Are Republicans in Trouble?

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I love Love is American. Todd Star.

Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Program. What an honor to have you with us today, everybody. Wow. A lot going on.

And we're waiting for the White House press briefing. That kicks in in about an hour or so. We'll try to dip into that. We're going to be monitoring that in the next hour of the show. I want to start out by talking about something, and we've got to get this.

this figured out because there are some things happening Within the country, that are going to be somewhat problematic for the midterm elections. And I am still a very hopeful person that Republicans are going to be able to win. The Democrats are in complete disarray here. But there are some weird factors out there. By the way, there's some new polling.

Trump is 58 points underwater with independence on taxes. For one. And that's a big, big deal.

So Um independents may be bolting from the president and young Young Americans, these Gen Zers who were just enthralled with President Trump in the presidential campaign. I mean, you know, he showed up at the fraternity houses, and the kids loved the president, and he grilled burgers with them, had all the MAGA stuff. And a lot of folks are now saying there may be a problem there that a lot of young people are turned off by the war in Iran, and therefore they are turning against this president.

Now I don't know about that. I do know that a lot of conservatives are very upset young conservatives are upset about the war because they don't want to get drafted and they don't want to have to fight overseas. And that's a reasonable concern to have. There are other conservatives that are a little worried that the four week war, which is now, what, an eight week, seven or eight week war, could go even further And it could end up that we are still involved in hostilities going into the summer months. And I mean, that's a possibility.

I don't know what you want me to tell you there, but. That is in fact a possibility. But it's what happened last night, and I want to, we're going to open up the phone lines on this. Because We've there's something going on.

So yesterday Turning Point USA held a big gathering in Athens, Georgia, which is home to the University of Georgia. And it was at an arena in the downtown area. And this arena seats upwards Of about 85 about 85 of 8,500 people, 8,000 to 8,500 people.

So I was curious, and again, I completely forgot that Vance was actually speaking at this thing. But anyway, I started getting all of these notifications. Hey, are you watching what's happening at The University of Georgia, which is really Athens, it was off campus at the arena. Are you paying attention to what's going on there? And I'm like, no, what's going on?

And so I did some searching, and all of a sudden, I'm seeing all these photographs. of pretty much an empty arena. And I'm like, this can't be right. This is the vice president of the United States, J.D. Vance.

He is like the poster child for the college kids. They're supposed to. They're supposed to love this guy.

So it turns out that, and this is, I mean, they're being very generous with the numbers, but only about 1,500 people. actually showed up To see Vice President Vance at this Turning Point USA event. And it's been my understanding. My understanding. that these TPOSA events have been wall-to-wall people Until recently.

So what's going on here? I mean, it's really. I would Maybe a thousand people. Maybe a thousand people. Anyway, this is part of the Turning Point USA college tour.

Now, a lot of people are saying, well, you know, Erica Kirk wasn't there, and she was the main draw. Is that true? Is Erica Kirk a better draw than the Vice President of the United States? You say, Tom, why are we going down this path? No, just trust me on this because there's something, something odd, something is off.

So Anyway, the the way the story goes. Is that at the very last minute, Erica Kirk canceled her appearance, citing security concerns? And the vice president, as a matter of fact, I think Fox News was talking about this earlier today. Cut 25, please. What sort of light do you want to shed on?

what she was experiencing and what's happening now. Uh Yeah, I mean it was a really unfortunate experience for me too just to have to watch that very difficult decision get made which I think is the first time that we've ever had to make that decision in turning point history but everything that happened with Charlie obviously his assassination we're still you know grieving that and you saw what happened with Savannah Hernandez one of our TPO safe frontlines reporters in Minneapolis and to see the security team you know tell us we cannot guarantee your safety we recommend that you don't do this was a really chilling moment for all of us to kind of have to internalize and experience and realize that Erica Kirk is you know her children are one parent away from being orphans and sometimes you just have to say listen Right now, What's most important is your safety, is your security, and your children, your family. Let your team handle this. Let us do what we can do. And so, you know, I obviously was horrified at the reason why, but I was honored to stand in and pinch hint for Erica last night.

And I was grateful for the vice president that we didn't have to ultimately cancel the entire event. He was willing to do it with me, and it was very gracious of us. All right, so and the Vice President, very gracious. As a matter of fact, the Vice President addressed the issue. From the stage at the virtually empty arena last night.

Let's hear from the Vice President.

Well, first of all, I love Erica, and I know that she did get some threats. And about two hours ago, as you know, Andrew, I was a little worried that we were going to have to cancel the event because Erica was not going to come, and she was very worried about it. And I talked to the Secret Service, and obviously these guys do a very good job. And I said, you know what? Let's let Erica What she needs to do for herself and her family.

I'm sure Andrew will fill in. And let's go and make this an amazing event with the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, Georgia.

So, absolutely, we're going to do this thing. All right.

So I don't get a paycheck from TPOSA. I don't get a paycheck from the White House. I speak my mind. And this whole thing is weird. I will tell you that the photographs that they posted, TPOSA posted, were quite frankly propaganda photos because it was very clear that the photos were taken in such a way as to hide the fact that it was a mostly empty arena.

Now, I want to say something about the security issue. And If in fact there are people out there threatening Erica Kirk's life, They need to be hunted down. They need to be arrested. They need to be charged. And they need to go to jail for a very long time.

So we have reached out to, and I did this yesterday. I reached out to the University of Georgia Campus Police, the Athens Police Department, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Also, I reached out to Turning Point USA to find out about the nature of the threats and if, in fact, these threats had been reported to authorities, and if, in fact, authorities are investigating the threats. And I will tell you that we have not received. Any feedback from anybody, including Turning Point USA.

And that's an important part of the story. You know, part of journalism is something called trust but verify.

So we were doing our due diligence to go out there and verify these reports that they announced to the crowd that Erika Kirk canceled at the last minute because of what they considered to be very serious credible threats.

Now here's my other question. If in fact there were very serious credible threats, why in the world did the Secret Service allow J. D. Vance to take that stage? Why would they put the Vice President of the United States in a potentially dangerous situation.

And I don't know the answer to that question. We hope to get the answer to that question. But more importantly than that, setting that aside for just a moment, and again, I believe that. Uh the way that Erica Kirk has been treated. And especially by, you know, Podcastastan.

It's it's insanely awful. I mean, the woman's husband was assassinated, and the woman is grieving.

Now there are people out there that are saying, Okay, but she can't have it both ways because they're saying, Oh, leave her be, she's grieving, but the next minute she's up on stage and I get the emails. Todd, you're being a hypocrite. She can't have it both ways.

So, why are you defending all of this?

Well, because she's a grieving widow, and people grieve in different ways.

Some people are very quiet and private, and others like to dress up in thousand-dollar outfits and go out onto a stage with pyrotechnics. That is not for me to judge. You know, people grieve in different ways, and they do. But that's not the issue. The issue is The Vice President of the United States was in Athens, Georgia.

The state of Georgia went red for Trump in the last presidential election. It is a red state, aside from whatever is going on with the senators there.

So why in the world Was there not a standing room only crowd to greet the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance, in Athens, Georgia? That's Insane to me. They were actually saying that there may have been just as many people protesting the event outside than actually inside.

So I'm wondering, how do we read this? And there may be a lot of different factors here. Again, it was what, Tuesday? You had All the new movies come out on Netflix on Tuesdays. Maybe people were staying home.

Maybe the kids they had exams or maybe it was a lovely day and people wanted to go outside and have a picnic dinner. Maybe they could not afford the free tickets. I don't know. But for whatever reason, there were no shows and there were a lot of them. And I'm curious to hear from our Georgia listeners what's going on here.

Is this a Is this a glimpse into what we can expect in November? And that is My big concern here. What's going on? Is it A couple of days ago on the Newsmax show, we had a couple of guys. They're young conservative guys.

One's president of the College Republicans at NYU. The other is head of the College Republicans at Clemson University. And both guys, very ultra-conservative, and they are enraged at this administration over this war and the support we are giving to Israel. And I'm wondering if that is having a greater effect or impact than even the White House understands right now. Because There's no reason why in the state of Georgia That You should not have had standing room only crowd.

Somebody just tweeted. Maybe it was the meme. Maybe it was the Jesus meme. Yeah, I don't think that was it. I I d I don't think that was it.

Or maybe the polling data is right, and many of these young conservatives are just really turned off by the decisions the administration's making. We hear from a lot of these kids. And they're having a hard time making ends meet. Things are not going well for them economically. Financially, they're having difficulties.

Many of you have phoned in. You've talked about gas prices being high, grocery store prices being high.

So I'm just telling you. There's something off. There is something off. Or maybe this was just a great big anomaly. Maybe it's that turning point USA is losing its.

Luster. And A couple of well, about a week or so after Charlie's assassination, you know, I told a group of people they're going to have a hard time because they do not have Turning Point was built on one person. One person, Charlie Kirk.

So we're going to take your calls on this. 901-260-5926. What do you make of that? Why? Why did people not attend That gathering of the Vice President of the United States, by all accounts, a very popular person.

By the way, they did another event a couple of weeks before. Was that about a week before at George Washington University? Much smaller auditorium, but they they did not pack out a I think it was a twelve hundred or fourteen hundred seat auditorium. What's going on? 901-260-5926.

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All right, welcome back. This is the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Great to have you with us today. Let's go to the phone lines 901260-5926. We will start our day in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Walter is on the line. Walter, what's on your mind? Hi, Todd. I hope you can hear me. My voice is messed up today.

It's just fine. I was going to let you know that Um I was listening to you yesterday about Some of these Catholics, and there's some traditional Catholics called Senevacinthus. And I don't know if you've ever researched Stevacintes. But They broke away from the church during the 60s when Vatican II started. That's why the church is in the shape it's there now with these fake popes and the nonsense that they spoo out their mouths, the blasphemies in the they don't stick to the true faith.

So uh if you look at Like CMRI, Catholic churches, they're true churches and uh They basically believe that there has not been a true Pope since Pope Pius XII, since 1958, and they stick to the true Roman Catholic people.

So, Walter, let me so let me I want to bring this back around here to Donald Trump.

So, when you see the outrage coming from Catholics, you know, at least Catholic leadership against the President, do you believe that's rank-and-file Catholics? Because it's my impression that rank-and-file Catholics are much more conservative than the folks running things at the Vatican. I you know, I still have some friends that are. You know, uh, Nova Sordo, that's what we call the now day fake Catholics, but uh. And I have not heard them say anything bad about President Trump.

I think it's a lie that the media is trying to. Try to spray it in To get people to believe that we've not known any Catholics to say one bad word about our President. All right, good stuff. All right, Walter, thank you for that call. 901-2-60-5926.

Let's go to Mike in Memphis, Tennessee, listening to us on KWAM. Mike, what say you? Reading style. I've watched the video of that uh That conference, and certainly, uh, you had one guy in the audience, a young college student, that was literally calling out the vice president, and he was not able to confront the guy because. And I tell you, my friends who have kids in college, which I have a number of them, and they're all about the issue that.

What they view is TPUSA is nothing more than a propaganda arm of Israel and this Zionist ideology for. Not the Jews. But the global spankers and corporations who are using the Jewish identity and idolatry of Zionism to further their greater Israel project, they've genocided Palestine. They're working on genociding. Mike, wouldn't it just be easier if you just start all of your conversations?

Todd, I really have a problem with the Jews and then just go on because you do this every time you call in. It's kind of getting old. No, it's not about the Jews. No, because you make it about the Jews. Every other word out of your mouth is Israel, Zionist, the Jews.

Well, they're three different things. No, they're not. You know what, Mike? We're going to leave it there. We've got to go for a break.

But here's the reality, folks. If you're just going to call into the show and say, I blame the Jews, you're not a serious person. All right? 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

This is the Todd Stern show. This is the story of the one. As a maintenance tech at a university, he knows ordering from multiple suppliers takes time away from keeping their arena up and running. That's why he counts on Granger to get everything he needs, from lighting and HVAC parts to plumbing supplies, all in one place. And with fast, dependable delivery, he's stocked and ready for the next tip-off.

Call 1-800-GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by, Granger, for the ones who get it done. All right, we just got this item from the Athens-Clark County Sheriff's Office. They said, good morning. We are not aware of any threats made toward Erica Kirk.

So that is officially coming from the Athens-Clark County Police Department. You know, I don't think anybody actually bothered to pick up the phone and call the police department to find out. But again, people are now alleging that the reason they're saying the real reason that Erica Kirk chose not to go is because she was going to be showing up to an empty arena.

Now, TPOSA says that's not true. They said there were crimes. Incredible serious threats.

Well, let's go to the phone lines here: 901-260-5926. Rita is actually listening to us in Athens, Georgia on WDUN. All right, Rita, help me figure all of this out. Yes, I'm here. I was born and raised in Athens, Georgia.

Don't live there now because it's a highly liberal Sanctuary City. that you don't want to go within five miles of.

Well, of course, Lake and Riley lost her life there, the the the s the precious nursing student and she was killed by an illegal alien there. What what do you make of of the empty arena there?

Well, I think it would be people just like me that are Christian conservatives that. Support President Trump 99% of the time, but you don't want to put yourself or your family in a situation. like being in a liberal sanctuary city like that that you could be in danger.

So you think that's the reason why, is that people were it's so dangerous in Athens, Georgia, that that people just did not want to go? Yes, that that would be a big part of it. All right.

Well, Rita, look, I appreciate your guidance. And I don't know, maybe that's the reason why. But again, you just wonder why it's the Vice President of the United States, everybody. That's what I don't get. That's.

That is a disturbing thing to see. Let's go to Travis in Houston, Texas. Patriot Talk 920, our great affiliate there. Hey, Travis, what's on your mind? Oh, not much, Todd.

I I uh I'm kind of a young man, four years old, and uh Uh you know, I'm I'm pretty uh involved in the YouTube and uh I I just think PTSA is w losing its Connection with the people. I really do. And I think our Vice President You know He was a two-year politician before he got uh before he's the vice president. you know, paid for by Peter dealed twenty million dollars for his President's Senate campaign. I just think people are waking up.

Yeah. The BS You know. Travis, let me say this. I mean, J.D. Vance, if you believe a large swath of the party is going to be the standard-bearer in 2028.

I don't see that happening based on what happened in Anthons, Georgia last night. Yeah, well, you know, like I heard you talking about Kent, about her saying she had death threats.

Well, you know, she denied the death of Charlie Kirk, saying that he was in fear of losing his life on his text thread. Why why don't she release her text threads, or did they release any proof that there was any real death threats? or the different hearsay.

Well, well, that's why we reached out to Law enforcement because if in fact there are, if you're telling me there's a serious credible threat, that means that you've got law enforcement involved telling you, hey, this is a credible threat. We reached out to the Athens-Clark County Sheriff's Department as well as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the locals are saying, hey, we haven't heard anything about a threat. Yeah, I bet they haven't. You know, I don't know. You know, I just know that.

Charlie was in fear of his life. He texted. Multiple people telling them that he was in fear of losing his life. He was leaving the pro-Israel campaign. You made a big deal about this other guy talking about Israel.

The people in this country are tired. It's not just about you, you make it about Israel and Jews. It's not about that. It's about our country having to support them for everything they do and everything they want to do. And we're not.

We see we're seeing through their mysticism and they're they're uh their special beliefs. You know, I mean, it's a genocide going on. It's sad. What's the genocide? Who's killing who?

No, no, no, no, no, Travis. Hold on just a moment here. You're accusing me of making everything about Jews in Israel, which is not true. But when somebody calls into this program and says it's all about Jews and Israel, I'm going to push back on that.

So you can't have it both ways.

So you're saying, well, okay, all you do is talk about it. No, that's not true.

So again, the United States gives what $174 billion to Israel. Is that your problem? Do you want us to stop giving money to Israel? Is that the problem here? Whenever we got vice president, whenever we got Secretary of State saying that we had to go to war because Israel was going to bomb them first.

We can't pull this this country in and tell them to come to sense whenever we're the ones that support them and and and are supposedly their defense. You sound a little hot under the collar there, Travis. I I have had blood pressure. I I'm not used to talking in public. I don't talk like you twenty four hours a day.

You know I don't talk twenty four hours a day. I usually do three hours a day. I don't get to sit in classrooms like you and sit on the radio. What do you mean sit in classrooms? What are you talking about?

What do you mean, sit in classrooms? I I'm just a worst man. I I'm yeah, I'm pissed off. You're right. I'm pissed off.

But why? Why are you? Why are you pissed off? Why? Because our country's going to shit, man.

I'm 40 years old. All right, you can't be using that language on the radio, but all right, hold on. Don't dump him yet. But, Travis, you can't curse on the radio. That's against the law.

Yeah. I apologize. But I started listening to talk radio, like y'all, whenever I was 28 years old. And I realized very, very. Quickly, that I I need to go to YouTube and go go find stuff to to investigate for myself.

And I realize how much is the radio and and the false narrative is being held back by y'all. What are you talking about, y'all? This is my show. Nobody tells me what to put on my show.

So, when you say, so, what are you saying when you say y'all? I'm curious about that. He act just the neoconservative group like Sean Henry acting like he's part of the populist movement whenever he wasn't. He there's so many anti Trumpers that are now running the Trump campaign. Just like J.D.

Vance. But I'm trying to understand. You're saying the country's going to hell in a handbasket. I was sort of cleaning up the language there, but what do you mean by that? Are you blaming Israel for that?

No, I'm blaming our president for not keeping his promises. How many people have he deported? I mean, none of the promises have been kept. That's why people are pissed, sir, because Trump hasn't kept a damn one of his promises. Yeah, he secured the border, but he that's a triage for the other twenty million people that that got sent out here in the last four years.

Travis, I want you to take a breath because I agree with you on this: that the president is not delivering on the big promises to the level that we expected. And I will just tell you: in Memphis, Tennessee, you know, we had the task force, they sent in the National Guard. There are a lot of rumblings that the Guard's gone because crime is off the charts again here in this city.

So. I understand what you're saying here.

So you're frustrated because this President is not delivering on the promises he made to you. No, not to me, to American people. No, but no, but no, no, no, but but you're an American you're an American citizen, so it's to you. Yeah, it's but it's not to me. No, it's to the to the republic.

It's just to the whole republic, to all the states. For the people. We have to, it's not about just me. You're making it about me. We have to all.

No, yes, I am making it about you because it is. You're a taxpayer. You're a citizen.

So it is about you. When the president, and this is one of the reasons why President Trump has been so successful, is that he makes it about every single person. We all feel like he's talking to us.

So, yes, it is a personal thing. And I think there are a lot of people. I'm just telling you, based on the empty seats I saw in that arena, there are a lot of people who feel just like you feel. Yeah, there is. And you know, Charlie Kirk took questions and free free speech and they want to cartel our free speech and say you can't talk about this country or that country.

And we know what country that is. And yet, half the people that were coming up to TPUSA for questions, what the questions were about Israel. And now it it's it that's what she's scared of. That's why she's not going to be there because there's questions to be answered for and she don't want to answer them. It's about Charlie's dead.

Or about this country or that country. Yeah, so I'm just curious because everybody always talks about Israel. Nobody talks about all the other countries that are getting aid from us.

So I wonder why that is. Why just the Israelis? Why the Jews? Everybody gets upset about the Jews. They don't get upset about the Egyptians or the Jordanians or the Ethiopians or the Nigerians or.

Yeah, they get a little upset about the Somalians, but not as much as Israel. I wonder why that is. Because we're not going to war for these other countries. Really? Mr.

Todd, yeah. No, in all seriousness, Ukraine right now, I mean, we're pretty much in a de facto war with Russia. I mean, we're a proxy war with Russia. And one of the reasons why we don't have as much ammo as we need is because we gave it to Ukraine.

So, again, Travis, look, I think you've got legitimate arguments here, but again, I don't think that Israel's the bad guy. I think that the issues you are expressing here are. Are real, are legitimate. I agree with them, but that's not on Israel. That's on this administration.

And they have got to deliver on their campaign promises. And Travis, if they don't, it's going to be ugly in November. But see, they've made this boogeyman up that doesn't exist. Who's the boogeyman? In OA, I've seen the president of Iran say he was going to flatten America.

He was going to, you know, they talked about flattening Israel. I haven't seen that stuff in the last 10 years. Travis, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to give you a history lesson. In 1979, the Iranians took over our embassy.

They kidnapped American citizens. In 1983, they blew up the Marine Corps barracks, killing over 240 American service members. And we didn't do anything about that. We did nothing about that. We have been at war with Iran for a very long time.

Now it may not be a declared war, but that's what it was. And I don't want to risk and again, if President Trump's got access to information you and I don't have access to, He says that information showed they were close to being able to launch nuclear weapons. And he did something about it. And I'm glad he did because if the Iranians had the nukes, They would use them. I have no doubt about that.

Travis, I'm going to have to let you go, my friend. We've talked for a while. Uh but uh and and I looked I There's no need to get your blood pressure up. over this. But I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, what you just heard from Travis I guarantee you that There are millions and millions of Americans who feel just like he feels.

And the reason why his blood pressure is high is he feels like he's been betrayed. He feels like he's been screwed. By the government. It's sort of how we all feel when it comes to idle, though. For example, the.

Senate Republicans. Let's go to Charles, Statesville, North Carolina. Charles? I mean, Travis, he's got a point here. Todd, Travis has a very good point.

And what I wanted to talk to you about, kind of just dovetails right into that. Todd, the people that I talk to around here My circle of friends who are all Trump supporters are just really Really getting pissed off and frustrated with the Trump administration. And they just feel like that he's going off on this tangent in the Middle East. and losing the primary focus of why we elected him. There was no knee wars.

It was to secure the border It was to bring down inflation of bring down gas prices Deep. The illegal aliens. bring hold people accountable. and clean up a swamp. And so far, And I hate to say this, you know.

Three years ago. gas prices were about where they are now. inflation was high.

Now people are seeing that inflation is going inflation is going up again. Gas prices are going up again. Uh The These illegals, the deportations, the talk of deportations, Todd, think about this, since Minneapolis. It's just almost nonexistent. I mean, instead of declaring an insurrection act and deporting these and clamping down harder in Minneapolis.

They just kind of walked away from it. And then you've got these young people like Travis. They're forty years old. They have, you know They can't afford a house. They can't afford a down payment.

They can hardly afford groceries. They feel like they're getting screwed because all these illegals are getting all this money from the federal government. They're still here. I mean, everywhere I go, Todd. I hear Spanish being spoken in restaurants.

grocery stores. I mean, I'm just thinking I just this isn't the country that I know. And then you've got a Congress up there that we elected these Republicans in the House and the Senate. and they can't even pass the stay back. and they can't even codify these executive orders.

And so people had What I'm hearing is thinking. What did I vote for? What has this all been about? What did I sacrifice so much for? You know, to try to save this country.

and we just don't see it happening. We see us going off this Rode in the Middle East, and like Travis, I'm not going to use the verbiage he did, but the country's going to hella handbasket. I think that that's my observation. How do we look? And I know Travis is fired up and upset, and I get that.

And I don't want to minimize at all what he is feeling right now. But I think we're in a dangerous spot because a lot of folks are now projecting all of that anger onto Israel when it needs to be directed at this administration and the Republican Party. I mean, that's ultimately, you know, the Israelis are not responsible for deporting millions of illegals. That's on us.

So, again, Charles, to your point. We're in a tough spot right now, and the administration has to get this all figured out. Trump is doing his job. The problem is those that are around him are not doing their job, and that's the problem. One hundred percent.

I couldn't agree with you more. And I just don't know how he's going to light a fire under these Republican leaders in the House and the Senate, like John Thune. Yeah. you know, move this agenda along because If we lose the midterms, Todd, it is going to be Gridlock. and a living hell for the next two years.

And God forbid if the Democrats win the White House in 2028. you're going to see the border open again, millions more people pouring in. you're going to see them weaponizing the justice system against conservatives, just like they did in earlier. And I'm not sure we're going to be able to recover from that.

So there's a small window of opportunity here to do something. And I think what people are saying, and the frustration is, is There's a small window here. Damn it, let's do something about it. Full steam ahead. Don't listen to the rhinos.

Listen to your base. And I'll over for your base. Got to go, my friend. It's a great call and a great thought. And Travis, hang in there.

You're being validated right now. You're being validated, Travis.

So hang in there. All right, gotta run. Charles, thank you. We'll be right back. Here's something most people don't know.

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Dylan, it's just we we gotta bring it we gotta bring it down just a notch. Woo, sweet mercy. I think we need you know what? We need a trip to the Oskarmeyer Wiener Mobile. That will solve all our problems.

Can it get here, Ace? Can we just have them pull up in the parking lot of the news bunker? They'll be here tomorrow. Can we do that? Yes.

Jeez. Hello. Get our wiener. No, you got to get your wiener on. You got to.

By the way, Sacramento, California, if you're out there, the wienery is a great place to. You know, when I had my open heart surgery, the team over at KFBK, they actually made a delivery. The nurse walked in and she said, I had a kid do that. She goes, All right, who's been to the wienery? That was a story for another day, perhaps.

All right.

Hang tight. We've got Steve in Houston on hold. Your calls as well. 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

This is the Todd Stern Show. Live. From the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. It's common sense, conservative commentary from Todd Starr. Setzers!

Bye. Yeah. I love. Love is American. All right.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to our two of the big show. Great to have you with us, broadcasting on more than 130 radio stations. Across the nation. By the way, Helen's getting a shout-out from our.

YouTube chat audience, they say tell Helen she's doing a good job. And Dylan, a lot of people are saying after yesterday's show, they had to go get hot dogs.

So that's Dylan. I have to ask you something of the utmost importance. Yes. Are you eating broccoli right now? Is that the odor?

Can you smell it, Dodd? Yeah. Very nutritious. Yeah. The entire palatial studio.

We're overwhelmed by the smell of broccoli. Do you want me to be healthy or not? That's the question. Jeez Alou. You know, years ago, when I was at Fox News and I was the overnight anchor, so 9 p.m.

until 6 a.m., that's when I started out. And there was a Fox News anchor who loved to eat broccoli at five o'clock in the morning. And it was so bad, the smell was so bad that Roger Ailes actually put out a notice: no more broccoli.

So, if you did that to me, that would be bad. Broccoli is like the only vegetable I like.

So, please let me eat my broccoli. You can just stay in that room. I'll stay in this room. All right.

Yeah. Any of our listeners, we could use some Febreze.

So, if you're driving by, just drop off a box. All right.

Yeah. Well, we do want you healthy, so there's that. All right, our telephone number, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. I am so excited to introduce.

A person who is going to become a regular on this show. I can already feel it. I know this is going to be a great thing. She is a veteran political commentator, and she has a terrific. Terrific show called Politically Basic.

Talking about our good friend Kyle Campbell. Kyle, good to have you with us on the show today. Hi, Todd. I'm so glad to be on with you. This is amazing.

I also hope I'm a regular in the future on your show. That would be tremendous. What's your position on broccoli, by the way? Just want to throw that out there. Uh-oh.

You know what? I'm a fan. Let's say I'm a fan. I can't say that I ingest it too frequently. I should probably up my broccoli intake a little bit.

No, no, no. Kyle, I want you to, before we jump into politics, and I have a lot of questions about Eric Swalwell and California politics. I want you to just tell our listeners a little bit about your background and your history. You got it. Happy to.

So, I've actually been for over two decades now on the backside of politics and campaigns, doing media messaging and candidate training, training people to handle the media, how to run for office, and put themselves forward in a way that's going to get them the most success.

So, a couple of years ago, I thought, you know what? It's time for me to get on the other side of the camera. I'm politics-obsessed, born and raised, California girl. I've always loved it, and I'm just a curious cat by nature.

So, I started a show called Politically Basic. I get to interview people who have expertise in every issue across the political spectrum. And you guys know that's a lot of people and a lot of issues.

So, we interview. I have learned so much. Hopefully, my audience has learned a tremendous amount. We're going on two years, and I'll film my 100th episode this summer, I think, and just making the rounds, doing a lot of political. Commentary too.

So there is no shortage of anything to talk about these days. You guys know that well, especially when it comes to California.

So I'm having an absolute blast at what I do. And of course, we have a mutual friend, the great Dr. Paul Chappell, who is president of West Coast Baptist College and the pastor at Lancaster Baptist Church. And wow, what an incredible work he is doing there in not just Southern California, but really the entire state. I just love Dr.

Chappell. You know, I had heard about him for years, and we had so many mutual friends. I got to go spend a day with him several months ago over there at Lancaster Baptist at West Coast Baptist College. I interviewed him for Politically Basic, and that episode's coming out here very shortly within the next couple of weeks. But he is just a tremendous human being.

And if anyone wants to check out what he's doing, I know they broadcast his sermons, his Sunday sermons. What a teacher and preacher and just all-around great guy.

So I love to hear his name mentioned, and I want to follow you and give that shout out to him too. By the way, Instagram at Politically Basic, TikTok at Politically Basic. Kyle, I am like in the primordial ooze stage of TikTok, and I swore for so many years I would not do TikTok. But the staff, they're all Gen Zers, and they're like, Todd, you got to do it. You got to jump into the fray.

You know what? It's a love-hate relationship with TikTok. I feel like I am in a weirdly toxic relationship with TikTok.

Sometimes it likes me, sometimes it hates my guts, and I feel the same.

So, you know what? Just go with the flow, ride the wave. We'll see what happens with it. But it's a fun ride, I'll say that. Every Friday, we have Joe Messina on the show.

He is based in Santa Clarita, California. He's another radio guy. And we were talking the last Friday, we were talking about the California gubernatorial race. Steve Hilton's a regular. I really love Steve, and I think he's going to do really well.

Right now, he's doing well in the polls. But a lot of people are sort of concerned that the Trump endorsement may have come at the wrong time, especially with what you guys have. What is this jungle primary that you guys have out there? Oh, boy. There is so much going on in this gubernatorial race.

I actually think now on the other side of Eric Swalwell's epic list. On fire meltdown, that the Trump endorsement came at the right time. And I think the reason is that we know that Steve Hilton had Trump's support. He had Charlie Kirk's support, you know, long before this. And the fact that it was sort of cemented and put out there to the world and to the state of California and these voters before things happened with Eric Swallow, I think is actually a good thing.

Those two major events, that big endorsement, and also what we're seeing happen with Eric Swala, wow, it's kind of delicious, but it's really horrific if we look at it globally, you know, that he was getting away with this for so long. I think those two things have really helped Steve Hilton in terms of his campaign and candidacy. And the polls are showing that. We're just starting to see those first polls come out after these two major events. And Steve is just skyrocketing to the top and really leaving a lot of the other candidates in this race behind.

So I'm happy to see it. I love Steve. I think he's one of the only candidates who can appeal to the independents and actually appeal to a lot of these disillusioned and disappointed Democrat voters, too. You know, I think years ago, I was, wow, it's been like almost 27 years ago. I was working in Sacramento and I was the bureau chief at the state capitol, KFBK, and did work with KNX and KCBS in San Francisco.

And it was interesting watching those were the Schwarzenegger years, which was, you know, it was pretty phenomenal. But, you know, Schwarzenegger was able to get a lot done. You know, he was a moderate Republican, I would say. But, you know, when I look at someone like Steve Hilton, I can see him governing in that sort of a way, probably center-right. But I think Hilton, I mean, at least from my vantage point, it looks like he's got a chance here.

What say you? Oh, absolutely, he does. I mean, we've had so many gubernatorial cycles, Todd, that where the California voters know who has been tapped to be governor, right? We've had these sort of legacy families and people put forward where everyone's like, you know what, we can show up to vote or not. And we were pretty sure it's going to be this guy.

And you know, Kamala Harris is just sitting back holding a bottle of buttery shard and absolutely kicking herself that she didn't get into this race because she could have taken it handily. And so now it's anyone's game. And it's a lot of fun to see who the voters are getting behind. We're left really on the Democrat side with candidates no one's excited about. I mean, when Tom Steyer, geez, oh, this guy's been in politics so long.

He worked on the Mondale campaign. You know, he's an absolute relic dinosaur, and no one's excited about a billionaire coming in and telling us to stop. Stop complaining about how expensive everything is. On the right, you've got two candidates that people like pretty well, but it's a different climate. And I think this is why Steve is such a good choice and a good candidate and can go all the way, is that we are not facing a scenario in which someone can just come in and just kind of keep things going.

We're in crisis mode, and we need somebody to come in and get a lot of bad legislation, bad deals, a lot of fraud and corruption absolutely cleaned out and turned around.

So I think Steve's 100% the guy. I think he'll make it across the jungle primary threshold. I imagine at this point, if things don't change too much in the next few weeks, it'll be Steyer Hilton. And boy, what a matchup that's going to be. It's going to be fascinating.

I know people were saying, what about Katie Porter? But she's got her own domestic allegation issues out there. And she's just not a very nice person. She's not an appealing candidate.

Well, you said it. I mean, Katie Hot Mashed Potatoes Porter is not getting anyone excited about seeing her up in Sacramento leading the charge.

So, yeah, I don't see her numbers moving anywhere. I really don't think she's a known quantity in a factor anymore, except, you know, she'll pull some votes from the top polling Democrat. And there is actually, you're going to get a kick out of this if you haven't heard already, Tom. There's a, or Todd, there's an actual effort afoot. To motivate voters in this state to write in Kamala Harris's name as a write-in candidate.

So that's a lot of fracturing going on on the left, and people are just eating it up. It's been a total blast to watch. I love that. Grab a bottle of Josh and enjoy the race. Kyle Campbell joining us.

She is host of the show Politically Basic, and you can watch that and be sure to sign up and follow her on Instagram and TikTok. You know, Kyle, I want to get your take on this thing that happened yesterday. The vice president, University of Georgia, everybody's talking about this. I mean, the guy over 8,000-seat auditorium, barely 1,000 people in attendance. What should we make of that?

Is there anything to read into this? Because we were told J.D. Vance is going to be the guy after Trump, and I don't know about that. Yeah, he's having a little bit of a dip almost in his popularity. We're seeing Trump dispatch him to go handle some things here and there.

He's been tapped as sort of the Middle East negotiator czar, similar to how Biden tapped Harris to go be the border czar. And what's interesting about that is he's really allowing him to go out and either do well or fall flat. Doesn't hurt Trump either way. But he's sort of cutting his teeth almost in anticipation of what's going to happen in 2020. We have a few years to go here, so a lot can happen.

But I think it's good for him. I'm happy to see this. He needs to make his own pathway here and a name for himself instead of just being another, you know, Trump 2.0 or 3.0.

So I think he'll do well. Such a bright, accomplished guy. And I'm happy to see him take some opportunities. But yeah, I just think he's having a little dip there as the Marco Rubios of the world have their moment to shine. Wow.

And he really is shining. I want to go right back to California and wrap it up here. I didn't realize our time was vastly dwindling away here. When you look at California and the electorate here, what does it tell you that somebody like Steve Hilton? Is polling so well?

Do you think is this an anomaly, or are people finally just fed up with the ruling class Democrats? Oh, it's the latter. Absolutely. People have had enough. You know, we saw it with the shift in the vote for Trump in 24.

California has been really red for a while. I will say, and I am kind of throwing caution to the wind in this comment, but we have a real election integrity issue here in this state. I think should we get voter ID passed, which is on the ballot this fall, and really clean up our voter rolls, we will see more and more Republican and right-leaning candidates leading this state back into a place of health and success and prosperity. We finally hit the wall, Todd. You know, we've had enough here.

And there are no good Democrats who are strong and competent coming forward for us to put any kind of support behind.

So I think the tide has definitely turned, and I'm eager to see how everyone's going to turn out and vote this fall. You see, I loved California. And if I hadn't been hired by Fox News, I probably never. Would have left Sacramento. It's a beautiful state and beautiful people.

And you just really, it's heartbreaking to see people packing up the U-Hauls and moving out. You know, I want people to stay put. I want them to fight for California because it really is a state worth saving. And of course, it was the birthplace of the modern conservative movement down there in Orange County. That's right.

Amen to everything you just said. You know, we get such a bad rap here because we're seeing the consequences of horrible leadership. We are not our leaders and we are not our policies. Great people live here. This state is a giant economy.

It feeds the world. We have Silicon Valley. We have Hollywood. You know, 39 million people.

So a lot's at stake here. And just please, if you know anyone in California, if you're in California and you're eligible to vote, we have got to have the biggest voter turnout we have ever seen for this primary, June 2nd, and this election come November.

So that's my prayer that absolutely every person who can vote enjoys that privilege and goes and gets it done for our beautiful state that we love so much.

Well said. You know, my favorite spot, and you may have a favorite, you've got to tell me your favorite getaway place in California. I used to go spend a lot of time at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica back in the day. I lived in Santa Monica for a couple of years when I was doing my graduate degree program. I love Santa Monica.

I love Malibu. You know, we're still heartbroken over what happened to the Palisades. But, you know, we've got some of these areas like Pasa Robles is exploding in popularity and so many gorgeous places. Carmel is a favorite spot of mine, but you know, wonderful, wonderful, giant state, chock full of absolutely stunning places to come visit.

So please still come visit our state. We wish you still lived here. I'll tell you that. Kyle, we got to leave it here. My producer is throwing broccoli at me saying we got to ramp here.

So I better do that. Kyle, great, great commentary. And we look forward to getting you back on very soon. And thanks for joining the show. An absolute pleasure.

I really look forward to the next time, Todd. Thank you. All right, Kyle Campbell, everybody, making her debut appearance here on the Todd Stearns Radio Show. And she's got her own program called Politically Basic, and you can find her on Instagram and TikTok. We'll be right back.

All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Want to go right to the phones. Poor Steve in Houston, Texas, been holding since yesterday, listening to us on Patriot Talk 920. Hey, Steve, thanks for holding on.

What's on your mind? Hey, Todd, I love your show. How much time do we got? I got quite a bit to say, and I want to make it quick.

Well, let's get going. We'll try to get as much as we can in.

Well, first of all, I've never voted in an election in my life until this last one. I voted for Trump. I've always seen Democrats and Republicans as good cops, bad cops. Say one thing and do the same thing. I was alive during the Iranian hostage situation, and I remember I know everything that Iran has done.

But I also know that Israel has been trying to drag us into war in the Middle East. Ever since they attacked the USS Liberty and tried to blame it on Egypt. And I think the reason why all these uh Islamic attacks from the Middle East we could say it's been because of our support for Israel. But even without going into that, I do feel like Trump campaigned on ending wars. And he's got us into this war, which you know, to me, has tur turned a lot of people against him.

But more than that, The stuff he's posting on on True Social To me, it it it's embarrassing. You know, when he got on there and when he Uh criticize the Pope. And, you know, when he talked about ending the whole civilization, I'm thinking, what is he thinking? But when he posted that photo. All right.

Hey, Steve, hang tight. We got to take a break. I want you to finish your thoughts.

So don't hang up. We're going to come right back to you. Uh folks, we gotta dip out for just a second. This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, this segment of the program brought to you by our friends at Newsmax, and they have an important message for you on this.

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Now, I want to bring back into the conversation Steve from Houston, who was saying, making the argument that President Trump is embarrassing himself With these memes and things he's putting out on social media. Is that right, Steve? And finish your thought. Yeah, my you know, this call wasn't really about about the war, but You know, when Trump got on there and said he was going to destroy a civilization, I'm going to say I knew what he meant. But I'm wondering how people were going to take that.

And when he criticized the poll. And when he posted his picture of himself dressed in Jesus' robe, laying hands, healing a guy. I'm thinking What if you thinking, you know that? That turned so many Christians. and at least made them question who they're supporting.

And why would he do that? And then get on so take it down. And then say, how can people take it that way, that he's portraying himself as Jesus? I mean I've gotten drunk and posted stuff on social media and woke up the next morning and thought, man, did I post that and take it down? And to me, it seems like that would be the only reason that I can come up with that he would do that.

Well, you know, President Trump does not drink. You know, he doesn't partake of the fermented beverage there. But I will say. I will say this, Steve, though. I mean, it's part of the whole shtick.

You know, that's part of who he is. And I don't think that he thought for a minute that he was trying to, you know, say he was Jesus Christ. And I don't think he was trying to blaspheme the Lord. I just think he saw something that someone had posted, thought it was cool looking, and just hit retweet. That's what I think happened here.

But you're saying all of that, you think all of that is actually impacting the president's polling numbers. Absolutely. I I know I've got friends that, you know, and we've all supported him. I still support him. I've always loved that he talks to the American people and don't read his teleprompters.

Yeah, he doesn't. Yep, you're right. I think it's getting them in in some hot water, man. I mean It it's made me afraid for the the MAGA movement. I mean I just think people, I think a lot of folks out there, and it's the look.

You cannot discount. I know a lot of people want to just shove Candace Owens and Tucker and Nick Fuentes and Megan Kelly and Alex Jones to the side. But they actually have a massive following in the millions when you combine them all together. And they are having an impact. I mean, whether you agree with them or you disagree, they're having an impact.

And the president and the White House need to figure out how do we do a workaround here? Because those folks have. They've never really been on board the Trump train. They're just taking advantage of it. You know, it's a grift for them.

Steve, I've got to run now, but. Thank you for holding on, and you've made some great points. Let's go to Lisa in North Carolina. All right, Lisa, what say you? Todd, love you mean it.

I had to write this rant down because I'm beyond flabbergasted, and if I try to wing it, I'll start stuttering and cussing. Oh, don't be cussing now. Don't cuss. If I'm not mistaken, That XY chromosome individual got elected on a few main issues. I'm most certain that the ma the the majority of us Americans Even those lunatics on the left said, America first, America first.

No more wars. Until we fix here first.

So all those elected officials in DC are supposed to be there to speak on my behalf while I'm working at Speedway. Um I hold on just a second, I had to write it down because I'm They're there to speak for us. And we said, no, we don't go.

So, my suggestion is: instead of marching at the mall in DC, there's not enough Lysol, first of all, to do it, get your butts. to every military installation in this country and pick it. And when somebody has to go to work to Speedway or McDonald's, somebody else take their place in their sign, the sign just says. We said no, and that was the majority of us, at least 80%, I would say. We said no more wars.

That's it. Let's fix here first.

Now, last but not least, and we want the child-eaten rapers to walk the plank. And absolutely no on JVD. That's it, Todd. I managed to get it out.

Well, you did. Lisa. No, no, no. I appreciate that. Look, I.

The reason why I'm hopeful is that these are easy fixes. First of all, the American people have a short-term memory, they're not going to remember Jesus' meme next week. But if Trump gets back to the basics, which was getting the deportations. Cracking down on the boys and the girls' locker rooms because all of this is still happening. And I think that's what's really aggravating people: the White House is telling us all of this stuff is fixed, but it's really not fixed.

And we know it's not fixed.

Well, but but let's just pick one main issue. If we can if we're if we can manage to pick one main issue, and I know that those boats and those planes and those guns are mine, and we said no. The majority of Americans said no. And we need to let them know that. And they've been pushing us for 20 plus years, they've been begging us.

The sewer's been begging us to fight back, and everybody knows it. It's just we're exhausted.

So, but that's my rant for today. Lisa, it's a lovely. You did not stutter, you did not cuss, and you didn't even sound like you were reading anything, Lisa.

Well done. Thank you. All right.

Thanks, Lisa. Hang in there. Look, just hang in there. And that's look, this is why we're here.

So you can use the show as therapy.

So if you want to call and yell and holler at somebody, you can call and yell and holler at Dylan or Helen. But that's, you know, it's it's a public service. Let's go to North Carolina, WSIC, our good friend Patty. You know, Patty, I was about to send out a search party for you. Yeah, I was um just got out of the hospital, Todd.

I I went through like both my kidneys shut down. I even flatlined. I flatlined. Patty, are you okay? Have the doctors got you you sound great.

I'm talking to you. I'm telling you, the man upstairs still wants to. I guess I'm still. Yeah, yeah. did President Trump lay hands on you by any chance?

No, no. Just curious. You know what? Too soon. Too soon.

You know what, people, people, these let me tell you something. You know what? You know what I I grew up Catholic, okay? And I'm going to tell you something. The pulse and all that.

Why isn't the Pope worried about where 400,000 children are missing. Why not that? Why didn't the Pope worry about all the child abuse? that the priests did on kids. Why isn't the Pope worried about that?

Mm, it's a great question, Patty. You know what I mean? Like he'll everything Donald Trump does, he gets criticized for. The guy the guy he burps wrong, he gets criticized. The guy cannot do nothing right.

And the Pope British shut his mouth. I don't I like the guy, but listen. You have a lot of you know what? You've got a lot of baggage. You you know a lot you've got a lot of a lot of p uh uh people that abuse kids in your church.

You got kids that are missing. How come you're not concerned about what Iran did to what Iran did to us. W w what they did to our military, what they did to I mean What about that? What about all the what about October 7th? Penny, here's the deal.

Here's the deal. The reality is that part of the Pope Leo the Woke decided to Jump into the political arena. And when you do that, well, you know what? You've got to be willing to put on your big boy pants or whatever the Pope wears. And you've got to be able to take some heat.

I mean, it's not like, you know, oh, I'm the Pope. You can't criticize. I can criticize you. You can't criticize me. That's not the way politics works, not here in America.

No, I mean it's just that um he he's he's worried about Iran. I mean Iran I mean Iran is the they're the the biggest Kara Spoxer go in since you know, I mean, I've been around. And I I've seen what they've done. And I mean, he doesn't say it's always Donald Trump could do nothing right. Nothing.

Nobody you know, even the Pope has T D S. I'm telling you. Even he does. And I'm not saying, you know, we're probe, you know, Donald Trump is going to be Donald Trump. That's why I voted for him because.

He doesn't he don't care. He comes out with things and that's how he is. He started phoning. He started phoning. And that's why I like them.

A lot of peop oh, you know, all these people like these Catholics. But let me tell you something about the Catholic. The Catholics are two-faced. I grew up as a Catholic. I did my time.

You're two-faced. All of you out there, Catholics, that are listening right now, you're nothing but two-faced SOBs, okay? Jeez, you want us something? How do you feel about the Baptist? You they're all they're all too base.

Everybody that, oh, yeah, you know what? Especially Catholics. I mean, I went to Catholic school. Believe me. I mean, they throw you in a room, and some guy opens up a door, and you got to tell him how many sins you committed.

How many sins did you commit? You put me on the spot, Patty. Come on, I'm a Baptist. We have a higher tolerance level for sin. But you know what?

You know what? Catholics are two-faith people. I got to defend the Catholics here, Patty, because I'm going to get all the hate mail and they're going to be nice to you because you just got out of the hospital.

So I'm going to be getting all the heat. The only thing I learned about the Catholics, I learned watching the Blues Brothers. Those nuns scared me. Every time I see a nun I just kind of get a little triggered.

Well You know what? I'm telling you. I mean, you know, did the first one, you know, even when I, you know, growing up as a Catholic, I tell people, yeah, I did 12 years. I did my time. By the way, Patty, Patty, I want to share something.

You know, we've got, you know, you can actually watch us on YouTube as well now, and a lot of people are leaving messages for you. One is saying, praise the Lord for Miss Patty. Another says, Let's not get her fired up, though.

So then when he gets, calm down, Patty, don't get your blood pressure up.

Sounds like that. You know, here I am. I mean, but God still has a purpose for me, Todd. I mean, He does. He actually flat.

Actually, Todd, I flatlined in the emergency room. Wow, Patty. Patty, you've got to take care of yourself. I know, I was so dehydrated. I had no oxygen.

I had nothing. Are you eating broccoli? Are you eating enough broccoli? You stop with the broccoli. I'm sorry, that's all I got.

You know what? And I want to send you Bojingles. I mean, if that made that, I don't, that's not exactly healthy. It tastes good, but I don't know. They just told me I have to drink a lot of water.

And I mean, because I'm not a big water person. You got to cut back on the Dr. Pepper. You can't be doing that. Yeah.

Well, you know, 12-packing cut costs.

So, um. Anyway, I just want to say something. All these people, all these people that are putting Trump down and all these they're all two-faced. And I'm going to st I don't care what people say. All right.

People like me or they don't like me. We like I hurt your feelings. You're all true faith. I love you, and I love you guys, and I'll let you go. All right, we love you too, Patty.

I want you to call us back on Open Line Friday. You've got to make up some calls. You died. All right.

All right.

Take care of yourself. Great, Miss Patty. You know, Dylan, we're going to have to go to Statesville. We are. I miss Miss Batty.

She's good people. She's a lightning day. By the way, we do have some. We've got to get this mail out. We've got so much going on in the next hour of the program.

But we've got the Todd Stern's radio show, Mail Bag. Uh this is from Wit. Wit is from St. Clair, Missouri. Says Todd, I don't appreciate your comments about Pope Leo.

He's not woke. He's responsible for the spiritual state of 1.4 billion people around the globe. His concerns are quite different than the President of the United States. I could tell you that you're an anti-Catholic bigot by the way you phrase your attack on the Pope and my faith. I've always watched your show and enjoy your commentary, but never.

Well, Witt, sorry you feel that way, but I don't appreciate your Pope. Attacking my president. or the sovereignty of these great United States. You know here's the deal. If the Vatican can have walls, why can't we?

That's what I wanted out. All right, Benjamin from, Benjamin doesn't tell us where he's from. Benjamin, dear Todd, you realize how stupid you sound, you fatso Jew lover. Wow. That was a little harsh.

Tell him. Right through the throat. Should have warned me there. It was just like right to the Adam's apple. All right, this letter from Linda.

Oh, she's got three names. Linda Yvonne Coyle. I won't share her last name. She's from Detroit. Dear Todd.

Oh no, she didn't put a dear Todd. Yo, Newsmax butt wipe. The Pope did not start a war with your precious... Child blanker, he said we should strive for peace, not war.

Now, if that's starting a war with your child blinker, No wonder Rump said, smart people don't like me. Linda, I have no idea what you just wrote. May I just ask a favor of those of you who are sending us hate mail? Could you please just run it through spell check? Or, I mean, if you want to, chat GPT.

I'll give you a primer. Dear ChatGPT, can you write a piece of hate mail to Todd Starns? And it'll churn something out right there.

So. And I think you misspelled butt wipe. That's a W I P, not a W. Y P E This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, we are.

It's a crazy season around the show getting the book is in its final edits, and all of those are done. And I should be getting the final draft, and then I'll sign off on that, and off it goes to the races. The book, The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America, is coming out. We believe May 24th is the date, the launch date, depending on publishing schedules, but that is the launch date. And we are doing a couple of really exciting things.

One of them, C-SPAN has a book channel, and we're going to be filming a sit-down interview.

So a journalist is going to read the book, sit down, and interview me about my life as a journalist and my career in radio. And we're going to talk about the book, and that's going to be a lot of fun. We're also filming a one-hour television special based on the book, The Golden Age, How Trump Saved America. And we're going to have a lot of great guests, and a lot of the people I write about in the book will be a part of the. The TV presentation.

And we're also going to be doing a lot of book touring through really all the way through the summer into the fall.

So many of your local radio stations have expressed interest in us coming out and doing book events. And we're putting all of that together.

So we'll keep you updated. We'll be releasing the full schedule. Once all of those plans get finalized.

So, looking forward to that, especially.

So, we would love for you to pre-order a copy of the book or two or three. And you can do that by going to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, wherever you buy your books, you can pre-order online.

So, you don't have to drive to the bookstore and do all of that stuff. You can actually do it right there from the, really from the privacy of your home. Again, the name of the book, The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America. Already endorsed by the President, the Speaker of the House, and a number of other high profile conservative and Republican leaders.

So be sure to get yourself a copy. All right, hang tight, everybody. Hour three of the big show coming up next. Live. From the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

It's America's conservative blowtorch. Wow. My love is American. Touch. Star.

Well, hello everybody. Welcome to hour three of the big show. It is tax day. Have you I'm just curious, any of you have to file an extension today? That would be yours truly.

So uh A lot of folks are freaking out. Dylan, have you done your taxes? Yes, I have. Really? I barely made it.

The wife makes you do them?

Well, The wife did 'em. Oh, that's even better. Or worse, if you ask, whoever you're asking. All right.

Hopefully, you're getting a refund. A small refund, yeah. Oh, that's nice. But it's a refund. It's a refund.

It's money. You know? You're not gonna turn that down. Hey, at least I did it. You know, I I'm not I'm one not one of these people out here.

I'm not one of these Todd Starnes out here. Look, don't even get me started. I had to pay taxes. The worst year, I had to pay something like. Fifty or sixty thousand dollars in additional taxes.

And I'm like, this is ridiculous. It's outrageous. But I was talking to my good friend Tracy Burns. She was on Fox Business forever. She is a great financial she's like a financial guru.

And she wrote a book called Deduct Everything. And she takes you through how you can literally deduct everything. You know, this is why I talk business all the time, because I deduct it all. You got the pro-level council right there. The only thing I don't do, which is weird, I know people that do this though.

They will I actually do know people who do this. uh they will conduct business in a bathroom stall. And they will deduct their toilet paper. Because they were talking business. There's no way.

I'm telling you. You can do that. I don't know. They do it. At least that's what I've been told.

They may be yanking my chain. You got to try it. See what you get.

Well, I'm not trying. I've already. Look, during the Obama years, I got audited. And nobody wants that. I'd rather go to the proctologist than have to get another audit.

Okay, maybe not that extreme, but you get the point. It's unpleasant. I'm just saying.

So, anyway, I hope you're doing well today. Our guys from Strategic Strategic. Our guys from Strategic Financial Partners are dropping by at the bottom of the hour. Adam Martin and Chris Loftus, and they're going to be answering your questions. Any financial questions you've got, I think they're going to be talking income tax stuff.

You can give them a call on air. If you want to, we'd love for you to ask your question on air. But if you don't want to go on air, the lovely Helen will take your question and she will write it down and we we will put you in touch with these guys.

So our telephone number, by the way, nine oh one two six zero five nine two six. That's 901-260-591. Two six. All right, I've got to play this audio here. We haven't played a lot of audio.

Dylan, you do all this great work, and I never get around to playing the audio clips. It's okay. It's just in case, you know, you have so much to talk about, you don't even need the audio. We get started, and you know, eventually I just, you know, forget about it. And I'm like, geez, the loop.

So we had the ladies on every Tuesday on the Todd Stern show on Newsmax. We call it. Unofficially, it's Todd's Hot Conservative Babes segment with Mary Walter and Kay Smythe Hill. And we always talk about a lot of the big issues of the day. Let's dip into that conversation.

Mary. What do you make of MTG's predictions here?

Well, first of all, thank you for reading the intro exactly the way I wrote it. That was great. You know, I just think we don't know. It's too far out from the midterms. It's like once we end an election, we try to predict the outcome of the next one.

It's a great pastime. We've been doing it for, I guess, forever. I don't think we know yet what's going to happen in the midterms. I do think that there are some things that happen along the way that make us question and makes me question the midterms as well. But I've been saying it all along: if people think that life has become affordable, if people aren't complaining about the price of gas or of meat and vegetables when they go grocery shopping, I think Republicans have a chance at at least holding what they have, maybe even increasing a little bit.

I'm not going to go that far. But Americans, as I always say, have the attention span of golden retriever puppies. And as long as they're happy, woohoo, then they'll vote for Trump.

Well, at least Republicans.

Okay, I gotta, K, I gotta tell you, we gotta tell these Republicans what they can expect. If they stay home and don't vote on Election Day, we've got it's gonna be an impeachment palooza. Yeah, I think it's gonna be absolutely brutal. If, again, like Mary said, I could not agree more. People need to be happy, but we also, you know.

I hate to say it, as someone who can't vote, maybe I'm a little bit of a hypocrite, but People wanted movement on the Epstein files. People didn't really want what's going on in Iran. People definitely didn't want a picture that seemed to be depicting Trump as Jesus. And a lot of people still listen to, you know, the Tucker Carlson, like Alex Jones types. I know, like.

It's mostly younger people, but there's a lot of missteps right now that I think are going to make people stay home. But we've still got plenty of time. Like Mary said, we have so much time between now and the actual midterms to see that turnaround. That's what I'm praying for because, yeah, I'm kind of terrified of what happens if Democrats win back the Senate and the House. Like, that is just, that is two years of just total brutality that no one deserves.

No one needs that kind of negativity right now. I want to switch gears here. Mary in Oregon, a middle school facing backlash for promoting a one-day summit where students can engage with college recruiters. There's just one problem: no white kids allowed. What do you make of that?

I just don't know why the parents didn't tell the white kids to just identify as black and let someone in the administration tell them they can't do that. Because that would just unleash just a cornucopia of ridiculousness out of the school.

So that's the first thing. And the second thing is, have they not learned? When are they going to learn? This is ridiculous. You know, again, ladies, I love your idea, Mary, which is a lot cheaper than mine, which is send your kid to the tanning salon and put it on extra crispy.

But again, Kay, the idea. Yeah. The idea that, well, it might work though, but the idea that kids are being judged by the color of their skin in the state of Oregon, what does that say about this country?

Well, listen, outside of the cities, like Oregon is, you know, absolutely beautiful. But just to every single parent out there whose child is going to be affected by this policy, guess what? You need to sue. Like, you need to sue the blood out of the decision makers' veins who set this thing in motion. This thing is disgustingly racist.

Like, it's so racist, so fundamentally racist. And yeah, I think all the parents of white kids need to sue. It's that simple to me. That's what I would do. Not that I would put my child in public school.

We're going to be homeschooling. But yeah, I would sue. That's what I'd like to see. That's what I'd like to see happen next. I like to hear that.

All right, ladies, my weirdest story of the day comes from Oklahoma. The House of Representatives are approving a bill to legalize human composting. I want you to listen to State Representative Jim Shaw explain how the process would work. He was on my radio show a few days ago.

So, the way that I understand it is that there are facilities, natural organic reduction facilities that would be here, and you would put the body into a stainless steel cylinder. Along with wood chips and straw, and then what you would otherwise know to be a typical composting process takes place over the span of about four to six weeks.

So the way All right, ladies, at least 14 states are already doing this. And Mary, I'm not sure how I feel about grandma starns being used as fertilizer. What say you? Well, I learned something today while reading this article. I learned that the People's Socialist Republic of New Jersey, of which I am an inmate, allows this.

Of course, they do. And actually, when you think about it, you know, if you have a composting thing in the back, you know, it's that, like you said, it's like a cylinder and you put all your stuff in there and you go out there like once a week and you just give grandma a turn, you know, to mix it all up. And it apparently doesn't take that long for the process to happen.

So look. I don't know. Is it that terrible? I mean, what do you think happens when you're in the grave, right? To dust you came, you know, to dust you shall return.

It doesn't offend me that much. If that's how you want to go, God bless you. But I don't know if I necessarily want to know that that's been sprinkled on my food. Right? Like that's the creepy part.

Yeah, well Okay, I'm going to give you the last word here. Again, I guess if you don't want to spend money on a casket, you can just put Cousin Marge in the woods. Right. No. Oh my gosh, I'm done.

No, we're not doing that. I can't even remember the name of the movie where they did that, but we're not doing that. It's not a wood chipper. Listen, I want it on record. I will be buried in a casket at the Hill Family Cemetery.

But I've been a hippie my whole life. And I kind of agree with Mary here. This is not the worst idea I've ever heard. I prefer the idea. I actually had a family friend who was buried in a kind of similar fashion and then turned into a tree.

Like they planted a tree on top of him with the idea that his body would like. Feed the tree.

So maybe that's just a European thing. I don't want a lot of European stuff here in America. Don't get me wrong. That's, you know, I fled most of that stuff. But.

I can think of worse things. And I like the idea of being able to go and sit under that tree maybe one day in the very, very distant future and think that. Actually, no, I'm actually thinking about it deeply right now on national television. I don't like that idea at all. It's very creepy.

Take back everything I said. If you want to do it, no shame. But it just, the more I think about it, it really freaked me out.

So, no, not for me. All right.

Yeah, ladies, I'm old school. I don't want anybody planting a crop of rude bakers on top of me.

So, all right, taste my bill, Mary Walter. Yeah. We have way too much fun. Dylan, I'm surprised we haven't been pulled off the air because of that segment. I'm surprised that they kind of were for it.

Oh, yeah. Right. No, exactly. At first, they were like, what? And then they're like, well, it's actually kind of a good idea.

Yeah, that's a great idea. I guarantee you they shop at Whole Foods. Absolutely. Unbelievable. All right, 901-260-5926.

Would you eat, would you eat any food? that is grown from grandma. 901-260-5926. We'll be right back. Yeah.

All right, welcome back to the Todd Sterns Radio Show, a really stunning report. Came out yesterday from the Justice Department, 900 pages of evidence that the Biden administration weaponized the Department of Justice to go after pro-life conservatives. And it it's some pretty shocking Shocking information that came out. We were able to talk to Jeremy Dice from First Liberty Institute. They've been all over this story, and they have been covering this.

Here's how bad it was, folks. Our understanding is that they were literally Spying on pro-life families that were going to events and conventions and things of that nature. Here's that conversation with Mr. Nice. I'm curious, what did they find in that Justice Department report?

Well, it's hard to know even where to begin since the report really totals about 900 pages worth of material and evidence and analysis. But the long and short of it is this, that under the Biden Department of Justice, the Department of Justice weaponized the law specifically against the pro-life community such that there was a wide disparity between how they utilized something called the FACE Act, the Free Access to Clinic Entrances Act, for example.

Now, we know the FACE Act recently because it's been used against people like Don Lemon and others who have tried to invade churches and protest things there. But not one time under the Biden administration did they utilize that to defend churches that were being targeted for harassment and other things. Yet the Biden administration did weaponize it against pro-lifers who were peacefully protesting. outside of abortion clinics. And I think they recommended, I don't know, 78 months worth of sentences for some of these defendants there in those cases.

But at the same time, they only went after maybe six different vandals who went across FACE Act violations for pro-life centers across the country, of which we saw hundreds of them across the country after the Dobbs decision.

So it's very clear that the Department of Justice was inequitably applying the law. They were deciding to side with their political friends and punish their political enemies and denying people in the process the equal access to justice. And Jeremy, we're talking about at least in one of these cases, I believe, wasn't one of the people arrested an elderly grandmother who was sent to jail? Yeah, no kidding. And then, when the attorneys for that grandmother, as well as some other defendants that they were representing, asked the Department of Justice for information that could be exculpatory for the prosecution of those claims for the defense of their client, for instance, the Department of Justice said no.

Now, they received information from Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation. It's clear from the evidence that they were coordinating with these outside non-government organizations that were intent upon promoting abortion. They received a dossier, for instance, that was over 130 pages in length that had personally identifiable information about people going to a pro-life conference, including pictures of their spouse, of their kids, their minor children. It had their driver's license details within that dossier. No one stopped to ask how they even got that information, but the Department of Justice instead decided to utilize that to weaponize against those pro-life people.

But at the same time, When they were trying to defend themselves against the prosecution by the Department of Justice, the Department of Justice said, No, you're not allowed to have that information. That's just kind of crazy things, but it would be crazy if it weren't so damnable. It's a terrible thing for the Department of Justice to levy such weapons against innocent people. All right, so we're talking 900 pages in this document, so clearly they've done a thorough job here. A lot of times these reports come out and nothing happens.

What do you hope to see happen here? Was there any criminal behavior involved? Is this more of a civil issue?

Well, I understand that some of the people that were named in that report as having colluded with these pro-abortion protesters and weaponized the law against innocent individuals, they have departed the Department of Justice now. I think some have resigned, others have been terminated. My hope would be that the Attorney General utilizes this information to do more things. Number one, I think the Department of Justice ought to hold these individuals accountable, not just simply for losing their job, but for breaching any kind of ethical responsibilities that they may have, whether that's within the Department itself under the Office of Inspector General, or perhaps if they're admitted lawyers, for instance, the state bars that approve them should know about their behavior. More than that, I think the Department of Justice needs to maintain this working group because I know there must be more areas.

For instance, At the end of the report, it says that they only prosecuted, I'm sorry, they prosecuted zero instances of the FACE Act on behalf of churches during the Department of Justice's time under Biden. And yet, we know that there are many opportunities for that very sort of thing.

So, I think we have the equal parts of praise of the current Department of Justice for doing the right thing under the FACE Act and protecting churches like we've seen in Minnesota and elsewhere. But also, they deserve a lot of condemnation under the prior administration for going after people of faith who are just simply trying to do their level best without having the law weaponized against them and being denied access to justice. All right, that again was Jeremy Dice with First Liberty Institute.

Well, coming up, it is our weekly visit with our good friends from Strategic Financial Partners. Their website, by the way, strategicfinancialpartners.com, Adam Martin, and Chris Loftus come on every Wednesday, and they give us a helping hand, making sure that we're protecting our bank accounts and getting prepared for retirement and making those big purchases in life. And if you have a question, now is the time to call in 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. The guys will be here to answer your questions.

Again, that number, 901-260-5926. We'll be taking your calls coming up after the break. Also, be sure to head over to ToddStarnes.com. We have some great news stories just posted. Be sure to check those out during the break.

We'll be right back, everybody. All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Sterns radio show. Do you remember what it was like? You know, we've got some old-timers that listen to this radio program, and you were starting out as young couples.

Trying to figure out how to pay the bills, how to have enough money for groceries and gas, and trying to put down that down payment. And many of you. Figured out something. There was, there was.

Some way, some plan that you guys put together that made it all work, and maybe you have some advice. For the younger listeners that are just now starting out, and maybe they're looking to buy their first home or they're getting ready to have that first child. And maybe you should share some of the life lessons that you've learned. You've been there, you've done that, and you can pass that advice along to our great listening audience. Our telephone number, 901-260-5926.

That's 901-260-5926. Well, Chris Loftus is here, a financial services rep for Strategic Financial Partners. StrategicFinancialPartners.com is the website. And Chris, I think that's a pretty cool idea because a lot of the older folks have been there, done that, and they've learned what to do and what not to do. That's right, Todd.

And the funny thing is, I actually got a call earlier today, which kind of struck a chord with me this morning from a gentleman who works for an airline company. He's a pilot. And he informed me that out of 5,000 of their pilots, over half of them are new. generation like under the age of 32. And these are guys and gals who are young, they're buying their first homes and they're raising families.

But the problem is, they're not looking at the big picture. They're not getting into these consistent, healthy habits. In fact, the majority of them are getting that first big paycheck, and they're going, whoa, let's go. All right, let's buy the house, let's buy the car, let's buy the toys. And they're not looking beyond the big scope of their life.

And they're encountering this little thing called lifestyle drift. And I think that's a big thing that we really need to be addressing. You know, sometimes w when you when you think about it, you know, when you're starting out, It just seems so overwhelming, right? That you don't know how in the world am I going to be able to save up enough money to put things away in savings and put down the down payment for the house. I mean, there are just a lot of things that could be overwhelming for young people.

Well, you know, it's crazy. The reality is by your mid-30s, you're statistically more likely to have a car payment and a mortgage than a fully funded emergency fund. Wow. Which is just horrific. I mean, only about less than half of Americans of any age actually have a fully funded emergency cushion.

But when it comes down to young professionals, and again, for you older listeners out there, your grandkids, or maybe even your kids, only one in three young professionals are truly on track when it comes to saving and specifically saving for retirement. And those are just some really key issues, not necessarily because, oh, they're not thinking about it, but it's not being prioritized, right? We live in an age of gratification or we see things on social media, whether it's the avocado toast that our buddies or the influencers we watch are getting, or we see our neighbor get the fancy car. There's certain priorities we need to be looking at and setting up the foundation for now, not later, because it's going to be harder the further down the road we get. No, well, you're absolutely right.

And again, if you've got a question for Chris Loft, just give us a call, 901-260-5926. Or if you've got, if you've been there. And done that. And maybe you have learned some great advice on how to save and how to get a fully funded emergency fund. Give us a call, 901-260-5926.

I am curious, though, why is that happening? And how does it happen when incomes are supposedly at their strongest growth point? You know, when you're in your 30s, and yeah, people are still living with mom and dad. Yeah, well, that's a great question.

Well, so the first, there's some couple of key insights here to note.

So, regarding Gen Z and millennials, lifestyle drift specifically impacts them the hardest, even though when income jumps, It's great and we get excited, but the savings disciplines often are not there, right? It's these bad habits that we're getting consistently into where instead of saying, okay, hey, this goes here, this goes here, allocating our prioritizing where our money's going, we're sitting down, we're going, okay, great, I have enough money for this. Or even worse, Todd, this is something I see a lot. I actually work with a lot of young professionals who see this. They get that, they sign their first contract for their first professional career.

And say you're an engineer. And you say, okay, man, I'm getting $95,000 a year. Man, that's awesome. Let's pump the brakes. It's not actually, you're not actually getting 95,000 years because.

Taxes for one thing. All right, so let's go ahead and cut off about a third of that when it's all said and done on top of the benefits that you're getting. All right, so it's more like 70, 75. Right. Well, then let's say you went out and you got a car.

So you got a car payment. And then you have rent that you have to pay. Your cost of living has already been covered in half because of all these different expenses. And people are not realizing that because they think they have all this money to spend. And that, you know, when you're in that 30 to 50 window, I think that's when folks really get into trouble.

And in some cases, they don't even realize they are. No, that's absolutely right. And so in that 30 to 50 window, that's another specific key insight. And that's when you reach your peak income earning years, right? Many are kind of set into this fixed balance sheet tight.

I mean, they have high assets, but they have really low liquidity and flexibility because instead of building wealth, they're funding a lifestyle, Todd. That's what it comes down to: funding the lifestyle that they think they should be living. Is this true? Only about a third of young professionals are actually on track for retirement. That is true.

It's unfortunate. And I'll tell you what that comes back to. It comes back to not reading the fine print on your benefits package. Too many people, Todd. I was having a conversation earlier this week about this exact thing.

I had a convers actually with multiple people. They look at their benefits packet and they see open enrollment for their 401k plan. And they immediately think, oh, you know what? I don't really want to do that. I want to keep as much of my paycheck as possible.

I'm going to keep it because I can do better things with that. Newsflash Todd, they just gave up over half of what their salary was originally supposed to be. What they don't realize is a lot of business owners could be paying their employees more than double of what their salary is, but they offer it to them in the form of benefits. You give up your 401k, you're giving up free money because there's a match involved in there, there's growth involved in there. And it's ridiculous because you have a lot of people who are missing the boat on a head start on their retirement.

And then they spend the, like, from their 45 to age 60, they're playing catch-up. You you mentioned that high income sometime doesn't necessarily mean Financial stability. What do you mean by that?

So you have a lot, it goes back to the funding the lifestyle versus building wealth. You have a lot of people who they've got the car, their kids are in private school. You've got people who are trying to take that one or two really nice trips every year with their spouse.

Well, if you don't have the financial foundation for that, you're just throwing money into that and then recouping trying to recoup it afterwards so you can do it all over again. It goes back to those healthy financial habits we were talking about. That also goes back to saying, okay, hey. What are my priorities? What are my goals?

Are my goals just to take a big trip every year? Are my goals to make sure my kids have the best clothes or whatever? Those are fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're not prioritizing, hey, where am I going to be in 30 years, 20 years, 15 years?

Again, I know a lot of young professionals who are like, oh, well, I'm trying to just get through this week, which is fine, right? But you have to have a bit of longevity when you're thinking about where you want to be and what you want to accomplish. Because if you don't, you're going to get sucked into this lifestyle drift of saying, oh, I'm just going to buy this because, you know, paycheck comes on on Monday.

So I'll have it done. That's not the right, that's not financial planning. And that's not being financially responsible. And you have a lot of people who have dug themselves into holes because of that reason.

So let's say somebody is listening right now and they realize, holy cow, I am in that situation. I'm getting some good income, but it's hard to pay the bills. What do they need to do? What is their next step? First and foremost, they need to take inventory.

All right.

So hey, if you're in that position, you obviously have income coming in, which is great. That tells me you've taken the first step and you're a hard worker. Once you're able to do that, Figure out where it's going, right? And be honest with yourself. We have so many people who are biased against themselves, and they aren't able to be willing to be honest with themselves about where their finances are going or what they're funding.

There's a lot of things, Todd, that you really don't need to be spending money on because like, again, I'll bring back the avocado toast, but it's those daily little expenses that creep up on you that by the end of the month, you're like, man, I paid $1,500 for what? You know, I would be curious to know, and especially from people maybe who were, you know, maybe in their 30s back in the 1980s, 1990s. When again, people were not eating out every single day. That's pretty much where everybody's getting their meals and getting their nutrition from is going to a restaurant or grub hub or whatever. And I wonder back in the day, how many times people would go out for dinner?

A lot of times, you know, that would be just mom and dad.

So you'd have a babysitter, you know, keep the kids at home. But as far as all of the expenditures, you know, people going on these exotic vacations when they're in their 20s and 30s, that did not used to happen. No, whatever happened, I'm curious because I mean, this is, I mean, I do this often, but whatever happened to bring your lunch in a pail? You know, didn't that used to be the deal where it's like, hey, bring a sack lunch to work and whatnot? That's what the break room used to be for, right?

Dylan brought Bronccoli. Did he, really? Yeah. It's like you can catch a whiff of it. I'll pass it.

It's a good thing Adam let that go, can you? It's a good thing Adam's not here after all. Yeah, Adam, I think Adam ate some bad shrimp or something like that. Oh, boy, that's brutal. I felt bad for that.

But you're absolutely right, Todd. It goes into seeing what your neighbor is doing and being tempted to emulate that because you think, oh, that looks cool. And that's what successful people do. But. That's coming at a cost, and it's coming at a cost that is going to be to your detriment in the long term because you're looking at it from a position of.

Oh, well, I want this now. I want gratification now. I want it to be noticed now. Whether it's your car, your house, or your family, you have a vacation. All that doesn't matter, Todd.

I remember when we would go, so my dad got transferred to New Orleans when I was a kid, and we would always come back to Memphis right up I-55. And my mom would always like, she would make sausage and biscuits for breakfast. She'd have sandwiches. We'd pull off at the, and how many people still pull off at the rest stops? Right on the street.

You did that? Yeah, they had the picnic tables there, and that's what you do. And then, if like on a rare occasion, we did not have Cracker Barrel back then, but we did have something called Stuckeys. Stuckies. And Stuckeys was kind of like the roadside burgers and ice cream, and you got the pecan log roll.

But that was a very rare thing, you know.

So it was all about, you know, just saving money. And if we were on vacation down at the, you know, the Gulf of America, well, it would be, you know, you'd pack sandwiches and, you know, lunch meat and all that kind of good stuff. But again, I think the nation as a whole, we are living.

Well, above our means. Very much so. Very much so. And that comes from a position of, oh, well, again, the gratification. We do not believe in delayed gratification.

We don't practice it even though we should. And Todd, I'd love to hear from your listeners. And maybe even if they don't have a success story, if they have a cautionary tale of like, you know what? I want a 25-something year-old or somebody out there to know, hey, I didn't do this and I wish I had. I'd love to hear from them because those are the stories that actually have the most impact on young listeners.

Because they sit there and think, oh, well, this would never happen to me. Oh, I never get injured, can never work again. Oh, I don't need an emergency fund. Todd, We see it every day, every single day. You don't think it will happen to you.

Statistically, it will. And it's going to happen sooner rather than later.

So take control of it right now. Our telephone number is 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. Chris, people, they go to your website, strategicfinancialpartners.com. Tell us about some of the information that you guys have available there.

Well, first and foremost, they're going to see a lot of articles that are our firm, which is staff full of experts in various different areas of the financial industry. And we post those. We post those on our website probably about once a quarter. And those have a wealth of knowledge in terms of how to get in contact with us, but also kind of some guidelines of, hey, are you going through this specific scenario, whether you're a pre-retiree, trying to figure out what to do with your 401k or post-retiree, whether you're kind of in that middle section of the 35 to 55 prime earning years, and you're just like, hey, what's next? How do I share up my foundation?

Or if you're in that 20 to 30 year range, hey, you're just trying to figure out how to get started. You're trying to figure out, hey, what do I need to do just to build, right? How do I survive and get to that point where I can grow consistently? We have all those experts at our office. We've got about 150 advisors all across the country.

We've got offices all across the southeast, but we work with people from Alaska to Florida to Hawaii to Maine. We have a nationwide presence that we are able to help anybody in any season of life.

Now, the main thing here is, Todd, and this is why I remind your listeners, it starts with you. We can lead a horse to water all we want, but we can't force it to drink. You have to have the ability and capacity to motivate yourself and say, hey, you know what? I don't like where I'm at. I want to see a change, and I don't want to be living paycheck to paycheck or wondering if I want to be able to keep the lights on or not even keeping the lights on, but I want to be able to retire at age 65, right?

And so, those are the conversations we want to be in the room for, but we need people who are motivated and want to make the necessary changes and steps to accomplish that. All right.

We've got to leave it there. Hope Hannig's feeling better. Me too, man. My goodness. Jeez.

Hello. So hopefully, but you know what? I'm not eating any shrimp anytime soon.

So that's for sure. He did do it. He's going to get triggered driving by red lobsters. He really, really. That's like, man, Adam, I love you.

I hope you're listening. But you're a Navy man and you get sick eating seafood or whatever it is. I don't know. Yeah, that's not good. That's good.

That's not good. That's not good at all. All right.

Chris Loftus, everybody, from Strategic Financial Partners. That website address, strategicfinancialpartners.com. That's strategicfinancialpartners.com. Go check them out. If you have any questions at all, you'll be able to reach out to Chris or Adam.

Again, by the way, Chris's number, 901-657-3324. That's 901-657-3324. All right, Chris. Good to see you. Good to see you.

Have a great day. Hang tight, everybody. We'll be right back. All right, welcome back to the Todd Stern Show. By the way, this segment brought to you by our friend Dr.

Michael Youssef and my faith assistant. The Bible-based Redeeming AI tool. I love this thing. All you have to do, you don't have to sign up. You don't have to do it.

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So already 50,000 people have turned to My Faith Assistant for trusted biblical clarity on life's big issues.

So be sure to go check them out, myfaithassistant.com. All right, coming up tonight, I forgot that Kyle Campbell, you just heard her on our radio show. She's going to be with us tonight. On our Newsmax show, we have Congressman Mark Harris, who's going to drop by. A very busy show, a lot of news and information happening, including the very latest on this Eric Swalwell mess.

And that is look, just hear me on this. This has nothing to do with doing the right thing. The Democrats knew they were about to get their butts handed to them in this California gubernatorial race, so they had to destroy this guy.

Somebody was telling me That the Democrats They've got dirt on everybody. I mean everybody in Washington, and they're not afraid to use it. And that's what they did here. I mean, man, this was a. Premeditated takedown of Eric Swalwell.

And it's pretty darn impressive when you step back and look at it. But that's how the Democrats keep everybody in line. And I. I can promise you this, you better believe that's going on within the Republican circles as well. And that's one of the reasons why Trump's agenda is getting jammed up.

in the Senate right now. People got dirt on folks.

So, by the way, TMZ setting up shop at our nation's capital. And I was talking to somebody a little while ago, and they said people are freaking out. Because you know that is a I mean, that's all freaky town, right? You normally think, you know, like Las Vegas or. San Francisco.

Well, what's going on down in DC? Those folks need. Jesus and the what likes? All right, that's going to do it, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, 5 o'clock Eastern, the Todd Stern Show on Newsmaster.

We're going to be back on the radio tomorrow, noon o'clock. Don't forget, pre-order a copy of my brand new book, The Golden Age. How Trump Saved America. Get out there and be good, everybody.