The Mark Arum Show 06-04-26 HR 1

Welcome, friends. Hope you're enjoying this beautiful Thursday morning. We have got a ton of stuff to talk about today in just a couple of minutes. We'll go to the nation's capital. Get the latest on the Iran War. We finally heard from President Trump yesterday in the Oval Office, what he had to say. The future of North Lake Mall, we discussed it yesterday in the program, Deborah. All of these shops getting evicted. We're getting some clarification now on what the future of the... I'm going to call it iconic. It's been there for a bit. The iconic... North Lake Mall. World Cup days away here in Atlanta. We've got an expert joining us in the 11 o'clock hour. How to avoid World Cup scams. Any huge event like this is going to bring the scammers from all over the globe. So we'll give you a little heads up on how do not get scammed as the World Cup heads to Atlanta. And a grand for gas continues. Your next chance to win a grand for gas. Come up around 10, 12 a.m. I'm going to give you a keyword. You enter that keyword into the USB radio app or online at W. vsbradio.com slash gas and you can win a grand for gas because I don't know if you noticed, Deborah, gas prices shot up as predicted. I heard from Alex Williams yesterday. He's like, it went up 40 cents in one day. Yeah, it's crazy out there. So a grand for gas next chance to win a thousand bucks. I want to start, though, the broadcast today with a little trip down memory lane. Deborah, when did you move to Atlanta, Deborah? Do you remember what year you moved? Right about 2000-ish. 2000-ish? Like right after, yeah. All right, so I beat you here by a little bit. I moved to Atlanta in the summer of 96. just graduated college. I came down. There were three days left in the summer game. So that's when I got here. And I quickly got educated about the lay of the land in the South, linguistically, culinarily, and in the sports world. So if you remember in 96, not to bring up a sore subject, but the Braves were playing the Yankees in the World Series. As a Braves and Yankees fan, I was on Cloud 9, and I turned on local sports talk radio here in Atlanta. And they're talking about the Alabama Georgia football game or something. I'm like, how are they talking about the Alabama, whatever SEC game was, that's what they were leading with on the sports talk stations. So I was not yet at WSB radio. I was working at my uncle's cigar store. I called up the radio station. I said, dude, the Braves and the Incies are in the World Series right now. Why are you talking about college football? He goes, are you new here? I said, yeah, I just moved here. He goes, oh, let me explain to you. College football is king. I think we can all agree that. Sports-wise, in the South, college football is the king. You grew up in the Midwest, Deborah, where college football is big, right? Big Ten, Wisconsin, Michigan. Particularly for me, yes. Yeah. I grew up in New England where college football was, I never went to a college football game. There was no local team to root for.

Most of the kids in my high school rooted for Notre Dame or Miami, you know, it was just, it was weird. There was no, it just wasn't a thing. So I was educated early on like, oh, college football is the king. And in college football, I don't have to tell you, Deborah, there are a lot of big rivalries, right? Georgia, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Alabama, all of these massive, massive rivalries. And they despise each other. Right. Georgia and Georgia Tech fans, Auburn, Alabama, the iron, like, they just, they're mortal enemies. Except when the planets align correctly and the Alabama fan and the Auburn fan can come together when this thing happens, when the Braves make the World Series. Right? You can, you can root for Alabama. You're probably a Braves fan. You can root for Auburn. You're probably a Braves fan. Big Georgia fan. Go dogs. Home of the dogs. Most Georgia fans are raves fans. Georgia Tech, go jackets. Whatever they, what do they say, John? I don't know. Go Jackets. They're all Braves fans. So I go back to the 2021 World Series with the Braves won at all. And it was a special time throughout the South because you could be hugging, you could be at Truis Park watching the game and the Braves hit a home run. And you'll hug the guy next to you. He might be an Auburn fan. You might be an Alabama fan. It doesn't matter. You're both Bravesant. So it's this perfect alignment of the sporting world planets that even the fiercest enemies. The clean old-fashioned hate. That's what they call Georgia Georgia Tech. But they're all Braves fans. That's why the 2021 Braves World Series was so special. And the 95 Braves World Series because it broke down barriers. Why am I bringing this up? Because I am over the moon ecstatic that the Knicks won game won yesterday of the NBA finals. And I'm trying to relate why I am as excited as I am to folks that might not care. In New York, similarly, you have Mets and Yankees fans. They despise each other. You have Rangers and Islanders fans. They despise each other. You have Jets and Giants fans. They despise each other. All of those franchises, though, come together to root for the New York Knickerbockers. So you're seeing excitement. I'm going to hug a Jets fan. I'm a Giants fan. I'll hug a Jets fan right now because he's a Knicks fan or she's a Knicks fan. I'm a die-hard Yankees fan. I hate the Mets. But you know what? I'm going to hug Mets fans because we're all Knicks fans. That's what's going on right now in New York sports fandom. Just like here in Metro Atlanta, where college football is king, the Braves can bring together arch rivals, nemesis, and root together. That's what's going on right now. That's why I'm so happy. That's why the Knicks are going to take it in four games, Vinny, as I predicted. The Knicks are breaking down barriers. Just like the Braves broke down barriers in 2020. You're not even a Spurs fan. I'm not here to be a Spurs fan. No. I'm here to root against y'all. Listen, don't steal my joy.

Don't steal my joy. You're happy. You're happy, though. There you go. Put a smile on your face then. I am ecstatic. Not ecstatic about the tick prices, Deborah. After the Knicks won, game one in San Antonio, cheapest get in the door seat for the first game at Madison Square Garden is $6,200. It's like a World Cup match. And that's like the Clark Howard seats. That's not even like courtside or, yeah. Anyway, I'm very happy. Go Nix. Go. And I hope you share my joy. My big, my New Year's resolution years ago is don't steal anyone else's joy. Whatever makes you happy, this makes me happy. I can hug my, I can hug Nets fans, Mets fans, Jets fans. They're disgusting. Those people are disgusting human beings. They're just, they're dirty, they're awful. Mets, you know Braves Nation, Mets fans are gross. But I'm going to hug them. Because Jalen Brunson is the goat. Anyway. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Anyway, welcome back to the Mark Aram Show. All right, I just wanted to give you that history lesson. Yes, college football is king. All right, let's start our team coverage on the Warren. Iran, joining us from ABC News. White House correspondent Karen Travers. Karen, for the first time and a long time, at least by President Trump standards. We heard from the President yesterday taking questions from reporters. I'm assuming the Ward Iran came up. What, if anything, did we hear? Do you get any clarification from the President yesterday? You know, not in terms of the negotiations. He said that they could be close to a deal. We have certainly heard that before. He said that it might be something that could happen in the coming days. But he also said it might not happen. The president was also commenting on the strikes that had happened overnight, Tuesday into Wednesday, the back and forth between the U.S. and Iran. But the Iranian strike at the airport in Kuwait that left one dead and more than 60 injured. He said the U.S. had hit Iran hard and they were responding, calling it reciprocating from something the United States had done. He was asked just flat out. Very simple question, you know, define a ceasefire at this point, given what we've seen over the last several weeks between the two countries. And he paused for kind of a brief second and said that he'd say that in that part of the world, a ceasefire is when you're shooting in a more moderate manner. But the president kind of said it's holding at that point, given his definition of it. But of course, these strikes have been continuing now over these last several weeks as negotiations have played out. Interesting. So as far as the administration is concerned, the ceasefire is still holding. Reports, though, that Iran still not happy with what Israel is doing in Lebanon. Yeah, and that is becoming such a complicating factor to this, a center point for the Iranians in the negotiations, insisting that there will not be a deal unless there is a ceasefire. Israel and Lebanon had agreed yesterday to renew a ceasefire as part of negotiations led by the United States. showing how difficult this is, the attacks continued there with Hezbollah firing rockets and Israel striking several locations in southern Lebanon. Karen Travis from ABC News joining us here on the Mark Aram Show. I believe after the president talked to reporters yesterday, Democrats were able to get, I believe, four Republicans to join them in a resolution for the war powers of President Trump. Is this performative? Is there a chance this actually has legs on Capitol Hill?

symbolic, but it certainly shows the sentiment of the House right now. The four Republicans did join the Democrats who support this resolution requiring the president to withdraw U.S. forces unless Congress approves military action. We have seen previous efforts to do this narrowly fail, but it is symbolic in nature at this point. It would go to the Senate for consideration, but it's actually not required to go to the president's death because of the type of resolution that it is. So this is, again, very symbolic. in nature. President, just a few seconds ago, responded on social media, calling it a meaningless vote, criticized those who voted for it, saying it was happening right in the middle of his final negotiations and called it an unpatriotic thing to do. Yeah, I heard from some of the president's spokespeople saying that this is the wrong time to do it, that this might limit the president's negotiation power with Iran if there seems to be a fractured support in the United States for this war. Mm-hmm. Sir, that's what the White House has been saying. You know, they also said that this was driven by absences, like the numbers issue for the Republicans, because, of course, that narrow majority. But, again, they've been trying to do this now for multiple rounds before this. There's clearly a push for it, and clearly there is some support for it there. But the president's saying, you know, this is happening in the middle of his final negotiations to end that. It's not clear that these are the final negotiations. They've also sort of been saying that for a couple weeks now. Finally, Karen, was the president asked that? about the anti-weaponization legislation and slush fund? He was yesterday asked about this, and he defended it saying it was something that he wanted to see move forward. But in terms of the specifics, he was referring questions to his lawyers. Indeed. All right. Karen Travers, ABC. Karen, great stuff. If I don't talk to you, have a fantastic weekend, my friend. You too. Thank you. It was good to see President Trump in front of a report. It's been, I mean... It wasn't like a Biden-esque long absence, but President Trump usually daily will take questions to a reporter. And it's been about a week, so he was there. Pulled this audio from President Trump, offering some clarification on the proposed plan to remove the nuclear bunkers in Iran. Here's the exchange with a reporter during the Q&A following the executive order signing in the Oval yesterday. You said last week that the U.S. would go in and dig out the buried nuclear material. With them. With them. Right. Did Iran actually agree to that? Well, it depends on what day you're talking about. They did agree. And then sometimes they agreed. Well, that's what I'm saying is one of the things we talk about. It's very overrated. I'm the one that overrated. Updates on the war and the negotiations throughout the day, of course, here on 95-5. WSB. What they started pulling up were cannon that dated to the mid-1700s. So that placed it well before the Civil War. And working with experts, we found out that the cannon date from the mid-1700s manufacture. And we're likely associated with the siege of Savannah in 1779. Unbelievable. That is the voice of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Andrea Farmer. She's an archaeologist with the Corps as we celebrate our 200.

50th birthday, Deborah. That's phenomenal. Where do they find these cannons? What's the deal with them? And can we see them? Yeah, so they have 17, 1,500 pound cannons. And like she said, they go back pre-American Revolutionary War. And they're going to be on display opening over the 4th of July weekend. So just in time for our birthday at the Savannah. What is it? The museum there in Savannah. Not the Savannah bananas game. Unfortunately, they won't be there. But the museum right there. And as they were, you know how they were talking about making that trench bigger for the ships to come in? Yeah, yeah. Dredging it. Yeah, that's where they kind of found. No kidding. Like one. And then they kind of started finding a whole bunch of them. That's awesome. And first they're like, oh, these are probably from the Civil War, right? That was the first thing in their mind. But then they did more research and cleaned them up. And they realized this is like before the United States was technically the United States. And thanks to France for making us the United States. And so, yeah, they. Lean them up and they'll be on display soon. If you want a refresher ahead of our 250th birthday, a bunch of documentaries just dropped on Netflix. And they're legit. Like they have presidents in there. Like George Bush is a and Obama. Like they're in there. Like these are legit documentaries. On Netflix, there's a bunch, one on George Washington, which I watched. One on Thomas Jefferson, I watched. Holy smokes. I didn't learn, I didn't know much about. He's a character. Wow. Like, anyway, if you want to get pumped up for our 250th, definitely check that out. Now, we know, you know, the American 250th celebration in D.C. I was two during the bicentennial, so I don't remember what was going on. But I would imagine, like, are we going to do something here in Atlanta on July 4th? There's got to be something big to celebrate that. You know, I asked my parents what happened during the bicentennial. And dad, he's like, well, I have some quarters and some, he has, like, coins. And that's all he remembers. But I remember it being a bigger deal than the 250th is. Because it was a solid 200? Maybe, even number, round number. It would be 50 more years. Anyway, listen, it's a big deal. We're turning 250. That's the longest democracy in history, I believe, is too. Yeah, so we have a lot to celebrate. 1776 menu, the menu when the country was founded, these are the food choices of Americans back then? They were kind of doing this research to say, you know, this is probably what Americans were eating as the country was being found. Colonialists, I guess. They weren't technically called Americans, right, colonialists. And they went by what was grown in the area, you know, because you didn't have from Kroger shipping and stuff all over the place. Publix wasn't available 24-7. You're not getting oranges in Massachusetts. Yeah, seasonal food. And then remember, they didn't have electricity or refrigeration the way that we do. So these things had to kind of stay for multiple days. So things that they have on here are something you've probably eaten Brunswick stew. Oh, yeah. That was very common in the colonial days. Wilted salad, which makes me not want to eat it. No. Yeah, it says it's turtle meat, rich broth. Yeah, mostly turtle meat. Okay. Yeah, that doesn't sound good. Succatash, have you read Sucatash? Oh, yeah, I love Sucatash. Mush pudding. Boiled milk, not like the pudding that we have now. Pigeon pie, because pigeons were everywhere. They used pigeons as a daily meat. And potted meat like spam.

I would not have been as husky as I am now. Nobody was, though, right? What about corn, right? The maze, didn't we? Wasn't that part of the diet? Clam chowdered, lobsters, clams? No, all right. Anyway, happy early birthday. We need to blow this out. We need to have a great 250th birthday celebration. All right, Juddy, buddy's got your news, weather, and traffic. When we come back, Bill Pulte's appointment, drawing some criticism on both sides of the aisle. We'll go in depth next on the Mark Aram Show. 937 on the Mark Am show. I absolutely love this song. This is the Mamas and the Pappas, California Dreaming. Happy 82nd birthday, Michelle Phillips, former singer of the Mamas and the Pappas, former wife of John Phillips, mother of China Phillips, and a former wife of Dennis Hopper. What? I thought the lead singer of Mamas and the Pappas died. Didn't she choke on... You're thinking of Mockass? Yeah, that's a different one. Oh, okay. Anyway, isn't that a great song? Love that. Welcome back to the Mark Air Show. Don't forget, this is our last week for a grand for gas after this week. That giveaway goes away. So your next chance to win a grand for gas coming up at 10.12 a.m. I am going to give you a keyword. You enter that keyword into the WSP radio app or online at WSB Radio. dot com slash gas. And you can win a grant for gas and perfect timing too as we sadly lost the gas tax exemption. Maybe if the war continues, we'll get that back on. But right now, no gas tax suspension. So you really, really need a grant for gas. Your next chance to win 10, 12 a.m. here on the Mark Aram show. Joining us on the program, correspondent Rory O'Neill. Rory, good morning. The other day, I was taken aback by President Trump's appointment to replace Tulsi Gabbard of the acting director of National Intelligence with Bill Pulte. Apparently, I was not alone in questioning this appointment. What can he tell us? Yeah, you're in pretty good company because Bill Pulte, whose grandfather created that Bill Pulte home construction company, doesn't really have a background in national intelligence. He's been a big fundraiser for President Trump, very loyal to him, and has been working as the Federal Housing Finance Agency Chief, which makes sense, giving his background in home building. But yeah, so for him to suddenly go from that job to DNI chief, replacing Tulsi Gabbard Gabb. is a big leap. And actually, you know, it's one of the jobs where you need qualifications. And I'm just, just don't mean to do a good job. I mean, it's in the statute. It says any presidential nominee for DNI... shall have extensive national security expertise, and there's nothing in Bill Pulte's background to suggest that he does. My first hesitation was not, I didn't know much about Bill Pulte's background. I know he's a loyalist to the president, but, you know, he's going to serve this while serving in his current role in the administration, while still serving as the head of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To me, those are three really big jobs that each individually might demand 100% of your attention in time. Right.

And the job is sort of nicknamed as America's top spy. And here's one of the issues, especially the Democrat, to stir in the pot over, that, well, Bill Pulte, while running the federal housing finance agency, which oversees Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, he did the research and found information that suggested New York Attorney General Letitia James and a member of the Federal Reserve Board in two separate cases sort of fudged up their mortgage applications. And it was in that role he was in. able to dig up the dirt. So the fear is that you make him America's top by will his job being using every record available in the federal government to dig up dirt on President Trump's enemies. Now, as his appointment is acting, that acting word is very important because it doesn't need confirmation. And President Trump is seemingly willing to keep that acting title for a long time. So he doesn't have to go through the confirmation process. Yeah, because it might be a pretty rough time. to get him confirmed. Senator Mitch McConnell has already come out to say he's a no on this. Now, you know, Mitch McConnell's vote, he voted against Tulsi Gabbard too. So it's not enough, but we've heard a lot of criticism coming from several Republicans. By the way, did you see Secretary Scott Bessent in the hearing room yesterday? Not a fan of the Thom Tillis. Yeah, Thom Tillis asked Secretary Bess in the hearing. Is it true, Mr. Secretary, that you threaten? to punch Bill Pulte in the mouth, and Secretary Scott Bessent responded by saying, no, sir, I threatened to kick his ass. Wow. Correspondent Rory O'Neill joining us here on the Mark Arup Show. So with this bipartisan pushback on the Bill Pulte nomination, do you think President Trump might move quickly to find someone else, or you think he's going to stick to his guns and try to get Bill Pulte in this job full-time? Yeah, I think that getting him in there full-time, I think, is going to be nearly impossible. How long he can make him acting, DNI, is a bit of an open question still. But again, it is a critical role in national security, essentially... leading up all of our various intelligence agencies to brief the president on any potential threats to the homeland, and to have a real estate builder and big campaign donor in that job, that one may be a stretch. Final quick question for you, Rory, Nix, in four or five? Oh, come on, go Spurs. Goodbye, Rory. Thanks, Mark. Have a good day, Rory. Yeah, Roy's the Celtics fan. Rory O'Neill there. So again, Deborah, you remember you and I were talking about when the Bill Pulte appointment came in. My biggest hesitation was like, he's already got two very important jobs. How can he handle the third? More on this. Again, I'm not scrutinizing the pick. I was questioning the pick because I didn't know enough about Bill Pulte to scrutinize the pick. I was just questioning like, how can he do all three jobs at once? He's facing new scrutiny over his lack of experience at a time where the U.S. faces a heightened threat environment, ABC's Karen Hula, with more. Growing backlash to President Trump's pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte.

And as Rory said, you know, he's acting. in this replacement of Tulsi Gabbard, and Rory seems to think that there's no chance he would get that full-time. That acting thing might be going away for Attorney General Todd Blanche. President Trump saying he's going to nominate Todd Blanche for the full-time job as Attorney General, which could be complicated by the current revolt on that January 6th, $1.8 billion fund. ABC's Jay O'Brien. Todd Blanche has become the face of this fund on Capitol Hill, including in a tense meeting last month, staunch allies of the president warned Todd Blanche that this fund was a political mistake in their view. And there are also concerns among some Republican senators that Trump, who is openly said, including this week, that he still wants to pay January 6 defendants and Todd Blanche could use the Department of Justice still to do just that. I asked one Republican senator just yesterday if he was concerned about that. He said, quote, who wouldn't be? All right. So Todd Blanche did get confirmed as the assistant. Attorney General under Pam Bondi. So he's already been through confirmation process once, but that was not for the heading up of the DOJ, the big attorney general. I don't know if he get confirmed right now, even though the Republicans hold a majority in the Senate because of a couple of things. One, Todd Blanche was President Trump's former personal attorney. Two, Pam Bondi in her testimony last week that we didn't get to hear or see, but was reported by congressmen and senators in the meeting, said Todd Blanche has been in charge of the Epstein files from day one. pushing everything on his plate. Like Todd Blanche has been heading up the Epstein files. That I think could draw some criticism maybe from a Lisa Murkowski on the Republican side of the Senate. And I just don't know if President Trump has the political might to push the confirmation of Todd Blanche to the full-time job as Attorney General. Interesting. It's interesting times we're living in.

9.54 on the Mark Aram Show. Everyone knows this song. Blues away. We used to believe it or not, Dev, they would play this in the locker room, the Maris College baseball locker. Well, we didn't really have a locker room. And I was like, why are we playing? Garth Brooks was everywhere in the early 90s. He was the biggest selling artists of that decade. Yeah. Which leads us, why is... Garth in the news today. It's a good reason. He apparently has been offered how much money for his music catalog? He is seeking about $2 billion to sell off his music catalog and recording rights that would make him the wealthiest singer on the entire planet. So he's offering that. No one's offered it to him yet. Not yet, but if you pay attention to artists that do this, the $2 billion mark is kind of normal now. That's insane. Insane. And I know artists in the past have regretted selling their catalogs, but at $2 billion, if someone does pay them that, go ahead. Someone wants to offer me $2 million for my audio catalog. I will accept it. I think it depends on the artists and how close they are to the end of their career. How much do you think Garth Brooks is worth right now? It says here. 400 million, yeah. So he's not hurting for money, but 2 billion. Meaning licensing and commercials. Take it all. Exactly. Take everything I got. He hasn't officially retired from making music or performing, but knowing he wouldn't have to do it as much as he gets older, that's a nice assurance. I met Garth Brooks once, and he smelled amazing. He did. I don't know what cologne he was wearing, but he smelled fantastic. Do you wear cologne, Vinnie? Yeah, I wear collo. All right. Here's a tip for the cologne wearing fellows out there. If you don't wear cologne, don't worry about it. I went like a period of 10 years where I didn't wear it. Now I wear it on the regular. When you're putting your cologne on, Vinnie, do you spray it on yourself or do you put it on your hand and then dab? On myself. Okay. I put it on my hand and then dab behind the ears or whatever. If you are put it on the hand first kind of guy. Put it on your left hand. Spray your cologne in your left hand, dab it wherever you want, and then preferably wash your hands. I shake a lot of hands in my work at WSB Radio, and I shook some dude's hand yesterday, and he puts his cologne on with his right hand, apparently, because my right hand stunk, like, whatever the hell he was... And you have to wash it like three times to get it off. After three times, it's still... Oh, man. So, all right, listen, wear a cologne. I think it's good. You want to smell good for your friends, neighbors, coworkers, family, spouse, whatever. But put the cologne on with your left hand, because no one shakes with the left hand. Very few people shake it on with your left hand. So when you shake someone's hand, they don't smell like you for a week. I have no idea. I shook a lot of hands. Marking the territory. I was like, what the? I'm just sniffing my, I was like, goodness gracious. Speaking of washing hands. Shout out to Amazon. They did come through with my employees must wash hands before returning to work. We're going to put them on in the men's room. I'm thinking on the inside door as you go out.

So just to shame the folks, not on the mirror in front of the sink because people... No, because they're walking past the sink anyway. Exactly right. So we're going to do that. But shout out, Amazon, quickly getting these to me. All right, news weather and traffic and three, when we come back, update on our top local stories. And yes, a chance for you to win a grand for gas. A thousand dollars up for grabs next on the Mark Aaron show.