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Darline Graham-Nordone Wins in South Carolina · The M&M Experience

0:01
Speaker 1: We have agreed that Ralph has a solid conservative track record.
0:05
Speaker 1: And silly me, that led me to think, well, clearly
0:07
Speaker 1: South Carolina will look at this and he's going to win.
0:10
Speaker 1: And you said, you know, Lindsay's ghost and the Trump
0:14
Speaker 1: endorsement put it together and you saw it coming. I
0:18
Speaker 1: bow in your general direction.
0:21
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I had some fun with you last night.
0:24
Speaker 2: And of course, I'm glad you started with a little
0:26
Speaker 2: dolly because I am so sad about this. This is like,
0:30
Speaker 2: Just a gut punch for America. America loved her. Finally,
0:36
Speaker 2: there's an epic, massive event that people, I think, can
0:39
Speaker 2: be pretty unified about. She loved everybody and everybody loved her.
0:44
Speaker 2: And it's that simple. And so, you know, you have
0:47
Speaker 2: that happen. A lot of disappointed South Carolinians. We busted
0:52
Speaker 2: our butts to take the show to Rock Hill yesterday
0:55
Speaker 2: to interview Congressman Norman Williams. And, yeah, I mean, I
1:00
Speaker 2: had some fun with you last night on social media
1:02
Speaker 2: because you said, I'm very surprised at the outcome. And
1:06
Speaker 2: I posted, hey, if you'd listened to your podcast partner,
1:10
Speaker 2: you wouldn't have been surprised. You wouldn't have been. I
1:12
Speaker 2: tried to tell you it happened just the way I
1:14
Speaker 2: said it was going to happen. And that was that
1:17
Speaker 2: she'd win by probably a little wider of a margin
1:19
Speaker 2: than even the polls had anticipated. And look, let's just
1:23
Speaker 2: give some credit here politically where credit is due. Do
1:27
Speaker 2: not bet against President Trump and his team. They knew
1:32
Speaker 2: exactly what needed to be done. Because let me tell
1:35
Speaker 2: you how this played out. And I know South Carolina
1:37
Speaker 2: pretty well, spent a lot of years there. Here's what happened.
1:40
Speaker 2: Ralph actually overperformed in some of the counties where she
1:44
Speaker 2: won in the primary. He beat her in Anderson, in Oconee,
1:50
Speaker 2: and she had won originally. So he did better than
1:53
Speaker 2: expected where she trounced him and Myrtle Beach. Hmm, what
1:59
Speaker 2: happened in Myrtle Beach? Oh yeah, there was a Trump rally,
2:03
Speaker 2: and Horry County, and what they call the PD, that
2:07
Speaker 2: whole section of the state, came out for her in droves.
2:11
Speaker 2: Trump and his political team knew, we got to focus
2:16
Speaker 2: on Myrtle Beach. If we can get Myrtle Beach and
2:19
Speaker 2: Horry County to turn out in droves for her, she'll win,
2:23
Speaker 2: and that is precisely what Mark, don't bet against this guy.
2:30
Speaker 2: Don't ever count him out politically. And it's not just him.
2:35
Speaker 2: He's got one of the sharpest political teams in the world.
2:38
Speaker 2: You think about the surgical precision. Because it was all him.
2:42
Speaker 2: Let's be blunt here. Without his endorsement, Ralph wins. Period. Paragraph. Clearly.
2:50
Speaker 2: And without the strategic targeting of Horry County, the way
2:54
Speaker 2: the Trump machine did it, he doesn't lose. She can't win. So, look,
3:00
Speaker 2: in South Carolina, as in many places around the country,
3:03
Speaker 2: Trump tells you to go vote for somebody, they go
3:05
Speaker 2: vote for him. And in her case, I'm going to
3:09
Speaker 2: be generous here. I don't want to be bitter. She's
3:11
Speaker 2: a blank slate. We don't have any idea. As you
3:15
Speaker 2: put it, she's a nice lady whose brother died. Well,
3:19
Speaker 2: that's it. That's all it is. But Trump liked the
3:23
Speaker 2: nice lady whose brother died, and that's all that matters.
3:25
Speaker 1: And trusted her. And trusts her, present tense. trusts her
3:30
Speaker 1: to do well by him. So when will the real
3:34
Speaker 1: test be? Will it be when she is sworn in? Well,
3:36
Speaker 1: she's senator right now. She's sworn into the full term
3:40
Speaker 1: in January of next year. I think the real test
3:44
Speaker 1: is probably going to be January of 2029. Well, the
3:49
Speaker 1: test will be when Trump's not president anymore.
3:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the trust, yeah, perhaps, or it might
3:55
Speaker 2: be sooner than that. We're going to find out. There
3:57
Speaker 2: are other, there are people who are saying, you watch,
4:00
Speaker 2: she's going to go Lisa Murkowski 2.0. I don't know
4:03
Speaker 2: that that's true. She may not. I want to quote
4:06
Speaker 2: a great message from Adam Morgan. He's a big political
4:09
Speaker 2: pundit in South Carolina. I've met him a few times.
4:12
Speaker 2: Here's what he wrote. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed mostly at
4:16
Speaker 2: losing what could have been. Ralph Norman is the best
4:18
Speaker 2: of American politics, honest, principled, courageous, a true gentleman. But
4:23
Speaker 2: the people have spoken. Congratulations to Darlene Graham Nordone. I'm
4:28
Speaker 2: not going to just call her by her fake name.
4:30
Speaker 2: Time for us to unite behind her. Congress hangs in
4:33
Speaker 2: the balance. I appreciate many of the strong stances she's
4:37
Speaker 2: taking on the issues like immigration and And for all
4:40
Speaker 2: my critiques, Darlene is vastly superior to the radical leftist
4:45
Speaker 2: Democrat running. November is right around the corner. I'll be
4:49
Speaker 2: there voting for Darlene, and I hope you will, too. Onward. Now,
4:52
Speaker 2: Adam's message is really powerful. It's important. But it's also
4:55
Speaker 2: a bit of a heavy lift because there's a lot
4:57
Speaker 2: of disappointed people today, Mark. There's a lot of people
5:00
Speaker 2: who are going to say, I can't vote for her.
5:02
Speaker 2: I'm not going to vote for her. You can't hand
5:04
Speaker 2: the state over to Dr. Annie Andrews. You're out of
5:07
Speaker 2: your mind. And they'll find clarity. They will absolutely find clarity.
5:11
Speaker 1: What I noticed is from Ralph himself, I looked at
5:14
Speaker 1: a social media post of yours when you reported to
5:17
Speaker 1: us that Ralph had said, if I lose, I will
5:20
Speaker 1: back her.
5:21
Speaker 2: And he will.
5:22
Speaker 1: And listen, are there going to be some people who
5:24
Speaker 1: are butthurt and licking their wounds?
5:25
Speaker 2: Of course there are. There always are.
5:26
Speaker 1: But generally speaking, we instantly saw the South Carolina Republican
5:31
Speaker 1: power structure say, OK, that battle is done. Now it's
5:34
Speaker 1: time to unite and beat the Democrat. And I'll say
5:37
Speaker 1: once again, Texas should be so lucky.
5:40
Speaker 2: Oh, no kidding. And we're not. And we're not. I know.
5:44
Speaker 2: And it's infuriating. Which could put your seat in play.
5:47
Speaker 2: I don't know if Tallarico— I' m sick of these polls saying
5:50
Speaker 2: he's—it's still Texas, and it's still South Carolina, and we've
5:54
Speaker 2: got to have faith there. But this is what— you know,
5:58
Speaker 2: we've gone— you and I have gone through this for years.
6:01
Speaker 2: Do you debate— do you endorse, for example, a Republican in
6:04
Speaker 2: a primary or not? Do you stay out of it?
6:07
Speaker 2: Early on, I did. Now I don't. But because— but that's
6:10
Speaker 2: what primaries are for. Primaries and runoffs and special elections,
6:14
Speaker 2: that's the time to put your best foot forward and
6:17
Speaker 2: fight and fight and fight. Once it's over, now you've
6:21
Speaker 2: got to defeat the communists. I don't think that's a
6:23
Speaker 2: heavy lift in South Carolina to defeat the commie. I
6:28
Speaker 2: don't think it's hard to defeat a radical pediatrician. Go
6:34
Speaker 2: follow her track record on what she feels about those
6:36
Speaker 2: kinds of issues and what kids should be subjected to. So, look,
6:41
Speaker 2: that's not a heavy lift. It shouldn't be and it
6:44
Speaker 2: won't be. And doggone it, he fought the good fight.
6:47
Speaker 2: Ralph Norman, I echo Adam Morgan's comments. He is a gentleman.
6:51
Speaker 2: He is honest. He is principled. In talking to him
6:54
Speaker 2: yesterday in person, we had a great visit. And, Mark,
6:57
Speaker 2: you would have loved the environment I was in. I
6:59
Speaker 2: think I told you a little bit about it. WRHI.
7:03
Speaker 2: It's like what radio used to kind of be.
7:06
Speaker 1: Small-town grassroots radio plugged into the community. High school football
7:10
Speaker 1: on a Friday night.
7:10
Speaker 2: Handing out these beautiful booklets featuring all the merchants in
7:14
Speaker 2: Rock Hill. And it was such a neat— and it's a
7:17
Speaker 2: beautiful facility, and there's a ton of people there. I mean,
7:21
Speaker 2: you know, pull back the curtain. About 90% of radio
7:24
Speaker 2: stations these days are pretty empty. Because a lot of
7:27
Speaker 2: people decided COVID is going to be our ticket to
7:29
Speaker 2: working from home. We have people working from home. We
7:32
Speaker 2: got people phoning it in. We got people working from computers.
7:36
Speaker 2: And it didn't like that at that radio station. It
7:38
Speaker 2: was a joy to be there with all those people yesterday.
7:41
Speaker 2: And getting to spend some time one-on-one with Ralph, not
7:44
Speaker 2: only on the air but off the air. And he
7:47
Speaker 2: was genuinely perplexed by Trump's endorsement of Darlene.
7:51
Speaker 1: And because Darlene had her celebratory remarks and her I
7:55
Speaker 1: got to say some her remarks after her victory were
7:57
Speaker 1: pretty good. I mean, I didn't expect her to stumble through.
8:00
Speaker 1: I mean, she is capable of poise. But Ralph, in
8:04
Speaker 1: his remarks, I'll play them once we get past that.
8:06
Speaker 1: I bet you will, too, once you get deeper into
8:08
Speaker 1: our respective shows. He shared some of that bewilderment in
8:12
Speaker 1: his public comments at his concession speech saying, I don't
8:16
Speaker 1: know why he got involved in this race.
8:18
Speaker 2: It's like, well, OK. He made a very interesting observation
8:22
Speaker 2: off air to me that I don't mind sharing. This
8:25
Speaker 2: is kind of juicy because I think this is fascinating.
8:28
Speaker 2: When you think about the human condition, you hear about
8:30
Speaker 2: the thing about the human psyche, right? The argument has
8:33
Speaker 2: always been, you and I both said it, well, Trump
8:35
Speaker 2: loved Lindsay. That's how he was. He loved Lindsay and
8:38
Speaker 2: that's all it took. As Ralph pointed out, do you
8:42
Speaker 2: think Trump is really a touchy, feely, warm, fuzzy guy
8:47
Speaker 2: like that? He's not really. He's more transactional. That's the word.
8:54
Speaker 2: And so there's a reason for his support of her.
8:58
Speaker 2: And I think Ralph, now look, Ralph's More plugged into
9:01
Speaker 2: it in South Carolina than you and I. I think
9:04
Speaker 2: Ralph is on to something. It's deeper than just loving Lindsay.
9:08
Speaker 2: That wouldn't be enough on its own. Now, what that is, Mark,
9:11
Speaker 2: I can't tell you. If that's just an expectation that
9:15
Speaker 2: she's just going to do everything he expects her to do.
9:19
Speaker 2: which might be all it is. And Ralph's a little
9:21
Speaker 2: bit of a renegade. He didn't really know. Well, he has.
9:24
Speaker 1: I mean, he endorsed Nikki Haley, which did not go
9:29
Speaker 1: over well. He also was a momentary principled obstructionist. on
9:35
Speaker 1: the big, beautiful bill, because he didn't think it had
9:38
Speaker 1: enough spending cuts in it.
9:39
Speaker 2: He didn't. It was kind of a.
9:40
Speaker 1: Rand Paul move, which I always have some respect for,
9:43
Speaker 1: that it didn't go far enough. So it was kind
9:46
Speaker 1: of like kind of a Chip Roy kind of move.
9:49
Speaker 2: And then he ultimately came around.
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Speaker 1: Transactional loyalty, rather than a personal touchy feely, let's hug
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Speaker 1: it out. The if if president the transactional loyalty from
10:03
Speaker 1: rick perry who wound up in the cabinet from marco
10:05
Speaker 1: rubio who's you know maybe one of the best secretaries
10:07
Speaker 1: of state we ever had lindsey himself who was a
10:09
Speaker 1: critic turned into an ally it is a president trump
10:14
Speaker 1: donald trump the private sector donald trump showed a loyalty
10:18
Speaker 1: in the business realm to people whom he could engage
10:21
Speaker 1: in symbiotic relationships with that benefited all sides. Ditto with politics.
10:26
Speaker 1: It's not because he kind of loves you in a
10:28
Speaker 1: let's have you over for Christmas kind of way, but
10:30
Speaker 1: he loves, and I do mean loves, the partnerships that
10:35
Speaker 1: can make America better. And if he thinks he can
10:37
Speaker 1: partner with you to make America better, you've got a
10:40
Speaker 1: political friend for life.
10:41
Speaker 2: Amen. Well put. All right, let's close out by Dolly.
10:45
Speaker 2: You know, I've loved learning even more than I thought
10:48
Speaker 2: I ever knew about her in the last 12 hours
10:51
Speaker 2: or so how she recognized before she became famous. that
10:56
Speaker 2: she was going to be famous. And it's, of course,
10:58
Speaker 2: legendary that she grew up one of like 12 kids
11:01
Speaker 2: in the Great Smoky Mountains, very poor, dirt poor. But
11:05
Speaker 2: she knew when she was starting to break through that
11:08
Speaker 2: she was going to be famous. And, of course, her
11:11
Speaker 2: famous love story with Carl Dean, she was with him
11:13
Speaker 2: for 60, almost 60 years. He hated the limelight. He
11:17
Speaker 2: never went to anything with her. You wouldn't have known
11:19
Speaker 2: him if you were standing here. He was the most
11:21
Speaker 2: invisible and happy, and he was her rock star. She
11:25
Speaker 2: went home to him every night, and when she came
11:29
Speaker 2: off the tour, her life resumed in normalcy with Carl Dean.
11:33
Speaker 2: But I love this part of this little thing that
11:35
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw or not. She saw
11:37
Speaker 2: that she was going to— she felt she was going to
11:39
Speaker 2: be famous. And so they bought acres of land in Franklin, Tennessee,
11:44
Speaker 2: which is where she's lived her whole adult life. That's
11:47
Speaker 2: the same place she's lived in for decades. No New York.
11:49
Speaker 1: No Hollywood.
11:50
Speaker 2: Nope. Tennessee. But she said, Carl, I'm going to be famous—
11:54
Speaker 2: And when the tour buses start coming up to our house,
11:58
Speaker 2: we want property with a gate. That's going to be
12:01
Speaker 2: the house can be far enough back that they can
12:02
Speaker 2: see the house, but they can't really see us. And
12:05
Speaker 2: that's what they did. And they did that like a
12:08
Speaker 2: hundred years ago. They did it before she became famous.
12:10
Speaker 2: And sure enough, She became this superstar, beloved, and the
12:14
Speaker 2: tour buses do come by, and they do see her
12:16
Speaker 2: stop at the gate, but they can't see them, but
12:18
Speaker 2: they can see the house, which is just the way
12:21
Speaker 2: she wanted it. Look, I just keep hearing that phrase,
12:24
Speaker 2: I will always love you, that huge, massive hit that
12:27
Speaker 2: she got real rich off of, thanks to Whitney. Sure did.
12:30
Speaker 2: And she wrote it.
12:31
Speaker 1: A song that was not about any personal love story
12:35
Speaker 1: at all. It was about Porter Wagoner.
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Speaker 2: That's right.
12:38
Speaker 1: When I say Porter made her a star, not really.
12:40
Speaker 1: He was a big deal. She made herself a star.
12:42
Speaker 1: But she was a girl. She was a 20-year-old girl
12:45
Speaker 1: in country, which is not the most woman-friendly environment in 1970.
12:50
Speaker 1: And she just began to outshine Porter, which Porter didn't like.
12:54
Speaker 1: They wound up in court. They wound up making nice.
12:57
Speaker 1: But she was so appreciative of all that Porter had
13:00
Speaker 1: meant to her. I Will Always Love You is about
13:03
Speaker 1: the professional stewardship. that he offered her in helping her
13:06
Speaker 1: achieve this amazing, amazing stardom.
13:09
Speaker 2: I saw a statistic this morning that she was a billionaire.
13:12
Speaker 2: She would have been a billionaire, but she never was
13:14
Speaker 2: because she gave away more than half of her fortune.
13:17
Speaker 2: So much.
13:17
Speaker 1: That library, that imagination library, and the fires and floods
13:21
Speaker 1: in Tennessee.
13:22
Speaker 2: Wow.
13:22
Speaker 1: A giving heart.
13:25
Speaker 2: I've donated to her foundation for about 10 years. I've
13:30
Speaker 2: always loved to support that library project she's got. Hundreds
13:35
Speaker 2: of millions of books provided to kids, many of whom
13:38
Speaker 2: are in the inner city, many of kids who never
13:41
Speaker 2: would have had a chance to do that. So God
13:43
Speaker 2: bless her. And again, I just keep thinking of that phrase.
13:47
Speaker 2: She loved everybody. And everybody loved her. Just an icon,
13:51
Speaker 2: a legend, and she's going to be missed. But, of course,
13:54
Speaker 2: her music and her legacy and her philanthropy will live
13:57
Speaker 2: on forever. So God bless you. Happy Wednesday, my friend.
14:01
Speaker 2: And I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about on
14:03
Speaker 2: the podcast.
14:04
Speaker 1: Some more Darlene, some more Dolly.