The Mark Arum Show 07-15-26 HR 2

Welcome back to the show and a good wet nest day morning to you. Mark Aram here, you there. It's 10.05, 5 minutes after 10 o'clock. This is the Mark Aram show live Monday through Friday. 9 a.m. to noon on 955. W.S.B. The whole fan with us today. Gracie Award winning Deborah is executor producer of the program. We got Ocean Spray on the phones. Ocean Spray. Down south, Vinny on the other side of the takeout window. Coming up in seven minutes, our grocery and gas giveaway continues. Chance for you. on $150 grocery gift card, $150 gas gift card, and a free HVAC inspection, courtesy of my pals, at reliable heating and air. So just a couple of minutes away for your chance to win that. 30 minutes are now, political analyst Stephen Lawson, live in studio. And then after the news at 1130, live in studio, Woody and Cliny. If you don't know who you are, your kids certainly do. British, right, British? English? How do I address these fellas? British. British. They're viral social media stars. Tens of millions of followers. They're in the States for the World Cup. They're here for the semi-final match today at 3 p.m. at Atlanta Stadium, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. But they're going to be in studio telling them. They've done a 38-day road trip across these United States. So very excited to talk to Woody. and Kleiny live in studio 1135 here on the Mark Aram show. Right now, let's go back, let's go to D.C. for the first time this morning. Joining us from ABC News at the State Department at Shannon Kingston. Shannon, good morning. There's been a ton of movement in the last couple of days regarding the Iran conflict, the Iran War. Please get the listeners caught up to date on where things stand this Wednesday morning. Well, U.S. Central Command has just lost finished up a third round of strikes in the last 24 hours, really. This was a 90-minute wave. The first daytime attack in Iran, we've seen since really the opening days of this conflict. Now, what Sankham was doing, they were launching precision munitions against coastal defense systems in Iran, cruise missile storage, launch sites, basically all assets the regime has used to target commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The goal here is to degrade Iran's ability to do so as preserving freedom of navigation, restoring it, really, in the strait has become the central defining focus of this conflict, which was, as you might remember, originally intended to be about Iran's nuclear capabilities. So we're pretty far from that, it seems. Yeah, and I think we're far from the ceasefire and the memorandum of understanding. I think we can tear both of those up at this point, right? Absolutely. President Trump has said, you know, he's gone back and forth a little bit on his willingness really to negotiate with Iran, but it seems that we are very much. back to square one. And we saw yesterday the U.S. reimposed the blockade on Iranian ports. That was the last real concession under the memorandum of understanding that was offered to Iran. So once that was scrapped, really it's very hard to argue that memorandum of understanding that was a product of weeks and weeks of intense negotiations, signed amid great fanfare at the Palace of Versailles. Really, it did not accomplish very much at all.

Shannon, I think it was two days ago now. President Trump posted on True Social that the United States is now controlling the Strait of Hormuz and all tankers will be facing a 20% charge. Didn't take long for reversal because, you know, the president himself and Secretary Ruby on Secretary Pete Hegseth that have been on the record multiple times saying that's against international law. You can't toll the waterways. But the president instead proposed that Gulf nations would instead invest in the United States. Have we had any clear? on what that process might look like? Well, the president has not provided any details on those purported investments, but of course Gulf states have ramped up. Their investment commitments over the course of President Trump's second term in office, they have made substantial pledges. But pledges are really just that, right? Most of these are non-binding commitments. They depend on capital flow. And some of these countries, by the way, may have to rethink their spending priorities because they have been on the receiving end of Iranian retaliation and have incurred some substantial damage. But really, it's not just Trump administration officials that have been saying, you know, very vocally, that Iran cannot toll the Strait of Hormuz, this natural waterway, international waterway. pose a toll. It's also the UN that says that and the consensus of foreign governments around the world. But when President Trump does, even though he's backtracked on his statement about U.S. charging some kind of fee to ships that are coming through that straight in or in exchange for protection, even though he's taken that back. it still does muddle the message here and create some consternation for his administration. Shannon Kingston from ABC News joining us at the State Department here on the Mark Abrams show. Shannon, with this re-escalation, are you hearing concerns inside the Pentagon about getting their increased budget pass now on Capitol Hill? Because I would imagine you, we had that war powers vote, and there might be some more no votes now when it comes to refunding the military for this campaign. Absolutely. And the issue here. It's not about funding the war going forward. It's about covering costs, really, that have already been spent during this conflict, by the way, that Trump administration officials originally said was going to last about four to six weeks while we've clearly blown past that timeline. So that has been a major concern for the president, just a price tag that comes with this conflict. We know from U.S. officials that he has been a very focused on trying to find some kind of way to come. the costs exploring, let's call them, unique avenues, perhaps. And that's one of the reasons perhaps it keeps coming back. to this idea of getting some kind of money out of the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. is pouring so much into, you know, keeping it open or fully reopening it. But, of course, this wasn't an issue before the war began. And that's something that's going to come up again and again, especially if it's the point where we're having, you know, public hearings about this request and about the war effort. Shannon, relatedly, now that the military action is taking place, again, full throttle on both sides, do we expect?

to a resumption of those press briefings that we got earlier in the war with Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs? We haven't had any pop up on the schedule yet that I'm aware of, but I would not be surprised. The problem is this Trump administration really doesn't seem to have a cohesive strategy right now. So very much the criticism has been that we're seeing right now action in search of a plan. So it might be difficult for officials to handle some questions, but certainly the pressure is going to build. And we do know also that the president. is going to give a primetime address tomorrow evening. So whether he reveals anything about the war with Iran, his plan here. It's still an open question, but will very much be on the top of mind of so many American viewers. Quote of the day right there, action in search of a plan. Shannon Kingston at the State Department. Shannon, great stuff. As always, thanks for your time. Thank you, Mark. 10, 12 on the Mark Aram Show, even with the uncertainty in the straight gas, oil prices, not moved up much today. 0.54% that Texas crude is at $79.77 a barrel. Speaking of gas and oil. It's our grocery and gas giveaway. Deborah, what are we giving away right now? All right, you get a chance to win a $150 gas gift card, a $150 grocery store gift card, and a free HVAC checkup courtesy, reliable heating and air. All right, Ocean Spray. I'm going to punish your dad for this. It's your dad's fault. We're going to do caller at 42. Caller 42. Blame your pops to 404-872-075. 42nd caller to 404-87-2-0-750 wins our grocery and gas. Give away $150. Grocery gift card, $150 gift card, and a free HVAC inspection for my friends at Reliable Heaney and Air. Caller 42 to 404-87-2-0-750. Good luck, friends. Picked up some breaking news here in the last couple of minutes off of truth social. I'm going to bring this up when political I know Stephen Lawson. I wasn't even expecting this today. President Trump on Truth Social says, quote, Mike Lindell, the pillow man and one of America's greatest and most hardworking patriots, is running to be governor of Minnesota, replacing one of the worst and most incompetent governors in the history of the USA. Early primary voting has begun, and if given the chance, Mike will be spectacular. He truly loves Minnesota, as do I, and wants to bring it back from oblivion and embarrassment. He can do it. Nobody has sacrificed more than Mike Lindell in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to election integrity. He truly deserves everything he gets. He will make Minnesota great again. Mike Lindell has my complete and total endorsement. He will not let you down. Good luck, Mike, President Donald J. Trump. So President Trump has endorsed my pillow guy, Mike Lindell, for Minnesota governor.

I will bring that up when Stephen Lawson joins us live in studio coming up after the news at 11. Going back to the war, obviously the escalation, the re-escalation, Deborah. Apparently there was some sort of oversight at the Department of Defense, and there's an artillery plant in the United States that was under question. What did this oversight? find and what exactly is the story here? So this Pentagon Watch God report reveals that there's $4669 million ammunition plant that has been built in Texas hasn't really produced anything. Over these past two years, they were supposed to be kind of like reupping all the stuff that we've sent. Yeah, restocking our. Right. We've sent a bunch of things to Ukraine and they're supposed to. make more ammunition and parts and everything. And they really haven't done it. And the army is saying they're only going to hit about 71% of its goal by this fall. So this group is just saying, what is this plant doing? You spend all this money making it? Like, what are they doing there? And there's no idea of what's happening inside those walls. So when we need ammunition more than ever, like you mentioned, we're supporting Ukraine and their war with Russia. We are in a current war with Iran and their proxies. We need all hands on deck when it comes to re-amunition. Replenishing. Replenishing our ammunition for our troops. And they're not producing anything. This particular place apparently isn't producing anything. And so this watchdog group is like, what are you doing there? What have you done with this $469 million plant that you had to have built? Does it say where in Texas it is? Mesquite. I'd have to look at the map for that one. Mesquite. All right. I've had mesquite flavored. Chips. Sure. I wonder if that's the origin. All right. Let's make sure we follow up on that because we need, we're at war. We need these plants to be producing. Mesquite flavored taco at Taco Bo. I don't know if that's ever happened, but we went in depth yesterday with our produce guy, Bobby Marbles, on this parasite that has been causing gastronomical difficulties for folks coast to coast. And a lot of fingers have been pointed at Taco Bell, my beloved Taco Bell. They are now under investigation. The bell. Yeah, Taco Bell, so investigator, state and federal authorities are looking into Taco Bell for saying they might have a direct connection to this cyclosauras, whatever it's called, the intestinal woe, the explosive diarrhea that have been growing across the country. Most of it has been in the northern Midwest, and Michigan seems like to be a hot spot. And so the Taco Bell come out and said, like, we're stopping, we're not serving cilantro. We're not doing onion. There's no pico de gallo. We've pulled guacamole off the menus. So in case there's...

I don't know what else you serve at Taco Bell. Again, I've never eaten at a Taco Bell. But a bunch of other people who have never eaten a Taco Bell have also come down with this illness. So Taco Bell is like, look, you can investigate us all you want. We have nothing to hide. We've voluntarily pulled this stuff off the shelf. They're saying they're not directly. involved in it, but there's so many cases of people that have eaten at Taco Bell. That's kind of why they got the spotlight. Well, at least Taco Bell got ahead of it and said, we're going to pull the cilantro and the guacamole. I called it my beloved taco Bell. An institution that for me is beloved is obviously Waffle House. Waffle House in the news. Someone is suing Waffle House. You're not going to believe what they're suing about. I'll explain. Georgia 1024 on the Mark Aram show. Here is something I did not know. On this date in 1970, Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. I never even thought about that process. I don't know what, I'd never even thought like, oh yeah, everyone succeeded. What was the process to get them back? Georgia was holding out for the best deal. I don't think we learned about that in the north. The reconciliation, reconstruction. Anyway, on this date in 1870, Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the union. All right. You know, I am fully on board with Waffle House. I am a hyper user, big fan. So Deborah knows when any story involves Waffle House, she puts it on my desk. And this is a someone is suing Waffle House. which is absurd to begin with. But the reason for the lawsuit is even more absurd, in my opinion. I thought you could relate to this. Now, this isn't Illinois. It's not here in Georgia, but a 63-year-old man was at Waffle House, probably enjoying a wonderful breakfast when he decided he needed to use the bathroom. Unfortunately, the toilet seat wasn't installed properly or it was broken. He fell and injured himself. So now he is suing Waffle House. And the list of injuries and complaints is ridiculous. It is a 17-page document of complaints here. Do you want to hear? First of all, what's he suing for? Does we have a monetary amount? It doesn't sell, give me a monetary amount. Okay. What are some of the complaints from this malfunctioning toilet? Lower back injury, lower back pain, bilateral sacrileic pain, which is like your tailbone, lumbar pain, bilateral leg pain, nimbless and tingling in the legs, limited range of motion in your lower back, limited range of motion in your legs, bilateral leg weakness, difficulty ambulating, right hand in wrist hand pain, grip strength, headaches. The court has heard enough. I'll give you $1,500, sir. As much as I love Waffle House, you got to go to the bathroom. You'll hold it. Just wait until you get home. You don't go to Waffle House to go to the bathroom. You go for the All-Star Breakfast. Or Smiling's got a great order. Smiling goes with the biscuit sometimes. Anyway, don't sue my Waffle House. Go to the bathroom at home like an adult.

News weather and traffic in three. When we come back, political analyst Stephen Lawson in studio. Hey, congrats to Jackie from Monroe. She won our grocery and gas giveaway, courtesy of reliable heating and air. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America. Since you were confirmed, the Department of Justice. has literally violated dozens of court orders to advance the president's agenda. Any excuse to play audio from Dick Durbin? My favorite name on the Senate side. That is from the Todd Blanche confirmation hearing. We will monitor that throughout the day here on 955.W.S.B. Joining us live in studio, Sea Island, Stephen. We're going to call them now political analyst Stephen Lawson. We missed you last week. You're on vacation at beautiful Sea Island. You've been waiting a week to use that Sea Island, Stephen. Actually, I just thought of it. That's how my mind works. We missed you last week, but you look tanned and refreshed and got that good Atlantic ocean air in your lungs. That's right. Any time down at the coast is time well spent. And you need to recharge because this is an election year. So we're going to be weighing heavily on your expertise on your official election station, 955 WSB. Let's start with we had Greg Blustein on from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Lieutenant Governor, Bert Jay Jones. Not endorsing Rick Jackson for the governor's race. I didn't even, it didn't even occur to me that that endorsement didn't come. And it sounds like it might not come. What's your take on this? Yeah, I don't. I think that is probably where most people felt, Mark, right? That it wasn't really something on their radar. As you mentioned, the AJC's Greg Blustein and Patricia Murphy got that exclusive interview with the lieutenant governor, fresh off of his loss to Rick Jackson in that runoff campaign. I was very revealing. Feeling interview, very interesting. I think there's clearly still some bitterness and sour grapes on the part of Lieutenant Governor. I talked a lot about just the length and how visceral and nasty that campaign got in that interview. But at the same time, I think stepping back and looking at this, Mark, that's one person and one voice. And I think what Rick Jackson is doing is looking forward and focused on November. and building a coalition that can win and can beat Keisha Lance Bottoms. I think most people that I talk to, including Republicans and independents and even some Democrats, I think, are really coming around to Rick Jackson supporting his campaign. I think he's got a lot of momentum. And I think what you're going to see is there may be some folks like the lieutenant governor, you know, who are kind of still off the reservation. But. the vast majority of people is certainly Republicans are going to be with. But, you know, and we talked about this during a very nasty, bloody primary. I mean, it was rough on both sides. You know, I was questioning, like, are we going to see the traditional reconciliation where the party comes together, no matter who the nominee is? That's generally what we see. But you mentioned, Lieutenant Governor is just one individual. And I think maybe, I might be wrong in this, there's still an act of lawsuit between Jackson and Jay Jones. That might be slowing down a possibility.

possible endorsement? Yeah, there is. It's actually a lawsuit from, and that came up in the interview. I think Greg Bluestin brought that up. It's actually a lawsuit on behalf of Bert Jay Jones's father. against the Jackson campaign. So that's going to be an interesting dynamic, you know, where that lands up. You know, that's certainly something to keep an eye on. That lawsuit was coincidentally filed before the runoff was over, which is an interesting note on the timing. But look, I think all of this is kind of a distraction. I think it's going to get put in the rearview mirror. You see Rick Jackson. He's out and about traveling the state, meeting with black business. his owners in the last couple weeks. So he's clearly sitting on the couch. He's clearly trying to expand his coalition, broaden the tent, and I think that's going to serve him well in November. So as you remember, and listeners might remember, with two days left in the runoff, Governor Brian Kemp endorsed Lieutenant Governor Bert Jay Jones. Is there any chance that the Jackson campaign might be? not be happy with the governor after that? I mean, they did win at the end of the day. They didn't make a difference. But can we expect Governor Brian Kemp to be out campaigning for Rick Jackson? I hope so. He should. You know, obviously, Brian Kemp has a lot on the line in terms of his legacy in seeing a Republican succeed him, right? There's been a ton of massive gains. Governor Brian Kemp has done a tremendous job over the last eight years in terms of job creation, tax cuts. funding, education, transportation, all of those things. You know, all of that, I think, is on the line for him. You mentioned he really went 0-4-1 endorsements between Derek Dooley and the U.S. Senate race and then that late endorsement of Bert Jay Jones. I think the timing on that, we talked about that, Mark, right? After early voting had really already happened, was very peculiar. I'm not sure that was a great move in hindsight. But look, I think Rick Jackson has been a huge supporter of Brian Kemp all along. I know Brian Kemp. really admires Rick Jackson. So I think you're going to see that. Everybody's going to be on the same team. Even with this Bert Jay Jones stuff, I think that's a small distraction. I think at the end of the day, just as the Democrats did with Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms and all of those Democrats that ran against Keisha Lance Bottoms, they all got on the same page. It may have taken them a couple weeks, but I think you're going to see the same thing. I agree with you. You know, the Bert Jay Jones non-endorsment might not be a big deal at one individual. But as you well know, Bert Jan... Bert Jay Jones's fans are rabid. Like his supporters were all in on Bert Jay Jones. And might they follow his leading and be like, you know what? If he's not for Jackson, I'm not for Jackson. I'm just going to sit this one. I mean, am I just throwing something against the wall and seeing if it sticks? Well, I mean, look, there is conventional wisdom might lead you to believe that. But what I would remind people is think about 2022 when you had Donald Trump backed candidates running against

Republican incumbents across the board. And think about David Perdue, all that, that, you know, visceral animosity that that fringe part of the party had against Brian Kemp, you know. But he won convincingly and then beat Stacey Abrams by seven and a half percent. So I think that, you know, everybody comes home at the end of the day. Everybody puts their jerseys on at the end of the day in November. The question, again, is who can go get those two or three hundred thousand swing independent voters? in the November election. That's what both sides are going to be focused on. I'm glad you mentioned that endorsement going back to 2022, because this just popped before you came in. A truth social president Trump, full-throated endorsement for Mike Lindell running for the governor seat in Minnesota, the My Pillow Guy. That's, to me, that's a fringe endorsement. Candidates matter. Is there any chance the pillow guy? gets the nomination there? I don't think so. I think he should probably go back to focusing on pillows in that race. I think that's a... It was weird to see that. Very odd. I know he's loyal to the president to maybe to a fault, but I mean, as strong as the president's endorsement can be, asked Thomas Massie, ask a number of people. I don't know if that's going to get Mike Lindell over the finish line. Yeah, it cuts both ways. I mean, and obviously in a state like Minnesota, right, that's, you know, center. left, you know, on a good day for Republicans, that's not going to help to have that endorsement. So, yeah, look, it cuts both ways. Obviously, in a Republican primary, it can be very powerful. We know that track record exists. We've seen that on full display over the last few months. But again, in states like Minnesota and states like Georgia, right, where we are at battleground state, you know, the jury is still out sometimes on those endorsements in general elections. Candidates always mad. candidates matter. Political. I know Stephen Lawson live in studio. Back to Georgia. Got a couple of early polls in the governor's race in the Senate race. I'm not putting too much stock in them. It's like just an early indication. But from what I've seen, it seems like Senator Alsop has got a lead over Senator Congressman Susan Collins. And in the governor's race, it seems pretty even or maybe Rick Jackson leading Keisha Lance Bottoms by a little bit. Am I reading those numbers correctly? Yeah, that's correct. You've basically had two public polls. You had a Foxx. news poll that was really a massive outlier from a lot of people's perspective. And then you had a WIC poll that kind of was a little bit closer. It had Jon Ossoff up, I believe, by about four or five points. And then had Rick Jackson. Yes. Yeah, had Rick Jackson up by one. I think that's about where it is. I think I do think Rick Jackson is probably running four or five points ahead of Mike Collins right now. We've talked about on this show. I think Jon Ossoff is in a very strong position heading right now, heading into November. But we know that's going to change. We know both of these races are going to be very tight. I do think that Rick Jackson is probably in terms of that contrast between himself and Keisha Lance Bottoms that we've talked about, Mark, I think, in a stronger position.

expected? Is it out of the order? I don't know what to make of his sister taking over the seat. Yeah, look, I think it's a fitting nod and a fitting tribute. So it's a tribute appointment. Yeah, well, yeah, I think so in the short term. I think the question is, does she want to run for the seat long term? I think that's an evolving question and an outstanding question. Obviously, Senate seats in South Carolina don't come up that often. And when they do, they're pretty safe. So I think you're going to see a lot of people trying to potentially for that seat long term. But it'll be interesting to see if she ends up being more than a placeholder. You know, a lot of times placeholders get in those seats and they do really well and they love it and they're welcomed by their constituents and other colleagues. And it ends up being a long-term thing. So that's something to keep an eye. All right. Before we go, can you just FaceTime Mitch McConnell real quick? I should do a proof of laugh. I talked to him for 20 minutes the other day. So it was a great conversation. There he is. Sea Island Stephen Lawson in studio. Good to see you, my friend. Dentons.com, by the way. Dentons.com. Jump in the car. We're going down to the peach pit. Get a milkshake. 1057 on the Mark Air show. David on Beverly Hills, 902 and O'Brien, Austin Green. David Silver. David Silver turns 53 today. The least popular, Ian Ziery, maybe. No one really liked David on Beverly Hills. When he started, he was kind of the outcast. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, happy birthday. He's older to me. That's interesting, you know. Much to Vinny's chagrin, we went along with Stephen Lawson, but it was great stuff. That being said, news weather and trafficking, too, when we come back, what's the future of daylight saving time? Next. on the Mark Aaron Show.