Transcript

Walker Wildmon: Truth is costly for mothers in crisis seeking abortion

>> Walker Wildmon: We're living in a time when truth is under attack. Lies are easy to tell, easy to spread, and easy to believe. But truth, truth is costly. And nowhere is the cost greater than for mothers in crisis. When a woman is told abortion is her only option, silence and lies surround her. But when she walks into a preborn network clinic, she's met with compassion, support, and the truth about the life growing inside of her. That moment of truth happens through a free ultrasound, and it's a game changer. When a mother sees her baby and hears that heartbeat, it literally doubles the chance she'll choose life. Preborn network clinics are on the front lines, meeting women in their darkest hour, loving them, helping them, choose life and sharing truth. Friend, this is not a time to be silent. It's a time for courage, for truth, for life. Just $28 provides one ultrasound and the opportunity for a mother to see her baby. To help her choose truth and life, don today call #250. Say the keyword baby. That's #250 in your phone and say the keyword baby. Or give online@preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr we inform religious freedom is about people of, ah, faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope. This is at the Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us. I'm Walker Wildmon with you on today's program. The show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Greene. I'm with you Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Rick's with you on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During, most weeks, let's, turn our attention to the scripture and then we'll jump into some of the news that we're going to cover this hour.

John chapter two looks at prophecies about Jesus' temple

JOHN Chapter two is where we are this week. JOHN Chapter two looking at verse 19 and eight. And in order to understand 19, you have to read 18 through 21. So, this is Jesus after he performed the miracle at Cana, turning the water into the wine. Then he goes to the temple. And of course you've got them, the money changers, and they're buying and selling inside the temple, which is an abomination. So Jesus is clearly upset about that. He runs him out of the temple and so he gets in this exchange with the Jewish leaders. And, they're basically asking, you know, under what authority are you doing this? So, verse 18. So the Jews answered and said to him, what sign do you show us, since you do these things? So basically, hey, show yourself. If you're this, anointed one, then show us. What signs are you going to show to us that you're this anointed one? And mind you, this is right on the heels of the, miracle at Cana. And so it's as if, what, you know, how many miracles do you need to believe? One or seven? but nonetheless, Jesus answered and said to him, said to them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And of course, the Jews don't understand, so they said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days. Of course, looking at verse 21, but he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. And so here we go. Jesus prophesying, Jesus predicting, foretelling of his temple, his body that was crucified and resurrected in three days. And in hindsight, the disciples fully understood this. And, that's, John, chapter two, verse. All right, moving into the stories, I want to talk about this segment. We do have a couple guests coming up, so you're going to stick around for that. Talking about ebt, SNAP benefits, welfare fraud. That's been a topic of conversation in the news in light of the government shutdown and the Democrats wanting to continue the subsidies and the expansion of the welfare state, the welfare programs. And then we'll, talk about what different attorneys general are doing around the country to fight back against government overreach.

Gas prices are down significantly under President Trump

But, this segment, this episode, or rather this segment, I want to talk about the economy. I talked a little bit about this last week, and President Trump is making some headway. So I don't want to go without saying that gas prices are down significantly under President Trump. And where we are now, you're down to 230, 240 a gallon. You're under $3 now, for the national average, I believe is the latest number that's factoring in fuel costs from California and New York. So to get that national average down under $3 is significant. So energy prices, President Trump is doing well, I will say, I will caveat that and say we need to Be on the lookout for what AI is going to do to energy cost. We need to be on the lookout for that in the next 12 months. That could be problematic on the energy front, but nonetheless, President Trump's doing what he can as president to unleash energy and drive down costs. Inflation's come down slightly since he's been sworn in, but there's so much headway to make, and that's the point I want to make now, is there's so much headway that has to be made in order to truly, get this economy moving again for everyone.

The 50 year mortgage was floated over the weekend by President Trump

The 50 year mortgage was floated over the weekend by President Trump. He put out a next post saying, you know, 50 year mortgage coming your way. And, supposedly they're looking into that. And I want to play a clip of, this is on Fox Business on Stuart Varney's show of this, gentleman's name's Brian Wesbury and he's of First Trust Advisors. He's a chief economist there. Once again, Brian Wesberry is his name. And he had some wise words because he was questioning, hey, what do you think about this 50 year mortgage? And in essence, it's not a good idea. And there's multiple reasons why, but not only is it not a good idea for the various reasons that stand on their own, but it's really avoiding the major issue and that is government growth and government spending. Let's listen to this clip. Come on in.

>> Stuart Varney: Brian Westbury, you are an economist and.

>> Walker Wildmon: You'Re going to economize for us.

>> Brian Westbury: could this be, some people in the Trump administration describe this as a game changer. A 50 year mortgage. That sounds a bit strong to me. Is it a game changer? Yeah, it is a bit strong, Stuart, but yeah, I mean there is nothing wrong with it. And it will, help some people pay a little bit less every month, even though you do pay more interest over time. We've done the same thing with automobiles. It used to be a three year loan, then it went four or five, six I think there's some eight year loans out there right now and it's just all about taking down that monthly payment. But let me back up for just a second. You know, if you take federal, state and local government spending, plus everything we all spend to complain, comply with regulations that the government, creates and puts on us, that equals over 50% of our GDP in this country. So government's taking half of our income. No wonder houses aren't affordable. And then what we try to do is fix that with these other things. And what we really should be doing is shrinking the burden of government and taxation on homeowners.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well said.

>> Walker Wildmon: So I couldn't agree more. And here's the thing, and this is not all on President Trump, mind you. It's very important to understand that the way our government is structured, congressional acts are needed. I mean, Congress has to get involved here, all right? The President can't wave a magic wand and expect everything to be fixed. And I think what President Trump is doing is he's looking at what's within his control, what's within his authority, and he's trying to do everything he can within his authority to fix our economic failures or economic woes. But what you have here is not a 30 year or 50 year mortgage problem. You have a government problem problem. And unless we fix that, all these other things are not true fixes, right? I mean, who wants to sign up for a 50 year mortgage? Give me a break. 30 is too long, in my opinion. 50. So let's just say, best case scenario, you get a mortgage in your 20s, you're going to have a mortgage till you're 80 or mid-70s. No, no, I don't want to have a mortgage when I'm 70. And so, and not to mention the compound interest you pay on 50 versus 30 is astronomical. It's insane. The amount of interest you pay over those 50 years. You're better off renting, in my opinion. By the time you factor in the interest paid over the additional 20 years on top of the 30, you can rent. You can rent. And I'm not suggesting renting is the best way to go. I'm just telling you from a cost perspective, 50 years a no go. It's an absolute no go. Now. but what the, economist there just explained is, he explained about, ah, how 50% of our income is getting sucked into all these things, whether it's regulations or direct taxation, roughly half of our income is getting pulled back into the government through regulation, through taxes, and through other means and through inflation. You got to factor that in as well. And so we have a government problem. The government is too big and they spend too much money. That's the problem. And so I think while we have this once in a generation opportunity with President Trump at the helm and Republicans are in both chambers, they've gotta be more aggressive here. I mean, we have to be more aggressive. If not, we're gonna blink, we're gonna turn around, Republicans are gonna be in the minority again. President Trump's not gonna Be in the White House, and we're gonna look back and all we got is a one big, beautiful bill. All we got was a one big, beautiful bill. By the way, they need to be talking about doing another one of those reconciliation bills, coming up. I mean, the time to be aggressive, the time to be revolutionary is now. And I think that's why President Trump was so, you know, vote verbal and vocal about getting rid of the filibuster, because that, that is the only way to pass legislation when you have such slim majorities.

The problems are so big economically, we're just struggling

but the problems are so big, Bobby, you and I were talking about this this morning. The problems are so big economically, we're just. President Trump is making headway. The mortgage rates are down. They're under 6% now. They're either at or under 6%, depending on which lender you look at, which is significant. We've seen 150 basis point drop over the last 12 to 18 months. home prices are coming down slowly. but I think, I think we've still got, We've clearly still got some room to go before you can kind of call it a victory, if you will.

>> Bobby Roza: Yeah, for sure. I think market forces are doing a pretty decent job in getting us there.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Bobby Roza: I mean, to your point, and you've mentioned this several times, especially on Friday editions, it's just not sustainable.

>> Walker Wildmon: Right.

>> Bobby Roza: And this is why we're losing. Excuse me, young people, from a capitalism standpoint to a. Well, socialism surely is better. Because I can't afford this way of life.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yes.

>> Bobby Roza: And so to that end, there has to be measures that are taken somehow, some way.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Bobby Roza: to get it to where a financial life isn't, is just that something affordable for the young folks. Coming up.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yes. And President, you and I were talking about the timeline here. I mean, President Trump, I mean, he's been given basically 24 months to fix what Biden messed up, before the midterms. I'm talking.

>> Bobby Roza: And that's just for the correction to get to zero, correct?

>> Walker Wildmon: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's just a break even. but you were talking about how voters, Voters, they feel like they need a trophy. Right. They need something to show for these two years we're heading into, year two come January, if voters don't feel like they're making enough headway, they're either gonna stay at the House or they're gonna vote for the Democrats.

>> Bobby Roza: And unfortunately, that's been kind of the, the outlook, in these special elections, or out of cycle elections, I should say. that took place here just, last Tuesday. A great number of folks who turned out for Trump, you don't have near that turnout, that could have easily won for the conservatives and the Republicans. but without those numbers, and to your point, if people are just sitting home on their hands, just, well, there's nothing we can really foresee and anything we can change here. I don't know, it's a pretty dismal place to be and to be thinking about. But, let's face it, you talk about it all the time. Rick Greene obviously talks about it all the time. Our job biblically and as good citizens is to do what's expected of us to do.

>> Walker Wildmon: That's right.

>> Bobby Roza: To support our party.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's right, exactly. You know, the, the thing is you've got to get, Inflation has to be back at 2%. And I know that seems so out of reach, and maybe it is, but you can't have 3% inflation. And that's average, by the way. That's aggregate. You look across the board. Some of these categories are still running double digits. 15, 20, 30% inflation. And you can't run that for this many years. And, and expect, you know, you get gas below $3 a gallon and then boom, everything's fixed. I mean, this inflation has just eaten away at wages and wage growth to where it's just going to take a lot of time to make up this lost ground. I mean, we're working against time here, and I understand that. And so I'm going to, you know, give the President and the Republicans more time, even in the midterms. But not every voter sees it the way I do. Not every voter sees it more long term as I do. They're looking for short term results. And that's just the way the voters mindset is. And so Republicans are going to have to show for it come the midterms.

American Family Association has some great Christian Heritage tours planned for 2026

Hello, everyone.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'm Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. Hey, 2026 is your year to go with us on one of our Christian Heritage tours. we've got some dynamite tours lined up for 2026. We're going to Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. We're also going to Washington D.C. our nation's capital. And we'll see George Washington's Mount Vernon estate while we're there, too. And then we're going to Boston and to Concord, into Lexington. All the history in Boston. We'll also be meeting with a couple of our founding fathers, the D.C. and Williamsburg tours are in June and September, and the Boston tour is in September. So if you want to go with us, you want to see the pricing, the itinerary, everything, go to wildmangroup.com wildmon m. Group.com wildmangroup.com and we hope to see you on one of our 2026 tours at the Core podcast. They're available at afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

American Family Radio welcomes Leslie Ford to discuss welfare on American Family Radio

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the core here on American Family Radio. Well, each week we try to bring on guests from around the country and from different organizations and backgrounds to talk about, what's going on in our country and things that can be done to solve these issues. On with us now is Leslie Ford. Leslie is senior fellow at the alliance for Opportunity and has written and spoken extensively on our various welfare programs, including snap, ebt, Medicaid, et cetera. And, Leslie's with us now to talk just that. Hey, Leslie. Welcome to the program.

>> Leslie Ford: Hey, thanks so much for having me.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, the, timeliness of this interview fits well, because a portion of what was being discussed in the shutdown was whether or not some of these welfare benefits or welfare programs would lapse in funding, due to Congress failing to pass a continuing resolution or a budget. give us a little kind of background or an overview of the scale of some of these, welfare programs, and then we'll get into the nuts and bolts of the one big beautiful bill and how that applies to states.

>> Leslie Ford: Yeah, so when we're talking about welfare in this country, there are about one in three Americans receive some sort of welfare assistance from the government quite a lot. the two biggest ones, that's, food stamps or snaps, supplemental assistance, nutrition assistance and Medicaid. So when you're talking about SNAP, that's about a hundred million, $100 billion a year. And Medicaid is about, when you're looking at state and federal, about $894 billion a year. So we're talking about quite a lot of money, nearly a trillion dollars a year in just these two programs. If you're looking at all the welfare programs that exist, you're probably up near, somewhere near about $1.5 trillion a year. That is a huge part of our federal budget. So, and I really like to emphasize here that these, these programs have ballooned substantially in just the past five years. I mean, since 2019. Last, at the end of Trump won, snap was about $60 billion. Now it's $100 billion. That's a massive expansion in that time and you're going to see kind of the same thing on the Medicaid side. It's balloon M50% in the past five years alone. So we're seeing a lot more citizens dependent on these programs, and we've seen a massive amount of ballooning. And I think what you ended with there with is a question of is everyone on these programs? Are they supposed to be on these programs? Because Americans are generous people. If we see someone in need, someone who needs health care, someone who needs food, we're going to go. We're going to rush into that situation and say, yes, let me help you. But when we really look at the error rates, when we look at the fraud rates in these programs, it's about 1 in $9 in SN isn't going to someone who is eligible for it. That's $13 billion a year. That is a lot of money. You're talking about billionaires all over the place. We are wasting billions of dollars. And OBVBA was passed in order to really stem the fraud that exists and making sure that we bring people off the sidelines of our societies into the heart of our communities. Because if you're on government assistance, you're not thriving. You're really not at the heart of our communities.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, you're right.

In the one big beautiful bill you mentioned the growth of the programs

Let me ask you one question, before we do jump into, some of the provisions that are aimed at kind of preventing fraud. In the one big beautiful bill you mentioned the growth of the programs, which is not growth in a negative way. Usually growth is a good thing. But the expansion, if you will, or the growth in the number of people on these programs, whether it be snap, ebt, et cetera, do you think that's, And the data may bear this out? I'm just not sure. Do you think that's because more people are falling into this poverty threshold needed to get the assistance, or are more just more people realizing they qualify? I mean, that just seems like a pretty drastic climb in number of people using these programs. You know, you just wonder why it ebbs and flows so, so drastically.

>> Leslie Ford: Yeah. And if it was a situation like the middle of 2020 when every city was shut down, you're like, okay, that makes sense. Like government spending ticks up then. But that's not really what we're seeing. After the 2020 shutdowns came to a close, we saw an uptick in these programs and a sustained uptick. So a couple things are happening, and I'd really like to highlight two things. One, the benefits got a lot more Generous. So SNAP benefits unilaterally under President Biden's administration went up 23%. Even his own government office accountability looked at this and said, you didn't have the authority to do that. But there was no way to roll it back. So 23% off the bat, just higher benefits. But also coming out of the Biden administration was this instruction from the federal administration, from the people in charge up here, don't check income. Don't check whether the people who are, if they put, they earn a thousand bucks a month on their receipt or they earn zero, you don't need to double check that. Just let them, on through. And so there's a, when we're talking about fraud rates, those skyrocketed as well. So not only are benefits getting more generous, but people who don't really qualify the further programs are suddenly on the programs.

>> Walker Wildmon: Wow.

One big beautiful bill aimed at preventing fraud and misuse of food stamps

All right, let's talk, provisions in the one big beautiful bill aimed at really, preventing the level of fraud and misuse that you mentioned there. break these down for us and talk about whether they have teeth to them or not, because a lot of the stuff that comes out of Washington isn't enforceable. But tell us about the, the one big beautiful bill and these provisions.

>> Leslie Ford: So I'm going to start with food stamps. I'm going to focus a lot of my energy there because this one has teeth, y'. All. okay, so food stamps, how it's structured, the federal state relationship is okay. For every food stamp dollar that goes out the door, that's loaded onto an EBT card that's spent at the store, state has no skin in the game. Every dollar, it's 100% on the federal taxpayers. But if a state has to spend money on administrative costs, so the caseworkers, checking eligibility, checking income, the state has to spend 50 cents of every of that dollar. Now, you might see where this ends up, where they're like, I'm going to cut back on my administrative costs, I'm going to cut back on checking. I'm just going to send dollars out the door because that doesn't impact my budget, my state general funds. And that's exactly what we saw happen between 2013 and 20 snap, the food stamp error rate, you know, dollars that aren't reaching people, they, they should. It tripled from 3% to about 10, almost 11% today. And so what did the one big beautiful bill did do? It, it flipped that relationship. It said, okay, states, now you're on the hook for some of your benefits. If you have an error rate. If you're sending more than 6% out the door, that's incorrect. You're going to start paying a match. Now, let's take a state like Mississippi, for example. They have over a 10% error rate. And so it ratchets up. If you have over 6%, you have a 5%, you're covering 5 cents of the dollar. If you have over 8%, you're going to cover 10 cents of the dollar. And if you're over 10%, are covering 15 cents of every dollar you send out the door. So Mississippi has over a 10% error rate, you know, 10.69% or something like that. They're on the hook for 15% of benefits. That's $115 million every year to Mississippi state budget.

>> Walker Wildmon: Wow. Let me ask you this.

>> Leslie Ford: So that's real teeth.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that is for sure. Yeah. When states start realizing they've got to basically pay a match or a penalty for, improperly sending these payments, that's a big deal. And they're going to fix the problem because you just can't, you can't eat $100 million, or come up with it. So, does. Do the feds have access to these, these error rates? I mean, this is, Or does the states have to report it? What's the, what's the accountability there with the error rate?

>> Leslie Ford: Exactly. So the process is something called quality control. And actually the states do the first round of it. They take across the 50 states, they take about 50,000. They review 50,000 cases, 50,000 people on SNAP, and they do the first pass, and they do an intensive search and say, did we get this right? Did we get their income right? Did we check that we got their housing deduction right? All those questions. And then the feds come over the top and take a random portion, of that 50,000 cases and review what the states did to make sure they got it right. So the states have all the information to know if they're getting this right or not, and more importantly, where they're getting it wrong, if they're getting it wrong. And again, the states are going to check it so they can't fudge there. They have tried to fudge in the past and they've gotten caught.

There is a work requirement in the SNAP space for food stamps

>> Walker Wildmon: What about the work, requirement? We heard a lot of talk during the one big beautiful bill about the work requirement for, Medicaid, correct? Is that right now?

>> Leslie Ford: Yes. Yeah, there are two. So there always has been a soft work requirement in the SNAP space for food stamps. But there's been a lot of waivers from it. so it was, it was a work requirement for able bodied adults without dependence. So think someone age 30 who doesn't have any kids in the home. In the SNAP space that has been expanded now they say if you have a kid in the home who's 15 years old, you can still work 20 hours a week. And that's what we're going to require from you. You got to work, train, participate in education. That's what we're requiring from. And they reformed all those waivers. So where, you know, honestly three quarters of states had some form of a waiver that's not in place anymore unless you have a very high unemployment rate that doesn't exist. And now here's what OBBA did on the Medicaid side it said, okay, if you're on Medicaid and you're in that same pop I just described, on the SNAP side you have the same work requirement. So if you are now age 19 to 64, you know that retirement age. And if you have a kid who's age 15 and above, 14 and above, you are expected to work just 20 hours a week. This is not the end of the world and it's measured by minimum wage. Just like you can go down to your Walmart and if you can't find a job, if you absolutely can't, you can participate in education, you can go to a workforce training program. The point is in a very realistic way, not only is this a reciprocal relationship in welfare where yes, we're going to help you get stable, but the point is to get people back into the heart of our communities. Like I mentioned before, if you are on welfare and you're not working, which the vast majority of people aren't even doing this bare minimum requirement, even if they're able bodied, you're on the sidelines of our society. You are not participating, you're not contributing. And when we see people who do this for months or years on end, their mental health declines, their physical health declines, their children's education levels, decline. There is no pathway out of poverty without work. So work isn't supposed to be a punishment here. This isn't supposed to be like hey, let's just push everyone off welfare. The point is to bring people back to self sufficiency, to bring them to flourishing, honestly. So yeah, to your point, a really good reform.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, to your point, these were never intended, tended, at least originally, I hope not, to be a permanent, permanent thing. Right? I mean, Just like unemployment, it's all supposed to be for a season. Right. Somebody loses their job, they're going through a tough time and you know, they don't want to lose their house, so they go on unemployment for two months until they find a job or whatever. But in some instances. Leslie. Once again we're talking to Leslie Ford with the alliance for Opportunity. in many instances, and I know this firsthand, just talking to people, that the welfare becomes a lifestyle. I mean they know what the threshold, the income threshold is that they can't go above to not qualify for as much in government programs. And so they kind of teeter right below the threshold to qualify. And then they know how much money per child they can get if they have more kids. I'm not sure if there's anything the government can do about that other than the fact that shouldn't some of these provisions have a sunset? Right. I mean, you're not supposed to be on, you shouldn't be on EBT for 20 years. I mean, that just seems counterproductive. So do any of these programs have sunset provisions?

>> Leslie Ford: Not in SNAP or Medicaid, but here's. I love that you brought up sunset provisions or time limits because we ran this experiment before during welfare reform back in the 90s and even then it was even worse. It was just cash flowing out the door. And one in seven US children were on. It was called AFDC at the time. aided Dependent Families with Children. and it was a real, it created this intergenerational poverty where poverty became a way of life, and people stayed on the rolls for an average of 8 years. This is a serious way of life. But welfare Reform in the 90s did two things. One, it instituted work requirements exactly like we're doing today. And two, it created a five year time limit on the program. And I want to focus on what happened after that. The percentage of never married single mothers who returned to the workforce rose by 20 points. And here's the key thing, child poverty dropped by 60 points. When you put work requirements in place, when you put time limits or sunsets in place, we see people start to flourish. Exactly what we're trying to do. So I think we've run this experiment before. We know what works. That's what the OBBA is entirely about. It's everyone in our society coming back and contributing to our society for their good and for everyone's good.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. And let me ask you one more thing. on the technical side of the reconciliation legislation, isn't it true that this tool can be done again before the midterms. Or do you know this tool?

>> Leslie Ford: Yes.

>> Walker Wildmon: When that clock starts, if you will, where this can be pulled out again. The reconciliation.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: Yeah.

>> Leslie Ford: So reconciliation bill, it's this, you know, it's a technical Senate term, but it allows you to get around the filibuster, that 60 vote threshold that we just saw happen yesterday in the, in the Senate. And it's a budget tool, so it happens every year. So, yes, President Trump could do another big, beautiful bill. We'll call it OPPA then, I guess. And he could, he could do other things that are on the mandatory side. So he could do, he could look at things like housing, he could look at the treasury, he could look at other pieces of reform that are central to affordability in America. He has another shot at this.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I think they need to before the midterms. I mean, you can't. The one big beautiful bill, as good as it is, people aren't going to. I'm just telling you, the voters, you and I might think, remember it, but the voters are not going to go into the booth in November of next year thinking about, wow, how great is the one big beautiful bill? It's just not going to happen. so I think the Republicans are going to have to do another reconciliation bill between now and November of next year. And, and it's got to be aggressive. I mean, it's got to hit some of the stuff that you talked about that wasn't addressed in the first piece of legislation. we've got 30 seconds, but I think this is, this is the way to go. I mean, they have to take advantage of every opportunity they have.

>> Leslie Ford: Yeah, no, I totally agree. so much of the one big beautiful bill was a continuation of his first term agenda, but I think, and I know that he has more to do, so I'm looking forward to that.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Hey, Leslie Ford, thank you so much for coming on.

>> Leslie Ford: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

>> Walker Wildmon: Before I let you go, Leslie, real quick, tell our folks your URL.

>> Leslie Ford: Yes, please go to allianceforopportunity.com and you will find all of our papers with telling you how much your state might owe if they don't get their error rates under control. Right there under the news tab.

>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Alliance, allianceforopportunity.com Leslie, thanks so much again. Appreciate it.

>> Leslie Ford: Hey, thanks so much.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, there you have it. Allianceforopportunity.com check out that URL and you can find out all the information about Leslie and the work that they do over at alliance for Opportunity. All right, folks, thanks for joining us. We'll be back in just a few minutes for the last segment.

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

>> Walker Wildmon: Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.

Whitney Lipscomb is Senior Counsel for the Republican Association of Attorneys General

Welcome, back to the last segment of today's program. Walker Wildmon here with you. As a reminder, you can subscribe to the podcast where wherever you listen to podcasts, just type in the name of the program at the core and click the subscribe or the Follow button, depending on which platform you're on, and you'll have the show queued up in your library each and every day. Just type in the name of the program at the core and click the subscribe button, and you'll get the program each and every day. Welcoming our next guest. Whitney Lipscomb is with us. She is a representative for the Republican association of Attorneys General across the US all the Republican Attorneys General offices are a part of this coalition or this association. And, Whitney's their representative and their spokesperson. She's with us now. Whitney Lipscomb, welcome to the program.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: Walker. Thank you so much for having me. such an honor to be with y' all this afternoon and appreciate everything y' all do, to, you know, support conservative support policies and, just principles that, protect our families every day.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, thank you, Whitney. And correct me if I'm wrong. You mentioned during the break that you worked for several years with the Mississippi AG's office. does that mean you're a Magnolia native?

>> Whitney Lipscomb: I am. I'm sitting here in Ridgeland, Mississippi, right now.

>> Walker Wildmon: Great.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: I am, I in, Mississippi through and through. I served, for about the past 10 years, in Mississippi state government. I worked for Governor Phil Bryant as his Deputy Chief of staff and council, and then started, with Attorney General Fitch, on day one, minute one of January, 2020, and worked with her, for about five and a half years and got to work on some incredible, incredible things. Most, importantly, the Dobbs case. And, about four months ago, joined the Republican Attorneys General association as their General counsel and policy director.

>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Excellent. Whitney, give our folks an overview. I'm familiar with you with the work that you guys do because of, you know, the fights that we've had and how it takes m multiple states working together to fight back against some of this government overreach. I'm familiar with it, but give our audience kind of a brief overview of what this association of Attorneys General does, on kind of a day to day, week to week basis.

>> Leslie Ford: Sure.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: so the Republican Attorney General's association, you know, our main goal is to elect and reelect Republican AGs across the country, and, you know, so that they can support, the important policies that protect our Constitution, protect our freedoms every day. so we are here as a support organization for them, but also an organization to help, bring them together. And like I mentioned earlier, on the policy front, I'm actually president of a separate organization called the Rule of Law Defense Fund as well. It's a public policy organization that supports our conservative attorneys general. and in that role, we really focus on policy, you know, what policies that we're working on, what policies that we need to be working on. you know, we are so fortunate right now that President Trump is in office and we're able to work with the administration. so there are a number of issues that we are working hand in hand, with the president, with his administration. but, you know, before, the fourth President Trump was in office and President Biden was there, you know, the policies that weren't working for our, our country, and, you know, how Republican AGs were pushing back on those. and so, you know, this organization was here to support them in those efforts.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's what I want people to understand, the significance here of the Attorney General office in the various states, because, you know, it. You can have the legislative branch pass good legislation, you can have the executive branch sign the legislation law. And I'm sure, as being from Mississippi, you're familiar with how the AG's office was before Lyn Fitch. But if you don't have good attorneys within the AG's office to defend the state laws, or even fight back against bad federal laws and executive overreach, then you're in a bad spot as a state. And so my point is, is that to me, over the last, let's say, 10 years, the role of the Attorney General at the state level has become very, very important to conservative policy objectives.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: I 100% agree. I mean, like I mentioned, I've worked in the governor's office, I've worked in an Attorney General's office. the amount of, you know, raw power and the amount of, you know, responsibility on your state attorneys general is so incredible. and that's why you've got to make sure that you have, you know, very, very strong conservative legal fighters in these roles. I mean, the Attorney General is the top legal and law enforcement officer for the state. They're responsible for not only enforcing the laws, but defending those laws on the books. And you know, they represent everyone from all of your elected officials to all of state government. But I think one of the most important things that your state AGs do is they represent the people of the state. whether that means they are representing them in a criminal prosecution against representing, a victim in that role, or they're representing, you know, wide array of consumers in the state against huge, big bad actors. and like I alluded to before, in times, you know, they have to represent the people of the state against, you know, our own federal government. Like we did, during the Biden administration when we had just, you know, an immense amount of overreach and you know, regulations that were coming down the pike that were just totally unconstitutional. So they're incredibly important. They're incredibly impactful. And I think, like you mentioned, their role has become so much more, you know, amplified over the past, decade or so. And I think AG's, you know, they're. They're. We have some of the most brilliant Republican, AGs across the country now. And you know, they know how to utilize their role, but they also know how to utilize the collective effort of all of their, their colleagues across the country.

Walker: Elections have become a significant part of what attorneys general do

>> Walker Wildmon: The, election integrity, I know is a big topic within, the attorney's general office, especially at the state level, given that they're the chief law enforcement officer in the state and they're responsible for enforcing election cod mood, in many instances. But, tell us kind of how the. The. This has. Elections have come to be a significant part of what attorneys general do as far as making sure that elections are run up to par, both state and federal.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: Absolutely. election integrity, is such an important issue, and it always has been. But I think, attorneys general, especially post 2020, are really honing in on their authority and they're also looking at ways that they can, you know, they can expand that authority and they can, you know, better enforce that authority. So your attorneys general are responsible for enforcing election fraud. they're the ones that are responsible for, you know, if a case comes in, whether it's from their secretary of state, local election officials, they are the ones that are responsible for investigating and prosecuting these election crimes. and that's so important because, you know, they are. They're in most states, they're best equipped to do that. your local DAs don't necessarily have experts in election integrity. AG's offices across the country, they're. They're larger than a DA's office than a local prosecuting office. they have a lot of specialized attorneys. And you mentioned that at the beginning, Walker, which is so important. You've got to have people, good people, but also you got to have people who care. They care about making a difference in their state and in this country. and, you know, we do have people. We have people, across this country in AG's offices who are election integrity experts. So you've got people fighting, you know, the fraud on the criminal side, but you also have individuals in each of these offices who are looking at, you know, the laws, the state laws. Where do you need to, you know, tighten up, laws. Where do you need to increase enforcement? and going to their legislatures and saying, hey, look, we need to change some laws here. and I think we saw a lot of, I think, we saw, you know, the president early on when he, took office this year. He issued a pretty wide, sweeping election, integrity executive order. I think that was really important for states to say, okay, how do we need to. We need to shape up our laws and in accordance with this executive order, I've been on the front lines working with the RNC over the past couple years on election integrity operations. I'm pretty impressed at how we're organizing as a party. But we've got to make sure our laws are in order, and we got to make sure that we're following through with prosecutions when things have gone wrong. That's the only way we're going to keep people from committing these crimes over and over. I mean, our elections are foundation of democracy, so we have to protect them at all costs.

Whitney Lipscomb: Abortion pill loophole raises concerns among conservative AGs

>> Walker Wildmon: Whitney, before we let you go, once again, we're talking to Whitney Lipscomb, general counsel for the Republican association of Attorneys General. the abortion pill has been on our radar, post Roe with, you've got the FDA regulations and then you have different state laws regulating the issue of abortion. And in many, states now, well over a dozen, maybe even close to two dozen, abortion is, Is illegal under the vast majority of circumstances. And specifically the abortion pill Methopristone is illegal to use in the vast majority of these states that we're talking about, these conservative states. but this kind of, this loophole, we'll call it, for lack of a better word, has been used where you've got these pharmacies and abortion pill providers that are shipping this, this drug across state lines and into states where it's illegal. And it just seems like it's. It's really hard to track, and it's hard to keep up with and enforce. And so what are you guys looking at as an association and as you work with various AGs around the country? I know Texas has weighed in on this recently, but what are you guys looking at to try to better regulate and prevent this abortion pill from making it into these states where abortion is not permissible?

>> Whitney Lipscomb: well, and I appreciate that question because this is a concern that's top of mind for, you know, all of our nation's conservative attorneys general. you know, having been on the front lines, you know, with the Dobbs case, it's. It's kind of incredible to look now that you've got, you know, people who are, I mean, truly violating the law and going against the state's, will. I mean, we don't have, you know, we don't have abortion that's legal on demand here in Mississippi, and a lot of other states don't. Yet they're receiving, the pill. So one of the things that, state AGs have really been looking at is the REMs. These are the safety precautions in place for the abortion pill. during the Biden administration, because of COVID and whatever, they lifted these safety restrictions. It, used to be you had to go into a doctor's office to receive this pill. Now you can, you know, they lifted the restrictions again because of COVID and they could get it via telemedicine. So Republican AGs have been pushing back and saying, hey, look, HHS, FDA, you need to consider reinstating these safety precautions. This is not a safe pill. This is not something that you take and you go about your business. There are serious, side effects from this pill. And that's why there have been safety precautions in place for so long. And then you lifted them. I'm happy to report that a number of AGs did receive, a letter from the FDA saying, hey, look, because of your urging, we're going to take a look at this. we do think that there may be, some concerns here, and we need to look at, reevaluate whether we put those safety, precautions back in place. there are ags across the country who are hearing, I know in Louisiana, for example, Alabama as well, they have, had individuals come to them saying, look, I was slipped the abortion pill. Women who said they were, by, you know, their partner or who else saying, I was slipped the abortion pill. How they. And they're looking into. And I didn't want to receive an abortion. And so they're looking into how did they receive it, how can they go after criminal prosecution against the individual who shipped it and that. And so you know those are, those are instances that they're looking into. But I do pray across the board that the, you know, there's some further action by the fda. And I appreciate the Trump administration and the HHS for taking the opportunity to look into this and listening to our state AGs.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, they, they, they announced that they're going to look into it, meaning they're going to review the safety of the abortion pill. And then, then a couple weeks later one of the FDA panels came out and approved kind of this off label use. And so there's a little bit of back and forth. but to your point, we've got to get a full review because I'll almost guarantee you if the FDA truly looks at the abortion pill from an unbiased perspective, it's not going to look good. because we've seen the data, we've seen the horror stories of this abortion pill and at the end of the day it ends the life of a child. and so that seriously needs to be looked at by the Trump administration. Hey Whitney, tell our folks your website with the Republican AGS association and how they can find out more about your work.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: Sure. well we have republican ags.com is our website and there will be links to our Twitter and you know, Facebook, instagram and then rldf.org is the our public policy organization. Again keep up with us on social media and we will continue to you know, fight the good fight, protect our our values, protect our families, protect our most vulnerable. I think that's the most important thing we can do in this role is just to protect our country and ensure that we're making it a better place for our children and their children.

>> Walker Wildmon: Amen. Whitney Lipscomb, thanks so much for joining us.

>> Whitney Lipscomb: Walker, thank you so much for having me.

25 plus Republican attorneys general fought back against government overreach under Biden

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Whitney, Lipscomb, general counsel for the Republican association of Attorneys General Republican ags.com Republican ag s.com to read more about their work. And they've been responsible for litany victories over the last long time. But specifically under Biden, they, they fought back. 25 plus Republican attorneys general fought back against Biden and, and government overreach and won several cases both at the lower courts and at the Supreme Court. So we've got to have that association, that coalition of Republican AGs to continue fighting and working together. All right, folks, thanks for joining us today. As a reminder, you can check out the website afr.net and the podcast page there. 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.