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Show Rewind 9-24-26 · South Carolina's Morning News

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Boy, oh boy, we got a lot to get to today.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Christopher Thompson, are you up for it?
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: I'm rolling.
• 0:08
  Speaker 4: I'm ready.
• 0:09
  Speaker 5: Let's get after it.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: We're going to set the table right now. The table
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: is being, this is kind of like Thanksgiving when they
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: bring out all the stuffing.
• 0:18
  Speaker 5: Do you call it stuffing or dressing at your house?
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: Dressing.
• 0:20
  Speaker 5: Dressing. Yes. The turkey.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: Well, I call it dressing. The wife who's from the
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: north calls it stuffing.
• 0:26
  Speaker 5: Oh, I didn't know your wife was a northerner.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Yes, she is.
• 0:29
  Speaker 5: How long has she been down here?
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: A while, since the 80s.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: It's one of those things where I guess where you're
• 0:35
  Speaker 5: raised is how you say it.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: I think so.
• 0:37
  Speaker 5: Is it a pecan pie or a pecan pie?
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: And by the way, I've never heard anybody call it
• 0:43
  Speaker 5: a tomato.
• 0:44
  Speaker 6: No.
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: You say tomato, I say tomato. Who the hell is
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: saying tomato? Nobody.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: Or a potato, for that matter.
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: Or a potato. Another fine example, Christopher.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It's 6.03, and looking locally, some of the stuff that
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: we can get into, we just heard that at the
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: news break there. Charleston pledges changes after the controversial historic
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: church demolition. We mentioned it near the end of the
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: show yesterday is when we were first getting the reports,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: but maybe we'll go back and do a little bit
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: of a deeper.
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: Dive on South Carolina's infrastructure.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: The grade has risen to a C-, which still doesn't
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: seem that good.
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: Um, is there more to the story out of.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Clemson where the chief financial officer is now departing for, uh, Vanderbilt? The,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: you know, the Clemson, we haven't, we haven't really spoke
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: a lot about the Clemson fiscal challenges, but they have got,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: they've got quite the debt issue going on at Clemson.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Well, they've, they've had a rotating chair of leadership up
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: there too.
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: Yes. Yes.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: So there's, there's some, there's, it's something just doesn't feel
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: right with the Clemson finances right now. And maybe we'll
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: take a little look at that, uh, later on if
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: you're up for it. Also, uh, we've got the military
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: commanders briefing McMaster on housing, childcare and growth. And then
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: finally the South Carolina arts commission is moving the LGBTQ
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: plus funding vote up two weeks. This is, uh, We
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: were talking about this, was it last week or was
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: it earlier this week, about the Greenville Gay Men's Chorus
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: and Spartanburg's Proud Mary Theater?
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: I think that was last week.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: And so they.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Want to get this vote done sooner rather than later,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: as they are, according to them, the 180 groups required
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: to reprove the artistic merit after earlier concerns tied to
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: ideology and a Trump executive order. It would seem pretty
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: clear that this is an ideology. This is not just
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: based off artistic merit. If you were just a chorus group,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: you wouldn't identify as a gay chorus group.
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: If you're just doing it on the merits, right?
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Like you wouldn't say I'm the bald-headed chorus group unless
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: you were promoting bald-headedness.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: Either way, but there's a lot there. And then, of course,
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: looking at.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: The national stuff, we got the– a Trump appointed judge
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: going against Trump yesterday. That's, I don't know if that's surprising,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: but then also you had the historic moment.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: The Chi is now in left China and is in DC.
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: How's that going?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: More fallout from the UN speech from, I guess that's,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: that feels like ancient history, the UN speech now, but
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: that's two days ago. So people can, can chime in
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: on those things and more, but, And our favorite part
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: is when you chime in as well. And if you're
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: new to the show, it's so easy to do. If
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: you just listen to the iHeartRadio app, you can still
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: listen on AM or FM, depending on where you are.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Here in Columbia, we're still available on AM 560, obviously,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: and FM 103.5. If you're down in the low country,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: it's just on the FM 94.3 WSC. But anywhere in
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: the world, you can listen on the iHeartRadio app, which
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: is a free app to download. And once you have it,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And you're listening to whatever station you're listening to, whether
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: you're listening to one of our news talk stations or
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: one of your favorite music stations. If you'd like to
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: leave a message for the host, you just push that
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: button right there that's a microphone, and you get up
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: to 30 seconds to say what you'd like to say. Now,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: for us, we'd prefer it if you tell us your
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: name and your town, but you don't have to. It's
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: not going to keep you off the air per se.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: If you don't give us that, it just makes it
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: more fun to know where people are listening and what
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: your name is so we can respond to you accordingly.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: The table has been set. Lots to get to this morning.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: What will we dive into next?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: I'll figure it out in the commercials.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: It is 6.07.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: Hi there and welcome to it.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: This is Kelly Nash and Christopher Thompson. Christopher, I was
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: listening yesterday to the Clay and Buck show and they
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: talked about a story.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: Out of Greenfield, Massachusetts.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Now, I actually know where Greenfield is, and it is
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: not a big city. But that doesn't mean that they
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: don't have lesbians, and that doesn't mean that they don't
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: have a lesbian bar. And the lesbian bar was called
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue. Now, here we
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: are in September of 2026, and they are going out
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: of business. Because they had made a decision that due
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: to declining sales and declining attendance, perhaps we could finally
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: say one night a week. Not every night, of course.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: We're not going to get crazy. But if just one
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: night a week, we said you don't have to wear
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: a mask here.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: They were catering to immunocompromised lesbians. Is that a huge population?
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: In Greenfield, Massachusetts, that I'm unaware of?
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: It's not a huge population in New York City, never
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: mind Greenfield, Massachusetts.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, I understand carving a niche if you're a
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: business and trying to be something that everyone else is not,
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: but that doesn't make any sense if you're trying to
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: make a profit.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: If you're on the left, this is what has become
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: normal to you. So it was mandatory to enter this bar.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: They started it, obviously, back in 2020, I guess the
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: end of 2020. You had to wear an N95 mask.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: You couldn't wear a regular mask like we all, you know,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: laughed at. You had to go and get the big
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: dollar N95 mask or you were not coming in. Now,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: so they've been carrying this on now for six years. Now,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: don't tell me that the left is the tolerant crew
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: because as the first comment when they made their announcement
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: that we're going to try this one night, it'll be
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: one Saturday.
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: You can come in without a mask.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Quote, I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: fellow immunocompromised people of our Saturday plans to scrape some
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: extra revenue.
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: Wow. I hope you're firebombed? Another one.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: People like you kill disabled people in the name of
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: your own leisure and convenience.
• 7:28
  Speaker 7: Another.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Just say you're being complicit in a mass disabling event
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and get over with it. When y'all closed, let the
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: record state it was ableism and complying in advance because
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: that's what this is. Does COVID not disable people on
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Saturday nights? Saturday nights added another who had a picture
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: of himself wearing his mask alone in his home. There
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: is some sort of mass delusion that has happened to
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: the people on the left that has made them feel
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: as if they're fighting for justice. When in reality, they're
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: just fighting for insanity, lunacy. This idea that the world
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: must be masked up or we're going to kill tens
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: of thousands if not. It's almost as if they're looking
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: at this like it's a holocaustic event.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: This bar had catered to them for years beyond the standard.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: And suddenly they decide, all right, we've got to start
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: making some more money. Otherwise, we're going to go out
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: of business. And one night a week.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Somebody named Jackie Metellin is the owner involved in daily operations,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: says she's been living in her truck for the past
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: six months and working for other jobs while trying to
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: carry a $ 50, 000 loan to keep this open. She felt
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: as if this was, again, when you make a bar
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: or any kind of like fun thing, you're This is
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: my purpose in life. She felt like she was doing
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: a civic duty by having a bar open specifically for
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: immunocompromised lesbians in Greenfield, Massachusetts. That was her, like, you know,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: this is me doing charity work. She's the Mother Teresa
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: of immunocompromised lesbians in Greenfield. And for all of her efforts...
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: They want her dead. Their death threats are pouring in
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: now for this poor woman who is poor for a
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: number of reasons. One, her own community hates her. Two,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: she's delusional.
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: Three, she's got a bad business plan.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: A horrific business plan that no small business administration. What's
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: her name?
• 9:45
  Speaker 8: Kelly.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: What's her name from Atlanta? The lady, Kelly Loeffler. Kelly
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Loeffler would tell you to rewrite this business plan. If
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you want it alone from the SBA, but that's– again,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: this is just to show the stark difference between the
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: left and reality. They're not even in reality anymore. At
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: least they used to live in reality, but we've lost
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the left. So pray for the left. Maybe we can
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: get some of them sane again. We'll take a quick break.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: If you've got thoughts on that story or others, let
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: us know on the Talkback feature. It's 617.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: AM WVOC, and 94.3 WSC.
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: Good morning.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Does not feel like beach weather anymore. I'm wearing like
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: a little sweater today. My goodness. A little chilly in
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: South Carolina. I believe the reporter's name is Jane Carolyn Fusco.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Works at ABC News 4. Headline, Beach Reach Ridership grows 20%,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: but expanded service came with added costs. We're talking about
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Isle of Palms, and they've got the Carta Free Beach
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Reach Shuttle. And they, you know, on the good news,
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: they're six year high ridership this year, but it does
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: come with a little extra cost.
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: They added another day.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: And for the first time ever, they've expanded the shuttle
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: from Saturdays and Sundays. They now include Fridays as well.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: That was another $ 16, 000. The entire beach reach program comes to.
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: $ 58, 000.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: And then the question basically, was it worth it? Does
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: it what did it make difference? Well, I guess this
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: summer we had a grand total of nine hundred and
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: eighty eight people ride the free shuttle. So was that
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: worth it? And as the reporter points out here, it
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: actually started off pretty strong, but it certainly waned in August.
• 11:45
  Speaker 9: This year was the busiest season yet.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: It's not just about IOP. Yeah, it's great that we're
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: taking that's the mayor road. But it's really about.
• 11:54
  Speaker 10: Just trying to make sure the low country has an
• 11:55
  Speaker 10: access point to the beach.
• 11:57
  Speaker 9: But that growth wasn't consistent all summer. Ridership climbed in
• 12:01
  Speaker 9: June and July, then fell compared to last year in August.
• 12:05
  Speaker 9: Carta Chairman Mike Seekings thinks bad weather is to blame.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: August got off to a slow start, so the rain
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: does affect it. Obviously, if you look at rain overlays
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: on a beach reach, the numbers.
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: Are much smaller.
• 12:16
  Speaker 9: But weather data shows August actually ran below normal for
• 12:20
  Speaker 9: rainfall through most of the month.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: Whoops. I mean, this is crazy.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: So, again, you heard the mayor say he thought it
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: was important to get cars off the road.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: And there's also a tremendous parking issue over there.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I'm going to just make a blanket statement. And whenever
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: you make a blanket statement, you get in trouble. So
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: I am about to get in trouble. Americans do not
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: want to ride buses. Americans are freedom-loving people who want
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: the autonomy to come and go as they please. If
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: you're taking a bus, obviously you have to arrange your
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: thing around a bus schedule.
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: Who is this person?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: News 4 asked Pounds and Seekings whether serving less than 1,000
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: people a year justifies the investment. Quote, it's worth it
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: to build community. I'm not building community with fellow bus riders, Christopher.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: I'm just being honest. And I don't think most Americans are.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: Do you?
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: What are you taking to the beach, by the way?
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: I guess not much because you can't lug it onto
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: that bus.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Exactly. You can take certain things. But if, for example,
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: if you want a tent or if you're planning to surf,
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: can't do that. So, yeah, it limits you a little bit, too.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: And then they go on to say, and we just
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: did a story, if you missed it, hysterical. about Massachusetts
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: and their problem with the immunocompromised lesbian bar, this is
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: the quote here, quote, it's important that we can make
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: reaching the beach easier for people with disabilities. Again, this
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: is another example of where, and I don't know these people,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know if they ran as Republicans or Democrats
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: or whatever, non-committed to a party, but when you start
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: trying to hyper focus on how we can make life
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: better for a very small group of people at the
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: expense of the majority, that's, that's when life quality starts
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: dropping for everybody because you're now on the, this is
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: the type of thing that slides into no cars because
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: it's kind of like school lunches. We have many, not,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I don't think in South Carolina, thankfully, but across the
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: country you're seeing many school districts say no more lunch
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: for you. Meaning you can't bring your own lunch because
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: it makes other people feel bad that you have some
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: great looking pub sub as opposed to the slop that
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: we're serving. So no, you're not going to be able
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: to drive your car to the beach. We are going
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: to force everybody onto a thing because what about the, the, the,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: the people who can't get to the beach or they
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: don't have a car and now they feel bad and no,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: you go to get in line as well.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: I hate these types of policies. I, it, I mean,
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: it came from a good idea because between traffic and parking,
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: it can be a nightmare to get to certain places
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: like the Isle of Palms, for example, especially on a weekend,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: on a busy weekend where the sun is out. But
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: obviously Charleston's not buying in. So why keep spending the money? Well, there's,
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: you're not going to have, tourists aren't going to take
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: advantage of this. This is for residents.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. 60, you're six years into it. This year's cost
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: was what?
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: $ 58, 000.
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: And you served 980 people or so. So I don't know.
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: What do you think in the low country? Are you
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: excited about this?
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe you're one of those freedom-loving Republicans who are like,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: hell no, I love taking this free bus.
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: This is fantastic. I'm a conservative.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: I want to save money, and this is a great
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: way to save money. I'd love to hear your opinions
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: on these things. Go ahead and let us know on
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: the Talk Back feature. We'll be back in a second.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: It's 629.
• 15:52
  Speaker 7: From the Midlands to the low country, this is South
• 15:55
  Speaker 7: Carolina's Morning News.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: All right, I think we got this report late in
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: the show yesterday, but the infrastructure of South Carolina has
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: been rated.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: A C-, which, believe it or not, is an improvement.
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: We had been a D +.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: So we're moving in the right direction, according to the
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: American Society of Civil Engineers, and they're looking at everything
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: from our drinking water to our wastewater to our roads
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: to our bridges and dams, all things in between. Um,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: according to Senator Josh Kimbrell, Republican Spartanburg, he believes that
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: our recently enacted SEDOT modernization act will help us accelerate
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: the road projects and improve efficiency. I think the main thing,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: if I remember in that bill was that we are
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: going to eliminate the, what is it like a nine
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: person or so DOT commission that we've had and just
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: go to a transportation secretary basically.
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: And that person will be, you're in charge of everything.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: And that person's appointed by the governor, right?
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: And, uh, I like that. I like, I like it
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: when you can, when you.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Know who's in charge, there's accountability.
• 17:05
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: And so like, I think it was Josh or maybe
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: somebody else said when everybody's in charge, there's nobody in charge.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: You have all these people. So how do I affect you?
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: If I'm a, citizen in South Carolina, which I am.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: And I don't like the way things are going. Who
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: do I complain to? Well, you had a nine person commission.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I got to talk to all nine of them. Each
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: with competing interests.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: So I think that that's part of, has been part
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: of the problem. I'll also say that the state has
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: really done a poor job, it appears, of investing in
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: what we already had, maintaining it. So according to the, again,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: this is from the Federal American Society of Civil Engineers.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: When they look at South Carolina, they estimate South Carolina
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: faces a $ 20 billion road funding shortfall over the next
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: 20 years. In other words, it's a billion dollars a year.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: I would say it's probably a little less in the beginning.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: And then just looking at the way our tax structure is,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: it would accelerate the further out we go. But again,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: $ 20 billion over the next 20 years. Engineers say that
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: without the sustained investment, much of the state's road network
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: will continue to deteriorate. Now, when you look at our bridges,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: that has always been a problem for South Carolina. Well,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: not always, but always in my lifetime, we've had a
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: problem with bridge safety. Uh, currently 34.5% of the bridges
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: in South Carolina are considered in good condition. That's alarming
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: because that means the rest are not in good condition. So,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: and I remember when they came out with a list
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: of like the hundred worst bridges in South Carolina, one
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: of them, it was like not even a mile from
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: our radio station. And I was like, crap, I drive
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: on that one all the time.
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: And it's like literally tens of thousands of vehicles every
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: week go over that bridge. Now, I think that is
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: one of the ones that's going to get fixed with
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: this malfunction junction, aka the Carolina Crossroads project that we're
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: working on, so that's good news for us. But we
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: have a lot of issues, including the drinking water. Our
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: drinking water, we had like an F on that.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: Didn't we?
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: We were in a horrible condition, although I know that
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: the upstate prides themselves. They do have the cleanest Drinking
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: water apparently is in the upstate of South Carolina, but
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: the rest of us are suffering. Wastewater is running amok
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: in our state. And so when we start talking about
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: all these surpluses that we have, which every year, they
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: always talk about the surpluses and what we can do
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: with the surpluses. One of the things you need to
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: be thinking about is how are we reinvesting in the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: state currently? It is growing, but it's not going to
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: continue to grow if people start coming here and the
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: roads are falling apart or the drinking water is.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: is rated Flint.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: Or they're afraid to drive over a bridge.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: We did have a bridge collapse, was it like three
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: or four years ago, up in the Clemson area and
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: it killed somebody.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: And I.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Remember us talking about it on the radio and thinking, well,
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: now will we see some investments?
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: Nope, wasn't a big enough accident.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: So until you apparently have a major tragedy, we are
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: going to continue to, well, I shouldn't say we're going
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: to continue. As Kimbrell points out, we do have an
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: SCDOT Modernization Act that's passed. And so we are making
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: some efforts. So South Carolina is leaning into it. But
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: one of the main concerns for all South Carolinians should
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: be your infrastructure and how it's not really up to
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: snuff right now. If you've got examples of that in
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: your life, or if you have, maybe some insights on this.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: We'd love to hear what you're thinking about on that
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: and other topics by using the talk back feature at
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: six 39.
• 20:44
  Speaker 7: This is South Carolina's morning news on one Oh three,
• 20:48
  Speaker 7: five FM and five 60 AM WVOC Columbia and 94,
• 20:54
  Speaker 7: three WSC Charleston.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Hi there, Kelly Nash with Christopher Thompson. We were talking
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: earlier about the bus system that they set up down in, uh,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: for the Isle of Palms, where it was free buses.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: And they've been doing this now for six years. And
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: I think it was Channel 4 had the story about
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: this and talking about, you know, it's like almost $ 60, 000
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: a summer now, and you've served 980 some odd people,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: didn't even get to 1,000, who took you up on
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: your free bus rides. And that was on for Friday, Saturday,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: and Sunday. Part of the excuse that one of the
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: guys gave was, well, You know, you got rain in August.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: That's why it dropped off.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: And then the reporter pointed out, actually, it was one
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: of the lowest rainfalls in history for August. So that
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: can't be the reason. I just don't think that Americans
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: really want to use bus service. And again, I'm coming
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: from the Northeast. That's where I lived. I lived in Manhattan.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: I took buses every now and again. I loved the subway.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: That served a great purpose. But I just don't think
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: in most parts of the country this is what most
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Americans are going to do, even if it's free and
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: makes a lot of sense.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: But, Christopher, you say we have a talkback on it.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Morning, guys.
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: I really think you'd be better off to pay for
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: an Uber for somebody to go back and forth to
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: the beach because if you do the math, that's a
• 22:12
  Speaker 6: pretty expensive ride to the beach.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: $ 60, 000, yeah, it's pretty expensive. I don't know what an
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: Uber would run.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: But maybe have some sort of, maybe a smaller bus?
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of ways to make this work.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Because they want to help out the people, they say,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: that are disabled. And they also want to help the
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: people that don't have cars get to the beach. And again,
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: this is just the largesse of, I think, our government.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I think the original intent was also
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: to keep more cars. I mean, there's a traffic jam.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: You try to go to the beach on a weekend.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: The Isle of Palms, both bridges... There's parking issues. They
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: were just trying to alleviate some of the issues they
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: have over there during crowded weekends.
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: Well, let's just take a look at that and think
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: about it.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: If you're spending $ 60, 000 a year and you're at six
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: years into it now, so we're $ 360, 000 into this adventure.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Could we have built a parking lot that would have
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: done the job? Where are you going to build that
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: parking lot?
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: I built it four blocks off the beach.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, like the last time I went to the
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Isle of Palms, I was hosting an event at, oh,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: what's the name of that place?
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: The bar.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: The Windjammer.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: The Windjammer.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: And there were some places where they had just torn
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: down some things. It was absolutely empty. The city could
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: have bought that and built a five-story garage there. And
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: you could park, you know, three, 400 cars there if
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: you'd like. And then people have to walk. Are you
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: up for walking three or four blocks to the beach?
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I think I would rather take a four-block walk lugging
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: all my crap in a buggy than have to get
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: onto a bus with limited amounts of stuff that you
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: can bring because, as you pointed out, you're not bringing
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: in umbrellas and those types of things. So you're going
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: to have to figure that out when you get there.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying I have the answer.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: By the way, talking about pavement, what is the road
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: to hell paved with? Good intentions.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: So just because you have great intentions, you have to
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: think about what is it going to cost and is
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: it going to be effective.
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: Live from the state capitol, this is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: How many handicapped people are getting on a bus?
• 24:25
  Speaker 10: I haven't been on a bus in years, but.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: I think there's steps to get on the bus. And
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: $ 58 a person to ride.
• 24:34
  Speaker 12: Beach.
• 24:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 24:36
  Speaker 13: That seems a little bit excessive.
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: I'll take my car.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Talking about still the, uh, the, the move to offer
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: free bus service to the beach at the Isle of Palms.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: And it came out to 60 grand for 988 riders.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: And one of the main things was to make sure
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: that handicapped people have access to the beach is what the, uh,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: I think it was the mayor said that, but you know, I,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: I haven't been on a bus in years either. Um,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I do remember them having steps, but I think maybe
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: the back side door might have an elevator lift of
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: some kind, Christopher?
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: I think so, yeah. They're handicap equipped.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: They're handicap equipped. Could we send a van for less
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: than $ 60, 000?
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: Possibly.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: There's money to be saved here.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: There's definitely money to be saved, but they are trying
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: to manipulate your behaviors. They want you to ride the bus.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: That's what they're trying to do. Anyway, it is 6.55
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: back in a moment.
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: This is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: 7.03, and yesterday, I don't imagine many of you were
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: watching the Morning Schmo Show on MSNOW.
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: I wasn't either.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: The what?
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: The Morning Schmo Show.
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: I'm not familiar with that one.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: Oh, he's the Schmo. What's his name?
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Joe Scarborough?
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Schmo Scarborough. All right.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: So the morning Schmo show yesterday morning had James Tallarico on.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know why Schmo was not interviewing him personally.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Maybe it was he only, I guess, talks to major
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: elected officials and world leaders. So they turned that interview
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: over to Willie Geist. And Willie Geist was talking to
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: James Tallarico. And James Tallarico. I mean, look, you got
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: to golf clap because in 30 seconds, he's going to
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: rattle off like multiple what we'll call mistruths, misnomers, misleading
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: statements in just 30 seconds.
• 26:33
  Speaker 10: A few months ago, I rolled out a common sense
• 26:36
  Speaker 10: border security agenda, and it was endorsed by Democratic and
• 26:40
  Speaker 10: Republican law enforcement officials. along our southern border. We need
• 26:44
  Speaker 10: more Border Patrol agents. We need more immigration judges. We
• 26:47
  Speaker 10: need to modernize our ports of entry to detect illicit
• 26:51
  Speaker 10: substances like fentanyl. And we need to make sure that
• 26:54
  Speaker 10: we overhaul this entire system, including the asylum system. We
• 26:58
  Speaker 10: deserve to know who's coming into our country. We deserve
• 27:01
  Speaker 10: a safe, orderly process that ensures public safety. That is
• 27:05
  Speaker 10: not mutually exclusive with the goal of preventing our neighbors
• 27:09
  Speaker 10: from being shot in the back on our streets.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Up until the point where he was talking about getting
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: shot in the back, the neighbors, by ICE. He almost
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: sounded like Donald Trump. He sounded like he had changed parties.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: He does.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: And I would love to see this plan that he
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: rolled out. Oh, thankfully, there it is. It doesn't talk
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: about any of that crap. And is it endorsed by Republicans? Well,
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: I guess I'm assuming, you know, he didn't lie when
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: he said multiple Republicans.
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: Because there's a grand total of two.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Two.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: In Texas.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: There's two Republicans who agreed with James Tallarico. They didn't
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: necessarily endorse the plan, but they agreed with the point
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: that Tallarico makes that you don't need the quote unquote, big,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: beautiful wall in certain parts of Texas because you have
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: natural deterrence is what they would call it.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: So, okay.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: That, that is a point that would have been a very, uh,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: and I'm sure it was a robust argument back in
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: 2025 because now, uh, the money's already been allocated in
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: the big, beautiful bill. So, and as we were, we
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: learned a valuable lesson in 2025, that if it's been allocated,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: you cannot get it back. Once the government has said,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: because that's what the whole Doge thing was about.
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: We're going to stop funding this.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: This money is going to, Maybe James Tallarico's favorite drag queen.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: But it was a drag queen convention happening down in
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Colombia that we had to continue to fund.
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: You had to. It's constitutional.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: It would be unconstitutional to stop spending money once it's
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: been approved by Congress. And so once it goes in,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: you can't get it back. That's the law that you created.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: So James Tallarico, that money is going to be spent.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: We're going to build that big, beautiful wall, even in
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: areas where you don't want that big, beautiful wall. As
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: far as calling for extra agents, that's not in your plan.
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: That's a lie.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: He goes on and on, mentions all these different lies.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: He doesn't care about fentanyl and all that. That's not
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: mentioned in the plan. I was surprised that he did
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: mention that we deserve to know who's coming across our
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: border because that's the complete opposite end of where he
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: was and where his party is because there are no illegals.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: How could a human being be illegal? It's impossible. They're human,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: so they're welcome here. And all humans are welcome, according
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: to the Democrat Party. There is no illegals.
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: So that's a little bit. But you know what? Remember
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: what has passed.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Said.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Tallarico's pastor came out a couple of weeks ago and said,
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: he's saying some things to be elected. Just let him
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: say these things. That's not who he really is. That's
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: pretty bad when your pastor says that you're lying. And
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: the pastor's saying, let him lie. Can you imagine your
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: pastor saying, look, Christopher's going to lie about the Gamecocks
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: sports scores. He's going to say that the Gamecocks won
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: every game this year, but let him lie.
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: He knows the truth.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: He's just not going to say it because he's trying
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: to win listeners over or something to that effect. Anyway, yeah,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: and then the point that really gets my gall up
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: is he's saying that on Wednesday morning. Monday night is
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: when the Austin Police Department released the body cam footage
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: the security footage so we now know exactly what happened
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: with that illegal alien one the guy who was shot
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: in the back knew he wasn't supposed to be in
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: the country because he'd already been contacted by ice last
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: year his lawyer lied when they said he had a
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: work permit he did have a work permit and It
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: expired in 2025. He was then called to court and said,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: why should you still be allowed to be left in
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: the country? He didn't show. A final order of deportation
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: was then issued against him. ICE contacted him and said,
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: you're going to be deported. It would be in your
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: best interest to leave the country now on your own
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: because then you could come back.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: You could even get paid to go away and then
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: come back. He didn't take him up on that offer.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: He loved his Uber Eats delivery job. He was going
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: to continue doing his Uber Eats delivery job. They said, okay,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: we're targeting him now. And they decided to go after him.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: He said, I didn't know who these vehicles were. Once
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: the Austin Police Department put out that footage, you could
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: see they were all sirens. There was like five of
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: them involved. They all had sirens. So he knew exactly
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: what was happening. He was being chased by law enforcement.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: He tried to outrun them. He put people's lives at risk.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: And then he was finally ultimately stopped by the vehicle
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: ramming into him. At that point, he continued to resist,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: which ended up with him being shot. Thankfully, nothing bad
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: is happening as far as no permanent damage, according to
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: the doctors.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: That's not what his lawyer said, though.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: His lawyer then put out a thing that said it
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: looks like he's going to be paralyzed on the left
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: side of his body down. So that's what Tallarico and
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: those crew was running with. Lies, lies, lies. And why
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: would you bring that story up two days after we
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: know the truth? He wasn't your neighbor. He identified as
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: your neighbor. There's a difference. He's not legally here, James.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: These are the people that are supposed to be deported.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: And then when he starts talking about in his plan,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: we need to go after the worst of the worst.
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: Okay, we are.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: But when you go after a drug, you know, like
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: some sort of MS-13 gang member who happens to have
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: a girlfriend and the girlfriend inserts herself into the situation,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: if she's illegal, she's going. If she's an American, she's
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: getting arrested. Sometimes Americans end up in ICE detention facilities
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: while they try to sort out who's who. But they
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: all have to, if you're involved with law enforcement in
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: any kind of way, you need to be put in
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: a corner for a little while till we figure out
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: what's going on. He is being disingenuous at best. And unfortunately,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: not getting checked, obviously, on MSNOW. But he's being checked here, Christopher.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you did a great job there. And, you know,
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: I'm looking at the latest polls coming out of Texas.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: He is still polling consistently ahead of Ken Paxton.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: And, you know, we'll take a break, and when we
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: come back, we're going to talk about some polls. And
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: we have some pollsters who listen to us. We have
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: not seen a whole lot of polls around South Carolina.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: I'd love to get– maybe I'm going to reach out
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: to a couple of them during the commercial break and
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: see if we can get some more insights as to
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: what's going on. But we have some insights on polls
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: nationally and stuff, and we'll talk about those and your
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: talkbacks if you have any.
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: Some things to contribute.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: We'd love to hear your voice. Just use the Talkback
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: feature on the iHeartRadio app at 7-11.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: All right, so it is 7-15.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: We were talking about the James Tallarico candidate, candidacy, and how, Christopher,
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: you brought up the point that he is, in a
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: lot of polls, winning, and within every poll, within the
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: margin of error, meaning it's a dead heat, according to
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the pollsters.
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: In Texas when it comes to him versus Ken Paxton.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: I will point out that in 2024, there was a
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: fellow who you probably are familiar with named Ted Cruz.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz was in a dead heat literally three weeks
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: before the election. Nobody really remembers Colin Allred. But Colin
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Allred was apparently going to upset Ted Cruz, according to
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: the pollsters, and lost by nine points. It was never
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: a race. The insiders at Ted Cruz's campaign said he
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: was never within five points. Although the headlines in 2024
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: was Colin Allred now ahead of Ted Cruz in recent polling. Well, okay,
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: let's go take a look back at the phenomena known
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: as Beto O'Rourke.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: Beto, the Mexican Irishman.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: He's actually not, has no Mexican in him, but he
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: acts as if he's Mexican.
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: Beto. Hello, Beto.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Beto was polling ahead of Greg Abbott for the governor
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: in 2022.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: Lost by nine points.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: They continually try to make it appear as if Texas
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: is about, it's on the cusp of turning blue. Now,
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: I will say that Ken Paxton is not a strong
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: candidate as Ted Cruz or Greg Abbott.
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: No.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: But even if you take half his votes away, he
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: still wins by four. So I am not really sweating Tallarico,
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: much like the national picture is. The national picture is
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: very concerned about him. They just did a thing in
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Texas the other day. What's his name?
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: Paxton wasn't even there. They were doing fundraisers. They didn't
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: even bring Paxton out.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: So it's like they're basically just trying to put, they're
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: giving him the Joe Biden treatment. Just shut your mouth,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: sit in the basement. We'll take it from here. You'll
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: get elected because all you need to do is not
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: ruin it. Don't ruin it by running your mouth. Don't
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: ruin it by reminding people of what kind of a
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: personal life disaster you've had.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: As Trump said, he looks funny, he talks funny, but
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: he's my guy.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: And I mean, ultimately that could, well, that should be
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: enough in Texas.
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: Does it work everywhere? I don't know. We'll see.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: I have reached out to some of the pollsters to
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: try to find out about South Carolina polling. Do we
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: got any internal polling, that sort of stuff? Pretty quiet
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: on the polling front so far. And we have early
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: voting starting in just a couple of weeks here in
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: South Carolina.
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: We are moving quickly on that. We'll have to take
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: a break.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: We'll be back with more if you've got thoughts on
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: whether it's the pollsters who are always trying to sway races.
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: Remember Iowa.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump was in a dead heat in Iowa going
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: into the 2024 election, and.
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: He won by something like 13 points.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, we've got all kinds of crazy polling
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: where they just try to make Republicans feel as if
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: it's a lost cause. Don't even bother. Your person's about
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: to be humiliated. And then, oh, you show up and
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: they win. Let us know on the Talkback feature. It
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: is 719.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 37:09
  Speaker 7: This is South Carolina's Morning News on 103.5 FM, 560 AM, WVOC,
• 37:12
  Speaker 7: and 94.3 WSC.
• 37:19
  Speaker 13: I think what the pollsters do is they try to
• 37:22
  Speaker 13: discourage conservative voters in a lot of these elections by
• 37:27
  Speaker 13: saying that the Democrat candidate is so strong there's no
• 37:32
  Speaker 13: use even showing up.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: I think it's once.
• 37:35
  Speaker 13: Again the narrative that the media plays a lot of
• 37:38
  Speaker 13: times to discourage folks that aren't faithful at voting.
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: There you go. And I think that that's been demonstrable
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: through the years.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Republicans usually outperform polls, and I certainly appreciate the talk back.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Here we are, 725. Yesterday, the Cook Report moved our
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Senate race here with Darlene Graham and Annie Andrews into from,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: what was it, solid conservative or solid Republican into likely Republican?
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: Correct.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Andrews gets a two and a half million dollar ad
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: campaign launched by Fresh Start South Carolina.
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: I think they they responded yesterday. Was it Susan B.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Anthony group came in with a million dollar donation for
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: or a million dollar ad buy, I guess, to try
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: to help the Darling Graham campaign.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: They smell blood in the water.
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah. At the same time. interesting.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: Tim Scott had a conference yesterday. You know, he's the
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: guy who heads up the NRCC, and he basically pulled
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Georgia and North Carolina money off the board. So he's
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: basically saying we don't have a chance in North Carolina
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: or Georgia now.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: He won't say that publicly, but that's what he's saying
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: by pulling that money.
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Now, and that's coming right off the heels of Donald
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Trump's appearance. He had a rally last week in North Carolina.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if he got some sort of
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: internal polling that shows it's not possible. John Ossoff, to me,
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: is a very beatable candidate.
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: That guy is a disaster, in my opinion.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: I know a lot of people love John Ossoff, and
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: there's actually talks about him running for president.
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've seen that.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: But that guy gets caught in lie after lie after lie,
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: and it's awkward. Look, Republicans are not very good, apparently,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: at campaigning. That seems to be the bottom takeaway here,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: is you're not good at campaigning. Because if you look
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: at what does American, what are we always told? It's
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: about the economy. That's it, right?
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: It's the economy.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: I'm not minimizing gas prices. But according to the data,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: right now, and I've been alive since the 1960s, this
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: right here today, September 24th, is the best economy of
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: my lifetime. It's never been better than you have right now.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: Crime is another thing that people are concerned with usually.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: It's the lowest crime rate in my lifetime. Other than
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: high gas prices, what are you upset about? I'll tell
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: you what they're upset about. They're upset about Freedom Day,
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Economic Freedom Day. Donald Trump's polling went in the toilet
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: that day. And you can look at it and track it.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: You can see that the day he said we're going
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: to start doing tariffs, the pushback was quick and it
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: has never come back. Donald Trump is polling at like
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: 38% right now. And so the fact that they can't
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: overcome that messaging and show whatever, Just run on the
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: strengths of what you've done as a party. And then
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: I don't even think you have to remind them of
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: how crappy things were under Biden, although it doesn't hurt
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: to do that and to show them how desperate they are.
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: Well, you know what? We've got so many polls today, Christopher.
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: All right. We're going to talk about Democrat polling. They
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: look like crap, too. by the way.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about the Democrat polling problems and more of
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: your talkbacks. Use the iHeartRadio app. Coming up, it's 728.
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's
• 41:17
  Speaker 7: Morning News.
• 41:18
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Polling.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: That became the hot topic this morning. We weren't planning
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: on talking about polling that much, but suddenly it's the
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: hot topic. And we were talking about how Republicans tend
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: to poll, they underperform in polls, and then they do
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: a little bit better On the actual election days, then
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: the polls would lead you to believe some people.
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: I would say there's two reasons.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: One would be some people are afraid to admit to
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: anybody that they are supporting a Republican. They feel like
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: I just I'm ashamed of it. I just I just
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: I want stronger borders.
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: And that makes me, I guess, a racist. And I
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: and I want less criminal activity on the street. And
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: I guess that makes me a racist.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: Even though it could be white people doing the crimes,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: I still want them in jail.
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: Makes me a racist.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Makes me a crimist. I just want a sense of
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: normalcy in the country. That makes me, I don't know,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: a traditionalist. Oh, that feels so bad to say about myself.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: I'm a traditionalist. I like nuclear families. Oh my gosh,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: that's horrible. Don't say you like nuclear families. So they
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: underperform in polling. But there's also the idea that maybe.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: The pollsters are actively trying to get Democrats fired up
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: while diminishing the excitement amongst Republicans. Oh my gosh, you
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: thought your guy was so hot and look at him.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: He's losing by six points heading into the final week.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't even bother being humiliated and show up to
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: support that guy. There's that thought process as well. Democrats, though,
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: aren't doing that well either. They continue to drop. And
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: one of the things that I think people need to
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: be aware of And maybe they're not, but it's not
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: as if, what's his face? Harry Enten at CNN doesn't
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: do a great job of explaining it. You're going to
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: get new leadership if the Democrats take the House and
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: or the Senate. The leadership that you have that some
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: of you might think is normal, that's going away.
• 43:23
  Speaker 8: The least popular Dem Senate leader ever since at least
• 43:26
  Speaker 8: 1985 when we can track this. The minus five among Democrats.
• 43:30
  Speaker 8: Chuck Schumer is taking the cake when it comes to
• 43:33
  Speaker 8: unpopularity for Senate leaders among Democrats, among their own party.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: This is what I keep hitting on right now.
• 43:39
  Speaker 8: This is not the overall electorate where Chuck Schumer is
• 43:41
  Speaker 8: very much in the red. We're talking about among Democrats,
• 43:44
  Speaker 8: Chuck Schumer is in the red. I mean, you just
• 43:49
  Speaker 8: don't ever see these types of numbers among Democrats who
• 43:52
  Speaker 8: usually like the red.
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Harry's making the point.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: And he says the same thing about, you know, the
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Timu Obama, who's been running the house, that they hate him.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: They hate their leadership. And why do they hate their leadership?
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Because their leadership is soft. They want hardcore liberal socialists
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: to run their party. So no matter who you vote for, again,
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: I made that point. You vote for Annie Andrews, you're
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: voting for Elizabeth Warren. If you vote for you know,
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: some sort of moderate House person, you're voting for AOC
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: to take over in the House. It doesn't matter who
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: you think you're getting. You're getting the worst of the worst.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: And so what we're seeing now in some of the
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: national polling is the generic Democrats are dropping. So generic
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: just means a nameless Democrat. Would you choose a Republican
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: over a Democrat? Who would you choose? And typically the
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: Democrats win those races. Because they're the ones who are
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: always saying, you know, I'm here to help you with
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: the health care. I'm here to help you with the
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: child care. Republicans got no answers. The Republican answer is
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get to work.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: That's the Republican answer. And the Democrats are like, we
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: should be able to pay for that in the richest
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: country in the history of the world. Can't we make
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: sure everybody has health care?
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: Student debt. We'll cover that.
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: We'll cover the student debt. Why don't we have why?
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: Why isn't owning a car a right? Shouldn't I own
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: a car as a right?
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: Shouldn't I have the mobility, the freedom to get to
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: work or school without being encumbered by bus routes?
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: Shouldn't I have that ability? Let's make car payments.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: So the people generically in a generic ballot, typically Democrats,
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Democrats are down seven points this year. So the Democrat
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Party is not doing well.
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: The Republican Party is not doing well.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: I think what we're seeing in America is they don't
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: like their politicians right now.
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: They don't even like the political system.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Part of that's because Donald Trump has done a great
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: job of pointing out it is a swamp. This whole
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: system that we have is totally run by some very
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: incompetent people and other people who are actual criminals who
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: are trying to get themselves rich. And it just disgusts
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Americans that this is what we have right now. So
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: politics in general is down, but both the Republicans and
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: the Democrat parties are down in generic ballots. What does
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: it mean come November? I don't know exactly what it'll mean.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: We'll find out when we find out, right?
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: What's his name? Who's the guy running in Georgia?
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to remember his name. Not John Ossoff, the
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: guy running against him. The guy used to be in
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: the House.
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: Collins? Yes, Doug Collins.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Doug Collins was quoted in the AJC yesterday as saying
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: something to the extent of, you know, we typically do
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: see Republicans down in polling until we don't see that.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: And we see that on Election Day. So he's not
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: giving up the fight. He recognizes that this is one
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: of those things where it could be he pulls it.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: Now it would be considered a major upset at this point.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: But we've had major upsets before. Look at Juan in,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: where was that?
• 47:01
  Speaker 5: Minnesota.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: She was supposed to win the governor's race. She was
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: up by double digits, was the least that we saw. Well,
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, double digits is the most you can be.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: But I mean, like the least one that we saw
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: was like 14 points heading into the election. We had
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: other ones where she was up 25 points.
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: She lost.
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: As the Graham campaign pointed out yesterday, you know, but
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: with the shift by the Cook political group from solidly
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: Republican to what was the leaning leaning Republican? Yeah. They
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: pointed out that Jamie Harrison, after spending all that money,
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: that race was supposed to be neck and neck with
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: Lindsey Graham a few years ago. Graham wound up winning
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: by 10 points.
• 47:38
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: As he always did. As he always did. That was
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: the thing about Lindsey Graham. You could just pencil that in. Now,
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: that's why there's, you know, quote-unquote blood in the water.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Lindsey Graham's not on the ballot. The name Graham is.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: And who was it that was making the point? I
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: think I saw it in the Cook Report. Maybe it
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: was in their analysis. That there is polling that shows
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: that there are Republicans in South Carolina that are upset
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: at the perceived just assigning of the seat to the family.
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: They don't like that. And I can understand why you
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: wouldn't like that.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: But.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: I think come election day, when you're faced with who's
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: on the ballot, am I voting for Bernie Sanders or
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: am I voting for her?
• 48:18
  Speaker 5: Because Annie Andrews is Bernie Sanders. That's who she is.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: Whether she wants to be or not, it's Bernie Sanders.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: So do you want to vote for Bernie Sanders or
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: do you want to vote for Darlene Graham? I think
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: most Republicans, not all, most of them will come to
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: the conclusion that Maybe she's not what I wanted her
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: to be, but a lot of you would also be
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: the same people who said, I didn't want Lindsey Graham either.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: You would have been all about the primary opponents, no
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: matter who primaried them. You're going to do the, what
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say the right thing, but I'll
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: say the right, meaning you're going to the right. You're
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: not going to the center and you're not going to
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: the left. You're going to go to the right. And
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: the rightest person on the ballot for Senate in South
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: Carolina is Darlene Graham.
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: You have no other options.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: You have Annie Andrews, and then you have a couple
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: of third-party people, constitutionalists who I can't even remember his name,
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: and you've got the libertarian Casey Whitner. So the only
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: two real options are the ones that we just mentioned.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: And I don't think that– I think the Republicans are
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: going to come out, and they're going to support darling
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: graham i really believe it no matter whatever the polling
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: says even though it's i think darling's up in all
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: the polls it's not like it's really that competitive i
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: think you know there's probably some polls that show her
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: within the margin but she's winning she's winning i think
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: paxton's winning i really wish that ossoff would lose in
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: georgia but he's not At least it doesn't look that way. But, yeah,
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: I think Collins is winning in Maine. I think that's happening. Surprise, surprise.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: That was a gimme seat. That was a gimme seat.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: You had one Republican in all of New England. New
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: England has established over and over again that they hate Republicans.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: And Susan Collins keeps winning. Now, is she like a
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: MAGA person? No. She's about as middle of the road
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: as you can get. But she's not as left as
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: any of those other kooks that they keep electing. And
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: I think she's going to pull it off again. And
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: that's going to just frost the whatevers, the genitalia of
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: choice for the Democrats up at that neck of the woods.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: We'll take a break and be back with more 743.
• 50:30
  Speaker 11: Hey, guys.
• 50:30
  Speaker 14: This is Renee in West Columbia. I've gotten some calls
• 50:33
  Speaker 14: from these pollsters, and there's two things I always ask them.
• 50:36
  Speaker 14: One is, who is the organization that has hired them
• 50:39
  Speaker 14: to conduct the poll? And number two, if my responses
• 50:43
  Speaker 14: don't agree with the opinions or the stance of the
• 50:47
  Speaker 14: people conducting the poll, will my responses actually be registered
• 50:51
  Speaker 14: and used?
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 50:52
  Speaker 14: So far, nobody has answered either one of those questions
• 50:55
  Speaker 14: when they poll me.
• 50:56
  Speaker 13: Really?
• 50:57
  Speaker 5: They don't even answer it. That's funny.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Well, Renee, you keep doing your thing.
• 51:01
  Speaker 5: And let them know how you're voting.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Let them know.
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: Be proud of it. And if it gets registered, it does.
• 51:07
  Speaker 5: If it doesn't, it doesn't. But thank you for using
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: the Talk Back feature to talk to us about it.
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: It is 748.
• 51:12
  Speaker 11: Live from the state capitol, this is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: And so I was saying earlier that the Republicans do
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: a horrible job of explaining or countering the narrative that
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: we live in miserable times. You just heard Hillary Barsky
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: possibly talking about how in these tough times, in these
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: tough times.
• 51:32
  Speaker 5: Here is the reality.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: When you look at the median income, it's $ 87, 460 adjusted
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: for inflation.
• 51:42
  Speaker 5: That is the.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Highest in 60 years. You have more money as an
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: American now than you've had in 60 years if you're
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: making the median income. If you look at the poverty rate,
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: it's at 10.2%, which is the lowest in record.
• 51:58
  Speaker 5: In record. So poverty, way down. Median income, way up.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Then you look at things like crime. Violent crime down 9.3%.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: That's the biggest drop in history. It happened in 2025,
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: correlating with Donald Trump's removal of illegal aliens. By the way,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: if you're looking at it just overall in general, we're
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: down to 4.1 per 100,000, which ties the record from 1955.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: You're safer now in America than you've ever been. You
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: have more money in your pockets now than you've ever had.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: And what you're getting is a nonstop narrative of gas
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: prices are too high.
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: Food is too high.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: You're doing very bad. And a lot of people believe it. Republicans,
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: you've got a pretty good story to tell. You should
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: start telling it. Otherwise, you're going to have a very
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: bad midterm. I hate to say that because I don't
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: want you to lose. I'm very afraid.
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: I am.
• 52:50
  Speaker 5: I am a phobic of Democrats. I have a Democrat phobia.
• 52:54
  Speaker 5: Maybe you do, too. We'll be back with more.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: Hey, Rory O'Neill's supposed to call in right after the
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: top of the hour with South Carolina's morning news.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: This is South Carolina's morning news.
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: Hi there. It's Kelly Nash. I'm looking at the latest.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: This is from Newsmax regarding the president losing yesterday in court.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: And it appears now that he is, in fact, going
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: to have to allow for these reporters from CNN, MSNOW,
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: and Politico back into the White House.
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: Rory O'Neill, good morning.
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 53:30
  Speaker 5: I'm doing well, Kelly. Yourself? I don't have a White
• 53:33
  Speaker 5: House press credential. So can you sue and get me
• 53:36
  Speaker 5: one of those?
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: You know, you can probably get a day pass, believe
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: it or not. So no, no, there really are credentials
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: for media for day passes. And then they have what
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: would these the organizations you listed, you'd get a hard.
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: Pass for that kind of work.
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: So the the I guess what happened was the argument
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: from the Trump administration kind of shifted and then they
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: shifted from it's totally fake to their reporting military secrets.
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: Right, and the judge wasn't buying it, essentially. So he
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: just issued this quick eight-page decision, essentially saying, look, there
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: are other issues. If you wanna bring them up, what
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do is issue this two-week temporary restraining order
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: that prohibits the White House from pulling your press credentials.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: And in the next two weeks, if you.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: Wanna file supporting documents or make other arguments or whatever
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: it may be, I'll let you do that if you
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: want this case to move forward. But from what I've seen,
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: you're going to lose when it comes to the First
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: Amendment argument and to the Fifth Amendment argument, which is
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: due process. And as part of that, he also said,
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: and this argument, DOJ, that you made about national security,
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: you didn't show me any evidence that backs up that claim. So,
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: It was a pretty aggressive smackdown from the judge, who, again,
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: is a Trump appointee. So we'll see if the administration
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: wants to pursue this. President Trump has said that he
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: wants to challenge this.
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: He said that before.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: Expecting a ruling against him, the president said he would
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: try to appeal this.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of Americans, maybe on both sides
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: of the aisle, because I remember Obama tried maneuvering Fox
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: out of some things in the past, and that was
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: overruled basically by the other media outlets who said, no,
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: we're not going to do anything without him.
• 55:25
  Speaker 5: But it just.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: Feels like to a lot of Americans, like the argument
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: that the president's attorneys are making, that it's not a right.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: that every news organization gets. It's a privilege. And I mean,
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: we can go through numerous national outlets who don't get
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: access to that 49 seat.
• 55:44
  Speaker 5: White House press briefing.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: So could they not just say, we're taking your three
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: press passes and we're giving them to another national news outlet?
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I think the argument, though, is that you're
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: denying the access based on the point of view, and
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: that's where they get into trouble. So, I mean, we'll see, but,
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: you know, I think it largely comes down to that argument.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: I think Winter is the legal precedent that says you
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: can't restrict that access based on a different.
• 56:19
  Speaker 5: Viewpoint is the stumbling block.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: It's one of those very frustrating issues for I think
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of Americans. But the other thing that's kind
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: of frustrating is that the Iran, Ukraine, China, this whole thing,
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: especially the Ukraine-Russia thing, that's just been dragging on for years.
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: And it actually seems to be worse now than ever.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: I know the president's been meeting. with Chi now, and
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: we had Zelinsky the other day. Right. We have a
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: lot going on this week. What are you hearing about
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: all of this?
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the UN General Assembly is happening this week,
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: and a lot of big headline names, including President Trump,
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: all making speeches to the big body to set up
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: the annual session. And we heard from President Trump, obviously. Yesterday,
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: it was the president of Iran and President Zelensky, not together,
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: but in different speeches by.
• 57:13
  Speaker 5: Some of the world leaders.
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: The president of Iran has been described as being defiant
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: in his speech, saying that Iran would not take a
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: knee to America or to Israel, at times showing images
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: of the Ayatollah who was killed in those early strikes,
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: and some of the schoolchildren who were also killed in
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: those early strikes, claiming that Iran is the victim of
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: terrorism in this case.
• 57:38
  Speaker 5: So pretty bold there.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: And then we're going to hear the response to that
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: today from Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. He's in town,
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: likely to address the.
• 57:48
  Speaker 5: New York City mayor as well.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: Well, Rory, I know you're covering all of it, and
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: we certainly appreciate you keeping South Carolina's Morning News audience informed.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: Hey, thanks, Kelly.
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: We'll talk to you soon.
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: And Christopher and I will be back, maybe talk a
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: little bit about what is happening with Chi, what is
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: happening with Iran. Christopher, you called that speech in advance.
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: We'll kind of follow up on that coming up in
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: just a second. It's 8.08.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News.
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: All right, so Iranian President Massoud Pekhziksan or something like that,
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: he's talking at the U.N.
• 58:22
  Speaker 5: Yesterday. We just talked to Rory O'Neill about it. Here's
• 58:25
  Speaker 5: a little excerpt.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: You see these children?
• 58:31
  Speaker 5: So there he is.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: He's holding up schoolchildren that were killed in a strike
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: that the U.S. was trying to hit a military base
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: or a military location, and the rocket was off and
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: hit a school. and killed, I think, 200 children.
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: Horrible, horrible accident.
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: However, you also shouldn't put your schools next to military stuff,
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: or perhaps you put the military stuff intentionally next to
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: the schools in the hopes that nobody would strike it.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: And for him to hold up signs of children or
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: pictures of children, knowing that he himself, along with the IRGC,
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: is responsible for at least 47,000 deaths of their own
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: civilians that they killed or that they used the Houthis.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: Just in the Yemeni civil war that they have funded,
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: Iran has funded that to the tune of $ 700 million
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: a year, 377,000 deaths associated with that, including 100,000 school children.
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: Not to mention all the people in Iran going hungry
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: right now while Iran spends its money elsewhere.
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: Or does he want to talk about, you know, how
• 59:40
  Speaker 5: they funded.
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: Hamas to go in on October 7th and killed 1,200 people,
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: mostly younger people, mostly college age, high school age, a
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: lot of little children, and the unspeakable atrocities that they
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: committed to babies.
• 59:56
  Speaker 5: To babies.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: What they did to the babies under the direct order
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: of this monster. And he's got the audacity to stand
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: on the UN World Stage and hold up signs.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 5: And look at what Donald Trump does. Nobody thought.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: that the United States was targeting a school. That's not, A,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: anything that we would ever do in the past, nor
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: does it militarily benefit us in any way to do that.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: That is clearly in the realm of an accident.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 4: That's why Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday, we're
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 4: not We're not going to stand here and be lectured
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: on human rights by the biggest violator of human rights
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 4: in the world.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: But Christopher, you called it right before, you know, he
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: gave his speech yesterday. This speech has nothing to do
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: with the world. It has nothing to do with the
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: United States. It has everything to do with that dude
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: being able to go home and still have a head.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: He was just protecting himself. Although he did say in
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: that speech, they are still open to dialogue and diplomacy.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: But he said not today. when the United States uses
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 4: the language of force.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: Well, it's even worse than that. According to their new, quote-unquote,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know, do we call them demands? They said
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: that they would be open to negotiation if we stopped
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: all sanctions and returned all the money that we had seized.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 5: From their bank accounts around the world. Good luck with that.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: Why would we do that?
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 12: Yeah.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 11: Why.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump does have a decision to make. I wish
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: he would have already made it. I wish in April
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: they never signed this idea of a ceasefire. All that
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: did was give more time to the Iranians to bolster themselves.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: So it's a bad situation with Iran. But to have
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: these guys come out here, like you said, lecturing us
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: on human rights.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 5: Violations, my gosh.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: How about this? You shut down Hamas. You shut down
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: the Houthis. You shut down Hezbollah. And perhaps we can
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: start talking.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 5: Perhaps.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: But the Houthis are just out of control, by the way.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: Who's feeling the brunt of this, ironically, is Saudi Arabia.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia is the one that's really getting it.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 5: But you know what?
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: The Saudis have themselves to blame for that. Saudi Arabia
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: started trying to play this little weird game where they
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: were going to be friends with both China and the
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: United States. Now, both the United States and China are like, well,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: you kind of made your own bed here. Neither one
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: of us really want to rush to your aid. But
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: I think eventually Trump is going to bail out the Saudis.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 5: He's going to stop these attacks.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: But it'll be very interesting to see what our next
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: move is, because he's having these discussions with the Gulf leaders, apparently.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 5: And they're going to help decide, do we just literally
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 5: wipe them?
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: Again, when we say wipe them off the map, I
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: don't mean we're going to kill all 90 million people
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: in Iran. But you're going to take out Karg Island.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: You're going to take out a lot of the infrastructure.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: You're going to target the IRGC and try to kill
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: all 180,000 of those. That's what we're talking about. And so, yes,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: they can rebuild, but it won't be this year. So anyway,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: if you have thoughts on what we should do in Iran,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: always open to hearing new ideas or just reiterating old ideas.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 5: Say it passionately on the Talk Back feature. It's 817.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 7: This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM, 560 AM, WVOC,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 7: and 94.3 WSC.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: Good morning.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 12: This is Richard in Blythewood. I believe that the goal
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 12: of the DSA and the Democrat Party is to not
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 12: make Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico states, but to eliminate
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 12: the Electoral College, federalize Senate campaigns and use what they
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 12: call the national popular vote so that every voter in
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 12: every state votes on every Senate campaign.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 5: Well, thank you. Richard from Blythewood. Richard, good morning.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to South Carolina's morning news and contributing. Um, the,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: the difference between their stated goals and what you are
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: looking at. One of the things that you mentioned is
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: that they were going to vote on every Senate vote. Um,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: I think I see, I guess what Richard's point would
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: be is that once they eliminate the Senate, because that's
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: part of what they want is the Senate gone.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 5: Um, They want the presidency gone. They want the Senate gone.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: And perhaps to make some of these other places states
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: in order to get more Democrat votes originally into the
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: Senate to help then eliminate the Senate. I think that
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: might be where he was going with that. But either way,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: love the fact that you're chiming in. I'll also point
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: out that when we look at the DSA, I don't
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: know who's paying for these things.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 5: What we're... Did you see this story yesterday, Christopher, about.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: Non-influential TikTok users being paid?
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: No.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: So this is a guy who I don't know what
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: made him want to come clean on this, but he
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: came clean. So his name is Drew. Drew had a
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: somewhat viral video. And all it is is him just
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: sitting there with like a stunned look on his face.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: And then the words on the TikTok video say, Texas
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: is way cheaper than California. And then he puts rent
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: LA 2742, Dallas 1588 a month, minimum wage 1842 an
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: hour in LA, 725 an hour in Texas. Hours worked
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: for rent equals 149 in LA at minimum wage 219
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: in Dallas. That means you have to work 47% more
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: to afford the rent in Texas. So that's, that is
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: his math, but it's not his math because Drew then
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: posted a video, I guess, recently, kind of letting the
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: cat out of the bag as to why he did this.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 15: They basically paid me retainer and then any view bonuses
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 15: to make TikToks slash Instagram reels about whatever content they
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 15: wanted me to do. So they were paying me to
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 15: post very left-leaning stuff about how Texas was super expensive
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 15: and how it has been hard for me living in Texas.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 15: I don't even... I live in Texas. I'm from Utah.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 15: I'm in Florida right now.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: So they're contacting, I don't want to say kids. He
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: looks like he's 23 ish.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: When you say they, you mean Tik TOK.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 5: We don't know what.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: They're described is as political messaging services. So he doesn't
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: know who paid him, but he knows of at least
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: 10 of his friends who have received $ 25 to post
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: videos like this. So you get paid the $ 25, and
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: they don't want influencer. They want people who've got followings
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: of two, three, four, 500 people. That's who they're targeting.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: And so if we can just budget it out at
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: $ 25 a video, and if we get a couple of
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: them to go viral, and it's coming from somebody who
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: doesn't have a lot of followers, then it has more
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: authentic vibe to it. This is not coming from, insert
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: big influential political, you know, not, what's his name? Hassan
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: Piker's not posting it. Hasan Piker wouldn't do squat for $ 25.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: But a 19-year-old, you're going to give me $ 25 to
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: just say I think that the Democrat Socialist is a
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: great movement?
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: Now, could it be that the DSA is funding this?
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 5: Could it be Russia is funding it?
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 5: China? Absolutely.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 10: Iran?
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: Anything that makes Americans doubt something about their country could
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: be coming from anybody, including, unfortunately, inside our own continent
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: by the DSA. But there are a number of groups
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: who want to see Americans fail. And, you know, I
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: thank this guy for at least coming clean about it
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: and opening up the investigation so that people can get
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: a better look at this. But when you see people
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: on social media who don't appear to have big followings
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: who are making some sort of political statement. And that doesn't,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: I guess, necessarily even align as a political. That's just
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: an economic statement. And you'd say, oh, wow, it is.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: And maybe in my mind, I can see where that
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: would make sense. Okay, you're not paying a $ 2, 000 a
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: month rent in either place if you're making minimum wage.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: Just think about what you're saying. Nobody's working for minimum
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: wage and living in a median income rental place. If
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: you're making minimum wage, you're living with a group of
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: people or you're living at home with your folks or
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: you're living in a group home of some kind. You're
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: not working for $ 8 an hour here or even $ 18
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: an hour in LA and going to be able to
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: rent a, you know, in South Carolina, it'd probably be
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: somewhere around what, $ 1, 800 a month for an apartment. You're
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: not doing that on a 40-hour work group.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 12: No.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 5: So none of it made sense, but it's something to
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 5: make you doubt your country.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 4: Can I just point out, it's pretty sad. You pointed
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 4: out this guy is not a kid, and yet he
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: was bought for his political views were bought for 25 but.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: The bonuses remember he gets the view bonuses okay if
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: it goes viral so who knows what he made he
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: could have made a thousand dollars because that went apparently
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: went pretty viral so um i don't know but yeah
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: if you're just offering a kid he didn't and that
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: was literally no work i think they just sent him
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: the screenshot to put over his own face here's your
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: talking points Yeah, we'll type it up for you. All
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: you got to do is copy and paste it. Just
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: put it right on the video, and there you go.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: And it's $ 25 for 30 seconds of work. That's a
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: lot more than minimum wage. Anyway, that was one of
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: the big stories yesterday. If you've got thoughts on that
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: or other things, hit us up on the Talkback feature.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 5: It's 829.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 7: From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 7: Morning News. Hello, I'm a Columbia listener.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 3: My name's Ann Kelly Nash.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 5: The Republican Party needs to hire you to be their spokesman.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 14: You do a much better job at messaging than the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 14: current GOP spokesman.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: That was Ann from Columbia. Well, thank you, Ann from Columbia.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: I don't think I know Ann. That's a shock. Usually
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: you get a compliment. It's like somebody in your circle group,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: you know. But I'd like to meet you, Ann. You
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: sound like a very intelligent person.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 4: And I think all Republicans have been like you, a
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: little frustrated with the messaging coming out leading up to
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 4: the midterms.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't know why it is that they...
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: We have some. I think Alan Wilson does a great
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: job messaging. I.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 5: Now I'm struggling to find others.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: Off the top of my head.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: I think it's more about the national level. I mean,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 4: you know, we're talking about the... The tipping point in
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 4: winning the Senate and the House in November. And you
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 4: just don't hear Republicans nationwide telling people why they should
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: vote R rather than D on their ballots.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: And you look at like in Ohio, for example, Sherrod
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: Brown apparently is poised, if you believe the polling, to
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: make a triumphant return. How is that possible? This guy
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: was a disaster for the 462 years he served. Wasn't
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: he one of the original founding fathers? Shouldn't he be
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: somehow tarred and feathered by the Democrat Party as a
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: racist and a slaveholder? He must have been a slaveholder
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: at some point, I would think. Sherrod Brown's that old.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: And then you go and you look at, like, in Minnesota,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: you've got the lieutenant governor who should be absolutely mired
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: in this scandal with Tim Walz.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 5: Should be.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: But apparently is not. Apparently looks like she's going to
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: win her race and become a new senator from Minnesota.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 5: I am I'm.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: Confused as to how many Americans don't understand what's happening.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 5: They don't see they don't.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: There's like a mass psychosis happening across America at this
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: point where they do not recognize the peril that they're
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: currently in unless they are aligned with the DSA and
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: they believe in their heart of hearts.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 5: That this is the way to go.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: Because the Democrats have been infiltrated and taken over by
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: the DSA. So whether you want to be a moderate
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: or not, it's no longer your choice. The DSA is
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: taking control of the party. So that is who you're
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: going to be voting for if you vote for a Democrat,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: even if they were to say.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 5: I'm a pro-life, strong, on the border, back.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: The military Democrat. you can say anything you want at
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: this point, you're not in charge.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 4: Well, as you pointed out earlier, James Tallarico said much
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 4: the same thing. Oh, I'm going to strengthen the border.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 4: We're going to get more immigration judges. We're going to get,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: you know, we're going to throw out this whole idea
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 4: of asylum. You know, we're going to make sure everything
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 4: and get rid of the worst first.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: I they'll say, and again, I, it's not exclusive to
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: the Democrat party, just saying whatever you have to say
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: to get elected.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 5: Um, that's true.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: I think of a lot of politicians, most politicians, um,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: But it would be nice if somebody would fact check them.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: And by somebody, I mean somebody other than local radio shows,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: the mainstream media. By the way, have you been following
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: this Paramount merger deal that's going on?
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 4: A little bit, not much.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: Apparently, the big concern is that CNN will be a
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: part of this deal. Obviously, they're Time Warner now. And
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: CNN has been a dumpster fire for years. Matter of fact,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: while it was founded by Ted Turner. And his goal,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: he didn't like what CNN became. He didn't want it
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: to be what it is. He wanted it to be
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: a news channel. And obviously it's become an opinion piece.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: And so this idea is that if it gets taken
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: over by Paramount, Paramount is going to realign CNN completely.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: Kind of like what they did with CBS. They realigned CBS.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: CBS is starting to see some benefits from that. They're
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: getting bigger ratings. Obviously, we've been raving about their 60 Minutes.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 2: But even if it doesn't work out that way, meaning
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: if let's just pretend that CBS didn't get better and
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: didn't get better ratings, at least it wouldn't be pushing
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: out the hardcore propaganda that it had been pushing out
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: with Scott Pelley. And if you could realign CNN and
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: get it back into the mainstream narrative of actually looking
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: at real news, and don't even bother with your analysis.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: Or if you have analysis, kind of go the way
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: they used to go, which was almost like point-counterpoint, for
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: those of you old enough to remember the Saturday Night
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 2: Live bit with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 5: Um, you know, we have both sides of the issue.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 2: I would love to see like a legit crossfire show,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: come back a legit crossfire, not, not, not one that's slanted,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 2: you know, like what they do on CNN now with, uh,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: what's his name? Scott, uh, uh, Jennings, Scott Jennings. That's,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 2: that's a firing squad where they've got like eight liberals
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: versus him.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 4: He still holds his own.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: He holds his own. But again, the libs think that
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: they win that battle every night. Now, I know that
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: the conservatives, we feel like he wins the battle every night.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: None of us watch it. Nobody's watching that show, by
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 2: the way. They just see the clips on YouTube or
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: whatever later on. But nobody's watching the show in real time.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: But it's interesting how we both can watch the exact
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: same thing and both think we won the argument. And
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: the libs, they play a lot of those Scott Jennings clips.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 2: They're like, what a moron.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 5: Look at this guy. He's a total dope.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 4: And he winds up owning them every time.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: That's what we think, but that's not what they think.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: So it's hard to win an argument with an idiot.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: Because they don't even know when they've lost. Anyway, we've
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: got to take a break.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 5: We're running late. It's 841.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 7: This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 7: 560 AM. WVOC, Columbia, and 94.3 WSC, Charleston.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: I see WCSC, Live 5 in the Lowcountry, and WIS
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: here in the Midlands have the same story today.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 5: It's a sad story.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: Micah Knox, age 29. found unresponsive in his home, age 29,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: dead of an overdose. Now, according to the coroner, apparently
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 2: he had overdosed on something called 7-OH. These are gummies
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 2: that you can buy in some states, including South Carolina,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: at a gas station, which is apparently where he did
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: buy it. And whether he knew or didn't know that
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: this could kill him, Um, it would seem, it would
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: be incumbent upon our lawmakers to get a grasp on
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: that and move quickly to outlaw it. Now I'm trying
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: to follow how the South Carolina house bill, we have
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: a South Carolina house bill 4636 seems to be addressing
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: not the, the brand or whatever 708, because what it
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: really is, is that it's a form of what does
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: they call it?
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 4: Uh, Kratom Kratom.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: And so we're trying to get that done, but that's
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: been kind of sitting here. The last movement that I
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: see on that bill was in March, and that was
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: just people adding their names as co-sponsors. So it really
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: has been just sitting in the committee on the judiciary
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: since January of this year.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 4: Scary story, because earlier this week, two Ole Miss students died,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 4: and the link they've found so far is both were
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 4: found with Kratom in their possessions.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and again, this is just one of those things
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: where you can buy it at a gas station or
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: a drugstore if you're over 21 and might not know
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: that that could kill you. It seems insane that this
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: is happening, but yeah, 7-0-H. I wouldn't say necessarily your kids,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: although I'm sure there are kids with fake IDs or
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: people who look like they're over 21 where you could
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: buy them in certain gas stations possibly without having an ID.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 5: That's scary to think about.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: I'm not familiar with the product. That was the first
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: I'd ever seen of it was this morning when I
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 2: was reading that heartbreaking story, and our hearts go out
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: to the family who lost their son to that.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 5: But hopefully our South Carolina legislators are on it. Thoughts
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 5: on that? Use the Talkback feature.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 4: It's 848.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 11: Live from the state capitol, this is South Carolina's Morning News.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 2: You know, it's amazing as we start to wrap up
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: the show today how important– Has this week been? How
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: important will today be in all of our futures?
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 5: All of them. We've got the.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: President meeting with China's leader, Xi Jinping. They're supposed to
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: be talking about artificial intelligence and trade sessions. Could these
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 2: two guys today figure out what will AI look like
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 2: for future generations? Could they be figuring out trade deals
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: between the two biggest world economies? Actually, not just dictating
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: what happens in these countries, but many countries around the world.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: This is a massive, massive day, I believe. And we
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: won't even know what it really accumulated to until sometime
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 2: in the future.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 4: And then this state dinner tonight where all our major
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 4: techies are all attending in conjunction with the Chinese delegation.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 5: It's such an.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: Important day, Christopher. These are historic times that we're living in.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: This is one of those little weeks where I think
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: future historians, if we survive AI, they will look back
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: and say this week really meant a lot. It dictated
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 2: what came after this week. This week is massive. So
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 2: if you're a praying person, pray for wisdom for both
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 2: of them. Uh, as they start to decide what the, well,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 2: obviously India is a bigger country than us, but as
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: far as China is the biggest country on earth, I
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 2: believe right now, right? At 1.3 billion and China's, uh,
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 2: India's at 1.1 billion, if I'm not mistaken, we're at
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 2: 300 and something million, but we got more debt than
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: both of them combined. So we got that going for us. But, uh,
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: more importantly, what we are the most powerful country on earth.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: China's the second most powerful. How are we going to
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: work this out? What is it going to look like
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: moving forward? Big arms sales negotiations. So much happening today.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 5: And you know what?
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: If we get any news out of that or other stuff,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: we'll be back to recap it and get your perspective
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: tomorrow
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 5: After six on South Carolina's morning news.