Show Rewind 8-11-26

Meet Keith, Loving Dad, board game champ, bus driving pro. I drive 65,000 miles in my bus each year. If people knew what I know, lives could be saved. Like how there are some things I simply can't see. On my route the other day, a car tried to sneak past me and ends up right in my blind spot. I turned slowly, so accident avoided. But no car should be in the blind spot for a 40,000-pound bus. It's our roads. It's our safety. Visit www.sharetherroad safely.gov. Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM, 560 a.m. WVOC and 943 WS.C. It's primary day. Good morning, everybody. 603, Kelly Nash, Christopher Thompson. How are you today? I'm great. I'm excited. You are excited. Yeah. By the way, you didn't even tell me, did you do early voting? Are you going today? I always vote on Election Day. You're a traditionalist? I am. I am. Do you have like a special tie or something that you wear to the polls? No, nothing like that. And as I mentioned yesterday, my polling place has changed. I was going to say a lot of people's have. Yeah, mine is a school, and they're... You know, most counties are not allowing voters to walk in and out of schools for safety reasons. So depending on where you are, you're polling places probably changed too. SCvotes.gov is the website, correct? SCvotes.gov. Correct. And don't fall for imitations. Don't go to like a dot com or something. SC votes. and then they will ask you some well they're going to ask you the county they're going to ask you your full name and then they're going to ask you the last four of your social security and then they will tell you where to vote because as christopher said he votes in a school that was changed i understand that there's even been some non-school polling locations that have been moved so if before you go today just do it today like right now if you can just put on scvotes dot um gov and make sure that you know where you're going i did it last night to make sure i knew where angela my wife and i are supposed to vote so we didn't want to miss out on it today because it's such a huge day when's the last time south carolina i mean Tim Scott was the last quote unquote new senator that we got what was that 2014 2012 i can't remember so yeah so yeah but it would have been 2012 because 2014 was the Lindsey Graham primary which was i i still talk about that when people say that well You know, was not, he always had a problem with parts of the base. And I don't, I can't remember a bigger time than 2014. And that's when you had Nancy Mace in the primary, a very popular at the time conservative senator in Lee Bright. We had Debt Bowers, who was a very popular pastor in Columbia. There was a bunch of people who ran against him. I can't remember all the names right now. One of them was like a retired general or something. We had like six people primary him in 2014. And the results were exactly the same. It was like he got like 56% of the vote. Like he just, that's what he does. He got 56% of the Republicans behind him, which meant he was going to win in the general election, which is why.

A lot of people are saying that whoever the next senator is should be more in the mold of Lindsey Graham, but we're hearing from a lot of other people who are saying they should be completely different. Any thoughts on that, Christopher? Well, I mean, I'm looking at the polling, which you wonder if anyone is looking for a difference right now because the latest poll came out late yesterday. The Trafalgar Group came out with a poll. I think that will be the final poll that drops before voting today, and it listed... Darling Graham with a huge lead, a nine-point lead over Ralph Norman. But she's not over. She's not over 50%. No. And that's the rub, right? Exactly. You always got to get to, if you get to a runoff, then it gets crazy. I mean, well, this is crazy. What we've been living through is crazy. True. But it's going to get even crazier in a runoff. All right. Well, big show today we're going to talk to, well. We're not talking to all of the candidates, but those who wanted to participate. We're going to talk to all of them today. We're going to also get a little visit. We recorded this yesterday. Scott Bessent was in. Charleston yesterday, and we were honored here, Christopher and I, that out of all of the radio shows he could call into in the Charleston market, I think it was Tim Scott's office recommended us. Very cool. Yeah, very cool. We'll be talking with Scott Bessent a little bit later on in the broadcast, talking about not only the renaming of joint base Lindsey Graham, but also, you know, what's going on with his... economic fury against Iran. What's going on with the fraud fight? I mean, so many things are happening. By the way, he told me there's a chance for you and I and everybody to get money if you report fraudsters. We'll talk about that and more. I think we'll get started with one of the candidates. We've got a lot of candidates calling in today. We'll go with one of those next. It is South Carolina's Morning News. From the Midlands to the Low Country. This is South Carolina's Morning News. 612, and coming up on the show, we'll be talking with Mark Sanford. We're going to be talking with Russell Fry. We're going to be talking with Ralph Norman. We're going to try to get to as many people. Anybody wants to call? Anybody wants to use the talkback feature? We'll try to get you on. That invitation goes out to the candidates. One of the candidates who took us up on the offer was the man who primaried Lindsey Graham this year, and he's on the phone. Good morning. Mark Lynch. How you doing? I'm doing great. How are you, Kelly? I'm fantastic. This crazy sprint is coming to an end. The finish line is in sight. How do you feel about it? I feel really good. We did so well in the debates, and a lot of people that hadn't heard me before saw me in action that night. They realized, you know, they have the authority to use their rights to send these politicians home and get a real patriot in there. Help get a successful businessman in office instead of a career politician. Well, all the pollsters are saying we're probably going to go to a runoff. Is that what you're seeing as well, that in all likelihood it's going to be just two left after tonight? Or is it going to be a winner? I hope I'm a winner. But all the candidates saying it's probably the math that's not there is probably going to definitely go to a runoff. Yeah, it's very tough when you have like nine or ten people running to get more than 50%, which is the rule here in South Carolina. So in all likelihood, we're going to have a couple of more weeks of this.

fun and frivolity. Are you ready to crisscross the state some more? Why not? We've been in this for over two years with a horrible attack from him and over $50 million spent against me. We still managed to punch a hole in his dam and get up right at 30% of the vote. Any final words? You know, people are heading out to the polls. Hopefully this morning they're going to get up and get at them and go vote. Any thoughts that they should have ringing in their ears from the lynch campaign? Like I've told everybody, I'm a lifelong South Carolina. I'm a successful businessman. I've grown our family business now in our 74th year with God at the center. And we've grown our business 35 times debt-free, corporately and personally. I'm an ordained deacon. I've been married to the same woman for 38 years. We have two children, four beautiful grandchildren, and we come in the name of Jesus Christ to bring back the foundation. that our country was founded on. We've got to come back to God first. That's the only answer. All right. Mark Lynch, two questions that I've been asking every candidate. First one, are you having a party tonight where Lynch supporters could show up? We are having a bakery party at a restaurant called Mr. Halapino in Woodruff, where we live. Okay. And people are welcome to come there and celebrate with us and watch the polling come in. And the final question is, Will you support whoever wins ultimately the GOP nomination against Dr. Annie Andrews? Absolutely. We have to maintain control here with a Republican Party in our state and not lose it to the Democrat socialist, Annie Andrews. No way. And I'll tell you what, there's not a better candidate to go up against her than me that understands everything she is. I'm the complete opposite. I'm the 100% pro-life candidate. endorsed by Abby Johnson and Equal Protection, South Carolina. We need somebody that understands that. Well, it's been a pleasure speaking with you, sir. We've had you on a couple of times, and we wish you all the best tonight. And if you're fortunate enough to make it into that runoff, I guess we'll probably talk to you in a week or two. So best luck, sir. I look forward to it. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you, Mark Lynch. Best of luck. Yes, sir. All right. Well, there you go. So that's candidate number one in the books for this morning. Any thoughts, Christopher Thompson? Well, Kelly, let's make it clear that you extended this invitation to all the candidates. Everybody's, and by the way, yesterday on social media, I was putting it out there. I felt was it Shane Beamer that used to say who's next, or was it Dion Bernie Sanders? I've tried to remember. Which coach used to do that, like in the recruiting? And so I would say, so yesterday I was like, big show lined up for tomorrow. I started naming all the people that I was like, who's next? Who's next? So I do have a couple of other people who, not candidates, but people who just wanted to be on the show like, well, like the SC Policy Council. Right. They got it. They're like, yeah.

When can we get on? Yeah. So we're going to be talking to the SC Policy Council, not today because we're so busy, but about the State House vote on the budget, which is supposed to come down today sometimes. So we'll talk to them tomorrow about that. But that would be our lead story in any other day. Yeah, it's going to be. We've got so much going on, Christopher. So anyway, yes, excited to be talking to all the candidates, whoever, who's ever interested. If you don't want to take advantage of the platform, that's fine. You do it. You do you, girl. All right. It is 617 on South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and 560 a.m., WVOC, Columbia, and 943 WS.S.C. Charleston. 623, Christopher Thompson, Kelly Nash, together. South Carolina's morning news. I'm a little bummed, Christopher, that you're going on like a vacation. Of course, you've earned it, but we're flowing so well. I'm sorry. And then next week I will be off. So it's just more chaos to add to the special day of primaries here. But then we'll be back. We'll both be back and for the duration. Yes. We have that to look forward to. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel, right in one spot, and turn real-time reporting into big-time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today. In the meantime, another Anthony Fauci bombshell has dropped. And this is... All right, I'm going to tie it all in together. So yesterday, the president signed an executive order. We're reducing the amount of vaccinations that a child is recommended to get. We were currently at 27 in America before your age two. That is by far the highest on earth. By far. So when you saw like Jake Tapper and the mainstream media melting down yesterday, like he's rejecting tyrants, well, why don't they have that same science in Canada? Why don't they have that same science in Germany or England or anywhere else on Earth? There's nowhere else on Earth that even gets close to 20 shots, never mind 27 shots before your second birthday. Now, put that to one side. We're trying to move in a new direction. We're going to try to lower the amount of shots. I think they're going to 12, maybe 11 or 12 shots before your second birthday. When I was a kid, it was six. And I'm here, and you made it. We all made it. But we'll put that to the side. We'll also put in that right now, as far as chronic diseases ranked by countries, United States, we're number one. We're number one. More Americans have more chronic diseases by population than any other country. And that's whether you're looking at it by 100,000 or you're just looking at it in raw numbers. Yes, we have more chronic diseases than countries with billions of people. Now again, I'll understand that we have better reporting and all that. But we are not a healthy population by far. All of that to say that as they're bemoaning that, Anthony Fauci.

This came out yesterday. Ron Johnson released that Anthony Fauci's personal text messages were going back to January of 2021. He's telling the people, what's her face, that not Berks, the other lady. Rochelle Walensky. Rochelle Walensky. and the surgeon general at the time, he's telling them his concerns over this vaccination, specifically pregnant women, and he's talking about what he's seeing, and he's saying this could lead to miscarriages. That's what he's telling his cohorts, his colleagues. But then he gets on TV and he says this. Under the EUA, approximately 20,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated with no red flags, as we say. And this is being monitored by the CDC and the FDA. So he's not expressing any concerns, not letting anybody know that they privately, I think they're, you know what, I think there's something going on here. He says, no, go and get it. The bombshell that came out is the authors of the study that they were using showed a miscarriage rate of 12.6% if you took the vaccination. I don't know what a normal miscarriage rate is for somebody in the first trimester. That seems a bit high to me, but maybe it's not. But I will tell you that what the actual numbers show, that is high. According to the now revealed raw data from five years ago. 82% miscarriage rate from women who got vaccinated in the first trimester. 82%. Anthony Fauci says no red flags. I don't know what a red flag for him would be because if you're telling me the 20,000 women, and if I just went with an 80%, if 20,000 women are pregnant and 16,000 of them have miscarriages, I think we have a massive problem. That is more than a red flag. And for Anthony Fauci to bury that information and not talk about it. We're finding out about it in the year, 2026 year of our Lord, when they knew about it in 2021, in 2022, in 2023, and 2024. What the flip, Christopher. I imagine being a woman who experienced that tragedy and then hearing that news yesterday. It's, but trust the science. Trust the science. He is the science. Trust the science. You get put in a position of authority. You get put in a position where we think you're giving us real data we can use and you hide the data. You lie about the actual figures. And then when it's exposed, you say that it's us that's crazy. They're going to continue to try to gaslight us and tell us, oh, my gosh, we're going from 27 down to 12 shots. We're going to kill all Americans. Well, why are the other countries at 12 to 15 shots? What happened to the science in Germany? What happened to the science in Australia? What happened to the science in Canada? Oh, they're backwards. Is that what that is?

Very frustrating. Okay. Well, you know what? What's good news? Scott Bessent decided to make us his favorite Columbia and Charleston boarding show. We will talk to the Treasury Secretary next on South Carolina's morning news. Live from the state capital, this is South Carolina's morning news. You probably just heard in the news break that Scott Bessent was in town for the... renaming of Joint Base Charleston to Joint Base Lindsey Graham, and we were honored that he decided to call into our show. Scott, how are you? I am good, Kelly. How are you? I am living the American Dream. Thank you for joining me, sir. And what a pleasure to have you back in South Carolina. How was the visit? It was great. It was great. It was quick, and we showed that government can move quickly. I had never seen anything credit to Elliot Sumi, whose idea was, and then Helen Hill piled on. And they got the idea to me, and then it went to the president, and then DOW executed very quickly. It was a beautiful ceremony. I saw some of your comments, just fantastic stuff from you. I love the idea of how you kind of chronicled Lindsey Graham's life and his dedication to this state. And I think you used a phrase something like, you know, no man has gone as far as Lindsey Graham has left, but never left the state. Exactly. And also, he's like a C-17. He's the workhorse. And did you say you sat on your side porch and right there in Charleston and would watch those planes? Oh, yeah. Well, they come in right over the harbor. So they're coming back from wherever Middle East, Europe, Africa. Again, we have the treasurer secretary on the phone with us. Scott Bessent, pleasure to have you on with us. As, you know, you are so busy doing so many different things. But I think one of the most amazing things that you and the Trump administration have put together is the Trump bonds. This is so incredible for future generations. But Kelly, it's... It's not actually bonds, it's better. It's an equity state. So it's an investment in a diversified index fund. There are Trump accounts open to every child in the U.S. under age 18. For those children born during President Trump's term, Treasury will contribute $1,000 to the account as seed investment. And then we also have... Some great philanthropists putting money in. Many states are putting money in. So everybody should go to Trumpaccount.gov and get them open. And we want to make everyone a shareholder in our great economy. We're talking with Scott Bessent. Are you expecting this to continue after the Trump administration, or is that just at the discretion of the future president? It'll be at the...

discretion in the future president, but I think this is an idea whose time has come. 38% of households in the U.S. have no exposure to the equity market, either through direct equity ownership or 401ks. And, you know, I think the goal should be an ownership society. Everybody should have a piece of the action. And you're here at Treasury. We're working on financial literacy, something my family and I have been doing for more than two decades. One of the things that a lot of people talk about is Iran, and it seems like the president is really more or less content to just let, it seems like you're handling it right now with Operation Economic Fury, and you're just squeezing the life out of Iran it feels. Yeah, look, when I grew up in the low country, we lived near a swamp, and there were a lot of poisonous snakes in the yard. And we would take a rake, a hoe, a machete, cut its head off. But anybody who's ever done that knows the snake can keep squirming until the sun goes down. And right now, we've cut the head of the Iranian snake off. It's still squirming. We've got it in a vice grip, and we are going to continue pressuring their economy because that's what we'll eventually bring them to the table. They've got food inflation of almost 200%, regular inflation of over 100. Their currencies collapse. They're not able to pay the troops. The police have stopped showing up for work. And there are terrorist proxies around the region. The Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, they're having trouble paying them. So at President Trump's direction, we and Treasury are going to keep squeezing them. If he hadn't brought up, Christopher, the idea of the terrorist groups not getting paid. It could have sounded like a Joe Biden administration. A little bit. Exploding inflation. Nobody's getting paid. It was miserable. But anyway, we can't play the entire interview with Scott Bessent, but we do have it on... The National Briefing podcast, and again, that's a daily podcast. It goes about 10 minutes long. You can hear the entire interview. We only played a few moments of it here. We'll play more of it later on, maybe the 7 or 8 o'clock hour today. But Christopher Thompson, this is a big day here in South Carolina. It was nice to have Scott Bessent home, but we have more pressing matters that we have to get to, including more candidates to talk to. I can't wait. Who's up next? You know what? That's a good question. What do you think?

How about the former governor? Okay. We're going to go with the former governor, the man who goes around the state with pork and barrel, his favorite pigs. We'll talk with Mark Sanford next on South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news. All right, talking to the former governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford. Your polling is coming to an ending. How do you feel it went? Well, we'll find that this evening. We'll see what the voters have to say. But, you know, I'll just say this. We're running all the way to the finish line. We've tried as best we can to cover as many corners in South Carolina as we could. And to talk to as many people as we can. And resoundingly, people have said, you know, you're right. It just doesn't make any sense to have Washington spending a bunch of money it doesn't have. And then turning around and printing money that's not there, it is diminishing the value of what I can buy every day, diminishing my purchasing power. There is an affordability issue on a whole host of things. And that's tied to something a whole lot bigger than spending or even affordability. And that is our ability to pursue the American dream. I mean, I worry about my voice. I think a lot of people are very concerned, and you brought up the figure. It took us 168 years to get to a trillion, and now we're doing it every hundred days. Which is crazy. I mean, you know, no civilization across the pages of time has been outrun math. And when you get to the point where interest is your fastest growing federal category of spending. You got a problem. So as people hopefully hit out to the polls, I've been looking at some of the early voting numbers, and it seems like, you know, your home area, Dorchester, Berkeley, Charleston counties, they've been kind of underperforming at least the early voting. Hopefully they're going to get up and out it today. But whether they're listening to us in the low country or in the Midlands right now, what is your final message as people are heading out to the polls? We'd emphasize how important this is to not only each one of us, but to our loved ones. Do we get that course corrected? Or we've got real problems ahead. And what I would say is, I think what stands out about our candidacy is the fact that I actually did this when I was governor in South Carolina. We held the line on government spending as no governor has done before since. And I think that people would like to see that mentality up in D.C. I've asked the other candidates this. Are you going to support whoever the GOP nominates? Yeah, that's the nature of the process. And so absolutely. But I hope it's the other way around. I hope they're all supporting you, right? Are you going to be having a party tonight? We will be. It's kicking chicken there on Coleman Boulevard and there in Mount Pleasant down the street from where I live. And they should bring their own bottle.

You have done a great job of marketing, I think, in this campaign. The Sanford for Senate signs were brilliant. I thought the truck was fantastic. Some mixed reviews I thought on the pigs. How did you think the pigs thing went? Well, you know, there have been mixed reviews on that from day one. That's right. You know, go back to, you know, basically 20 years ago when I originally did that. But I think there's something to be taken away from that. And that is. I think that you want in Washington somebody with that measure of resolve and measure of commitment and going the extra mile and watching out for your pocketbook or your wallet. Well, Mark Sanford, I think you've done a great job in the campaign. I wish you all the best tonight. And hopefully we'll get you back on maybe in a runoff here in the next couple of weeks. We'll soon see. All right. There's the former governor. And I just got an email from Kevin in Charleston. She says the reason Charleston County voting has been so low. is because the only place to vote was downtown Charleston. No one was going down there. Big turnout come Tuesday. So we'll see if he's correct. You're listening to South Carolina's morning news. All right, Kelly Nash here. Christopher Thompson and I came on the air, and the first thing you brought up was the Trafalgar poll that kind of lined up exactly with the resonance, a resonance poll from yesterday as far as Darlene Graham having a seven-point lead over who's going to be number two. The big difference is, and this poll, Sanford and Fry are within the margin of error with Ralph Norman at number two. So it could be, according to this poll, Sanford, Fry, or Norman coming in second tonight. Kelly, I think all the polls are indicating that is your big four. And the question is, if it goes to a runoff, it appears to be Darling Graham, who will be her opponent? But, you know, I'm excited to see how the polls. What we see tonight, because when you looked at the resonance poll yesterday, we saw, I think it was a six-point difference. Norman was ahead by six in that poll. My goodness. Just depends on who gets out the vote today. Exactly. Big, big, big revelations tonight. All right. Speaking of the candidates, Russell Fry, supposed to be joined by him just after seven on South Carolina's morning news. Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.30 a.m. WV.O.C. and 943. W. W.S.C. All right. Good morning, Midlands. Good morning. Lowcountry on the phone. The guy who's got to be thrilled with the new polling that came out. Russell Fry, good morning, sir. Good morning. It's great to be on the show, and thanks for having me. Man, this is the Trafalgar poll that dropped last night puts you within, well, within the margin of error. You and Mark Sanford are both within the margin of error of Ralph Norman for the number two spot right now. The polling the day previous had you back, I think, like five points or something like that. So this is apparently the momentum is picking up for Russell Fry.

Yeah, look, we're seeing late, you know, we're seeing people break our way. I think, but I think, Kelly, I mean, it's lights out. I've felt this on the ground for a long time. And some of the polling, I'll say maybe 10 days ago, you know, I'm like, that's not where it's at. Like, instinctively in your gut, you just knew with the energy, the people who were showing up to events, look, I've done 30 events in about 10 days. I mean, we have been lights out across the state as fast as we possibly can. But there's a real, there's a real energy behind, you know, a new conservative voice, a new conservative face, somebody who is focused on the economics of the kitchen table who wants to help families. Look, I didn't grow up with much. I don't know how this feels. Like it just... And having a candidate willing to not just highlight the issues and use the buzzwords like affordability, but who talk about meaningful, conservative policy that you can do that benefits your family, right? I mean, that you need more affordable energy that lowers your power bills, that you need a tax climate that is better that's more supportive of families, that you need somebody that's... that's watching out for our core values and beating back in every which way possible this government overreach on our faith in our daily lives. The regulatory regime that's strangling our businesses, some of the easy ways that you can tackle that and get the government out of the way. This is all part and parcel to a common sense agenda that will absolutely deliver relief to the middle class. Talking with Russell Fry tonight, we're going to find out how it all turns out. A couple of questions I've been asking all the candidates. First, are you having a party that the general publics could come to to watch with you? No, we're saving everything for post runoff today. We assumed we'd be in a runoff. We knew that we were going to, you know, be right there. And so we're kind of huddled. We know just the way that how tight it's been, it's been that tight for a couple days on our internals that we'd probably be waiting up until, you know, midnight for the final results that may come down to a couple, you know, a handful of votes. And I wanted to make sure that we were putting. all of the resources that have been donated, not to a preemptive party, but getting out the vote for the runoff coming up in two weeks. So I'm going to be in Columbia, not at the beach, but we'll be doing press all the way through and just making sure we're getting everything ready for another two weeks sprint. And Russell Fry's on the phone with us as it gets ready for the election today. Another question, I've been asking all the candidates this, but it's been particularly chippy between you and Darlene Graham. But whoever wins the primary ultimately, because we're probably heading to a two-week runoff, whether it's you or obviously you'll support yourself. But if it was somebody else, are you going to, are you willing to commit to, you know, I am supporting whoever the GOP nominates?

Yeah, look, I mean, I'm a conservative at heart. This is, and I've done this since, you know, since, you know, for a long time, is that, you know, sometimes you got a little family squabble, right? Like, this happens at a Thanksgiving dinner, but you come around, you gather around, and you make sure that you support your nominee. It's a team sport. And, you know, where we are as a country, but the radical left is absolutely coming after, you know, the... the foundation of this country. You see it in the people they're nominating. So we don't have a lot of time and we don't have a lot of wasted energy that we can spend on being mad or disgruntled. I think we all have to come together. I think about the movie 300, right, where the Spartans, the 300 Spartans are kind of withstanding the hordes of the Persians. I mean, this is kind of what's coming at us right now. with the left. And so we got a band together. We have to close ranks and make sure that we support each other. Fantastic stuff. Russell Fry. So any final thoughts? As people are heading out to the polls, the polls just opened a few moments ago, is they head out between now and 7 p.m. tonight. Any final thoughts from the Frye campaign? Yeah, absolutely. Look, I'm in it to win it. And I think when you look at this race and how important it is, think about the foundation of this country. We survived 250 years, this incredible American experiment. And the path before us is, are we going to go down the slow, deteriorating role of socialism? Are we going to go down into a system of government that replaces God with government that destroys the middle class? That's what we have to do. We owe it to our forefathers to think about this moment and what has already made us great, which is our faith. Our appreciation adheres to free enterprise, our conservative values. These are the things that have made us a truly great nation. And what Washington needs right now is a fighter, somebody in the arena, not somebody who just goes and pushes a button and they might talk on the news, and they might sound good, but who is in the trenches every day pushing and who has delivered results. I've done that. I don't just go up to Washington and sit around. and vote the right way. We've got a very conservative record, very conservative, by all accounts, we're voting the right way and have been for years. But it's not enough. People want battle-tested warriors to get the job done, too. Well, Russell Fry, best elect tonight. If you're fortunate enough to make it into the runoff, hopefully we'll be talking to you over the next couple of weeks as we lead up to the big day. Kelly, thanks for doing this and thanks for letting candidates like us enter the marketplace of ideas. It's important. All right. We certainly appreciate you putting your hat into the ring, Russell Fry, and we will be talking with more candidates. I think we should take a quick break right now and be back with more on South Carolina's Morning News. From the Midlands to the Low Country, this is South Carolina's Morning News. All right, so back to back, we heard from Mark Sanford.

And we've heard from Russell Fry. Coming up in just a moment, we're going to hear from Ralph Norman. Already heard from Mark Lynch. We did hear from Mark Lynch as well. But I specifically wanted to talk about Sanford and Fry. And Ralph Norman, because according to the Trafalgar poll that came out, those three are within the margin of error. So Norman at 19.5, Fry at 18.4, Sanford at 18.3. And I said, I reposted that and said it's going to be interesting to see how tonight's seven point lead for Graham holds up because she's at seven points in both the Trafalgar and the resonance poll. But it's the Trafalgar poll that's got... I mean, it's a world of difference as to who could be number two. And when I posted it, a guy named Steve Michael, who I don't know that if I've met Steve. He is the president of Victory Enterprises. All right. So he said, I love the way he wrote this. Christopher, this gets me, it's kind of like, you know, my first love was sports. You got to live my dream, by the way. And then I fell in love with politics. But politics is a lot like sports, except in politics, when you're listening to news talk radio as opposed to sports talk radio, you actually can have an impact on the final results of the game. The only time I can impact the Gamecocks is like when I'm screaming and when the other team has the ball to try to get an offside. So here he says, could be any of the three. This is Steve Michael's analysis of that thing. Sanford has surged and gone unattached, or I guess I think he meant unattacked. Till Graham ran some streaming digital attacks over the weekend. Didn't see those. I don't know about those. Then it says Fry in Norman's districts have overperformed in early voting. Yeah, we talked about how there was a surge in York. There was a surge in Ory County. Those are two big places for Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, respectively. Where does Greenville Spartanburg turn? Does Lynch cut into Norman's base vote? Does Sanford... get more of the Midlands vote share than had been expected. Do the, uh, or, I, he put ORI County. Oh, I guess he meant to put ORI, like H-O-R-R-Y, but it's ORI here. Counties, maybe I'm misinterpreting it. Show up today. it's or maybe put it meant to put other counties uh but he does and it's a nail biter it is a nail biter it is and it sounds simplistic to say oh it's it all depends on vote turnout but that is exactly what this is going to come down to throw the polls out if if people are dissuaded by the fact that they can't get to their normal polling place and just turn around and go to work instead i mean

It's going to be key as to who actually gets out the vote. That's why you get all those texts last night. That's why we get all the mailers in the last couple of days because these candidates are desperate for every vote they can get. Oh, my gosh. It's like, it's like Carolina Clemson. We're leading into the huge game. And it says some are saying this way, some are saying that way. And we need to give out that the website again, SCVotes.gov. Yeah, you got to go there. You need to double check your polling place to know for sure where you're going before you go vote. Great point, Christopher. And it only takes a moment. I mean, I think I did it last night in less than one minute. Yeah. So SCVotes. Dot. correct do not go to the dot coms or the dot whatever's it's dot gov and then again 60 seconds or less you'll know exactly where your polling station is because a lot of polling has moved based off it being the first day of school in so many districts today we got a lot going on all right so like you said we have talked to Russell Fry we have talked to sanford we did talk to lynch and the people were wondering is he going to cut into ralph normans Base tonight, man, we haven't spoken to Ralph Norman yet. We will speak with Ralph Norman next on South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103 FM and 560 AM, WVOC, Columbia, and 943 WST Charleston. We've already spoken with Mark Lynch, Mark Sanford, and Russell Fry, who according to the latest polls are all nipping at the heels of this man. Ralph Norman. Ralph Norman, good morning. Good morning, Kelly. Great to be with you. This is what it all comes down to. How are we feeling on this big election day? Kelly, I feel real good. You know, most of the polls have us leading. It's what's different about this race is it's really hard to poll because you don't know what the turnout's going to be. But I've been encouraged by people that are... calling, asking, you know, where we'll be and that they were voting and phone calls being made. So I feel good about it. We'll know at probably 8 o'clock tonight. Do you expect a runoff? Oh, yeah. But nine people in it, it'd be on the... So we'll have two more weeks of it, and we'll be all over the state selling our message. The speculation has been that you have spent a little bit less money in this general campaign and that you're really kind of saving your powder, so to speak, for the runoff. Is that kind of been the strategy so far for the Norman campaign? Well, you know, we spent a good bit of money in the governor's race. A lot of money we spent kind of plowed the ground of getting our name out in the state, which we did. We really expected to be in the runoff. So, yes, we'll be what it feel we'll play in. But I'm...

I'm excited about it. So we should all be expecting direct mail pieces pretty soon from a Ralph Norman campaign. I was going to say we're locked and loaded for the two-week stretch. As people are heading to the polls today, and hopefully they're all turning out, I've noticed that Charleston County, you know, which we're on at 94-3 WSC, that market to Berkeley and Dorchester has been shockingly low turnouts in the early voting. So they got a lot to make up for here in the next few hours. But whether they're in the low country or the Midlands listening this morning, any final message from the Norman campaign? Well, we're looking to pick a senator for the next six years, and I'm the only true conservative that's got a record that I'm proud of. I've been successful in the business arena, and I want to take what I've done in Congress to expand it. The Senate has been the cemetery for good bills that just get turned down, watered down, or stop. But there's nothing more important than the Save America Act. I intend to do whatever I can, including newt the filibus, if that's what it takes to get it passed. We've got to stop the Senate from stopping good legislation. That's premier right now. I think that I know everybody here would support whoever won on the GOP side. Is that correct? Absolutely. You know, I told any of the candidates that I'm running against, the enemy is not the Republican candidates. It's a socialist. Dr. Annie that we'll be running against. And the whole agenda is bad for this country. We've got to stop the agenda. Nice to see you with a unifying message here. And unfortunately, when we get in the primary season, we get a lot of hurt feelings, especially amongst the voters. They seem the ones that take it the hardest. The candidates realize we're playing here for votes, but some of the voters take it pretty hard when their favorite candidates are attacked. When you enter the political arena, you either win or you lose. And so it's a reality. But I'm just... I'm thankful that I got the opportunity, and I'm thankful that our message, I think, is resonating. I'll be pleased to go to, I do think, I'll end up going to the Senate and look forward to serving. Currently, Congressman Ralph Norman, looking forward to possibly having you back on as we get into a runoff here. Best of luck tonight. Where are you going to be tonight? You got a party going on? I'll be at Hobos on Cherry Road and Rock Hill, South Carolina, top floor. All right, everybody who was a Ralph Norman fan, you can head on up there and be a part of the party. And thank you for making time for South Carolina's morning news. My pleasure. Thank you, you like, Kelly. All right, we've heard from pretty much all of them. Not quite all of them, but we got most of them, Christopher. Yes, and we've given some restaurants and some bars, some free publicity while we were at it. You know, if you're a fan of these politicians, it's an awesome opportunity for you to spend some time with them tonight. Absolutely, and they may need your support, or they may be celebrating, and it may be the greatest party you've ever attended. Or maybe a shoulder to cry on. Who knows? Either way. Interesting that Russell Fry is not holding one of those events tonight. He will be in Columbia counting votes with family and friends, but he is not holding a victory party. He said he's saving all that for after the runoff. That is a good point, Christopher Thompson, always bringing the...

The focus back to where it needs to be. All right. So we've got that. We've heard from all the candidates. But again, the point that you were making earlier, Christopher, needs to be reemphasized. Go to SCVotes.gov. Because a lot of the polling stations have been moved just for today. And so if you want to know where you got to vote, that's where you need to go. So it takes less than 60 seconds. But please get out and vote be a part of this democracy that we live in. And coming up next, we're going to have more of our conversation with our Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent on South Carolina's Morning News. Live from the state capital, this is South Carolina's morning news. And yesterday you probably heard in the news that... Joint-based Charleston renamed Joint Base Lindsey Graham and Pete Hegseth was in town and Darlene Graham was there and so was the... The governor, Henry McMaster, a lot of people in town for this. Nancy Mace was there. But also was the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, South Carolina native. And we're honored. He chose our show to call into. So we spoke to with him yesterday. We played the first part of that earlier. But here's a little second, a little more of the conversation that we had. This is where we're asking about fraud, because the Treasury is really starting to attack fraud. And how's that going? It's going well. Vice President JD Vance, as you said, is leading all hands on deck, all branches of government effort. And I tell you, Kelly, this is a mess. It could be over $500 billion in fraud every year. And look, we in the U.S., we are a high-trust society. We want to take care of our citizens. But there are predators who are stealing from the people who are supposed to. get the money stealing from taxpayers, and that money could either be going to pay down the debt or to the people it's meant for. And everyone out there, I'd encourage your listeners to demand transparency in government. Minnesota was a mess, but there was a level of transparency, so that young man could go to all the different... daycare centers and see that there were no one there. You could go to all the senior centers, transportation centers, and see that no one was getting transported. I was down in Minnesota a couple of months ago. I'll tell you, it was heartbreaking because for some of these autism centers that were supposed to be getting the money, and the parents told these heartbreaking stories that they weren't getting the money for the centers because of the waste, fraud, and abuse. And what we are trying to do differently is to keep the money from going out in the first place. Because once it's out, it is very, very hard to recover. So here at Treasury, we've established the do not pay system. We are now able to match against people who have passed away because that's a big portion of the fraud. Yeah, I was shocked that that's almost $100 million that you guys have already caught going to dead people. Yes, yes.

And the other thing, too, is for your listeners, we now have a program. It's kind of like a suitcase of flying by itself at the airport. We call it, if you see something, say something. Go to treasury.gov. And if you give us a tip that leads to a recovery, we're able to pay a reward for that help. Wow, that is fantastic. So everybody says that they see some fraud. If you see something, say something. Treasury.gov, you say? Yes, sir. Outstanding. Well, I know that you're in a hurry and you've got places to go and you're so busy and so kind to make some time for us here in South Carolina. It was awesome to have you visiting the low country again. And maybe in retirement you'll get to spend some more time kicking back on the side porch there, watching the C-17s. Well, and they will all. all say joint-based Graham on them. I think they're going to probably start repainting them tomorrow. Wow. And for the rest of the president's term, as I travel around the world, and I see our great pilots from the base there, I will see Senator Graham's name on the tail, whether it's in Asia, whether it's in Europe, whether it's in Africa. And as I said, he was a small-town kid from Central South Carolina who made a... Big impression on the world. Well, you were a kid from Conway who did pretty well for himself as well. Well, Kelly, Conway was a big city. I was born in Conway. I grew up on Little River. Conway is a gateway to Myrtle Beach. That's right. Well, Scott Bessent, thank you so much again for your time. Hopefully you'll come back and join us soon. Good. Look forward to it. All right. Scott Bessent, born in the gateway to Myrtle Beach, and thrilled to have him on. By the way, Christopher Thompson, I just looked it up. If you, again, you don't have to know for a fact that there's fraud happening. But if you suspect it, if you suspect that there's somebody ripping the federal government off, you can go to treasury.gov and it says whistleblowers right there. I just read, I just looked this up. Eligible tipsters can receive between 10. And 30% of the monetary sections collection. Wow. I mean, this is Nick Shirley eligible, the independent journalist? I'm guessing. I don't know. I mean, he does travel a lot, and I wonder who's paying for that. Maybe it's some of the reward money that he's gotten in the past. But that is fantastic. We've all got skin in that game. Absolutely. And again, $100 million last year went to dead people in America. That is outrageous. So so happy that the federal government under not only Donald Trump, but our vice president and obviously the Treasury Secretary are clamping down on fraud. Okay, more to get to. This is South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news. All right. So the... national website, just the news. That's John Solomon's site. He has a national story today about does Trump's endorsement mean what it used to mean in South Carolina? And that's one of those questions that I think even South Carolinians are asking themselves, Christopher. It's a great question, especially with what we just went through with the governor's election, the fact that...

Trump endorsed Pamela Evett early. Well, not as early as Pamela Evitt would have liked. Or some people had thought just looking at the TV ads. True. But finally did endorse her and then read the tea leaves and came out with a co-endorsement of the eventual winner, Alan Wilson on the Republican side. Same thing here. Kelly, we keep hearing the same thing that we heard with Pamela Evitt, but I think it's a little louder with Darlene Graham, and that is... Wait a minute, Mr. President. This is local politics and we feel like she's being shoved down our throats. We don't know her. Well, at just the news, they took a unique angle, I think, in that they basically just interviewed. college age students who actually volunteer for these types of campaigns. These are the people who do all the legwork on these campaigns. I mean, you've got people sitting around making the major decisions. But as far as putting up the signs and all the physical work, a lot of it is done by these college kids. Yeah, they were talking to some Clemson students. And I guess Clemson College Republicans had come out in front for Alan Wilson originally. But they were... Some of those Clemson students were saying had no interest in the president's decision. Doesn't matter who he endorses. We don't care. But then he got some University of South Carolina students who were saying, yeah, no, his endorsement of Darlene Graham moved me. That's why I went with her. You've got an interesting analogy here that he has more impact on lower-ranking or lower-profile races. And they point to Jenny Costa Honeycutt, who ends up winning the first congressional district. They say that he... She was propelled by Donald Trump's endorsement. So I'm not sure. what they're basing that off of it, you know, how they can actually track that. But it's an interesting concept. And if you have thoughts on that, does the president's endorsement mean something to you? You can let us know on the talkback feature off the IHeart radio app. It is 746 on South Carolina's morning news. You're listening to South Carolina's morning news. I've got mixed emotions, Christopher. Mixed emotions. Donald Trump tweets out, great news for our country. Supreme Court Samuel Alito Samuel Alito has announced he's staying for... another term. He is one of the greatest of all time. We are all lucky. I agree that Samuel Alito has been a Supreme Court justice. But here's my conflict. He is 76 years of age. I understand that we're most, right now, again, sitting here on August the 11th, it seems as if the... The Senate is going to remain in Republican hands. That is not assured, though. True. If he was to bow out right now, we could flip-flop it, get it, swept it. We can get a brand new 45-year-old version of Samuel Alito. Be there for 20 to 30 years. Now, if we don't hold the Senate, then he's got to stay on at least two more years. And then what if you don't get a Republican president in two and a half years from now?

then he's got to hang on for six more years he'll be like 82 83 years old I kind of wish he'd retired. Any thoughts on that, Christopher? I was just looking to see. I couldn't remember it because we went back to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and who pushed Brett Kavanaugh through, Lindsey Graham. That's right. Lindsey Graham's no longer there. Chuck Grassley's the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee now. He's pushing Mitch McConnell. Exactly. He's getting up there. His vacuum died the other day and we saw a whole series of posts on that. He does like to pick corn, too. I've seen a lot of videos that you just talk about his cornfield. Yeah, no, I agree with you, Kelly. It would probably be much easier in the next few months to push through a candidate for the Supreme Court or nominee than it would be, say, six months from now. And again, just a reminder, the Senate only needs 51 votes to get the Supreme Court judge. It's not like a bill where you have to make a, you know, blow up the whole filibuster thing and all that. If you can get the 51, you got them in. And it's supposed to be advised and consent, but. You know, we've seen that morphed into we approve or we don't approve. Yes, team left versus team right. And so it, again, do you think Trump is just trying to make the best out of this situation? That's all you can do if you're Donald Trump right now. I mean, you can't say publicly, well, you know, I wish you would have retired. And let's keep wishing until you do it. If anybody would have said it, it would have been Donald Trump. It would have been Donald Trump. You know what? So I have to believe that Donald Trump actually in his heart of hearts is happy that Samuel Alito has stayed on because otherwise you're a bum. Get out of here. You've taken up too much time. I could totally hear him saying something along those lines. But again, you have Samuel Alito at least for another term. We'll see what happens from here. He's, again, 76 years of age. And, well, the Supreme Court, we certainly need as many conservatives as possible right now, at least until the DSA gets there and then they make it, what, is it 45 people? Is it 145 people? How many people they went on the Supreme Court? Well, it depends on who you talk to. Kamala Harris wants to pack the court. DSA wants to abolish it. Oh, that's right. I forgot. I keep forgetting. It's 13 for Kamala Harris. Yes. It's none for the DSA. Exactly. Oh, my God. We don't need you this year. anymore. Samuel Alito could be a part of the last Supreme Court we ever have. My gosh, shut the lights off when you leave there, Sam. All right, it is 754. Thanks for starting your day with South Carolina's morning news. Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.m. 5.60 a.m. WVOC and 943 WS.C. Well, that's great news for Asia. Congratulations on the new sneakers and the Wheaties cover and all that stuff. I mean, that's some big news. And happy to see that. I also see that Stephen Garcia, speaking of the Gamecox, got to ring the bell yesterday. So that's pretty huge. Now, I don't think that that means he's completely cured. I mean, he's gone through five of five chemo treatments, right? So I guess his chemotherapy.

portion of the recovery for Stephen Garcia's come to an end. So we're wishing him a speedy recovery as well as he continues his battle. So we got all that going on. And speaking of battles, coming to the state house today. We got a big budget. And I see one of the Freedom Caucus members, Rob Harris. He's from the upstate. He says, quote, I'm voting no. This record $44.4 billion budget hides. 300 million in earmarks at $1 placeholders with real spending punted to an unnamed, unscheduled committee, $378 million sits unappropriated, no transparency, no line item veto, no accountability, the taxpayers of South Carolina deserve better. Thoughts? Interesting. Now, the Freedom Caucus is outnumbered. Yes, they are. Within the State House. I wonder how many people will take that point of view that they are, they're not willing to let the Senate president and the House Speaker appoint this committee. Again, as yet unnamed committee to figure all this out. Who gets money and how much of the pot they get? That's... I mean, that may be a bridge too far for a lot of Republicans. Now, Rob does it. He put together, I'm assuming AI made this because it's such a fantastic piece of artwork on his ex account. You know, it's got a picture of the State House. It's got a stockpile. It just earmarks upon earmarks stacked in front of it. And at the bottom of it, he says, I support the tax relief, but I cannot support the rest. Tax less, spend less. Hide nothing. I'm voting no on this. So that's his position. That's a hardcore right position. And again, because he is a Freedom Caucus member. I'm assuming that all the Freedom Caucus feels this way. I don't know. We haven't spoken to them. J. Kilmartin might be listening right now. He lives right here in Lexington. He's a Freedom Caucus member. He listens from time to time. Maybe he'll chime in. But the bigger picture. This is one of those things, Christopher, where you and I and the average South Carolinian. We don't know exactly what's hidden inside budgets. That's why we have elected officials. You know, that's what representative democracy is about. Otherwise, it's mob rule. Otherwise, we all have to go and we all have to vote on everything. So we have to at some point trust the people we elect to kind of go through all of this stuff with their staffs and then come up with a... a short version of it so that we can comprehend why they're voting the way they're voting. I think Rob Harris has done a good job of explaining his position. It'll be interesting to hear from the people who vote yes on it. Are they going to say that his analysis is wrong? There's not $300 million in earmarks. There's not $378 million sitting in appropriated. That there is a line item veto if somebody wanted it. Or perhaps the line item veto is not important to them.

Well, the South Carolina Policy Council, they just, they did a long story on this budget. They called it the good, the bad, and the ugly. And they said, I mean, they give the exact dollar amount, $37741,635 million. $37777 million, $741,635. That's the total. You don't think they just picked that number out of thin air. Yeah, non-recurring revenue, which means. It's money that's sitting there and waiting to be appropriated. And we know that there are legislators, especially on the House side, who are lined up, who say, I've got this, you know, project, this pet project in my district, and I want so-and-so dollars. And we're told this committee is going to come together and examine all of these projects and say, okay, this one works. This one does not benefit the taxpayers of South Carolina. But we don't even know who's on the committee yet. That's what Rob Harris put in his post. No real spending punted to an unnamed, unscheduled committee. It would have to be soon. I mean, they're going to have to spend that money soon before it goes away. So again, if you're a legislator driving into town right now, there might be some listening to us on their way to the statehouse. You're coming in from another area. Maybe you'd never listen normally to South Carolina's Morning News because you live in Ory County or you live in, you know, in Rock Hill or someplace, wherever you're driving in from. And you just happen to stumble upon this show. Just be prepared. to give an account as to why you voted yes on this, if what Rob Harris is saying is true. Is there millions unappropriated? 377 point whatever Christopher just said it was. Is that unappropriated? Why are you voting yes on this? Is it specifically because you have a pet project? Is it because you just wanted to get a yes? Because you wanted to just move on? Just give an account. Tell the people in your audience, not necessarily even our audience. Tell the people where you live, why you voted yes. This should be a hard vote for people to take, I would think. Kelly, but some of these legislators, and we've heard from them before. He or she will say, look, I had to hold my nose, but A was going to benefit the state ultimately, so I had to vote for B too. And A, for a lot of people, is that tax relief that Rob Harris mentioned. Correct. I mean, the homestead exemption, the tax burden that's relieved on small businesses, there is some good in this budget.

But if I vote, no, those things don't necessarily go away. We just have to delay it until we actually pass a budget. Okay. Then we start the argument all over again. Are they willing to do that? Are they willing to come back and work an extended extra session to figure all this out? Don't make me work more. Come on. All right. We'll take a break here. It is 809 on South Carolina's morning news. From the Midlands to the low country. This is South Carolina's morning news. All right, so some housekeeping to just make you all aware of. I'm a little bit bummed that Christopher Thompson's taking some time off. Sorry. I know. But listen, the guy deserves it. Just a few days, Kelly. It is a few days, and you've obviously earned it. He's already, for those of you who, you can't even imagine the amount of effort that it takes for Christopher Thompson to put on the best Gamecock coverage. And he does do the absolute best gamecock coverage. And as we head into the season, he will be here roughly 23 and a half hours per day. It is a labor of love, but it is a bit labor intensive. But you help. I help very, very little. I mean, I show up on game day and basically I don't drink beer anymore, but that's the equivalent of me having a beer, just sitting there just, you know, I am the fan discussion. I have the, how can I just root harder for the Gamecocks part of the pregame show? But, yeah, so Christopher Thompson will be off for a couple of days. So it'll be me flying solo, which that could be an adventure because I don't really push buttons that well anymore. So we'll see how that goes. So everybody, you know, cross your fingers. and hold your breath for the next few days without Christopher, then I will be on vacation. The man who really needs a vacation. I don't know about that, but I'll be going back up to Connecticut to visit my mother. Excited to see her, she's getting ready for her 80th birthday. So happy early birthday, mom, and then we'll be reunited. On the 24th. On the 24th, we're back at it, and we're ready for the new fall season. Speaking of the new fall season, I understand that at night we're going to be adding a new show, but it's a little bit later at night. I know a lot of people love... Jesse Kelly. But after the Jesse Kelly show, we're going to be adding a guy named Michael Barry, the czar. of talk radio, which means I can't use that night. I was thinking about calling myself the czar. He took that before you got to it. Howard Stern has always been, he called himself, what, the king of all media? That's right. After Michael Jackson named himself the king of pop after Elvis Presley was called the King of Rock. So I'm working on nicknames. If you have a nickname for me or Christopher, you can let us know on the talkback feature. Easy, easy, easy. Well, you can let us know. I didn't even say we're going to use it. You can just put it out, you know, just hit the microphone button on the talkback feature. and let us know maybe suggested nicknames or if you have any thoughts on today. Again, just a reminder, please check your polling location for today because it is different for a lot of South Carolinians. Go to SCVote.gov, right? Is it vote? S.EVote.gov or Votes? Plural. SCVotes.gov. Kelly, I'm curious about one thing because we were told yesterday that there are some schools in some counties that do allow voting to occur.

while school is in session, not many, but they at least made it, the election commission made it sound as if there are some schools that allow both. I can't imagine in today's security era, you know, where we, you know, we've really battened down the schools. Any schools would allow voting to occur if they've got students in session. Well, and particularly in Charleston, I know it's like the first day of school for them. I think it's also like Lexington, Richland Five today. And Greenville. And Greenville. They're not listening to us in Greenville. True. Losers. But for those of you having the first day of school, that would really. Make things because kids don't even know where they're going. Maybe it's their first day ever at that school. So there's already a world of confusion. Imagine getting into the carpool line and you're trying to vote. Oh my gosh. I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine. So again, SCvotes.gov lets you know if where you normally vote is where you're going to go or maybe you need a new polling location today. But please get out and be a part of this. Again, the polls are. I mean, Darlene Graham has a seven-point lead in all the polls. Well, not all the polls, but the last two polls that we've seen. But for number two, it is, woof, there's a big swing in some of the polling here. So we'll see how it plays out tonight. But it's really like Christopher, you say, it's all about voter turnout today. Who gets out the vote? And we've seen a lot of mailers, a lot of, you know, I mean, I'm sure if you have a cell phone, you got plenty of text messages yesterday. people sharing last minute messages with you. It's, I mean, it's all comes down to who gets out their voters. Yeah, absolutely. So we'll, when tomorrow morning, we should have a good idea. We should know what to who's going to be. inundating us with more ads for the next two weeks. For the runoff. That's right. It's 818 on South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103 FM and 560 a.m., WVOC, Columbia, and 943 WST Charleston. It's 824, and I want you to guard your minds, ladies and gentlemen. That's biblical. Guard your thoughts. Guard where your mind wanders because we're about to delve into the mind. of the Democrat Socialist co-chair, Megan Romer, who gave a interview yesterday to the New Yorker, because even the New Yorker, the New Yorker, the New Yorker magazine. is stunned at how far the Democrat socialists have gone. And again, Megan Romer is the lady who you saw on Fox News, that clip of her saying, yeah, we want to get rid of borders. Yeah, we want to get rid of the military. Yeah, we want to get rid of the prison system. Yeah, we want to get rid of the Supreme Court. Yeah, we want to get rid of the presidency. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get rid of it all. Get rid of it all. So how the heck did this happen?

This is, that's what the New Yorker asked her. This is 60 seconds, her evolution from independent. She went from an independent to the co-chair of the DSA in like seven years. Absolutely true. Got most of my news from John Stewart. That was my primary news source. I'd read the Sunday Times and I'd read John Stewart. And I actually did read The New Yorker and sometimes even for more than the cartoons. I appreciate that. What happened? What turned? So after Hillary Clinton did not win, and I was supportive of Hillary Clinton. I was not a registered Democrat at that point. I was registered independent. And then she didn't win. And I was horrified. I was baffled. I tried to become involved in the Democratic Party. What I ended up involved in was this like women's club where you like have speakers. Like you weren't actually making any decisions. You were hearing people talk about a book. And. That was all really frustrating because I was like, who's doing anything? What are we pushing anything toward? And a friend who is a folk musician said, you know, we are starting this DSA chapter. You should come to a meeting. And I was like, ugh. The Socialists. And I was like, all right, well, I'll come to your meeting because we're friends, but I'm not saying comrade. And I went to the meeting, and I was just so relieved they were actually doing something, just anything. They had plans to just do something. Yes, and America, that's the plans. But Christopher. How many people are going to be sucked in by this? Because, again, what she's excited about is the idea of doing something. Now, when we look at the Constitution, when we look at the way things are structured in America, it's supposed to be very slow. Changes need to be overwhelmingly popular. That's why we have the checks and balances. But the American people are supposed to be kind of overwhelmingly supportive of one issue. And that's how we get it to happen. If it's just 52% of Americans feel a certain way, no. You're never going to get it done. Yeah, it shouldn't get done. You need it to be overwhelming. But at the Democrat socialist level, they're seeing things moving lightning fast. And I think that this is unfortunately attractive to a lot of people. What's odd about all this is now you've got some of the most prominent people on the Democrat side. For example, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She's trying to backtrack on statements she made. She's saying, well, that was, what did she say the other day? That was woke one, as if that was a phase she was going through. And now she's grown up and realized, okay, we really can't do some of the things I was saying. For example, abolish the police. She's, she's backtracking on that. But still, the rest of the DSA is full steam ahead.

Was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that's what I saw this week, the new mature version where she was taking her eggs out on a video and then freezing them on camera? I'm not sure why she decided that was for public consumption, but there it was. Was she like 36, 38 years old, whatever she is. Way too old to be doing that kind of stupid publicity stunt, but that's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But, yeah, again, I'm very, I don't want to say I'm afraid. But maybe a little bit afraid just to think that we have so many Americans like Megan Romer, who was a registered independent in 2018 or 2016. And here she is, 2023, I think, is when she became the co-chair of the Democrat Socialists of America. So in less than 10 years, she goes from an independent to the co-chair of the dang socialists. And even her own response when she was invited to a DSA chapter meeting was the Socialists. I'm not going to call anybody comrade. Yeah, well, I notice you're wearing your bright red glasses tonight, ma'am, and you're starting to call people comrade. So, anyway, very concerning stuff there. 829 on South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news. 834. And earlier today, we played back parts of our interview with the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was in town yesterday for the renaming of Joint Base Charleston to Joint Base Lindsey Graham. You can get that entire... It's about a 10 to 12 minute interview, if I remember right. That is on the I Heart Radio app on the national, and you spell national like my name, NASH, the national briefing, has the complete interview with Scott Bessent. But part of that interview talked about how the economy is doing great, better than ever. And if you look at, according to last year's number, 5.62 million new businesses were launched in America. That is an 8.2% increase in the highest amount we've ever launched in a new year. So. Yes, small businesses are growing, large businesses are growing, businesses are growing in general. The small business administrator, Kelly Loeffler, was on with Fox Business. I think this is this morning, kind of singing the praises of that and the tax cuts. By the way, they create two out of every three new jobs in America. There are job creation engines, so if you care about jobs and rising wages, that comes through small businesses in the private sector. And that's what this administration is fighting for every day. Think about the working family tax cuts. I mean, it averted a $5 trillion tax increase and saved hardworking Americans $82 billion. And every single Democrat voted against that because they want big government funding of big government projects that crowd out the private sector, which are our small businesses, our main streets. So that, I mean, that is the, I think right there you just heard an encapsulation. Do you think that the government should provide the money, or do you think that these small businesses should provide the money?

That's an easy answer for Republicans for conservatives. And I would think for an independent, I would think that anybody who's lived in any country that has a government. So Ilhan Omar, you can take a seat. But for people who grew up in a country, whether it's the United States, Canada, England, Australia, Poland, it doesn't matter which country you grew up in. Every citizen in every country complains about the government. It's lack of efficiency, how it wastes money, the bureaucracy, how it takes forever for things to get done. Everybody does that. It's not just an American tradition. It's a world tradition. And so when you ask yourself, well, who would be better at providing jobs? Would it be better through the government or would it be better through the private industry? Would it be who would, how am I most likely to benefit? Am I most like? I mean, that's just playing the odds. Are the odds that the federal government is going to treat me better than I can treat myself? I'd say not. I'd say not. This is such a winning argument for Republicans and they're completely whiffing on the younger generation on this. This is a point of great frustration for me and many others. And I know that there's a bunch of people starting their first day of school. I guess they're probably already in school at 837. But if there happen to be in the back seat of the cars, you kids with your little tiny minds that are trying to grow, let me tell you, capitalism is the only solution to poverty. It's the only solution. There's never been a government program that has eliminated poverty. And that's going to have to be the argument going into the midterms. I don't know that you can argue so much on this particular economy because, as you point out, there are some highlights, but there are also some low lights. What was weird about last Friday is we saw the jobs report come out, lower jobs, but unemployment was lower, too. It seems like there's always this mixed message we're getting from government, but you get the feeling according to polls that Republicans right now are down when it comes to the economy, and that's usually one of our key points, our key arguments leading into any election. Yeah, and again, I think a lot of that has to do with messaging. Obviously, you have the mainstream media is always going to be against you on that. One of the numbers that's never reported or very rarely reported is the break-even number. Previously, under the Biden administration, it was 150 to 200,000 jobs. per month needed to be created for us to quote unquote break even. It's currently 15,000. So 180,000 jobs or so, less needed because of all the illegal immigrants that are no longer in the workplace. They're gone. And you also look at when you think about fewer jobs or whatever, look at the amount of federal government jobs that have been cut. Right. I mean, it's an unbelievable amount of money that we're saving right there, but also... I believe for a lot of people, you're going to do better in the private sector in the long run. There's temporary pain before long-term prosperity. It's always been that way. I have nothing but the utmost faith in this American economy to not only...

fix whatever's broken but to continue to improve on the good things that we've already got because it's about you and me it's about the people in the streets it's do you want it if you want it go and get it that's that's really what it is do you want it if the answer is yes then go and get it if you don't want to go and get it then become a socialist Nothing against federal workers. I happen to be married to one, but we can't afford to employ everyone in the government. No, you can't say we have a good economy because 80% of the public is not working for the federal government. Goodness gracious. All right. Well, Christopher and I have done our part to try to promote capitalism here this morning. If you've got thoughts on that, use the talkback feature. This is South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news. All right. So yesterday, Massachusetts. did what Massachusetts has the right to do, which is extend the time you can have an abortion. I don't know why they continue to try to paint this as a fight against Donald Trump. Donald Trump had always said, let the states decide. The Supreme Court always, well, not always, but finally came to their senses and said we were wrong in Roe v. Wade. It's supposed to be a state decision because it wasn't in the Constitution at that level. So again, anything that's not decided here, supposed to be a state right. So in Massachusetts, you want to talk about a difference in opinions between the people of Massachusetts and South Carolina as WCVB. reports, this is the Boston State, excuse me, the Boston Network, as state law had been one of the laxer ones in the country with 24 weeks and exceptions for cases involving deadly fetal diagnosis or to protect the life of a mother. However, we have now loosened it as far as you can go. According to Representative Michael Day, we've decided to get away from all exceptions and trust our medical professionals who we think are the best in the world. And so with that, you can get an abortion right on up to the day of the delivery. Now, they brought out as a spokesperson for this, and again, I feel horrible for this lady, Kate Deneen, who was 33 weeks pregnant when she received devastating news, quote, I had discovered my son suffered a stroke in utero. and there was a chance he would die in utero or perhaps survive with no chance of a normal, healthy life. So she traveled to Maryland, which also had a very lax abortion law, and she got the abortion done there. So we have no idea what her son would have been like, actually. But again, that is Massachusetts right. I don't like it. I'm against it. But again, I celebrate that South Carolina has stricter abortion laws. If you like the abortion laws of South Carolina, you're in the right state. If you think that there should be wide open abortion all the way up to the day you deliver, there are plenty of states now where you can go.

And Christopher, I don't know how else to explain that. 24 weeks. That's six months already. And they got even more progressive than that. It's nine months now. Nine months. You could literally be. You know, like, I guess you could actually be dilating. And then, well, I've just making a decision right now that you don't have to have a reason according to this. You don't have to have a reason. It's not like we're trusting the doctors because the kid can't survive or whatever. Or the mom's going to die. It can just be as flippant as not feeling it. No exception necessary. Yeah, I check my savings account. I don't have that kind of cash today. So let's just move on with a state-provided abortion. It's horrific. It's monstrous. But that's what the people of Massachusetts want. The people of South Carolina do not want that. Thankfully, I'll continue to pray for the people of Massachusetts and all those other states. All right, we've got to take a break. 847 on South Carolina's morning news. You're listening to South Carolina's morning news. All right. I wish everybody could use the talkback feature on the IHeart Radio app to get to us. I understand that you can't. So you can use my social media. I'm at Kelly Nash Radio most actively on X. SBG Bird Dog says can't use it while I'm at work. However, for the DSA lady, happy that they're doing something, smacking yourself in the head with a ball peeped hammer is doing something. It's a matter of the quality. That's a great point. Yeah, it's a great one, no doubt. Also, just heard from Steve Michael, we were referencing some of his data earlier, and he says, already hearing from frustrated voters this morning, alternative sites, poorly labeled, lack of parking, poor signage at previous sites. That's just going on in the Midlands. This will be a fascinating watch today. Oh, boy. So Christopher Thompson, you've been pushing it all morning. Go ahead. SCVotes.gov is where you'll find your polling place. Can't help you once you get there. If they've got it labeled poorly or don't have enough parking for you, just do the best you can. Yes. The stick-to-itiveness is going to be important today. It is. And tomorrow morning, we are you, tomorrow you're off. I'm off tomorrow. Oh my gosh, I got to talk about this all by myself tomorrow. I'll tune in to see who won. I'm jealous. You've got that. You've got the budget negotiations going on at the statehouse. You've got plenty to talk about tomorrow. It's weird how sometimes your brain, maybe it's just my brain. Sometimes you don't think about it and it just clicks like. Oh my gosh, Christopher's not going to be working tomorrow. I'm jealous of what you'll have to work with tomorrow. Oh, I'm jealous that you can sleep. And I'm also a little bit sad that you won't be here to partake in the fun. But this is going to be a big night. A historic night for South Carolina. And as we've been talking earlier, the polls are very close right now for the second, third, fourth, in numerous polls. First place seems like Darlene Graham has it by about seven points. But we'll find out. I mean, maybe the polling's wrong on.

that as well. So there's a lot to be decided over the next few hours. You got till 7 p.m. today. But again, polling stations have changed. A lot of them have changed. So find out. Let's remind our listeners, because you invited every candidate on. We had a lot of candidates on with us this morning, and they can find those on our podcast, South Carolina's Morning News, on the IHart Radio app. Yes, South Carolina's Morning News. We got a podcast. Thanks to Christopher Thompson. You can get that just about 30 minutes after the show ends. Have a great day. Happy voting. We'll see you tomorrow.