Morning Wire XX
[0] The growing crisis of child trafficking is gaining more attention in recent days, in part due to buzz around the new film Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Kviesel, that presents the incredible story of special agent Tim Ballard and his work to bring down the horrific industry.
[1] In this episode, we talk with country music star and entrepreneur, John Rich, an angel investor in the film, about the tragedy of child trafficking and what it will take to end it.
[2] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[3] It's Monday, July 3rd, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire.
[4] I had the opportunity to screen Sound of Freedom ahead of the weekend.
[5] It's based on the true story of Tim Ballard, a former government agent -turned freedom fighter, who embarks on a dangerous mission to rescue dozens of children from human trafficking.
[6] John Rich, who was there at the same screening with me in Nashville, joins us now to discuss.
[7] John, thanks so much for coming on.
[8] Of course.
[9] We invited you in after hearing your powerful response to the film at the screening.
[10] First, why do you believe this film is so important?
[11] Well, I think this film had to happen because the pervasiveness of child trafficking around the world and in our own country, I think is something that, you know, people know it's out there, but I don't think they really understand how big it is.
[12] And that, you know, you walk out of your back door or drive out of your driveway, you assume, yeah, it's going on somewhere, but it's not going on in my neighborhood.
[13] and this movie shows you that no it's going on everywhere all the time and what was so unbelievable about the way they built this film was it put you in the room i mean you felt it if you're a parent and you watch this movie and trust me every parent needs to go watch this movie there is no way to not be completely gripped and just i mean you go from sick to your stomach to so angry you want to grab somebody through the screen like Tim Bauer did in real life.
[14] And then at the end, you find yourself, you know, when they get their kids back, just imagining what if that was you and your kid?
[15] So I think it's paramount that every parent in America goes and watches this movie to understand this dynamic.
[16] It is not an easy thing to think about.
[17] It's a really uncomfortable thing to approach.
[18] But it's reality.
[19] Unfortunately, it is.
[20] and thank God for people like Tim Ballard willing to go out there and set the example as to how to take care of this.
[21] Yeah, I can testify to the impact this movie has.
[22] It's maybe the most powerful movie I've seen personally.
[23] Some statistics I wanted to present to you.
[24] The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that in 2021, they received more than 29 million cyber tip line reports.
[25] Those contained around 85 million images, videos, and other content related to suspected child.
[26] sexual exploitation.
[27] That was up around 30 % over the previous year.
[28] This film makes the argument that this crisis has not been focused on enough by government officials.
[29] It also hasn't been presented by Hollywood.
[30] It took several years for this film to actually make it to distribution through this.
[31] Why hasn't there been enough focus on this extensive crisis we have?
[32] I mean, you asked a great question.
[33] We've got all these powerful people and places that can do something about it, yet nothing's happening.
[34] Matter of fact, the stat that was was talked about in the movie last night is that over the last several years, it's increased by 5 ,000 percent, 5 ,000 percent for every five officers going after a drug dealer.
[35] There's one going after child traffickers.
[36] I mean, which one's more important?
[37] When you saw that movie, you and I saw that last night, I mean, there's literally nothing you would not do to figure out where your kid was at if your kid was in that shape.
[38] And there's millions of them out.
[39] I think they said around the world right now, they think it's around 6 million kids.
[40] And the United States is the number one consumption point for child trafficking.
[41] Think about that.
[42] I think that's what this movie is going to do.
[43] It's going to open people's eyes and make them realize this is what we're allowing to go on in our country.
[44] And that's a really dangerous place for our country to be.
[45] Many lawmakers and activists are pointing out that open border policies have led to massive rise in child and human trafficking.
[46] We've seen actually since 2021, over 250 ,000 unaccompanied children entering the U .S. That's without a parent or a legal guardian.
[47] How does immigration policy tie into this?
[48] Is this part of the reason that we're the number one destination for this issue?
[49] I would say it is one of the reasons.
[50] I mean, a quarter of a million kids in the U .S. right now that were unaccompanied.
[51] Where are they?
[52] Have you seen 250 ,000 amber alerts on your iPhone?
[53] No. Are you seeing this as a headline on the news?
[54] No. Where are they?
[55] They're somewhere, and it's not a good place.
[56] And so, yeah, when you leave the border open, it lets the bad guys on both sides of that border, cut deals, make arrangements to get these kids taken from where they should be and put in places where it's literally living hell.
[57] I mean, it's like the scenes that we were watching and Sound of Freedom.
[58] That is going on all over the country.
[59] It's a hard thing to grasp, isn't it?
[60] I mean, we watched it last night.
[61] You wake up and it's still with you, because you realize that's going on.
[62] And then the question is, well, what are we supposed to do about it?
[63] And to your question earlier, the people in power that actually have the ability to do something about it, why are they not doing something about it?
[64] Well, I don't like the way that answer falls.
[65] I don't know how this ever gets fixed other than the American public waking up en masse and finding the organizations out there.
[66] Tim Tebow has got one.
[67] That's all they do is go after child trafficking.
[68] You've got Tim Ballard.
[69] You've got other organizations that if they had basically unlimited funding, they would have unlimited reach to be able to get out there and take as many of these people off the streets as possible and get these kids back.
[70] And I really think that that should be what everyday Americans do.
[71] If you're going to put your charity dollars somewhere, you want to support something that really matters, that's where we should be supporting.
[72] So the filmmakers have made clear that the purpose of this film is to raise awareness on this issue.
[73] A recent Convention of States Action Polls showed that 80 % of voters believe that human trafficking is a major problem in the U .S. and that we're not doing enough about it.
[74] So final question, as we discussed after the film, where do we go from here?
[75] What can individuals do?
[76] What steps can they take to see some momentum on this?
[77] First of all, go watch this movie and call all your other mom and dad friends and have them watch the movie.
[78] And if you have a kid that's 16 or older, have them also watch this movie.
[79] It alerts you to the fact of the tactics that these people use to get your kids.
[80] I mean, that was what an eye opener at the beginning of the movie.
[81] And this is based on a true story.
[82] This is factual stuff.
[83] How they set up this dad to get their hands on his kids.
[84] Now, that was an elaborate, sneaky way to do it.
[85] They also sometimes just grab them.
[86] But for parents to raise their awareness level, kick their radar up to a new level of protection around their kids and other people's kids that they're around.
[87] That is vitally important to understand it.
[88] Number two, yeah, when you've got 80 % of Americans agreeing on anything, 80 % of Americans can't agree that they all like to eat ice cream, okay?
[89] But 80 % of Americans agree that something's got to happen here.
[90] This is, we've got to, we've got to fix this, we've got to knock this out.
[91] Yeah, that's a huge deal.
[92] And, you know, we've always wanted unity in our country.
[93] We can disagree on that, but hey, can't we still be unified that we all had things in common.
[94] Well, guess what's one thing we all have in common?
[95] We don't like you taking our kids.
[96] One of the biggest phrases in that movie was, God's kids are not for sale.
[97] And that is the truth.
[98] But they're being sold every day.
[99] So, you know, I hope that disclosure happens at some point about who actually is running the trafficking rings in America.
[100] Who is behind it?
[101] Who's making the money off of it?
[102] Because if we ever figure that part out, I think that's the head of the snake and that's where we'll go.
[103] Well, a powerful film highlighting a literally life and death crisis.
[104] John, thank you so much for talking with us.
[105] Absolutely.
[106] Good to be on.
[107] That was John Rich, and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.