Elon Musk: Speaker Johnson's Bill Should Not Pass

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Tell Congress to guard your card, because Americans lose when politicians choose. Learn more at guardyourcard.com. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun-toting, Bible-clinging, deplorable American. That's us, that's right. I love this American ride.

Todd Starr. Oh, yeah.

Well, hello everybody. I hope you're doing well today. What a mess in Washington, D.C. We should not be surprised. Wow, we've got a lot to talk about today.

And among the big stories of the day, of course, is what's happening in Washington right now with the continuing resolution.

So yesterday, the text of the CR finally dropped. We're talking about more than 1,500 pages. It dropped in the dark of night. Lawmakers are not going to have a time to go through and read the entire thing, but parts of it that have already been seen are not good. And by the way, we had been hoping for and anticipating that the Republicans would be on board to save AM radio.

That legislation was not in this continuing resolution. And I want you to understand what's going on here, ladies and gentlemen. Speaker Mike Johnson has a problem. And I'm really torn here and I'm conflicted. And I'm just, you know, I want to be perfectly honest with you.

I'm getting a lot of blowback from the evangelical Christian community, these religious liberty groups that operate out of Washington. I'm getting a lot of blowback from these people. And they're telling me that I should be supporting Mike Johnson no matter what because he's a Christian. And if I don't, then I'm betraying. It's as if I'm a traitor.

I'm a Benedict Arnold. I'm a Judas. These are the words that they're using to describe yours truly. And I'm just a lovable little cuddle fest here on the radio every day, noon to 3 Eastern. But the reality of it is this, and I have never questioned Micah Pence.

You see, that's the problem. They're one and the same, aren't they? They're one and the same. Mike Pence, Mike Johnson, cut from the same cloth.

Now, I will never question Mike Johnson's religious faith. I do believe him to be a man of deep and abiding faith in God, no doubt about that. But one of the things that bothers me about all of this is that at the end of the day, Mike Johnson has violated the basic tenets of his own faith in God. You know, here's a guy, and the reason why we have to call him out here on this is because Mike Johnson has been using his platform as the Speaker of the House, really as a bully pulpit. and he's been leading people in prayer.

He's been quoting Bible verses. He's been lecturing his fellow lawmakers about their morality. And I got no problem with any of that, none whatsoever. But here is the challenge. If you are going to go out there and hold yourself to a certain standard and you expect your fellow lawmakers to abide by that standard, then when you violate that standard, yeah, we're going to have a come-to-Jesus moment.

And that's what's happened here. Mike Johnson promised over and over and over again we would not have these Christmas Day, Christmas Eve omnibuses drop. He promised us over and over again. Not only did he lie about that, he's also lied about the amount of spending. Folks, this is insane.

It's so crazy. Even the folks in the left-wing media, Punchbowl News, are like, this is a bonanza for Democrats. They're like, what is going on here?

So a couple of things could be true. Mike Johnson is in over his skis, as they say, that he's really not a leader and that he is being influenced by outside people. I want to direct everybody's attention to something that happened early on in the speakership when Johnson was seen walking hand in hand with former Speaker Paul Ryan, the never Trump rhino. and you wonder what exactly was Ryan whispering into the speaker's ear. Because what Speaker Johnson is doing is the exact same thing that Speaker Boehner did, that Paul Ryan did, and by the way, it's the same thing that got Kevin McCarthy booted from the speakership.

So the question is very simple, ladies and gentlemen. Do we need new, fresh leadership going into January. That's when the lawmakers will pick their new speaker, and they're going to have an opportunity to decide, do they want to keep Speaker Mike Johnson, or do they want somebody new? Even Elon Musk is out there saying, you guys can't be passing this. What's wrong with you?

And the reality is that Mike Johnson is going to need a massive number of Democrat votes to get this spending bill through.

So anyway, we're going to play some audio, and we've got a lot of people weighing in on this, and we want to hear from you as well. I want you to write down our telephone number, 901-260-5926. Do we keep Speaker Johnson? Do we boot Speaker Johnson? Or am I being unfair here?

You know, Speaker Johnson says that he is in an unwinnable position. I sincerely disagree. I say if we got to shut down the government, shut down the government and keep it shut down until Donald Trump puts his hand on the Bible on Inauguration Day. Why does Donald Trump need to get saddled with all of this debt? And you're going to hear Speaker Johnson explain his rationale here, and it is so far off base.

Well, you just got to hear it for yourself. Cut four, please. Elon Musk, the world's richest man, just tweeted, this bill should not pass. The only way you're going to be able to pass it now, Mr. Speaker, is with Democrats.

If you could, what's your message to Elon Musk?

Well, I was communicating with Elon last night. Elon and Vivek and I are on a text chain together. And I was explaining to them the background of this. And Vivek and I talked last night about almost midnight. And he said, look, I get it.

He said, we understand you're in an impossible position. Everybody knows that. Remember, guys, we still have just a razor-thin margin of Republicans.

So any bill has to have Democrat votes. They understand the situation. They said, it's not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don't like the spending. And I said, guess what, fellas?

I don't either. We got to get this done because here's the key. By doing this, we are clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda. That's what we're going to run with gusto beginning January 3rd when we start the new Congress, when Republicans, again, are in control. And all of our fiscal conservative friends, I'm one of them, will be able to finally do the things that we've been wanting to do for the last couple of years.

Right now, Democrats still control the pens, and that's the problem.

So we've got to get this thing done so we don't have the shutdown, so we get the short-term funding measure, and we get to March where we can put our fingerprints on the spending. That's when the big changes start, and we can't wait to get there. I don't believe that one bit, ladies and gentlemen. I don't believe any of it. This is absolutely insane.

That's what's going on here. And they have no intention. This is business as usual. And let me warn all of you folks about something. If, in fact, if, in fact, the Republicans pass this, they will lose their majority in numbers in the House of Representatives.

That's it. 901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926.

So the folks over at Fox and Friends were asked whether or not this was going to cost him his job moving through this 1,547-page continuing resolution, cut 25. You know, Mr. Speaker, you've got a very slim majority right now, a slim majority in the new Congress next year. Do you have any concerns that this deal will impact the vote for your speakership to continue, or might this cost you the gavel? No, I don't think it will.

Well, I mean, look, we have a series of difficult choices, and it doesn't matter who the speaker is. We'd be facing the same exact dilemma. We've tried to navigate this as best as possible and chosen the least of the bad options in front of us. No one wants to spend $110 billion, but when you have emergencies that are actually, as they're legally called, acts of God, these are not man-made disasters, they're outside of our control, and there's a certain principle that the federal government has some role to play.

So we don't like that. We don't like spending money. But in a case like this, you know, to be frank, it would be the red states that are left out. It would be the rural areas. You know, Democrats don't have a big priority on the agriculture community because they don't have that in their districts.

These are Republican states and Republican districts, and we would be derelict in our duty if we didn't take care of them.

So that's the part of this that is uncomfortable for people. We don't like spending money, but we have to do it responsibly. Ladies and gentlemen, this is so bogus. that argument. And again, they're using the farmers of America and the victims of the hurricane to shove through this massive spending bill.

And that's all it is. Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for all of us to finally say, are we going to be fiscal conservatives or are we going to be tax and spend Republicans? But I am telling you right now, Speaker Johnson nearly cost the Republican Party the majority in the House in 2024. And I can promise you this, if he remains Speaker of the House and he continues to play footsie with the Democrats, we're going to lose. It really is that simple.

All right, we've got to take a quick break here. Opening up the phone lines, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

This is the Todd Stern Show. Folks, hang on tight because we're heading into one of the most critical elections this nation's ever seen. And let's be honest, there's no guarantee it's going to go your way. We've already seen how far the radical left will go to push their agenda. If Kamala Harris takes the White House, you can expect more government control, higher taxes, and a full-blown assault on your freedoms.

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Priority Gold makes it easy to diversify into physical gold, silver, and platinum, but you've got to act fast. Text GOLDEN to 24999 for your free guide. Keep your retirement golden. Text GOLDEN to 24999 now. All right, so while all of that is going, while Speaker Johnson is trying to screw the American people, and by screw, I'm using the biblical definition, we have another situation brewing where the House Ethics Panel secretly voted to release the findings on Matt Gaetz.

Now, for the record, Matt Gaetz may in fact be a sleazeball, but he is not a criminally charged sleazeball. And under the U.S. Constitution, you are allowed to be a sleazeball. It's there somewhere, I don't know, in the Bill of Rights.

So anyway, the House Ethics Committee, and again, privately, secretly, they took a secret vote. They didn't even have the courage to stand up and put their names out there. This is insane.

So anyway, Matt Gaetz just released a statement, and I want to share this with you. The Biden-Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations. I have committed numerous, various crimes. I was charged with nothing, fully exonerated, not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.

Do we know who was on the ethics, House Ethics panel? Ben Deeter, let's hunt down those names. I can imagine, though, that there are a lot of people that hate Matt Gaetz up on Capitol Hill. Um, then going on to read here, then the very witnesses DOJ deemed not credible were assembled by house ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross-examination or challenge from me or my attorneys.

So it's basically he's saying this is like the grand jury where you're not getting both sides. You're getting one side. Mr. Gates goes on to say, I've had no chance to ever confront any accusers. I've never been charged.

I've never been sued. instead house ethics will reportedly post a report online that i have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body and here's where it gets interesting ben deter and i'm curious to hear your thoughts because you're a younger guy i mean this guy was what is it gates now is in his what how old is matt gates he's what in his 40s before the the facial work well the face the eyebrows are new but the rest of it is a little um i think he's probably pushing 40 close to 40 all right anyway um the guy goes on to say matt gate says in my single days i often sent funds to women i dated even some women i never dated but who i asked so i want to stop there for just a moment is that normal in the dating world uh guys would you normally send i mean well he said he said often send funds to women that he dated, and even some he never dated. But who asks? What lucky girls? You just ask a member of Congress?

Matty Pooh, Matty, I need some cash. And he zapped him the Zelle, the payment, the Venmo. There's a phrase. What do you call it when you send a woman money and then you ask to go out on a date with the person that you sent money? There's a term that's on the tip of my tongue.

I know it'll come to me. Be careful, Tom. I'm just saying. I'm going to stop you. It could be desperado.

He could be desperate.

Some people are that desperate that they have to pay women to date them. Oh, that's true.

So, like, I wouldn't go out with you if you pay me a million dollars. And so he gives them a million dollars. And then they show up.

Okay, Maddie Poo. Yeah, could be. I don't know. That's just weird. Or it may be normal.

I don't know. In the Gen Z millennial dating world, you guys do some freaky stuff.

So maybe guys in that era, instead of just asking a woman out on your good, you know. You have to keep reading this statement. I'm getting it.

Okay. Here we go.

So anyway, in my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated, even some I never dated but who asked. I dated several of those women for years. I never, all caps, had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court, which is why no such claim was ever made in court. My 30s were an era of working very hard and playing hard, too.

It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank, and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now. Do you, though? Do you? The eyebrows are telling.

You can tell. But at least I didn't vote for CRs that blank over the country. Whoa, where did that come from? That escalated quickly.

well and look again this goes back to an issue should we should the private lives of our lawmakers really matter all that much i mean does it really if matt gates you know i think everybody back home in the district knew that matt gates paid women to have well you know anyway um because we'll call it playing hard that that's his words okay okay he did he played hard so i mean everybody back in the district knew who Matt Gaetz was. It's not like they were voting for a Catholic priest who turns out to be doing whatever, right? They knew this guy.

So my question is, why does it really matter? It should only matter to the people back in his congressional district. But the reality is there are a lot of other people up on Capitol Hill that are doing the exact same thing that Matt Gaetz is doing. The only difference between those people that are having the affairs and the ragers and the parties, the difference between them and Matt Gaetz is Matt Gaetz is hated by everyone.

Now, Todd, remember when the news came down that he was not going to be Trump's AG pick? He withdrew his name and you said something. Could this be 3D chess? Because now you look at this guy, He is out of a job. He's no longer a Congress member.

And the double whammy, they're now releasing the health ethics report. Could be. I mean, and I think that's unfair. And again, I mean, this is Matt Gaetz admitting this is who he is. All right.

But when he lays all of this out, he's done nothing criminal at all. Nothing criminal. and I know they're going to be we're going to go to the calls here because I I know people get upset why are you picking on Matt Gaetz first of all I'm not picking on Matt Gaetz I'm reading through the statement that he just released and I have to tell you it is somewhat surprising to know that he paid women to go out on dates yeah on an unserious topic Todd you you've gone on some dates you've never had to pay anybody to go on a date no and I don't have Matt Matt Gaetz's mighty fine eyebrows i don't so i mean you know i i'm just curious all right 901-260-5926 what do you think about this folks if they release the ethics report on matt gates they got to release everybody else's too 901-260-5926 this is the top start show by pillow is excited to announce their christmas extravaganza is finally here get this season's flannel sheets for as low as 59.98 they won't last long so get them while you can their famous my slippers those haven't been on sale for over a year normally 119 dollars but for a limited time only 59.98 and their six-piece towel sets are back in stock with extremely limited quantities only 29.98 with hundreds of my pillow products there's something for everyone on your christmas list from bath robes duvets quilts down comforters and so much more go to my pillow.com or call 1-800-839-8506 and be sure to use promo code starns to save on all my pillow products that's promo code starns lanel sheets for as low as 59.98 or the six-piece towel sets for just 29.98 but that's not all they're extending their 60-day money-back guarantee until march 1st 2025 plus all orders 75 or more ship absolutely free And welcome back to the Todd Stearns Radio Show. That ought to be our national anthem. Rocky Top, ladies and gentlemen.

The official fight song for the Tennessee Volunteers. And the Vols are going to be playing Ohio State in the first round of the college football playoffs. That's this weekend, isn't it, Dylan? I believe so, yeah. Yeah, Saturday.

Congratulations, by the way, to the Memphis Tigers finishing their season 11-2. They put a whoopin' on West Virginia last night. They sure did. What is it, in the Frisco Bowl? Scooter Browns coffee or something?

I don't know. It is the coffee bowl, yeah. Not Hooters, but Scooters. Not quite, yeah. But, man, what a great ending for the season for the Memphis Tigers.

Is that the first time in history they've gone 11-2 or at least a long time? I think we went 11-2 in 2019 when we made the Cotton Bowl.

Okay, gotcha.

So we went from the Cotton Bowl to the – This coffee bowl. Cooter. No, that Cooter is a character on the Andy Griffith Show. Scooter is the coffee company. Yes.

So anyway, there is a fascinating story. Wyatt Cox from our friend in Nevada, the Nevada Talk Network, sent me this item. And I have to confess, I didn't believe it, guys. And Dieter, you've actually done the research here. It turns out that Tennessee fans, and by the way, the game is going to be in Columbus.

And Tennessee fans are downloading an app that controls Waffle House jukeboxes, and they're spending tons of money to continuously play Rocky Top at the Waffle Houses in Columbus. Let's take a listen to the local report. The pregame trash talk and tricks are already underway between fans from Tennessee and Ohio State.

Now, using the app TouchTunes, Vol fans are already toying with the ears of fans in Columbus. We saw online Vol fans were using the app to remotely play Rocky Top on repeat in jukeboxes at bars near Ohio State. And we confirmed that's true. We called eight bars near the OSU campus and two said, yep, it's happening. When we called Varsity Club, you see the video, Rocky Top was blasting in the background.

Thanks to Tony for the proof. We call that an early win for Vol Nation. And then, late tonight, we see this on Wikipedia. We're hearing so much about Vol fans making the trip to Ohio for that away game. Look at the nicknames on the stadium.

The Horseshoe, the Shoe, and oh, yes, what is that? Neyland North? We call that win number two for Vol Nation tonight. I think this is brilliant. This is the best story of the day, Ben Dieter.

I just can't even imagine you're chilling in Columbus, Ohio. These are my stopping grounds. I don't know who's more loyal. The fan bases? I mean, Ohio State, those people can be nasty over their sports teams.

It's a Buckeye. How do you get excited about a bucket? What the heck is a Buckeye anyway? Buckeyes are delicious. Watch it.

It's a food? Yes, it's a little chocolate ball. Peanut butter and chocolate. A little pellet that comes out of the back side of the wazoo of a pigeon or something. Are we dropping this information that you can actually download an app and a Waffle House near you?

You could start playing the Todd Starnge. That's crazy technology. This is amazing. That's right.

So you could, at this very moment, you can download the Waffle House app and you can play. It costs money, I reckon, but you can play songs on the jukebox in that particular Waffle House. I think this is a brilliant strategy. I mean, Rocky Tech, could you imagine? You've got all these Ohio State people, and they're sitting there eating their hash browns.

They're scattered, smothered, and covered. And all of a sudden, they're about to put the food in their mouth, and all of a sudden, this plays. I need to spit that out right now. Can you imagine the people from Ohio? Marge, Marge, I can't believe this, Marge.

They're playing that Rocky Top music, Marge. I think that's how they talk in Ohio. They should play the creepy version. Oh, do we have the creepy version? Let's find the creepy version because you're right.

That kind of creeps me out. I'm kind of thinking it takes you back to deliverance days. Whenever I hear the creepy version of Rocky Top, I'm looking around for a squealing pig and a guy playing a banjo. What's the creepy version of Rocky Top? You're about to hear it.

Oh, Lord. It's insane. But anyway, you've got these. Sure enough, I'm called the app up here, and they've got all sorts of songs. There are Raisins in My Toast, Waffle House Family, Good Food Fast, a song called Burt.

I'm not familiar with that one. But look, what a clever way. What a clever way to have a little bit of fun before the big football games. It's next-level trolling. It is.

I have to imagine our friends in Youngstown, Ohio, are not too pleased with us right now. But it's football time. All right, here is the creepy version of Rocky Top. We started our last year. Thank you.

All right, I'm nervous. I just have visions of city folk getting chased around in the hills and hollers by people with no teeth wearing overalls. It's actually a pretty cool intro. It is. Well, anytime you're in a – yeah, if you're up in Knoxville, you got to go.

There's nothing quite like it, especially if you love the color orange. All right, 901-260-5926. Remember, that's 901-260-5926. I want to go back to this Matt Gaetz story for just a moment here. I think it's incredibly unfair.

The poor guy is not even in Congress anymore. He quit. He resigned. And now this is what we call in the business payback. They're trying to destroy Matt Gaetz now for whatever else he is about to do, whether he's running for governor or, oh, he's got the, oh, what's that TV network?

One American News. OAN. And this, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's going to is that going to come up on the nightly newscast?

No, I don't think I don't. I don't know. That's going to put them on between a rock and a hard place. But look, here's the deal. Matt Gaetz, it doesn't really matter what he did.

And he's admitting to doing all of these things, dating multiple women, drinking, carousing, smoking. There's nothing criminal here. But I love what Congressman Tim Burchett of East Tennessee said. And, you know, by the way, I'm going to get sidetracked here. I wonder if Congressman Burchett is literally downloading the Waffle House app right now.

And just I can imagine he has many triggered people from Ohio. But anyway, Tim Burchett earlier today said, you know what? Not only is this wrong to release this ethics report, because, again, he's never been charged with a crime at all. There's nothing there. These are all rumors and allegations and innuendo.

but but tim burgeon says what we ought to do is release every single ethics report that has ever been conducted against a member of congress i love that idea i mean and you look at the other house members i mean i guess liz cheney is no longer a house member because she she lost so dramatically But you look at actual crimes that are being committed I mean there moral crimes and then there are actual crimes. And you have Republicans and Democrats that play cover for people like Liz Cheney, while at the very same time they're pearl clutching over Matt Gaetz for, I don't know, some improprieties in his personal life. It's the double standard. But again, I wouldn't even call them improprieties. I mean, these are things that people do.

And it depends on really your view, your definition of morality. I mean, this may be inappropriate. I may find this to be inappropriate, but you know what? I'm not living Matt Gaetz's life. And again, I mean, if he's a preacher in a Baptist church, yeah, that's probably problematic behavior for most preachers in Baptist churches.

you know you know the preacher's hanging out with the alto section a little bit too much just saying but all all that to say this is a guy are you telling me that nobody on capitol hill smokes drinks fornicates you're telling me nobody will put capitol hill yeah well and the other thing is why reverse because they had come out and they said they are not going to release this House ethics report. Why now? And they're doing it secretly. That's really what bothers me. Come on, people.

Be a man. Be a woman. Come on. All right. Here is Thomas Massey.

You got to love the congressman from the Commonwealth. He just tells it like it is. He doesn't care. We do the same thing here um he posted some video on x and he you're gonna hear speaker johnson at the very beginning of this promising that he was never ever ever ever ever ever going to do what he just did cut 22 we have um we have broken the christmas omni and i have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition.

So there won't be a Christmas omnibus.

Somebody asked me in the hallway a little while ago, will there be many buses? We don't want any buses. We're not going to do any buses, okay? Listen, I've seen this play call like four times in the seven years I've been in Congress. They've punted the ball until December 20th.

And what they'll do is they'll come in a closed room with us and they'll say, okay, now we've got the really big omnibus. And if you vote for this, you can go home for Christmas. But if you don't vote for it and it fails, we're going to make you stay here over Christmas and New Year's. And it's almost like a dystopian future. I've been in the closed room where they start chanting, vote, vote, vote, vote.

And people run up there and vote for something they've not read. CR, CR, CR. Oh, you want to go home for Christmas? We'll vote for this. And we'll let you go see your families and your new grandbaby.

And you can watch your two-year-old open presents. but if you don't you're going to stay here with your leadership and their leadership and wait for a bunch of geriatric senators to send over the answer by the way I made another prediction that it would end right before Christmas that it wouldn't go until next spring because we've talked about this on your show Brian for as long as I've been coming on your show which is at least 12 years every year Every year, every year, they do the same play. Christmas. Christmas Eve shutdown panic because here's what they're doing. They're taking our families hostage, the families of congressmen.

Congressman in Washington, D.C., on December 20th, which is when this CR expires, and they're going to either put another worse CR that's probably going to have Ukraine and everything else attached to it, or they're going to do the full-on omnibus, depending on how the election comes out. They're going to do that on December 20th, and the congressman, they're going to smell those jet fumes from DCA, the Ronald Reagan Airport, and the combination of the fumes from those airplanes wafting over to the Capitol and this CR expiring then. They're going to start chanting, vote, vote, vote, and they will vote for anything you put in front of them because the speaker always comes and says, doesn't matter who the speaker is. they always say if you vote for this you can go home and open presents with your family and if you don't vote for this we're going to be here over christmas because the optics are bad and just go ahead and tell your families pack up those presents and bring in washington dc if they want to be with you at christmas no nobody's going to bring their family to dc over christmas so they're you basically they're like the grinch yeah some people call me nostratomus uh for predicting this but the reality Brian, we could go back. It's a lot of work.

Oh, my God, yeah. We could go back on your radio show. We could find clips of me predicting this every year. It's not a prediction. It's just how the swamp works and the uniparty works.

Listen, Congress being surprised by the fiscal deadline of September 30th is like a florist being surprised by Valentine's Day. It happens every year. Prepare for it. All right. By the way, some of the things you need to be aware of, Congressman Eric Burleson, who was on the show yesterday, says this is a total dumpster fire.

And it's shameful that people that celebrate Doge are coming in and we're about to vote for another billion dollars to be added to the deficit. He says it's quite ironic. I want you to write down the telephone number. This is the switchboard right now at Capitol for the U.S. Capitol, 202-224-3121.

That's 202-224-3121. And you need to be reaching out to your lawmakers. Here's what Speaker Johnson allowed in this bill. You ready for this one? It allows for vaccine and mask mandates.

So anyway, that means if this goes through, you will be forced to get the vaccine. You will be forced to mask up. Also, it calls for vaccine passports and expanded emergency powers and gain-of-function research. You can't make this up. All right, got to take a break here, folks.

901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

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so president trump looking at the possibility of backing away from something he suggested on true social the president early on was talking about getting rid of tiktok and it's been a big concern especially among conservatives about the the china about china's influence in TikTok. The New York Post is now warning President Trump not to save TikTok. And they've got a story titled, Mr. President, Don't Sell Out. The New York Post argued that Trump would be guilty of selling out and hypocrisy if he stepped in to save TikTok.

Again, they're publishing all of this in an editorial. Trump supported a ban on TikTok, but he changed his tune on the 2024 campaign trail. More recently, he met with TikTok's CEO at Mar-a-Lago and told reporters he has a warm spot in his heart for TikTok. The post says the app is a Chinese state influencer op and you were elected on a promise to get tough when social media companies collude with governments. After making note of the noises Trump has been making about how he might throw the company a lifeline.

The ban set to take effect on January 19. New York Post very concerned about this.

So anyway, what do you think here, folks? Should President Trump stand up for TikTok or should he allow TikTok to be banned here in the United States? 901-260-5926, our number. That's 901-260-5926.

I'm not on TikTok a lot. That's just not my jam. I've got my hands full on the Facebook and the X page.

So I don't have that much of an issue. I will say this. It's been very instrumental, very instrumental in rooting out all of these moron wackadoodles in our nation's public education system.

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Visit joinshareright.org for health care done the right way. That's joinshareright.org. ShareRite is a program of IHS, one of the fastest growing health care sharing organizations in the country. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's Common Sense Conservative Commentary from Todd Starr. That's us, that's right.

I love this American ride. All right. Welcome, everybody. Happy to have you with us. Hour two of the big show.

coming up we're going to be talking to congressman ralph norman he is fired up republicans so upset over speaker johnson who by the way speaker johnson says that he doesn't like the spending bill he knows republicans don't like the speaking bill or the the uh the spending bill but the democrats do and that's why he's pushing it through folks you cannot make this up absolutely unbelievable.

So we're going to be talking to the congressman about that in just a little while. Also, FEMA is getting a lot of blowback now over in Tennessee and Western North Carolina, where a lot of the citizens have just thrown up their hands. They said, we have got to rebuild our homes.

So now FEMA is threatening Tennessee residents with stop work orders, fines, and penalties for rebuilding their homes after the hurricane. FEMA is also now demanding residents obtain a special floodplain development permit before they can fix their homes if they live in one of these flood zones. This is unbelievable. You know, there were Amish people that came down and the Amish folks, they were building houses, these little tiny homes for people, doing some incredible work. And they were ordered to cease and desist because they were in violation of whatever county, whatever kind of state codes were there.

It's unbelievable what's going down. I'm just telling you, this is crazy. By the way, if you want to join this hour of the program, give us a call, 901-260-5926. Again, that's 901-260-5926. I want to talk about something that happened last night in Memphis, and it is making national news.

There has been a big controversy on the school board.

Now, Memphis is the largest school district in the state of Tennessee. They get tens of millions of our tax dollars. The schools are in disrepair. 70 of the third graders can't even read on a the at the third grade reading level and now you have a situation where they're about to go through the they've had four superintendents in 10 years and they're about ready to fire the current superintendent now some background and Ben Dieter I know you've been covering this and it's been a huge story uh on KWAM our flagship radio station but what i find interesting about this story is you've got a majority of the school board um is female so and most of the females are are black women and you have this dynamic and this was people were talking about this last night it was like a a media movie gone wild they almost had a riot at the school board meeting last night i was just shocked that there were no injuries I've never seen anything like it. I was looking for a weave, you know, just like, you know, I mean, there was that level of like anger and hostility and violence.

Yeah. It looked like one of those videos you see of fights at Walmart. And it's all over a woman who was just asked to come in and be a superintendent and get these kids to be able to read. Imagine that. Her name is Dr.

Fagans, and she's been here, what, six, seven months, however long, not very long. And she came in and almost immediately she has rejuvenated the school system. As a matter of fact, there's a big truancy problem in Memphis.

So you know what she was doing? She was going door to door. She got the list of the truant kids and she was going to knock on their doors. That's a superintendent. Dragging them from their bedrooms to the classroom.

Brilliant. It's unbelievable. Teachers love this woman because she's going in and she's getting rid of the rot that's at the district headquarters office firing a lot of people, and she's doing what she was hired to do. And now the black women on the school board are enraged over this very successful, very highly educated, well-qualified black woman. Can I throw a couple of stats in there?

You mentioned truancy, which is kids not showing up. Over 50% truancy rate in this school district. That means one out of two kids are not going to school. Seven out of ten kids in this school district are unable to read. They're straight up illiterate.

And don't even get me started on the math proficiency scores. It's unbelievable. So a guy last night calls out. They all seem to agree. Everybody was in general agreement.

And it was so packed. They had people. Almost 100 people were outside the school board standing in the rain last night. They wouldn't let him in. And while these outraged parents, because the parents love the school superintendent, they're like, our kids are finally learning.

And you want to fire this woman? And here's a guy, cut number 11, please. It's 23 kids in the classroom with one teacher. And we're not sitting here talking about that, right? We're sitting here before Christmas trying to vote this lady out of office, which is eight women up here, right?

one white lady, not racist, that means we can't come together to do nothing. We can't come together to do nothing to save our life. It's a shame for God for Christmas that we're sitting up here for the vote this lady out. And my son, autistic now, 23 students is in one classroom.

Now, if something happened to my son, and I am a struggling father. You see, I work. The police just left out the neighborhood busting somebody. I could have been one of those guys after her. But I'll make sure my son gets to school and from school.

But y'all gonna vote this lady out. All you women up here can't even get along. And y'all showing the community what's really going on, though. It's sad, though. It's really sad, though.

Yes, yes, it is indeed sad. Here's one of the female ladies, cut 14. I've never seen a group of selfish people in my life. That lady come here to do her job. Everything she done, you all have crucified this lady for everything.

Everything. She go right, y'all. Every time she ties you, y'all untied. You all are the most selfish people I have ever seen. I'm going to file a petition.

I want every last one of y'all from up there. You all are incompetent to run this board because y'all don't think about these kids. Nothing y'all doing is about the kids. Everything is about you all. This is not about the kids.

This is about y'all. Because why are we right here right before Christmas having a meeting about getting rid of the superintendent? Make it make sense. Y'all selfish as hell. Oh, my.

Oh, and then, I mean, people were yelling and screaming. They called in the authorities. I mean, there really was a near riot last night. And you have one of the, there are two men, or is it two or three men on the school board, and they were terrified. They're terrified of those women.

They didn't speak. No, except for this one, and he said, we need some decorum up in here. And we're like, decorum? What is decorum? I think he meant decorum, but we need some decorum up in here.

Thank you, sir. uh let's go to david in east memphis listening to us on kwam david what do you make of what happened last night well i was just amazed at first off none of them know robert's rules of order they had to ask parliamentarian practically every sentence what they needed to do next which was kind of embarrassing but i'll give them a pass on that i've been in a lot of meetings sometimes you don't know the rules but then the chairperson when she read that statement um that was kind of like she read it about a second grade level and i was going what is going on we've got a person here she doesn't even know the superintendent's name she can barely read and this is our school board i mean that was an embarrassment if somebody watches that if any person with any discernment or any type of uh just neutrality watches that meeting and don't come away a little concerned or unnerved by what is leading the schools, they've got something wrong with them. I was just watching and going, I've never watched this before. I'm going to sit down and take a look at this. I was shocked.

I mean, that woman can barely read, and that's the chairperson. And then not even knowing. How many people you worked with and after eight months you don't know how to pronounce their name? I mean, seriously, that was horrible. Kamala Harris.

Yeah, but she changes that every week, to be fair. I mean, you can't – I don't know if you can use that one because she changed it. No, it's not depending on what audience she's in front of. But, no, that was – I just thought that was an embarrassment. I think you had a few good people there, McKissick, laying next to her.

Can I recall her name off the top of my head?

Well, I think the issue here, David, is that this is happening in every major American city where these school systems are not educating the kids. And I felt bad for the parents. Those were passionate parents who showed up. This was a last-minute emergency call meeting because they wanted to fire this woman for doing her job. And it just seems to me that the parents and the kids deserve better.

And at one point, the school board said, we don't work for you. We work for the children. We don't come to your workplace and act like that. You shouldn't come to ours. But the reality is they work for us.

They've got it all mixed up in their heads here. and I'm telling you folks it is an ugly situation that's happening here in Memphis Tennessee a day we got to run thank you so much for that call 901-260-5926 that's 901-260-5926 all right we're going to take a quick break when we come back Congressman Ralph Norman joins us from the House Freedom Caucus it's absolutely insane what Speaker Johnson is is about to do to this country We'll be right back. I don't really like working. I'm going to need a priority parking space. I only work remotely.

How are your safe spaces? Can I bring my dog to work? Will your company protect me against microaggressions? You're triggering me. Is this interview almost over?

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That's 833-880-0600 for a free consultation. RedBalloon.org. All right, want to go right away to our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Congressman Ralph Norman from South Carolina joins us. Congressman, we appreciate you joining us today.

I know it's a busy day for you guys up on Capitol Hill. I want to get your reaction to something that Elon Musk just shared on X. He said any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years. What say you? He is exactly right.

There's no reason that anybody should vote for this bill. I mean, Todd, to put a 1,547-page bill that's affecting the American people's tax dollars and the spending with no offsets is completely ridiculous. And we're violating the 72-hour rule to try to read it. The best speed reader could not comprehend this bill, nor can it add up all of the cost on it. And I'm very disappointed.

And guess what they snuck in? A pay raise for Congress. If you add the people are paid for performance, not for the amount of money you have lost. The return on investment of Congress is a minus $38 trillion.

Now, I'm living over the thing. I really am. It'll probably pass on suspension. It did not come through rules. and you know if if we had an opportunity and we should it ought to be voted down and we sit up here until we come up with a conservative spending spree with pay for us because the only thing the administration has done has has done the american people in a good way is things that we can cut I mean, it's been a total disaster.

So very upset about it. We've had meetings all day with it, with the Freedom Caucus. And, you know, obviously we're voting against it. But it's so sad to even have to consider this. I hate to say this, but I think Speaker Johnson has to go.

I'm just I'm tired of you can call it what you want. We were pretty straightforward here on this show. He lied. He's been you know, he promised that he wouldn't do this. And he did it.

And I got a big problem with that.

Well, not only that, Todd, he kept saying we're going to fight next next time. We're going to fight next year when Trump's in office. I'm sorry. We just formed a person. Trump formed a dose commission.

How does this not fly in the face of total contradiction of what the dose commission is trying to do? And I really appreciate Elon Musk weighing in on this. And it's a travesty that the American people are having to endure this if it passes. It may not, and I hope it doesn't. And look, and I've told Mike Johnson this, to say that we will not shut the government down for any reason.

No businessman would say that. If it means shutting the government down, you do it rather than spend this country into oblivion, which is what's happening in front of our eyes. Sadly, President Trump, the president-elect with even more debt and a lot of things that we're not going to be able to wiggle out of. I've got a big problem with the whole vaccine mandates and all that nonsense that's come out.

Well, look at the DEI stuff that should be done away with. Look at the aid to foreign countries. Look at the – and this isn't all bad, but I realize the farmers are in trouble. There's $39 billion for them. the disaster aid for North Carolina and other things.

But, you know, disaster relief is something you budget for. It's something you put money away for, not every time it happens have to go to the bank and go to the federal government and print more money.

So total disaster, to be honest with you, and obviously not supporting it. Is it a simple majority that's all they need to get this thing through the House? No, you've got to have a supermajority. If you've gone through the Rules Committee, which I'm on, it would take a 50% plus one. But here you've got to have a supermajority.

But the Democrats have got a lot of pork in this that they want, and Republicans. But, you know, again, it flies in the face of what we're trying to do, which is to rein in government and rein in useless programs that the Dose Commission is going to hopefully do. But this bill is opposite that. And anybody that votes for it is going to have to own up to every single line item in this, which I don't think they want the people to know. I'm just really concerned.

I truly believe that Speaker Johnson was almost responsible for you guys losing your majority in the elections. People are not happy with congressional Republicans right now Congressman And I think this is going to infuriate the base because they were assured by Speaker Johnson he would not be doing this anymore Well, leaders have to take a position, and you can't worry about what will it take to maintain my speaker role. In other words, I get it that he wants to be speaker and he wants to continue, But this caught us by total surprise. He came to the Freedom Caucus. He's a good listener.

Mike is a good man. But to put this on us, it's not fair to us, and it's not fair for the American people. I hope it goes down in flames. Does Speaker Johnson have your vote in January?

Something's going to have to change. The next question you have to ask is, who would you put up? who would you put up that wouldn't let this type thing happen? It's the same thing we went through with McCarthy. But Johnson was an improvement over McCarthy because he tells you, well, a lot of times he doesn't tell you what he's going to do, which he didn't on this.

But I don't know. It's going to take a lot of us are going to withhold any kind of support for anybody. We'll see what happens on the CR. We'll see how he handles it. We'll see if it goes down.

He ought to hold us for the next two weeks to come up with a conservative budget and send it to the Senate. And the budget has got to have pay-for-us. We've got to have cuts to pay for this spending. And then go home. And if it shuts the government down, so be it.

Yeah, it's that simple. And the American people would stand alongside of him. This is just terrible, just terrible. Congressman, we've got to run for a break. Appreciate the update.

Merry Christmas to you, sir. And folks, hang tight. 901-260-5926. We'll be right back. Balance of Nature Supplements.

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So we are now being told from Elon Musk, any Republican that votes for the CR should face a primary challenge. And I guarantee you he's going to be dumping millions of dollars in cash to take out these Republicans. Chip Roy was on with Glenn Beck earlier this morning. And Chip Roy said he asked for three simple things that he wanted added to the spending bill. But Republicans denied them all.

his own party rejected it all. It's unbelievable. And these are the three things that Chip Roy asked for. You ready for this, folks? An agreement from leadership to follow the 72-hour rule and give legislators 72 hours to read a bill.

That sounds like a pretty darn common sense thing. Republican leadership denied. A vote on returning non-defense spending to pre-COVID levels. It would save $110 billion? Denied.

A ban on selling off the border wall materials? Denied. Congressman Roy said this, this isn't just about leadership being exposed. This is the entire Republican conference. People need to understand that.

We have been preaching this till the cows come home on this program, ladies and gentlemen, that Donald Trump's biggest problem in Washington will be the Republican Party, and now you get to see it for yourself.

So the question is this. Elon Musk says any Republican who votes for this should be primaried. Agree or disagree? 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

Let's go to Paul in North Carolina. Hi, Paul. What say you? Hey, Todd. This is Paul Pagano.

Thank you so much for taking my call. I appreciate it. You guys are great. We listen to you every day. You get a great show.

You get a great staff. First of all, I agree with you. I agree with Elon Musk. They should be primary if they vote for this bill. I got a lot of concerns about this, but the one thing that just irks me is that this is the Democrats' way of leading the Republicans by their nose.

I mean, it's unbelievable. This happened at least seven or eight times in the last three or four years. And it's going to happen again, and it's going to happen again was it stops now and and it aggravates me that you know congressman johnson doesn't have the moral courage to stand up and say no we're going to shut down we're going to go to work and get something right i i don't believe it i i can't believe it um i learned as a young lieutenant in the marine corps that moral courage is a very important thing and you better stand up for when you stand for things that really matter uh because if you don't you're not and be able to look yourself in the mirror. I don't understand how these guys and gals live with each other. Anyway, thank you so much for having me.

All right, Paul, thank you for calling in. Yeah, look, I've been saying this for a very long time now, that there's something not right about Mike Johnson. There's something off. We have a poll up, and several thousand of you weighed in. Should House Republicans replace Speaker Johnson with an America First conservative?

89.5% of you say yes, absolutely. we need to replace Speaker Johnson. And I really see no other way out of this. The man broke promises. He lied to the American people.

Conservatives who are offering very common sense things are being shut down. This tells me that Speaker Johnson is not running the show, that he is the puppet. But I am telling you right now, folks, Elon Musk is serious about this, And he will spend money to boot many of you Republicans out of office. Unbelievable what is happening right now. Just unbelievable.

Oh, by the way, according to Kyle Becker, buried in Section 605 of the spending bill is a little gift to Pelosi's partisan J6 committee.

so if someone like a house office or service provider working for a house office believes a legal request for information would force them to disclose house data they can quickly file a motion with the court to stop or change the request in essence this assures house offices data remains protected and provides a way to challenge legal requests for that data So this could be used to shield J6 committee members accused of deleting records. It just keeps, it's the gift that keeps on coming. And in the next hour, we're going to be talking to Mike Davis about Liz Cheney and whether or not there is a strong case where she could face legal problems because of her involvement on the J6 committee. Jeez, hello. It's just unbelievable.

I want to go back to this school board situation in Memphis. I mean, I have never seen people so outraged over something like this, where a very qualified and competent school board superintendent, a black woman, is being targeted by black women on the school board. And to my knowledge, there's only one white person on the school board. She's Hispanic. But, you know, I'm not sure if that counts as, do they count that as white or Hispanic?

I'm not sure. All right. But everybody else is black. Yeah, it's a lot of dem on dem fighting. A lot of dem on dem, black on black fighting.

Yeah. It's ugly. And people are just fired up because they just want something very simple here. They want their kids to be educated. They want their kids to be able to graduate high school and be able to go to college or go to a trade school.

get a job read a book learn how to make change at mcdonald's these are very simple things and the problem is in the taxpayer funded schools in memphis that's not happening now here's what gets me i i don't know i i've been hemming and hawing about whether or not to bring this up but it bothers me because i got a message earlier today and ben you had on some democrats on your morning show. The Democrats were in the news. People were very upset about this because the Democrats, elected leaders, they were all there last night. They were there and they were speaking out about what they were trying to do to this good and decent school superintendent. I didn't see a single Republican there, not a single Republican leader.

And I tried to explain that. I'm like, well, the reason why we didn't have Republicans on today is because there were no Republicans there. And my question is, where were the Republicans? You've got all these Republicans out there saying they want to win elections.

Well, you've got to show up. And that's like 90% of it is just showing up and letting people know that you actually care, that you really are concerned about what's going on, and you just don't want to show up on Election Day and ask for somebody's vote.

Well, I think for a lot of people, they look at inner city school districts, and this is not just a Tennessee or a Memphis thing, Todd. This is across the country. They look at inner cities and Republicans just think, well, those are voters we will never, ever get. And so they throw up their hands and they walk away. When if you would have watched this school board meeting, it looked like a Moms for Liberty school board protest in Loudoun County.

And they were black Democrats. And where was our side making inroads with a lot of people that want something else? They want something different. Missed opportunity. I would have loved to have seen some Republican elected leaders standing out there in the pouring rain, standing alongside those moms and dads saying, you know what?

We got your back here. My name is so-and-so, and I'm a Republican. You're like, what? I'm a Republican. I've never seen a Republican before.

Yeah. I guarantee you most of these people have never seen a Republican before. Yeah. Well, and it's interesting because the issues are on our side. This is now a issue.

It's the difference between your kid being able to read. It's the difference between your kid being illiterate.

So, Todd, again, we look at all of these issues, whether it be crime. Republicans are for safer streets. Democrats are pro-criminal. You look at the economy. We're lower taxes.

Here's another example where Republicans were siding with children. We're actually being the humanitarians here and saying, As Republicans, we can offer you a better way out of a broken education system. And again, I repeat, this is not just a Tennessee thing. Public schools in America, not all of them, but a lot of them in these big Democrat controlled cities and counties are broken and they are oftentimes very corrupt. I believe our solutions come from Republicans, which is to fix it.

Schools are are the engine driving the change in this country. And if you've got a school district that's underperforming, I mean, if you're 70 percent of your kids can't read or write, that's a problem. And it seems to me that every person on that school board who opposed the superintendent needs to be removed from office. And maybe it's where the state has to come in and do something about it.

Well, again, when you have the school board, Todd, and you watch this for yourself, the school board members can barely read.

So that's a problem. We need some decorum up in here. When you have school board members that can't even get through a script, they're reading off a script, and they're missing everywhere. It's basic phonics. It's the ABC.

It's Dick and Jane book stuff. And they can't even get through that. No wonder these kids can't read. I love this lady who spoke out because the school board members, when the citizens, first of all, they were only allowed to speak for 60 seconds. And as soon as that 60 seconds was off, an alarm went off, and they shut off the microphones.

People were enraged. They're like, wait, because normally you get two or three minutes. Yeah. So you had 60 seconds. That's hard to get your point out in 60 seconds.

But then the board members weren't even looking at these citizens, the people who voted for them and the people that are paying their salaries. By the way, these school board members are getting like 60, 70 grand to sit up there and be ignorant or ignorant, as the case may be. Anyway, check out this lady. Cut number six. I stand before you tonight.

I have come to countless board meetings before tonight. y'all are some not all of y'all and i'm gonna rephrase what some say not all of the board members are disrespectful not all of y'all are selfish some of y'all text all night not listening to what we saying but i tell you y'all love to let the superintendent know that y'all hug boss but we the voters your boss we are we got children can't even read but y'all want to sit here and said we're going to find a superintendent tonight. You're going to tell me, you're going to find a superintendent in the middle of a school year. Y'all had agendas all the time. I done heard from board members way before last night that y'all was going to get rid of Dr.

Fagin's.

So this ain't new. It might be new to some of the board members, but your board members did this before they were sworn in. But we the people going to walk with our feet and we going to keep on fighting and y'all mark my word, we gonna vote. See, there he is. Oh my God, that triggers me.

That's my alarm clock. Jeez. Did you hear the one pastor come in and say, y'all are going to answer to God. Judgment day is coming. We've got that one.

Cut number seven, please. I stand before you this evening. I'm a member of this community. I watch you spend lots and lots of money to find a dignified, capable, competent individual to come in here and run this district. She did exactly what she was hired to do, to come in here and repair the breach, to fix your image out there and put this district together and get it on the right foot and head us in the right direction.

And just like Ms. Griggs said, you have done everything possible to sabotage that. I stand with you and I applaud your efforts. But you remember this. Every one of you sitting up there.

The word says in Luke 12 and 48, to whom much is given, much is also required.

So get ready because there is a day God's coming for you. Believe that. Believe that. Hello. hello standing you be strong oh there it is again stop they did it with every single speaker i watched all of this last night three hours they were there three hours and you don't even have a kid in the school no the whole city is the state is now talking about it i'm a taxpayer and that's the problem here a lot of people have had that mentality i don't have any kids in the school no you're a taxpayer so you do you got skin in this girl we've all got skin in this game and if we could figure out a way to save i just want memphis tennessee my hometown to be a national example of how you can come back from hell and and actually be a utopia educated educated and with that they talk about here's the thing that the left always talks about systemic issues crime systemic issues, poverty systemic issues.

The thing that they always link back to is education.

So if the logic of the left and groupthink is kids must be educated in order to make sure they're not ending up in jail, not going to prison, not carjacking the jewelry store beside where you live, Todd. If the answer is your ABCs, then teach them. And they're not doing that. They're failing them 70 of those students don't know their abcs so it's on those people and not the agents of change which is the superintendent let's go to real quick the phone lines george in jackson tennessee george what's on your mind well um we're on the subject of education this is something that just happened i have a little small business in a shopping center i repair vacuum cleaners and i have different people walked by some of them down and out I tried to help them a guy came by and I said would you go to the store and get me some American cheese and then I was just kind of cutting up I said don't get me no communist cheese and he said what's communist I said wait a minute you don't know what a communist is no he didn't have no idea i swear he he done went through all the grades of high school according to what he said he don't even know what a communist is you're telling me he done went through all the grades of high school and the guy doesn't know what a communist is doesn't know like i said i was just kind of cutting up with him i don't give me some american cheese don't bring me back no communist cheese i love american cheese i do too i'm sitting you're chomping on some but um what is communist cheese now that we're asking i'm just on my back i'm a cut up i'm always saying stuff but don't pay attention to dinner george sorry i'm now hungry he's a gen z-er he's got a kind of little whiny voice anyway Oh, ouch. What's a communist?

What's a communist? All right, George, we got to run. I'm super late for a break. Enjoy your cheese. Oh, geez.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Oh, my goodness. All right, 901-260-5926, our number.

This is the Todd Starr Show. All right, let's go to the phones. Little Rock, Arkansas. Steve on the line wants to weigh in on the budget. Bill, hi, Steve.

What you got for us? Hey, Todd. You've been talking about Johnson all day, and I agree with you 100%. But if you will look back to the election, this is actually the third thing. The way I see it, Congress has only accomplished three things since Election Day.

first thing they accomplished is they got they picked a new majority leader of the senate which wasn't donald trump's pick they picked a mcconnell clone in thume the second thing they accomplished is they however we never the new american people never got to know really because they got matt gates to tap out donald trump's number one pick for attorney general which i think is one of the most important cabinet positions he's going to be picking. And now this is number three thing that they have actually done is they ran through this budget bill again behind closed doors. All I see is the same old stuff. I don't see that they've learned one thing from what the people said. No, Steve, they haven't learned a single thing.

look we're getting a lot of republican reaction from this um we're gonna we're gonna pick this up after the break steve appreciate you calling in uh 901-260-5926 we'll have some breaking news from dc when we come back Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch. That's us, that's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starks.

Well, hello, America. Welcome to the Todd Starks Radio Program. Honored to have you with us today. I want to play some audio here. Just a few moments ago, Congress gal Victoria Sparks shredding Speaker Mike Johnson over the spending bill.

And now she's accusing him of actually conspiring with Democrats. Let's take a listen. Listen, we're a divided government, but we don't have to be rolled by Democrats. Speaker Johnson didn't even talk to moderate Republicans, not just to conservatives. He usually doesn't even care to hear to us.

You know, that's unfortunate. He just made a deal, you know, with Democrats, put a bunch of slush funds, what they wanted, put little things that maybe he can try to push some Republicans to vote and try to sell it as a victory, which is really another, you know, Christmas present to Chuck Schumer. And that's what was expected by Republicans. And he's been dishonest in this. And I think at some point enough is enough.

And if we don't start governing the country, it's a calamity course.

So I hope next Congress will grow the backbone and start dealing with the swamp because fiscally the country is really a huge, huge trouble. I completely agree with you, Congresswoman. And, folks, a lot of people very upset about this. More and more information coming out. We're going to get to that in just a little while.

Elon Musk now says that any Republican who votes for this should be primaried. What say you, ladies and gentlemen? 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

I would like to go right away to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Mike Davis joins us, the founder and president of the Article III Project, A3P. Mike, good to have you with us today. Thank you for having me. Wow, there's so much to talk about.

And real quick, I want to get your reaction to Elon Musk coming out and saying, really putting the brakes on this massive, massive CR that Speaker Johnson is shoving through. Yeah, I mean, here's the problem. The reptiles in Washington, D.C. are not going to drain the swamp. The political branches are not going to drain the swamp.

Why the hell would the reptiles drain their own swamp? The way you're going to fix this government spending is through a 20-year effort that the Article III project my group is leading to get federal judges to look at the Constitution and say, I don't see this federal agency enumerated in the Constitution. Why the hell does it still exist? God, it's unconstitutional. And until we get to that point where federal judges become the plumbers to drain the swamp, we are going to be frustrated every year that we have these CRs because these politicians on both sides of the aisle, their reptiles, are not going to drain the swamp.

We had Congressman Burleson on yesterday, and he's been making some headlines over his outrage over this. He said, we're still under Nancy Pelosi's spending levels. I mean, this is absolute insanity. But to your point, until we start doing something about this deep state and the swamp, it's going to continue, which is one of the reasons why I suspect they're so upset about Kash Patel coming in as the FBI pick. Yeah, Kash Patel is a phenomenal choice by President Trump to lead the FBI.

President Trump ran on the fact that these Democrats have been running lawfare and election interference. They have politicized and weaponized our intel agencies and our justice systems at every level, and President Trump won in a landslide. All seven spring states, 312 electoral votes. He has a mandate to bring serious reforms to Washington, D.C., and to end this weaponization of intel agencies and law enforcement. and there's no one better to do that than Kash Patel.

He was a former public defender. He was a national security prosecutor. He won awards from the Obama Justice Department for his prosecution, so he can't be so bad. He was a top lawyer on the House Intel Committee. He was one of the deputies for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

He was on the White House Security Council. he was the chief of staff of the Pentagon Cash Patel is a serious lawyer a serious national security official he's a reformer, he's bold, he's fearless he's going to be fantastic as the FBI director I remember when President Trump named him everyone said he's dead on arrival well the article 3 project had about 30,000 people call their home state senators and in about three days we gave these senators There's an attitude adjustment. He went from he's dead on arrival to when can cash start in about three days. Mike, I want to switch over to this J6 committee. And my take on this has always been not that Trump was looking for retribution.

It looked to me like he was looking for justice. And these reports coming out about Liz Cheney, maybe if you could explain to our listeners, let's unravel this. What is Liz Cheney now accused of doing?

Well, it sounds like Liz Cheney, when she was on this January 6th bogus committee, she worked with Cassidy Hutchinson and maybe other witnesses to change their testimony under oath, to change their stories. if that's the case we're talking about obstruction of justice we're talking about witness tampering we're talking about perjury sovereign nation of perjury conspiracy these are very serious allegations and if if these if these allegations end up being true Liz Cheney should end up in prison this is insane and we're going to have a congressman ladder milk on the show later this week. She's saying these are lies and defamatory allegations. But again, they've got the smoking gun, these text messages that also involve Alyssa Farah, who was then a part of the administration now with The View.

So this is going to be fascinating to watch. But should Liz Cheney be concerned here? Is she in legal jeopardy? She should absolutely be concerned because if she's working with witnesses to change their testimony, that's, again, soberination of perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, perjury, conspiracy. There's a whole bunch of charges that could flow from that, and I would be very concerned if I were a lawyer.

I would lawyer up. Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project, joining us. Mike, curious, there's been some scuttlebutt over whether or not President Trump should or would actually be able to seek office in 2028 What say you Steve Bannon caused a ruckus We were at the New York Young Republican annual gala on Sunday, and Steve Bannon said that I told him that Trump could run for a third term. Bannon was obviously trolling people. He was calling me the viceroy, which was part of our ongoing troll.

No, President Trump is to not run for a third term. He's not going to run for a third term. This is an obvious troll by Steve Bannon. And it's pretty amusing how easily duped some of these people are. Oh, tons of people are getting duped.

And it's pretty entertaining to watch. Also of equal entertainment value is the conversation about whether or not we should be annexing Canada. and I'm not quite sure where, I think it was a joke, but now I'm not quite sure, Mike. Yeah, I mean, if we're going to annex Canada, I would probably leave Ontario, you know. We don't want all that welfare from the French.

You know, it's interesting culture, but we don't want to deal with, like, with their three-hour work days and constant complaining and cradle-to-grave welfare. But the rest of Canada would be a pretty cool 51st state. Yeah, not too shabby. We'll have to see how all that plays out.

Well, Mike, we appreciate your great work. And again, it's going to be an exciting administration. And real quick, before we let you go, I'm wondering how much of the agenda do you think the president is going to be able to accomplish? There's a lot he wants and needs to get done.

well i mean the president has a very broad bipartisan mandate from the american people to go in and bring serious reforms to washington and at the article three project we are going to be with president trump and every at every step of the way on this we're going to be fighting every day to make sure that president trump and acts to his bold reform agenda so we can put America first, finally.

Something we have not done as a country for almost 80 years.

Well said.

Well said.

Mike, we appreciate your great work. You're just crushing it up, and we really appreciate it. Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article 3 Project. Thanks a lot, Mike. Thank you.

Good man right there, folks. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926.

I got to play some audio from Dick Durbin, who is the Democrat senator. And he was, this is hilarious. He was going after a CNN reporter. Take a listen to Cut26. Members are giving themselves a pay raise.

Do you guys deserve a pay raise?

Well, that's news to me. It's good news. You know, what has it been, 10 years or 14 years and no COA, no change at all? I think it's about time something said. You support giving yourself some papers?

How would I not know about the amount of papers? But, I mean, people look at the performance of Congress and say, why should we give them more money? What about the media? Think about that for a second. And we're not paid by public money.

I know you're not, but, I mean, half of your listeners are not there anymore. You're still getting the same paycheck? What's going on? Geez, hello there. Oh, wow.

Well said, Senator. All right, we've got to take a break. This is the Todd Starnes Show. All right, give me a little intel here on the House Ethics Committee, and it's a 50-50 split.

So, Republic, whoever voted, and again, this was a secret vote, and the committee voted to release the secret findings of this probe into Matt Gaetz. And again, Matt Gaetz hasn't done anything wrong. You may consider it to be immoral, and that's your right. But he hasn't done anything criminal. And so anyway, it's five Democrats, five Republicans.

So one of the Republicans, at least one of the Republicans, sided with Democrats. And I'm going to share these names with you. They're all backbenchers. Chairman Michael Guest, a congressman Republican from Mississippi, Michael Guest. David Joyce of Ohio.

John Rutherford of Florida. Andrew Gabarino from New York. and Michelle Fischbach from Minnesota.

So those are your five Republicans, and we know at least one, maybe more, voted with the Democrats to release this Matt Gaetz information.

So now Gaetz is firing back, and this is great. Here's what Gaetz just wrote on X.

Someone suggested the following plan to me. Show up January 3rd to Congress. Because keep in mind, he quit Congress, right? But he could still take the oath.

So he said, show up January 3 to Congress, participate in the Speaker election. I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all. Number three, take the oath. Number four, file a privileged motion to expose every Me Too settlement paid using public funds, even of former members. Number five, resign and start my OANN program at 9 o'clock Eastern on January 6th.

May I just say, I love this idea. I think this is a brilliant idea. As a matter of fact, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, by the way, that a good many members of Congress over the years have used our tax money to pay off these women, these young boys, known as pages, We know for a fact that money has been used to pay off these kids because of the wrongdoing of elected members of Congress.

So I like this idea. And honestly, especially all you Republicans out there, why would you object to any sort of emotion that would expose all the Me Too settlement money that was paid using our tax dollars? I like this. 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.

that, ladies and gentlemen, would cause chaos on Capitol Hill, and we need a little bit of righteous chaos. And that's what that is, righteous chaos. I feel like we should give something away. You know, Dieter, tomorrow we're doing a full hour of Christmas trivia on this program. It is going to be so much fun.

And I feel like we should do some trivia here. I'm ready. Are you ready? All right. All right, here we go.

Here's the question. Who played – oh, this is one of my favorite Christmas movies. Who played George Bailey in the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life? Who played George Bailey?

Now, if you've won something in the past, you can't call in. We've got to let somebody new win. Who played George Bailey in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life? Give us a call, 901-260-5926, if you know the answer. that's 901-260-5926 have you seen that movie?

I haven't they say it's a classic it's a great movie you should watch it I haven't even seen The Elf yet I'm working on a Christmas movie bingo card of all the classics that I just I don't know I watch all the movies on Netflix that are Christmas but my mom, my dad for example They're like, you've got to watch the Christmas classics.

So I'm going to work on that when I go home to Pennsylvania and try to get some of these Christmas movies that I have never watched that Todd's always telling me to watch. This one, It's a Wonderful Life, actually debuted close to Christmas. It was December 20th, 1946. And there was one. It was a Holiday Inn.

where Bing Crosby, they were singing I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, and that was not actually a Christmas movie.

So we're going to have some fun with our trivia tomorrow. All right. Wow. The phones are lighting up. That's great.

And let me just say this for a teaser. The questions tomorrow are going to be wild for a full hour of trivia, and that is your two to three o'clock hour for those planning in advance because you're not going to want to it's going to be a ton of fun last hour of the Todd Starn show coming up tomorrow full hour of Christmas trivia all right let's go to the phone lines here let's say hello to Jack in Georgia hi Jack how are you today doing good Todd yourself Jack I'm doing well um let's try to win you a prize here um it's a Wonderful Life. Can you tell us who was the screen actor, the star of It's a Wonderful Life, released in 1946? Jimmy Stewart. Yes, sir, Jack, that is correct.

It was the great Jimmy Stewart. You know, they don't make actors like Jimmy Stewart anymore, do they? Not at all. He was awesome man you know he really was and he was also um he served in world war ii by the way for nearly five years and by the way this was his return to the big screen a lot of people didn't realize that but this was the first movie he made after serving in the military in world war ii yes sir jack congratulations we're gonna put you on hold jack and we're gonna get all your information so don't go anywhere and coming up this hour we're gonna we're gonna throw out another fun trivia question but jimmy stewart it's a wonderful life one of the most really powerful movies out there i think and it's a we watch the christmas story and as a matter of fact is that the one with the leg lamp and the stern channel we got the leg lamp we have the leg lamp you have the leg lamp we've got the leg lamp wow yeah it's really bright especially the thigh portion.

So, oh, we got to take a break. 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Starten Show. This Christmas carnival has everything. Games, food.

Oh, my God, it's the carolers from A Christmas Story. Deck the hearts with boughs of hurry. Ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra. That's right, America. Don't forget.

Your beloved holiday movie is incredibly racist. And from not that long ago. Oh, jeez. Family guy. Welcome back to the Todd Stars Radio Show.

Dylan, are you a big... You watch that movie, right? A Christmas Story. yes classic all right i've got a question to ask and let's go hey deter have you seen the christmas story too no okay do you not own a tv what is your problem no i don't you grow up on like a commune or something i churn butter for fun lord all right is that literally churning butter yeah okay um let's be honest dylan have you actually watched the entire thing through one one setting no i actually have i haven't either i get like like 30 minutes in you get it's one of those movies where you just get distracted yeah well you watch it on like christmas day and you're like for me i'm like opening gifts and then like all of a sudden i have to get a shower and go to the families so so that movie it's um it's really become a classic i mean it was over from the 1980s or something. You don't think of that 80s as being classic.

But anyway, that particular scene is pretty fascinating because of the mom's reaction. If you go back and watch it, she's already giggling as they're starting that whole scene set up where they're at the Chinese restaurant and they're ordering and you've got all of the waiters at the Chinese restaurant trying to sing. deck the halls that movie cracks me up all the time so the mom in the the mom here and is um she's laughing she's she's giggling and people thought it was just you know it was just a funny thing but it turns out that they never told her what was about to happen they they never clued her in that they were going to be singing deck the halls the fara or that they were going to chop the head off of the of the was it duck goose yeah that's amazing fascinating it's just a fun bit of trivia because so that laugh was just a genuine authentic laugh that that whole scene was just absolutely insane and your uncle by the way does in fact have the uh the leg lamp it is front and center of the household it really is all right uh we're gonna throw another trivia question out by the way it's come you know christmas is it's weird having christmas on a wednesday it just throws everything off uh but we've got another trivia question to share with you and this one is another favorite national lampoon's christmas vacation oh come on deter you came up with these questions this is this this is an easy one i you tasked me over the break to come up with trivia questions but it's got to be difficult you want to get okay here we go what's the name of the family featured in national lampoon's christmas vacation i don't know is that hard see i told you help me i mean there's other people out there you're not even try it looks like you're not even trying i i mean you pay my salary of course i'm hoping he's trying i just maybe haven't seen that movie and to me that's a really difficult question all right the name of the family featured in national lampoon's christmas vacation 901-260-5926 i think even joe from ellijay knows this let's go to suzy in gainesville georgia wants to talk about mike johnson hi suzy how are you hi todd i'm good and i don't know the answer to that question either but i'm not calling about that i call to wish you and your staff a merry christmas todd and tell you i appreciate you well thank you suzy and you make me laugh well i appreciate that and todd i do not like mike johnson he's a snake in the grass i've been around a few years todd and i just i didn't like him from the get-go he may be a fine christian man but i'd rather have somebody that don't brag about their christian man and can try to balance our budget and quit spending all my money todd than I had somebody like this. It's like that somebody in the church, you know, they're taking up the offering and they're passing the plate and they're taking a few bucks out for themselves as they go. Right, right.

And, Todd, I bet you there is not two men up there in D.C. that haven't done what they accused the Matt Gaetz of doing. Get real. Oh, I guarantee you there's a whole lot worse going down up there, Susie. I really do.

yeah well you just have a blessed christmas up there in memphis and just be safe todd are you going to the inauguration well we're working through that suzy are you going to be up there are you going to go todd i would love to but i've got a chance every day i got this chance on my phone of me and 77 million more people that can go really no i i yeah every day i get this on my phone you got a chance to get two tickets but who left did they send that oh i think that's a i think are they are they are they nigerians i think they may be better better check with the better business bureau suzy yes i just i just close it todd i'll just i'll just watch it on tv and if you are there you just have a wonderful time and you tell me about it when you get back Susie, I'll do it. And, of course, we'll be doing the show regardless whether we're in Washington or here. And, of course, that's going to be happening right smack in the middle of the show.

So we'll have a lot of fun talking about that. It's going to be a great day. Susie, Merry Christmas to you. All right, let's go to Brenda in Iowa.

Now, Brenda, what part of Iowa are you calling from? Waterloo. Waterloo, a fine, fine city. I had so much fun visiting your town, Brenda. Good.

That's good. It's a very nice town, yes. All right, we're going to try to win you a prize, Brenda. By the way, is it cold there? Is it snowing yet in Iowa?

No, we did get it dusting last night. It was our first snow cover. I love it. I can't wait to get some snow here in Memphis. All right, here's the question, Brenda.

We need to know the name of the family featured in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The Griswolds? Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Everybody, come out quick! Look at the lights! Mark! Yes! Brenda, congratulations!

The Griswaltz! Thank you. Brenda, are you... That's a great movie. Isn't it?

It's a lot of fun. But every time we try to cut the turkey on Thanksgiving, I'm concerned it might end up like the Griswolds. I know. It's really a fun movie, and I watch it every year.

Now, Brenda, tell me, do you have a big Christmas celebration coming up? No, we're not this year. Everybody's kind of scattered this year, so no, we're not.

Well, Brenda, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. I know KXEL is going to be broadcasting the Tom Stearns Radio Christmas Show. We're going to have a lot of fun. Three hours of all Christmas. It's going to be a blast.

We've got some great special guests and great musicians, and we hope you join us on the radio. Thanks, Brenda. Hey, don't hang up. We're going to make sure we get all of your info, so hang tight there. That is going to be fun to hear.

We've been working, planning, and getting the show together. The Christmas show is going to be a blast. We've been overworking Todd. Todd's been having to put in double duty recently, getting this Christmas special together. But it's going to be incredible.

Pastor Robert Jeffress is going to join us on My Cuckabee. Yes.

And a couple surprise appearances. Surprises. And it's going to be one of those moments where you can sit back, listen to the radio, and have some old school radio fun. Not a lot of politics in that show. We're throwing it to the reason of the season.

That's it. That's it. All right. We've got to take a break here. 901-260-5926.

That's 901-260-5926.

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That's twc.health.starns. And use the promo code STARNS. you're going to save 10 percent got to take a break we'll be right back all right welcome back everybody good to have you with us let's go to the patriot mobile news maker line our good buddy the former congressman and uh the great liberty university i mean what What is – you're like the spokes dude, Dave Brandt. What do we call you? I'm senior VP for business relations, but the political views are just my own.

But anything I say that makes sense is on behalf of Liberty Kids.

Okay, well, you're always spewing a lot of good common sense, though.

So, you know, that's a good idea. Dave, we are really struggling here with this continuing resolution. Elon Musk now coming out and saying anybody who votes for this should be primaried on the Republican side. Amen. Amen.

Are you?

So you say we've got to do something about this. Yes, and the we, you just mentioned, is the missing element that never comes up. We, the people, are in charge of our government, and we keep voting back in the same people that have produced $36 trillion in debt and $2 trillion deficits, and they're getting ready to roll us again. and you've seen the show. I mean, I was there 10 years ago now or whatever it was.

And every single year, I would tell America, here's what they're going to do to you. And then they do it to you. And then on top of that, they printed $9 trillion and gave you inflation. And so you've lost, and the American people don't get this yet, the inflation since Biden has been 25%. Add them all up, right?

So you've lost 25% of your purchasing power. You want to know what else you lost? 25% of every dollar in your retirement account, your 401k, your pension. you're going to only have 75 cents on the dollar to spend when you retire because of that inflation tax. People should be furious, and they're not.

I ran on this stuff, and the folks did not care, but they were in the middle of a bubble, and Mike Johnson is going to do it again, right? We're going to have more smoke and mirrors for three more months. They just did a trillion-dollar defense NDAA bill that locks in Doge from doing anything, right? But those Elon and Vivek are coming in to do something, and now they're prevented from doing it because Congress just locked it into law. Dave, I am really concerned about what Mike Johnson is doing here.

And I don't know why we have to caveat this by saying he's a good, decent guy. But the reality is he's a lousy leader. And we were playing the audio. he said that he would never, ever, ever, ever do what he just did yesterday. And I just don't see how he can lead the Republicans moving forward.

No, well, that's the issue. The America first thing is really the American citizens first. And that's not a tagline. And so what he's doing, what Paul Ryan did and Bayner did, was they're protecting the money up there, the donor class, right? I called it the giant Excel spreadsheet in the sky.

I tried to save $40 billion. That's a teaspoon up there. Paul Ryan said, no, we're paying $40 billion to dead people because the money's coming in, but they've got to take it away from somebody to give it to somebody else. They do not want to have to tell donors and special interests and corporate folks who are supporting them, no, we're going to take this away from you. And tell the American people speak loudly enough and say, nope, that money is mine.

right that that money belongs to the american people and uh and now mike's going over to get 100 democrat votes it looked like the last you know i was hearing hopefully if some there's enough outrage that they might just have to do a clean cr and then the democrats will threaten to shut down the government and might be fine we're going to finally take this argument to the american people about a seven trillion dollar woken weaponized budget and the american people will agree with us. No more of it.

Some of the stuff that's in here, I mean, we're going to be funding so many radical policies. And the folks over at Punchbowl News, Jake Sherman said, this is like a bonanza for Democrats. I mean, even they're shocked at what Johnson's doing here. Yes.

And that's extra on top of the Nancy Pelosi woke and weaponized budget. All that stays in place. And now the Democrats are adding to it because we need 100 of their votes. They're winning the politics when we have the majority. And we've got the Senate, we've got the presidency going forward.

And our guys, they have to have the gut to go in front of the American people and shut down the government and ask for this debate. And yeah, I cannot tell you what's in that. But when I was in there, the budget was $4.5 or $5 trillion. Just to give you something, that wasn't long ago.

Now it's $7 trillion budget, and the deficits are growing faster than you can imagine. Eventually, this bubble is going to break, right? All that money is supporting a giant stock market right now, not the economy. And so the bottom half of the income distribution, right, the middle class is getting slaughtered, and the election just showed that. And so Congress, when they do this kind of thing, man, they're just asking for it, because either you can have an orderly, you know, revolution from below or else, you know, we're going to have chaos on our hands for probably a decade.

It's a mess. And again, this idea of giving Trump a clean slate, he's not going to have a clean slate. He's going to be loaded up with even more debt that he's going to have to deal with. And this is absolutely unacceptable. And we've got to get it together.

Final word, Dave Bratt. Yeah, well, you know, you see Biden selling off the wall for peace. And I just want to tell you, American people, right, don't get cocky. You know, we won by 1% only over Kamala Harris with everything going our way. Every single thing broke our way.

The economy, the inflation hurt the Democrats, the border invasion. We got endless wars. And we still only won against Kamala Harris with 1%. All political views are my own. But that should not be happening in this country.

And the Christians, it was 75 million to 75 million. We've got 100 million Christians. The Christians can decide the fate of this country and hopefully not the fate, the providence of this country. And so that's Merry Christmas. Let's get going, guys.

Come on. Unbelievable. All right, Dave, we're going to be all over this, and we appreciate you coming on board. Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas. Yep, Merry Christmas.

God and everybody listening. God bless you. All right. Great Dave Brath there from Liberty University. Wow.

By the way, folks, tonight, 5 o'clock Eastern, we have a pretty huge show coming up. Jim Jordan's going to be with us. Also, Tom McClintock. We're going to have a panel, a pro-Mike Johnson Republican versus an anti-Mike Johnson Republican. That'll be a lot of fun.

All of that coming up on the Todd Stern Show, 5 o'clock Eastern on Newsmax 2. And by the way, if you haven't heard the news, Rob Schmidt is just crushing it, going up against CNN and beating them in the ratings wars. And that's because so many millions of you are now watching Newsmax instead of the other guys. And even President Trump, among those big fans of what's happening at Newsmax, real news you can trust. And that's a big thing these days in the news media.

By the way, if your local cable channel doesn't carry Newsmax, here's what I want you to do. Go to GetNewsmax.com. That's GetNewsmax.com, and you'll be able to find information there on how you can get Newsmax on your cable channel. All right, been a great day, folks. Hang tight tomorrow.

Same time, same place. Get out there. You be good, America. Thank you.