I'm not talking about communism. I'm talking about Islamic revolution. And that is their focus. But, Fred, I do want to say this before, we get to our break. as far as, we have right now, we have a deal. And, the markets seem to be responding in terms of the price of oil.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Hopefully we can keep this going for a while.

>> Fred Jackson: Hope so. And the next 60 days are going to be critical. Yeah. Because as they say, the devil is in the details. And these teams from the United States and Iran are going to sit down and see if they can make this work.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. Well, folks, we always can pray. We can do that. We can pray for peace. We can pray for God's protection of Israel, pray for the president, and his advisors that they can make the right decision, the wise decision. And we can, as we said yesterday, pray that this evil regime will very soon, be relegated to the dustbin of history and the Iranian people can become a freer people.

Preborn needs your help to help celebrate America's 250th birthday

All right, short break. We'll be right back. We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time, she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we

>> Alex McFarland: can help your celebration go well beyond that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Show your patriot with America 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the Constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250 hello, everyone.

Tim Wildman: We are going to Italy in March of 2027

>> Tim Wildmon: 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 at 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 then 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.afa.net tours.afa.net tours.aca.net

>> Alex McFarland: for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves. Colossians 1:13American Family Radio

>> Tim Wildmon: this is today's issues.

>> Ed Vitagliano: 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: Vice President Vance taking questions from the media on Iran deal

And welcome back, everybody. Ed Battagliano, Fred Jackson, Steve Paisley Jordal, and Dr. Alex McDonald Farland. We're all discussing the news of the day. Fred, we were, watching, live. Vice President J.D. vance is, answering questions, from the media.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. right now, as we're here on the air, Vice, President Vance is taking questions from the media on this deal. it's interesting. One of the questions he was just asked by a reporter there is, okay, going into this, the reporter says the goal of the Trump administration, one of the goals, was to keep Iran from having ballistic missiles. But as I think I mentioned during the news conference yesterday, President Trump wavered on that a little bit, saying, you know, if countries in the Middle east have to have the right to defend themselves and we cannot deny Iran that right as well. So that's kind of interesting. now, what, Vice President Vance just said was, we would curtail Iran having ballistic missiles that can reach the United States long distances because they already had them.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They could reach Europe.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes. Now, what the vice president just said also now, in the initial days of this campaign that started February 28th, we took out most of their missiles and their missile launchers. Of course, just two weeks ago, they did use missile launchers and missiles to fire at Israel.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: So they didn't get them all. so he's getting those kinds of questions. Reporters, as Steve mentioned, the memorandum of understanding is out there. They're getting questions. Now, I do find it interesting he's still in Washington, D.C. which may answer the question as to whether he's going to be in Geneva tomorrow to do another signing. I can't see the reason why.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said nothing during G7 news conference yesterday

One more thing, and I know you want to move on. During yesterday's news conference with President trump at the G7. The close of the G7. During the whole news conference, which I think ran about an hour, an hour and a half, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood there beside him, said nothing. And some people are wondering, where is Marco Rubio on this deal? he's almost been completely silent on it. That J.D. vance has been taking the lead on this. And why is it that, you know, yesterday, nothing for Marco Rubio. He is the Secretary of State. He has been very involved. He's been a face, answering a lot of questions over the last two or three months. but there was silence on his part. So again, it's led to speculation. Why is it that he is so quiet about this?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, by the way, did you say, or did Steve say, that the, text of the memorandum of understanding, Steve, did you say it has been released?

>> Steve Jordahl: Well, Fox News is printing it in full. it's not a PDF, so it doesn't look like, the actual piece of paper. But if you look at, Fox News, one of the bullet points under the story is. Read the full text.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, read the full text. I see it. Okay. All right. Alex, any last comments on this before we, move on to other things?

You can't completely disarm them because, uh, they. They won't do it

>> Alex McFarland: well, you know, talking about missiles, the ICBMs, last November, Iran. Maybe it was truth. Maybe it was just boast said that they had a 10,000 kilometer capable missile. In other words, that would be about 6,200 miles. And, you know, there was a treaty some years ago that they were not supposed to have missiles that could go farther than 2500 miles. And we know early in this war they launched one, toward, toward Europe that could go 4,000 miles, fortunately was intercepted. So, I mean that they have not shown themselves to be a trustworthy neighbor on the world stage.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You know, I read. Excuse me this morning. I guess you guys maybe have read the same thing, that they already have agreed to buy Russian helicopters. And so I think they're going to, as quickly as they can, try to reconstitute their military. I understand what the President. President is saying. You can't. You can't completely disarm them because, they. They won't do it. You know, and so I, guess trying to fence them in as much as possible is the, the only thing we can do at this point.

>> Alex McFarland: And, and let me say, to. To disarm them completely would really only be motive for more jihadist Groups to rise up. maybe the reason. I'm just saying maybe to let an official government have a semblance of national defense. A national defense that can be monitored and controlled when necessary. That would be better than, trying to completely emasculate and disarm them, which would just mean that terrorist groups would rise up and, and try to be a de facto national defense.

>> Steve Jordahl: You don't want to vacuum there.

>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, yeah, a vacuum.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, let me just, toss two things, Two other quick points here before we move on. first of all, we can't, add in phonitum, bomb their military because we. We have severely degraded our own capabilities. These missiles are expensive that we use, to blow stu. And to destroy their capabilities. We don't want to. We don't want to so significantly reduce our own stockpiles that we put our own national interests, in jeopardy. and then let me just say this one last thing because we're talking about, you know, Alex, you mentioned we intercepted a missile. They fired towards Europe.

>> Fred Jackson: I.

>> Ed Vitagliano: This is almost science fiction level stuff. Our military has, has technologically advanced to the where what a lot of us, as young people thought was only science fiction, in terms of intercepting, using missiles to intercept other missiles is, you know, now a reality. And now we're looking at using, lasers to knock down missiles. It's amazing.

>> Alex McFarland: Do you remember how much Reagan was denigrated in the 80s for Star Wars?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Alex McFarland: That missiles could intercept missiles and. Which is, you know, modern warfare. It's just a commonplace. But I, I well remember how those on the left, you know, just lambasted Reagan that that would never work. And, you know, praise God, Star Wars.

>> Steve Jordahl: They called it a. Derogatorily. They called it Star Wars. As in fantasy.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it was a strategic defense Initiative. That's what he called. They called it M, and of course

>> Alex McFarland: called it Israel has the Iron Dome, which is basically.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And if Reagan had a good point, Alex, if Reagan had listened to. We never would have gone down the path of research and development and come to the place where we are now. So anyway, it's just incredible. Now we have drones, that, hunt individuals or blow up tanks or threaten shipping. the world has changed pretty rapidly. And we have entered into, If we develop a lightsaber. Okay, that's, that will do that. That'll. I'll die.

>> Alex McFarland: Happy Science fiction times.

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

Steve Daley says FBI foiled terrorist plot at White House on Monday

>> Fred Jackson: Well, what a busy news week it has been. We came to work on Monday morning and found out about a terrorist threat that the FBI was able to foil. This terrorist, event was supposed to unfold at the ufc, event at the White House on Sunday night. Remember, that big event, thousands of people. There was the president's 80th birthday. And what we found out when we came in Monday morning was that there was a plot involving almost two dozen people. What they were going to do is put bombs on drones around this event, release those bombs, and then people in panic would flee and they had sniper teams outside. Now that was the plan. But the FBI found out about this I think on June 10th or June 11th, as a result of a moment of one of the five that's been arrested so far. I think she had given her son $3,000 for graduation or something of that nature. And she saw that he was using some of the money to buy a gun. She started to check some of his social media stuff and found out about the plan, this plan, because these group of people didn't like rich people and et cetera, et cetera. so now what we're learning, the development this morning on this story, is that according to the FBI, the person, the architect of this plan was an illegal immigrant from Mexico who overstayed his visa, according to the homeland Security information that was obtained by Fox News. So he's been in the country. Apparently he was able to benefit from Barack Obama's DACA program. but he's been here and apparently he was the architect of all of this. Now, former FBI investigator Bill Daley was asked about all of this this morning. cut number 10.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: That's why it's kind of chilling that these, these people, and again we'll find out how many were actually involved in the planning of this. But first of all, it was kind of concerning that it was the mother of one of these individuals who notified the police. And then the FBI swiftly, enacted in a very professional manner and intercepted and disrupted this plan. You know, but it goes to show you is that of all these people, they were thinking like mindedness. They were, they were. And again, these are not just children. These are people who are adults who have been impacted, who have been, I'd say, kind of polluted by some of these views about anti capitalism, anti government, and they were looking to do something about it. And, and that's the scary thing is that they, they will go about these plans. And again, as I said before, if it wasn't this event, perhaps it would have been a different scale at a different location. But they certainly appear to be intent on committing these acts.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You know, Steve, we have mentioned this. We mentioned it, Monday. kudos to the FBI.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And to this man's mom.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Who, you know, you love your kids, but, you know, a mom who would not allow her son to go down this road and murder innocent people. kudos to her as well. But the FBI, was able to prevent something terrible from, happening. but, the whole idea, when this first happened, my first reaction was to blame President Biden, thinking that maybe this individual who's heading this up, the mastermind or whatever, had come into this country during the four years of the open border of, of Joe. President Joe Biden. I, I still expect that there are a lot of people in this country who use that open door, to come into this country, and they are, you know, either performing evil acts or plan to. But this goes back to the Obama years, and frankly, we've been critical on this show of Republicans as well. I've been critical of President Reagan. We just gave a thumbs up to President Reagan for sdi. President Reagan, you know, gave amnesty during his, two terms to people who are here illegally. the president in his first term, and then in this term, has been the one person who has actually kind of taken the hard steps necessary to try to shut that border. Build a wall. You know, if he had been given the money to do it in his first term, President Trump would have built a wall the entire way. so we got to give credit to President Trump, but presidents from both political parties have kind of created the disaster that has allowed us to be in a situation where we do not know a lot who the people are, a lot of them who are in our country.

>> Steve Jordahl: One of the commentators that I regularly listen to is Dan, Bongino, who's a former deputy director of the FBI. just came back into the podcasting space and everything, and he was talking about this. He was chilled by this, because one of the things that he has been warning about for a long time that we really have no way to defend against credibly are drones. you can set up a perimeter all you want, out yards and half a mile and stop cars coming in, but we can't fly. So how do you set a perimeter up to catch drones? This was an incredibly detailed plot. The, someone said terrorists only have to be lucky once. The FBI has to be lucky every single time. ah, I Hate. I don't want to be pessimistic about this, but it just seems given the fact that we had open borders and thousands and millions of people that we don't know who they were, flooded into the country, I think it's a matter of time before the FBI misses something.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah.

>> Steve Jordahl: How can they keep track of that?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I've, I've read scenarios, I've watched videos where people lay out experts in this. They lay out scenarios where this kind of thing can happen. I mentioned on the show earlier you can just Simply there are 18 wheelers that can open from the top.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And we don't check every single truck. And you can Park A, an 18 wheeler with drones a couple of miles away from a target and then somebody sitting somewhere else directs these. the technology that we're talking about can be used against innocent people. And Alex, one of the weaknesses of a free society is that we don't have everyone under constant surveillance. We are going to be talking about a story related to that later in the program about China and you know, the problems with a surveillance society.

Alex Galloway: What we have to require is assimilation

But one of the weaknesses of a free country is that you are susceptible to people who have evil in their hearts. And since we've had such weakness on our borders, especially during Joe Biden but also during the Obama years, you allow people in and you don't pay attention to where they are. Sometimes they don't show up for their hearings and they're just gone into the wind. This makes us incredibly vulnerable, doesn't it?

>> Alex McFarland: It really does. Because when people cross that border they bring a worldview with them. And this is where the diversity culture and the you know, multiculturalism, is guys, I would say, treasonous really. I mean if people migrate here and it's estimated 15 54.4% of the people in America were not born here. and you know, the left loves to say, well, we're all a nation of immigrants. Well yeah, we have ins, we have protocols whereby people may migrate here if they so choose. What we have to require is assimilation. and that means that if someone is going to become a citizen and there are so many undocumented people here, illegals, and we, we have to, well, adjust government. Our founders would say this, great leaders would say this throughout history. A just government's responsibility first and foremost is to its tax paying actual citizens. we have to require assimilation if you are to remain here and if you become a US citizen, that means fidelity to this constitutional republic. The other thing I'VE got to say, and this is perhaps another subject, guys, that we could chase is we have to, and voters, please take this seriously. We have to have officials that will categorically reject, Sharia existing in the United States of America.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Alex, let me, let me bounce off that for just a second, okay? Because, more and more, I think I absolutely agree with what you're saying and a couple of ways that we can, require assimilation. Now, let me just take one step back. We are a nation of immigrants, but historically, those previous waves of immigration came across oceans. So you have Asians who have immigrated here. A, ah, host of European, ethnicities immigrated here, but they crossed oceans. And so they had to assimilate because you couldn't just get on a boat and go, you know, take two months and go back home to visit. so that's why people, you know, I am of Italian and Greek descent. Well, they all came over here and learned English. They wanted their kids to learn English. They wanted them to become American. Since we've had so many coming across the southern border, part of the problem is that they don't have an ocean to cross. They can just take a bus or they can just catch a ride and go back home for a while. They don't feel the need to assimilate. So.

Fred: Declaring Christianity the official religion of the United States is controversial

So let me just ask you what you think about two things requiring, you know, by act of Congress, making English the official language of this country. And this is probably more controversial even than that, declaring that Christianity is the official religion of the United States of America. First Amendment protections still apply. You can practice your religion, but Christianity becomes the official religion, of the United States. And using that as a tool to dismantle these plans to create Sharia, oriented communities in our country. What do you think about those two?

>> Alex McFarland: I think both are good. And do you know, at the time of the ratification, of the US Constitution, most of the states which had been colonies had Christian state supported churches. and so, you know, one of the words that's often thrown around, especially by the left, is the word pluralism. We're a pluralistic country. Well, yes, we are in the sense that people are free to believe whatever they want to believe. you know, you can believe whatever you want, which may be true or may be entirely false. But we are not a pluralistic culture in the sense that you are free to do things that are subversive to the Constitution. And what the left has done for decades, they've used the tools of a constitutional free republic to dismantle a constitutional free republic. And so, I'm all in favor of. English is the official language. Christianity, or at minimum the Judeo Christian moral worldview is our national. I know that. Christianity is our official religion. Yes. Judeo, Christian objective morality is our official epistemology. I know, I'm, getting geeky here. Okay, here's. Here's my point that Sharia is a legal system. We cannot have parallel competing legal systems within a constitutional republic. And the left are horribly naive, if not treasonous, to think that these anti American, anti constitutional worldviews can just harmoniously coexist. Now, if we don't preserve America, we will lose America. And we have to be mature enough to see that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Fred, you may disagree. I'm sure some of our listeners disagree on what I said about Christianity being the official religion. I didn't mean that in a coercive way. But a culture, in order for a culture to survive, it has to be unified around certain ideals. And you can't. That's to Alex's point, you can't have a competing worldview pulling the country apart. I say that about communism and socialism. Communism and socialism declare their hostility to what we currently have. If you're a true communist, you cannot support the Constitution.

>> Fred Jackson: what you guys have been talking about is a clash of worldviews. And we are seeing this now very vividly. We're talking about this terror plot, from earlier this week. Now, we are at a stage where some are willing to use violence because they don't like capitalism, they don't like rich people, et cetera. you know, we've talked about the assassination, of the CEO of United Healthcare back a few years ago. There's a man on trial right now for that. So you have that element. But then you look at NewSong York. It's not a violent plot, but you do have political people winning political office. Like Zoran Mamdani.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right?

>> Fred Jackson: He's a far left socialist communist. And, as of this morning, the new mayor for Washington D.C. is a clone of Mamdani. her name is Janice Lewis. George, listen to what she has planned for Washington D.C. cut number eight. Oh, we can't. Oh, we got. Haven't got enough time. When we come back.

>> Ed Vitagliano: When we come back, we'll listen.

>> Fred Jackson: Want you to hear this. because she is a clone of Mamdani.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and we can. After the break, we can come back and also talk about Seattle.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: and then Steve's got a story, about, surveillance in China, folks, these are, these are real and actual threats to not just the worldview, but what the of our country. But what that worldview has provided for us in terms of liberty and rights being protected by the government and freedom from things like surveillance. We may even toss in if we have time of discussion about a cashless society. We talked about that during our story meeting. So, anyway, more good things. We're going to take a five minute break for news. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Hope you'll join us.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Ed, Fred, Steve and Alex discuss top news headlines of the day including a discussion on the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding.