Today's Issues features Wesley Wildman and Steve Paisley
>> Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. This is the name of this program. We're here for another 25 more minutes. I'm Tim Wildmon with Wesley Wildmon and Steve Paisley. Jordahl joins us. Good morning, brother Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: Aloha.
>> Tim Wildmon: And Ray Pritchard, raised in Kansas City. Aloha.
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, I'm wearing Hawaii.
>> Tim Wildmon: Hawaii. Yeah. It's not Paisley today. Hawaiian floral look.
>> Steve Jordahl: That's right.
>> Tim Wildmon: What do you want to do? You want to bring up something, Wesley? No.
>> Wesley Wildmon: You're asking me about, Bennett's program. He's. There's a lot of graduation going on today, and Bennett's graduating right now, going from third grade to fourth grade.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right. But I didn't get an invitation.
>> Steve Jordahl: Graduate from third to fourth.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Now it's during the radio program, so it's taking place. So we had to choose.
>> Tim Wildmon: I'm just saying, I think Americans just. We're getting a little carried away with these graduation gifts.
>> Steve Jordahl: I'm thinking.
>> Tim Wildmon: So we got graduation for high school, junior college, college, now kindergarten.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.
>> Tim Wildmon: So we. Now we got to buy a gift for kindergarten.
>> Frank Gaffney: Yeah.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Ah.
>> Tim Wildmon: So,
>> Wesley Wildmon: And, you know, Nana's gonna do that if you.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. But if you put something in between, I don't think. I don't think you need to have a graduation ceremony from fifth to sixth grade.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Okay, I got you.
>> Steve Jordahl: I graduated from the fall of my fourth grade year to the spring of my fourth grade. And I won a new.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yes. And that's in between Christmas.
>> Tim Wildmon: How many. How many? Did you get any, high school or college graduation invitations? Right?
>> Tim Wildmon: We do. We do every year. Every year.
>> Tim Wildmon: You ignore them. You, like, throw them in the garbage. What do you do?
>> Tim Wildmon: I give them to Marlene. Oh.
>> Steve Jordahl: Actually.
>> Tim Wildmon: I just give them to my, you know, or. Or more likely Steve. She. She reads them, shows them to me. Or maybe she doesn't. She just takes care of that.
>> Steve Jordahl: Right. We married well.
>> Tim Wildmon: You get any.
>> Steve Jordahl: We married well. Yeah, well, we did. We had, some kids that we know. Their parents in our church, our kids.
>> Tim Wildmon: Did you have any, though, that you got in the mail, you thought. Come on, man. This is a.
>> Steve Jordahl: My,
>> Tim Wildmon: We don't. We don't even hardly know each other.
>> Steve Jordahl: We're in the middle of. We're in the middle of this age where our friends, kids are not, grandkids, aren't graduating from high school quite yet, and kids are way beyond their Married and have kids, so.
>> Tim Wildmon: But we all get that one or two that we go, you just want a gift out of me.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: You know what I'm saying?
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: You don't even know me if you see me out in public. Okay.
>> Steve Jordahl: No, we just.
>> Tim Wildmon: But I get a graduation.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yes, that's right.
>> Steve Jordahl: Kids from, Like, if I. I teach a Sunday school class, so kids that are, from my, The kids of my classes. What am I saying?
>> Tim Wildmon: You're saying about you. What grade do you teach?
You never set up tables for graduates like you do in the south here
>> Steve Jordahl: I don't teach a grade at 12. 18th, 24th. this is an adult class. My age. I teach a Sunday school class.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.
>> Steve Jordahl: If any of the people in my class have kids that are graduating.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.
>> Steve Jordahl: No.
>> Tim Wildmon: Then you get an invitation.
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, we don't. We hadn't gotten an invitation to any graduate. We haven't been in graduation ceremony. But we give them gifts through church. You know, we'll set one of those envelopes on the kids tables at the church. They didn't have that, by the way, in the West Coast. You never set up tables for graduates like you do in the south here. I never saw that in my life until I got here.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: You mean a table at church, like, with, like, memorabilia and pictures.
>> Steve Jordahl: All the pictures and the honors and everything. I'd never seen that till I got to the South.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Wesley Wildmon: yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: I didn't know that. I didn't know. I didn't know that people didn't do that in other parts of the country.
>> Steve Jordahl: It's a Southern thing.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.
>> Steve Jordahl: So much else I'm learning.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, I think we escaped with, like, three or four invitations.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That's impressive.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Pretty.
>> Tim Wildmon: I've said before, getting a, getting a graduation invitation in the mail is like getting a subpoena. I mean, it really is required to go. Gotta go. anyway. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Everybody deserves their moment. The sun. High school, junior college, or college. All right, you're listening to today's issues on, American Family Radio.
Bruce Rather is a retired FBI agent who spoke out on FBI issues
Speaking of their moment in the sun, the former director of the FBI was in the sun. James Comey, strolling around, strolling the beach, minding his own business. And he, as Chris says, stumbles upon a rock. no shells that were shell formation that had a message. A message to man. And, joining us to talk about it is Bruce Rather. Bruce is a retired FBI agent, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, husband of Sandy Rios, our good friend and colleague. And Bruce has been speaking out on the FBI, for a few Years now in terms of, as I said, the good, bad and the ugly. Good morning, Bruce.
>> Frank Gaffney: Good morning. It's good to talk with you guys.
>> Tim Wildmon: Bruce, how. I forgot. How many years were you with the Bureau?
>> Frank Gaffney: I was with them for 24 years.
>> Tim Wildmon: Wow. You got like, full retirement benefits and stuff, don't you?
>> Frank Gaffney: Yeah, it was. It was quite an experience. I loved it.
Steve Jordal says changes in FBI culture started under Obama
>> Tim Wildmon: Now, ah, were you, like a field agent? Like, Or, What. What did you. Or, what did you. What was your role?
>> Frank Gaffney: You know, my. My career, I was fortunate. It kind of spanned a little bit of everything. I started as a field agent, and that's what I enjoyed the most. I, eventually, became a manager for a short time for us. I did not like that. And then I became a polygraph examiner for a while and did enjoy that. Questioning people, interrogating people. Then I went back to the field and I finally finished up in Internal affairs because I was starting to see under Obama what was happening with our organization, which has really blossomed into full badness, the last few years. And I wanted to go there and try and make a difference. I don't know that I did, but I wanted to try.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. So, so you thought you saw a change. How would you describe the change that started to happen, during the Obama.
>> Frank Gaffney: Well, what happened? Yeah, what happened is during Obama, we started lowering the requirements. and, as a polygraph examiner, I was very involved in hiring people because they had to pass a polygraph in order to get hired and get a security clearance. So I would spend two or three hours in a room alone with the person. And we had a 70 page, basically a resume of them. So you really got to know the person. And I would come home often after interviewing these people and polygraphing them and say to Sandy, I have no idea why we're even speaking to this person, let alone trying to hire them, because they. They just don't meet what we're looking for. But under these new regulations, these new standards, they were qualified, quote, unquote.
>> Steve Jordahl: Hey, Bruce, this is Steve Jordal. a question. You're talking. Hey, Bruce, you're talking about the DEI type thing, the hiring people that don't qualify. Were you also concerned about the weaponization up at the upper management? Is that anything that, we're talking.
>> Tim Wildmon: About in the Obama years here?
>> Frank Gaffney: Yes, you could. Well, yes, you could see that beginning, there was a. There was a shift in who they were putting into management and what we were focusing on. And, we were starting to get away from our core values, our core issues, our core, law enforcement that we were, you know, had gone after traditionally. And you could just feel, especially under Mueller, when, when Director Mueller came on, he came Right at 911 he said, if you remember, he was only in office about a week before 911 happened. And Mueller had much more of a corporate way of running a law enforcement agency instead of like the way cops normally, run them. And we became much more intent on gathering intelligence and being more like the CIA than being a law enforcement agency. So really our whole focus shifted under him.
>> Steve Jordahl: Are you encouraged with Cash Patel and Dan Bongino at the FBI?
>> Frank Gaffney: so far I am. I'm kind of in a wait and see posture. But I will say after watching them interviewed the other night extensively, if what they say that is coming is true, I think we're going to be very happy. It's not, you know, they've only really been in there together about two months. And I'm telling you, as I said to many people when they went up there, I don't think they have any idea how tangled and how, you know, what a web has been woven up there to try to stop Trump and his administration from not only implementing their agenda, but from finding the bodies that had been left behind by Obiden. And Obama. And Obama.
>> Tim Wildmon: You gotta, yeah, you got a combo word there. We can revisit that in a few minutes.
Bruce Bennett: James Comey was the FBI director from 2013 to 2017
Let's talk about James, Comey, the former FBI director. I don't know how many, how many years was he? Wasn't it four or five years? he served two different presidents. Right.
>> Frank Gaffney: He was there from m. 2013 to 2017. I believe he was there about four years. But he was also the Attorney General for a while and he was the head of the Southern District of New York, which is the U.S. attorney's office that has constantly gone after President Trump.
>> Tim Wildmon: He had, just non politically here. He had quite a distinguished career. he did until he got overt. He was considered somebody who was not political, which is the way it should be really with people in those positions to being overtly political. we all remember the the infamous NOW press conference he held where he basically told the world, he wasn't going to touch Hillary Clinton, even though she was, you know, she was, using an unsecured server to do State Department business. And then she lied about it. And then he said, yeah, nobody, nobody cares, nobody's gonna, no reasonable prosecutor would do anything about this kind of Activity.
>> Steve Jordahl: Which, by the way, set the. Played for every. I mean, they got Trump off.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Essentially, Trump fired him, early on, I think, maybe six, months in. I forgot how long it was into his administration. And now. Well, what I want to ask you about this, it's controversy that nobody's, heard from James Comey for a couple of years, I don't think. But. But he got into hot water here recently with some. Over this Instagram post that we've talked about, where this is last week. Right. He's taken. He took a picture of seashells he said he found on a beach, or now he says his wife did in a formation. It's called 8647. That's the four numbers. And then he. I think. Didn't he write this is interesting or something on the Instagram post? This is.
>> Frank Gaffney: Yes. And, you know, I've been surprised, at the interpretations of what 86 means. primarily, I've heard people saying that 86 is a restaurant term that's used when they want to take something off the menu. But actually, the term 86 goes way back to the Korean War. The Americans, we were flying F86 fighter planes, and that's when we were fighting the North Koreans. But essentially we were also fighting the Russians because they were providing make fighters to North Korea. And in fact, some of the Russian pilots were fighting our guys. And the term for a victory by a United States pilot over a MiG was i86 HIM because they were flying F86s. So, to me, 86 can have a much more nefarious, threatening type, meaning than what a lot of people have been saying on TV. And of course, 47 refers to Trump, I'm sure. So we're looking at 86. 47, if you want to take the 86, meaning literally, it's kill Trump.
>> Tim Wildmon: yeah. Or take. Take out, or. Yeah, whatever you take out. But. But here's the part. Here's the part that James Comey says this is something his wife discovered right on the beach and wanted him to take. I mean, the whole thing. the whole thing. He took it down, didn't he?
>> Steve Jordahl: He took the post down.
>> Tim Wildmon: Why would you take it down if it's innocent?
>> Frank Gaffney: that's exactly my thought.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, go ahead.
>> Frank Gaffney: And, you know, he. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
>> Steve Jordahl: I know. I was just gonna say there's, an explanation for this that I hadn't considered that James Comey brought up and that I want to put out for you because Maybe he is innocent because, well, after all, it was artistic. Cut 4.
>> Speaker F: Clever way to express a political view. The shells were the same color for each of the letters, so different colors for the letters. It took a lot. Somebody with artistic flair did that. And I have a hard time believing it was anybody with, a dark, intention. I regret the distraction and the controversy around it. But again, it's hard to have regret about something that even in hindsight, looks to me to be totally innocent. Even if I think it's crazy. I don't want to be associated with violence of any kind.
>> Steve Jordahl: That explains it, right, Bruce?
>> Frank Gaffney: You know, James Comey is. Is such an. I would say interesting would be the wrong word. But, you know, he, has to realize what position he holds in the American opinion. He has been in these high law enforcement positions. It's not like some guy goes on Instagram, that's unknown, and posts 8647. He is the former director. And what's really bothering me is, is even now that he has been interviewed by the. That's a pretty serious thing when you get interviewed by the Secret Service as to whether or not you're threatening the president and he's had all this blowback, what's his reaction? He laughs at it. He acts like it's a big joke. You know, I am. Look, I'm not one of these people calling for the hanging of James Comey, but I am for. We need to put this in the proper perspective. And. And I think one of the things that James Comey needs to do is learn a lesson about his reckless behavior, because this is not the first thing he's done since. You know, if you look back to the beginning of the Trump administration, he was instrumental in trying to take their legs out from under them in the 45th term. You know, he had that meeting, quote, unquote, secret meeting with Donald Trump where he said they had these tapes of Trump with prostitutes in Moscow. And of course, Trump knew that was ridiculous.
James Comey was trying to get leverage on Trump right away
He knew that never happened. But Comey was trying to get leverage on Trump right away.
>> Tim Wildmon: Then they set up. Then they set up, ah, General Flynn. Yes, the FBI did.
>> Frank Gaffney: Terrible. That was terrible. And that was all at Comey's direction. You know, you've heard him interviewed, and people ask, well, what were these agents doing, interviewing Michael Flynn before really they'd even taken office? And he goes, I sent them. And he was so proud of himself. And he loved talking about how they circumvented the protocol. I know that normally it's done.
>> Tim Wildmon: It was terrible.
>> Frank Gaffney: I mean, this is. This is what I mean. He does not. He's not sorry for what's going on. no.
>> Tim Wildmon: And he was fired by. He was fired by President, then President Trump. So he's got a reason, to be antagonistic, back toward Trump. And anyway, I just this, to me.
>> Wesley Wildmon: The same year in which, we've had to attempt attempted, assassinations on President Trump, too, this year.
>> Frank Gaffney: And see, I think that is so relevant that we have all this violence happening. We have people trying to storm ICE facilities. We have people attacking people on airplanes wearing Trump hats. We have two, like you were talking, Wesley, two attempts on the president, one successful almost. and now a person of the stature of James Comey puts 8647. And the other context for this is that term had just been used about a week before by a bunch of radical left wingers talking about getting rid of Trump in a violent way. And here comes James Comey. And. And the other thing that bothers me about this is, do you really think he didn't set up those shells? Do you really think he just walked down the beach and found those? I mean, I find that just, you know, that's. Yeah, that's like when the Clintons found that the cross on the beach in Normandy, made out of shells while they danced and. Oh, my gosh. You know, really.
Cash Patel says he plans to move 10% of FBI workforce out of D.C
>> Tim Wildmon: All right, all right. So, so one other question I had about the FBI. That's a big. That's been in the news, and that is, Cash Patel, the FBI, director, who has said that he intends to get 10% of the FBI workforce out of Washington, D.C. and spread them out across the country. that's what he said the other day. I think I got my numbers right there. what do you. What do you. What do you think? And there's been some talk about even doing more than that. I mean, I think President Trump or somebody brought up the idea of potentially moving, you know, moving the FBI to some other city outside of Washington.
>> Steve Jordahl: D.C. that was cash himself who said that he was going to turn the FBI Hoover Building into a museum to the deep state.
>> Frank Gaffney: Yeah, well, in his interview the other day, Cash said that they are moving out of that building, that they've located property. In fact, he and Bongino were spotted. I'm still trying to find out where it was, but they were spotted by people looking at real estate, before last weekend, like an existing building. And I think that that's what they're thinking about. Doing is at least for temporary, going to another building. And as far as moving people out of Washington D.C. i am all for it. We are so top heavy. The FBI is so top heavy with managers upon managers upon managers. And really what they're doing is they are there creating their career. They're not fighting crime. it always amazed me how many people that were employed by us that weren't really worried about the crime fighting mission. They were worried about making a successful career for them and setting themselves up to have an after employment job with a bank or a security company. And you get those by going to headquarters and becoming a big shot. So I am all in favor. In fact, I joke. My very first assignment was Huntsville, Alabama. When I got there, we only had 10 people. There are now 1500 people in Huntsville because, well, decision was made to make. They call that headquarters too. So I always laugh. I said, see, it took 50. I tell Sandy it only took 1500 people to replace your, your deadbeat.
>> Tim Wildmon: That's funny. Oh, that's funny. Okay, well listen, M. Bruce, thanks so much. we'll have you back on again sometime soon. I want to you to tell two or three of your stories that you've told me that I think enough time, I think enough time has lapsed since your career as a field agent where we could, we could well go.
>> Frank Gaffney: Ahead after the show. After the show, Sandy and I did regarding James Comey the other day. my pension may be stopping quickly.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, that's right, that's right. All right, well, take care. Thank you Bruce, Appreciate it so much.
>> Frank Gaffney: Great talking with you guys. Thank you.
Bruce Rather joins us to discuss the current state of the FBI
>> Tim Wildmon: That's Bruce Rather joining us there to discuss, the current state of the FBI. The vaunted Ray, FBI had a, they have a great reputation among the American people for decades and decade, didn't they?
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, for, for several generations, yeah. In this, these last years, it has become politicized, it's moved to the left, it's given into DEI and it's gone after, people like us, ah, conservatives certainly gone after Donald Trump and people's confidence is shaken. I thought it was interesting his comments about Cash Patel and Dan Bongino. It's early and it's a vast organization up there, which is interesting too that Bruce said a vast entanglement of people who are fully dedicating to stopping Donald Trump. Well, we wish, we wish Cash Patel and Dan Bongino, all the best in their work of reforming the FBI because it needs to happen.
>> Tim Wildmon: Dave, we got a minute to Go here. What do you got? Got anything worth a minute?
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, let's talk about ordering food from, Uber Eats in. In Chicago. okay. Because it's quite the adventure. We had an Uber Eats driver. I'm looking for the story for the details here, but who got, a little lost when he was delivering food. And It's a doordash, actually. I'm sorry, it's not Ubereats. His doordash. And he somehow got lost and wound up in the middle of Chicago o' Hare Airport. He drove the doordash car over across runways trying to get food to somewhere, I guess. I don't know how he got lost, but how do you get inside?
>> Tim Wildmon: How do you do that?
>> Steve Jordahl: I don't know.
>> Tim Wildmon: Suppose they have airtight security at o' Hare. Well, how do you possibly get a doordash truck if I order my food?
>> Tim Wildmon: That's the guy I want though, right? Ah, because he's gonna, he's gonna get it to you no matter what it takes.
>> Tim Wildmon: He's gonna bring the Taco Bell to you wherever you are.
>> Tim Wildmon: he'll find you even if you're on the tarmac.
>> Steve Jordahl: Neither ice nor glue nor day.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Ok. All right, so tell me, say.
>> Tim Wildmon: That one more time or airport security.
>> Steve Jordahl: Door dash delivery driver drove into. apparently he say, he drove for miles inside of the security fence.
>> Tim Wildmon: Before I got you and drove across.
>> Tim Wildmon: Runway at o' har airport.
>> Tim Wildmon: That every, day there's something.
>> Tim Wildmon: How is that possible?
>> Tim Wildmon: I don't know. I know that sac your trust.
>> Tim Wildmon: Somebody wanted their airport security.
>> Wesley Wildmon: He was committed. He was going to get his tip.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, he was.
>> Steve Jordahl: Ah, need more than.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That to get out.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yes.
>> Tim Wildmon: they wanted that Chicago deep dish.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: So that's what they paid for.
>> Tim Wildmon: All right, we're out of time. Thank you, Ray.
>> Tim Wildmon: Thank you, Tim.
>> Tim Wildmon: Thanks to Wesley and Steve and Chris and Brent Creeley, our producer, and Alex and Bruce. And we thank you for listening to the program today. Keep, listening to American Family Radio. Take care, everybody.