Latest / ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes / What Will it Take For a GOP Victory?

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What Will it Take For a GOP Victory? · ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes

0:10
Speaker 1: From Memphis, Tennessee. On the banks of the mighty Mississippi.
0:15
Speaker 1: It's America's conservative blowtorch.
0:18
Speaker 2: That's us. That's right.
0:22
Speaker 3: I love this America.
0:28
Speaker 4: Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Show.
0:32
Speaker 4: Great to have you with us today as we broadcast
0:34
Speaker 4: border to border, coast to coast across the Fruited Plain. Wow,
0:39
Speaker 4: it is great to be back in Memphis. We just
0:43
Speaker 4: had a terrific, a terrific visit to Gainesville, Georgia. WDUN,
0:48
Speaker 4: one of our great affiliates there in the North Georgia mountains.
0:52
Speaker 4: And last night we had a wonderful event with all
0:56
Speaker 4: of our Great listeners, a huge turnout at the Longstreet Cafe.
1:01
Speaker 4: We'll tell you more about that a little bit later on.
1:04
Speaker 4: And it was great to meet so many of our
1:07
Speaker 4: amazing listeners and some callers. And it was, I had
1:11
Speaker 4: to almost close my eyes because, for example, Miss Susie
1:14
Speaker 4: came in, Dylan, and she said, do you know who
1:19
Speaker 4: I am? And I had, I mean, I recognize the voice.
1:23
Speaker 4: And so it's hard to put faces and voices together.
1:27
Speaker 4: But it took me a minute.
1:29
Speaker 5: It's kind of like being on Love is Blind. Like
1:31
Speaker 5: you don't see them for so long and then now
1:33
Speaker 5: you're like, oh wait.
1:34
Speaker 3: Yes.
1:35
Speaker 5: Like you have this picture of what they look like
1:37
Speaker 5: for all this time.
1:38
Speaker 4: And this was one of those fun, it was very casual.
1:41
Speaker 4: So you go, you get your food and you sit
1:43
Speaker 4: down and you just have a good time together. And
1:46
Speaker 4: that's what we did and Again, we'll tell you more
1:48
Speaker 4: about that a little bit later on in the show. Meantime,
1:52
Speaker 4: we've got a lot of political news, folks, as we
1:55
Speaker 4: are in the homestretch, Tuesday, Election Day, and we will
1:59
Speaker 4: find out who these massive throngs of people have been
2:04
Speaker 4: voting for. Folks, we are hearing about huge turnout across
2:09
Speaker 4: the country, and we're going to find out if it
2:14
Speaker 4: was Republican or Democrat. But first, we'll be right back.
2:17
Speaker 4: Remember back in 2020 when the media narrative was absolute,
2:21
Speaker 4: when anybody suggesting early alternatives was instantly silenced and deplatformed?
2:27
Speaker 4: The late Dr. Zev Zelenko was right at the epicenter
2:30
Speaker 4: of it all when he created Z-Stack and the Zelenko Protocol.
2:34
Speaker 4: He took immense heat for sharing his protocol specifically designed
2:38
Speaker 4: to boost your immune system. Even President Trump himself cited
2:43
Speaker 4: him in a press briefing on regarding what would become
2:46
Speaker 4: known as the Zelenko Protocol, which led to Trump himself
2:50
Speaker 4: adopting it. I just saw the video on X and
2:54
Speaker 4: saw it for myself. Amazing. Every key ingredient behind those
2:58
Speaker 4: protocols was meticulously chosen based on rigorous research at the
3:02
Speaker 4: exact doses that matter. Now, over five years later, history
3:06
Speaker 4: has completely vindicated him Now we all know how critical
3:10
Speaker 4: a strong immune system is. And if you've ever felt
3:13
Speaker 4: helpless watching the headlines, hear this. You are not powerless.
3:18
Speaker 4: There is something you can do about it. Z-Stack gives
3:21
Speaker 4: your body the foundational immune support it needs to help
3:24
Speaker 4: fight off whatever is circulating out there. Don't wait for
3:27
Speaker 4: permission to take charge of your immune system. And now
3:31
Speaker 4: they have the biggest discount they've ever offered. Get started
3:34
Speaker 4: today for just $ 4. 95 plus shipping and handling. Get the
3:38
Speaker 4: biggest discount in their history at zstacklife.com. Again, that's zstacklife.com.
3:54
Speaker 4: All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Stearns
3:56
Speaker 4: Radio Show, and good to have you with us today. So, look,
4:01
Speaker 4: we've been following through the Fox News power rankings and
4:05
Speaker 4: going through all of that data that came out yesterday. And, again,
4:09
Speaker 4: ladies and gentlemen, the question is very simple. Do you
4:14
Speaker 4: believe that the Republicans deserve another shot here? Do you
4:17
Speaker 4: believe that the Republicans should be put in charge of
4:23
Speaker 4: the House and the Senate again? And I know that, look,
4:28
Speaker 4: I know they let us down on some big, big issues.
4:31
Speaker 4: No doubt about that. But the question is, do you
4:34
Speaker 4: really want to give control of the country back to
4:38
Speaker 4: these radicalized Democrats? I mean, at the end of the day,
4:41
Speaker 4: that is ultimately... the million-dollar question. As a matter of fact,
4:46
Speaker 4: there is new data suggesting that Darlene Graham in South
4:53
Speaker 4: Carolina could be in really hot water. According to the
4:58
Speaker 4: New York Times polling in South Carolina, Graham is neck
5:03
Speaker 4: and neck in her Senate race to replace her brother,
5:06
Speaker 4: the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Now, what's fascinating about this,
5:10
Speaker 4: Ralph Dormer, there's a big, big fight brewing among all
5:14
Speaker 4: the Republicans here. And you've got the conservative MAGA Republicans
5:18
Speaker 4: going up against the establishment Republicans. And the way this
5:24
Speaker 4: is all playing out... it could very well lead to
5:29
Speaker 4: an interesting day in South Carolina. I was listening to
5:32
Speaker 4: Darlene Graham last night. She was doing an interview with
5:36
Speaker 4: Mark Levin. I've got to tell you, I'm just not impressed.
5:40
Speaker 4: I mean, she's the nominee, and you've got to get
5:43
Speaker 4: out there and you've got to vote for this lady,
5:45
Speaker 4: but not impressed at all with her position. It's all
5:52
Speaker 4: just very strange. She's clearly not prepared for the job.
5:57
Speaker 4: But regardless, I don't think that that matters anymore. I
6:02
Speaker 4: really don't. So anyway, CNN also, their data guru, and
6:08
Speaker 4: this is the guy that Donald Trump loves. Donald Trump
6:11
Speaker 4: says that Harry Enten is his favorite stats guy. And
6:17
Speaker 4: Harry Enten on CNN last night predicting a potentially historic
6:22
Speaker 4: edge in House seats for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.
6:27
Speaker 4: So some indications are, and this is, I think he's
6:30
Speaker 4: citing the Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato's crystal ball,
6:35
Speaker 4: saying that it looks like the Democrats are going to
6:38
Speaker 4: pull off a victory in the House. Now, there was
6:42
Speaker 4: an interesting conversation just the other day on CNN. Let
6:49
Speaker 4: me see if I can't find this data. But Pat
6:54
Speaker 4: Fallon down in Texas is sounding the alarm, and he's
6:59
Speaker 4: suggesting that if we do not get out the vote
7:03
Speaker 4: there in Texas, that Texas could, in fact, go blue.
7:09
Speaker 4: Is that going to happen? Well, it all depends on
7:12
Speaker 4: you folks getting out the vote. And that is the
7:15
Speaker 4: million-dollar question, are you going to vote on Election Day?
7:20
Speaker 4: Our telephone number, 901-260-5926. Again, that's 901-260-5926. We're going to
7:30
Speaker 4: be taking your calls on this issue. I want to
7:32
Speaker 4: play some audio here. This is from Michigan, where the
7:37
Speaker 4: Republicans are in a big fight with Abdul El-Sayed and
7:41
Speaker 4: Mike Rogers. This is a well, take a listen to
7:45
Speaker 4: cut number 11.
7:48
Speaker 1: Not everybody's buying the Obama imprint here on El Sayed.
7:52
Speaker 3: What do you think?
7:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, I thought it was very interesting when you watching
7:56
Speaker 6: those voters talk about Obama. And this is something that
7:58
Speaker 6: I've been seeing in a lot of the conversation is
8:00
Speaker 6: that a lot of millennials and a lot of Gen
8:03
Speaker 6: Zers are kind of starting to wake up from the
8:05
Speaker 6: Obama myth. And let's talk about these voters in Michigan
8:09
Speaker 6: right now for a split second.
8:10
Speaker 2: All right.
8:11
Speaker 6: So now we have Democrats who have basically told blacks
8:14
Speaker 6: and all voters for the past 30, 40 years that
8:17
Speaker 6: mass legal and illegal immigration is going to be great
8:20
Speaker 6: for them. The black voters have now decided and found
8:23
Speaker 6: out that that's not the case. And I think that
8:25
Speaker 6: a disconnect that they are having with El-Sayed is that
8:28
Speaker 6: you have somebody that looks like maybe a lot of
8:31
Speaker 6: the immigrants that have come in and run convenience stores,
8:34
Speaker 6: grocery stores, gas stations in these communities. And now the
8:38
Speaker 6: Democrats have chosen him to be their representative. And I
8:42
Speaker 6: think that a lot of these voters are very hesitant
8:45
Speaker 6: to this. And this is not something that I think
8:48
Speaker 6: that we've been talking about enough.
8:50
Speaker 7: All right.
8:51
Speaker 4: Well, there you go. And again, you see, I see
8:54
Speaker 4: interviews like this and I have to wonder, OK, are
8:58
Speaker 4: there more minorities that are out there who are maybe
9:03
Speaker 4: quietly supporting the Republicans here? Because clearly the Democrats have
9:07
Speaker 4: failed this massive demographic of people. And you just wonder...
9:14
Speaker 4: if that's where all of this is going. Now, here's
9:19
Speaker 4: a guy down in Texas talking about the same thing.
9:22
Speaker 4: Cut number nine, please.
9:24
Speaker 8: Texas, what's going on, Texas? Hey, hey, listen up.
9:27
Speaker 3: Quick PSA.
9:28
Speaker 8: The midterms are coming up.
9:30
Speaker 9: You hear me?
9:31
Speaker 8: And I just would like to take this opportunity to
9:33
Speaker 8: thank every Democratic leader, Democratic representative.
9:40
Speaker 4: I want to thank you all.
9:42
Speaker 8: It is because of you and the words that are
9:45
Speaker 8: coming out of your mouth that I am.
9:48
Speaker 4: Pushing everything red.
9:49
Speaker 8: I see. I don't care what name on that.
9:54
Speaker 4: I'm put. If it's red, I'm put. Yeah, I look.
9:58
Speaker 3: There are.
10:00
Speaker 4: Again, I think there's just a lot of people that
10:03
Speaker 4: are under the radar. These are folks and I'm not
10:04
Speaker 4: talking about the Republicans who are just not answering the pollsters.
10:09
Speaker 4: And by the way, I've started getting those polls now
10:12
Speaker 4: and I don't even respond to them. What's the point? So, again,
10:17
Speaker 4: this is why the Republican vote, one of the reasons
10:20
Speaker 4: why the Republican vote is always underreported in all of
10:23
Speaker 4: these polls. But let's just push that aside for a moment.
10:27
Speaker 4: And I'm wondering. if we're really undercounting the numbers of
10:32
Speaker 4: minority voters who are going to be voting Republican. You see,
10:37
Speaker 4: I know everybody's thinking it's going to be a blue tsunami,
10:41
Speaker 4: but I think that we're going to see the exact
10:44
Speaker 4: opposite of that on election day. And I may be
10:46
Speaker 4: wrong here. Look, what I'm telling you, a lot of
10:49
Speaker 4: it is based on conjecture. It's based on a gut feeling.
10:53
Speaker 4: But I am still feeling good about... the midterm elections. Now,
11:00
Speaker 4: here's Congressman Pat Fallon from Texas, who was just on
11:05
Speaker 4: Fox News, and he's sounding the alarm. You know, this
11:08
Speaker 4: guy's out there saying, well, look, if the election were
11:11
Speaker 4: held today, Republicans would be in hot water. Let's take
11:15
Speaker 4: a listen.
11:16
Speaker 10: Congressman, excuse my voice. It's about to go. I'm going
11:19
Speaker 10: to try to hold on. Now, Tallarico is a radical.
11:23
Speaker 10: It doesn't matter how he tries to hide it. So
11:26
Speaker 10: why is this race this close in Texas? Does Governor
11:32
Speaker 10: Abbott or any of the other Republicans have any responsibility
11:37
Speaker 10: for the health of the party? Although things now are tied,
11:41
Speaker 10: but Abbott and everyone else should be up, in my view,
11:44
Speaker 10: by 15 points.
11:48
Speaker 11: Laura, I would say that we should be up by
11:49
Speaker 11: 25 points. But, you know, politics is about ebbing and flowing.
11:52
Speaker 11: In some elections, you ebb and you want to survive
11:54
Speaker 11: those elections, and some you flow. And in 2018, President
11:58
Speaker 11: Trump's first midterm, it was an ebb election.
12:00
Speaker 4: It was tight.
12:01
Speaker 11: Ted Cruz beat Beto O'Rourke by less than three percentage points.
12:06
Speaker 11: So we knew this was going to be tough. This
12:07
Speaker 11: is rather historic when you're the party in power, as
12:10
Speaker 11: you know. Midterms tend to be a little bit tough
12:13
Speaker 11: on you, but... Yeah, we'll be OK at the end
12:16
Speaker 11: of the day.
12:17
Speaker 12: Yeah.
12:17
Speaker 10: Congressman, I was just noting that I was looking at
12:20
Speaker 10: this graphic that early voting records are being broken in Texas.
12:27
Speaker 10: But the numbers, it's not clear that they are in
12:31
Speaker 10: the GOP's favor, to say the least. Watch this.
12:34
Speaker 13: This is how many ballots have already been cast in Texas.
12:37
Speaker 13: More than about four and a half million, roughly. So
12:40
Speaker 13: ballpark 13, 14 percent of. all the early votes cast.
12:43
Speaker 13: This is the enthusiasm gap we keep talking about. The
12:46
Speaker 13: people who supported a Democrat in the presidential race are
12:50
Speaker 13: showing up in bigger numbers earlier to cast their votes.
12:54
Speaker 10: Congressman, what are you hearing from your people on the
12:57
Speaker 10: ground in Texas?
13:00
Speaker 11: Well, Laura, this is, listen, if the election ended today,
13:02
Speaker 11: we would not be in good shape because there is
13:04
Speaker 11: an enthusiasm gap in the first week.
13:06
Speaker 4: Typically, at the end of early.
13:08
Speaker 11: Voting, like in 2020, the identifiable Republican primary voters vis-a-vis
13:14
Speaker 11: Democratic voters.
13:15
Speaker 4: Republicans, we had an advantage of 432,000 votes.
13:18
Speaker 11: And then that grew to over 900,000 in 2024. Right now, Laura,
13:22
Speaker 11: we're down 118,000 votes. So it's not good and it's
13:27
Speaker 11: a bad trend considering it's the first time in a
13:29
Speaker 11: generation we were behind this far into the race. However,
13:32
Speaker 11: we've got another entire week of early voting. And of course,
13:36
Speaker 11: Republicans typically win Election Day big. But you really want
13:39
Speaker 11: to go into Election Day with a bankable lead.
13:41
Speaker 10: Yeah, and I think one thing that Texans need to remember,
13:46
Speaker 10: and Trump did something All right.
13:48
Speaker 4: Well, sorry for interrupting that in the middle of Laura's
13:51
Speaker 4: thought there, but you get the gist of it. And
13:54
Speaker 4: the gist of it is this, that there is an
13:56
Speaker 4: enthusiasm gap, but we're going to do our best on
13:59
Speaker 4: this program to ease your minds.
14:02
Speaker 3: About some things.
14:03
Speaker 4: First and foremost, I just have to tell you that
14:07
Speaker 4: this election is not about normal stuff, right? If this
14:12
Speaker 4: was just, if this was an election, a midterm election 10,
14:15
Speaker 4: 15 years ago, If that's what this was really, and
14:19
Speaker 4: it really was about affordability and gas prices, I get that.
14:23
Speaker 4: But that's not the big ticket item on the agenda
14:27
Speaker 4: for this midterm election. We have, do you understand what
14:31
Speaker 4: is happening in our country right now? You have elected
14:35
Speaker 4: members of Congress saying they want to imprison people because
14:40
Speaker 4: they are conservative. You have elected officials that are wanting
14:45
Speaker 4: to target young people. We're talking about Gen Zers in
14:50
Speaker 4: their early 20s. And they're telling these kids, if you
14:53
Speaker 4: go and work for the Trump administration, if you take
14:55
Speaker 4: a job in the Trump administration, then you're going to
14:59
Speaker 4: be targeted. You're going to be on a list. We're
15:01
Speaker 4: going to come after you. It was AOC who actually
15:04
Speaker 4: wanted to create a database of anyone who supported the
15:10
Speaker 4: Trump agenda. There was another call for a database to
15:14
Speaker 4: be created for anybody who bought a MAGA hat. Actually,
15:17
Speaker 4: I am on that database. that the federal government of
15:22
Speaker 4: the Biden administration created. I'm on a government watch list
15:28
Speaker 4: because I purchased a MAGA hat, like many other people.
15:32
Speaker 4: We told you the story a couple of weeks ago.
15:35
Speaker 4: And don't forget about what happened at Utah Valley University.
15:39
Speaker 4: And we cannot forget about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
15:43
Speaker 4: And I say that because instead of a massive outpouring
15:49
Speaker 4: of grief and self-reflection on the left, for creating the
15:53
Speaker 4: environment that led to what happened. They have doubled down,
15:58
Speaker 4: and now you have college kids that are openly out
16:01
Speaker 4: there celebrating and promoting assassination of political opponents or someone
16:07
Speaker 4: that you disagree with politically. And this is crazy. Vicky Palladino,
16:13
Speaker 4: who is serving on the New York City Council, she
16:16
Speaker 4: wrote a tweet. I want to share this tweet with
16:18
Speaker 4: you because what she wrote is so true. People have
16:21
Speaker 4: no idea how serious the situation is with the left
16:24
Speaker 4: in this country. They think the election is still about
16:27
Speaker 4: normal things like tax rates and gas prices. They're not.
16:30
Speaker 4: Elections are now about whether we're going to have a
16:33
Speaker 4: country or a Maoist revolution in in which everyone on
16:38
Speaker 4: the right is purged under threat of death or imprisonment.
16:43
Speaker 4: And she's absolutely right. That is what's on the ballot
16:47
Speaker 4: in the midterm elections. That is what's going to be
16:50
Speaker 4: on the ballot in 2028 and moving forward. So, ladies
16:54
Speaker 4: and gentlemen, understand, if you are going to the ballot
16:58
Speaker 4: box or you're going to stay home, Because the gas
17:07
Speaker 4: prices are high and that we're at war with Iran?
17:12
Speaker 4: Don't be foolish. Yes, those are legitimate issues. But the
17:16
Speaker 4: overarching issue that should compel you to get to the
17:20
Speaker 4: ballot box and vote is the rise of communism and
17:24
Speaker 4: this communist ideology. And here on this program, we don't
17:28
Speaker 4: like to throw around those words like that. But when
17:32
Speaker 4: you are targeting your political enemies, when you're creating databases,
17:36
Speaker 4: when you are, for example, in New York City where
17:40
Speaker 4: the city council is coming in now and there's a
17:42
Speaker 4: new law that passed just last week and the city
17:46
Speaker 4: council now says that in New York City, if you're
17:49
Speaker 4: a private business owner, and you want to sell a
17:52
Speaker 4: piece of property, guess what? You can't sell that piece
17:55
Speaker 4: of property to the person you want to sell it to,
17:57
Speaker 4: the highest bidder. If a nonprofit steps in and says, oh,
18:02
Speaker 4: we want this property, you have to give the nonprofit
18:07
Speaker 4: in New York City, you have to give the nonprofit
18:09
Speaker 4: first rights. This is unbelievable. But again, this is not surprising.
18:19
Speaker 4: And we're seeing this play out across the country, the
18:21
Speaker 4: rise of these socialist candidates, and it is going to
18:25
Speaker 4: happen very quickly, right? We don't have a lot of
18:28
Speaker 4: them running for Congress, but we have enough. And this will,
18:31
Speaker 4: it will begin to, it's like a snowball, and we
18:35
Speaker 4: will have this snowball effect, and we will start to
18:38
Speaker 4: see more of the communists being elected to office. I mean,
18:42
Speaker 4: and it's happening all over the place, even happening here
18:44
Speaker 4: in Tennessee, where we broadcast this national radio program from.
18:49
Speaker 3: All right.
18:49
Speaker 4: Our telephone number, 901-260-5926. Do you see that? Do you
18:55
Speaker 4: understand how we should be framing this election? And I
18:59
Speaker 4: think the Republicans have done a lousy job on the
19:02
Speaker 4: communication side. No doubt about that. A lousy job. But
19:06
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, this is something much
19:09
Speaker 4: more serious now. than high gas prices and high prices
19:13
Speaker 4: at the grocery store. 901-260-5926, our telephone number. We'll be
19:18
Speaker 4: taking your calls. Also want to direct your attention to
19:21
Speaker 4: my website, toddstarns.com. We have some great news stories up
19:25
Speaker 4: for you to check out. You can do that during
19:27
Speaker 4: the break. Also, be sure to sign up for our
19:30
Speaker 4: free podcast, as well as our free newsletter. over at toddsterns.com.
19:35
Speaker 4: All right, coming up, Liz Peek from Fox News is
19:38
Speaker 4: going to be joining us. Also, Steve Gill from Nashville
19:42
Speaker 4: will tell you about a crazy story. We have an
19:44
Speaker 4: update to a crazy story we told you about yesterday. Hey, Todd, everybody,
19:49
Speaker 4: this is the Todd Stern Show.
19:50
Speaker 3: Show.
20:01
Speaker 4: Remember back in 2020 when the media narrative was absolute,
20:05
Speaker 4: when anybody suggesting early alternatives was instantly silenced and deplatformed?
20:10
Speaker 4: The late Dr. Zev Zelenko was right at the epicenter
20:13
Speaker 4: of it all when he created Z-Stack and the Zelenko Protocol.
20:18
Speaker 4: He took immense heat for sharing his protocol specifically designed
20:22
Speaker 4: to boost your immune system. Even President Trump himself cited
20:27
Speaker 4: him in a press briefing on regarding what would become
20:30
Speaker 4: known as the Zelenko Protocol, which led to Trump himself
20:34
Speaker 4: adopting it. Now, I just saw the video on X
20:37
Speaker 4: and saw it for myself. Amazing. Every key ingredient behind
20:41
Speaker 4: those protocols was meticulously chosen based on rigorous research at
20:46
Speaker 4: the exact doses that matter. Now, over five years later,
20:49
Speaker 4: history has completely vindicated him. Now we all know how
20:53
Speaker 4: critical a strong immune system is. And if you've ever
20:57
Speaker 4: felt helpless watching the headlines, hear this. You are not powerless.
21:01
Speaker 4: There is something you can do about it. ZStack gives
21:05
Speaker 4: your body the foundational immune support it needs to help
21:08
Speaker 4: fight off whatever is circulating out there. Don't wait for
21:11
Speaker 4: permission to take charge of your immune system. And now
21:15
Speaker 4: they have the biggest discount they've ever offered. Get started
21:18
Speaker 4: today for just $ 4. 95 plus shipping and handling. Get the
21:22
Speaker 4: biggest discount in their history at ZStackLife.com. Again, that's ZStackLife.com.
21:31
Speaker 2: All right.
21:41
Speaker 4: Welcome back, everybody. Good to have you with us. Our
21:44
Speaker 4: telephone number, 901-260-5926.
21:45
Speaker 2: That's 901-260-5926.
21:52
Speaker 4: President Trump out on the campaign trail, and I think
21:56
Speaker 4: he's having a great time. The guy looks– he's looking
22:00
Speaker 4: a little tired and road-weary, as well as anyone would,
22:04
Speaker 4: being out on the road. He did two rallies yesterday
22:07
Speaker 4: in Texas. And President Trump had some things to say
22:13
Speaker 4: about James Talofrico, who is running in the Senate race here,
22:18
Speaker 4: cut 36.
22:19
Speaker 12: And not only did he state that God is transgendered,
22:26
Speaker 12: this is what he said. He actually said that if
22:30
Speaker 12: Jesus Christ himself came and visited the Texas legislature, Jesus
22:36
Speaker 12: would be promoting sex changes for little children.
22:44
Speaker 4: Take a look at this.
22:44
Speaker 3: It's not good. Take a look.
22:50
Speaker 14: Did they teach you in Sunday school that Jesus Christ
22:54
Speaker 14: himself was a radical feminist? The American flag is such
22:59
Speaker 14: a complicated symbol for most of us. God is both
23:01
Speaker 14: masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary.
23:09
Speaker 14: You can't call yourself a Christian and reject it. The
23:13
Speaker 14: stranger seeking asylum at our southern border. I want to
23:16
Speaker 14: acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care too. There
23:21
Speaker 14: are many more than two biological sexes.
23:25
Speaker 3: In fact, there are six.
23:26
Speaker 14: For me, prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon
23:29
Speaker 14: with my own whiteness.
23:31
Speaker 4: Our southern border should be like our front porch. There
23:34
Speaker 4: should be a giant welcome mat out front.
23:36
Speaker 15: Something that you love.
23:38
Speaker 3: I love the trans children community.
23:43
Speaker 14: To the trans kids watching at home, I just want
23:46
Speaker 14: to say I love you. What would Jesus do if
23:50
Speaker 14: he visited the Texas legislature? I think he would tell us,
23:55
Speaker 14: blessed are the trans children.
23:58
Speaker 4: It just goes on and on. This is crazy. The guy,
24:02
Speaker 4: he's really obsessed with transgender children. And as a matter
24:06
Speaker 4: of fact, he said outside of his– Outside of his family,
24:11
Speaker 4: who does he like to hang out with? And he
24:14
Speaker 4: said the trans children. He didn't even think about it.
24:17
Speaker 4: It's just like, OK, it's just a little weird for
24:21
Speaker 4: a grown man to, you know, be thinking like that.
24:25
Speaker 4: But whatever. And again, you know, everybody's freaking out in
24:30
Speaker 4: Texas right now about this on the Republican side of
24:34
Speaker 4: the aisle. And they really believe this guy could have
24:36
Speaker 4: a shot at winning. And if he does, it's only
24:39
Speaker 4: because the establishment types, the George W. Bushes and the
24:42
Speaker 4: Karl Roves and the John Cordens, basically conspired with the
24:46
Speaker 4: Democrats to take out a member of their own party.
24:49
Speaker 4: And if that's the case, shame on them. Shame on them.
24:53
Speaker 4: But I'm telling you, the crowds are exuberant. The crowds
24:59
Speaker 4: are showing up. They're huge crowds. I know the one
25:02
Speaker 4: in Mississippi, thousands of people turned out. And people are
25:07
Speaker 4: still on board the Trump train. But one of the problems...
25:14
Speaker 4: that the administration is going to have to deal with is,
25:17
Speaker 4: quite frankly, the numbers of illegal people who may be
25:21
Speaker 4: voting in these elections. And that brings me to Santa Ana, California.
25:26
Speaker 4: This is Councilmember Ty Viet Phan, and she's admitting that
25:32
Speaker 4: about a third of the entire city of Santa Ana, California,
25:35
Speaker 4: do you understand a third of the city is illegal?
25:39
Speaker 4: Cut 38.
25:41
Speaker 16: I think it goes to the core of what it
25:43
Speaker 16: means to be America, which is taxation without representation. And
25:48
Speaker 16: the reality is that a large number of our residents
25:51
Speaker 16: are undocumented, are paying taxes, do work in our communities,
25:54
Speaker 16: and are part of our families.
25:56
Speaker 12: What would be your argument to the majority of Santana
25:59
Speaker 12: voters who voted down the possibility of allowing non-citizens to vote?
26:05
Speaker 3: My argument would.
26:06
Speaker 17: Be, again.
26:08
Speaker 18: People don't feel represented by their government locally and federally.
26:12
Speaker 18: It's clear or one of the reasons is because they're
26:16
Speaker 18: not allowed to vote. So this would this would change that.
26:19
Speaker 18: It gives our people powered side. more ability to fight
26:24
Speaker 18: those special interests that represent people outside the city.
26:27
Speaker 16: I think that is the most American thing to do,
26:29
Speaker 16: is to say that everybody who lives here, who cares
26:32
Speaker 16: about this community, has a voice. And by allowing non-citizen residents,
26:37
Speaker 16: people who live here for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years,
26:40
Speaker 16: their whole lives, to be able to participate in our
26:44
Speaker 16: government makes our city safer, makes our city more vibrant.
26:48
Speaker 3: And makes our community stronger.
26:50
Speaker 4: So that is my argument. Well, it's a flawed argument. Meanwhile,
26:57
Speaker 4: in Wichita, all of you folks are listening to us
27:00
Speaker 4: on the Big Talker in Wichita, a big controversy there,
27:05
Speaker 4: and I'm curious to hear your thoughts about this. This
27:08
Speaker 4: is from television station KAKE. The La Galette French Bakery
27:15
Speaker 4: and Deli, that's, is it Wichita's, is it Delano or
27:19
Speaker 4: Delano District? Someone will call and get me set straight
27:23
Speaker 4: on the pronunciation there, is going to stay open. The
27:27
Speaker 4: bakery was under fire because the owner had been detained
27:32
Speaker 4: by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and now city leaders are
27:36
Speaker 4: getting involved, and everybody's coming to the defense of the
27:40
Speaker 4: owner of the bakery, the French bakery. His name is
27:43
Speaker 4: Rob Attar, A-T-T-A-R. So Mr. Adder was arrested by ICE agents.
27:54
Speaker 4: His wife is really upset about all of this, and
28:00
Speaker 4: people are staging protests and saying, bring Rob home. They
28:04
Speaker 4: had a band playing music to show their support. They're
28:08
Speaker 4: trying to get members of the city council involved in
28:11
Speaker 4: all of this. He apparently owned and worked at the
28:14
Speaker 4: French bakery for decades, for decades. But it turns out
28:21
Speaker 4: he was in the country illegally. Now, local residents are infuriated.
28:28
Speaker 4: They say that he is a great member of the community.
28:32
Speaker 4: He's incredibly talented. He's got a great memory, like a
28:36
Speaker 4: steel trap. Well, if that's the case, why didn't he
28:39
Speaker 4: apply for immigration status? So, I mean, a lot of
28:44
Speaker 4: people are fired up over this, and they're saying, hey, look,
28:47
Speaker 4: this is a respected member of the community, and he's
28:50
Speaker 4: a business owner. He's hiring local people to work, and
28:57
Speaker 4: why can't this guy be allowed to stay? I mean,
29:00
Speaker 4: that's the argument here. Well, here's the part that they
29:03
Speaker 4: don't want to talk about. It turns out that he
29:07
Speaker 4: has been living in the United States since 1993. Since
29:12
Speaker 4: that time, according to court records, and this is television
29:16
Speaker 4: station KAKE, he pleaded guilty to 10 charges in a
29:22
Speaker 4: 2000 federal case involving drug and weapons offenses. That's a
29:27
Speaker 4: big deal. So the question is, what were the other offenses?
29:32
Speaker 4: What were the drug offenses? Well, according to KAKE, the
29:38
Speaker 4: beloved bakery owner there in Wichita, Kansas, was charged with
29:42
Speaker 4: distributing marijuana, aiding and abetting marijuana, and crack cocaine possession,
29:49
Speaker 4: possessing cocaine with the intent to manufacture crack cocaine, and
29:54
Speaker 4: firearm offenses related to drug trafficking. So this guy... was
30:00
Speaker 4: sentenced to six years in federal prison back in 2001.
30:06
Speaker 4: He lost his green card in 2004 and has not
30:11
Speaker 4: had any further trouble with the law since. But that
30:14
Speaker 4: doesn't matter because the guy has been living in the
30:16
Speaker 4: country illegally. Now, the Department of Homeland Security says that
30:23
Speaker 4: the baker lost his legal status because of his convictions.
30:29
Speaker 4: And everybody's trying to paint this guy out as a
30:31
Speaker 4: victim here. Looks like he was, well, according to the
30:35
Speaker 4: reports here, if you're charged with possessing cocaine with intent
30:39
Speaker 4: to manufacture, that means you're in the drug business. That
30:44
Speaker 4: may not be powdered sugar or the cream puffs. I'm
30:47
Speaker 4: just saying. So we'll keep you updated on all this.
30:51
Speaker 4: Wichita City Councilmember Joseph Shepard. said business owners such as Attar. Oh,
30:58
Speaker 4: another lady got arrested. She was the owner of Lady Burritos, LLC.
31:05
Speaker 4: I'm assuming they serve burritos. And she's being held in
31:09
Speaker 4: a detention center with her mother, sister, and brother. Now, Mr. Shepard,
31:15
Speaker 4: the council member, said business owners such as Mr. Attar
31:20
Speaker 4: and the owner of Lady Burritos, LLC, are nonviolent and
31:24
Speaker 4: contribute to the community. I think he may have meant
31:28
Speaker 4: distribute to the community. Again, the guy went to prison.
31:35
Speaker 4: And I'm sure he's a very nice person, and maybe
31:37
Speaker 4: he turned his life around. I do not know. The
31:40
Speaker 4: story doesn't go into great detail about that. But the
31:44
Speaker 4: fact of the matter is, the guy had been in
31:46
Speaker 4: the country for a very long time. And if he
31:48
Speaker 4: really had any inclination of wanting to be a legal
31:51
Speaker 4: citizen of America, He was afforded plenty of opportunities along
31:56
Speaker 4: the way and for whatever reason chose not to do that. Oh,
32:01
Speaker 4: my goodness. So anyway, friends are starting the GoFundMe page
32:05
Speaker 4: and all that kind of stuff. May I just say
32:07
Speaker 4: something about all of this? What about the folks that
32:11
Speaker 4: are trying to come here the right way? What about
32:14
Speaker 4: the people that are trying to come here legally? Where's
32:17
Speaker 4: the compassion for those people? Where's the compassion for the
32:21
Speaker 4: folks that have saved their money They've spent time learning
32:25
Speaker 4: our language. They've read our history. They're memorizing the Pledge
32:33
Speaker 4: of Allegiance. They're ready to take the oath of office.
32:36
Speaker 4: What about those folks? Anybody care about those people? Anybody
32:41
Speaker 4: at all? Those folks in Wichita on the city council there,
32:45
Speaker 4: anybody on the city council care about the folks that
32:47
Speaker 4: want to come here legally? Maybe to be good, productive
32:51
Speaker 4: members of society and I don't know. Not sell drugs?
32:57
Speaker 4: Just asking questions here, folks. Let's go to Mark in Bartlett, Tennessee,
33:03
Speaker 4: listening to us on KWAM. Mark, welcome to the show.
33:07
Speaker 4: What's on your mind?
33:09
Speaker 19: Hey, Todd.
33:09
Speaker 20: Happy birthday.
33:11
Speaker 4: Well, thank you very much. Yeah, this is the big 5-9, Mark.
33:15
Speaker 4: The big 5-9.
33:17
Speaker 19: Hang in there now.
33:20
Speaker 4: I'll do my best.
33:20
Speaker 19: I was wondering. I was wondering, like, you're talking about
33:23
Speaker 19: all this deportation, you know, and they're trying to deport
33:26
Speaker 19: Ileana Omar. And, wow, it was just what a random
33:30
Speaker 19: stroke of luck for her. Judge Bozeman is going to
33:34
Speaker 19: be the judge over her case.
33:36
Speaker 4: Imagine that.
33:37
Speaker 20: Isn't that lucky?
33:40
Speaker 19: You know, I mean, this guy should have been run
33:42
Speaker 19: off the bench. He's just lawless, just like all of
33:47
Speaker 19: these dadgum district attorneys all over the country. It's just
33:52
Speaker 19: amazing to me that the lawlessness still.
33:55
Speaker 3: Persists, Todd.
33:58
Speaker 4: Mark, do you think she's really going to get deported?
34:02
Speaker 19: No. She'll probably be run for vice president next. Apparently
34:06
Speaker 19: they don't even check to see if you're a citizen
34:08
Speaker 19: to be a member of Congress.
34:10
Speaker 4: It's true. No, they really don't. They don't. I found
34:14
Speaker 4: this interesting. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said, says he
34:18
Speaker 4: actually removed Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. And I
34:21
Speaker 4: want you to listen to this. Cut 37.
34:24
Speaker 21: When I became Speaker, there were two Democrats that I
34:27
Speaker 21: was very concerned on which committee they actually were there.
34:31
Speaker 21: Eric Swalwell, to continue to be on the Intel Committee,
34:34
Speaker 21: having slept with a Chinese spy, I removed him, and
34:37
Speaker 21: I had the.
34:38
Speaker 4: Power to do that.
34:39
Speaker 21: I also removed Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs, because
34:43
Speaker 21: you get top-secret information there, and sharing it, and her
34:49
Speaker 21: beliefs and her hatred towards Israel... I literally had to
34:52
Speaker 21: take that to the floor, and I remember having to
34:54
Speaker 21: get the members, work them to get the vote to
34:57
Speaker 21: actually remove. And now when you look in hindsight, I
35:00
Speaker 21: was correct on both of those.
35:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, Mark, I mean, here's the problem. Everybody in Congress,
35:06
Speaker 4: this former Speaker of the House knew, why in the
35:09
Speaker 4: world were they not coming out and demanding that she
35:12
Speaker 4: be expelled from Congress? I mean, you couldn't trust her
35:14
Speaker 4: with secrets on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Come on, man.
35:19
Speaker 19: How is that even possible? And the guy up there
35:22
Speaker 19: in Michigan is running to be a senator, is running
35:25
Speaker 19: commercials saying that eggs are $ 7 a dozen so we
35:29
Speaker 19: can give the money to the Jews. I mean, how
35:32
Speaker 19: can these anti-Semitic, hateful people who hate America be in
35:38
Speaker 19: the highest positions of power like Comey, Bozeman? And Omar,
35:43
Speaker 19: how is it possible?
35:45
Speaker 4: It's a great question, Mark. And this is where we're
35:48
Speaker 4: going to have to start demanding that the Republicans in
35:52
Speaker 4: leadership play hardball with these folks. I am so done
35:57
Speaker 4: with all these investigations that lead nowhere. You know, if
36:01
Speaker 4: you've got the goods on somebody, turn it over to
36:03
Speaker 4: the authorities and let them handle it. Otherwise, it's nothing
36:06
Speaker 4: more than political theater going And all that does is
36:10
Speaker 4: really frustrate the American people who just want to make
36:15
Speaker 4: sure we're electing American patriots to Capitol Hill.
36:19
Speaker 19: And then the choice they give us to vote in
36:22
Speaker 19: a Republican is a guy sending nudies out to vote.
36:26
Speaker 4: Oh, you're talking about State Senator Brent Taylor, the GOP
36:31
Speaker 4: nominee for the 9th Congressional District.
36:35
Speaker 19: That puts such a dampening on the race. I mean,
36:40
Speaker 19: I would end up.
36:40
Speaker 20: With Pearson as a representative.
36:44
Speaker 4: Do you think so? I'm just wondering if that, you know,
36:47
Speaker 4: I was listening to the morning show on KWAM and
36:50
Speaker 4: there were tons of callers. And I think all but
36:54
Speaker 4: one was actually saying, yeah, what's the big deal? You know,
36:57
Speaker 4: so the guy sending nudies, you know, that's his private business,
37:01
Speaker 4: doesn't affect his votes. And it seems like the Republicans
37:06
Speaker 4: in Tennessee are OK with that.
37:09
Speaker 9: I hope so.
37:10
Speaker 19: I mentioned it to one of my kids, and they're grown,
37:14
Speaker 19: and they said, that's no big deal. So apparently it's
37:17
Speaker 19: a big deal to me. I don't like to be
37:19
Speaker 19: naked with the lights on. But people send their pictures
37:23
Speaker 19: out to everybody in the country, and it's okay, I guess.
37:26
Speaker 4: Mark, you're my kind of man. Absolutely. All right, Mark,
37:31
Speaker 4: thank you for that call, and thanks for the visual. Wow.
37:35
Speaker 4: So yesterday, before we go to break here, I just
37:39
Speaker 4: had a little reminder for our book signing. I did
37:42
Speaker 4: encourage all of our listeners. coming to the book signing
37:45
Speaker 4: to make sure they were wearing pants. And, Dylan, the
37:49
Speaker 4: number of people who came in and said, Todd, just
37:51
Speaker 4: for you, we're wearing pants.
37:53
Speaker 5: Wow, so kind of them to do that.
37:55
Speaker 4: You know, here's what gets me, and we're going to
37:56
Speaker 4: get into this more with Steve Gill, because I am
37:59
Speaker 4: curious about any sort of implications the sexting scandal might have.
38:05
Speaker 4: You know what's going to be a big concern? Everybody
38:07
Speaker 4: in the entire 9th Congressional District, they get a text
38:11
Speaker 4: message from Brent Taylor. Everybody's going to be like, oh.
38:15
Speaker 4: What do I do?
38:16
Speaker 5: I'm just shaking my.
38:19
Speaker 2: Head over there.
38:19
Speaker 4: I'm just saying. I'm just saying. All right, we've got
38:22
Speaker 4: to take a break.
38:22
Speaker 7: 901-260-5926.
38:23
Speaker 4: This is the Tom Stern Show. All right. Welcome back, everybody.
38:41
Speaker 4: Great to have you with us. Our telephone number, 901-260-5926.
38:46
Speaker 4: We'll be taking your calls. I am curious to know
38:49
Speaker 4: about the mood in your state. Are the Republicans feeling excited?
38:56
Speaker 4: Are they a little dejected? You know, we told you
38:58
Speaker 4: yesterday in Georgia, for example, there's been a significant downturn
39:03
Speaker 4: in Republican turnout yesterday. in South Georgia, which is a
39:07
Speaker 4: heavily Republican part of the state. So if you're going
39:10
Speaker 4: to have Republicans winning, again, statewide, you're going to need
39:15
Speaker 4: all of those Republicans getting out to vote. Same thing
39:18
Speaker 4: with Texas, same thing with Michigan. And I think you're
39:23
Speaker 4: going to see a lot of Democrats, and we've already
39:26
Speaker 4: heard some of the interviews of Democrats saying there's no
39:29
Speaker 4: way they can vote for Abdul El-Sayed, a guy who
39:32
Speaker 4: palled around with Hassan Piker, who said that America deserved 9-11. So,
39:38
Speaker 4: We'll keep you updated on those stories. Also, Lisa Murkowski
39:44
Speaker 4: now endorsing the Democrat for governor in Alaska. That's a
39:48
Speaker 4: big up yours to the president, ladies and gentlemen. We'll
39:51
Speaker 4: get into more of that as well. All right, hang tight. Again,
39:54
Speaker 4: our number, 901-260-5926. Steve Gill, Liz Peek, coming up next.
40:00
Speaker 4: This is the Todd Stern Show.
40:20
Speaker 1: From Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun-toting, Bible-clinging, deplorable American.
40:26
Speaker 4: That's us.
40:28
Speaker 19: That's right.
40:30
Speaker 2: I love this American ride.
40:34
Speaker 4: Todd Starnes.
40:35
Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.
40:37
Speaker 19: All right.
40:38
Speaker 3: Hello, everybody.
40:39
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Todd Starnes Radio Show. Bill and I
40:41
Speaker 4: are so tired. We should probably explain what happened earlier
40:45
Speaker 4: in the show. We launched the show. And we've got
40:51
Speaker 4: a new staffer coming on board. We're trying to put
40:55
Speaker 4: on a good show, right? We want to make a
40:57
Speaker 4: good first impression. And the first 60 seconds, I get
41:02
Speaker 4: a catch in my throat. I've been sort of battling this.
41:06
Speaker 4: You're on the verge of catching a cold. And you
41:09
Speaker 4: know that area that's sort of like no man's land?
41:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do.
41:14
Speaker 4: And so I knew the cough was coming. And we
41:18
Speaker 4: had to toss to break. And as I was coughing,
41:21
Speaker 4: I got a nosebleed. And I'm like, what else could
41:24
Speaker 4: possibly go wrong? And then the microphone collapses and falls apart.
41:29
Speaker 3: What else?
41:29
Speaker 5: Like, you know, what else could go wrong now at
41:31
Speaker 5: this point?
41:32
Speaker 4: So I should have called in. You know, I drove back.
41:35
Speaker 4: Everybody was really concerned at the Longstreet. Oh, I have
41:38
Speaker 4: to tell this. Well, we'll tell you the story about
41:40
Speaker 4: Longstreet Cafe after. I don't want to keep Steve Gill holding.
41:44
Speaker 4: Steve Gill, great American patriot, publisher of TriStar Daily News, TriStarDaily.com,
41:51
Speaker 4: which is the go-to political. website for the entire state
41:55
Speaker 4: of Tennessee. Steve, good to have you with us today.
41:59
Speaker 4: Hope you're doing well.
42:01
Speaker 3: I'm doing good.
42:02
Speaker 7: I've been battling that same sort of beginning of a
42:04
Speaker 7: cold for about the last week, week and a half.
42:06
Speaker 3: I always take.
42:07
Speaker 7: This Ossicillium stuff, and if I take it quick enough,
42:11
Speaker 7: it usually works to prevent it.
42:13
Speaker 3: But you know what they say about colds, Todd?
42:14
Speaker 7: If you do absolutely nothing, it'll be better in seven
42:18
Speaker 7: to ten days. If you get plenty of breasts, drink
42:21
Speaker 7: plenty of fluids, it takes a week to a week
42:23
Speaker 7: and a half.
42:24
Speaker 4: Or I just drink three Dr. Peppers a day and
42:26
Speaker 4: I'm good to go.
42:28
Speaker 3: That works.
42:29
Speaker 4: That works.
42:29
Speaker 3: It is Dr. Pepper, so there is a medical opportunity.
42:33
Speaker 4: It's medicinal, and I will fight people on that. So
42:37
Speaker 4: there you go. Steve, we've got a lot of political
42:40
Speaker 4: news to talk about, and really nationally, but I want
42:42
Speaker 4: to start locally because we made some national news yesterday
42:46
Speaker 4: on the program about The guy running for the 9th
42:49
Speaker 4: Congressional District in Tennessee, which is one of those redrawn
42:52
Speaker 4: districts to favor Republicans, his name is Brent Taylor. And
42:57
Speaker 4: a Nashville publication reported that he had been sexting, sending
43:03
Speaker 4: nude photos to a woman. And so it's a big,
43:10
Speaker 4: huge scandal. We had Senator Taylor on the show yesterday,
43:15
Speaker 4: and he said, yes, this is true. He apologized to
43:18
Speaker 4: his wife and to God, and that's that. And he
43:21
Speaker 4: also called it a youthful indiscretion. It happened when he
43:26
Speaker 4: was in his early 50s. So I'm just wondering, Steve,
43:31
Speaker 4: how do you think, first of all, your reaction to
43:33
Speaker 4: the scandal, do you think it's going to have any
43:35
Speaker 4: impact at all on the race?
43:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, it is so youthful. It was so three or
43:41
Speaker 7: four years ago. I mean, again, I think the explanation
43:43
Speaker 7: may almost be worse than the actions. And I think
43:46
Speaker 7: it's shocking. And I don't think it's what somebody expected.
43:49
Speaker 7: We always expect October surprises and things that will kind
43:53
Speaker 7: of rattle the cages.
43:54
Speaker 3: This one goes beyond, I think, what people were expecting.
43:57
Speaker 7: And I think two things that I'm hearing from people today,
44:00
Speaker 7: will Marsha Blackburn distance herself from Senator Taylor? You know,
44:05
Speaker 7: they're having this bus tour around the state of the
44:08
Speaker 7: Republican caucus. It was in Gallatin earlier today. I'm going
44:11
Speaker 7: to rejoin them this afternoon in Columbia. And I know
44:14
Speaker 7: they're questioning Is Senator Taylor going to show up for
44:18
Speaker 7: the bus tour stops that head on through the district
44:21
Speaker 7: here in the next few days? And will Marsha Blackburn
44:24
Speaker 7: distance herself from him? Ward Baker, who is her consultant,
44:27
Speaker 7: as you know, is also the consultant for the Brent
44:30
Speaker 7: Taylor campaign. So there's also these other earthquake reverberations that
44:35
Speaker 7: flow from this. I think the fact that this is
44:38
Speaker 7: late and early voting, that Taylor probably has a lead,
44:42
Speaker 7: given the choice of voting for him at this stage
44:44
Speaker 7: or voting for Justin Pearson, who's an absolute disaster, my.
44:47
Speaker 3: Guess is he still prevails.
44:49
Speaker 7: It will be a closer race than people expected or
44:53
Speaker 7: than he would like. But I think this definitely puts
44:56
Speaker 7: Amar on the race and could cost Republicans the seat.
45:00
Speaker 4: I will say this about Taylor. He was not one
45:03
Speaker 4: of the guys going out there and riding the culture war,
45:07
Speaker 4: you know, horse, right? So he wasn't like, you know, Mr. Born-Again,
45:12
Speaker 4: you know, waving the Bible. He's not that kind of
45:16
Speaker 4: a Republican. So there's, you know, as bad as it is,
45:20
Speaker 4: you know, I think if you're out there campaigning on
45:22
Speaker 4: those issues and you get caught, you know, it's a
45:25
Speaker 4: whole different story. You know, the other part of it
45:27
Speaker 4: is that he's actually been very effective as a lawmaker.
45:31
Speaker 4: And one of the things that surprised me, I was
45:34
Speaker 4: listening to the KWAM morning show, and they had full
45:37
Speaker 4: lines through the show. And I think only one person
45:42
Speaker 4: felt like he should step aside. Everybody else said, this
45:46
Speaker 4: is none of our business. And most of them were
45:47
Speaker 4: women calling in saying, this is none of our business.
45:50
Speaker 4: It's private life. It's between him and his wife and God.
45:54
Speaker 4: And this doesn't change how I feel. I was surprised
45:58
Speaker 4: by that reaction, to be honest with you.
46:02
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, everything that I'm hearing about this
46:04
Speaker 7: is that it was consensual. and that there were actually
46:07
Speaker 7: an exchange of photographs. It's not like he was just
46:09
Speaker 7: sending these unsolicited photographs to unsuspecting women, from what I'm
46:14
Speaker 7: being told.
46:14
Speaker 3: So again, I think there is some merit today. It
46:18
Speaker 3: was private. Again, it's between him and his wife. Like
46:20
Speaker 3: you said, it's not like.
46:22
Speaker 7: A guy who's out pounding the desk, screaming about LGBTQ issues,
46:26
Speaker 7: and then you find out that he's a closeted gay man.
46:28
Speaker 7: So I don't think you have the hypocrisy attack on him.
46:33
Speaker 7: And again- If this was consensual, it was bad judgment,
46:37
Speaker 7: but it doesn't necessarily mean that it was some sort of,
46:39
Speaker 7: you know, enforcing himself on women if there was consent
46:45
Speaker 7: and if they were exchanging photographs of each other. So again,
46:49
Speaker 7: I think that this will not ultimately cost him the seat.
46:53
Speaker 3: I think it'll be closer.
46:54
Speaker 7: It certainly makes it a much more interesting race in
46:57
Speaker 7: the closing days. And if you did not have such
47:00
Speaker 7: an absolutely horrifically bad candidate in Justin Pearson on the
47:04
Speaker 7: other side, it could make a difference. But I think, again,
47:08
Speaker 7: given the choice between a flawed Senator Brent Taylor, who,
47:12
Speaker 7: by the way, has been a stand-up guy, has answered
47:14
Speaker 7: the questions, came on your show, has been talking to me,
47:17
Speaker 7: hasn't been running and hiding.
47:18
Speaker 3: He's been straight up and stand up.
47:20
Speaker 7: And whether you like his explanation or not, he has
47:23
Speaker 7: stood up and given his side of the story. And again,
47:26
Speaker 7: if it was anybody other than Justin Pearson on the
47:28
Speaker 7: other side, it might be particularly harmful to his chances.
47:32
Speaker 4: I will say this, Steve. Out of all the interviews
47:34
Speaker 4: they've done, they said that mine was the most severe
47:40
Speaker 4: and the harshest. And that's the way we do things here.
47:44
Speaker 4: We're going to be fair. We're going to be balanced.
47:47
Speaker 4: And if you come on, you answer the questions. And
47:49
Speaker 4: there were some tough questions, but I do appreciate him
47:53
Speaker 4: stepping in. Also, and I don't know if you.
47:56
Speaker 7: On that point, Todd, as you know, I've said it
47:58
Speaker 7: for a long time, and you and I are in 100%
48:01
Speaker 7: agreement on this, because I'll get complaints sometimes if I'm
48:04
Speaker 7: harsh on a Republican on policy.
48:06
Speaker 3: Issues or they make a mistake or they do something wrong.
48:09
Speaker 7: As I point out, and I know you embrace as well,
48:12
Speaker 7: if you don't want me to point out stupid things
48:14
Speaker 7: you do, don't do stupid things.
48:16
Speaker 4: Well, exactly. I do want to bend your ear on
48:21
Speaker 4: this for a second. I don't think this came from
48:24
Speaker 4: the Democrats. I think this was an inside-the-party hit job
48:28
Speaker 4: on Brent Taylor. What do you think about that?
48:31
Speaker 3: I agree 100%.
48:32
Speaker 7: I don't think that Justin Pearson had access to this
48:35
Speaker 7: sort of information. I think this shows to me somebody
48:39
Speaker 7: that is sour grapes, who either their candidate didn't win
48:43
Speaker 7: or or they have a bone to pick with Senator
48:46
Speaker 7: Taylor on something else. I agree with you absolutely that
48:49
Speaker 7: this came from, as the old horror movies would say,
48:53
Speaker 7: the call is coming from inside the House. And I
48:56
Speaker 7: think as we spoke to Halloween, this call came from
48:58
Speaker 7: inside the House.
48:59
Speaker 4: So we're watching record turnout, I mean, well, near record
49:04
Speaker 4: turnout across many states. Georgia, well over a million voters.
49:09
Speaker 4: Tennessee just surpassed a million in early voting. Texas, we're
49:12
Speaker 4: watching huge numbers come out. What are you sensing? And again,
49:17
Speaker 4: this is all conjecture because we do not know definitively.
49:20
Speaker 4: who's got the edge going into the midterms. But Steve,
49:25
Speaker 4: you've been covering politics a long time. What's your take here?
49:29
Speaker 7: This does not feel like a wave, either a red
49:32
Speaker 7: wave or a blue wave to me. And again, as
49:34
Speaker 7: we've had several of these discussions, polling firms nationally, not
49:38
Speaker 7: just one, but several, admit that they're basically tilting and
49:41
Speaker 7: intentionally misrepresenting the poll numbers to try and help a
49:44
Speaker 7: particular agenda. So I don't think we can trust some
49:49
Speaker 7: of the polling clearly. And also, I think they're over-polling
49:53
Speaker 7: Democrats when you look at several of the polls that
49:55
Speaker 7: are claiming that the Democrats are poised to these major victories.
49:58
Speaker 7: I think I've said here before, I believe Republicans still
50:01
Speaker 7: keep the Senate majority by a 52-48 majority. Could be
50:05
Speaker 7: as much as 53, depending on how the final tallies
50:08
Speaker 7: come in. I think that the House will be very close,
50:11
Speaker 7: a couple of votes one way or the other, controlling
50:14
Speaker 7: the House. Because I do think Republicans have some growing
50:17
Speaker 7: momentum heading into the final days. I think the Democrats
50:20
Speaker 7: sort of peaked early in their attempt to take control
50:23
Speaker 7: of the House. They may still get it, but I
50:26
Speaker 7: think they played their hand early.
50:28
Speaker 3: And again, like the case with Brent.
50:29
Speaker 7: Taylor and Justin Pearson, if they didn't have such horrific
50:33
Speaker 7: candidates on their side of the aisle, I think Republicans
50:36
Speaker 7: would be in even worse shape.
50:38
Speaker 3: And fortunately, those horrific candidates are.
50:40
Speaker 7: Bleeding down to candidates who might have had a better
50:43
Speaker 7: chance if they're top of the ticket guys, whether it's Mamdani,
50:47
Speaker 7: whether it's Isaid, if it's Tallarico, you've got a lot
50:51
Speaker 7: of really bad Democrats that are getting a lot of coverage.
50:54
Speaker 7: that I think is going to hurt Democrats who are
50:56
Speaker 7: trying to pretend to be relatively moderate.
50:59
Speaker 4: Steve, I want to go to the phone lines and
51:01
Speaker 4: bring in Charles from Gainesville, Georgia, listening to us on WDUN,
51:05
Speaker 4: and he wanted to weigh in on the Brent Taylor issue. Charles,
51:10
Speaker 4: you're on the air with Steve. What's on your mind?
51:13
Speaker 9: Well, I'm just thinking, you keep talking about all the
51:19
Speaker 9: Republican congressmen not having, they don't have any gonads. I
51:25
Speaker 9: think a Brent Taylor photograph before they're elected should be
51:30
Speaker 9: presented and to make sure that everyone that went in
51:33
Speaker 9: had gone in.
51:36
Speaker 4: Charles, thank you for that.
51:39
Speaker 3: Steve, I don't know. I don't want to see that picture. Heck,
51:43
Speaker 3: I don't want to look at myself naked, and nobody
51:45
Speaker 3: else does either. But it's an interesting point.
51:49
Speaker 7: We do criticize Republicans for not having cojones to go
51:53
Speaker 7: up and fight the good fight.
51:55
Speaker 3: And if nothing else, I have proof.
51:58
Speaker 2: That's true.
51:59
Speaker 4: That's true. Steve Gell joining us on the Patriot Mobile
52:03
Speaker 4: Newsmaker line. I'm curious about the Trump rallies. Fox released
52:09
Speaker 4: their power poll yesterday suggesting that these rallies are not
52:14
Speaker 4: moving the needle. Do you agree with that assessment?
52:19
Speaker 3: You know, they are not like they were in 2016.
52:22
Speaker 7: As you know, I ran a program called Power, you know,
52:26
Speaker 7: pushing Christians to the polls to try and, you know,
52:30
Speaker 7: get Christian voters in particular to pray, discern, and vote.
52:34
Speaker 7: And I went to, you know, dozens of Trump rallies
52:37
Speaker 7: back when he.
52:38
Speaker 3: Was first running.
52:39
Speaker 7: The crowds were bigger. They were more enthusiastic than we're seeing.
52:42
Speaker 7: There is some level of Trump fatigue.
52:45
Speaker 3: That is a reality. And a lot of these people
52:47
Speaker 3: have been to the rallies. It is you know, crowded.
52:50
Speaker 3: It's hard to get in. The traffic is bad. And
52:53
Speaker 3: people kind of know that they support.
52:55
Speaker 7: Trump and don't necessarily have to go to these rallies.
52:57
Speaker 7: They've lost some of their appeal, I think. So I
53:00
Speaker 7: don't think you can judge just the sizes and the
53:03
Speaker 7: enthusiasm at the rallies to indicate that Trump is less popular.
53:07
Speaker 7: But I do think that there is among independents and
53:10
Speaker 7: kind of the casual voters a.
53:12
Speaker 3: Degree of Trump fatigue.
53:13
Speaker 7: And I don't think that the Trump team has made
53:15
Speaker 7: their case as effectively as they should in terms of
53:18
Speaker 7: the affordability issue. Now, look, I was driving around today
53:21
Speaker 7: and I'm seeing gas prices drop below that $ 4 mark.
53:24
Speaker 7: It may be too little too late, but they have
53:27
Speaker 7: to be emphasizing what is coming and lower gas prices.
53:30
Speaker 7: We've already seen other food prices. We've already seen other
53:33
Speaker 7: gains in terms of employment, in terms of wages, bringing
53:37
Speaker 7: inflation down. I don't think they've sold their case as
53:40
Speaker 7: effectively as they should. And I'm not sure the rallies
53:43
Speaker 7: are making that case specifically.
53:46
Speaker 4: And that is a fair point. I think from a
53:47
Speaker 4: visual standpoint, it certainly gives the impression that there is,
53:51
Speaker 4: you know, the Republicans have the big mo, the momentum,
53:56
Speaker 4: combating a lot of what we were seeing coming out
53:58
Speaker 4: of the left and these legacy media stations, which, you know,
54:03
Speaker 4: are trying to downplay all of this and trying to,
54:06
Speaker 4: I think, demoralize Republican voters. I want to give you
54:09
Speaker 4: the last word here, Steve, looking at the midterms. Where
54:13
Speaker 4: are you going to be watching? What is one of
54:18
Speaker 4: the more important races for you?
54:21
Speaker 3: I'm going to be watching Michigan very carefully.
54:23
Speaker 7: I do think that Mike Rogers has a great chance
54:26
Speaker 7: to defeat Al Saeed. That would give Republicans a pickup.
54:29
Speaker 7: We're going to lose the seat in North Carolina, which
54:32
Speaker 7: is currently held by Republican Tom Tillis. So that would
54:35
Speaker 7: be keeping us even, which would keep us at that
54:38
Speaker 7: 52-53 level that I'm predicting. I'm really concerned and I'm
54:43
Speaker 7: going to be watching very closely South Carolina. President Trump
54:46
Speaker 7: is going to South Carolina to try and save Doreen Graham,
54:51
Speaker 7: Lindsey Graham's sister, who.
54:52
Speaker 3: Was a horrifically bad selection.
54:55
Speaker 7: I think a lot of Republicans in South Carolina are saying, well,
54:58
Speaker 7: I'm going to vote for the Democrat.
55:00
Speaker 3: How much harm should she do?
55:01
Speaker 7: If it was just for a two-year balance term, you
55:04
Speaker 7: might be able to make that case. This is for
55:06
Speaker 7: six years. So one way or the other, we're getting
55:09
Speaker 7: a really bad Democrat in South Carolina. or a really
55:11
Speaker 7: bad Republican in South Carolina. And I'm going to be
55:14
Speaker 7: watching what happens in that race very, very carefully.
55:16
Speaker 4: All right, real quick, governor's race in Tennessee. How do
55:20
Speaker 4: you see that playing out?
55:22
Speaker 7: I still think it's Marsha Blackburn's to lose. I think
55:25
Speaker 7: the momentum is there for Hatley. I think that Jerry
55:29
Speaker 7: Green is kind of staying where she was and has been,
55:32
Speaker 7: but maybe dropping a little bit. Marsha's momentum is down.
55:36
Speaker 7: I think she wins, but it may be in the
55:39
Speaker 7: 30s instead of in the 40s or 50s. She will,
55:42
Speaker 7: I think, if she wins, be the first Tennessee governor
55:45
Speaker 7: in the last 120 years to be elected with less
55:48
Speaker 7: than a majority of the vote.
55:49
Speaker 3: More people will be voting against her than for her.
55:52
Speaker 7: She's still governor in that case, but she goes in
55:54
Speaker 7: as a very weak governor, and Cam Sexton, the House Speaker,
55:59
Speaker 7: will be effectively the one running the show.
56:01
Speaker 3: All right.
56:02
Speaker 4: Steve Gill, everybody, TristarDaily.com. Go and check out his great website. Steve,
56:07
Speaker 4: we'll check in with you again next week. Thank you.
56:10
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thanks, Todd.
56:11
Speaker 2: All right.
56:12
Speaker 4: Got to take a quick break here, folks.
56:16
Speaker 3: 901-260-5926.
56:16
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Speaker 4: stand with Newsmax, real news for real people. All right,
57:03
Speaker 4: let's go to the phone lines real quick here and
57:06
Speaker 4: say hello to Pastor Andre in Memphis, Tennessee, listening to
57:10
Speaker 4: us on KWAM. Hi, Andre, what's on your mind?
57:14
Speaker 20: Hey, Todd, top of the day to you, top of
57:15
Speaker 20: the day to you.
57:17
Speaker 4: Thank you.
57:18
Speaker 19: Okay, look, I've been out here, man.
57:20
Speaker 20: And you might not like what I'm about to say,
57:23
Speaker 20: but it is the truth. You know, I've got a
57:25
Speaker 20: ministry in an urban neighborhood. Todd, I'm afraid with the
57:28
Speaker 20: election with Brent Taylor and Justin Pearson, I'm finding an
57:32
Speaker 20: excitement among some people that I have. I've been in
57:35
Speaker 20: District 9 all my life, and there's an excitement from
57:38
Speaker 20: some of these people going to vote for this guy
57:40
Speaker 20: like they did when we had Will Harrington to get
57:43
Speaker 20: into the mayorship. You've got black pastors that are putting
57:46
Speaker 20: out lists of pastors that are not telling their members
57:49
Speaker 20: to vote for Justin Peterson.
57:51
Speaker 19: I am really.
57:51
Speaker 20: Concerned that Brent Taylor may not have taken this guy
57:54
Speaker 20: serious enough and thinking that that redistricting might be enough
57:57
Speaker 20: vote to just be a shoo-in. I'm I'm not liking
58:01
Speaker 20: what I'm seeing on this stuff.
58:02
Speaker 4: So you're telling me that black pastors are sharing lists
58:06
Speaker 4: of other black pastors who are not supporting Justin Pierce
58:10
Speaker 4: and are not doing enough to get on board?
58:11
Speaker 20: There's Bernard, Bill Atkins, Jason Smith, and the whole group
58:16
Speaker 20: of pastors who are not supporting Justin Pierce. They call
58:20
Speaker 20: themselves exposing him. I made an announcement on my show,
58:24
Speaker 20: make sure you put my name at the top of
58:26
Speaker 20: the list and give my phone number out to you.
58:28
Speaker 20: But they are literally intimidating pastors.
58:30
Speaker 15: All right.
58:31
Speaker 4: Andre, I want you to hold on. I want to
58:33
Speaker 4: finish this conversation. We've got to take a quick break here.
58:35
Speaker 4: The computer is going to cut us off. So hang tight.
58:37
Speaker 4: We'll be right back, everybody.
58:57
Speaker 2: All right.
58:57
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everybody.
58:58
Speaker 4: This is the Todd Starnes Radio Show. Can we give
59:01
Speaker 4: a shout out to Billy Ivester, the former head honcho
59:04
Speaker 4: at Coca-Cola and from the Gainesville, Georgia area and has
59:08
Speaker 4: just really done a great job. a remarkable job spearheading
59:11
Speaker 4: the revitalization of downtown Gainesville and built the building on
59:18
Speaker 4: the square where we were broadcasting really for the past
59:21
Speaker 4: couple of days now. And just a great American patriot.
59:24
Speaker 4: And we love folks that are investing in small towns
59:27
Speaker 4: and cities across America and And Billy's a great American patriot.
59:32
Speaker 4: Also a great American patriot, our next guest. She is
59:37
Speaker 4: a regular on Fox News. You can read all of
59:39
Speaker 4: her great work at LizPeak.com. And Liz has a terrific
59:44
Speaker 4: piece up, and I'm excited to dive into this. Liz,
59:48
Speaker 4: first of all, I hope you're doing great, and I
59:50
Speaker 4: hope you're having a great day.
59:52
Speaker 22: Thank you, Todd. I am, and I'm delighted to join you.
59:55
Speaker 4: Liz, the headline on LizPeak.com, five reasons Republicans could defy
1:00:00
Speaker 4: the polls and shock Democrats on Election Day. I want
1:00:05
Speaker 4: you to be an encouragement to our audience. Give us
1:00:08
Speaker 4: the deep dive here.
1:00:09
Speaker 22: Well, first of all, let me say that the reason
1:00:12
Speaker 22: I wrote this is because I am absolutely sick to
1:00:14
Speaker 22: death of this tsunami of terrible headlines, gloomy polling, etc.,
1:00:21
Speaker 22: all of which is very purposeful to my mind. in
1:00:25
Speaker 22: keeping Republicans at home and encouraging them not to vote.
1:00:29
Speaker 22: After all, if you think the race is over and
1:00:31
Speaker 22: done with, why bother to vote? Your vote won't count.
1:00:34
Speaker 22: And even more, why bother to give money to a
1:00:37
Speaker 22: candidate who's lagging in the polls by 15 points? Todd,
1:00:41
Speaker 22: so much of this has been manufactured, in my view,
1:00:44
Speaker 22: to create exactly the outcome that they're predicting, which is
1:00:48
Speaker 22: a Democrat sweep. So why should we be optimistic? First
1:00:53
Speaker 22: of all, Remember, Democrats are unpopular. Their approval rating is
1:00:57
Speaker 22: roughly the same or actually in some polls lower than
1:01:01
Speaker 22: that of Donald Trump, which they always claim to be
1:01:03
Speaker 22: one of the worst approval records in history. Well, their
1:01:07
Speaker 22: latest CNN poll shows Democrat approval, 35% of Americans approve
1:01:13
Speaker 22: of the Democratic Party. Why is that? Because according to
1:01:16
Speaker 22: other surveys, they have moved so far left They don't
1:01:20
Speaker 22: represent traditional democratic values, and that's a big D and
1:01:23
Speaker 22: a little d. And so people don't like the party.
1:01:26
Speaker 22: So where did that come from? It came from the
1:01:30
Speaker 22: primaries when one group after another, one district after another,
1:01:35
Speaker 22: nominated far-left progressives and really, truly socialists to represent their district.
1:01:42
Speaker 22: And they won because you have a big outpouring of
1:01:44
Speaker 22: young people who don't know anything about anything, and they
1:01:48
Speaker 22: nominated people. who are pretty terrible candidates. So that's why
1:01:52
Speaker 22: in Texas you have James Tallarico, and in Michigan, Abdul Al-Sayed,
1:01:58
Speaker 22: both of whom ran against more moderate Democrats and won,
1:02:02
Speaker 22: much to the dismay of their party, because these people
1:02:04
Speaker 22: do not represent American values, and they certainly don't represent
1:02:09
Speaker 22: the voters in those states. Now, your listeners should be saying, well,
1:02:12
Speaker 22: wait a minute, aren't they leading in the polls? Yes,
1:02:15
Speaker 22: they are, by one or two points. But here is
1:02:19
Speaker 22: what your listeners should know. The Economist, which is a
1:02:22
Speaker 22: liberal magazine, did a deep dive into historical polling. And
1:02:28
Speaker 22: what they found is that sometimes Republicans are overcounted, sometimes
1:02:32
Speaker 22: Democrats are. But it depends on the state and how
1:02:38
Speaker 22: one party or the other controls that state. In a
1:02:41
Speaker 22: deep red state, Republicans tend to be undercounted by three
1:02:45
Speaker 22: to four points. That would be Texas. So if indeed
1:02:49
Speaker 22: the polling right now is within the margin of error,
1:02:52
Speaker 22: chances are that means that Ken Paxton wins. He's not
1:02:55
Speaker 22: a popular candidate, but Texans are pretty fiercely protective of
1:03:00
Speaker 22: oil and gas, which Tallarico opposes. They don't believe in
1:03:04
Speaker 22: all the woke ideology about gender and so forth that
1:03:08
Speaker 22: Tallarico has talked about. So I think you're going to
1:03:10
Speaker 22: find that a lot of these polls, as has been
1:03:13
Speaker 22: the case in many past elections, are going to turn
1:03:17
Speaker 22: out to be wrong. Further, there is a lot of
1:03:22
Speaker 22: money in Republican coffers, more than in the Democrat pocket
1:03:26
Speaker 22: right now, and that money is going to work exposing
1:03:30
Speaker 22: these candidates for who they are. In Michigan, as an example,
1:03:34
Speaker 22: not to pick on Michigan, but you have a candidate
1:03:37
Speaker 22: that really is tied through family connections and possibly philosophically,
1:03:43
Speaker 22: to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a terror organization that
1:03:47
Speaker 22: not one American should support. This is not only a
1:03:50
Speaker 22: group that opposes Israel and literally chants death to Jews,
1:03:55
Speaker 22: but also hates America. So, you know, as you get
1:03:59
Speaker 22: this money out there, Todd, it's making a difference, and
1:04:02
Speaker 22: that's why in that race... narrowed over the last several weeks.
1:04:06
Speaker 4: I want to play some audio here, Liz, back to
1:04:08
Speaker 4: something you said about the Democrats. This is CNN actually
1:04:12
Speaker 4: citing a New York Times-Siena poll talking about registered voters,
1:04:17
Speaker 4: 49 percent of registered voters, Say the Democrat Party is
1:04:22
Speaker 4: too far to the left. Cut 33, please.
1:04:24
Speaker 23: Some data about how the Democratic Party is perceived. This
1:04:27
Speaker 23: comes from the New York Times and Siena. Put that
1:04:30
Speaker 23: on the screen. 49 percent, this is of overall voters,
1:04:34
Speaker 23: 49 percent say the Democratic Party is too far left.
1:04:37
Speaker 23: Half of Americans think the party is too far left.
1:04:40
Speaker 23: Within the party, 63 percent say, you know, the porridge
1:04:43
Speaker 23: is not too hot, not too cold.
1:04:44
Speaker 4: It's just right.
1:04:45
Speaker 23: 63 percent say we're not too far either way.
1:04:49
Speaker 4: You see, Liz, here's where I think the party is.
1:04:53
Speaker 4: I'm not sure the Democrats can fix this because all
1:04:56
Speaker 4: the folks coming up out of the universities and colleges
1:04:59
Speaker 4: that become Democrats are going to be just as leftist
1:05:04
Speaker 4: as the Abdul El-Sayeds and AOCs and Ilhan Omars of
1:05:09
Speaker 4: the world. I don't see them moderating their views at all.
1:05:13
Speaker 4: Do you?
1:05:14
Speaker 22: Well, I think only if indeed they don't do as
1:05:18
Speaker 22: well as they imagine they're going to do. And if
1:05:20
Speaker 22: voters begin to say, well, wait a minute, you know,
1:05:23
Speaker 22: El-Sayed seemed like a great idea until he lost. And
1:05:26
Speaker 22: then people are going to have to kind of go
1:05:28
Speaker 22: back to.
1:05:28
Speaker 20: The drawing board.
1:05:30
Speaker 22: I'm not as negative as you are. I also think
1:05:33
Speaker 22: a lot of these kids that are coming out you know,
1:05:35
Speaker 22: they're going to learn a little bit about the world.
1:05:37
Speaker 22: They're going to become, this is a big generation coming
1:05:39
Speaker 22: out now into voting age. No question about it. They're
1:05:42
Speaker 22: going to be very, very influential, just like the boomers
1:05:45
Speaker 22: have been. But, you know, real life tends to educate you. And,
1:05:50
Speaker 22: when you start forking over 40% to 45% of your
1:05:53
Speaker 22: paycheck to the government, you do begin to question where
1:05:56
Speaker 22: that money is going and why you have to work
1:05:59
Speaker 22: so hard to fund a federal deficit of $ 40 trillion,
1:06:02
Speaker 22: or the federal debt, I should say, a deficit of
1:06:05
Speaker 22: $ 2 trillion. So, you know, we'll see. But I think
1:06:09
Speaker 22: parties do morph and change. We certainly saw that with Republicans.
1:06:14
Speaker 22: They went through some dry years, and then President Trump
1:06:17
Speaker 22: came along, and he completely... overhauled the party, and all
1:06:21
Speaker 22: of a sudden they began winning elections again.
1:06:23
Speaker 23: It happens.
1:06:24
Speaker 22: And I think winning and losing elections is kind of
1:06:27
Speaker 22: what all these parties are about. So we'll see. I mean,
1:06:32
Speaker 22: a lot of it depends on this election. And then,
1:06:34
Speaker 22: you know, Todd, going into 2028, it is going to
1:06:38
Speaker 22: be a major catfight in the Democratic Party. You have
1:06:43
Speaker 22: people like Gavin Newsom who wants to straddle both being
1:06:46
Speaker 22: a moderate but also being a lefty. Ditto for Kamala Harris.
1:06:51
Speaker 22: And you have people like Rahm Emanuel right now who
1:06:54
Speaker 22: are saying, hey, I'm the same voice in this party.
1:06:56
Speaker 22: I'm not a super lefty. I have proved myself as
1:07:01
Speaker 22: able to be a mayor and so forth successfully. So
1:07:04
Speaker 22: I think they're going to be really discordant voices. And
1:07:10
Speaker 22: right now, everyone's pandering to the far left. I wonder
1:07:13
Speaker 22: if that'll happen and continue as we get closer to
1:07:16
Speaker 22: the presidential.
1:07:17
Speaker 4: Yeah. And look, I think there's going to be a
1:07:19
Speaker 4: catfight on the right as well in the Democrat or
1:07:22
Speaker 4: in the Republican Party. As you've got the, you know,
1:07:27
Speaker 4: you've got the John Cornyns and Karl Roves and the Bushes,
1:07:31
Speaker 4: the Thunes. You could call them establishment, wanting to take
1:07:36
Speaker 4: their party back from the populace that came into the
1:07:39
Speaker 4: party during the Trump year. So it's going to be
1:07:43
Speaker 4: a lot of fun. It's going to be very fascinating
1:07:46
Speaker 4: to watch unfold. But I think this is going to
1:07:49
Speaker 4: be a fascinating race coming up in 2028.
1:07:52
Speaker 22: I agree with you. And I also do think that
1:07:55
Speaker 22: there is that element in the Republican Party that wants
1:07:58
Speaker 22: their party back. The establishment Republicans, let's call them that.
1:08:02
Speaker 22: I also think there are people who can, again, kind
1:08:04
Speaker 22: of straddle both camps. I would say Ron DeSantis is
1:08:07
Speaker 22: an example of that. DeSantis is a capable, really, really
1:08:12
Speaker 22: good governor of Florida, very successful. He allies with Donald Trump,
1:08:18
Speaker 22: but he also has some independent views and I think
1:08:22
Speaker 22: would also satisfy. I don't think there's going to be
1:08:26
Speaker 22: a huge appetite for the George Bush Republican Party.
1:08:30
Speaker 6: I just don't.
1:08:31
Speaker 4: I don't either, Liz. I really don't. And what frustrates
1:08:34
Speaker 4: me is the attitude they're taking in Texas, for example,
1:08:38
Speaker 4: with Ken Paxton, where you've got– and I get John Cornyn, okay?
1:08:42
Speaker 4: He got called every name out of the book, and
1:08:44
Speaker 4: I get it, and he got destroyed in the primary.
1:08:47
Speaker 4: I can understand why he doesn't want to go out
1:08:48
Speaker 4: and campaign for Paxton. But for Karl Rove and for
1:08:53
Speaker 4: the Bush family to come out, I mean, they're really
1:08:55
Speaker 4: betraying the Republican Party at this point, and that really bothers. me,
1:09:00
Speaker 4: especially from establishment folks who have demanded loyalty from the
1:09:04
Speaker 4: conservatives in the party.
1:09:07
Speaker 22: Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Look, Karl Rove is not,
1:09:13
Speaker 22: in my view, he's not a Trump supporter anymore. And
1:09:17
Speaker 22: that makes him really not a big supporter of the
1:09:19
Speaker 22: Republican Party at this point. I mean, he's got his whiteboards.
1:09:22
Speaker 22: You've got to listen to him sometime, I guess. But
1:09:25
Speaker 22: I don't think he represents a big voice. And by
1:09:28
Speaker 22: the way, there are look, there are anti-Trump Republicans. There
1:09:32
Speaker 22: are anti-Joe Biden Democrats. And that's just how these parties work. And, yeah,
1:09:38
Speaker 22: we have a pretty big tent. You know, for example,
1:09:40
Speaker 22: Lisa Murkowski came out today and endorsed the Democrat candidate,
1:09:45
Speaker 22: Mary Fultola.
1:09:49
Speaker 19: In Alaska.
1:09:50
Speaker 22: Lisa Markowski is no more a Republican than Joe Biden is.
1:09:53
Speaker 22: I mean, I don't remember the last time she voted
1:09:55
Speaker 22: with Donald Trump. So some of these people just don't
1:09:58
Speaker 22: really belong.
1:09:58
Speaker 9: In the party.
1:09:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
1:10:00
Speaker 4: Liz, always great and love your great analysis. And of course,
1:10:05
Speaker 4: next Tuesday, it's going to be, it'll be fun. It'll
1:10:08
Speaker 4: be fun.
1:10:10
Speaker 15: Yeah, we'll see, right?
1:10:12
Speaker 22: I'm just a little more optimistic than most, and I
1:10:14
Speaker 22: hope I'm right.
1:10:15
Speaker 4: No, I am too, Liz, and I'm with you on that.
1:10:17
Speaker 4: And why not be? Because a lot of this is
1:10:20
Speaker 4: just conjecture right now, you know?
1:10:23
Speaker 22: Oh, not just conjecture. It's purposeful, Todd.
1:10:26
Speaker 3: It is.
1:10:28
Speaker 22: They know that they're passing this big gloomy net over
1:10:31
Speaker 22: the whole country, and Republicans are very depressed by it.
1:10:36
Speaker 22: But you know what? Look at the numbers. Look at
1:10:38
Speaker 22: the studies. It isn't this bad.
1:10:41
Speaker 4: Well said. Liz Peek, everybody, on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line.
1:10:45
Speaker 3: Thanks, Liz.
1:10:46
Speaker 22: Thank you very much for having me.
1:10:48
Speaker 4: All right. See, I'm glad somebody else is optimistic out there.
1:10:51
Speaker 4: I'm feeling good about things. And look, if it doesn't
1:10:54
Speaker 4: work out, it doesn't work out, and I will explain
1:10:57
Speaker 4: what went wrong. I can see how it can go
1:11:00
Speaker 4: both ways, but we're not going to be out there
1:11:04
Speaker 4: providing you with false hope This is really just a
1:11:06
Speaker 4: matter of, you know, getting out and vote. Early voting.
1:11:09
Speaker 4: For example, you people in Tennessee, early voting ends tomorrow.
1:11:13
Speaker 4: Get out and vote. All you folks that are currently
1:11:16
Speaker 4: engaged in early voting, get out and grab somebody and
1:11:20
Speaker 4: go and vote. It's really that simple. 901-260-5926, our telephone number.
1:11:24
Speaker 4: That's 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show. All right,
1:11:40
Speaker 4: let's go to the phones here. Cordova, Tennessee, Black Conservative,
1:11:45
Speaker 4: listening to us on KWIM. Black Conservative, it's been a
1:11:48
Speaker 4: long time.
1:11:50
Speaker 15: I am the most erudite mind, brilliant thinker, and political philosopher.
1:11:56
Speaker 15: It has been a long time, but I listen from...
1:12:00
Speaker 15: from time to time. How are you today?
1:12:02
Speaker 4: You know, I'm doing well. Black conservative just got back
1:12:05
Speaker 4: into town early this morning, and it's always nice to
1:12:09
Speaker 4: get back into the 901.
1:12:12
Speaker 15: You know, I was listening. We have to realize these
1:12:18
Speaker 15: polls that they have, exit polls or whatever the case,
1:12:23
Speaker 15: about the president approval rating and how the American people
1:12:27
Speaker 15: feel about the the economy, the economy, things of that nature,
1:12:32
Speaker 15: they're all rigged. You know, Democrats do this all the time.
1:12:35
Speaker 15: You know, they're always running for election, even on Easter, Thanksgiving.
1:12:41
Speaker 20: And Christmas.
1:12:42
Speaker 15: These people never go away. They're always running for election.
1:12:47
Speaker 15: And I always want us to think that they're winning. Oh,
1:12:50
Speaker 15: and that the American people have turned against the Republican Party.
1:12:54
Speaker 15: And the idea that they're not getting anything done. They're
1:12:58
Speaker 15: getting a lot of things done. Do we not remember
1:13:01
Speaker 15: two years ago that this economy was a total train wreck?
1:13:05
Speaker 15: It's a struggling economy. Eggs was $ 4. 97 for a large cart.
1:13:12
Speaker 15: Gas was averaging $ 5. 15 at peak high. You know, inflation
1:13:20
Speaker 15: had escalated. very hot. People tend to forget, so I'm
1:13:26
Speaker 15: inclined to think that all things are set for the
1:13:30
Speaker 15: Republicans to remain in power. Let's not be bullied by
1:13:35
Speaker 15: the corrupt news networks, CNN, NBS, and what they're saying.
1:13:39
Speaker 15: Let's not be intimidated by them, because the president is
1:13:45
Speaker 15: doing good. He's doing well. The economy is doing well. So,
1:13:50
Speaker 15: I'm not intimidated by that. Sometimes it disappoints me to how,
1:13:57
Speaker 15: as conservatives, we allow them to control the narrative all
1:14:01
Speaker 15: the time, and as if they have the upper hand
1:14:06
Speaker 15: in every category. That's just not the case. Democrats are
1:14:13
Speaker 15: running for their lives. They've got these crazy socialists, Communist
1:14:18
Speaker 15: Party of America, They got Omar who didn't change her name.
1:14:22
Speaker 15: We don't know what her name is. But I think
1:14:25
Speaker 15: the American people are going to do the right thing.
1:14:30
Speaker 15: And I just don't believe that the millions of Americans
1:14:35
Speaker 15: who voted for President Trump two years ago is going
1:14:37
Speaker 15: to turn on him.
1:14:39
Speaker 9: Not going to happen.
1:14:40
Speaker 4: To your point, a black conservative, in March of 2025,
1:14:43
Speaker 4: a dozen eggs would cost you over $ 6. 00. The latest
1:14:49
Speaker 4: numbers we're looking at is 227. So to your point,
1:14:54
Speaker 4: we're watching a 64% drop in the price of eggs.
1:14:59
Speaker 4: And it's important, you know, and we can do a
1:15:01
Speaker 4: better job of sharing that intel on our national radio
1:15:05
Speaker 4: shows so that folks can, you know, share that in
1:15:07
Speaker 4: their communities and their neighborhoods. But, you know, the national media,
1:15:10
Speaker 4: they're not going to be covering any of this kind
1:15:12
Speaker 4: of stuff.
1:15:14
Speaker 15: And I had a ticket to see the greatest president
1:15:17
Speaker 15: in modern history. down in Court, Mississippi, on Tuesday. I
1:15:24
Speaker 15: think it was Monday, Monday. And I didn't get a
1:15:27
Speaker 15: chance to get out there, but I had already registered.
1:15:29
Speaker 15: I had the ticket to see the president speak about
1:15:32
Speaker 15: a couple of hours away from Memphis. And I ended
1:15:36
Speaker 15: up getting the date mixed up. I was thinking that
1:15:39
Speaker 15: 26 was on a Tuesday.
1:15:41
Speaker 3: Oh, no. And I missed it on a Monday.
1:15:43
Speaker 15: Oh, no. What am I smoking?
1:15:49
Speaker 4: Well, Black Conservative, always good for you to grace us
1:15:53
Speaker 4: with your erudite mind, and we look forward to you
1:15:55
Speaker 4: giving us a call back on Election Day. Will you
1:15:57
Speaker 4: do that?
1:15:59
Speaker 15: Yeah, erudite means that I am a man of much
1:16:03
Speaker 15: book learning.
1:16:04
Speaker 3: Yes, you are.
1:16:06
Speaker 4: Yes, you are. All right, Black Conservative, give us a
1:16:08
Speaker 4: call back on Election Day. I want to chat with you.
1:16:11
Speaker 4: It's going to be a lot of fun, and we
1:16:12
Speaker 4: sure do appreciate you calling in. All right, we've got
1:16:15
Speaker 4: to skedaddle for a break. Coming up in the next hour,
1:16:17
Speaker 4: a very special treat for you. Our friends over at
1:16:20
Speaker 4: the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library sat down with me for
1:16:24
Speaker 4: a one-hour interview, and we're going to air that in
1:16:29
Speaker 4: the next segment of the next hour of the show,
1:16:32
Speaker 4: Hour 3. You're really going to enjoy it. Melissa Geller
1:16:36
Speaker 4: is the interviewer, and we just had a wonderful conversation
1:16:41
Speaker 4: about writing, about books, about conservatism, and, of course, Ronald
1:16:45
Speaker 4: Reagan as well. And this was one of those bucket
1:16:47
Speaker 4: list things for me as a conservative, and we are
1:16:51
Speaker 4: just so thankful for the kindness of our friends over
1:16:55
Speaker 4: at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. That's in Semi-Valley, California.
1:17:00
Speaker 4: So that is coming up in the next hour. So
1:17:03
Speaker 4: hang tight. Don't go anywhere. In the meantime, be sure
1:17:06
Speaker 4: to check out ToddStearns.com. We'll be right back, everybody.
1:17:26
Speaker 1: From Memphis, Tennessee. On the banks of the mighty Mississippi.
1:17:31
Speaker 1: It's America's conservative blowtorch.
1:17:34
Speaker 2: That's us, that's right.
1:17:37
Speaker 9: Our love is American, right.
1:17:41
Speaker 4: Todd Starnes.
1:17:43
Speaker 22: Oh yeah.
1:17:46
Speaker 17: Thank you everyone for joining us today. We are joined
1:17:48
Speaker 17: by American conservative columnist and author and radio host Todd Starnes.
1:17:53
Speaker 17: And he's here today to discuss his latest book with us,
1:17:55
Speaker 17: The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America. And Todd, obviously,
1:17:59
Speaker 17: we're here to discuss the book, and that's what we're
1:18:01
Speaker 17: going to do. But as I was sort of preparing
1:18:03
Speaker 17: for our conversation today and doing research on you, I
1:18:06
Speaker 17: saw that a few months ago, you said publicly on
1:18:09
Speaker 17: social media that you had missed some work because you
1:18:11
Speaker 17: had a 90% blockage in your arteries. And I just
1:18:13
Speaker 17: wanted to see how you're doing.
1:18:15
Speaker 4: Well, I took a lick it and kept on ticking.
1:18:18
Speaker 4: Thank you for that. You know, gosh, I have something
1:18:21
Speaker 4: in common with former Vice President Dick Cheney. He had
1:18:25
Speaker 4: his first heart attack when he was 37 years old.
1:18:27
Speaker 4: And when I was 37 years old, working in Sacramento
1:18:31
Speaker 4: at a radio station there, I went to the doctor
1:18:34
Speaker 4: thinking I had a case of bronchitis, and it turned
1:18:36
Speaker 4: out my aortic valve was failing, and I had to
1:18:39
Speaker 4: have open heart surgery. So I have a mechanical heart
1:18:42
Speaker 4: valve that just sort of ticks away. And I guess
1:18:45
Speaker 4: in my memoirs, I'll write about a funny story about
1:18:48
Speaker 4: myself and the Secret Service when I was covering. President Obama.
1:18:51
Speaker 4: They wanted to know why the Fox News guy was ticking.
1:18:54
Speaker 17: That's fabulous. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but it
1:18:59
Speaker 17: seems like it's something they have under control and you're
1:19:00
Speaker 17: doing well.
1:19:01
Speaker 4: Well, in all fairness, Melissa, you know, I was born
1:19:03
Speaker 4: and raised in the South, and I really did think
1:19:05
Speaker 4: that gravy was a lubricant. I had no idea it
1:19:08
Speaker 4: was that bad for you. Gravy and fried chicken.
1:19:10
Speaker 17: I mean, you can't go wrong, right?
1:19:12
Speaker 3: Who knew?
1:19:12
Speaker 19: Who knew?
1:19:15
Speaker 17: Now, looking into your career, you've had such an amazing career.
1:19:18
Speaker 17: I mean, you're on Fox News, you're on Newsmax, you're
1:19:20
Speaker 17: an author, you own a radio station. And I'm just
1:19:23
Speaker 17: wondering if you can talk briefly about your career trajectory
1:19:27
Speaker 17: and maybe share advice for anyone listening who might not
1:19:29
Speaker 17: know what path they want to take or they're interested
1:19:32
Speaker 17: in trying different things because it's clearly something you've done.
1:19:35
Speaker 4: So I was the son of a blue-collar worker. My
1:19:37
Speaker 4: dad owned a little electrical company. And one day, I
1:19:40
Speaker 4: guess I was 12 or 13 years old, and he
1:19:43
Speaker 4: told me I had to go to work for the summer.
1:19:44
Speaker 4: So I went to go work with my dad. My
1:19:46
Speaker 4: job was to turn off the circuit breaker at a
1:19:48
Speaker 4: Popeye's fried chicken and biscuits. And unfortunately, it had already
1:19:51
Speaker 4: been turned off. So I turned it back on. And
1:19:53
Speaker 4: the next thing I heard was my dad saying words
1:19:56
Speaker 4: that I normally didn't hear come out of my dad.
1:19:58
Speaker 4: And he fired me. And he knew that I loved
1:20:01
Speaker 4: to write. So he got me my very first job
1:20:03
Speaker 4: at a newspaper company. I swept the floors at this
1:20:07
Speaker 4: little weekly newspaper and learned all I could about the
1:20:10
Speaker 4: journalism business as a young kid. I was just one
1:20:12
Speaker 4: of these odd ducks that sort of knew what I
1:20:14
Speaker 4: wanted to do. But honestly, Melissa, I never in a
1:20:17
Speaker 4: million years had New York City or even Sacramento on
1:20:21
Speaker 4: my radar. My goal in life was to basically own
1:20:24
Speaker 4: a small-town newspaper in the South and live this Mayberry
1:20:27
Speaker 4: sort of life. And clearly, the good Lord had other
1:20:31
Speaker 4: plans for me. And it really has been a blessing.
1:20:34
Speaker 4: And it's especially great to be back home in Memphis, Tennessee,
1:20:37
Speaker 4: which is where I was born, and to run and
1:20:39
Speaker 4: own the news radio station there now.
1:20:42
Speaker 17: I love that you started sweeping floors because sometimes I
1:20:44
Speaker 17: feel that people feel like their first job should be
1:20:48
Speaker 17: editor of the newspaper. But no, you have to start
1:20:51
Speaker 17: somewhere and starting at the bottom is okay because you
1:20:53
Speaker 17: can work your way up. And again, now you own
1:20:55
Speaker 17: a radio station.
1:20:56
Speaker 4: And I think and look, I think there are some
1:20:58
Speaker 4: you ask for, I guess, advice. And I think for
1:21:00
Speaker 4: moms and dads, it's, you know, watch your kids. And
1:21:03
Speaker 4: if they really develop a talent for something, you know,
1:21:05
Speaker 4: help them fine tune that talent and maybe steer them
1:21:08
Speaker 4: in the direction they need to go. And you're right.
1:21:11
Speaker 4: I think that we need to be willing to do
1:21:12
Speaker 4: whatever we need to do to get where we want
1:21:15
Speaker 4: to be.
1:21:16
Speaker 3: Several.
1:21:16
Speaker 4: Gosh, was it last year? This actually happened yesterday. I
1:21:19
Speaker 4: was interviewing President Trump on my radio show in the morning.
1:21:23
Speaker 4: That afternoon, I was at the Ag Center in Memphis
1:21:27
Speaker 4: judging the Great Memphis Tomato Contest. So this is the
1:21:31
Speaker 4: life I have, and I absolutely love it. It's really funny.
1:21:36
Speaker 17: You got to kind of go with the flow, right?
1:21:38
Speaker 17: So obviously, we're here to discuss your book, so let's
1:21:40
Speaker 17: get into it. So what specifically makes this a moment
1:21:44
Speaker 17: in American history? What makes it a golden age in
1:21:47
Speaker 17: your view? And what would you point to as evidence
1:21:49
Speaker 17: that this is more than simply a matter of political perspective?
1:21:51
Speaker 4: You know, I think it's, first of all, important to
1:21:54
Speaker 4: understand what I mean when we hear the word golden age.
1:21:57
Speaker 4: I think it maybe has a meaning for different folks.
1:21:59
Speaker 4: For me, the golden age is really returning to the
1:22:02
Speaker 4: values that made our country great again. You know, this
1:22:05
Speaker 4: idea of God and country and family. And I believe
1:22:09
Speaker 4: that President Trump has restored that to some degree in
1:22:13
Speaker 4: the country. Going back to my favorite president, who happened
1:22:16
Speaker 4: to be Ronald Reagan. I was in junior high school
1:22:18
Speaker 4: when President Reagan was in office. And I remember, of course,
1:22:21
Speaker 4: he was the man who brought us the term making
1:22:24
Speaker 4: America great again, really challenging us to be that shining
1:22:28
Speaker 4: city on a hill. And I think for me, the
1:22:30
Speaker 4: golden age is not about prosperity. It's not about lower
1:22:33
Speaker 4: gas prices or affordability. But it really is about the
1:22:36
Speaker 4: common values, the basic values that I believe built the
1:22:39
Speaker 4: foundation for what America is all about.
1:22:42
Speaker 17: As we start heading toward, so we've been this whole
1:22:45
Speaker 17: entire year, the Reagan Foundation, as everyone else, has been
1:22:48
Speaker 17: focusing on America's semi-quincentennial and really celebrating the 250 years
1:22:52
Speaker 17: of our history as we should. And as we are now, right,
1:22:54
Speaker 17: we're in November, I believe, when this might air. So
1:22:58
Speaker 17: as we're heading toward the end of the semi-quincentennial year,
1:23:01
Speaker 17: what does patriotism mean to you?
1:23:03
Speaker 4: I think patriotism to me means loving our country no
1:23:06
Speaker 4: matter what. My country, right or wrong. And I think
1:23:10
Speaker 4: we've gotten away from that. We've gotten away from the
1:23:12
Speaker 4: idea that even as people of faith, and I happen
1:23:14
Speaker 4: to be a person of the Southern Baptist persuasion, We're
1:23:18
Speaker 4: called to pray for our leaders, no matter if they're
1:23:19
Speaker 4: Republican or Democrat. I think getting back to those basic
1:23:22
Speaker 4: foundational things, you know, in our country, our very first freedom,
1:23:26
Speaker 4: when the founding fathers were sitting down and they were
1:23:28
Speaker 4: coming up with, okay, what are we going to give?
1:23:29
Speaker 4: We're going to give everybody rights. What are we going
1:23:31
Speaker 4: to give them? Well, the first right they came up
1:23:33
Speaker 4: with was the freedom of religion. And I really do
1:23:35
Speaker 4: believe that is our foundational belief. which is one of
1:23:38
Speaker 4: the reasons why I believe that the left has been
1:23:41
Speaker 4: so deliberate on chipping away at that foundational freedom, because
1:23:45
Speaker 4: if that goes away, well, all the other freedoms fall
1:23:48
Speaker 4: apart as well. I've caught a little bit of blowback
1:23:51
Speaker 4: about the subtitle, How Trump Saved America. And I think
1:23:56
Speaker 4: it's important to sort of set that up. And what
1:23:58
Speaker 4: did I mean by that? Because ultimately, he did save America.
1:24:01
Speaker 4: I think we forgot just how dark things had gotten
1:24:04
Speaker 4: in the Biden administration. I mean, you had a weaponized
1:24:07
Speaker 4: government going after grandmothers who were praying outside abortion clinics.
1:24:11
Speaker 4: You had the FBI trying to convince Catholic priests in Richmond,
1:24:14
Speaker 4: Virginia to spy on their parishioners who practice the Latin mass.
1:24:18
Speaker 4: These are some very dark times in our country. But
1:24:21
Speaker 4: President Trump came along. And he did save the day.
1:24:23
Speaker 4: And he, I believe, slammed on the brakes as we
1:24:25
Speaker 4: were about to go over a socialist clip. But here's
1:24:28
Speaker 4: the caveat. Once you save somebody, well, they can get
1:24:32
Speaker 4: lost again. And the cover of my book brings people
1:24:36
Speaker 4: back to the golden era of the 1920s, the roaring 20s,
1:24:39
Speaker 4: the great Gatsby. Well, that was a little deliberate because
1:24:42
Speaker 4: my book is really a cautionary tale. As great as
1:24:44
Speaker 4: the 1920s were, we all know what happened in the 1930s.
1:24:48
Speaker 3: Interesting.
1:24:49
Speaker 17: So just a moment ago, you were talking about how,
1:24:51
Speaker 17: you know, patriotism does tie back into religion. And I
1:24:55
Speaker 17: thought your book did a really good job of discussing
1:24:57
Speaker 17: your faith and its importance to you. And I wonder
1:24:59
Speaker 17: if you could just mention just for a brief moment,
1:25:02
Speaker 17: what faith does mean to you?
1:25:03
Speaker 4: Faith means everything to me. And just like really President Reagan,
1:25:07
Speaker 4: it meant everything to him. You know, he grew up,
1:25:09
Speaker 4: his mother was very devout. And Reagan understood, I think,
1:25:13
Speaker 4: the importance of his faith. One of the One of
1:25:15
Speaker 4: my favorite Reagan stories actually was written, it was a
1:25:18
Speaker 4: column written by Karen Tumulty, and she was doing some
1:25:21
Speaker 4: research there at the library and came across a four-page
1:25:24
Speaker 4: letter that no one knew even existed. And in that letter,
1:25:28
Speaker 4: President Reagan, in the throes of all this chaos in
1:25:30
Speaker 4: the culture, had sat down and written his father-in-law, Dr.
1:25:34
Speaker 4: Loyal Davis, a letter talking about faith and the importance
1:25:38
Speaker 4: of faith and the importance of how you can achieve
1:25:41
Speaker 4: eternal life. And I thought it was really interesting that
1:25:43
Speaker 4: in the throes of all the chaos of the world
1:25:45
Speaker 4: at that time with the Soviet Union, and he had
1:25:49
Speaker 4: just survived the assassination attempt. There had been the bombing
1:25:52
Speaker 4: in Beirut. Yet the president sat down and just wrote
1:25:56
Speaker 4: out in his own hands on the White House stationery
1:25:59
Speaker 4: that beautiful letter. And really, it's a lesson for all
1:26:02
Speaker 4: of us that as big as the problems of the
1:26:05
Speaker 4: world may be, we're not called to save everybody. We're
1:26:08
Speaker 4: called to reach out to one soul at a time.
1:26:11
Speaker 4: And I think that was really a great lesson that
1:26:12
Speaker 4: Ronald Reagan had in that letter he wrote to Dr.
1:26:15
Speaker 3: Davis.
1:26:23
Speaker 17: Doing research on your book, I saw or read that
1:26:26
Speaker 17: you called this book quirky. And I was curious why
1:26:32
Speaker 17: that was the word you chose to describe your book.
1:26:35
Speaker 3: Oh, it's weird.
1:26:36
Speaker 4: It's weird. And we own weird. So look, when I
1:26:40
Speaker 4: was growing up, I had an aunt from Mississippi and
1:26:43
Speaker 4: she was an English teacher and had a love for reading.
1:26:47
Speaker 4: And she really instilled that love for reading in me.
1:26:50
Speaker 4: And she read Irma Bombeck books. So whenever they would
1:26:54
Speaker 4: come to visit us, she would leave behind the books.
1:26:56
Speaker 4: I was the only kid in junior high school who read,
1:26:59
Speaker 4: you know, the grass is always greener over the septic tank.
1:27:03
Speaker 4: So I was an odd duck kid. But as a
1:27:06
Speaker 4: young person, I came to really admire a lot of
1:27:09
Speaker 4: the humorous Art Buchwald, for example. and even Molly Ivins,
1:27:14
Speaker 4: and a lot of people are always surprised when they hear,
1:27:17
Speaker 4: wait a second, they're not exactly conservative. No, but they
1:27:20
Speaker 4: were great writers, and they knew how to turn a phrase,
1:27:23
Speaker 4: and I love that about their writing, and so I
1:27:27
Speaker 4: tried to emulate that on the conservative side, and just
1:27:30
Speaker 4: to be fair, us conservatives, we have a hard time
1:27:33
Speaker 4: with humor sometimes, and So I hope that humor came
1:27:37
Speaker 4: across in the book kind of as an homage to
1:27:40
Speaker 4: Art Buchwald especially. He would create these zany characters in Washington.
1:27:45
Speaker 4: And I love the challenge of doing those kinds of things.
1:27:51
Speaker 17: Well, you know, and going back to your example a
1:27:52
Speaker 17: minute ago when we were talking about faith and you
1:27:54
Speaker 17: mentioned Ronald Reagan. Well, there was nothing Ronald Reagan liked
1:27:57
Speaker 17: more than humor and wit. So that's fun. So one
1:28:02
Speaker 17: of the other themes I caught in your book is
1:28:05
Speaker 17: you write about the idea of restoring an America that
1:28:09
Speaker 17: many people actually feel have been lost. How do you
1:28:12
Speaker 17: distinguish between preserving the best of America's traditions and simply
1:28:16
Speaker 17: longing for an idealized version of that past?
1:28:20
Speaker 4: That's a great question. We say, well, we long for
1:28:23
Speaker 4: the days of Mayberry. Okay, when were those days? When
1:28:27
Speaker 4: was that? Because I'm fairly certain back in the 1960s,
1:28:31
Speaker 4: As the Vietnam War was getting kicked off, I'm not
1:28:34
Speaker 4: too sure people were thinking about Mayberry at that time.
1:28:38
Speaker 4: So I think that's a fair. question. And I think really,
1:28:42
Speaker 4: for me, it's about embracing those values, the things that
1:28:48
Speaker 4: really matter. And I write about a lot of those
1:28:51
Speaker 4: things that we used to do, cherished memories of traditions
1:28:54
Speaker 4: and things that we used to do in the past.
1:28:57
Speaker 4: You know, one of the concerns I have, and I
1:29:00
Speaker 4: write about this in The Golden Age, is the attack
1:29:03
Speaker 4: on our traditions, on our values, the eradication of the
1:29:08
Speaker 4: statues and the monuments. You know, the jihadists throughout history,
1:29:14
Speaker 4: when they would invade a country, the first thing they
1:29:17
Speaker 4: would do, they would target the cultural centers of those
1:29:21
Speaker 4: countries and literally turn their history, their museums, the artwork
1:29:26
Speaker 4: and the statues, They would turn it all to rubble.
1:29:29
Speaker 4: And I see that happening here in this country, and
1:29:31
Speaker 4: it greatly disturbs me. Because on two points, first of all,
1:29:37
Speaker 4: you're erasing history. But number two, when you erase history, well,
1:29:41
Speaker 4: you're prone to repeat that history. So you have to
1:29:43
Speaker 4: be so very careful when you go down that path.
1:29:49
Speaker 4: And I think that's where we're at in the country
1:29:50
Speaker 4: right now. And I think it's a dangerous place for
1:29:53
Speaker 4: us to be.
1:29:55
Speaker 17: Well, speaking about that, one of the things we try
1:30:00
Speaker 17: to do at the Reagan Foundation and Institute is teach
1:30:04
Speaker 17: values and leadership and decision-making to the next generation of leaders.
1:30:12
Speaker 17: And so I saw an article where you said, and
1:30:15
Speaker 17: I'm going to read this, we're watching a generation of
1:30:18
Speaker 17: young Americans who are actually more conservative. And I... I
1:30:23
Speaker 17: actually found that a little interesting because I actually have
1:30:25
Speaker 17: 20-somethings and I see their friends and I'm not sure
1:30:29
Speaker 17: if that's what I'm seeing. And so I'm wondering, do
1:30:33
Speaker 17: you think this is more conservative, and again, what you
1:30:36
Speaker 17: were just talking about, on traditional values or actually more
1:30:40
Speaker 17: conservative on the political spectrum?
1:30:42
Speaker 4: Well, I think more so on the traditional values than
1:30:49
Speaker 4: the politics. And there have been a lot of surveys done.
1:30:53
Speaker 4: One actually suggested that the younger version of Gen Z,
1:30:56
Speaker 4: the younger side of Gen Z, may be the most
1:30:59
Speaker 4: conservative generation since the World War II generation. And we
1:31:03
Speaker 4: are seeing evidence of that. Young people are flocking back
1:31:06
Speaker 4: to churches, but it's interesting the kinds of churches they're
1:31:10
Speaker 4: flocking back to. Orthodox churches, Catholic churches. Young people are
1:31:17
Speaker 4: hungry and they're searching for answers and I'm not sure
1:31:20
Speaker 4: the modern day mega church with the worship bands and
1:31:24
Speaker 4: the self-help sermons are really moving the needle for these kids.
1:31:29
Speaker 4: Remember Harrison Butner who was the kicker for the Kansas
1:31:32
Speaker 4: City Chiefs? He got into a lot of trouble because
1:31:35
Speaker 4: he delivered a commencement address at a Catholic school and
1:31:38
Speaker 4: he talked about embracing those traditional values. There's nothing wrong
1:31:42
Speaker 4: with a woman if she wants to stay at home
1:31:44
Speaker 4: and raise the kids and be the domestic goddess. There's
1:31:49
Speaker 4: nothing wrong with the man who wants to go to
1:31:52
Speaker 4: work in the workplace or be a farmer. And I
1:31:55
Speaker 4: think ultimately, one of the things I greatly admire about
1:31:59
Speaker 4: President Trump is that he brought a sense of honor
1:32:03
Speaker 4: back to the trades, something that was lost, I think,
1:32:07
Speaker 4: in the Obama years. President Trump comes along and says,
1:32:11
Speaker 4: you know what, there is something noble about being a
1:32:14
Speaker 4: mechanic or being a construction worker or working the fry
1:32:18
Speaker 4: line at a McDonald's. Those are good, honest, good-paying American jobs.
1:32:24
Speaker 4: And I appreciate President Trump doing that. And by the way,
1:32:27
Speaker 4: President Reagan did the exact same thing very, There are
1:32:32
Speaker 4: great similarities, I think, between the two men. And I
1:32:37
Speaker 4: actually talk about, write about that in the book.
1:32:39
Speaker 3: A little bit.
1:32:41
Speaker 17: Yeah, and in fact, with that in mind, exactly that
1:32:44
Speaker 17: in mind, we actually recently partnered with GE and have
1:32:48
Speaker 17: a scholarship for high school students who want to go
1:32:50
Speaker 17: to trade schools. Because we do, we need to start
1:32:53
Speaker 17: retraining and teaching people how to do that because they're
1:32:55
Speaker 17: really important.
1:32:56
Speaker 4: Jobs need to be filled. Speaking of GE, I have
1:33:00
Speaker 4: a GE Ronald Reagan story I have to share with you.
1:33:03
Speaker 4: Let's hear it. in Hendersonville, North Carolina, which had a
1:33:20
Speaker 4: huge GE plant back in the day. And so I
1:33:24
Speaker 4: walk into the radio station. This is just a few
1:33:26
Speaker 4: years ago. I walk into the radio station and they said, Todd,
1:33:30
Speaker 4: Ronald Reagan came to our town, Hendersonville, North Carolina, when
1:33:35
Speaker 4: he was a spokesman for GE. And he actually did
1:33:39
Speaker 4: a radio broadcast from this cardboard. It was like a
1:33:42
Speaker 4: card table in the radio station. And they said, We
1:33:46
Speaker 4: want you to do your show from the Ronald Reagan
1:33:49
Speaker 4: card table. I was terrified that it was so wobbly.
1:33:53
Speaker 4: I was afraid I might destroy a piece of great history,
1:33:57
Speaker 4: but it did survive the show. But that's my Ronald Reagan,
1:34:01
Speaker 4: Todd Starnes, GE moment.
1:34:03
Speaker 17: That's more than most people can say, so that's really fun.
1:34:08
Speaker 17: You know, being on Newsmax, owning a radio station, you know,
1:34:12
Speaker 17: in today's media environment, More increasingly, people are just consuming
1:34:18
Speaker 17: the type of media they want to hear. How do
1:34:21
Speaker 17: you guard against that tendency in your own work?
1:34:26
Speaker 4: Well, it's tough, and you're right. I think I've called
1:34:29
Speaker 4: it the balkanization of media, and it's just a bad situation. Look,
1:34:36
Speaker 4: one of the things I do is I read a lot.
1:34:39
Speaker 4: New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic,
1:34:43
Speaker 4: they make me really mad. But I read them because
1:34:46
Speaker 4: I want to know what everybody's thinking. And, you know,
1:34:49
Speaker 4: the problem is, and it's a problem on the left
1:34:51
Speaker 4: and the right. Everybody's sort of writing the news saying,
1:34:55
Speaker 4: and skewing it to their point of view. Now, I'm
1:34:58
Speaker 4: coming from things from a conservative Christian worldview. My readers,
1:35:03
Speaker 4: my audience knows that, and I'm pretty upfront about that. However,
1:35:08
Speaker 4: when it comes to the actual facts, the facts are
1:35:10
Speaker 4: the facts, and you've got to lay those out. One
1:35:13
Speaker 4: of the things I try to do at the end
1:35:15
Speaker 4: of my stories if I'm writing a column is provide
1:35:17
Speaker 4: links to others that are writing about it. So they
1:35:20
Speaker 4: can sort of see, you know, okay, well, here's what
1:35:22
Speaker 4: other people are saying about this issue or that issue.
1:35:26
Speaker 4: But you're right, it's a problem. And look, there's never
1:35:30
Speaker 4: been a golden age of journalism in America. It's always
1:35:33
Speaker 4: been like yellow journalism. I would argue maybe it's gotten
1:35:37
Speaker 4: maybe better than what it used to be. But, I mean,
1:35:40
Speaker 4: it's sort of always been a free-for-all in the newsrooms
1:35:43
Speaker 4: across America.
1:36:12
Speaker 17: Getting back to your book for a moment. a chapter
1:36:16
Speaker 17: to talking about the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the
1:36:21
Speaker 17: multiple attempts on President Trump's life. Of course, as we
1:36:25
Speaker 17: all know, Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt. And right
1:36:30
Speaker 17: after President Reagan survived, he famously wrote in his diary
1:36:35
Speaker 17: that he was praying for the soul of the man
1:36:37
Speaker 17: who tried to kill him. and that he believed that
1:36:41
Speaker 17: his life had been spared to do something meaningful, and
1:36:44
Speaker 17: that was bring an end to the Cold War without
1:36:45
Speaker 17: firing a shot. And I'm wondering, in your opinion, what
1:36:49
Speaker 17: those assassination attempts on President Trump's life, how they have
1:36:53
Speaker 17: changed the way he viewed his life or his presidency.
1:36:57
Speaker 4: That was just a strange moment, a difficult moment, I think,
1:37:02
Speaker 4: in American history. I remember I was literally getting on
1:37:06
Speaker 4: board our school bus. And I remember our bus driver
1:37:11
Speaker 4: was named Sarge. This was back in the 80s when
1:37:14
Speaker 4: you could smoke cigars. I guess school bus drivers could
1:37:16
Speaker 4: smoke cigars. But he was just a rough, gruff guy.
1:37:20
Speaker 4: And he had a radio, a transistor radio. And he
1:37:22
Speaker 4: was telling all of us to be quiet because the
1:37:25
Speaker 4: president had been shot. And, of course, you know, it
1:37:29
Speaker 4: didn't really, here in junior high schools, you don't really
1:37:31
Speaker 4: comprehend that until, you know, until we got home and
1:37:33
Speaker 4: started seeing all the coverage. Something changed in President Reagan
1:37:39
Speaker 4: after that attempt, and I think we saw the same
1:37:42
Speaker 4: thing happen in Donald Trump. He's still the same, you know,
1:37:45
Speaker 4: Donald Trump, but there is... there is a thoughtfulness about
1:37:49
Speaker 4: him when he is asked about the hereafter and what
1:37:53
Speaker 4: happens next in life. And I think that would happen
1:37:56
Speaker 4: to any of us who've been through situations like that.
1:37:59
Speaker 4: When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I was live on the
1:38:02
Speaker 4: air interviewing Senator James Langford from Oklahoma, and the word
1:38:07
Speaker 4: came down of what had happened. And I spoke at
1:38:11
Speaker 4: several memorial services in our area, including one in Collierville,
1:38:16
Speaker 4: which is a beautiful quintessential southern town just outside of Memphis,
1:38:20
Speaker 4: I believe they said 6,000 or 7,000 people came out
1:38:23
Speaker 4: and just gathered in the town square. And we just
1:38:27
Speaker 4: sang and prayed and, you know, it was a difficult moment,
1:38:32
Speaker 4: but it was a beautiful moment because we were together
1:38:36
Speaker 4: again as a country. One of those unifying moments. Look,
1:38:42
Speaker 4: a lot of people ask me about President Trump's faith.
1:38:44
Speaker 4: I've had a chance to interview him numerous times. And
1:38:47
Speaker 4: I believe he is a thoughtful man when it comes
1:38:50
Speaker 4: to faith. And also, I think it's important to recognize
1:38:53
Speaker 4: that he brings a lot of Protestants, a lot of
1:38:55
Speaker 4: well-respected individuals, Franklin Graham, for example, and he seeks their
1:38:59
Speaker 4: counsel on the big issues of the day. And I
1:39:02
Speaker 4: respect that, just like President Reagan did back in the day.
1:39:08
Speaker 17: Yeah, as you're saying, sometimes it takes a tragedy-type moment
1:39:13
Speaker 17: to pull Americans together. And, you know, obviously we hope
1:39:16
Speaker 17: that they stay together.
1:39:17
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we were.
1:39:19
Speaker 4: Fighting like cats and dogs again. So, you know, it's unfortunate. Exactly.
1:39:24
Speaker 17: So speaking about challenging times, of course, every generation faces
1:39:27
Speaker 17: challenges that seem unprecedented in their time. What do you
1:39:31
Speaker 17: think are some of the most significant challenges that Americans
1:39:34
Speaker 17: are facing today? And which of them do you believe
1:39:36
Speaker 17: we actually could overcome?
1:39:39
Speaker 4: Well, I think first and foremost, we have to come
1:39:42
Speaker 4: together as a nation. I write about this and I've
1:39:45
Speaker 4: written about this in several of my books. If we
1:39:48
Speaker 4: do not get a handle on our nation's education system,
1:39:51
Speaker 4: we are going to lose the republic. I believe that
1:39:55
Speaker 4: our taxpayer-funded classrooms are really the engine that's really driving
1:39:59
Speaker 4: the radical change from critical race theory to sex and
1:40:03
Speaker 4: gender issues. Black Lives Matter. When you look at the
1:40:07
Speaker 4: rise of socialism, Those aren't conversations being had around the
1:40:11
Speaker 4: dinner table. Those are conversations being had in the classroom,
1:40:14
Speaker 4: and I would say also on social media platforms. So
1:40:17
Speaker 4: a lot of parents have sort of disengaged, whether they
1:40:20
Speaker 4: realize it or not. If you're not asking your kid
1:40:23
Speaker 4: what they're learning in their classroom, if you're not going
1:40:26
Speaker 4: to those parent-teacher conferences, if you're not involved in that school,
1:40:30
Speaker 4: and I would say, say also the private schools, then
1:40:34
Speaker 4: you could be missing out on something significant going on
1:40:38
Speaker 4: in the life of your child. So ultimately, let's take
1:40:42
Speaker 4: critical race theory for a moment, where they were teaching,
1:40:45
Speaker 4: at least for the past 10 years, they've been teaching children,
1:40:49
Speaker 4: you are oppressed, and the reason you're oppressed is because
1:40:52
Speaker 4: of this child over here. Well, did anybody think to
1:40:56
Speaker 4: imagine what the country would look like 10 years later
1:40:58
Speaker 4: if Well, now you have grown adults who've been brainwashed
1:41:02
Speaker 4: to believe that they cannot achieve the American dream because
1:41:06
Speaker 4: of that person. That's a very dangerous thing and a
1:41:10
Speaker 4: very dangerous path that I think our nation's education system
1:41:14
Speaker 4: is taking us down. I'm not saying we turn our
1:41:17
Speaker 4: schools into, you know, centers for Republican thought. What I
1:41:21
Speaker 4: am saying is let's take politics out of the classroom
1:41:24
Speaker 4: and get back to teaching, reading, and writing. I just
1:41:27
Speaker 4: want somebody who can give me proper change down at Walmart.
1:41:31
Speaker 17: Well, now everyone's Apple Pay. One of the things you
1:41:34
Speaker 17: just mentioned was socialism. There seems to be this rising demand.
1:41:40
Speaker 17: belief and appreciation. I can't believe I'm using that word,
1:41:43
Speaker 17: but appreciation and socialism from the younger generations. How do
1:41:47
Speaker 17: we turn that? Because obviously, if you actually follow history,
1:41:50
Speaker 17: you'll see that socialism never succeeds. But we have to
1:41:53
Speaker 17: sort of re-engage that and re-ingrain that in younger minds.
1:42:00
Speaker 17: So what are you seeing with that socialist movement?
1:42:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. Years ago, when I
1:42:05
Speaker 4: was at Fox, I interviewed a guy from Des Moines.
1:42:08
Speaker 4: He sent me a note He said, here's what my
1:42:11
Speaker 4: kid was learning in class the other day. He had
1:42:13
Speaker 4: a seventh grade son. And it was a cartoon. On
1:42:16
Speaker 4: one side was capitalism, on the other side, communism. On
1:42:21
Speaker 4: the capitalism side, you had a big fat guy wearing
1:42:25
Speaker 4: a tuxedo and a top hat. and money was pouring
1:42:29
Speaker 4: out of his pockets, and all the workers were chained
1:42:31
Speaker 4: together weeping along the assembly line. That's capitalism. On the
1:42:35
Speaker 4: other side, there was no fat cat, and you had
1:42:38
Speaker 4: all these workers that were dancing around with throwing money
1:42:41
Speaker 4: in the air. And if you're a seventh grader, you're
1:42:43
Speaker 4: going home and saying, hey, Dad, I want to be
1:42:45
Speaker 4: a communist. It's really that simple. And I think that
1:42:50
Speaker 4: we have really indoctrinated at least one, maybe two generations
1:42:55
Speaker 4: of young Americans to think that socialism is better than capitalism.
1:42:59
Speaker 4: I think we've got to get back to the fundamental
1:43:02
Speaker 4: truths of who we were as a country and who
1:43:05
Speaker 4: we need to be as a country. Teaching our kids
1:43:08
Speaker 4: American government and civics. And again, getting a handle on
1:43:11
Speaker 4: what's happening in that classroom. I tell people the most
1:43:14
Speaker 4: important part office and the land is not in congress
1:43:18
Speaker 4: right now it's your local school board and making sure
1:43:22
Speaker 4: that that we're electing people men and women who are
1:43:25
Speaker 4: going to be um you know keeping an eye on
1:43:28
Speaker 4: what's happening inside those school classrooms do you.
1:43:31
Speaker 17: Think celebrating the semi-quincentennial this year has helped at all
1:43:35
Speaker 17: in negating students belief or younger people's belief in socialism.
1:43:41
Speaker 4: I don't know if we can answer that question just
1:43:43
Speaker 4: yet because there are huge problems in the country right
1:43:47
Speaker 4: now with affordability. And when you've got young people that cannot,
1:43:51
Speaker 4: you know, in their 30s that can't afford to buy
1:43:53
Speaker 4: that starter home, young people that are... And that's a
1:43:57
Speaker 4: big problem on the conservative side, by the way, is that,
1:44:00
Speaker 4: you know, like, oh, well, you know, get another job.
1:44:02
Speaker 4: You know, no, that's not the right. You know, American
1:44:05
Speaker 4: kids should not have to work three jobs just to
1:44:07
Speaker 4: make ends meet. That's not the way this is supposed
1:44:09
Speaker 4: to work. So we do we do have problems and
1:44:13
Speaker 4: we've got to we've got to figure out how do
1:44:15
Speaker 4: we address those problems? without alienating all of those young people,
1:44:18
Speaker 4: by the way, who voted for a Republican president, thinking
1:44:23
Speaker 4: that the Republican president and the Republicans in Congress were
1:44:26
Speaker 4: going to address those issues. And unfortunately, they haven't done that.
1:44:30
Speaker 4: And I think that's one of the reasons so many
1:44:32
Speaker 4: people are frustrated right now with the Republicans.
1:44:36
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:44:37
Speaker 17: So changing lanes just a little bit, you know, Ronald
1:44:40
Speaker 17: Reagan often spoke about American exceptionalism. But he also emphasized
1:44:44
Speaker 17: optimism and humility and the ability to find common ground.
1:44:48
Speaker 17: And we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, but,
1:44:51
Speaker 17: you know, with our divided politics and everyone clashing, how
1:44:56
Speaker 17: can we pull communities back together?
1:45:01
Speaker 4: I think, first of all, I think the church has
1:45:04
Speaker 4: a responsibility in all of this. Throughout our history, our
1:45:08
Speaker 4: churches were really the center of the activities in our communities.
1:45:12
Speaker 4: And going back to even before we became a nation,
1:45:17
Speaker 4: when people would go and vote, they would first go
1:45:19
Speaker 4: to church, and they would hear a sermon, and then
1:45:22
Speaker 4: they would go cast their ballots. Imagine what that would
1:45:25
Speaker 4: look like today. So I think We've got to get
1:45:28
Speaker 4: back to that sense of community within our churches first. Also,
1:45:34
Speaker 4: I think we do need to find some of that
1:45:36
Speaker 4: common ground. There used to be time, even when President
1:45:41
Speaker 4: Reagan was in office, he would battle with Tip O'Neill.
1:45:45
Speaker 4: They would fight like cats and dogs. But at the
1:45:47
Speaker 4: end of the day, they would share an adult libation together. 100%.
1:45:52
Speaker 4: We've got to figure out some way to get back
1:45:56
Speaker 4: to that as opposed to, oh, you're my enemy. You
1:46:00
Speaker 4: don't agree with me. You're the enemy. You're the devil.
1:46:03
Speaker 4: And everybody's at odds with everybody. President Reagan also delivered
1:46:08
Speaker 4: a speech that did not get a lot of coverage,
1:46:11
Speaker 4: but there was a great line in it about our
1:46:14
Speaker 4: national anthem. And he said, you know, it's interesting about
1:46:17
Speaker 4: our national anthems. It doesn't really make a declaration. It's
1:46:21
Speaker 4: really a series of questions. Is the flag still there?
1:46:24
Speaker 4: Can you still see it fly? And I think that's
1:46:26
Speaker 4: really a question that every generation has to ask. Every
1:46:30
Speaker 4: generation has to fight for freedom. And I think we've
1:46:33
Speaker 4: gotten away from that idea that, okay, you know, we've
1:46:36
Speaker 4: got a Republican office.
1:46:37
Speaker 1: Great.
1:46:37
Speaker 4: We can sit back on our blessed assurance and drink
1:46:40
Speaker 4: a Diet Coke. That's not how it works. You know,
1:46:43
Speaker 4: every generation has to stand up and we've got to
1:46:45
Speaker 4: fight for what we believe in.
1:46:54
Speaker 17: At what point does sort of passionate political beliefs and
1:46:58
Speaker 17: convictions become so rigid that it actually undermines the principles
1:47:02
Speaker 17: that the person's actually trying to forward?
1:47:06
Speaker 4: It's a great question. I was having a conversation several
1:47:08
Speaker 4: years ago. My congressman is a great guy. And I
1:47:14
Speaker 4: would consider myself to be an America first conservative. But
1:47:17
Speaker 4: I'm also pretty pragmatic when it comes to politics. And yeah,
1:47:20
Speaker 4: you're going to have to compromise. That's the way things go.
1:47:23
Speaker 4: And my congressman faced opposition in the primary from someone
1:47:27
Speaker 4: who would be considered a MAGA candidate. And they said
1:47:31
Speaker 4: that the congressman was a Republican in name only. And
1:47:34
Speaker 4: I pointed out, I said, this guy's voted with President
1:47:36
Speaker 4: Trump 92% of the time. How can you call somebody
1:47:39
Speaker 4: like that a rhino? It makes no sense at all. So, yeah,
1:47:44
Speaker 4: I think we're going to have to come to terms
1:47:45
Speaker 4: with that. And by the way, that's an issue that
1:47:47
Speaker 4: the Democrats are dealing with. You know, they're just slap
1:47:50
Speaker 4: crazy nuts. I mean, they've got the progressives and the
1:47:52
Speaker 4: communists and all that. You know, we're just we've got
1:47:55
Speaker 4: to figure out how do we get our party together?
1:47:58
Speaker 4: How do we get the conservatives together? And understanding that
1:48:02
Speaker 4: sometimes you're not going to get your way. And that
1:48:04
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that, you know, you've gone, you know, wacko, lefto, crazy.
1:48:07
Speaker 15: Sure.
1:48:10
Speaker 4: So you personally.
1:48:11
Speaker 17: You have such a strong platform between your social media following,
1:48:14
Speaker 17: the people who listen to you on the radio, on Newsmax,
1:48:17
Speaker 17: read your books. Do you believe the commentary and media
1:48:21
Speaker 17: personalities have a responsibility to lower the temperature of political debate?
1:48:26
Speaker 4: I don't believe so. I think that that's my job
1:48:29
Speaker 4: is to talk about the big issues of the day.
1:48:31
Speaker 4: My show, I don't spend three hours yelling at people.
1:48:34
Speaker 4: We have a lot of fun. We do poke fun.
1:48:36
Speaker 4: I use a lot of satire and humor to get
1:48:38
Speaker 4: my points across. I don't think that we ought to
1:48:42
Speaker 4: go out there and say, okay, let's storm the Capitol.
1:48:46
Speaker 4: That's insane. So I would say, yeah, we don't do that.
1:48:51
Speaker 4: But I do think in the course of the day,
1:48:53
Speaker 4: and we have three hours of broadcasting every single day,
1:48:56
Speaker 4: Monday through Friday. And I think it's important to honestly
1:48:59
Speaker 4: walk people back from the ledge, because there is a
1:49:03
Speaker 4: lot of frustration out there. There are a lot of
1:49:05
Speaker 4: young people that are really frustrated that they can't get
1:49:08
Speaker 4: to that next step in their life because of the economy.
1:49:11
Speaker 4: And those kids are looking for answers. And we can't
1:49:13
Speaker 4: be dismissive of them. Uh, because at the end of
1:49:16
Speaker 4: the day, they're just going to, they're going to walk away. And,
1:49:19
Speaker 4: and we don't want that. We don't want that to happen. So,
1:49:21
Speaker 4: so no, I don't believe so. I think I know
1:49:23
Speaker 4: where you're, what you're, what you're talking about there. But
1:49:25
Speaker 4: as far as what we do, you know, we're happy warriors.
1:49:28
Speaker 4: And I think Ronald Reagan was a happy warrior. You know,
1:49:31
Speaker 4: we've got to be winsome in our arguments. And I'm
1:49:33
Speaker 4: also a Christian. And as a Christian, you know, I'm
1:49:35
Speaker 4: called to be an ambassador for Christ. And, you know,
1:49:38
Speaker 4: Christ isn't calling people to go out there and burn
1:49:39
Speaker 4: down city blocks. That's not what we do. That's not
1:49:41
Speaker 4: who we are.
1:49:42
Speaker 17: So, um, We've had this conversation and we've talked about
1:49:47
Speaker 17: a lot of these different topics, but what do you
1:49:49
Speaker 17: personally believe right now is the greatest threat to the
1:49:52
Speaker 17: long-term health of the conservative movement? Do you think it's
1:49:55
Speaker 17: political opponents? Do you think it's challenges within the movement
1:49:57
Speaker 17: itself or maybe something completely different?
1:50:00
Speaker 4: I think really one of the greatest dangers I see
1:50:03
Speaker 4: is the lack of education. I'm a huge proponent of
1:50:06
Speaker 4: a group called Young America's Foundation. I speak at a
1:50:08
Speaker 4: lot of their conferences and I'm in Santa Barbara quite
1:50:11
Speaker 4: a bit working with young people. And I love this
1:50:14
Speaker 4: organization because, yeah, the kids are having a great time.
1:50:16
Speaker 4: They're having a lot of fun, but they're also learning
1:50:18
Speaker 4: what it truly means to be a conservative. It's not
1:50:22
Speaker 4: a lot of smoke and mirrors and whatever. It is
1:50:25
Speaker 4: getting down to what it means to be an entrepreneur.
1:50:28
Speaker 4: What does it mean to be a person of faith
1:50:30
Speaker 4: in America? I think it's wonderful they're exposing kids to
1:50:34
Speaker 4: these kinds of ideas. And so for me, it really
1:50:37
Speaker 4: is helping these young people understand, not from a distorted viewpoint,
1:50:41
Speaker 4: but from an honest-to-goodness, here's what Ronald Reagan and William F.
1:50:45
Speaker 4: Buckley were talking about back in the 1960s. You know,
1:50:48
Speaker 4: go back to that era. What were the big issues
1:50:50
Speaker 4: of the day? They were dealing with the rise of communism.
1:50:53
Speaker 4: So what is old is new again. remember what Eisenhower
1:50:57
Speaker 4: literally brought Christianity and religion into the public marketplace and said,
1:51:02
Speaker 4: we need to talk about these issues. And the reason
1:51:05
Speaker 4: Eisenhower did that was he understood that the fight against
1:51:08
Speaker 4: communism was well beyond politics. This was about good versus evil.
1:51:12
Speaker 4: And that's how he, it was a moral argument. And
1:51:15
Speaker 4: I think Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley Jr. embraced
1:51:18
Speaker 4: that whole idea. I mean, the reason why YAF was
1:51:20
Speaker 4: created was to fight, fight the growth of communism on
1:51:24
Speaker 4: American university campuses. And so here we are so many
1:51:27
Speaker 4: years later, and not only are we facing the rise
1:51:30
Speaker 4: of communism in America, But we're also looking at the
1:51:33
Speaker 4: rise of political Islam and what does that mean for
1:51:37
Speaker 4: the future of America? Really a two-pronged issue. So that's
1:51:40
Speaker 4: why I think it's vitally important for us to make
1:51:42
Speaker 4: sure we're teaching the next generation what it truly means
1:51:45
Speaker 4: to be a conservative and helping them build that firm
1:51:49
Speaker 4: foundation in their own lives.
1:51:51
Speaker 17: Speaking about younger people, many younger Americans right now are
1:51:54
Speaker 17: so concerned about the cost of living, economic opportunity, whether
1:51:58
Speaker 17: the American dream is still actually attainable. What do you
1:52:00
Speaker 17: think needs to happen to help this next generation achieve
1:52:03
Speaker 17: that American dream?
1:52:05
Speaker 4: Well, I think, first of all, Congress is going to
1:52:07
Speaker 4: have to figure this one out. And they're going to
1:52:09
Speaker 4: have to provide a lot of tax relief for young
1:52:12
Speaker 4: people and for all of us. I think spending is
1:52:16
Speaker 4: still out of control. As a conservative, we're always proponents
1:52:20
Speaker 4: of smaller government. And I think getting the government out
1:52:23
Speaker 4: of the way so that young people can go out
1:52:25
Speaker 4: there and live their lives, that's a big part of it.
1:52:29
Speaker 4: And we talked about this earlier, this idea of not
1:52:33
Speaker 4: every kid needs to go to college. You can go
1:52:35
Speaker 4: to a trade school and get a certificate or get
1:52:38
Speaker 4: a one- or two-year degree, and boom, you're out there
1:52:41
Speaker 4: in the workforce making good money, working good, solid jobs.
1:52:45
Speaker 4: So I think that's a part of it as well.
1:52:47
Speaker 4: Looking at our university system, I think we're already starting
1:52:50
Speaker 4: to see this reset in the academic community. It's going
1:52:53
Speaker 4: to take time. But I think a lot of these
1:52:55
Speaker 4: universities are now beginning to suffer because students are not
1:52:58
Speaker 4: going to school. And they're having to downsize and really
1:53:01
Speaker 4: hopefully get back to the degrees that really matter.
1:53:04
Speaker 17: So as we begin to wrap up, we love to
1:53:06
Speaker 17: ask this question of our speakers. And since when I
1:53:10
Speaker 17: was looking at your social media and reading a lot
1:53:12
Speaker 17: of the articles you wrote, you often do quote or
1:53:14
Speaker 17: speak about Ronald Reagan. I'd love to ask you that question,
1:53:17
Speaker 17: which is, what does Ronald Reagan.
1:53:18
Speaker 10: Mean to you?
1:53:20
Speaker 4: Ronald Reagan... is to me what an American president should be.
1:53:26
Speaker 4: He really did inspire us, and he inspired me as
1:53:29
Speaker 4: a young kid. You know, I was a geeky junior
1:53:31
Speaker 4: high school kid and I was wearing the Reagan Bush T-shirts.
1:53:35
Speaker 4: You know, I really got plugged into politics back in
1:53:39
Speaker 4: the day. And it was really, it's been a lot
1:53:42
Speaker 4: of fun looking back now and understanding, you know, who
1:53:45
Speaker 4: Reagan really was, going back and doing the deep dive.
1:53:48
Speaker 4: I think Brett Baer did a great job. He wrote
1:53:49
Speaker 4: a great book about Reagan and going over to the
1:53:52
Speaker 4: Soviet Union. And again, the religious component of all of
1:53:56
Speaker 4: that was just really fascinating to me. to be able
1:53:58
Speaker 4: to go to the Reagan Ranch and to be able
1:54:00
Speaker 4: to walk where Reagan once stood and where he rode
1:54:03
Speaker 4: those horses to go to the Psalm Overlook. And, you know,
1:54:07
Speaker 4: those were special moments for me growing up. But also,
1:54:10
Speaker 4: I think Ronald Reagan, at the end of the day,
1:54:12
Speaker 4: I think he understood that American greatness, and he spoke
1:54:16
Speaker 4: about this, that American greatness doesn't start in Washington. It
1:54:19
Speaker 4: starts around the dinner table, you know, with families getting together.
1:54:22
Speaker 4: We have strong families in this country today. we're going
1:54:25
Speaker 4: to have a strong country. And I think that's really
1:54:27
Speaker 4: what Ronald Reagan means to me.