Latest Controversy Surrounding Graham Platner

In 2025, Americans lost more than $21 billion to fraud and identity theft. That's why so many people are turning to Aura. Aura helps protect your identity with fraud alerts, dark web monitoring, and up to $5 million in identity theft protection. And if you become a victim, Aura's 24-7 U.S.-based support team is there to help. Don't wait until your identity is stolen. Start your free trial today at Aura.com slash safe. That's Aura.com slash safe. safe. News, politics, entertainment. This is O'Connor and Company. Good morning to you from your nation's capital on our flagship station, WMAL. I'm Larry O'Connor. And I love days like this. These are my favorite kind of days because you're starting your day with me right now. Here are just seven minutes after the hour at 6 o'clock on the East Coast time. Sun is rising, start your day the right way, O'Connor and Company. But it's more than that because today is a Monday. So you're starting your week the right way. And it's even better than that because today is June 1st. You are starting your month the right way. That's a lot of pressure. I'm ready to carry it on my shoulders and get you started in this incredible month of June the right way as we wind out school time. We get ready for Father's Day, baseball season and full swing and on my birthday. Coming up, too, don't forget that. It's going to be a big warning here as we, well, observe the complete and total collapse of the Graham Platner campaign for Senate in Maine. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Huge developments over the weekend that undermine the left's favorite new star, the Wonder Kid. The guy, they were openly already talking about him running for president in 2028. The oyster farmer. He's a despicable, horrible person, I've been saying here on this program for quite some time. And even more examples of it, real character questions about this guy. And his deceit, his lies, and the left's boldness in going with this guy, embracing this guy, Elizabeth Warren on a campaign event. endorsing Graham Platner said, this is my kind of man. Well, we know what kind of man Elizabeth Warren wants now. So we'll get into all of that as the morning develops. In fact, we're going to get right into it. Just a few moments from now, I also want to tell you that in our number two hours, second hour, seven o'clock Eastern time, Hans von Spikovsky will join us for our regular update on all things legal. in the world. Also at 730, Jennifer Van Laar, managing editor of Red State, is going to give us a preview of tomorrow's big primary day in California. And then at 805, friend of the program, author. of the great thriller series. Brad Thor is going to join us. He, of course, of the Scott Harvath Thriller series. He's got a brand new book out for the summer reading, enjoyment of every man in your life, and women like it, too. But it just feels like manly men books. The book is called Choke Point. Brad Thor coming up in the third hour. All right, let's get to it. Graham Platner, over the weekend.

Lots of revelations. The most explosive, that's not the most explosive, but the one that got the ball rolling was the fact that a former campaign staffer who had been subsequently let go, either she left or was fired, still unclear, revealed to the New York Times and to the Wall Street Journal that when the campaign began, within the first days of Graham Platner being an official candidate for Senate, There was an opposition research team that the campaign hired. They wanted to look into any dirt that potential opponents might find on Graham Platner so that they could get it all on the table. Smart move, especially when you're dealing with somebody like Graham Platner, who, if I can repeat, please, say with me, he's a very, very bad man. He's just a bad person. Well, Graham Platner's wife, his wife of just two years, they had been married in 2023. They're still married now. His wife revealed to the campaign that just months after their wedding, she encountered multiple texting relationships with multiple women. Some reports said up to a dozen. The campaign, by the way, confirmed the story back to the New York Times saying it was six women, so sorry, half dozen. But this is within months of the marriage, and these are explicit text exchanges. The kids like to refer to it as sexting, including photographs. Now, By the time the weekend was over, Graham Platner was actually denying the story completely, which is remarkable considering his own campaign confirmed the details of the story. But I guess that doesn't matter right now. Graham Platner is struggling to try to hang on to the campaign. And so if he has to, he'll just say that the New York Times is lying. And it's all the machine. It's all, oh, oh, one person. with the Graham Platner, well, not with the Graham Platner campaign, but a supporter of Graham Platner pointed out that one of the writers of the New York Times article also happens to be pro-Israel. So there you go. Now you know who's responsible. Now you know who's at fault. That's the Graham Platner mentality. That's the left-wing Democratic Socialists of America's or Imam Donnie Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kind of approach to these things. And Graham Platner did the typical, oh, you don't want to talk about the issues. Yeah. It's funny how Democrats always just want to talk about the issues when it's their guy who is a complete and total disgusting mess. Now, that was just the tip of the iceberg as the weekend developed. He trotted his wife out, by the way, to put out an explanation video. Boy, how low do you have to be? He didn't even speak about this. For 48 hours, he had his wife put out a selfie video. Here, let's dip into that a bit. It's like five minutes long. But just so you can see that the horrific humiliation ritual that he is putting his own wife through, what kind of controlling, manipulative monster does this? When this story breaks about her husband.

sending explicit text messages of a sexual nature to multiple women just months after their marriage, and then to control the damage of his own pathetic, narcissistic, political ambitions, she's the one by herself who has to go out and do this. It makes me really angry, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there's a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is... is running on like health care and education and child care. I'm walking up and down my road right now, and this is like my 20th take. This is very hard to do. But I just really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Graham and I have a great marriage. Being married is hard. Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard. I don't even know if I have the right words to describe. It's hard to watch. It goes on for five minutes. Being married is hard. Being newly married is hard. You know what makes it harder? when your husband is sexting with other women. That definitely makes marriage hard. And again, I'm not here to judge the marriage. And honestly, when all was said and done, this isn't about their marriage and what kind of husband he is. This has to do with the campaign knowing full well about these things. The campaign having it revealed to them by the wife. And how many interviews has Graham Platner given, including one last week with the New York Times and another one with CNN? where he's explaining his past posts on social media and on Reddit about his military career and his views of soldiers and saying that he wished soldiers had gotten killed by the Taliban and the despicable, disgusting things he says about fighting wars and the lies he's told about Susan Collins, sending me to war when he actually volunteered not just to fight in the military years after the war had been authorized, but then he came back. and decided he wanted to fight for Blackwater, which was basically a private firm providing security. At the time, the anti-war protesters, of which Graham Platner considered himself, referred to Blackwater as mercenaries. Soldiers of fortune hired to kill and work outside the confines of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He voluntarily went and fought with Blackwater. So all of the lies about Susan Collins and the vote for the Iraq war, none of it matches up with his actual military career and his contemporaneous statements that he just wanted to go over there and kill people. That's not Susan Collins' fault. That's not neocons fault. The guy's a fraud. And the campaign has known about it. And they've covered it up.

And they tried to sell this guy to you as some sort of populist, regular Joe blue-collar oyster farmer. And the Democrats have embraced him up and down. And then later Saturday, another revelation, take a look at this image. It comes from a dating platform known as Kick. Kick has been described as the Predators Paradise. In Maine alone, there have been multiple arrests. of men preying on women, little girls, using this platform called kick. And for those of you who are watching the video simulcast, go to social media if you can't get to the video stream, you'll see this picture. It's his kick profile. He's got a towel wrapped around his waist, and he's taking a picture of himself in the bathroom mirror. It's his torso. You can't see his face. It's unmistakably him. By the way, the account is still active right now. It was started recently. But what's really interesting is you can see his torso and you see tattoos, but there's one tattoo in particular that is strategically hidden by his arm and by his cell phone. It's the Nazi tattoo. It's like he covered it on purpose. It's like he knew it was a Nazi tattoo. We'll get to that next. For nearly 3,000 years, Homer's The Odyssey, has shaped Western imagination. It tells the story of Odysseus as he faces monsters, shipwrecks, false comforts, and impossible choices on his long journey home. As one of the foundational works of Western literature, Homer's epic is more than a mythology, it explores permanent questions about courage, duty, loyalty, family, leadership, temptation, and the search for home. In one of the epic's defining moments, Odysseus rejects the offer of immortality from the goddess Calypso, choosing instead the long and difficult journey home. His decision reveals one of the central themes of the Odyssey that a life of duty, family, and home is greater than a life devoted to comfort or glory. Achilles chose glory. Odysseus chose home. That's why Hillsdale College has released its newest free online course, The Odyssey, taught by Professor Benedict Wayland. The course reveals why Homer's masterpiece remains one of the greatest works of Western literature. Find this free course at Charlie for Hillsdale.com. That's Charlie for Hillsdale.com. Read the classics, study the West. The Odyssey from Hillsdale College. Go to Charlie for Hillsdale.com. Staying ahead at the breaking news cycle. This is O'Connor and company. Live from the relieffactor.com studio. Yeah, let's get back to this kick picture. And again, Maine in particular has faced issues with residents using the platform to prey on children. I'm reading from a write-up over the weekend at townhall.com. In June of last year, one man received a sentence of 30 to 60 years for producing videos of children being sexually abused for users of the platform. It's a place where people who... are into little kids go to prey. Experts estimate that 70% of the anonymous messaging platforms users are aged 13 to 24. Graham Platner proactively created an account on there. And when you look at this picture, he's got his arm and his phone strategically positioned to cover up one tattoo in particular. So you can't see the Nazi tattoo. Now, I've been told by Graham Platner himself that he had no idea this thing was a Nazi tattoo.

Oh, and he'd known that. He would have never gotten it or he would have covered it up years ago. Well, wait a minute. Isn't it a coincidence that when he's out there trolling to get lucky with, you know, duping some young unsuspecting girl to enter into a, well, relationship, I guess, if that's what you want to call it with him and trying to entice them, that he covers up the Nazi tattoo. Like, as if... A person looking at him wanting to do something physical with him would be repulsed by the fact that the guy has a Nazi tattoo. What are the odds that when he takes his little... picture for his gross, disgusting, sexual exploits that he deliberately and consciously, or no, no, no, just by accident and it just worked out that way, he perfectly shielded from view. The tattoo he claims he had no idea was offensive. The guys are fraud. By the time the weekend was over, he appeared with his wife in a controlled environment, and this is what he said.

We heard in these videos, following these video last night about this situation, the story, and the Times, and the journal. What would your statement be at this point? It's no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just going to run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that the Mainers are working with. These people are going to try to make this race about anything but what it's supposed to be about, which is policy. They never want to talk about policy. Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart. We're going to come after us in every awful way that they possibly can. And we're just going to keep talking about the fact that the hospitals are closing, the fact that child care facilities are closing, the fact that teachers and nurses aren't paid enough, and the fact that everybody down here continues to work harder and longer and get less. But, of course, the powers that be do not want us to talk about that. And so they're going to just do gossip instead. But the stories are true, right, about the texts? No. No, this is the amazing part. The Wall Street Journal in New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I'm sorry. That's... That's, frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it. They won it. They did it anyways. So are you confirming that the messages did not exist? What's that? The messages they did not. I'm confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in the New York Times is not true. So you never met with her about uncomfortable, for lack of a better word, sexting messages as the campaign was going? We talked about things in Amy and I's marriage that we've gone through over the years. We talked about that because that's our marriage, and we discussed it with the campaign. What Genevieve McDonald claims isn't true. Thank you, folks. But he's not being specific there, and it's way too artistic what he's trying to do there. Asked a specific question about the text message is he didn't say yes or no, whether it was true or not. He just said, what Genevieve McDonald, the former staffer said is not true. But what exactly? Because the staffer said a lot in that article. You see what we're doing here? But we really just want to talk about how they're shutting down hospitals. It's funny, they're acting like we haven't lived through the last 10 years of campaigning against Donald Trump. By the way, if you're wondering what the endgame here is, well, again, reading from a write-up over the weekend at Town Hall, Maine has a really interesting rule. The primary is two weeks from tomorrow, excuse me, one week from tomorrow, June 9th. Should more scandalous information plague the candidate to the point that he ends his run after securing a primary victory, a scenario exists in which main party officials could simply appoint their own candidate for the position. The deadline for platinum to drop out while the provision is active is July 13th.

Maine Democrats would then have two weeks to recruit and appoint a new candidate completely independent of the desires of Maine voters. Yeah, he could win the primary, then drop out, and then the main party officials for the Democrats can just select somebody because that's what they do. For over 250 years, Americans have believed in one powerful idea that we were meant to live free, free to work hard, free to move, free to enjoy life without being held back. But if everyday aches and pains are slowing you down, it might be time to declare your independence from pain. And I know what being in pain is like, and I know that Relief Factor can help. It helped me, and they'll help you. Relief Factor is 100% drug-free research-based formula designed to help your body fight inflammation. One of the root causes of pain. It's not a quick fix or a temporary mask. It works from the inside out at the source. Relief factor is created so people could get back to living life on their terms, walking, working, exercising, enjoying the moments that matter. So as we celebrate 250 years of American independence, take a stand for your own freedom. Declar your independence from pain. Try Relief Factor today just 1995. Your three-week quick start is ready for you. Visit relieffactor.com or call 800 the number four relief. 800 for relief. In 2025, the FBI reported that Americans lost more than $21 billion to fraud and identity theft. Identity thieves can steal your social security number. Open credit accounts in your name. take over online accounts, and create financial headaches that can take months to fix. Most people don't realize they've been targeted until the damage is already done. That's why more families are turning to Aura. Aura helps protect your identity with fraud alerts, credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, and up to $5 million in identity theft protection. If something does happen, Aura's 24-7 U.S.-based support team can help guide you through the recovery process. You also get a VPN. Anti-virus protection, password manager, and scam protection, all in one app. Don't wait until you're a victim. Protect yourself and your family today. Start your free trial at aura.com slash safe. That's aura.a-u-a-u-a-com slash safe. Coming up, we've got Hans von Spikovsky, by the way, joining us in the Relief Factor Studios from your nation's capital. It's O'Connor and Company. I'll ask Hans about this law in Maine. Yeah, the bottom line is, even if Graham Platner wins this primary... A week from tomorrow in Maine. He has until July 13th. Second Monday in July is how the Maine law states it. He can drop out for any reason. He doesn't have to even give a reason. He's just saying, yeah, thanks for the nomination, folks. I'm out of here. And then the party, the Democratic Party, has two weeks to select their own candidate.

to run against Susan Collins of Maine. And if you're wondering, wow, why is all this coming out now? It's even before the primary. Janet Mills has dropped out. That's why. These are shots from inside the tent, guys. This is what's funny is that I'm aware that there's a lot of oppo on this guy. I'm aware of it from Republican operatives who have it. They haven't dropped anything. Everything that's dropped right now are Democrats who know this guy is a bad man. And even they aren't so... craven for political power. And by the way, for all the Democrats, and you're about to see one of them, all the Democrats who are still supporting this guy and circling their wagons and saying, well, you know, listen, that's just, you know, gossip and politics of personal destruction. The important thing is that Democrats need to take control of the Senate because Trump is an existential threat and da-da-da. So Graham Platner must win. Think about what they're saying. He's running against Susan Collins. Susan Collins, and I don't want to, I don't want to knock the lady. She's, she's, you know, got a hell of a career. But is there any Republican in the Senate more moderate, more, you know, from a Democrat and media perspective, more reasonable? I mean, if they had to pick their one favorite Republican senator who isn't MAGA, who isn't extreme, who isn't, you know, down the list. It's her. But their quest for power is so craven and they're so duplicitous in how they criticize conservatives and Republicans that if they have the chance to knock off Susan Collins, you know, a woman who voted to convict Trump in the second impeachment, Susan Collins, they can't even. recognize and acknowledge how horrible Graham Platner is and say, you know what, as much as I love Democrats and I'm a party person and I'm going to vote for my party bears, then if the tradeoff is we keep Susan Collins of all senators and we don't have this monster representing us, yeah, okay, fine, put me in the Susan Collins camp. They can't do it. They won't do it. Let this be a lesson to the Thom Tillis and the John Cornyn and the every single Republican who goes squishy and says, oh, you know, can't we get along? I want to reach around across the aisle and help my very good friend from Vermont. We'll be able to figure out and get work done for the American people. And I'm not one of those crazy mega right wing guys. No, I'm reasonable. Look what they're doing to Susan Collins. All right, here's Chris Murphy, Connecticut. He was asked about Graham Platner. Every Democrat should be asked about Graham Platner. Every single elected official and candidates should say, do you stand with Graham Platner? Are you on his side? Here's how that went for Chris Murphy.

You know, I gave my life to Christ when I was a teenager at a Christian camp, so I personally know the power of what God can do at camp. I mean, you can only do three things with your money. You can spend it, you can save it, or you can give it. And I think giving it to an angel tree camping scholarship is going to be the best week of somebody's year. It's going to be a break from chaos that they wouldn't otherwise have. And that's money well given, money well spent. Go to my website, please. Larry Oshow.com. Larry Oshow.com. By the way, you can catch up on the show, see clips of the video stream of the show, pick up the podcast and all that other ancillary info about the show. While you're there, click on that banner at the top of the page, Angel Tree. And the angel tree banner right there at Larry O'Sho.com will show you how to make your quick and secure donation to send a kid to camp. Thank you from all of us at O'Connor and Company. All right. Tomorrow, like we said, is the California primary. And coming up at 7.30 Eastern time, one hour from now, we'll have Jennifer Van Large. She's California-based managing editor of Redstate.com, part of the town hall family of sites. She's going to give us her sort of last look at how these races are shaping up. The governor's race has sort of lost a little bit of steam after the drop out of Eric Swalwell, after the mess of Katie Porter. Gavin Newsom still has not nominated anybody. And based on the latest polls, it seems like Xavier Becerra, former Attorney General of the State and former Secretary of Health and Human Services for Biden, seems to be leading the PAC. But he's only got about a 23% of the vote. This is because it's one of those jungle primaries where there's no party distinction. and the top two qualified to be on the general election. And there's a lot of candidates, including two Republicans. Steve Hilton, who has been sort of leading the pack all the way with about 25% of the vote. He's there in second place, along with Tom Steyer, billionaire who's never held office before. They're battling it out. It appears for that second spot. But, you know, this is California. And it's a hard state to poll, especially with all the party affiliations. Chad Bianco is hanging in around fourth place. He's actually within striking distance. You never know who might end up on the general election ticket. But for the most part, it seems like the Democrat unions and establishment are circling around Xavier Becerra. And he's a very troubled candidate. There was a lot of garbage thrown at him by Katie Porter and other Democrats. We'll see how that shakes out. The more interesting race, and the one with most of the action now seems to be the L.A. Mayor's race, where upstart Spencer Pratt continues to battle well in the polls, and it now looks like it's neck and neck between he and the incumbent Karen Bass. Here is a pretty cool endorsement for Spencer Pratt from Hollywood icon Kelsey Grammer. Take a listen. Well, Gavin Newsom, I just hope we never, I hope we've heard the last of it. I love Gavin. And what about Los Angeles? Kelsey, I love Gavin. Good girl. What about Karen Bass? There you go. You know me. Kelsey, what about Karen Bass, sir? What do you think about Karen Bass? What do you think? Kelsey, do you think that Spencer Pratt is, he's gaining traction. Hey, guys, thank you so much. The only reality, he's the only guy that's a real.

option. We know what the rest is going to do. He's the only guy who's a real option. The latest poll shows Karen Bass at 23.5%. Spencer Pratt, 21.2% within the margin of error. Nithya Raman, who is a city council member and Democrat socialist and wants to take everybody's money and throw it to the homeless and building encampments on the sidewalks. She's just pulling it about 12%. So they're in trouble. And if it comes down to Pratt versus Bass, it couldn't be clearer. You want four more years of the same, or do you want something new? Pratt's not getting all the endorsements, though. This woman who does this show hacks, I guess, on HBO Max, she doesn't like him. So she stood on the safety of a red carpet event surrounded by security and the paparazzi and all the homeless people who had been swept off the block so that she could have a red carpet event. She said this. There's a lot of wealth in this city, and I think that there are a lot of people who masquerade as Democrats or people on the left, but really money is there's a co-issue, and that's what leads them to vote for people like Spencer-Tratt. It's endorsed by Donald Trump, and I will remind everybody of that. And also, like, yeah, it's, like, not a monolith, like, any. And also, it's not only not a monolith, but also it's, like, it can play a very old. It's very complicated. No one is perfect. There are no perfect candidates. You know, I identify this. There's other stuff about me. You're picking up some audio from the other conversation on the red carpet. Her name is Hannah Einbinder. I don't know about you, but whenever I need direction in life and I'm confused, I'm at a crossroads. I don't know which way to go. I always stop and think to myself, well, wait, what would Hannah Einbinder do? The most important thing in that entire response other than, oh, listen, I'm not happy with these candidates. See, even they know Karen Bass is a problem. The one thing she said, will Trump endorse Spencer Pratt? So he's got to be bad. Oh, something's happening in L.A. Very interesting to watch. I'll give you an update on the military actions in Iran. It was a relatively quiet weekend. By the way, the president yesterday went golfing. Had a very quiet day. I don't know why. Whenever the president has like a light schedule and there's not a lot on the bullet point rundown that we all get in the media about what the president's plans are for the day or for the weekend. But he stays in the D.C. area. I don't know why, but I always think something's up, right? Maybe something's going to happen with Cuba. Maybe something bigger happened with Iran. But no, nothing happened. Our own. Senior Washington correspondent for town hall media was in the pool following the president to the golf club yesterday in northern Virginia and followed him back to the White House. Spencer, we had, or Conrad. Conrad was on the show on Friday, I think, here talking about the press briefing with Scott Bessent. And he was giving us reports all day long. He's like, nope, nothing going on. We're just watching the grass grow. That's what the press pool does. They just follow the president. They hang out. They wait for a chance possibly to ask him questions, but usually it doesn't happen, and then they just go about their business. But if something does happen, then they're the ones reporting on it. But he had a pretty quiet weekend. There was some back and forth exchanges, though, through their intermediaries on the Iranian deal. Now, we're told that the president, you know, they have this memorandum of understanding, which we're told basically will open the straight.

And as the strait is opened by the Iranians, simultaneously and proportionally, the Americans will back off of the naval blockade of Iranian ports. And so Iran's ports can start to move freely again. Ships can go through the strait again. And we're right back where we were right before Iran shut down the strait, which is our military is assembled. We just struck you. We struck you hard. You know what we're capable of. So hand over the nuclear. materials and end your nuclear program. We're right there. That's where we were at the beginning of this conflict. People keep forgetting that. It's like, oh, Iran wins because they get the blockade taken off. The blockade was a new development in this military campaign. The first campaign was bombing runs, missiles, kill their people, lock them down, keep them from being able to leave. And... say, you know, we're tired of you pussyfooting around at the negotiating table and trying to play the waiting game with us. We mean business and your nuclear program. Then in retaliation, Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz. And our response in retaliation to that was the naval blockade. So now they're going to open up the Strait of Hormuz. So now we will remove the naval blockade, but we're right back there. After the military strikes, before the strait got shut down, we've got our military sledgehammer poised right over their head. Nothing has changed. If anything, we've regrouped and rearmed. Now, get rid of the nuclear program or else the sledgehammer falls again. And then you get real damage. We're talking about the... electric grid. We're talking about water desolidination. We're talking about bridges. We're talking about infrastructure. We don't want to do that. But if that's what it takes to bring you even further to your knees and hand over your nuclear materials and end your nuclear weapons program, that's what we'll have to do. So. That's where we are. And the Memorandum of Understanding that would accomplish that hopefully and then set a 60-day window for the nuclear discussions, it appears the current status of that is that the president sent back revisions to Tehran. And now, according to the Times of Israel, this is from about four hours ago, Tehran is making amendments to a draft memorandum of understanding to end the war with the U.S. It's not really going to end the war. It's a end of the blockade and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency report, citing an unnamed source after reports emerged that President Donald Trump had sent a tougher MOU proposal back to Iran. underlined the rift that the parties still need to close. Appearing to acknowledge the new tougher proposal that Iran received, Tasnam said that exchanges on the text are ongoing with both parties regularly proposing amendments. At the same time, Iran's chief negotiator warns that the U.S. is not to be trusted, saying to Iran will not agree to any deal with Washington unless it fully secures Iranian rights. So there you go.

Trump sent back a stronger memorandum back to Tehran. Tehran is now modifying the language and maybe they'll send back a stronger version back to America and it just keeps going back and forth. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz is shut down and the naval blockade continues for the Iranian ports. Although there's a report from the New York Times from a couple of hours ago that suggests maybe the strait isn't quite as shut down as you think. New York Times is reporting that U.S. military is quietly guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command has helped around 70 commercial ships pass through the strait in the last three weeks, an official said. Interesting. U.S. military quietly guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz. So, you know, we've got to keep this quiet, everybody. It's a secret. We don't want to Ronda know about it. So, of course, the New York Times runs with it. with a blaring headline. Hey, everybody, it's a secret, but we're going to tell you here, whose side are they on? I mean, I know it's news, so they have to report the news, but meanwhile, Kevin Hassett. The chief economic advisor, National Economic Council Director for the President, appeared on Sunday's ABCs this week with Jonathan Carl and said that he expects the straight of more Hormuz to be completely open within a month or two. A month or two? Oh, I think Republicans running for elections this November. Hope it's a lot sooner than that. More to come. Keep it here. It's O'Connor and Company. In 2025, Americans lost more than $21 billion to fraud and identity theft. That's why so many people are turning to Aura. Aura helps protect your identity with fraud alerts, dark web monitoring, and up to $5 million in identity theft protection. And if you become a victim, Aura's 24-7 U.S.-based support team is there to help. Don't wait until your identity is stolen. Start your free trial today at Aura.com slash safe. That's Aura.com slash safe. It is six minutes after the hour from your nation's capital, Washington, the District of Columbia. It's not a state, never will be. Just a district. But it's a great place to visit. Not a bad place to live. I'm not going to lie. I know I'm a conservative Republican. I'm supposed to hate Washington, D.C. I love Washington, D.C. What can I tell you? But I may be in the town, but I'm not of the town. In but not of. That's the key to navigating your way through the crazy world we live in, whether it's politics or entertainment or wherever you are in this world, but not of this world. It's the Relief Actors Studios. Larry O'Connor here on O'Connor and Company coming up in 30 minutes. Jennifer Van Laar, managing editor of Red State will give us her sort of final evaluation of where things stand right now in the state of California governor's race. And then the Los Angeles mayor's race, two very, very interesting dynamics going on in both of those campaigns. And tomorrow is the election day. So Jennifer Van Laar coming up in 30 minutes. Also, Brad Thor, friend of the program, great thriller writers, got a brand new book in his Scott Harvoss series that's coming up in the next hour. Joining us right now, though.

As he always does at this time, as long as Joe DeGeneva is doing the Lord's work down in South Miami in front of a grand jury, is the one and only Hans von Spikoski, Senior Legal Fellow at Advancing American Freedom and a veteran of the Justice Department, Civil Rights Division, forgotten more about election law than anyone's ever going to know. Good morning, Hans, and happy June to you. First day of June. Well, yeah, the summer really is getting going now, isn't it? It is. And it was a real summer-like weekend here in the Mid-Atlantic over the week. We had a great time. I got to ask you, before we get into some of the other legal battles that are going on out there, having to do with gerrymandered maps and immigration and Delaney Hall in Newark. This story with Graham Platner, you couldn't avoid it over the weekend. His campaign seems to be spiraling right now. And they're still eight days away from their primary. The primary is a week from tomorrow. But he's running unopposed. Janet Mills, the sitting governor of Maine, has dropped out of the primary. So it looks like he's going to win. But we've got an article at Town Hall pointing out a very interesting law in the state of Maine that Graham Platner can win the primary. And he's got until the middle of July, he can drop out. And then the Democrats in Maine, the party can just select a replacement and put them on the ballot. without ever having a primary. Why does this sound so familiar, Hans? And is that normal? Yeah, it is normal. Most state parties have rules like this, although usually... It's really in place to take care of a candidate, for example, who dies or has some serious medical problem that causes them to drop out. You know, there's very few cases where a candidate after winning a primary suddenly resigns. But this is the kind of thing that happens. You're resident of Maryland, Larry. You may recall that about a decade ago. a Democratic candidate who had won the congressional primary was discovered to have committed voter fraud. She had registered and voted in both Maryland and in Florida, and she was forced out of the race and the Democratic committee picked someone to replace her. So, yeah, that could be, that could be what happens in Maine if... He does the right thing and drops out. Yeah. It is becoming a trend, though, for the Democrats, especially the party that is so, you know, vocal about their defense of democracy and how if Trump wins or Republicans win, that's the end of democracy. They're not really exercising democracy much when they have a chance.

Well, no, but look, the DNC has always been a top-down-driven organization. If you look at their convention rules, for example, they have huge numbers of what they call superdelegates. These are people who are chosen. These are Democratic officials, elected individuals, and they have much greater power in the Democratic Party than in the Republican Party. All right. Moving on to some other items out there, we do have some sort of final. gerrymandering districts that are being adjusted here in the final days. Louisiana now has passed their new map that does away with those unconstitutional majority black districts where the districts were drawn specifically to protect the votes based on the color of people's skin. It's still not a full-on, you know, all the seats are going to be Republican seats, but do you think this passes muster in terms of... The courts giving it the okay? Yeah, I think it should get through. I don't know about Alabama. Alabama also has a fight going on because of the Louisiana decision. When it went back down to a three-judge panel there, the three-judge panel said, well, we're not changing our mind. You still have a plan that is unconstitutional. They've appealed that to the Supreme Court. Whether they'll be successful, we don't know yet. And that's what's sort of curious and challenging. For instance, South Carolina, the state senate in South Carolina couldn't override a filibuster attempt. So they're keeping the district, at least for one more cycle here, with the Jim Clyburn district. But my understanding is the Supreme Court just said that those districts are unconstitutional. So how can they go forward with a district map that has just been deemed unconstitutional? Well, you'd have to ask that of the Republican legislators who crossed the line and said, we're not going to do redistricting. What I suspect may happen, although it's probably too late for this election, is you'll have a group of voters suing. saying the current plan is unconstitutional, it's discriminatory. Because remember, that's what happened in Louisiana. That's what got that case up to the Supreme Court. So the same thing will probably happen to South Carolina. So it needs to be challenged, go through the process, and then I got you. Okay. Meanwhile, the Maryland man.

Are everybody's favorite Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia? This is the alleged MS-13 member who was in the country illegal, faced deportation. He appealed. He said if he went back to El Salvador, he'd be killed by a rival gang, which I think is, you know, evidentiary evidence that he is, in fact, a gang member. He was then subsequently arrested for human trafficking involving a stop in Tennessee. We've all seen the body cam footage. Long story short. A federal judge, Waverly Dan Crenshaw Jr., appointed by Barack Obama. That's quite a name. Waverly Dan Crenshaw Jr. That sounds like a character in a Tom Wolfe novel, dismissed this indictment claiming that it was vindictive prosecution. of the alleged MS-13 human trafficker. Have you been able to look at this? And is this the end of the story for Kilmore-Abrego-Garcia? Or is there more legal trouble ahead? What does that mean exactly, vindictive prosecution? Either he was human trafficking or not. Look, I read the 32-page order by this judge, and frankly, it makes no sense. What he says is that they stopped, the government stopped its criminal investigation and potential prosecution when he was deported, which makes perfect sense. You know, if he's out of the country, why continue to prosecute him? But when the government was forced to bring him back. by these other judicial rulings, the fact that they then reopened, the criminal investigation started prosecuting him. The judge says, shows that this was a vindictive prosecution and therefore he throw it out. That makes no sense whatsoever. If he's back in the country, you know, they've been forced to bring him back. He's a danger. Look, he wasn't just smuggling illegal aliens throughout the country. If you read the indictment, he was also smuggling guns. and drugs. And he made at least a hundred trips. And this is based on a grand jury investigation. They had multiple witnesses against him. So this isn't something that the Trump administration has somehow made up. I think it is outrageous that this judge threw out of this prosecution. But the government's going to appeal his ruling. They will appeal this. All right. Yeah, I mean, that just, it doesn't make sense to me. So they have a case. They're looking at the evidence. He gets deported. You would think that the Justice Department then should have the ability to prioritize cases and say, well, since he's deported and in prison, you know, overseas, we don't have to pursue this one. And then when he comes back, then you pursue it. It makes absolutely no sense. Well, Larry, you're not a lawyer, but your logic is better than that of the judge.

Well, and that's what's frustrating sometimes, Hans, honestly, I mean, I appreciate the compliment if it is, or it's really more of a criticism of the judge. The judge's logic isn't up to the speed of a talk show host. There you go. But there's this trend. If they're Biden appointees, Obama appointees, and now we've got this judge, you know, whatever your opinion is on Trump putting his name on the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, you've now got a judge coming in saying, nope, can't do that. And it turns out he's married. to Biden's personal lawyer. Yeah, I know. That's the kind of bias that ought to get this judge to remove themselves from the case, but they're not following basic ethics rules for judges either. Yeah, that's what's frustrating. And again, I understand that my side of the political equation or philosophical equation is not always going to win every fight. We're not going to win every election. But at the very least in our country, we need to be able to walk away from that fight, walk away from that election, knowing that it was done fair and square. That's the problem we face right now. Hans, always great to talk with you. Thank you, sir. Thanks for another. Yep. Great way to start your week and your month with Hans von Spikovsky. All right, coming up a little bit more on that Trump Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center stuff. Keep it here. It's O'Connor & Company. I'm Larry O'Connor here in Washington, D.C. By the way, if you are motivated with your election this November here on the midterm elections, if you're solely motivated on the fact that you just can't get over the fact that Trump put his name on the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center and called it the Trump Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, you need help. Number one, you need to sort of rearrange your priorities if that's what you think is the biggest. referendum here on the political decision facing Americans this November. And secondarily, I've got an update on that story to share with you. There has been a development over the weekend, over the disposition of the name of the Performing Arts Center on the Potomac near foggy bottom in Washington, D.C. We'll get to that in just a moment. But we have kicked off a new week here, a new month in June. So I want to remind you to sort of reset, reorient, and focus on what's important in life. I want to talk about Angel Tree Camp. We're doing a fundraising drive for Angel Tree Camp. And I'm asking for your help so that you can bless a child with a mom or a dad. Usually it's a dad in prison. All you need to do is join my campaign and send a prisoner's kid for a week of fun, fresh air and Christ-centered activities that can literally transform their lives forever. Go to Larry O'show.com. Click on the angel tree banner at the top. Now, we've only been at this four days. Last week was a short week. Four days and already.

Wonderful people just like you are sending almost 50 kids to camp this month. There's many more kids waiting. You just need to provide the scholarship. Every year, Angel Tree Camp gets these kids out of bad neighborhoods away from gangs and drugs and whisk them out into the fresh air and Christian fellowship they so desperately need. The transformation can happen in only one week. It's heartwarming. You know this personally. How quickly. The grace of the Lord can touch your heart. And if you're wondering how much impact your donation might have, listen to these words from David from Prison Fellowship. You know, I gave my life to Christ when I was a teenager at a Christian camp, so I personally know the power of what God can do at camp. I mean, you can only do three things with your money. You can spend it, you can save it, or you can give it. And I think giving it to an angel tree camping scholarship is going to be the best week of somebody's year. It's going to be a break from chaos that they wouldn't otherwise have. And that's money, money well given, money well spent. Touch a child's heart, will you, and assist in saving a soul? Scholarship funded by a gift from you can bless one child with an entire week of angel tree camping. Your donation of just $200 or honestly any amount you can give will combine with others to send the child of a prisoner to camp this summer. Camps are filling up and your help is needed right now. Go to my website, larryosho.com. Larry O'Sho.com. Click on that angel tree banner for your safe, easy, secure donation. Only takes a few minutes. Larry Oshow.com. Thank you, bless you, from the bottom of our hearts here at O'Connor & Company. So we had a judge weigh in on the Trump Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center name because this is getting fought in court, of course, naturally. And just so you know. Honestly, I don't really care. Can I just reveal that I don't care if Trump's name is on the theater? I will tell you, though, as a lifelong conservative Republican living in Washington, D.C., it is astounding. It is unmistakable. It is impossible to notice that 98% of the stuff in this town is named after Democrats. I even have to drive over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Woodrow Wilson, quite possibly the worst president of the last hundred years. And that's saying something. He's got a big bridge named after him. So spare me. Why does Trump put his name on stuff? Because no one else will. That's why. And I think it, well, it causes heartburn and all the people he doesn't like. And so it amuses him.

Well, a judge has weighed in. The decision here is that the name cannot be put on there because Congress named the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, the John F. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Center. Obviously, the name memorial is in there for a reason. There is a memorial for John F. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. right there in the building. But that doesn't mean the entire center is named after John F. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. The language of the law actually says the memorial. And the name of the building is now the Donald J. Trump and John F. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Center. It's a loophole, but a loophole nonetheless. By the way, the judge that made the decision, Judge Christopher Cooper. married to a woman named Amy Jeffress. If Amy Jeffress's name is familiar, it should be because she was Joe Biden's personal attorney. The husband of Joe Biden's personal attorney just made the decision that Trump's name has to be taken off the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center. And this is why people hate Washington. Stay tuned. Jen Van Laar on the California primaries joining us next. You're listening to O'Connor and Company. It is 33 minutes after the hour. We are live from your nation's capital, Washington, D.C. on our flagship station, WMAL. In the Relief Factory Studios, it's Larry O'Connor and Company. But, of course, we're a herd nationwide, including on KRLA in Los Angeles, where it is 4.30 in the morning. But there are people up, I promise you. I mean, they're just rolling in from their late-night Hollywood parties. Or let them know what's going on before their head hits the pillow. No, there are early risers there too, ready to seize the day. So good morning, Los Angeles. Are you getting ready for tomorrow's big primary? You know, early voting has been going on in Los Angeles and all across California for a couple of weeks now. So if you're brave enough to dodge the piles of hypodermic needles and human feces on the sidewalks, getting to a voting center, you can vote. And then look over your shoulder to make sure that nobody saw that you voted for a Republican. Because something's happening in California. How tangible it is, whether there's really a sea change going on. Well, let's check in with someone who lives and works and reports there for Redstate.com, part of the town hall family of sites. Jennifer Van Laar, managing editor therein. Hey, Jennifer, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Of course. So is something happening? It feels like the energy has sort of tamped down a bit on the gubernatorial race after Eric Swalwell dropping and the implosion of some of the other candidates. For a while there, it looked like Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco might actually be the top two finishers. Now not so much. What's the governor's race looking like? So the governor's race, we've got about 15% turnout already, which is similar to what we had in 2022. And pretty much the latest poll average shows Chad Bianco not in any kind of contention to get through the top two. It's Tom Steyer, Xavier Becerra, and Hilton, pretty much in a dead heat when you take in the margin of error. So it's all going to be about turnout, turnout, turnout.

Tom Steyer has billions of dollars, never run for, well, he's never held office before, but he's run before and losing concerns. Xavier Becerra, of course, is sort of a state of California Democrat Party hack, right? And are they sort of circling the wagons and coalescing behind Xavier Becerra? Because I was surprised to see some of the dirt that was flung at him from Katie Porter and some of the other people who know him well. Well, even more surprising was the dirt flung at him from the people that he served within the Biden administration, which is really concerning. But one thing I think that is being overlooked is the exit of Eric Swalwell. And I think you were still in Los Angeles in 2014 when we had Leland Yee, who was running for Secretary of State. He is a huge gun grabber state senator. He was arrested March 27th of that year for gun running. and dropped out of the race. But similar to Eric Swalwell, the ballots were already printed. So he stayed on the ballot. Almost 300,000 votes came in for Liegland Yee, despite wall-to-wall news coverage of the FBI raid and the arms trafficking. He was tied in with some Chinese mafia guys, the shrimp boy in San Francisco. So arguably, that was at least as public as Eric Swalwell. And he's still got that many votes. The pollsters are not asking about that. They're also not asking people, you know, who've had their ballot since early May, have you actually voted? Is it theoretical that you're a likely voter or did you actually vote? Oh, that's interesting. So there's no poll out there saying, who have you voted for? it's it's are you going to vote are you likely a voter but people could have already voted even before some of this stuff came out so you're saying that Eric Swalwell's not showing up in the polls right now because he's not one of the options but he could very well get you know 100,000 votes statewide Yeah, John Phillips, who you also know, and myself have predicted that, you know, at least a couple hundred thousand votes will come in for Swabell, because there are a lot of people who just don't keep up with the news. It's so hard to just get food on the table for your family in California and make enough to put gas in the gas tank. You're not paying attention all the time to the news. So there's people who might be like, oh, Swallow, he fights Trump. Check. Right, right. Yes. Oh, that's amazing. And yes, John Phillips is a keen state of California political advisor, great talk radio host out of Los Angeles and San Francisco. So who does that affect? Because it seems like the Eric Swalwell vote ended up coalescing around Xavier Becerra, right? Which I guess makes sense because they're sort of party types. Does that actually mean that Xavier Becerra's numbers in the current polls are overstated? It very well could mean that. I think it also could affect Matt Mayhan a little bit, although he's kind of tanked himself because they're both, you know, the younger Bay Area progressive darlings. I don't think it affects Tom Steyer as much. So.

Do you think, first of all, the biggest question from a Republican perspective is, does Hilton make it to the big show in November? Does he finish in the top two? What do you think? Because it seems to me there's a hidden Hilton vote. It's typical. Republicans always under poll. And then the turnout and the actual numbers that come in for Republican generally are a good three to five points higher at least when we actually get the votes in. I think there is a hidden vote there. I wish that Chad Bianco would do the right thing. I'm sure there's already a number of his supporters who have already cast their ballot, but it would be great for him to say, hey, y'all, I know that I'm on the ballot, but go ahead and vote for Hilton. It's just imperative that we get a Republican through, but he's not showing any inclination to do that. So again, it's for that race more than anything, I think it's turnout. I've heard from people in the Hilton camp that they don't care whether it's Tom Steyer or Xavier Becerra. But I've got to think secretly he would prefer Xavier Becerra. Xavier Becerra's got such a horrible record. There's so much to go after. As you just pointed out, neither Alejandro Mayorkas or anyone else from the Biden administration who served with him would have a nice thing to say about him. And meanwhile, Tom Steyer can always just dip into his bank account and use upwards to a billion dollars to just, you know, carpet bomb in the state. What do you think the best matchup for Hilton is? I think Xavier Becerra absolutely is the best matchup. He has so much dirt. There's more to come out. We know that federal government are looking a lot more at these NGOs, like people like Chirla, who have endorsed Xavier Becerra, and he is very, very tight with Anhella Casillas, who runs Chirla. So I think that if I'm Steve Hilton, I'm saying, yes, please bring me Xavier Becerra or Bacaria as Joe Biden. Yeah, how do you pronounce the last name? I keep hearing all these different. It's always been Xavier Becerra in my book, but is it? It's always been to Sarah in my book too, but I guess we'll find out. I think that's how he introduces himself. That's new. All right. Well, it'll be interesting. All right. So let's see what happens. So right now, we are both of the same mind that the best matchup from a Republican perspective is Hilton versus Xavier Becerra, Becarra. And that's what the polls are showing. Let's see what happens on Election Day. Oh, one other thing. Statewide, California, insanity with the way they handle ballots and count them. Has there been anything done for the infrastructure to be able to figure out who won this thing within, I don't know, 12 hours of the polls closing, maybe 24 hours of the polls closing? I would be surprised about that. And there's some late news from Fox L.A. where there's been some ballot collection boxes, luckily, and kind of some terrible parts of downtown L.A. that have been set a fire overnight. So we'll see what happens there.

Well, that's Karen Bass's base, just trying to warm themselves because they live on the streets. Let's turn to that race because that's where all the energy seems to be now. You know, Hilton and Chad Bianco, and like at the beginning of the year, it was like, wow, look what's happening with Republican voices in California. Now it's all about Spencer Pratt. How real is this thing, Jennifer? It's extremely real. I think the polls, even the California Post poll that showed him at 30%, I still think that might underrepresent some of it, because especially in L.A., it's still so dangerous to say who you're voting for if it's not, you know, Nithya Raman or Karen Bass. And so there's people that are not going to trust any polling, you know, because if these people called them or texted them, they're going to think, oh, this can be tracked. I don't want to be on record. There are so many. Democrats, the bulk of Spencer Pratt's support are Democrats and no party preference people. But again, Republicans are outperforming Democrats as far as ballot returns so far as percentages. So if that holds true, and they can now go, even today, can go to a vote center in L.A. and go ahead and get that done. And we know. tragedy can strike or, you know, power failures or earthquakes or fires can happen at any time in Los Angeles. So it's time to just go ahead and vote and make sure you get it done. Well, and the Democrat infrastructure really does have their tentacles in the voting process, the polling places. It's their volunteers oftentimes running things. So yeah, oh gosh, we're all out of ballot. Sorry if they start seeing things trend a certain direction and stuff. So, yeah, get out there early, get it done now if you're in Los Angeles. I do love that hat of his with the style of the L.A. Lakers logo. It's just everything about this campaign has been so smart. Can it sustain to November? Not to count my chickens before they hatch, but it sure looks like he's going to make it through this first primary. Can this sort of grassroots upstart continue against such a machine as Karen Bass, who's been doing California politics for 20 years? I think so because Bass, even though she's performed better than ramen in public appearances, we all remember that Deer in the Headlights video that she had when she came back from Ghana during the Palisades Fire. She does not do well under pressure. And just like Kamala Harris, she really has not been tested and being asked the tough questions and having to answer them on the spot. She does not do well without preparation. Yeah. It seems like the only talking point they've got right now is Spencer Pratt was endorsed by Donald Trump. Is that, I mean, but people may laugh at that. He hasn't even been endorsed by Donald Trump. But he hasn't actually fully adorsed him, but he said nice things about him, Jen, and that's enough. That's just, that's a sense. Is that enough considering how bad things are in L.A.? I mean, that's going to be tough. We know that's how they won Prop 50 was by demonizing Trump, even though he had nothing to do with that. So that is going to be something his campaign really has to address if he makes it through, which I'm pretty confident he will make it through to that November ballot.

And you do think it's Karen Bass also making it through Nithya Raman, who is a city council member and claims that she's an expert with the homeless and criminal vagrant problem. But if you look at her track record, she's actually part of the homeless industrial complex and has, and it appears enriched herself and many other people and sort of keeping the current status quo for the homeless. She's not going to make it through. I would be completely shocked if she made it through. Okay. All right. So it's Pratt and Bass squaring off. All right. All right, Jennifer. You're a good conservative Republican with California roots. You know California politics. You can only pick one. You can only pick one to win in November. Do you want Governor Steve Hilton or do you want Mayor Spencer Pratt? Ooh. I hope neither of them are listening. I would. I'll go with Spencer Pratt because I think the way that L.A. goes, it's going to affect so much statewide. And if we have Hilton, but we have Karen Bass and her machine, it's going to be more difficult for Hilton to get anything done. I like them both. But I think I think that's spot on. The fact is the mayor of Los Angeles, as we saw with Dick Reardon just, what, 25 years ago, is able to get a lot done unilaterally. And whoever wins the governor's office, we know what happens in Sacramento. That's a machine, man. It is a corrupt, broken machine. And as great as Steve Hilton is, and I want him both to win. I'm with you, Jennifer. But I think that Spencer Pratt could actually make a difference very quickly. Absolutely. And that's what's most needed. When people start seeing LA turn around with good governance, then the rest of the state's going to go, hmm. Amazing. Election day tomorrow and we'll talk to Jennifer Vanlar probably next week about it. Thank you, Jennifer, redstate.com. Redstate.com. Hey, if you take supplements and you reach a certain age where your doctor is saying, yeah, you guys need more supplements in your life, listen, you want to make sure that you can trust those supplements and you want to make sure they work. And that's why everyone, all of my colleagues here, including myself, we are really, really pumped about Relief Factor. See, Relief Factor offers this quick start option that if you're feeling aches and pains and your joints and your muscles and nothing's helping and you don't want to keep taking ibuprofen or other things. Here's the great thing about Relief Factor. You get a quick start option. It's just 1995. You get three weeks worth. Over a million people have tried Relief Factor, and about two-thirds go on to order more. So why don't you just give it a try? Go to Relieffactor.com. It's Relieffactor.com. Make sure you let them know you heard about it from me, from Larry. Or give them a call. It's 800, the number four relief. 804 relief. It was almost two years ago when Joe Biden strode on to that debate stage and got publicly demolished by Donald Trump and, frankly, by his own handlers, his own team, his own political advisors, his own wife, really, who let him go out there and be humiliated and politically, well.

destroyed. Just a couple of weeks later, he dropped out of his reelection bid. Kamala Harris was hand-selected. The rest is history. But there's still a lot of reckoning on that whole thing. See, Democrats want to talk about gas prices. They want to talk about... Trump putting his name on things in the ballroom. They want to talk about, you know, chaos in the streets because ICE is working outside the Constitution, which they're not. They want to change the subject and talk about all those things, but they've never reckoned with the fact that they lied to you. They lied to you every single day and you saw the truth before your eyes and they refused to come clean about it. The entire Biden presidency was a complete and total sham. And it was corrupt from top to bottom. And they don't want to talk about that. They don't want to come to reckon with it. They don't want to come clean with you. They don't want to say, oh, you can trust us now because we acknowledge that we screwed up last time deliberately. But it doesn't matter because we hate Trump so much that we'll say and do anything to stop him. They can't say that because it's still how they operate. And they can't come to terms with their lies. But they want to ignore it and they want to move on. And that's great. Go for it. I know you've got a willing media that will help you out with that. But here's the problem. The Bidens won't go away because the Bidens are grifters. They always have been. Jill Biden has a book out. And she's tried to get as much attention as possible. And of course, the book is about all of those things we just laid out for you. And she's been asked questions about it. And she's making headlines about it. And it reminds people exactly who they are. And it reminds you of the party that is currently now claiming, oh, no, no, no, no, we just want to talk about issues. Well, you know, we're not about Trump derangement syndrome anymore. We're not willing to lie to you and deceive you and cut corners and break the rules just to defeat Trump because we think he's an existential threat. So it rationalizes all of the nefarious things that we'll do. No, no, no, no. But of course, it shines a light on all of that. And you recognize that they haven't changed one bit in all of their behavior, including potentially replacing Graham Platner with their own handpick candidate because we've got to get someone to defeat Susan Collins because Susan Collins is a Republican and we've got to defeat Trump. It's all connected to the same manic and obsessed quest for power and the destruction of Donald Trump in his agenda. So. We got to remind you exactly what they did. And Jill Biden is here to sell books while doing it. Good for her. She's a doctor, after all. We already played you the clips of her claiming that she had never seen any behavior like Joe Biden showed on that debate stage. Never before and never since. And even the CBS News journalist was like, really? Really? Oh, yes. I thought he had a stroke.

And then right afterwards, they did a rally and went to a Waffle House because that's what you do when your beloved husband just had a stroke. Well, now here's Joe Biden talking about another lie, another deception, more corruption. Joe Biden adamantly swore that he would not give his son a pardon. Until he did. What's that all about, Jill? Well, here's the answer. President Biden had said that he would never pardon his son. He did. And then he pardoned him. Did you urge the president to think again about that? Well, you know, Joe said in the beginning, I won't pardon Hunter, I won't pardon Hunter. And then... And did you say... And then the Justice Department changed. And I think that the process was not fair to Hunter. What? You're telling me, the Justice Department can be used as a political weapon against your political enemies? What? I thought that was impossible. I thought that never happened in America. I don't know. She knows full well the Justice Department can be used that way because they used it against Trump that way. And about 1,000 people who walked through an open door held for them by a Capitol police officer on January 6th. But I love that. The Justice Department changed. No, it didn't. Trump hadn't been sworn in yet. We didn't have an attorney general yet. Nothing changed. He pardoned him while he was still president. There was no change. No. What he meant was, I won't pardon Hunter because I won't need to because the new attorney general will be a Democrat and they'll do what Democrats always do. Ignore the crimes we've committed. But forget all that. We're here for the dirt. And Joe Biden brought some dirt about Kamala Harris. Let's hear it. So he decided that it was he was going to drop out. That's right. It was Sunday, July 21st, 2024. Before your husband made the announcement, he called Vice President Harris to tell her what he had decided. And you said almost as soon as he gave her the news, she demanded that he endorsed her right away. And I mean... Did you think something was off about that? You know, I'm sure she thought about it. You know, it wasn't like a call out of the blue, I'm sure, with everything happening at that time, it had to cross her mind. So I think that's... But when you said it was back and forth because she wanted him to endorse her at the same time he announced that he was dropping out, and he wanted to just make the announcement of a dropout.

First, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, it's just too good. They hate each other, and it's fabulous to watch. More please, Dr. Jill, you're welcome here. You're absolutely welcome here. Live from your nation's capital, Washington, D.C. on our powerhouse flagship, our home, WMAL, but shooting across the nation, coast to coast. It's O'Connor and Company from the Relief Factor Studio. I'm Larry O'Connor. Good morning. Happy first day of June. Listen, coming up, we're going to have a conversation about this America 250 celebration as these musical acts were announced, and now these musical acts are pulling out. And it seems a little chaotic because, you know, you'd think you would have cleared this up before acts were announced. Now it doesn't look good. But more importantly, who's going to sing for your party? This is your party. This is our party. So who would you like to see perform there? 855-7-884-4-2-55. Should they even go for big names? They should have like high school groups performing or something. Something wholesome like that. 855, 784-4-2-5. Coming up in 30 minutes, we'll get your reactions to these musical acts pulling out and who you would like to see. take their place. Also, coming up in just a little bit, we've got a crazy story about a bus accident in Virginia with five fatalities. And once again, Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy is pointing out this is another person who was in the country illegally, could not speak English, was given a commercial driver's license. It's... A horrible, horrible story. We'll get to that coming up in just a bit. But first, it's summertime now. It's June. I know summer doesn't start until the solstice. But when you hit June, when you're past Memorial Day, when the kids are out of school, which in most cases they are this week or next week, it's summer. And summer means summer reading, summer vacation, summer I'm going to sit outside by my smoke ring and eat some barbecue and read a book. Everybody leave me alone unless you're bringing me a cold beer. That's the season, and the books you're reading are books just like this one. It's Brad Thor's latest, his newest, it's choke point. It's the Skard Harpoth saga, and I am addicted to these. I have been since the first one I read, and I'll tell you, you do not have to start at the beginning of the series. You can pick up any single one of them, get immersed in the world that Brad has created, and then go back at your leisure and catch up with the rest of us. The author of this book, Out Due June 16th, joins us now. Friend of the program, friend of the country, Brad Thor. Brad, you've done it again. Congratulations. Thank you, Larry. It's great to be back. And big congratulations to you for going national. When I heard the news, I jump for joy for you. You long overdue and well deserved, my friend. Listen, you have been such a good friend and a good supporter all the way back. Our mutual friend, the dearly departed, Andrew Breitbart. He loved you madly. And back when we were just streaming a podcast show on his website, you would come on and talk to us about everything, your books, about politics, about...

the military. So it's, I have always cherished our friendship. So I appreciate that support. Yep, me too. And listen, by the time we're done with this interview, I want to give my pick for who should come to America 250. So don't forget, last question. Perfect. I want to answer that. I'll ask you. By the way, people need to know. Andrew Breitfar used to, when, when Andrew was traveling, he'd go to the airport. And if somebody was sitting waiting to get on a plane, reading a Brad Thor book, he would immediately call Brad. and get him on the phone and then hand the phone over to the guy who was reading the book. He's a good man. So, Skart Harvoff. Now, I've read all your books. He's in Bangkok on this one. I do like the cover art, by the way. Beautiful Blue Dragon there. It's gorgeous. You're sending him back over to Asia. He's been spending a lot of time. The last book was almost entirely in D.C., but it had a Norwegian and Russian plotline to it. Now you've got him going back over to Asia. Has he been to Bangkok before? What does Thailand bring to the table? So what Thailand brings to the table, I like to set my fictional thrillers with a little bit of true-to-life geopolitics. And the Chinese in real life have been spreading billions of dollars around the world. They get their camel's nose into the tent of foreign governments by saying, you guys need a better train system or a better road system. And governments around the world normally say, if you'll pay for it, we'll take it. And then China can influence their foreign policy, their domestic policy. There's one country that said no to China. China wanted to cut a canal across southern Thailand so they could avoid the U.S. Navy in the Strait of Malacca so that they would not have what turns out now. I wrote the book before the Strait of Hormuz issue, but the Chinese wanted to avoid this exact problem we're facing now. And so they went to Thailand. They said, we'll pay for it. Let us cut a canal across the south. Thailand said no. So I took that idea for my book, one of the only countries to say no to the Chinese. And I thought, what if the Chinese decided to foment? a military coup in Thailand in order to get a military government in that would say yes to the canal. And what if they used a rogue American operative to put it all together? And that's this spark that kicks off choke point. And Harvath has to go catch the guy because Harvath used to work with this guy in the SEAL teams. Amazing. Amazing. I do remember that story. I remember Thailand saying no to the canal, but I didn't make that connection. This is the amazing thing about Brad Thor's books, is that, and especially if you go back and read some of the other ones, you'd be forgiven if you think, oh, well, this book was inspired by this real life event. No, oftentimes his book comes out six months before the real life event happens. It has to do with your research ability and some of the connections you've got in the intel world. That's what really brings these books to life, Brad. Absolutely. You know, I picked this title choke point back in September, and I thought, okay, that's a good thriller-sounding choke point, not knowing that starting in the release to the book this spring that every time you turn on the TV, you'll hear the words choke point, you know, a thousand times every 10 minutes. Yeah, it is amazing. And in fact, if I can just make it digress a little bit, I know you've got opinions on politics and everything. Real fast, the initial military strikes in Iran, especially coming on the heels of the operation in Venezuela.

You must be just geeking out on the intel that the U.S. and the Israelis over for the Iranian operation had at their disposal, considering how incredibly effective the military was able to just pummel their opponents in the early days of this thing. It was amazing. And that decapitation strike that happened in the beginning, or decap, they didn't completely decap because they didn't have everybody there, but they had so many senior leaders there at that meeting. There was an amazing piece of intel that they moved on. I mean, you got to give the Israelis credit. They are good when it comes to developing intelligence, particularly about their enemies. Also, you've got a subplot. You always have very good interlocking subplots that don't interlock, but then eventually they kind of do in a really sort of dynamic way, which is a fun part of the book, is sort of figuring out how you've put the puzzle together of the storylines. And that subplot takes place in Washington, D.C., which since I live in this area now, it's one of my favorite parts of your books, is that you vividly sort of display with real-life locations what the world in D.C. is like, or at least your world in D.C. Yeah, so A, I'm a huge, unabashed fan of the Hay Adams Hotel. So anytime I can have something touch the Hay Adams and they off the record bar downstairs, I love to do it. That's a lot of fun for me. But D.C. is such an interesting city. And so in Choke Point, I have a U.S. Marine, no longer active, who has PTSD that has lost his job at a big think tank in D.C. And I modeled him a little bit. I love the movie conspiracy theory with Mel Gibson. where he starts getting chased down and he says, I was right, but what was I right about? And this Marine, who's a really fabulous, very sympathetic character, he's got a fiancé who works on the National Security Council inside the White House. His engagement has fallen apart to her. He's lost his job at the think tank. And it turns out everybody's been telling him he's nuts and he's not nuts. He actually is smarter in three steps ahead than the National Security Council, the CIA, ahead of everybody. And for that, he gets a big target on his back. And he gets chased through D.C. And the chase in the couple of days that they're after him, I'm mom. also off of three days of the Condor, which was seven days of the Condor in the book, which was a fantastic thriller set in D.C. So there's some cultural touchpoints in there, pop culture touch points. You obviously were inspired by all these great classic thrillers and Lecar and Clancy. Do you still read this kind of content from other authors? Or is it too dangerous to do that because it might accidentally inspire you? It's a great question. So I've blown through all the masters. So whether it's Freddie Forsyth or Clancy, I've read all their books. So I'm constantly on the lookout for new people that are coming up in the ranks. In the benefit of kind of being, it's weird now, this is my 27th novel, is that I don't feel like an elder statesman, but I am. So I get asked to read new authors and blurb their books.

So I am kind of at the tip of the spear of seeing new authors that are coming up in the mold of a Le Coray or a cliente or whatever it is. So that thrills me. When I find somebody like a Jack Carr, for instance, who came to me through a buddy in the SEAL teams, that kind of stuff is neat. When you can recognize a fabulous author like that and then help them either through a blurb or an introduction to an agent or a publisher, it's kind of the neat part of my job at this stage of my career. Yeah, we just had Jack Hart on two weeks ago for his new series. His new character, he's created the book out of New Orleans. So, yeah, he's super talented dude. All right, Brad. Fourth option. Time for you. Yes, fourth option. Time for you to answer the question. Who do you want to see performing at the America 250 celebrations? This is real simple. We invite Hall. We invite Oates. We don't tell them they're performing together until we put them on stage together. We say this is for America. It's for America's birthday. And if either one of them, if they both refuse, we drop them through a trap door that sends them down a slide to the big cage match thing on the White House lawn. And they have to get along or get it on. That's how we do it. Hall and Oates, no holds barred. Oh, my gosh, that would be amazing. See, I thought you were going to, like, say, Bootsie Susan Collins and the Grand Funkadelics or something, but that sounds pretty cool. That would be, I also, I mean, Yacht Rock's kind of a big thing. I think it would be a pretty good payday for them as well. The house Yot Rock, the funked-up version of Yot Rock actually plays a role in Choke Point, believe it or not. Seriously? All right. I can't wait for that. My friend Tommy, I was just at a pool party with my friend Tommy. He knows how much I like Yacht Rock. He goes, no, you've got to do Yacht House Rock. You have to try that. So, all right, that's the second endorsement in 24 hours. All right. Brad Thor wants it to be haul and oats without them knowing about it. How about you? We want to hear from you. Who do you want to be on the mall for America's 250, 855, 784, 4255. Get Brad's book. Choke Point. You can pre-order it now. Thanks, Brad. Larry O'Connor here in Washington, D.C. on O'Connor and Company. I'm sorry, I'm just, I'm doing a deep dive on Millie Vanilly right now. Because, you know, show prep is my life's blood. And we're going to talk about these bands that are dropping out of America 250. And I feel terrible because Millie Vanilli is one of the acts that is still booked. They were originally announced and then a bunch of acts pulled out. Millie Vanilli is still there. And then I realized, wait, it's not Millie Vinoy. It's the guy. It's like one of the guys, Fab Morvan. And I'm like, wait, Millie Vanilli was a duo. So how can it just be the one guy? That means it's just Millie or it's just Vanilly or what is this all about? And then, of course, I had to research it. And now I can't believe I'm laughing about this. The other guy's dead. He died. Sorry. You know how you get, it's morbid. I'm terrible. I know I'm an awful human being. I'm sorry. I'm a fallen man. But.

It's like, well, of course I had no idea of one of the guys from Millie Vanilli died. I haven't thought about Millie Vanilly in 30 years, which is about when he died, by the way. Rob Pilatus, rest your in peace, Rob. So the one guy from Millie Vanilli is still booked, the French one, who didn't even sing. They're famous for lip syncing. Two songs. Blame it on the rain. And what was the other one? Was it, girl, you know, it's true. Was that, was that Millie Vanilli? Anyway, other than Millie Vanilli, who do you want to perform at America 250? We're taking your nominations here. And we'd love to hear your opinion. And I promise I won't laugh. I feel terrible. You don't laugh at somebody dying. But it's just funny that you don't know. 855-784-4-2-55. Give us a call. And we'll get your nominations. Brad Thor just nominated Hall and Oaks. But just don't tell them because apparently they don't like each other very much. All right, a tragic story out of Virginia here. And sadly, it's a story that continues to be repeated over and over again. Now, I misspoke a little earlier when I teased this story out. And I told you this was an illegal immigrant. No, actually, I mean, I don't know how this person entered the country in the first place, but eventually he was a citizen. uh, Chinese national became a U.S. citizen received a commercial driver's license from the state of New York in 2024 during the Biden administration. I guess it was a real push to get foreign-born non-English speaking in many cases illegal immigrants, though not in this case. to get them to be truck drivers and bus drivers and commercial driver's license holders. And it was states like Minnesota and New York and California that fast-tracked all this stuff. And we keep seeing these fatal accidents on our highways. People are dead because Democrat states decided they wanted to fast-track during the Biden administration, commercial driver's license for as many people as they possibly could. Because, you know, those are jobs that Americans won't do. Truck drivers and bus drivers. You know, there's a long history of those jobs being done by foreign nationals. What are we talking about here? Bus drivers and truck drivers, it's like the quintessential red-blooded American kind of job. But there's this systematic approach here to try to undermine jobs that are traditionally held by Americans and then give them to people in a coordinated fashion. to non-U.S. nationals. And in this case, it was a Chinese national who became a U.S. citizen, Jing S. Dong, 48 years old, lived in Staten Island. He was driving this bus on Interstate 95, right near Quantico Marine Base down in Stafford, Virginia. And he plowed into stopped traffic with his bus, killing five people. including a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy commented on this. Five people are dead, including a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy after the driver of a motor coach slammed into stop traffic on I-95.

Traffic Administrator Derek Barr's and our investigators are on the ground of the crash site working with the National Traffic Safety Board. Local police confirmed the driver of the motor coach, a man from China who became a U.S. citizen, does not speak English, received his commercial driver's license in New York State 2024. Unacceptable. This is exactly why we're holding states accountable enforcing the rules of the road and cracking down on drivers who can't speak. English. If you can't be properly trained, read our road signs, or communicate with law enforcement, you have no business driving a bus. Why is that controversial? It's not. I want to tell you about the creator of Relief Factor. He doesn't get a lot of attention here. We talk about his great product and all the good that it does and how it's relieved so many of us from chronic pain. But he's a great guy. He's a combat wounded veteran from the Vietnam War. He came back after being wounded multiple times and he decided he wanted to become a doctor to help people. He wanted to heal them. So he created relief factor. Originally, it was just to help his patients with pain, and he wanted to do it in a drug-free, all-natural way. When he saw how well it worked, he decided to make it available to everyone. Now, if pain has been holding you back, maybe it's time you found out why so many people, just like me, make relief factor part of their daily routine. Try the three-week quick start today and see how it works for you. That quick start is just 1995. You get it for three weeks. I told you over a million people have tried it. And two-thirds, stay on Relief Factor because they see how affected it is. Go to Relieffactor.com. It's Relieffactor.com or give them a call 800, the number four relief, 800 for relief. It is Larry O'Connor-O'Connor and Company. Good morning. Happy June. Happy Monday. We're going to talk about how these musical actors. pulling out of the America 250 celebration, including half of Millie Vanilli. Well, no, that's not true. Half of Millie Vanoey pulled out back in the late 90s when he decided to stop living. But the other Millie, the first, I don't know which is which, he's staying on. Also staying on from the announced list is Vanilla Ice. Dude. Vanilla Ice and Millie Vanilla.

Oh, that's, that's, everybody dance now. Right? Is that, that's C&C Music Factory? Oh, and then remember their other hit? And I don't think there was another hit. I don't think they were at anyone else. But they had the, everybody dance now. You're all doing it now in the car. This is all, this is, you know, this was what made the 90s great. And then Flo Rida. Or is it Floraida. Was it float right? Isn't that like a DJ down in Miami who does like a Cuban hip-hop mix kind of thing? Anyway, now people are like, what the hell is going on here? This whole slate was announced and then suddenly people started bouncing out. Those are the only ones that are left. People have been dropping out Morris Day and the time, Young MC, the Commodores. The Commodores were originally. Now, that would have been close, especially if Lano Ritchie showed up. I don't think Lano Ritchie performs with the Commodores anymore. But, you know, they keep the brand going and they sing the Commodore songs. There's maybe like one guy who's the, you know, step-nephew of one of the original Commodores. And they show up in the bell-bottom pants in the platform shoes. And they, like, you know, dance around and they do that whole thing. Brett Michaels pulled out. Brett Michaels was White Snake, right? Or was that, no, Def Leppard? No. Poison. Poison. Thank you. It's all the same band. Come on. It's all the same band. How dare you? I was not White Snake. I was poison. Okay. Brett Michaels pulled out, which is weird because wasn't he a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice? He was. I remember that. I used to watch Celebrity Apprentice. And then Martina McBride. Now, Martina McBride, isn't she, she's like the theme song to the Sean Hannity show, isn't she? That whole, right? That whole patriotic, Martina McBride backed out. And they're all saying the same thing. We were not told that this was a Trump thing. So now here's where it gets confused. There's two different organizations. One of them is America 250. That's the nonprofit established by Congress to celebrate America's 250th. Then there's a secondary group. It's called Freedom 250. It's established by the Trump administration. It's a public-private partnership. It's where they're getting a whole lot of the corporate funding for these events. And the two groups do work hand in hand and together, but I guess there's some distinction that they're making that because this wasn't established by Congress and as part of the Trump administration, that it's too MAGA or something. So now the president put out a statement on true social, and he's saying, that's it, fine, I'm going to be the performer. at America 250. Dude, if he does like a breakneck two-hour version of Celebrity Apprentice and has them all go on quests throughout D.C. and like challenges and then decides who gets fired and who gets hired to be the new, you know, secretary of some cabinet position he creates, that would be interesting. I will tell you that I went to the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center honors.

when Trump was the emcee of the show. And it was a great night. And the performers were Kiss. Garth Brooks was there. Kurt Russell was there. Michael Crawford was honored. Sylvester Stallone was there and he was honored. It was a great night. Oh, oh, Gloria Gaynor. You know, I will survive. And she put out a great gospel album as well. So, I mean, there were some pretty good performers there. And Trump ended up being the MC and hosted the show because, of course. So what's happening here, the way it's being described by the Washington Post, is that artists are getting the yips. They call it the yips about performing and suggesting headlining the event. Trump said he is headlining the event himself. Daniel Alvarez, an advisor to Freedom 250, confirmed to the Washington Post that Trump will now kick off an opening event for the fair. This is for the America's State Fair. It goes on for several days, and like any state fair, they have performers come in and perform. What's weird is they couldn't get their act together to sort of. have a good list of people. There are a lot of performers who are aligned with President Trump who would be great at this. Obviously, Lee Greenwood did all the inaugural stuff. Kid Rock. John Rich. Somebody put out on the X platform. You know, President Trump should just pick up the phone, call John Rich and say, hey, put together a show for me. And John Rich replied and said, yeah, I can do that. Let's go. John Rich, Trace Atkins, who also was on Celebrity Apprentice, by the way. Aaron Lewis, Oak Ridge Boys, Toby Keith. What do you think? What do you think? You know, we haven't we haven't taken calls in a while on the program. 855784-4255 if you have some ideas that you would like to bring to the table or if you just want to get anything off your, off your mind because we've got, we haven't taken calls in a while and now we're getting calls from all over the place where people want to talk about anything. So I don't mind. That's fun. Let's start with Larry in Illinois because I always like Larry's and I'm not. fan of Illinois as well. Larry, thanks for calling in. Your Honor O'Connor and Company. What's on your mind? Do you have an idea for performing on America 250? Yes. Lee Greenwood, Billy Ray Cyrus. Oh, yeah, Billy Rice-Firus. As long as he leaves his daughter home, she's a little wacko. There you go. The reason I called, and I wish I would have known about the Chinese National piling into people with the bus and killing them, and we'll know we're having our statehouse geniuses debating on whether having robot-driven cabs. Of course, this is a very pro-union state. And the union guys are kind of up in arms about it. But then again, you know, Democrats run things. Union's going to have to step aside. But they said, well, we've done studies. And with Robot-Given Carson, the increase in accidents is only 3%. So I'm going to ask you a question. If you were banking and you got 3% interest at Bank A and another bank offered you 3% more, wouldn't you go to that other bank?

Well, yeah, that sounds like an increase. Are you sure that's the stat? Because all the reports I've heard says that the robot cars decrease the number of accidents. Well, according to our geniuses at our local Channel 3, CBS affiliate station, they've only increased accidents by 3%. I'll have to look at that. I'll be honest with you. You're calling the wrong guy if you want opposition to self-driving cars. I used to be against this idea. But then I got behind the wheel of a Tesla and it's full self-driving. Can I just reveal to you, Larry? Hopefully this doesn't ruin my bona fides as a conservative talk show host. We own two Teslas and we are sold on the self-driving. It's like having a chauffeur. I don't mind Tesla's. I think they're a great little car. I'm not a big fan of robot-driven machinery, because here's your problem with that. It's usually GPS-driven. We have people delivering stuff in the wrong places all over here, and I used to work traffic 50 years ago, and it was bad enough when some people said, oh, well, I'll just kind of put this thing on autopilot, you know. Cruise control, and then they would go to sleep because they're going down I-70, and all of a sudden they end up meeting somebody they didn't know before. Yeah. It's terrifying, but they hear, and Larry, thank you for the call. The people who oppose these things would be on firmer, moral, and principled ground if they also opposed Governor Gavin Newsom, your Governor J.B. Pritzker, Governor Kathy Hochul, willy-nilly giving commercial driver's license to people driving semis and commercial buses without even knowing the language or, for that matter, having the benefit of being in the country legally. See, that, that, that, that, then I'd pay more attention to them. Tom, in D.C., in the District of Columbia, has a suggestion. This is your state fair. Tom, of course, D.C. is not a state, so you don't get a state fair, but now America's 250. Basically, this is your one chance. So who do you want to perform, Tom? Right. I got a list. I'd say, like, The Misfits. I mean, Jerry Only is kind of conservative. The Pioneers, an old Jamaican reggae band. I saw that at Super Nova Scot Fest. They were great. And, I mean, it's something when you hear a performer say, God bless America at the end of the show. So I say the Pioneers. Johnny Liden, he's coming to D.C. in October. Maybe he'd come early. The Mighty, Mighty Bostones, Dickie's new band is called The Defiance. I mean, they'd be great. I think they're kind of... This is all very retro. Like, this was alternative stuff back in the 80s and 90s you're pulling up. But it's all very unique sound. And it's good party music. We'll save the world. That's right. This is our time. That's right, baby.

Thank you for that. All right. And how about Eric in Los Angeles up early in L.A.? Listening on CARLA, Eric, what's on your mind? First of all, you've got to be in show business if you're in L.A. Everybody in L.A., either they're in show business or they're working on a screenplay. Eric, do you have some suggestions for the America 250? Yes, I do have a screenplay, and I'm a musician. I would like to recommend get a bluegrass band to play in that event. Bluegrass is America's music. That is a great idea. And did you know that the Bluegrass Hall of Fame is in Kentucky? I've been to it. And that's Thomas Massie's District, where he just lost his primary race. So that would be a good, you know, bridge building back to Thomas Massie's district to get the Bluegrass Hall of Fame to sponsor it. Now you're talking. That's some real picking, picking and grooving, as they say. All right. Aside from the fact. that the Democrat Party has not changed in over 160 years, there's still the party of slavery. I have two comments I want to make. First comment. About when you mentioned about people that are too busy struggling to put food on the table, but too busy to get educated to who to vote for. Oh, I think our guest, Jennifer Van Lahr said that from Red State, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. What I have to say to those people is too bad. If you can't take the time to become part of the educated electorate, go fishing on election day. And then maybe we'll have fewer liberal Democrats that give commercial drivers licenses to foreigners who don't speak English. Eric, I cannot argue with that at all. And what's your second point? My second point, Xavier Becerra, I personally witnessed this about 20 years ago. I shared the speaker's platform with him at an event at a school, and that went okay. But a few months after that, it was around the time that he was running for mayor against Villa Rigosa in L.A. And I attended an assessor Chavez event to observe it. and Villarigosa was an invited speaker, but Sarah was not. But Sarah put himself on the stage, uninvited, and they had to basically tell him to get off the stage. He almost had to remove him physically. I have a vague memory of that. And, you know, Eric, you reinforce something that Jennifer Van Lahr from Red State, our guest, and I was saying that there's no love, he does not have a lot of friends in the party.

So it will be interesting to see how they rally around them. Thanks for the call. Thanks for all the calls. And again, rest in peace, vanilla or milly. I'm not sure. 51 minutes after the hour here, it's Larry O'Connor, and it's June 1st. We're launching into summer. That means your kids are ready for your summer plans, your summer vacation, and certainly summer camp, if they're of a certain age. And you know how impressionable that summer camp can be, how it's a make or break for a lot of kids reaching a certain age and making choices, the right influences, and sort of formation that a lot of us experienced. Well, As we enter this new week in the new month of June, remember my Angel Tree Camp Drive, please. I'm asking for your help to bless a child with a mom or dad in prison by joining this campaign to send prisoners' kids for a week of fun, fresh air, and Christ-centered activities. They literally transform their lives forever. Go to Larry O'show.com, click on the Angel Tree banner. We've only been out this for four days, and already, because of your generosity, because of the... The spirit touching your heart. We're already sending about 50 kids to camp this month. That's amazing. And there's more kids waiting. Every year, Angel Tree Camp gets these kids out of bad neighborhoods away from gangs and drugs, and they whisk them into the fresh air and Christian fellowship that they so desperately need. And, you know, in just one week, there's a transformation that can happen. If you're wondering how much impact your donation might have, just listen to David from Prison Fellowship. You know, I gave my life to Christ. when I was a teenager at a Christian camp, so I personally know the power of what God can do at camp. I mean, you can only do three things with your money. You can spend it, you can save it, or you can give it. And I think giving it to an angel tree camping scholarship is going to be the best week of somebody's year. It's going to be a break from chaos that they wouldn't otherwise have. And that's money, money well given, money well spent. Yeah, I'll say, best week of the year for them. At the very least, they're going to have a week away from crime and gangs and drugs and bad influences and do great things that they've never had a chance to do like kayak and canoe and sit by the fire. And also, by the way, get touched by the gospel. And that can be life-changing, as you know. A scholarship funded by a gift from you can bless one child with an entire week of angel tree camping. Your donation of $200 or any amount that can combine with others.

to send the child of a prisoner to camp this summer. But camps are filling up. Your help is needed right now. Now's the time. Go to Larry Oshow.com. Click on the angel tree banner at the top of the stage. Again, Larry Oshow.com. AngelTree banner. Thank you so much. By the way, while you're there, check out Larry Oshow.com. Lots of stuff about the show. If you only listen on radio, you can see some of the streaming video that we do, simulcast on Salem News Channel, and subscribe to the podcast while you're there. Thank you for that. All right, we're still kicking it around. A lot is I love when people from the D.C. area, who will be, you know, some of the biggest patrons of this America State Fair, they chime in. So let's see Elizabeth in Maryland, state I live in. Elizabeth. Are you excited about one of the two from Millie Vanilli showing up, or do you have some better ideas? Oh, sorry. I hope it's a much better idea. A lot of people think of the service bands as kind of ceremonial only. But everybody ought to know that I just looked it up on the Army only, on the Army side. They maintain premier rock bands. There's the 101st Army rock band. Downrange is a 12-piece ensemble, as you were, is four members, and they're not just wholesome, but they're really good. They're competitive. Yeah, they're not a product of the celebrity hype. Like, I mean, this is the real deal. And I think the America should be so proud of what the service members can do. They're young. They're energetic. They're current. They do foo fighters. They do, you know, whatever would really, really entertain people. You're so right. And it's a great idea. And they do it for the love of the music, not for the greed, not for the glory, not for the fame. Because. When they're not performing and lifting the spirits of the service members, they're all active duty. At any given time, they could be called up and deployed overseas. It's a great idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it. Thank you, Elizabeth. I hope people at the White House are listening. My daughter was in the Glee Club at the Naval Academy, so I know how talented these kids are. It's amazing. All right, how about, it's another Larry. I attract the Larry's, my friend. You're looking for a Larry, hang out with another Larry. Larry in Tennessee listening to get there in the Volunteer State. Good morning, Larry. You have an idea for music. Well, you're in Tennessee. You've got to get Music City right there. Yeah, I'm not far from it. I'm not far from Bristol, the birthplace of country music. But yeah, the guy that had the best Monday night football song ever, the best football halftime show, Super Bowl. Of course, the guy that wrote the greatest country song, Country Boy, can survive Mr. Bo Seppis, Hank Williams Jr. himself. That would be phenomenal. Why isn't he on the list? You would think, this is what's weird to me, Larry? They have access to some pretty great acts and some pretty great talent. Yeah, somebody needs to tell the president get a hold of him. That would do it right there. Yeah, I hear you. All right. Thank you, Larry. Great idea. And I do love that Tennessee accent. You can't pretend to be from Tennessee. Either sound like that or you're not from Tennessee. Quick update, by the way, on the Graham Platner situation as we're just wrapping up the program this morning before we hand it off to your 9 o'clock host, East Coast time.

Take a look at this picture again if you're watching on the stream. If not, go find it on social media. This is the picture of Graham Platner's active kick account. This is a website for private messaging with young people. Average age is somewhere between 14 and 24. And if you take a look at the topless selfie picture, you will see that his arm and phone are strategically placed to cover up that Nazi tattoo. The tattoo he told us he had no idea was a Nazi tattoo. So either this is a very recent picture from when he learned it was a Nazi tattoo, which is gross, or it's an old picture and he knew full well it was a Nazi tattoo. We'll keep watching that and a whole lot more. See you tomorrow and one. In 2025, Americans lost more than $21 billion to fraud and identity theft. That's why so many people are turning to Aura. Aura helps protect your identity with fraud alerts, dark web monitoring, and up to $5 million in identity theft protection. And if you become a victim, Aura's 24-7 U.S.-based support team is there to help. Don't wait until your identity is stolen. Start your free trial today at Aura.com slash safe. That's Aura.com slash safe.