More Republicans Prepare to Bolt House

This holiday season reached for the one butter that never disappoints Kerry Gold. made with milk from grass fed cows on Irish family farms, it's rich, creamy, and perfect for baking. whether browning butter for cookies or crafting the flakiest pie crust, Kerry Gold's high butterfat content makes all the difference in flavor and texture. Holiday treats will taste extraordinary. Live From the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

It's America's conservative blowtorch. Yeah. That's right, I know. Love is American. Todd.

And hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Sterns Radio Extravaganza. I am Todd Stearns, your host, broadcasting truth and hope across this great nation. As I knock my microphone around, good to have you with us today, everybody.

So, look, we're gonna have a weird show today, and I wanna give you a heads up because inevitably, I get the messages from very upset people. Why don't you just stick to the news, Starnes? Why do you take off on an exit ramp and talk about something that's not in the news?

Well, that's because, ladies and gentlemen, we like to keep things a little spicy here on the program. We don't like to be routine. We don't like to be mundane.

So, therefore, we mix things up a little bit. And we're going to be telling you, you'll understand at the bottom of the hour when we have some very special guests coming into the studio today. And we're very excited about that. I want to start, though, with yesterday, President Trump really fired up, really fired up. Over the Senate, and the Senate is standing in the way.

Of President Trump's agenda. And the President was caught on a hot mic complaining about this, and he has every right to complain about it. The President is out there and he ran for office on this incredible platform, an America First platform. And it's a platform that we have to make sure gets across the finish line. And yet you have you have the Senate.

And it's a sad thing that's happening in the Senate. But you have a lot of folks in the Senate. that hate Donald Trump. They don't want his agenda to succeed. And if that means the agenda collapses or dies on the vine, so be it, which is why a good many of the President's nominees have not advanced.

The Republicans are used to they're used to playing nice. And we can't be playing nice, ladies and gentlemen.

So Nancy Mace, the Congresswoman from South Carolina and the woman who once worked at of all places, Waffle House Is really fired up. She is running for governor, and she wrote an essay that appeared in the New York Times.

Now I pretty much agree with Nancy. I think she's done a pretty decent job. She's been out there a time or two, or three or four, and I get that. It happens to all of us. But by and large, I appreciate what she's saying and what she's doing, and she's been a somewhat reliable vote.

in the Congress for Conservative issues.

However, Um, we are living in a weird time, and people like Nancy Mace are finding themselves at odds with House leadership. And this is an interesting thing. And if you have been a long time listener of this program, you are prepared for what's about to unfold, what's about to transpire. You are beginning to see members of Congress, and especially in the House, rise up and say, you know what? We've we've got a problem here with our leadership.

And it has been a big problem in leadership. And we've been talking about that, and I've been explaining it for quite some time now, even while many other conservative toncos didn't want to speak out because they were afraid it might hurt their position, that it might hurt their access to power. But that's not how we operate on this program. I just tell it like it is. And Let the chips fall where they may.

Now consider, for example, and she was writing about this in the New York Times. She says, consider some of the issues on which Americans have made up their mind, banning congressional stock trading. Eighty six percent of voters are in favor of banning congressional stock trading. Term limits. 87% of adults support term limits.

76% of people require voter ID. They support requiring voter ID. And these are bipartisan supermajority positions. The House. and yet the House cannot hold a simple up or down vote on any of them.

Now just think about that. We have the ability to further secure The validity and the sanctity of the ballot box, and yet Speaker Mike Johnson will not allow that to happen. Mace goes on to write that rank and file lawmakers can still use discharge positions petitions rather to force action on bills leadership won't schedule. If 218 members sign one, a bill must come to the floor. We use this tool to pass a bill ordering the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.

I signed another discharge petition that would force a vote on a bill to ban congressional stock trading. Nearly every colleague claims to support this policy in the town halls, in local papers, on cable news, but when asked to sign that petition, they vanish rather than upset House leadership. And I get the calls from the Speaker of the House, and he's raging mad. I'm like, hello? Todd, I'm upset with you.

Oh, I'm so sorry, sir. I'm really mad.

Okay. Don't do that again.

Okay, click. What the heck was that all about?

Okay. That's about the extent of his anger.

So she wrote something that is causing great angst within the Republican caucus. And I don't know why, because it's true. And this is true. And I challenge you, if it's not true, I want you to call in.

Well, if it is true, I want you to call in. Here's what she said. Here's a hard truth Republicans don't want to hear. Nancy Pelosi was a more effective House Speaker than any Republican this century. I agree with her on essentially nothing.

But she understood something we don't. No majority is permanent. When Democrats hold the majority, they ram through the most progressive policies they can. They deliver for that coalition that elected them while they're in power. Republicans do the opposite.

We get the majority, then become petrified of losing it. We pass the most moderate policies we can pressure conservatives to accept, betraying the coalition that delivered us here. Miss Pelosi was ruthless, but she got things done. The current House is restrictive and ineffective. controlled with barely any results.

Republican leadership seems intent on replicating her model of consolidation without her bold vision to push through the policies that won us the majorities. Do you Do you agree with With Nancy Mace's assessment. Um House Republicans right now. Because I, you know, I don't mean to break any news here. But she's absolutely right.

I mean, this is. This is what we've got. I have a theory about this. And I want to share that theory. I suspect one of the reasons why Republicans Do not.

Do not. Have Or by the way, Republicans rather do not have any leadership skills. Is because they have very little time in leadership positions. more often than not over the past century or so, Republicans have been in the minority. I mean, up until Newt Gingrich, Speaker Newt.

Showed up. That was the first Republican House Speaker we'd had in generations. And we just Republicans are just uncomfortable. Being in leadership positions. And that's what I think is going on here.

That, and there are a lot of Republicans that just do not like Donald Trump. And by the way, MTG is correct here. Because I've seen it firsthand. You've got lawmakers out there, and they worship Donald Trump in public, but behind the scenes, they hate the guy. And they don't mind telling people that.

Sort of an open secret in our nation's capital. And I find that to be so disgusting. Because a lot of these people are still getting access to the Ophal office.

So, the question is very simple here, folks. What do we do? What do we do about this? How do we fix it? What is broken in the House of Representatives?

And I know, I know it can be so discouraging and frustrating, and some of you are angry. And you have every right to be. But we got to fix this problem. And the fact of the matter is that Mike Johnson is not the guy. He is just not the guy.

He's kinda like the the guy on the cover of the Mad Magazine. Comics, you know what I'm talking about? It's just like he's there. But I don't think anybody's home.

So, how do we fix all of this? 901-260-5926, our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926. Later, we're going to be talking to Josh Jones about that very issue. Also, Michael Wilson from Patriot Talk 920 in Houston will join us.

Jasmine Crockett entering the fray to be the The next senator from From Texas. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be laughing, but this is hilarious.

So we'll talk with Michael Wilson about that and our good buddy, Dr. Robert Jeffers from the First Baptist Church in Dallas. He's going to be testifying before a committee over how the Internal Revenue Service targeted their church because of their conservative values.

So we'll tell you all about that as well. Again, our telephone number: 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Star Show. Tis the season to deport them. Fa la la la la la la la la.

We love ice and we support em. Fa la la la la la la la la. Send them on one-way vacations, Fala la la la la la la la. Ramp up those mass deportations, Fala la la la la la la la We've deported millions so far, Fala la Next we'll deport Ilhan Omar, Fala la Look at how those thugs are acting, Fala la la la la la la la Let's send those bad ombres packing, Falla la la la la la As your favorite president who gets along very well with Santa Claus, our gift to you is mass deportations. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Hey, folks, Angel Studios is having their biggest sale of the year, and it's one you don't want to miss. Right now, you can get an Angel Guild membership for as low as $6.99 a month for 12 months, plus two free tickets to see David, the brand new animated musical about the Shepherd boy who became a king in theaters this Christmas. A deal so good it pays for itself.

Now, listen, I talk a lot about protecting our families, what we watch, what we bring into our homes, and this is one of the easiest ways to do it. This is Angel's lowest price of the year, and honestly, it's the kind of gift that keeps on giving entertainment that fills your home with light, and that's something worth supporting. Go to angel.com/slash stars and take advantage of their biggest sale of the year. No no no. All right, welcome back, everybody.

This is the Todd Stearns radio show. You know, it's interesting.

So many people are picking sides in this whole MTG-Donald Trump panel. I don't know if there's really a side here, and I clearly think that MTG made some missteps. The reality is, Donald Trump is the commander-in-chief. He is the leader of the free world. He is the head of the Republican Party.

And you can't go out there as a member of Congress. I mean, I guess you can go out there and attack the president, but if you do, there are repercussions to that. And clearly, there's something else going on with MTG. And we talked about this yesterday. The polling data, the internal polling data out of Georgia suggested she would get beaten in a U.S.

Senate race.

So anyway, we had a couple of good friends of mine on my Newsmax show last night, Dalton Glasscock from Wichita. And all of you KQAM listeners out there know Dalton, and also our good buddy Bob McEwen, who runs the Council on National Policy. And they were weighing in on all of this last night. Take a listen.

Well, joining me now to break it all down, Dalton Glasscock, a Wichita City Councilman, and Bob McEwen, a former Republican congressman from Ohio. Good to have both of you with us. All right, Dalton, how big of a deal is this split between MTG and the president?

Well, first off, the president, there's no person better at nicknaming people than the president. That was a pretty stellar job from Donald Trump right there. In addition, during that same interview, Marjorie Taylor Greene actually said that she was not MAG anymore, that she was just America first, and that MAG has solely relied on supporting the president, the policies of President Trump. And so that was an interesting pivot and a very quick pivot from even just a couple months ago when she was still held just not the policies of the president, but also the president himself. And so now she's even distancing herself from the policies, not just the person of Donald Trump.

That's an interesting point. And I want to play that audio again. This is MTG insisting President Trump is not America first, not her. for an America first President, the number one focus should have been domestic policy and it wasn't. And so, of course, I was critical because those were my campaign promises.

Once we fix everything here, then fine, we'll talk to the rest of the world. Bob, what do you make of MTG's assessment there? It's really sad to watch. I'm sure she has great skills and will be a great asset to the party. But, you know, being a legislator, not everyone can be a congressman.

And I've mentioned that if you get married, you have to learn to compromise. And if you have children, if you have one child, you have more compromise. If you have five, even more, your weekends are not controlled. To be a member of four people trying to lead 800,000, you just don't always get your way. And not everybody is cut out to be a legislator, to be able to lead people together.

And for her to just say her, because she believes she's right. She believes that if the Iranians overrun Israel, that's none of our business. If the Middle East is overrun by the Chinese, if all the things that the world Is looking to us for leadership as you see the entire change that's taken place under Donald Trump's leadership. She says, Don't care about that. I have my priorities.

And quite frankly, she's allowed to do that and she's entitled to it, but she's just not a congresswoman. You know, Dalton MTD says Republicans are, quote, terrified to defy Trump and suggest their support for the president is actually two-faced. I'm just curious: is there some truth to that? Do you think the Republicans are bowing down in public, but behind the scenes, they're mocking President Trump?

Well, first off, international policy is domestic policy. What happens in the rest of the world does affect the United States, whether or not former Congresswoman or soon-to-be former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene believes so. And I think we're right. Governance, we still have to govern, and governance is about some level of compromise, not compromising on the things that we all hold dear and the ideological values we hold, but how do we get to the same objective? And I think more members of Congress than not are still supporters of President Trump's agenda and are looking forward to pushing that forward for our country.

Well, just a few seconds ago, guys, President Trump called on a hot bike, and he is raging mad right now at Senate Republicans. And he says they're the ones that are holding up his agenda, talking about those infamous blue slips. You know, Bob, when you look at what's happening in Congress, it's insane right now. We understand 23 members are retiring or might be seeking another office. There are some reports that that number could actually double.

What is going on right now within the Republican caucus.

Well, we're at about 23 so far. And in 2017, I think it was 47. It's a very good topic to discuss because most people do not understand that nearly four out of five members of the House and more than half of the Senate has never served with any other president. other than Biden and Trump. And there is regularly 20 to 25% turnover every year, every election.

And you cannot run a schoolyard. You can't run a library. You can't run a hospital. You can't run a barbershop with that kind of turnover. And so the next time somebody says to you, you know, what we need is term limits.

We need to rotate those people. They have no idea how often this is done. In order to get to understand how government works, it takes people willing to stay there a while. And if you look at the facts, there is tremendous, tremendous turnover. And what we see now, 23, it's going to double before the year's up.

You know, Dalton, it's interesting Bob's take here because he's right. I mean, people are screaming term limits, term limits.

Well, technically, that's sort of what we're getting here in a weird sort of a roundabout way. What's your take on what we're seeing in the House and the Senate?

Well, first, term limits only empower the bureaucracy. And I think we all agree that the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. does not need to be empowered anymore. In addition, I, just like Marjorie Taylor Greene and every member of Congress, took an Oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. That oath happens and it continues when things get tough and when you don't always get your way.

You don't get to take your toys and go home just because you don't always get your way. You're supposed to stand there and fight. Our service members who also make an oath to protect the United States don't get to just go home and get to drop their jobs and leave. Every so often, a film comes along that challenges us to look closer at what's happening in our own backyard. Sexploited is that film, a gripping new four-part docuseries that uncovers the reality of sexual exploitation happening in every community in America.

You will hear from survivors, law enforcement, and advocates who are fighting to expose and end this modern-day slavery. It's not easy to watch, but it's something every American needs to see. You can stream Sexploited right now or purchase the DVD by visiting sexploitedfilm.com or SalemNow.com. That's sexploitedfilm.com or SalemNow.com. Watch it, share it, and stand with those working to bring freedom and justice to the exploited.

Yeah. And welcome back to the show, everybody. You know, this is my favorite time of year. I just, aside from the fact, and Dylan, I'm really concerned about one thing, though. The door decorating contest.

in the building has gotten out of hand. And I did not sign off on being a South Park character. You didn't, but it is very, very accurate to your face, Todd. You have to admit. It's shocking.

Yes. It's shocking. The AI, by the way, on Facebook, you know, they create AI versions of your face. Oh, yes. And I look like Engelbert Humperdink meets, I don't know, Liberace.

I am really concerned about this. I'm like, who is running Facebook? I want to know who's running Meta for crying out. Robots. They're all running it.

So, look, one of the nation's largest and longest-running Christmas productions right here in the Mid-South in Memphis, Tennessee, everybody. And we've been telling you about the Bellevue Baptist Church singing Christmas Tree. And it is. It is truly a Broadway experience. And the great news is, you don't have to go to Times Square.

You don't have to run to the Naked Cowboy. You can just hang out here in Memphis. And you can, we have great hotels. It's a wonderful experience to even travel. A lot of people travel to Memphis just for this incredible event.

And we're really excited to have some very special guests with us today: Mark Blair, who is the minister of music at Bellevue Baptist Church, and Lisa Parker, who is the drama director and writes the scripts and is just an incredibly gifted person. And we also have two wonderful performers from the show today, Caroline Seegers and Hannah Smith. And, guys, great to have you with us today. Todd, it's always fun to be with you. And that likeness on that door.

Sorry, but it's you, buddy. I have line of sight right now to that thing, so it's really freaking me out. Yeah, it's you. That's unfortunate. It's unfortunate.

Look, wow, this is so you guys had a hiccup because of COVID, right? Right.

So this is technically the 50th year, but it's really the 49th year. Right.

It's our 49th presentation. We just lost that year. We felt like it was best for our. Community. To skip that year.

Yeah, you didn't want people keeling over in the tree. I get that. That's exactly that. That's not a good look. I went to the tree and I left with COVID.

That was not something we wanted. We didn't think that was good PR or good for the community. Unless you're passing that out of an ivermectin in the lobby. I don't know. You know, this is, we went back and looked.

I mean, gosh, I was in second grade, I think, second or third grade. The Vietnam War was just wrapping up. It was coming to an end when this production started. That's right. It's pretty amazing.

It started with a dream in the mind of Jim Whitmire. who is still in Memphis and still serving in ministry at another church. And he had the vision for it. And you can imagine the meeting when he goes in and said, I need money. We're going to do a singing Christmas tree.

We're going to build a structure and a bunch of kids are going to sing on it. And they thought he was crazy, but they followed his leadership. And here we are, 49 years later.

So, help me understand this because this is a massive tree, and there are actually young people that are in the tree itself performing. That's true. They're not always up there, but it can hold 150 students. And we still use the original tree. That was built and fabricated by a man from Bellevue.

And we inspect it to make sure it stays in good shape. But what's amazing is it is built for students. because for me to get up in that tree, I would probably have to be surgically removed.

So it's tight.

So I know something about this because back during my Fox News days, they sent me down here and we thought it would be fun to do the stand up With me in the tree. That's right. And I look like, I don't know, like a giant Wildebeest, you know, in the tree. And I thought I heard it shudder. And I thought, oh, geez, a Lou, I don't want to be the guy that brings the tree down.

But it was hard to kind of, I had to, you know, I was asking for a tub of butter to kind of, you know, get in there. Yeah, there are 11 rows, and they, to load the tree, the last group goes in at row seven and they crawl on their knees. Crawl up, go up to row eight, go across, zigzagging all the way to the top. It's really remarkable. Lisa, I want to talk about the the show itself because this really is a Broadway it's an original production.

All the music, everything is original. How long does that process take for you guys to create this masterpiece?

Well, we start uh this year I think we started in like April. Um talking about ideas, we have a team that meets every week. And we just throw around ideas and brainstorm a little bit, and then I go away and try to weave all of that into a story thread. And uh and then the rough draft comes and we just progress week by week that way. And this is a family-friendly production.

Oh, definitely. Yes. Yes. Children just sit there spellbound. Mostly at the lights and music, and but we try to create a story that appeals to.

the greatest number of people, everybody. You know, one of the things that I really marvel at, and Mark, you might want to weigh in on this. When I was in New York City, I went to a lot of Broadway shows when I lived there. And one of the first ones I went to was Spider-Man the Musical. They didn't tell us in the previews that Spider-Man was literally to come dropping down out of the ceiling and plop right down beside you, right?

So, but you guys sort of do that, not Spider-Man, but you have angels and other things that are literally, is this true, flying through the air there in the auditorium? We do. We partner with ZFX. Which is one of the nation's premier fly companies, because if you're going to have kids flying over the audience, you want to do it safely. But yeah, we do flying angels, flying Christmas presents.

Um, ballet girls that fly on pendulums on stage, it is. It really is an engaging experience. It's not one that you just sit back. I mean, it's happening around you. And it's so well done, which is one of the things.

I mean, you guys have thousands and thousands of people that come to these performances. Lisa, I mean, we're not talking about professional actors and actresses here. We're talking about volunteers. Absolutely. They are all volunteers from the church, and they're so incredibly gifted.

All right, I want to bring in Hannah and Caroline for just a second.

So, Caroline, you're one of the performers. What's that whole experience like being up there? Oh, my goodness. You know, I had the privilege of. Of Mark Blair bringing me to the singing Christmas tree several years ago while I was at Liberty University.

And that was my first experience at Bellevue Baptist was seeing the singing Christmas tree. And for the past three years, I've been in it, I've been a townie, I've been in the cast and so To be a part of such an awesome production, it's just a great honor. Hannah, one of the things I really appreciate about this performance as a Baptist is we dispel the myth that Baptists cannot dance. All right. Right?

Yes. We've got rhythm. Yes. All for Jesus. What is, you know, and that's interesting you say that, though, because this really is not so much about being entertained as it is telling a story and really tugging at those heartstrings.

No, we do a great job of. From the little fourth and fifth graders dancing their little hearts out all the way up to there are some townies in their eighties. And it's tailored for the entire gamut. It is Um, I I think that we have now shown everyone that you can dance in a glorifying way, you can be modest, you can be joyful, you can be expressive, and that can be a mode of worship. I'm excited to hear this.

I was watching a parade. I'm not going to say the city, but they had the United Methodist Church had the nativity scene float, and coming right behind them was a dance team doing the whip and nay nay. And it was not a good look. It was just not a good look. That is not choreographed in Arsenal.

No. I just say it.

Well, we're here today, and we're doing something very different in this hour of the program, talking with our good friends from Bellevue Baptist Church and the Singing Christmas Tree, celebrating its 49th performance. But they've been over for 50 years, and of course, skipping a year for COVID. Mark Blair, Lisa Parker, Caroline Seegers, and Hannah Smith with us. You know, Mark, I want to go back to. the performers because not only do you have these incredible singers, but I mean, last year at the show, you guys must have had seventy it looked like seventy five violinists up there.

I mean, these are really gifted young people that you've got. Yeah, fortunately, many, many years ago, Uh we started a Suzuki violin program. And the goal was that we would grow our own orchestra. And then, part of what we do with the tree, we use the students that are in. uh that program and they do a number And I mean, it's fully choreographed.

They're moving all over the stage. They're, you know, they're doing. Movements that you can do, but they're still playing at the same time. And Amazing young musicians. I mean, high school kids that play like they're in advanced college.

All right, guys, can y'all stick around for a few more minutes? Absolutely. All right, we've got to take a break here, folks, and yeah, you're even going to be able to hear some of the incredible performances. It's really going to bless your heart, and you're going to smile. I can promise you that.

We are hanging out with the wonderful crew from the Bellevue Baptist Church singing Christmas Tree. We'll be right back. MyPillow is excited to announce they're having their biggest three-in-one sale ever with a limited edition product, a back-in-stock special, and a close-out deal you won't find anywhere else. MyPillow bed sheets, only $29.88. Any color, any style, any size, even Kings.

Regularly priced at $119.98, and now only $29.88. Once they're gone, they're gone for good. My Towels, finally, back in stock, but not for long. Get a six-piece MyTowel set. Normally priced at $69.98, now only $39.98.

And for the first and only time, get their limited edition premium MyPillows made with Giza cotton. Queen $17.98 Kings only $19.99. Also, for a limited time when your order is over $100, you'll receive free shipping plus $100 in free digital gifts.

So go to mypello.com or call 800-839-8506 and use promo code STARNS. Use your promo code for the best offers ever. Quantities are extremely limited, so order now. That's promo code STARNS. Um All right, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.

I just love Christmas, Dylan. We're going to make it Christmas year-round here on the Todd Stern Show. Can we do that? I think so. I think we can do that.

Lisa, I want to ask you about the creation of the script. How do you find the inspiration for the story you want to tell? You know, just to be completely honest with you, most of the time it's just a matter of prayer. And uh as I said, we meet with the production team, but Um for example uh the one The most recent story that we've done was from a devotion that I had read about how. Many times the words do not fear.

appear in the Bible. As it turns out, it's about 365 times. Really? And that really struck me. And I thought, wow, that's one for every day of the year.

And from that concept, Uh we took a thread from an unfinished story from uh the previous year and developed that character and wove the story around her. Caroline, what's this experience been like for you? You know, being a part of this crew, I mean, it has to be a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun as well. Oh, my goodness, it's incredible. Um I have the privilege of working with Just an amazing cast.

I mean, these are cast people that have been working for Volunteering for years and years.

So, to be able to learn from these people as a performer. As a cast member, it's just a great experience. And isn't it interesting, Hannah, that something that was created almost, well, 50 years ago is so relevant today? Absolutely. We love it and we love it.

I mean, that's just what the Word of God does, too. It's living and active, good for every day. Mark, all. Ultimately, this is about sharing the gospel. And we know in a it's just a crazy time in America.

It's a crazy time in the world. And I think one of the reasons why is that so many people have strayed from the faith, and it's important to get people back to church. Have you heard stories of people that have, you know, maybe their family members dragged them to the tree, and then all of a sudden they just experienced that, you know, that conversion? We have, uh and we hear it every year. I think we were talking during the break.

One of the things our pastor says is: as we live out our faith, don't be weird about it. And uh, you know, I I think And we as Christians don't need to be talking at people. We need to be doing life with people. You know um helping our neighbor, serving our neighbor, being a friend, Um If you look at how Jesus treated people, only people he was rough on were the pseudo-religious people. And we have so many people in the world that are hurting.

They don't have any hope. Um and this year Uh you know the story Uh is about Um Reconciliation and forgiveness. How many people have junk in their past that they've been dragging along with them through the years and they've never forgiven themselves? and they've never been reconciled, maybe to someone, a relationship, a broken relationship, or to the Lord, because the ultimate reconciliation is through Christ to God. And that's it.

That is the Christmas story right there. We have one of the reasons people always ask, why do you focus so much on Christmas and why do you like to do the Christmas shows? And again, there are so many people out there that are long-haul truck drivers, working on Christmas, driving across the country. Maybe they're away from their families. And so we want to bring a little bit of Christmas to folks, like you guys are doing at Bellevue Baptist Church.

Mark, this is exciting. Thank you guys so much, and congratulations. And I got to ask a question. I got to have a, where's Lisa? Lisa, I got to have a walk-on roll.

If you've got like a radio guy or you need a curmudgeon, I can do that. Or the old Carol Burnett, I can just push the broom across the stage. Or a southern character. Absolutely. You know, I'm making a list.

Marco, stand in the corner. Yeah. I'm making a list because my doctor, every year, he asks me, when are you going to write a part for a handsome young doctor? And so he's still waiting on that.

Okay, well, yeah, handsome.

Okay, yeah, I can go with that. You know, Kristen, your makeup artist, she is a professional, so she makes me look presentable on TV. I don't know how she gives me one chin. She does that. And so, you know, if that'll help out, if that'll help the cause, I can do that.

Absolutely. All right. We're going to wrap things up here, guys, with a little taste of the Bellevue Baptist Church singing Christmas tree. Guys, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you, Todd.

All year long, don't sing songs like Death of Home. No jingle bells, no visit from old Santa Claus. But in the back of my mind, all this little Christmas time.

So come on snow, save our friends for another day. We turn on that keyboard as your death go late for the holidays. Spend a lot of love in Christmas Cheer. Will we sing it against a Merry Christmas tree? I'll make up with the colours of a thousand lights.

Rhythm of the music as we celebrate the season tonight. All we want to love is Christmas.

Now's my time to make a move and show my care.

Now's my chance. I'll take a breath and say a prayer. Can't wait, won't wait anymore. Here I come, here I go, gotta do what I care for. Um, hi.

Hi. How's it going? Pretty good.

Okay. Do you wanna dance?

Okay. Ring those bells and sun your time melodies. We'll go there belly and singing birthdays for me. Spread about a lovely Christmas tree. We're singing in a dancing on the Christmas tree.

All in a movie colours and a thousand eyes. We're moving in a group and chilling with the love of the music that we celebrate the season tonight. No one to the party, everybody got your hands on rockin' in a rollin' in a bag is a wonderland. As the holidays approach, it's time to return to the classics. Flaky pie crusts, perfectly browned butter, and cookies with just the right texture.

and one ingredient you cannot compromise on is kerrygold butter. Carrygold butter is crafted with milk from grass fed cows that graze on lush green pastures across family farms in Ireland. The result? A rich, creamy butter with a high butterfat content that elevates every recipe. Whether you're making signature shortbread or browning butter for a nutty depth in your pecan pie, Carry gold makes all the difference.

The flavor is unmatched, and the texture it brings to baked goods is simply divine.

So, this holiday season, if you're baking for loved ones or just for yourself, Reach for Kerry Gold. It's the butter of choice, and your pies, your cookies, and your cakes will thank you. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun-totin, Bible-clinging, deplorable America. That's us! That's right!

Ha ha. I love this American. Todd starts.

Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Tom Cearns Radio Show. This crazy story out of Texas. Jasmine crocked it. is Running for the Senate.

And I this is This is a head scratcher, ladies and gentlemen. By the way, thank you for hanging out with us today. Want to go to our Patriot mobile newsmaker line and say, hello, our good buddy Michael Wilson from Patriot Talk 920 in Houston. Michael, look, I love this idea. I think she ought to run, and I think we need more people like her running on the Democrat side of the aisle.

What say you? I'd say, first of all, Todd, thanks for having me on the show. And second, I'd say, I think if every single person running was like Kamala Harris or Jasmine Crockett, I would be happy for the next fifty years. Yeah, I mean, it's just truly remarkable when you think about it. Jasmine Crockett, who was basically, and let's set the stage here, you guys are redistricting and she's going to lose her congressional seat.

Is that right? Yeah, that's a fair assumption. We redrew the district at the request of, of course, the Trump administration just to make sure that we had five extra congressional seats. And the Supreme Court has now come out and said for the 2026 midterms, at least, we can use the new maps. They're not racist.

They're fine. And so Jasmine Crockett has realized I'm probably not going to win in a newly redrawn, really Republican congressional seat.

So she decided to go to the basically the busiest race in the state and go compete against people like Penn Paxton because obviously that was the really smart thing to do.

So I guess I'm giving her far too much credit. I'm not going to pretend like she's the dumbest person in Congress because I don't have to pretend. She just is. No, she, yeah, she's ignorant. No doubt about that.

I want to play a bit of a clip here. This is Jasmine Crockett talking about how she doesn't need all of you Trump voters in Texas to win the race. Take a listen to Cut Six. How will you make voters who previously have voted for Trump, particularly given that you have been an outspoken critic and he has inserted himself, just take your campaign video as is. He has inserted himself at every turn when it comes to your commentary.

How will you convert those who are supportive of him to voters for you? Yeah, I don't know that we'll necessarily convert all of Trump's supporters. That's not our goal. Do you need to? Our goal is to definitely talk to people.

No, we don't. We don't need to. Our goal is to make sure that we can engage people that historically have not been talked to because there's so many people that get ignored, specifically in the state of Texas. Listen, the state of Texas is 61% people of color. We have a lot of good folk that we can talk to.

We know that when Beto came really close, Beto, who is a progressive, we know that he got 65% of the Latino vote.

So what did they do after that? They specifically went after Latinos. We know that he got close to 90% or right there at 90% of the African-American vote.

So honestly, what we need to do is start talking to the vast majority of Texas. I think my message is very much a mainstream message. I don't know who disagrees with the fact that affordability is a real thing except for the president who says it's a Democratic hoax. But when somebody goes to the grocery store nowadays, whether it's in East Texas, Or whether it's right here in Dallas, Texas, or whether it's in Austin or West Texas, let me tell you, they are looking at those grocery prices and they are thinking we deserve better. Knowing that we do the amount of trade that we do in the state of Texas.

All right, enough of that. Michael, is it true? Does she not need Trump support to win? In uh the state of Texas.

Sorry, Son, my IQ dropped about 30 points, so I'm trying to regain thinking what I'm talking about here. The reality is that Jasmine Crockett has come out here and she said, listen, you know, 61% of the state of Texas is people of color. What she doesn't seem to understand is that the vast majority of that, as she kind of talked about, is Latino voters who woke up after Beto and went for Trump in 2024, have consistently voted conservative since then, who realize, you know what? All of my heritage is conservative and these liberals that are saying they're going to help don't do anything. And here's the problem.

Jasmine Crockett is really good at social media. She's fantastic, actually. She's pretty good at viral clips. She's really bad at saying anything that actually matters. And people in Texas, more than almost anybody, they're well aware and they can tell when you're not being honest and when you have no idea what you're talking about.

So, yeah, she needs the voters, but she's not going to get either side of the voters. Michael Wilson is the morning show host at Patriot Talk 920, our terrific affiliate there in Houston. You know, Michael, I'm curious, lay of the land. There's a lot of concern about Republicans maintaining control of Congress. No doubt about that.

I'm curious what your listeners are telling you. Yeah, a lot of our listeners, especially, they looked, of course, like at things like the New York City election or, say, the Virginia elections. And a lot of their concern, of course, rose up and said, if we're doing this, I know that's not Texas, but if we're doing this in all these places, what does that say about what's coming up in the midterms? How is the country feeling? We're getting a lot of those sort of questions.

And I kind of calm people down a little bit. And I point out a couple of things. First of all, at least in Texas, we're pretty safe, right? I'm looking at all the polling data. And most of our strong elections are pretty much washouts for what was read before is going to be read again.

And now we're probably going to add five whole congressional seats.

So from Texas' perspective, we're totally fine. From the country's perspective, we have a lot of work to do. And I think that requires a lot of times looking to Texas. I think we have the ability to say, hey, check out some of the stuff we're doing and maybe we can be an influence. For that.

That's why we believe so strongly at Patriot Talk 920 in really trying to fix up Houston. Because if Houston can be that sort of industrial beacon for the rest of the country, then maybe we can put the rest of the country back on track instead of electing people who want to kill other people's little kids, like the Attorney General of Virginia, or potentially are born in Uganda and run as a Muslim communist in New York City. We got to start instilling Texas values all across America again. You know, you mentioned the Islamist thing there. What the heck is going on in Texas?

You guys seeing a lot of Islamists moving in? Yes. So we had, I believe, forty mosques just over the past year built here in the state of Texas. We have the largest Ismaili center in the country. It's one hundred fifty thousand square feet.

It was just revealed in Houston, I believe, last month.

So we've got a a massive Muslim problem. That a lot of people don't seem to want to deal with. We have a lot of unfortunately moderate Republicans who they've rightfully earned the Republican in-name only mantra. And the reality is, when they talk about Islam, they always talk about Sharia law and how they've banned Sharia law. And they've made that comment like 50 different times in the last six months.

The problem is, Sharia law is basically banned nationwide by the existence of the Constitution and has been for hundreds of years. What we really need to start doing, Todd, and this is going to be a little bit radical. What we really need to start doing is having a conversation about what the First Amendment actually means, what the founders believed that looked like, and how it was not even supposed to serve when it came to things like mass immigration. But those are really serious conversations. And unfortunately, we're getting really close to a tipping point of having to have them when you do what the government has done the past, say, 60 years.

Well, it's concerning because they've intentionally allowed a massive demographic, and most of them are coming from Islamic countries, into the United States, changing the culture, the tone and tenor of communities. I think it's interesting when you look at where this is happening, especially places like Maine and Michigan and Minnesota. There's really not going to be an easy fix to this unless you do have the mass deportations. But I think you're going to have you know, the question is, will the administration actually go that far and actually deport massive swaths of people? Right.

And I think that's a good question. I think it's one that, as always, one thing we do need to remember is that by the grace of God, we live in a representative constitutional republic, which means whatever the administration does ultimately is going to hinge back on the American people. We've got to start taking some responsibility, some accountability, and demanding more things from our government, electing more conservative leaders and saying, look, the founding fathers never intended for the first 150, 200 years really of American history, we had small amounts of immigration from Europe and some Asian countries in small amounts. And that was done intentionally to make sure that all of our immigrants assimilated into American and I dare I say Christian values. And then with the Hart Seller Act in the 1960s, here we go, importing millions of people from the Middle East, from South America, from Lord knows where, that are coming in.

And as Trump has summed up, they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs, they're eating up the culture. And we're putting ourselves in a position where year over year, it's going to be harder and harder to find a solution to the problem. But we have to find one. Yeah. I mean, they really were eating the cats and they were eating the dogs.

Yes. Wow. I miss that. Tell them we got to find that. We got to find that song.

Haven't heard it in a long time. Michael, I'm curious, before we let you go, you know, there's been a lot of talk about guys your age and what's happening with your age demographic, and especially young white men in America who feel disenfranchised. I just think that you guys have been treated like crap since you were born. I think, honestly, at the bottom line, that's it. You guys have been treated horribly by society.

Right, so I think what happened was millennials kind of started it, and that's why you've got a lot of, you know, I'm not gonna group everybody in, but you got a lot of effeminate male millennials. And then Gen Z, the next generation after that, saw all of that. And the claims were much worse about how we were by nature of being masculine, we were toxic. And then we were also, of course, pitched the transgender lie.

So saying there's nothing special about you and you're bad. We heard all of these things in tandem. And it got to a point where we said, okay, they're obviously lying to us to disenfranchise us.

So what the heck else are they lying about? And when we looked into things like immigration and claims of racism and claims of crime and everything else, we said, you know what? If we're going to push back on this, we might as well actually push back. And that's going to look radical to a country that has been for years pushed a bunch of lies by the media and by the government. But for us, it's just, I want my country back.

Well said. All right. We're going to have to leave it there, my friend. Good to hear from you. And we appreciate you guys fighting the good fight down there in Houston because you guys are making a difference.

And I think gaining more and more listeners. I mean, you guys are crushing it down there, Michael. Thank you, Todd. Thank you, Todd. And as always, my brother, thanks for having me on.

All right. Michael Wilson, everybody, does mornings there at Patriot Talk 920. in Houston. And it is, and he's right. If Tonk Radio can win the fight in.

In Houston, they can win it anywhere in America. And I know our affiliate in Memphis, KWAM, that's the fight there. It's a blue city. But fighting tooth and nail to bring some common sense conservative values to the town. You folks in Salem, Oregon, the same thing, K-Y-K-N.

I mean, it's every single day. And that's exciting for me because it's one thing to be a conservative talk show in a rock-solid conservative community. But when you're out there in the trenches fighting in the front lines, man, I got nothing but respect for you. All right, we're going to take a break, going to the phone lines. How concerned are you about the Republicans?

Or do you think they're doing a good job and we just need to step back, be patient? President Trump says come January 1, the one big beautiful bill kicks in. Things are going to look up in the economy and things are going to get cracking. We've just got to crack the whip in Congress and get those folks to start codifying the President's agenda and get the Senate to start confirming. Period.

We cannot play nice in a knife fight, and that's exactly what this is. Got to take a break. We'll be right back. As the holidays approach, it's time to return to the classics. Flaky pie crusts, perfectly browned butter, and cookies with just the right texture.

and one ingredient you cannot compromise on is kerrygold butter. Kerrygold butter is crafted with milk from grass fed cows that graze on lush green pastures across family farms in Ireland. The result? A rich, creamy butter with a high butterfat content that elevates every recipe. Whether you're making signature shortbread or browning butter for a nutty depth in your pecan pie, Carry gold makes all the difference.

The flavor is unmatched, and the texture it brings to baked goods is simply divine.

So, this holiday season, if you're baking for loved ones or just for yourself, Reach for Kerry Gold. It's the butter of choice, and your pies, your cookies, and your cakes will thank you. All right, welcome back to the Ton CERN Show. By the way, President Trump on his way to Pennsylvania holding a big rally. The president is going to be talking about the economy, and he says it is well on its way to recovery.

Cut number eight, please. To Northeast Pennsylvania tonight, and President Trump is going to give a positive economic-focused speech where he talks about all that he and his team has done to provide bigger paychecks and lower prices for the American people. And don't forget, a year ago, President Trump inherited the worst inflation crisis in modern American history from the Biden administration. And I have watched every single day as President Trump and his tremendous economic team have been working. To fix it.

And they have through a very simple economic formula, which President Trump will talk about tonight. Number one, tax cuts. Within six months, President Trump signed the largest middle-class tax cut in American history: no tax on tips, overtime, social security. And you'll hear stories of everyday Americans tonight who will benefit directly from those tax rebates next year. You look at the massive deregulatory effort from President Trump and his team, which is saving American households and small businesses money.

And then, of course, unleashing American energy dominance, which is having a direct impact on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And we have seen oil prices down 20%. In 22 states, the average price of gas is less than $2.75 a gallon. Gas prices are at their lowest point in five years. This is all thanks to President Trump's economic agenda.

There's a lot more work to do, and he'll talk more about that tonight. But this is going to be President Trump's bread and butter issue, focused on the economy. Nobody knows it better than him. All right, there you go. And the president, and this is where the president really is the strongest when he's out there among the people.

And I think we need to see more of that from the president. As a matter of fact, Susie Wiles giving an interview yesterday, and the White House chief of staff saying that's exactly what the president is looking at doing for the midterms: he is going to be campaigning his butt off for these Republicans. Let's go to the phone lines: 901-260-5926. Mike in Clear Lake, Texas, listening to us on Patriot Talk 920. Hi, Mike.

What's on your mind today? Oh, well, first of all, I want to just give a shout out to Mike Wilson. We listened to his program as well. That guy's like an encyclopedia. He's very knowledgeable about so many different things.

His program is a great source of information. Um What concerns me, the reason why I called in mainly was the MTG situation. Aside from her Feud with President Trump, the name-calling, the, you know, the. the disagreements, you know, whatever. One thing that's not being addressed is Why is she leaving a year early?

I mean, if you don't think you can win reelection, fine. Don't run. But why leave a year early? W what is the benefit to that? You see, Mike, this is where, and this is where a lot of conservatives have issues.

You know, it's one thing to say, okay. You know what, I'm dealing with an issue, I've got a personal problem or whatever, so I'm going to have to step away from Congress. All right, that's bad enough, but at least there's an excuse behind it. She has no excuse other than to screw the House Republicans and President Donald J. Trump.

And that's what concerns a lot of folks is, is she doing this? What is her motive? Is her motive to hurt the administration, to shut down the Trump agenda? That's because there's really no reason why she could not finish her term in office. And no one's pressing her on that.

I haven't seen any interviews where that's the topic of, you know. The point of contention. Why is she leaving a year early? For me, that's the only issue. I'm sorry, but you put your hand on the Bible, you swore an oath.

You know, you're betraying the oath that you took, and you're also betraying your voters. Yeah, absolutely. And um If I can, I don't know how much time I got to talk, but I wanted to jump on the Jasmine Crockett situation. And you may want to get Mike back on the program. To me, Jasmine Kroc is not going to win, not in Texas.

The problem here in Texas The the problem here in Texas is There's enough of this state that's red that can offset and overcome Dallas. Austin, Houston and San Antonio. Those places are deep blue, and I'm telling you. Depend on the swing and The wrong way.

Sooner or later, the red is not going to be able to outvote the blue. But in the meantime, the problem here in Texas whether or not Jasmine Crockett can win is are we going to get stuck with John Cornyn again? In my position as Wesley hunts in the race, He's in bed with the Republican establishment, and he's there to take votes away from Ken Paxton. That's what that's all about. All right.

Hey, Mike, I got to run, my friend. Thank you for that call. 901-260-5926, our telephone number. This is the Todd Stern Show. As the holidays approach, it's time to return to the classics.

Flaky pie crusts, perfectly browned butter, and and cookies with just the right texture. and one ingredient you cannot compromise on is kerrygold butter. Kerrygold butter is crafted with milk from grass fed cows that graze on lush green pastures across family farms in Ireland. The result? A rich, creamy butter with a high butterfat content that elevates every recipe.

Whether you're making signature shortbread or browning butter for a nutty depth in your pecan pie, Carry gold makes all the difference. the flavor is unmatched, and the texture it brings to baked goods is simply divine.

So, this holiday season, if you're baking for loved ones or just for yourself, Reach for Kerry Gold. It's the butter of choice, and your pies, your cookies, and your cakes will thank you. President Trump posted yesterday that you are, quote, and I'm quoting him now, not America First or MAGA, and your quote, new views are those of a very dumb person. That's the President of the United States speaking about you. What's your response to these latest attacks?

Well, actually, Wolf, I feel very sorry for President Trump. I genuinely do. It has to be a hard place for someone that is constantly so hateful and puts so much vitriol, name-calling, and really tells lies about people in order to try to Get his way or win some kind of fight. And I think that's exactly what's wrong in America today. That's what's wrong in this toxic political environment that has ripped our country apart.

And I personally think that that's poor leadership from a president. It's a very bad demeanor. And Americans are very tired of it. Yeah, uh all right. Finish your term.

You ran for office, two-year term, twenty-four months, not all that difficult. Welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Want to go to the Patriot mobile newsmaker line? Say hello to our good friend from Georgia, Congressman Mike Collins.

Congressman, it's been a while. Hope you're doing good today. Hey, man, I'm doing just fine. How you doing? You know, I'm doing well.

And, Congressman, I know there have been a lot of folks that are very frustrated right now with House Republicans. And for whatever reason, people like MTG, there's Nancy Mace and others that are sounding concerns, Kevin Kiley, about Speaker Johnson. Just curious to hear from you and to see your lay of the land. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, Todd, as somebody that's gotten two pieces of legislation passed and signed into law in just two years that I've been up there. uh the latest one being that uh piece of immigration.

legislation called the Lake and Riley Act, which was probably the most significant immigration legislation we've had in 30 years. The fact that I've got a piece of legislation hitting the floor that'd be voted on Thursday with the Permit Act. You know, we've gotten 40% of our appropriations through the House, out of the Senate.

Now we've got conference. The other 60% are laying there ready to hit the floor. You know, we're working. We've got a lot of things going on, and I attribute that. To several different things.

Number one, just the sheer fact that we've got one of the best leaders in the history of this country sitting in that White House. As a matter of fact, Hodd, at the end of the day, President Trump's going to go down as the best president in the history of my lifetime, if not the history of this country.

Well, I have no doubt about that. But even the president yesterday, you know, really very frustrated with the Senate and the lack of movement there. And I just wonder if the Republicans, and especially Republican leadership, and that's really who we're talking about here, Republican leadership, need to learn how to fight like the Democrats fight because we can't play. I mean, this is a street fight we're in for the country. Yes, no doubt about it.

And the thing is, we all know that that Senate has been a problem. as long as you're going to uphold the sixty vote debate rule, It's going to be a problem until you get sixty people in the Republican Party. And that way you can get this stuff passed out of the Senate. Because, man, we've been sending tons of good legislation. Tons of it over to the Senate.

You know, last week we voted on making sure that the CCP doesn't participate in K through 12 public education anymore. We voted for energy independence. I don't know how many times. That was HR two in the 118th Congress. HR one in the 118th Congress was to secure that border down there, but you couldn't get anything out of the Senate.

And that's one of the reasons that we know how important That Senate race is here in the state of Georgia. When you've got somebody like John Osoff that votes lockstep with California, As a matter of fact, Speaker Gingers hit the nail on the head. He is California's third senator. He's somebody that is very beatable in this state. And next November, we're going to make sure that we send him packing.

Do we have a good Republican candidate lined up yet? Oh yeah, you've got one. You're talking to him on the phone right now. Yeah. Marjorie Taylor Greene, there had been a lot of talk that she was going to run for the Senate, yet they told her that the polling numbers just were not there.

I I just I'm wondering how that's playing in the state of Georgia. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I know, you know. Rumor mill is full of stuff. I have no idea.

But the thing is, you know, what I do know, I do know that since I got in this U.S. Senate race a little three and a half months ago, I have never felt I've been number one in polling. We have been number one in fundraising. We have been number one in grassroots support. I've seen my polling data to where we're pulling away from the rest of the Republican field.

And as a matter of fact, we've stayed tied with John Osoff. In the polling on the general election, since we got in this thing.

So we know we have the winning formula, the winning message, the winning candidate, and we have the ability to make sure that we send this guy home next November.

Well, we've got to. We've got to, Congressman. And again, Congressman Mike Collins joining us running for the Senate there in the state of Georgia as an important piece of environmental legislation that's being considered, the Permit Act. You know, Congressman, this is really going to help with these wacko environmentalists out there filing all sorts of crazy lawsuits. Yes, sure, Will.

You can I can give you a good example off that is you know how much we need road construction in this country with congestion. And when construction companies are padding their bids by thirty percent because they know it's a ten year window, From the time that they decide to build a road to the time they put a car on it. And seven years of that is due to. filing permits and fighting litigation with these environmentalists. for to only have about a two point five year window to really just build it.

that ought to tell you right there, that just doesn't make good common sense. And in addition to that, what we have done is we're going in and we're telling these federal agencies, you've got to speed up. we're making the federal government more efficient, more productive, and at the same time, we're making everything more affordable for the American people out there. And that's something that we need. Again, can we get that legislation?

Through the Senate. And that it seems to me, you're telling me that does seem to be the bottleneck.

Well, it is. It is. And, you know, there's two things to that. Number one, I think we've got.

some good I know we've got some good Democrat support on this permit act that we're pushing right now. And if I can push that over into the Senate like that, then I know that we'll be able to have something to talk about into the in the Senate. Which is where I spent a lot of time over in the Senate when I was pushing Lake and Riley through that, because Lake and Riley went through on regular order as well. And uh the the other thing is though, Todd, That's just one piece of the puzzle. Right now, we are working on so many different pieces to put this puzzle back together.

President Trump really understands that you can't do just one little thing and say, okay, the economy is fixed. There's been decades and decades of overreach and oppression and just out-of-control federal agencies that have wreaked havoc on the American economy. And we've got so many different pieces, whether it's regulations, taxes, just overreach and bringing these federal agencies back into control, whether it's tariffs, whether it's bringing our businesses back to the country. That's what we're doing right now. And these little pieces put together are going to have a huge impact.

On inflation and getting people money back in their pocket. And that's going to happen in short order. Congressman Mike Collins joining us from Georgia wants to be the next senator of the state. I want to go back to the Senate. It is a mess right now, and I'm just wondering what you would do if you were elected to the Senate.

What's one of the first things that you s you see that needs to be done? First thing I see that needs to be done is one of the main reasons I went to Congress, and that's tort reform in this country on a federal level. You know, you talk about those lawsuits that you were just mentioning, even on road construction. You know, at some point, if you're filing frivolous lawsuits, That needs to stop. And we need judges to understand that they need to make sure that the defendants are made whole by these plaintiffs that are filing these frivolous lawsuits.

All right. And again, folks, if you want information on the Congressman's Senate campaign, Georgia's conservative workhorse, MikeCollinsga.com. That's mikecollinsga.com. And Congressman, we'll get you back on. Love the logo, by the way.

That's pretty sharp.

Well, good. I appreciate that. You know, we've got we've got a lot of tremendous support out here across the count the state of Georgia and the country as well. In the last in the third quarter alone, we got contributions from all one hundred fifty nine counties in the state of Georgia. We signed up over five hundred people as county chairs in less than three weeks, and we're the only campaign that's done that.

Wow. So we'd love to support. If you'd love to help us, go out there and check us out. Love to hear from you, too. If you've got suggestions, I'd love to hear that as well.

And again, the only lawmaker in Georgia who stood up to the, just stood up to the illegals and got the Lake and Riley Act through. Folks, that is a very important piece of legislation, and we're so thankful for the congressman pushing that. Congressman, good to hear from you. Thank you. It's an honor and a pleasure to serve up there.

All right, Congressman Mike Collins, everybody, on the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line. There you come. 901-260-5926. Our telephone number. That's 901-2666-6666.

260-5926. You know, a lot of people this time of year starting to reassess budgets, what you're spending your money on. I get that. I'm doing the same thing. And those cell phone packages, those things can really be a little pricey.

Well, I've got some good news for you because our friends at Patriot Mobile. They're going to provide you with some incredible service and it's not going to bust your bank account. Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless company. They use all three major U.S. networks.

And if you've got service in the country today, you're going to have it as good or better coverage with Patriot Mobile. And by the way, it is super simple, no hassle at all. You can keep your number, you keep your phone, or you can upgrade. Patriot Mobile's 100% U.S.-based customer service team gets you activated in just a matter of minutes. And if you're still in a contract or you owe money on your phone, hey, Patriot Mobile has a contract buyout program as well.

And best of all, Patriot Mobile supports ministries and organizations that we care about, from the pro-life community all the way to the Second Amendment. I want you to go check them out. PatriotMobile.com/slash Todd. That's patriotmobile.com/slash Todd. Give them a call, 972 Patriot, if you'd like to use that.

That's 972 Patriot. Use promo code Todd, and you're going to get a free month of service. That's patriotmobile.com/slash Todd. Promo code Todd, and you're going to get a free month of service. Dylan, have you started doing your Christmas shopping yet?

Ashamedly, no, I have not. Are you one of the guys? You're one of these guys that kind of waits till like Christmas Eve? Yeah, now Christmas Day. No, I'm just kidding.

You go to the 7-Eleven and get gift cards.

Some snacks. Lottery tickets. Yes. No, I am a very last-minute shopper, though. It's not great.

I want to recommend something for you because you're still are you're still a newlywed, right? Is that or not? No, I'm just just a little bit over a year. All right, so it's still yeah, it's still fresh marriage.

So you m you in other words, you're still trying to impress your wife. Yes. Usually, when does that wear off, by the way? Wow. 10 years?

I don't know. Someone can call in and tell me. Maybe it never does. Hopefully it never does. You know, you kind of get into a routine.

Yes. You don't start bathing regularly, you know, just where. Wears sweatpants. Missing somehow. All the time.

Yeah. Well, someone told me the best marriage advice was to keep dating her. Oh. You keep wanting to woo her and take her out and make her feel special. That's like an all-life thing.

Well, in that case, I've got to tell you, you've got to go to Neiman Marcus. And it's a high-end department store, and they've released their 2025 Christmas Fantasy Gift List. And it's kind of like When we were kids, well, when I was a kid. We used to have the Sears catalog, and like there was Sears, and then up from that was like JC Penny. And I don't know what was after that, but that was, you know, DC Penny was like more upscale than Sears back in the day.

And in Memphis, we had a local department store chain, and some of our Memphis listeners will remember this, called Goldsmiths. And that was very high end. That was the big fancy department store, kind of like a Macy's or any of you folks in the Atlanta area remember Rich's department store or a down in New Orleans, they used to have a one called Bon Marcheis.

So, which was a these are local big department stores, and so anyway, we would not.

So, one end of the mall was like Goldsmiths, on the other end was Sears. We were a Sears family. And we would always go to Sears and we'd hang out in the toy store. Back then, they had toy stores. And you would get this Christmas catalog.

And the Christmas catalogs were actually made here in Memphis, Tennessee, for Sears. Which is a little bit of trivia there, now known as the Crosstown Concourse. That's where they used to make all the the Sears catalogs.

So anyway, you would you know circle what you wanted and you know you'd your grandmother and grandma grandpa would get it for you, mom and dad.

So anyway, Neiman Marcus has been doing this for six decades. And Dylan, I think for really, if you really want to just pack a punch with the Christmas gift, this is the way to go. An Annie Leibowitz portrait session. You know, she's a famous portrait you know, she does the photography stuff.

Okay. And um it's $500,000. Oh boy. Right.

Yeah. Wait, really? $500,000 for a session? $500,000. What is she like?

Make you a new person?

Well, she's able to photograph you in weird ways, which is kind of like what anybody on our staff can do. With their iPhone for free. No, you can't YouTube it. If you want to go to, well, hold on. Here's another one.

If you want an exclusive Paris getaway. And exclusive mood. I'm not sure what that is. It's a hundred and eighty five thousand dollars. Oh, how about this?

Is it you're gonna you want a bespoke trunk? That's like what you put all your clothes in. $180,000.

Okay. Do you have $180,000 worth of? I'm seeing a trend here. Don't know if I'm gonna be going to this. Oh, here we go.

A baby Bugatti. Right.

Little car, $135,000. Little miniature thing. It's more than my actual car. I know. Yeah.

They got paid I think I didn't pay that much for the radio station. Oh, here we go. Inaugural yacht voyage. $115,000. If it has the word yacht in it, it's probably not going to be less than $100,000.

It's the four seasons inaugural yacht launching spring of twenty twenty six. Invitation only. You're going to travel the Mediterranean Sea. You get a three-bedroom loft suite spanning two levels. With your own private splash pool, outdoor gym, sauna, steam room, and panoramic ocean views.

And you get a $10,000 Neiman Marcus gift card.

So technically it's only costing you one hundred and five thousand dollars. It's still a discount.

So, you're telling me all I have to do is circle one of these and my wife's gonna get it for me?

Well, I think actually it's the other way around. You would want to get her. Do you guys have a pet? Do you have dogs or cats? We have one dog.

She just turned five. Oh, what's your dog's name? Her name is Kirky. Kirky. Yes.

All right. Well, I think I've got the perfect gift for you, Dylan. Here we go. Kirky What way to memorialize and really immortalize Kirky than to have your dog painted? And you can do that.

One of these world-famous artists, Herb Williams, he's a contemporary artist. will create a portrait of your pet. with crayons. Like Crayons. Crayola that you get at Crayola crayons.

And he won't It's You're going to get a certificate of authenticity. Just tell me how much. All right. Well I guess no one's getting anything from Christmas from me.

Well, not from Neiman Marcus. What about Target? Target, please. What about Target? Walgreens.

There you go. Walgreens. I'm getting somebody a lottery card. All right, we've got to take a quick break, folks. Step away.

And maybe we'll try to see if there's a Sears catalog. 901-260-5926 or whatever. Hang tight. This is the Todd Starn Show. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starr.

Sets us! That's right! I love this American Oh wow. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Program.

Great to have you with us, hour three of the big show. Tonight, President Trump in Pennsylvania. Taking the show on the road and the president doing what the president does so well.

So uh we're certainly I'm excited, and we'll keep you updated on what happens there as the President heads to Pennsylvania to talk about the economy, holding a big rally tonight. Susie Wiles says that the President's going to be doing more of this. in the new year as we get closer to the midterms. No doubt, one of the things that President Trump has done is focus on religious liberty. And making sure that the deep state No longer targets people of faith, and especially evangelical Christians.

I want to go to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line and say hello to our good friend. He is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. Incredible author, best-selling author, Dr. Robert Jeffress. Dr.

Jeffress, good to have you back with us. Great to be back with you, Todd. Thanks for having me. And I understand you are going to be testifying before the Religious Liberty Commission, which is holding a hearing in downtown Dallas. This is something that is very important to you guys there at First Baptist Dallas.

Absolutely. Lieutenant Governor Ban Patrick was chosen by President Trump to chair this committee. Ben Carson is the vice chair, and they're spending a year looking at the subject of religious liberty, violations of religious liberty, and making some recommendations to the president about what needs to be done to be sure these violations don't occur again. And they've asked us to come and share our just amazing story of the weaponized IRS under Joe Biden and what they attempted to do to us. And let's talk about because you guys, the church, 157 years old, and you guys came under attack by the Biden-Harris administration.

Absolutely. And that's what we're going to be telling about tomorrow. The brief story, Todd, is every year we have a patriotic celebration in which we talk about our nation's Christian heritage. And in the past, you've spoken at it before. President Trump spoke at it.

We had the rally in Washington, D.C., talking about our Christian heritage. But in June of 2020, we had it in our church. And our guest speakers were Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet Secretary Ben Carson. The president sent both of them down to represent him. And because it was an election year, we carefully followed the IRS regulations about what to do with potential candidates.

Pence was not a candidate yet. They had not been officially made the choice of the Republican Party. That wouldn't happen until August. But we were very careful not to endorse to do exactly What the IRS said. And so both Pence and Carson shared their faith journey.

That was their story that they shared with us.

Well, immediately after that, the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service. And for 11 months, Todd, we heard absolutely nothing. It was not until Trump was out of office and Joe Biden was firmly in office that the IRS informed us that they were doing a tax inquiry related to the service. We had the lawyer up, and we in our group of lawyers had the former head of the tax exempt division for the IRS. He said he had never seen anything like this before.

This was the first time, to his knowledge, the IRS was going after a church for something that happened within the worship service of the church. He called it unprecedented. But we presented our information. The IRS said they were not satisfied and that they were going to conduct a full tax examination, which ended up taking over a year, costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars. And only when we signaled that we were willing to go the court, stay the course and go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, did they suddenly, without warning, close the case and say there had been no tax violation.

And, you know, people may say, well, why are you going before the Commission? Because although we could afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, most churches could not do that, and no church should have to do it. And Todd, our point tomorrow with the Religious Liberty Commission is the IRS or any other government agency has absolutely no business in trying to regulate what is said in the pulpit of any church in the country. It is none of the government's you know what business, what we do in a church. Wow.

No, you're absolutely right about that, Dr. Jeffers. And again, this, I mean, I'm glad things worked out, but the reality is this cost the church, what, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Did you guys get any of that money back? No, of course not.

Of course not. And let me tell you what Governor Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, wanted me to make sure and tell this tomorrow. On the Sunday before the twenty twenty election, november first, three days before the election, on that Sunday morning, I explained to our church why we did not endorse candidates. and instead encouraged every member to go out and vote their biblical convictions. While I was standing in the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, guess who was standing in another Baptist pulpit of the Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia?

Vice President Joe Biden. He was there with that pastor, endorsing himself for president and calling for people to vote for him. The pastor did the same thing. We showed the IRS a tape of that compared to what we did, and the IRS couldn't have cared less. In fact, every IRS examiner who was on our case was a vocal Biden-Harris supporter, as you testified to on their social media.

They don't care about enforcing the Johnson Amendment in ethnic churches. They go after what they think are conservative evangelical churches. And that's just why the Johnson Amendment either needs to be abolished or it needs to be amended. Yeah, you know, a lot of people thought it was abolished during the first Trump term in office. But it it's still on the books.

It's on the book. It has to be through a legislative fix, is what has to happen. And again, as long as President Trump is in office, it's not going to be enforced. But once he leaves office, it could certainly be enforced again. And look, Todd, I don't want to be out endorsing candidates in the pulpit.

I don't know of any church that really wants to do that. But the point is, the IRS can take what is biblical conviction and suddenly label it political speech if they want to. And the IRS has no ability to discern what is political speech and what is biblical conviction. They can't tell the difference. No, no, they can't.

And again, I got back to the money part of this because this is money that you guys spent on lawyers, investigations. This is money that could have been used in the form of ministry. Yeah, that's right. And look, most churches are scared to death of the government, and they would never engage in a fight like this. And again, they shouldn't have to.

But what happens is people engage in self-censorship then. Pastors are afraid to talk about issues like the sanctity of life or marriage or Israel. They're afraid that that will be labeled as political speech and cause them to lose their tax-exempt status. And so they just don't talk about any issues at all. And that kind of self-censorship should not happen.

No, it should not happen. And going back, you know, we have a very rich and vibrant history of pastors talking about the issues of the day from the pulpit leading up to, you know, even before the country became a country. And, you know, you know the stories about on election day, people would go to church first, hear a sermon, and then go cast their ballots.

So it's really unfortunate that you've got a bunch of leftists that have. Wanted to marginalize, or at least try to marginalize the influence churches have in the marketplace. That's right. And by the way, there would be no civil rights in America today if Martin Luther King Jr. hadn't decided to allow his convictions to dictate his politics.

I mean, who's going to argue that Martin Luther King Jr. shouldn't have been free to speak what he wanted to speak as the pastor of a Baptist church? Are you hearing, and this may be out of your wheelhouse, but are there efforts to actually resend the Johnson Amendment? You're right. It does take a formal act of Congress.

The president can only do what he can do through the Treasury Department, but Congress is going to have to act. They are going to, and there are some who want to do that. And we're calling on this Religious Liberty Commission to make that a recommendation, either repealing or at least amending and clarifying the Johnson Amendment to unmuzzle pastors from preaching and speaking. All right. Well, good stuff.

You're doing well, everybody. The family doing well. I know you're, I don't know how you do it all. I mean, you know, you're all over the place.

Well, we're doing great. And by the way, you may have seen this in the Christian Post. We announced yesterday that David Green, the CEO of Hobby Lobby and his organization have made a $7 million gift to the church to aid us in the rebuilding of our historic sanctuary that was destroyed by fire about a year and a half ago. And so we're doing a shout out to Hobby Lobby. I told Amy, my wife, she can shop there all she wants to now.

I'll never complain again. Dr. Jeffers, this is ironic. Over the weekend, I was looking for something. The only place in Memphis that had what I was looking for was Hobby Lobby.

And I put out a message. I said, put me on the prayer list, folks. I'm going in. I got to go to Hobby Lobby. We'll go back again.

I'll go back again just for you, Dr. Jeffers. Well, it's always good hearing from you. And thank you for the great work you're doing. Thank you for standing up in the culture.

Well, thank you. And come see us. Will do. All right. Good man right there.

Dr. Robert Jeffers, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. And yeah, I've had the opportunity to speak once. I've been interviewed twice there at the church during their celebration of freedom services, and it's really something remarkable. But to see what God is doing.

through that church.

So many churches abandoned the downtown areas and moved out to the suburbs. And I I'm not faulting anybody for that. I'm just saying it's a reality. First Baptist Church Dallas really felt called of the Lord to stay put. And it turned out that it was one of the most...

It was one of the most prophetic things that they stay in downtown Dallas because all around the church, the high-rises went up, people, the condos, people moving in, young families, and now that church bursting at the seams, it really is the first church of the Southern Baptist Convention and a beloved institution. He mentioned the original sanctuary, and it was gutted by just an awful fire. And God bless the good folks over at Hobby Lobby for donating $7 million to help restore that facility. What a great blessing. All right, gotta take a break here.

901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926. This is the Tod Stern Show. Oh Wow. Going through all the hate mail, I was a couple of days ago, was it a couple of days ago?

Was it yesterday? Oh, it was yesterday. It's going to be a long week. I was talking about Candace Owens and Turning Point USA. And my only point is this.

The only thing that should really matter are the young people, the children of America, And they're the ones that are really suffering through all of this with the accusations Candace Owens is making against Turning Point. Of course, Turning Point, they held a very lavish fundraiser. I mean, people were, the champagne was flowing and folks having a grand old time. a hoot nanny, if you will, at Mar-a-Lago, raising big cash, And of course, we're all getting deluged. With fundraising letters and material from Turning Point USA.

And I, you know, I the show must go on as they. as they say.

So now, Candace Owens, who is she? She's pretty much accused, I don't know, about a quarter million people of being involved in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Now we have more news. Candace Owens. is now claiming she has proof the US military Was involved in Charlie Kirk's assassination. Owen saying that she received an email from a man in the military which she claims she received last night. She said, quote, It feels like today will be the day that the government can no longer deny it.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated by our military and our military was involved.

Okay. Um Wait a second, I thought it was Turning Point USA. I thought it was Charlie's inner circle. I I thought it was uh these dudes who flew the plane from Egypt. I thought it was the Israelis.

I thought, I mean, wait a second. No, no, no. I thought it was. of the the the President of France, Macron, because I guess he is fast into Charlie Kirk because she pointed out that he was married to a dude. Brigitte.

allegedly, um and apparently they were involved. But now we're being told the U.S. military is she has the proof, she has the proof. and is going to release it sometime today. I'm losing track here of how many people have killed Charlie Kirk.

I mean, this is all coming from Candace Owens. And so anyway, I'm getting all this hate mail, Dylan, because people are like, how dare you? Who do you think you are going after Candace Owens? She is a saint of a woman. Who do you how dare you question her?

I'm just trying to keep up with who's responsible. No. She's saying a lot of false things. Or truth. I don't know.

Or maybe they're all involved. Oh, that would be. Has she blamed MTG yet or Donald Trump? It was Melania. It wouldn't surprise me if that's next.

She's very quiet. She may have been to Utah once. I'm like, guys, where does all this stop? I mean, what is going on here? And it's like every other day, she is dropping some sort of a bombshell.

And I'm like, okay, well, if this is the case. Then let's, you know what? Because people are out there, they're saying, How dare you? Who do you think you are doubting anything Candace Owen says? You're not allowed to do that.

As a conservative, that means you're a leftist. I'm like, well, okay.

So let's take Candace Owens at face value here.

So Every single person employed by Turning Point USA should be arrested right now. Put him in jail. Start the investigation because she accused them and she hasn't retracted that. Um we need to go after the French president, so we have to declare war on France.

So we got to, but the problem is, we can't fight a war in France because we're going to have to send the entire military to Fort Leavenworth because they're involved as well.

So we've got nobody to fight the French. You've got to, oh, well, we've got to declare war on Israel because they're to blame as well. And whoever the guys in the Egyptian plain were, we've got to go after them. A lot of people that you got to throw. I mean, I'm just saying here.

If you're going to make the accusations, then there has to be an investigation, right? And here's what gets me about Turning Point USA. They're like using their podcast platform to refute all this. They need to have the best attorneys on the planet involved here. Unless something else is going on.

You know, maybe, just maybe there needs to be a doge. Of all that donor money that's flooding into Turning Point USA right now, I'm just saying.

So, anyway, we'll see. But Candace Owens says she's got the proof military involved. In the assassination of Charlie Kirk. What say you, ladies and gentlemen? 901-260-5926.

This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Let's go right away to our Patriot mobile newsmaker line. Say hello to our great friend, the awesome, incredible.

Republican strategist Josh Jones, the man who can rock a quarter zipper sweater thing. I appreciate it. What do you call it? A quarter zip is what they call it. I don't know.

I call it a quarter zip.

Some people call it a pullover. I actually got in a debate about this the other day, funnily enough. I call it a quarter zip, though.

Well, you know, we did a whole segment on this yesterday that apparently it's like all the rage among guys your age, Josh. Yeah, it's like the classic like Uh, office wear these days, I feel like, because like there's no longer a culture of like people wearing like a suit and ties for the office anymore.

So, this is like the in-between of like, oh, it's a little bit casual, but still professional.

So, yeah, very, very, very big in like the Gen Z community. Did you ever go through the whole hoodie with the you know, the droopy pants with the butt crank showing? Did you ever do that? I can't say that was ever mean.

Sorry, I couldn't help but ask. Dylan made me do it. Josh Jones, we got a lot to talk about. This MTG thing. I just don't get it.

We had a caller, and he asked a very simple question. What was the problem? Why didn't she just want to finish out her term? Why did she have to resign? I mean, that's a good question.

And I mean, really, only she can answer that because obviously. You know, just to kind of recap the situation, she's been in a feud with the president and going from one of his biggest supporters to now, you know, openly coming at each other in the media and the press. And obviously, that comes with a heated pressure on her personally and her family, I'm sure, just being thrown into the spotlight, regardless of who that is. But why she's resigning early, I don't know. Because in my mind, if you can't serve a full term for your constituents, then you shouldn't have ran in the first place.

So, you know, if people have health reasons and they resign, that's one thing. But to resign because the job's too hard, well, I just say suck it up. It's part of the job. Yeah, I'm with you on that. And again, I get it.

If you don't want to run for reelection, okay, great, no problem. But when you've got a majority this slim, That to me is just sending a message and putting your own political party in danger. Yeah, no, you're absolutely correct. And I look, maybe there are more reasons that she's not shown or spoken about publicly. But I mean, to your point, we have such a slim majority in the House of Representatives that a resignation is a big deal.

And frankly, the majority, especially with how things are going right now, can't afford that. Um so if I'm her I would at least For the good of the team, stay on through the rest of my term. Like you said, if you don't want to run for reelection, great, somebody else will run, but you shouldn't resign early. I'm just curious about mood. We're seeing a lot of Republicans now speaking out, many frustrated with Mike Johnson, his leadership style.

You've got President Trump caught on a hot mic yesterday complaining about the Senate basically bottlenecking all of his plans. What is going on in D.C. right now? Look, I mean, frankly, at the end of the day, what we have right now is a dysfunctional majority, both in the House and in the Senate. You could argue more so in the House, but there's blame delay on both sides of the capital right now.

With that being said, I mean, We have, you know, right now it's a rumor, Mill, who knows how much of this is true, but talking about 20 incumbent members on the Republican side at least deciding not to run for re-election in the midterms next year, which is a big deal. It's also a clear, you know, warning sign of a red flashing light saying, hey, this election is not about to go great. I'm getting out of town.

So if I'm Republican, especially if I'm a Republican in leadership, I'm locking in right now and figuring, okay, what do we need to do in a just course post-the holidays and make sure we keep our majorities in the elections next year? It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. And I get it. You know, poor President Trump having to go out there on the campaign trail now. And Susie Weil says he's going to be hitting the road.

He's going to be campaigning hard. I mean, if the economy is running and gunning, Josh, I don't think the Republicans have any issues at all. If it's not, if it's still a little bit sluggish, I don't know. I agreed. I mean, I don't, if Republicans cannot focus on the economy, specifically when it comes to the economy, specifically affordability, Republicans cannot get a consistent core message and a plan around affordability and lowering the cost of living for Americans across the country, whether you're in an urban environment or you're in rural America, they cannot tackle the issue of affordability.

Nothing else is going to matter. It's the economy, stupid. No, you want to mess with James Carville. That's what Republicans have to focus on. And if the economy is in a good spot and the American people feel like Republicans are making progress, maybe they'll win the midterms.

If they don't, they'll lose. Yeah. I mean, it really is that simple. How are things going? I know you're traveling around a lot, working with a lot of candidates.

What's the mood, the vibe?

Well, right now it's a little right now frankly, right now it's a little slow because everybody's focused on Christmas and New Year's and the holidays and whatnot.

So hard to people aren't in campaign mode right now at a fireback up in January. Me, myself, I'm doing a lot of work down in Texas, especially with these new congressional maps. In Canada, it's down and around South Texas, mid-Texas.

So, it's kind of hard to get a read on the mood right now, particularly in Texas, we have an advantage there of it obviously being a red state and also with the recent redistricting. But I mean, look, even in Virginia, you have the Virginia Democrats proposing a constitutional amendment to redraw the maps to a ten to one, drawing out four Republican seats.

So I mean, it's kind of hard to tell what the landscape's going to be right now because you have this redistricting battle that started in Texas and then California and now it's coming to Virginia and then Indiana.

So it's kind of hard whenever you're trying to to put it into an analogy, if you're playing a board game and the board keeps getting flipped or rearranged, it's kind of hard to play the game. Um so it's a little bit hard to tell right now, but uh you know cautiously optimistic All right. Want to ask you about Christmas? Do you decorate? Are you a decorator for Christmas?

It's kind of sad, but not really. I mean, a little bit. Like, growing up, we always obviously decorated for Christmas, but now I'm in my apartment in DC by myself. I'll put like, you know, a tiny tree and like one or two decorations, but beyond that, not really.

Well, that works. No, that's good. The reason I ask, there's a big story. People are talking about holiday decorations this year, holiday decor, Christmas decor. And I guess last Christmas it was all beige.

I don't get that. But this year, they're saying it's like they want gaudy.

So tacky Christmas decorations, like the rainbow lights, the mismatch ornaments, you know, it's like going back to the 1940s and 50s. Have you noticed that in DC? I have because we recently put up, you know, not me, but the city, put up the decorations around the city recently. I have to say, I am on the side of Gaudi when it comes to Christmas. I like the rainbow lights.

I like the mismatched decorations. I mean, I like sophisticated Christmas too, don't get me wrong. But I definitely err on the side of just throw a bunch of stuff up and let's see how it looks. Last year, I went to a Christmas party, and I'm like, Oh, where'd you get your tree, crate and barrel? I'm like, geez.

That's kind of it's kinda like, okay. It's kinda dull. You know, I like I got ahead the bright lights, you know, and uh we got the we got the nutcrackers downstairs and the big Santa Claus cookie jar, the nativities, the whole nine yards. Exactly. No, I'm right there with you.

We're on the same page. All right. Good stuff. All right. Josh Jones, take care of your good self.

Merry Christmas to you. You too, Todd. All right. So he's a quarter zip guy, too, there, Dylan. It's a trendy choice.

Yeah. But it looks nice. Mary Walters hates my sweater vest. Did I tell you that? I think I've heard that from her before and I don't understand it.

Wait, she's telling other people? I thought it was just me. She may have announced it a couple of times. You know, she's from Jersey.

So she doesn't have that switch.

Well, I think she's just jealous. You think so? Yeah. I don't think so. The zip-up vest?

She sounds very angry. She was like, What are you wearing that for? It looks terrible. You look like a. You look like a Wall Street investor.

Well, that's true. They look nice. Yeah, you know. You try to look nice. I try.

I try. I'm not going to do the that quarter zip. I'm one of these guys that you want to dress your age. I kind of know what you should and should not wear. You don't want to be one of those guys.

You've been around to know what not to wear. Exactly. The parachute pants. Oh gosh, I saw somebody wearing pairs, and they were like my age. And I'm like, dude.

Dude, he's not left that generation in the middle. No, boy, he sure didn't. He was only missing the mullet and the feathered hair. He would have been right back there living the good days. You know, old times come back pretty quickly.

By the way, speaking of that, have you seen these videos? They're very clever. And they're videos, they're all AI generated, but it's like kids from the 80s talking to kids in the 2020s. Oh, yeah, yeah. People are getting very creative with the AI, but I think the AI is the one that's creative.

I think they just put in the prompt and then AI does its thing. I don't know. Is that bothering you? Yes. AI is bothering me.

I've seen I just saw a Walmart commercial. That was fully AI. And I'm thinking the Super Bowl this year is going to suck because I usually watch the Super Bowl.

Well, I do like sports, but I watch it for the commercials. And I'm thinking half these commercials have got to be AI. Yeah. McDonald's has an AI commercial out in the Netherlands, which is sort of making headlines. It's, you know, there are a lot of people, depending on your age, but I'm really surprised at the number of young people that do have a problem with AI.

And I think they see this more like self-preservation because where are all the jobs going? Exactly. Yeah. All their jobs are going to be taken by a robot. I mean, what do you see?

That's exactly what's happening. I mean, it's insane. And now these videos, here's what's going to happen. There's going to be some realistic videos. And it's going to end up starting a war.

You know, you're going to have like, oh my gosh, I can't believe so-and-so just got bobbed. Right.

And it's all AI generated. Yeah, like today they have videos that are out there that are really hard to tell. You really have to like pay attention to. There's just very little details now that you're like the crispness of the video. And sometimes like the um the distance between the person and the person And if they're like at a desk, for instance, if the desk is blurry and the person's very clear, I'm like.

There's no iPhone camera that's doing that right now, so maybe it's AI. Here are my two: Shadows. Yep. And fingers. Yeah, fingers.

They haven't figured the fingers. How do you not figure the finger? Out of all the things, how do you not figure it out five fingers? Four fingers and a thumb. And I think that's it when they're typing in five fingers.

So they're going to give you five fingers, but they're not going to give you a thumb. Your finger could be on your cheek eventually. It could be. It could be. That's the weirdest thing.

They haven't figured out the fingers. I'm telling you, folks, there is this AI thing, it is not good. Not good at all. All right, 901-260-5926. By the way, don't forget, watch Newsmax.

Millions are tuning into Newsmax. They're watching on cable. They're going to our streaming channel, Newsmax 2, and they're downloading our free Newsmax app on their smartphone and TV. Reuters says we're one of the top news brands in the nation. Every night, you can watch great shows with Rob Schmidt, Carl Higby, and Rob Fennedty.

Find out why Newsmax is the fastest-growing news channel in America. Make the switch today and join our news revolution. Get Newsmax on cable, on streaming, and download the free app today. Takes just seconds to start and let President Trump know you stand with Newsmax. Real news for real people.

All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Ton Sterns radio show. You know, one of the things I love about Congressman Tim Burchett, he is from Tennessee. This guy, a lot of fun. He's explaining why his Christmas parties are only 15 minutes long.

Take a listen.

Hey, everybody, Tim Burchett. People are asking. Um well, I'm currently at ball market. cultural center of the universe and Four star Deli. There was one.

Anyway. Um, you go in there, tell Alan and Richie you're friends of mine. and you'll get no discount. Um Everybody's asking about the Christmas party and asking it's legit. You can Google it.

It's 15 minutes long. this year. Last year it went to sixteen, but we thought it dragged on too much. Um but Fifteen minutes. And the reason it's 15 minutes is is because you go to a dadgum Christmas party and what happens?

You get cornered by somebody who's half lit and they got wine breath. and they're cornering you in the corn over there and For 15 minutes, and that's about all you can take.

So I'm thinking 15 minutes is all you need for a dead gum Christmas party. You can say your piece and go on about it. And our musical guest this year is my good friend from Nashville. Music singer-songwriter Gary Chapman, and I'm hoping he's going to sing Tennessee Christmas. I might even cry.

I probably will. Anyway. 15 minutes, 12 o'clock, and the date of it. December 11th. And from 12 to 1215.

You come at 12:16, it's like the old days at Kmart. I'll be blinking the dadgum lights and get the heck out of there. And we'll have peanut butter and jelly bar. um mountain dew and charcuterie of cracker riff crackers and Cheese wiz. Because if I ever have another child, I'll name it Chicuterie because it could be a guy or a girl.

It's kind of like a spork, a fork, is a spoon. Kind of universal, so pretty cool. Anyway, thank y'all for sending me here. Yeah. Dylan, there's a lot to unravel here.

Yeah. I want them to take every single video that he posts and put it in a long movie and I would watch that and be fully okay with it. Sharcootery. What a great name. Charcuterie Jones.

I think I ran into him down at the super low. Yeah. You bagged her groceries. That sounds like a great party, I'm not gonna lie.

Well, I'm I'm all over the peanut butter and jelly bar. I know. That's what caught my ear too. I mean, that's pretty impressive. You know, some people, it gets me, you know, you go to these parties and there's all this stuff, and you're like, what is this?

You know, they try to go high-end with their food. Yeah, you don't need it. You just got the finger food and then The drinks probably are what people are there for, but Then you just have a good time. Give me sausage balls and a good old slider. That sounds good.

You know, I bring it we we're having the big family. You know, we do the uh the we do a Christmas Eve, right? Yes. And uh your dad is like the king of the sausage balls. He is the king.

And I don't think I have the recipe, so I don't know if I can carry that on, but hopefully I can get it eventually. You gotta get that recipe. They are the um they are the bell of the ball at the Christmas party. They really are. And this year last year I brought the uh the filet of beef.

Yes, you did.

So I'm thinking about bringing that again. Oh, yes, please. That was pretty good. I'm thinking of a peanut butter and jelly bar now. I love that.

That's what I'm talking about. We needed wine breath. We've all been there. That sounded so personal. He's like.

15 minutes, and that's all I need. That's all you get. I love that. What a great idea. You and I, we ought to book a flight.

We ought to fly up there, DC, go to the party. Yeah. As a fan of not going to a party, that sounds like the best party ever. You go in, get your PBNJ. Oh, I wonder if it, you know, it's going to be high end, so we'll have the crunchy and the smooth.

Yep, yep. And the jelly, he can have the smooth jelly or the jelly with some little bit of berries still in it. Oh, you gotta have the strawberry. Yeah, you gotta have the strawberry. And listen to a little bit of good music, it sounds like.

So I went somewhere. Oh, it was that infamous Dallas trip where I wanted the sausage biscuit and they brought me a croissant. Oh, terrible. And then I'm like. And she goes, Well, I got you some extra jelly, and we make it here.

And I'm like, Okay.

So I put it on there, and it's cherry. Mm-mm. Cherry who eats cherry jelly? That's like the last berry that you use as a jelly. Like blackberry, grape jelly.

So you've got a list of berries you know, of the I guess what is strawberry at the top of the list? Strawberry is like number three. I mean, I would put grape jelly as number one, obviously, then blackberry, then probably strawberry. Cherry is like Don't use this. Oh, raspberry.

Raspberry. I can't do a raspberry. Raspberry sometimes, if I'm desperate. Ha ha ha ha. When I was at the College of the Ozarks, I bought all this great because they had great strawberry jam.

They make it right there on campus.

So I went over to their store and I'm just like grabbing stuff. I mean, I'm like, I'm like at Kroger. And I'm at this college. And so I go check out, and they make their own peanut butter. The whole night here is get home, and I realize.

I got the raspberry. And I'm like, gotta go back. There's always a reason to go back to the business. That is a fair thing you just said.

So, anyway, it sounds like it's going to be you know who we ought to send: Ben Dieter. We'll dispatch Ben Dieter to Tim Burchett's Christmas party. That's how long he lasted parties, anyway. No, that's how long you want him to last. All right.

We do love Ben, and we love you as well, ladies and gentlemen. We're back tomorrow. A jam-packed show. We'll break down the president's big speech tonight in Pennsylvania. Get out there and have a great night, everybody.

This is the Tom Stern Show.