We need to put America First, Again

Welcome to the Todd Starnes Show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit LegacyPMInvestments.com. That's LegacyPMInvestments.com. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, It's America's favorite gun-toting, Bible-clinging, deplorable American.

That's us. That's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starnes. Oh, yeah.

All right. Hello, Americans. We are bunkered, bunkered down or hunkered down. We're hunkered in the bunker. Wow.

This big winter storm that's about to rage across America. and about 200 million people around the country getting ready to go into the deep freeze. It's going to be, what, four degrees here in Memphis, Tennessee.

Southerners are just not built for this kind of stuff.

So anyway, we're waiting for the winds and the snow and the whatnot. And I know you people of Minnesota and the Dakotas are laughing at us, but laugh away because we're just not ready for this. We're not prepared for this. And we're going to get through this show as best as humanly possible. Folks, I just want to say something right out of the gate.

Your telephone calls are making a difference. Yesterday, we encouraged you, we urged you, and this is a matter of urgency for the rest of this week until the senators vote on the omnibus. This is a major issue impacting every single American. You need to be picking up the phones and calling your senators, call your elected representatives and tell them to vote no on the omnibus. We've got to do it, folks, and it's beginning to make an impact.

There's a lot of warbling right now going on, and it all centers around an amendment introduced by Senator Mike Lee of Utah that would protect Title 42. And they're saying this would be a poison pill in the House of Representatives.

So this could be the option that will save the republic and save our bank accounts. There's just a lot going on today, so we're going to be getting to a lot of this. We have a number of guests that are coming on the program from Washington, and our phones have been lighting up. I know Grace has been telling me we've had senators, representatives calling, wanting to know if they can get on the program today, and we're going to do our best to facilitate that. As a matter of fact, here's who we have coming up.

We have got Congressman James Comer, Senator James Lankford, Congressman Andy Biggs is going to be by. And it's all about the omnibus. That's what they're wanting to weigh in on.

So they need our help. And there is a sense of urgency to you to pick up the phone and call and tell them. We've got to put the pressure not just up in Washington, D.C., but also in the district offices and also your local Republican office.

Now, some of you may be saying in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Todd, we don't have a very large Republican office. It doesn't matter. Give them a call. Let them know how you feel.

Some of you may not even have an office. You just meet in somebody's house. Call that person. You've got to tell them. Todd Starn says that we've got to stop this thing, and we do have to stop it.

So we're going to be taking your calls as well. We want to know what your elected leaders are telling you. We had Dan Bishop on, Congressman Dan Bishop on the show yesterday, and he's been leading the charge. His entire staff was tasked with reading all 4,155 pages of the omnibus, and they exposed a lot of this crazy stuff in there. And we've got it all listed over on our website.

We're not going to go over all of that again, but you can see it for yourself over at ToddStarns.com. Did you see President Zelensky last night standing in the rostrum in the United States House of Representatives? Did you see that yesterday, last night? I watched it as much as I could, and then I turned it off. It seemed to me to be satire or parody of something.

This guy, we're giving him $44 billion.

Somebody couldn't take him down to Brooks Brothers and get him a suit? The guy shows up wearing military fatigues. I mean, what the heck was that all about? And for me, this was all about, no, somebody sent me a note. They said it was Fetterman chic.

Oh, my apologies. I guess that's the new look for the Congress coming up in the winter. But, ladies and gentlemen, it seemed to me that was an up yours to America. You know, this guy wants us to believe that he just came from the front lines of the battle where people are dying and people are bleeding and things are exploding. And he got on an airplane and came to America so that he could kiss Nancy Pelosi on the cheek and present an American or Ukrainian flag.

You know, I've never seen Congress so happy to see a flag unfurled as they saw the Ukrainian flag last night. I don't know about you. I was a little sick to my stomach watching that. this is a man, by the way, who ordered Christians in Ukraine, they can only worship God a certain way. They can only worship in certain churches.

There is a crackdown on religious liberty right now in Ukraine. Maybe that's why the Democrats, they love these heathens. But something just doesn't smell right with this guy. It's just something is off, and it has been off from day one. You're in the middle of a war.

You don't go flying to the United States so you can kiss Nancy Pelosi on the cheeks. But again, I just don't get it. I was doing some work last night, some research, getting ready for the show. And it reminded me of something that happened. We're going to get 44 billion, 45 billion this go around.

We've already, I mean, we're looking at hundreds of billions of dollars that we've already given Ukraine. And I thought about this story last night. It was back in September, and the Army recommended that soldiers apply for welfare so they could feed their families. Inflation has decimated a lot of families, especially a lot of blue-collar families. And military person, oh, they're not making a lot of money anyway.

and inflation is causing big problems. People can't afford to buy gas or groceries.

So for members of the military, they were told, well, you know what, just go and apply for food stamps, get some of that good old fashioned government cheese. That was the Pentagon's answer to put our brave fighting men and women on welfare. And it appalled me at the time because we need to be paying these men and women a whole heck of a lot more money than we're actually paying them. But I couldn't help but think about those American soldiers on welfare right now, while Zelensky is standing on Capitol Hill, stuffing his pants with money. It's almost like it was a political strip show up there.

And the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. we're literally giving ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars we are funding and as joe biden said yesterday we are their top funder of this war against russia 44 billion dollars in aid and what was it that mitch mcconnell said mitch mcconnell said our top priority. Our number one priority is not the men and women of the military. That's not our top priority. Our top priority is Ukraine.

That's what Mitch McConnell said as he was there grinning alongside Nancy Pelosi and the others. And I want you to think about that every time, every time you see Zelensky and the Ukrainian military I want you to think about those American soldiers who are putting their lives on the line every single day for a loaf of day-old bread and government cheese because we can't afford to pay them a good wage and you know what not a single one of those soldiers complains about the lack of pay none of those folks in the air force or in the Marines or the Coast Guard, the Navy SEALs, they don't complain about it because they're not in it for the money. They're in it because it's a calling. It's a sense of duty to defend their country. They're patriots, one and all.

It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or you're a Republican, you wear the uniform of this nation and you fight and defend our freedom, then you are a patriot in my book. But they're not in it for the money. But you and I as taxpayers, we ought to be standing up and fighting for our fighting men and women. They need to know that we've got their backs. And we're not going to send them out to war while their kids, their wife and their kids, are having to suffer at home.

We at least owe them that. But again, Mitch McConnell says that's not our top priority. No, no, no. The top priority is Ukraine. 844-747-8868.

That's our toll-free telephone number. That's 844-747-8868. We are going to take your calls on the omnibus. And look, folks, the best deal is we get a continuing resolution. And what does that do?

It jettisons the spending bill to next year when the Republicans in the House will be able to put a stop to this nonsense. Let's go to Joe from Ella J. Georgia. Joe, It's been a while. Merry Christmas to you.

John, Merry Christmas to you. And this Mitch McConnell, he needs to be fired. This omnibus bill, any Republican that votes for that ought to be recalled. And McConnell's been there so long, he's never been a conservative. He's been there for years and years and years.

And he needs to be fired along with any Republican that votes for this horrible bill. I vote Republican because I want them to cut taxes and cut spending. They're up there spending money like drunken sailors. and we've got to stop it.

So your program, you know, I think your program is the best way to stop it because I don't know how many I'm talking to, but I'm sure there are a lot. And we've got to stop it. And I say fire any Republican senator that votes for this bill, have them recall, and it's just gotten out of hand. We've got a $31 trillion debt because of a lot of these big-spending Republicans. We know the Democrats are going to spend it, but now we've got Republicans like McConnell.

but I think McConnell ought to be fired and I'm not too excited about McCarthy either but we we got to get some new people in there we got a guy named Rich McCormick from our neck of the woods who's going up there and I think he'll be a taxpayer and a small business champion but anyway Todd I want to thank you for all you do and wish you and Grace a Merry Christmas and y'all keep doing the great things you're doing and we got to stop this horrible bill yes we do Joe and and we appreciate your support. You know, this talk radio program, we're not owned by the conglomerates. We're not owned by the corporations.

So we're actually able to speak our mind. And this is one of the few talk radio programs where you're able to hear that. And so, Joe, God bless you. Merry Christmas to you and your family. And Joe brings up a great point.

Any Republican, any Republican who votes for this omnibus should be removed from office. Agree? Disagree? Give me a call. As a matter of fact, if you disagree, you go right to the top of the line, 844-747-8868.

Meanwhile, in the Todd Stearns Lounge, we actually have a wonderful Jim Gossett trio playing some incredible new music and all sorts of great stuff. Let's take a listen. You know Jesse Jackson, he's such a race baiter. You know Screwy Louie, you know he's a hater. But do you recall the biggest poverty pimp of them all?

Shopton, the phony reverend, never seems to deal in facts. And if you ever noticed, he never pays his income tax. When I'm not making trouble Or shaking someone down for dough I butcher the English language On my stupid TV show Reverend Warnock's just like me Fake preacher all the way He loves abortion, hates police The taxpayers he likes to fleece MSNBC loves me, though my show's a total mess. Shopton, the phony reverend, will never pay the IRS. Make your Christmas donations payable to the Committee Against Substance and Housing, or use the abbreviation CASH.

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All right, welcome back to the Todd Starnes Radio Show. Hope you're having a great day, getting ready for Christmas. Happy Hanukkah to all of our great Jewish friends and listeners out there. What a great time of the year. Unfortunately, we've got to take care of a lot of political business today.

We're going to be focused on what's happening with the omnibus. Chuck Schumer, by the way, just announcing that they've reached some sort of an agreement. But we don't have the details on that just yet.

So hang tight. I want to go to the phones that we've been urging you. Call your elected leaders. We've got to be blowing up the phones in Washington, D.C., and also in the district offices. First, let's go to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Jerry on the line. Jerry, what's on your mind today? Hi, I was hoping to mention Lindsey Graham, too, as far as people who are performing lessons, you know, not up to expectations. He's a traitor. I don't know what happened to Jerry there, but yeah, Lindsey Graham is a traitor.

You can't trust that guy. He puts the finger in the wind, and you never know where he's going to be at. let's go to Charles in North Carolina WSIC our great station there hey Charles what's going on hey Merry Christmas Todd and I just want to say thank you for all that you do and for having your radio show to get the word out there you're one of the few platforms that that does that but Todd just like you last night I watched the Linsky and I was just incensed and all I could think about was the time he spent up there begging for aid how many hundreds of thousands of people crossed our border illegally during that hour that he spoke. But Todd, regarding the omnibus bill, I've been calling my senators, Senator Tillis, Senator Burr. All I get is voicemails.

I've called them repeatedly. I've left messages, and they know what they're doing wrong. That's why they're not answering their phones. But Todd, I think we as Republicans should maybe even threaten to, you know, change our political affiliation to independents if they keep doing this. certainly blow up the phones up there, tell people that if these Republican senators that they vote for it, they're going to lose your vote and they're going to lose your money.

But, Todd, if you go on social today, finally, President Trump has come out against this, and he has a strong message. It's about a two-minute message that every Republican member of the Senate should vote against this. And furthermore, Todd, I think he should threaten any Republican member that votes for this that if they're up for re-election in 2024, if they're going to betray their voters, do not expect his endorsement. But what they can expect is him to endorse their primary opponent. And we know that he has a good track record in getting people nominated.

Charles, I will say this, and it pains me to say this, but the country would have been better off, and maybe I think McConnell is up for re-election. When he's up for re-election and there's a Democrat, you would be better off for a Republican, if you're a Republican, voting for his Democrat opponent, because there's no difference, no daylight between Mitch McConnell and the Democrats. And people have to come to terms with this. Exactly. And, you know, we expect Democrats to vote this way, Todd.

But what's hurtful and what just enrages people is that we put our trust in these Republicans to stand up for our principles, for the Constitution, and all they're doing is just selling out. It's total betrayal, and the feeling of betrayal is just, you just don't get over that. They need to pay for this development. I'm done. I'm done with all of them, Charles.

Done with all of them. They have betrayed us for the last time. That's it. And I'm good with it. I am at peace with it.

And people like Mitch McConnell, they got to go. Charles, and we got to go, too. We're coming up on a break. God bless you and Merry Christmas. By the way, we've got some Christmas trivia.

I told you we were going to do Christmas trivia. We have some wonderful gifts to share with you, and I want to share the first one. This is our first trivia question. What is Ralphie's little brother's name in the movie A Christmas Story? A Christmas Story, one of my favorites.

What's Ralphie's little brother's name in that movie? 844-747-8868 is our toll-free telephone number. That's 844-747-8868. What is Ralphie's little brother's name? That's a tough question, actually.

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So go to MyPillow.com and use promo code STARNS or call 1-800-839-8506, promo code STARNS to save $90 on the original MySlippers. That's only $49.98 a pair. I don't care what everyone is doing. You really can't have an ativity scene with only two shepherds. Look, I'm going to Max's party.

But if I see a magical star on the way there, I'll follow it. Jake, look up! There's a million magical stars. I can use an aspirin. A what?

Those are great costumes, by the way. Where are all the decorations? What decorations? Joe, do you want to help me bring back Christmas? Why not?

Do you remember the movie The Christmas Carol? I've seen it. You don't think anything like that could really happen, do you?

So come on, let's light up this town tonight. Show the world we won't set up for what's empty this time. It's Christmas, it's Christmas again. Since Christmas, it's Christmas again. the best all-time Christmas film.

And it's a family-friendly movie as well.

Okay, okay.

Sort of. Kind of, possibly.

So anyway, we do want to know your favorite Christmas movies. We are compiling the official Todd Starnes Radio Show list only because I've seen the other list out there and they suck.

So we've got to do better, and I know we can. 844-747-8868. I do want to go to the phones, though, because we have a trivia contest going on. Let's go to Linda in Baltimore, Maryland. Linda, how are you?

I am doing well, Todd. How are you?

Well, I don't know, Linda, because we're apparently on the verge of becoming icicles. We are here in Baltimore, too. It's going to be so, so cold. I walked outside. It was like 50 degrees, and I'm ready for winter in Minneapolis.

And I'm like, what's going on here? But anyway, we're ready just in case.

Well, we're ready, too. All right, Linda. Linda, we're going to try to win you a copy of my latest book, Our Daily Biscuit, Devotions with a Drawl. I'm so excited about that. This is the prize on the line.

We need to know, what is Ralphie's little brother's name in the movie A Christmas Story? His name is Randy. Yes, Linda, you are correct. Randy is, in fact, the name. I'm going to watch that this weekend, by the way.

I love that movie. That's my very favorite Christmas movie. It took me like 12 years to actually be able to sit down and watch the entire movie in one setting, but I'm very happy I did. It's an awesome movie. It is.

Well, Linda, do you have a big Christmas tradition there in Baltimore?

Well, in Baltimore on many of the holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, one of the traditional dishes is sauerkraut with either kielbasa or pork. I'm sorry, what? It's called kawassi with sauerkraut or pork. I feel bad. I just choked on your Christmas tradition.

I'm so sorry. I'm not a sauerkraut guy. Yeah, it's a very popular dish here. My family likes me to make. It's actually a Jewish dish.

And we're not Jewish. We're Christians. But it's called peach kugel. and it's a pasta dish and it's very good and that's what I get tasked with baking every year for both Thanksgiving and Christmas you know when I was working in New York City at Fox News whenever I had to work Christmas Day I was the one Gentile at the Chinese restaurant eating Chinese food with all the Jewish folks it's kind of a thing I felt a part of the tribe Linda Merry Christmas hang tight Grace is going to get your info I want to go to our studio because it's not often that we have guests here in studio in Memphis, and especially movie stars, and we're very excited to have one of our very own movie stars from right here in Memphis, Tennessee. Lawson Tulliotos is the star of It's Christmas Again, the movie trailer you just heard.

Lawson, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. We're going to get to the show in just a moment, and the movie, by the way, folks, we have a direct link to it in our live show blog. It's Christmas Again. And you are the star of this film.

Tell us about the movie. Yeah. I mean, it's a new Christmas movie. It's a musical. It's a lot of fun to watch.

It's very energetic and exciting throughout the whole thing. And it has a very Christian-centered message about the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas.

So this is sort of a faith-based, family-friendly film. Yes. All right, so there's no naughty Santa or anything like that in this movie. No, not at all. I didn't think so.

I didn't think so. What was that process like? Did you have to audition? Did they call you? How did that work?

Yeah, so I have an agent, and my agent sent me an audition. You got an agent? I'm impressed. And my agent sent me an audition, and the audition led to a callback, and then it led to a Zoom call with the director, and then it led to getting the role.

So where did you guys film the movie? We filmed it mostly in Franklin, Tennessee, actually. And then partially we filmed in Texas as well at Capernaum Studios.

So you know just about every country music artist and Christian artist in America lives in Franklin, Tennessee. Yeah, yeah. I actually currently am living there too. I'm currently going to Belmont.

So having grown up in Memphis, I just recently moved to Nashville after filming the movie. and it was really cool to now live in the place that I used to film in.

So Lawson, I love this story. We have a partnership with Briarcrest Christian School here locally and someone sent me a press release. What a great school that is because they do a lot with the performing arts and really kind of going above and beyond to get students out there and get involved. Yeah, I graduated from Briarcrest and the performing arts program at Briarcrest is incredible. They really encouraged music and acting more so than any other school I've ever been to.

And it was a very fun environment to be a part of. All right. So, you know, I mean, this thing takes off the movie. I mean, you could be up there. Do you have more projects already coming down the pipeline?

I mean, I've got a few things that are possible, but, you know, things in the acting world are very up in the air a lot of the time. It's just trying my best out here.

So you got BB King, Elvis, Timberlake, and now Lawson. Yeah, yeah. I think that's about the list.

So you never know. I mean, you may have like tours of your home at Christmastime, like Graceland. You never know. I suppose it's possible. You never know.

The movie, It's Christmas Again, and it's just a fun, family-friendly movie. and we have a direct link to this movie on our website, toddstearns.com, or you can go directly to the website. It's christmasagainmovie.com, and folks, you can get yourself a copy of this great film. And really, Lawson, I guess it's crazy out there in the country just on so many different levels, so it has to feel good to be a part of a production that just takes people away from all of that. Yeah, and not only that, just being such an energetic and exciting movie, it's just fun the whole way through.

There's nothing really to get upset about or anything like that. It's a very nice movie to watch. I like that kind of stuff. You see, I like doing the stories where you don't get hate mail, you know?

So you should want to do more movies like that. What's it been like for the family to see you up on the big screen? Oh I mean my family been enjoying it more than I have I think My mom always you always talking to people about it and trying to promote the movie as much as possible My dad's constantly handing out flyers at his office. They're extremely excited all the time. Do you have swag yet?

You gotta get swag. Like a coffee mug or a tumbler. Grace, what is some good swag? We've got to help Lawson out here. Actually, I have an ornament.

I have a Christmas ornament.

Okay, that's pretty up there. That's A-level swag right here. That is. That is. My mom actually has a bath towel.

Not a bath towel, but a hand towel that's embroidered with its Christmas again on it. That's pretty cool. Oh, well, you see, that's nice. Yeah, that's pretty clever as well. All right.

The name of the movie, again, it's Christmas Again.

Now, Lawson, you mentioned you're at Belmont University, a fine Christian school there in the heart of Nashville. What are you studying? I'm actually studying philosophy. Is that right? Yeah.

I'm kind of surprised to hear you say that.

So it's not acting or theater. It's philosophy. Yeah. A lot of people are surprised when they hear that I'm going to Belmont and they hear that I'm doing philosophy. But my idea with it was kind of to go to a school that's so centered on performance and stuff so that even if I'm not explicitly studying it, it's everywhere all the time around me.

And so I'm able to study philosophy, which I just have a general interest in, while still being very involved in the music and everything going on at Belmont. And I think it's been a good balance for me.

Well, good for you. And you mentioned music. Do you sing as well? Yes. Yeah.

The movie's a musical. It's me singing in all the songs that I sing. Oh, so that's you singing. It is.

Wow. All right. Well, that's very impressive.

Well, look, we've got to take a quick break here. But Lawson, congratulations on this great big project. And if people want to get more information about you, where do you want to direct them? Thank you. About me specifically, I've got an Instagram that's Lawson underscore Tulliatis.

Other than that, information about the movie can be found at the website, www.itschristmasagainmovie.com. And that's about it. All right. Are you ready for the big winter storm? It's insane at the grocery store.

Oh, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. This morning, though, it feels almost like it's not going to – there's no way. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

So this could be a dud. And if that's the case, then people are going to be eating a lot of bread and milk these next few days.

Well, awesome. Congratulations. Folks, we do need to take a quick break here. 844-747-8868. That's our toll-free telephone number.

That's 844-747-8868. This is a great opportunity to remind you that I'll be taking 100 of our listeners around the country for a seven-day tour of the Holy Land. We're going to have a contemporary Christian artist with us. It's going to be a great trip. This is a first-class journey, so you're going to be staying in some beautiful hotels, visiting all of the Holy Land sites, and you're going to be meeting with Israeli government leaders, and there's some exciting news about Benjamin Netanyahu, and we're going to get to that a little bit later on in the show today.

But if you would like information, give Grace a call, 844-747-8868. Again, that's 844-747-8868. This is The Todd Stern Show. advocate for those who need support and make a difference in your community earn a bachelor of social work from grand canyon university gcu is a premier private christian university offering online social work programs with affordable tuition and personalized support in addition you can earn your master of social work by completing the bachelor of social work plus just one additional year instead of two find your purpose visit gcu.edu social work to learn more Hey, Grace, stop headbanging for a moment. We have to talk.

You know, it was interesting. Lawson doesn't look like he looks in the movie.

Well, he's an actor. He's an actor. He's got to look like different kinds of people. I guess so. Look, it's pretty exciting.

It's Christmas again. We've got a – for one thing, it's a great movie, great reviews. It was one of these Fathom events things.

So it was like in the theaters, and now you can get it online. Yes. So we have to talk about this elephant in the room that we've been putting off talking about for a good two months now. Hoping you would go away.

So I don't want you folks to panic out there, but we have some news to share with you.

So Mr. Producer has gotten word that he has gotten a new job. Yes. And this new job is not in Memphis. No, it's not in the 901.

It's in the Chicago area. Yes, up in Illinois. And so I know you came to me, Grace, and when you told me this, the first thing I said was, Well, I know your husband's going to miss you. That's right. And I know a good divorce attorney.

That too.

So we have some very sad news that Grace is going to, she's still going to be a part of the show, but you are leaving the day-to-day back and forth.

So when you call in after the holidays, you will not hear Grace Baker on the phone lines. Yes, I'll still be involved. I'll still be around. Nobody's kidnapped me, I guess, besides my husband. But I will be around, yes.

He's on my list right now. Oh, no. Yeah, Mr. Producer, I don't want to talk to Mr. Producer for a while.

I know everybody's like, every time he comes to the station or you see him at stuff, everyone's like, mad at you, but also, you know, good luck. Yeah, okay, I guess. I guess.

So have you ever lived outside of the South? I've never lived outside of Memphis, Tennessee. Is that right? I went to school here, everything.

So I have no experience anywhere else. We're not going to name the exact town, but you're in the Chicago area. Yeah, up in that region.

So you know it gets cold up there. I'm looking at the weather, and it's terrifying. I mean, summertime is like five degrees. Yes, exactly. It's horrible.

I mean, I think at the high this weekend, I looked at the weather. And the pizza, it's like deep dish. It is.

Okay, I'm sorry, but Memphis, the pizza scene's a little rough sometimes.

Okay, well, I don't want to tell the whole country that.

Well, we've got the barbecue. That's what we're really good at. And up there, I've already looked at it. I'm like, I'm not eating barbecue there. No, don't.

It's going to be terrible. But you do need some guidance, though. I do. Grace Baker is leaving us. She is moving to the Chicago area.

And if you are in that area, you could probably give her some ideas on just how to survive. Yes, how to survive the tundra. And, you know, little Merlo, I've already got her a jacket to keep her warm. I'm a little worried about her because she's got that short dog hair. I'm like, we've got to keep you warm.

And she's going to blend in with the snow because she's, like, white with the black spots. Don't eat the yellow snow. Oh, I already know that. Just FYI. I already know that.

Yeah, I'm excited, but I'm going to miss being here the day-to-day in the building with everybody, obviously. And we're going to miss you too, Grace. You've just done a terrific job on the program, and it's part of the family. And anytime I'm out speaking, someone inevitably comes up and says, where's Grace?

Well, I love our listeners, and they're so kind and sweet to me and so welcoming. It's just like being, like you say many times, at the Cracker Barrel, out on the front porch, just hanging out with people.

Well, there's so many people I feel like I know them personally, but I've never met them in real life.

So you're going to be handling the phones next week. Is that right? Oh, yes. I will be here all next week.

So I'm on vacation next week. Yes. But you'll still be able to talk to Grace. But if you'd like to call Grace and wish her good luck, we would love for you to do that. Are you going to miss us?

I'm going to miss everybody. I just said I'm going to miss everybody here, our listeners. And, yes, you too, Todd. I will miss you too. I was expecting a bit more emotion.

You want me to cry? Yes. Listen, I'm a crier, but I don't cry in the moment. I'll leave the building and cry, but I won't cry in the moment. The blubbering on air just doesn't sound very good.

Wow. I actually know.

Well, we all know a talk radio host who does that. Oh, that's true. But thank you, everybody. And what a great. It's been just such a fun ride.

And it's not over yet, but it's just been such a fun ride. Do you remember how all of this happened? Yeah. I mean, I met you. I was in Nashville at a Young Americans for Freedom event, saw you speaking.

You were firing up the crowd. And then you said, I'm buying a radio station in Memphis. And I was like, I got to go talk to this guy. And walked up to you and said, I need a job. Help.

And you gave me the opportunity. I can't thank you enough.

Well, you're the very first person I hired in Memphis. That's true. Born and raised here. I mean, when I heard you were coming to Memphis, I was like, thank you, Lord. There's my opportunity on a golden platter.

And your family members are everywhere. Yes. I go to church with your family. They're everywhere. I was at a banquet, and somebody fills up my glass, and the guy says, oh, I'm Grace Baker's brother.

And I'm like, what? What? We're everywhere. It's great. Grace, we're going to miss you.

Same here. You have just done an amazing job, and you're still going to be a part of the show. Yes, of course. And we can talk about that later, some of the other projects you'll be working on.

So you're just relocating up north. Yes, exactly. I just won't be answering the phones. That's the biggest thing. Grace Baker, Yankee.

Yankee. I don't know, man. I don't know. It's going to be an adjustment. I think you're sort of technically a Midwesterner.

Yeah, I've got the accent, and I say y'all. I'm going to be picked out right away. No. Use guys. I don't pick up any accent at all.

Use guys. All right. Give us a call if you want to say goodbye to Grace. 844-747-8868. That's our toll-free telephone number.

That's 844-747-8868. Mary Walter on the way. Congressman James Comer, Chip Roy, James Langford, Andy Biggs. We have an action-packed show coming up. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch.

That's us, that's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starks. Every single Republican should vote no on the ludicrous, unacceptable $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. It's a disaster for our country, and it also happens to be a disaster for the Republican Party because they can stop it.

Biden and the radical Democrats are trying to ram through this monstrosity in the dark of night when no one has even had a chance to read. It's over 4,000 pages crammed with left-wing disasters, Washington betrayals, and special interest sellouts, all designed to keep the corruption going without lifting a single finger to solve the problems that matter to hardworking families and Americans. The bill provides $1.9 billion for so-called border management to process illegal aliens and release them into our country, but it incredibly prohibits those funds from ever being used for border security to prevent illegal aliens from coming in in the first place. And most importantly, we're giving $500 million to other countries for border security and for the building of walls. Can you believe this?

But we're not allowed to use any money for border security or the building of walls. This bill will make the border worse. It will make crime worse. It will make the economy worse. It will make inflation worse.

It will make every single one of Joe Biden's total catastrophes even more ruinous and damaging to our country. Our country is going to hell because of what they've done in the last two years. Passing a spending bill now, before Republicans take control of Congress on January 3rd would squander our best chance to hold Biden fully accountable and force him to secure the border in the new year. Mitch McConnell, who is an absolute disaster, by the way, must not be allowed to waste this golden opportunity. He's more of a Democrat than a Republican.

What he's doing to this party is incredible and what he's doing to our nation is incredible. Call your congressmen and senators right now and tell them to vote no on Democrats' massive left-wing spending bill, and they have to do it now. Vote no. All right, that was President Trump just a little while ago on Truth Social, and it's the rally cry of this program today. We've got to demand that Republicans vote no on the omnibus.

I want to go right now to the patriot mobile newsmaker line always honored to have the great mary walter the host of the mary walter podcast joining us mary good to have you with us today thank you so much hang on a second i have to sit down i was standing up and cheering and applauding while while you were playing the president there former president there so i just have to sit back down in the seat once again donald trump is right once again donald trump is right right a hundred percent and he's the only one who has the guts to call this out, I saw a tweet that said we should have all Rand Pauls representing Republicans.

So true. Todd, is it me or do they do this every year? We have this problem every year. Every year, this spending sneaks up on them. We always have to have an omnibus bill, right?

It sneaks up on them. They do it at the last minute. They cram tons and tons and tons of pork into this bill. They print it out overnight. It's 4,000 pages, and they give them, you know, by the way, half an hour to read it and get a vote on it.

Every time. This is how they do it. This is being done purposefully, and we, the American people, sit here like a bunch of idiots and keep re-electing the same people to keep doing this. When does it stop? When do we wake up?

Do you remember the old TV game show Pyramid, right? $100,000 Pyramid? I watched it the other night. It's still on TV.

So I'm going to play a game with you right now. I'm just going to just share some phrases with you, Mary Walter, and I want you to see if you can guess what we're talking about. All right? All right. Tofu burgers.

Okay. Pajama boy snowflakes with man buns. Oh, okay. Decaffeinated coffee. And Senate Republicans.

Men I wouldn't date. Things that are worthless. Oh, okay. I mean, they're really, they're worthless. Yes, there were men you wouldn't date.

Mary, it kills me. I mean, we're spending, what, $64 million to teach salmon how to have sex. I was able to Google the directions, and, I mean, it takes like 30 seconds. I don't understand all of this. You found a course so that we could, if I want to become a salmon sex instructor, I can do this?

Is this like a thing I need to be certified for? It might be a good career change. It's America. If that's your dream, we can make it happen. We can make it come true.

But again, Mary, it's to your point. This spending bill was due in September. Here we are just days before Christmas. They're shoving it down our throats in the dark of night, 4,155 pages. And I'm concerned that this is going to impact future elections because Republicans are fed up right now.

Well, the Republican bases, like those of us out here paying for all this stuff, those of us who are having our guns taken away from us while Congress increases their security bill by over a billion dollars to keep them safe. Those are the people that you're talking about because those are the only Republicans I see concerned with this. And like Rand Paul and a couple of others who are in Congress. but the vast majority of them are going to vote for this stuff. When Republicans are going to hold the House in 13 days, you can't hold out.

Republicans don't have the spine to hold out for 13 days. Seriously? And again, if the government shuts down and they're afraid that Republicans are going to be blamed, well, they're going to be blamed for everything. And by the way, the next election is two years away. Nobody's going to remember if the government was shut down over Christmas break in 2022.

Well, it's not. You know what? I don't buy that they're worried that they're going to get blamed for it. It's what you heard Donald Trump say in that clip. Mitch McConnell and the rest of the establishment in Washington, D.C.

are all on the same team. They parade around with a DNR after their name, and they say the right things. They read from the script. Let's just put it that way. Mitch McConnell is about as much of a conservative as Nancy Pelosi is.

That's the problem. No, you're absolutely right, Mary. And the question is, all right, well, how do we fix this problem? We've had people say, you know what, I'm going to start voting independent. We've had a couple of folks.

I mean, we've got, what, three independents now in the U.S. Senate. I think the ultimate problem is we have a two-party system, and we probably need multiple parties. I agree with you, but getting to that place is hard. It is going to be hard.

That's a very tough thing to do is to get to that place because I get an independent. independents aren't going to have the money, for instance, to primary Mitch McConnell. Who needs to be primaried? Desperately. Can Kentucky get on that, please?

He needs to be primaried, but who are you going to put up against him, right? Mitch McConnell lost the Senate, I believe, for the Republicans, because he had a bug up his butt about Blake Masters and Kelly Chewbacca and a couple of others. And so he pulled funding from them. Yeah, no, he did. And, you know, we talked about this on yesterday's show.

And I think part of Mitch McConnell's problem is that he really wanted to lose, that they come out better because he knew that if the Republicans lost both the House and the Senate, that that would pretty much sink Trump's chance to run and win the nomination in 2024. You see, I still think this is about taking down and taking out Trump. Oh, 100, 100 percent. But that's why he defunded the candidates who Trump had endorsed. This is all about Trump.

And this is why we have a bunch of politicians who have been in office for so long. They feel that they know better than the rest of us idiots out here about how our money should be spent. They know better than the rest of us. We don't understand what's really going on in Washington. Maybe we don't understand the ins and outs, but we can see what's happening.

And we don't like it. and we don't like Mitch McConnell. And because of that, Mitch McConnell wants to keep the power. This is the problem. It's all about power.

Well, let's see what happens here with this Title 42. They're saying it's going to be the poison pill. Senator Mike Lee introducing that legislation. And if nothing else, slow it down, do a continuing resolution, and then let the new Congress handle this, which was the whole point of the election in the first place. How about we get rid of Title 42, and we actually have a law that says you can't invade our country.

How about that one? How about we say that 14,000 people crossing the border in a day? I don't know. We're a little against that. Human smuggling.

How about we take a stand against that? Bringing drugs into this country to poison my children. How about we take a stand about that? To heck with Title 42. Let's get rid of that.

But let's have a law that Congress passes that says you can't invade our country. Why are we spending billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to defend Ukraine's border but not ours? And even worse, according to the new omnibus, we're providing border security money for Egypt and Oman and several other Middle Eastern countries. But the money that was designated allocated to Border Patrol says they specifically cannot use that money to stop people from crossing the border. And while that's going on, Mary, word dropped a little while ago that Doug Ducey, the governor of Arizona, waved the white flag of surrender and said we're not going to be putting any more of these container blocks on the border to keep the illegals from coming over.

So I just saw that. I saw that as well. I don't know how your brain works, Todd, and you probably don't want your brain to work the way mine does because sometimes it's scary in there. But I immediately thought, okay, who paid them off? He was standing strong for so long to keep his state safe.

I have to keep my people safe. This is what I'm doing. I don't care what the feds say. I'm doing the right thing. And then all of a sudden, oh, okay, sorry, we won't do it anymore.

It smells. Yeah, something's not right. Mary Walter, I'm curious. We're bracing for five degrees, which is just when you get frost on the pork butt, it's a bad thing. It really is.

And so you live in the frozen tundra zone. What do you recommend? How does Grace Baker survive?

Well, actually, we're going to do okay because I do live in New Jersey, and I do live by the ocean, and the ocean's still warm.

So we're going to have, it's 40-some-odd degrees today, and it's going to be in the 50s when the rain comes through. But we, I just got to reverse 9-1-1, we're going to be flooded.

So everybody's been told to move your cars to higher ground, all that kind of stuff, which we go through a lot here. There's constantly flooding, so roads will be closed. We'll have that. But I highly suggest you just stay home and don't come to work, Grace. I say you just stay home.

Wait, what? Maybe with a nice little mulled cider and your MyPillow slippers on and a nice warm blanket. This is terrible advice. This sounds wonderful. Thank you, Mary.

Continue on. A nice toddy is always good, right? Oh, well, you get a nice toddy every single day. Oh, my gosh. That was weird.

Sorry. Mary, see, this is what happens when I can't rein them in. It's terrible. Yeah, I know. It is.

It's a problem with Todd. But, no, honestly, I wish everybody the best. I was thinking about that this morning, about all the people who are, and the animals, too, who are homeless, who are out in this weather. And I just prayed for them to be safe because this is just unbelievable. We go out to Montana every year to ski, so we're always watching the snow report.

the wind chill was minus 42 this morning. You can't survive that. No, it's terrible, terrible.

Well, Mary, I want to wish you a happy holiday. Merry Christmas to your crew. And we always love having you on the program. Our audience loves you. And we look forward to talking to you next year.

Thank you so much. Love you all. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy New Year.

And thank you so much, Todd, for all the opportunities you give me during the year. I am blessed. Thank you. Take care, Mary. Bye, guys.

Mary Walter, everybody, on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line. Great lady. And bundle up. And what did she say? Drink a hot toddy or something?

Maybe some cocoa. That's always good. I think she said mule cider toddy. Oh, mule cider. All right.

Well, whatever that – I can do that. All right. We've got to take a break. We're getting to your calls, 844-747-8868. Also, yet another trivia question on the table.

In the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. What happened every time a bell rang? The movie It's a Wonderful Life, what happened every time a bell rang? If you know the answer, give us a holler. 844-747-8868.

This is the Todd Stern Show. Grand Canyon University, a Christian university, is one of the largest and fastest growing universities in the country, offering over 250 engaging programs online. GCU integrates the free market system and its welcoming Christian worldview perspective into its academic programs and throughout its online campus. GCU's online students received over $144 million in scholarships in 2021. Visit gcu.edu slash myoffer to see the scholarships you qualify for.

Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University.

Well, we're going to be happy tonight. Just hanging around that old Christmas tree. Welcome back, everybody. Todd Stearns here. Hope you're having a great lean-in into the long Christmas weekend.

We're having a great time here at the Todd Stearns Radio Program. Hey, let's go to the phones real quick. Ted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, listening to us on Nougat Radio. Ted, how are you doing today? I'm doing great.

I appreciate the call.

Well, we're just happy to oblige. We're going to try to win you a prize here, Ted. We have a trivia question out on the table. And, Grace, what an oh, I found it. Never mind.

Ted, bear with me for a moment. All right, Ted, we're going to win you a prize here. In the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, what happens every time a bell rings?

well that question rings a bell for me i think it was the angel get their wings oh ted in chattanooga tennessee listening to us on nougat radio you sir are a winner congratulations ted oh thank you i never won anything in my life well ted we're gonna we're gonna hook you up with a copy of my latest book it's called our daily biscuit devotions with a drawl.

So I want you to hang on tight, and we appreciate you listening to the radio program.

So don't go anywhere. Grace is going to hop back on the phone and get your information. All right, 844-747-8868. Let's go to Mark in the Villages. Mark, Merry Christmas to you.

Hey, Feliz Navidad and Feliz Año Nuevo, which is Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, too, for me and in Spanish for my girlfriend.

Well, Mark, I love it.

Well, thank you very much for that. You have big plans for the holiday down there in Florida? Yeah, right now we're wrapping gifts, listening to some Frank Sinatra, drinking some eggnog, and watching our bank accounts dwindle. It's very sad. But it's going to be high 42, low 20 in the 20s, in the next couple of days starting tomorrow.

So this is going to be a culture shock for people here in Florida. Yeah, I mean, if it gets below 70, you people start, you know, breaking out the parkas and all that kind of stuff. I've seen that happen. You know, I originally am from New York, and I told Grace, I mean, why would you go to Chicago? And she's like, well, I'm not really going to be in Chicago.

But the thing is, get her a Christmas gift. Get her a snow shovel, Todd. Get her some boots, a toboggan. And, you know, get her a few things because she's going to need them once she gets up there. I want to tell you that right now.

I give it a couple of months, and then they're back in Memphis. That's what I'm saying. I tell her eventually. Eventually they're going to slide down to Florida because I was in New York, Connecticut, where I went to school for many years, Charlotte, North Carolina, 13 years, Alabama, 13 years, and now Florida. And if it gets any colder, I'm going to go as far as it's down as I can go, maybe T-West.

There you go. There you go. So, well, Mark, God bless you and all your loved ones. I hope you have a Merry Christmas down there. God bless you and your family, too, Todd.

And I wish Grace the best, too. I think she's going to be a very, very success. She's still young. She's got a future ahead of her. And you and her were awesome together.

You'll continue to be.

Well, if Hannity dumps Miss Linda and picks up Grace, we're going to have a fist fight.

So that's all there is to it. All right, Mark, you take care of yourself. Merry Christmas. And, folks, we've got a lot of guests coming up. But if you just want to call and wish America a Merry Christmas, you want to wish the crew a Merry Christmas, we're going to open up the phone lines.

844 That our toll telephone number That 844 We be right back America Grand Canyon University, a Christian university, is one of the largest and fastest-growing universities in the country, offering over 250 engaging programs online. GCU integrates the free market system and its welcoming Christian worldview perspective into its academic programs and throughout its online campus. GCU's online students received over $144 million in scholarships in 2021. Visit gcu.edu slash myoffer to see the scholarships you qualify for. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University.

All right, welcome back to the Todd Starnes Radio Show. Happy to have you with us today. By the way, Craig Shirley, who is the biographer of Ronald Reagan, just posted a statement saying, The time is now for Mitch McConnell to lead the Republican Party. He is unconservative, unethical, and unprincipled. He is nothing more than an insider and a hack.

Go, Mitch, now. That's coming from the official biographer of Ronald Reagan, Craig Shirley. I want to go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line. We're honored to have with us from Kentucky's 1st Congressional District, Congressman James Comer. Congressman, Merry Christmas to you.

And I want to get your reaction to what Craig Shirley just wrote.

Well, we're all frustrated with what's going on in the Senate right now. But, you know, there are 49 other Republican senators. And it's pretty frustrating to see so many senators repeat this terrible, broken process every year. They say, we've got to do it. It's the end of the year.

The government's going to expire. We're going to run out of funding. People aren't going to get their social security checks.

Next year, it's going to be better. And I've been in Congress six years, and it happens every year. It's not getting better. And, you know, I think there's a lot of blame to go around. but uh you know the what's going on in the senate now is it's unacceptable uh schumer's obviously the person in charge of the senate but again it takes 10 10 republican senators to go along with him and he consistently gets 10 republican senators or more to go along with this excessive deficit spending it's frustrating i don't know in the end who is the chief person to blame but i think there's a lot of blame to go around.

Well, it's frustrating to all of us, and especially supporters and members of the Republican Party, to see members of your own party trying to hamstring you guys in the House. That has to be frustrating. It's very frustrating because in two weeks, I'll be chairman of the House Oversight Committee. There's been no oversight in the House of Representatives during the entire two years of the Biden administration. Not a single cabinet secretary or undersecretary has been in front of that committee.

So in January, we're going to start bringing these cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries and these bureaucrats in front of the committee. But the one way to get them in front of the committee is to say, you know what, we're not going to give you a penny of funding until you come and explain your action. I'd love to do that with the FBI on what they're doing with their, what I call, ministry of propaganda, where they have 80 employees dedicated to nothing but social media police and paying social media companies for for doing what they say and censoring conservative speech. But this Senate Omni bill not only continues the FBI funding for a year, it actually gives them a significant increase in funding. It gives the Department of Justice an increase in funding more than what President Biden even asked for.

So, you know, I'm pretty frustrated, and I think anyone that cares about holding this administration accountable and get in the backs of the taxpayers should be pretty frustrated with what's going on in the center. Congressman, we got a call from a listener yesterday, and I want to ask you this question. I did not know the answer. He was wondering about those IRS agents. Are those agents funded in this omnibus?

And if so, is there anything you guys can do in the House to stop those people from getting that money? The first bill that will come out of the House of Representatives in January will be a bill to rescind the 87,000 URS agents. That bill then goes to the Senate.

So, you know, there you go. There you go. We're going to – there you go. We're making a promise. We're going to do our part in the House of Representatives.

I think it'll be unanimous on the Republican side. I think it'll be a party-line vote. There may be a few Democrats vote for it, but I doubt it. But, you know, since Pelosi's gone, there may be some Democrats that try to think with their own mind now instead of being so obedient to Nancy Pelosi. But in the end, that's going to be our first bill, and it's symbolic of our effort to try to start reducing the size of government.

We say that, and they're fixing to send a bill over here to fund the federal government at an even higher level over the next 12 years. It's very frustrating, and everybody should be outraged. I know everybody listening to your show is. Congressman, I'm curious about last night. Were you in the audience to hear President Zelensky?

I was, yes. I don't know what the feeling, what the mood was like there in the room, but the longer he spoke, the more frustrated I got knowing that we're sending billions, tens of billions of our dollars over there to secure their border, to supply their military personnel.

Meanwhile, our border remains open. And back in September, there was a big story about the Army telling soldiers to apply for food stamps because they can't afford to buy groceries for their families. And that made me so angry last night to see that happen in America. I share your frustration. And it's frustrating to see so many Republicans enthusiastically endorse giving Ukraine a blank check.

Look, I hope Ukraine beats Russia, and we've given them some money, and I voted for the first whatever it was, $10 billion or whatever.

Now we're up to $100 billion. I voted against all of the funding bills since. We don't have a full accounting. We don't have a partial accounting of where this money goes. If you say, well, where does this money go?

They'll say it's going for arms and humanitarian relief.

Well, I need a lot more specifics than that, because Ukraine doesn't have the best reputation as far as spending foreign aid dollars in the past. And, you know, just looking at the enthusiasm among all the Democrats just jumping up, they all had the Ukraine pins on. And I wonder how many of those guys could find Ukraine on a map? If you just had a map of the globe, could they find Ukraine on that and identify it on the map? But, you know, my other thought was, would there be this much support in Congress to give Ukraine $100 billion if you had to cut $100 billion from other projects?

Because right now, that's just deficit spending. That's just printing more money, creating more inflation, and creating more debt for the next generation to secure the borders of another country when our border is wide open. I agree with you. I'm against it. I've been against the last three funding bills, and I will be against the ones in the future.

All right. Well, Congress, we know you're a busy man today. What is the next step? Are you guys anticipating any votes today? Oh, yeah.

We're voting right now. We've been voting. We're going to probably have 30 votes today, and they're projecting that the Senate's going to pass that omnibus bill in the next few hours, and then it's going to come over here, and they're projecting we'll be voting on that about 2 a.m. Eastern time in the morning.

So, you know, 4,000-plus pages, nobody's read the entire bill. When a bill's 4,000 pages, an appropriations bill, it's really about 10,000 pages because it references things, and then you have to go and look up other budgets to understand where the money's going.

So, you know, it'll be weeks from now before people realize exactly what's been hidden in that bill. You can't offer amendments. There was no committee discussion on it. And it's an omnibus bill, which means it's a bunch of different bills. It has to do with land management.

There's bills on there that have absolutely nothing to do with an annual appropriations bill. It's just so frustrating. It happens every year. That's why we need term limits. If somebody asks, what can be done?

What can America do? We've got to have term limits. and we've got to have a balanced budget amendment. Those are the two things that can be done to fundamentally fix this broken Congress, term limits and a balanced budget amendment. All right, Congressman, we're going to leave it there.

Thank you for the work that you've done, and we look forward to the investigations coming down the pike in the new Congress, and again, wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. Thank you. Merry Christmas to you. And these investigations are going to satisfy a lot of people that are pretty upset right now with the blank check that the Biden administration has and the lack of oversight and accountability. It's all fixing to change in January.

All right. Congressman James Comer on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Folks, we need to take a break here. Coming up, we're going to be speaking with Senator James Langford. A lot of moving parts as these votes are happening.

So we will go with the flow, as they say. By the way, I want to go back to this big Newsmax poll they've been conducting this month. Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Newsmax wants to know if President Trump should continue his run for the presidency, or is DeSantis the better candidate? You can vote right now on the Newsmax poll.

All you have to do is take out your smartphone and text the word SKIP to 39747. That's SKIP to 39747, and you can let your voice be heard in the poll.

Now, folks, I don't know about you, but Newsmax, it's pretty amazing what they're doing there. They are now carried on every major cable system in the nation. Be sure again to vote in the Newsmax poll. Should Trump run again? Text skip to 39747.

We'll be right back. Advocate for those who need support and make a difference in your community. Earn a Bachelor of Social Work from Grand Canyon University. GCU is a premier private Christian university offering online social work programs with affordable tuition and personalized support. In addition, you can earn your Master of Social Work by completing the Bachelor of Social Work plus just one additional year instead of two.

Find your purpose. Visit gcu.edu slash social work to learn more. All right, welcome back to the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Happy to have you with us today. This story, by the way, coming from the New York Times.

So someone leaked the testimony, the depositions that have been filed during the Dominion voting machine lawsuits. They're suing Fox News. And there was a pretty shocking discovery. Fox News Channel, of course, was one of the loudest voices alleging voter fraud in the presidential election. Sean Hannity was leading that charge.

But it turns out, according to the official under oath testimony of Sean Hannity and many other Fox News hosts, they actually testified under oath that they really did not believe what they were saying over the airwaves. In other words, they were saying one thing to you, but behind the scenes, they were saying something entirely different. And I wish I could tell you I was surprised by this, but I'm not surprised. I mean, there are a lot of people in the news business and the conservative news business who are not conservative. No, I'm not saying – no, I think Sean is a conservative.

He's literally conservative. He's a member of the conservative party.

So I don't know why he was saying one thing on television, and I don't understand. I don't get that. But I know a lot of other people at Fox who are phony conservatives. They just get paid to read off a teleprompter. The teleprompter is conservative, but they're not.

And there are plenty of fake conservatives on talk radio, too. You can figure those people out as well.

So I just want to set the record straight here. For the record, I am a conservative. I am pro-life. I am a constitutionalist. And that part of it really sort of gets me sideways with some of you folks.

And I understand that, and I respect that. You know, on some of the issues out there, you might even consider me to be a moderate, but I'm really not. I believe as a constitutionalist that you have a right to live your life how you want to live your life. As long as you're not interfering with anybody else's life, as long as you're not interfering with their quest for the American dream, hey, you go live your life. It may not be how I would live my life, but you know what?

That's because it's America. You get to live your life how you want to live your life. But I want you to know this. What I say on the radio into this great, big, beautiful, huge microphone, it's also what I believe off air. and I hope you know by now we've been doing this well over five years this radio program you may not agree with me you may not like me but you can respect and I hope you respect the fact that what I say and the opinions I share are the opinions I have in in real life but I'm curious does that bother you that there are people on Fox News Channel that are telling you one thing but then behind the scenes, they're completely the opposite.

844-747-8868. That's our toll-free telephone number. That's 844-747-8868. That really bothers me because there are so many people out there and they're just looking for news. They're looking for information.

They're looking for people they can trust out there. And then when these kinds of stories pop up, it really makes me mad because I believe that we all have a responsibility. I mean, when you tune into this radio program, you're tuning in to be entertained. You want to be able to laugh and have an emotional experience of some sort, except for Grace Baker, who doesn't cry. But beyond that, I would like to think that the information we're providing you is factual, that this information, we did our research, and that's what we do every single day on this program.

And so we don't talk a lot about the other guys. And the point of it is people are talking about this. The New York Times has a story out, other news agencies, and they're going to town with this stuff. But it's really sad that there are people in the conservative media who are, quite frankly, grifters. And a lot of them now have websites, and they are just propagating a lot of fake news out there.

And so we're out there every single day trying to provide you fair and balanced coverage, and you know where we're coming from. I don't hide the fact that I'm a conservative. I don't hide the fact that I am very angry right now with the Republican Party. And by the way, there are even more rumblings that Kevin McCarthy will not have the votes. He needs to be the next Speaker of the House.

And they're prepping Steve Scalise for the possibility that he may be that guy.

Now, we were hoping to have Senator James Langford on with us. Maybe that's later on in the next hour. Again, votes are underway, and so we're just trying to sort all of this out as we go along. As a matter of fact, I believe we have Senator Langford with us now. Senator, thanks for hopping on the show.

You bet. I'm literally stepping off the floor of the Senate right now as we're in a vote series dealing with the last votes of the omnibus. Are we going to be able to stop this thing, Senator? We are not. The train is now fully headed towards the end of this station, and it's a brick wall, right into more national debt, right into more deficit on this.

So this is not stopped.

Now, we've had 17 different amendment votes, many of them designed intentionally to be able to stop this thing. And some of them decided to try to get things better on it for the national issues, like what we tried to do on Title 42 to be able to help secure our borders. that got voted down literally by folks flipping their votes and saying they'd rather get the omnibus than secure the border. It's just been really painful. What's the mood among fellow Republicans there in the Senate about leadership?

Well, it's split at this point. Obviously, there's a whole group of Republicans that are voting for the omnibus and they're supportive of this. People forget that not every Republican thinks alike. And so that is the challenge of this. Everybody's thinking about things differently on this.

I'm very passionate about trying to be able deal with debt and deficit. And so there's no way I can support this kind of bill in this kind of process. Others are saying, hey, I don't like the process, but I'm going to support the bill. And others have lots of earmarks that are in it. And so they're supportive of the bill because of what it's going to mean for their earmarks that they put in it.

We've got about 15 seconds here, Senator. Are you concerned how this is going to impact voters and their support of the party moving forward? Yeah, it's not just the party. America's bigger than the party, but I do think it will have a detrimental effect long term to where we are as a nation and our debt and deficit and the continued trajectory that we're on. I think there'll be a point that we have more and more economic problems and we'll say, how did this happen?

And we'll say it was a thousand cuts and this was one of those.

So I do think people will be dispirited. But quite frankly, again, not all Republicans think alike.

Some Republicans will look at this and go, good, I like that. But others will look at it and go, this is a disaster.

Well, it is a disaster. And Senator, we got to leave it there. We appreciate you coming on the program for the last second. I know you've got a lot of work to do. Thank you.

And, folks, he's right. It is a disaster. And those Republicans are Democrats. We'll be right back. Advocate for those who need support and make a difference in your community.

Earn a Bachelor of Social Work from Grand Canyon University. GCU is a premier private Christian university offering online social work programs with affordable tuition and personalized support. In addition, you can earn your Master of Social Work by completing the Bachelor of Social Work plus just one additional year instead of two. Find your purpose. Visit gcu.edu slash socialwork to learn more.

Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starnes. That's us, that's right. I love this American ride. All right. Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

This is hour three of The Big Show. I am Todd Stearns, your host. Just a few moments ago, in the final moments of the last hour, Senator James Langford from Oklahoma jumped on the program, literally walked out of the Senate chamber so he could call us. And the news is grim. He said that there is no stopping the omnibus now.

They tried and they failed. Of course, Senator Langford, one of the few Republicans on the Senate side of the chamber, who is a staunch fiscal conservative and wants to get spending under control. It is a disappointing development. I want to go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Congressman Andy Biggs, who is in the running to be the next Speaker of the House, joins us.

Congressman, good to have you with us. What are you hearing on your side of the Capitol?

Well, so Todd, we're hearing the same thing. No one put on an objection which would have held it off until Sunday. Senator Lee tried to run an amended play. That was defeated. And now, I mean, I just saw a tweet that they're doing a short-term spender until next week in case the president is unable to sign the bill, the omnibus spending bill, before the end of the 23rd, which is the date.

So it's a mess, but in any way, I would say the senator's right. We're in for a massive spending bill called the omnibus bill. And even more importantly, it really takes away whatever power you guys were going to have when the new Congress convenes after the first of the year. That's 100 percent right. And this is why even last summer, Freedom Caucus was calling upon leadership of both houses not to do a CR or an omnibus bill of any kind unless it was going to take us into January because we anticipated that we would have the majority in the House.

We thought we might have it in the Senate, too, at that time. Because that's what the Constitution and the framers intended was for the House of Representatives to have that budget to use as their leverage and to check. You know, we heard checks and balances. That's one of the checks against an out-of-control executive branch, and that's 95 percent of what we have as our check, and it's now gone away. There is so much anger that we hear from our listeners that people are wanting Mitch McConnell out.

They want him to be punished in some way. It looks to me like he's trying to do this to intentionally punish the America First Republicans there in the House of Representatives. I don't know what his intentions are, but I know what the effect is. And he is basically, he is punishing us and he is preventing us from leading and he's preventing us from fighting this administration. And that is, you know, that is a generational problem because we were getting something that maybe once in a generation we can really get something done.

And he's basically, he fought against President Trump when he was in there. He helped him on the judiciary, but that's the only place he helped him. And he's been very – this is just a horrible bill, and it's going to cause incredible amounts of damage. There is another major, major story brewing here, and that is Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. We had Congressman Dan Bishop on yesterday.

He made an interesting statement here, Congressman.

Now, the mainstream media narrative, and sadly the conservative media narrative, is there are only five lawmakers that are holding up McCarthy being Speaker of the House. I contend those numbers are a little bit higher. Congressman Dan Bishop, who has not offered up his position, strongly hinted that he is not in McCarthy's camp. What are the numbers looking like? What are you hearing?

well it wouldn't surprise me if we had a lit at least 12 to 15 vote against mccarthy on the floor in the first ballot maybe as high as 20 um that's the number that i had was somewhere around 20 but some people change you know they they they can't uh they don't want to stay strong but in any event i would say somewhere around north of 10 and between 10 and 15 uh right now as it now stands do you believe that mccarthy is going to be the next speaker of the house I do not. I do not believe that's going to be the case. I think that I wish that he would realize it and then we could start moving on to, if it's not going to be me, to some other candidate that has more of an opportunity to be consensus. and America first and enact the changes that we need to enact to free this place up, get better policy, get better process, gives you better policy. It's interesting.

Matt Gaetz wrote a really stunning op-ed, and I'd heard this argument made just in passing and just in the hallways that McCarthy really has no ideology. He really doesn't stand for anything. And that reminds me, there was a New Yorker piece, and that was the whole thesis of this essay, is that Kevin McCarthy will pretty much do anything and say anything to gain power. Is Matt Gaetz off base? Is the New Yorker off base here in their thinking and their writing?

I don't think so, and I think, you know, oddly enough, I've actually had people tell me this is why they're supporting Kevin, is because Kevin doesn't have his DNA on policy, so he's going to be easier to manipulate as far as policy goes. I think that's a really dangerous and uncomfortable position to have. But I don't think you're going to find him out there championing anything. I mean, a perfect example is he said, okay, now we're going to go after the Republicans who supported the omnibus going forward, because there was a vote earlier this week. And you know what?

Where is he? I don't see him championing. Where's his heroic nature? In fact, it was reported that when he went to talk to the Senate the other day at their luncheon, he didn't express animus. He didn't demand that they straighten up.

I mean, that's the point. That's the point. Not only do you have to have a policy-centered core that's centered around the Constitution, the greatness of this country, and then you also have to have the leadership and the tenacity and the strategic chops to fight on it. And I'm not sure that he has any of that.

So Congressman Andy Biggs, by the way, on the Patriot Mobile News, I want to be sure I'm hearing this because McCarthy was coming out and agreeing with the letter that you guys wrote saying, you know what, we're stopping the legislation. There will be a price to pay for this. And McCarthy was just right. He was, we don't even need a resolution. That's the way it's going to be.

That's going to be the law of the House of Representatives.

So then he goes to a lunch with the senators where he has an opportunity to call them out and he does nothing? Yeah, that's the report. That's what was reported. And then as we're doing suspension votes today, instead of coming out and whipping hard, going to everybody, getting his whip team together to go to everybody saying, look, these are the bills that are up from these senators like Lisa Murkowski. She's got some bills that are going to be coming up here.

Actually, I'm on the floor voting now. I walked off of this. I think hers is the next bill up. But instead of coming and whipping that and saying, this is how we're going to fight back so they know that we mean business, he didn't do that. My guess is he's going to vote no, but what's everybody else going to do?

They're free agents like that. He's got to go. He's got to go. We cannot have a Mitch McConnell in the House of Representatives. We just can't.

Right. Amen to that. And that's the point. All right. Well, Congressman, we appreciate the updates, and we're fighting the good fight.

You let us know what we need to get out there to the listeners. They've been lighting up the phones, but certainly very disappointing news coming from the senators, the Republican senators today. Yeah they need to your listeners if they care they need to be calling their members of Congress who are Republicans telling them no McCarthy I mean that just the way it is That it That it All right Congressman thank you and Merry Christmas to you Thank you. Merry Christmas to you, Todd, and company. Thank you.

All right, Congressman Andy Biggs, you heard the rally cry there. We've got to stop McCarthy. Is that not a part? You see what we were talking about? We were talking about Fox News Channel just a few moments ago.

They're telling you one thing. But then they turn right around and they say the exact opposite to their friends at the cocktail parties. And to hear what Andy Biggs just said, that Kevin McCarthy, he was out there pretending to be this diehard, rock solid conservative. He's going to fight the Senate Republicans.

Meanwhile, he's going to lunch with them and palling around and says nothing. The guy's got to go. He's just got to go. That's all there is to it. Agree, disagree, give us a call.

844-747-8868. Toll-free telephone number. That's 844-747-8868. You've been hearing all of our great guests on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line today. Patriot Mobile, by the way, America's only Christian conservative wireless carrier.

And, folks, what a great time to go ahead and switch over your wireless service to a conservative company that does a great job and has a great product. patriotmobile.com slash Todd. Again, that website address, patriotmobile.com slash Todd. If you go there, you're going to be able to type in your address, and they're going to show you all what the coverage looks like in your area. They've also got a great team there to answer all of your questions.

Use my promo code Todd, and they're going to hook you up with some great discounts, and there will be additional discounts if you happen to be a first responder or a member of the military. Again, PatriotMobile.com slash Todd.

Now, before we go to break, another trivia question we're going to throw out. We've been doing trivia all show today. We want to know who plays Cousin Eddie in the great Christmas movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Who played Cousin Eddie? 844-747-8868.

We'll be right back. Advocate for those who need support and make a difference in your community. Earn a Bachelor of Social Work from Grand Canyon University. GCU is a premier private Christian university offering online social work programs with affordable tuition and personalized support. In addition, you can earn your Master of Social Work by completing the Bachelor of Social Work plus just one additional year instead of two.

Find your purpose. Visit gcu.edu slash social work to learn more. All right, let's get to the phones here. We have an outstanding trivia question. Not only is it outstanding, but it is outstanding.

Well done, Grace Baker. Let's go to Debbie in Georgia. Debbie, how are things in the Peach State? It's cold, but it's not as cold as Wyoming.

Well, there you go. It's always worse somewhere. Absolutely. All right, Debbie, we're going to try to win you a prize with this trivia question. We want to know who plays Cousin Eddie in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Randy Quaid. Yeah, you knew that one. Debbie, that is correct. Randy Quaid. Oh, what a great movie that was.

You know, that's one of the reasons we never got a live tree. I was always afraid there might be something lurking in the branches. I've always been afraid of squirrels. Yeah, they're bad. They're evil creatures.

All right, Debbie, congratulations. And we're going to hook you up with a copy of my latest book, our Daily Biscuit, Devotions with a Drawl.

So thanks for listening today, and Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to you. And I just want to say, Grace, say it ain't so. It ain't so. She can't believe it.

Oh, I have been stressed over this, Debbie, for I've known, I guess, for what, about a month now, Grace? And it's been driving me nuts, Debbie. I just, we've tried, we've tried, but I think she's coming back. You know, after one Chicago winter, she'll be back. There you go.

Well, I'll never speak to Mr. Producer again. I'm with you. I'm with you, Debbie. He's persona non grata, Grace.

I know he's broke up by that. All right, hang tight, Debbie. Grace is going to get your info. Poor Mr. Producer.

Oh, my goodness. Such hate, Grace. And he's not even here to defend himself, you know? We're just like, everyone's like, ah, Mr. Producer.

There's no defense. There is absolutely no defense, I'm just saying. All right. What else is going on out there, ladies and gentlemen?

Well, we've got some audio to play for you today. Here in Tennessee, we've got a big problem.

So Biden is about to start dumping illegal aliens in our community, in our state. And our governor, Bill Lee, here's what he had to say about that. Cut number one. State of Tennessee now bracing for busloads of more illegal immigrants sent by President Biden. The single adult detainees that are supposed to be turned around, by the way, are coming from ICE facilities in New Orleans.

But will they go and what will they do? Joining us now is Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. Governor, are you trying to stop this? Good morning, Brian. You know, this is something new for us.

It's not new what's been happening at the border for the last two years, as we know. But this is new to Tennessee.

Now the administration is requiring Tennesseans to pay the price for their failures. And we have to stop this. Tennesseans are already paying a huge price in the way of fentanyl deaths and trafficking. We're already paying a price, but now we're being asked to pay a greater price for the failure at the border. and we can't take that much longer.

Americans can't take this much longer. Yeah, it seems like there's a tolerance for it. I don't get it. 14,000 per day when Title 42 ends, which could be today or this week. 420,000 per month.

Over 5 million per year, let alone with the gotaways and the illegals, as well as the fentanyl, that will kill you on contact.

So there's a statement from ICE to Fox News Digital. What are you doing? Why are you just bringing them to New Orleans, to you guys? And here's what he says. At this time, U.S.

Immigration and Customs, ICE, has not transported noncitizens for release to Tennessee.

However, get this, the agency is in communication with an NGO community in Nashville that has volunteered to assist with noncitizens, illegal aliens that may be transported to the Nashville area. Can you intercede and tell these NGOs that you're the governor?

Well, we are certainly working together with our attorney general and Senator Blackburn, Senator Hagerty, been very helpful in trying to stop this. Tennesseans don't want this to happen. And actually, Americans don't want this to happen. You know, you talked about thousands of 7,000 a day now, 14,000 coming of Title 42 as our vote. There's 10 fentanyl deaths a day in our state, 3,700 last year, double the amount of fentanyl.

There are more overdose deaths in this country than there are automobile deaths in this country. You know, at some point, we have to recognize that what's happening at the border isn't about compassion or human dignity. It's exactly the opposite. I mean, how many people are going to have to die? How many are going to have to be trafficked into the sex trade before we finally say enough is enough?

We have to stop the movement of all of this across our southern border. All right. That was Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. He is not a Ron DeSantis Republican governor. Just want to throw that out there for what it's worth.

And quite frankly, what he ought to be doing is positioning the guard at all these airports and these bus stops. And if the illegals come off, you put them right back on those buses at gunpoint if necessary. Got to play hardball with these people. I'm tired of these Republican governors just going on Fox News. They won't even go on local media because they're afraid of answering tough questions.

So they'll go on Fox News where they're going to get softball questions and they're going to get their national exposure when, in fact, they're really not doing anything. And that's unfortunate, but that's the reality of it. All right, I've got a question. Do you have a problem with churches that are going to be closed on Sunday? This is turning out to be a huge story.

I thought it was like I was getting Babylon bead, but it turns out it's a big deal and that a lot of churches are shutting down. And then those same pastors are mocking churches that are actually going to be open, accusing you guys of being modern day Pharisees. 844-747-8868, toll free telephone number. This is the Todd Stearns Radio Show. www.advocate.com Find your purpose.

Visit gcu.edu slash social work to learn more. All right. I sort of stumbled into this raging debate, which I really didn't mean to do. But there was this big debate on Twitter and Facebook, social media, about whether or not you should have church on Christmas Sunday, if Christmas is indeed on a Sunday. And honest to goodness, when somebody told me this was a big deal and people were really upset about this, I thought, really, I thought I was being punked, or Babylon bead, I guess is the right word to use nowadays.

But anyway, I did all this, did some research. Even the New York Times weighed in on it, and they interviewed a very prominent North Carolina preacher, a megachurch preacher. And he's got one of these, like, franchise things, you know, where he's got multiple churches in different locations. Anyway, he said that they're shutting down the church. They're locking the church house doors on Sunday.

And then he actually went so far as to suggest that critics are Pharisees. In other words, they're legalistic. Who do you think you are to say that we have to have church on Sunday?

Okay, well, we've kind of been having church on Sunday since at least I was born. And I know there are others that say, well, we ought to have church on Saturday. Go to church. But it just seems to me that, again, these woke preachers are trying to score some, like, woke points and cool points by saying only the cool kids are going to be shutting down their churches. All the rest of you folks are old fogies.

You're just old school. Look at those people dressing up in suits and dresses, and they've combed their hair, and they're going to church. They're old school.

So, no, this is just how they act. I know these people. I know how they are. And, you know, we had Dr. Robert Jeffers on the show yesterday from First Baptist Church Dallas, and he said, look, it would be like closing down the fireworks displays on Independence Day, right?

Why would you close your church? And by the way, the only people making a lot of hay about all this in the first place are the preachers that are shutting down their churches. But now when you actually, they bring it up as a point of debate or conversation, and if you disagree with them, oh, he's a Pharisee. Wait, what? It's just weird.

I just think it's weird. I mean, don't yell at me. You're the guy shutting down your church on Jesus's birthday. Would you do that with your child? If your child was having a birthday, would you intentionally not celebrate on that day?

No. But, Todd, Jesus wasn't born on December. Please stop. Please stop. I don't want to have that debate today.

So anyway, it's interesting about these preachers. And I just want to point out, I wrote this on Facebook, and I probably shouldn't have, but I really don't care. But it seems to me that these preachers, these woke preachers who are shutting down their church so they can prove they love Jesus more than you do, that these were the loudest voices attacking pastors who kept their churches open during the pandemic. And these are the same men of the cloth who dress up in the attire, probably more appropriate for a nightclub setting, if you're going to a rave or something like that. They dress up like that on Sunday because they want to be cool and it's not about clothes.

And who do you think you are to say that a preacher has to wear a robe or a suit? But guess what? When they have to officiate at a wedding, yeah, they're wearing a suit and tie.

sounds a little hypocritical to me so anyway i should have just stayed off of twitter is what i should have done grace baker i should have just stayed off of social media you want your blood pressure to go on go down just hop off the internet i mean look i don't care i mean if you're it's just kind of weird to me that you would just shut it would be like not sell up you know you got mlk day but you're not going to commemorate mlk day on mlk day well i think the weirdest part is the pastors that like you said have their churches shut down and then they're like pointing it out i think they just feel bad secretly oh i think they're trying to justify trying to justify it because it's like i don't even think anybody i mean yeah it's super duper weird but i don't think anybody's like calling them out like but now you've brought attention to it and now people are going to call you out because you decided to bring it up the bad guy hey look i'm just it was like with amy grant the same thing with amy grant okay i'm not the one who went to the Washington Post and announced, oh, look at me. Look at me. I'm hosting a same-sex wedding on my property. I'm holier than thou. And then when you pointed out, how dare you?

This is a private family matter. How dare you?

Okay, I was just reading. How dare you?

I just want to know why the Washington Post. That's it. Oh, that is the go-to. That is the go-to newspaper in the secular world because they've got a lot of woke Christians that work there now, and they've got all those Nashville connections.

So whenever you see a preacher weighing in on a Washington Post story, they're woke. And the Atlantic. I feel like it happens in the Atlantic a lot. Oh, those people are evil. Don't you think that happens a lot, though, with the Atlantic?

Yeah, they're satanic. Seriously. I mean, I know some of the people that work there, they're just demon people. It's sad to say, but I just call it like I see it, Grace. That's fair enough.

I'm tired of these people. I really am. I don't care. You know what? Here's the thing.

Me, personally, I'm going to a church that actually has church on Sunday. Same here. All right. There you go. Same here.

So the rest of you heathens can go.

Well, I'm just kidding. They come to our churches.

So, look, I think, ladies and gentlemen, the whole point of all of this is that we are coming to a point in the country. The whole country's a mess. Everything in America is a mess right now. And it goes back to one thing, and I believe it is the decimation of the church, which is our tradition. It's who we are, right?

We all had this common thing we did on Sundays, whether you were a Catholic or a Protestant. You went to church. You went to mass. You went to synagogue. You did those things, and we all did them.

As a matter of fact, there were some towns in the turn of the century, the last century, they had a Baptist church and a Methodist church, and they actually shared a preacher.

So one week you'd go to the Baptist church, and the next week you'd go to the Methodist church, and you'd say, Tom, but it's the same preacher. I know it doesn't make any sense, but you've got to go along here with me. I've got a much broader point here. But a lot of these churches now, it's all about show business. Got to get out of the politics.

can't be talking about politics because the politics will affect people coming to the church, and if people don't come to the church, they're not going to give money. Forget about going out there and sharing the good news in the community. We've got to have the coolest coffee bar. We've got to have the coolest workout center. We've got to have the best bookstore.

We've got to have all those things. And churches really stopped becoming churches, and they became campuses. And now it's big business. A lot of these churches, they actually have business. I mean, they run their church like a business.

And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying, have we lost sight of what church is about? And I ask that question because people are afraid to talk about their faith. A lot of people are just terrified to talk about their faith. There are a lot of conservative talk show hosts, and I get these messages.

They're like, do you really think that's a good idea that you talk about faith during your show? because that's so polarizing. Yeah, imagine that. A talk radio program that's polarizing. Yeah, that's never happened before, right?

But I believe we have to talk about these things because it's all part of the big puzzle. And we talk a lot about putting the puzzle together here on this program. And that's really why we need to get back to what Christmas is all about. And every year, and we started this on the first Christmas of the time, Stearns program, we just took a moment and we paused and we talked about the real reason for the season. And you have to go back and you have to go back to the beginning to understand what Christmas is all about.

And it reminds me of that beautiful passage of Scripture in Luke chapter 2. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. It's always about the taxes with these people. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was the governor of Syria. It all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and of the lineage of David, to be taxed, again with the taxes, with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds. They were abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, fear not, For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God. and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And there are lessons that we can glean from this. But the ones I want to leave you with as we go to break, fear not. There's a lot of stuff, a lot of chaos in the culture right now.

But fear not. Because there will be peace on earth. there will be goodwill toward men. It will come. You've got to trust me on this, folks.

It's going to come. But we've got to get back to the basics. We've got to get back to the reason for the season. This is the Todd Stern Show. Thank you.

scholarships in 2021. Visit gcu.edu slash myoffer to see the scholarships you qualify for. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University.

All right, welcome back, everybody.

Some breaking news. The Senate made it official. They have approved a $1.7 trillion spending bill. More than a dozen Republican lawmakers joined Democrats. Final vote, 68 to 29.

So we will post the names of the senators on our website momentarily.

So we're going to get that information for you. And you will know what to do at that point. And what do we need to do? We need to make sure these people are voted out of office. we've got to do whatever we can to shut these Republicans down.

By the way, they had an opportunity. The Republicans had an opportunity. But Mitch McConnell, he's not out there looking out for you. He's out there looking out for his bottom line and his bank account. And so there you go.

The next big battle facing Republicans will be Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives. and I will say this, you have a responsibility and an opportunity to make some change here by calling your elected members of Congress and demanding, demanding that they vote out Kevin McCarthy. And I would go so far as to suggest that if your elected member of Congress refuses to do that, then you campaign against them in the next election cycle. I'm just tired of them all. I really washed my hands of all of this.

All right, we've got time for another trivia question. Grace, nice job on the trivia questions. They're very, very Christmassy. In the movie Home Alone, where are the McAllisters going on vacation when they leave Kevin behind? In the movie Home Alone, the McAllisters, they left their child behind.

It's child abuse. I'm surprised that Child Protective Services were not involved in this story, Grace Baker. Eh, it was the 90s. It was. I guess things were a little bit looser then.

A little bit more loosey-goosey. You could leave your child at home and fly to Paris with no consequences. 844-747-8868 if you know the answer. You know, I was just not a big fan of Home Alone for whatever reason. Grace, why are you laughing at me?

Nothing, Todd. I'll tell you after the show. All right. Very good. It's okay.

Home Alone is one of my favorite movies, actually. Is it really? One of my favorite Christmas movies. It's a good one. And then it was like Home Alone 2.

The Donald Trumpson. Was it three? Oh, that's right. But there were more. Trump Tower.

There were more, though. Yeah, I don't care. Yeah, and they recasted. No, thanks. I pretend those don't exist.

One and two are good, and that's it.

Okay. All right. So, anyway, we want to know where were the McAllisters going on vacation when they left Kevin behind in the movie Home Alone. 844-747-8868 is our toll-free telephone number. The president of the NAACP, that's the National Association for the Advancement of Non-Caucasian People.

The president, Derek Johnson, has created a bit of controversy. He rewrote the lyrics of a popular Christmas song, All I Want for Krimah. And I want to read the lyrics to you here. This is Derek Johnson singing, I don't want a lot for Krimah. There is just one thing I need.

I don't care about the presents underneath the Krimah tree. All I want for Krimah is Donald Trump in handcuffs.

Well, nothing says Yuletide spirit like that.

So that's the latest CRIMA greeting from the NAACP. All right, let's go to the phones here. 844-747-8868. Joe in North Carolina, WHKP, our great affiliate there. Hi, Joe.

How are you today? Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, Todd. Doing well.

Well, Merry Christmas to you, Joe. Joe, there's some cold weather coming your way. You better believe it. I was getting well pump insulated today, getting ready for it.

Well, I'm heading out to the hardware store in Germantown, Tennessee. As soon as I get off the air, I've got to do some outdoor insulating of the pipes.

So I'm sure I'll be fighting. It'll be a manhouse over there. It probably will. All right, let's win you a prize here, Joe. We want to know the movie Home Alone.

And where were the McAllisters going on vacation? Paris. Oui, oui, it is Paris.

Well done there. Joe, you a big fan of that movie by any chance? I do. I got to admit, I enjoyed them quite much. Yeah, I guess.

I don't know. I'm kind of grunchy when it comes to that kind of stuff. I don't know why, but go figure. Joe, we're going to put you on hold, and we're going to get you a prize. Grace is all set up there.

And, folks, we want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. I'll be heading out for a bit of a vacation and wrapping up my next book project. But I'll be back with you after the first of the year. Our good friend Jeff Stein from radio station KXEL is going to be filling in. And you're just going to love Jeff and be nice to him and be sure to call into the program.

I want to thank our great team here, of course, Grace and Kyle. Grace leaving us for Chicago right around the first of the year. And we'll tell you about some changes we're making here on the program when we get back. In the meantime, you get out there and you celebrate the reason for the season. And whatever you do, be sure to go to church this weekend.

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