RMN 12.12.25: Hour 1

Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Richmond's morning news on News Radio, WRVA. My name is Rich Scherer. Thank you so much for joining this morning. All right, Laram went off, no bed rot. You know, bed rot is? I want to make sure that all you boomers understand the words that we young hipsters use. Bed rot is, alarm goes off at the snooze bar, and you just sit there in your bed that is so comfortable. You lie there under those five blankets that you have. Maybe your dog or your cat is snuggled up with you. You've got an extra pillow that you're holding on to. Maybe you've got more than one pillow like most people do. And you're just so comfy. You're just snug as a bug and a rug and you don't want to get up. You don't want to face the day. You don't want to see your boss, your neighbor, your kids. Listen, I get it. But you're an adult. Get up. Get after it. It's Friday. Let's go. No bed rot today. Do not hit that snooze bar. Do not quiet me. Get up, get going. Time to get our day started. Let's just go out and kick some butt today, shall we? We've got a lot going on. It is a very busy news day this morning. Here on Richmond's Morning News, we'll have the brief for you coming up here in just a bit. Governor George Allen also joins us on the program today. And, you know, it's Friday when Dave Saunders saunter's into the program to give us the best of what to do this weekend. So. Without further ado, let's get after it. It's time for Richmond's morning news brief here on News Radio, WRVA. And now, five things you need to know. Number one. After Senate votes failed Thursday to renew Affordable Care Act subsidies, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the GOP is at fault. Tens of millions of people will see their premiums double or triple or more next year. Republicans now own America's health care crisis. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Chuck Schumer for not embracing what she said has been done beyond Congress. The president's policies of bringing down drug prices, these most favored nation deals, why hasn't Chuck Schumer ever come out in support of those? In 10 days, senators are set to leave Washington for Christmas and return after the new year when the subsidies have expired. Gernal Scott. Fox News. They're not going to get anything done in the next few days. Those Obamacare subsidies will expire. Armageddon will be upon us. We're heading towards another government shutdown, folks. And watching both sides posture back and forth, the one person that I tell you, the people they're going to suffer the most. are the American people, whether those that were brought into Obamacare enticed with great subsidies that were never to be permanent or those that are going to get cut with the government shutdown. We're just heading back down this stupid rabbit hole of stupidity in Washington, D.C. We'll give you all the latest on that coming up on Richmond's Morning News. Number two.

Judge Tony Graff Jr. said he would consider allowing cameras inside the county courtroom during the trial of Tyler Robinson. That issue is expected to be handled on February 3, 26th. Judge Graff said he found the act of banning cameras to be disproportionate to the hearing. Meanwhile, he did lay out some ground rules for transmission during these proceedings. Transmission can't begin until courts in session. It has to end as soon as the court sessions are over. Cameras will be where the bailiffs are, not where the defendant is, like normal. And any violation of decorum could cause a broadcast ban. So the accused assassin of Charlie Kirk appeared in court yesterday. Listen, I've watched these things. My job. I'm going to monitor this stuff for you. I just will tell you on a personal note between this guy and the one in New York, I don't even want to say their names because I find them to be so vile. Watching them in court with a smirk on their face, like we see the guy in New York who shot the health care executive. We saw a person who is accused of killing Charlie Kirk stand there with a smirk on his face, and I'm not a body language expert, but watching these two, and it didn't look like they had any remorse. Eyes weren't down on the ground. They were sitting there shoulders up. Kind of like Brian Colberger did before he got his sentence. It just galls me. Now, the big question is, do we need to have the spectacle of what this trial will be on television? Do we need to have either one of these on television? Go back to the O.J. Simpson trial. Did it make us better? Did it help us at all? Did it help us understand anything? We're going to talk about that coming up this morning on Richmond's Morning News. Number three. Anti-Eyes protesters interrupted her opening statement. Police removed and arrested two disruptors, and so began a series of tense exchanges between Kristi Noem and committee Democrats. Secretary Kristi Noem testified that the Biden administration border crisis remains a threat to the U.S. We don't necessarily know... all of the people that are in this country, who they are and what their intentions are. When Secretary Kristi Noem left the hearing, she was quickly surrounded by jeering protesters. In the middle of the crowd, Kristi Noem shared an embrace with an angel mom. Her son was shot and killed by a previously deported illegal immigrant in 2002. Could you imagine how incredibly vapid you must be? Could you imagine how soulless you must be? It's Kristi Noem. The director of Homeland Security is standing there talking to an angel mom. You know what an angel mom is? That's somebody whose children were taken, snatched from this planet, killed by someone who was in the country illegally. She's sitting there spending a few moments with an angel mom.

on Capitol Hill to have people surrounding Kristi Noem calling her a Nazi and a Gestapo and telling her she's running concentration camps, which by the way, none of those are true. But what kind of person do you have to be? What kind of soulless person do you have to be while she's standing there talking with someone whose child was taken from them? And you scream those vile things at her while she's talking to someone who lost their child. There's a whole bunch of just, we talk about cognitive dissonance, mental gymnastics that you got to be able to do to do something so heinous and inhumane to stand there, disturbing someone trying to console somebody who lost their child? To me, it just makes me shake my head. We're going to give you the, I was going to say the best of it. It's actually the worst of Kristi Noem on Capitol Hill. It turned into a circus. It was a clown show yesterday. We'll play you the low lights from that. It's really disappointing. Number four. All right, coming up tomorrow, I am very, very excited, honored, and touched. There's a listener who I become friends with. We see each other every morning when I stop and get my breakfast brieal at Wawa. Really good guy, J.B. He is part of an organization. He's got a club. He's got a Wrangler Club. And they are going to be with us tomorrow. I'm going to be with them tomorrow. That's tomorrow's reads across America. I've always wanted to participate in this when I lived out west. And I would see it when they had the Rees Across America started, I believe, in Arlington National Cemetery. And tomorrow we'll have Rees across America and Richmond at the Richmond National Cemetery. I am going to ride over. I think it begins from at 9 a.m. over at the National Cemetery. But I'm pretty excited because I'm going to ride with the River City Ranglers Jeep Club and escort the big wreath carrying the wreaths from Ashland to the Richmond. National Cemetery. So I'm going to be there. There's Jeep clubs. There's motorcycles. They're going to join the convoy, and they're going to escort those wreaths. Sorry. Thinking about it makes me get a little teary-eyed. But we'll be out there tomorrow putting the wreaths on the tombstones of those...

men and women in uniform that made the ultimate sacrifice. So I encourage everybody that if you can, if you got a few moments, it's such a beautiful program, such a beautiful program. I was originally going to go up to Arlington and experience it in Arlington National Cemetery. And then my buddy, J.B., said, hey, how about joining us right here in your town of Richmond? My new home is in Richmond, so I'm going to be part of this. So again, River City, Ranglers, Jeeps are going to be part of that convoy. He invited me to ride with him and his Jeep. I'm so touched. I'm so excited. I can't wait to be there. So thank you. And I hope we have a lot of people show up tomorrow. The more people, the merrier, as we remember all of those. On Reeds Across America Day, they'll be at Arlington, they'll be at national cemeteries throughout the country. I encourage everybody to join us tomorrow as we lay the rees at our fallen heroes. Number five. The magazine, selecting eight tech leaders, calling them the architects of AI as this year's honorees, citing 2025 as the year AI became a regular part of the mainstream. A social media post claimed the group was selected, quote, for delivering the age of thinking machines, for wowing and worrying humanity. Among the group of eight, Tesla's Elon Musk, met as Mark Zuckerberg, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang. Other contenders included last year's honorary President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Leo the 14th. The distinction was first given in 1927 and aims to honor the person Times editors believe most shaped headlines during the year. Kevin Ureskes, Fox News. Time magazine and their person of the year, they've honored everybody. And it's not really an honor. Like, I don't give it to the person a year. They give it to the one who has made the most news. I would have thought for sure 100% it would have been Charlie Kirk is the person of the year that rocked America to its core. They give it to the AI tech pros. We're going to get into that coming up on the program as well. I think that's a big swing and a miss for the people at Time Magazine. You wonder why we don't buy magazines? There you go. All right. Coming up with the program, we will talk about... The clown show that we saw in D.C. with Kristi Noem up on the hill. But before we do that, let me remind everybody that the weather is getting a little frightful out there. So if your roof's not ready to go, what are you going to do? Here's what happens. It rains. It snows. There's frost. There's sleep. And it gets in between the shingles in your house. And it expands when it freezes. Then it comes back out. Water seeps in, gets underneath, gets into your attic, and then you're in big trouble. So before you get to that point, make sure your roof is 100% ship shape. And if you see any little dots or little marks on the ceiling, you need to get someone over there real quick to take a look at it. That's my friend Billy Kane and his family at A-plus roofing. They're trusted people. They're your neighbors. They go to church with you. They live in this community. They have professional roofers that have been trained on how to find the condition of your roof. Don't trust anybody else. This is so important, especially as we're going to start getting hit with more and more bad weather. Call right now before it's too late, 804752,0008, 804752,0008. Go online to 8plusroofing.com. Hey, good morning, everybody. This is the voice of Virginia News Radio, WRVA, celebrating 100 years.

in the Commonwealth. All right. I'm trying to keep my holiday spirits up. I want to hear from me this morning on the James River Air text line, 833804, 1140, 833804, 1140. Mark from Bonner. Hey, Rich, the Scots have an aim for sleeping in after your normal waking time. Herckel, Durkle. All right, I'm going to have to look that up. I trust Mark from Bonn Air, but I've never heard that before. All right, I'm going to have to look that up to see what that really means. Herkle, Durkle. Somebody knows, help us out this morning on the James River Air text line, 833, 804, 1140. I am a recovering bedrock champion. I'll put it to you this way. I say, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up. Part of that is just self-motivation because I know my alarm goes off about 3 o'clock. And my feeling is in the morning, if I wake up and my eyes just feel like sandpaper, I'll hit the snooze bar. But I also know I can't really keep hitting the snooze bar because I've got to get up, I got to get to work. I try to get to work before 430. Today I got in like 440, 435, 440. I think it was a second one in the building. But I know that if I keep pinning that snooze bar, I ain't going to get up. So that's why I say you have to motivate yourself. You have to seize the day. You have to do something. Now, by the way, I will tell everybody. This is just me being ridiculous, but I have eight alarms that I have set throughout the house just to make sure that I don't oversleep for Richmond's Morning News. Although I do now I actually do wake up before the alarm for some ungodly reason. I also wake up that early on Saturday. It's Sunday as well. But... Bed rot's a thing, and if you don't, it just, it could ruin your whole day. I mean, do you feel better if you get up, you get after it, you get dressed, you get going, or would you feel better if you lied in bed for another 45 minutes just rotting away? It's kind of like what Admiral William McCraven, he was the head of the Navy SEALs, said in a famous speech of the University of Texas, make your bed. Because no matter how bad your day is, no matter what doesn't go your way, when you come home and you go to bed that night, you're going to come to a freshly made bed. and you at least accomplish one thing. If everything else goes wrong, if you make your bed every day, at least you'll accomplish one thing that you can hang your hat on. So get up, let's get after it. Coming up, there was a clown show yesterday disguised as a congressional hearing. I'm going to bring you the low lights of it. It's going to make you mad. We'll do that next to our news radio, WRVA.

Anti-Eyes protesters interrupted her opening statement. Police removed and arrested two disruptors, and so began a series of tense exchanges between Kristi Noem and committee Democrats. Secretary Kristi Noem testified that the Biden administration border crisis remains a threat to the U.S. We don't necessarily know... all of the people that are in this country, who they are and what their intentions are. When Secretary Kristi Noem left the hearing, she was quickly surrounded by jeering protesters. In the middle of the crowd, Kristi Noem shared an embrace with an angel mom. Her son was shot and killed by a previously deported illegal immigrant in 2002. Wow, what a circus. A room full of clowns. The only thing that they were missing were the little cars were about 35 people got out of them because I watched that yesterday, and I thought of two things. Good morning, everybody. It's Richmond's Morning News here on News Radio, WRVA. My name is Rich Scherer. I'm looking for your reaction. I want to know if you're as outraged as I am. I know we're addicted to outrage. I know we get upset, but this one is legitimate. Let me know. You can call into the program 833-804-1140. I know it's early, but 833-804-1140. Or you can always use the James River Air text line. I want to get your feedback from this 833, 804-1140. I'm going to tell you mine right now. I'm going to give you a bunch of reasons why we need to vote all of them out. We have term limits in this country, folks. It's called the ballot box. And let me ask you, if these people represented you, what would you think? Let me start with this. The biggest straw man argument that you saw all day long, Democrat congressman stood there, had brought in on an iPad a Zoom call with someone who has been deported or rounded up or picked up by Kristi Noem and kicked out of the country who happened to be a combat veteran. Take a listen. Madam Secretary, we are joined on Zoom by a gentleman named Sayjun Park. He is a United States Army combat veteran who was shot twice while serving our country in Panama in 1989. Like many veterans, he struggled with PTSD and substance abuse after his service. He was arrested in the 1990s for some minor drug offenses, nothing serious. He never hurt anyone besides himself, and he's been clean and sober for 14 years. He is a combat veteran. a Purple Heart recipient. He has sacrificed more for this country than most people ever have. Earlier this year, you deported him to Korea, a country he hasn't lived in since he was seven years old. Will you join me in thanking Mr. Park for his service to our country? Sir, I'm grateful for every single person that has served our country and follows our laws. And can you please come Mr. Park why you deported him? Every one of them needs to be involved. Wow, Kristi Noem, you're a horrible, awful person. You deported a combat veteran? How dare you, if that were only the case on CNN later, of all places CNN actually corrected? Here's the real story behind the U.S. Army combat veteran who's now living in South Korea, who zoomed into the congressional hearing. Take a listen.

This is why people hate congressional hearings, and this is why people don't trust the media, is because the reality is Mr. Park. While he was here, never chose to pursue citizenship. He was here on a green card under Obama. That green card was revoked because of drug possession. And ultimately, he made the decision that he wanted to self-deport. That is a decision he made. It was not like ICE. raided his home, took him from his family, and deposited him in a foreign land. We do know that ICE has been. But just some context. Just some context. He did not, he was not deported by Christine Ome. He decided to self-deport because he had a deportation order that was pending. He was found that he had violated U.S. laws that would serve in the military. He had jumped bail, and there were junk charges against him, and he had an order for removal. So with that order for removal hanging over his head, he did what he should have done when he got the original order for removal. He left the country, went back to South Korea. He self-deported because he knew that ICE was going to send him back to South Korea. Why? Because the due process of having an order for removal. But if you would have listened to the congressman, you wouldn't have known all of that. You would have been saying, look, they're being awful to veterans. That, that I thought was going to be the worst. But it just got worse from that. Let's take a listen to this congresswoman, LaMonica McIver. You might remember her name. Take a listen. Recruiting to all of our different agencies. Do you agree that using DHS resources to target members of Congress is an abuse of power? Excuse me, would you say that again? You would have heard me if you stopped talking and listen to my questions. Do you agree that using DHS resources to target members of Congress is an abuse of power? We are not doing that. We are out there enforcing the law doing our work and we are allowing oversight. Of course, we're not going to get any answers. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. You're trying to remember. Where do I remember that name, La Monica McIver? I know I've heard that before. You know when you're sitting there and you see something pop up. I know that name where from? Ah, let me take you back to the Wayback Machine. You remember in New Jersey where there were members of Congress that stormed the gate of an ICE detention facility and got into a pushing and shoving match and turned into a melee? And there happened to be a member of Congress who was laying her hands pushing and shoving and body checking ice officers? who's now under investigation, I believe she's under indictment, if I'm not mistaken for that and is facing actually criminal charges of interfering with ICE officers and putting her hands on them. Yeah, that would be the same congresswoman standing in there accusing Kristi Noem of all that. That's where you know the name, La Monica McIver. She's the one that was in the middle of all that nonsense in New Jersey, and now she's sitting there. As a member of Congress saying, why are you using ICE to come after Congress? Ma'am, I would submit to you. Do you have the same outrage? Do you have the same outrage when Jack Smith of the special counsel were monitoring and looking through the phone records of members of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Senate? When they went after members of the U.S. Senate investigating them?

During their investigations into Donald Trump, were you outraged when they actually had subpoenas and subpoenaed secretly, members of Congress's phone records to see who they were talking to? Were you outraged at that or were you just outraged at the fact that you went to an ICE detention facility? You decided to throw yourself in the middle of something. You try to storm the gate. You try to just push your way around because look at this big pin I have. I'm a member of Congress. I could go do whatever I want, whether I put people in danger or not. Somebody's got to tell me what the rules are for members of Congress when you go to, quote unquote, have oversight. I don't think you could just barge in wherever you want to go when you want, how you want, when it comes to, I don't know, public safety. Do I just get to barge into an iced detention facility? Can I just barge into the county jail with no call, no protocol, no anything? Do I just get to show up where I want and stand there and scream, I'm a member of Congress. This is oversight. There's that one member of Congress, and I had the tape. I didn't get to it this week. They had an ice raid in a taco stand in Tucson, Arizona, and there were protesters there because, of course, they let them know what's going on beforehand, and she got in the middle of the skirmish with the protesters and the ice officers, and they're advancing on the ice officers, so they use pepper spray. to back people up, and then she claimed, I was pepperish, in her aid standard screaming, she's a member of Congress, she's a member of Congress, you need to identify yourself, in the middle of, in the middle of a melee. Wow, you can't make this stuff up. Now, unfortunately, that's not the worst of the clown show that they called a congressional hearing yesterday because. Representative Thompson takes the cake. He's talking about our National Guardsmen. One shot in the head and killed the other fighting for his life. And here's how he described what happened in Washington, D.C., with our National Guardsmen that work underneath the Department of Homeland Security and Chris Christie Home. Here's how he described the murder. of one of our service members. I got to play you the tape because if I just read it to you, you'd never believe me. NCTC reference the unfortunate accident that occurred with the National Guardsman being killed. You think that wasn't an unfortunate accident? I mean, it was a terrorist. Wait, wait, look, I'll get it straight. Then you can respond. He shot our National Guardsman in the head. Look. Mr. Chairman, will you direct the witness to allow me to ask my question? It was an unfortunate situation, but you blamed it solely on Joe Biden. NCTC. Can I play that one more time? NCTC reference the unfortunate accident.

that occurred with the National Guardsman being killed. You think that was an unfortunate accident? I mean, there's a terrorist. Wait, wait, look, I'll get it straight. Then you can... He shot our National Guardsman in the head. Look. So, wait a second. So, wait a second. Okay, will you... Hold on a second. I can't, I can't listen to this. No, I need to listen to this, but just... The fact that he goes, this unfortunate incident. What unfortunate incident? You know, the unfortunate incident? You mean the terrorists that drove cross-country and murdered a member of the U.S. military? That's what you call an unfortunate accident? I don't even need to throw more gasoline on the fire. That just stands on its own. I want to get your reaction. By the way, I do have this amazing. text message. Keep defending these people, Rich, when they're going to be facing charges to Hague for the damage they've done to human rights in the land of the free. And the home of the brave, it's absolutely a moral failure. Please describe. Please tell me how. No one has henchmen have deported 300 U.S. citizens. That's not true. Show me the 300 U.S. citizens that have been deported. U.S. citizens have been detained? Yes. We told you the story of the one the other day that was driving her boyfriend's car. who had an order of deportation. They saw the car. They were looking for him. They pulled her over. She refused to give her ID. She refused to get out of the car. She refused to cooperate. So she was detained. Is that somebody you're talking about? And then once they found out, yes, she does have a license. She is a U.S. citizen. She was let go. But if she would have given her license up at the first time and not argued or tried to find out who she was, none of that would have happened. Is that one of the 300 people you're talking about? Because I've been monitoring this. And if there were 300 U.S. citizens that have been deported, I think ABC News, CNN, MS now, and everybody else would have led with that. You're entitled to your opinions. You're not entitled to make up facts. Number for you to join us. 833, 804, 1140. 833, 804, 1140. You could text us as well in the James River Air text line. All right, coming up on the program, I will talk about something happier, I promise. I'm going to help out with a toy drive. for the VCU Children's Hospital next week. I just want to put that on your radar. I'm going to ask you to help me collect toys for kids. They have a little bit of a shortage at the Children's Hospital, and we're going to help solve that issue. coming up next week. So just put that on the radar. I'm going to ask you to help me with a new unwrapped toy gift card. We're going to make sure the kids at VCU Children's Hospital. And when you're in the hospital during Christmas, the holidays, the parents, we're going to try to ease the parents burden a little bit, do something nice for these kids. So just mark that on your calendar. My friends at Pearson Chrysler Jeep Dodge have asked me to help with the toy drive, and I can't wait. I can't wait to be out there collecting toys. All right.

Let's talk about that Pearson promise. Only at Pearson's signature dealerships, double the engine and transmission warranty on every vehicle. What's that mean? Pierce's signature dealerships. When you drive away, that manufacturer's warranty that says, hey, listen, this transmission and everything that touches well, it's going to be good for so long. They double it because they want you to know how much they believe in their vehicles, they believe in you, and they want to take care of you. They don't do, not everybody does that. Pearson does it. That's why they're different. That's that Pearson Promise. So if you're in the market for a new Jeep or Chrysler or Dodge, you know you get the Pearson Promise at Pearson Chrysler Jeep Dodge. on West Broad Street, same for Pearson Mazda, same for Genesis of Richmond, same for Pearson Hyundai, over on the motor mile in the Middle Othia Turnpike, or near Woodlake, there's always Pearson Honda. They all have that Pearson promise, or you can go online and find him at buypearson.com. All right, we continue with you. This is Richmond's morning news. I'm getting lots of different text messages on our last story, 833, 804, 1140. And again, the one text message, keep defending these people, Rich, when they are facing charges at the Hague, you go to Hague for crimes against humanity. For the damage they've done to the human rights in the land of the free and the home of the brave is an absolute moral failure. Tell me where I'm wrong. I've said it. I'm willing to listen to everybody. I'll tell you what, I've got some stories planned for the show today. I will bump whatever story you have coming up and you can come on with me for a full segment and explain to me my moral failure of defending the ICE officers that are carrying out their sworn duty to uphold our federal laws. Tell you what? The phone lines open for you, right? Phone lines are open. 833, 804.11.40, 833, 8341140. I'd love to hear your point of view. I won't interrupt you. I won't hang up on you. I'll be as courteous and kind as I can. And I'm willing to open up to listen to your point of view and tell me where I'm wrong. Tell me where I'm wrong. Tell me where ICE officers enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act. is morally irreversible. I'd love to hear from you. I'm looking at the phones right here. 833-804-1140. I'll blow off whatever story we have. I'll blow off the guests we have. You want to come on right now and we'll talk about it. And I'll give you the open forum of this program because, again, I'm not afraid of new ideas. And if you can correct me and you can help me get this right, Because I'm missing something obviously from your text message. Love to hear from you this morning. 833-804-1140. My name is Rich Herrera. This is News Radio, WRVA.