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Show Rewind 8-27-26 · South Carolina's Morning News

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: And I'm Kelly Nash, 603. Let's get after it. Good morning,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Christopher Thompson. How are you today?
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: I'm great, Kelly Nash. How are you?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Fired up. You know what? It's like I'm starting to
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: sniff football. That puts me in a good mood.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, final preseason weekend for the NFL tonight. And, of course,
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: college football getting underway, too. I don't know why they
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: call it Week Zero. Why don't we just say that
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: is Week One? Because not everybody's playing.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: That's true. So we've got Week Zero coming down. And
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: I guess the big game that everybody will be talking
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: about is North Carolina taking on TCU. Where's that? In
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Dublin again?
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Yes, in Ireland.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: That is crazy. I guess, are we trying to spread
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: college football there now that it's like a professional sports league?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I guess we're trying to spread it over there.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: It's a long trip, but a fun one.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I imagine it would be.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: If you're of age.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: And if you're a fan who's got that kind of cash. Yeah,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that's true. You've got to be quite the fan for that.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: And then Gamecocks and Clemson get started next weekend. So, again,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: it's a fun time of the year. Hopefully the cooler
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: weather starts kicking in pretty soon. Although I always say
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: that the cooler weather arrives at least in the Midlands.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I've been using this rule of thumb since I arrived
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: more than 20 years ago. It's the second week of
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: the State Fair. I noticed when I go to do
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: something on the first week at night, there'll be people
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: like me, I don't make this mistake anymore, who will
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: bring a sweatshirt or something, and then you're just sweating
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: through your sweatshirt. Big mistake. Yeah, but for some reason,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: it's that second week. When you go out there at night,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: it's like, oh, it's like 58, 62 degrees. I love it.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: I think people who move here from anywhere are shocked
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: at how hot August is.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: More importantly, September and the first couple of weeks of
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: October are usually pretty freaking hot around here, too. True, true. So,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: by the way, Clemson, do we know... What time are
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: they kicking off on their first game? At LSU? Yeah,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: because our first game is like 1240 or something like that. 1245.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, miserable.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Right in the middle of the day, it's going to
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: be 110 degrees on the field, I'm sure.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Clemson at LSU is the 730 kick that night.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I guess if you're a fan... Who happens to be
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: going down there, you appreciate it. It'll be a little
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: bit cooler. But if you're a fan, understanding what Death
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Valley at night means, that is not a good feeling.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: You're using Death Valley?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: That is the Death Valley.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: That is the Death Valley.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: You may irritate some Clemson fans, but okay.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Come on, come on. You guys know that. Anyway, all right, 6.05. Now,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: coming up this morning, we've got a lot to get
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to this morning. So we're going to be talking to
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Post-Secondary Education, Dr.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: David Barker. He'll be coming up a little bit later
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: on this morning. Now, the reason he's on is because
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: you've heard a little bit about how the Trump administration
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: is trying to lower costs for college and or technical
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: schools and all of these types of things. And there's
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: even more updates on that. So he'll bring us all
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: up to speed on how they're trying to lower costs
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: for everybody. Then a little later on this morning, we're
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: going to have Alan Wilson on, the Attorney General. Yesterday,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: they settled a lawsuit, not just us. I mean, it's
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: like 48 states settled with META. And where's that money
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: going to go? How is that quarter of a billion
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: dollars that's coming into the South Carolina coffers, where's that
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: going to go? And then later on, Irmo's own Donna
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Rice Hughes. We've never, I've never had the, have you
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: guys ever spoken to her before? Yes. You did? Okay.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: So yeah, she's, she's been very active on internet safety
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: for kids, more in line usually with like the adult sites.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And she's really kind of quarterbacked some important, it's not legislation,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: but she got like Starbucks and McDonald's and some of
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: these chains to put blocks on their Wi-Fi and Because
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: what they were finding is that kids were, you know, 15,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: 14 years old were accessing pornography when they went to
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the Wi-Fi at these restaurants. Well, she's been kind of
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: working hard behind the scenes to make that happen. But
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: she's also got some more thoughts on this meta stuff.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: So we got all that. And of course, your talkback features.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Yesterday was historic for South Carolina's morning news. It was
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: the first day that we weren't able to play back
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: all of your talkback. So today, let's start stacking them
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: up early so that we can get to you. Now, again,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: the rule is we're past the 24 hours. Yes. We
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: are no longer in either celebratory mode or grievance mode
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: over what happened to the the runoff. We are now
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: moving forward. It's all about, we got to climb this
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: mountain known as the Democrats who are, I was talking
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to somebody last night, Christopher, they think that the packs
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: are going, are already lining up over a hundred million
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: dollars to back any answers.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Well, she's got to be fairly confident because she's spending
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: a lot of her own campaign money right now on
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: TV ads. And she says she's going to blanket those
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: ads across the markets in South Carolina until the election.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: And it's already started. So, she's got to be feeling
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: pretty safe that she's going to get more money coming in,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: spending people spending more money for her. If she's spending
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: that much money right now.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know, we're supposed to have her on
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: next Friday.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: So a week from tomorrow, Annie Andrews enters the lion's den. No,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: it's not going to be like that. I honestly, you know,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: in my mind, the way this will go is I'm
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: going to be very respectful and.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: You always are.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell her up front, I'm probably going
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: to disagree with all of your answers, but we'll let
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: you put them out there. And then I'll point out
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: where I think there might be some flawed theories there. And,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: you know, hopefully it'll be very respectful. We're not going
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: to be yelling and all that sort of stuff. So
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: it's not going to be a circus. I don't like
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: it when people are yelling at each other.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: That doesn't get anyone anywhere. And you don't learn any
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: more about the candidate that way.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: That's true. So we'll see what she has to say
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: for herself because you guys asked for that. That was
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: one of those things we got off the talkback feature
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: as well. Do you want us to interview her? And
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: apparently the Casey, drawing a blank on her last name,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: but the lady who's the Libertarian candidate, we're going to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: try to get her on. We're still working behind the
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: scenes on that one. It is now 6.09.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: 614, and if you're in North Charleston today, you get
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: an opportunity to see the Oscar Wienermobile. It's going to
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: be at the North Charleston Farmer's Market from 3 to
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: 7 today, and that's part of the 90th birthday of
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: the Oscar Wienermobile. There's multiples. It's not as if this
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: is the original. There's numerous ones, and then tomorrow it'll
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: be throughout the Lowcountry Children's Museum, Charleston Cars and Coffee,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: and other places. But yeah, seeing the Oscar Wienermobile could
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: be a big deal for some families today. But before
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: we go any further down the Oscar Wienermobile rabbit trail,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: let me take our attention back over here to something
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: that I think a lot of families are concerned with,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and that's student debt. And people are coming out of
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: college with six-figure, this is just crushing student debt. And
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: the Trump administration is has been working hard on lowering
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the costs of college with some of their recent moves.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: And to talk about that is Dr. David Barker. And
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: that is the fact, right? They are trying to lower
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the costs aggressively.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. We're instituting earnings tests for all programs in higher education,
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: saying that if graduates of those programs don't earn more
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: than someone with just a high school degree, no more
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: federal funds for that program.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: It seems as if this unlimited amount of federal funds
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: going to people who want to go to college is
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: what is driving up the costs.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: That's right. And the only limit on loans has been
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: the cost of attendance, which universities control through tuition. We've
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: just put limits on graduate school borrowings. And we're already
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: seeing universities lowering tuition as a result.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic news. I mean, I don't know how anyone
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: could be against this. The Trump administration has come up
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: with a policy that is actually driving down the cost
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: of college. Isn't that fantastic? And yet there's people who
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: are upset about it.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: That's true. Well, there are people who are upset no
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: matter what we do, but we charge on. You know,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: we're focusing on students. not education and special interests. You know,
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: we're focusing on quality, affordability, and fairness. I mean, fairness
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: in admissions and fairness in the presentation of ideas in universities.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: So we're really trying to improve. And when you say
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: post-secondary education, that doesn't just mean college. That also means
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: occupational programs, short-term programs that will help students prepare for
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: jobs very quickly. That's why we're instituting the Workforce Pell Program,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: which will, for the first time, allow Pell money to
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: support short-term occupational programs.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: And Pell Money really is designed to help people who
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: You know, the federal government gives loans to students, but
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: it also gives grants that don't have to be paid back.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: And those are need-based. So, you know, students can apply
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: for that, and it's based on family income. They can
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: receive money. And now they can receive that money for
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: occupational short-term programs, not just colleges.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: The era I grew up in with is if you
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: didn't go to college, you were going to be a bum.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Now I think we're starting to realize, hey, maybe college
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: is not for everybody and maybe there's a better path
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: for some people through the trades.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: And I think, you know, we need something that some
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: have called parity of esteem. There are so many occupations
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: that are in demand and needed. and require really difficult,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: complex skills to do. And that includes the trades. And
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: we have to put away this idea that one is
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: superior to the other because we need it all. We
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: need all of those skills. And as you say, AI
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: might really change the relative needs for a lot of
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: these jobs.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it should. And again, we're talking with the U.S.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Post-Secondary Education, Dr. David Barker.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I've been fascinated to see these limits that you're putting
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: on it. Can you talk to us a little bit
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: about the returning jobs? Education to the state waivers. What
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: does this mean?
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: So in the past, well, you know, the Department of
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: Education doesn't teach any courses, doesn't develop any courses. It's
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: really a pass through entity that we take taxpayer money
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: and we funnel it out to schools and universities. But
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: a lot of strings are attached to that money. We
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: have lots of regulations, lots of restrictions that we put
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: on institutions. We're trying to cut back on those and
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: give states more flexibility to use the money how they
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: see fit. And we're seeing great results. There are states
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: that are coming up with innovative programs that are having
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: tremendous impact.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I was reading the press release on this, and it
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: talked about how we've already awarded six states. Where's South Carolina?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Where are we at? Any idea?
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: No, but South Carolina is welcome to apply. We would
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: love to see that.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Can I apply? I mean, who do I need to
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: get on the phone to make this happen?
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, you can talk to the governor's office,
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: and we would be happy to speak with the governor
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: and make sure that that happens.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: My gosh, what are we waiting on? Let's get some
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: of that money unattached to the bureaucracy.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Well, that'll be a project today. We're calling over to
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Henry McMaster's office. It is now 619. If you want
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to hear more with Dr. David Barker and how they're
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: trying to lower costs and some of the other ways
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: that students can get free money and all that sort
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: of stuff, check out my podcast. It's about a 12-minute
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: interview we had with him. It's called The National Briefing.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: You spell that like my name, N-A-S-H. The National Briefing
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: AM WVOC, and 94.3 WSC.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: This is Kelly Nash, Christopher Thompson here as well for
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: South Carolina's Morning News. And the media loves to write
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: stories in a way that can make you confused. And
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: so then you're sympathetic to the bureaucracy. And I'm reading
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: a story this morning where they're talking with Sue Berkowitz
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: with the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center. And we've
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: got mass confusion, Christopher, when it comes to SNAP. People
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: are going to starve in South Carolina. And we're going
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: to have to spend more money, not less. What in
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: the world? So I'm going to just quote the story
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: right here. Starting in October of 2027, states will also
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: be required to pay for the actual cost of SNAP
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: benefits based on their error rate. The error rate measures
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: whether households receive the correct amount of SNAP benefits. That
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: could be interpreted, by the way, to mean did they
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: receive too much money? Did they get more money than
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: they were entitled to? But that's not how it's written here.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: If South Carolina does not lower its error rate below
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: 6% by October of 2027, the agency says it could
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: have to pay between, and I don't know where they
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: get this number, $ 70 million and $ 200 million more. Berkowitz
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: says South Carolina is not alone. She said all states
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: but six currently have error rates in excess of 6%.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: And then she says, the problem is there's not been
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: any direction or understanding in how these error rates are
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: being calculated or whether or not they're even fixable. How
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: can they be fixed? And that's kind of the story.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: So if you were to just believe these people, It's
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: it's we don't we don't even know how they calculated it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: We don't know where the problem is. We don't know.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Is it even possible to fix it? Can't we just
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: keep spending the money?
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: That's that's how fraud and waste gets instituted into the
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: federal government. And the Trump administration has turned around and said, look,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: you've got errors on your end. We're not paying for
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: it any longer.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I hope South Carolinians are seeing through this. I hope
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: that they can see that that's what you just said
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: is so spot on. This is how you institutionalize fraud.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: And waste.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: People are receiving more benefits than they should. That's what
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: this is all about. And as South Carolina is responsible
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: for implementing the SNAP program in their state, if you're
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: not implementing it correctly and we find an error rate
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: in excess of 6%, which, by the way, I think
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: is a pretty generous error rate.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Sounds like it.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: I would like it to be one. I'd actually like
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: it to be none, but I understand there's going to
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: be some errors from time to time. But yes, and
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know where she comes up with the $ 70 million,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the $ 200 million more, but you know what? South Carolina
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: legislators and or administrators for the SNAP program, you better
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: get on your game and do it quick.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: We shouldn't have $ 70 to $ 200 million in errors, whether
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: it's fraud, waste. or just simply clerical errors. Don't let
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: it happen. Fix your system.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: And I don't know how it becomes, remember those commercials
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: where they have like the orange money is for my
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: retirement or whatever. I feel like Americans feel like, oh,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: that's federal money. That's not my money. That's the federal
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: money coming in to help the taxpayers. Now the South
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Carolina tax dollars, that's my money. No, it's the federal
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: money is your money too. Exactly. Goodness gracious. We don't,
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: we're wasting $ 200 million here. Is that, is that the
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: bottom line, Sue Berkowitz? And you think we ought to
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: just continue to do so? 629 now.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Well, if the last couple of weeks have taught us anything,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: South Carolinians, at least in this audience, are very passionate
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: about their voice being heard and their votes being counted.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: And yesterday, Mark Wayne Mullen sent out a letter. This
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: is part of the White House Transparency Task Force outlining
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: the dangers that Americans are facing when it comes to voting.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: based on the fact that 80% of the machines being
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: used to count votes in America have many, if not most,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: of their parts being made in China. That would include
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the machines of Dominion, Hart, InterCivic, and some company called
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: ES & S. And Mullen's noting that, according to the
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Biden administration, the Biden administration said the most active machines
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: group was the Chinese trying to hack into the U.S.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: election systems. And the fact that we have China parts
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: should be concerning.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they just have they have a map already of
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: exactly how to get into these machines.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: That's disturbing.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: It is disturbing. And again, if you if you can
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: if you care about election integrity, which apparently the Democrats
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: don't seem to care about, which is Well, I don't know.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Maybe Stacey Abrams does care about it because she still
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: claims that she was robbed. She should be the governor
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: of Georgia right now. But other than her, I haven't
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: heard a whole lot of people. And again, if this
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: is coming from the Biden administration, this is declassified documentation
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: from 2021, 2022, where the Biden administration said that they
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: could see active, not just the Chinese, Russians and Iranians.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: I wonder what the Iranians were doing. trying to get
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: involved with our elections through hacking. And the fact that
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: we have these parts made from the Chinese, we as
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: a country should invest. I wonder what the appetite is, Christopher,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: for Americans to spend more money in order to make
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: sure that the parts are all made in the United
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: States and then have secure elections.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Well, you would think some company would immediately step up.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's a That's a sure way to make
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: money if you know the federal government and states have
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: a need for what you're making. I mean, that's an
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: instant market. I don't know why somebody wouldn't immediately jump
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: on that opportunity.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: And I don't imagine, this is just me spitballing here,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I don't imagine that there could be a federal law
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: that would mandate that all parts are made in the
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: United States. But obviously, Republican states could dictate that. that
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: we're only going to use machines that are 100% made
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: and assembled here in the U.S.? Mm-hmm. Again... Well, any
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: state could. Any state could, but I imagine California.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Republicans would be the only ones that would have the
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: appetite for it.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, are you willing to spend more of your tax
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: dollars to change out the machines to make sure that
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: nobody can hack into them? Again, I don't imagine New
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: York would be interested in that and California... Anybody who's
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: against the Save America Act would also be against this, which...
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: then throws the whole federal elections into jeopardy again. But
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: disappointing to hear that, but also, I guess, reassuring that
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Mark Wayne Mullins and the entire Trump administration taking this
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: very seriously and trying to push us to get off
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: of the cheap Chinese manufactured stuff. Earlier this year, they
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: banned any, what do you want to call it, like
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Wi-Fi's from China because they said that that was a number,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: that was the very easy hack for them. If you
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: had the wifi manufacturer was made in China, that's already
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: implemented with the Chinese stuff so that they can just
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: go ahead and say, Oh, you're on the wifi. Now
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: we got it. So, uh, again, that's just something to
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: be careful with. I wonder if we can get– maybe
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: we're talking to Alan Wilson later on. I wonder if
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: he has a thought on this. As the potential future governor,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: how would you feel about spending more money? Of course,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: it's really ultimately up to the statehouse. It's not up
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: to the governor. All the purse strings are held by them.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: But I would think that that would– like you said,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: that would be a guaranteed let's do this for us.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: I mean, you've got an instant market here. Okay, I'm
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: going to make these parts here in America– Why would
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: you choose Chinese parts over these if they were comparable
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: in quality?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: That might be a great company to launch in South Carolina,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: because then you could say it's not only is it American,
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: it's all South Carolina made.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Made in South Carolina.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Got the little Palmetto flag stamped right on it. All right,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: we're trying to create new business opportunities for you. This
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM and
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: 560 AM, WVOC, Columbia, and.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: 94.3 WSC, Charleston.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable story yesterday. The United Nations Relief Agency has a
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: hundred current or former employees now that have been referred
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: for prosecution because they participated on the October 7th, 2023
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: terrorist attacks. A hundred United Nations relief workers, including three schoolteachers,
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I can't say any of their names. I wouldn't be
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: able to come close to pronouncing them. This one engaged
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: in kidnapping operations. This one identified as an operative for
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: the Rafah Brigade at the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, allegedly killed
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: multiple people on the October 7th attacks. Another school teacher
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: and Hamas operative received and then held civilian hostages beginning
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: on October 7th. The fourth individual was I'm not going
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: to say that. Apparently, he would call himself, I guess,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: a freedom fighter or something like that. He went and
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: killed multiple civilians on October 7th as well. But 100
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: now tied to the United Nations participated in these terrorist attacks.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: So the organization we count on. For peace and to
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: resolve conflicts around the world, they're instead killing people, massacring people?
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Well, and also holding them hostage. You got that one
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: as well. All right.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Sorry. Didn't mean to leave that out.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't want to leave that one out. I mean,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: that's another good one. My gosh, John. This is unbelievable.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: While being paid by the UN.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, of course. They're schoolteachers. We're doing the Lord's
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: work over here. So this is all coming out of
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: the Office of the Inspector General's office yesterday, press release
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: August 26th. So USAID, by the way, involved in the
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: investigation of this. So we couldn't shut down USAID apparently,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: so now we're going to use it for some good.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: I'm wondering now if the Democrats are going to start
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: calling for the ending of USAID. Wait a second.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Hold on.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: They're going to prosecute some people over here that might
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: be doing some horrific things? Yeah, that's apparently the latest update.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: And again, 100% Now, some of them have already passed on,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: like that last guy that I mentioned, the one that
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: was involved in the murdering of civilians, that individual has
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: been found deceased. So I don't know if that was
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: natural or however that person passed, but we'll have to
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: keep an eye on this. But again, when you start
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: talking about, well, it's the United Nations, of course they're
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: doing great work. No, you can't. Nobody should. To quote,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: to paraphrase Hakeem Jeffries, nobody gets a pass.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: There you go.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Including United Nations workers. If you were involved with that,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: my gosh.
• 23:54
  Speaker 6: Live from the state capitol, this is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: You know, we talk a lot about polls on this show,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Christopher Thompson and myself, Kelly Nash. I got to say,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: this has to be some of the worst polling I've
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: ever seen, Christopher. Gallup ran a poll. Now, according to them,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: 54% of people of age in America actually still drink alcohol.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: So almost half Americans no longer drink if they're of age.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: But here's what the poll shows. In the state of
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: South Carolina, the number one beer choice, Stella Atois.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: That's the number one beer choice. More South Carolinians grab
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: a Stella a trois than a Bud Light, a Budweiser,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: a Michelob Ultra, anything? Hmm. Come on.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is a little hard to believe.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: There's no way this is accurate.
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: No.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: But again, maybe I don't know. What do I know?
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I don't even drink beer anymore. I barely drink anything anymore.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I guess I might be considered part of that group.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: 46% that doesn't really drink. I probably have a drink
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: maybe every eight months, nine months, once a year.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: People are drinking less. I mean, the numbers show it.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: I don't want to waste my calories.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: That's what it's all about, the calories for me. Maybe
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: I should drink the Michelob Ultra. There's hardly anything in that.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: All right, it is 6.55 on South Carolina's Morning News.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: All right, getting after it at 7.03. I was just
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: reading a press release from the, what do they call
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: themselves again? The Independent Medical Alliance, a coalition of independent doctors,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: healthcare providers, and researchers. And they're drawing our attention. To
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: the fact that apparently I don't normally get the flu shot.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Is that something you normally do, Christopher?
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Usually, yes.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: You do get it.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: I haven't done it yet. All right.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: So heads up for all y'all about to get a
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: flu shot. I'm not saying it's a good or a
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: bad thing. Again, personally, I've not gotten one. I had
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: one once and then I got sick. So I said, well,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: you know what? I'm not going to do this anymore.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, don't blame me.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: But the concept has been that the researchers try to
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: predict what the most common form of the flu will
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: be that year.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: That strain.
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: And then they'll inject you with a small dose of
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: that so that your immune system can get used to
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: it and then you're ready to fight it. That's not
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: what's happening apparently anymore. So there, well, it could be
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: happening for you, but you want to ask your provider
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: before you get your flu shot.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: According to the Independent Medical Alliance.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: They're saying that this year, The FDA's approval of Moderna's,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: I guess you pronounce it, Flusiva, F-L-U-S-I-V-A, is the first
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: ever mRNA-based seasonal influenza shot. And this is going to
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: be given basically to adults over 50 and under 64.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: So if you find yourself in that age group, that's
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: who they're targeting. And apparently, if you're signing for that,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: make sure you know what you're signing because this is
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: still in a study phase. Kind of like the COVID
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: vax was in a study phase and we're still studying
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: the COVID vaccine. Again, MRNA. This is a new technology
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: that we don't, we don't fully grasp, right? That's why
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: when they do studies, they usually take like 10 to
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: 15 years to see what are the long-term effects of
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: whatever it is that, we're about to give to the
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: general public. So again, this is just a warning that
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: they're putting out here. Ask your provider, can I get
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: the traditional flu shot or do you only offer the
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Myrna vaccine?
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: So you might wind up being a guinea pig for
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: these studies.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: That's what they're claiming. Now I'm not involved in, I'm
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: just reading this from their press release. So I just
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: thought There's so many people in our audience who I
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: believe are probably in that 50 to 64-year-old group.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Me, for starters.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Me as well. And I'm sure a lot of them,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: not all, but a lot of them have gotten their
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: annual flu shots. And this will be the first year
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: where it's different than previous years, although it might not
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: be identified as such. You just go into the same
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: place you always go into and say, I'm back from
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: my flu shot. And they're like, here we go.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: Boom.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: And then you're hit with something completely different. Hmm. That
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: seems scary to me.
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: A little bit, yeah. I mean, normally this is something
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: that you don't even think about. Flu shot?
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll take one. But I don't want to be
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: a guinea pig.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: No?
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: I don't want to be the test case.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: No.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: Let's see if we can figure out the long-term effects
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: by studying you for a couple of years.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Some guy named Dr. Joseph Varun, the IMA president and
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: chief medical officer, says the mRNA, or I guess I'll
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: just call it the Myrna, platform continues causing unforeseen health crisis,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: and we strongly urge extreme caution and full transparency when
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: implementing this new shot.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: And these are scientists that were following the science here, correct? Correct.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: And you know, that's always been, going back to Fauci,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: that was the thing when he's like, I am the science. Well,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: other scientists pointed out that science doesn't actually ever have
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: all the answers, and that it's a study. And that
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: you're constantly trying to move in a certain direction until
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: your theory, or I guess I should say your premise,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: no longer is valid or it's proven wrong or whatever.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Then you have to pivot and say, well, what did
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: I learn from that? And then we move in a
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: new direction. And so we're always tweaking. We're always trying
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: to improve on whatever technology, whether it's medical or otherwise.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: So we don't ever have full 100% guarantees on anything.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I was watching a study once on, I think the
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: name of the documentary was Bigger, Faster, Stronger, and it
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: was talking about how people were using steroids to get
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: massive in the eighties and nineties and all this sort
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: of stuff. And, uh, you know, they were talking about
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: what are the ill, ill side effects. And the guy
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: pointed out a bunch of them and he said, but
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: just so we're clear, even aspirin kills hundreds of people
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: every year. They have a side effect to aspirin. There's,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: there's nothing in the world right now that is like 100%.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Nobody's going to be allergic to it, anything like that.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: So Just a concern. Just wanted to bring that up.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Maybe you've got thoughts. Maybe you've already got your flu shot.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Do you know? Did you get the Myrna flu shot
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: or did you get the traditional flu shot? Let us
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: know on the Talkback feature. That's on the iHeartRadio app.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: We'll take a break. It's 7.08.
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: 7.13, and it's hard to find an example of more
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: government overreach. But yet it keeps coming. More government overreach
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: now heading to the Supreme Court of these United States.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: And a handwritten, handwritten, because they don't believe in technology,
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: the Amish are now filing a petition with the Supreme
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Court against the state of New York because this is unbelievable, Christopher.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: There's 25,000 Amish people who live in upstate New York.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know that when I used to live
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: in New York that there was Amish there. I only
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: knew they were in Pennsylvania.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: The 25,000 people who live there, they live as if
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: it's like the 1800s. They don't have any electricity. They
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: don't do any technology. And they don't really deal with
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: outside people groups either. It's almost like a native tribe. Like,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: don't talk to us. Although they do have some stores
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: and stuff where you can buy, like, I guess, Amish
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: furniture or maybe Amish. baked goods and things like that.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: But for the most part, it's a group of 25,000
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: people who are a very religious group. And part of
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: their religion says, and as their lawyer now says, you've
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: put the Amish in a bad position because the two
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: things that they are really against, litigation and injections. And
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: back when Cuomo was the governor- During COVID, he removed
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: all religious exemptions. So you were forced to take the
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: COVID vaccine. You had to take it in the state
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: of New York, according to Cuomo. That has not been changed. Now,
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: this is specifically targeting children. The children of the Amish
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: go to school in a one-room schoolhouse. With only other
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: children from the Amish.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: So it's an insulated community.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Completely. There's no exposure to the general public. These kids
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: are not going into a public high school. You couldn't
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: think of a more private school than an Amish one-room schoolhouse.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: That's what they have. They have been getting whacked with $ 2, 000
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: a month fines for not forcing these children to get injected.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: So now they're at $ 118, 000 in fines. And as their
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: lawyer points out, they don't have that kind of money.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: You would literally have to seize all of their land
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: and sell it in order to get that kind of
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: money from them. They don't have this kind of money.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: But the state of New York will not give them
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: any exemptions. Kathy Hochul says, no, screw the Amish. Screw
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: anybody who does not want to take this injection. So
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: this is where they're at. Like, we're not taking the injection.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Which injection are we talking about now?
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: COVID.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: We're still talking about COVID.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: COVID-19. You must take it. You must take it.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: In New York. In 2026.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: You must, according to Kathy Hochul and according to the
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: New York State Assembly. They're not going to let you
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: off the hook. And so they're suing all the way
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: to the Supreme Court.
• 34:08
  Speaker 7: And.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Did you ever watch Little House on the Prairie?
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: This is what I'm imagining. It's like Laura Ingalls in
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: a little one-room schoolhouse, and in comes Fauci with his
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: little needles. Like, we got to... You got to trust
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: the science. We're all getting the jab. No, we're just
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: sitting here trying to figure out how to make the
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: best pies. But no, they're going to... And again, if
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: they lose, they say, we're going to have to pack
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: our wagons. They're literally going to pack the wagons and
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: go find... a state that has freedom for them. That's
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: where they're at. And, you know, when you're reading their
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: handwritten plea to the Supreme Court, it's heartbreaking because they
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: don't want to be in this position. And the guy,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: where's the opening statement that the guy wrote? He's 55
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: year old. He's a Let's see. Because it's heartbreaking the
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: way he starts it.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: Is he a lawyer or is he just.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Ezra Wenegard.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: Just represents the Amish community.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Father, very conservative, old order sect, says, quote, we
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: as a peace-loving religious group are sincerely sorry that we
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: are causing the state a problem. We are indeed grateful
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: to the state of New York for the many privileges, freedoms,
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: and protections that have blessed us for many years. Our
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: almighty God wants us to fully put our faith and
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: trust in him, which is in conflict to put our
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: trust in vaccines. We are also commanded to not be
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: conformed to this world. I mean, you can understand where
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: this guy's coming from and he's not a danger to
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: anybody who doesn't, unless you're going to go into a
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: one room schoolhouse that you're not invited into.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: There are no, there are no other kids mixing with
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: the Amish kids. You're not protecting anyone by doing this.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: You're just simply imposing your will on this one group.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: This is, again, a fantastic example of government overreach. When
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: we talk about the government is too strong for its
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: own good, that's what I'm looking at. I'm looking at
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: the state of New York. I'm looking at the far
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: left trying to force jabs into the arms of the
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Amish who pose zero statistical threat to anybody. and yet
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: you're going to try to sue them out of extinction,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: or into extinction, I should say. Unbelievable.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: Or into another state.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: I guess.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I mean... Does Pennsylvania have? I guess they must, right?
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Because they're not forcing their Amish, I'm assuming. Otherwise, I-95
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: would be cluttered with buggies right now.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: It is 718 on South Carolina's Morning News.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 36:42
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560 AM, WVOC,
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: and 94.3 WSC.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: We're not even through.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: The the midterms we still got like 68 days till
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: the midterm elections and people are already starting to focus
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: on 2028 and what's going to happen with the presidency
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: and uh south carolina democrats making news is they're going
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: to be holding their primary january 22nd 2028 that is
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: the official date now for the south carolina democrat primary
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: uh january 22nd now We're in a interesting situation here,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: according to Drew McKissick, telling reporters, I guess, yesterday that
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: they're going to be meeting with the Republican parties in Iowa,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: New Hampshire and Nevada at the Republican National Committee meeting
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: next month in Dallas to try to figure out when
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: we're going to have hours for the Republicans. Iowa state
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: law says they got to be the first. New Hampshire
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: has a law that says it will hold the first primary.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: So you got to have the first caucus has to
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: be in Iowa, according to Iowa law. New Hampshire law
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: says they have to have the first primary in the
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: country at least seven days before any similar contest. Well,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: so are we going to, I guess, acknowledge that law?
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think South Carolina has a choice. They'll
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: set theirs. And then we want to give people more
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: time to come here. We want all the attention for
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: a while. So we want a couple of weeks of
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: politicians in the state of, The national media focused just
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: on us. So you don't want to rush and say,
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: all right, well, let's have ours right after the New
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: Hampshire primary. No, give the candidates a little chance to
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: come to South Carolina and live here for a while.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: And spend some money.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: McKissick says he thinks that the South Carolina GOP primary
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: will be sometime in late February. So, I mean, that's
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: going to be interesting because you're going to have basically
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: a month between January 22nd and when we're– that's the Democrats. Right.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: And then– Here come the Republicans. And so it'll just
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: be a month of Republicans, which, again, you probably have
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: more than a month. Although I'll point out for the Democrats,
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: maybe this doesn't serve you as well as you might
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: have thought, because a lot of people are just, you know,
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: they're going to go through the holidays. So even if
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: you're here in December, nobody's paying attention. And then so
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: you basically you're going to get from about January 2nd
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: or 3rd. Maybe fourth or fifth. I think it takes
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: me until about the fifth until I kind of lock in.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: And so you're going to get about three weeks of us.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: And then the Republicans would actually have a month. So
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: you might actually be doing us a favor, which we appreciate.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Democrats. All right. We're going to
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: take a quick break. And when we come back, we're
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: going to be talking with the attorney general for the
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: great state of South Carolina. Carolina, Alan Wilson, who's going
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: to bring us up to speed. You might have heard
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: about this meta settlement yesterday.
• 39:34
  Speaker 7: Huge.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: What does it mean for South Carolina? Where's that money going?
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: How quickly are we going to get it? How is
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: this going to change Facebook and Instagram and all that
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: sort of stuff for kids. All that and more as
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: South Carolina's morning news rolls on.
• 39:47
  Speaker 6: From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: morning news.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: Hi there.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: This is Kelly Nash, 732. And standing by there, I
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: see it's already ringing. We're going to be speaking with
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: the Attorney General, Alan Wilson, about the massive 17.1 incident. Billion,
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: billion dollar payout that Meta made or agreed to yesterday.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: And good morning, Alan. How are you? Oh, I got
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: to push the button. That's part of the problem. Hello.
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: Hello.
• 40:18
  Speaker 8: Kelly, can you hear me?
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm learning how to use equipment over here for
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: the first time, it feels like.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Alan, you.
• 40:26
  Speaker 8: When you said billion, the way you said it, did
• 40:28
  Speaker 8: you put your little pinky up to your mouth?
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Like Dr. Evil, of course.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: $ 17 billion.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Now, we're not getting all of that money. We're getting, what,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: about $ 246 million?
• 40:40
  Speaker 8: We're going to get just shy of $ 246 million over
• 40:44
  Speaker 8: about nine years. That's going to equate to anywhere between
• 40:47
  Speaker 8: $ 24 to $ 34 million a year, depending on what other
• 40:50
  Speaker 8: platforms do. The significant portion of this money is going
• 40:55
  Speaker 8: to be directed, and I've asked the General Assembly to
• 40:58
  Speaker 8: appropriate it. toward, you know, remediation and abatement. Those are
• 41:02
  Speaker 8: fancy lawyer words for helping combat mental health with children,
• 41:06
  Speaker 8: and also maybe doing PSAs to educate parents and children
• 41:09
  Speaker 8: about the harmful effects of prolonged use on the Internet,
• 41:12
  Speaker 8: as well as cyberbullying and other issues associated with it.
• 41:16
  Speaker 8: Of course, a lot of the money, there are no
• 41:19
  Speaker 8: strings attached to it, and I've obviously been reaching out
• 41:22
  Speaker 8: to members of the legislature, Kelly, to help put some
• 41:25
  Speaker 8: of this money toward things that I care a lot about,
• 41:28
  Speaker 8: and that is streamlining and modernizing state government, creating AI
• 41:32
  Speaker 8: platforms that allows us to doge fraud, waste, abuse, and
• 41:35
  Speaker 8: even corruption out of state government to provide a more transparency,
• 41:39
  Speaker 8: and to create a public portal for citizens to see
• 41:42
  Speaker 8: where their money is going and how their regulations are
• 41:44
  Speaker 8: being applied to them. And of course, this money could
• 41:47
  Speaker 8: be used to not only do the technology, but to
• 41:50
  Speaker 8: promote transparency in state government. So these are just some
• 41:53
  Speaker 8: of the things that this money could go to, although
• 41:55
  Speaker 8: the priority would be to programs, our mental health agencies,
• 42:01
  Speaker 8: to help children cope with a lot of the issues
• 42:03
  Speaker 8: that are resulting from their prolonged use on the internet.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: Attorney General Alan Wilson on the phone talking about yesterday's
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: big settlement with Meta. Now, if I understand right, Meta
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: is basically acknowledging that the way their algorithm worked, their platform,
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: it was dangerous for children. Is that correct?
• 42:22
  Speaker 8: So, Kelly, so basically what I've told people, if you
• 42:26
  Speaker 8: ever go to the Apple store, whatever Android where you
• 42:29
  Speaker 8: buy programs and you download an application online, If it's
• 42:33
  Speaker 8: free and you use it, you are the product being
• 42:36
  Speaker 8: bought and sold. And that's the reality. And the whole
• 42:41
  Speaker 8: point of these platforms is to keep people on them,
• 42:44
  Speaker 8: to keep their eyeballs on them for hours and hours
• 42:47
  Speaker 8: and hours, and they can earn revenue dollars from that.
• 42:50
  Speaker 8: And so they created algorithms that obviously got children to
• 42:55
  Speaker 8: stay on the Internet and go through those indefinite doom
• 42:57
  Speaker 8: scrolls for hours and hours and hours. Kids started to
• 43:01
  Speaker 8: use it. They were being cyber-bullied. They were having unrealistic
• 43:04
  Speaker 8: standards and expectations of what beauty was. I mean, obviously,
• 43:09
  Speaker 8: the whole purpose of the algorithm was to keep kids
• 43:11
  Speaker 8: there longer than they should have been, and they knew
• 43:14
  Speaker 8: that was the outcome, and then they covered it up. Again,
• 43:17
  Speaker 8: I don't have a promise-free market. You create a product
• 43:19
  Speaker 8: that people want to use, you use it. But children
• 43:22
  Speaker 8: between the ages of 13 and 17 will now have
• 43:25
  Speaker 8: parameters put on these apps that will prevent them from
• 43:28
  Speaker 8: using it. Parents will have more robust features that will
• 43:32
  Speaker 8: allow them to monitor their child's use of these platforms.
• 43:35
  Speaker 8: It will also allow them to curate content and block
• 43:38
  Speaker 8: their children from seeing things. Meta has now put in.
• 43:43
  Speaker 8: Features that will prevent kids from going online and using
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: their platforms between midnight and 6 a.m. It will also
• 43:50
  Speaker 8: cease to allow kids to receive notifications during school hours
• 43:53
  Speaker 8: and months that school is in session. And it will
• 43:56
  Speaker 8: also pause them from going down these indefinite doom scrolls
• 43:59
  Speaker 8: where they go for four and five hours at a time.
• 44:02
  Speaker 8: So these are just some of the features that they're
• 44:04
  Speaker 8: putting in, but this is a great start.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds like a great start. You mentioned 13
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: to 17. Is there something even more robust for under 13?
• 44:14
  Speaker 8: Well, you're not allowed to be on these if you're
• 44:15
  Speaker 8: under 13.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, really? I didn't know that. OK, that's fantastic news.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: So this is great that the now this was in
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: conjunction with like 48 states and a bunch of other territories.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: There's two states that weren't involved. Some people are saying
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: that they're holding out for more money. Is that your understanding?
• 44:33
  Speaker 8: We'll let those states answer for themselves. Every state has
• 44:37
  Speaker 8: its own legal strategy. There are a couple of states
• 44:39
  Speaker 8: that kind of have their own agenda, and they're pursuing
• 44:41
  Speaker 8: their own ends. But I believe getting nearly a quarter
• 44:44
  Speaker 8: of a billion dollars for South Carolina for this issue
• 44:48
  Speaker 8: over the next nine years was a major win. And
• 44:51
  Speaker 8: having this injunctive relief, these features added to the program,
• 44:54
  Speaker 8: are going to be huge. It's going to change the
• 44:56
  Speaker 8: industry norm and standards for a generation to come.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: And this is for Meta, which is both Facebook and Instagram.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: And I understand there's something in the settlement that says
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: something like if Snapchat and TikTok and YouTube start doing
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: something similar, then that changes, I guess, the settlement? That
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: is correct.
• 45:15
  Speaker 8: That is why earlier I said it could be between
• 45:18
  Speaker 8: $ 24 and $ 32 million a year because that number goes
• 45:22
  Speaker 8: up if the other platforms join. Obviously, those other platforms
• 45:26
  Speaker 8: will have significant exposure for like i said nearly every
• 45:29
  Speaker 8: state and territory in the country was that was involved
• 45:32
  Speaker 8: in this is a very bipartisan uh... and so a
• 45:35
  Speaker 8: lot of the social media come they're very powerful uh...
• 45:38
  Speaker 8: when it's just a few states but when there's a
• 45:39
  Speaker 8: lot of states know they they really do listen to
• 45:42
  Speaker 8: us and so my hope is that some of these
• 45:43
  Speaker 8: other large platforms will fall on the line and put
• 45:46
  Speaker 8: these put these features in place. And look, it's common sense, Kelly.
• 45:50
  Speaker 8: They should do it already. But I'm glad that Meta
• 45:53
  Speaker 8: is doing it. I hope that because of their size
• 45:55
  Speaker 8: in this industry, that other platforms that are coming into
• 45:58
  Speaker 8: the market will follow suit and do this. And this
• 46:00
  Speaker 8: will be the new normal. All right.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: Attorney General Alan Wilson, can't let you go without kind of,
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: you know, making the pivot as we head into the
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: midterms here. We're just like 68 days away. I mean,
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: how are you feeling about yourself? How are you feeling
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: about the Republican Party in general?
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: Well, look, I mean, Kelly, I feel really good about
• 46:19
  Speaker 8: where we are. I'm very excited about the opportunities in
• 46:21
  Speaker 8: front of us. You know, obviously, as it relates to
• 46:24
  Speaker 8: the governor's race, I'm going to be the next governor.
• 46:26
  Speaker 8: We are running to win, but I'm running scared. I'm
• 46:28
  Speaker 8: running like I'm 10 points behind. That's not the case,
• 46:32
  Speaker 8: but that's how I'm treating it. And we're going to
• 46:34
  Speaker 8: run through the tape. But one thing we do have
• 46:36
  Speaker 8: to address is South Carolina did not have on its
• 46:39
  Speaker 8: bingo card that we would lose Senator Graham. And we
• 46:42
  Speaker 8: did not have on our bingo card that there would
• 46:44
  Speaker 8: be this crazy special election with kind of the entire
• 46:48
  Speaker 8: political ecosystem being scrambled in South Carolina. And so I
• 46:51
  Speaker 8: want to say this to everyone listening. I really appreciate
• 46:54
  Speaker 8: every candidate that put their name in the hat for Senate.
• 46:57
  Speaker 8: And I want to thank Congressman Ralph Norman, who was
• 47:00
  Speaker 8: a competitor of mine at one time. We are friends.
• 47:03
  Speaker 8: And I want to thank Senator Darlene Graham for putting
• 47:05
  Speaker 8: their name in the hat and for competing hard. And
• 47:09
  Speaker 8: I'm grateful that they both did what they did. They
• 47:11
  Speaker 8: both ran great races. But my view is this. What's
• 47:15
  Speaker 8: coming at us in November is so much more important
• 47:17
  Speaker 8: than what's behind us. And I know that there are
• 47:19
  Speaker 8: people– you said the 24-hour rule. I think that's great.
• 47:23
  Speaker 8: I think it takes people longer than 24 hours in
• 47:25
  Speaker 8: their minds to kind of wrap their head around this.
• 47:28
  Speaker 8: So what I'm asking everyone to recognize is regardless of
• 47:31
  Speaker 8: what team you were on in this primary– What's coming
• 47:34
  Speaker 8: in front of us is so much bigger than our
• 47:36
  Speaker 8: personal preferences in a Republican Party primary. And we need
• 47:40
  Speaker 8: to come together, and whether it takes you 24 hours,
• 47:41
  Speaker 8: 24 days, or two months, I'm asking everyone to come
• 47:45
  Speaker 8: home because the Dems believe that they can win here
• 47:49
  Speaker 8: in South Carolina. They believe that, you know, that we
• 47:52
  Speaker 8: are fractured and we are divided and they're going to
• 47:54
  Speaker 8: do everything they can to exploit that. And so that
• 47:56
  Speaker 8: is why I'm calling on everyone. You know, if you
• 47:58
  Speaker 8: are a Ralph Norman supporter, come on in. If you're
• 48:01
  Speaker 8: a Darling Graham supporter, reach out to a Norman supporter
• 48:03
  Speaker 8: and vice versa. We have to come together and we
• 48:06
  Speaker 8: have to win in November because if we don't come together,
• 48:10
  Speaker 8: they will exploit that.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Alan Wilson, I'm going to kind of ended here,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: but I do remember Michael, your son, who's now a
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: freshman at South Carolina. It would take him much longer
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: than 24 hours to get over a Gamecock loss back
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: in the day.
• 48:26
  Speaker 8: Kelly, it would probably, he used to cry when he
• 48:29
  Speaker 8: was seven years old when they didn't cover the spread.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: I hope he's doing great over at the Carolina. Maybe
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: he's waking up listening to his dad on the South
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: Carolina morning news.
• 48:39
  Speaker 8: Either way, put money on it.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not betting on that either, but great to hear
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: from you. Attorney general, Alan Wilson.
• 48:45
  Speaker 8: Thank you, Kelly.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: It is now seven 41.
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's morning news on one Oh three,
• 48:52
  Speaker 6: five FM and five 60 AM WVOC Columbia and 94,
• 48:57
  Speaker 6: three WSC Charleston.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Hi there. I'm Kelly Nash with Christopher Thompson and just
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: spoke with the attorney general, Alan Wilson, about the meta settlement.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: And Christopher, I you know, most people don't know most
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: of the people who work at the statehouse if they're
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: not directly voting for them. But I think a lot
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: of South Carolinians know the name Brandon Guffey. And Brandon
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: is a. legislator out of York. But the reason most
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: people are familiar with them is because his son, Gavin,
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: was a victim of a sex torsion in July of 2022,
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: I think it was, and ended up committing suicide over it.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: It was an online thing that got him. And so
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: it was interesting that he tweeted out last night. I
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: can't save Gavin, but I can keep fighting to save
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: another child. The measure of this settlement is not how
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: many billions of dollars Meta is paying out. It's how
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: many mothers and fathers get to tuck their kids in
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: tomorrow night. And we were looking at some of the
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: stuff that they're going to be doing at Meta, including,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: we talked about the school hour restrictions. So you can't
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: get push notifications and you can't be on it after
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: midnight or before 6 a.m. And that's all great. They're
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: going to have a, Daily time cap, I think like
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: after 15 minutes, you have to shut it off for
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: a little bit. And the most you could use it
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: would be two hours a day if you're under the
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: age of 18, I think it is. But also, we
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: didn't bring this one up. I think this is a
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: big one. Social comparison adjustments. You cannot see how many
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: people like your posts or like other people's posts.
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: Because kids are comparing themselves to their peers. And when
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: they don't get the likes that one of their peers gets,
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, they get depressed, they get angry, they lash out,
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: or maybe worse, maybe they harm themselves.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: And they've also got to ban cosmetic procedure simulation filters.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: What would I look like if I was a foot taller?
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Or what would I look like if I lost 15,
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: 20 pounds? What would I look like? with smoother skin.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: All those things will be banned for children.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: What if I'm a boy, and what would I look
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: like as a girl?
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness. Goodness gracious, Christopher. Now, yikes. All right. Well, again,
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: that's great news that all that's coming down to help
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: protect our kids. It is now 748.
• 51:08
  Speaker 6: Live from the state capitol, this is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: And, you know, we've been talking a lot about the
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: Internet this half hour. Tennessee... passed something called the elvis
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: act ensuring likeness voice and image security that's the first
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: major law in the united states to treat a person's
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: voice and their likeness as their own.
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: Property so so i in tennessee i couldn't create an
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: avatar of you and make money off of it.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Correct okay correct i think mostly it was you know
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: to stop people ripping off the musicians um denmark is
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: proposed a national thing. Theirs is basically every person owns
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: everything and you can't, you cannot parody me in any way.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: That might be a little bit of an overreach. But
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: here in South Carolina, I'm looking at some of the
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: South Carolina legislators going back and forth on social media
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: with each other, talking about this idea of should we
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: pass the Elvis act or should we pass something even
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: a little more aggressive in South Carolina? Because currently I
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: can make an avatar of Christopher Thompson.
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: Apparently you wouldn't make any money for it, but Elvis,
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: Elvis is a different story. And we certainly have our
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: famous singers and celebrities here in South Carolina. That you
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: want to protect their images.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: But even, like you said, just an individual, your next-door neighbor,
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: somehow you end up in a video, a TV commercial,
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: and you're not being compensated for it, even though you're
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: just a background actor. That would be prohibited. It should be,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: at least.
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: Political ads, too?
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, it would be fully. Well, we've got to work
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: it out. We don't have the answers yet. It is
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: now 7.55.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: And I'm Kelly Nash. Christopher Thompson here as well. Christopher,
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: all of our attention was focused on the Senate runoff.
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: And on that same day, the Statehouse budget writers agreed
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: to a $ 350 million spending package, including 450 earmarks.
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: So they did this outside of the budget. The budget
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: went through.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: Correct. They take all the earmarks out. We pass that,
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: send it to the governor. We're good.
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: Then they came back separately. and considered all these earmarks.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I guess we're supposed to be pleased because
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: the Senate talked the house down a little bit instead
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: of what, 300 million, something in earmarks. They only got what? 170, 180.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: I think it was the Senate wanted, what was it?
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: A hundred and something. Yeah. Okay. The house shaved a
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: hundred million off its original spending. So now they're down
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: to 220 million on top of the Senate's 131 million.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: So that's $ 350 million.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: And there were legitimate projects on that list, but I
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: thought this was going to go to a committee and
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: they were going to consider each one separately on the
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: merits of that particular one. Instead, we just came back
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: and just lumped them all together and said, check.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: Yes. And this is the bone of contention. I mean,
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: when we talk about earmarks, I think that what most people...
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: want to see happen is like you said, let it
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: be out in the public. Let it be voted on.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: For example, I'm reading, this was a story that the
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: Post and Courier had, I think, regarding whether or not
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: the new governor, who would the new governor be? Is
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: it Alan Wilson or is it going to be Jermaine Johnson? Well,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: Alan Wilson, you know, said pretty openly throughout the campaigning season,
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: I'm going to ax that. We're not going to have earmarks. Now,
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: we currently do have earmarks, and so they bring up
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: as a point of contention Mike Reichenbach, who is the
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: lieutenant governor nominee, that he put in $ 1. 8 million worth
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: in earmarks, including $ 1 million for the city of Florence
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: to buy a new fire engine, $ 538, 000 for Florence police
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: to complete their capital improvements. I would argue those are
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: core functions of government. This is, in fact, what we're
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: talking about. When we talk about government funds, it would
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: be like fire departments, roads, infrastructure, police vehicles, those types
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: of things that should be voted on. If it's coming
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: from the state money, all of them should vote on that.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: And who's going to I want to see who's voting
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: against it as well as who's voting for it. But
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: then you got Jermaine Johnson and Jermaine Johnson, who's putting
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: in for money, including something for an Eastover called Jumps,
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: a mentoring program. That is not a core function of government.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: They had said originally that they were not going to
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: consider money for nonprofits, that that was going to be
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: a non-starter. And instead, we wind up, because the money
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: that goes to nonprofits, we've seen this, controversial. Sometimes it
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: pads the pockets of those who pass the law. Sometimes
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: it's relatives, et cetera. I'm not saying every nonprofit is bad.
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: I'm certainly not saying that. But All too often, this
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: money gets abused. And you're right. It's not a core
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: function of government.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And the bigger overlying argument would be the fact
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: that this money is your money. In other words, why
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: do they have earmarks? It's because they have excess money.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: Why do they have excess money? Because they overtax you.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: They're putting an extra strain on your family budget in
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: order to pay for some sort of nonprofit thing. which
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: is if you want to support a nonprofit with your money,
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: then if we give you back your money and you
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: choose to give it to that nonprofit, that's fantastic. But
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: don't force all of us to pay into the nonprofits
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: that we may or may not even agree with.
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: Or benefit from.
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So that's the big debate. And again, I understand
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: McMaster has not yet signed this.
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: And he could wind up signing the whole thing. He
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: could wind up vetoing parts of it, line item vetoes.
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: And we may... drag the state house right back in
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: a month to discuss all this further who knows.
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: And i does he have till monday is that what
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: i'm if i underwrite until august let's see he has
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: till august 31st which i think is monday to review
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: the spending package so we'll find out what the governor
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: wants to do with it but i don't i don't
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: like it i don't like the fact now tom davis
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: has said that they're going to get their earmarks in
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: much earlier into the session So I don't know what
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: that means. Is there a cutoff date? Is that what
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: he's going to propose, that if you don't have your
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: earmarks in by such and such a date that we
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: won't even consider them? I don't know, but he says
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: that will allow for more open debate in this upcoming session.
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: And I think Alan Wilson has said if we've got
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: that much extra money lying around, that should lead to
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: tax relief. For us, the citizens.
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: And he's dead on with that one. In my estimation,
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: let us know, what do you think? Maybe you like
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: the fact that we're funding the nonprofits and the walking
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: paths and whatever else we're funding this with. Or maybe
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: you don't. Let us know on the Talkback feature. It
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: is now 8.08.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: One of the difficult lessons for young people to learn
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: as they become politically involved is that... Government often does
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: not want to solve the problem. They actually want to
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: sometimes make it even worse because then they get more money. Now, typically,
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: that would just be because when we get more money,
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: we have more control. We're a more important agency. We
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: rise in status and so on and so forth. Sometimes
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: it's even worse than that. And so, by the way,
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: if you have a young person, like you're still not
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: at school yet, you might want to earmuff for the
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: next couple of moments here because I'm going to take
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: you to Los Angeles. And Los Angeles, as we all
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: are very aware, has a homeless problem. Now, the city
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: of LA has spent in the last five years one
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: billion dollars solving the homeless problem and what they've done
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: is they've added roughly 15,000 more homeless to the streets
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: so it's gone the other way it's getting worse despite
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: the hundreds of millions of dollars that they continue to
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: throw at this problem it gets worse and worse and
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: worse now Why would the taxpayers continue to be abused
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: like that? And I'm going to play this little clip.
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: This is from a city hall meeting. I think this
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: was earlier this week where we don't know who this
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: individual is. And I'll grant you, this may actually be
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: a prankster. This might be some funny guy. We might
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: find out later on it was for a movie or something.
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: But what I'll tell you is the people in the
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: audience that are there for the city hall meeting are,
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: Their reaction is not to laugh, not to boo, not
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: to do anything. They think that this individual is probably moderate,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: dead on, and he's going to make his proposal to
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: the city hall here.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 9: I'd like to propose that Los Angeles consider a pilot
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 9: program for free hygienic sexual relief clinics, primarily serving the
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 9: homeless and unhoused. This means equality. It means private sexual
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 9: relief through masturbation or where appropriate and consensual with a partner.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 9: All funded by public tax dollars and managed with professional oversight.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: Professional oversight. And again, there's probably 40, 50 people in
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: the camera shot. None of them blink an eye. Imagine
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: going down and you're having a meeting at City Hall.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: Daniel Rickman's sitting there with the rest of the council
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: and you're proposing this. No flipping way does that get proposed.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: And nobody's booing. Nobody's saying, what are you talking about?
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: You know what? Those 40 or 50 people have probably
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: seen it happen. between homeless people on the streets. And
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: they're thinking, well, you know what? If it's private, if
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: it will at least take these people off the streets
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: and let them do their business indoors someplace where I
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: don't have to see it, maybe it's not a bad idea.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: Interesting point, Christopher. Let me go to KABC Los Angeles,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: where the reporter is interviewing a landlord. And the landlord
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: is talking about how, well, they're having all kinds of
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: crime problems now. This guy looks young, too. He's like
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: in his early 30s. He bought like a duplex or
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: something to try to make money, and it's turned into a.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: You know, I got the homeless are stealing my electricity.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: They're doing all kinds of things.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 10: Inside the homeless encampment, neighbors call a crime magnet. Fernando
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 10: calls that a lie. But nearby residents are literally watching
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 10: their step.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: That's something that is a game you play in L.A.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: Is it animal or human waste?
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: They don't even, that is an actual game that people
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: play in LA. Imagine all the fun you have walking
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: your kids to school. Do you think that's human? Or
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: do you think that's a dog? Or what could that
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: possibly be sitting right there in the middle of the streets?
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: Disgusting.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Now, let me add to that. The New York
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: Post reporting that the LA Homeless Services Authority has now
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: moved its headquarters to the 10th floor of the AON
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: Tower at 707 Wilshire Boulevard. That sounds very nice. Sure.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: And all the bureaucrats who work with the L.A. Homeless
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: Service Authority now have access to the 707 Fitness Vault,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: which includes the infrared sauna, cold plunge, rock climbing wall,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: free group fitness classes. Other perks include use of the
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: luxury Mercedes Maybach and a multiple Cadillac Escalade with on-site
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: drivers and a helipad. that some of them are taking
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: to just breeze into work. What used to be a
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: 45-minute commute in, now they just take the helicopter, compliments
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: of you, the sucker taxpayers in Los Angeles. Now, why
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: would Karen Bass allow all that? Let me just put
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: a little, little, I don't know, a little cherry on top.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: of why Karen Bass would allow the L.A. Housing Authority
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: to do all that.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 7: L.A.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 5: Mayor Karen Bass appointing herself to the L.A. HSA Commission
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: three years ago, becoming the first L.A. mayor to serve
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 5: on the board. She reportedly missed more than half the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 5: commission's meetings during her tenure.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: But she does have use of the Maybach, the Escalades,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: the cold plunge, the infrared saunas, and all that.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: And the helipad, too.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: And the helipad as well.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: And she doesn't have to see all the homeless people
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: on the streets.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: This, you're, I don't know how much more, it's like,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: you want to talk about the human feces or is
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: it animal feces? It's like they're taking the taxpayer's face
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: and they're rubbing your nose right in it. This, you
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: can't be any more egregious than the Los Angeles city
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: has been. And by the way, either she's going to win.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: Or a Democrat socialist is going to win. Do you
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: think things will get better or worse under a DSA candidate?
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: Pick your poison.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, golly, it is crazy. I'm so thankful that
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: we get to live in South Carolina where sanity still rules.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: It's 818.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 6: AM WVOC, and 94.3 WSC.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: And as a friendly reminder, Christopher Thompson compiles this entire
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: broadcast into an easy-to-consume podcast every day. It's posted about 15,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: 20 minutes after we get off the air. So if
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: you missed an interview like we had with Alan Wilson,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: we're going to have another one coming up in a minute.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: We had the U.S.– I'm trying to remember his title.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: It's a very long title.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: Very important man called in at 6.15 this morning to
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: talk about how the Trump administration is lowering costs for
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: all college students. those types of things. Or if you
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: just want to hear some of your favorite talkbacks, whatever,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: we have them all posted daily. Just look for SC,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: is it just SC Morning News?
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: South Carolina's Morning News, the show Rewind.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: The show Rewind. It's on the iHeartRadio app and it's free.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 10: Free?
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: If it's free, it's for me. Go ahead and check
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: that out on the iHeartRadio app. Now, the flock cameras
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: continue to be a source of controversy and apparently they
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: had a meeting last night up in Oconee County where
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: And they are now asking that the flock logs be
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: preserved because they're the, the city council is apparently going
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: to ban flock cameras. Now in this story that I'm
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: reading here, the Oconee County council held a special meeting
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: Wednesday to address the request, the request from the Oconee
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: County sheriff's office to cancel the county's contract with flock safety.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: Now I've, Again, I don't pay a whole lot of
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: attention to Oconee County. It's not in our listening audience.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: It's almost in Georgia. It's almost in Tennessee. It's way
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: out there, right? But Oconee County, I remember reading a
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: story like literally like three weeks ago where the guy
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: was singing the praises of the flock cameras and how
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: they're only used to read the license plates and everybody's
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: you know, image and likenesses is preserved. You don't, we,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: we don't see you per se and all that sort
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: of stuff.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 3: This is, this is, this argument skewing political lines. Data
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: centers have taken a backseat now to flock cameras. And
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: for example, in Arizona, you've got the Republican Andy Biggs,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: who's you would expect the Republican to be pro law enforcement.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: He wants a ban on flock cameras. The Democrat Katie
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 3: Hobbs says we should have them, but with local control.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's completely skewing political lines.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: And it's, I think what you're seeing with Biggs and
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: Hobbs in Arizona is what's probably going to start playing
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: out more and more across the country, that the right
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: wing of America is going to be very privacy centered.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: They're going to say, you know, 1984, Big Brother's watching.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: We don't want government having control. We saw what happened
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: under COVID when the government had control and they started,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: you know, telling you the churches have to shut down.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: And now with these flock cameras, they'll be able to
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: tell you what schools you went to and you weren't
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: supposed to be in school or you were supposed to
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: be in church or whatever. Uh, and then the left wing,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: of course, they're going to be for more government control.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: We want to be able to know what the people
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: are doing. And then we put that under the guise
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: of safety. It's for, it's to protect the children. Um,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: and that argument is going to play out, I guess,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: over the next few years or so they, pointed out
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: that Oconee has five cameras, pays $ 3, 000 annually to use.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: 19 other cameras around the county are operated by municipal
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: police departments or private owners. And that's the really big thing,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: I think, is the private owners. We're talking about the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: shopping malls and all these people.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 3: And the HOAs.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's the number one consumer is the HOA. So
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: you have no government control over those.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 4: None.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: And they are stalking people. They are stalking quote-unquote hot
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: chicks and other things. So it's a mess what we've
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: got going on here, and I don't know how we
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: get our arms around it. Maybe AI can answer it
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: for us. It is 828 now.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 6: From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 6: Morning News.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: Hi there. This is Kelly Nash, 833. I had planned
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: on having an interview here, and now I'm seeing a
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: phone call. Hey, Christopher, can you try calling that number
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: that I had sent you earlier? We're going to try
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: to call you right back. That's me answering a phone
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: on my cell phone and going right back. We're going
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: to try to call right back and get our guest
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: on because we had this huge settlement yesterday. And we've
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: been talking about this this morning. We spoke earlier with
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: the Attorney General, Alan Wilson, about what it means as
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: far as how are we going to help protect children
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: moving forward with this META settlement. So META has basically
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: agreed that their platform is a mess. or was a
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: mess and that it was actually targeting children and doing
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: harm to kids. And that's why we were seeing an increase,
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: partially for the reasons for increases in depression and suicides
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: and all kinds of other problems that are brought on
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: by that platform. So whether it's Instagram or Facebook, They're
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: going to have to shut it off for kids under
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: the age, I think, of 18 moving forward between midnight
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: and six. They're not going to be able to scroll
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: for more than 15 minutes before they're going to have
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: a problem. And Christopher's telling me we're not able to
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: connect right now. OK, well, we will continue to try
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: to contact our special guest. In the meantime, I will
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: tell you that this is fantastic news. We talked about
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: Brandon Guffey earlier, one of the legislators who had a
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: son who ended up committing suicide over this type of behavior. Oh,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: am I told that we do have our guest now?
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: Let me bring up the phone and let's see. Are
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: we connected? Hello, hello. I guess I'm not quite connected yet. Okay,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: I am connected. Here we go. Now we have her
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: on the phone. Is this correct?
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 7: Hello? Hello.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: Hello.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: We've never had the pleasure of speaking before, but we're
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: off to a little bit of a rough start, but
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: we finally got you on. I'm very excited.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 7: Thank you. It's so great to be on a South
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 7: Carolina radio show.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: Donna Rice Hughes, originally from Irmo, Miss South Carolina World,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: I guess, back in the day.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 7: Oh, my gosh, yes.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 4: You're going way back.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, and now one of the most, I would say,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: Somebody who's been fighting this online battle for years to
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: try to specifically, I think it originally just started with
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: pornography and trying to keep it away from kids. But
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: now it's all things, social media and other things.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 7: That's correct. Yes, Kelly. We started the Internet Safety Movement
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 7: in 1994 nationally out of Washington, D.C., and we've been
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 7: fighting to prevent the online exploitation of children since that time.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 7: And you're right. In the beginning, it was online pornography
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 7: and sexual predators. And of course, now it's everything from
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 7: AI chatbots to dangers on online gaming and social media platforms.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 7: So And yeah, we're fighting the good fight, but I
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 7: tell you, it's been a war.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you read with great interest this settlement yesterday
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: with Meta.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 8: Oh, absolutely.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 7: Meta has been in the hot seat for some time,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 7: and you may have already told your listeners this, but
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 7: if not, they just settled with the court, with the
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 7: state attorney general, actually, for $ 17 billion. Some of that
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 7: money is going to the states and also for META
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 7: to put into place safeguards to protect children that we've
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 7: been fighting for for a very long time. And not
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 7: just with Meta, but with all of the social media
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 7: platforms and gaming platforms. So this is a big victory
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 7: for kids. And there's still a lot more work to
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 7: be done.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you mentioned other platforms. I think that part
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: of this settlement includes Meta is now encouraging the some
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: of the other bigger platforms to kind of follow their
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: lead about no midnight to 6 a.m. ability to have
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: access if you're a teenager. No, you can't go more
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: than like 15 minutes without taking a break, those types
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: of things. And they're trying to get YouTube in on it.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: They're trying to get Snapchat in on it. And I
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: think if I understand right, maybe it lowers Meta's portion
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: of the payment if the other ones come on and agree.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I believe that's true. So there's always a deal
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 7: to be made with these big tech companies. But it's
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 7: an important point. I was just on with Meta's representative
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 7: yesterday on a couple of phone calls. And we do
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 7: need industry-wide standards. And that is why Congress has been
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 7: fighting to get the Kids Online Safety Act passed For.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 4: Three years in a row.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 7: This is a bipartisan bill. And let me just say.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 9: This, Kelly.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 8: Your listeners may not be aware of this.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 7: But protecting kids online is a nonpartisan issue. And I've
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 7: been working with Congress since 1994. And that we've always
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 7: had the Democrats and the Republicans on board with us
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 7: with this.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: So, but.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 7: The big tech lobby has been spending $ 230, 000 a day
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 7: just this year fighting legislation. So what I'm hoping now
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 7: is that META, they've been.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 8: Forced to pay this, right?
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 7: They've already, they just got hit with almost $ 900 million
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 7: in a New Mexico jury verdict just earlier this summer,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 7: will begin to lead and say, look, we have got
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 7: to put the safety of children over profits. And they
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 7: haven't done that. They put profits over safety. So we
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 7: need to flip switch on that because kids really, they're dying.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 7: And I can tell you horrible stories. And some of
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 7: your viewers or listeners probably.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 4: Know the story of Brandon.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 7: Guffey's son who committed suicide because of sextortion, right? Or
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 7: they're being irreparably harmed. So every parent, grandparent listening, if
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 7: your child's connected to an internet device, They are sitting
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 7: ducks for not only screen addiction, but also sexual predators, pornography,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 7: online gaming issues. And there's just such a proliferation of
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 7: dangers out there. And so we're here to help protect
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 7: your kids. And we've got a lot of internet safety
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 7: information at internetsafety101. org, resources for parents and grandparents to help
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 7: you protect your kids because they're No matter what META
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 7: does and government does, you're still the first line of
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 7: defense to keep them safe.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: We appreciate all the efforts you're putting into this. Donna
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: Rice Hughes, again, the name of the organization is Enough
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: is Enough. But the website again is, what is it, Internetsafety101?
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 7: Yes, Internetsafety101. org. Please sign up, get our free newsletters and
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 7: just Go there. This is designed with you in mind
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 7: to protect your kids.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 8: We're here to help. Thanks, Kelly.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: It's been a pleasure talking to you, and it's 840 now.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 6: 560 AM, WVOC, Columbia, and 94.3 WSC, Charleston.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's kind of weird. She's wearing black today. Carolyn Leavitt,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: it's her last day.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: Really good.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 11: You know, of course, it's a little bit bittersweet. It's
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 11: bitter because I'm leaving a job that I love so
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 11: very much. And it's been the honor and blessing of
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 11: a lifetime to work for this president, President Trump. There
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 11: will never be another like him and to serve as
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 11: his spokesperson behind that podium. It has been the adventure
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 11: of a lifetime.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 9: And I am so.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 11: Grateful to him for believing in me and allowing me
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 11: to serve in this role over the last 20 months
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 11: and now being very understanding as a boss and a
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 11: friend that I It's time for me to take a
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 11: step back so I can spend more time with my
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 11: two beautiful children. Of course, I have a two-year-old and
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 11: a four-month-old. They're just at a critical time in their
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 11: life where they need their mom home a little bit more.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 11: So I look forward to spending more time with them.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 11: But continuing to serve the president as a top advisor
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 11: on the outside, I'm grateful to him that he still
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 11: wants me to stick around just in a way that
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 11: I can spend more time with family.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: I love the fact that she is prioritizing her children, Christopher.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: We see so many... young ladies who feel as if
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: they've got to just go all in on their career
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: and sacrifice, you know, raising their children, let a nanny
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 2: do it or something else.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 3: And she's like, no, I'm going to raise my own kids.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 3: And that's the ultimate spotlight job. I mean, if you're
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 3: a spokesperson for the white house and for the president,
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's hard to step away from.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: I would imagine it would be now. Will she have
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: career options when she wants to come back? Oh, sure.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: I imagine there will be some people interested in hiring
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: Carolyn Leavitt in five or ten years or whenever she
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: decides to jump back in full time. But, again, prioritizing
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: your family. She's a fantastic role model. We're lucky to
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: have had her as long as we did. It is
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: now 847. Live from the state capitol, this is South
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: Carolina's Morning News. So it's about time for us to
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: wrap it up. But before we leave, 1837, none of
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: us were here for that, were we? But we do
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: have documentation of what was taking place. And on the U.S.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: Senate floor, South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun had a
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: speech that he delivered to the U.S. Senate called Slavery,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: a Positive Good. And part of it, he argues that
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: the South needs the slaves to in order for us
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 2: to have an economy. We can't survive. The South would
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: not survive if it not be for slave labor. That
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: was 1837. Let me take you to last night, 2026.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: Another statesman, Kevin Mullen, Democrat, California, with his proud John C.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: Calhoun moment.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: Our American economy runs on immigrant labor.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: That's why I will continue to say no to more
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: funding for ICE until there are serious reforms and meaningful oversight.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: In other words, as long as we can keep the
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: illegals here and suppress the wages of everybody, that's how
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: the American economy works.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 3: That's not how the economy works, but thank you for
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 3: that lesson, Mr.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: Mullen.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: How can you stand there and say this? You're literally
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: calling for the oppression of people. We're not going to
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: pay a minimum wage. That's given. We're not paying you
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: anything close to the California minimum wage of $ 22 an
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: hour or whatever the flip it is now if I
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: was a barista. But you can get out into the
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: crops and you can pick whatever they're picking out there,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 2: whatever their form of cotton is, and we'll pay them–
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: $ 2 an hour or something. And that's how we keep
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 2: everything affordable in America. If we didn't have these slave laborers,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: we wouldn't have an economy. Shut your filthy mouth, you
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 2: dirty Democrat.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 3: I thought this was all about freedom and giving people
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 3: a better way of life, etc. No, it's just about
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 3: making sure our lettuce gets picked on time.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: Exactly. OK, that is apparently the official position, at least
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: of one representative, Kevin Mullen, Democrat, California. The Democrat Party
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 2: ought to sanction that guy. They ought to they ought
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 2: to tell him you're being censured officially by the Democrat Party, unless,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: of course, that's how they do feel. If that is
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 2: the feelings of the Democrat Party, which I've always had
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 2: a kind of an inkling that it was that you
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: didn't really want the immigrants here just because you wanted
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 2: them to have a shot at the American dream, but
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: you want to oppress them and use them.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 3: And let them vote.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: And let them vote. Yes. And let them vote for us. Well,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: what a way to end it. All right. We'll be
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: back tomorrow morning after 6. If you missed any part
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: of the show, though, go check out South Carolina Morning News.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: What do we call it? The Show Rewind. Yes. On
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app. Have a great day, Christopher.
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: We'll talk to you Friday.