City Forced to Pay $300,000 For arresting Christians During Pandemic

Welcome to the Todd Starn Show sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacypminvestments dot com. That's legacypminvestments. com.

Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite cunt-totant Bible-clinging deplorable American. Sir. That's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starn.

Right. Yeah. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Program. Great to have you with us for today's extravaganza.

Wow, do we have a great show for you? By the way, the chairman, yes, I said the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus is going to be here, Congressman Scott Perry. He's got a lot to say about Hunter Biden and the testimony of Devin Archer from yesterday. Folks, no doubt in my mind, this is the greatest political scandal of the world. Of our lifetime.

This far surpasses Watergate, and we're going to get into that in just a little while. Also, Jeff Stein is going to be here from KXEL in Iowa. He is one of the top political pundits in the entire state, and he's going to give us a blow-by-blow of what's happening there, especially with all the candidates coming through the Hawkeye state. Last week. And also, Michael Reagan is going to be here.

Former President Reagan's son is going to be with us in the last hour talking about his incredible new book, Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity and Faith of Ronald Reagan. That's going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait to have that conversation. But I want to start today with an incident that happened in Memphis yesterday afternoon. It has made national news, and it is a disturbing story on several levels.

There was an attempted mass shooting yesterday outside a Jewish school, the Margolin Hebrew Academy. And Memphis, and a lot of people are always surprised by this, but Memphis has a very large population, a very large Jewish population. And we also have a very large Italian population here in this area. But in this particular story, we have a very large Jewish population here in Memphis. As a matter of fact, our broadcast center is just down the street from the Jewish Community Center, which is just a massive, beautiful facility, and they do all sorts of great programs.

So anyway, this school is renowned across the nation. They just do an incredible job educating their students. And a gunman showed up yesterday, and he wanted to kill people. I mean, it really is that simple. I want to play some audio.

This is from a good friend of mine. He is the assistant police chief here in Memphis. His name is Don Crowe. Cut number one, please. This incident actually started at about 12.20 this afternoon when officers from Appling Farm Station responded to an armed party call to Hebrew Academy on South White Station.

On the scene, they learned that a suspect did try to enter the building armed with a gun. When he could not gain entry, he fired shots outside the school. Thankfully, that school had a great safety procedure and process in place and avoided anyone being harmed or injured at that scene. Officers with the Memphis Police Department did spot that suspect vehicle. They followed that suspect vehicle until they could get enough officers here to conduct A safe traffic stop.

The suspect pulled the vehicle over. He immediately emerged out of the vehicle with a gun in his hand, and that resulted in an officer discharging his duty weapon. I personally truly believe that we have avoided a tragedy. I think this suspect was going to harm somebody before the day was over, and that our officers were able to intervene and protect the citizens. All right.

So that's just a little bit of the police chief there, or the assistant police chief in Memphis giving us the lay of the land. Why is this important? Nobody got hurt, so why are we talking about this story?

Well, there are a couple of components to the story. Congressman Steve Cohen, who is the Democrat representative for this area, Came out almost immediately and condemned this attack as an example of anti-Semitism in America. And he went on to say that we've got to do something about anti-Semitism and White supremacy in America. Uh this is unacceptable. First of all, Steve Cohen came out with this statement just moments after this happened.

He has no idea what the motive of the guy was. He had no idea what the motive of the shooter was. But we did. And as a matter of fact, within about thirty minutes of the shooting, we knew exactly who this guy was and we knew exactly what the motive was. It turns out, ladies and gentlemen, that the gunman happened to be Jewish, and he also happened to be a former student of the school.

So, this had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. This had nothing to do with white supremacy at all. And yet, And yet, that statement from Congressman Steve Cohen, the Democrat, set the national narrative. And the story blew up across the nation. But again, it had nothing to do with With anti-Semitism.

It had nothing to do with white supremacy. Period at all, nothing. And so the congressman comes out later and he acknowledges: oh, yeah, this guy's Jewish, and he went to the school.

Well, I don't think that's good enough. This man ought to be brought up on censorship charges within the House of Representatives because he was spewing lies and he was again stoking the fire, stoking the flame. And I'm going to, there are a couple of other stories we're going to tie in together with this. But it seems to me that the better story here and the story of what happened at this Jewish academy was was that the school had a security protocol in place. This school takes security seriously.

It turns out that this guy was not able to get into the school because of a double security door.

so they had been taking all of these measures to protect their kids. As a matter of fact, they also had surveillance video. And so, as soon as the guy stepped foot onto the property, boom, they had a picture of this guy. And as soon as he opened fire, guess what this school did? This is fascinating.

They sent out an emergency email alert that had the photograph of the gunman along with the description of the gunman's car. That's how the police were able to get this guy, because of the Jewish school. They did all of the groundwork. I mean, if you're looking at heroes here and man, the police department, how quickly they were able to take this guy down, he gets out of the truck with a gun and boom, he's down. They put every school in the area on lockdown because they didn't know what this guy was capable of doing.

And apparently he's got some sort of a mental problem. But thank God for this school and for the leaders and the moms and dads. They were interviewing a parent on one of the local TV channels, and they said, Yeah, we actually have a committee. You know, we're not surprised and the parent, none of the parents were surprised. That over what happened and how the school handled it.

And you know why? Because they were prepared. They had a plan. They were ready to engage the bad guy. And that to me is the bigger story.

But instead, you've got all these people out there now saying, oh, this is about gun control. No, it's not. Do you know if this guy legally had a gun? By the way, if he had mental problems, he wasn't allowed to have a gun under Tennessee law. And we have a Republican governor.

His name is Bill Lee. And Bill Lee Is about to enact gun control legislation. He's calling a special session of the state legislature, and in majority red Tennessee, we are having a debate in our state capitol. About taking away guns. They call them red flag laws.

Well, I hate to break it to everybody. We don't need any more laws on the books. We actually already have a law that prevents people with mental illness from actually owning a gun.

So, why do we need another law? What's wrong with the law we've already got? How about just enforcing the laws on the books? And then they're turning to the Nashville School shooting. where you had the transgender terrorists show up and gun down those sweet beautiful children.

We still to this day, ladies and gentlemen, do not have the manifesto. We don't have the manifesto. Why is that? Why had they not released the manifesto?

Well, I'll tell you why. There are some very powerful advocacy groups that do not want you to see the manifesto. One of them being the Democrat Party, the other being the gun-controlled nuts, and the third, and this is going to shock a lot of people, the once conservative Southern Baptist Convention. Their leadership, they have children that go to the school, and they are leading the charge to cover up this crime. They don't want you to know what's in that manifesto.

So I'm just telling you, you know, we're we're living in a very weird time now where the Democrats are intentionally screwing with the narrative. and spreading lies. And that brings me to A story from many years ago going all the way back to 1998. Where there was a young man named Matthew Shepard.

Now, many of you may remember Matthew Shepard, who was the gay young man in Wyoming who was brutally murdered. And there was a big theatrical production called the Laramie Project, and he really has become this icon for the LGBT movement. Mm-hmm. But it turns out that The original story that we were told about Matthew Shepherd. is simply not true.

And it's incredibly troubling. Because once again, we are beginning to learn. that what happened was not the real story. There was more to the story. and that the mainstream media and the Democrats took the story and they shaped it to advance their cause.

How many times have we seen that play out in the national media? where you'll find a noose in a garage at the NASCAR race, but it turns out not to be a noose. After all, it turns out to be a garage pull handle. Or what about the infamous Juicy Smoolet incident in Chicago? Where the guy was going out for a for a tuna fish sandwich in the middle of an ice storm.

and was accosted by these magagies. That turned out to be two Nigerian men. who may or may not have been rather friendly with mister Smoolay. All that to say, you just can't trust the mainstream media, ladies and gentlemen. You can't trust them.

I mean, this is why Rush Limbaugh infamously called them the drive-by media. And I want you to remember that as we move forward into these trials of Donald John Trump, into what's happening with Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. As a matter of fact, the New York Times, just to give you an example, the New York Times yesterday, now everybody's finally admitting, oh, yeah, Yeah, yeah, we knew we knew that Joe was was uh mixing uh business with family and yeah, we knew that he was really we really um you know, doing some things with Hunter Biden on the side, had a little side hustle going on. We knew that all along. As a matter of fact, in the New York Times, buried in the story was a line about how everybody knew that Joe has done this.

Well, that wasn't the reporting day before yesterday. Or the day before that. The mainstream media was saying there was absolutely no truth to any of this. It was all a lie fabricated by the America First Movement, that there was no way that Joe Biden would sully himself by involving himself into the affairs of his son. But now everybody's acknowledging, yeah, we knew it all along, but what's a big deal?

Well, it is a big deal. The problem is we can't trust the mainstream media. And we haven't been able to trust him in a very long time. We're going to get into this Matthew Shepard story. This is disturbing.

Because it literally shaped No. It shaped this hate crime legislation, and it all turned out not to be. True. We're going to get into that coming up. All right.

844-747-8868 is our number. That's 844-747-8868. We've got a lot of ground to cover today. Looking forward to chatting with you folks. This is the Todd Stern Show.

Legacy Precious Metals has a revolutionary new online platform that allows you to invest in real gold and silver online. Hi, this is Todd Starns, and in just a few easy steps, you can open an account online, select your metals of choice, and choose to have them stored in a vault or shipped to your door. You'll have access to a dashboard where you can track your portfolio growth in real time anytime. And you'll see transparent pricing on every coin and bar. This puts you in complete control of your money.

The platform is free to sign up for. Visit legacypminvestments.com and open your account and see this new investing platform for yourself. Gold hedges against inflation and against a volatile stock market. A true diversified portfolio isn't just more stocks and bonds, but different asset classes. And this new platform allows you to make investments in gold and silver, no matter how small or large, with a few clicks.

Visit legacypminvestments.com to get started. That's legacypminvestments.com or call 866-649-0304. That number again, 866-649-0304, and start investing today. Farm table, farm, far. Mm.

All right, welcome back to the Todd Starns radio program. By the way, Hannity last night had Congressman James Comer on, and interesting, interesting back and forth. But Hannity flat out asked Comer, will you be able to prove that Biden took a bribe? And Comer's response. Was a little curious.

He said. I sure hope so. That's what That's what he said. I sure hope so. Not.

You better believe it, Sean. We've got the goods on this guy. And he had this goes back to my concern. My biggest complaint about Republicans is they spend all of this money, they spend all of this time, all of this effort on these hearings, and they never come up with the goods.

So do you have the evidence or don't you have the evidence? That's all we need to know. But anyway, we'll see how things go. But folks, I'm telling you, don't count Biden out here. Don't count him out.

All right, let's go to the phones here: 844-747-8868, Murph in Germantown, Tennessee. On the line, hi, Murph. How are you today? Dr. Starnes, always a pleasure.

Thank you. There's something very interesting about this entire situation. between the President of the United States is son in the legal profession of this country. Why wasn't his behavior stopped years and years and years ago? You know, Yogi Berra's son got involved with things he shouldn't have been doing.

And Yogi and his mother flat out told him, If you don't clean your act up, we are no longer your father. We are no longer your mother. and you no longer have a place. To live.

Well, that got Dale Barra's attention and he's been sober for the past thirty years. When the President of the United States or the Vice President are a sitting senator sees pictures of his son. All over the country. Looking like a bum off the street. Why don't you pull.

What? And where was his uncle in all this? Where's the American father? Where's the American uncle taking care of his nephew? It's a reflection on America itself and American manhood.

It's yeah It's terrible.

So Murph, is it possible? I mean, when you look at Joe Biden and his family, and granted, you know, once your child becomes an adult, that child is responsible for his or her behavior. You know what's interesting, though? The mainstream media acts like Hunter Biden is a wayward 15-year-old kid. Exactly.

This is a grown-ass man. Pardon my language there.

Well, you know, Todd? There's also something written a long time ago, the Fifth Commandment. Honour thy father and thy mother.

Now, that applies not only as a child, but it also applies to you and me. Of course, my parents are gone, yours may be around. But if you do not honour your father and your mother, It's the only commandment with a promise. That you may prosper and live long. And why this guy got off on the left on the deep side deep end?

He's mentally ill.

Well, something is not right there in the family. And I think when you look at how the children turned out, and I don't know much about Beau Biden, but certainly the daughter, Ashley Biden, who was caught on tape admitting that her diary was, in fact, real and she authenticated it, some of the behavior that she wrote about in that book, that is some very disturbing behavior. There was something very dark and sinister going on in that household. And I don't know if it happened after the car accident where Biden lost his first wife and his daughter. But there was something very, very wrong happening in that house.

Exactly, and now he's reaping what he has sown. Yes, he is. And I can only hope that the Republicans can get to the bottom of this. Murph, appreciate that call, and thank you for listening. I think there's another commandment related to Hunter Biden: Thou shalt not covet your brother's wife's bedonka donk, as they say.

It's in the new revised standard, I believe. 844-747-8868 is our phone number. A news story up by Newsmax, and we mentioned this briefly yesterday, but Ed Rollins, now on the record, he was heading up this or co-chairing this PAC, raising money for Ron DeSantis. And he now says that's it, throwing in the towel. He says that Ron DeSantis is a flawed candidate.

He says, I don't think it's the campaign's fault, it's his fault. He's been a very flawed candidate. I know some of the people around him. They're good, talented people. But every time DeSantis opens his mouth, he has a tendency to think out loud.

And that apparently is a bad thing. Do you agree with that assessment that DeSantis is a flawed? Candidate. We're gonna get to your calls. Your thoughts coming up next.

MyPillow is celebrating its 20-year anniversary with over 80 million MyPillows sold. Mike Lindell at MyPillow wants to thank each and every one of you by giving you the lowest price in the history of MyPillow. You're going to get their queen-size my pillow for $19.98, regular price $69.98, and just $10 more, you're going to be able to get a king-size pillow. You're going to receive deep discounts on all my pillow products like bed sheets, mattress toppers, pet beds, mattresses, my slippers, and so much more. This is the time to try out some of their other amazing products you've had your eye on.

Go to mypillow.com/slash starnes. That's mypillow.com/slash starnes. Use the promo code STARNS to get this amazing offer of the queen-size my pillow for $19.98 or call 1-800-839-8506. The offer comes with a 10-year warranty and a 60-day money-back guarantee. That's mypillow.com/slash starnes.

Use the promo code. STARNS or call 800-839-8506 promo code STARNS. All right, let's head over to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Good to have Congressman Scott Perry with us, Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Congressman, hope you're doing well today.

Well, happy summer. We are doing well. Of course, Look, our country has got a sickness and the sickness appears to be corruption. there's a lot of smoke, and where there's smoke, there's usually flame. And it seems like the President has engulfed himself in an inferno Of of Testimony and evidence that points to corruption at the highest levels, Todd.

And of course, bribery, bullying and uh and the like, bagmen, so to speak, are not the tools of an American President. They are the tools of a banana republic. Yet they seem they came operative in our in our in the highest levels of government And unfortunately, it also appears that Some of the agencies, the major law enforcement agencies, whether they be the IRS. or the Department of Justice have been running cover and interference. Congressman, I'm curious to get your key takeaway from this testimony yesterday we've heard from Devin Archer.

And do you believe there is a smoking gun? Is this the smoking gun? I don't know if it's the smoking gun. We haven't heard everything from Devin Archer. I guarantee you that.

He has held back for whatever reason. It might be He doesn't want to incriminate himself and uh open himself up to Charges from the Department of Justice for things he has done that has not been charged for. But one of the most significant things, and there's a couple. is that in independent testimony, it uh it corroborates the fact that that Tunner Biden wanted Victor Shokin fired. He's the prosecutor from Ukraine that was investigating Hunter Biden and Barisma.

And it corroborates the fact that he wanted him fired and that Joe Biden made sure that he was fired. That testimony yesterday corroborates that. It also corroborates the fact that Joe Biden lied not only in the campaign trail, but then continued to lie about his Lack of involvement, or the reality, his involvement in his son's business dealings, which were all with corrupt. people from overseas in this regard. and had to do with influence peddling by the United States.

And then finally, of the fact that at least twenty times The Vice President of the United States was put on a speakerphone with these corrupt people, foreigners. Regarding his son's business transactions, which led to at least. over seventeen and a half million dollars to the Biden family. And as Devin Archer says, It was selling the brand. The brand was the Biden family, and the policies.

of the United States, not for the good of the United States. But for the good of the Biden family, to the tune of at least $17 million. These are short. Shocking revelations regardless. Of what the hacks on the other side of the aisle want to say, well, this.

This had nothing to do with it. This is just a conversation between the son and his father. How many times Does the son and his father get on a conference call with a business deal where the father can change policy of the of a country. Uh that favors the people on the other end of the line. And by the way, when you're on a speakerphone, you have no idea who's on the other end of the line.

No, it's it's a fair point, and the Democrats here Are now trying to spend this because the argument up until yesterday had been: oh, wait a second, Biden never had any conversations at all with his son. About his business interactions. That's been the reporting of every major news publication. They have completely ignored the reporting of Miranda Devine over at the New York Post. And then yesterday, buried in the New York Times coverage of this congressman, buried in their coverage, there was a line: It has long been known that the elder Mr.

Biden at times interacted with his son's business partners. They're literally rewriting the history of this. It's been long known by many of us who suspected that the influence peddling was going on. And long disregarded, avoided and essentially thrown into the dustbin of history as insane and tinfoil hat wearing by legacy media like the New York Times. Like you said, they're rewriting history.

Subtly, a little bit at a time, to protect their political, I guess, ally in this whole thing. They love the left and the Biden administration and the puppeteering that's going on there. And they're just going to act like nothing to see here. Oh, he always, we always knew that he was involved in the business dealings of his son. No, we didn't because Joe Biden said it never happened.

Apparently, it did happen to the peril of the United States of America, and that is influence peddling, that is bribery, and that is extortion, and that is illegal. On the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line, Congressman Scott Perry, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Do you anticipate Joe Biden being impeached or Merrick Garland? I mean, where are we at in the impeachment process here?

Well, I would think that potentially Secretary Majorkis would be first. Because there's a clear, look, he should have been impeached probably within six months of the start of the administration, just based on. not only his failure to follow the law, but his active involvement in thwarting the law. That having been said, I do agree with the speaker that the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden Needs to happen immediately because the agencies and private citizens involved, people like Devin Archer, have been loath to give us information, give us testimony. They have been Holding out and avoiding that at all costs.

And there's just so much smoke now that we have to. We have to have the extra weight of the impeachment inquiry.

so that we get the documentation That either proves innocence or guilt in this regard. And we would love to be able to clear the President of the United States. But if we can't, we need to know if our president has been selling out the country for his own family or himself, his own personal enrichment and aggrandizement. The American people deserve to know that.

Well, I think they do. And I'm curious, again, you know, here we are dealing with Ukraine. I'm more interested in the relationship between the Bidens and China and how this nation might have been impacted and damaged as a result of those relationships.

Well, you're absolutely right. And look, we're involved heavily financially when we can ill afford to do so in Ukraine. And you got to say, are we there because we actually believe in the mission? Or are we there because we need to destroy or make sure that evidence is destroyed or evidence never comes to light? But Even more so, like you said, the concern is.

with our president, has he been compromised, whether it's with Ukraine and the individuals, the corrupt individuals there, or like you said, more importantly, with the Communist Party of China over time through his business dealings with his son, has he been compromised? And will he compromise the national security of the United States to cover up his own Personal enrichment based on choosing and selecting and approving policies that are good for the Communist Party of China, but not in the best interest of the United States of America. All right.

Well, Congressman, we're going to leave it right there. Appreciate the great work and bulldogging it up on Capitol Hill. Yes, we're going to keep look, we're just going to keep following the facts wherever they lead us, and then we'll deal with it when we get the outcome of that. All right, good stuff. Congressman, appreciate you, and thanks for coming on the program today.

Thank you. God bless you and your audience. All right, there you go. That is the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. By the way, the reason why they're going after Trump, the way they are, is to make sure that you are not paying attention to the real story, which is Huntergate and the Biden crime syndicate.

That's the only reason they're going after Trump. By the way, that New York Times poll we told you about yesterday, we have some new data that's coming out, and this is concerning a lot of people. Again, which is why they're going after Trump here. Former President Trump now tied with Joe Biden 43% to 43% in a hypothetical rematch in a new poll by the New York Times and Sienna College.

Now, some of you are saying, Todd, what? Are you kidding me? People actually still support Joe Biden? The poor guy is brain dead. I know we've got idiots in the country.

They got the right to vote. What do you want me to tell you?

So here's how it breaks down: 50% of men say they would vote for Trump. 36% say they would vote for Biden. And here's the problem, gals. According to the New York Times, 49% of babes said they would vote for Biden. Thirty seven percent said they would vote for Trump.

Ladies, what's your problem here? Come on! You see, I blame this on the Barbie movie. 30% of voters who say they plan to cast ballots for Biden hope. Democrats would nominate someone else.

So they're really not excited about Biden, but the Democrats are going to vote for him anyway. 26% of Democrats said they would be enthusiastic if Kamala Harris was the party's nominee in 2024.

Meanwhile, when it comes to job performance, 54% say Biden is doing a lousy job. According to voters, forty one percent favor have a favorable opinion of Trump. Fifty five percent say they have an unfavorable view of him. May I just say this? I believe one of the reasons why men, more so than women, like Trump is because Trump is a guy.

He's a guy's guy. Trump says what's on his mind, really doesn't care what people think. If he doesn't like something, he's going to tell you. But at the end of the day, the man's a man of his word. That means he's honorable.

He delivers on his campaign promises.

So ladies and gentlemen. I I get it. You want somebody that's going to be, I don't know. You know, good looking, you know, got the got the beautiful wife and the little kids and the whole nine yards. You know, we've had that in years past in the Presidency, and it has always not worked out well.

So, wouldn't you rather just have a straight shooter? Because that's what you're getting with Donald Trump. You're getting a straight shooter. All right, we got to take a break here. 844-747-8868 is our number.

That's 844-778. 747-8868. Folks, speaking of President Trump, he says you got to check out David Horowitz's new book. It's called The Final Battle. And the book is a deep dive into the deep state efforts to stop Trump.

And David Horowitz names the names. He tells you why George Soros is coming after Trump. You got to read this book. Mike Hockabee says every Christian in America needs to be prepared by getting David's book, The Final Battle, available at bookstores everywhere, already an Amazon bestseller. And you can get yourself a free copy.

I guess I should have led with that, right? Go to the website finalbattle611.com. That's finalbattle611.com. Newsmax is going to get you hooked up with this great book, and you're going to save almost $30. Get the final battle today.

When I grow up, I want to work for a woke company. Like super woke. When I grow up, when I grow up, I want to be hired based on what I look like rather than my skills. I want to be judged by my political beliefs. I want to get promoted based on my chromosomes.

When I grow up, I want to be offended by my coworkers and walk around the office on eggshells and have my words policed by HR. Words like grandfather, peanut gallery, long time no see, no can-do. When I grow up, I want to be obsessed with emotional safety and do workplace sensitivity training all day long. When I grow up, I want to climb the corporate ladder just by following the crowd. I want to be a conformist.

I want to weaponize my pronouns. What are pronouns? It's time to grow up and get back to work. Introducing the number one woke-free job board in America: RedBalloon.work. Kines have been remarkably candid about saying, and we don't have it yet.

And even Council Speaker McCarthy last week sort of pushed back against this impeachment inquiry momentum because he was like, look, we don't have evidence to go that far. And as far as Hunter Biden goes, there's no doubt. I mean, it's pretty clear, even those close to the Biden family suggest that some of his behavior was pretty unseemly. That doesn't make it illegal. And it also means we don't know the role that.

Then Vice President Biden may have played. And it seems like, no, they haven't proven that he had anything to do with it. They haven't proven that he profited from this at all. Yet, maybe he is guilty of turning a blind eye to some of his son's behavior. And we should put this in context.

This is a time when Beau Biden, the president's other son, was ill and then dying and then passed away.

So perhaps he was. Not as attentive to what he should have been here. But again, there has simply been no evidence, Gene Robinson, no evidence at all, that he was profiting from this or that either of them committed a crime when it came to this. And we hear here from Comer and other Republicans: it's wishful thinking. They're trying to create a scandal when there's no evidence that they have one.

Yeah, they're trying to create a scandal, or at least the appearance of a scandal, the sort of smokiness of a scandal, and just create that atmosphere without actual evidence and without an actual scandal. Because I think it's pretty clear, at least so far, there is nothing there. There is nothing there. You could certainly argue that at some point, if Hunter Biden put President Biden on the speakerphone like 20 times, you could certainly ask whether at some point President Biden might have said, hey, Quit putting me on speakerphone. You know, are you having a business meeting?

Like, what what is that about? But the context is that this was a a sort of very fraught and sad time for the Biden family. And we know how important family is to the President. And so do you hang up on your phone, on your son, at at any time, but certainly at a moment like that? And probably the answer is no.

All right, we'll see where this goes so far. All right, enough of that. Enough of that. Thank you. So, look, here's the deal: this was not a good man.

Joe Biden is not a family man. Joe Biden would not even acknowledge his seventh grandchild. until over the weekend when People magazine got a statement from the President.

So this is not a good man. This is not a decent man. Any man that would put up a Christmas stocking for the family dog and not the seventh grandchild, something's not right there. And the other part of this is, well, you know, Joe was dealing with the death of his son Bo and didn't have a lot of time to deal with Hunter. Hunter Biden is 53 years old.

This is a grown man, ladies and gentlemen. He's responsible for his own actions. You know, in a lot of societies, when you turn 18, that's it. You're an adult. You're out there.

You're on your own. You're responsible for yourself. And that just tells me that Joe Biden and the wife, Dr. Mrs. First Lady Joe Biden.

Did a lousy job. Raising the kids. I mean, I really don't know what else to say. It's a horrible thing. And you don't like to say that about people, but geez a loo.

That's not good at all. And by the way, Joe Biden is at the center of all of this. This is a man who spent his entire career in public service.

So how is it that he has tens of millions of dollars in the bank? Anybody want to try to explain that here? Anybody? Anybody? Anybody?

No, I don't think so. We all know what's going on. And by the way, you think Joe Biden's the only person up in Washington DC who's corrupt? Yeah, I don't think so. All right, we're going to get into more of this in the next hour.

I've got to give a shout out, though, to some good people over in Moscow, Idaho. And during the global pandemic, I wrote about this story, and I think we talked about it on the radio show. There were a group of Christians, and they were gathered outdoors. And they were singing hymns and spiritual songs. The church houses had been shut down, they'd been locked down by the government.

And they were gathering outside. Many of them were not wearing face diapers, and And as a result, the police showed up. And they began ticketing people, and And they arrested three Christians, and their crime was that they were charged with singing hymns and spiritual songs in violation of the law. And it was part of this nationwide crackdown, if you remember. I I rite about this in the new book coming out in March.

It was a horrible time in our history. Where you had government agents going and shutting down churches in California. They were handing out fines. Pastors were physically being barred from entering the church house. Even in Mississippi, you had elderly church people who were fined because they attended a drive in church service.

I mean, this was an awful time in American history.

So anyway, these Christians in Idaho said, Forget that. We're not going away good we're not going away into the night quietly.

So they filed a lawsuit against town leaders. Here's how bad it is. The town realized they had really goofed up because there's something called the Bill of Rights. And they violated the rights of these good and decent Christians.

So, anyway, they decided to settle out of court and they got a check for $300,000. They could have gone to court, they would have won the lawsuit and gotten millions and millions of dollars, but this money's coming from the taxpayers.

So, I think everybody got off pretty good here. But the lesson is: do not tinker with the First Amendment, ladies and gentlemen. It's a big no-no. But you know what my greatest fear was? Oh, it wasn't that China virus pandemic.

It was how quickly everybody gave up their constitutional rights. What's up with that, America? Hang tight, hour tube coming up next. Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starns. That's right.

I love this American. All right.

Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Todd Sterns Radio Program. What is Ron DeSantis doing here? I. I just don't get this.

Um So look, DeSantis has decided that the These Um race. These race issues, the slavery issue is a hill to die on. And he is taking a hardcore stand. The latest is that he's inviting the Vice President of the United States. To come to Florida for some sort of a debate over this thing.

This is not a good look for anybody.

Now Let me back up and explain what this was all about and how Ron DeSantis should have handled all of this. DeSantis is coming under fire because they're introducing a new curriculum to the children of Florida. And as a part of this curriculum, they have this section on slavery. And the children are going to learn that slavery was bad and that there was a war fought over it and the good guys won. And also that when blacks were enslaved, they learned skills that they could use later in their life.

And so. People are taking issue with that. And they're suggesting that DeSantis is out there saying that slavery was a good thing. And it's simply not true. And we've covered this story, and we've sort of laid it all out there and explained to folks.

No, this is what. Was meant, and we provided the context. And that's the issue here, is they're taking this out of context. And DeSantis is handling this in the worst possible way. All he needed to say on day one, when whoever it was that raised this as an issue, he could have come out and said, Well, first of all, you folks out there have been praising the advanced placement curriculum, and it has the.

Exact same verbiage in it.

So, why is it that you guys are upset with us when the advanced placement classes have the same sort of language? That's one way of dealing with it. But here's the other way, and I think this is the most effective way. You haul out all of the people in charge of the slavery curriculum, that curriculum about slavery. You bring everybody out.

And you let them handle the issue because they're the ones who wrote it. And by the way, they're all black.

So if people have a problem with this, guess what? They don't have a problem with Ron DeSantis. They got a problem with black educators who wrote the curriculum. And then you don't have a problem anymore. But that's not how Ron DeSantis is handling this.

And now all you know what is breaking loose. By the way, you know how I would deal with Kamala Harris? I would have said flat out, you know what? And again, I I don't know if she's going to debate the guy or not. But the first thing, if she goes down to Florida and does the debate, the first thing I would ask her is.

When did you renounce your own ancestors for owning slaves? How do you feel, Kamala Harris, that you, Kamala Harris, in the twenty first century, have received benefits because your family owned slaves? Just want to throw that out there. I don't think he's going to ask that question, but you never know. Anyway, the squawking magpies on the view.

Try not to watch that show a little too much testosterone in that program, if you know what I mean. Anyway, Alyssa Farah. who is a former Trump administration babe. She was squawking about saying, Let's take a listen here. It's disgusting, but I want to point out, every pretty much every prominent black Republican, including some of the most trumpy to the really moderate, decent guys like Will Hurd, came out and said, You are wrong on this.

They condemned him, and he doubled down. He started arguing with them. That's what stupid people do. How dare the white men around Ron DeSantis and him included black explain to black Republicans how they should feel about slavery? One short thing.

Why don't white Republicans stand up for this?

Well, they should, but I won't. But I want to shout out some of the things that Tim Scott, Byron Donalds, Wesley Hunt, Will Hurd, all came out. And some of these are really right-wing Republicans that were like, you are wrong on this. And real leadership is you step in it. You put out something stupid, or your Department of Education does, and you say, I hear you, I see you.

We're reversing course. He's desperately trying to make it about Vice President Harris and ignore the litany of black Republicans.

Well, that is true. He is trying to make this about Harris, but she actually went down to Florida and declared war on the guy. But then you've got all of these pro-Trumps. Black Republicans that are coming out, and they're blasting DeSantis, but I think they're only blasting DeSantis because this is about politics. But then for DeSantis to turn around, and we've had Congressman Donalds on this program a number of times, and I believe the man to be a very conservative individual, DeSantis is now comparing him to Kamala Harris, suggesting that Byron Donalds is some sort of a closet liberal.

So my question is, what advice here would you give Ron DeSantis because he is just digging that hole, just digging the hole? And he's not stopping. This is only it's only growing this controversy.

So, my question is: what would you do? What is your recommendation? DeSantis seems to think. That the culture war fight is the right fight to have, and that is the fight that's going to land him. In the Oval Office.

In spite of all the polling data that says an overwhelming majority of Americans do not want the government to intervene in some of these culture issues. And that's coming from Republican voters.

So I don't know if he's just trying too hard or if DeSantis really does believe that they won all these school board races because you had the moms for liberty. But again, those are state issues. Those are not national issues. And I just don't see how DeSantis is going to come out a winner in any of this. He has completely, completely missed the mark.

All right, 844-747-8868. That is our phone number. That's 844-747-8868. Coming up, we're going to be talking to Jeff Stein from radio station KXEL in Iowa, talking about the campaigns. A lot of people.

traversing the state of Iowa and meeting voters.

So we're going to get Jeff's take on that. And coming up in the next hour, Michael Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan, going to join us to talk about his dad. We'll be right back, folks. Uh Yeah. Blah blah blah blah.

Yeah. All right, a mom in Georgia is needing our help, everybody. She's needing some advice, and we've got a pretty learned audience, and so maybe, just maybe, we might be able to offer some.

Some advice, some guidance for this distraught mother. I want to read the letter she wrote. She lives in Cobb County. which is where the Atlanta Bravos play. Do they still do the tomahawk chop down there?

I know it became a source of controversy, but Good for them. I remember years ago, what was it? A couple of years ago, was it during the World Series? When they told him to stop doing the tomahawk job, and then everybody just did it louder. Right, that's what they're supposed to do.

Good for you, Atlanta Braves. Anyway, here's what the mom says. I'm asking for advice for my transgender son. In other words, she's a daughter, by the way. That's her daughter.

All right.

Here we go. I'm asking for advice for my transgender son. We are starting our son at a great Cobb County kindergarten. I was disappointed but not surprised when I got a call from the principal that they are not going to honor any of our requests to affirm our sons Gender and they refused to use he him pronouns, not even they them pronouns, and that our child would be expected to line up with the girls, to be on the girls' teams, etcetera. Thankfully, bathrooms aren't an issue yet, since the classrooms have single bathrooms.

According to the principal, they have to use what's on the birth certificate, which obviously in our son's case is marked female. The principal's report that they have been given guidance from the district that teachers, admin, staff are to leave all personal, political, and religious beliefs at home, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I'm just confused about how that guidance results in this type of decision-making. And treatment of my son. The principle was very clear.

This is not a policy, which makes things even more murky. any advice or experiences of similar situations would be welcome. I offered many neutral workarounds like lining up the children according to birth date, Or the colour of their shirt. or their favorite ice cream flavor. What if their flavor is like, I don't know, Rocky Road?

or chocolate swirl. What do you do then? There are so many ways to split kids up for teams and lines other than gender. they were not willing to make that commitment. Boo hoo Well, what do you want to tell this mom, everybody?

I mean, what would you, what guidance? What guidance would you give this woman who thinks that her daughter is a boy? What would you And by the way. I would be willing to bet a Chick-fil-A sandwich this woman has like pink or purple hair. I think she's one of those moms.

Probably has the teletubbies, you know, the little dolls, little furbies, I don't know, whatever you call them. I guarantee you. No, no, no, Dylan. We don't go. We don't talk about people's girth, but, you know, she'd probably be.

Well rounded woman. Yeah, I could probably see that. I mean, you kind of know the type of mom this person is by the fact that she would allow her child, her own daughter, to go through something like this.

So anyway, I'm curious, what kind of advice would you give? Would you how would you respond if you were the principal here? Seems I'm I am stunned that the principal actually got this right. And the principal said, You know, sorry, ma'am, but your your boy's a girl. Maybe the mom failed basic biology classes in high school.

I don't know. 844-747-8868 is our phone number. That's 844-747-867. 8868.

So I'm very curious to hear your take on this one. And I'd say good for the schools in Cobb County, Georgia, for actually. Engaging in a little bit of common sense here. Good for you. All right.

Oh, have you heard the story out of Missouri? This is insane. And we got the pictures up at ToddSterns.com.

So you've probably got somebody in the neighborhood, and they like to decorate their house for Christmas, right?

So they put up all the lights and they do the whole national lampoon Christmas vacation. They've got the Santa Claus up on the roof and they got the little baby Jesus out on the front lawn, the whole nine yards.

So there's this guy in Missouri who decorates his house like you would decorate your house for Christmas, but he uses campaign posters and banners and flags. And this guy is a Big Trump fan. And so he's got posters and flags all over his property, and he even has one that says, Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my president.

Well, I'm glad that's good, actually, right? Jesus is already good.

So, anyway, somebody posted a photograph on social media. And a lib. And a lib asked the question: what would you do if this was your neighbor? What would you do? Mm.

What would you do? You could just you could tell that the poor guy is surrounded by Karens. It's a neighborhood full of Karens. And any conservative Karens out there, I apologize, but it's the word we use these days. No, Dylan, we can't use Marge.

It doesn't it doesn't have the same oomph. as Karen's. He has a neighborhood full of marges. No, well, I don't know. That could work.

All right, we'll use Marge because I know we have Karens that listen, and I don't want to get the calls from the angry conservative Karens. All right, who are good Karens, not bad Karens? I'm digging a hole. I am digging a hole, ladies and gentlemen.

So anyway, This person posted what would you do if this was your neighbor?

So, I don't know who runs the Twitter account for the official Democrat Party of Missouri. But they decided to reply. And they decided to reply by citing the lyrics of a Favorite song, and I will attempt, ladies and gentlemen, to perform this song for you. I will chant it. De roof Der roof De roof is on fire We don't need no water.

Let the insert your word burn. A little pitchy, but You can Yeah. Tell him what's wrong with you right now. I would have put on a beat for you if you would have asked. All right, let's try it again.

Can we try it again? All right, when you get the beat, what do you call it? A beat beat? Sure. Let's try it.

I don't have anything ready. All right, let me know when you've got it ready. We'll try this. Anyway, people are very upset because basically the Democrat Party in Missouri is saying. Burn down the homes of Trump supporters, let it burn.

Let it all burn down.

So just start playing it whenever it's ready, Dylan. Senator Josh Hawley is very upset, and he said, wait, wait, wait, wait a second here. What would Nelly? What is going on here? He says, here's the Missouri Democrat Party advocating for a Trump supporter's home to burn down.

This is sick. There's no place for this kind of disgusting, violent rhetoric in Missouri. Don Trump Jr., weighing in. No big deal. Just the official account of the Missouri Democrat Party openly calling to burn down the house of Trump supporters.

Now, folks, I'm telling you, this is the level of vitriol. That we're facing in national politics right now, and it's off the charts. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to have people on Fox News. Oh, we all just need to get along.

We all just need to hold hands and sing kumbaya, just Democrat and Republican, even the libertarians, just hold hands and sing kumba. Sing along together.

So Just Just love each other. Just love each other. Oh, we got it now. All right, here we go. All right, we've got the boo.

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don't need no water. Let the blank burn down. The roof, the roof. Oh, I don't know.

I can't stop myself. Ah, five. Not bad for a white Baptist guy, right? Thank you. Thank you.

Anyway. People are saying, you know, so whenever. I surprised myself. I should try out for like one of those. I don't know, maybe I need to do a rap album, right?

The Hot Dotty wraps the classics.

So, anyway, you've got all these.

So, whenever something like this happens, you've got both sides.

Well, there's bad things happening on the Republican side, too. No, there's not. No, no. What Republicans out there are calling? Show me the official Republican party of I don't care what state.

Are they telling people to burn down the houses of Biden supporters? Where is that happening at? No, this is the Democrats. And the Democrats always do this, ladies and gentlemen.

So don't buy into the nonsense out there. Oh, everybody's doing it. No, not everybody's doing it. The Democrats are doing it. And we've got to call him out on it.

Don't burn down people's homes. Remember what Maxine Waters said. She was telling all the Democrats to harass, to get in the faces of the Trump supporters at the restaurants and the grocery stores. Absolutely harass them. That's what she said.

And I'm telling you, the Democrats, you people need to do better, but I don't think you can. I think this is their nature, they are violent people. That's what they are. They are the party of irredeemable deplorables. It's the Democrats.

The roof the roof is on fire. As they say. All right, we got to take a break here. I'm not sure what overcame me there. My goodness, it was like the spirit.

All right, 844-747-8868. That's our number. That's 844-747-8868. We'll be right back. All right, welcome back.

to the Todd Stearns Radio Program. Am I supposed to apologize? No, I'm not going to apologize, Dylan. I was burying my soul. That was the song in my heart at the moment.

So. Anyway, I got in trouble at Fox News once. I actually was filling out on a show and rapped the Beverly Hillbellies theme song. And Dylan, pull that. Can we pull up the Beverly Hillbillies theme song?

Just start playing it whenever you can get it. Anyway, I was ramping the Beverly Hillbillies theme song, and was I on Killmead Show? I was on one of the shows, and it was very well received. Everybody in the studio laughed, and everybody seemed to have a good time with it. But I was summoned to the executive's office and they said, Do not ever do that again.

Do not ever rap the Beverly Hill Bellies theme song ever again. Then one day he was looking at some food, and up from the ground come a bubbling crew. I said, Crew seeing a I think it's a good idea. I may have done a wagga wagga wagga in there too. Anyway, I was told never to do that again.

Also, can't wrap the theme song to Green Acres or Petticoat Junction. Let's go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line if he's still there. Our good friend from radio station KXEL, Jeff Stein. Hey, Jeff, how's it going? You know, I'm in the same boat, Todd.

You know, when you go to church and they say it doesn't matter how you sing, all voices blend together. I'm the guy at the door, they say, We don't mean you. We intend for you to stay quiet. You can move your lips, but please do not sing.

So I understand. I had a good buddy of mine who was actually Church of Christ, and we were good friends in college. I got in trouble. I was trying to play a practical joke on him. You know, they don't do the instruments there.

And so I showed up at the guitar at church. Apparently, that's not very funny in the Church of Christ. Whoops. My bad. Everybody needs, they need a sense of humor.

I mean, come on. That's what it is. Jeff, you definitely need a sense of humor. In Iowa, you guys have had so many politicians coming into your state. And, of course, the big event this weekend, wow, what was that like?

Well, the Republican Party of Iowatod annually has a fundraiser called the Lincoln Dinner, and it takes on greater importance every four years if there's an open seat or if the nomination for president is open.

So I have on my bingo card 15 people running for president, 13 of them. We were in attendance in Des Moines last Friday night, and it was my honor to actually introduce each of them to the podium. You know, so when you hear the voice that says, please welcome Congressman Todd Starnes, well, that was me. Bringing the 13 of them up. What?

That was you? Why was me? Do you know what they call it? And I don't mean to be offensive. But when I got the invitation, they said we need someone to be the voice of God.

And I said, um I don't really think I can speak for the Almighty. And they said, no, we just need this voice. Four people, Todd, said when they saw me there, Oh, are you the voice of God this year? I did not know that was a job title. But apparently it is.

It is. Apparently, yeah.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome from Waterloo, Iowa. Jeff Stein.

Well, now I know why I got the gig because you were busy, obviously. No, you were busy. Because you would have done far better than me.

So let me ask you. You're very kind.

So, wow, I had no idea.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we have a celebrity in our midst. Jeff, I've got to ask you: were you the one who queued up the music? Oh, and Brooks and Dunn, so when Trump walked in, it was one may be going to prison. The other maybe president. No, what happened there, and I did not hear it until afterwards, they played the song Only in America as the walk-up music for every one of the 13.

So, what they had, because I was seated right next to the men and women who were doing this, they had the song Only in America on a loop. And so, every however long the song is, four minutes, it would start again. And so the lyric that came up As a person walked on stage, might have been the chorus, might have been a lyric, and in the case of the 45th president, it was. an unfortunate riff within the song, perhaps, especially in light of the comments made by a few. But no, I can vouch for the fact that the song was on a loop.

They just faded it up, faded it down, and it was there was nothing sinister there. NBC News was not controlling the music at the Republican Party Lincoln dinner. Man, I had my money on Don Lemon. He's looking for a gig.

So I just kind of figured he was in Iowa. I had no idea. Jeff, I'm curious. Ron DeSantis, he is struggling. What about in Iowa?

We know that he's doing the smaller events now. Is his message resonating with voters there? The problem is, and you know this from covering these as long as I have, you need to shake hands and talk to people in Iowa and New Hampshire in a very one-to-one way. The old joke is: a reporter goes up to an Iowa voter and says, Who do you like? And the answer is, I don't know.

I haven't seen them all three times yet. Because we have that sense of, you know, we've earned this role. And the problem is, he's been doing some bigger events, but he does not connect with people one-on-one.

Now, he had a nice response Friday night at the dinner, had some people standing, and it was a good presentation for him. It was a good response. But that's a very different skill from going down the line, shaking hands, stopping at a table at a coffee shop. The word is that that's not what he likes to do, and he's not terribly good at it. And so maybe what they're trying to do with this PAC-sponsored bus trip he's coming on is to try to soften the image and polish him up a little bit from a rather stiff, robotic figure that we see at a podium.

I mean, it's not out of the question that he could somehow have some sort of a massive swell of support. And we've seen that happen before, but Trump is so far ahead in the polls. What are you thinking? You've covered politics for many years in Iowa. First caucus I covered was the 1980 caucus, going back to nineteen seventy nine when I was still a little boy in shorty pants.

But the thing that's interesting about this is I am starting to sense Todd And I've not really talked about this on the air yet, but I sense a disconnect between rank-and-file Republicans, the Trump base, the people who will show up. and Republican office holders. I think the moneyed people, those who have been used to power, I think they are pushing much more for DeSantis because it's a more comfortable place for them to be. And I heard chatter in the Mixer before going into the room. I overhear conversations here and there.

And a lot of people have, first of all, tremendous respect for President Trump. The accomplishments are without question. The Supreme Court without question. but I think they want to return to something they're more used to. And there is this huge disconnect between, again, those who hold offices or have money and the folks that he was able to.

Bring to the polls. That gave him this monumental lift from 1% in the polls when he entered the race. to winning the presidency barely a year later. Interesting. I was looking at the videos, the interactions when he was trying to drink beer and order the beer.

It's just all very awkward. I just. I don't know if he's uncomfortable, if he's you know, and there are a lot of candidates that are just not outgoing people. And they're introverts and they just don't like being around small crowds. They do better in front of a large crowd.

Were you getting that from were you hearing any of that from the people that got a chance to beat him or be in the room with the beer drinking? I have not talked to anyone with regard to that, but that seems like one of those forced events. You remember during the Obama presidency, they had the Beer Summit. Where Henry Lewis Gates is there with the officer who thought he was breaking into his own house, and they just sat there and, let's have a beer together.

Well, I want a president and a leader of the free world. I don't need a beer buddy. And so I'm going for competence here. And if someone can deliver the goods I don't really care how they are at throwing darts at a local pub. And the skills you need to campaign and win an election are not the same skills you need for governing.

And so we may be asking too much. In other words, and I'm not specifically thinking of any great candidate here, but just because they're a little awkward at a podium, they might be the best worker bee at the desk that you can imagine.

Well, that's good, but the problem is you need Your commander-in-chief to be the consoler-in-chief, the unifier-in-chief, the one who instills confidence, and if there's that disconnect in today's world. You know, as they've said at times, Lincoln could not become President because of how he sounded and how he looked. And he turned out okay. I mean, going back to that infamous nineteen sixty debate between Richard Nixon and JFK, those people watching it on T V thought JFK won. Those listening on the radio thought Richard Nixon won.

It was all about the optics. Absolutely. And to some degree, the vice presidential debate between Benson and Quayle was very similar. I heard it on radio, and I had a very different view of it than when I watched the tape afterwards. And so it's a fact of life.

It's a reality.

So if you take Governor DeSantis and put him in a vest and have him draw beers, that's great. But when you've got to drop the admission price down to nearly nothing and you still barely, you could go by with a case of beer and have some left over at the event. That's not what they had in mind. They had in mind a lot more people, obviously. That's interesting.

So people just aren't sh showing up for him. It just hasn't been the kind of spark that they thought. And it reminds me to some degree of the Colin Powell situation more than a decade ago. You remember both sides, in an Eisenhower-esque way, wanted him to declare that he was going to run as one of their candidates, and he was looked upon as the choice. And then he actually started giving opinions and stating views, and all of a sudden people weren't as impressed.

And I think to some degree, Governor DeSantis did very well coming out of the box with an announcement. All right, that stumbled, but the idea is that was probably his high point. Because once he started actually getting out and meeting people, it's not the same as with Trump. With Trump, and this is the paradox of Trump that no one understands, and you know it from sitting with him, but he is even more comfortable. talking to the people who make the event happen.

I've spoken with law enforcement in this area who have worked Trump events, and he will make. The party poo-bah's wait so he can shake hands with law enforcement staff with the people behind the scenes. Whoops, I think we lost Jeff there. Um All right, do we have Jeff back? All right, Jeff.

Sorry we lost you. Finish your thought. Finish your thought. No, all I was saying was Trump gets it. Trump will shake hands with everybody behind the scenes, and he's more comfortable with that than the party poo-bas.

All right.

Well, good insight, and we're going to be checking back in with you as we get closer to those. Are they cauckeye or caucuses? I've always been confused by that.

Well, God bless Rush. It was 35 years ago today that Rush's show first went on the air, so we should, in his name, call it the Hawkeye Cauckey. You're right. The Hawkeye Cauckey. I love it.

All right.

Well, mega dittos, my good friend. Yes, sir. Right back to you. All right, Jeff Stein, everybody, host at Radio Station KXE L. All right, we've got to take a break here.

And again, our number is 844-747-8868. That's 844-747-8868. This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, welcome back to the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Coming up in the next hour, Michael Reagan is going to drop by brand new book out: Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan.

And we're going to be taking your calls in the next hour on two great American heroes and patriots: one being Ronald Reagan. What do you remember about Ronald Reagan? Is there something, was there a moment in your life, something that Ronald Reagan said or did that impacted your life during his eight-year presidency? I think so many of us, as young kids, came of age in the conservative movement when Reagan was president. And for me, it's such a special moment going out to the Reagan Ranch.

The first time I was invited to go out there to speak, it was just an amazing moment to walk the property. I'll talk more about that in the next hour of the program. And also, as our good friend Jeff Stein from radio station KXEL just reminded us, today is the day, the anniversary of the launch of the Rush Limbaugh Show into syndication. It was August 1st, 1988, that the EIB network was created, and the rest was history. And so we're going to talk about Rush.

And I know a lot of you call in and say that you miss Rush. Is there something about Rush that you remember that you want to talk about? We're going to let you do that in the next hour of the program. Because let me tell you something, folks. A lot of people, and I'm not going to get into the radio corporations, but a lot of radio corporations want to move on.

They just, you know what, let's forget about Rush. He's gone. No, I don't think we should. I think we need to remember people like Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey. Uh these men who really made an impact in in talk radio.

And quite frankly, saved the radio the AM radio frequency and dial in many in many cities around this nation.

So we're going to talk about Reagan, we're going to talk about Rush Limbaugh, go down a little bit, go down the Go down the trail and remember some good old days and some of the great things that Rush used to talk to us about on the radio. 844-747-8868 is our telephone number. That's 844-747-8868. Let's go to Victor in Maryland listening to us online today. Hi, Victor.

What's on your mind?

Well Michael Reagan would remember me. His show was delayed, and I had to hear him at three in the morning. And I would call him up at 6 and I said, Well, I have to wait till 3 o'clock to hear you in the morning.

So he would remember me for sure. Sure. And also Russia. Rimba. Hearing me talking to Ann Coulter on C-SPAN about how my wife divorced me.

because I would not stop listening to Rush Limbaugh and he wanted to meet the guy. I called in and told him about myself and He gave me some stuff. from the EIB sh store. But what I really wanted to talk to you about was that Uh Old woman Two blocks north of the of me and her house was literally trash. Because she had the little Trump sign and the American flag flying.

And vandals, I should say, hulums from the Democrat Party. Uh Yeah, yeah, yeah. Her siding. I mean, they really, really. Wrecked the house.

Where did this happen, Victor? Hello, Victor. I'm still here. About two blocks north of me here in Silver Spring. Oh my goodness this is intr so did they call the police.

What did she do? I don't know what happened. I just that's all I heard. I don't know if um if she was we reimbursed By her insurance company, or did she move out? I don't know.

That's all the neighbors would tell me. Wow, that's and when did this happen, Victor? Do we have any in 2016? Wow.

Well, that's just terrible. But again, it goes to show you this has been going on for a long time. It really has been going on for a long time. But anyway, tell Michael Reagan that Victor says hello, and I miss this show. I will do that, Victor, and we appreciate you listening and calling in and contributing.

You're a good fella. And sounds to me like you came out on the positive side on that divorce.

So, God bless you there. All right, folks, we've got to take a break here. We're going to be taking your calls, and this is right after we come back from the news. Memories of Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh. Of course, Rush Limbaugh celebrating the big anniversary.

This is the day that the Rush Limbaugh Show went into syndication. We're going to be taking your calls. 844-747-8868. That's 844-747-8868. This is the Todd Starge Show.

Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch. That's right. I love this American ride. Don Starns. And hello, everybody.

Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Program. Hope you are doing good today. We've got a fun hour coming up. Michael Reagan is going to be here. He's got a brand new book about his dad, former President Ronald Reagan.

And looking forward to that conversation. Today is also the anniversary of the launch of Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated program. It was back on August 1st, 1988 that the EIB network launched. And of course, the rest is history. And as Paul Harvey said, now we know the rest of the story.

But we're going to be taking your calls this hour. Great memories you might have about Ronald Reagan, lessons you might have learned from Ronald Reagan, and of course, El Rushbo, Rush Limbaugh. And we occupy that time slot, noon to 3 Eastern, that Rush anchored for so many years. And I know many of you miss Rush. We hear from you from time to time talking about Rush and what he meant to you.

And I think it's important to always remind the next generation of American patriots what people like Rush Limbaugh and Ronald Reagan have done and have meant to this country.

So, anyway, our telephone number is 844-747-8868. If you'd like to call in this hour, 844-747-8868. And let's start in Memphis, Tennessee, on our flagship station, KWAM KWAM. Gary, hi, Gary. What's going on?

Hey, Todd, it's a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you, sir. I just wanted to say about Reagan, he was such a great orator and he was So charismatic, and he really connected with the people.

So, that my best memory of him was really. His ability to communicate with people, he truly made me want to be a conservative and wanted me to, you know, made me want to emulate him. And as far as Rush Limbaugh, One, you should be honored to be in his time slot for sure. Rush made me Understand, he was the teacher almost, especially in the early days. He made me understand why.

I wanted to be conservative and what it was to be conservative. He compared and contrasted you know, conservatism and liberalism in a way that allowed people to make informed choices. You know, for me, it was also the entertainment factor. You know, when you listen to Rush, you really never knew where he was going to go with things. And he had these great parody writers.

Of course, one of them works for our show now, Paul Shanklin. And that really, you know, he showed people that conservatives can have fun, you can laugh, and you can even take a few pokes at the liberals every now and again. Or every day. I I agree one hundred percent with that. I think hi h the audacity of some of the the the things that he did in humor, I think really uh irritated the left.

In ways that you nobody had ever previously done before. But it also illustrated really, really, you know. Poignant. ideas about what the left is and what they're up to. Gary, I I'm curious, how old are you?

I am 61 years old. All right, so you're just a couple of years older than I am, but I remember my dad, I'm 55, and my dad, I'll never forget, he voted for Jimmy Carter. He was so excited that a guy from the South had gotten the nomination. I'll never forget that was the last time dad ever voted for a Democrat. And thinking back to how miserable the country was back then, you know, with the long gas lines, you had the hostage crisis.

And even as a young kid, you know, you could feel that there was something not right about America. And then along comes Ronald Reagan. He wanted to make America great again. He's the guy that brought that slogan to the campaign trail. And of course, that great Morning in America commercial, it really did make an impact on me as a kid.

Oh, it absolutely. Absolutely did me. I was a solid Republican from then on. Although I have to say, I got hoodwinked a couple of times. I voted for Obama once.

And I voted for Clinton once. And I look back at that and still think, wow, how could I have ever done that? Wow.

Well, you've seen the error of your ways.

So, all right, Gary.

Well, look, good talking, and thanks for listening to KWA, and we appreciate that. All right.

All right, sir. Let's go to the beautiful state of Georgia. Doug on the line wants to talk about El Rushbo. Hey, Doug, what you got for us? I need to get through to Limbaugh.

Uh Call and just wait and wait and wait and wait.

Well, the backstory is: I found out that my daughter was being treated. trained. She'd come all the way from California to the East Coast and be trained. As a medic for street warfare, because she spoke into stuff. And I thought this was a big story.

All right, you know what we're going to do? Hey, Doug, hold on. I want to hear your story, but we've got a super bad phone connection.

So, guys, let's see if we can't get Doug to call back. And I want to hear his story. On the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line, we have the great Paul Shanklin hanging out with us. Hey, Paul, how are you? I am doing very well in retirement.

You're a president? Glad to be. Glad to be with you. Oh, my word. I forgot about today was the day.

Well, we have to credit where I have to give credit where credit is due. Our good buddy Jeff Stein from KXEL mentioned that just on the side in the last hour. And I thought, well, wow, we've got to do something here. And it's hard to believe it was back in 1988 that it all started. Right.

And uh and to me it was Totally. Different than anything else that was on, quote, talk radio, because most talk radio was local and. Cooking shows, and the commentary was the only political commentary was. Paul Hardly. And uh uh rush just you know, blew it out of the water and uh And I I worked for him for twenty eight years and How did you get to know him?

Well, actually, Johnny Donovan, I was given, I was working in Memphis Radio for about. Six months. And my friend Mike Ramirez says, you're not going to fit in any anywhere unless you get on limball.

So we got the number and the name of who was their producer for parodies and stuff. And it was Johnny Donovan. There is a Johnny Donovan. And uh So I got together some of the things that I'd done locally and sent them in. and didn't hear anything, but it's always good to follow up.

And uh always follow up. And so I called him and said, Hey, guys, did you get my tape? I said, Tape some things. I do. Nope, didn't get it.

Send me another one.

So I sent him another one. Called him, you know, a week later. Nope, didn't get it. Send me another one.

Called him the third time after sending the third tape, and I've been sending these FedEx. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, I got it. It was great too. We'll be in touch. I just gave up.

I I called Ramirez and he says, Did you do anything over the phone? I said, No, it's just like New York and in a hurry and all this stuff. And I was like, I just too. Yeah. Too scared to do anything, so he said, call him back and just do a voice so he'll understand.

So I called Johnny Donovan and said. Johnny? This is Bill Clinton, and I don't know where Rush and I have fallen out in our friendship, but Things aren't going well. And I would really appreciate it if you would put us back together again. Can you do that for me, buddy?

And he said, That was great. Can you send me a tape? And I love telling that story on Johnny. But he was he was he said, Look, I'm overwhelmed that everybody all the different radio stations were putting together local parodies and sending them in. He said, I got a stack of stuff I can't listen to.

And can you start doing things? I started doing a few things and Every time they asked me, I said, Can you do this voice? Can you do that for us? Can you do so-and-so? come to find out that I can pretty much do anything that's in my vocal range.

So I ended up being the parody czar for the show. And wrote most all of the things you heard. It was, I mean, it was really amazing. And that was the one thing I remembered, you know, as a kid listening to Rush in the early days, were those great parodies. And I'd be cracking up.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh. And. Go ahead.

Well, the interesting thing is Rush got it. He got me, I got him. But you know, staff Uh you know, the staff will go, well, it's kind of over the top, Paul, don't you think there's a And maybe try it this way, maybe try it that way. But if Rush got a hold of it, he'd go, God, it's great, let's play it They were they were scared, they were scared to play things. And I do some things, some things I do are a little over the top, but It's to make a point and to make it memorable.

Want to make a point? Exc make it an exclamation point. Don't don't make it a quotes or a comma, you know. I love it. And you do great work for us.

These the parodies are just I just sit here and laugh. I mean, it's just great stuff. And to your point, they make a point, and that's the whole point. Of it.

Well, the first person that well, actually the first person that has to laugh is my wife. If she doesn't laugh, it's probably not there. But I do it to make me laugh. And Rush and I had a very similar sense of humor. I we grew up listening to a lot of the same music.

He was ten years older than me. And but my older brothers and sisters played a lot of the same music.

So I knew his genres. And he wasn't, again, not scared, not feared of anybody.

Now, the Of course the corporate people, I'd I'd hear from them. But as long as I had Rush behind me, I was good. Love it. Paul, we got to run for a break. Always good hearing from you, and thanks for your great work.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay. The great Paul Shanklin, everybody, and you hear Paul's. Paul's comedy bits here on the show. And also you hear them on our, if you're listening to us on the stream, you'll hear them during the commercial breaks. But we're going to take a break here.

As we go to break, we've got one of those parodies for you. Our number again, 844-747-8868. We're talking about Rush on his big, what would have been his anniversary today? And also Ronald Reagan, Michael Reagan, his son coming up a little bit later with a brand new book. 844-747-8868.

We'll be right back. Oh you can do, you can die, any of your heart decides who feel wine and sing as the bank and queen. All right, welcome back to the Todd Stearns Radio Program. By the way, our telephone number is 844-747-8868. Again, 844-747-8868.

And coming up, we'll be talking to Michael Reagan. Um about his terrific Terrific new book. All right.

Want to play some audio? This is New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Man, they are really struggling in the Big Apple. Home to what, 14, 15 million people? They got about 100 or 200 or so illegal immigrants shipped up from Texas, and all you know what's breaking loose.

Eventually, this was going to come to a neighborhood near you. Having someone embedded is a good start. That came from the Secretary of Homeland Security. We want to thank him. But I've been very clear on what we need.

We need to control the border. We need to call a state of emergency, and we need to properly fund this national crisis. Wow.

Look, the guy's really struggling. He doesn't know what to do. They don't know where to put these people. They are freaking out. As a matter of fact, Not too far away from Times Square, I believe it's about a block or two over.

I'm sorry. It's about a block or two over from Grand Central. You've got the Roosevelt Hotel, beautiful hotel, historic hotel. It has been turned into an illegal alien refugee center. It's just appalling.

And there are so many people. The hotel is overflowing, and now people are literally sleeping on the sidewalks surrounding the hotel in New York City. It's. Just awful what has happened in New York City. And Could you imagine for just a moment what would happen if they had, I don't know, two or three million illegals?

In New York City.

So my recommendation to The Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, is to keep sending the buses. As a matter of fact, put them on airplanes, get send everybody you can and overwhelm these major urban centers. They want to be sanctuary cities. Let them harbor the illegal aliens. All right, there is some turmoil over at NBC News.

Where They said that You cannot change your race. In other words, it's impossible to change the The color of your skin. If you are a person of the Caucasian persuasion, there is no way that you can identify as a black, as Hispanic, as Asian American. You cannot do that. It is.

Physically impossible to do. And now they're getting a lot of blowback and they're saying, well, wait a second. What's going on here? Are you telling us that we can't self identify? But at again, if Todd Starnes wants to be LeBron Starnes, why can't I not become LeBron Starnes and claim my reparation check from the city of California?

What is it, five million dollars? I mean, I'm tell look, I will identify as a Rudamaga for $5 million.

So NBC News says, No, you can't do that. And they're quoting all of these experts, these scientists, these doctors, and they're saying it is impossible to change one's race.

Meanwhile, these same doctors are saying that it's perfectly acceptable for a man to suddenly identify as a female. It's great. People are having fun with this over on social media. The red headed libertarian says Sex and race are both biological physical traits of an organism rooted in unique and immutable DNA. Why is it celebrated to change one and ridiculous to change the other?

It's really a great question. Billboard Chris writes, Imagine thinking you could change some innate characteristic about yourself. How about that?

So. Folks, and the people over at NBC, they just don't get it. They don't seem to understand all of this. Oh, goodness. Experts and media outlets like NBC are now desperately trying to distinguish identifying as another race from identifying as another gender.

You can't identify as another race, they say. Because race is only a social construct this Is Ridiculous. Good for you. Alright folks, ToddSterns.com. We have some great materials for you.

We have a lot of new listeners in West Tennessee, and also over, we're adding some new stations in Texas and North Carolina. Folks, we want to encourage you to head over to the website, ToddSterns.com. We have so much great content, original content. Our team of writers work hard for you every single day, bringing you the news that you're not going to find anywhere else.

Now we have a couple of free products for you over at the website, and no strings attached. All we want to do is make sure that you have access to our newsletter, which you can sign up for free of charge. And you can also sign up for our podcast. We have over a million people every month listening to the podcast, and we would love for you to do that.

So I know a lot of you on the work hour, the lunch break, you're not able to hear the full show, and you can go back and you can listen at your leisure. Over on the podcast. All right, folks, got to take a break. Michael Reagan coming up with a brand new book, Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan. Maybe you would like to ask a question.

We're going to open up the phone lines: 844-747-8868. Again, that number is 844-747-8868. This is the Todd Starred Show. All right, welcome back, everybody, to the Tom Search Radio Program. I have been waiting for this moment all afternoon.

Excited to welcome to the program Michael Reagan. Got a brand new book out called Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan. It's been out for a little while, but you got to get yourself a copy of this incredible book. Michael Reagan, welcome to the show. Good to be with you.

Thank you very much for having me. And by the way, we had the great Paul Shanklin on just a little while ago, and he said, You tell Michael Reagan that I said hello. Absolutely. God, I haven't talked to Paul in a long time since I was doing radio all the time. You know, it's kind of funny.

You know, radio is such a small world. And, you know, after Rush Passed, I got a call from Paul one day, and he lives here in the Memphis area, and he does parody writing for us now, and just a great, great guy. Absolutely. It'd be great to always have him on. Great talent.

You know, Michael, I'm excited to dig into the book and the lessons that your dad taught you. It seems like going back through a lot of the speeches, I've got a new book coming out next year, and I was reading through some of the old speeches that your dad delivered, and it always, no matter what the issue was, it always seemed to go back to the root of the problems facing America and the solutions to those problems can be found at home and not Washington, D.C. Absolutely true. He always believed that. It was a Your dinner table, not watch you a DC's dinner table or problems of the world.

And family will absolutely be solved. They really believed it. In fact, he lived that life. He didn't change when he got into politics as governor or president of the United States. That was his belief system.

And I think it's probably because where he was raised, Tampica, Illinois, Dixon, Illinois. going to Eureka College. You know, his mother being a Sunday school teacher, himself being a Sunday school teacher. If you really go through those speeches and you listen to them. Think this as you're listening.

My dad spoke to you in parables. Think about that. He really did. He spoke to you in parables, and of course, then went home and prayed that you understood what the activity was saying. I've never heard it phrased like that, but I think you're right.

And I remember as I was just a kid in junior high school when your dad was in office, but I think he really shaped an entire generation of young conservatives. And I remember going for the first time to the Reagan Ranch and walking that property. And, you know, you originally think, oh, this is going to be some sort of a palatial estate, but it was very simple, it was very humble. Oh, it it doesn't get humble 'til you walk into the bedroom and see the beds tied together. It's true.

And and at the end of his side of the bed, you see a little bench with a with a pillow on it and a blanket. Because Nancy so enjoyed the bed, he didn't want to get a larger bed that would fit him.

So instead, he stayed on his side and put a bench at the end of his Side of the bed. and put a pillow on it and a and a sheet.

so he had a place for his feet when he fell asleep at night. I wouldn't do that. I don't know anybody else would do that. Except for my father. And you're right, you walk into the house, it's so humble.

The only famous people on the wall are named after horses. Yeah, those the I think, do we have Michael with us, or did the phone light drop? Guys, let's we'll put Michael on hold and get that sorted out. But we might have lost Michael Reagan. We'll try to get him back in just a moment.

So just give me a thumbs up, guys, when we've got Michael back. The name of the book, Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity and Faith of Ronald Reagan. Newt Ingrid, the former Speaker of the House, who's been a regular guest on this program for a number of years, said that Michael Reagan knew Ronald Reagan better than anyone alive today. And the book reveals him as more than just a great leader, but as a good father with a great soul, a role model for all of us. And I go back to a speech that Reagan delivered, and he said that.

That American greatness does not Does not begin in Washington, D.C. American greatness starts around the dinner table. And if we really want to step back, if we really want to examine where we are as a nation, we have to turn our attention inwardly to our homes. Are we as parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles? Are we out there doing what we're supposed to be doing?

raising up that next generation of American patriots. Teaching our kids about the Constitution of the Bill of Rights. How many times have we heard, and I know we get the calls all the time: well, Todd, you know, they're not teaching our kids about American history. They're not teaching our kids in public schools about civics or being a good citizen. They're not teaching our kids these things anymore.

Well, that's incredibly offensive and outrageous. And we've got to fix that. But why aren't you doing that in your home? Why not take on that responsibility in your home to teach your kid what it means to be an American? Teach your kids about the founding fathers.

Your kids ought to know about great characters like Like Thomas Jefferson and Betsy Ross and Andrew Jackson and Benjamin Franklin. The list goes on and on and on. And that's one of the reasons why we love partnering with our good buddy David Barton and his team over at Wall Builders because they are teaching kids about those great American patriots, teaching kids about their history.

So, anyway, we're going to try to reconnect with Michael Reagan here. We're going to regroup and take a break. Our telephone number, 844-747-8868. And I'm curious to hear from you: what are you doing around your dinner table? What are you doing in your homes to teach your kids and your grandkids to love America?

844-747-8868. This is the Todd Stern Show. All right, welcome back everybody. This is the Todd Starnes Radio Program.

Sorry about that interview. We will try to reschedule it with Michael Reagan. But you should still get a copy of the book. It is a great book. I want to go back in the time machine to 1998, a Roseanne Barr.

warned Donald Trump, this is years ago. Warned Donald Trump about what was really happening in America. And that uh Donald Trump Needed to understand that it was the wealthy elites that had actually put America on the road to socialism.

Now, we're going to play this in just a moment, but I do believe we have Michael Reagan back with us. Michael, so sorry about the phone situation, but we appreciate you hopping back on with us. No problem is like I did radio for twenty seven years. Been there, done that. We hate Comcast.

I'm just going to be honest with you. We hate them.

So, Michael, I want to jump back into this. Your dad, I mean, we all know what your dad meant to us, but I'm curious what your dad meant to you. What was he really like? You know, it probably meant everything to me because, you know, I grew up because. in a in a fatherless home, basically.

I my parents were divorced when I was three. And I said it when I eulogize my father. back in two thousand four. And I said he never forgot that family. And he never forgot that he had two children with my mother Jane Wyman.

And I look so forward to Saturday mornings Picking me up, picking me and my sister up. Riding out to the ranch. any given Saturday morning. sit in the right front seat and have them regale me with Same Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard songs and Telling me about American And he always just had a smile on his face. He always saw the glasses half full.

He always turned lemons into lemonade. And it's such a positive outlook. And that can't help but infused into you too. I went through some stuff in my life. and which was terrible.

I finally shared with my father in nineteen eighty seven. But but Yeah. I I f when I finally, you know, shared with him stuff that happened in my life. you know, he wrote in his uh diary months back. 'Cause I've been gone for a long time mentally from the family for things that happened.

And and what he taught me What he taught me the most was about forgiveness. You know, I remember march thirtieth, nineteen eighty one. After he's shot, we could fly back to Washington DC, walk in the hospital. 10 o'clock the following morning. I look at my dad and there's that humor that he had that just kind of relaxed the room.

He did it with everybody. And I I went to my dad and said, How you doing, dad? He says, You know, Michael, yesterday I was shot. I said, Dad, the world knows you were shot yesterday. He said, Well, he says, I was wearing a brand new suit.

And he said, I just want to tell you: if you're ever going to get shot, don't be wearing a new suit. And I said, Well, okay. He says The last time I saw that suit, they had cut it off from me. It was in shreds in the corner of the hospital room. And that's why I tell you, if you're going to get shot, don't be wearing a new suit.

And I said, Well, I won't. He says, that young man who shot me, Hinkley. I said, yes, John Hinkley. Yes, I understand his parents are in the oil business. Yeah, they are.

I understand you live in Denver. Yeah they do. You think they have any money? I said, I'm thinking of myself, why would he be asking these questions? I said, I'm sure they had money to live in Denver than the oil business.

He looks at me and he says, You know? Do you think they'd ever buy me a new suit? Tell me. And that's how he diffused situations. And he did it with his family, he did it with you.

Me, he did it in the debate with Mondale. And back in 84, Uh and you just diffused the situation with that great humor. And I think with what we're all missing today is that humor. Nobody laughs anymore. There's no humor anymore.

You look at when he and Tip O'Neill got together and passed the largest tax break in American history back in the 1980s. And Tip O'Neill would go back to his office having dinner after having dinner with my dad. I said, I'm going to carry the legislation. His staff looked at you, you're nuts. You disagree with everything that man stands for.

What did he promise you? What did he say to you last night at dinner? What do you talk about? And Tip would say, Well, he never talked about taxes all that long. He never talked about taxes.

What the hell did he talk about? He talked about the greatness of America. The goodness of all of our people, and how the two of us working together can make it better for every American. Before I knew it, I'm having a glass of wine with the President. We're telling Irish stories, and today I'm telling you, I'm going to carry the legislation.

Nobody does anyone. No, they don't. And not only do people not laugh, I think they're afraid to laugh. I mean, it's really sad what's happening in this country right now. Oh, yeah, it is set.

It really is sad. I mean, that's why Guthrie's number one at night, 'cause he he makes you laugh. It's just nobody makes you laugh anymore. Everybody's like afraid to laugh, afraid to chuckle, afraid to tell a joke. Um And and what have you.

And that's what's really sad. I think that's That's what I missed about my father. that in the worst of times, he made it the best of times? And we don't have that. have that person out there.

I mean, we we celebrate you know, honor my father every year on his on his birthday up at the library. And they have guest speakers come in. you know, and a couple of years ago with Sam Donaldson. And Sam Donaldson. And he gave one of the great speeches.

He had such love for my dad, even though you would never think he had that kind of love for him. He did by gangmates. friends of enemies, he didn't make enemies of friends.

Well, I mean, everybody remembers Sam screaming the questions and your dad cupping the hand to the ear as the chopper was it was great. I mean it was it was really classic Reagan. And we missed that. I remember I was reading a book, and I think it was Brett Baer's book, on Reagan and Russia, and it reminded me that your dad truly understood that the issue with the Soviet Union at the time was not a political issue. It was at the core a religious issue, something William F.

Buckley Jr. came to understand as well. Do we? Did we lose him again? I think we did.

All right, dog on it. Guys, I am terribly sorry. We are working through these phone difficulties, and my apologies again, ladies and gentlemen. But that again was Michael Reagan. Going back, and let me finish my thought here on Ronald Reagan.

He understood. That This really is A fight. About About liberty and justice for all. And this fight is rooted in a spiritual battle of good versus evil. That's what this is ultimately all about.

And so when Reagan would visit the Soviet Union, he understood that this was not a political fight. That this was a fight against good versus evil. That's what the fight was really all about. And it really troubles me because we have a society now and we have a political system that does not understand this is ultimately About about religion. That our problems here.

That our problems here. are not going to go away because of a political decision. Our issues are rooted in Christianity. Our issues are rooted in whether or not we're going to get back to the foundational beliefs of our nation. that we are one nation under God.

Are we going to get back to the foundation that was created by our founding fathers who said that our nation is our nation's government is wholly inadequate for anyone other than a moral and religious people? Ronald Reagan understood that.

Well William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of the modern conservative movement, he understood that. But we don't want to talk about that anymore. And so when it When you have conservatives, and I mean nothing, I mean no disrespect towards Congresswoman Nancy Mace, but when you get up there and you crack jokes, you crack sex jokes at a prayer breakfast and you just laugh it off, and then you turn around and you laugh it off on national television on Fox News channel, you're making a mockery of who we are. as as a people, as conservatives.

That's all. And so, anyway, getting back to Ronald Reagan, he was a deeply religious man, and that is something I have discovered over these past couple of years, reading his writings, reading the text of his speeches, reading the letters he wrote. He was a voracious writer of letters, Ronald Reagan was. And it was flavored in his faith.

Now, it may not have been the faith that you see on the television evangelist channels. But it was a deep and abiding faith in God. And it may not, look, it may not be your Southern Baptist faith or your Pentecostal faith, but it was a deep and abiding faith in God. And he understood who he was. He was comfortable in his skin.

And Reagan was able with that incredible voice and his. Theatrical background was able to bring to life some of the major concepts. that we understand to be conservatism today. And for that, I think we should all be grateful. Anyway, all that to say, gotta get Michael Reagan's book.

I've got a chapter in my new book coming out in March, and it's one of my favorite chapters. Because it tells the story of a letter that Ronald Reagan wrote to his father-in-law as his father-in-law was nearing the end of his life. And it was just an incredibly moving letter that Ronald Reagan penned from the Oval Office. But it wasn't about politics, it was about faith and family, and what is true love. And by the way, if you have not Taking a moment to go out to Santa Barbara and to visit the Reagan Ranch, go out to visit the Reagan Library.

just right outside of Los Angeles, I would encourage you to do that. It will really inspire you and take your kids and take them through the history of the man who. really did make America great again. And it's just a great story. All right.

Well, my apologies for the phone issues, folks. We're going to get those sorted out. We will be back here tomorrow. In the meantime, head over to ToddStarnes.com. We will have the podcast uploaded here momentarily.

And, of course, we've got great content for you to check out there at ToddStarnes.com. Kalo Park and our great team of writers have been working throughout the day to bring you those stories. All right, folks, it's been a great day. You keep your radio dial set right to where it is for incredible. Talk Radio right here in the good old United States of America.

It's been a lot of fun, folks. Get out there again, ToddSterns.com and check out all of our great content. Want to thank our great team here in Memphis at our flagship station, KWAM. All right, folks, be good, America. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la