Putin Invades While Biden Sleeps

Welcome to the Todd Starnes Show sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit LegacyPMInvestments.com. That's LegacyPMInvestments.com. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, It's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starnes.

That's us, that's right. I love this American ride. Wherever you're listening across this, the greatest nation God ever blessed, despite the attempts of some to change that, welcome to this Thursday edition of the Todd Starnes Show, coast to coast on more than 100 outstanding radio stations and streaming live at ToddStarnes.com. Hello, fellow Patriots. I'm Jeff Stein from the free state of Iowa, coming to you from my home base at News Talk 1540 KXEL in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo, Iowa.

Good to be with you here today. I'm filling in for Todd. He's on the road to CPAC. Fear not, you'll hear from him in just a moment, though. I first want to set up the phone number.

It's the same as always, 844-747-8868. That's how you can join this coast-to-coast conversation and join us here in the Liberty University studios, 844-747-8868. I am speaking to you shortly after 12 noon Eastern time on Thursday. That means it's just after 7 p.m., I believe, in Ukraine. 14 hours ago, the first bombs started to fall on Ukraine.

seven hours ago the first Russian troops started a ground offensive and now they're trying to take back the old Chernobyl plant of all things. Joining us now on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line is the host of this program Todd Starnes. Todd calling in from the road on the way to CPAC not the way you intended to spend a travel day sir.

Well no it is not and actually believe it or I am here at CPAC right now. I just arrived a few moments ago, and there are thousands of people here. And I have to tell you, Jeff, I think the narrative changed last night based on what happened in Ukraine. You and I exchanged some messages last night as you were watching this unfold and posting online in real time. And this is just another example of how appeasement with a dictator is a recipe for failure, is it not?

Say that one more time, Jeff. This is another example of how appeasement of a dictator turns out very badly for all concerned.

Well, I think it does. And not only that, Jeff, I think it also illustrates how dangerous it is when you decide that you do not want energy independence in this country. Jeff, based on what happened last night, people are just, they seem shocked and horrified that, you know, that Putin did what he did, a full-on, full-scale invasion. I'm not surprised at all. This is a very evil, ruthless man.

This is what we've come to expect from Putin. This is what we've expected from the Soviets. I mean, we've got generations of testimony, eyewitness testimony, about how ruthless these folks are. I dare say that the listeners to this program share your view. They're not surprised.

How in the world did those who are running our government be led so off the path? Or is there something else going on here? In other words, to be blunt, could they possibly, Todd, be that stupid?

Well, yes, they could. Are they? I don't think so. But now the problem is this, and this is a big problem, Jeff. What happens now?

I mean, do we really think that sanctions are going to work? Do you think that now that Putin has invaded Ukraine, he's going to say, oh, gosh, we've got sanctions led against us. We're going to apologize and go back home. No, of course not. The question is, where does he stop?

Where does he draw the line out? Putin's in charge of this.

Meanwhile, you have the Chinese flying jets over Taiwan right now. You know the Chinese are going to make a move. The Chinese, by the way, Jeff, said earlier today that what's happening in Taiwan is nothing, nothing like Ukraine, because Taiwan never left China. Speaking with Todd Starnes on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line, Todd is at CPAC in Orlando. That's where the show will originate from, I believe, tomorrow.

And the rest of the crew is on their way down there. Very different CPAC, though, from what you might have anticipated even 36 hours ago. I assume the tone is going to be much different. I think so. I mean, people, you know, it's a very jovial atmosphere around here.

Anyway, people are always, you know, fired up getting the conservative base together. You know, it's a big deal.

So I do think, though, that there's a bit of gravitas now, now that Ukraine has been invaded. And quite frankly, you know, the way the neocons and the establishment Republicans and the war hawks are talking, it's as if they want us to get involved in World War III here. And that's the big challenge. How do we get out of all of this?

Well, that's a very interesting point, because as you mentioned a moment ago, Vladimir Putin might be looking for, okay, how does he walk it back? In other words, how much territory does he need to consume before he says that's enough and now I'll stop and the rest of the world will go away? But again, to your point, how do we walk back on this when you've got a failing administration desperate for any level of success? and it would not be beyond the realm of possibility to say, well, this is an example now of how we need to show that the Biden administration is not a complete failure. Yeah, and Jeff, I think that's the big issue here.

This is a very dangerous spot we're in. And again, waiting to hear what the president, you know, he's speaking at this hour, and we'll see what the president has to say about all of this.

Well, I note that last night, Mr. Putin spoke to his nation. Our president issued a couple of news releases somebody wrote at the White House. Your final thoughts on that form of leadership? Yeah, he was asleep.

He was in bed.

Meanwhile, you had Donald Trump actually speaking on behalf of the nation, explaining what was really going on. And the reality is that Putin waited until Biden got elected to make this move. He knows what everybody else knows, that President Biden is feckless. He is addled, and he is easily controlled and easily deceived. And that's what we're dealing with right now.

If you folks are following Todd Starnes on Getter or Twitter or any of the social media, These are the things that he was pointing out in real time last night as all this was happening, and some of the other people were clutching their pearls saying, how could this possibly be? But you had this pegged from the start. Do you have any sense of what may happen in the next 48 hours?

Well, the Ukrainians are going to have to fight. There's no doubt about that. There are some reports coming out of Kiev that people are being issued guns, So regular citizens are being issued guns so they can defend their homes. When I was reading that, all I could think of was, thank God that we live in a country where we don't have to do that. We have the Second Amendment.

We have the right to bear arms. This is a terrible thing. And as terrible as it is, we cannot and we must not allow American boots on the ground, Jim. We cannot get involved in a shooting war with the Russians. but I believe that's where the neocons, that's where the establishment Republicans, that's where the Democrats want to take us.

And if nothing else, and I appreciate somebody tweeting this out, a Democrat tweeted this out yesterday, and the Democrats said, in all honesty, that this is actually good, good for President Biden, because presidents who engage in wars win re-election. and if you ever had a thought about the cynicism of american politics that summed it up right there todd starns thank you so much for calling in from the road i know you're trying to get set up there at cpac uh and and uh as things develop uh well you i would say you have our number but it's your number really so you have our number and check in as uh situations warrant sir thanks a lot jeff and we'll be broadcasting the full show from here tomorrow. Thank you for filling in as we try to get down here. And I can tell you this, it was 28 degrees in Memphis this morning. It's about 80 degrees down here in Orlando.

You know, if ever there was a moment where I wanted to hang the phone up on someone, it's about right now because it's 18 where I am, sir, and I have three inches of snow in the forecast, but that's all right. Todd, thank you so much, and we look forward to the show tomorrow live from CPAC. Todd Starnes calling in on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. And again, he's just arriving there at the scene. CPAC is starting today, runs through the weekend.

Todd's on the program. He's moderating panels. And as noted, Kyle and Grace are on their way as we speak. And they'll do the show from there tomorrow. And you can hear it right here.

And streaming live at ToddStarnes.com. All right, so this is a day that is quite fluid with regard to news. As Todd mentioned, President Biden is supposed to speak to the nation at his preferred early afternoon spot, no primetime address for him, with supposedly some additional sanctions. I have no confidence that that will actually happen, the speech or the address to the nation, when it is advertised. And partly that's because there is activity at the U.N.

and the Security Council. the U.N. Security Council is going to vote on a resolution condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine. Of course, the Russians will veto it, and therefore it means nothing, as is the case with so many of these things. We are also hearing reports, and again, understand that the situation is fluid, and we're just giving you information as we see it.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine, the metros have stopped because they're using the trains and the platforms as bomb shelters. They didn't have anything else. All right.

So that's what's literally going on in Ukraine. In addition, I believe we saw, I know I saw earlier today, that the Russians were apparently trying to take over the closed Chernobyl nuclear plant. For what basis? I really wonder either what they think they can do with it, because energy is at the heart of a lot of this, or what they're trying to cover up by having control of it. Also in a few moments ago, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom says the U.K.

will totally exclude Russian banks from the U.K. financial system. I said this yesterday. I'll say it again. Putin doesn't care.

He doesn't care about the sanctions. The concept that this is going to hurt the Russian people, he does not care. That is not anything that bothers him in the least. if the Russian people are harmed because, again, he's the brutal dictator in all this. Let's not forget, all right?

So once again, we will continue to watch the situation as it unfolds during this live program. Again, noon to 3 Eastern, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Central. The rest of you can do your own math.

And so if you're listening to this on a delayed basis on a radio station, if you're listening to this as a podcast, I want you to know the frame of reference. It is now 18 minutes past 12 noon on the Eastern Time Zone on Thursday. And this is the news I was scrolling here a moment ago. The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States an hour ago said that Russia attacked hospitals in Ukraine and that the fight was then ongoing for control of Chernobyl.

Now, understand, this is from the Ukrainian ambassador. Not independently verified, but the Ukrainian ambassador says that Russia was attacking hospitals. This was the guy we thought we could negotiate with. 844-747-8868 is how you can join the conversation. I would love to hear your reaction to the news of the day.

We'll take the break now. Your calls on the other side and then remind you of what else is to come on this program. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. Thanks for being along on the Todd Starnes Show. It's Radio Free America.

Todd Starnes. Friends, last year your dollar lost a ton of value. Inflation rose by almost 7% in just one month towards the end of the year. That means in 30 days your dollar became 93 cents. Inflation is a silent killer.

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Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. You just heard from Todd at CPAC. He just arrived, got on the ground there, and the show will take place from CPAC tomorrow. We'll take your calls today at 844-747-8868. Please join the conversation here from the Liberty University studios.

To no surprise, we now know that the White House has delayed the remarks that were to be delivered by the president by one hour. Anybody want to bet whether that will take place?

Well, in any event, the president now scheduled to speak about this at 1.30 Eastern, so that's an hour behind the original schedule, and by that time it will be something like 15 and a half hours after the first bombs began to fall in Ukraine. to press releases sent by the White House last night, ostensibly attributed to the president, and no sign of him. And it'll be more than 15 hours before he comes out and counting. You can put a little countdown clock in the corner there and see if it even happens while we're still on the air. Coming up, if you're with us for the full three hours of the program, or if you're listening on the podcast, stay with us for it all, because coming up in our next hour, we will speak with, well, actually, it's a lot of return guests, some of your favorites here.

Newsmax contributor Hogan Gidley joins us just at the start of the second hour of the program. At the bottom of the next hour, attorney and news analyst Dr. Wendy Patrick. And we'll talk with her about what Kyle Rittenhouse is doing these days. And it's a rather interesting thing that he's doing, kind of the you can't get away with this, folks.

And not only am I going to make you learn a lesson for the things you said about me, I'm going to help others that you similarly smear with inaccurate information.

So in hour number two of this program, our next hour, Hogan Gidley and Dr. Wendy Patrick. Coming up in hour number three, the regular visit from the great Mike Huckabee, Governor Huckabee, will be with us at the start of hour number three. and then at the bottom of that hour we'll speak with Clint Ehrlich. Mr.

Ehrlich is an American attorney, and he was actually a visiting researcher inside Russia's foreign ministry not long ago. Very appropriate to have him on this program and talk about the Russian mindset, if nothing else, about all of this, just so we can get a sense of what might happen next. I think we know the mindset of the Russian dictator, But again, it will be interesting to get some insight because that may help us determine, is there some way out of all of this?

So all that and, of course, your calls as well at 844-747-8868. I was getting ready for the show today, and I was checking out some websites, and I went online to MyPillow.com slash Starnes. MyPillow.com slash Starnes.

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We'll take your numbers on the other side. We'll take your phone calls on the other side. That's the number that you'll use to call. Jeff Stein in for Todd. This is the Todd Starnes Show.

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Join me in standing up for President Trump and canceling the radical left once and for all. Paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Welcome back to the Todd Starnes Show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. Todd is at CPAC.

We heard from him earlier this hour, and this show will originate from there tomorrow. And I'll tell you, it is, to me, it looks like it might be a little different sort of scene there, depending on what happens, because we are closer now to another global conflict than we have been in generations. And that is not hyperbole. It is frankly scary, obviously, especially since it did not need to happen. and anyone who is surprised by this is either wrongheaded or just flat out not paying attention.

I guess. I don't know how else to describe it. Because you had Russia on the door of Ukraine dating back to what? November, I think, of last year. You've got China with its designs on Taiwan.

you've got the Olympics that ended just this past Sunday. And so many people saying nothing will happen until after the Olympics. They were right.

So many people who raised concerns. I know I felt some concern when the Olympics are held, often the visitors from other nations come and pay homage to the leader.

Well, we didn't send anybody to the Olympics because, oh, I don't know, China inflicted a plague upon the world, and so we thought maybe we should not send diplomats, and that's a pretty good idea. But Putin went. Putin and Xi met. They met in Beijing. What do you think that conversation was about?

Well, let's see. They met. The Olympics ended. Putin invades Ukraine. and at the same time now Xi is flying over Taiwan.

But again, it's totally different because, well, Taiwan's a part of China in their view. Just like Putin and revisionist history about the ancestral claims to the land that is now Ukraine. Totally false, but if you say it often enough, somebody might buy it.

So it's a very scary time for the world, and the President of the United States has said nothing and now has delayed his remarks for another hour, and frankly, I don't know that it matters what he says. We talked about this, I believe, yesterday, the fact that if you look at history, Putin's in a secure position, but yet he still has to keep people at home moderately satisfied. You know, the elections are not going to be fair, but he doesn't need an uprising.

Well, when he was in trouble some time ago, what did he do? Went in and took over Crimea. And what happened to his poll numbers? They went up by 20%. I don't know.

Do you believe poll numbers in Russia?

Well, regardless, he took an action, and he became more popular. What do you have going on now? Supply chain issues, the normal hunger, the normal economic strife.

now a global economy thanks to the China plague, there are some problems for Putin at home. What better way to instill a sense of civic pride by taking back lands that you never should have lost? There's Vlad defending all of the Russians. Not too much of a stretch to suggest that his actions are timed for very careful reasons. I mean, clearly, talking about the world stage post-Olympics, but also talking about what he needs at home and what areas did he take, areas that are rich in energy, areas that give him more of a buffer from what he sees as Eastern European aggression.

There's no secret as to why he did it. contrast that with the American president. This nation's dark days at the end of the time in Afghanistan, with the embarrassing and shameful withdrawal from there. Not talking about the issue of whether we should have withdrawn, talking about how it was handled and why those people did not need to die. 844-747-8868.

We don't need more service members dying either because Biden doesn't know what he's doing. That phone number is the one that Rita used to call. She listens to this program on WSIC. Rita, thank you so much for calling the Todd Starnes Show. Jeff Stein filling in.

What's on your mind today? Thank you for taking the call. Yes. What's on my mind is that I don't understand how that border is important to the United States in any way, shape, or form. when it's really a Russian, it was always kind of a Russian area, and Ukraine is not a united effort in any way, and yet we left 80-some billion dollars worth of equipment in Afghanistan, which they're going to probably use against us.

And if we had kept our gas here and left them alone, none of this would have probably happened, and it just makes me sick.

Well, Rita, one of the things that I wanted to ask someone on the show today, and I'm not sure I'm going to, and I'll tell you why. I wanted to ask someone, okay, what should we do now? But the problem is any reasonable person would have taken your advice and not done what we did to get ourselves here. You know, it's hard to figure out how to get out of this when reasonable people wouldn't have left weapons in Afghanistan, wouldn't have left Afghanistan the way we did, leaving Americans and Afghans behind. Why in the world would the Ukrainians want to trust us to begin with?

And to your point, I'll just ask you straight up, would you rather have us be more concerned about the U.S.

southern border or Ukraine's eastern border? I would rather us have more concern about the United States and our Constitution and our civil liberties than anything anywhere else. Absolutely. Absolutely. What are you paying for gas down there, Rita?

$348, $350, $360, depending.

Okay, now that's in North Carolina. That's about what I'm paying here in Iowa. What were you paying last year, do you remember? Yes, about $235. Uh-huh.

What's that doing for your budget? Yeah.

Well, when lawnmower season happens, it's going to be horrible. Oh, yeah, I hear you. I've got to worry about snowblower season, too, but it's the same problem. Hey, thank you so much, Rita, for calling in. I really appreciate it.

Have a wonderful afternoon now. Thank you, sir. Yes, and thank you for listening to News Talk WSIC there in Statesville. Every day. Every day.

Bless you. Thank you so much. 844-747-8868 is how you can reach the Todd Starr Show. coast-to-coast conversation that we have here weekdays, noon to 3 Eastern, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Central Time. And again, the rest of you, do your math. You know how to do this, right? I'd love to have you join our conversation here at the Liberty University studios. Word now coming, Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg is reporting that Biden and G7 leaders have agreed on a package of sanctions and other economic measures.

and that's ostensibly i suppose what the president will be talking about when he finally comes out in another 45 minutes or thereabouts i don know raise your hand if you think uh sanctions and other economic measures is going to deter Vladimir Putin at this point I know it radio but I doubt I would see anybody hand go up I mean, are these sanctions going to do anything? They certainly didn't do anything before. It's almost as if Putin played Biden for a fool. No, that couldn't be. Not sharp as a tack, competent Joe Biden.

We said we wouldn't do sanctions unless they did something, and then we just did a little bit of a sanction, so we give him a chance to come back. All it did was give him more time to amass the troops for the invasion. That may sound like second-guessing. That may sound like Monday morning quarterbacking. I do understand that.

I do understand that. However, it sure looked pretty silly. Putin said, hey, we're withdrawing troops. And everybody said, oh, good for you. And instead, he added troops.

WSIC is a strong Todd Starnes affiliate. Roger is calling in, listening to that fine station in North Carolina as well. Roger, you want to answer my question, huh? Are you there, Roger? Yeah, hello?

Yeah, go ahead. I'm told that you have an answer for the question I asked. I bet it's about if you think sanctions will help, huh?

Well, I think they will because there's a report out this morning that, you know, because the Germans have stopped construction on that pipeline. Right. and the Russian stock market has tanked and the exchange rate on the ruble is terrible right now.

So it's going to have a major impact. What I want to get into is what should we do next is continue on and then we need to go back and honor our 1993 treaty obligation to the Russians by not allowing former Soviet states and former Warsaw Pact members into NATO and the EU. This whole thing started when Barack Obama said Ukraine could join NATO and the EU. And Russia was like, no. Russia was like, no, they can't.

And Obama's like, well, they want democracy and they can do this. And then Biden started talking about Ukraine joining the EU and joining NATO. And what we need to look at from the military standpoint, I'm a retired military man.

So I look at this from a strategic and a tactical standpoint. We need to look at this from the way the Russians look at it. What would the United States do if Mexico entered a military alliance with China and China parked six divisions off the border of Texas? Because this whole thing started when Ukraine started, Because they've got two breakaway provinces of Ukraine that want to go back to Russia. Right.

And those are the ones that Putin had troops in just in case, correct? Those are the ones he's moved troops into. Yes. So they voted and wanted to go back to Russia.

So, okay, those people voted. They want to go back to Russia. The Ukrainians weren't going to let them go.

So Russia's like, okay, well, you're not going to join NATO either. And so if you look at it from the Russian point of view, they were getting ready to have NATO on their border. And isn't this the case? I'm sorry, Roger, I just want to interject briefly. Isn't it the case that this was discussed very recently again?

By the way, everything you say is a tremendously accurate recitation of all this. But it was in the news where Putin said, this is Eastern European aggression on our border. We will not stand for this. That really could have been the point where this could have been avoided, correct? where if Ukraine would have simply said, we're not going to go into NATO, and people like the U.S.

would have said, to your point, we had an agreement and nothing has changed. Could that have been enough to avoid what's happening today? The entire situation right now rests on the desk of Sleepy Joe. Because Sleepy Joe came back and he was like, well, if Ukraine wants to join NATO, they should be allowed to join NATO. Angela Merkel's like no.

England's like no. Because they realized if they had allowed Ukraine to join NATO, then right now, by Section 5 of the NATO charter, we would be having to send troops to the Ukraine right now.

So any of those former Soviet republics that are on the Russian border that we think about letting into NATO, What we need to understand is if we let them into NATO, it's not a deterrent. It's a provocation. And when the Russians invade them, we're treaty-bound to send brown troops in to defend them. And that is going to be another world war.

So we cannot, we as Americans cannot look at Eastern European politics through the eyes of 21st century progressive Americans. Roger, that is an excellent... They've been fighting for 1,500 years. Yes. We have to take a break, but I want to pick up on what you just said, because you just hit upon something that is so, so important to all of this.

Roger, thanks for calling in. Thank you for your service. What an intel... See, again, the people who call this show, you folks are smart and you know what's going on and that's why i love talking to you all and i hope some of you other folks will call in as well at 844-747-8868 we need to take the break and then i will address the very key thing that roger said at the end of that call when we come back jeff stein in for todd this is the todd starns show about to back up and bring it it's todd Starts. Mike Lindell has a passion to help everyone get the best sleep of your life.

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Coming up in our next hour, I hope you're able to be with us. Hogan Gidley, Newsmax contributor and former Trump White House official, will be with us just after the top of the hour. News analyst and attorney Dr. Wendy Patrick joins us at the bottom of the hour. In our number three today, it's Governor Mike Huckabee and Clint Ehrlich, an American attorney who has worked inside as a visiting researcher inside Russia's foreign ministry at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

That should be a fascinating conversation as well. And as always, fascinating conversations when you choose to call at 844-747-8868. I want to pick up on something that a couple of the callers mentioned in the last segment. Here's what's very important. We have in the past 100 years for sure, probably closer to 150, mistakes have been made when we ignore the situation on the ground and we ignore things that have been going on for hundreds of years, if not longer.

You know, in terms of people sitting in a room and redrawing maps and saying, well, there, there, we'll carve a country there. even though those individuals in those lands might have been at war with one another in an earlier time and have no hope of getting along. Similarly, viewing the world through the prism of those who think good of others and think that a democratic republic and self-governance, those are good ideas, you can't assume that other people think that way. In other words, when we view the rest of the world through our lenses, and our beliefs and don't take into account that others may see things differently and therefore act differently, you're just doomed to failure. It's the same problem we have now with this revisionist history in this country.

The concept that certain people should be stricken from the history books, Their statues should be torn down because we look at their actions through the prism of today as opposed to the earlier time. I'm not trying to excuse behavior of those in the past. What I'm simply saying is it's really hard to condemn them today when they were living in a very different time with different conventional norms.

Well, similarly here, we make certain assumptions about our view of things and how everything is just simply self-evident.

Well, not to everyone. Not to everyone if those other people have, if you will, their own vested interest that's at stake. And so we make these mistakes all the time, and look where it gets us today. I'm so glad that you've been a part of this first hour of the program, and I hope that you stay with us as we continue. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd.

This is the Todd Starnes Show. With the political pressure of the left and the woke mob that is the Democrat Party, our society has ultimately become controlled by the cancel culture elites. Since when have the founders of our Constitution, the American flag, Dr. Seuss, and many other things become anti-American? There's never been a better time in our nation's history to stand up against the woke mob and fight back.

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Paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite cuntotin' Bible-clingin' deplorable American. That's us, that's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starnes.

Wherever you're listening across this, the greatest nation God ever blessed, we welcome you to our number two of this Thursday edition of the Todd Starnes Show, coast to coast on more than 100 patriotic radio stations and streaming live, as always, at ToddStarnes.com. Hello, fellow patriots. This is Jeff Stein speaking to you from the free state of Iowa in my home base at News Talk 1540, KXEL in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. The 50,000-watt blowtorch scorching middle America with accurate news and reasonable views. My privilege to be filling in again today for Todd, who is on the ground in Orlando at CPAC.

You heard from him in the first hour of this program, and after we all get done, if you miss that, go to the Toddcast podcast at toddstarns.com. This program will originate from CPAC tomorrow. We invite you to join the Coast to Coast conversation by calling us at 844-747-8868. That's 844-747-8868 so that you can be a part of the conversation taking place here in the Liberty University studios. Joining us now on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line, a friend of the program, returned guest, he is Hogan Gidley.

Mr. Gidley, a former spokesperson for not only the Trump campaign but also the Trump administration. administration. He's now director for the Center for Election Integrity and Newsmax contributor as well. Mr.

Gidley, Jeff Stein in Iowa filling in for Todd. How are you, sir? Doing really well, Jeff. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate the time.

And I, too, am in the great state of Florida in Orlando at CPAC. I'm outside right now. You may pick up some breezes here, but I had to step outside to make sure I talk to you fine folks on the radio today.

Well, I appreciate it, although I'm envious of the warm 80-degree breezes that y'all have there in Florida today, but that's okay.

So here's my sense, and I may just be putting this on a tee for you, but Russia invades Ukraine. It's been 15 hours, and we haven't seen the President of the United States. I'm pretty confident that when your old boss was running things, things would have been different, at least in terms of the communication and probably everything else come to think of it.

Well, you know, I went back and saw one of my clips when I was working in the administration. I was on Fox one day having this conversation with one of the anchors, and I pointed out the fact that with COVID, in Walter Reed, you know, with a quarantine, Donald Trump still did more campaign events in a day than Joe Biden did. Got in his car, remember, and rode around and thanked everyone out there for the support, the well wishes and the prayers. and instead what we have now is during a time where another country is invading uh ukraine we've yet to hear from the president of the united states it really is a disgusting situation the people over there obviously are suffering our prayers are with them our prayers are with our leaders too they have to make the right decisions they have to have the discernment and wisdom to do the right thing and so i know that the president's going to speak this afternoon i hope to hear some tougher talk, yes, but definitely some tougher actions as well. Vladimir Putin has to be held to account here.

Well, obviously, we are in this mess, and I say we, it's the Ukrainian people that are having bombs raining down on them, but the world is in this mess because of weak leadership by this administration, no different than when Democrats held the White House when Biden hung out there before your boss took over. Oh, absolutely. I think you've hit on something there that a lot of people don't understand, but it's when the president of the United States speaks, it's not just the American people who hear. It's not just the American media who write about it. It's international.

Other world leaders see what our president does and then takes their cues from that action. You saw just a really horrific, sad, completely preventable, by the way, withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving American people stranded behind enemy lines. You saw turning over 19 million women back to al-Qaeda.

Now there are reports of them being raped, of course, abused, sold into slavery for food. I mean, this is the type of behavior that our president allowed. And so when other countries see that, it's obvious that they themselves are going to look out and say, now I'm looking at the global landscape. What do I want? And I know that if I have a feckless leader in the United States, maybe I can get one buy over on him here.

And it seems as though that's what they're doing. And look, I don't rejoice in that. Anytime we were overseas with Donald Trump, you knew that the other leaders understood the president put the American people first, but he was willing to work with other nations. He was going to do anything to protect us, but he was also going to make trade deals that benefited American workers, etc. You want your leaders to be viewed as strong and as compassionate, but you want them to be feared and loved and respected.

Donald Trump was all of those things, and Joe Biden is none of them. And I'll end with this. It's not that he's been tested. Every American president is tested. That's not unique.

What's unique is that Joe Biden has failed every single one of those tests. This is just the latest in those examples. Hogan Gidley, Newsmax contributor, among other things, of course, joining us on the Todd Starn Show, Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. All right, so moments ago the AP is reporting, Hogan, that Ukraine says it has lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site after a fierce battle with Russian troops. What's the mindset of why Russian troops would want to seize Chernobyl?

I cannot think of any good purpose for the world. Yeah, you're right. It's not good for the world. It's good for Vladimir Putin and his desires to try and wield power. Obviously, that's a devastating blow to Ukraine, but it's a problem for the world.

I'm interested to see what the UN is going to do as they get together as well. Can our president be a leader in that group as opposed to a follower? I mean, a lot of the things he's been doing so far are just reactions to Vladimir Putin as opposed to forcing the hand of Putin. That's interesting to me. And also, you talk about all these deterrents and how they were going to put them into place after Putin made moves.

Well, then they're no longer deterrents.

Now they're just reactionary measures.

So if he'd have done them ahead of time and they'd have been strong and swift, who knows where we would be today. The Ukrainian people obviously would be better off. But I just don't know where this goes. It looks as though Vladimir Putin wants to take over at least portions of Ukraine. But now, I mean, Chernobyl's not even in the eastern region.

So it really is troublesome. I just am hoping and praying our leaders can kind of get it together here. Because, again, this is looking like a long, protracted situation, not any sort of easy resolution. By the way, NBC News is reporting, and I'd be interested in your reaction to this. Biden has been presented with a menu of options for cyber attacks designed to disrupt Russia's ability to sustain military operations in Ukraine.

I'm more concerned about the Russian retaliation with cyber attacks because, as I said on this show yesterday, last year when they were hacking into power grids, communication outlets, airports, that was the dry run. for what they would do now. Yeah, not to mention they were moving troops around last year, too, up to and including through the month of December. Look, this is a problem for me in a lot of ways, and the truth is going to come out here, and I hate to say it this way, but you remember after the problem with Afghanistan, after the botched withdrawal, you know, Joe Biden said he wasn't presented with any information about how to get out in a better way. That didn't happen.

I knew that to be false. In fact, I even made a comment at the time. If I were a reporter in Washington, D.C., I'd go over to the Defense Department immediately. I'd go to the Pentagon immediately and start asking questions on whether or not the president was briefed on these matters, because sooner or later, the military brass are not going to be, whether it be from their commander chief or someone beneath them in rank, they're not going to be questioned and they're sure not going to be lied about. and sooner or later the truth is going to come out.

This situation is similar too.

So he may have been briefed, according to NBC News, on cyber attacks and retaliation he can do. What I'm interested to see is what other options were on the table that the administration is not going to tell us about but that will come out in the future. And when those do come out, would they have been more effective in preventing Vladimir Putin from moving here had he taken those measures? because in the end, the people at the Defense Department, the people at the Pentagon who worked, you know, in large part against Donald Trump in a lot of ways behind the scenes, they're not going to have their reputation sullied because a president doesn't want to stand up and do the right thing. They're going to get that information out one way or the other.

And so for me, I'm interested to see how that goes and how that plays out in the days and weeks ahead. I want to shift gears in our remaining moment or so. your work with the Center for Election Integrity. I have asked various people, people whose opinion I value, if we can trust the 22 election results.

So I'll ask you, are we making inroads? Can we, as we sit here now in February, are we going to be able to trust the results uniformly in November? Uniformly? I don't know that that would be the proper term, but I do know there are states out there with a lot of laws in place that weren't followed in 2020, a lot of laws that they're looking to implement for the upcoming 2022 elections. What you have is obviously some conservative legislatures who pass bills, liberal governors who veto them.

So there are some issues out there. And in those states like Michigan and Wisconsin, we're just going to take it right to the people and do some ballot initiatives so the governor, Republican or Democrat, can't have a finger to stop it with or to tip the scales.

So that's the good news. There are states like Iowa who've made a lot of good inroads there. Obviously, Georgia cleaning up some things. Florida as well. Ron DeSantis being a leader on the issue.

So it is one of the biggest issues facing this country because the trust and the faith and the confidence has been deteriorating in our elections in this country for decades. The right and the left have complained about it. It is an 85 to 15 issue. A vast majority of the American people want it. And Lord knows they deserve it.

So the American people should stand up and go to their legislatures and say, you guys are the ones passed the United States Constitution with the right and responsibility to fix our elections. You can fix them. I just hope they do it. We do not have a republic of self-governing people unless this issue is done right. And I've said even today, notwithstanding, election integrity is the number one issue that we face this year.

Mr. Gidley, thank you as much, as always, for the time. I appreciate it.

Now go back inside and work with those good folks at CPAC on taking care of business moving forward. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Have a great day. You do the same.

Newsmax contributor Hogan Gidley joining us on the Todd Starnes radio program. Would you think about all of that? Let us know, 844-747-8868, and we'll take your calls in the next segment as we continue from the Liberty University studios here on a Thursday. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd again this show.

Well, Todd and the gang will be at CPAC tomorrow during the normal show. It's going to be a fantastic program. We're having a pretty good time here ourselves today, and we hope you'll be a part of it next. Jeff Stein in for Todd, and this is the Todd Starnes Show. Triggering microaggressions from coast to coast, it's Todd Starnes.

Welcome back to the Todd Starnes Show Coast to Coast. ToddStarnes.com is the website where the show streams every day, and afterwards, that's the best place to go to click on the ToddCast podcast. and you can download it, share it with friends, listen whenever you like. All manner of great information there at ToddStarnes.com and you can sign up for the free daily newsletter. It comes by email right after this show ends at 3 o'clock Eastern, 2 o'clock Central Time.

And I always enjoy it because that gets me up to date on everything I may have missed during the program if I was doing other things or whatever. It's a great way to get all the good information you need from your trusted source. ToddStarns.com is the website, and sign up for that e-newsletter that arrives just after the show, every weekday afternoon. 844-747-8868 is how you can reach The Todd Starns Show. I'm Jeff Stein, filling in for Todd today.

We will be talking about big media overreach coming up just after the bottom of the hour, when news analyst and attorney Dr. Wendy Patrick will join us live on this program.

So a couple of things now. Ukraine has lost control of a key military airport located less than 20 miles from the center of Kiev. That is according to Ukraine's deputy interior minister.

So Russia now has control of one of the key military airports. It has control of the old Chernobyl site. And on top of it now, we have images that are coming from ABC of protesters being arrested in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, protesting against the invasion of Ukraine. And Putin's Russia is simply rounding these people up rather roughly and taking them into custody, as we can see.

so the world is watching but he's a dictator who doesn't care and that's one of the downsides of all of this once again we're trying to deal reasonably with an unreasonable person that's the mistake and we never ever should have been in this situation yet we are And who's going to bear the brunt of it? Obviously Ukrainians. Obviously now Taiwan, because China is emboldened. Who's going to stop them? The Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, has announced new sanctions targeting more than 100 Russians and individuals, Russian entities and individuals blocking Russian banks from the UK financial system.

At this point, does he care? Is any of this going to matter to Putin? Basically, the best, the best the world can hope for is that Putin will take over all of these areas of Ukraine and offer to stop and pull back if he gets what he wants. Namely, that very energy-rich land, that buffer area on the eastern border. And an ironclad promise that Ukraine what left of it will never be a part of NATO I no negotiator but that I mean let just see how it playing out I mean that every time they say this far no farther well he just keeps going Don't know what the end goal is.

But certainly, the world is not in a position to stop Vladimir Putin, and certainly not with United States leadership, given the current occupant of the White House. Todd Starnes has just posted on Twitter, probably on Getter as well, President Biden was supposed to address the nation at noon Eastern. It's now 1.26 p.m. Eastern. He's right.

They moved it, and they just moved it again. Supposed to be any moment. I'm not holding my breath, and I trust you folks aren't either. 844-747-8868 is how you can reach this very fine radio program. And we'll take your calls coming up after this next segment when we will talk with a return guest to the program.

You see her on Newsmax and Court TV and One America News. I can't keep track of all the places that I see Dr. Wendy Patrick. She's a career prosecutor and news analyst. Very smart about so many things.

I really enjoy the conversation. and Kyle Rittenhouse and his latest activities that could adversely impact formerly mainstream media. That's going to be our topic when we return in just a few moments. And again, a reminder, this program will originate. Todd is already on the scene.

Kyle and Grace are on their way to CPAC in Orlando, and the Todd Starnes Show will originate from that fine event tomorrow.

So you don't want to miss that. You don't want to miss any of it. And we'll be back in just a few moments. Hang around if you would, please. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd.

This is the Todd Starnes Show. Welcome back. This is the Todd Starnes Show. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. Todd and the crew will be live from CPAC in Orlando tomorrow.

We have a whole list of folks who are lined up on our phone lines, and we'll get to all of your calls yet this hour. But joining us now on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line is a return guest to this program. She is attorney and news analyst Dr. Wendy Patrick. You can find her online, wendypatrickphd.com, and on the Twitter machine at wendypatrickphd.

Dr. Patrick, thanks for taking the time. How are you? Hey, it's always a pleasure to join you. We have talked previously about a young man by the name of Kyle Rittenhouse.

He was found not guilty of charges in connection with that dispute, the disturbance in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Well, some would just simply be grateful to take that and go off, but he apparently has broader goals, and it's basically to not only get his reputation back, but make sure that others who are potentially similarly situated can fight back against the media. Set this up, if you could, please. I'll tell you, Jeff, you couldn't have set it up any better. That's exactly right. And, you know, lots of people would probably just kind of want to slink into obscurity and resume a normal, semi-normal lifestyle if you were somebody that got acquitted on such a high-profile case.

But you're right.

So Carl Rittenhouse is launching this initiative, and the Media Accountability Project is exactly that. I mean, the title really sort of explains what it is. He would like, and I'm sort of paraphrasing from not only what I've seen in writing, but, you know, from his appearance on Tucker Carlson, he wants to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else.

So it's one of those initiatives that, you know, captures attention because it's not the first time that a post-acquittal, let's say, conversation is taking place calling the person that was acquitted a murderer, a white supremacist. It charges the jury rejected, not that he was charged with being a white supremacist, but he was charged with murder and a jury found him not guilty.

Now, you and I as lawyers know that doesn't mean they found him innocent, but they found the evidence wasn't there to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. He had a self-defense claim.

So this kind of a project, you know, on the one hand, it sounds like they want to make sure that, you know, all the media gets their facts straight before they report. But it's also true that there's a component of it that sort of targets this willingness to post-acquittal continue to make statements publicly as if somebody had been convicted. And that can lead to litigation for libel. And the genre is called libel, but people hear about libel and slander, and there's no real distinction whether it's spoken or written, etc. these days.

If someone is found not guilty in a criminal trial, and you call them a murderer, that is a libelous statement in general. But there's a distinction between public persons and private persons. This young man, I think, would have been found to be a private person if there's a libel suit. Certainly, he did not voluntarily intend to become a household name. Yeah, it's an interesting distinction, Jeff.

You and I remember learning in law school about, you know, vortex public figures and people that become public figures for certain purposes and for certain periods of time. And then, of course, you know, you also need damages, And that would be damages attributable to the speaker or the writer in, you know, notwithstanding reputational damage that was already there.

So it's and it's also really tough if you were to be a public figure and to sue, even if you were a temporary public figure, you'd have to show that standard of actual malice. I think the broader concern when you see these kinds of discussions going on post-acquittal is there are many people that believe, you know, that media organizations should engage in journalism, not advocacy. We hear that a lot nowadays, that there's allegations tossed back and forth at some station is not just reporting the facts, but sort of, you know, capturing an opinion. And everybody does that to some extent. But I think there's a distinction that Kyle and others that talk about these media accountability projects want to make.

They just want to make sure everybody fact checks. And media outlets do fact check.

So it seems like whatever he wants to call this program, it does seem, as I think you and I both pointed out, more geared towards making statements in the wake of contrary evidence, and would that then carry any potential civil liability? Speaking with attorney and news analyst Dr. Wendy Patrick on the Todd Starnes Show, Jeff Stein filling in for Todd on this Thursday. Again, the distinction is if you are a private person who is spoken wrongly about, if the media speaks ill of you inaccurately, you just have to show a much lower level, and that's the false standard of negligence. But if they're a public person, well, then you have to show that they acted maliciously.

This is tied to the Sarah Palin New York Times suit, which is a whole different issue, a whole different bucket of crazy there based on judicial comments. But back to Mr. Rittenhouse, even if he's a public figure, limited purpose public figure, when someone in the media calls him a murderer and that's not provable, that's the kind of thing where you get into trouble and you can't just say, well, I was offering my opinion. I mean, that doesn't work.

Well, you know, it's interesting, Jeff, because that's exactly where I was going to go next. I swear you and I are on the same wavelength. I was going to default to this standard of opinion. You know, my grandmother used to say, penny for your thoughts. And now as an adult, I say your opinion, not just your thoughts, but your opinion is worth more than you think.

So it's kind of a gray area when you do have somebody that's a limited public figure. I'm glad you brought up Sarah Palin because she's definitely a public figure. But let's go sort of in the middle of both of those extremes. Nick Sandman, remember, the Covington High School student?

Okay, so he launched several lawsuits against media organizations for the way they covered him in 2019. And, of course, we know he and Kyle have been talking. And, of course, he got a settlement. But it's an interesting question because when people become public figures for limited periods of time and for limited purposes, I would still make the distinction that Sandman wasn't acquitted in trial and then had people saying something the jury found not to be true. Kyle Rittenhouse was.

You know, that's the beauty of the laws. There's no such thing as two cases that are identical.

So Rittenhouse probably falls somewhere in the continuum between the Sandman case and cases like that. And somebody like Sarah Palin, who's the governor of a state, who clearly, you know, seemed to have more of a case as far as her being a public figure. Although, of course, we all know how that case turned out.

So I got to tell you, Jeff, this issue, I'm glad we're talking about it because it's going nowhere. The court of public opinion is alive and well and vocal, and this is where statements are made that end up being problematic, to say the least. And this is where Mr. Rittenhouse is saying, I have not yet had my turn at getting my reputation back from these media outlets, but I intend to, and I intend to set up a fund, because this is the big issue, is it not? Especially for someone who is thrust into the spotlight.

They may not be from wealthy means. They may not have legions of lawyers at their disposal, as opposed to these big media companies. And so it's a very daunting thing to file a lawsuit. He's talking about not only getting some money for his own losses, but to then fund an account where he can then help others fight back against the media. And that could have some legs, based on what you just pointed out.

You know, and there's also lawyers that are willing to take reduced rate cases or even pro bono for a cause that they believe in, not to mention a celebrity defendant that was acquitted.

So not really a defendant anymore, but a high profile case may actually generate some interest, notwithstanding the usually high fees that lawyers charge.

Now, fundraising is available, too. I mean, lots of people use GoFundMe. But it's not out of the question that this kind of a lawsuit could have legs because the funding could be available. And nobody wants to see, you know, these post-acquittal, you know, vilifying somebody that's been acquitted. That's the reason we have juries.

And that's the beautiful thing about America is we do have juries.

So because of the importance of the issue and the relevance societally right now, I think we're going to continue talking about this. I think a suit like this would have legs. Whether or not it gets filed, I think the issue is here to say. Because, of course, it could be smart for some of these media outlets to simply scratch out a check and make the whole thing go away. In our remaining minute or so, Wendy, I want to talk just a brief moment about the Sarah Palin lawsuit with the New York Times, and not with the merits of it, the fact that the case went to the jury, the judge then said, in court, with the jury gone, you know, I don't think you've proven it, so I don't care what the jury comes back with.

I'm going to issue a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and I'm going to say that this is dismissed. You haven't proven your case. I'm not sure about the propriety of that so much, but did we not hear that some jurors got news alerts on their phone saying that so that they, during deliberations, knew that the judge was going to throw it out anyway? Did I hear that right?

Well, I mean, she's going to be filing this to get a new trial, but I've been reading the same kind of news reports that you have. She basically is, you know, we have to rely on some of these reports as they come out, and because she's already seeking a new trial, no doubt a lot of these allegations will really come to light in a little more detail. Remember, we just went through something similar with the Colleen Maxwell verdict, where jurors after the fact came out and talked a little bit about what went on in the deliberation room.

So I just got done talking about how great the jury system is. Let's say that it's not perfect, but it's also, we also have to insulate the jurors from considering outside information that they didn't hear come out in court. I mean, that's the whole trial publicity thing. We don't want to sequester all of our jurors and, you know, keep them away from their families and their phones. I mean, that's no fun.

But what's the alternative if the leaks are so prevalent? No, absolutely right. And again, if I'm a juror and I've just heard the judge has decided no matter what we do, he's going to rule a certain way.

Well, you know, what the heck's the point of proceeding? Oh, interesting stuff. And always, always a great conversation and never enough time. Wendy Patrick, thank you so much for the time. As always, I greatly appreciate it.

Have a great afternoon you as well thank you dr wendy patrick wendy patrick phd.com on the twitter machine at wendy patrick phd let's see if we can sneak in a call from jerry from milwaukee before we take the break 844-747-8868 is how you can continue the conversation jerry you're on the todd star and show jeff stein here how are you i'm too local um about the invasion of the ukraine by Russia. I'm not saying that President Biden is perfect and he has a perfect response and he's been perfect as president. He hasn't. But the idea that seems to be created is that Donald Trump would have stopped and deterred the Russian bear is absurd. Trump had just praised Putin's invasion.

He said he's a genius and savvy and smart. This is what Trump is doing. Trump went out of his way to defend Russian hacking into our intelligence systems. Trump turned his back on our Kurdish allies in Syria, you know, and the Turks invaded. There's nothing Trump has done to show him as some strong leader.

You know, this is the thing I'm getting. What would Trump is a pushover? Trump is a weakling. He just talks. He's nothing.

He's done nothing to show any backbone when he was president. He's nothing. Terry, thanks for the call from Milwaukee. I wanted to get that in just before the break. The only thing I'd say, because we do have to take this break, the only thing I'd say in response is, Russia didn't do this while Trump was president.

They took Crimea during the Obama-Biden administration, and now they've gone into Ukraine only a year into the Biden-Harris administration. And I'll just leave that right there for you. 844-747-8868. More of your calls on the other side. Jeff Stein in for Todd.

This is the Todd Starnes Show. You're listening to Todd Starnes. Welcome back to the Todd Starnes Show. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. Good to have you along.

844-747-8868 coming up in our next hour. Right after the top of the hour news break and the update on what's going on in Ukraine, Governor Mike Huckabee will be along, and I'm very much looking forward to hearing Governor Huckabee's insight. Right now, I'm very much looking forward to hearing from John from Kentucky, who called in at 844-747-8868. John, whereabouts in Kentucky are you? I'm in a small, well, not so much a small town anymore, but it's called Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Wow, Bowling Green, we all know where that is. But tell me, how far are you from Monticello? I've only been here since October, so I'm just learning to live in Kentucky.

Well, I have kinfolk from Monticello, and so I just wanted to get the lowdown on whether my family's well thought of there or not. We'll do that another time. What's on your mind today, sir?

Sorry, I'll put a loudspeaker on it and go to Monticello. Family just died. He says, hey. How's that? That, you know, if you want to get rocks thrown at your car.

But go ahead. What's on your mind today, sir?

I'm going to ask you a question, and I'm going to hang up and listen for your answer, okay? All righty. First of all, this falls to you, I feel, and I don't know about you, but I feel that this falls directly at the feet of the American people because they're the ones that put these leftists into office, including Joe Biden, supposedly. and now we are in the current situation we are in because we are dealing from a position of weakness i've never i mean they're throwing our military men and women out of out of the military because they refused to get the vaccine so now i believe that this emboldened not only putin but i feel it may have emboldened xi jinping and again this falls directly at the feet of the american people because they're the ones that put these leftists in the office and now we are paying the piper and i'll hang up and listen for your answer and again i'll put up rock proof uh screens on my truck when i go to monticello take care god bless and you as well that's a safe move uh again i i don't know how people in monticello kentucky would think uh of what i do here but in any event here's the thing you vote and get what you deserve and if you don't vote you can't complain and if you voted for the correct side and your side didn't win then you need to work harder that's generally what what i would would say about such things but in a situation where we don't have confidence and whether the election was run fairly or not oh now there's a different issue right because it'd be fine for all of these Trump voters to say, well, there you go. You know, you and I've seen this on the Twitter machine and to a lesser degree on Getter in the last day.

All right, you 81 million people who voted for Biden. Here's what you got.

Well, yeah, I suppose that's so. But first of all, you know, was it even fair? And to simply say, I told you so without also then looking ahead to what do we do after that? I mean, that's the key to me, right?

So you're exactly right that this is at the feet of the people who put this guy into office. John's exactly right. The responsibility is borne by all Americans who let this sort of thing happen. Because it didn't just happen one day. We've known about this for six months.

And we also know that new presidents always get tested. and the question is how do they respond to it and the question further is can we trust the elections and that's the as i said when hogan gidley was with us earlier this hour that's to me the number one issue is election integrity and can we actually actually trust the elections 844-747-8868 is how you can connect with us here on the todd starns radio program as we come to you from the liberty university studios Hour three is coming up in just a few moments after that top of the hour break. I'm sure your stations will be giving you a good news update on what's going on with Ukraine and Russia. By the way, President Biden finally came out to speak within the past few minutes. And I was listening a little bit during the commercial break.

I'm sorry, I couldn't understand what he was saying. I mean, I may not speak clearly some days, but unfortunately, the president's mumble factor today was I wouldn't subject you to it.

So we'll give you an update if there's anything that, you know, once the interpreter deciphers whatever he was trying to say, we'll we'll let you know what it was. Governor Mike Huckabee joins us in less than 10 minutes. And then also next hour, we'll speak with an American attorney who was a visiting researcher inside Russia's foreign ministry. and that could be fascinating in determining what might be the mindset of the dictator Vladimir Putin. All right, two hours down, one more to go.

Thanks for being along. Hope you stay with us. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd and you're listening to The Todd Starn Show. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch. That's us, that's right.

I love this American ride. Todd Starnes. Oh, yeah. Wherever you're listening across this, the greatest nation God ever blessed. Welcome to our number three of a Thursday edition of the Todd Starnes Show.

Coast to coast on more than 100 outstanding radio stations and as always streaming live at ToddStarnes.com. Hello fellow patriots, I'm Jeff Stein speaking to you from the free state of Iowa. Here at my home base of News Talk 1540, KXEL in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo, The 50,000-watt blowtorch scorching middle America with accurate news and reasonable views. My privilege to be speaking with you today, Stars Nation. Todd is on the ground in Orlando for day one of CPAC.

Grace and Kyle will join him later today, and this program will originate from CPAC in Orlando tomorrow. We know you won't want to miss that, and we know you won't want to miss anything that we have in this hour. We'd love to have your thoughts as well as part of this coast-to-coast conversation. From the Liberty University studios, same number as you always use, 844-747-8868, 844-747-8868. We'll take your calls in our next segment.

But joining us now on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line, friend of this program, former presidential candidate and host of the appropriately named television program, Huckabee, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Governor Jeff Stein here for Todd. How are you, sir? Jeff, I'm doing very well, and greetings to all of your friends up in Iowa and to Todd down in Orlando who's covering CPAC. What a week for conservatives together.

It certainly is putting a different tone on that wonderful meeting of individuals. I told this audience, Governor, last hour I heard just a little bit of President Biden speak during a commercial break and decided not to inflict that upon the Todd Starnes audience. It was even more disjointed and mumbling, if you will, than ever. This is not the picture of strong American leadership that is needed at this time.

Well, I think that President Biden is pretending that he's been predicting this all along, but he hasn't. And in response to one of the questions, did you underestimate and he said oh no i had it all figured out well no he didn't he's been saying all along that he didn't think putin would do it that uh you know he thought that diplomacy would work the truth is there are two times in the last 20 years that vladimir putin has invaded other countries and taken land one was when obama was president and biden was vice president and the other was when Biden was president. It was one four-year period where Putin didn't advance and try to take over territory. Donald Trump was president.

Now, the left is going nuts, and somehow, I don't know how they come up with this, but they blame Trump. There's simply no way, Jeff, that Trump is the one who created the environment in which Vladimir Putin felt completely free to attach the bayonet, thrust it forward, because deep down he knew, as Joseph Stalin so famously said he would hit mush, not steel. That is so well stated by Governor Mike Huckabee here on the Todd Starnes program. The president within the past hours said two things that I find to be fascinating and also troubling. One, our forces are not going to fight in Ukraine.

And two, we're sending additional forces to Germany. This does not seem to be the way to show any level of steel, Governor?

Well, I think Putin looked at what happened in Afghanistan. He saw how that was mismanaged and botched to a level that was unprecedented for a country like America to go out whimpering, chased out with their tails dragging by a bunch of goofballs called the Taliban, and then turn around and give them $85 million or billion dollars worth of hardware.

So Putin looks at this and says, my gosh, if this is how they're going to exit a war in which they invested a trillion dollars, they're not going to do anything if we decide to just go ahead and take what we want. And that's exactly what Putin has done. These additional strong sanctions, I say that because that's in quotes, additional strong sanctions, this is not the kind of thing that's going to deter Vladimir Putin at this point? no uh vladimir putin is not going to be deterred by i think even the sanctions and he's even said you know you can do whatever you want to but i'm going to meet it with equal resistance i don't think we need to be intimidated by him he's a thug uh he's a brutish dictator he wants to restore the glory of the old soviet union god help us if he's able to do it uh the people of ukraine have a right to be free they have a right to pick their own government if they vote to reunite with Russia, well, that's their prerogative to do. But it should not be done at the end of a gun.

And that's how Putin is trying to accomplish it. Governor Mike Huckabee joining us on the Todd Starnes program. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today. Not only did a brutal dictator in Russia see how America fell apart in Afghanistan, another thug named Xi over in China was taking notes, and he's certainly taking advantage of this situation as well, seeing what's going on and how America is failing to respond appropriately to Putin. Jeff, one of the things that gives me great concern is the fact that China is now thinking, is this their opportune moment to rush into Taiwan and to try to take the independence and the freedom away from those people?

I've been to Taiwan many times, and it is a distinct, separate country. It is not a part of China. And they are very proud and very successful people who have created the democracy. And it was slow go for a while for them. You know, they had to kind of take a step at a time and they got more and more democratic and more and more free.

But they have achieved that. And they're a first class technology power. I'm sure Xi would love to have them. He believes he already does and that they are a part of China and that they've just been a sort of a bad boy that needs to be spanked and brought home. But if they make that move, now we have a situation that is unprecedented.

And really, since the Second World War, while Hitler was advancing against Europe, Japan decided it would take on most of Asia. That's what this is shaping up to be. If it does, the U.S. can't completely sit back and say, it's not our yacht, we don't care. And truly, I have heard references, obviously, to 1939 made quite a lot in the past 24 to 36 hours.

And for those who want to say it's just hyperbole, I would simply say the historical parallels, Governor, are striking.

Well, they truly are. And 1939 was a time when Britain was led by Neville Chamberlain, who turned out to be the appeasement genius, and that just simply didn't work. You know, when you're dealing with a maniacal leader, whether it's Hitler or whether it's Putin, you're not dealing with people who think like rational people think. They think in terms of what's going to embolden the people who follow them. They want to increase the radicalism of those who follow and stir their emotions and make them believe that they're going to conquer the world and that they're going to have a piece of the prosperity that's to come.

It a frightening frightening kind of situation that we facing in all sectors of the world right now Jeff Governor Mike Huckabee joining us on the Todd Starn Show Jeff Stein filling in for Todd today I have heard it said Governor and I like your thoughts because you have better sources than I would on such things, but 20 or however long ago now that Putin took Crimea, he gained 20 points in the polls at home. And obviously he's not worried about polls other than there's a tipping point where he has to keep his population stable so that they won't have enough power to rise up against him. But because of COVID, supply chain, just general Russian economic issues, he's a little troubled at home. Is that what's really driving this? Because he now can come across to his people as this wonderful world leader and by himself another five or ten years of security at home.

Is he a threat at home?

Well, Jeff, one of the disturbing factors in all of this is that Putin controls the media in Russia pretty much like Joe Biden and the Democrats control the media in America. I can't believe how many American media outlets have tried to say that the reason that we have inflation, high grocery and gas prices, and the reason that so many economic woes are hitting middle class America is because of what's happening in Ukraine. This is nonsense. This is utter insanity that they would even suggest that Ukraine is the basis, not Joe Biden's crazy economic policies, his shutdown of energy production, making us dependent upon others instead of being not only independent, but an exporter of energy. When you say those kind of things, you really have become the house organ for the Joe Biden White House, just like the Russian press is essentially under the complete domination of Putin.

So, yes, Putin will use his media to convince the Russian people that he's defending their interests, and they're probably going to believe him, just like there's a certain number of people in the U.S. that will believe Joe Biden and will believe NBC and CNN when they tell him that Joe Biden is standing up against Russia, and boy, all these economic woes.

Well, heck, they're somehow the combined problem of Ukraine and Donald Trump.

Well, clearly, it can't be Joe Biden. And clearly, if you can fold Donald Trump into the fault, then it's a triple-word score, as they said. All right, in our final 60 seconds or so, what would be the best thing for Joe Biden to do at this point? Never mind how we got here, never mind what he could have done in the past. Best course for the President of the United States at this point is what?

Well, Jeff, I guess to say the best thing he could do would be to resign would be a little bit of an overstretch and overreach, even of my imagination. But given that that's not going to happen, I think the best thing he can do is to continue the strongest possible sanctions, but to make it clear with NATO that even though Ukraine is not a NATO nation, we have no responsibility to defend them. he should be very careful not to get his eyes on Poland, Estonia, or other free countries in the Baltics, and somehow think that this is time to just pull the chain and go for it. Mike, Huckabee.com is the website. Huckabee.tv is the website for the fine program on TBN Saturday nights at 8 Eastern, 7 Central.

The rest of you do your own math. Who's on the program, Governor, this Saturday night?

Well, we're going to have Congresswoman Nicole Maladitaikas from New York is going to be with us. Ray Stevens will premiere a phenomenal new song, Disorder at the Border, as he takes on what's happening on our southern border. And we have a lot of surprises and some fascinating guests that'll be with us this weekend. Ray Stevens is an American treasure, to be sure. Mr.

Governor Mike Huckabee, thank you so much for being along on the program today. I I appreciate it. Always a privilege to talk to you, sir. Thank you, Jeff. God bless.

You as well. Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee on TBN Saturday nights at 8 Eastern, 7 Central. See, here I live in Iowa. My entire life, six decades, I'm just used to jumping past the Eastern.

When we're doing this program, I need to be clear. Saturday night, 8 Eastern, 7 Central, and other times on Newsmax and TBN. Huckabee.tv or go to his website, MikeHuckabee.com. Go to ToddStarnes.com, sign up for the newsletter, and you'll get a daily note that includes links and all the big news stories of the day. It drops not long after this program gets off the air.

Go to ToddStarnes.com. You can sign up for that. We'll take your phone calls in this next segment from the Liberty University Studios. 844-747-8868. Jeff Stein in for Todd.

This is the Todd Starnes Show. It's the Todd Starnes Radio Show. Welcome back. Todd's starring show continuing. 844-747-8868.

That's the number call. and join us here in the Liberty University studios. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. We will speak with an expert on Russia, Ukraine, and that corner of the world. His name is Clint Ehrlich.

He's an American attorney who was a visiting researcher inside Russia's foreign ministry at Moscow State University of International Relations. He has some very strong feelings on this. I would suggest very accurate feelings. And we're going to talk with him after the bottom of the hour. if you were with us in our last hour, you heard Hogan Gidley join us.

He was just outside CPAC's, came outside the hall to talk to us, and boy, that connection was clear as a bell. I wonder if he has Patriot Mobile. I'm going to guess if he doesn't, he must. He must. It was a great, great connection.

And now more than ever, we need to be able to communicate clearly, not just with cell phones, but with our business transactions. We need to support companies and organizations that share our values. Do you want your hard-earned dollars going indirectly to help people, support people who you don't believe in what it is that they do? You don't believe the same things? No, you have to stick with people that you're proud to support.

And Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless carrier. They share our beliefs. And not just that. They do something about it. There's no guessing.

Patriot Mobile donates a portion of every dollar to organizations that fight for the causes you care about. I mean, I know this just on a local level, right? If I'm going to have somebody do work at my house and they're pulling up with a Biden bumper sticker, I'm just going to suggest that they leave. Why should I give this person money? I have that right to do that.

And it's the same thing with shopping at stores. These people who canceled others, I'm not going to give them my money. And there's great incentive for you to switch now to Patriot Mobile. Use promo code Todd and you're going to get free activation and a free gift. Pretty good stuff.

Patriot Mobile has the broadest nationwide coverage. They use the same towers other carriers use, so you're getting the same or better service. And they support what you believe in. The plans that they have, they'll fit any budget. They also have discounts for veterans and first responders, discounts for multi-line users.

There's no reason to not make the switch, especially since it's so easy. Just go to PatriotMobile.com slash Todd or call their U.S.-based customer service team at 972-PATRIOT.

So you'll get your special discount. You'll get free Premier activation, but only if you use promo code Todd.

So for more details, PatriotMobile.com slash Todd, PatriotMobile.com slash Todd, or call them at 972-PATRIOT, 972-PATRIOT, Patriot Mobile. A great partner of this Todd Starnes radio program. I mentioned with Governor Huckabee in the last segment about is Putin trying to bolster his own public support. If there's anybody who needs bolstering of public support, it's Joe Biden. Earlier this month, there was an aggregate of polling done.

And these were just a wide variety of polls, different pollsters, different states. They were done in each state, and it was about the job approval rating of this president.

Now, the period of time that they surveyed was January 20, the one-year anniversary of inauguration, and February 13.

So you've got, what, three-week period there? Fifty states. In only four states out of 50, did more people approve of his job performance than disapprove. In other words, he was only on the right side of the equation in Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont. And in no state did he have a majority of people say they approved of his job performance.

He only had approval outnumbering disapproval in four of 50 states, and absolutely no state did he have a majority. Yes, let's follow him into battle in World War III. Frightening. Just frightening. We'll talk with an expert on Russian relations coming up.

Jeff Stein in for Todd. Thank you for being along. This is the Todd Starnes Show. welcome back to the Todd Starnes show midway through hour three on a Thursday I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd he and the team are on the ground in Orlando for CPAC this program will originate from that event tomorrow 844-747-8868 is how you can join the conversation we'll take your calls in the next segment as we continue from the Liberty University studios.

Now let's go on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line and make connection with Clint Ehrlich. Mr. Ehrlich is an attorney and foreign policy analyst who has some deep experience on the topic of Russian relations and Russian mindset. Mr. Ehrlich, Jeff Stein in for Todd.

Thanks for being along on the National Starnes program today. How are you, sir? i'm not doing so well given the the violence that we're seeing in ukraine today absolutely absolutely and and this is why i'm so glad you had the time and and and kept to this uh appointment that we made yesterday uh before the bomb started flying uh give us a sense from what you know from what you see watching russian television uh even what what are what is it that people are not getting the average citizen not understanding about what's happening right now what we're seeing is something that should have been the the largest conventional war uh in europe since world war ii but what's unfolding is something much closer to the gulf war where ukraine a country that on paper had the the largest military in europe other than russia is suffering massive losses against the technologically superior adversary and so this is really sort of a sputnik moment where russia is asserting itself as a superpower and worse seeing violence on a scale that was unimaginable previously. You have been talking about this publicly, issuing warnings for some time that we were headed down a very dangerous path. Remind this audience who may not have seen your appearances on television or heard you on the radio before, talk about your background that gives you the information and intel to comment on this now.

Sure. I was a visiting researcher inside Russia's foreign ministry at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, which is the most elite university in the country, and it's where they train their diplomats. And so I've been following this crisis very closely, and I've been warning that Russia was not bluffing, and that Russia believed that its national security was threatened, and whether you agree with them or not, and certainly I'm not saying that this was a justifiable conflict, it was a predictable conflict, and so it's sort of been like a slow motion train wreck that I've been watching unfold, and now the collision is finally happening, and we're seeing the casualties, and it's just horrifying. What is the best path forward for NATO, first of all, and if there's a divergent path to the United States? What we need to do is to reinforce our support for our NATO allies and to draw a very firm line in the sand to tell Russia, do not enter NATO airspace.

The problem is that there's mixed messaging because there are people who talk about being tough on Russia who are advocating policies that could get us sucked into World War III right now today.

So for example, the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, has been asking for NATO to establish a no-fly zone over his country. And I understand why he's asking for that. And I'm sympathetic to the Ukrainian people. But if we do that, we'll be shooting down Russian fighters. They will retaliate and we will be in a conventional hot war with Russia right now.

It's not an exaggeration. This is the closest that we've been to World War Three, certainly in my lifetime. It's very, very disturbing. And people need to understand the difference between drawing a line in the sand and saying we're going to protect NATO versus going into Ukraine and starting a global war today. Clint Ehrlich is our guest on the Todd Starnes Show.

He's on the Twitter machine at Clint Ehrlich. All right.

So when we see what it was that Putin was lining up to do, what you correctly warned people about, did you anticipate that it would go so far as, if the reports are correct, to take the old Chernobyl plant, to take a military airport near the capital. Has Putin gone further than even those like you who've been sounding the alarm? Did he go further than even you had thought might be the case? I had upgraded my assessment two days ago when he gave his speech announcing the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republic, those breakaway regions of Ukraine, because what he did in that speech was articulate national security concerns for Russia about Ukraine acquiring nuclear weapons, about the de facto presence of NATO bases on Ukraine's territory that could only be addressed by a full invasion of Ukraine. And so previously I had thought that he would take more conservative steps, but once he came out and he openly described those as urgent threats to Russia's national security, I began sounding the alarm that the only way that Russia could address the threat that he was discussing was a full invasion.

And I think the lesson that we need to learn from this is if someone tells you who they are, believe them. Putin told us, and there were people who were in denial right until the shooting started. That is such an excellent point, because he was very clear. And to your point, that talk to the nation on Monday was very much getting people there amped up, excited about the promise of an invasion. And I'm following some of the things you've posted on Twitter.

As someone who has viewed the coverage of this on Russian television, you were struck by what you saw. Share that with us. I was struck by the euphoria that I was seeing. And some of their top foreign policy experts were smiling and laughing. They played a video of President Zelensky addressing the nation from his bunker, and they were joking over that, saying you should have thought of that earlier.

So there's a certain segment of the Russian foreign policy establishment that is absolutely believable right now. And I think that we saw the folly of this on our end with the media coverage of the Iraq war, where there was certainly a certain amount of euphoria on the American side. And now we're seeing Russia in that kind of euphoric pro-war move. They're energized about what their military is doing. That struck you as something that was offensive.

given the control of the media as I understand it there. It sounds like you were even surprised by that, that they took this to a level that had not been seen before, even with the U.S. and the Gulf War. I thought that it was reminiscent, certainly, of the Iraq war invasion coverage, but I would say it was sort of cranked up to 11. You know, the Russians have a habit of copying American things and then sort of intensifying them.

And I would say that this was them copying sort of the style of our Iraq war coverage, but then sort of making it hyped up even beyond what I was expecting. And I did think it was in bad taste, frankly, just because of the number of people who were dying at the very same time that they were telling these jokes. Foreign policy analyst and attorney Clint Ehrlich joining us on the Todd Starn Show. Jeff Stein filling in for Todd on this Thursday.

Well, where do you think this will go from here? I asked earlier what should some of these nations do to stop it, but if you were to, based on, and again, as you quite accurately note, you updated your assessment earlier this week, given the signs that you were seeing, Where does this go in the next 24 to 72 hours? Russia is trying to end this conflict as quickly as possible, and we're seeing that their focus is now Kiev. They've seized an airport on the perimeter of the capital, and they're working to land airborne forces there. And so Russia's goal is immediate regime change.

They've branded that as denazification and liberation, But what that means is that they want to replace the government that's currently in Ukraine with a pro-Russian government and then likely try to withdraw their forces as fast as possible, not leave them in urban centers where they could be subject to attack by Ukrainian insurgents. What about the so-called, I'll say, breakaway republics? Is this a situation where Putin gets the regime change that he wants, a puppet government in Ukraine, and then is still able to take that additional territory as a permanent annexation of Russia?

Well, I don't think that he would officially annex that territory, but I do think that what he would do is to try to keep those territories as having special autonomous status.

So whether that would be as completely separate nations or whether it would be part of a federalized Ukraine, the goal would certainly ultimately be to diminish the cohesiveness of Ukraine as a nation so that even in the event that the Ukrainian government were to become pro-Western in the future, it still would not have control of that Donbass region, which is part of the economic heartland of Ukraine. You know, here, Russia's goal is very much to neutralize Ukraine as a potential rival in its neighborhood. And so if it prevents the country from being unified, then that's on its own a win for Russia, because it diminishes the chances of there being a hostile regional power on its border. Final question for you, sir. The president earlier this afternoon said that American forces would not fight in Ukraine.

We would be sending another, I believe, 7,000 troops, though, to Germany, and here's another whole basket of economic sanctions. Is any of that going to lead to a constructive change in this situation, a constructive or positive outcome? Will it do any good, in other words? I think that the deployment of additional troops into NATO countries is important because we need to make sure that we deter Russia from making any further moves, but the sanctions that have been announced are really wholly inadequate. Our European allies have been unwilling to get behind removing Russia from the SWIFT system, and so what we're talking about is not going to have any effect on Russia's behavior, and certainly even if doing that would be too little, too late.

We should also consider that if we do go ahead with crippling sanctions, it's very likely that Russia would retaliate with cyber attacks against U.S. infrastructure. And so we need to think long and hard about the consequences for the American homeland from pursuing that kind of confrontation, because Russia does have the power to bring down our critical infrastructure and potentially even to kill American civilians that way. As was proven last year in a variety of things, hacks that they, as an official government, said, oh, we didn't have anything to do with this, but it was pretty clear. You start talking about an electrical grid, you start talking about a financial institution, you talk about airlines.

that was the test run of all this wasn't it it certainly could have been and I don't think that that comes anywhere near the scope of the cyber attacks that Russia could unleash and Russia has already indicated that their response to sanctions could be asymmetric using cyber attacks so it's something that we should definitely be aware of as this crisis continues and that's a very fair point as the old saying goes we ain't seen nothing yet but they were for those who want to dismiss it and say that could never happen we know it can happen Clint Ehrlich, thank you so much for the time, and we can hear in your voice the disappointment that you feel about all of this. Thank you again for the time, and I hope we talk again. Thank you for having me on. Clint Ehrlich, on the Twitter machine, at Clint Ehrlich, foreign policy analyst attorney. And again, he was a visiting researcher inside the Russian Foreign Ministry at Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

and you can just tell, and again from some of his tweets, he said, as someone who has tried to present the Russian point of view, not advocate, present the Russian point of view so that we can have informed conversation, it was very disappointing what he has seen by watching Russian television over the past 24 hours. 844-747-8868 is how you can join this conversation, and we have time for your calls on the other side of this break. I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd, and we thank you so much for being along on this coast-to-coast edition of the Todd Starnes Show. From the front lines of the culture war, it's Todd Starnes. Final segment of this final hour of a Thursday edition of the Todd Starnes Show.

Hello, I'm Jeff Stein filling in for Todd. Tomorrow the program will originate with the whole gang reassembled at CPAC in Orlando. Grace and Kyle were on their way during this program today, and Todd Starnes called in and joined us, having just arrived at CPAC, at the beginning of the program, if you missed that conversation and Todd's thoughts about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, well, wait just a little bit and then go to ToddStarnes.com and click on the ToddCast podcast section, and you can listen to the show, you can download it, you can share it with friends, and it's a wonderful resource. If you miss anything or would like to hear it again, ToddStarnes.com, the ToddCast podcast. And by the way, when you're also there at the website.

You know you're going to see all manner of great information, but don't forget the store. And that's where you can pick up a copy of Our Daily Biscuit, Devotions With a Draw, the most recent Todd Starnes book. Of course, he's working on another one that will come out later this year. And you might also, if you've not already done so, grab a copy of Culture Jihad. That was the book that came out before Our Daily Biscuit because so many things that he warned us about at the time, so many people who said, oh, that's a little too hot.

We can't talk to Starnes on our program about that. That's a little too out there.

Well, they all came to pass. And so it might be a good plan for you to grab a copy of Culture Jihad, purchase it at ToddStarnes.com, and not only will you see just how he was right about so many things, but it'll also give you a sense of what might still be coming, things that he warned about in that book that maybe we can still try to hold off as a society.

So ToddStarnes.com, you can obviously follow Todd on the socials. He's on Instagram at ToddStarnesFNC, Twitter and Gitter and Gab at ToddStarnes. and somebody sent a note saying, okay, you're moderately interesting sometimes. How can we follow you? All right, I am on, personally, I am on Twitter, Gitter, Instagram, and Parler.

And on all of those sites, it's at Iowa Politics. That's where I live, and that's what I talk about, I-O-W-A Politics. Twitter, Gitter, Parler, Instagram. That's how you can find me. You can also go to my website, which is totallyiowa.com, totallyiowa.com.

And right there on the main page, you'll see I have three separate podcasts every day, segments that we syndicate around. And so you can find them on the iHearts and Stitchers and Apple Podcasts of the world. Or if you go to totallyiowa.com, you can click on the homepages for each of those there. And I'm coming to you from Starnes Media affiliate, News Talk 1540, KXEL in Iowa. and we're online at kxel.com and on all the socials including gab and parlor and twitter and baba and however many they probably put us on three more since i've been here because they keep inventing more sites but it's at kxel 1540 so thanks so much to claire for taking care of everything today while the rest of the team is out there on the road and appreciate you all being a part of the program as well all right so in our final couple of minutes here this is kind of a sobering day and i knew it would be when again i'm at home last night doing a little bit of preparation for the show today knew exactly who our guests were going to be trying to uh do a little homework and do some work for my program which airs here in i would just before todd's show and i saw the alerts come in and uh just knew that this conversation was going to take a very different form.

Mr. Ehrlich, our previous guest this hour, suggested that it might actually be quick. My fear, of course, protracted kind of fighting and war. His suggestion is that Putin wants to get in, overthrow the government, put in his own friendly government, and then he can walk back having taken care of the issues that that would put russia in harm's way and that's how he's built it to his people that this is defending the security of russia so if he gets a friendly government one that will not join nato against him if he can then have relationships with these breakaway republics to have security and energy, then that's the way that he might walk away from it. I hope it's that quick.

I fear it is not. But I know that as we all come together for these conversations daily, we'll get through it. Thanks to everyone for allowing me to be here. Thanks to you for being along. Jeff Stein in for Todd.

This has been the Todd Starnes Show. Thank you.