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Show Rewind 10-20-26 · South Carolina's Morning News

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: All right. Back at it. Kelly Nash, Christopher Thompson, thrilled
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: to be on the microphone talking to Charleston, Columbia, and
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: all points in between. Well, actually, all across the country, Christopher,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: even around the world on the iHeartRadio app.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: We've got downloads Singapore, Japan, Middle East, Europe, everywhere. People
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: are downloading the podcast. for South Carolina's Morning News.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: That is absolutely amazing. And so thank you to anybody
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: who's taking an interest in this show. We certainly do
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: appreciate it. And one of the biggest supporters of our show,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you've had the privilege of speaking
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: with him. I've never actually verbally spoke with him, but
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: I've interacted with him on social media and on email. Uh,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: he goes by the name of gruff, the gruff geezer
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: who was out early voting yesterday. And he said, uh,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: he arrived in line about 15 minutes after voting started
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the line, he thought moved pretty quickly. Um, and he
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: thought maybe slightly understaffed from what I can tell it
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: just slightly, but, uh, We had a great turnout, it
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: looks like, for the first day of early voting. I'm
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: looking here in the upstate. They're saying Greenville had 5,900
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: already by mid-afternoon. Some low countryside seeing longer lines than
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: in 2022. Reminder, photo ID is required to vote in
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: South Carolina. What? We are a racist state that makes you...
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: identify who you are before you cast your vote.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Well, unfortunately, there are way too many excuses you can
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: use to get away with that, but okay. You're supposed
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: to have your photo ID with you.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Are you saying that there's a way for people to
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: circumvent that?
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  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. Well, don't, let's not tell people. All right.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Sorry.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: I thought that was common knowledge.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know about this. I mean,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I've had to show photo ID every time I, or
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: excuse me, my driver's license is what I show. I
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: don't bring my voter registration with me, but They say,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: who are you? I say, here I am. And then
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: they look on the little sheet and they say, there
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: he is, Kelly Nash. Boop, check. And then, you know,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: it's funny. You know what's funny, Christopher? You ever do this?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: You live in Lexington, though.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: I do.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Lexington is a Republican-dominant area. I live in a Democrat area.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: One of the rare strongholds in the Midlands for the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Democrats is Richland County. And where I live, I'm represented
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: by Representative Beth Bernstein. She's been a longtime Democrat. And
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: our Richland County Council is pretty much exclusively Democrat, I think.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I don't think we have any Republicans on that county council.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: And if I'm wrong on that, somebody from Richland County Council,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: you can reach out to me. I know that the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: lady who represents my area of Richland County, Jessica Mackey,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: is Democrat. a very strong Democrat. Um, so when I
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: go to the like Republican or when you go to
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the primaries, there's this, I feel like a look of
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: like disdain, whether like, are you here for the Republican
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: or the Democrats? And I'm like, Republican, really? You're one
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: of those. But whatever is the same way for Democrats
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: when they vote in Lexington.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I'm not even sure I even get asked anymore. I
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: just walk in and they just check. Oh, Republican, okay.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Golf shirt khakis, Republican.
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: Check.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Well, lots to get to today. James Clyburn with a
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: big interview that was, I guess, done last week but
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: published last night in the Post and Courier. We'll talk
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: about what his insights are regarding the 6th District and
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: the state. Also, we were visited by Ken Martin. And
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: some of you are going, who the hell is Ken Martin?
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Ken Martin, the Democrat national chairman, was in South Carolina
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: with his assessments of the races and what's going on here.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Maybe get some of his insights also. By the way,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I think I'm going to try to get a clip
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: of it on. I had a podcast interview on Friday.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And I haven't gotten it to the air just yet.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: But Donna Rice Hughes with, I thought, a fascinating insight
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: is to online gang activity. I was not aware of
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the online gang activity that's taking place in targeting the
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: children here in South Carolina. So we'll try to get
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: some of that interview up for you as well. And
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: of course, if there's subject matter, we'll be, we'll, we'll
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: talk a little bit more about what's going on today. Yesterday,
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  Speaker 2: I think in the eight o'clock hour, we were talking
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: about what was going on in Europe and particular France. But, uh,
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  Speaker 2: We might get to that here in the 6 o'clock hour,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: because even though it was a quiet overnight, there is
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: some developments that I think we should talk to you about.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: But those stories and more, and of course, your talkbacks
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  Speaker 2: off the iHeartRadio app. Thanks for getting your day started
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: with South Carolina's Morning News.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Okay, good morning. I was looking at Ro Khanna this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Ro Khanna, the... California Democrat celebrating the protests in Europe.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: He says the young people are leading the way. If
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: only the leaders would listen to the young people. For
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  Speaker 2: every revolution, I'll point out, that has gone horribly wrong
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: has been led by the young people. So whether you
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: want to talk about what happened in Venezuela, you want
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: to talk about what happened in Cuba, you want to
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: talk about what, I hate to say it, the fascists
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: in Italy, you want to talk about the Nazis in Germany,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: college students led all of that. So I wouldn't say
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: that the young people have a strong history of leading
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: great protests. But for you to believe, like I'm reading here,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: this is pbs.org. A discontent with the state of schools,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: declining public services, and a housing crisis have created the
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  Speaker 2: perfect storm for an autumn of protests in Europe, Christopher.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: That's what this is all about. It's about The state
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: of schools declining public services in a housing crisis. I'll
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: point out that across Western Europe, and we're talking about
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: anything from Spain, Italy, France, these countries are spending 30
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: to 32 percent of their GDP on social services, as
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: opposed to the United States, which we already think is
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: way overpaying for a lot of this crap. We're at
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: 21 percent. So don't tell me that they're not spending
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  Speaker 2: enough money on social stuff. This is not about the
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: state of schools. If it was, you wouldn't be burning
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  Speaker 2: them to the ground. This is about something completely different.
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  Speaker 2: And when you see the Palestinian flag flying in a
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: lot of these protests, that tells you what it's about.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: And the Palestinian flag is a flag that represents to
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  Speaker 2: the people flying it, it represents an oppressed people group
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  Speaker 2: who are trying to overcome their overlords. And so that's
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: what we're seeing in France. They feel like they're an
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: oppressed people group. Who is the oppressed people group? Could
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: it possibly be the 40% or so of the population
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: that is first or second born immigrants? They have brought
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: into their own culture the demise of their own culture.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: That's why they're targeting the historic buildings. You notice what's
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  Speaker 2: not burning, Christopher? Mosques.
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: True.
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  Speaker 2: Mosques are perfectly safe. You can go there. Matter of fact,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: there was videos yesterday of people taking a break, going
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: to prayer at the mosques, and then picking up their
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: torches and getting right back into the fight.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Tells you it's not about schools.
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  Speaker 2: It's not about schools. It's not about schools. It's not,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: it's not about social services. It's there is culture in
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: the world. Every place has a culture. We hear it, Christopher,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: you probably hear it all the time talking about the
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: culture they're trying to build at certain programs. If you're
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: watching the Nick Saban documentary, like so many people, the
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: culture he was trying to build at LSU, it was
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: very difficult to build a new culture because they had
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: an old culture and it was a losing culture. According
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: to Nick Saban, he wanted to change the culture. The
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: United States and the West have had a culture, but
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: inside the culture, we have diverse, different segments of the culture.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, if you go to New York, it's
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: different than Miami, even though Miami is considered the sixth
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: borough of New York. It's a different culture, and it's
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: not because of the weather. I mean, there's a different
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: culture in Philly from New York. There's a different culture
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: in Chicago from New York. There's a different culture in
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Dallas than there is in Houston, as opposed to Atlanta,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: all southern cities. Every place has a culture. And what's
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: under attack right now is Western culture. And it's a
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: diverse group of people that have come together that all
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: hate us. And it starts with Americans. There is a
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: group of Americans that hate us. They have been brainwashed
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  Speaker 2: by the communists. The communists are looking for a one
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  Speaker 2: world rule. That's what they want. They want the world
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: to be ruled by one government. And everybody, it's all,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: it's a commune of happiness. It's the warmth of socialism.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: It's all that crap. And then there's inside of that,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: you have the radical Islamists. But you also have the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: green energy people. You have, I mean, it's so diverse.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: You've got the queers for Palestine. Everybody's coming together. Anybody
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  Speaker 2: who hates the Western culture, which has been long described
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  Speaker 2: as decadent and by some people's assessment, soft. We are
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  Speaker 2: a soft, decadent group of people, according to the people
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  Speaker 2: who live over there and the people who don't like us.
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  Speaker 2: Are you willing to defend your culture? France does not
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  Speaker 2: seem to be, although Italy is a rising up. Germany
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  Speaker 2: has already started to put measures into place to defend
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  Speaker 2: their culture. They want Germany to remain Germany. They don't
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: want Germany to be like Ireland, and they don't want
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: it to be like Italy. They want Germany to be Germany,
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  Speaker 2: and they should.
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  Speaker 3: Spain has already seen what it's like when their literal
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  Speaker 3: beaches are stormed. by these immigrants.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: And you notice that they say that it's, and we
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: heard it in the news report as well, there was
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: a calm last night, and they want to credit the,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: what do they call it, the early curfew or whatever?
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: yet they're already bracing for the next wave of protests
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: this weekend. These are not waves of battle. These people
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: are coming in to destroy, burn, loot, take it down.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: They hate that country, and they want it to look
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: like Palestine. They want it to look like those countries
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: that So many of them have left. They want to turn.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Right now, I'll say it this way. There is a
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Palestinian genocide, and it's happening on France and their culture.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: The Palestinian culture is genociding the French culture. Disagree with me?
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: You want to agree with it? You want to say
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I'm crazy? I'd love to hear all these opinions, Christopher.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: The talkback feature is just waiting. It's sitting right there
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: with a big, juicy red microphone button on the iHeartRadio app.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: You press that button and you give us your opinion.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: We'll try to get it on the air as soon
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: as possible. All right, we'll take a break. Be back
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: with more of your thoughts and some local news as
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: well coming up on South Carolina's Morning News.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560 AM, WVOC,
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: and 94.3 WSC.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I don't know that it actually helps us decide anything.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: The transparency in income tax being paid by our candidates.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: But the state newspaper did do a story on it.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: And I think I'm just like one of those people
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: who is just very nosy. Like I am fascinated by
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: people's finances when I see these types of things. And
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: So the Alan Wilson campaign released his tax returns for
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: the past four years, showing he paid about a quarter
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: of a million dollars in federal and state income taxes
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: over the past five years. And then the Democrat Jermaine
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Johnson has had no federal income taxes the last four
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: years and a sharp drop in his income. Now, I mean,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: so if you look at like when you look at
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Jermaine Johnson, 2025, his reported wages and salary came to $ 59, 479.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: His annual loss was $ 59, 265. In other words, he made
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: less than $ 100 that year. That's unbelievable.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: Pretty tough to get along until you realize that he's
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: filing separately from his wife. So I'm guessing she's bringing
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: in a little more than that.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: And she's a, what did they say? She's like a
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: pharmacist or something, right? So she's probably doing pretty well. But,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: you know, 2024, he reported he made $ 61, 709, had a $ 24, 402 loss.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Every year, he's got a massive loss. And I guess
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: most of that's coming from what he calls dream team consulting,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: which doesn't seem so dreamy.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: No, it doesn't.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: He also started a trucking business. And apparently that's not
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: doing so well either.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Well, he turned that into see what, you know, the
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: price of Trump's war has done to me as far
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: as my business goes. He managed to turn that around
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: into a shot at Republicans.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Hmm. I mean, again, does this tell us I mean.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know that we're learning much about the people.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I know that the Wilson campaign would say we are
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: completely transparent. We have nothing to hide. We are what we,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: you know, you say we, what you think we are
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: is what we are. Um, Alan Wilson works very hard.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: He is, uh, not only is he the attorney general,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: which by the way, the, the legislature voted a big, uh,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: income increase for the will for that position, not for
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Alan Wilson, but for that position a few years ago.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: And that's, uh, you know, shown in his income tax filings,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: but he also works very hard with the National Guard,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: gets a substantial salary from there as well.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: And both those salaries are a matter of public record,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: so it's no secret.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Even before the state newspaper did this article.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, I guess, but it would have been in the
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: secret as to what did they claim, what did they deduct,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: those types of things. And they really didn't claim a
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: lot of deductions. You know, they got two children that
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: they put on there as dependents and as rightfully so.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: But yeah, are you like me? Do you just like
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: to creep through these types of things and look at
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: people's stuff?
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: I guess sort of, I, you know, I think the
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: state newspaper thought this was going to be some huge
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: expose and maybe some people out there feel like, oh, well,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: you know, I identify more with Jermaine Johnson. He's struggling
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: just like I am. I don't, I I'd like to
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: see my politician's I don't want to see them exploit
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: the system, but I want to see that they know
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: what they're doing and they're not losing money every year
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: because if they can lose their own money, they can
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: lose mine too.
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: It's like one time I had a boss, I was
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: late for a meeting and he said, what you've shown
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: me is you don't care about your own time. Or
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: you don't care about my time. So the next week
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: he was late for the meeting on purpose. And he said,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I figured if you don't care about my time, you
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: certainly don't care about your own time. If Jermaine can't
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: figure out a way to take care of his own money,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: if he doesn't care about his own money, then he's
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: certainly not going to care about yours. That's the way
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I look at it. What do you think? Use the
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: talkback feature if you've got any thoughts on the local
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: revelation on income taxes from our gubernatorial candidates. We'd love
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: to hear from you. We'll take a break and be
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: back in a minute.
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: Morning News.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: So the Post and Courier has an interview in their
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: paper today with the most honorable James Clyburn, South Carolina's
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: 6th District Governor. I don't know if they intended to
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: make it like this, but it came off as, I'll say, awkward.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Let's just read part of the interview. I grew up
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: under the belief that South Carolina, like the rest of
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: the United States of America, was an imperfect state, just
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: like we're an imperfect nation. And the preamble to our
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Constitution says we're in search of a more perfect union.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Now South Carolina itself has been on the glide path.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I had hoped. toward a more perfect state. We had
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: our issues in the 60s and the 70s. We came
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: out of it integrating our lunch counters and integrating our
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: schools and getting rid of all of the things that
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: made for imperfection. Okay. I mean, again, not perfect, but
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: certainly we're moving in the right direction in the 70s
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: and the 80s. And if you look at racial harmony
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: in America in the 90s and early 2000s, those were
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: record rates of racial harmony. Clyburn adds that the Republican
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Party under Trump is attempting to turn the clock back,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: as evidenced by redistricting efforts in several southern states ahead
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: of the 2026 midterms. They've attempted to racialize things that would,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: in fact, restore the imperfect and even viciousness of what
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: of what I thought were days gone by. Then the
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Post and Courier points out South Carolina 6 is a
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: majority-minority district with a black plurality. So who's racializing what?
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Well, he's making the claim that the attempt to redistrict
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: him out of office was the racializing of our election process.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: That's his point.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not a very good point when they point
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: out that you're the only representative that lives in a
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: black plurality. That that district was specifically drawn to make
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: sure of that.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: With help from his aides in the process.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Definitely with help. And by under court order, we had
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: to do that. That was back in the days. When
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: South Carolina was still on. And that's another one of
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: those things where I laugh at when people are like,
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: it's a state run election. The federal government should never
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: intervene with a state. Don't you understand? Well, where were
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: you when they were doing that to the South? Because
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: the South was wrong, by the way. Let's not forget that,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: that the South was running elections kind of corruptly. But
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: it was the federal government that came in and said,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: not only are you going to do this, you're going
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: to do that. And we're going to make sure that
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: you redraw your districts. We're going to make sure that
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: you run your elections in such and such a way. Now,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: when the federal government currently under Republican rule is saying,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: we want to make sure that you run your elections
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: under a certain way, which includes making sure that only U.S.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: voters are voting. There's this, oh, no, that's the state's rights.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: If the state wants to have just anybody from anywhere
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: come on in and just vote, that's their right. You
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: can't stop them. Well, if that's the way it is,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: then I guess some states that are under Democrat rule
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: could go back to the way Democrats used to run things,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: which is blacks can't vote. There's a poll tax. That's
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: the way the Democrats were running the South back in
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: the day. If that's if again, if the federal government
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: has no say in your elections. then they have no
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: say in your elections and the states can run it
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: however they see fit. So I would never expect the
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Democrats to allow blacks to vote again. That would be
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: the end of it. That would just be the complete
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: end of it. Again, the party that brought you Jesse
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Helms and brought you Strom Thurmond and brought you all
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: the racists that you all want to rile against. You
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: forget that Jim Crow was ushered in by Democrats. That
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: is who they are, the party of racists. And they
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: continue to be, whether or not they have a black
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: politician or not. It's so ironic that you all point
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: at Tim Scott and call him, oh, he's the uncle.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Is he? Who's the uncle? Who's the guy who the
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: federal government had to help put everything together for? If
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: you want to start talking about uncles, there is maybe
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: some uncles in this state, but it's not Uncle Tim.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: That's all I'm going to say about that. All right,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: do I have to take a break? I guess I do.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: I'm a minute late. All right, we'll take a break.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: If you have talkbacks, please use the talkback feature. Let
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: us know what you're thinking. It is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM and
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: 560 AM, WVOC, Columbia, and 94.3 WSC, Charleston.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: And there was just an interview with J.D. Vance on
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Fox News, and he said the Ilhan Omar... quote, not,
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: not politically motivated. We don't want to be like the
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Biden administration. We never want to be like that. Where
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: they would allow the law to go after their political opponents,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: we really want to let the law and the facts
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: drive this investigation. And if justice requires something else be done,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: then of course we're going to take a step when
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: we have to. Have we seen Ilhan Omar in a week?
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure we have.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, that lady is gone, it seems.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: That might be the best option for her. Maybe she
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: took advantage of the U.S. government's offer to pay for
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: her plane ride home.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: So, you know what? I think Tom Holman would have
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: told us that. I would assume. I don't know. During
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: the raid of Omar's home last Monday, they did seize
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: her passport. They did take her computer, and they took
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: her personal cell phone. That was reported by the Wall
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Street Journal. Then on Saturday, we heard from the New
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: York Times that the investigation had been accelerated by Ilhan
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Omar's sister's phone, that she was the one who, once
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: they got into her phone, they found something that was
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: able to then escalate it to the point where they're
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: raiding Ilhan's home in D.C. They didn't go after the
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: home in Minneapolis or Minnesota, wherever she lives. This is
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: the look when you talk about unusual circumstances, a sitting
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: congressperson having their house raided is pretty unusual. Oh, yeah.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: But also having a sitting congressperson who has been alleged
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: to have created a scam that would allow for the
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: taking of 250 million U.S. tax dollars and given it
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: specifically to a group of Somalians is also very rare.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: My theory on this is, again, if you missed it yesterday,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: is that they don't have the goods to get Ilhan
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: on that. That they're just using this as, and again,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: this may seem weak, but if she lied to become
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: a citizen, meaning she was not a minor, she should
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: have actually been interviewed and become, because she was either
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: 18 or 19, not 17 as they claimed. I mean, again,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: it's the Al Capone story. Tax return deal. It's enough
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: to get get you out of the country or it's
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: enough to get you to lose your your seat and
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: whatever else. I know a lot of Americans would like
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: to see her prosecuted if she, in fact, did do
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: the deal with the Somalians in Minnesota to rip us off.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: But I would think that they've been investigating that pretty
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: thoroughly for a while, and they just don't have the goods.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: That's my thought.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Unless there's something on the sister's phone that directly links
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Ilhan Omar to that quarter of a million dollars that
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: went to that feeding program.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: I think if there was, we'd be hearing more about it.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: You would hope so.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: You know, who knows? Who knows? This is a very
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: mysterious investigation at this point. I know that her sister,
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: who apparently has a book and she's been on a
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: book tour, has now canceled all appearances promoting her book.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, you might want to book that book tour
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: to Somalia because I think that's where you're all headed.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Time to lay low.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: And again, Ilhan Omar had said she was a Somalian
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: girl at heart who missed her homeland. Why can't we
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: just be generous and share her with Somalia again? Let
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: the U.S. taxpayers fund that. We've already funded a lot
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: around Omar. I say we fund a trip home to
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Somalia for the Somalian girl. What do you think? Use
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: the talkback feature. We'll take a break.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: Live from the state capitol, this is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: We were just talking about the Ilhan Omar story, and
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: a lot of people using that to point at the
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: weaponization of government, although we just heard from the vice
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: president that that is not what this is about, that
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: they're actually just allowing law enforcement to follow the lead.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: But weaponization of government is nothing new, especially when you're
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: talking to people on the left. And this is the
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: senator from Michigan. I believe you pronounce it Alyssa. I
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: know the last name is Slotkin.
• 25:08
  Speaker 8: And I want young people coming out of school to say,
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: sounds fun. I might get an opportunity. I want them
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself away.
• 25:19
  Speaker 8: A ton of problems that I don't want. And so
• 25:22
  Speaker 8: let me avoid participating in that.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: They want to kill the Republican Party by prosecuting anybody
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: and everybody who joins it. That sounds like the weaponization
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: of government.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Sounds pretty close.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. We'll be back right after the top of
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: the hour news.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's morning news.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Elon Musk is, I think, a lot like Donald Trump.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: They have some similarities. One, they rarely seem to sleep. Two,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: they're very wealthy. Three, they love America. And they want
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: to help future generations, people that they will never meet.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: They want to help. I think that they both have
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: those things in common, although I'm sure some people would
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: dispute that. Elon Musk at 3.52 in the morning yesterday, 3.52
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: in the morning. What is he doing at 3.52 in
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: the morning? I'm sure this wasn't a flippant decision, although
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: I say I'm sure. I don't know what goes through
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Elon Musk's mind. Elon Musk at 3.52 in the morning
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: posted a very short tweet, but probably the most costly
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: tweet ever. Next year, I will give one of my
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: SpaceX shares to every child in America. This will be
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: the first of many. Well, if you read Forbes magazine,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: they say that every share is currently trading between $ 146
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: to $ 148. Elon has pledged to give to about 72.5
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: million children one share. That approaches $ 10. 5 to $ 11 billion
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: he's giving away. That's incredible. Yeah. You still hate billionaires?
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: You still hate them? I mean, I don't know what, again,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: not every billionaire is like this, obviously. Not every billionaire
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: is going to be this generous. But Elon Musk is
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: becoming bigger than life. He is one of these things.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: He's a figure who future generations will be talking about.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: I'm hundreds of years in the future, they're going to
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: talk about Elon Musk and we're living in it right now.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: We are living in historic times with historic people. And
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Elon Musk is, I think, going to become one of
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: the most important people in the history of the world.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: And this is just a fantastic thing to do. Again,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: for people who are not familiar with the Trump accounts,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: perhaps you don't have a kid or a grandkid, so
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: you're not fully cognizant about what's going on. But the
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Trump account's as a government-operated savings and investment program that
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: will allow capital gains, tax-free stock transfers, and it would
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: allow your kids to actually have a vested interest in
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: the S & P 500, amongst other things. By the way,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: the other guy who's giving... Did he give a billion
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: dollars or something? That was Michael Dell, the guy who
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: created the Dell computers. Him and his wife have been giving...
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: at least hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: towards this thing as well. So again, the generosity of
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: the billionaires in America is unbelievable. We've never seen anything
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: like this.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: And you look at the, I mean, the SpaceX shares.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're only going to be exploring more in
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: the years to come. We're only going farther out in
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: the years to come. So most people are pretty bullish
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: on those shares right now. $ 150, $ 200 right now, It
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: could double.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: It could triple. I would love if Elon had done
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: this about a year and a half ago and said, instead,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be giving away Tesla stock. Let's see
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: how many people still want to go and burn Teslas.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: How many people want to rampage through a Tesla dealership? Again,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: this is a fantastic human being, just a human being.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: And again, he identifies as an American, but he is also,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, Elon's a little bit to the left of me.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Elon would consider himself a global citizen as well. But
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: recognizing the value of the United States and how important
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: it is to keep it the way it is, don't
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: change it. Don't allow... for, we'll say, Islamic extremists to
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: infiltrate the country and change the way our government works. Again,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: the left and the right can have their arguments, but
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: you can't allow it to become a an extremist, religious,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: fanatical type of position. We need to maintain this idea
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: of where we're at. We've been doing a fantastic job
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: for 250 years, still working towards a more perfect union,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: always in that direction, but giving so much hope to
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: the world. This is going to give so much hope
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: to the future generations. Again, $ 11 billion he's donating, saying
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: it's the first of many. I'm excited for kids to
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: understand Again, he's not going to meet any of these kids.
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: No.
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: Right?
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's got like 11 of his own.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: I was going to say, yeah, he's got enough of
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: his own to worry about.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: It's probably a lot of money just to keep those
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: kids in clothes. But this is, for so many Americans
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: who don't understand the stock market, who don't understand how
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: savings and investments work, I think that the Trump accounts
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: is an amazing idea to get them involved. Again, it's
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: almost like a computer game for these kids, but it's
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: actually with money. People are, you know, when they invented
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: computer games or, you know, you look at like your
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: fitness tracker or whatever, people are motivated by watching scores
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: go up.
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: It's better when you realize that's money in your pocket.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: That's way better than winning at Asteroids or whatever the
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: hot new game was. Winning at the stock market is
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: a fantastic thing to do.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: This is why he's more invested in defeating some of
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: these socialist candidates as well, because the very innovation that
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: he has ridden the wave of, I mean, there's no
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: reason at all to be innovative. There's no reason at
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: all to try hard if the socialists take control of
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: the government.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, to your point, Christopher, one of the stated
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: goals is that the ownership of production would move to
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: the government. So an Elon Musk wouldn't have the ability
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: to launch a SpaceX or a Tesla or the Boring
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: Company or any of the things that he's built through
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: the years. None of that would be– that would all
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: have to come from the government. And the government, boy,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: aren't they creative. They come up with some great stuff.
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: All right, we'll take a break and be back with more.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: It's South Carolina's Morning News.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, Donna Rice Hughes is a South Carolina legend, former Gamecock,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: and somebody who since the mid-90s has been involved with
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: a group called Enough is Enough, which is... ironically back
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: in the nineties, I didn't even think it would be
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: a big deal, but it was even then they were
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: concerned about kids online and protecting them. She was telling
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: me about a new group, an online gang called seven, six, four.
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: They're an online game and they are considered by the
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: FBI to be a terrorist organization. Um, there are, not
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: nihilistic of violent extremist groups. That's how they're classified. And
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: they're worldwide. So they, I can kind of talk about
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: the process of how they work. But again, their goal
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: is to attack and traumatize and violate extremism. innocent children.
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: Their primary targets are between 9 and 17 years old.
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: They find these kids on social media networks, online gaming platforms,
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: which is one of their big target areas, and they
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: build relationships with unsuspecting kids and then begin to extort
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: information from them, you know, get sexual pictures from them,
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: and then, you know, get these kids to do horrible things.
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: And I mean, they, they can, they have been to
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: get kids to violate other children, to torture animals and,
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: and this kind of thing, but they're also collecting money. So,
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: you know, they're making money and they're exploiting kids and, and,
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: And it's important that parents know this. I mean, hopefully
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: most of your audience already knows that child pornographers, traffickers,
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: sexual predators are using these very same platforms. This is
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: just another type of a group. for parents to be
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: aware of and how they operate and how they actually,
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: you know, are getting in to your kids' lives and
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: putting them in harm's way.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Some scary stuff there, Christopher. We got like a 15
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: minute interview. If you're interested in learning more about how
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: this gang is getting money, which to me was fascinating
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: how they're getting money out of nine and 10 year olds,
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: but they're able to. And then some of the other
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: horrific things that they're doing, but more importantly, how do
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: they get into your kid's life? Like Donna, Rice Hughes
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: was saying there, it starts most often on a gaming platform,
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: not necessarily as much on Instagram or Facebook, but more
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: through the online gaming platforms. And then they isolate them,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: and then they're in the world of trouble.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you get kids who you think are playing a
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: safe game. Minecraft, for example, a lot of people thought,
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: all right, well, there's a game that at least inspires
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: a little creativity in kids if they're going to be
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: on the screen. Minecraft is one of these major gaming
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: platforms that has been infiltrated by 764.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: I never would have imagined an online gang targeting children
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: like this, but that is the sad state of affairs.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: And as she said in the interview, there's 300 different
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: active investigations from the FBI alone. And again, it's a
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: worldwide organization that is making billions of dollars. So scary stuff.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: If you want to hear the entire story, Donna Rice
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Hughes interview. We've got that up on the national briefing
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: podcast on the I heart radio app. We'll be back
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: with more in a minute. It is South Carolina's morning news.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560 AM, WVOC,
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: and 94.3 WSC.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: I'm always looking for things to celebrate, and I'm imagining
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: you are as well. I mean, it seems like we're
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: in a doom and gloom news cycle and have been
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: for a while, but good news just to the north
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: of us yesterday is... UNC Chapel Hill came to their
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: senses and settled 18 active federal investigations in a separate
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Justice Department compliance review. They were being accused of some
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: very bad things. Basically, anti-Semitism and admissions based off of
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: race instead of merit. So now under this new agreement,
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: They have an internal merit and civil rights administrator and
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: establish a Title IX coordinator. This will be the first
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: time that they've done that. They've actually had one person
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: serving in three different roles. And they agree that they
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: will no longer use race as a factor when deciding
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: whether or not somebody should be admitted to UNC Chapel Hill,
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: as had been the case previously. And they can still
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: consider whether or not somebody had to overcome a horrific situation,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: like coming from poverty or something like that. But it
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: has to be colorblind. That phrase is used like 15
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: times in this settlement, that the Justice Department wants a
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: colorblind admission system, and the university agrees that we will
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: be colorblind moving forward. Isn't that great news?
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: That's awesome news. And Why is it that doing something
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: right always requires another tier of government, another position, another
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: department formed? But I get it. That's part of the process.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: They'll spend additional money, which of course will come out
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: of tuition, which will come out of taxpayer dollars, but
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: at least they're doing it the right way now.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am excited that there is some common sense
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: being restored, at least at the UNC Chapel Hill. Again,
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: the That is a bigger state university that has for
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: far too long been dancing and will just say, you know,
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: the gray. Is it that we're rewarding somebody who's overcome
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: poverty or is it that we're giving somebody who's black
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: a leg up because we feel bad that they've been oppressed?
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: And we're going to deny, most often, Asian students. They're
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: the number one victims in these scenarios, but also white
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: students and sometimes Latino students. But, again, colorblind, merit-based, that's
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: the way we want our country run. And that is,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, that goes all the way back to like
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: we were talking the other day about Dr. Martin Luther King.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Content of your character, not the color of your skin.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: These things are... American values that we grew up with.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: And I'm saying we being the Gen Xers of the group.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately, it seems like the Gen Zers of our
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: audience were taught something different. That if you're white, you
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: are a victimizer. And if you are any other color,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: you're a victim. And that is not reality, and that
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: is an unhealthy way to approach life. And now we're
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: going to start rewarding people who work hard and deserve breaks.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: And like I said, they will be factoring in. The
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: Justice Department said, please continue to factor in Somebody who's
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: coming from like a single parent household and has to overcome,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: you know, they went to a bad high school or whatever,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: and yet we're still able to obtain things. Maybe give
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: them a little extra bump when it comes to this,
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: but you cannot look at the race of the person
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: in order to try to make that decision. So good
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: news out of UNC and congratulations to the civil rights movement.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: for actually fighting for the civil rights of all Americans,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: not just a certain segment of the American populace. We'll
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: take a break and be back with more. This is
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: South Carolina's Morning News.
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: And let me introduce you to a little ditty off
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: the YouTubes.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Darling Graham's one vote kept us at war. Casey Widener
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: says no more than the vote to bring them out
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: one short again.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Same name, same mark. Move that one mark. Now that
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: is an AI-generated song and video that is on Facebook
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: and X and all over the place. It's from a
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: guy we talked about near the end of the show yesterday,
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: a guy named, what's his name, Aaron Day. Aaron Day
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: is a failed New Hampshire politician, big leftist. He is
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: so bold. as to say, quote, you can call this
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: a spoiler campaign. I call it holding Republicans accountable. We
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: fund the margin, and it costs the GOP the Senate.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Day says he's targeting eight states, and he does not
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: want the Libertarians to win. But he thinks, according to this,
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: that the Libertarians in Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Minnesota, South Carolina, Michigan, Ohio,
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: and Kansas are can draw enough votes away from the
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Republican in order to give it to the leftists. So, again,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: I guess he's a clever guy.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, he's got a strategy. If that makes him clever, yeah,
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: I guess so.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: And like he points out in his interview, we're not
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: going to get somebody who would have normally voted for
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: like in South Carolina. If you were probably going to
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: vote for Lindsey Graham, there's no possible way. Do you
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: think that Annie Andrews is a good candidate? You don't
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: think that if you were going to vote for Lindsey Graham,
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: there's no possible way that you vote for her.
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: But.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: You might be attracted to Casey Whitener. You might be
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: attracted to the idea of less wars. You might be
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: attracted to the idea of lower taxes. These are not
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: the things that Annie Andrews is promising you, by the way.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: She wants more taxes. She wants more government. If you're
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: a Lindsey Graham supporter, you cannot be voting for Annie Andrews,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: according to this guy Aaron Day. But you could vote
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: for the Libertarians. And that's all he needs is just
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: like he says, if we can get 15,000, 20,000 South
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Carolinians to flip their votes in this type of a race,
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: I think that we can get it to Annie Andrews.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: And if we can get it to Annie Andrews, like
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: he says, we can eventually get us to socialism. This
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: is the goal. You introduce with a moderate and then
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: you upgrade and you continue to upgrade and upgrade and
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: upgrade until you're a completely communist run country. That's what
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: he's after.
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: Uh, if, if his numbers didn't work, if his numbers
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: were close, the fact that you've got this campaign plus
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: the right in Ralph campaign, both drawing numbers away from
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: the Republican, then it gets a little dangerous.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I posted this on social media in the first
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: comment from a young lady named Whitney. We're voting in
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: we're writing in Ralph.
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: Well, there was a huge dust up on social. I mean, it,
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: this has been a controversial position to take if you're
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: a Republican from the start, but it got even more
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: vicious online in the last 24 hours on social media
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: X to be precise, as you've got some prominent former
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: Republican officials saying you're destroying the party by writing in
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: Ralph Norman. And you've got others who are saying we're
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: sick of being told by the party what to do.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: And I understand their points. Both of their points. A
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: lot of Trump voters are, wanted the Republican Party destroyed.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: That's why they voted for Trump. Trump hasn't gone far enough,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: according to them. Trump has now become the swamp, according
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: to them. So, you know, we'll talk to some of
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: the Ralph Norman surrogates, the ones who are pushing for
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Ralph to be your senator. And we'll be doing that
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: just after eight o'clock. But if you've got thoughts on this,
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: whether it's I might vote for the Libertarian, or I
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: might write in Ralph. What are your thoughts? Please use
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: the Talk Back feature and get back at us. Thanks
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: for starting your day either way. That is a catchy
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: little ditty. I wish you'd write it. Maybe I can
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: get AI to write a song about us, Christopher. Maybe so.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: South Carolina's Morning News.
• 44:54
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: We'll take a break and be back in a second.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: So the other day, Trafalgar came out with another poll
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: that would have been two days ago. So today is Tuesday,
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: so Sunday. Sunday, you got a new Trafalgar poll for
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: South Carolina, and it shows Darlene Graham is winning South Carolina,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: but barely. I think it's almost, it is, I think,
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: within the margin of error. 48.6 for Darlene, 45.6. So
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: that's a three-point difference. And the margin of error, well,
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: not quite, 2.9 margin of error, according to Trafalgar Group.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: So Darlene Graham with a lead outside the margin of
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: error by one-tenth of one point. Casey Whitener has improved.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: We were talking about the push to help her out.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: She's up to 3.9%. Mark Hackett falling. You're saying who?
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: The constitutionalist who is unheard from. No one's ever done
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: an interview with him.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: That campaign's flying under the radar at this point.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Yes. It's an interesting strategy, Cotton. We'll have to see
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: how it works out. He's at 0.8% and 1.2% undecided. Now,
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: that poll has led to some online spats. Yeah. Several
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: are taking up your point. You're not factoring in the
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Right in Ralph campaign, which could be two, three, five percent.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: We don't know. Now, Bakari Sellers retweeted it and says,
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: you are one of the best in the business, but
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: there is no way that Darlene Graham is getting 30
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: percent of the black vote, as your crosstabs say. I
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: would agree. Darlene Graham is not going to get 30 percent.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: Trump got about 10 percent. So it's highly unlikely that
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Darlene would suddenly triple Donald Trump's voter returns. Thoughts on that?
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: Not going to happen. But otherwise, I mean, the fact
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: that it is this close and within the margin of error,
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, that just I still don't comprehend why the
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: Graham push and either by her own. her own staff
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: or by, you know, the PACs, why it came so
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: late once they realized that Annie Andrews was on an
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: absolute media blitz since late July, early August?
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Well, I think we've had some answers earlier in the
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: sense that they had no money. There was no way
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: to push back and the PACs were already swamped in Texas.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: They were fighting in Ohio. They're fighting in Michigan. They're
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: fighting in Maine. And then it's like, wait a minute,
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: what's going on in South Carolina?
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we've got to divert some money from
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: the main race now to South Carolina.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: It's almost like we were an afterthought. They thought they
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: had this one in the bag and realized too late
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: that the numbers had really tightened up.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: You're supposed to have South Carolina in the bag, right?
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Michigan has long been considered, and Ohio has been considered,
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: battleground states. Georgia is supposed to be a battleground state.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: We've pulled our money out of Georgia, it seems like.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: And so we're just surrendering that to Ossoff. North Carolina
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: battleground states are pulling the money out of that and
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: just surrendering it to Roy Cooper. Texas, not supposed to
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: be a battleground, is a massive battleground. And Maine was
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: supposed to go to the Democrat, but suddenly we have
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: an opportunity to win there because they've nominated a nut job.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: So we have an opportunity there. But we are in
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: a battle here in South Carolina. Interesting, though, that I
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: have not seen a poll in more than a month
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: that shows Annie Andrews in the lead. So every poll
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: that I have seen shows Darlene Graham in the lead.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: And then tomorrow you got Trump up at, well, it's
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: not quite Clemson. It's near Clemson.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: Pendleton.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Pendleton, that's right. That's where Trump will be for another rally.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that moves the needle. Again, this
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: is a get out the vote election, meaning we're not
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: expecting a lot of independents to come out. We're expecting... Basically,
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: the base of the Democrat and the Republican parties to
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: turn out. And even that is a stretch. And so
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Trump trying to appeal to the most conservative part of
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: the state, which is the upstate of South Carolina, and
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: trying to get those people to forget you're writing Ralph
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: fairy tale. Darlene Graham is your nominee. Come and support her,
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: or you're going to lose to Annie Andrews. And if
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: you lose to Annie Andrews, that one loss may be
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: enough to swing the Senate. And if you lose the Senate,
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: heaven help us, I guess, prayers for all of us.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: So like we just heard from Slotkin, Slotkin saying we
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: want to prosecute voters. We don't just want to prosecute administrators.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: We want to prosecute you. And that's when they again,
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: we found out last week. Thank you to the what's
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: his name of the 140 year old senator out there
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: in Iowa. What's his name? I can't remember his name
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: right off the top of my head. But his team
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: found where Jack Smith had compiled 639,000 Americans' name, addresses,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: and banking records because they had purchased MAGA gear and
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: they were being investigated and they were on the verge
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: of being prosecuted. They're coming for you.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: Chuck Grassley.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Chuck Grassley, the 142-year-old senator. These are the people you're
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: up against. They want you shut down forever and or
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: just scared to death to ever vote Republican again. Slotkin,
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: we played her earlier. Maybe we'll play it again. Coming
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: up after 8 o'clock, we're going to talk to one
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: of Ralph Norman's top surrogates, see what he thinks about
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: the writing campaign and others. If you've got thoughts, use
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: the talkback feature. Thanks for starting your day with us.
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's
• 50:46
  Speaker 6: Morning News.
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: Hey, good morning, guys. It's Steve from Mount Pleasant. This
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: crops up every once in a while in elections. Republicans,
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: it's like herding cats. We don't. march in lockstep. Democrats,
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: because they're collectivists, they do. And that's our natures. And
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: getting a wedge issue with Republicans is easier. And let's
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: hope it doesn't work.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: Steve from Mount Pleasant, thank you for your talk back
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app. And he's absolutely right. The Democrats
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: are a They are going to hate this. They're an
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: authoritarian party. They listen to leadership for the most part.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: If the leaders of the party say we're doing something,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: they'll get in line. Even the most leftist, if the
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: party says we're going moderate for this cycle, they'll go moderate.
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: We've printed out your placards. All you have to do
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: is hold them up at the next protest. This is
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: what you're going to say this time.
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: And it's not just... the people who follow the Democrat party,
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: it's their politicians. They'll do what they're told for the
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: most part. You don't see a lot of separation between,
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of who is a moderate for
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: the Democrats. Do they have a moderate? Is there a,
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: there used to be Chuck Schumer was considered a moderate.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: He's not anymore. But whoever the most moderate is and
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: Ro Khanna don't have a lot of separation. They'll vote
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: together about 95% of the time inside the Republican party
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: to Steve from Mount Pleasant's point. we're all over the road.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: We've got some people like Susan Collins and, uh, Murkowski,
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: they'll be voting with the Democrats about 30, 40% of
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: the time. Um, but we are a freedom loving bunch.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: The right wing of America loves freedom. And that includes
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: intellectual freedom, all freedom. We want the ability to do
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: what we want to do.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: And sometimes that gets us into trouble.
• 52:48
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: That gets us into freedom can be a dangerous thing sometimes, but, uh,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Like Steve says, hopefully this wedge issue does not cost
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: us the Senate in South Carolina. All right, we'll take
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: a break. When we come back, the great Senator Jim
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: DeMint will join us on South Carolina's Morning News.
• 53:07
  Speaker 6: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM and
• 53:10
  Speaker 6: 560 AM, WVOC, Columbia, and 94.3 WSC, Charleston.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I seem to be striking out. I'm trying. I'm
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: doing my best over here. But apparently, we have not
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: been able to get a hold of Jim DeMint. Let
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: me just make sure. Not there. Not there. All right.
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: So we'll hang up on that. We'll move on to
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: something else. The other thing that I wanted to talk
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: to you this morning, Christopher, is about this mass migration
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: into South Carolina. When you look at the state newspaper,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: they've got a story on that, that the number seven
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: city in America as far as migration is Myrtle Beach.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: And we also have in number 15, Somerville. And that's 2.27
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: inbound for every outbound. So Somerville growing quickly, Myrtle Beach
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: growing quickly, South Carolina in general growing quickly. And this
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: leads me to, by the way, the number one is
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: the villages in Florida. Florida is the retirement, or excuse me,
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: the villages is the retirement. But I'll point out that
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: the number two might be a shock to a lot
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: of people, and that is Las Cruces, New Mexico.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: And so I think that that shows that there is
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: a diverse population in America. Some want sunshine and conservatism.
• 54:48
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: Some want, well, I don't know what the weather is
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: in Las Cruces, but whatever that is.
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: I feel like it's going to be hot.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: And liberal, just, you know, attitudes and politics and all
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. Now, the rest of them are
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: pretty much Florida and South Carolina and Texas. Although Bozeman,
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: Montana came in at number two, or 10, I should say,
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: number 10. Those people obviously just want wide open spaces.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: But in America... We have cultures. We were talking about
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: this earlier. There's different cultures in different countries. There's different
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: cultures in different states. There's different cultures in different cities.
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: And inside the United States, there's a potpourri of cultures.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: The problem has become that people don't want to assimilate
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: to the culture. They want that culture to change. Now,
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: we for a long time have talked about, you know,
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: you're more than welcome to move to South Carolina, but
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: don't bring your blue politics with you. But it's more
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: than just the politics, although I would point out that's
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: a big part of it. If you're moving to South Carolina,
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: what attracted you here? What attracted you to the United
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: States if you moved into the United States? In all likelihood,
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: it was the freedom. It was an opportunity. And if
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: you bring with you your country's repressive ideas and behave
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: in that manner, then you're going to ruin the country
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: that you're coming to if that country tolerates it or
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: if that state tolerates it. I think in South Carolina,
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: we've done a pretty good job. Actually, the Republican Party
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: has grown its brand in South Carolina the last, what,
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: decade or so? While we've become one of the fastest
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: growing states, I think that the majority of the people
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: moving here, just like myself— I came from New York
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: looking for better government. You know, Pamela Evett, that was
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: a big deal on the campaign trail that she was from,
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: I think, Ohio originally. She moved here looking for a
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: better opportunity. Lots of people come to South Carolina because
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: they love the freedom of South Carolina. It's also some
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: cool weather, close to the mountains, close to the beach.
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful state, all of those things.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: Your family's going to be safer for the most part.
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: than in some of those bigger cities?
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: Definitely a bigger city, yeah. I mean, we've certainly had
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: some problems for a while down in, like, North Charleston,
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: where you're from. That had a very high violent rate
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: for a while. I think we've kind of curbed that lately,
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: and that's good news. But America is curbing its violence
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: problems as they continue to deport the worst of the worst.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: But the culture is what's important. Culture means a lot.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: And if you want to move— like, if you wanted to
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: move from South Carolina— wherever you are to Seattle, Washington,
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: that is a different culture. One that I don't want
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: to be a part of, but if I was going
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: to move there, I would expect that I would assimilate
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: to their far left ways. That's if I'm going to
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: fit in.
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: You're going to get along to get along.
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I'm not going to expect them to
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: start rocking MAGA gear and chanting USA and everything.
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: That's how we do it here. But, again, for the
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: people coming here, they give you the side eye. I'm
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: not saying it's a fistfight time. It's like remember where
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: you are. You're in South Carolina, and we are proud
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: of America. We are proud of our state. South Carolina
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: only has like 5 million residents, a little over 5 million,
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: yet our flag is one of the best-selling flags in
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: the country. We love our state. And don't diminish it.
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: Don't come here and trying to diminish our state. I'm
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: happy to see that the number seven community in America
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: as far as rapidly growing is Myrtle Beach. Very proud
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: of that. Proud of the fact that Somerville is up
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: there as well. Would like to see more South Carolina
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: growing at that rate. But I don't want it changing.
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: I want it growing. I want it getting better. I
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: want it getting stronger. I want it to move more
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: in the direction of what made it the place that
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: these people wanted to move to. Somerville, I mean, when
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: you talk about Somerville, it's not because of the beach.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, what is it about Somerville, right? It's about affordability.
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: It's about good governance. It's about safety, to your point.
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: It's about lower taxes. There's a lot of reasons to
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: love Somerville. There's a lot of reasons to love the Midlands.
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of reasons to love the upstate or
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: the PD or wherever you're going in South Carolina. But
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: don't bring... don't bring your blue stuff down here. Don't bring,
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: you want to change the way we think about things.
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: You assimilate to us. We don't assimilate to you. And
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: that has been the big problem with what's going on
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: in Europe. And then to some extent, what's going on
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: across the fruited plains, when you look at major cities
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: across the no Kings protest. That's one of the dumbest
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: protests on earth. And yet they continue to have them.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: It seems almost monthly now. Um, but those, those people
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: are not assimilating to America. They are assimilating to some
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: sort of radical pro Palestine movement, which has no basis
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: in reality and, and fundamentally wants to undermine the United
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: States of America. Um, but There we go. That's where
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: we're at. I think we're still winning the culture war,
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: by the way. The culture war is an important war,
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: which we are always engaged in, and we're trying to
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: win that culture war. We're going to try back with
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: Jim DeMint, see if we can get him on the
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: air here in just a moment. But if not, we'll
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: take your talkbacks as well. Use the talkback feature. Oh,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: I see it ringing right now. We'll get to him next.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 6: Live from the state capitol, this is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: All right. We're going to try to connect again. Let's
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: see if we have him. Is Jim DeMint there?
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 7: I'm here.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: All right. We got the man, the myth, the legend
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: on the phone. Good morning, Senator DeMint. We're heading into
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: a very tightly contested Senate race in South Carolina. We
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: haven't had a Senate race like this. Well, I don't
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: even remember a Senate race like this. I've lived here
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: about 25 years. Perhaps you, being an original South Carolinian,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: can remember something more hotly contested than this race. Is
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: there one that comes to mind?
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: No, there's not.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 7: And what are the polls showing you? I haven't seen
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 7: much as far as what they're expecting is going to happen,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 7: except they say it's close.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Trafalgar came out with a poll on Sunday that
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: has Darlene up three with a 2.9 percent margin of error.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 5: So.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: Very tight, to say the least. And a lot of
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: people showing concern for I'll throw myself in there, our candidate,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: I have openly said that I voted for Ralph Norman
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: for the Senate. That was my guy. But once he lost,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: I immediately started trying to support Darlene Graham as best
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: I can. Now, I have a limited input on that,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: but what about you, Senator? You were the top, I
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: would say, spokesperson for the Ralph Norman campaign. You were
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: the top surrogate, the one that all the TV and
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: radio shows wanted to talk to, because you have been
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: such an influential figure in South Carolina politics for decades.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: How do you feel about this moment in time?
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 7: Well, like you, I've I was very much a Ralph supporter,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 7: really nothing against Darlene. I just knew Ralph, and I
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 7: had had a chance to watch him in the House.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 7: He's one of the few people who really actually got
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 7: more conservative and more courageous.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: Once he got there.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 7: And so I knew what to expect from Ralph, and
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 7: I was very, very disappointed, obviously. But just like you,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 7: when the primary is over, I think it's our obligation
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 7: as Republicans to get behind the candidate. And I just
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 7: hope at this point that Darlene's, Lindsey Graham's team will
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 7: do as good a job of getting out the vote
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 7: as they did in that primary because all the polls
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 7: I saw showed, you know, Ralph was a little bit
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 7: ahead in that, but they did such a good job
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 7: of getting out the vote. Now, I hope that wasn't
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 7: some Democrats voting and stuff like that that will come
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 7: back to us, but Well, so I know Ralph feels
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 7: the same way as you do. I talked to him.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 7: He said he's supporting the Republican ticket. He doesn't have
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 7: anything to do with any kind of white in. And
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 7: I don't think that will amount to anything. And I
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 7: sure hope that no Republican will do that because that's
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 7: not helping anything. So, yeah, it worries me when we've
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 7: got something that's that close because it's at the top
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 7: of the ticket list. with the governor's race, and I
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 7: don't want other candidates to be pulled down in this election.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 7: So I'm thinking that Alan Wilson and some of the
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 7: others also at the top of the ticket will help
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 7: get the vote out for Republicans.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: We're talking with Senator Jim DeMint. I know, obviously, everybody
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: knows that there was some personal animosity between the president
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: and Ralph Norman. That's based off of several things, including
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: Ralph's early endorsement of our former governor when she decided
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: to run against Donald Trump. And then Ralph also kind
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: of held up the big, beautiful bill in order to
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: make it better. But that kind of stuck with the
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: president as well. He does not like Ralph Norman, apparently.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like there's any love lost between the two.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: But in this instance, would Ralph somehow try to, do
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: you think, mend fences? I mean, I was just thinking
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: if he was to make a surprise appearance tomorrow night
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: up at the Trump rally with Darlene Graham, I think
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: that would be an amazing moment.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 7: You know, I'll talk to him about that. I've I
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 7: don't think he's been asked. I'm not sure he said
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 7: no to anything, but I'll have to check on that.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 7: I don't think he came away with any animosity, and
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 7: he doesn't really have any animosity to the president either. Now,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 7: he doesn't feel like he was treated that fairly in
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 7: this race, but politics isn't about fairness, and he knows that.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 7: So I think he's back to work. I would be
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 7: surprised if the president asked him to be there if
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 7: he wouldn't be there. So I think he's done what
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 7: they asked him. I'll have to double-check with him today
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 7: to see if he feels like he can do anything
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 7: down the stretch to help our ticket.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: Is that something that you'll be going to up in–
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: because you're kind of in the Pendleton area. It's not
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: too far from your home, is it? No.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 7: And what area is it going to be in?
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: It's in Pendleton tomorrow night.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 7: Okay. Well, they hadn't asked me to come either, but
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 7: I would certainly try to be there if they wanted
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 7: me to come. So I think they'll probably bring in
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 7: their own special guests and stuff like that. But, yeah,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 7: I mean, I'll support Darlene. I don't know what to
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 7: expect from Darlene, but I do know what to expect
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 7: from her opponent. I think people would be crazy to
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 7: be fooled by this– a lady who's saying she's going
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 7: to protect our benefits and protect our health care without
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 7: saying how she's going to do it, if she goes
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 7: up to the Senate as a Democrat, she's going to
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 7: vote for all these things that the Democrats vote for.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 7: She'll be voting for abortion until the last day. She'll
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 7: be voting for open borders. I mean, I've seen it
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 7: so many times that these Democrats campaign like they're moderates,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 7: But they're not moderate, even if they are personally, when
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 7: they get up there and sit in the group of senators,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 7: they'll be voting to push the trans stuff on children again.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 7: I've just seen it time and time again, and they're
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 7: certainly not going to help us with the fiscal situation
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 7: in our country.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: No, you're right about that. Senator Jim DeMint. I certainly listen.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: We have to take a quick break, but I certainly
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: appreciate you making time for us this morning. I think
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: that the Trump team and the Graham team would do
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: well to have you get involved because this is going
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: to be a get out the vote type of election.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: Midterms typically are. We're looking at about 50 percent of
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: registered voters turning out. And the problem for the Graham
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: campaign seems to be the conservatives. Old school conservatives like you,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: like Ralph, I think would certainly help them with this
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: campaign campaign. I hope that you get an invite to
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: be there tomorrow night.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 7: Well, appreciate that. Well, always good to be with you, Kelly.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 7: Thank you.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: Appreciate you so much, sir.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: We'll take a break. We'll be back with more on
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: South Carolina's Morning News.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: The Senator Jim DeMint just joined us, and he was
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: the biggest surrogate for Ralph Norman. Christopher Thompson, any thoughts
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: on the things that Senator DeMint said?
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: I'm not shocked. But I'm a little surprised that nobody–
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: and maybe this has happened behind the scenes. Senator DeMint said,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure whether Ralph Norman's been asked to appear
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: on that stage in Pendleton. But you would think if
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 3: you're trying to unify the party and trying to get
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: everyone on the same page– I know politicians say they
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 3: move right along, election wins and losses. It's all part
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: of the game. But there are wounds that sometimes fester.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 3: And this one has been festering for a while. But
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 3: as Jim DeMitt pointed out, it is time to heal
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: if South Carolina wants to move forward next month.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing that Alan Wilson had said earlier, right? That,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: you know, even if you're against me, you know, in
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: the primaries, I need you when we get to the
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: general election. There is a website called writeinralph.com. And if
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: you go to their website, They have their frequently asked questions,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: and one of them is, does Ralph Norman approve of this?
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: And the answer is no. That's what they write.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 5: No.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: No, he does not approve of the Write and Ralph campaign.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: And I'm glad that they're honest about it. I think
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: that Ralph would do the party and the state good
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: if he executed. came out with like a statement. I
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: am not seeking, nor would I accept this appointment. I'm
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: not going to be your next senator. End of story.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: You can't force me. I'm not going to accept it.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: So I'm If you want to write it in and
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: waste your vote, you can do that. But I'm not
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: going back to D.C. It's a wrap for me. I'm
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: coming back to South Carolina. I'm going to be a
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: very successful businessman. And I am not going to be
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: the reason that the Republican Party loses the Senate. I
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: would love for him to say something like that. So
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: I'll reach out to him, see if he'll say it.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: But I think it would be even more powerful if
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: he was to appear on stage with Darlene Graham at
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: the Trump rally. You got Donald Trump, Darlene Graham, and
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: Ralph Norman together holding hands high in victory. We're winning
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: with Ralph. We're winning with Darlene. They're two of my favorites.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: I love them both.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: That'd be huge. Even if the president wasn't on the
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 3: stage yet, just for Norman to be on the same
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: stage with Graham would be big.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely. We'll see if anything like that goes down
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: in Pendleton tomorrow. In the meantime, we'll take a break
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: for the bottom of the hour news.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: So yesterday... Over at the River Bluff High School, you
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: had a debate between Congressman Joe Wilson and his Democrat challenger.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: What's his first name? Something Khalifa. I'm trying to find
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: his first name here. Zion. Zion Khalifa going up against
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: Joe Wilson. I don't know that I've ever seen a
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: debate just take, that's the only debate that they're having
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: that I'm aware of, and it took place at a
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: high school. Each campaign was given 100 tickets to have
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: their supporters there, and then the rest of the audience
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: was the actual high school students who actually apparently asked
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: the questions, which is, I love that. I love getting
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: kids involved, but not a lot of separation on some
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: of the issues, but then there's other issues in which
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: there's pretty significant separation. For example, Khalifa. How should Congress
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: address the ongoing affordability issues? We could end our disastrous
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 2: tariffs that have driven up costs for everyone, and we
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: can end the unauthorized war in Iran, which makes everything
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: more expensive.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: Wilson.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: I am proud to join my friend Russell Fry in
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: calling for the temporary suspension of the federal gas tax,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: which supports the work that the Attorney General, Alan Wilson,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: has been calling for on a similar suspension for the
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: state gas tax. With cost of living increases, I strive
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 2: to bring more high-paying jobs to the district to provide
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: people with jobs that pay for them at rates that
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: keep up with or exceed rising costs. Also grateful for
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: the work of my congressional colleagues in securing the passage
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: of the Working Families Tax Cuts. So you can see
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a different approach there. An interesting
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: thing about Social Security, Wilson's response on how to fix that,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: the most pressing issue surrounding federal spending is the rampant fraud, waste,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: and abuse of our tax dollars. Republicans are working to
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: eliminate the wasteful spending and expose the fraud, where Khalifa says...
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: I want to roll back tax cuts on billionaires, and
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: I would like to end the cap on Social Security.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: And look, you can look at all over online about
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: different studies on raising the cap on Social Security. By
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: the way, it is going up next year, right? So
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: we're at, I think, 184 or something like that, and
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: it goes to like 192 next year is the cap.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: But if you were to just take it off, like
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: if you make... You're going to pay 6% on whatever
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: you make. What does that do? How much more money
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: does it raise? And what other kind of tax burdens
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: does it put? And there's studies that come down either way.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: I'm open to that debate. I'd be open to it.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 2: I don't think I would side with it because, again,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: Social Security is not meant as a retirement plan. It's
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: like a safety net. That's all that's supposed to be.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 3: A supplement, too. hopefully what you've saved over the course
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 3: of your years.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: Now, I'm also more open. Do either one of them
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: use the phrase means test? I didn't see means test
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: in there. If I'm 75 years old or whatever the
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: age is, I'm past the age of retirement, which I
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: think is 67 now. If I'm 75, I still have
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: a business and I'm still making X amount of money.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: We'll say $ 100, 000 a year. I think that the government
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: should withhold your Social Security benefits until you are actually retired.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: That's one way I think that they could address it. But,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's other ways. The means testing, I think,
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: has always had some substance to it. And I know
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: Reagan had suggested it, gosh, 50 years ago. I wonder
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: how much different we would be now if we didn't
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: have people making $ 5, $ 10, $ 15 million a year still
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: getting their $ 3, 200 a month. I don't know how much
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 2: difference it would make, but it might make a little
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: bit of difference. But interesting to see that they had
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: that out yesterday at River Bluff High School. If you
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: have thoughts on any of the races, because we're, gosh, Christopher,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: are we just two weeks away now?
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: You are correct, sir.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: Two weeks from today? Yes, yes.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: Golly. And early voting for a second day today.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 2: Wow. All right. Get out. Vote early and often if
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: you're a Democrat.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 2: We'll be back with more in just a minute with
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: South Carolina's Morning News.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 6: Your news, traffic, weather and information stations. This is South
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 6: Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560 AM WVOC and 94.3 WSC.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 3: Brian from Sumter here.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: I actually moved to South Carolina last year from South Florida.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: The only thing that I really don't.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: Like about South Carolina is the state tax. But other
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: than that, everything else is great.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Brian. We were talking about culture this morning.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: We were talking about the differences between France and Italy
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: and Spain and how that is all under attack right
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: now from communists and radical Islamists and all that sort
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: of stuff. And then I was making the differences between,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: you know, look at someplace like Miami compared to New York,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: the big culture. There is even within the southern states,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: like Atlanta has a different culture than, say, Dallas. It's
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: a different vibe. If you've been to one or both,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: you could tell that. Brian, I'm assuming that is a
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: culture shock from South Florida to Sumter.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: I wish Brian told us why. What made that move
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: to Sumter? It must have been a heck of a job.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: Maybe military.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: Could be military.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 3: Maybe he was at Shaw.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder where he would have been serving in
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: South Florida. Or maybe just enlisted and decided to come
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: on up to South Carolina. Either way, we're glad to
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: have you here. Yes, the state income tax sucks. We're
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 2: trying to fix that. I know Alan Wilson's... working hard.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: But again, that'll be up to our legislature. Hopefully they
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: will see the light and they will want to attract
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 2: more people. Again, going back to when I was a child,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: the Laffer curve. And if you've never seen the Laffer curve,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: you should look it up on YouTube. It's a very
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 2: interesting way of talking about if you were to tax
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: a population by 0%, you'd obviously get nothing. And if
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: you tax it by 100 percent, you'll obviously get nothing
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: because nobody would produce anything if they can't keep it.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: So then the question becomes, where is the sweet spot
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: to tax people in order to get the most? And interestingly,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: it goes against Democratic or Democrats principles. Typically, the lower
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: the tax goes, the more money comes into the coffers.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: They don't like to talk about that because they want
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: to create class envy. And if you can say we
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: got to Tax the rich to get your fair share
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: out of them. We've got to make sure that they
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: are feeling some of the burden that you're feeling. A
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: lot of people in the middle class and lower middle
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 2: class feel like that's a great message. Yes, they should
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: be strained too. Unfortunately, it tends to make the tax
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: into the coffers become less. So is the goal to
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: get more money for the government or is the goal
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: to just punish the rich? It's kind of like, do
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: I want to win the argument with my wife or
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: do I want to have a happy marriage? So Democrats
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 2: just want to win the argument. So we'll go ahead
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: and take that under assessment. But again, thank you for
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 2: the talk back. We love it when you guys chime
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: in on the show using that microphone on the I
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: Heart Radio app. We'll take a break and be back
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: with more.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 6: From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 6: Morning News.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 7: Brian from Sumter.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 5: Good.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: No, not military.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 6: My brother lived up here and Florida just got too expensive.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 3: South Florida is expensive, especially.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: In Miami and Broward. Well, yeah, if you're looking to
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 2: save money, Sumter would save you some money. Compared to
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: Broward County, I'm sure of that. So, well, welcome to
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: South Carolina, Brian. That's his second talk back in the
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: morning because we referenced him earlier talking about how he
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 2: has picked South Carolina. We're the fastest growing state as
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: far as just percentages go. And we've got two of
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: the fastest growing cities in America. One is Myrtle Beach,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: the other one. surprisingly, is Somerville. And we were talking
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: about how we establish cultures and those types of things.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: And one of the things that all South Carolinians have said,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: and I moved here in 2003. So 23, coming up
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 2: on 24 years ago, I moved here and they all
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: told me, well, don't bring your New York values here.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: And I was making the point, I escaped New York.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: I did not align with New York and their culture,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 2: which is why I wanted South Carolina. And I assimilated
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: very easily into the South Carolina culture. One of the
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: problems that not just the United States is having, but
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 2: we're seeing it play out in Europe, is that people
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: are not assimilating to the cultures of those countries. They
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: don't want Italy to be Italy. They don't want France
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: to be France. That's why you have the burnings under
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 2: the premises of we want better schools, and then we
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: go and burn down the schools. They're trying to overthrow
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 2: the culture, and the number one flag being waved is
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 2: the Palestinian flag. There is a genocide happening with Palestine,
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: but it's against the French culture at this point. We'll
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 2: see how that plays out. They're saying it's going to
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: be quiet for the rest of the week, but this
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: weekend should be ramping up again.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: And that's, as we mentioned yesterday, that's when there is
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 3: an NFL game scheduled to be staged there.
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 2: They probably aren't going to like that either.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 3: Probably not.
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming that the pro-Palestine movement, not a big fan
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: of the NFL. But who knows? Maybe they'll surprise us.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: And who's playing this weekend over there?
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 3: It's the Steelers and the Saints.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: Maybe we'll see some yellow towels flying as they're burning
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 2: the buildings. Let's see. By the way, early voting. We're
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: back today. That is yesterday. We had to thank you
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: to my friend Gruff, who listens to the show. He
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: was one of the first in line yesterday to vote.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: We had some great turnouts yesterday, about over about 6000
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: in Greenville by mid afternoon yesterday. We'll see how it
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: and that's the upstate. That's where we're expecting the Republicans
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 2: to to bank some votes. But two weeks from today
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: is when we figure it all out. In the meantime,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 2: have a great Tuesday. We'll talk to you tomorrow after six.