Hour 2 of NMN, Blackburn Lawyers Up + Matthew Hurtt

We are going to have a big event, big station event out at Hop Springs in Murphysboro. The four hosts will be there. Perhaps other folks from the radio station will be there as well. By the way, do you know who I have confirmed is going to be there, Joan Jay Jones? When Johnny B. Johnny B is going to show up. I begged him to come. Nice. I begged him to come. I love it. But you know, Johnny's been great with this whole... conversation regarding the stolen valor of like may beavers with Marsha Blackburn that that whole thing yeah And I spoke to a number of different people yesterday about this accusation. I believe it's all BS, but whatever. I wasn't there, but I spoke to a couple of people who were, Johnny being one, and he says that that absolutely did not happen. And it's my opinion that this accusation is being put forward by the John Rose people. But whatever, you know what? Politics is politics. And so they're trying to peel off some Marsha Blackburn support. And that's the bottom line. And politics is a very, very nasty business. So I love that Johnny came out and he said, no, there's no stolen valor in Marsha Blackburn. And by the way. It's perfectly okay to say that Marsha Blackburn obviously was involved in the fight against the income tax. May Beavers was also involved in the fight against the income tax. Steve Gill was involved as well. Phil Valentine, other people were involved. And so, you know, everybody can bask in the glory of that incredible victory for conservatives here in the state of Tennessee. There's no problem to try to tear down, you know, something that Marsha Blackburn did many, many years ago. I don't know. It just seems silly to me. But I can see what's going on. People that are just supporting other candidates are trying to tear down Marsha Blackburn. That is obvious. Anyway, whatever. 608, Nashville's Morning News. By the way, I don't know if you folks saw this. A nasty ad has come out against Marsha Blackburn and is caught the attention of many. And basically, and it is like a really nasty ad. So nasty, by the way, that lawyers are now getting involved. So this is an ad, and it's all about the opioid epidemic that we saw many, many years ago. And basically one of the accusations in this 30-second ad is that Marsha Blackburn was in bed with Big Pharma, and that relationship led to people dying in the opioid crisis and that she was accepting bribes from Big Pharma.

And again, it's a very nasty ad. If you want to see it, go over to YouTube or X and it's there. But because lawyers are now involved, I'm not playing it. But here's the thing. It suggests that her votes are up for sale. and that it suggests that Marsha Blackburn's donations from Big Pharma led to opioid deaths. It is a really nasty ad. It's a bad commercial, in my opinion, all around. Pretty typical, though, in today's politics. Now, we all know that Marsha Blackburn and many politicians... have received a lot of money over the years from big pharma and remember she's been on the finance committee which deals with a lot of health issues medicare medicate and so forth so yeah she'll be getting donations from big pharma but what is behind the accusation i i kind of wanted to I give a little bit of perspective behind what the accusation is because it didn't just, you know, come out of thin air. There are some, I'm not going to say some merit behind it. I just want to give you the reasoning of the commercial. I'm not supportive of the commercial in any way, but I'm just telling you what perhaps is behind this accusation. So, yes, she has received a lot of money from Big Pharma over the years. She's nowhere near the top, but she has. It is just a fact. Marsha Blackburn has not broken any laws, and it's all part of PACs donating to political campaigns, perfectly legal. We can talk about dark money as well, which is PACs that don't have to disclose their donors. But as far as anything legislative, some people will point to the 2016 legislation. where Marsha Blackburn, back as a member of Congress, she was a lead sponsor in the House of Representatives for the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016. And basically what it did, and you can look up all this if you want, but I believe it's what this commercial is based on, is it made it more difficult for the DEA to stop shipments of powerful narcotics. It gave the drug companies more... What people describe as dupe? What would you do if your online store converted 36% more shoppers? You could take 36% more vacation. Another pinacolada? Yes, please. Open a new retail location. With 36% more square feet. Fantastic. Hire 36% more help. You're hired and you're hired. Shopify has the world's best converting checkout up to 36% better than other e-commerce platforms. What you do with those extra sales is up to you. Switch to Shopify today at shopify.com slash listen and get a one dollar trial shopify dot com slash listen process before the government could just abscond and shut down their shipments again you can look all this up but the thing was passed in both the house and the senate it was signed by then president brock obama into law so it was bipartisan and you know people disagreed with its passage other people

Obviously, if it was signed into law by Obama and it was passed by Republicans as well, then it was bipartisan. We can all look back on this now, knowing what we know about what was going on with the opioid epidemic and say, yeah, maybe it could have been done differently, whatever. But, you know, those that supported the bill, like Marsha Blackburn said that they needed to ensure people who needed the prescription drugs. were able to get access to them. Now, at this point, it was the medical community. They were already way over prescribing oxycontin and other drugs. And some even operated. You folks remember this, pill mills, pill mills, where people would go to get their drugs. The opioid crisis was on full blast at this point. And you had unscrupulous doctors who were just, you know, way over prescribing oxy and some of these other drugs. I mean, I could go on and on. I think we all lived through this, or a lot of us lived through this. Also remember, the FDA in 1995. approved Oxy without much investigation into how addictive it was. Oxy's manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, convinced the FDA it really wasn't all that addictive when it actually was. So the DEA was trying to stop all of this. And, you know, some argue that this legislation that was passed handcuffed the... DEA as they were trying to stop these shipments. They say that it raised the bar on justification to freeze these shipments of these drugs. So, you know, politics is a nasty business and these types of ads are either lies, misleading, or really taken out of context. I believe here that it is all three, but whatever. So now the Blackburn camp has taken legal action to get these ads dropped. It was running on, I guess, local TV stations and a couple of local TV stations have dropped the ads already. But they do call the ad. false and defamatory. And let's see here coming up. Let me jump to traffic real quick a little bit early so that I can get into what it is that the Blackburn campaign is saying about these ads that are false and defamatory. Appreciate you listening to Nashville's morning news. If you're just joining us, big controversy. With this ad, a really nasty political ad taken out against Marsha Blackburn, caught the attention of many. Basically, it is accusing the senator of, you know, votes up for sale and bribery. And it suggests that she was part of the reason for the opioid epidemic way back when. And it's just, I mean, almost as nasty as you can get. By the way, it's also driven by AI. Have you seen this ad, Joan?

Remember, that Citizens United versus FEC 2010 allows PACs and super PACs and what they call dark money groups to give to campaigns and effectively, you know, produce ads like this. That's part of what they do. Do I like it? No. Do you like it? No. I know a lot of people absolutely hate this. But no laws have been broken. And so as far as this ad goes, I mean, I'm sure that they knew that they were going to get hit with the lawyers, but ultimately what they were trying to do is draw attention to Marsha Blackburn and some of the donations that she has received. But this goes way, in my opinion, goes way, way farther than that. And I do believe that they are accusing openly Marsha Blackburn of accepting bribes. At least that is the very, very strong suggestion. And I think the TV stations, I think that they understood that, which is why they have now dropped this ad. It is 618 on Super Talk, 997 WTN, 615-737-986. By the way, over there, Joan, on the YouTube page where people are watching the radio show in real time. People are noticing a couple of different things. What are they noticed? Number one, a lot of people are watching. Thank you. Number two is they only have out of, I don't know, a couple hundred people that are watching, only 18 likes. What? Come on, people, you got to step it up. Now, I'm not going to beg people to like because, you know, Chris Hand says that his kids can't go to school or eat or anything if people don't start liking the, you know, the video or whatever. I'm not going to say that. But here's what I will say. This is for all you haters out there. You ready, Joan? Yeah. If you people want me to go away and retire. You got to start liking the YouTube page because that's part of how I get paid, right? So you want me to go away? Just all you got to do is like the YouTube feed and download the whatever's and listen to the things and all that. You do that. I'll go away. You know, you know the thing. You know the thing. You know the thing. 204 people watching on YouTube alone. 37 likes. There's a rookie number. You got to pop those numbers up. You people want me to go away. I need at least 100 by the end of the day. I don't think people want you to go away, Dan. I don't see that as being up. Dan will do a push-up for every like. There you go. That's the one that will do it, Dan. That is not going to happen. That I can tell you. Dan, I'll give you a total at 858 today of how many push-ups you owe us. Yeah. Do you know what's so funny? So speaking of Manly, Dan, so I don't know if people have noticed just real quick on the thumbnail for YouTube, and I guess for Facebook and all that.

They're now playing around, Joan. I don't know if you'd notice this with the thumbnails. Oh, yeah. And so I think that Sam was the first to do it, but I look like Popeye. I don't think you look like... They're giving me big old muscles, which clearly I don't have. And so they're now giving me a whole bunch of muscles. The only thing that's missing is like a straw pipe in my mouth. So it's really funny as I asked it to put the BNA hat that you're wearing right now on for today's episode. And for some reason it made your face more chiseled and slightly anime-style Barbie eyes. Oh, 181, 18 likes, and you are still playing video on the radio. I know, but they tell us we have to do that. You know, as Chris Hand says, and Chris put this very eloquently. If you like the WTN brand, we have to do this. And I think of, well, I'm going to put it this way. I think for me as a radio host, I do a pretty good job of playing to both audiences, the radio people and the YouTube people. Yes, I play video on the radio, but I do a good job, I think, anyway, of, you know, catering to both audiences. But it's something that we have to do. If WTN and you like the conservatism of WTN and you like what we provide, then this is something, unfortunately, that we have to do. Did you hear what Hasan Piker called John Fetterman? Oh, no. Joan, just to show you how great Mark Pote is. Yeah. So I was talking about trying to figure out a way to do a heavy metal version of his jingle. He sent me a text and said, I would love to hear a heavy metal version. So apparently Mark is listening. And he clearly appreciates my appreciation for a heavy metal version of Mark Podie.com. And Sam is trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, the platforms that do that are paid for. And so we, I mean, he's trying. And by the way. You do know what I'm going to do, Joan? Isn't that something you can just throw into chat, GPT, and they'll, like, figure it out? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. But here's what I'm going to do. Okay. So if somebody has access to a thing that can turn Mark Pote's... Oh, yeah. Mark Pote's jingle into a heavy metal version, then I'm going to give a prize to the best one. I'm going to do a dozen Cabana wife cookies to the winner. Do you know what a dozen Cabana wife cookies, the damage it could do? Oh, yeah, which is why I'm going to offer a dozen cookies to somebody for the person who comes up with the best one. One though will be missing.

It'll be a Dan dozen, which will be 12 minus one. It'll be 11 because I'll have one of them. Isn't that like creepy? It might be creepy, but I don't care. Okay. Anyway, here's the deal. Real quick. Yeah. So if you can figure out how to do it, do it and then send it to me on the chat. All right. 615-737-99-986. Matthew, Hurd is standing by. Matthew, good morning and welcome to Nashville's morning news. Matthew, I want to play for you some audio and some video from Abdul El-Sayed. He is running for Senate in the state of Michigan. This is what he said about fellow Democrat. John Fetterman. Just earlier this week, we heard that there was some kind of a Zoom call in which you had referenced an opponent as ogre on a pike. And so many people took offense to that. And it really pointed to the bigger question about the tone and tenor that you've been accused of having in this campaign. Do you regret any of the comments that you've made? And do you think that this race could take... a more productive and a more substantive tone if we kept those personal slams out? Look, I took to Twitter last week and said that the tone in which people talk about my opponent is unkind. And I asked anybody who supported me, to not talk about her that way. In fact, when she got booed on the stage at the Michigan Democratic Party convention, I called her personally and said that that was unkind. My supporters had nothing to do with it, but I don't think that that's the way we want to do politics. I was referring to a guy named John Fetterman, who's a senator from Pennsylvania, who has done terrible things, got elected on a set of values and is now completely throwing those values in the mud. So that is Abdul El-Sayed. The funny thing, though, Matt, is that... He's talking about how he doesn't want his politics to be unkind, yet he's talking about John Fetterman and being an ogre on a pike. Yeah, Dan, this is exactly the kind of thing we're going to see from the radical left is he will stay on stage at a debate or he'll issue a video to supporters and they'll say, I want you to be thoughtful and nice and caring. And we're democratic socialists and we want the best for people. But then he'll turn around and say things like this, which will signal to his supporters that it is okay to denigrate John Fetterman. The great thing, one of the good things about our two-party system is that there is a broad diversity in both parties of ideology. And John Fetterman sides with the Democrats more than he sides with the Republicans, but he has really taken an exception to the far left in the Democratic Party from within the Democratic Party as a senator, as a sitting U.S. Senator.

And so it is no surprise that he's come under fire from people like Abdul El-Sayed and others on the far left who want to remake the Democratic Party as if it's some European-style socialist utopia. You know, one of the things that the Democrats are saying is that we are a big tent party, right? That's what they keep saying. We are a big tent party and we welcome, you know, everyone into our party, which I don't believe is true. They're calling John Fetterman, who I guess you'd call a moderate, you know, ogre on a pike. So they're actually not a big tent party if they are someone moderate like John Fetterman. But... Do you think that the Democrats, just the Chuck Schumer of the world, you know, Hakeem Jeffries, do you think they're just, they are paralyzed in fear with the thought of these socialist communists taking over their party? I do think the quote unquote Democratic establishment is wondering what to do at this point. But the more important picture here is, and you and I've talked about this a number of times, basically how far the far left is gone over the last 30 years. And that has pushed moderate Democrats independence into a broader Republican or right-of-center camp. And so, you know, more and more people find themselves. I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me. And now they are politically homeless or Republican curious. And so that's what we're seeing. It is ultimately better for Republicans that the Democrats continue to run far left until we hit a critical mass where they then get elected and replace the Democratic leader in the House and the Senate. And then we're facing some real serious issues in Washington. One of the things that's going to be interesting. I guess is it in Michigan? So we've got this Abdul El-Sayed, and he's the Kami. And then his opponent in Michigan is, from what I understand, more of a mainstream Democrat that has been endorsed by the mainstream Democrats. And so is it all lies really on Michigan because you've got Abdul El-Sayed, the Kami, versus a more mainstream? politician in the Democrat Party. And this really is, you know, it's decision time for the Democrats. What do you want? Do you want communists or do you want, you know, traditional Democrats? Well, yeah, so he's running against Congresswoman Haley Stevens. Your listeners have probably seen her on the internet because she's got sort of a comical Michigan accent. But she is seen as a moderate Democrat among Democrats who has worked across party lines to get things done. The governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has endorsed her. It seems like the quote-unquote establishment is lining up against her. It will definitely be interesting to see the role that the greater Detroit area.

plays in the primary. It is very clear to me that Abdul El-Sayed is playing to the base inside and outside of Detroit, who are Muslim voters, who have come to this country in the last generation or two, and who are voting along religious principal lines. And he is actually, Abdul El-Sayed has gotten in trouble for attacking Haley, Haley Stevens on the campaign trail. So he's got a record of nasty rhetoric and then walking it back, but only after he's gotten his supporters fired up. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the primary. Isn't it just sort of with these Democrats, they're just, they're going to say, these commies, aren't they going to say and do whatever they want and then it kind of air-quoted, walk it back? But everybody knows what they're doing, right? They're flame throwers. It is a, what's the word I'm looking for? It is they're nudging their supporters in a direction. It's essentially moving the Overton window on what is appropriate to say on the campaign trail so that then it becomes normal. for these comments from Abdul El-Sayed to be everyday comments. So we wake up, the listeners wake up in six months a year, two years, and that now Abdul El-Sayed's outrageous comments become the norm. Well, moving the Overton window, is that another way to say, like, slippery slope? It is a bit of a slippery slope in the direction of more extreme rhetoric from the Democratic Socialists. All right. Now, help me out. Because, listen, I'm a conservative unabashed. So have conservatives? Who's the worst behaved? Conservatives or the Democrats when it comes to this kind of rhetoric? I mean, personally, I believe that it is the Democrats. I mean, we've got a barn burner of a governor's primary here in Tennessee, as you know, with Monty Fritz, John Rose, and Marsha Blackburn. But I don't think any of them have stooped to the level of calling somebody an ogre on a pike. Yeah, you're not – I haven't seen that kind of language from Republicans, but one of the points I do want to make, Dan, is the Tennessee Star reported that John Rose gave to Democrats in the late 90s and early 2000s at the height of the income tax debate. And that is a perfect illustration of what I just mentioned. People who may have been moderate Democrats or supported moderate Democrats 20 or 30 years ago have now been pushed into the Republican camp. And that is now I don't know the totality of John Rose's political evolution. But I remember growing up in Rutford County and almost every single one of the elected officials, some of whom are still in office as Republicans today, were Democrats. And so in a place like Tennessee, you had conservative Democrats who were pro-life, who are pro-gun, who just didn't care how the money was spent at the local level or in Nashville. And now they are ostensibly conservative Republicans who are pro-life, who are pro-gun, and to a certain extent in Nashville, they don't care how the money spent.

You know, it's interesting, too, about that whole John Rose thing, and we did talk about this yesterday extensively, is that, sure, he gave to, because I'm, you know, I'm just trying to be fair in all of this, Matthew. So with Rose. He did give the Democrats, it looks like, but these days he's got 100% heritage action score for conservatism. So I don't know what to make of it. That's exactly right, Dan. And when you look at, I guess, for some listeners, Donald Trump is the only one who was ever allowed to give to Democrats. That's what I said, Matthew, yesterday. It's like, don't forget Donald Trump gave the Democrats too. And it is absolutely okay. We talk about this big tent. 15, 20, 25, 30 years ago, somebody who is now an elected Republican may have given to Democrats. But because the Democratic Party has moved so far left, I mean, you're looking at President Trump, and he's sort of like President Clinton was in 93, 94, 95 when it comes to policies in Washington. And so we can't take a look at someone's... political record in a 12 or 18 month window and say that's the totality of their politics people are complicated our politics are complicated and taking a snapshot say of of John Rose's contributions 30 years ago is not the same as whatever John Rose is doing in congress today Real quick, I forgot to do traffic. So real quick, Joan, anything going on on the roadways? Yeah, there's just two things. 24 westbound in Laverne, a crash at Old Hickory Boulevard now off to the shoulder. And another one in Antioch on Hobson Pike at Pin Hook Road. That crashed the intersection there is all blocked off. And that's all we've got going on so far this morning. All right. To heat advisory today, mix of clouds and sun, a high of 98. You can feel like 109 storms possible tonight as well. Matthew Hurt is joining us on Super Talk. 997. You know, Matthew, you and I, how long we've been doing these hits? I mean, it's been a couple of years now, right? It's been a long time. Since 2023. Almost three years. Time flies. So one of our early conversations, you and I was about what is happening today with AI and these AI ads that have been coming out. And I talked about one. Yesterday with Van Hillary and his AI ad against Johnny Garrett. There's now one against Marsha Blackburn that I spoke about in the last segment regarding opioids and that kind of thing. I mean, it's just these AI ads. You know, some may be based in some element of truth in some kind of a way. Others may be completely, a complete lies. But, you know, these ads, they are either very effective or they manage to show that, in my opinion, the true character of a candidate who endorses or puts out some of these AI ads that are incredibly based in lies.

It is going to take next level discernment from voters, not to rehash an old primary, but Thomas Massie. There was an ad that was run against Thomas Massie in Kentucky in May of this year that showed him walking into a hotel room with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. I did a television hit over the weekend and all of the comments after the station. tweeted it were seemed to be troll form political comments from outside the country. It is going to take the next level discernment from voters to identify what is real, what is AI. I do think that a lot of states and Washington, D.C. will have, you'll have to put a disclaimer on some of these. But it is, you know, their candidates are embracing this technology, and they are doing so with a range of intentions in mind. And I think it is important for voters to watch the ads and say, what is real about this and what is not? And it's going to get, it'll be difficult for a while. Matthew, where can people, let me ask you this, because I know where I get all my stuff from, but, you know, I do this for a living. And oftentimes people are not as plugged in. Maybe they're tuning into W-TN. Good news is we've got new viewers and listeners all the time. Where can people go to get the truth about candidates? Where do you go? What do you recommend? Well, obviously the candidate's website is going to talk about their record in Sterling context. I try to look at the votes that were cast. Of course, there are differences between procedural votes and the vote when it comes to the floor. I tend to look at a wide range of perspectives from the left and the right to try to get a nuanced view. And I don't tend to watch a lot of political ads or listen to them except when I'm trying to see what other candidates are saying about their opponents. And so it's difficult. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to any of these. And in fact, most of your listeners are not weirdos like you and me, Dan. They're not listening. or watching or consuming news all the time, and it's okay. They're raising families. They're saving for a time. You mean, you mean Matthew, the last website, you know, people don't go to or app is like Politico, really? Yeah, and that's okay. I don't, I don't say that as a Beltway insider. Right. Try to denigrate people who are working hard and raising a family and providing for themselves and for retirement. It is, there's a lot of information out there. We, we are, you know, when my dad was growing up.

In the 1960s and 70s, there were like three news stations and a morning newspaper and an afternoon newspaper, and people got this segmented news three, four times a day. We are inundated with information. Some of that information is true. Some of it is false. And it takes someone looking at four or five or six different outlets or sources to try to then cobble together the truth. Nope, you're right. And that's the problem we have is that, and even GROC versus ChatGPT, I don't know if you've ever done this, Matthew Hurt, but I will plug in a question on ChatGPT and the same question in GROC and get two completely different answers. Absolutely, and I think it takes, you know, not a lot of people have the time or the inclination to do both or three or four outlets, but it's very important to dig deep on the information, look for primary sources, and try to make educated opinions for themselves. And I do think that is one of the reasons. I think talk radio is a good place to hear coherent arguments, and especially in, say, a three-way primary, like what's happening in Tennessee right now for governor. a wide range of viewpoints and perspectives that represent and reflect each of the three candidates. All right, Matthew Hurt. Did we miss anything as far as the news for today? That is it, Dan, except you look really buff on YouTube in that B&A hat. And folks can find me on X at Matthew Heard, M-A-T-T-T-W-H-R-T-T where I don't tweet fake news. All right, thank you, Matthew. Appreciate it. We'll talk to you again soon. So, yeah, the producers, I guess, is there an actual contest to see? Which host, you folks, you producers can make look as ridiculous as possible? No, we're just doing it for the love of the game. Are you so, you've got me looking all buff on the thumbnail for the video. I'm setting goals for you to aspire to. I will never be that buff. Nor do I want to be, by the way. Why? Who wants to be that? It's Joan Jay Jones. Come on. I don't want to be buff. It's very, it's very manly. I would rather be Danley, scrawny, scrawny. Damn. Danly, scrawny, whatever. So supposedly Joan, Sam, has come up with a... sort of heavy metal version of the Mark Pote jingle. Oh, okay, cool. So this is Sam. Now, it's 20 minutes after this bit. Not one person has sent me in a heavy metal version of Mark Pote's jingle. To be fair, they don't have access to the file like that. So this, that's true. So this may, this may end up being a really sucky bit, but whatever. So go ahead, Sam. Integrity, joy, honesty, integrity.

Okay. A great place to call home. We can raise our family, work here, build your own business. It's a great place to retire. This is one of the lowest tax states in the nation. We want to keep Tennessee, Tennessee. This is state center of Mark Pony, and I'm asking for your vote! Well done, Sam. Well done. You know what? Is that so that's like Green Day? That's Green Day. Is that what that is? Was that like Green Day was the... I mean, I didn't give it a particular band to mall it after. I kept hearing, wake me up when September's over or whatever. Is that what it is? I think you're thinking Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Whatever. So it's something. I'm now concerned that he's going to want to use this on the station. You know what he should? Can we offer that to Mark Pody? I will talk it over with Mason. Yeah, if you want to, because that is actually really good. And, I mean, I'd rather. I'm kind of hype now. Like it just kind of, wow. Big hype. It's exactly right. I love the screaming. That's, um. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what? Whenever I think about how much I love Tennessee, I want to scream. Okay. That's what it is. Whenever I think about keeping liberals out of Tennessee, I want to scream too. That's exactly right. Anyway, so Philip says, Dan, buff is way too much effort. Yep, absolutely.