Transcript

Every day, unborn babies very lives are under attack at preborn Network

>> Jeff Chamblee: This July we celebrate the birth of our nation and remember the heroes who fought for our freedoms. But did you know there are Americans today who don't have the freedom of life and liberty. Every day, unborn babies very lives are under attack. But because of preborn, we can rescue them.

>> Walker Wildmon: I got to hear and see my baby for the first time. Hearing the heartbeat made me cry and it was certain that I was going to keep my baby forever.

>> Jeff Chamblee: Ultrasounds save lives and when, when you save a life at a preborn Network clinic, you often save a Soul as over 85,000 women have come to know Christ. To learn more about preborn's life saving work, call pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's 250baby or visit preborn.comafr that's preborn.comafr all gifts are tax deductible. Your love can save a life.

>> Walker Wildmon: We inform Religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are.

>> Chris Woodward: We quit.

>> Speaker D: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth to live out your free speech.

>> Walker Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because.

>> Donald Trump: We know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and territory.

>> Jeff Chamblee: This is at the Core on American Family Radio.

Walker Wildman: The show is hosted each week by Rick Green and myself

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to the corps here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this edition of the program. The show is hosted each week by Rick Green and myself. Once again, I'm Walker Wildmon. You're listening to at the Core here on American Family Radio. Our website is afr.net if you would like to listen to the show. And, this show and, past episodes. We do archive the show in the form of a podcast. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts, Just type in the name of the show, click the subscribe button, and the, podcast will be queued up in your library each and every day. The, scripture we are in this week is Proverbs, chapter 17, verse 1. Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife. Well, as I've taught this week, a dry morsel is simply just a dry piece of bread. And the lesson here that this proverb is teaching is that, it's better to have the basics or less and have peace than to have a full table full of food and a feast with sin, with strife. And there's a lot that we can learn there. That's Proverbs, chapter 17, verse one.

Matt Walsh: The Jeffrey Epstein case has been a trending topic for years

All right, one topic I want to talk about that has been percolating in the news cycle for a long time is the Jeffrey Epstein case, the Jeffrey Epstein files and all that it goes with it. Now this is a decades long case in the making. Meaning, the accusations against Jeffrey Epstein, who is now deceased, go back decades to criminal investigations in the state of Florida and New York. And so there's just a lot to cover here. And we're not going to go over every single detail, but just to set things up. Jeffrey Epstein was a, was a well known billionaire who ran in circles and hosted parties with the who's who of Wall street, of Washington D.C. of Hollywood, etc. And the who's who of Fortune 100 CEOs, etc. And so everybody who was well connected in the elite circles knew Jeffrey Epstein. And there had been, there had been accusations against Epstein for years even leading up to the Florida investigation. He had properties in multiple states. He had a private jet called the Lolita Express. And in 2008 he pled guilty in Florida to two felony charges. These were solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution. Fast forward to 2019. He was arrested again on federal charges, this time related to sex trafficking of minors in New York and Florida. He pled not guilty to these charges. His top associate, Ghislaine. Ghislaine, Ghislaine Maxwell is, has recently, meaning in the last three years been convicted of five on five of six counts relating to her involvement with Epstein and his sex trafficking ring. A jury found her guilty of several charges. Sex trafficking of sex trafficking a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking a minor, conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in criminal sexual activity, and conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. She was acquitted on one of the six charges. So she was found guilty on five of the six. Maxwell received a 20 year federal prison sentence in June of 2022. All right, so that's the background. The reason this has been a viral topic for several years, going back to Epstein's arrest, going back to 2019, is because of the, the mystery surrounding Epstein. And when I say the mystery surrounding Epstein, let me be specific. There were dozens, probably hundreds. I think over 100 is accurate at this point. Over a hundred individuals flew on or spent time with Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their crew. Hundreds of individuals went to parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein and over a hundred or more individuals flew to Jeffrey Epstein's private island in the Bahamas on his plane, according to flight logs. And what was so absurd about the entire investigation is, number one, the fact that Jeffrey Epstein basically got off easy in 2008 and 2009 in Florida, considering the magnitude of the allegations. And then furthermore, it took another decade for him to be rearrested in New York. And during this entire time, nobody else was charged in connection to this investigation. So Epstein was accused of trafficking dozens, if not hundreds of young underage girls and engaging in rampant pedophilia and sex trafficking, of which much of this he was charged on and convicted, but nobody was implicated. And so it's just bizarre that you bust basically a underage sex ring leader and nobody else goes down with him. It's bizarre. And so that's what this is all about. That's what this is all about. And so it's not that we're all chasing a conspiracy or, you know, we just want to find out what Democrats were hanging around Jeffrey Epstein for political reasons. Although that would be interesting to know. The fact of the matter is, is there, there's a longstanding history of powerful people getting off easy on very serious crimes in America. And that, that is, that is absurd. It's unjust, and it's just patently frustrating for voters and citizens of this nation to see very wealthy people who are connected to the most elite of the elite do such heinous acts and then get a slap on the wrist. And so there's a moral component here. This isn't just politics. And I want to play this clip here. This is well known podcaster and blogger and writer Matt Walsh talking about what's behind the frustrations. And it's the two tier justice system. Let's listen to clip five.

>> Speaker D: We have not seen any high profile or powerful people held accountable for their crimes. No one's even been fired, let alone arrested, for allowing an assassin to almost kill Trump last year. Trump was elected in 2016 partly on a promise to lock her up. You know, we all recall that. So when do we start locking people up? Trump himself has spent 10 years calling out many different crimes and scandals. Rightly so. Just this past weekend, he was talking again about the rigged election in 2020. Why hasn't anyone been arrested or charged for any of this? Why? What about the people who lied about the COVID shot? What about the people who funded the BLM riots in 2020? What about the cabal of unelected bureaucrats who were using Joe Biden's auto pen to sign pardons and executive orders, effectively seizing control of the federal government. Now, back to the point. Republicans are saying that this is a major scandal. I agree, it is. So then who will be held responsible? Who will be punished? What person, what actual person with a face and a name are you going to arrest and put in prison for this scandal?

>> Walker Wildmon: Right.

>> Speaker D: Well, Republicans are investigating it.

>> Walker Wildmon: Great. Boring.

>> Speaker D: I mean, they're constantly investigating things. The problem is that nobody is ever punished at the end of it. And I don't even think that's hyperbole, like, nobody is ever punished at the end of any of these investigations.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that, that, that sums it up. Matt Walsh sums it up well, as he usually does, you know, surmising what's going on here. And the voters. And this, once again, this is not political. This is not Democrat versus Republican. This is just people who. This, this issue actually crosses party lines. This is just people that are frustrated, absolutely frustrated with this, this justice system that doesn't work. But, but if your average Joe, our Susie, who doesn't have connections with the billionaires, who doesn't work on Wall street, who doesn't fund the Democrats campaign or the Republicans campaign, gets caught doing this stuff, they're locked up for life. And they should be. But, but if you're, if you're connected, well, then you can do whatever you want. And there's minimal consequence. That's wrong. That's not how our justice system is supposed to work. And there's all kinds of theories about why on earth the Trump administration is dragging their feet on this. Now, here's one possibility, although it's. The chances of this are pretty small. One possibility is there isn't much more that we don't already know, meaning there is no flight log that we don't already have. Once again, a lot of this has already been released to the public through different courts and through leaks. So we know a pretty good bit about this whole Epstein saga. But, but Alan Dershowitz, who was, who actually represented Epstein in one of his trials and was an associate, was a friend of Epstein, let's just put it that way.

Alan Dershowitz says there's a list of Epstein's clients

He just said last week, there's a list of Epstein's clients. That's what he said. He said that on national television. He said they are on a podcast. He said, I'm bound by confidentiality agreements, probably as attorney client privilege type stuff. And so I can't rattle off the list of Epstein's clients, but I can tell you a list does exist. That was Alan Dershowitz. And so, once again, it very well could be. Probably not. But it could be the case that there's really nothing else on Epstein that we don't already know, except some horrific videos of underage girls that none of us want to see. But are there other accused criminals in those videos that are adults that are still around today? I don't know. But what adds. What compounds this problem is that Attorney General Pam Bondi has been making her rounds on Fox News talking about how she's gonna release it all. I've got it on my desk, she said. And then she was recorded by, an undercover investigative journalist at a restaurant in D.C. talking about how the DOJ is in possession of. Of. She said, thousands of videos of underage girls being abused. That was the Attorney General's quote. At a fancy restaurant in D.C. when she was having dinner with someone and the conversation was being recorded unknowingly. Why would the Attorney General go to dinner and privately say that there's thousands of videos of, Epstein or his associates or his clients abusing young girls? And Pam Botany goes on Fox and says, I'm gonna release it all. It's on my desk. And then they send out this two page lame memo basically saying, hey, guys, you need to move on. You need to. You need to forget about this. There's nothing. There's no there, there's. Which one is it? Either we have all that we. All that we. All that we need to know about Epstein. Are there stuff that you guys are hiding? But it can't be both. We'll talk more in just a few minutes.

>> Jeff Chamblee: At the Core podcast are available@afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

Jeffrey Epstein reportedly committed suicide in a New York jail in 2019

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the Corps here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us for the second segment of today's program. So back to the Epstein saga. Another fact that adds great suspect, great mystery to this entire situation is that Epstein reportedly committed suicide in a New York jail in 2019. ab. Actually, he was arrested in 2019. yeah. And in 2019, he supposedly reportedly committed suicide. Okay, so. So here's. Here's why people legitimately and plausibly question this whole suicide theory, which apparently they. The, you know, the DOJ says, oh, he committed suicide. There's no question about it. And in cash. Patel even went on Joe Rogan's show as of two months ago and said, oh, yeah, I've seen the files. Epstein committed suicide. Absolutely no question about it. He said, all right, so I'm not saying that Casp Patel's Lying or that Epstein didn't commit suicide. Somebody knocked off Epstein. I'm not suggesting that. What I'm suggesting is Epstein would have been a prime target of a homicide. Epstein would have been a prime target of being, quote, knocked off, as they say. And here's why. Because he reportedly, and the evidence suggests this very strongly, that Epstein treated dozens, if not hundreds of clients to illegal, illicit prostitution of underage girls, whether it be domestically or on his island. And that's pretty much a fact. Okay? There's not anybody disputing that. The numbers and the victims. That's all up for debate. But there's a lot of people that would have not wanted Epstein to go to trial. There's a lot of people, that would have had a vested interest in ensuring that Epstein is no longer. Because of the damage that it could do to their reputation, to their business, everything, including very, very powerful people. And to act as if people like Jeffrey Epstein don't get knocked off is to be completely oblivious to the reality of the age that we live in. And I can name names, and we can theorize about who this has happened to in the past with very powerful people. Former presidents, former first ladies. But anybody who looks into this and actually cares about the facts understands that homicide is very plausible for situations like this. And I just gave you the reasons why very powerful people were connected to Epstein, and they themselves have a vested interest in ensuring that Epstein is no longer. And so the questions about his supposed suicide just grew because the Department of Justice was not transparent about the whole thing. And this goes back to Trump 1.0. This goes out to. Back to Bill Barr. We just got the cell footage. Not cell as in cell phone. We just got the. The jail or the prison footage from the cell block that he was in, and we didn't get all of it. It was just a couple weeks ago. We got it. And this goes back to 2019. What have we been doing for six years? Oh, we can't release that. Why? Why can't we see this, supposedly boring footage from inside a New York City jail? Why can't we see it? Why can't we see it? There's no plausible explanation. And they finally release it. Well, and we learn now that half the cameras were out. What on this earth? Half of the cameras were out. Are you kidding me? That in and of itself is a scandal. So we're running prisons. We're running prison systems where half of the cameras don't work. What on this earth? Well, the prison guards were asleep. Really. So this Is normal. Half of the cameras are out and prison guards sleeping. This is normal operating procedure. Boy, are, our prison systems messed up? And how many people were fired over this? See, this is another thing, okay? We got prison guards sleeping and we got cameras not working. Whose head rolled over this? I didn't read one story of any prison guard, any IT person, losing their job or being disciplined because, things weren't working properly. And then the doj, finally, six years later, releases some footage, not all, some footage from outside of Epstein's cell. And as it turns out, the footage had been edited at least four times by Adobe. You can't make this stuff up. This is what amateurs and pros. But this is what lay people use to edit video footage. This is not sophisticated stuff. Like anybody who works in video uses Adobe. And so the DOJ edited the Epstein footage on at least four occasions using Adobe. Why are they editing the footage? Just release the footage. And they, they claimed when they released the footage that it was raw. This is the problem. They didn't say edited footage. The file was labeled raw footage. And it was edited multiple times using Adobe Premiere Pro. And all of this is in the metadata. This is according to Wired publication wired.com and so there's just so many questions surrounding this whole situation. And that's why people are interested in it. That's why people are interested in it. And I don't know how the Trump administration gets out of this. I don't think they do.

The polling is not rosy for President Trump on this subject

I just don't think they get out of this without releasing any and everything that is under the hood here. And if I were President Trump, I would say release it all. And I don't really care who's. Who's implicated here, honestly. Meaning, I don't care if there's very, quote, very powerful people that are in these files or in these videos or whatever. We just need transparency because, we've got a lot of people in this country, well over a majority, that don't trust the system. And this level of distrust cuts along both party lines and is very unhealthy for the long run. How can you sustain this constitutional republic when you are sitting on this level of disapproval of our leaders? And I'm talking current. The polling is not rosy for Trump here. This actually, the polling is very bad for him on this subject. And when you look at the polling amongst Congress, they're polling in the, in the teens, right? You're doing good in Washington as a lawmaker. If you've got, like, a 25% approval rating, I'm not lying a lot of your career establishment lawmakers are running 15% approval ratings in their home state. This is in their home state. And so there's a lot of distrust in Washington. And this is why. This is why. Because it takes years and years to get to the bottom of some of this stuff. And sometimes we never get to the bottom of it. And Washington is always investigating it. We investigate and we investigate, and at the end of the day, nobody really knows what happened. And people are tired of that. Just tell us how it is and let us deal with it. This whole notion that, well, the American people can't really handle what we know or how are the American people going to respond to this? Well, we'll just have to figure that out down the road. The job of government is transparency and justice and righteousness. The job of our government leaders isn't to consider m what the American people should know and what we should know based on whether we can, quote, handle it, which I don't even know what that means. The American people can't handle this. What does that even mean? There's a lot of things that people, quote, can't handle, but it happens. A lot of unfortunate things happen to people in this world that they, quote, can't handle. And it still happens. And while we're releasing the Epstein files, I mean, they need to release everything. And enough with the redactions. All the black lines. Redactions, no redactions. And if there's people named in these files that are truly innocent, maybe they just showed up at a party of Epstein's with a hundred other people and they had no idea what this dude's up to. They can just say that, Just say, I had no idea this guy was so evil, so messed up. I got invited to a party in New York City. I showed up one time, never hung around Epstein by myself. And I abhor all the allegations here. Just say that that's fine.

Our government has been doing studies about UFOs and extraterrestrials

And while we're releasing the Epstein files, let's talk about UFOs. Because our government has been doing all these studies, running all these secret programs, whether it's Area 51 or otherwise, about all these unidentified Flying Objects or Unmanned Aerial phenomenon, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. And they've created so much speculation that, I'm kind of over it. I'm kind of over the podcast about UFOs and aliens. Because here's the most likely scenario that our government won't tell us for whatever reason. And they come up with seven ways from Sunday why we shouldn't know this Stuff they'll say, well, it's top secret, it's a military project. what if our adversaries get this technology in their hands? Well, our adversaries probably already know about this stuff. But you're over, you're overemphasizing the ability for confidentiality in our government because leaks are everywhere. The reality is that our government has probably developed advanced aerial technology where we can fly at speeds we didn't think we could fly and with energy sources that we didn't think we had. That's probably the most likely scenario based on all the available information, is that our government has engineered technology, flying aerial technology that is way more advanced than your average person thinks. And for whatever reason they don't want us to know about it. And instead we have this entire, you know, segment of entertainment that just talks about aliens and UFOs when in reality our government supposedly knows all the answers to this stuff. Like have there been alien interactions? Have we confiscated hardware from, not from Earth? Like there's all kinds of speculations out there. You can find 100 podcasts to listen to about this stuff. But the reality is our government knows. Our government knows. And I think it's just absurd that we go all this time. This stuff goes back to like 50s, 60s, 70s, and I think people are just over. We're just tired of this unnecessary suspense and this unnecessary top secret confidentiality. We can't talk about it. When you go to Washington D.C. and you're in the halls of Congress, there's all the murmurs and all the whispers about all the programs they're running and everybody knows it, but the government won't verify it. The government won't confirm it for whatever reason. And so I think we need to know what, what have we developed, what technology we develop. Because if we haven't developed the technology to fly at speeds we didn't think we could fly using energy we didn't think we could use, if we, if the US hasn't developed that for military purposes or whatever, then somebody else has it. Somebody else has it and we don't, which that's a problem too. Somebody else has it and we don't. Or all of this is, is kind of a ruse. There's really no there, there, there really are no UFOs. All of this is, is explainable. Man made interactions are, you know, whatever kind of perceptions. And there's really no, there's been no alien sightings, there's been no true UFOs. It's all, you know, you see a plane or you see a shooting star, are you, you know, you're having vision problems, whatever. Are the radars messing up or. It's a, it's a, it's a, ah, you know, birds flying, whatever it is. But, but maybe that's the case. But there, there's, there sure are a lot of reported incidents of this. I would be surprised if there's really no there there. I think our government knows a lot of the answers to this stuff. But for whatever reason, they've got to act. All secrets, you know, top secret. We can't tell you, for whatever reason. And maybe it is the case that somebody else has developed, maybe another government has developed this technology and we haven't. They developed it first, we're learning from it. And that's embarrassing to us because we're supposed to once again be the leader of the world. We spend all this money on military so that we're supposed to be the leader in everything. And it might be a bit of an embarrassment and a scandal if another nation has developed this technology and we haven't. And here we are leading, from behind. So whether it's Epstein files or UFO files, I think we need to know it all. And what better person to release all of this stuff than President Trump? I mean, what does President Trump have to lose? He's not running for reelection just to release all this stuff. Thankfully, they did release the JFK files and a lot of the stuff that people were talking about were actually in the files, like the fact that JFK's reported assassin was in, was working with the CIA. Like that's in the documents that he was meeting with the CIA. So that's not a conspiracy theory. That's in the government JFK files. And so what is in the Epstein files? What is in the UFO files that we don't know and we should know. And transparency wins out here. Transparency is the way to go each and every time. We'll be back in a few.

>> Donald Trump: At.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The Core podcast are available@afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

At the Core is hosted each week by myself and Rick Green

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, back to this last segment of today's edition of at the Core here on American Family Radio. The show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Green. It's good to be with you today. As a reminder, we do have the video up every weekday from 1 to 2 Central on at the Corps Facebook page, at the Corps, on AFA Stream and on the American Family Radio X handle. You can watch live there a lot of different places to watch the video. And of course, as a reminder, you can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Chris, welcome to this edition of the program.

>> Chris Woodward: Thank you very much.

>> Walker Wildmon: Chris Woodward from American Family News joins us each Friday, to cover the latest ongoings. And Chris and I just tend to get bogged down in the economy each and every week.

President Trump has concerns about Fed Chair Jerome Powell

Chris, we can't talk, this segment without talking about President Trump's dissatisfaction with Jerome Powell. That tends to come up every day.

>> Chris Woodward: I gotta tell you, when I saw him, being asked questions this week by reporters inside the Oval Office. Hey, what do you think about Jerome Powell? I thought, what a great week for us to resume, these segments on this show because Jerome Powell is a guy that we have talked about. President Trump has concerns about Jerome Powell. He will not lower the interest rates despite President Trump telling him to do this for months now, and as a result of Powell not wanting to play ball here, questions have been floated and even statements from the President himself about whether or not he might fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Here's a little bit of what the President had to say just a couple of days ago.

>> Donald Trump: He's always been too late, hence his nickname, too late. he should have cut interest rates a long time ago. Europe has cut him 10 times in the short period of time, and we cut him none. He's costing us a lot of money, and we fight through it. It's almost the country has become so successful that it doesn't have a big impact. But, it does hurt people wanting to get a mortgage. People, want, want to buy a house. He's a terrible. He's a terrible Fed Chair.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, that's President, Trump's thoughts on Jerome Powell and his frustrations with Powell go back months. This is not a new phenomena. this goes back. Goes back months, if not even into, into last year during the election, etc. Jerome Powell, one thing, Chris, that he's having trouble explaining, which he doesn't explain, he probably should, is the fact that he lowered rates during the election cycle in September when Biden was the president, and then, since then, has sat on his hands and not lowered rates at all.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's very, very suspicious. It's like, hey, we have a Covid shot vaccine the day after the election.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: And that did happen in 2020. In 2020. and granted that was before we knew what all, you know, side effects and whatnot came out with the COVID shots. But, it's very suspicious, as we say in the news biz. Some people might hear this and think, you know, I don't understand why we should, be concerned about the Fed chair. This doesn't impact me. It does, because you live in the United States of America, and we have an economy. And the better the economy, the better off you are. So even if you feel that you're not impacted by the fact that your neighbor can't buy a house or get a loan for this and that you're better off when people in America, more people in America are able to buy homes and get a mortgage and buy a car and get a credit card and all these other things, businesses taking, out loans. So something needs to be done here. And to the President's point, a lot of countries, granted, with smaller populations than ours, but a lot of countries have lowered their interest rates. It's time for us to do that as well. I'm not saying you got to cut it in half or bring it down to zero. but, you've got to try something.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: you know, if you're scared and you don't want to put your whole foot in the water, you just want to dip a toe, bring it down a little bit, and see what happens.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: And then go from there.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, here's some numbers. Once again, these are rough. This, is not. You know, I didn't triple check these, but we know, we know certainly that according to the Heritage foundation, just, a 1 percentage point reduction by Powell could save the U.S. nearly $2 trillion over the course of 10 years in interest payments. because we have roughly 9 trillion of our 37 that's due for refinancing this year. and then if power were to go down 2%, that would save roughly 3.5 trillion over a decade. And then you go down 3%, you're saving 6 trillion, roughly. Chunk of change. Yeah. Six or seven trillion dollars in just purely interest payments over a decade. That's a big deal. That's a big deal in an economy where inflation isn't the problem it once was.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. I didn't even fail. I failed to bring this up. I'm glad you mentioned that because, while I talked about the economic benefits of people around you for the consumer. Yeah. As a taxpayer, you need these kinds of things because eventually we, we're all going to be working just to pay the debt, just to pay the interest on the debt. Not even to function. Not even to function. Society and make sure people have Medicare and welfare and all these other things that we're taxed to the hilt for this is just to pay taxes on the debt that we have, acquired and continue to.

>> Walker Wildmon: And, Chris, look, I don't, I've always said I don't think the Fed caused inflation, and I don't think the Fed can truly fix inflation. Can they implicate it? Can they play a small role in it? Maybe. Although the data is very scarce on this, I think there's no reason that Powell, if he's a reasonable person and he's not a political hack that doesn't like Donald Trump, or he's not trying to sink the Republicans in the midterm, which is a theory that holds some water. If Powell is a serious person, why would you not lower rates by a quarter point per meeting or maybe skip a meeting. A quarter point, Skip a meeting. Quarter point, skip a meeting and see how things go. But this whole. We're not doing anything. It seems unsustainable. Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: And for people who might get their news from sources other than ours, and you kind of think, well, the economy is still doing pretty rough. It's really not. just some of the headlines this week. Retail sales snap back after trade wars died down. Shoppers keep the economy growing. Americans are spending more strategically, says Market Watch. Treasury posts unexpected surplus in June as tariff receipts surge. Remember, we were told the tariffs were going to end America and we'd all be dead by now. obviously that hasn't happened.

>> Walker Wildmon: It's virtually had no effect.

>> Chris Woodward: It's been a great couple of days for stocks. Things, were up 229 yesterday, just in the Dow. The, NASDAQ finished 153 higher. The S&P, 33. It's been a great week. I mean, the dow was at 45,000, yesterday, and so a lot of people are not concerned about the economy. I even came across this post from Clay Travis, who said things like, Trump ran on three things, the economy, border and crime. On economy, we have record high stock prices, a monster tax cut, collapsing inflation, and we just posted a budget surplus in June. He goes on to talk about border and crime.

>> Walker Wildmon: First crime in 20 years.

Kevin Hass: I do agree the economy is doing pretty well

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. And Clay says, honest question, can you name a president who has more rapidly delivered on all the big priorities promises he ran on in just six months? I can't. I think this is the most successful and transformative first six months of a presidency in any of our lives. I don't remember the Reagan era. Reagan obviously got the economy, back on track through deregulation and things like that. But it took him a while.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. I do agree the economy is doing pretty well. I wouldn't say it's hot or smoking hot. It's holding its own, and things are moving in the right direction. If there's one word that summarizes what's not going right, it's debt. Both consumer and business debt is at record levels. because I think people had to use debt to survive and keep their lifestyle because of Biden. and you can look at the credit card numbers and all that. Everything's gone up. So I think some people are hanging in there, but they're definitely not doing well. They're not thriving, I guess, is what I'm saying. So I think if you can. If Trump, with the help of whoever the Fed chair is in the future, can solve this interest rate problem, which takes a little relief off of the consumer's back of servicing their mortgage, their credit card debt, whatever their auto loans, then you're really talking about a takeoff here. Then you pair that with wage growth, which we had stagnation and wage loss under Biden. you're talking about the end of President Trump's term, the economy on fire.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it should be.

>> Walker Wildmon: And now we've got a lot of ground to make up from the wage loss under Biden with the inflation paired in.

>> Chris Woodward: But.

>> Walker Wildmon: But to your point, we're fortunate we haven't had a recession or some kind of major drop in the economy with all the pressures that have been building over the last several years under Biden, it was just an absolute disaster. So people are still digging out of that. but, yeah, President Trump, in the amount of time he's been in office, has been done a phenomenal amount of work. But Powell's not making his job any easier. And that's the frustration on Trump. Trump saying, hey, President Trump saying, hey, I'm doing all this great stuff. Congress has passed my bill and Powell's still over there sitting on his hands.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. you know, there's been a lot of questions as to whether or not Trump or really any president can fire a Fed chair. It has to be, as I've, as I understand it, it has to be just, you gotta do something really awful, negligent, that kind of thing. And, Trump saying, well, you won't lower the interest rates is not at the level of negligence.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: so a president really needs to do his or her homework at some point in the future, to get the right person in there, for this position. because again, Powell's Decisions impact, or lack thereof, impact everybody. Not just Republicans, maga, but liberals out there which need an economy to exist.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, and I got a clip on maybe the cause that Trump needs to fire Powell. but I think legally there's a legal standard and then there's the public perception standard, and they're different. Legally. President Trump can fire Powell at any point for any reason. The reason I know that is because constitutionally, he appointed Powell. If you appoint someone legally, you can rescind that appointment with the exception of nominating a federal judge, because that's a separate branch of government. But if, but for example, President Trump can fire Pam Bondi. Why? Because he nominated Pam Bondi. So he can fire Powell legally. Now, what's the purple perception? Is that a good, Is that a good habit? Is that a good, you know, you know, thing to continue to do? I don't. That's up for debate. To your point, Kevan Hassett, the National Council on Economic Advisors Chairman, talks about how much money Jerome Powell is spending over on the Federal Reserve building doing a, quote, 2.5 billion remodel. Clip 3.

>> Christopher Woodward: The bottom line is from, from my perspective that, when the Federal Reserve was created, we were under a gold standard. And the idea that the Fed could print money and then spend two and a half billion dollars on a building without, real, real congressional oversight, it didn't occur to the people that framed the Federal Reserve Act. And so I think that we've got a real problem of oversight and excess spending. And to put it in perspective, the cost overrun right now is $700 billion dollars. The second biggest, renovation of a building that we've ever had in the history of D.C. was the federal Reserve building. I mean, the FBI building and the FBI building. The whole thing costs about the same as this cost overrun at the Fed. And so I think that we definitely need to rethink, the way the Fed's acting. We 100% want independent monetary policy, but it sure looks like they need more congressional oversight on things like the way they build their buildings.

Kevin Hassett: Federal Reserve should have minimalist mentality

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's Kevan Hassett talking about the scandal, what is becoming a scandal of how much money Powell, under Powell's direction, they are spending and have spent on the Federal Reserve budding $2.5 billion.

>> Chris Woodward: If you're concerned about the amount of money out there and whether or not you should lower interest rates because of the amount of money out there, why are you dropping that much money on something that you don't need to exist or to Operate. There's no reason in the year of our 2025, government should be building bigger and better. unless you're like, the Defense Department or it's something that you're required to have in the event of a God forbid kind of moment. There's no reason the Fed should have a Taj Mahal building.

>> Walker Wildmon: Right.

>> Chris Woodward: I'm not saying it should be a trailer, but, I mean, it shouldn't be a, huge brick and mortar gold standard kind of, building that tourists, you know, want to see.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And the government should have a mentality. and maybe people are going to laugh and say, really, Walker? You expect them to do that when they print money? they really should have a minimalist mentality, because government's not. Our founders didn't intend it to be bloated and fancy and elaborate like a king's palace. and if you're spending 2.5 billion on a building. Yeah. Just tear the thing down.

>> Chris Woodward: Right.

>> Walker Wildmon: And build something new.

>> Chris Woodward: You know, the difference is, back in the day, the founders, cared for people and they were mindful of money. and they didn't just go, oh, it's other people's money. What do we care? And they weren't existing on just the assumption that money was always going to be there.

Experts still question whether the Federal Reserve even needs Jerome Powell's job

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, and you need people, and President Trump is doing better at this, but you need people appointed to these positions that don't view their agency favorably. And I know that sounds quite bizarre, but. But the Federal Reserve's existence is questionable. The need for them is heavily questionable. Experts today still question, do we even need Jerome Powell's job? And so. But Jerome Powell clearly thinks they're in it for the long call because they're spending 2.5 billion on their building. So I think. I think you need somebody at the Federal Reserve who's in charge that says, look, number one, I really don't think we're necessary, but it's up to Congress if they want to rescind my job. Kind of like the Department of Education.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Walker Wildmon: But. But I'll tell you what we're not gonna do. We're not gonna spend another penny on this office building because we don't need it. We don't need it. We're not here to have elaborate. $2.5 billion office buildings. The Federal Reserve, we meet once a month. Yeah. And we set the rate. And that's it.

>> Chris Woodward: I guarantee you some, if not many people that work for the Fed work remotely. Why are you building a big building? Because some of those people are gonna be sitting home in their cul de sac, drinking coffee, air quotes, working while, you know, Chairman Powell does stuff. Not in his office.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, and the whole argument about, well, they've got so many employees. Why don't they have that many employees? What are they doing? I mean, the Federal Reserve. Look, all of the data that they look at, most of it is publicly sourced data. They're looking at Bureau of Labor Statistics.

>> Chris Woodward: The government created jobs for people.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. I mean, give me a break. We need a minimalist government. I mean, barely have what you need just to get by and do your job. but we don't need 2.5, billion dollars on a remodel. On a remodel. Not a new build. A remodel in Washington, D.C. thanks, Chris.

>> Chris Woodward: Thank you.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, folks, we'll see you next time.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.