Latest / Brian Thomas / The "Smither-vent" - Episode 154 - More violence downtown, but city hall says you are safe

Transcript

The "Smither-vent" - Episode 154 - More violence downtown, but city hall says you are safe · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: 55 KRC, the talk station.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: It is 719 on a Monday, which means it's that
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: time of week. I always look forward to it. Friend
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of the show, friend of the greater Cincinnati community, former
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: vice mayor of the city of Cincinnati, and here on
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: a Monday beginning at this time, Christopher Smitherman with the Smitherman.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, Christopher. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I did, brother. Thank you so much for having me on, Brian.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I've been watching what's been happening at the University of Cincinnati.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I just want to touch on it coming out. You
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: know that I dropped off my own freshman at a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: university in the state of Ohio. And, you know, if
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I was a parent and I see, you know, four
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: or five shootings around the University of Cincinnati and I
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: just dropped off my kid, whether she's a freshman or
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: he are senior, I'm terrified right now. And I don't
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: know how anybody else who's a parent couldn't understand that,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: couldn't connect with that. Because you're somewhere else. And our
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: kids are everything to us. And so to think, well,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: my kid could be off campus, walking around, get hit
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: by a stray bullet, that is not a good feeling.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: The University of Cincinnati is our largest employer in the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: city of Cincinnati, period. And so I am shocked. that
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the city, I'm talking about City Hall here, the mayor,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: members of council, really are not aggressively on this. But
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about it on your show that crime
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: was spreading. This is like a cancer. They're not on
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: top of it. So it now moves to this neighborhood.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Now it moves to that neighborhood. Now it's surrounding our
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: largest employer, Brian Thomas, and I just don't think they're
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: going to have a handle on this until the weather changes,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: until it gets cold.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Oh, geez, we've got to wait for a weather change?
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: When you have leadership at City Hall like that, you
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: start praying for winter. Because whatever happens, we know that
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: when winter comes in, we know that the crime, the murders,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: there's people shot. And to hear City Hall last week
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: proclaiming that crime was down, Right. But they don't release
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: shot spot or data. That's what I want to see.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I want to see shot spot. How many people, how
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: many shots were fired in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Give us some kind of framework, because you and I
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: as a citizen, we think it's terrible when 40 or
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: 41 people are killed. Right. But it doesn't tell us
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: how many people were shot. And that the university hospital
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: emergency room medical team saved their life.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Or even where there's gunplay going on. I mean, I
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: have to observe. I think I can say with an
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: absolutely straight face, from a legal perspective, if a gun
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: is shot in the greater Cincinnati area, it is a crime.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: You're not allowed to shoot off rounds in a populated area.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I can't even do it in my backyard. That's a
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: good thing. Unless, of course, the rounds are being shot
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: because someone had reasonable apprehensive eminence grievous bodily harm or death.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: That will be a self-defense use of a firearm, which
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: is justified. But I doubt all the ShotSpotter info would
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: all be used in justifiable gunshot return fire.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: That's exactly right. And by the way, you see this
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: movement down at City Hall to get rid of ShotSpotter.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: They're not really interested in that technology because it actually
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: measures shots fired and it looks bad. That's what it is.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: But notice they never give you that data. When I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: served as chair of law and public safety, We held
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: open hearings on ShotSpotter. Matter of fact, I was a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: part of the team that brought ShotSpotter to the city
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: of Cincinnati under my leadership. So I'm saying we were
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: always looking at that data, always putting it in front
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: at law and public. They don't do any of that.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Everything is under the cover. So those citizens out there
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: really doesn't know what's going on. And then you have
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: these press conferences where they say, hey, man, crime is down. <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: This is going on all around you, and you're going, man,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to put my kids on the bus at
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: 7 a.m. in the morning, and I'm worried about getting shot.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm just sharing with you there's a complete disconnect
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: because these politicians are more interested in elections. Right. They're
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: more interested in perception than the reality that citizens in
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: these 52 neighborhoods are living in. And so whether you
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: live in Clifton now or you live in Avondale or
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you live in Kent, Washington or Bond Hill, you're out
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: here going a Millville. You're going out here going, wow,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: they keep telling me crime is down. But guess what
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: just happened last night? I heard five, six, seven, eight, nine,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: 10 shots fired. And ShotSpotter is picking all of that up.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: They have all of that data. Why doesn't the city
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: hall release it?
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: True. Or at least, you know, talk about they've used
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: shot spotter data without giving you the total volume but
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: telling you the reason we have increased patrols in Avondale
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: or around University of Cincinnati or any other neighborhood is
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: because there's been a significant increase or a precipitous amount
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: of gunfire in those particular neighborhoods suggesting there's more crime
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: in those neighborhoods. Is that what they don't want to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: say out loud, Christopher? I mean, it seems logical and
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: reasonable that they would allocate police where the crime happens
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: to be.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: That's what Mayor John Cranley and I did when we
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: brought all of the professionals together, and I mean everybody,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: the prosecutors, federally and countywide. We had the ATF. We
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: had FBI. It didn't matter. This room was lined with
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: law enforcement professionals. We had the city manager, myself, and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the mayor. in that meeting, and then the police did
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a presentation, we identified all the hotspots, right? And then
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: we said, okay, team, what's our plan? What's our, John
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Crowley would say, okay, where are we, this crime, no, no,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: we're going here. This is what we're going to do.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's no sense that this mayor or this
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: council has any handle on the data where the crime is,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and they're willing to do something about it. And when
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I come and talk about this, every time I put
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a post up on my ex-account, which was formerly called Twitter,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: The liberals come after me like, oh, man, he's a
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: MAGA guy now. He's a MAGA guy. I said I
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: literally just posted that someone was shot in Millville. Or
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I posted somebody was shot and killed in Avondale. A
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Spectrum person was shot. Why am I MAGA? Because I'm
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: literally putting up factual data about people being shot in Cincinnati.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Christopher, I'm surprised they haven't accused you of being racist.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Don't look for it to make sense, man. This is
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: coming from the inane blatherings of left-wing activists.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Pause.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: We'll bring Christopher Smitherman back with what we'll call round
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: two of the Smith event this Monday. Talk Station. 7.30,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: coming up at 7.31 at 55 KRC Talk Station. Happy
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Monday to you. Money Monday with Brian James after the
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: top of the hour news. Fed rate hike is possible,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: plus we'll talk about inflation with Brian James. In the meantime,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Christopher Smitherman doing the Smith event. Christopher, you have the floor,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: my friend.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Brother, when I put up posts about black Americans being
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: shot and killed in Cincinnati, I happen to be a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: black American. So whether it's black American or African American,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: whatever label you want to put on it, that's me. Yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, and I apologize.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I'm actually concerned about other black Americans or African Americans
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: being murdered in in my city. Yes. It is beyond
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: me that I have some of these white liberals who
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: think that they can get on social media and lecture
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: me about what is right or good or the solutions
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: for Black Americans and African Americans in Cincinnati, in the country,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: in the whole world. They are clueless and disrespectful. I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: can post about every single murder because it breaks my heart.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: It's insane, the violence. And they actually do not care.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: What they care about is defunding the police. And so
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the way they respond is they say, oh, Smitherman is
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a MAGA now. He wants the police. He supports the police.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: You're darn right I support the police.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Well, Christopher, you've told my listening audience forever that you
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: who walk among and talk to people within these various black,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: primarily black communities, that they want the police too. I
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: guess the left-wing chunk of them haven't gotten the memo.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: They have not gotten the memo, dude. And they're so dangerous.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Their mindsets are so dangerous because they believe they're so
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: arrogant that they believe they can walk up to black
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Americans and tell them what our solutions are. Not listen
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to a guy who has two degrees, who's raised five children,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: four boys, all of them engineers or STEM students. doing
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: incredibly well in society. You want to lecture me? An active,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: involved father who was married 30 years about what's right
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and good for a black American.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Well, maybe you've demonstrated the right— And because I talk
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: about it— The recipe for success, Christopher, is hard work
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: and a unified family unit that cares about their children
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: and their education. In the city of Cincinnati, you're within
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: the city limits, Christopher. That's where you raise your kids, right?
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I sure did, and sent them to Cincinnati public schools
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: except my daughter, right? And that was during COVID when
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Cincinnati public schools closed down, shut everything down, you know?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I'm blessed that our family is Catholic, and we found
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: a Catholic school over in St. Bernard and then went
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: on into Seton. But the bottom line is the reality
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: of it is you have this push within the Democratic
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Party right now. With these white liberals, and I don't
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: want to do this broad brush because it's not all
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of them, but they come and try to tell black
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Americans what's good and right for us. Black Americans, in
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: my opinion, better wake up and start voting their interest
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and not their party. Meaning I need a city government
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: that prioritizes police because overwhelmingly or disproportionately, the crime is
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: happening in black neighborhoods, right? So if you're a rational person,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: you're not waking up going, hey, man, I want a
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: police force that's light or low. I don't want them
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: doing proactive policing. No, black neighborhoods where the crime is high,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: we want policing. That doesn't say we want police officers
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: who are not trained. No. It doesn't say that we
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: want police officers doing things that are bad. But my
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: point is that liberals, whether they're black or white, when
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you start saying you support the police... In their minds,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: they go in this mindset like, oh, man, this guy
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: just wants some kind of police state. That's not what
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I'm articulating. We have the best trained police officers in
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the state of Ohio. People come here from all over
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the country. Columbus says they've got a great police training
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: center because it's closed. You have to go through a
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: very regimented process. Cincinnati has a great police training center.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Our officers are over-trained. My point is that I'm tired
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of these white liberals getting out on social media, trying
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: to lecture black Americans on what's good for us. You
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: don't know what's good for us. And I'm here to
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: tell you as a black man who doesn't need to
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: sit back and make you feel comfortable. What these white
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: liberals think about me, I don't care. All I'm saying
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: to you, Brian Thomas, is that I'm sick of them
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: trying to lecture instead of getting on social media going,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: you know, Christopher, let me ask you about what you
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: think those solutions are. That makes sense. Police is clearly
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: one of them, right? It's the first, but all I
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: did is I posted up. I'm done with this, with
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: this Brian, but all I did is I posted up
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and I said, Our officers, our counts are down. Meaning,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: how many police do we really need in our city? Well,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I called who? Ken Colbert, the president of the FOP.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: How many officers do we need? He said we need
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: about 1,250. How many do we have? We have 950.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: He says, man, we're down about 250 officers that we
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: need to protect this city. And he said, we have
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: 200 that can retire right now. That's what King Cobra
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: told me. So I posted it, and all of a sudden,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: now I'm MAGA. I'm MAGA. I'm MAGA. I'm MAGA. I'm MAGA.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I'm MAGA. People are crazy. I just literally put the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: stats up, and now you say, man, Smitherman is crazy.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I went to the expert. the FOP president, and I said, hey,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: this is what he says the numbers are. Hey, man,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Smitherman wants a police state. These people are crazy.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: They are. Well, and obviously, I think about if I
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: was typing something along the lines of what they put
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: on your social media posts in response to real numbers
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: about where the officers are, I'd be embarrassed to try
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: to make that jump from statistics to MAGA. I don't
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: even know what the hell that means, Christopher. Keep up
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: the good work.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Hold on.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: We'll bring Christopher back for a little bit more rant
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: here on this beautiful Monday morning. 741 at 55KRCD Talk Station.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Doing that Christopher Smitherman Smith event thing. Get him every
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Monday between 720 and basically the close of the hour.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Back to the floor, Christopher Smitherman.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Brian, I watched it.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: You invite this stuff, man. You go on social media.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I do, man.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: You stir the pot.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Good for you.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I do. I do. I've had a couple of people
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: already come out and follow me, and I want to
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: thank them for that.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: At Vote Smitherman on X. At Vote Smitherman.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: So, Brian, I watched this video. of Amy Atkins and
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: her crew walking at some fair or festival or some event,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: wherever she was. And a reporter walks up and says, hey,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you a question. I'd like to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: know why you won't debate Vivek Ramaswamy. And she's just walking,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, these two dudes with cameras
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: start jumping in this guy's face. I believe they're even
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: maybe putting their hands on him. They might even be
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: pushing this reporter.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: It appeared so.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: And they start... And they start yelling at him saying,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: don't take a photo and don't ask a question. I'm going,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: is this person running for governor of the state of Ohio?
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I have run for office a few times. That's sarcasm.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I know. I cannot imagine walking through some event, right?
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And the people around me started yelling at reporters saying, thing,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: don't ask Smitherman a question and don't take a picture
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of him. Most politicians walk to the mic. They are
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: looking for the media. They want you to take a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: picture of them. This lady is literally running a campaign
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: from her basement. Everybody must understand that. I don't care
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: whether you're a Democrat, an independent like me, or a Republican.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: She is not interested in And running a campaign that
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: is transparent and wanting people to be able to ask
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: her questions is the most bizarre thing that I've seen.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I'm not making it up that people can go to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: my post and see. Now, Amy Atkin doesn't say anything.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: It's the people around her who are yelling this at
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the reporter. It's insane.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it gives us a pretty good glimpse
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: into the video that we have not yet received from
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: the guy that got arrested for allegedly, what, assassinating or
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: trying to assassinate or something, which was all nonsense. So
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: but if that's her protocol, if those two, let's say,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: call them thugs, whatever they were, the people who were
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: saying no video, no questions and interfering with that guy
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: asking the question. If that's what they are doing in
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: the video that you showed me that I saw, and
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you sending it to me, then it's pretty
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: much probably the protocol that that guy was having to
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: deal with. So he goes through the room like everybody
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: does these days. It's all about me. I want to
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: get my two minutes of fame on social media. I'm
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: going to ask Amy Acton the question. And he bumps
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: into people, or maybe his security guards did it. But
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: you can see how that would unfold. And they made
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: a big deal out of it. And, oh, my God,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: he tried to kill her or whatever. And the truth
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: finally will come out. I mean, I don't know. Someone
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: raised this earlier. Her people have decided that the optics
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: are going to be worse to let her come out
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: of her closet and answer questions than hiding her. It
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: looks so bad that they hide her, and it's obvious
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: that it's being done, but clearly that's the lesser of
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: two evils from their perception of her ability to answer questions,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: deal with what she did as medical director, and talk
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: about her policies for Ohio into the future.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think it's fair to say that that using
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the word assassination attempt was too far. I haven't seen
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a clear video, right? As soon as I saw that,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I hadn't seen any video. I posted up, man, politics,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: there's no place for violence there. So I take it
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: very serious, like you take it, like your listeners take it.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: But when you see the video, right, it's hard to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: connect assassination attempt So we still need to drill down
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and figure out who put all that out because it
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: made national news that someone tried to assassinate Amy Acton,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't look like that's what occurred.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: What was her press release?
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The other thing I saw reported, yes. Oh, I didn't
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: know that.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, her press release, and then the media parroted it
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: without looking into it for themselves. It's a problem we're
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: plagued with these days. Yeah, it's pretty much the– Joe
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Stricker reminded me of that.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You're saying that her campaign was driving that this
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: was an assassination attempt.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: I do believe. Or at least at minimum some sort
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: of assault or attempted assault, an attempted attack on Acton.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: He didn't have a gun pulled out, and there doesn't
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: seem to be any reporting or evidence to suggest that
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: her life was in danger. But the blown-up component of
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: it is that this guy tried to attack her, otherwise
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: knock people over in an effort to get at her.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: And it doesn't seem to be the case from what
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: we know yet, but yet the authorities haven't released the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: police video of it, and they haven't released the guy
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: who was arrested, his camera video, which would show him
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: holding the camera walking up to her.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I think you bring up a great point. point, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about it, that because she's doing this
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: basement kind of campaign, that there are people out there
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: hungry to ask her questions. So when they're trying to
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: get to her, because she doesn't make herself available, she
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: doesn't do what Vivek Ramaswamy has been doing over the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: last two years, just goes into an open town meeting
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: or goes to a fair. And sometimes those citizens drill
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: up on a question, but I'm letting voters know that's
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: exactly what you want in a public figure, accessibility, their
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: ability and their desire to answer your questions in a
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: public setting. So I've never seen Amy acting to her
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: team who might be listening. I've never seen her in
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: an unscripted town hall meeting where people can ask her questions.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: And I think people now are really starting to get
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: frustrated across the state of Ohio that she's making herself
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: unavailable like President Biden did in that race, meaning you
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: didn't see him. It's COVID. I can't talk to you.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I don't want to have access to you, whatever the
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: script was. But the reporters couldn't get it. Now, I
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: want to tell every editorial board who's listening to this,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you have a responsibility to get to the bottom of it.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: So don't sit back and act like you're on the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: outside of this. Every editorial board should be demanding a
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: debate between Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton in the state
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: of Ohio for governor, right? And their lack of doing that, right?
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I've seen some editorial boards start weighing in. I think Toledo,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the Toledo dispatch might have recently. But every editorial board
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: should be demanding this kind of democracy and transparency. I'm
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: shocked that Amy Acton hasn't come on your show. quite
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: frankly that she won't come before brian thomas and say
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: hey let brian thomas examine right her public listen listen
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: brian i'm serious.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Now no no no i'm only laughing out loud because
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: the reaction you got from strecker it's like i can
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: hear him in the other room so yeah okay i mean.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: You're fair like you're like you would be a great
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: person to examine To examine her and examine her public
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: policy and not try to, I got you, I got you.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Let's just talk about where you are here. Let's talk
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: about where you are here. You have a very great
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: platform for the Amy Acton team if she wants to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: talk to your listening audience and talk to people who
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: are libertarians, independents, conservatives, and republicans. It's a great show
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: to get that out.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I'd like to know where she is on property taxes.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: I'd like to know where she is on developing business
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: in the state of Ohio. I mean, there's a million
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: things we need to know about. Ramaswamy is on record
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: with his platform positions. And to those out there, maybe
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: conservative-leaning folks who aren't big fans of Ramaswamy, why don't
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: you ask him questions directly? Let him answer the problems
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: you have about him, the rumors and wild accusations you
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: see on the line in forms of memes. Say, hey, Vivek,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: I saw this campaign ad for Amy Acton, and it
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: said you did or you are responsible for. You mind
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: clarifying that for me? Because it's got me worried. He'll
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: do it. Not Amy Acton. Christopher Smith.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: No, and that's the whole point. Making yourself accessible so
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that other people can examine your public policy. That is
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the heart of democracy. And Amy Acton, I'm letting every Democrat,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: every independent Republican know that. Red alert when your candidate
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: will not go and provide basic information like a debate.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: It is a scary thing that we're living in. So
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the time.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Always enjoy it.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: People can follow me at Vote Smitherman. And God willing,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I'll see you next Monday.