Senator Bill Cassidy Loses Primary In Louisiana

Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top ringed program from over 150 areas of study, on campus or online, and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. News, politics, entertainment. This is O'Connor and Company. And a great Monday morning from your nation's capital in Washington. It's the District of Columbia. Good morning. I'm Larry O'Connor. This is O'Connor and Company. Big hello to our family on our flagship station. 105.9 FMWMAL in your nation's capital last night. We had an amazing event in Alexandria. I'll tell you a little more about it. It's called our free speech forum. All my friends and colleagues in the entire lineup of WMAL, including Chris Plant, Vince Colonais, and Derek Hunter. We all welcomed about 500 of our listeners and their spouses, their plus ones, their significant others, even some of their kids. Went to the legendary Birchmere Theater. in Alexandria, Virginia, and just had a free-for-all for a couple of hours. This is one of those things where you take, you know, a bunch of different talk radio hosts, put them all on stage together and just imagine what it would be like if they had their own show, you know, instead of just listening to each one of them individually. And that's pretty much what it was. And unlike a lot of radio stations and networks, we actually all like each other, get along, have fun with each other, and it was a blast. So it was great to see all of you. from the greater Washington area. There's lots to talk about from Virginia to Maryland to D.C. and of course nationwide. So it was great. It was a great time. Thank you all for coming out. And wherever you're listening on the new network here for O'Connor and Company, if you want myself or my colleagues are a combination thereof to hang out in your town, just drop us a line. Let us know. We'd love to come and make a day of it and have some fun with you. Just let us know. We'd love to see you. We have a big show ahead of us right now coming up in this hour, as we always do on Monday. We've got Hans von Spikoski, a legal expert. We'll analyze all the things going on in the legal world, including some remarks from the Attorney General and Deputy Acting Attorney General, I should say Todd Blanche, about the Russian collusion hoax. James Comey acting like a man who's kind of scared of the truth coming out about Russia collusion. We'll get into all of that. And Gavin Newsom is saying some curious things about what he's calling a break glass option. if two Republicans end up winning that jungle primary in California. Because, you know, you've got to break the rule sometimes to save democracy or something like that. I'm not sure, but maybe Hans von Spikosky can... Explain it all to us. That's coming up later on in this hour. Also, later on on on the program, John Androsic, legendary Grammy Award winning, top-selling singer-songwriter, who's also a champion for the state of Israel. He just worked his tail off trying to get those hostages freed. And, well, he had a special moment with one of those hostages. He specifically was...

talking about and advocating for for a couple of years there. We're going to get into that with John Androsa coming up a little later in the show. We've got a lot of content this week, actually, as we move toward Memorial Day because we have a philosophy here to really focus on Memorial Day regarding what it's really about, not barbecues and days on a boat. sales at your local department store, which are all great things, by the way. Whenever I meet a vet or I talk to them about, you know, all this says, listen, we fought so that you can't enjoy the beach. So you can't enjoy the zoo. So you can enjoy, you know, buying stuff and getting a discount. That's the reason the men and women put on the uniform and fight for us. And yes, some of them even die for us. But you got to also stop and remember that. We do that here on this show. And all week long as we lead into Memorial Day, we'll be doing that for you. But first, a look at the politics over the weekend where Louisiana had a Saturday primary. They're one of those quirky states. Louisiana's quirky for a lot of reasons. They had a quirky, quirky primary process on a Saturday, and they had three leading Republican candidates all vying for the Republican nomination. Only two of them made it to a runoff. And the one that didn't is actually the incumbent senator. Bill Cassidy. Now, why did he not win the hearts and minds of the people of Louisiana to put him back into the U.S. Senate for six more years? Well, let's take a walk down memory laid, shall we? Because the headlines you're going to hear, well, there's a headline right now, for those of you watching the video stream. Fox, God bless the folks at Fox. Trump scores major Republican primary victory. Why is this about Trump? You've got other headlines that say, you know, Trump's wrath. displayed as Bill Cassidy faces Trump's retribution goes down in his primary. They made this whole thing about how Trump is having some sort of temper tantrum. You can't cross Trump. Trump took it out. I'm sorry, Donald Trump didn't even vote in this primary. Stop making this about Trump. This is all about two people. Bill Cassidy. and the Louisianaans that he represents. Most specifically, the Louisianaans in his party, who chose this Saturday that he no longer properly represents them. So let's take that walk down memory lane. As you know, the U.S. Senate is on a six-year cycle. That means when Mr. Bill Cassidy was last re-elected to the Senate, it was 2020. Was it not? Yes, that is correct. 2020, that's when President Trump was up for re-election, and Bill Cassidy was all in for President Trump. They did rallies together. He was supporting President Trump, supported him for re-election. Big, big supporter. when Mr. Bill Cassidy was running for re-election in 2020. And the people of Louisiana voted for Mr. Bill Cassidy to be their senator. By the way, at the same time, those same voters voted for Donald Trump to be president of the United States. Four years before in 2016, those same voters voted for Donald Trump to be president of the United States. And yes, four years.

subsequent to 2020 in 2024, those same voters voted for Donald Trump to be president. So what do we know about the voters of Louisiana? We know that three times they said we want Donald Trump to be our president. And in the intervening years there in 2020, they also said, oh yeah, we also want Bill Cassidy to be our senator. So he gets elected in November of 2020. We know what happened in the aftermath of the election of 2020 with regard to Donald Trump and the Electoral College. Those electoral college votes from Louisiana that were supposed to bring President Trump back to the White House. Then in February, after Mr. Bill Cassidy is sworn in for his next six-year term, in February, Democrats in the House... voted on impeachment proceedings for Donald Trump after Donald Trump had left office. And in February, the Senate voted to convict President Trump on those impeachment charges. And Bill Cassidy, that same man who just campaigned with Donald Trump, representing his voters in Louisiana who three times now have voted for Donald Trump to be president, that same Bill Cassidy voted to convict Donald Trump and keep him from running for office ever again. Here's Bill Cassidy explaining that vote on a cable news panel show. Knowing what you know now about the farce that was put forward to the American people and the Congress, knowing what you know now, would you still vote to actually convict Donald Trump of the charges that he was put up for? Reporters always love to ask that question. I'm a doctor. You give me all the information I can. I make a decision. I move on. I don't keep on going back. Oh, what happened five years ago. I'm thinking about what's going to happen five years now. You just talked about this stuff you've done for the last five years. You just touted everything you've done for the last five years. Why can't you answer that question? Did you or did you not? Hey, Jason, if I can finish. I want you to answer that question. Would you or would you not? actually vote to convict knowing what you know now. It's a simple question. Yeah, Jason, you may go back and flagellate yourself over decisions in the past. I do not. I move on. By the way, what I'm talking about is not... You get the picture. You get the picture. You get the picture. You get the picture. Of course. He... happily voted to convict Donald Trump. And now, of course, the last thing he wants to talk about is the fact that he voted to convict Donald Trump. Why? Well, because he never thought Donald Trump would win the presidency again. See, he had just been elected. He knew he had six years till he had to face his voters again. So he's going to go ahead and march in lockstep with Mitt Romney. Where is he in the Senate now? Oh, that's right. He's not there anymore either. A couple of other Republicans defying the facts, defying the reality. and vote to convict a man who was no longer even in office anymore because it made him feel good and it made him welcome on certain cable news shows. And then there was this from Bill Cassidy. This is, again, part of the problem with him. Here we go.

Well, a couple things. I don't think Trump can win a general election, but that's a nice way for him to diss people like Tim Scott, who's a pretty formidable candidate. So you just have to take this as a competitor trying to diss others. On the other hand, during the last election cycle, we saw that in all the swing states, almost all, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona, that Trump's, the candidates for Senate that Trump endorsed all lost. If you had taken the votes that went to other Republicans and put them together, those Republicans would have won. So I think the president's kind of high-profile endorsement of those candidates actually hurt those candidates, at least in the general election. So if passed his prologue, that means President Trump is going to have a hard time in those swing states, which means that he cannot win a general election. There you go. Donald Trump cannot win a general election. That was a year before Donald Trump. Oh, what are the words I'm looking for? won the general election. That's it. Those are the words I'm looking for. So Bill Cassidy felt pretty confident, pretty cocky even. Now, that was three years after he had been reelected. So he's got another three years to make it up to the voters of Louisiana for being so wrong, but not just wrong, being arrogant and cocky about being wrong. letting his voters know, oh, you like this guy, but trust me, he can't win anywhere else. And by the way, by making that calculation and saying Donald Trump can't win again, he's assuming that he won't be the nominee again, he's assuming there will be no political repercussions if, in fact, he does win again. And lo and behold, there he is. He won. Pass forward to this Saturday night, and, well, it's Bill Cassidy, who couldn't even win in his own state. He didn't even make the runoff. A little bit more on this, and I know you're all yelling Susan Collins back at the radio right now. Well, I'll explain the difference between Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy. Next, it's O'Connor & Company. 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. Top 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. So there was Bill Cassidy, you know, fresh off his election win in 2020. He votes to convict Donald Trump. And by the way, Bill Cassidy may have felt that in his heart that it was the right thing to do.

that Donald Trump deserved to be impeached. He deserved to be convicted. He deserved to have that on his record. He deserved never to run for president again. He may have believed in his heart, as he told Jake Tapper. By the way, when a Republican goes on Jake Tapper's show, that's a tell. He goes on Jake Tapper and he says, Donald Trump can't win. He can't win another general election. He can't win a swing state. Of course, Donald Trump ended up doing a clean sweep of all of the swing states. So, you know, the guy's a political genius. He may believe that in his heart, and God bless him. That's great. Listen, I want every senator to vote with their heart. I want them to be who they are. I want them to be genuine to the people who put them there. You know, this is always the sort of... juxtaposition that elected officials have. Do I do just what I think is best? Or do I also do what the people of my state or my district want me to do? Sometimes those are in sync. Sometimes they're not. What do you do? Do you set aside your own personal beliefs, ego and narcissism and do what the people that put you there want you to do? I think so. But sometimes no. Sometimes you've got to say, I know better than you guys. But when you do that... You got to remember that when you ask for their vote again, they're going to remember that. And that's why all the headlines today that are saying Trump's wrath pours down on the soul of Bill Cassidy. Bill Cassidy has learned that you don't cross Donald Trump. Donald Trump has punished Bill. No. The voters of Louisiana for the first time since they last voted for him to be senators six years ago had a chance to let him know what they thought of his performance, what they thought of some of the things that he did, including impeaching the guy that they voted for three times. And they said, yeah, we're done with you now. So here's Bill Cassidy, Saturday night. I've been able to participate in democracy. And when you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn't turn out the way you wanted to. But you don't pout, you don't whine, you don't claim the election was stolen, you don't find a reason why...

Brother, brother, die on that hill. In fact, he did politically, already die on that hill. So go for it. You know what? This is how you're going to get your big contract with CNN or Miznau or ABC, probably. But you know, here's the problem. You're not really of use to them anymore. You were super useful when you were an elected official in Washington and a part of President Trump's party, but you... would go on these television shows and trash him and subsequently the voters, your own voters, your own Louisianaans who support him. You were really valuable to them now. Now that you're not a senator and elected official anymore, you're as valuable to them as Adam Kinzinger or Lynn Cheney. Where is Lynn Cheney, by the way? Yeah, exactly. Oh, and for everybody who says, wait a second, Susan Collins voted to convict Donald Trump, and now we're all, you know, want Susan Collins to beat Graham Platner in Maine. Well, fair point, I suppose. Let's just be clear here. There's a very, very, very important distinction. This was a Republican primary. And there were viable options running against Mr. Bill Cassidy. I don't think there were any viable options running against Susan Collins in Maine, number one. But number two, and most importantly, Mr. Bill Cassidy was just sent packing into early retirement because he defied the people of his state. Louisianaans who voted for Donald Trump three times. And they had their guy up there thumping his chest on cable news saying, he can't win again. And this is, you know, and I'm not even going to answer for my vote to convict because that's in the past. But I do want you to evaluate my record. Evaluate me on all the votes except for that one. You know, that kind of garbage. Well, up in Maine. Well, the people of Maine have not voted for Donald Trump three times. In fact, the people of Maine through the electoral college system has not voted for Donald Trump once, except Maine is weird. They've got that one congressional district that sent one member of the electoral college there. But that's about the right balance in a state like Maine. And Susan Collins, well, reflecting that electorate is kind of the perfect senator for them as well. And when she does get into office, she supports Donald Trump, frankly, more than Mr. Bill Cassidy did. But that's the way I rationalize the difference. You could look at it another way. Oh, one other person we won't be seeing coming back to the House of Representatives, one Steve Cohen. You know him, the representative for the majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee. His district just got redrawn. And Mr. Cohen, with many years of experience on his resume, Well, it was incumbent on him to go back to the voters in his new district and say, look at me, look at my seniority, look at my track record, look what I've done. Don't bring in some new guy, rehire me and have me be your congressman. Come on, I'm great. I know what I'm doing. I know my way around. I've got seniority. And he chose not to try that. He doesn't want to go back to the voters and say that he's worthy of two more years because now he doesn't work in a rigged district. True to form.

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most of the time. And it's not addressed because people are worried about it. No, they are. And this was all enhanced, again, by a point that I think Chris Plant first made and that you all talked about. And that is that when the left was in charge, Joe Biden, for example, during his four years in Washington, when this violence was being committed on the left. They didn't do anything about it. You know, three days of rioting at the White House at the last days of the Trump administration. And what does the Biden administration do about it? Well, they didn't do anything about it despite the violent action, including... setting fire to one of the oldest churches, one of the oldest churches in Washington, the one that presidents of both parties have long attended. Everybody wants to talk about, you know, President Trump walking out the next day and standing in front of that church defiantly with his cabinet holding up a Bible. Like, oh, that's just some sort of, you know, ridiculous photo up. But they don't want to talk about the three days that led to that with the burning of that church, with the breach of the White House property where they had to put President Trump in the bunker to protect the President of the United States. And not one person was convicted over all of that because of George Floyd, I guess, that that mitigates the circumstances or something. Right. And look, if I may, look, we just had another example of the difference in attitude that reaches all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last... Just last week, and there was a guy on death row, a horrible criminal on death row in Texas, who had suffocated a retired professor and who had a long history, a long history of all kinds of other crimes. That case got to the Supreme Court last week. because a lower court had stayed the execution. And what happens? Well, the majority of the justices, the sex who are pretty rational most of the time, lifted the stay so that Texas could finally execute this guy for a murder that occurred 20 years ago. And what did the three liberal justices do? Oh, they all wrote dissent saying, no, we shouldn't allow that to happen. That's the difference, start difference in attitude between the left and the right these days. If we have these laws on the books, they should be utilized. They should be employed. If people are against the death penalty and think death penalty is wrong, fine. Go through the legislative process and remove the death penalty with your votes. Use the political process that our founders handed us. But to just have those laws on the books and then just ignore them because of your political beliefs, well, that...

sends the message of chaos. It sends the message that these things are acceptable. Which brings us to the hearing yesterday. We had your friend and colleague Cully Stimson on late last week to talk about Steve Descano, the prosecutor from Fairfax County, facing a withering barrage of questions from the likes of Jim Jordan and others. This is a story that sadly is repeated in so many counties all around the country where these people get elected and then just refuse to enforce the law. Do you think that there's an opportunity here, Hans, for real change and something of substance to come out of these hearings? Yes. I unfortunately live in the county where Steve Descano refuses to prosecute all kinds of crimes and, in fact, basically refuses to prosecute illegal aliens if they commit crimes, which has led to all kinds of problems. I'm hoping that this exposure... might lead finally to him being recalled. As you know from talking with, actually my good friend, Kelly Stimson, these rogue prosecutors actually have been defeated and have been recalled in many other places around the country, including of all places, San Francisco, which one of the most liberal places in the country, and even there. they got tired of such a, frankly, renegade prosecutor who refused to try to stop the crime going on. So I'm hoping that will finally happen in what is the largest county in Virginia. Hans, while I've got you on that, because I think it's important that we actually see results from these hearings. Because a lot of people see the hearings and they say, you know, all you do is talk. All we do is have a hearing. All we do is express outrage. But then nothing happens. At the crux of what Mr. Descano's been doing and sort of the nadir of the discussion in that hearing was sanctuary policies. states, counties, cities, just deciding that they will refuse to cooperate with ICE and other federal authorities, picking and choosing what federal laws matter to them and which federal laws they will devote any sort of police resources to cooperate with the federal authorities on. And people look at that and wonder, how is this legal? How has this ever been? tried at the Supreme Court level. Has the Supreme Court ever ruled and said, oh, yeah, a state or county, they're not compelled to cooperate with federal law enforcement because it seems like that's something that should be a priority. Well, the line that is drawn in this area legally, and this is based on, you know, Supreme Court and other decisions is, look, states cannot be forced to enforce federal law.

if they step over the line of obstructing federal enforcement, then they can be prosecuted. And the best example of that is the recent conviction of a state court judge in Wisconsin who, when she discovered that ICE agents were outside of her courtroom waiting to pick up an illegal alien, accused of a local crime who was in her... That stepped over the line. When she starts obstructing federal enforcement, that's when you can go after state officials for doing that. Understandable. But I understand that you can't force a state law enforcement to enforce the federal law. But it's not really enforcing federal law. We're not asking the police to arrest somebody because they're an illegal immigrant. They're arresting them for breaking another law. And then when it turns out that they've also violated federal law, ICE is just asking them to hold them until federal officials can come and get them. Let me give you an example. Let's say police arrest somebody for shoplifting. And then they check their record and it turns out, oh, this guy is wanted for robbing a bank. Now, robbing a bank is a federal law. That's a federal crime. Would they just let that shoplifter out or would they wait and hand them over to the FBI because he broke federal law? Well, in fact, they would hand them over to the Fed, and that is a prime example of how the sanctuary jurisdictions are treating aliens better than they are U.S. citizens, because the standard procedure, when somebody gets elected locally, is they check the FBI, the FBI is this national crime computer system in which... states put warrants. And when somebody's arrested locally, states check that to see, was this guy wanted in another state, or is he wanted by the feds? And if he is, they hold it. But with illegal aliens, they won't do that in sanctuary city. So they're actually treating illegal aliens better than they are their own U.S. citizens. Right, and that's what I mean by whether it would pass constitutional muster or not or a Supreme Court challenge because they, again, it's not equal justice and it's not applying the law equally. We'll have to continue to pursue that and see if at some point the Supreme Court will hear this. Speaking of the FBI, James Comey, who of course has been under fire quite a bit recently for various suspicious activities, and also he might get caught up in that investigation with a grand jury in Florida that Your friend and colleague, Joe DeGeneva, who used to be our legal analyst here on Mondays, but he is now working as an advisor to the acting attorney general. James Comey seems concerned that there is a real fruitful investigation into the Russian collusion hoax going on. Here was James Comey over the weekend speaking to a cable news show, MS Now, I think it is. Not looked at from the top level. The people running it, if you're bragging about forcing out career prosecutors and agents because the president doesn't like a lawful investigation they conducted, something is seriously broken at the top. But I have great confidence in the people down below who are just trying to hang on. And I'm urging them, hang on, two and a half years. And then we can rebuild these institutions, but we need good people in those roles. America does.

We do need good people in those roles, but it seems to me, Hans, that this is James Comey, who represented, I think, what many people believe, was a bit of an out-of-the-control FBI applying the law in a political way, basically communicating to these agents, stay there, don't go anywhere, just hang on, and when we get a new president, when we get a new attorney general or FBI director, then we can get back to normal. I'd love for you to comment on that because, again, this seems to be part of the problem. It is part of the problem. And remember the key to what he just said, which was totally false. He said, the president wanted to want to get rid of people who doesn't like who were conducting a lawful investigation. They weren't conducting a lawful investigation. In fact, James Comey and others at the top knew that the whole Russian collusion allegation, they knew it had been produced by who? the Hillary Clinton campaign. They knew early on that it was, in essence, a hoax. And yet they obviously undertook this to try to damage the Trump administration. And it's... newly acquired range of power in the federal government. That is obvious in all of the communications and evidence that has been released since that. And the career people who knew that... and yet participated in, engineered such an abusive investigation, they should be fired. They shouldn't be in the Justice Department because we should not have anyone who is willing to abuse the power of a prosecutor, which is tremendous in office. That's dangerous to the American people. Well said, sir. Yeah, it always struck me that James Comey, I remember when all this was going down and he was under fire in the first Trump administration. He said, my main responsibility is to protect the institution of the FBI. It's like, that's not his main responsibility. It's to protect the Constitution of the United States. Hans, stay there. Gavin Newsom said something, and I need you to comment on it coming up. And I'm Larry O'Connor, and part of our company this morning on O'Connor and Coventy is our Monday guest, Hans von Spikoski, senior legal fellow over at the mighty, oh goodness, why do I forget off the top of my head? I have now forgotten. See, I can usually do this just off the top of my head. Advancing American Freedom, that's it. over in Advancing American Freedom. Sorry, Hans, I got so used to introducing you at Heritage Foundation because you were there for so many years. You must still get used to having to say advancing American freedom. I am still getting used to it, but I'm now working for a great organization. Absolutely, you are. Everybody, we get to talk with Hans, and Hans, you are a legal election law expert in particular. You worked in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

specifically with voting rights. And so you're the expert here on how we cast our votes and how we elect our representatives in this constitutional republic. In California, they have what's called a jungle primary where everybody from all parties, they all get on the ballot. And then in the primary, the top two people, no matter who they are, they make it to the general election. There have been times when it was two Democrats. I remember... Attorney General Kamala Harris was running for re-election and she faced off against Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat congressman. Loretta Sanchez was the normal sane person on that ballot between those two Democrats. That should tell you everything. So now we're facing a very interesting thing in California where it is still possible that the top two people could be Republicans going into November. Gavin Newsom was asked about this and this is what Gavin Newsom said. We all have agencies. We can shape the future. There's still a lot. Look, I've said this before, so I'll repeat it. I don't anticipate this need to be the case. But there is a break the glass scenario. And there's many people that have a deep understanding of what it would look like if Democrats were locked out. And we're going to do everything to make sure that doesn't happen. I'll leave it. I'll leave it at that. Hans, do you know what the heck he's talking about? What is this break the glass moment in case of emergency break the glass and what, upend the entire primary process? Yeah, that's obviously what he's talking about because remember he just did that with redistricting in California. California Democrats actually and the people of the state had put in an independent redistricting commission. to supposedly have non-partisanship in the drawing of district lines. And when they decided, oh, they need to get rid of the Republican congressional districts, they actually had to change and amend the Constitution to put in his new plan. And this is another instance. That jungle primary, as you well know. was put in by Democrats to try to ensure that Republicans could not get elected in this state. That was the reason for it. And now that things have been upended, he's clearly talking about once again changing the law so that this doesn't happen. But should Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, right now, he's running like... third or fourth, depending on the polls. But the Democrats are going after Xavier Becerra. They're trying to knock him down. They're trying to knock Tom Steyer down. If they damage those two enough and they start to fall, Chad Bianco could sneak in here. Should two Republicans end up emerging from this primary and end up being the only two choices on the general? Is there anything that Gavin Newsom, or these agencies and break the glass moment here, that he can do to upend that or alter that, or is he talking about something after the fact? I don't know what he can do legally if that happens, but remember...

I mean, I hate to accuse anybody of illegally. But remember, this is a state in which they automatically register people to vote when they go in for driver's licenses. They give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, and they do everything they can to ensure that state election officials don't catch that. They want aliens registering and voting because they think it helps them win elections, Democrats, that is, in that state. And I suspect, unfortunately, they will do everything they can to encourage that kind of illegal, unlawful behavior that they will fight any attempts by the federal government, the Justice Department, to prevent that from happening and hope that that makes it really tough for Republicans in the state. By the way, there's already a bill now making its way through Sacramento to redo the way they do ballots and primaries in California. They don't like that it's even come this close. They refuse to accept the notion that we could have two Republicans on the general election ballot. So they now want to rescind the jungle primary and go back to the good old days. It's amazing to see California flail around here. And it's all in the name of democracy. But it's amazing how often they have to change the rules to accommodate their party in the name of democracy. Yeah, they are the heights of anti-democratic behavior. By the way, as you know, the Supreme Court knocked down Jay Jones' futile attempt to overrule the state Supreme Court of Virginia. So Virginia's district stay the same. No more Hail Mary there. There's still a debate in South Carolina about what to do about Jim Clyburn's district. It looks like it might get redistricted. But I only have 30 seconds. If a state decides to just leave their racially gerrymender districts alone and not redistrict, is that defying the Constitution at this point since the Supreme Court has ruled? I think it is, and it leaves them open to private litigation by voters who attack them and say, you can't do that. Remember, it was private voters who attacked what Louisiana had done and resulted in the Louisiana versus KLA decision three weeks ago and said, you can't use race. Hans von Spikoski, advancing American freedom. I won't forget it. Thanks for joining us, as always on Mondays. Hans, we'll talk to you next week. From the Relief Factor Studios in Washington, I'm Larry O'Connor, and this is O'Connor & Company. Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top ringed program from over 150 areas of study, on campus or online, and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu.

Good morning from your nation's capital on our flagship, WMAL. It's O'Connor and company. I'm Larry O'Connor. And the city is getting beautified and prepared for the first of many celebrations of our nation throughout the summer. A lot of people say Memorial Day is sort of the unofficial kickoff of summer. I guess that's true. And... Memorial Day also in Washington, D.C. signals the beginning of some really important patriotic moments, from Memorial Day to Flag Day to Independence Day and on. Summer is huge in Washington for all of these moments. And this year, in America's 250, it's that much more significant. And we're fortunate. We're fortunate to live in this area so that we can experience it. We're told that we're going to have a record-breaking fireworks celebration. It's going to go at least half an hour on the national mall. If you can't get here this summer, starting with Memorial Day, you know, all the way through Veterans Day, really. If you can't get here, try to tune in, catch a stream online, catch it on television. Gary Sinise is going to be hosting the Memorial Day concert, which is always a highlight of the Memorial Day celebrations. And, of course, leading up into Independence Day, which is going to be absolutely epic. And this Memorial Day, we will have a parade. And we want to talk about that Memorial Day parade if you can make it to Washington, D.C. Tim Holbert is the president of the American Veterans Center, which is the organization that puts on this parade. People will be surprised, Tim. First of all, thanks for joining us, that we didn't always have a Memorial Day parade in Washington, D.C., which is kind of shocking. That's right. Yeah, it shocked us too. It seemed that the Memorial Day parade tradition in Washington faded away during World War II. The last record we could find was 1942 of a parade here along Constitution Avenue. So back in 2004, when the National World War II Memorial was dedicated over Memorial Day weekend of that year, the American Battle Monuments Commission asked the American Veterans Center to put on a parade for the thousands of World War II vets who were in town for that weekend and that dedication. We didn't know anything about parades, but of course we were honored to step up and do it. And then that's when we looked around, found there hadn't been one in some 60-plus years and said, you know what, this really needs to be a tradition. So we brought it back the following year for the National Memorial Day Parade, and here we are today. Parades are super important. I reflected on this. We all had a party last year for the Army's 250th birthday party that they did on the mall. And I remember a ton of my right-wing conservative friends and my writer friends at Town Hall. And we all got together and had a big party on a rooftop in Arlington and we could watch all the flyovers. And it occurred to me at the time. These ceremonies, these displays of these great men and women who wear the uniform and honoring them and doing this outward public display of our patriotism, it's really important in the long run for our nation's cohesiveness, don't you think?

Absolutely. It's these ceremonies where we come out. We see those who serve, those who sacrifice the families of the fallen, carrying photos of their loved ones in the parade in front of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of spectators, families, kids who have never had an opportunity, most of them, many of them, to meet members of the military. To have that sort of cohesive community spirit is so essential, I think, particularly in this digital age. And so it's a reason that we're so proud of it. kids coming out you know when we first put on the parade we had world war one veterans riding in the parade uh if you can imagine that 20 years ago and world war two veterans marched down the parade route 20 years ago we still have them riding out there but to think that the history that young people can come and and uh basically immerse themselves with so many it's like this it really truly is a special and important There's also something about the pageantry, the uniqueness of our military. I know the bedded women who wear the uniform hate going and marching in a parade. It's the one thing they don't like. Or although they'll act like they don't like it, but I think they get a kick out of it too. But I tell this story often, my daughter, who's currently active duty in the Navy. When she was, she had just finished eighth grade, we were vacationing for a weekend. You know, we're living in D.C., but we took a weekend up in Annapolis. And we watched the very first plebe summer lunch formation, where the plebs just gets screamed at by the upperclassmen, by the first, he's in the second class. And, you know, it's all, and they're all in their units. They're all in their, uh, uh, uh, uh, various formations and then they all have to march in for lunch after getting yelled at and doing all the pageantry. And that's what got my daughter hooked on wanting to go to the Naval Academy. Watching that witnessing, looking at the zeal, looking at the uniformity and all of that. It speaks to certain people. And so these parades, and now she's, you know, she went to the Naval Academy and now she's active duty in the United States Navy. So this serves as sort of one of those touchstones for the kids. who get it, the kids who this appeals to, and you don't even know where it's coming sometimes. Absolutely. You know, my favorite thing after every year's parade, of course, is to go through all the photos that we've gotten and, you know, come, you know. thousands of photos would come away with. And of course, you see the great photos of the troops in uniform and the vets and the World War II veterans still proudly waving everything. But my favorite photos are of the crowds and of the kids in the crowds, holding their flags with their parents and seeing that sort of next generation, you know, inspired by it. I always come away so optimistic about America and our future when I see the, you know, the families and the kids and just how much they are. drawn to this and this history and this legacy that we're all a part of.

So let's talk about this year's parade. Anything special because it's also America 250? What will people have? If anyone in the Washington area, I implore you to come down and participate in this parade. And I do mean participate. You don't just sit there in view. You're part of it. You stand. You salute. You scream. You cheer. You feel the emotion of it. And if you're anywhere in the country, you should come to Washington for Memorial Day. It's the best place to be. What does this year's parade look like? Absolutely. Well, this is a very special year for the first time the National Memorial Parade is kicking off the official ceremonies here in Washington in the morning. Normally we're in the afternoon today. It's first thing in the morning coming out 9 a.m. right at the National Archives on Constitution Avenue, 7th Street, fun, great musical performances from the U.S. Air Force Band and country artists like Clay Walker and Drake Milligan and pop artist Ryan Cabrera and more. Then the parade itself kicking off at 10 a.m. runs until noon, right along Constitution Avenue from 7th to 17th Street. The archives pass to White House. A great procession, a timeline of American military history. So, of course, historical reenactors, George Washington up from Mount Vernon and Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, all the way through, actual veterans from World War II through the present day, almost 1,000 active duty personnel within it. Of course, fun celebrity performance. performance or music performances and participation. And of course, families of our fallen throughout, you know, the real meaning of Memorial Day, of course, honoring our fallen. And there, of course, the real special guests this year's parade. So just a fantastic procession. And to be able to conduct this parade on Memorial Day, in many instances based on the route, you just told me, you'll be walking past memorials and monuments. for those battles, for those wars, for the fallen. And then, of course, just in the distance, as you're marching in the direction, you're marching, you can see the hills of Arlington with the grave markers there. And you can't not get emotional when you think about it, when you recognize how weighty the real ceremony is right here and what it's really honoring. It's, honestly, I... I lose speech. What I think about it, as you can tell, Tim. Absolutely. Just sitting there and looking and watching the parade go bypass the national archives, the documents that everybody in this parade has at one point in their lives sworn to defend, right behind them, past the White House. You know, it really is the place to be. And you talk about the weight of it. Truly, it is the weight of history that's on all of their shoulders. I'll never forget. I spoke with a veteran of the war on terror who had lost some friends overseas in that horrific conflict in Afghanistan. He lost some friends. And I talked to him, we were talking about Memorial Day. And I see it obviously there's a distinction between Veterans Day and Memorial Day and all the various days that we have here to honor service. Memorial Day is different. It's about those who fell. And I remember just asking him sort of a trite question. Is it okay to say happy Memorial Day? And he said, yes, we should actually, we honor the loss and we honor what they did and the sacrifice, but we should be happy because we have men who are willing to do this. We should be happy that we have these freedoms because of their sacrifice. So it's not anachronistic to say happy Memorial Day. Do you agree?

So now here's the latest good news that they want to ignore. A climate group out of the UN, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has now adjusted its modeling framework. They predicted a four to five degree centigrade warming by 2100. That's, you know, 75 years from now. And now they said, oh, never mind. That's not going to happen. And by the way, the excuse. is because we've done so well with alternative energy sources and renewables. Our policies have worked so well that we're not going to know. There's no actual data or science to back up that claim, but that's what they're going to say. And, you know, most Republican politicians who have opposed these draconian. anti-capitalist, anti-free market, anti-science predictions about the end of the world, all in the name of their political agenda, most Republicans would just be the better man and stand on their principles and just offer grace and an avenue of face-saving for their political opponents who try to seize power under the guise of climate change policies. But President Trump, God bless him, he is not That kind of Republican, not in the least. He's not going to be the better man. He's going to be right. And he's going to remind you. So he took to social media, his true social account, and he said this, good riddance. After 15 years of Democrats promising that climate change is going to destroy the planet, the United Nations top climate committee, just admitted that its own projections were wrong, wrong, wrong. For far too long, climate activism has been used by Democrats to scare Americans, push horrible energy policies and fund billions into their bogus research programs. Unlike the Democrats who use climate alarmism nonsense to push their green news scam, my administration will always be based on truth, science, and fact, signed President Donald J. Trump. I think the Democrats thing is sticking. He's going to use that a lot and get used to it. I'm glad we have a leader for our party and for that matter at this time, a leader for our nation who will, in fact, call them out and say you've been trying to scare people. How many children, they're not children anymore, young adults, but they were raised in this climate change hysteria, don't want to have children of their own because they think it would be irresponsible to bring a child into this world. What with climate change and global warming and all the things, it's horrific. It's frankly evil. And as President Trump put it, wrong, wrong, wrong. Remember when Glacier National Park used to have signs that said the glaciers would all melt by 2020? They put those up during the Clinton administration. The glaciers are going to be melted by 2020. If you go to Glacier National Park, that's what you hear all the time. That's what you see, except they got that wrong because it's 2026 and the glaciers are still there. So they took the signs down.

But no one said, I'm sorry. No one said, I'm wrong. They just quietly took the signs down. Trust the science. No, really do trust the science. Don't trust the scientists, though. Yeah. EOD, explosive ordinance disposal. That was my nickname in high school. Not really. Larry O'Cotter here, O'Cottor and Company from the Relief Actors Studios, Indiar Nations Capital EOD. These are the guys who diffuse bombs. They take care of business. They're often assigned with seals and special forces there with the Navy. And one of the retirees, well, you know him. His name's Hongkow. He's now the acting secretary of the Navy. He was EOD, also a Naval Academy graduate. And this guy, also my friend, Tom John Sauer, also a Naval Academy graduate, although you were a prior Marine Corps infantry, too. So you've got an extra level of badassery there, Tom John Sauer. Thanks for joining us this morning. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, I've got a various assortment of name tags in my career. Yes. Well, and now you're sort of the go-to expert on a lot of the stuff that your brothers and sisters there in the straight and the Persian Gulf are dealing with. We've got the Navy is really the tip of the spear on this entire operation as of now because of the blockade. There's also quite a few Marines over there, some muse who are just waiting to be boots on the ground if necessary. Can you give us your professional assessment of where things stand right now, and especially the process potentially of our Navy resuming escorting ships through the strait? What's it looking like? Yeah, it can be a very difficult situation in a lot of ways, but I think it really is just going to be a matter of time of having this blockade against Iran. I think one thing that's very important to point out, I think it's a common misconception, is that we are not blockading the Strait of Hormuz. We are blockading Iran. So that includes Iranian ports on both inside and outside the Persian Gulf. So, look, we do have a huge posture that right now we are prepared to act again and destroy what little is left of the Iranian Navy. I think honestly, right now, maintaining a blockade, yes, it takes time. There might be debate over whether or not these economic sanctions or when they will actually run out of storage capacity. against how long that's going to take. We don't know, but it's not going to last forever. That's what we do know. So I think this is one of those things because politics plays a big part of this. I mean, yes, people are upset over, you know, gas prices and the price of goods overall. However, I think the President Trump is really playing the long game here. And, you know, we've been in these positions before. You know, many of your viewers and listeners might be old enough to remember the Tanker Wars Operation Praying Mantis.

in 1987, 1988. That was a big part of naval history and especially for Navy EOD. It's, you know, honestly, I'm cautiously optimistic about a lot of this stuff. I have found that trusting President Trump usually ends up being the right course of action. Yeah. Yeah, and well, the president, you know, got some criticism because he was asked, you know, how much of America's current financial situation do you take into account when you negotiate with Iran? And he said, I don't. And for me, if I'm wearing the uniform or if my child is over there wearing the uniform, that's what I want. I don't want a president who's worried about the economy or the next election when he's, you know, overseeing a military operation. That's when we get into trouble when the civilians and the politicians take domestic political concerns into account. Yeah, no, 100%. And also keep in mind that like what the original purpose of all of this comes down to, which would be actually a much worse political and economic situation, which would be if you had a nuclear armed Iran, that would be able to control the strait. And, I mean, that's a, you know, look, usually most countries don't like to invade each other when one of them has nuclear weapons. I mean, that's just a really, really dicey situation. And then you could have some real serious problems. So, you know, look, this might be painful in the short term. But, I mean, honestly, man, like, this is playing the long game, which I think is the right move. Tom John Sauer, at the beginning of the blockade, and thank you for clarifying and making sure everybody knows. Because there's, oh, Chinese ships are making it through the strait, so the Navy isn't going to do anything. No, the Chinese ships that made it through the straight last week were not coming from Iranian ports. They were coming from an Iraqi port, I think, in a UAE port. So they're fine going through. We want more ships to go through, right? But a big part of the operation appeared to be detecting or trying to determine whether there are any mines that have been laid by Iran. Do you have an assessment now after these weeks, and based on some of the contexts you still have in the Navy, where do we stand right now with regard to mines or potential mines in the strait? Do we know? Yeah, no, it's a great question. So to give you a little bit of context, Iran had somewhere between 6,800 mines. Sorry, 6,000 to 8,000 mines in storage. And one of the very first things that we did during Epic Fury is to take out all of their inventory, right? Like that was what we call that getting left of splash, as in we're getting there before mine splash in the water. Now, the thing is, though, is that there were still some mines. that were kept, like, locally on hand in certain locations, right? So we have had my brothers from Navy EOD, and including my actual little brother, is a Navy EOD officer. He is not in the Persian Gulf. He is in another part of the world right now, but we're all talking to each other. And we assess that there are somewhere in the Strait of Hormuz area.

a double digit number of mines, probably 30, maybe 40 at the most. Now, keep in mind that when the Iranians put out their danger or hazard area, I think they called it, so hey, this is a hazardous area. That's about 540 square miles. That's a very, very large chunk of water space to have to clear. But also at the same time, it's really hard to hit a mine in those. That doesn't mean it's safe and it's okay. Oh, it's fine. You can't hand wave it. But we've had our assets, Navy EOD, specifically what is called expeditionary mine countermeasures. And these are teams of Navy EOD sailors and some other sailors deploying unmanned underwater vehicles, right? These are underwater robots. They look like a torpedo. Sort of like submarine drones. Yeah, it's like, yes, exactly right. They look like a torpedo. It's roughly the size of a torpedo. And it basically acts in like a lawnmower pattern. It just scans the bottom using side scan sonar to map out the bottom of the seafloor. And it also has a forward-looking, what's called a synthetic aperture sonar. Just anyways, very all high-tech stuff that goes and searches for any of these mines that might be there. And it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. And we're in the middle of doing that right now. We're able to do so in fairly low profile as opposed to having large minesweepers there in the area. We had some minesweepers that been operating there for about a month. And now they're actually heading back. So they're actually heading back to their home port in Sassabo, Japan. So they're clearing that whole area right now. And it takes some time, but we're getting there. Tom John Sauer is our guest. He's a former Marine infantry and also a Navy Bomb Squad officer with EOD. And I want to keep stressing Naval Academy graduate because go Navy. Tom. If I could shift your focus over to China, the president came back from his summit. Nothing was really said of significance about Taiwan, but the Taiwan issue still looms. And the president said in an interview this weekend, something to the effect of, well, listen, Taiwan's right in China's backyard, but it's, you know, thousands of miles away for us. So it makes it hard for us if we had to engage militarily. And I just wanted the president knows full well that we have a pretty significant presence in Okinawa, right? Which is very close to Taiwan. I wonder what you make of that because it seems to me is sort of the president sort of trying to downplay any specific significance right now of Taiwan maintaining the current situation and status quo. But if things start to get hot and China does something stupid, we're more than prepared right over there with our Okinawa presence, aren't we? We do have a significant presence out there. I mean, right now, like the most capable Navy in that region is the United States Navy. Now, I understand that the Chinese do have a ton of ships, but many of them aren't all that capable. And they have tons of coastal defense missiles, all sorts of stuff. So, I mean, the fight that China has always been preparing for is one against the United States.

in that region, specifically against Taiwan. So that is something that, without getting in too much detail, that is something that the United States military, primarily the Navy and also the Air Force, plans for and runs exercises for all the time, is the defense of Taiwan. And yes, we do have a ton of forces there in Okinawa and then also pretty far away, but still close enough, we have Guam, which is sovereign U.S. territory. We have a major U.S. port there. And also where we keep a ton of our ordnance missiles, torpedoes. We have repair facilities for our ships and submarines there. And we have Anderson Air Force Base, which is where we can launch B2 bombers and B-52 bombers. So that and now thing is what does that mean, though, is that if we were, hypothetically, to get the shooting war with China, the first targets that we can expect the Chinese to go after is Okinawa, specifically Kedina Air Base. and Guam, right? Yeah. So now, because if you look at the map, China's, China only has access to one ocean, the Pacific Ocean. We have access to the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Gulf of America, right? And so China does not have that kind of access. And if you look at a map, we call it the first island chain. You look from South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, all the way down to the Strait of Malacca. China is boxed in by countries that are not especially friendly to China. Taking Taiwan is a huge goal of China, not only just a matter of national pride, but also it allows them to break out very successfully into the Pacific Ocean becoming more than just a regional power, but also a global power. Now. When it comes to Taiwan, why do we care so much about Taiwan? These days, the reason we care so much about it is because the chip fabs, right? We've all heard this. The devices that you and I are talking on right now are used using processors and chips that were made in Taiwan. Now, if that ability was not exclusive to Taiwan, this is just Tom John Sauer speaking. This is my personal opinion here. then Taiwan becomes much less valuable. My prediction, and this is something that, you know, might be considered unpopular, but I think is correct, is that one day if the United States is able to produce the same types of chips at the same type of capacity outside of Taiwan, either within the United States or another friendly country, then you're going to see Taiwan probably get absorbed by China. And I say that, and probably without firing a shot, I could be wrong, but I don't think there's going to be a massive invasion of Taiwan in our lifetime. I would suspect that more likely in our lifetimes, you're actually going to see Taiwan go over to China. Half that country likes China anyway. I mean, they really do. Like, and, you know, it's, it's, you know, not, I think it would be not unlike what we saw with Taiwan in what, 2017, 2018. I don't think it'll be any different from that. But really, it's all the strategic importance of Taiwan rests on the chip faps. And we can talk about democracy and all that stuff all we want. But when it comes to great power politics, it's really about economics and security.

Interesting. Tom, stay right there. I'd love to bring you back here because we're approaching Memorial Day. And I know that you have some stories to tell, frankly, and not just people who have fallen overseas fighting alongside you during the War on Terror. But also what happens to some of our vets as they come home and their addiction problems and their PTSD? And that's been a big part of your post-military career. So Tom John Sauer will continue with us in just a moment. This is O'Connor and Company from your nation's capital in the Relief Factor Studio. We make it a point here to reflect on Memorial Day. And Tom John Sauer is a great person to talk to about Memorial Day. He is a Navy veteran, EOD. Bad guy, good guy, but did bad stuff. Naval Academy grad. And Tom, first, obviously, when it comes to Memorial Day, your thoughts have got to go to your brothers that you lost over there during the War on Terror and some of the action that you saw. What's Memorial Day like for you when it rolls around? Yeah, one thing that I plan on doing again, especially now that I'm living back in D.C. is, you know, go to Arlington sometime this week. It might be too busy on the weekend, but you go there. And I'd recommend to anyone who's either in the area whenever they go to Arlington to go to Section 60, 60. And that is where you'll find most of the dead buried from the global war on terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan. That's where most of them aren't. It's not too far from the main gate. And I've got about five or six friends who are buried there. You know, I think about most notably an EOD guy there, Scotty Dayton. He was actually something of a mentor to my brother. He was the first KIA in Syria. And he died on Thanksgiving Day 24 November and 2016. I remember I was actually, both my brother and I were home for Thanksgiving that day. And we actually literally, I mean, we had turkey on the table and my brother's phone kept blowing up. And he's like, somebody's like, oh, it's the CO. And so he had to take the phone and it was like, hey, we just got word that Scotty Dayton died in Syria. And he was with the guys from fifth special horses group during a raid. Basically, the house had been rigged to explode when he was clearing it. And the house came down on top of them, more or less. But I've got a couple of other, you know, many other friends there as well, mostly Navy EOD Marines. And then one friend of mine who was actually a West Pointer. uh, Tyler Parton, uh, who died, uh, in 2007. So, um, or no, 2009, excuse me. But, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's something you really think about a lot. And, um, but, you know, it's one of those things, especially the guys who are killed in action as sad as it is. And this might sound strange to some people, but it's like, You know, they died on their feet the way that they wanted to go. I mean, that was something we all sign up for. And it's something that, you know, we're proud of them, but we're also sad for them, you know. And mostly you feel bad for the families. That's really what it comes down to.

It's also one of those things where you can't think about it too much or at all when you're doing your job, when you're actually there, because it'll sort of get in the way of the professional work you've got to do. So I've got to think when you're home and when you're no longer serving, that's when you take up for lost time and think about it after the fact and reflection. Yeah, no, absolutely. And then also I got to say that when it comes to that, also, I mean, Memorial Day and a lot of people love to correct everyone on the Internet, but it's like, well, Memorial Day is where we celebrate our war dead. And then Veterans Day is for the veterans. And that's true. But also at the same time is, you know, we've, I've lost far more friends to suicide and addiction than I have to the Taliban, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda combined. So, you know, that is something. I wanted to ask you about that because I know that for a major, right up until recently, that really was your mission, Tom. You mentioned that you just moved to D.C., but when you were in Southern California and Cronid Omar, you actually focused on this and specifically had a care facility for veterans who were suffering after their time. Tell us a little bit about that and what still needs to be done. Yeah, that's right. I had a company called Miramar Health and the larger company that I was the owner of was MacArthur Group. And what we did is we provided very intensive mental health treatment and addiction treatment for veterans, exclusively for veterans. And we were a community care provider for the Department of Veterans Affairs. And what that means is that when it's contracted out when either the VA can't or won't or is that capacity. out to community care providers like my company. And we helped for, we had for very long periods of stay. So, you know, these are guys who were really at the end of their rope, you know, rock bottom will call it from, you know, near suicide or they're going back to prison or, I mean, they're really, really at the end of their rope. And so we're almost like from mental health and addiction standpoint, we were something of a like a trauma center. You know, these weren't guys that simply say, they're like, oh, I have bad dreams and I fight with my wife a lot, and I think I might drink too much. These are guys who were really near death. And we took them for very intensive periods of inpatient treatment. We had, we saved, well, I mean, it's hard to quantify say, but we did treat over a thousand veterans. You know, that's even, and usually at the inpatient level of care over the period of six years. And then, you know, thanks to politics. What happened was is the VA, called the administrative state, let's say, has a deep aversion and we could call it an allergy to community care because they look at it as like privatizing the VA, as I like to say. And, you know, despite some effort from, you know, the VA leadership today, the VA basically violated the Mission Act, you know, broke the law, let's just say. and stop referring out to community care providers. Not just me. I mean, it wasn't just my company. We were not singled out. It was nearly all of them in the region because if you think of it this way is that the VA looks at, you know, the VA is a struggling public school system. Community care providers like us were the charter school. And they would just stop referring out. So, yeah, that's pretty much the analogy there because we provided arguably a better service, but we definitely did it for a fraction of the cost.

Right? Just public versus private. Sadly, even in something as vital as the Veterans Administration and caring for our troops when they come home when they need it most, sometimes the bureaucracy wins out. And it's something that we need to be ever vigilant about. Tom John Sauer, we got to leave it there. Thanks for joining us. Don't be a stranger. We'll have you on on a regular basis. Great talking with them, my friend. Love to. Thank you so much, Larry. You bet. Hey, if you've ever been in a bad relationship, you know that it can be tough to break out of it, right? It sort of wears you down. You settle in, you think, oh, you know, this isn't right. It's not how it's supposed to be, but what am I supposed to do? Now, carry that analogy over to the daily aches and pains that you might feel. You may have talked yourself into thinking, ah, this is just what life is now, but it doesn't have to be. With Relief Factor, you can break up with pain. Anthony did. He wrote in and said, I was dealing with debilitating pain and fatigue. I've been taking Relief Factor for about two months. Now I'm back to running my business, fishing, gardening, doing the things that really matter to me. Relief factor has been a godsend for me as well. Relief Factor is 100% drug-free. targets the inflammation that causes pain so you can move better, feel better, and actually enjoy life. Try their three-week quick start for just 1995. Go to Relieffactor.com or call them 800, the number four relief. That's 800, the number four, relief. Yeah, and the entertainment part of that trifecta is going to be honored coming up in 30 minutes as we speak with singer-songwriter for five for fighting. John Androsic. He just performed his classic Grammy-winning Superman in a very special way. You'll remember that John had been doing a lot of benefit concerts for the families of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in such brutal fashion after the October 7th attacks. Well, one of those hostages. And hostage square there in Israel and Jerusalem, they had a piano, a grand piano, because Alon, one of the hostages there that had been held for so long, he loved playing the piano. And so John Androsic, when he gave his concerts there to raise money and awareness and support for these Israeli hostages, he said one day, we're going to free Alon. Alon's going to come home and I'm going to sing Superman right here while he plays the piano. And my friends, it happened. John Adrosick is such a great guy. He's going to join us to talk about that moment in 30 minutes. I'm Larry O'Connor. This is O'Connor and Company from your nation's capital on WMALR flagship station. Joining us right now, a very good friend of this program and a friend to the Constitution everywhere. Cam Edwards, he's the managing editor of...

bearing arms part of the town hall family of websites that focuses on your second amendment rights in particular but of course cam you would remind us all that all our rights are connected back to the second amendment uh so thank you for being such a warrior for our bill of rights oh well thanks very much for that there i appreciate it Unfortunately, though, you make your home in Virginia, which, you know, as a Marylander, everybody in Virginia always mocks me about, yeah, well, I live in Virginia where it's free, and we have all our Second Amendment rights. Not so fast, my friend. Abigail Spanberger just sort of messed with your rights. What happened here with this latest gun ban from the Democrats? Sure. Yeah, so we saw over a dozen pieces of substantial gun control bills a pass during the legislative session this year. And Governor Abigail Spanberger recently signed into law the ban on so-called assault firearms and large-capacity magazines. So this means that as of July the 1st, Some of the most popular farms in the country are not going to be available for sale in Virginia. They will now be banned. And magazines that are going to hold more than fishing around. Is that for any kind of, real fast, Cam, is that for any kind of sale? Or is that just for, you know, private transactions? Is it for the guns, or just any sale at all? Pretty much any sale at all. There will be some limited transfers available, but for the most part, you're not going to be able to walk into a gun store and purchase an AR-15. Right. In fact, you're not able to go off to a gun store and purchase some shotguns that are commonly used for hunting. This was something that Governor Abigail Spanberger had actually objected to in the language. She suggested an amendment. Democrats refused to go along with that amendment, and Governor Abigail Spanberger went ahead and signed the bill into law, even though she admits that this bill bans commonly owned firearms that are not used for violent crimes. Of course, you know, she would say that only applies to a small subsection of the guns that are banned. I would say that applies to virtually all of the guns that are banned, right? The type of semi-automatic rifles that are the real target of this legislation are not used a large number of violent crimes. I think the FBI reported that in 2024 rifles were used in 3% of homicides, all rifles, right? Not just some automatic rifles. So we're not talking about guns that are used in a lot of violent crimes. We're talking about firearms that are used for lawful purposes, but they're big, they're scary. And they are primarily, you know, the target of the gun control lobby. They've been told by the Supreme Court, well, you can't ban handguns. And so this is the next best thing, or maybe the next step, right? What can we ban? What has the Supreme Court not said that we can't go after? And right now, unfortunately, that means... you know, automatic firearms, two automatic rifles in particular. Not that we need to make the case for them, but you said these are big and they're scary. Well, a lot of people who prefer these weapons for self-defense, these firearms, they like the fact that it's bigger than scary. You know, a lot of women like these guns, they're actually pretty easy to handle. And if you're trying to defend yourself from a home invasion, it's good to have something big and scary so you can scare the guy who's coming into your home.

Yeah, you know, and again, I mean, you talk about how these things actually shoot, right? I taught a, well, I didn't, I won't say I taught, I introduced somebody to shooting a firearm for the first time. This has been a couple of years, and she was terrified when I brought out my AR-15, right? Begating for exactly what I said, big and scary. But then she actually shot it. She was amazed, you know, the lack of recoil and how easy it was for her to handle. And, you know, there's a reason why the AR platform is the most popular rifle platform in the country, because it is easy to shoot, because it is accurate, because there are safety features, right? I mean, this is a technological advancement over the guns that our grandfather's shot. But, unfortunately, you know, the gun control advocates would like to take us back to the days of lever action firearms, maybe even, you know, breezeloading rifles, maybe even muskets, although I don't know, the Associated Press seems to think that they should be. regulated under the second amendment as well i saw that i saw that cab in fact i saw you talking about it everyone needs to go to bearing arms dot com you need to sign up for the newsletter there cabs got great analysis of everything going on with regard to the second amendment and just the the gun industry but yeah the ap actually you know it sounded like they they want to ban muskets as that i'm sorry are muskets used for a lot of like uh carjackings and such i missed that part of the crime statistics I was talking with a same moment advocate a couple days ago. He said, you know, when I looked, he said the last time I can find that a crime was committed with a musket was, I think it was 2002. Oh, that's more recent than I expected, actually. Right? I know. Of course, it was a Civil War reenactor. No, I don't know who, actually, I used it, but, you know, again, this is where we're at right now. Yeah. You know, the gun control lobby is intent on banning whatever they can. So we've got lawsuits against Glock that have been filed by a number of cities, the states like Connecticut and California have passed bills that would ban the sale of new Glock handguns. And this is, you know, a longer fight and older fight going after, quote, unquote, assault weapons. But until the Supreme Court steps in and says, listen, you cannot ban these things. We are going to see Democrat-controlled states like Virginia enact these same types of prohibitions. We came very close to seeing Minnesota pass a similar ban this session. The session gavel to a close, I believe, at midnight last night. And we were basically one vote away from Democrats enacting a gun and magazine ban in Minnesota, too. So this is something that folks, you know, all across the country, they need to be concerned about because when Democrats take power, this is the first thing. One of the first things that they go after in Virginia, they couldn't even pass a budget, Larry, but they passed a gun ban, right? Cam Edwards is our guest, Baringarms.com, part of the town hall family of websites, and I'm proud to call him a colleague and a friend. Cam, you just mentioned that rifles in general, let alone ARs, are not really used in the...

vast majority of crimes that utilize firearms. Most of those are handguns. By the way, most of those are illegally obtained firearms as well. So, again, I know it's logical, but if somebody is already intent on armed robbery or, you know, violent assault or murder, if they're already convinced it's okay to break those laws, what's going to stop them from breaking the laws against owning or purchasing on the black market one of these guns? It's the law-biting citizens who are going to follow the law. It's a great question, and I wish it was a question that Democrats would answer. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was a week ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we saw a guy with a lengthy criminal history, illegally acquire a rifle of some kind, use it to start shooting at cars. He was stopped by a Massachusetts state trooper as well as an armed citizen who engaged this guy. But Massachusetts has had a ban on so-called the Dan Sullivan's in place since the late 1980s. Maura Healey, when she was the Attorney General, expanded that to include almost every semi-automatic rifle that's on the market. And as you say, this guy was, he was committed. He wanted to do this, right? And so he was able to acquire a gun in a state that bans them. He was able to use this gun in a manner that is already prohibited by law, right? The gun control laws didn't stop this guy. The gun control laws are stopping the people who want to obey the law. They don't want to be charged with a misdemeanor, much less a felony crime. They don't want to go to prison, right? Those are the people who are impacted by these laws. And the Democrats know that. It's really not about stopping violent crime. It's about stopping lawful gun ownership. It's about destroying the culture and the tradition of lawful gun ownership in this country. Cam Edwards, who's going to fight this fight? Obviously, this needs to be fought through the federal courts and up to the Supreme Court. What groups are you eyeing right now? Which organizations deserve our attention and maybe a bit of a donation in your mind? So we have seen lawsuits already filed in both state and federal court, National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Firearms Policy Coalition. At the state level, you've got the Virginia Citizens Defense League. You've got the Virginia Shooting Sports Association. If the National Association for Gun Rights is not currently involved in a lawsuit, they soon will be. It's hard to keep track, honestly, because we saw multiple lawsuits filed literally within five minutes of Abigail Spanberger signing this bill into law. So virtually every Second Amendment group, I think, on the national stage and even at the state level in Virginia, they're fighting this good fight. Ultimately, it's going to take this case, get up to the Supreme Court. I expect DOJ is going to get involved as well, too. We should talk about that because Harvey Dillon, the Assistant Attorney General, head of the Civil Rights Division, was very vocal about warning Governor Abigail Spanberger. You know, if this becomes law, DOJ is coming for the law. So I expect we'll see a litigation there, too. That's huge. Another example of why presidential elections really do matter on situations like this. And by the way, we see. the perfect example of why the Second Amendment is so important play out before our very eyes in Iran right now. Everyone's saying, oh, why aren't the people of Iran rising up? Why aren't they taking over? Why aren't they taking advantage of this, overthrowing the government? Because they don't have any guns. That's what happens in a country that doesn't have a Second Amendment. Cam Edwards, great work as always at bearing arms.com. Thank you, my friend. Great talking with you. Get over to Bering Arms, everybody. Sign up for that newsletter. You've got to stay plugged in.

This is the Relief Factor Studio. Good morning, Larry O'Connor, here on O'Connor & Company. I want to get you up to date here on what's going on with redistricting all around the country. It looks like South Carolina now is going to go through a special session and redistrict Jim Clyburn. Now, by the way, In a strange way, this is great news for Pete Buttigieg. Hear me out. He's not running for Congress or anything. But Jim Clyburn sort of, as long as he has his district in South Carolina, he sort of holds sway over much of the Democratic Party's process for their primaries. He wants to make sure South Carolina is a big part of it. And South Carolina, its prominence in the primary season for the Democrats means a big, significant... black vote that comes in early in the process. Right now, it's Iowa, New Hampshire, maybe Nevada and Michigan, some other states. South Carolina gets in there, and suddenly the black vote is very important for the nomination for president. Well, Pete Buttigieg is polling right around zero right now. Let me just put it this way. I think I would get more black Democrats to vote for me right now if I were running in the primary than Pete Buttigieg would. It's just a nightmare. But. If they go back to the old map in South Carolina isn't as prominent and he gets to start out with maybe Iowa, New Hampshire, throw Michigan in there, if Pete Buttigieg might have a chance. So in a weird way, he benefits from Jim Clyburn losing his seat that has been racially gerrymandered in South Carolina. If it happens, and it looks like it will, that's one more Republican seat. And I think one more out of Louisiana, Alabama, I believe, all told Republicans have a much better map that they're working with with these. with the midterm elections coming up this November. Here's a perfect example of that. Steve Cohen, who was the congressman for the racially gerrymandered district in Memphis, Tennessee. He's now got a new district to run in. And this guy's been congressman for... years, right? He's, I think, five, six terms as the Congressman for that district. Now that it's not racially gerrymandered to rig it so that he doesn't have any competition, Congressman Cohen has a choice. He can go to his new voters in his new district that still includes part of his old district in Memphis, but then talk to the new voters and say, listen, I've been in Congress for a decade, I've gotten all of this done. Here's my record. Here's where I stand. I've got seniority. You can trust me. And if you reelect me, that'll help the Democrats get the majority. So now maybe I'll be a chairman of a committee so I can really bring home the bacon for the district. I mean, that's a compelling message when you've got a record you can stand. on. So yeah, he could do that, but he's not. Instead, he's decided he's not going to run for re-election. He doesn't want to face new voters. He doesn't want to go through the effort of running for re-election if it's not a rigged game when he actually has to put some effort in, when he has to be held accountable for his record by the voters. He doesn't want to go through that humiliating process.

which is in fact exactly what the process is supposed to be. Actually ask the people, the voters, to reaffirm their commitment to you because you've done such a bang-up job. But he hasn't. He's done a lousy job and he knows it. And unless the game is rigged and he can run in his little protected cloistered district that has been unconstitutionally created just to keep him in power, well, he's not interested in that kind of game. And so he will not be running. That means another Republican will win. By the way, ironically, it will be a black woman Republican representing those black Tennesseans who were represented by Steve Cohen, who's whiter than me. Meanwhile, over in California, talk about rigged games. Gavin Newsom, the outgoing governor, was asked about the current jungle primary process where there's still a whisper of possibility that two Republicans could emerge as the top choices and then face off against each other in the general election. He was asked about that eventuality, and he said this. We all have agencies. We can shape the future. There's still a lot. Look, I've said this before us all repeated. I don't anticipate this need to be the case. But there is a break the glass scenario. And there's many people that have a deep understanding of what it would look like if Democrats were locked out. And we're going to do everything to make sure that doesn't happen. I'll leave it. A break the glass moment. We have our agencies. We're going to make sure that doesn't happen. Does that mean that if the polls are showing in the final week before the primary, that it will be two Republicans, they're going to, what, find a bunch of ballots all of a sudden in the trunk of somebody's car or maybe in the back of a semi? Is that what he means? Or does it mean that they'll somehow rig the general election so that they allow for a writing candidate but to actually go through a special process to put them on the ballot in the same way they did for Kamala Harris, just to side as a party rather than utilizing the primary vote? What does he mean? And where's the media demanding an answer to that? Good question. Don't hold your breath. I want to tell you about the creator of relief factor. This is a Vietnam combat veteran. He was wounded over in Vietnam. And when he came home, he decided he wanted to become a doctor because he wanted to help people to heal them. And he created Relief Factor. Now, he created it originally to just help his patients with pain. He wanted to do it drug-free. Then he saw how well it worked, and he decided to make it available to everyone. And, well, available it is. In fact, it's available through a quick start option. See, Relief Factor loses money on this first offer, but they do it so people can try it for themselves and experience just how much it can improve their lives.

More than a million people have tried Relief Factor, and about two-thirds go on to order more after that Quick Start program. So try it out. Why don't you? Just go to ReliefFactor.com, get that three-week quick start today and see how it works for you. That's Relief.com, or give them a call. They're very friendly, and tell them you heard about it from Larry on O'Connor & Company. It's 800 for relief, 800, the number four relief. Good morning from your nation's capital on our flagship station, WMAL. Heard coast to coast now. It's O'Connor and Company. I'm Larry O'Connor and a friend of this program. And, well, a friend of our military, a friend of this nation, America. And honestly, a friend of humanity is the Grammy Award winning multi-platinum artist, John Androsic, Five for Fighting. He recently delivered his signature song, Superman. in a very, very special way with a very, very special accompanist. I've only seen John Androsa sing this song while he himself is playing the piano, but he had a very special pianist. Take a list in here. The better part of me, I'm more than a play. I'm more than song. Pretty face beside a train and it's not easy to be me. Wish that I could cry.

I don't know how you didn't cry, John Androsic, at that moment. Because, my friend, I want you to tell everybody exactly who that was playing the piano while you sang that song. That was alone, O.L. A fabulous young man, 24 years old, a wonderful piano player, certainly better than me, and a man who suffered over 700 days in the tunnels of Gaza. As you know, Larry, we did a new version of Superman for the hostages. And I initiated it with his mother, Edith. And the whole idea was to put the spotlight back on the hostages. And we always say we hoped and prayed for the moment I could play Superman with Alone. But to be honest with you, I think we all thought it was a long shot at best. And to sit at that piano with him was truly a spiritual, wonderful moment. Well, and John, you gave quite a few concerts and appearances there in Israel to raise awareness, keep the focus on those hostages, despite all of the noise and frankly ugly behavior that we saw in the Western world here in America on college campuses. You kept going back there and focusing on those hostages. And there was a piano there as part of the sort of the monument that had been constructed. Tell me about that piano, because I know you often referred to that piano and that very moment. Yeah, it's called the Yellow Piano. And for anyone who visited Hosted Square, you couldn't miss it. It was right in the middle of Hostage Square, and people would just walk by and play it. And I did that when I went to Israel the first time and, you know, performed at Hostage Square that night, actually, that I ran bombed. And I didn't realize at the time that is Alon's piano. That is his piano. His family put it there. And I was playing his piano. And who could have imagined, you know, a year plus later, We would be sitting in Washington, D.C., playing this song that I sang that night. So it was amazing, Larry. You know, when he, you know, when he walked out of that elevator, I don't know what it's like to have a loved one who you believe has been lost forever. but to see him come out. And I said, first I said, can I give you a hug? He said, of course. And that was a very long, it was probably a much longer and stronger hug than he wanted. But it was true. And that whole day, we had a day of rehearsal together. And it was just me, his mother, him, his girlfriend, and my friend David. And we'd just talk. And I'd go over and I'd just touch him. I just, I still didn't believe that he was really there. And he was such a sweet young man and kind of in an amazing mental space. And it's still hard to put it into words. Well, you talked about how, how, and you said it often. And I remember when you released this special version of Superman and you said, you know, my hope, my prayer, our goal, we're never going to lose sight of it is for me to be able to perform this with, with alone on the piano. And you're right. I think it seemed like an impossible dream. First of all, because we didn't, I didn't think.

the hostages would survive, frankly. Or if they did somehow miraculously get released as they did, I just thought that they had been through so much trauma and such hell on earth at the hands of these Hamas monsters that it would be a miracle for him to physically and emotionally be able to get to that place. So it's been a year now, I think, since his release or almost. How's he doing? And how do you assess the recovery process after that just hell that he had to live through? You know, he's doing surprisingly well. Of course, not all of them are. Tragically, a few have committed suicide. We've lost a few. And I think you never truly know, but I was really astonished how kind of grounded he was. We didn't talk a lot about his captivity, but he would, you know, he would freely say, you know, when I was in captivity, we were talking, somehow we got on the subject of him actually being alone because the hostages that were with him were released. And they came to him at one point, said, do you want someone with you, another hostage? He actually said no, as lonely as he was because he said, that's because I would get more food. It just shows how much they were starving him. And he was injured. And you can't imagine going through that. But, you know, I was astonished how good he particularly was doing. And I think a lot of that was music. You know, he kind of played piano on himself when he was kind of in... captivity. Stop it. Yeah, he would on his body, he would kind of play piano and remember his songs. And I think when he got out, you know, he went right to the piano. It really shows the kind of healing power of music. And he's really become kind of a symbol of victory. I think victory for all of us who supported the hostages, all of us who frankly value good over evil. And I think he understands that. He's also just very humble. I mean, when we were at dinner afterwards, I said to him, like, what did you miss the most? And he said, a chocolate milk shape with Bayleys. And I said, hold on a second. And even though the restaurant was closing, I ran to the kitchen. It was very rude of me. I ran into the kitchen. I don't know what it takes, but I need a chocolate milkshake with Bayleys. And to watch him drink that, we all had one, frankly. I had a little more Baalys. But we all had one. And, you know, to see that moment with him and just to see his mother, imagine what the parents went through to see the joy of his mother. And I think, Larry, it's important for us to note, as wonderful as this is, we also have to think of those whose family's loved one did not come home, the Goldbergs, the Bebath family. So I think as much as we celebrate this joy with alone, we also recognize the suffering of those whose hostage family, hostages did not come home. And also. This is going to be with them their whole lives, right? You just said it. So we pray for them still. John and Drossacks, our guest, five for fighting. And by the way, I want to take a moment to let everybody know that John's albums have been re-released on vinyl LPs. And you were kind enough to some of these. And I got to be honest, I still haven't opened them because I want to do it on video. I want to do a whole, you know, unpacking kind of thing and play them on my turntable. So I'm going to do that because I can't wait to hear them on vinyl. It's so cool. The industry is sort of reawakening back to the good old days of vinyl, and I think it's cool that there's a whole generation who are embracing vinyl. So that must have been fun to get those released that way.

It really is. Of course, we remember going to Tower Records and the record stores and buying the vinyl and opening up and seeing all the lyrics and the pictures. There's nothing like it. There's nothing like it, right? And watching it spin. And of course, you have to take it up and turn it over. But I actually bought a little record player. And last night, me and my daughter were kind of listening to records. And it's fun to go. And they, you know what? They do sound better, right? They sound better. They kind of do. They kind of do. I just got a release. I don't know if you know about this, but America did a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl right before they broke up. And George Martin conducted the orchestra. And they just recorded it back in the day, but they just released it last year. And that was my big Christmas present. And I love that album. It's a double album. So you should get that. Since we're talking about your industry, I got to ask, this story. The October 7th Massacre, it happened at a music festival. People there peacefully enjoying music and artists and artistry and the love and harmony that music brings to our lives, literally and figuratively. And your efforts to try to draw attention to this human suffering and this atrocity of the hostages. It is shocking to me that you are part of a very, very small handful in the recording industry and singer-songwriters and artists who have drawn attention to this and become an advocate and an activist. Because it seems to me, John Androsic, that the music industry and recording artists... They never miss a beat when it comes to trying to bring politics into their work or into their award shows. But they've been strangely silent except for a few voices. What do you make of that? Is there going to be a change here? Are they shamed at all by their silence in the face of these atrocities? I mean, if you watch the Grammys and the Academy Awards, it doesn't seem so. In my mind, it's really sad. It's a historic collapse of the moral spine of not only Hollywood, but as you mentioned, the music industry, which prided itself on live aid and the concert for New York and Sun City, you know, who've not really been silent, many of them have been, frankly, part of the free Palestine con job and really enabling the terrorists. Those that do understand find that it's more important to kind of maybe keep their job or be quiet. I mean, I get a lot, when we release this song with Alone, I got dozens of calls from Hollywood people and people in the music industry. And, you know, I would say to them, I go, why can't you say simple things like, you know, the Jews are not evil, you know, things like that? And like, well, you know, you know. I like my job. What are they afraid of? Are there people in the industry they're afraid of, or are they afraid of their elitist friends in the far reaches of left-wing politics? What is it? I think there's two. I think you look at the folks there at the Grammys, and if somebody said anything that kind of whiffed of, well, maybe Israel is the good guy. I do think they believe they would be shamed. They would be shunned.

they would be canceled. And then I believe, frankly, a lot of the younger generation has been indoctrinated just like our kids on college campuses, that they're doing something virtuous, that Israel is the oppressor, all the kind of the woke mind virus. So I think you have too, but really the ones that shame, the one I'm ashamed of are the folks that I performed with for the concert for New York on that stage. They know better. Springsteen knows better. Bono knows better. And they still are either. kind of rampantly anti-Semitic or they're quiet or they find their free Palestine card. And there's no better way to put it. It's a disgrace and shame. I think they have no shame to answer your question. I think you're right. And what's really remarkable about it is, listen, I disagree with the politics of people, you know, who want to free Palestine or they criticize the Benjamin Netanyahu government. I respectfully disagree with them, sometimes not so respectfully. But the point of this is, and what you kept trying to focus on, listen, I don't even care where you stand on Israel, ultimately, but can we at least focus on these hostages? Can you at least step up and say Hamas should release these innocent people who are being held hostage? And they couldn't even do that, John. Well, also, Larry, I think it was very clarifying that when Iran killed 30,000 of their own people, that the music industry seemed to have no issue with that. It just shows they care nothing about the people of Gaza. Radio silence, John. Yes, we will. No radio silence here, my friend. Thank you so much for joining us. It's an honor to be your pal, and I'll see you when you come into D.C. with your concert. And you all should look for Fyfer Fighting coming to your town. I'm Larry O'Connor. I am pleased to inform you that our nation is healing. I think about it. We've got most states in this country now, it is no longer legal for a boy who thinks he's a girl to invade your daughter's locker room and expose himself to her against her consent, let alone compete in girls' sports against your daughter so that they win the medal for being, well, a boy. For most states, that's the case. And those states where that still happens, well, you know which political party to blame. can't definitively tell you that a man can't get pregnant. That's fine. The nation is healing with regard to our southern border, where we finally stopped the invasion of illegal immigrants, and you're not supposed to apologize about it anymore for wanting your nation to be secure and actually have your laws obeyed. And even Democrats. My favorite thing, an exercise to go through now is think through now for the 28 presidential election. Every single man. or woman who wants to be your nominee for the Democrat Party, they need to answer a couple of fundamental questions. One of them is, will you reverse the president's policy on the border and go back to Joe Biden's policy? What do you think those candidates are going to say?

And when they try to weasel out of the question or if they can reluctantly say, no, no, no, we're going to keep securing our border. You need to press them and say, so what you're saying is President Trump was right. What you're saying is what happened under Joe Biden was wrong. Please expand on your answer. Show your work, right? So the nation is healing in many respects. But one must look beyond politics and the law. and policy to really see where our nation is healing. One must look at the culture. One must look at something as fundamental as where we go to share a meal with each other, with our family, with our neighbors, especially a meal as fundamentally American as pizza. No, no, no, no, no. It may have started in Italy. But pizza was perfected in America. And we have a new sign. that our nation is healing, and it's happening under a very distinctive red roof. Here, take a listen to this. It's amazing the comments we have about they have the red cups. Yes, we do. Tim Sparks got his start working at a Pizza Hut that looked like this. He's now president of Dayland Corporation, which owns this franchise and more than 80 others around the country. They've redecorated many restaurants to rewind the clock. It looks exactly like the one that I remember from when I was a kid. Yeah, that's what we were after. Some Pizza Hut classics are now top-performing locations. Customers show up for a piece of their childhood. It's just great night memories. To share with their own kids. When you finally find something that tastes how you genuinely remember it tasting, like you can't let it go. People come from two and three hours away, and I'm not making that up. More restaurants are serving up nostalgia. Franchises like Burger King and KFC returned to old school logos and packaging in recent years. At Pizza Hut, they even brought back Pac-Man. But for Sparks, this is much more than a game. It's a mission to rebuild places where families can connect. If we can get them in here, as a family, they do tend to put their phones down and actually have conversations and speak with each other. I'm not going to tell you I know how to fix the world, but I do think that family is a good place to start. He hopes to renovate more of his restaurants as long as he can find enough of those lamps. They're hard to get? Yeah, they're almost impossible to get. A familiar taste. Oh, cheers. Cheers. Bringing people together. Just like I remember it. Dude, this is incredible. And I'm so, I mean, I'm not even a huge fan of Pizza Hut pizza, but I'll go there, won't you? This goes well beyond just pizza. And I love the idea where he says, you know, yeah, people come here and they start, you know, eating as a family and they're talking to each other and they're not looking at their phones. They should totally treat it like a skiff in Washington. You know, if you ever been to a skiff in D.C. where it's a secured environment and you have to like check your phone in as you walk in and sort of lock it and you take the key. So you can't actually take your phone to the table. That would be phenomenal too. And I'd be all over it.

They're so right. Pizza was not meant to just be delivered in 30 minutes or less and eaten on your lap or your coffee table while you're watching something on TV. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy pizza that way, but that's not... the original concept of pizza. Think about pizza. It comes in a big round pie in the middle of the table, and everybody reaches in and takes their portion of it from the same collective food that the family is now sharing, and the people over there have a different pizza with different toppings, and you can look over it and say, oh, I want to try that one next time, or before you order, you might say, oh, yeah, I'll have what they're having. Bring me the pizza or whatever it is they're calling it. And those red cups. Root beer tastes better in those red cups, especially when it's an all-you-can-drink refillable pitcher that it's being poured from. Why didn't somebody think of this before? I'm going to seek them out. And hopefully one of these Pizza Hut franchises will open near us. You know the location where it could happen. It's that building that has the obvious Pizza Hut roof that's now been reworked into some sort of, you know, Korean barbecue or something. I love Korean barbecue, but it doesn't belong under that red roof. It just doesn't. This is amazing. And it is a sign that we are healing. My only quibble with that report is this is not nostalgia. Okay, nostalgia is something whimsical and you watch a black and white movie and you think, oh, I miss the past. It was so much better. No, no, no. This is not nostalgia. This is a restoration. It all goes hand in hand. A secure border. Boys are boys, girls are girls. And pizza hut under the roof with the stained glass lamps and the salad bar. And God bless America. I'm Larry O'Connor, O'Connor and Company.

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