Is A Blue Wave Coming in 2026?

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It's America's conservative blowtorch. Yeah. Trader. Love is American. Todd start.

Yeah, hello everybody. Welcome to the Time Stars Radio Program. What an honor to have you with us today. And we have a lot of news to get through, a lot of conversation. We're throwing out a few trivia questions today as well, gearing up for the Yuletide season and a lot happening in our nation's capital.

By the way, we're expecting the president to somehow, he's going to be giving a speech, making some remarks from the White House, from the Oval Office during the show. And we'll try to dip into that when that happens.

Sometimes the president runs a little bit late, so we'll do our best if he's actually speaking during our three hours together.

So look, last night, some very good news. And look, a win is a. Win, right?

So that's good news. The Republicans did not lose the Tennessee 7th Congressional District race. And if you've been listening to the program for any amount of time, I've been telling you that this polling data was way off. This Emerson College poll that had the race between Matt Van Epps and Afton Bain, the Zoron Man Dummy Democrat, they were like within two points of each other. And I got to tell you, I don't know what they're smoking over at Emerson College, but it's not a pork butt, everybody.

These guys were way off the mark.

However, there's a lot of spin going on today, and I want to try to cut through all of that. We're not going to spend a lot of time on this because I've got a lot of other topics I want to share with you. But I think there is something that we need to pay attention to.

Now, the Republicans are saying this was a huge victory, that it never really was a plus 22 district for Congresspeople. And they're pointing out that when Marsha Blackburn ran back, I think in 2018, she barely squeaked out a win.

So, from the Republicans' point of view, They're looking at this as some sort of a massive landslide victory for the Republican Party. I'm not seeing that. As a matter of fact, I am seeing a very energized. Democrat base. And I want to explain why.

Because when you look at the the really this campaign came down to about two weeks. I think after Bain had been out there campaigning for many, many, many, many weeks, And it really wasn't until the past couple of weeks that Republicans, and clearly they were looking at some internal polling numbers that made them. Very, very concerned. And that's one of the reasons why Donald Trump, the night before the election, did two campaign events. And then you had Speaker Mike Johnson boots on the ground.

It was all hands on deck. And they spent millions and millions of dollars to win this race.

So the Republicans did what they needed to do to get this guy across the finish line. And look, I have no doubt that he's going to do a fine job. I think he will be a solid voice and vote for President Trump. But we shall see, as they say. Regardless.

I think there are some things that we need to glean from this. Because when you look at What happened in Nashville proper, and she, this district covers about half of Nashville, she won 80% of that vote. And that is really a staggering number.

Now, again, it's a mostly rural outside of some of the bigger towns. She also did well in Montgomery County. Which is where Austin P University is.

So you have a big college contingent there. But she did not win. The only county that she won in the entire And the entire district was Davidson County, which is where Nashville is.

So, I have a couple of thoughts about that. First of all, What is going on in in Nashville? Are they really that? I mean, have the Southerners, has the state capital of Tennessee embraced socialism?

Now, that's a difficult question. It's a tricky question to answer. I'm going to do my best. But first, again, let's rehash who is Apton Bain. Number one, she is on the record in a podcast hating Nashville.

She also said she hates country music. She also said she thinks men can give birth. And she said she gets triggered when people pray to Jesus Christ.

So how in the world did somebody like that Nearly get elected and nearly got 80% of the vote in Davidson County, Tennessee. And that's why I think this should serve as a wake-up call. And it's just sort of like a: hey, are you guys paying attention to what's going on here? Because there are a couple of things that I believe we can take away from this. Number one, she actually campaigned on affordability.

And I know Trump says that we do not have an affordability problem in America, but we got an affordability problem in America. And we hear it every day from our callers. All of you guys are calling and saying, yeah, we got an affordability problem. We've got to get it under control. It's not the end of the world.

We just got to get it under control. That's all. And it's not an attack on anybody. And I know the White House thinks, oh, they're attacking us by pointing this out. No, it's not.

We're just relaying, hey, here's what the people are talking about. And trust me when I say, when you're in Washington, D.C., when you're in the Oval Office, and it doesn't matter if it's a Republican or Democrat in that office. It doesn't matter. They're not going down to Chick-fil-A for lunch. Right?

They're going to the high-end establishments. That's just the nature of politics. They're really not concerned with how much it costs for you to go grocery shopping. That's not registering with them because they're not doing the grocery shopping. In many cases, they've got servants.

Can we say servants on the 24? They have people to do that. That's the politically correct term. No, not slaves. I I said servants.

Anyway, That's so so yeah, I think a part of it is that a big part of it is that is that people are hurting.

However, the people that are hurting are the demographic of voters that normally don't go out and vote.

So I don't think that was the bigger issue. Here's what I think the bigger issue is, and you people in North Carolina and Texas, I think you're going to be able to back me up on this. The problem is that a lot of red states have been dealing with a massive influx of newcomers, and they've been coming from blue states. The problem is, they're bringing their politics with them, and they are unpacking their politics, and it's turning traditionally red cities in the South. Dark blue.

It happened in North Carolina, and it's happening in Texas right now. And when you see the voting totals coming out of Nashville, it's happening in Nashville. And I hate to break this to you. I used to love going to Nashville. It was a fun town.

It was a good southern city. But these days, if you've been, and I'm not saying you're not going to have a good time, but it's like the number one destination for bridesmaids. In America.

So if you're downtown and they're riding around on these, I can't see, I don't even know what you call them, these little, they're like bars on bicycles, and everybody sits around and they're pedaling in their seats and they're getting wasted. The party buses. Thank you.

Well, but they're not buses. They're like bicycles, you know. But the pedal party bikes. The pedal party bikes. That's it.

You can nearly get killed by those things. And the women are screaming and carrying on, and they're getting drunk, and they're, you know, losing their lunch. And passing out, it's quite the scene down there on Lower Broadway. It didn't used to be like that.

So Nashville has changed.

So all of these newcomers have arrived. And you've got most of them are coming from Hollywood and the music industry. There was a story I wrote in my book, Twilight's Last Gleaming, Can America Be Saved? about Governor Mike Hockaby, who was invited to be on the Country Music Foundation, the board. Their only job was to raise money to buy musical instruments for poor kids.

which I think is a pretty noble thing. But the head of the country the head of the country music foundation at the time happened to be this gay dude who was a m a country music executive. And the gay dude had a gay husband and they had kids. And he said that somebody like Mike Huckabee is no longer welcome in country music. And you're like, wait, what?

Somebody who and and the guy doubled down. He said, no, no, no, anybody who holds the same values that Mike Huckabee holds, yeah, we don't want those people in country music anymore. By the way, that's why country music has gone a little squirrely lately.

So, anyway, you've got all of that coming in. By the way, Hollywood's bringing a lot of their people. And it's just changed the whole culture of Nashville. And honestly, the last time I was there. And and this happened to me in Texas too.

This is it happened in two places. It happened at and I'll tell you exactly where it happened at the Opryland Hotel, which they now call the Gay Lord. But we all knew it growing up as the Opryland Hotel. But the gay Lord has all of these and the other happened at the some restaurant I was staying at in Dallas. And so, anyway, I was looking for a good hearty breakfast.

So, I go down and I'm looking for a restaurant at the Gaylord. And I found the restaurant. They were serving breakfast, and I sat down. They said, What would you like? I said, It was my regular order.

I want a glass of sweet tea. And I want a sausage biscuit. And the waiter looks at me. We don't have those here. Would you like a fruit smoothie?

I'm like, no, I don't want a fruit smoothie. I want a sausage biscuit and I want a glass of sweet tea. And the guy looks at me again and he kind of gets a little A little pritsy, and he puts his hand on it. I mean, I'm just like, I'm not being mean about it. I'm just saying, no, I really would like a sausage biscuit and.

A glass of sweet tea.

Well, we just don't serve that kind of food here at the Gaylord. And I'm like, okay, well, what sort of food do you serve at the Gay Lord? And so they brought out, they had like bagels. And they had unsweeten tea, and then they brought out this, like, they had this. And by the way, Just I want to give you an iced tea primer here.

You can't make cold iced tea sweet. You have to boil it and then you let the sugar dissolve in it, otherwise, you get that nasty sediment. I don't want to, again, I'm getting off on a tangent here, but so all of that to say, back in the day, if you went to the Opryland Hotel, they'd be serving you a pile of homemade biscuits with homemade jam, and they'd be out there with big old sausage patties. Gretz the whole nine yards. Same thing happened in Dallas.

And the lady felt so bad for you. She said, I said, what do you have? She goes, we have toast. Toast? What the what?

Toast? What's that? We're in Dallas, Texas. Give me a side of beef and a biscuit. She felt so bad she went over to the bakery and got me a croissant.

I can't be eating that What is that going to do to my Southern street cred for crying out loud?

So, all that to say, the whole thing has the whole environment's changed, the culture has changed. And I've been hearing that from a lot of people in North Carolina, where your culture is literally changing. People aren't talking with accents anymore. Everybody's talking with I don't like this New Jersey thing. Hello.

How are you, Skies? Nobody talks like that. We didn't used to talk like that. All right, that's not the accent.

Well, you're from Jersey, Cassie. Isn't that how it goes? You just needed to chime in. No, how does it go? Are like you, Skies?

Yeah, you o okay, maybe yeah, that part. Yo, can't see. Only that part. Not that part.

Okay. What you doing? I need some sauce with my meatballs. Did I get it? Is that better?

Yeah. I plead the fifth. All right. I'm just saying, I miss a good old southern accent. I miss when you ask for some iced tea, it automatically comes sweet, right?

I miss those days. And I'm just saying that's one of the reasons why. Those people voted for a socialist loot. They're not thinking straight. And by the way, can I just say one more thing about these diners serving bagels in Nashville instead of biscuits?

You can't really schmear a biscuit. It doesn't work. You can't do the schmear. It just doesn't work. All that said, I'm just glad Mini Pearl.

And Grandpa Jones are not alive to see what they have done to Music City USA. Because, based on what we saw last night, Nashville has gone woke, beyond woke. And the lesson here, I think, for the rest of the nation. And we're going to play some audio from CNN. They're thinking that this could be the start of a blue wave.

Well, first of all, a reality check they lost last night, but the reality is this, they have the big mo. They've got momentum. And the only reason, the only reason Matt Van Epps won is that Donald Trump got himself involved in this race. Number two, people came out in droves to stop the socialists. They weren't voting for somebody, they were voting against an ideology.

That could be dangerous for us come the midterms.

So, look, we got to take a break. We're going to the phone lines: 901-260-5926, our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. You guys, give us a call. Hey folks, Angel Studios is having their biggest sale of the year and it's one you don't want to miss.

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Yeah. All right, welcome back. I want to go to Houston. Bob is listening to us on Patriot Talk 920 and wants to weigh in on a very important issue. regarding biscuits.

Bob, what's going on? Yes. I wanted to kind of inform you or let you in on it. When you're in Texas and you're looking for a bun and a sausage on it, as for a kolachi, In most of your donut shops in Texas, they make a kolachi. It's a bun with a sausage inside of it.

Kind of like a hot dog, but it's been closed in.

Some places you get them, the sausages are like a sweet sausage, a tasty hill country smoked. Really good, delicious in the morning, especially when they're warm. Wow. And Bob, you would be surprised here. You would be surprised to know this, Bob.

I have actually tasted a kalachi, and I got to tell you, they were somewhat life-changing. Yes, yes, they're really good. And in Texas, you can get them with cheese and jalapeno on them. And it really gives you like a like the Latin flavor or Mexican flavor. They're really good too.

And they can be really hot with the hot pepper on them, the other chili pepper on them. But that's what you should be asking for when you're down here in the Texans, the donut shops. Around Texas area. Where the kalachi got started from, it was from the Polish settlers that came in one hundred and fifty years ago, and they're the ones that brought it over and started this in Texas, the settlers in Texas from Poland. They they'll correct you now if you get in one of the old shops.

And you ask for kalachitan.

Now be warned. they might correct you and tell you it's not a collache, it's a colovice. That's the way they say it in Poland. Oh, that's fancy, fancy talking.

So, yeah, I've been corrected when you run across one of the old Polish places, but most people call it just Kalachi down here. Ask for that next time you're around in Texas, and you'll be very happy. I will do that. I was at, someone took me, and I was in Fort Worth, Texas. This was so many years ago.

I don't even know if this place is still open, but I do remember the name because it was just such a fun place. It was called Busy Bees, and they just, they were, it was, I think it was a family-owned place, and they were churning out these things. I had never seen a Kolachi before, and I'm like, wow, this is why Texas is so great. Yes, they do. It's a good mix of various traditions, Spanish, Mexican, French, German, Polish, Italian.

It's just got everything, all the different kinds of cuisines. And kind of mixed together, you know, like Tex-Mex dude. All right. Well, Bob, well, I appreciate the intel there. And thank you for a little bit of the culture there in the great state of Texas.

And we certainly appreciate listening to Patriot Talk 920. You know, it's my understanding the Czechs, I mean, Bob said it was the Polish who brought those over. I had heard it was the Czech immigrants, but, you know, I don't want to start a Kalachi war.

So anyway, all right, hang tight, folks. We're going to take a quick break. We've got Justin in Collierville, Tennessee on deck. I'm just curious, how confident are you that the Republicans are on the right track? Is there something they may need to tweak here?

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Over at CNN.

So they're they're Laying out the numbers here, and we'll get that. Oh, here we go.

So, CNN. This morning, they were looking at the numbers, and we were too. And I know the Republicans and a lot of conservatives are saying a win is a win is a win. We don't care. Let's move on.

No, this was a rock-solid ruby red district. This guy should have won by 20 points. And the fact that he didn't should give us pause for concern to say, okay, what's going on here? Are we looking at demographic shifts? And I mentioned that to you, folks from California moving in.

Is it a situation where the voters are just really demoralized because the Republican majorities haven't done all that much up on Capitol Hill? Or is it a combo platter of all of those things? Also, Matt Van Epps, and I don't, he was not the choice of the America first voters. I'll just leave it at that. But anyway, listen to these numbers real quick.

Going down through the counties here, and again, these are many of these are rural counties. All right. So I'm not going to mention Nashville-Davidson County. Dixon County moved 12 points to the left. Hickman County, 8 points to the left.

Humphreys, 12 points to the left. Wayne, 7 points to the left. Every single county moved as much as 15 points to the left. That tells me. We need to pay attention here that something is not right.

Something is not clicking. Let's go to the phone lines. Justin in Collierville, Tennessee, listening to us on KWAM. Hi, Justin. What's on your minds?

Hey, good morning, Todd. Hey, I think you missed a big point about Nashville, how progressive they have become of that city.

So for the twenty twenty four Republican National Convention, actually it has been the Presidential Convention where the Republican Party makes the nomination for President, that came down to two cities, Milwaukee and Nashville. And they pulled out of Nashville because The city council there protested so much and said that it was divisive and that basically it would become January sixth. if they held the national convention there. And they lost out on a two hundred million dollar impact on that city just because that city is has so much Trump derangement Um Syndrome.

So it's not a surprise to me if Davidson County would go that hard blue. But I do think the Van Amps race is a canary in the coal mine. Republicans aren't talking about the key issues to everyday Americans of affordability. And they just haven't Came through with Immigration of deporting as many people as we can.

So there's a lot of promises they made. They just need to get with it because I think a lot of those are even Republican and Independent voters that are either choosing to stay home out of protest. Are they swapping out to the other side because they're talking about key issues? That matter to him.

So I think the Republicans are being very defensive today and saying this was a win, but I do not see this as a win. I see it as momentum for the Democrats. No, that's exactly how I see it. And I don't, look, I don't want to be the, you don't want to be that guy, you know, that like poo-poos on the victory. I mean, it's a great victory, and I'm glad he won.

But we need to take a really hard look at these numbers here because there's a story. And I think the Democrats, and I'm somewhat excited about this. The Democrats truly believe that Afton Bain, her politics, is the way to go. That's going to be, in their minds, that's going to just rile up their base.

So I'm not going to be surprised. To see her running again, but I'm also not going to be surprised if we see very similar candidates like Afton Bain running in races across the country. What do you think, Justin? Yes. So I think you have to look at the bigger picture.

That district was drew to guarantee that a Republican would win, even if you did have a large Democrat turnout. A Democrat's not going to win, but the Democrats found a way to gain momentum. And I think that we gave. the Democrats the best gift they could have hoped for before the twenty twenty six midterms, which is hope. Which is showing if we have a message that we can come out there and we can talk about affordability and these kitchen table issues.

That they can hopefully win. And they're not gonna win every district, but they may come close in some races across the country. They may even flip some, if you have a good congressional candidate that has that message, maybe they flip some school board seats, or maybe they flip some county commission seats. Across the country, and that's how they understand they play the long game and win. We as Republicans don't see that.

And we need to start, we need to get refocused And we need to get back to the message of twenty twenty sixteen that Trump had of making America great with all the kitchen table issues that matter to everyday Americans. Yes, I see your point there. And I do look, I feel very optimistic about the President's agenda. It is a winning agenda. It's a winning message.

The problem is it's not getting implemented by the Congress. And we have got to light a fire under Mike Johnson and Jon Thune. I don't know if we can. I really don't, because they are clearly beholden to a lot of power brokers that don't want President Trump's agenda to move forward. And I mean, otherwise, why haven't they been working around the clock to codify all of these things?

Yeah, that's a question they'll have to answer, I think. once you get to DC, it's so hard to get things done because it costs so much money to get there and you're basically in so many people's pockets. that it's really hard to execute that agenda, but You know what? The biggest dilemma for Republicans is Republicans staying at home, and Republicans will protest by just not voting. And that's how Democrats get elected in this country because we are the majority.

And that's the way, and that's the way that race was going until they really had to ramp things up there in the final two weeks. I think they saw the numbers. Republicans have been, I don't know, not demoralized is not the right word, but they're just disinterested because we haven't seen, I mean, when you listen to President Trump, it's all about rah-rah, we are winning, we are winning. And you hear nothing from Congress because A, they're not there, and B, they're just not engaged.

So there's a big disconnect in Congress right now. Justin, I got to run, but thank you for the call and thank you for that analysis. Want to play this from CNN. Talking about where things are going, they seem to think a blue wave is building. I'm not so sure about that.

Cut number 10. Still, Democrats seem to be smiling this morning. Why? Because the margin of defeat was much slimmer Than Republicans have been doing in that district. With us now, CNN Chief data analyst Harry Eton.

Let's talk about the numbers. Let's talk about the numbers. Republicans should be running for the Hills this morning because the blue wave is building, my dear friend Mr. Berman. What are we talking about here?

Well, Van Epps, Matt Van Epps, the Republican candidate, he won it by nine, but this is a district that Donald Trump won by 22 points, 15 points, 17 points. This is a 13-point gain for the Democrats in terms of the margin. And excuse time for Republicans is over because I hear all about these special elections. Oh, the turnout's so low. It's not representative of what would happen in the midterm election.

The turnout last night in Tennessee's 7th district was equal to the turnout in the 2022 midterm election.

So the blue wave seems to be building right out of the center of Tennessee. Interesting. In turn, the numbers, the turnout looked like a regular midterm. Midterm election, not a special election. Exactly right, exactly right.

And of course, we have a midterm. What about 11 months from? All right, what have we seen in terms of trends in all the special elections the last year?

Okay, you know, I wouldn't necessarily give a hootna hollering about one special election in Tennessee. I love the people in central Tennessee, but central Tennessee is nothing special compared to the rest of the country. But what we see happening is: take a look here.

Okay, 2025 U.S. House special elections. Dems outrunning Kamala Harris. A lot of blue here, a lot of blue, which is what I think the nation might look like a year from now if these results hold. Arizona 7, you see a 17 over outperformance of Kamala Harris.

23 points in Florida 1, 16 points in Florida 6, 13 points in Tennessee 7, 28 points in Texas 28, and then 17 points in Virginia 11.

So we've seen it throughout the nation, whether you go from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., all the way to southwest, to the southwest in Arizona, whether you're looking at Texas, whether you're looking at Tennessee, whether you go down to Florida, we have seen. Seen the Democratic outperformance of Kamala Harris happening across the political map. What happened last night in Tennessee ain't just staying in Tennessee, it is spreading itself throughout the nation. As I said to me, looking at these results, it looks like a blue wave. Is building.

And it's not just that it's blue, it's that it's double-digit blue. It is double-digit blue. It is exactly right. It's double-digit blue. I will note, I looked at the stats.

If in fact you had a 13-point shift like we saw in Tennessee and you applied that to the 2024 presidential map, we are talking about a gain for Democrats of north of 40 seats. All right, I don't know about that. I don't think those numbers are accurate, but they're analyzing the data. And I will say that based on what we've seen, the Republicans have some work to do. And it goes back to some very simple things.

We've got to focus on the economy, immigration, education, and crime. And we've got to make sure that the messaging on those four issues is spot on. And look, the White House has done a terrific job of that. Congress has not.

So we've got to get it together, or that could be the big problem. There could be a blue wave coming. And I don't want that to happen. You don't want that to happen. The country doesn't need that to happen.

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Your home deserves it, and this deal ends soon. All right, welcome back, everybody. It is the Todd Stearns Radio Show. What an honor to have you with us today. Look, President Trump yesterday was in rare form at.

at this um at this cabinet meeting, and it was all taking place during our show. Uh I l you you just have to love this guy's sense of humor. And that's the problem. You know, so many people just do not understand his his sense of humor, his incredibly dry wit. And I want to play some audio here.

This is the president explaining why the first lady is upset over new construction at the White House, Cut 7. Building one of the great, I think maybe the greatest ballroom. We needed it for 150 years. They've been asking, you see the trucks and cranes and excavators in the background? And you hear them and every time I hear them I love the sound.

To me I love the sound. I wouldn't say my wife is thrilled. She hears pile drivers in the background all day, all night. They go till 12 o'clock in the evening. Day, night, pile drivers.

Darling, could you turn off the pile drivers?

Sorry. Darling, that's progress. Darling, it's progress. I love that. President also weighing in on his health.

You know, this just drives me crazy. We've got a guy who was in office for four years, and he didn't even know he was in office for four years. He literally talked to dead people on stage. He would call out people in the audience, and they weren't there. You know why?

Because they were dead. But maybe he did see maybe Joe Biden sees dead people. The guy had completely lost his marbles, and everybody turned a blind eye.

So, Donald Trump, like, I don't know, nods off every once in a while, or maybe he sounds a little bit sleepy, or maybe he's walking differently because, you know, he hurt his leg or something, and the media goes nuts.

So, the president addressed all of this at the cabinet meeting, cut number six. But you always find something new, like, is he in good health? Biden was great, but is Trump a good health? I sit here, I do four news conferences a day, I ask questions from very intelligent lunatics, you people. I always get.

I get the right answers. There's never a scandal. There's never a problem. I give you answers that solve your little problems. You go back.

And you can't find anything, but you do stories about Biden was in wonderful health. Like I didn't do a news conference for eight months. If I go one day, I had one day where I didn't do a news conference, there's something wrong with the President You people are crazy. I'll let you know when there's something wrong. There will be someday.

That's going to happen to all of us. But right now I think I'm sharper than I was twenty-five years ago, but who the hell does Yeah. It's true, though, right? I mean, here's a guy. He's been doing, he's been doing a three, he did a three-hour press conference yesterday in this cabinet meeting.

It was remarkable. And they have the nerve, they have the audacity to go out there and say, Well, you don't look very good, you look a little flushed today, Mr. President. Do you have cancer? I mean, it's insane.

They're waiting for the guy to drop dead. It's unbelievable. All right, I want to share something with you, and we haven't spent a lot of time on this, but this month in December, we're hoping to set a goal, and we are slow marching this, and we're very excited about creating a foundation that is really going to ramp up and sort of be the engine for enhancing our news coverage and our conservative news coverage. And we're looking to hire some staff writers and journalists who are conservatives. And for us to be able to do that, we have to raise a little bit of funding.

And I think it's important for people to have buy-in and for people to partner with what we're doing. And we want to give you that opportunity. And so this month for December, we're hoping to add 100 people who will become supporters of the Todd Stern Show and Stern's Media Group. And you can do that very simply by going to my website. And you'll see the post giving Tuesday.

Of course, now it's Wednesday, but you can still give ways you can support ways you can support the show. And when you click on the link to contribute, you'll be able to donate whatever you want. Either it's a one-time gift. A monthly gift or a yearly gift, and you can donate $25, $250. I know Cassie's put in for $2,500.

Thank you, Cassie, for that. We'll send you a book. Um, and or you can do others.

So, maybe some people have donated five dollars, and they said, you know what, I want this to be a five-dollar or ten-dollar monthly donation, a gift. Or you can do a one-time. It's really up to you and however you see fit. And we make it super simple. We do it all through PayPal.

So all of your donation information is secure. And you can also donate with a credit card or a debit card. But again, go to toddstearns.com and we're just slow marching this. We're going to be ramping up in the new year, but we're looking for 100 people this month that will be able to donate and help us out. And you can do that by going to toddstearns.com and you'll see the information there where you can make a donation.

All right, hang tight, everybody. We got to take a quick break. We'll be right back. This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Boen Yang from Los Culturalistos with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

Hey, Boen, it's gift season. Ugh, stressing me out. Why are the people I love so hard to shop for? Probably because they only make boring gift guides that are totally uninspired. Except for the guide we made.

In partnership with Marshalls, where premium gifts meet incredible value, it's giving gifts! With categories like best gifts for the mom whose idea of a sensible walking shoe is a stiletto, or best gifts for me that were so thoughtful I really shouldn't have. Check out the guide on marshalls.com and gift the good stuff at Marshalls. You won't be. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun-totin, Bible-clanging, deplorable American.

Right. I love Love is American. Touchdown. You know, I am so glad to hear President Trump playing hardball. All of these people coming into our country.

And, you know, it's fascinating because. They hate us. Right? They live in squalor. And we open up our arms, we give them all the resources they need to live the American dream.

And then they turn around and they spit on us. And then they try to change our way of life.

So President Trump was talking about this yesterday at this incredible cabinet meeting. Cut number three, please. And they contribute nothing. The welfare is like 88%. They contribute nothing.

I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you.

Somebody would say, oh, that's not politically correct. I don't care. I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks.

And we don't want them in our country. I could say that about other countries too. I can say it about other countries too. We don't want them to help. We have to rebuild our country.

You know, our country's at a tipping point. We could go bad. We're at the tipping point. I don't know if people mind me saying that, but I'm saying it. Uh we could go one way or the other.

And We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren't people that work.

These aren't people that say, let's go, come on, let's make this place great. These are people that do nothing but complain. They complain and from where they came from they got nothing. You know, they came from paradise and they said this isn't paradise. But when they come from hell, And they complain.

and do nothing but bitch We don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it. Yeah, I got no problem with anything the President of the United States just said. I want to bring into the conversation Troy Edgar, who is the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Troy, great to have you with us this afternoon on the show.

And first, just on behalf of our vast audience, thank you so much for the great work you guys are doing stopping illegal immigration. Thank you, Todd. It's great to be on your show. I really appreciate it.

So I want to share some breaking news. This was within the past hour where Secretary Noam announced that DHS law enforcement have landed in the Big Easy, that's New Orleans. And what is it called? Operation Catahula Crunch. Yeah, that's correct.

Wow, I love the name. We'll remove the worst of the worst from New Orleans after the city sanctuary politicians have ignored the rule of law. Law and order will prevail. This is exciting news, Troy. What can you tell us about the efforts in New Orleans right now?

It's another great operation. As you can see, Todd, what we've been doing is going around through these different cities, Midway Blitz, we were in Raleigh, going basically coming into these cities. And the unique thing about the Catahoula crunch is that we're in a red state that's got a city in New Orleans that's basically a sanctuary city. But you've got a supportive governor down there, Governor Landry. And I think this is going to be a great example of what happens when you get a supportive governor and it's basically encouraging the federal government's help.

And that's what President Trump and Secretary Noam have been trying to focus on: helping these cities and getting in there.

So we're really going to be focusing first and foremost on the criminal aliens, the worst of the worst. But the thing that keeps happening with these sanctuary cities, and Todd, as you may know, I'm from California, where we have a tremendous problem with sanctuary cities, is you go in there for the criminal aliens, instead of getting them out of the back of the jails through a normal detainer process, they're let back into the communities, and now we're forced. To go into the community and sweep them up. And when we sweep them up, unfortunately, we'll call this collateral arrest. You end up getting a lot of other people arrested.

And that's where you end up with these people that have a situation that may not be the worst of the worst, but they're still illegal. And, you know, and I think President Trump and Secretary Noam has been very focused to be very precise and targeted as we go into these cities. And I'm very excited about this operation.

Now, I'm hardcore, and I know our president is a compassionate man, but for me, I think all the illegals have to go back where they came from and they can apply to come here the legal way. That's just me personally. But I do have a question about: let's say somebody overstayed their visa and they've been here, they came here, and they got all the paperwork to come here, but they overstayed. Does that person automatically get deported, or do you guys work with them to somehow let them stay in the country? No.

Right now, we're doing a very thorough review of all the visas and visa overstays. In the same way that we did it with student visas, we're doing a deep evaluation. And at this point, what we're doing is we're looking for visa overstays, and we're giving them an opportunity to make the move themselves and self support. You see Secretary Noam talking a lot about CBP Home. And we're really focused on a media campaign to just let the folks that are out here that if you're on a visa overstay, go on your own accord, sign up at CBP Home, get out there, we'll help you fly home, we'll give you $1,000, we'll get you on your way.

But if you're on a visa overstay, you need to leave. I know that Tom Holman, the Borders are, has just been outraged, especially with what's been happening in Minneapolis, where it's our understanding that the police chief is urging citizens to call 911 on ICE officers for kidnapping. What is going on there? Again, just another example of a jurisdiction that's basically refusing to work with the federal government. And I think the hard part, and this is really tough, and you see it on T V is that these are federal law enforcement officers doing their job.

and they're actually out there putting their lives on the line. And when you've got something like that, it's not only just them getting kind of harassed potentially saying that they're kidnapping, but crime basically assaults on these officers are up one thousand percent. We have death threats going over eight thousand percent increase in the last month. It's crazy. Are you guys getting any reports of ICE agents and their families or law you know, DHS officers and their families being threatened as well?

Absolutely. I was in Portland. The Secretary had asked me to go out there a couple of months ago, and I was meeting with the folks there. And one of the officers came up to me and basically showed me a picture on their phone of an epitaph that was set up in their front yard, basically threatening them to leave the city and basically was having fruit and other things thrown at their house in the middle of the night. And what happens is they people try to get their names while they're out there on patrol and then they track them down.

There's a whole infrastructure out there trying to find out who these ICE officers are. And if you'll notice too, Todd, I mean, just in Los Angeles, the LA County Board of Supervisors just yesterday approved basically making it a law against all law enforcement to wear, you know, banning masks. And right now, the masks are the one thing that are actually trying to keep our folks safe. You know, and I think that's something that we're very concerned about. Obviously, at the federal law enforcement, not very applicable at the federal level when you have a local jurisdiction saying don't do something, and our federal officers will continue to do what they're doing.

But it just shows you, again, the level of the local law enforcement and these within these sanctuary cities and how far they'll go. I mean, we've already seen one National Guard member lose her life. She was shot and killed in that terrorist attack in Washington. Andrew Wolfe has survived and is recovering from his injuries. But the idea that somebody could be out there targeting the children of these officers as they're out there protecting us, that's just enraging to me.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to think about. I mean, that's National Guard.

So you've got these National Guard heroes out there contributing on behalf of their state and on behalf of the President through their federal law enforcement activity that they're helping. But I think the hard part is that every government official that's out there, Secretary Noam has had a tremendous amount of issues with people kind of coming after her. We've had to have people in the government whole moving on to military bases and putting them into safe places because not only for their public service to the government, but their families are at risk.

So definitely something that we need to kind of stay focused on. And that's why President Trump is not hesitating to give 150 percent support to our federal law enforcement partners that are out there. Troy, are you guys, do you have numbers on how many illegals so far have been deported? Yes, we do. There's a couple of different numbers that we're focused on.

Basically, the ICE and CBP deportation numbers that were out there, our President Trump has been very clear with us that he wants to be focused on one million deportations.

So we're about three fourths of the way through that. as we continue to go through at a very rapid pace. And what's starting to compound that and really get the numbers up is, as you know, President Trump on july fourth passed the One Big Beautiful Bill. And it basically provided DHS $190 billion worth of additional funding.

So CBP and ICE has been hiring additional officers.

So coming up here in about two weeks, ICE will have hired its 10,000th law enforcement officer.

So now we're starting to see the number of arrests really dramatically increase with that additional staffing. And we're also forming partnerships with the counties. We have over 1,000 relationships with local law enforcement in a program that technically they call it 287G, but it's basically just a relationship that the federal government gets into an agreement with normally sheriffs and local law enforcement. And we basically partner and they kind of are an extension of us and we reimburse them for that.

So by the time it's all said and done, I mean, because we've been hearing numbers, I don't know, between 10 and 20 million illegals. I don't know if you guys have a good data on that, but how many do you guys? Hope to be able to deport out of that bunch, say, in the next three years.

Well, I'll just tell you a little bit of a funny story. I mean, this is a serious issue or question. But when I was coming into the administration and I was getting ready to become the deputy secretary, I was going through discussions where they're asking, hey, Troy, are you going to be the deputy secretary? Are you concerned that you're going to be the person second in charge to deport a million people based on what President Trump has said? But if you look at the numbers, it's 10 to 15 million people had come through the southern border unvetted over the last four years.

And my response is, we're not going to stop at a million. And so I think what we're focused on is really all the criminal, illegal aliens that are in this country, millions table stakes. And we're going to be focused in, the good news is we're one year coming up and one year in. And one-fourth of the way through this process, President Trump and Secretary Noam have been able to get this machine going. And obviously, Tom Holman is our borders are another.

a great face of the team. Um when you're dealing with people groups, is there any particular illegal alien people group that's more aggressive than than others? No, something that well, let me back up. When we go out to do the type of removals that we're focused on, it's very targeted. We're looking for the worst of the worst.

So we've spent a tremendous amount of money on technology and profile, the targeting that helps us get and when we actually identify the targets, we rate and evaluate them on their criminality.

So from a scale from one to ten.

So if we know that we're going to go out and it really isn't based on nationality, it's actually the safety to the officers, the safety of the community. And so that'll determine the approach that we're going to take and how we kind of go about our tactics. But like I said, it's a very smart process. The hard part is that when we get out there using these targeting approaches, you know, we end up h getting these collateral arrests that you just don't know who they're hanging out with. And sometimes it's family members and sometimes it's even people worse than the people we're arresting.

Wow. Wow. Well, look, Troy, we could keep you on for a while, but I know you're a busy guy, and we certainly appreciate the update. I know our audience, this is a very important thing for them, and they just want to see all the illegals going back to wherever they came from, and just so we can get a handle on fixing our immigration system. Yeah, no.

Well, Todd, I really appreciate you having me on the show. And thank you for everything that you and your audience are doing. We really appreciate the support. All right, Troy Edgar, everybody, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and sharing a lot of intel with us. I thought this was interesting.

They're focusing on this number 1 million. They said that was the number that President Trump gave them. They said they have, I was doing the numbers here, 750,000. He says they've already deported or have arrested. And there are about 10 to 15 million illegals that were allowed into the country unvetted during the four years of the Biden administration.

It just seems to me. And maybe I'm just m then this is just me. This is a big issue. for me, and it has been for a very long time. Because without secure borders, you cannot have a sovereign nation.

It really is that simple. But it seems to me that we need to be deporting a heck of a lot more than a million people, folks. And if we were coming into this by saying this is our goal, one million. That's not going to put a dent in this. We've got to ramp up and we've got to take this seriously.

All right. Got to take a break. Going to the phones. 901-260-5926. You heard what the deputy secretary had to say.

Your reaction to that. 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern show. This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East. That's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East. That's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. Hey, Bowen. It's gift season. Stressing me out.

Why are the people I love so hard to shop for? Probably because they only make boring gift guides that are totally uninspired. Except for the guide we made. In partnership with Marshalls, where premium gifts meet incredible value, it's giving gifts! With categories like best gifts for the mom whose idea of a sensible walking shoe is a stiletto, or best gifts for me that were so thoughtful I really shouldn't have.

Check out the guide on marshalls.com and gift the good stuff at marshalls. All right, let's go to the phones. Jerry in Iowa. Hi, Jerry. What's on your mind today?

Hello, Todd. Is it too early to bring up the Somalian twin cities in Minnesota? Because I live in Iowa here.

Well, no, it is not. And you know, I asked the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security about that just a little while ago, talking about what was happening in Minneapolis. But you're talking about St. Paul?

Well, so we live in Iowa here. I just wanted to comment that it's about the so-called nice Muslims. Syndrome where people, Americans look at the Muslims, they're just trying to live their life. But the reality is, For me, I have never met a so-called nice Muslim or Democrat. In the US or Israel, I got back from Israel not long ago, who doesn't enjoy sympathizing.

With every time we get hit or bombed or shot or some terrorist comes in, they just sympathize. They say, well, I personally wouldn't Do the bombing or the shooting or the stabbing myself. But basically, the Americans, Christians, and Jews had it coming. And in Israel, it's the same way. There are a lot of Muslims, so-called nice Muslims who live in Israel.

They're not. De facto Palestinians, but they sympathize with them. And the Israelis, my experience is these Jews. truly are afraid of their neighbors and not just the Palestinians, In Judea and Samaria, but in Gaza and in the whole Mideast. And it's just a terrible.

I don't know if you saw the. A few couple of years ago, there was a World Mag article about the Twin Cities where Men, Muslim men, go door to door. I've got the four page and pictures of it in utility belt. uh asking making sure all the women wear hijabs And it and asking you why you aren't in five prayers a day. And it's not a request.

It's a requirement.

So we've got these Somalian truckers that are really swamping our truck stops here in northern Iowa. And just don't be fooled by the The nice Muslim perspective, because they they might be nice when they're the minority. But when they're when they own a neighborhood You really you're in danger. And I know that's not politically correct. I know that God loves them individually.

And I did get to share the gospel with some Muslims and Jews in Israel. But just don't be fooled. They will take over and they take advantage of our naive Post-Christian mentality. They like to play the game stop hitting yourself. Like bullies did in grade school.

You like, well, you they use a caged dog dog analogy in Israel. They say the Israelis caged the gods. In their little prison. I said, What are you going to do? Let them loose?

They're just gonna, you know, you can't let them loose, but you can't keep them in the cage. Yeah, Jerry gotta leave it there, my friend. All right, yep, thanks, Jerry. Yeah, we gotta, we gotta go to a break here, folks. Uh, hang tight.

Wow. Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam dropping a bombshell yesterday, announcing that half of all visa applications in Minnesota are fraudulent. That's insane. And of course, she's blaming Governor Tim Waltz. That's the retarded governor of Minnesota, according to President Trump.

Mm-hmm. She said they went back and looked at Minnesota's visa program, and 50% fraudulent. And she says that they did it on purpose. I want to go to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line. Say hello to our good friend, the Jeffrey Lord.

Telling it like it is since 1987. Is that true? Wow, that's a long time. Yeah. Yeah, I was born in nineteen eighty seven.

Maybe not. Maybe maybe I'm getting that confused. You're a spring chicken. I I love the website and I love the I love the slogan. ThejeffreyLord.com, everybody, if you want to go and check out his His great work.

Yeah, this is one of the lead stories on your website today.

Well, that's good. I'm glad you've checked. I have not yet done so. I'm ashamed to confess here.

Well You know, I I have to keep uh writing all the time, and so Uh you know, this is one of those days where I just uh sort of burrow in and start to uh Examine what's out there and what's in the news and all that kind of thing. And you know, the thing about being around in our day and age is that things are never dull. And there's always something Going on here in the world. And Wow. And with the President of the moment, That can frequently be the case with this President in particular.

It's always the case. It's a fair point. You know, the other big story that we were following this week, Jeffrey, and CNN's been all over this today saying, oh, this is the start of a blue wave. They're predicting that Democrats could pick up as many as 40 seats. I'm just fascinated.

They're able to predict that based on a loss in the Tennessee 7th congressional district last night. Yeah, one of the things that uh goes on here is that there is a pattern long, long, long before Donald Trump was ever around. that when you get to this stage in a presidency, the congressional elections upcoming, that sort of thing. Zero was tough. for the incumbent President of the moment.

As you know, I work for President Reagan. And in nineteen eighty, he won in a forty four state landslide. Two years later, his Republican candidates got absolutely hammered. in their race for races for Congress. Then two years after that, he won a forty nine state landside.

And two years after that, when I was a young White House political director and we were sending him all over the country to campaign for Republicans because he was so popular, and we got Bobby again in the nineteen eighty six elections. And so I've gone back and done my due diligence here. This is pretty much of a normal pattern. for an incumbent President. It's pretty rare when they are not on the ballot themselves for them to have the kind of response that they had when they themselves were on the ballot.

You know, disappointing. But in this case, we won, and a victory is a victory, is a victory. Yes. And I understand what she won by, or he won by. seven points or something like that.

seven, nine points. The point is, he won. And he will be there very shortly to help the Republicans hold on to that House majority. You know, a couple of anomalies. You've got, what, three dozen members of Congress that are retiring or not running for reelection, and a good many of those are Republicans.

How do you see that playing out? And, you know, if you're I mean, let's just say the president's economy kicks in. Do you think that might be enough to give the Republicans the juice they need to win this thing? That's possible because as is always true, It's the economy. It was James Carvel who worked for Bill Clinton.

Who said, summed it up very succinctly by saying, it's the economy, stupid. Again. And James, uh Is right in that. I mean, that is always the issue, you know, absent some. you know horrendous you know, World War II style.

Uh situation. It's always about the economy for the obvious reason that Americans are going about their business. They've got to they've got to have good jobs, they've got to make money, they've got to support their families. And just it's interesting that this is going on while we're on the phone. I live in a suburban section of Herbert Harrisburg.

And it's all suburbia and all this kind of thing. And as we speak, I'm looking at a house around the corner across the street. And on the rooftop there's Four guys, three guys. Resetting the roof, poor guys, resetting the roof and doing all the nitty-gritty.

Well, Somebody has to pay them. do that. they in turn get paid and you know Support families and all of this kind of thing. But they are literally illustrating right in front of me. what we are talking about here on the radio.

These guys are doing their thing. That's how they earn money. They'll go home, they'll take care of their wives, their kids, et cetera, et cetera. And that's the way the world works.

Well they got there. Were there a problem with that roof? and the owner of the house couldn't afford to have it fixed, That's when you have a problem. Yeah, it's a fair point. It's a fair point you're bringing up.

And again, I I'm just pretty bullish about this. I think there are some things we have to tweak. I think we've got to do a better job messaging and letting people know: hey, the economy is getting better, and here's how, and here's why it's taking time to repair all the damage that Joe Biden did. Yeah, and the problem is that Democrats are beset with a negative philosophy on the economy. And they're not they're just not very good at it.

I mean, they persist in believing that what you do is you just enlarge the government. And have government do all these things.

Well, I can pretty well guarantee you these four guys I'm watching do not work for the government. Um You have to get out there. You have to do the job. That's what makes. Capitalism work.

is that whichever group of people are using the system really can make it work and really can do very well off of it. But if you don't do that, then the whole thing can fall apart and you've got you've got people not earning money and all this kind of thing. This is You go back in history, this was the Great Depression and And how many times have I seen the old newsreels from the Great Depression uh with with signs. We are not hiring now. You know, it's all these poor souls of the day.

would would go looking go around looking for jobs.

So it's just uh it's it's absolutely critical. And Uh and I I think assuming the economy is in the same situation in 2026 in November that it is right now. then I think that Trump will do fairly well with his House and Senate Republicans. Jeffrey Lord, folks, head over to the website thejeffreylord.com. That's thegerelord.com.

All sorts of great content and information there. And Jeff's been doing this for a long time now, and he knows what he's talking about. Jeffrey, always, yeah, go ahead. That's why I have silver hair now. It's true.

It's a great point. All right, my friend, we're going to leave it there. Always appreciate your great analysis.

Okay, anytime. And if I don't talk to you, but Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and on to twenty twenty six. I love it. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, Jeffrey Lord, everybody, on our Patriot Mobile newsmaker line today. You folks in Saint Louis on the Real Talk Radio Network, This is an insane story someone just sent to me.

This involves a A local healthcare organization. This is BJC Healthcare. You folks in St. Louis know this quite well. BJC Healthcare, one of the largest nonprofit healthcare organizations in the country, and they serve people from mid-Missouri to southern Illinois.

Well, it's uh We have just discovered, and someone just sent this to me. It turns out they are now revoking the hospital. The health care agency is now revoking. parents' access to their kids' medical records. They're doing this when the child turns twelve years old, and the hospital says it's because that information, the medical information of a twelve year old, is confidential, and parents do not have and should not have access to their child's confidential medical information.

So according to the hospital, the healthcare system, the children must grant written permission in order for parents to view their medical records. They say kids can make private medical decisions and revoke mom and dad's access. At any time, are you, ladies and gentlemen, are you kidding me with this? This is insanity. And it seems to me that under the law, That mom and dad are still responsible for that child until they turn 18.

I mean, this is insanity coming out of the state of Missouri and all you folks there in the St. Louis area. But again, ladies and gentlemen, BJC Healthcare now tells moms and dads they no longer are allowed to have access to their kids' medical records. If they are twelve or older, you can Your reaction to that, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, we got big trouble here, everybody, in the great Commonwealth of Virginia. All Virginia. Do people really say that around Virginia? I'm just curious.

They don't say.

Okay. Anyway, maybe it was the Broadway musical. Oh Virginia. My apologies. According to the Hanover County.

Animal protection and shelter. A raccoon broke into a liquor store and caused all sorts of damage. Police say the raccoon drank copious amounts of alcohol. And they found the furry little critter passed out next to the commode in the bathroom. We actually have a photograph up at ToddSterns.com on our social media pages.

According to The animal shelter. The police found the masked bandit passed out in the Ashland, Virginia ABC store. Apparently the furry burglar had ransacked shelves and drink multiple types. Of alcohol. You know, I wonder what it was like when the raccoon actually woke up from the drunken stupor.

After a few hours of sleep. He was released back into the wild. Police say that The raccoon was not charged. And there were no signs of being injured. Other than perhaps a hangover and making some very, very bad life choices.

We've all been there.

Well, not necessarily, you know. passed out drunk in the bathroom of a liquor store that you've ransacked, but you know. You've been there. The Hanover County Animal Protection Shelter says it helps rescue animals if they are found in the wild, and they provide veterinarian service and care for homeless or unwanted animals. What about detox?

Are they doing that these days? More importantly, what happens when your raccoon is drunk as a skunk? Just wondering, just asking. 901-260-5926, our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926.

Coming up, we're going to be talking to our good buddies Harry Hurley from WPG Radio in Atlantic City and our good buddy Jeff Stein out at radio station KXEL. That's the blowtorch in corn country, Waterloo, Iowa. And they're going to weigh in on a lot of big stories. I've got to ask him about the raccoon as well. You know, it's always, a lot of people think the raccoons are always doing this, but the deer lately have been really aggressive.

And there have been a lot of stories of deer just breaking into people's homes and causing all sorts of mayhem.

So I'm telling you.

Something's going on with the uh the creatures of the forest. By the way, I want to encourage you to watch Newsmax tonight, 5 o'clock, the Todd Stern Show. Millions of people are now watching Newsmax on cable. They're going to our streaming channel, Newsmax 2, and they're downloading our free Newsmax app on their smartphones and TVs. Reuters, by the way, says we are now one of the top news brands in the nation.

Every night, you're going to be able to watch great shows like Rob Schmidt, Carl Higbee, and Todd Stearns. You can find out why Newsmax is the fastest growing news channel. Make the switch today and join our news revolution. Get Newsmax on cable, on streaming, and download the free app today. And by the way, let President Trump know that you're a big Newsmax fan, because we're all about real news for Real people.

Yeah. Alright, want to play some audio here from... Our Vice President J.D. Vance. And he's really fired up over Democrats cut number nine.

Thank you, Mr. President. It's an honor to serve with this great team that you've assembled. And I just want to pick up on something you said, Mr. President, because you hit the nail on the head.

That it is absurd that Democrats talk about an affordability crisis that they created and the people around this table work every single day to address. You'll hear a lot of statistics today. You hear a lot of statistics in our political conversation. I think the most important statistic For the American people is that under the Biden administration, the average American family lost over $3,000 of household income. And under the first 10 months of this Trump administration, they have gained over $1,000 of household income.

What that says very clearly is that we are fixing. The problem that Joe Biden and the Democrats created in the last administration. If you look at every affordability crisis that's confronting the American people today, it is traceable directly to a problem caused by Joe Biden and congressional Democrats. Why did homes get so unaffordable? Because we had 20 million illegal aliens in this country taking homes that ought by right to go to American citizens.

Why did tax bills get so unaffordable? Because Democrats were raising taxes while congressional Republicans, under the president's leadership, were now cutting taxes. Why did food get so expensive? Because we printed trillions of dollars and threw it into green scams that made our agricultural economy suffer while Americans were paying higher prices for food. On every single one of those issues, Mr.

President, I think we've made incredible progress. But it would be preposterous to fix every problem caused over the last four years in just 10 months. I think we've done incredibly good. But what I see over the next year, And you heard Brooke talk about joy and gratitude. What I really think this season represents for me and I think for the entire administration is that we have now done incredible work to fix what Joe Biden broke.

And I think the next year in American growth and American prosperity could be the best year that we've had in the United States of America. It's going to happen because we're all working hard. It's going to happen because we have the greatest country in the world. But I think for congressional Democrats in particular, if they want to talk about affordability, they ought to look in the mirror. We are fixing what they're broken.

We're proud to do it. It's the job that we are elected to do. But I think 2026 is going to be the year where this economy really takes off. Yeah, I do too. And when that happens, folks, and again, I heard what CNN said, but if we're able to watch this economy take off like I believe it's going to do, we're going to have a very, very good midterm.

I do believe that. All right. Just a reminder, folks, during the break, head over to ToddStarnes.com and we want you to make a decision. You know, join us and consider joining us in our effort as we grow our brand. We are about to.

Really revitalize our digital product. We have well over a million people a month that come onto ToddSterns.com, and we want to grow those numbers. And we're going to do that by adding new staffing. We need your help and your support to do that. And we're giving you a great opportunity to partner with us.

Go to ToddSterns.com and you'll see the many different ways that you'll be able to contribute to the effort. And we're looking for 100 of our listeners in the month of December, 100 to consider making a monthly donation to the show. Again, ToddSterns.com, all that information is there for you. All right, hang tight, everybody. Hour three of the big show coming up next.

Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starr. I love it. Love is American. Well, it's some interesting news out of Minnesota where you have Tim Waltz, who is the retarded governor, according to President Donald J. Trump.

And we can now tell you that Mike Lindell has filed paperwork to run for governor there in Minnesota. Of course, the founder of MyPellow, as a result of Mike Lindell's efforts, I will tell you that millions of conservatives around this great nation, and dare I say, They won't admit it, but dare I say that That a good many liberals as well. Enjoy the beautiful MyPillow pillows. And I'm telling you, whenever I go out of town, and I was in beautiful, I'll give you an example. I was in beautiful Waterloo, Iowa, and Jeff Stein put me up in a beautiful hotel.

And it was very lavish. But I just didn't sleep well because I forgot to bring along my pillow.

Well, my pillow pillow is what it's very difficult. You know what I'm talking about.

So, anyway, good for you, Mike Lindell. And we will be following that story in the coming days. I want to go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Lines and say hello to our good friend from WPG Radio in beautiful Atlantic City, New Jersey, the great Harry Hurley, and also Jeff Stein from radio station KXEL. Guys, good to have you back with us. Todd, great to be with you.

Hello, Jeff. Harry, it is always a privilege to hear your voice, Todd.

Next time, I promise, not one but two Lindell My Pillows will be waiting in your room. I'm a look, Harry Hurley knows this. I'm a cheap date, Jeff Stein. I don't ask for a lot. Hey, Jeff, I gave Todd a butler.

He was the most inexpensive guest in Atlantic City casino history at his VIP level. He charged exactly one hamburger, not even cheese. And one croissant. That's it. Well, then you got off cheaper than I did, Harry.

But I will tell you that I had the company credit card to take Mr. Stearns out to lunch, and I got to have lunch myself. And we feasted on breaded pork tenderloins that I'm still dreaming of. Very nice. Let me tell you something, Harry Hurley.

We got to get you out to Waterloo. And, Jeff, if we make this happen, I'll come out on my own time because we've got to introduce Harry Hurley. What is it called? It's a breaded pork tenderloin. A breaded pork tenderloin, and it is the size of your head.

And it is absolutely fantastic. Yes, sir. Wonderful. I don't know how they do it. I honestly don't.

But no, guys, it's good to hear from both of you. And you guys were both gracious hosts, and it's always fun to get out and hang out with radio friends. Let's talk first. This is a weird story, but we broke the news about this raccoon, this alcoholic raccoon in Virginia, guys. That literally trashed the liquor store and they found him passed out in the next to the toilet.

I know the area, Todd and Jeff. I know it. I know it pretty well. I traveled in that area for a number of years. When one of my sisters lived in Virginia, says Ashland, Virginia, in the bathroom, and the raccoon is drunk as can be.

What a story. It reminds me, or at least this is what comes to my mind, even the wildlife in Virginia are drowning their sorrows in the wake of Abigail Stanberger's election. There you go. Yeah. I wasn't yeah, it wasn't just the victory, it was the the size of the victory.

Fair enough. Fair enough. You know, guys, we were monitoring that big election in Tennessee over in the 7th congressional district. You know, Harley, I was listening to CNN this morning. They're saying this is the start of a blue wave.

Air Force. What's your take? I mean, you've got a pretty good read of things. Here's my take. On a zombie election.

Right after Thanksgiving. ninety six thousand votes on one side, about eighty thousand on the other, comfortable nine point win. You can't compare it to a presidential election and with President Trump on the ballot Himself.

So you can't compare that general election that the whole country was tuned into forever with a special election in the first couple of days of December that no one knew about. But look how they flipped the script, though. Before it was. that Bain had a chance. Bain could win.

Oh my gosh. But she loses by nine, and then they flip it to another story. I'm going to take the nine-point win, especially considering the circumstances, and not let them get hysterical that this means that Democrats win the midterm because Ashton Bain, or whatever her name is, Afton, sounds like nasal spray, Afton Bain. Came within nine points. That's a blowout.

Jeff, how are you guys seeing things out in the heartland?

Well, let's look at that Tennessee race because as I understand it, the voter registration was Republicans plus 11.

So they win by nine. That's within any margin of error, as Harry just noted. And it's so Trump outperforms registration. That's not exactly a breaking news alert. The way we're looking at it here is...

These are individual state or local elections. In many cases, special elections. You draw trends at your own risk. And to presume that these little cherry-picked examples are going to be indicative of. 435 representatives being on the ballot next year.

If that helps the Democrats in their fundraising, God love them, but it has absolutely no merit in terms of a trend, a wave, or anything more than a blip. You see, guys, I take this, I took last night's vote as a repudiation of the Zoron Mandami Democrats. And that kind of politics is not going to play in a place like Tennessee. And I'm wondering if they haul her out there, the Democrats hauled Afton Bain out there to see if, in fact, their experiment would work in a different region of the country. Harry.

I like that. I think that is very good analysis. I think that's exactly what they did. But let's not forget, when you get the nomination, You get it from the fringe element of the Democrat Party.

So if AOC ever ran against uh Schumer, she would win. And she would win by a lot. Because even though Schumer's a Democrat, He is not socialist democrat enough. for the wackos that control the nominating process. I think what we should be more concerned about, not that a West Point grad who's a combat pilot won by nine points in C D seven, In Tennessee, in middle Tennessee, we should be concerned.

Does Gavin Newsom get away? With gerrymandering five seats that are Republican and flip them to Democrats. Do we lose any seats in New York? That we won in the previous congressional election cycle because those are the numbers that could flip this thing to a Democrat majority. You know, it's interesting you brought that up, Harry.

Jeff, yesterday on the Newsmax show, we had Christy Stutzman. She is married to Congressman Marlon Stutzman out of Indiana, and she used to be in the state house herself. And you're looking at rhino Republicans in the Senate that are stomping the effort there to redistrict, giving favor to the Republicans. I think Harry's onto something, and my concern would be that the Democrats follow through with all of this, and then the Republican lawmakers hold back and say, no, no, no, we don't want to go down that path. We don't want to be like the Democrats.

There you go. There you go. There you go. Well, first of all, Todd, is this the Newsmax show that's on 5 o'clock Eastern, 4 o'clock Central? Why, yes, it is, Jeff Stein, on Newsmax 2, which you can watch on YouTube and Facebook Live.

Yeah, you can send the check.

Okay, no, as far as here's the problem: Republicans play by the rules, and then they get mad when the Democrats don't. And so there is an opportunity here to do things the right way. And you can expose Democrat gerrymandering all you want, but unless you are willing to fight, you're just going to be sitting on the sideline licking your wounds.

Now, in my state of Iowa, we have computers that spit out these maps. And one of the things they do not consider is party affiliation. They consider population.

Now, you cannot federalize each one of these states so that they do things the right way. Ignore partisanship, and you've got a chance of having. An actual fair district, but unless and until you get to that point, you either are satisfied with losing or you play to win. There you go. Here he is.

I was reading my Bible in church Sunday, and I mean, that's what it says in the Old Testament, the book of Hezekiah, I think. Second Hezekiah. Do unto the Democrats as they do to you. Yeah, and another thing to keep an eye out on, gentlemen, for is the ranked choice voting. This is a way that Democrats will get the candidates of their choice.

Oh, you won, but you don't win. It's ranked choice voting. I mean, this is just terrible what they're getting away with. It's awful. And Jeff is right.

We got to start playing tougher. We got to be if we're not going to be able to change the rules to one election one day, then we have to get better at early voting. We have to get better at vote by mail. The New Jersey governor elect received more than 600,000 more votes Than any man or woman who has ever run for governor of New Jersey. And I don't think she had 1% name recognition in the state when she started her campaign.

And that's Governor Mikey Sherrill. Guys, I want to get this in before we have to wrap it up. Oxford, the dictionary people, they put out their, every year they do like a word of the year. And this year, the Oxford English Dictionary, they have chosen Rage Bait. As its 2025 word of the year, which is actually two words, and I'm really raging about that right now.

That's unacceptable. What's going on here? Can I go first? I did a monologue on this this morning, so it is perfectly fitting that this is on the Todd Starn show today. The Oxford dictionaries, it's plural, I guess it's more than one dictionary, it's plural.

Rate bait, the word of the year, not the words of the year, the word of the year, not to be outdone by dictionary.com, which the word of the year is six. 7, the number 6-7, but you pronounce it 6-7. You can't make this stuff up. It's crazy time. It's insane.

Jephstein. At first, I thought they were referring to my reaction every time I see my boss has sent me an email, but then I had my wife look it up because we didn't know what it meant. And I realized that it's stories like this that are the true definition, as Harry notes, of rage bait. I was angry reading the darn story, and I had to do it for work. There you go.

So can we go back to six seven for a second? Because this is just very confusing to me. I see that people are in like in and out hamburger joints and they're waiting for the number six seven to be called. And then, like, people lose their ever-loving minds, and they're cheering and screaming. What in the world does 6'7 mean?

Well I've asked a few people about that. And it's a younger demographic that uses it It pretty much means whatever you want it to mean. It's very, very ambiguous. I mean, that's typical of that generation. It's basically somehow they came up with this, and then, well, if you don't know, you're out of touch.

You're not one of the cool kids. I am proud to say I have never been one of the cool kids, and I'm not going to start now with 6-7. I was in the In-N-Out when that happened, and I just started cheering like everybody else. I didn't want to be like the odd man out. Woo!

Way! 6-7! You're not wrong, and yes, you're not wrong. It has no fixed meaning, so it means whatever you want it to mean. It's kind of like Bill Clinton would love that word.

There you go, that's right. Six steps. Depends on what the definition of his is. Depends what the definition of 6-7 is. All right.

Guys, we got to leave it there. I got to take it. You know how radio business goes. We've got to go pay some bills. Yeah, we too, Todd.

All right. Jeff Stein, Harry Hurley. Guys, always good hearing from you. Two of the finest radio men in America right there, folks. And we love both of them.

And they're always kind to fill in for me on great occasions. And you hear Harry filling in for a lot of the Fox Radio hosts. All right. We've got to take a break here at 901-267-5926. That's 901-267-5926.

Got to do it or else we're going to have some rage baiting going on. We'll be right back. All right, some news for all of our listeners in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and High Point, and Greensboro, and it may be across the entire state of North Carolina. You guys have a beloved restaurant chain, and it's a cafeteria called KNW. Any of you folks ever been to KNW?

Apparently, they've been around for well over 80 years, and they announced they are shutting down. And apparently, the entire state of North Carolina is in mourning. One customer said it always had such a warm, southern comfort feeling when you walked in. The food was always good. And for many people, I mean, it's one of these places where you have the long-time employees and they have them all over the place.

I remember going to one in, hold on. I believe it was in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. And that was the infamous trip where I got to bang bongos in a drum circle. I probably Yeah, there's more to that story, actually, but I'm trying to figure out what I'm allowed to share on the radio. Yeah, so it was well, I was doing an Obama story, and I think Obama or somebody in the administration was down there and came across a drum circle, and they were banging bongos right in the middle of downtown Asheville, which apparently is the Berkeley of the South.

I had no idea at the time. And I stopped into a there was a little restaurant, a little barbecue joint right there across from where they were banging the bongos, and you could smell patchouli oil. Oh, it's just I can still smell it. The whole downtown reeked of the stuff.

So I go in and I thought, you know what, I'm just going to enjoy some great barbecue. They have something called barbecue tofu on the menu.

So I cursed them in the name of Jesus and walked out. And then I came across the the cafeteria and I remember I I just remember it being good food and they actually serve meat, and I appreciated that. Anyway, there's a lady by the name of Cynthia Samuels, And she said that she's worked. Are you ready for this? She's worked at the cafeteria since 1967.

That is the year of my birth. She said she cooked the vegetables, made the salads. and also made the pies.

So if any of you folks have any good memories of K and W, give us a call. But it's always sad when like a longtime institution decides to call it a day. It's a family-owned company and they said, you know, we just can't make it anymore. And it's uh they're Incredibly sad to close, but all of their locations are closing more than 88 years. In North Carolina, serving up good food.

And of course, it is one of those places. You know, I remember in Memphis, we used to have the, well, we still had the Piccadilly. That's where we used to go for Sunday after, you know, after church. And we were a Baptist, so we always got stuck at the back of the line, those blasted Methodists and their preachers with the fifteen minute sermons. And the Episcopalians, well, you know.

They don't even go to church. I kid. I don't want to get any hate mail from the Episcopalians. All right, 901-260-5926. Would love to hear if you've got a great K and W story.

I'd love to hear those. I just love these. First of all, I hate these kinds of stories, but I love talking about the traditions of America because that's what makes us unique. And one of the things that bothers me about our country is we're becoming homogenized. Right.

I mean, I remember even as a southerner growing up in Tennessee, there were some parts of the state where you couldn't even understand their accent. And I live here. I was born here. We don't have that anymore. And I miss that.

I just miss the uniqueness of things. And I appreciate that In-N-Out is opening up, and you know. Tennessee. But really, I just, I don't know, there was something unique about going to In-N-Out in California where it's based.

So that's just me. All right, 901-260-5926. We're going to the phone lines, and I hope you go to ToddSterns.com. Consider making a donation, helping us out, joining us as we grow a conservative newsroom over at ToddSterns.com. All the information is there.

Hang tight. We'll be right back. All right, let's go to the phones. As promised, 9012-60-5926-JAN in South Carolina. Wants to help us out here with the phrase 6'7.

Hi, Jan. How are you? Hi, Mr. Starnes. I'm doing five.

I'm driving home from Alabama to South Carolina right now. Um, I learned over Thanksgiving that the six seventh Actually, it is a reference to a basketball player who is six feet seven inches. referenced in a rap song. that became that is evidently very popular among young people. Is that right?

Now, I've got to ask you, Jan, where you sound like you're probably older than 21.

So, where are you getting your intel on this? For my grandchildren. And I'm embarrassed that they would even know that. Mm-hmm. Okay.

It's true. I cannot figure it out for the life of me. I had no idea. Hold on, where's Cassie? Cassie, turn your microphone on.

Can you confirm this information, Cassie? Yes, I can confirm it's true. I know because of TikTok and Instagram, and it's true. I'm not sure what it means, though. What are we supposed to make of this, Jan?

I'm confused. I I guess that every time you say it, that you get laughed at.

So if it's you can't be somewhere between six and seven, you have to be there at six fifteen or six thirty seven. But if it's between six and seven, they're just going to make fun of you. Jan, you know what we need? We need like covert agents. We need like 17 and 18-year-olds that can feed us this intel so we don't look like we are, you know, we're clueless about things.

But we are. Yeah, but that's that's the point. That's irrelevant. We can't You got it all cool in front of everybody. That's the whole point.

So when I was in the In-N-Out and everybody, they yelled out order number 6-7, and everybody starts jumping up and cheering. And I'm looking around, and I'm like, well, I guess I better do it, too. And I'm like, you don't want to be that guy saying, why are we jumping up and down here? Nope, I guess you're just a lucky man. I don't know.

I don't know. Well, I'm not 6'7. I really appreciate your show. I enjoy listening to you. And I think you do a wonderful job, and you have just a unique sense of humor that is fun to listen to.

Well, you're very kind, Jan, and I enjoy your drive. I've driven that route many a time, and it's a beautiful ride. Hope you make it back home safe and sound.

Well, I'm not too far, so thank you very much. All right. Jan, thank you. What a great lady there. Driving on Alabama to South Carolina.

There's a Bucky's right outside of Birmingham, if you're ever driving. And that's pretty much the only thing of interest on that route. Unless you want to stop off at. Oh, Dreamland BBQ, which is a great joint, but you got to go to the original Dreamland and you'll have a great, great time. Let's go to the phones 901-260-5926.

Steve in Little Rock, Arkansas. Hi, Steve. It's been a while. What's going on? How are you doing, Todd?

Well, yeah, I'm doing pretty good. I'm still confused about 6'7, but yeah, otherwise doing pretty good. Good, good. I was wanting to agree with your Warning and analysis of the election they just had over around Nashville yesterday. But there's one thing you left out that needs to be added to the analysis list.

I agree with all the policies and the messaging and everything you said, but One thing you left out is Need to take a look at How the votes were counted. I know I've called about this before. Probably getting tired of hearing it, but I had a little discussion with Rock on the phone when I heard him talking about this this morning. In his car. one thing that jumped out at me, it said it came up with like eighty three different things that have changed in the election laws in Tennessee since the last election.

But one thing kind of caught my eye In twenty twenty four, Tennessee was the number one state in the country for passing new election legislation. Yeah. Maybe it's But it's kind of strange when you You've just been the number one state in the country for passing new election laws, and the first election you have There's a fifteen point swing from one. Party to the other in that election. Steve, I hear what you're saying.

I will say this. I've known the people in charge of the elections here. The Secretary of State, Trey Hargett, that guy is a rock-solid conservative, and he's done a really good job of making sure our elections are secure and the ballots are secure. I just genuinely think that there were the Democrats, and we've seen this in other races. For some odd reason, they are just motivated right now.

They've got this momentum. And, you know, again, this was an overwhelmingly Republican district.

So no way that she was going to win anyway.

So I'm not all that concerned about election fraud here in this particular case.

Well, that's good to hear, but it just, it was kind of a, like I said, it made a light bulb go off with me. Did it? When you have a 15-point swing, I think everything needs to be looked at, no matter which direction it swings. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough.

All right, my friend, things going well in Little Rock these days. Going good, going good.

So, but we haven't had our midterm. We haven't been put under the gun yet, so I don't know. I'll wait and make a final decision on that after the midterm election. Steve, good hearing from you, my friend. Don't be a stranger.

All right, good guy. That's Steve from Little Rock. Let's go to Ocala, Florida.

Sonny is listening to us on WOCA. Hi, Sonny. What's going on? What's on your mind? Not high tide.

Uh what's on my mind is uh Ukraine and what's happening there with Russia, Russian invasion. And uh it it to me it's um Bad news. And I think one of the things we should do, as the world should do, has kicked Russia out of the UN. I don't know what it would actually do to them, but uh they would have no further voice than any of the things that go on. But again, it depends on if they get enough spines.

in the European Union to do such a thing. But we don't need a country like Russia in the UN Okay. Just bad news all the way around. Because they want what Putin wants to reestablish the Soviet Union. He gets a hold of Ukraine.

All the satellite countries all around the border on the border of Ukraine. from the Balkans all the way up to Poland. He just going to walk into. And there goes uh Yeah. Democracy in the good portion of the world as far as I'm concerned.

Well, I think you and I disagree on this one, Sonny, and I just feel like it is no business of ours what's happening over there, and I do not want us to get involved. I mean, we're already basically fighting a proxy war with the Russians over this. I just don't see the value in losing American lives for the Ukrainians. What's going to happen if you kick him out of the UN? That's what I'm getting at.

Well, I don't yeah, I don't know. I'd like to kick ever I'd like to kick the UN out of America, to be honest with you. I was just going to say that. But if China starts in, And want to see what could happen real fast as you turn around to tell China the first ship that you send From the out of China to the United States, San Diego. Yet turn it around.

Don't waste your fuel.

Well, and I'll say this, Sonny, is we got to take a quick break here, my friend. But I'm not an isolationist. Again, we've got to make sure we're picking our battles here. And I'm just not understanding why Ukraine is so vitally important to who we are as Americans. All right, 901260-5926.

Our telephone number, that's 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show. Bye. All right, this story from New Jersey. A guy by the name of Jim Smith.

says he just wanted to buy some flowers.

So he walked over to the shop right, which is sort of I it's sort of like their version uh Cassie, you know this. This is your area. Um it's sort of like their version of uh Kroger.

So anyway, Jim and his wife walked into the shop right in Sussex, New Jersey. And uh they wanted to get a gift.

Well About a minute later, so they're in the store, and all of a sudden, this loss prevention employee runs right up to him and the guy's got a file folder in his hand. And the loss prevention. Guy was bobbing and weaving and walking around in circles around th this guy and his wife, and they're like, What's going on? Mr. Smith, by the way, 65 years old.

And so he opens up the folder, and there's a photograph of the guy, three by four photo. and there are receipts and pictures of the guy's shopping cart. And it turned out those photos were taken the last time Mr. Smith was at the shop right.

So the guy says, You didn't pay for your water. You're going to have to pay us $17.80 right now. Wow, how much is water? That's a little expensive for water, right? Otherwise, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the store and you'll be banned from all of our other stores.

It turns out that That when Mr. Smith was at the grocery store, you know, I almost did this once, almost. You're at the self-checkout, right? And so you're checking out all your stuff.

Sometimes you put something in the bottom of your cart. You know what I'm talking about? And then you forget it's there. And it's normally like, you know, coax, or in this case, the guy's, I guess he had a case of water or something. And so you're checking yourself out and you forget to look down.

And so you're walking out. And I guess the store didn't beep or something. Normally, they'll have like a security thing, and you got to come back in and they'll, you know, check your receipt or whatever.

Well, that didn't happen, but they're taking pictures of the guy. And if you notice, whenever you're going into self-checkout, you are being recorded. And it's right there. You can see yourself being recorded.

So anyway, that's what happens. And the guy was like, wait, what? And so it turns out that this grocery store shop right is using this high-tech surveillance tool. and they're able to capture and confirm your identity. And by the way, they're not the only ones using this.

The grocery stores are, but so are like the federal agencies, the alphabet agencies, law enforcement, your local police department, even schools. There are no signs. There are no warnings that, hey, your body is being filmed and recorded and stored in the event that you do something. Wrong. Mr.

Smith says the water, not paying for the water, was an innocent mistake. And he says he had actually at the checkout line, and there was a confusion over a free Thanksgiving bird.

So, in all the confusion, you know, and it happens. What are you going to do? But here he and his wife are, they're like literally being stopped. People are staring. And the guy actually works at the New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit.

So anyway, the the company that owns ShopRite has now apologized. And they said, look, we didn't, you know, it shouldn't have gone to this level, but it did. And they actually have, according to their consumer affairs coordinator, Advances in biometric technology, including facial recognition, can help retailers identify organized retail theft rings, including repeat shoplifters, and also alert Store security to any threats.

Now The guy here is like really upset over all of this and he says how dare they do this And he said it brought on his PTSD.

So the guy says he has PTSD as a result of all of this. He was uh telling the is this New Jersey.com. He said, My biggest gripe is using facial recognition without my consent or or at least a sh a sign that shows it's being used.

Well, I'm sorry, but when you walk into a grocery store or a any sort of a private business, They have a right to film you. I mean, that's part of it, and surveil you. I mean, that. I don't know if they need a sign or not. He says transparency seems to be a huge issue, and that's a big red flag from a customer privacy perspective.

You know, I'd be curious to know. Exactly, how this has helped reduce shoplifting and crime in these grocery stores, because that is a big problem. According to According to a survey of 300 retailers in the United States and the UK, 36% say they plan to introduce facial recognition in the next two years. My question is: are you freaked out by that? Do you have a problem?

You walk into, say, Walmart or Lowe's or Macy's, and your face is being. is being surveilled.

So a lot of the stories are not commenting about this. But in 2023 RiteAid was actually banned from using the technology for five years after the Federal Trade Commission said it wrongly accused shoppers. Specifically women of color as being chomlifters. Target was also accused of using facial recognition in a lawsuit that was dropped this year. They say they do not use the technology.

And it turns out this guy, by the way, is a white guy.

So it's not just, you know, they're not, it's not just one particular race. Critics say the technology is prone to wrongly identifying people of color. One guy in 2019 actually spent 10 days in jail on a shoplifting charge. before the case was tossed out because of lack of evidence. This is crazy stuff here.

And the fact that they know you. One guy was on He had posted yesterday a message that he was at Walmart going through the self-checkout and paid in cash. He got a call or a message from Walmart asking if he liked his product. And the guy was like, How did they know who I was? I paid cash.

That makes absolutely No sense at all.

So, anyway, I don't know. The question is, they have in New Jersey, at least, they have something called the data privacy law. And that gives consumers rights when it comes to how businesses hold on to their personal data. But it's unclear if shopright falls into those categories. But I'm curious to know how this has helped, you know, again.

Finding the shoplifters and stopping people from stealing from the grocery stores. It's a. A fascinating, fascinating Story. There was a 17% increase in threats or acts of violence involving shoplifting from 2023 to 2024. That's according to the National Retail Federation.

Nearly half of the retailers surveyed said employees. Are actually banned from confronting shoplifters. And look, the shoplifters know this. I mean, we've seen this all over in California, at least.

So, I mean, what are you going to do? I mean, if you're a business owner, you're kind of at wit's end. And I it just seems to me that The grocery store has a right. to protect its you know its um groceries. And uh the stuff on the shelves.

All right, tonight, 5 o'clock Eastern, the Todd Stern Show on Newsmax. Be sure to watch that. Also, head over to ToddSterns.com and prayerfully consider making a donation supporting our efforts. We're looking for 100 of our listeners to join us as we grow our newsroom, and we need your help to do that. You can make that donation right now over at ToddSterns.com.

All right, folks, been a great day. We're going to do it all over again tomorrow. Thursday. Wow, this week is going by quickly. Get out there and have a great one, everybody.

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