The Mark Arum Show 07-21-26 HR 1

Hey, good Tuesday morning, friends. Hope you are all doing well. We are going deep into the well today on the Mark Aram show a lot of stuff to cover. We're going to go to the White House. Check in with some big headlines coming out of the Iran War. We're going to go to New York City. Update that domestic terrorist attack at the federal building. We'll check in with Peter Harrow-Lombus from ABC on that. Scott Slade you on his live at 1035. How much toll money have we raised here in Atlanta? You know those toll... the Peacht's Pass, the HOV. Scott Slade is going to break down how much revenue has been generated there. And Deborah, late from the top rope, coming up with ACDC tickets to give away today on the show. Yeah, finally that tour coming through. Yeah, I could see you as a professional wrestler. What? Yeah. A wrestler. Yeah, female, off the top rope. That's a wrestling. Yeah, never. Because you have the gymnastic background. You could do the tumbling. Maybe that stuff, but I'm not strong. You could do off the top rope is what I'm saying. Anyway, ACDC tickets for you. We're going to go over the remaining WSB Carathon incentives. I want to start, though. Welcome me to the show, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff. Senator, good morning. As always, appreciate your time. I want to start with this cyclospora outbreak. I know this is a big story because. My wife, who is the healthiest eater that I know, the last couple of days said, you know what? We're going to skip the salad today just to be safe. Senator, I know you wrote a letter to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Department of the Health and Human Services. What did you ask the secretary about this cyclospora outbreak? And have you heard back from it? And yes, I've demanded that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explain why he shut down the CDC's required surveillance of this parasite. The CDC had a long-standing program called FoodNet to track cyclospora. And last year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shut that down as he has undertaken this attempt to demolish. the CDC. We've all seen it over the last year and a half. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has it out for the CDC. He's pushed out or tried to push out around a third of the workforce he has. destroyed morale within the CDC and he's publicly demonized the CDC. And here's an example of what that means practically every day. He shut down the CDC's monitoring of cyclospora. And what do we see happening right now? We see cyclospora, this foodborne parasite, ravaging the country with a large number of people getting sick and families across the country apprehensive about whether they can trust the safety of the produce. that we're buying. And look, with a, I've got a one-year-old girl at home, got two beautiful daughters, four and one. And, you know, when you're shopping for an infant or for young children, you really want confidence that they're not going to get some kind of diarrheal disease or parasite. This is really worrying for families across the country. And he needs to explain, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needs to explain why he's shut down.

for the United States or Iran at this point? Well, let me begin by expressing my great admiration for the incredibly brave and professional service members in the United States military who are putting their lives on the line on the President's orders and fighting for the United States. And remember that we were assured by the president that victory would be swift. We were assured that Iran's military had been rendered combat ineffective. We were assured that the United States would be able to maintain the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. We were assured that the spike in gas prices would be short-lived. And again, in just the last two weeks. We have nearly 100 American service members wounded in action. We have three brave service members killed in action. We have the energy crisis returning and gas prices skyrocketing again. This was a war of choice that the president embarked upon recklessly. And it appears he's now deepening our entanglement in the conflict. Senator, I want to end with this. You couldn't go on social media and not see you in your questioning of Jay Clayton during the confirmation hearing as Director of National Intelligence, viral at the moment to say the least. Are you a firm no vote on his confirmation? Is that still to be determined? I'm a firm no on Mr. Jay Clayton's confirmation. I thought that his performance in the Intelligence Committee was disqualifying. I thought that he demonstrated he lacks the integrity and the independence. to be the senior most intelligence official in the United States. This is a role, a sacred trust between this office, the director of national intelligence and the American people, that the director of national intelligence will put American national security first and the truth ahead of politics. You can't have political operators in these intelligence roles. You need people who are going to call balls and strikes and be transparent and candid about their assessments. And, you know, this guy. And folks look up the video, Jay Clayton in front of a Senate Intelligence Committee, he couldn't answer, refused to answer the question who had won the 2020 presidential election because he was afraid of angering the president. You can't have someone in charge of America's intelligence services who is afraid of angering the sitting president. You need somebody in charge of America's intelligence services who will speak the truth and provide the president and Congress with just the facts. and straightforward candid analysis based upon our intelligence collection of the threats that the country faces. Do you think he has the votes from your Republican colleagues? Do you think he does have a path to confirmation without your vote? I don't have a count of Republican votes for Mr. Jay Clayton. I suspect, frankly, that he will because... You know, the M.O. to be very blunt, Mark, for elected Republicans in Congress right now is to give the president what the president wants without asking too many questions. Senator Jon Ossoff, Senator, appreciate your time. We'll be watching Secretary Hagsett's testimony today. Really do appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you so much, Mark. Take care.

We'll monitor Secretary Pete Hegseth at testimony. If it falls during the Mark Abrams show, if not, the news team will be all over. Just a couple of quick follow-ups there with the discussion with Secretary. Also, just on the Jay Clayton nomination. It was assumed before the nomination process. Did you see, by the way, that video was talking about, Deborah? Yeah, we had the audio and everything. Yeah. When I was off. Yeah, on Friday. But. Before the confirmation hearing, it was just assumed that Democrats would vote to confirm him because they want Bill Pulte out of the job in the acting role right now. Republicans want Bill Pulte out of that job. But some sharp words there from the senator may be that it's not a slam dunk that Jay Clayton gets nominated. I don't know. What Mitch McConnell's absence has to do with this. Obviously, Lindsey Graham's sister has replaced him, so that vote is there. But I don't know. I just assumed that Jay Clayton would pass easily a serious background. But the confirmation hearing certainly wasn't all peaches and roses. Is that a thing? Did I just make up a new saying? Peaches and cream? Peaches and cream. Yeah. That was the local ice cream spot where I grew up. Peaches and roses? I don't know. There's something with the Rose. Guns and roses. GnR. Yes. Who's the lead singer? Axel Rose. That's it. All right. He'll be in the confirmation here. Anyway, we're going to monitor Secretary Pete Hegseth's thing. The cyclospora story, though, that's legit. When Maya's like, you know what, we're not going to have a salad before dinner tonight. You know, I will buy a bag salad, too, to bring to work specifically. And so now I've had to, like, get all the individual pieces. And I don't mind putting it. But that's something that you kind of go to. And now that can't eat a salad. It's a little disturbing. Yeah. But I haven't. Listen, I'm not a big salad eater. But yesterday, I ordered a sandwich. And I was like, yeah, lettuce and tomato. I mean, I think I am specifically immune to the cyclospora thing, everything that I've got going on, that this is just a thing. And Judd, you covered the story, if you don't mind joining us for a second, about Taco Bell. They have been the face of this whole outbreak. And I think I'm right in this that there was a false positive test on that Taylor Farm shredded lettuce that went to Taco Bell. Yes. There's going to be some lawsuits, Judd. Like Taylor Farm. and Taco Bell, they're going to be suing somebody. You would think so. It's weird because they still haven't found the source. Taylor Farms has taken all these steps, but they haven't exactly found the source. But yeah, you're right. That one positive test, that could lead to something. Yeah, and I'm a big Taco Bell fan. I'm going to get Taco Bell today. I'm going to show solidarity with the Bell. Can you get me a soft taco? Absolutely, whatever you want you. Thank you, buddy. Yeah. I mean... Gosh, you know, Taco, I forgot what Judd said, but the foot traffic sales dropped, plummeted. And rightly so, right? People are like, oh, Taco Bell, that's where you get this cyclone. No, it was one false positive test. I could see litigation coming from Taylor Farms in Taco Bell, because they just been hammered. Anyway, the CDC, we'll see if Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replies to the letter that Senator Jon Ossoff wrote, why, or the first question in the...

In the letter that he wrote to the secretary, has the CDC's food net been restored to require tracking of cyclospora, blah, blah, if not why? We'll see if the secretary answers that question. In the meantime, Yolo, I'm going to go to Taco Bell. 937 on the Mark Aram Show, another gentle reminder, the 26th annual WSB Carathon Thursday, Friday. The 9-99 dinner, I can't believe already pre-sold. Shout out to State 101 in Vining's for hosting that. But there are a lot of incentives still up at WSBRadio.com slash Carathon. And in case you missed it, check out my Instagram page at Mark Aaron. For the first time ever, you're going to get a chance to buy a USB Radio Carathon T-shirt. Normally we just have them for... the staff that we wear to the hospital at Children's Health Care of Atlanta. But we're offering this up. All proceeds go to Children's Health Care of Atlanta and the WSB Carathon. I think they're $35. $35, yeah. And we tried them on yesterday. Super comfy. So beloved it too. We got her approval. Exactly. Maya is going to wear it as a sleep shirt. She always steals my T-shirts to wear them asleep in. But it's fine. She looks really cute in my shirt. So if you want to see what they look like, it's up on my Instagram page at Mark Aram, M-A-R-K-A-R-U-M. All right, let's kick off our Iran war coverage, joining us from the White House. White House correspondent for ABC. Karen Travers, Karen, good morning. President Trump posted a warning to Iran yesterday, writing, quote, every time Iran kills an American soldier, they will pay for that killing many times over in response this morning. The president of Iran says we are now in a full-fledged war with the United States. We're basically knee-deep right now in this re-escalation with Iran. Yeah, the president, though, wasn't specific about what this means for further U.S. military action or whether these ongoing strikes that we've seen for now 10 consecutive nights are going to escalate. The president also said in that post that he has directed the defense secretary Pete Hegseth and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on this, but he provided no further details. Sent Tom last night said that the U.S. struck Iranian military command center, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launched. and air defense systems to degrade Iran's capability to continue attacking commercial vessels traveling through the strait of Hormuz. But notable, you know, that that's the kind of stated mission for these last 10 days of strikes. What we keep seeing, though, is every time the U.S. does launch these strikes, Iran turns around and fires back at U.S. assets or allies in the region. Overnight and Jim Jordan that were facing incoming missile and drone attacks. They were intercepted, but this has been a... consistent thing by Iran to fire back, trying to go after, again, bases, or at least close allies. And this despite the White House saying that Iran's capabilities have been decimated. It's kind of remarkable, Karen, because not too long ago, you and I were talking about the ceasefire and the memorandum of understanding, and it looked like things were settling down. And now I don't see that any famous off-ramps for the United States or Iran at this time. Yeah, there is no indication that there are any negotiations. happening or imminent or that there is some deal that would be in the works. The president, of course, two weeks ago had declared that the U.S. Iran deal, that memo of understanding was over to him. Iran basically said the same over the weekend, but that was all but inevitable based on what we have seen now over the past nearly two weeks. I think the question is, you know, whether the strikes at this point escalate because they're certainly showing no signs of slowing down, but does this?

this war expanded in any way with the U.S. going to major military operations, not just these targeted strikes. You're at the White House every day. You've seen President Trump react daily since the war started on February 28th, and you and I've talked about the frustration he'd had at times. I'm seeing that it's beyond frustration at this point from the president. Yes, you know, but it's also striking to not see him weigh in significantly, you know, kind of brief comments on Sunday night. responding to the death of the service members. We didn't see him yesterday. As if now, the schedule does not show public events on the schedule today. So, you know, again, statements on social media, but they're not clear as to what this means about actual future decisions. The decisions the president has made about escalating or not escalating these strikes and what this means going forward. A lot of listeners here in Atlanta have friends and family, you know, in the arms. services and their biggest concern I hear from them daily is what are the odds that we eventually get to a boots on the ground situation? Have we heard from the president, the administration at all on if that is now more likely than it was a month or two ago? He won't say, you know, he was asked about this last week and he was not specific. At one point he did say that somebody else would do a ground operation for the United States but didn't say what that would look like or who that would be, but he has never, you know. ruled it out because he said that's just not something that he should do when talking to reporters about that question. Karen Travers at the White House, ABC News. Karen, as always, appreciate your time. Have a great day. Thank you. So major re-escalation. The market's just open and all in the green right now. Dow, S&P and NASDAQ are up. Sadly, oil is also up, Debra, 2.79% that Texas crude. The Billy Bob Thornton Oil is $85.55 a barrel, which means the Brent crew is probably hovering around $90 a barrel. We have seen increases at the gas. pump over the last couple of weeks since the re-escalation. Relatedly, it looks like we might now have another front to this war. The Houthis, right, the Iranian proxy group, they warned that all ships against at Saudi Arabia ports. So it sounds like the Houthis are about to enforce their own blockade, but not at the Strait of Hormuz. It's a different strait. This is crazy. The Houthis attacked some vessels last week as well. Nick Robertson from C. CNN this morning in Jerusalem on that new development, that new angle to what's going on in the region. Yeah, look, it sounds like escalation. The Houth is about to, they say, stop Saudi shipping. It's important route to the international market for its oil that it pipes all the way across the Arabian Peninsula to its port on the Red Sea, and then the ships pick it up in the port, and then take it out through. past Yemen through Bab al-Mandah, which is what the Houth is citing that they will, their point of cutting off that shipping. They haven't started yet. Their leaders expected to give a big speech on Thursday. What he says may give us some indication of whether or not the Houthis will follow through on this. Undoubtedly, if they do, you can expect Saudi to respond. So that will be a point of escalation right there. Israel also says that it's readying in case.

escalation brings it into the conflict. The head of the IDF here saying they're ready at a moment's notice. Jim Jordan, just a few miles from where we are now, intercepted three missiles just a few hours ago. Iranian missiles there. The Iranians say that they're attacking U.S. Air Force facilities on the ground inside of Jim Jordan. Kuwait today, again, sirens going off there. The Kuwaitian officials saying for the fourth day there, there. water and desalination plants have been hit again degrading their services. The United States continuing its tax pretty much along the Strait of Homoos and the Gulf to try to stop the Iranians putting their small attack boats out and getting the few hitting the few commercial vessels that are trying to get out of the Strait of Hamos. And by early morning today, the Iranians had again hit another tanker setting it on fire, the crew abandoned ship. claim they hit another couple of tankers. So in this sort of... pre-escalation level of the conflict, if you will. The Iranians seem to have been able to come out each of the past few nights and hit a tanker trying to go in or out the Strait of Hormuz. Their point is, you're hitting us. We're proving our point. We control the Strait of Hormuz. That's a state of play. It's all about control of the Strait of Hormuz. CNN's Nick Robertson in Jerusalem this morning. Obviously, updates on the Iran War throughout the day here on 95-5. WSB. And in case you miss. our interview with Senator John Offsoff at the beginning of the show. You can go back and listen on the podcast or On Demand at WSBRadio.com. Senator Jon Ossoff will be one of the congressional leaders questioning Secretary Pete Hegseth. He is going to testify on Capitol Hill today. If that begins during the show, we will bring it to you live here on the Mark Aram show. If not, coverage throughout the day on WSB Radio. Real quick, the story made me chuckle because this does not... affect you and i debor at all because the the story headline is how you can uh how people are faking workplace productivity right there's nothing you and i can do to fake we have to do it no we can't think being on there's no and i'm not complaining i We're blessed to have this position. But it's not like we're at a desk at a 9 to 5 where I remember George Costanza in Seinfeld would, you know, he said he would just look angry or frustrated at work and it looked like he was always busy, even though he did zero work. What's the latest with faking workplace productivity? Well, they're saying that Gen Z is the best at faking it. Really? You know how they say fake it to you make it, right? Well, they're saying that a lot of, they're just kind of burned out with being in the profession. sector they have a hard time fitting in that Gen C, 80% of them are faking it at work, doing things like looking busy, right? Yeah. Just moving the mouse a little bit at a time. Sometimes, like, I had a friend that did remote work and they tracked her computer. She had to be logged in at certain times. She had to have activity moving and they would track her mouse movement. So, yeah, moving the mouse around or not responding to messages right away because it makes you look like you're doing something else and you couldn't get to that. Oh, I never thought of that. You couldn't get to that email now. Well, then people must think I'm extremely busy.

because I never applied to messages. You do to me. You're horrible. You're important. Yeah. Just simple things like that, not taking calls, although no one takes calls anymore. Or just having multiple windows open so you can click between them if somebody walks by. Now, our favorite Gen Zier. I don't have to tell you is a guy named Vinny Drip Down South Vinny, Vinny Two Apps, Vinny Bag of Donuts. You do not fake it at all, Vin. No, but there's lulls in the show where Vinny doesn't have much to do, and I'll look over to the right and his head's on the counter. Like, you've got to learn how to fake productivity, Vinny. Right. Even when you're zoning out, you know, move your mouse on the wide orbit. Yeah, you got to work on that. You are, he's our favorite Jen's here, right? No offense to. No, Vinnie's, I told him that years before. Yeah. Ashley on the digital desk, she can't fake productivity. She's got real work to do. Hello, my name is Tommy Flanagan. I'm a member of Pathological Liars Anonymous. In fact, I'm the president of that organization. Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket. Happy 69th birthday to John Lovitz, Saturday Night Live. He was great in a league of our own. The critic. I love the critic. It's amazing to me that I've never interviewed John Lovitz because he occupies that level of celebrity that I think I've interviewed everyone. You know, there's like the Tom Hanks. You've done all around him too, like people associated with him. Yeah. Like the A listers, I rarely get up to that. But like the B and C listers, like I've interviewed all of them. Yeah, we usually get those. Man, I love the critic. I have that on DVD. hilarious. Anyway, Mr. Lovitz turns 69 years old today. Welcome back to the Mark Aram show. A couple of stories I want to hit. Georgia has a new hospital or will be getting a new hospital, but not the type of hospital where you break your leg and you go or it's a psychiatric hospital, Deborah. Yeah, Georgia's investing about $400 million to build this 300-bed forensic psychiatric hospital and it's going to be in South DeKalb County. Now, this is to kind of help out the overcrowding in jails. You ever hear about not fit to sand, jury insanity, all of that that you'd hire in jail. So now a lot of times those people are just kind of stuck in regular jail. They don't have. the correct facilities to kind of evaluate those people. So this hospital is going to be focused specifically on helping those incarcerated. They're hoping if it goes well that they'll be able to open it up to anyone else that might need mental help. How many beds? Do you say 300? Right now, it's 300 beds. Yeah, I mean, and listen. Just based on the news we cover every day, like there's a mental health crisis in the United States. In fact, we're going to go to New York City after the news at 10. That crazy attack at the federal building, obviously that dude has mental issues. So I think that that's a good thing. Now this might just be an urban myth where I went to college in Poughkeepsie, New York, Marist College, now Marist University. It's all hoity tooty now. But down the street, there was a psychiatric hospital.

that wasn't in, it wasn't a hospital anymore. And they had a golf course, like a nine-hole golf course at the psychiatric hospital. Okay. So we'd go play because it was really cheap. But the rumor was, did you ever see Silence of the Lamb? Oh, yeah. So the exterior shots of where Hannibal Lecter was staying, like that hospital. Yeah, when he escaped. The, the rumor was that the exterior shots, it wasn't filmed inside the building. But was the psychiatric hospital across the street from Marist. Okay. That's cool. But I never, I mean, this was pre-internet where you couldn't fact check. That was just like. Now you could go do photos and everything, right? I guess, but I'm lazy. That would have been cool. I feel like you'd put that on the map, right? Yeah, exactly. Halloween tour, Silence the lambs was shot here. I will fact check myself on that because I just assume since 1991. It's true. People lied to you then. You just believed it. You just believed it. There's no way to fact check them. Okay, so a new, all right, I like that. New psychiatric hospital here in Georgia. This is a crazy story. A lawyer, lawyer, an attorney, a learned woman has now tried to poison her spouse not once but twice. Yeah, so this is an attorney in Alabama. She has been suspended from practice, so that's good. But she's going back to jail because, yes, this is the second time she's tried to poison her husband. The first time was back in November of 2025, and she put fentanyl in his food and drink. I don't know how he survived that. She was able to post a $400,000 bail and get out. And then for some reason, they got back together. And she tried to poison him again this time putting fentanyl in his medication. What are you doing? It's not funny, Vinny. She's trying to kill him. It's just crazy. Yeah. You have a jurist doctorate. Right. And now so she can't practice. She's going undergowing psychiatric evaluation as well. So she is now out of practice, which means 50% of the lawyers in Alabama are now out of practice. There's only one left. That's crazy. He's better than me. He got back with her. He did get back with her after the first time. Good point, Ben. Newsweather and traffic at two when we come back going to New York City, updating that domestic terrorism attack at the federal building in New York City. That is next on the Mark Abrams show.