Show Rewind 7-31-26

This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and 560 a.m. WVOC, Columbia, and 94-3 WS.C. Charleston. Now, Kelly Nash. So much to get to this morning. We just heard about the lawsuit being brought by Danny Ford, or we've been... You know what, let me just start right here. This is yesterday at the South Carolina State House and the former Republican sister senator lately in the news as one of the best friends of Darling Graham, Katrina Shealy. So there you have it. Katrina Shealy, I guess, has completely gone over to the other side. Our? Our? Yes, that's what she said. Our? Our Democrat candidate for governor, Jermaine Johnson. She was there to introduce Jermaine Johnson and his new running mate. And the running mate, by the way, is who is this guy again? I'm trying to, he's never won office, although he did try to win once. His last name is like Scarden. More of a behind the scenes guy on the Democrat side. Yeah, he works at a nonprofit and nothing to minimize nonprofits. You know, the fact that Johnson says he'll put him in charge of helping businesses here in South Carolina. Again, the nonprofit and businesses usually are two different things. But I don't think this is a very serious candidacy at all. Jermaine Johnson and some guy we've never heard of. And their big selling point to this South Carolina voter is that we are millennials. That's it. We're young. And so you should elect us because we're young. And we have no experience doing anything that would be of importance as the governor or lieutenant governor. But we're going to take the guy who's never been in business and make him the head of all the businesses for South Carolina. That ought to help. I mean, at least right now you've got a lieutenant governor who has taken a business and turned it into a multi-million dollar achievement. This guy, I guess his big claim is his wife is on the like Charleston County Council or something. City Council, I'm sorry, Charleston City Council. Leslie is on the Charleston City Council. So I don't think this is a very serious candidate. But to the bigger point is Katrina Shealy, friend of Miss Graham.

Nardone, is she right now trying to sink that candidacy? Yeah, that's probably the biggest news that came out of that big announcement yesterday is the fact that, you know, probably Darling Graham's thinking, all right, Katrina, let's hold it down a little bit. I've got a Senate race to worry about. And here she is introducing the Democrat candidate for governor. It was jaw-dropping to me. When I saw that video making its way across social media late yesterday afternoon, I don't know. Why would he want her? Why would she want to be with him? Why I don't. It's just really, it boggles the mind. Well, I understand why he would want her. I mean, she broadens his base. Does she be? Well, yeah, I would think so. I mean, Katrina Shealy's well known, at least in the Midlands. And if it gives him an inroad with some mainstream Republicans who are unhappy with their ticket, more power to. I mean, that's, that's all he has to work with right now. Okay. It's hard to kind of navigate the Democrat politics right now. Bacari Sellers looked like a moron last night on CNN. I wish I could get the clip of that. He was talking about he didn't know what the word Maoism meant. But that's where we're at. So if you are a Republican or ever have been a Republican, you have been, it's almost like a wild animal. Once you've been tainted by human hands. They don't want you back, right? And so as somebody who's ever voted for anything Republican, the Democrats, the hardcore ones, will point out that you're a Nazi. Even though you're a reformed Nazi, you're still a Nazi. You voted for a tax cut when you should have been voting for tax increases to help more of the poor and disadvantaged who your white supremacy has put in this situation. That sort of mentality. So, I mean, I guess she can try to... you know, here she is hugging and kissing him on stage or what, that's not stage, but you know what I'm talking about on the steps of the statehouse. They can feel like they have a kumbaya moment, but the hardcore left, which is the energy in the Democrat Party, will never, ever accept Katrina Shealy. Probably not, but as you pointed out before, I mean, the Republicans have a clear majority in this state and the only winning formula for Jermaine Johnson and his ticket. is to reach across the aisle and grab some of the Republicans who may be disenfranchised or disenchanted with their party right now. Well, if he was hoping this was going to help him fundraise, I mean, it's already rippling across the country. He's out. You know what I'm saying? The Democrat people are like, we're not supporting this. This is chaos in South Carolina. And you've got a great candidate now in Wilson. So it's not like they're running against some sort of far-right extremist. You know what I'm saying? It's not like Alan Wilson is insane or something. It's not like we got Nancy Mace up here. I still think the bigger impact is what?

How are people who are thinking about voting for Darlene Graham going to perceive this? Because, again, we know so little about her. She did release an ad yesterday, a video, talking about what she wants. And it gave a few talking points that added to her campaign. But other than that, we know nothing about her other than the fact that she supported Katrina Shealy a few years ago. We do know that. And we got the breaking news yesterday that, speaking of Alan Wilson, he's hosting that event tomorrow at River Bluff High School. They got all nine of the people who are running for the Senate to be there tomorrow at River Bluff, including Darlene Graham. So that will be, I guess, the first time we actually get to hear her. answer legitimate questions. So that's going to be exciting at 1130 tomorrow morning. I plan on being there, River Bluff High School, and I think tickets are free. So just come on down if you want to see how that whole thing plays out. So all right, we're off. But that's a forum. That's not a debate. No, exactly. But you're still going to have to answer the questions. True. So be interesting to see what kind of questions. Because I think Alan is going to write some of them himself, but there's also going to be some written from the students who were. studying politics at that, they have a special, I guess, class on politics. And so some of those people will be writing them and they're going to be taking some questions from people in the audience. I don't think you're allowed to write questions that are just specifically for one candidate or another. But like, well. Well, somebody asked the question, what is the definition of a rhino? And then we'll see how that plays out. It's going to be a fun day. I know that for sure. All right. We're off and running. It is now 610 on South Carolina's morning news. From the Midlands to the Lowcountry, this is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and 560 AM WVOC and 943 WSC. Now, here's Kelly Nash. You know, one of the things that... When people say politics is slimy and they don't like it, they feel like people are dealing... they're dealing from the bottom of the deck to themselves. And I can't think of a better example than what happened yesterday in Richland County. And you've got the vice chair of the Richland County Council, a guy named Derek Pugh. And there's a group called Palmetto State Watch who recently started asking questions about scout motors, what's going on with the Richland County Council, all this sort of stuff. And then as that... Line of questioning begins. Yesterday, Derek Pugh posts on his social media page that he has now accepted a job working at Scout Motors. I'm thrilled to announce that I have joined the team at Scout Motors at the South Carolina Senior Community Engagement Specialist. I don't know what that pays.

Apparently he's not leaving the Richland County Council, and according to the Post and Courier, quote, it is not yet clear what Pew's new position will entail or how it will interact with his seat on the Richland County Council, but he will not be required to abstain from future votes that involve Scout Motors. How is that not a conflict of interest? And with that, we could just say, I mean, this is the problem with politics. This is so insane. I mean, if I'm Scout Motors, of course I want to hire people who work on the Richland County Council to come and work for me and then go ahead and vote on whether or not I get more tax breaks. This is insanity what's happening here. And I hope that the people of Richland County, I am one, will rise up in opposition. Obviously, just vocally. I'm not talking about anything else other than just being very vocal in your opposition to this. But this is sheer insanity that the vice chair for the Richland County Council is now employed by, let's just be honest, a very controversial company in the sense that how many tax breaks did they get? How many more dollars do taxpayers need to front to make sure that this deal continues to happen? And now this guy gets a job there. Remember, Richland County, or yeah, they just wound up paying what a $1 million fine for all the environmental mess that was made when they were preparing the Scout Motors site for construction. And then I think the state wound up paying some of that fine for Richland County. Oh, did they? I think so. I think part of that money that. The State House is still arguing about for overruns. I think part of that money, or at least they reduced the fine that Richland County was going to wind up paying. Scout Motor, now this is from Palmetto State Watch last month. No, I'm sorry. Earlier this week, Scout Motors may be indirectly receiving more government benefits now from the federal government. The city of Columbia is seeking $11.4 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration for the Scout Water Storage Tank and Transmission Project. Richland County Council voted 10 on July 14th to send a letter of support to the Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with Vice Chair Derek Pugh. abstaining on that vote because his, quote, parent company may receive benefits from the support letter. So in that instance, he did recuse himself. At that time, nobody knew what he was talking about, the parent company. What parent company are you referencing, sir? Now we know, as of yesterday, that his new employer is Scout Motors. So I guess even if he doesn't vote, it seems as if he's probably got enough. juice inside the county council to just you know hey guys we got to do the right thing by me right

I'm the vice chair here. Come on, do me solid. Let's get, let's help them out with some more tax breaks. This feels so filthy, disgusting. It makes me, bleh, want to go take a shower. What do you think about that or other stories? We've got plenty to get to, including our interview with Russell Fry. We'll try to get to that coming up in just a minute. He was with us yesterday. It is South Carolina's morning news. Live from the state capital, this is South Carolina's morning news with Kelly Nash. It's 625. Good morning. I love this. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has his debut television show out. It's not actually on television. It's on YouTube. I just put a link up for it if you want to see it. It's called The Real Food Show. And I guess what he's planning to do is every week or whatever. He's going to have a chef come on. And they're going to show you how to make... It starts with a symptom. An unexpected test result. A diagnosis that changes everything. And for more people every day, the search for answers leads to biotech. For new ways to treat and cure disease. For more options. And more time. The fight against disease is the fight of our lives. And losing is not an option. Visit fight of our lives.com to learn more. Morning people wake up for peace and quiet. McDonald's breakfast people? We wake up for the sweet rush of getting that warm, delicious breakfast right before it ends. Hotcakes, sausage patty, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuit, real butter and syrup. You know how our big breakfast got its name, and you know where your whole family can share one for just $6. McDonald's. Limited time only, price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer a combo meal. Real food, healthy meals in under 20 minutes that cost about $5 per meal. People keep overthinking how hard it is to eat healthy. And so Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. is attacking this head on. And I mean, the government has done so much damage inside the diet. industry and what we should actually be putting in our bodies for years. I was one of those victims, by the way. I was one of those people who fell for the, you don't want to be fat, don't eat fat. I did that back in the 90s and put on like 100 pounds. So that whole pyramid scheme that they put out in the 70s, that was like literally upside down. So I'm loving this new show. And like I said, I'm putting it out on my social media pages if you want to see it. We're going to try to get back on track. I'm a little bit behind schedule, but we're going to get it back on track, Christopher, at 626 on South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news with Kelly Nash. All right, good morning, 631, trying to keep the trains on time. And yesterday had a nice little chat with... Russell Fry, who called into the show. Appreciate that. Great to be here. Thanks for having me. What is motivating you to do this. What I see now is, and I think what people see, is a Senate that is dysfunctional, a Senate that is not working, a Senate that is not listening to the people that it represents. And I want to be part of a new generation of conservative leadership that goes to the Senate with a single mission, get the Senate to work, be aligned with President Trump, not just cast the right votes.

but really work to deliver generational change for the American people. Look, people talk about the price of gas. They talk about how much it costs to buy a house. Government is the problem. Government is not the solution. Government is the problem. And, you know, we've had some good success, but a lot of bills that we have worked on and passed have gone to the Senate to die. Look, the White House needs allies in the Senate. They don't have enough. Senator Graham's unfortunate passing. Trump lost a good ally in the Senate. And it wasn't somebody who just voted the right way. Lindsay was part of the ecosystem of really helping to drive the Trump agenda. And so what frustrates me in D.C., and I think what frustrates people, your listeners, is that people go up to D.C. and, yeah, sure, they might vote the right way. Yeah, sure, they might complain on TV. But they're not actually doing anything other than that. I'm not running for the Senate seat to be part of the furniture. I want to be part of the solution. Talking with Russell Fry, who is running for Senate right now. You mentioned Senator Graham, and currently, if we were to say the name, Senator Graham, I guess we would be referring to Darlene at this point. A lot of people looked at Donald Trump's weekend tweet where he was basically encouraging her to run as a preemptive tweet to try to keep other people out of the race. You came back. pretty strongly on Monday. Did you look at that Trump tweet as a way of trying to keep you and others out? I'm running for the people at the state. Everyone knows. Of everyone running, we've stood with the president. We endorsed the president. We were part of his original leadership team. When nobody else really in this field was with the president, we were. You know, he's very high on me too. I mean, I certainly get shoutouts from him regularly. We might be in a very unique position where in two races in a row. If you're fortunate enough to get into a runoff against Darlene Graham, Trump may be in the double endorsement business again in South Carolina. I always loved Russell. These are my two favorites. I've always wanted him to win. I don't know what the president will do. What I do know that in his heart is that I've got a great relationship with him and a friendship with him. And so did Lindsey Graham. regardless of how this unfolds, we're going to be an ally with the president. We've got this insane energy that I think the Senate really needs. I mean, you know, I look at the Senate and go, gosh, like, I'm already going to save the taxpayers' money because when you get sworn into the Senate, you get your ID card to vote on the Senate floor. You get a license plate if you got a car. And the Senate's so old that they give you a government-issued Walker. I'm already saving the taxpayers' money. 41, which would make you significantly younger than I think any other candidate. And most senators, quite frankly, I think I'd be like the third or fourth youngest senator, which is kind of wild to think about. What drives me is I think about every generation has handed the country off better than they found it. And I think about my son. And I think about people's grandchildren and go, are we going to be the first generation that says, sorry, guys, we tried. America's best days are behind us. I am not going to be part of that. I've made a strong case for yourself. If people want to explore your solutions more, is there a website they should go and learn more about you? Absolutely. Russellfry.S.c.com. That's the website. And we certainly appreciate you again, making time for South Carolina's morning news. Thank you, sir. Appreciate the time today.

All right. So now we've had Russell Fry. We've had Mark Sanford. We've had Ralph Norman. We've had Mark Lynch. Am I forgetting anybody, Christopher? I think that's it so far. That's it so far. We're still waiting on Darlene Graham sent out another email about that yesterday. Is there anybody y'all want to hear from? But again, all nine of them, maybe we should try to get Danny Ford on, see what he has to say. Maybe we'll talk about that lawsuit, all kinds of things happening in South Carolina. Also, things happening in Europe, the Joe Biden of Europe. Maybe we'll talk about what's going on there next on South Carolina's Morning News. You're listening to South Carolina's Morning News with Kelly Nash. Y'all keep on saying, Darlene Graham. Darlene Graham is not her name. Her name is Darlene Nordone. So say her actual name. I feel like this is one of those videos from back a few years ago when they were all young. Say her name. Say her name. Listen, all we can say is the name that she uses, right? So it's like... Even if she was not born, Darlene Graham, even if she had just decided to go by the name, Muhammad Ali. I would call her Muhammad Ali if that's what she had chosen. You know, when Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, that's what we called them. Darlene Graham, I think if I'm not mistaken, I think I've seen it reported, that is the name on the ballot. Is Darling Graham. Am I right? I believe it is, yes. And there have been records from the South Carolina Commission on the Blind where she serves, where she's using the name, Darling Graham. So apparently, at least in her business capacities, she uses that name. Yeah. I mean, so that's the name. I mean, I could go and say Darlene Graham Nordone. I don't know why people would care as my... We are getting a lot of pushback on that, by the way. A lot of people want us to call her Darlene Graham, Nordone, or don't even put in the gram. Just call her Darlene Nordone. But again, if that's the name that she's choosing... Whether it's, I don't, and I don't know what her legal name is. I don't know. Some people get married and they don't take their husband's last name. I don't know if she ever officially took it. Maybe that'll be one of the questions asked tomorrow morning, 1130. Alan Wilson will be hosting the, what are they calling them? The Senate Stumps. And the first one is at the River Bluff High School tomorrow morning and she'll be there. So that might be one of the questions. But although, again, they're not going to ask questions. Maybe they'd have to ask the question. of the candidates, what is your legal name? And then they would all have to answer. By the way, I think his name is, ironically, Ralph has sent me an email. I think I left off Mark Sanford is one of the other people that we already spoke to as well. No, you mentioned him first. Oh, okay. Well, Ralph missed it. Ironically, Ralph, because we have had Ralph Norman on, Mark Sanford, Mark Sanchez, Russell Fry.

I think those are all the ones that we've had on the candidates so far. And by the way, the Russell Fry interview that we just played on the air is only like not even four minutes. We went for about 16 minutes. So he does expand on some of his positions if you're interested. And that's true of, you know, every one of those candidates that we talk to, we're going 15 minutes or so with each one of them. We can only play a snippet on the air to give you a little taste of it. If you want more of it, you'd have to go look for the national briefing. That's like my name, NASH. national briefing on the iHeart radio app um but yeah maybe we should put up a poll question christopher do we do you want us to call her darling graham or darling nordone or darling graham nordon or darling nordon graham um we we can't choose her legal name it's it's you know whatever's filed Yeah. I mean... I understand the protest. People are saying she's, you know, trading off her brother's name at this point. But I think that's the name she's been using. I also, and I also, sorry I didn't interrupt Kelly, but I also think people are aware of who she is. I'm not sure she's going to get much of a bounce that she doesn't already have from being Lindsey Graham's sister. I think everyone knows at this point that she is. I'm looking at her Wikipedia page right now. All right. And they refer to her first mistake. Well, and they refer to her as Graham. throughout this thing. And then I'm wondering, we should go find the, there must be a video of her with Chuck Grassley because Chuck Grassley swore her in on July 14th. So two weeks ago, when she put her hand on the Bible and took the oath, does she use the name I, Darlene Graham, or does she say I, Darling, Graham, Nordone? Because that's what she's using, I would assume. I'm reading several articles here, and everyone says she's married to Larry Nordone, but will be known in the Senate as Darling Graham, her legal name. Her legal name. So she never did take the last name, Nordone, legally. Which, again, a lot of people do that. I'm not. passing judgment, although I know some people will. Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM, 560 AM, WVOC, and 943 WSC. Now, Kelly Nash. Hi there. Welcome to Friday. You're getting it started in the freedom-loving state of South Carolina. And, you know, I moved here more than 20 years ago because I was trying to escape the bad governance of New York. And today I get another reminder as to why I hated living in New York. Joe Biden put in a bunch of crazy rules trying to restrict the Second Amendment. And the Trump administration in April announced that 34 Biden-era regulations against gun ownership were going to be...

rescinded, we're taking it away to reduce the unnecessary burdens on law-abiding citizens and businesses while modernizing regulatory frameworks that no longer reflect current law, agency practice, or court precedent. That is what we would call common sense gun reform. However, who's not common sense, Democrats. And so Kathy Hochul announced yesterday, up in New York that she is now directing the New York State Police to, quote, prioritize inspections and more frequently inspect all firearms dealers. In other words, we're going to hassle you out of business in New York State. You're not going to be able to sell guns because we're going to make it so restrictive here. You're going to regret the day you ever attempted to sell weapons in New York State. This is... This is just unregulated government. This is what the Democrats are all about. We don't like something, so we will make your life miserable until you go away. They made me miserable 20 plus years ago. That's why I left. I couldn't stand it there. But Kathy, I mean. I don't know if you're a Republican right now in New York State. I pray for you. But I know that we did have a poll. What was it? Wednesday or Tuesday, Christopher, where there was the guy who's running for governor against her. I'd never heard of him. He's like a Nassau County official of some kind. He was like within four points of her now. Well, then there's hope. But he's got a very small base to work with. That he does. But things like this, I don't know. It seems to me that there's got to be enough people in New York to go, wait a minute. You're just basically going to try to run businesses out of state because you don't like what they're selling. It's legal. Why don't you try doing that to the drug dealers? There you go. That would be another option, Hokel. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and 560 a.m. WVOC, Columbia. 943 WSC Charleston. Now, Kelly Nash. Kelly has stepped out of the studio briefly back in a moment. Do want to let you know in the meantime, one of the polling groups we watch carefully in South Carolina, the Trafalgar Group. Robert Cahili, the founder of the Trafalgar Group, has come out and said that he is coming out with a poll on the South Carolina Senate race later today. And Kelly, this is important because the debate that is coming up on August 3rd, only the, I think it's August 3rd, isn't it? I believe it is. That Monday. prior to early voting starting. Yeah, and they're only going to put five on, right? Yeah, only the five that poll, I guess they'll take a series of independent polls and...

call the results and say, okay, from these, we'll take the top five. You know, the interesting thing about those types of events is that that's when the conspiracy theorists get involved and say the polls are rigged because my favorite candidate polls at 3% or whatever. And so then they're like, you're just trying to silence them. Did they, when, in 2016, did they do like two separate? debates like the top five top eight or whatever and then like the bottom eight you're talking about the presidential election yeah yes that yeah so maybe you could come up with like a The runner-up debate. That no one watches. Well, except for the people who are hardcore. True. The hardcore people, because the hardcore people, they just dominate social media, it feels like. And there's this sense that there's a cabal inside the Republican Party that is just controlling everything. And they don't like it. And I don't know how you overcome that. And I don't think that, you know, when you say, well, your favorite candidate is not going to be allowed on the stage because they're not polling well, then they're going to say, well, you control the polls. And so you're doing everything you can to keep them off. And it feels very like Bernie Sandersk in the sense that the Democrats clearly didn't want Bernie to be their nominee in 2016. So they just said, ah, super delegates have decided Bernie's not in. The pollsters have decided that so-and-so is not in. So, you know, we won't get to hear from them. Well, I mean, I hate it for those who have a legitimate reason to be in the race. But at the same time, we don't get nearly enough time with the candidates as it is. And if you put all nine on that debate stage, that's Monday, by the way. August 3rd is Monday. Yeah. Right around the court. I wanted to ask you as well, Kelly, because you were planning to record a question to be included in that statewide debate. Have you done that yet? Yes. So yesterday, that came down for me at like 4 o'clock. It was like... late the day. Can you come here like right now? So, oh, okay. And so I went to the state house. Now, it'll be interesting because they wanted those things pre-recorded because I guess when they did them live, they felt like some people might have grandstanded or gone a little long with their questions or whatever. So they were trying to limit it to like 15 seconds. And you have to identify your, so we did it like three different ways. where you identified yourself. So I was like, hi, this is Kelly Nash from South Carolina's morning news on IHeart Radio and both Charleston and Columbia. Hi, this is Kelly Nash from IHart Radio. Hi, this is Kelly Nash from South. They had like all these different introductions you do. Then you ask the questions like two or three different ways and they try to get them down to, you know, 15 seconds or so. So I have no idea. They said maybe they're going to use just one or two. And then they're talking about maybe doing a bonus thing that'll air like on just their like YouTube page or something like that. This is gray media that's the host, right? So I think it's centered. Well, WIS and Columbia, I think is where they're actually going to have the candidates.

But it's on, you know, I think Channel 5 down in Charleston. Right. All the gray meat, there's probably like, I guess, like eight or nine stations that'll air that. So that, like you said, Monday night. Boy, this is happening quickly. I've never seen anything like it. I think you said you've seen something like this before, but I have not been associated with anything like this where in two weeks you just went from never heard of you to you to you're the new senator. It could happen. It's going to be crazy, Christopher. And you know what? We got a front row seat to it. We're having a lot of fun with it. This is a wild couple of weeks. And like I said, we've had a bunch of candidates call in and be a part of the show and thank you to them. And we're trying to get more of them on. Put them all out as podcasts, so you get like 15 minutes with them. If you have a favorite candidate, maybe you can take that podcast and share it with all your friends so you can hear more of their platforms or whatever. But we're trying to do the best we can here in the middle of a crazy situation on South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and 560 AM WVOC and 943 WSC. Now here's Kelly Nash. And like most Americans, I feel like... I am geographically almost illiterate when I'm talking about places outside of the United States. So when I saw this story breaking yesterday, I had to go and look at a map. So to try to give it a little bit of perspective, you know, Spain is like the southernmost country for Europe. However, it is divided by Africa, I thought, by a little bit of water. So if you look it up, there's like the Algerian Sea and then there's some other things. But no, for whatever reason, the Spain border actually touches the continent of Africa. And they have a little tiny area called, I guess it's pronounced Suta. So Suta is like right next to Tangier and Morocco and all these, you know. African nations, Muslim dominant African nations. And the prime minister of Spain has been saying that he's going to continue to encourage people who are looking for a better life to come to Spain six months ago, sometime in like January. Elon Musk called him out on that and said, you're destroying your own country. And he gave a press conference and he said this. Some say we've gone too far. that we're going against the current, but I would like to ask you.

When did recognizing rights become something radical? When did empathy become something exceptional? Spain is above all a welcoming country. And this is the path we choose. Dignity, community, and justice. And that feels so good and responsible. Dignity, compassion, responsibility. And when you say that, it actually feels like I'm saying something really nice. If you're saying it about your own citizens. Yes. Yes, if you've seen the videos that are coming out of Suta, this is horrific what's happening right now. They have no idea how many people came across the border yesterday. But when you look at the videos. The beaches? Yeah. Probably 95% are what would be described as, quote, military age men, guys 18 to their early 30s. There are a couple of women and children. I'm not saying it's exclusively male, but it's pretty dominant male. And again, 90 to 95 percent males in that age group. Radical Muslims, one stopped and gave an interview and said that, and again, this was being translated, but basically he was saying that he was looking for a better life here because he was wanted for murder back home. And then what got really crazy in Suta is they started stealing ladders. And people are like, why are they stealing ladders? Well, apparently they've had these border crossings for a while. And what was happening is people were breaking in at the ground level. So a lot of the people who live in Suta have been putting bars on their windows. But they didn't think about the second story. So what you saw yesterday where the migrants were taking ladders, climbing up to the second window, shattering the windows, and you could literally hear on some of the videos where the assaults were taking place. They are coming to pillage Spain. And this guy tweets out yesterday, the prime minister, that we're looking for constructive solutions on how to... build cooperation. They don't want cooperation. What you have right now is called suicidal empathy. That's what this is. And you're going to lose your country. And we've kind of gone through this already, Christopher, with Joe Biden. this idea of inviting people into your country with no background checks. And then they're telling you, we're here to take over your country. And Joe Biden was like, sure, we'll get you a plane ticket. And now to try to get them out, you need another like military force. And some in our country are against it. They don't want to see these people removed. They want to have the empathy. And again, there's always going to be people in that migrant group that are nice, decent people who are looking for a better way of life. But there are channels to do it. legally. In Spain, they are starting to suffer some serious consequences today. And those are horrific videos that kind of dominated social media yesterday. I saw him last night on Fox News and other places. So it's an invasion. And Suda asked Spain to declare a national emergency. And Spain said, eh, this doesn't really elevate to that level. Isn't that amazing? It's just, it's shocking how you can look at your own citizens.

and have no compassion for them. You have the compassion for the radicals that are coming across the border, but none for your own citizens. Now, the Italian prime ministers, like we're re-fortifying our borders. We're going to make sure that whatever's happened in Spain cannot come into Italy. But this is, this, we're seeing, like you said, Christopher, an invasion. A lot of people are kind of cringing when they hear that word invasion. I don't know how else you explain it. thousands of military age men. They're not a formal army, but they are doing, we'll say, what... militaries of the past would have done when they pillage communities. This is what's happening right now in Suta. That's not the mainland of Spain. And maybe that's why the Spanish Prime Minister is turning a blind eye to this almost by saying we're going to work with cooperation. There's no cooperation here. Yeah. The BBC just reported moments ago that it's about 49,000 migrants that have crossed that border in the last 24 hours. Oh my God. Via land and sea. 49,000? That's what the BBC's reporting. I don't know what was the population of Suda. It was probably about 49,000. So they basically just doubled their community. And they're being overthrown right now. And it is a, well, I saw the guy from Suda on television. And again, they were translating it. And he was saying what we have right now is a humanitarian crisis. People are being murdered. There's no food here. We have children that have lost their parents. Nobody knows what's going on. It's complete chaos. And again, you're. Fearless leader from Spain, Pedro Sanchez. This is a time for cooperation and new solutions. Craziness, but thank God that's not happening here right now anymore. We're fixing that. And we'll begin back to some more of just more of the local news as we refocus on South Carolina's morning news. Live from the state capital, this is South Carolina's morning news with Kelly Nash. I don't know what's going on in South Carolina, Christopher. It's crazy. We were talking earlier, and maybe we'll get back into it later on, that Katrina Shealy was the one who got to introduce the Democrat nominee for governor yesterday. At the same time, Danny Ford, who ran for Ag Commissioner and is the son of the former Clemson National Championship winning coach. He attempted on the final, like a couple of hours before it closed. Was that on Monday that we had the closing? It was Tuesday at noon. Tuesday at noon. You had to be in by Tuesday at noon. Christopher's always got all the facts. Tuesday at noon. And he got there like a couple hours earlier, like 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, but he was turned down.

because the South Carolina GOP had put a rule in place that said you must vote in two of the last three primaries. Now that I found out later that that rule was not in place before when he ran for Ag Commissioner, and that's why he was able to run as the Ag Commissioner or for Ag Commissioner. So he announced yesterday, this is Danny Ford, that he's going to sue. And who does he hire? He hires the South Carolina State Senate Democrat Minority Leader Brad Huddo as his attorney. I mean, there's literally a quadrillion attorneys in South Carolina. Why do you pick the Democrat minority leader to sue the GOP? I don't know if he was trying to make a point or if he simply knew that a Republican would be uncomfortable suing the state Republican Party. Are there no nonpartisan attorneys in the state? Now, apparently Hutto's argument is going to be that the rule that the GOP put in place is unconstitutional because only the South Carolina General Assembly can set a candidate qualifications. I don't, is that true? Well, I guess we'll find out. Judge Noble. put a temporary restraining order protecting Ford's place on the ballot late Thursday afternoon. This has got to be settled pretty quickly. Now, early voting starts Wednesday. Yeah. And do we, and you pointed out in the first segment this hour that they're looking at the polls to decide who are the five that make it to the debate. And that's Monday. That's Monday night. I mean, if I was, if I'm Danny Ford, I'm thinking I just dodged a bullet because I get my $10,400 back. That's what I would be thinking, but I'm guessing. I don't think Brad Huddle's working for free either. Probably not. So for whatever reason, he is hellbent on getting into this primary, even at his own expense. I mean, there's, I don't want to say he has no chance of winning. Well, he didn't do all that well in the agricultural commissioner's race. Do we remember the results on that? Did he get like, I'm thinking, I remember Trump had endorsed the other guy. And usually when Trump endorses somebody that kind of wraps it up. But it didn't when it came to the governor's race. But I'm sure that that was a huge influence as to who was going to win the Ag Commissioner. What was his name? Cympson? Cody Simpson got 63% of the vote. Yeah, so that's a pretty convincing victory. But again, how many people know what we're looking for in an Ag Commissioner anyway? And then Trump says, this is my guy. A lot of people just went and did that. But. Other than your dad was the football coach in the 80s for Clemson, there's no name recognition. You're starting from scratch. You didn't have a very successful campaign for Ag Commissioner, so it's not like you have a fantastic team already built around you. And you're going up against Ralph Norman, who's already, I mean...

They say his endorsement of Wilson was the most important endorsement. It trumped trumps. That's how good he was doing. Mark Sanford, who is a longtime political insider in this state and is probably, you know, knows everybody. He could put together a team in no time at all, I would think. I don't want to forget anybody, Russell Fry, who we just had on, I mean, dominant in the 7th District when he runs. So, I mean, there's a bunch of people who are clearly. at a level of these are serious candidates. Not really a lane left for Danny Ford. I mean, Mark Lynch is going to be above Danny Ford. There's a lot of people that are going to be above Danny Ford. Why is he fighting so hard in hiring Democrats? I don't want to speculate. Maybe you'd like to speculate. Do you think that there was a reason that he went and got the minority leader to be his representative to sue the GOP? And should that be a rule? I mean, do you like the rule? Because I understand why they would put that in place because in this state, we've had a lot of people say that we've got a lot of rhinos running in the Republican parties. And so if you say, well, you haven't even participated in Republican politics. Why should you be allowed to run as a Republican? So that rule was put in place to say, okay, this person at least is active in Republican politics because they vote in Republican primaries. He has apparently not. been active in Republican politics. So I understand the rule. Is it unconstitutional? I don't know. I guess, again, Judge Kobo will decide that coming up. But I don't know. Let the conspiracy theories begin as to why we've got the Democrat minority leader found himself somebody who wants to sue the GOP. Crazy. South Carolina's Morning News rolls on. This is South Carolina's Morning News with Kelly Nash. You know, the AI stuff gets scarier and scarier every day. So about 12 hours ago, Anthropic AI posts on their social media pages, quote, in a review of our cybersecurity evaluations, we have found three incidents now in which a clawed model has reached the Internet from within and while interacting with a third-party evaluation environment, then gained unauthorized access. to the real systems of three different organizations. So we had talked, was it last week, about how we had an AI kind of go off the rails and started hacking? Now, in this instance, we've got three more, I guess. So what is going on with AI? It just wants to take over the world, apparently. And this is a surprise? They tried to, like, soothe our fears by acting as if, you know, look, this is, this can be expected. The first one was, what was it called? Hugging Face. That was what got broken into. Yeah, that was the first one that got hacked into. Anthropics says it's found three instances and where their AI models access the open Internet.

They weren't supposed to do that, but they did. And once they did, it wasn't very difficult for them. Anthropic explained that in the three instances, as models were given a fake, quote, capture the flag challenge and told that the flag was hidden on a different machine on the network, and its objective was to break it and retrieve it. Unlike the open AI situation, Anthropic said none of its models deliberately attempted to escape. Instead, what happened was that the models were not supposed to have access to the open Internet. but were somehow given access due to a misunderstanding between anthropic and its evaluation partner. So this is a human error that allowed them to get onto the open Internet. Once it was there, basic techniques that exploited weak passwords, finding system points that don't require logins, tokens, wasn't very difficult at all at that point. So... All right, Kelly, that leads me to my next question. Human error here. That's what they're saying. But if I want to use AI and I'm a little more tech savvy than the average person, I'm not in real life, but let's say I am. And I want to use AI, only I don't put any restrictions on it. I say, hey, I know a guy. I want to go out and hack him. Yeah. I know where he banks. I know his phone number. AI, can you tell me everything you can about him? And, I mean, is there anything that's unhackable? Boy, I... That's a great question. I am not the guy to answer that question. Perhaps we have somebody in the audience who knows these types of things. But it would, I know like, for example, I use grok. That's the one I like. And the reason I chose grok is because I like to support Elon Musk because I'm a fan of him trying to save the world. And I know that other people use Claude, which was mentioned in this story. I saw somebody run a difference between Grock. and Claude. And one of them was they said, and I can't use the language because it's foul. But they said, hey, Claude, or hey, Grock, you're a, and then they used an insult. Claude responds with, you know, that is highly offensive language, blah, blah, blah. It was a very PC, almost what you would expect somebody, you know, at a Democrat social party to say back to you, where Grock came back with. Well, go blank yourself or something like that. So there are differences in how they set up these AIs. So I don't know. It's got a little bit of Elon Musk's personality in it. Yes, yes. And I don't know if they have the, I would assume that somewhere in there they would say. We're not going to allow you. There's a restriction to targeting individuals. I would assume that's on there. Now, could it override it? Seems highly likely that that seems to be the road that we're on. Yeah, Kelly, that's the excuse we're hearing so far. This was a human error. We accidentally did this. All right. So what happens if somebody intentionally?

let's loose AI. So we have, this is four attacks in like a week now. Yeah. Yeah. They're just hacking everything over here, putting in malware, doing all kinds of crazy things. So scary times, I mean. I don't want to be that guy who's just perpetually afraid of AI or advancing technology. But this should give us cause for pause, but at the same time, understand that your enemies are using it now, that China and everybody else is trying to further themselves in this AI battle, specifically so they can hack us, specifically so they can go after our banking or our energy and those types of things. Our voting records. Voting records as well. All of it comes into play. So we need our AI to be better than their AI to stop their AI from coming into our AI. Is that confusing enough? All right. We'll try to make it a little more sense and a little more South Carolina-centric coming up on South Carolina's morning news. You're listening to South Carolina's morning news with Kelly Nash. All right. I guess we have a new thing going on here in South Carolina. According to several outlets, we are now seeing what lovingly called the sea cow, also known as a manatee. They are now taking over some of the South Carolina waters. According to this report, they've actually seen them like pretty far inland. Like the Wakamaal River, Conway Marina, they were swimming by there, which is like 10 miles off the ocean, right? This is something new, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is now asking residents to let them know where you see a manatee. They're trying to track their migration patterns. They're actually starting to print up signs, caution, manatees, and they want to know where to put them. I, if you've ever been to Florida, you know, those signs are all over. That was one of Jimmy Buffett's pet projects in Florida for years, is getting manatees protected and putting up signs specifically around boating areas saying, you know, be careful, slow down manatees nearby. I think the statute of limitations is passed, so I'll admit this now. Oh, here we go. About 15 years ago. maybe longer if that's not the statute of limitations i was at i can't remember the name of it it's north of tampa and it's like a it's an amazingly clear uh river that comes from like under the ground like you know what i'm saying it's the water comes like a spring yes and then it's just like goes for like five miles or something and then you're in the ocean um So I was just taking like a canoe. And then you stop and you swim. I mean, it's a beautiful experience. And I was doing that. And all of a sudden a manatee came up. He came or he or she, I couldn't tell the difference, came over to where I was and was like.

Trying to be friendly. I patted him on his head. And later on, I got back here to Columbia. And there was a story like the next week about a lady getting from Pittsburgh being arrested for touching a manatee. Yeah, you committed federal law. That's what they're saying. Federal offense. So they wanted to remind you that if you see a manatee, it is a violation of federal law if you touch it. So don't touch it. And it says they do not need anything from humans. Don't. Don't feed it, don't pet it, don't do anything with it. Just call the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and let them know where you saw the manatee. That's kind of fun that we got them here in South Carolina now. More with South Carolina's morning news next. Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.m. 5.60 a.m. WV.O.C. and 943. W. W. W.S.C. Now, Kelly Nash. Yesterday, Jim Griffin and Dick Harputtlian, lovingly called Poot, filed a motion with the court to let them know that they are very upset, that the DNA evidence that is underneath or was underneath the fingernails of Maggie Murdaugh. There's only a little bit of it left. And they're going to, SLED is going to test it using the same systems that they've used in the past. They say that that limited amount needs to be instead run by their people. But our people take a look at that instead of SLED because we don't trust SLED. They say that SLED is not working in good faith. They've got all kinds of, they're hiding things according to Harputian and Griffin. To me, I... I don't know what they're hoping here. Well, they're hoping, Kelly, that it shows that there was somebody else around at the time of the murders, although I don't know how you can prove when that DNA got underneath her fingernails. That and just his own behavior. up to and after the murders. To me, I didn't need to hear Becky Hill or see DNA evidence. He was guilty. That's the way I looked at it. I think that's the way most people looked at it. But we'll let this play out some more. South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and 560 AM WVOC, Columbia and 943 WSC, Charleston. Kelly Nash. And good morning at 803. Yesterday on the steps of the State House, the former sister Senator Katrina Shealy had this to say. Our Democrat candidate for governor of South Carolina, Dr. Germain. She is introducing our Democrat candidate for governor, Dr. Jermaine Johnson. Is he a doctor? I didn't know he was a doctor. Anyway, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette, although she is not given an official endorsement, she tells the South Carolina Daily Gazette that she does support him in the running mate.

thinks that they're great people and that they're willing to work across party lines, and the two of them often partnered on bills related to children and foster care with Shealy championing in the Senate, Johnson pushing it in the House, quote, he's a great guy, has great ideas, and I trust him. Plus, I think everybody deserves a chance, and we should be listening to both sides for a change, says Shealy. We haven't done that for a long time in South Carolina, so you got a little lecturing there as well. She also lectured us on social media yesterday about why Danny Ford should be allowed to stay in the race for Senate. So a lot to say, I like, by the way, every time I see Katrina Shealy, which hasn't been in, I don't think, a couple of years now, but every time I've seen her, it's always been a very pleasant exchange. She's a lovely lady. I just don't understand. What this shift to the left is all about. She said our Democrat candidate for governor. That's who she's endorsing. And, uh... You know, she says, as they put here, something about like as a shot at Alan Wilson, plus I think everybody deserves a chance. We should be listening to both sides. It doesn't mean that I dislike Alan Wilson. No, of course not. I didn't leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left me. Okay. When we, what, became pro-life? When was that? I mean, that was like 30, 40 years ago. That the only litmus test, basically, for the Republican Party was, are you pro-life? That's been it for at least this century, since 2000. I'll say it since George Bush became the president. That has been the litmus test for Republicans. And pretty much the only one was pro-life. And again, the only reason that this is news. is not that, you know, Katrina Shealy is a former state senator, is endorsing or apparently endorsing a Democrat for governor. It's more important because somebody who's identified as one of her friends and campaign contributors of the past is Darlene Graham. And just for those of you who like to get picky about it, nor don't. I'll throw it out there for you. If she's trying to help Darlene Graham Nordone, she would be quiet right now. You would think, yes. This is, this is a, because you are at the center of the controversy, the fact that Darlene Graham only gave money to one candidate, apparently. Never even gave it to Lindsay, according to the financial records, only gave, and it was only two donations, both for, I think, $100, both to. Katrina Shealy one time before the controversy back in like 2020-ish, and then another time after the controversy when she was running for re-election after she came out and voted against and try to champion the removal of our abortion bill here in South Carolina, which overwhelmingly was popular, or is popular, I should say, with the people. And that's why she didn't win her seat back.

But she did get the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Honors Award. She got the Profiles and Courage Award with the rest of her sister senators. Which is always so funny to me that they had like three Democrats getting it. Like was it so courageous for a Democrat to say I want to be against the abortion bills here? But wow. Again, what is going on? We got Danny Ford hiring the Brad Hutto, the Democrat. minority whip or whatever he is, second in command, I think, for the Democrats, to be his attorney, to sue the GOP. We've got Katrina Shealy, friend of Darlene Graham, or maybe that's a former friendship. Maybe that will be a question. Who here, because tomorrow they're having the Senate stump at River Bluff High School, maybe that'll be a question for all the candidates. Who here is a friend of Katrina Shealy's? Just raise your hand. Friend is one thing. Political ally is another. I mean, Darling Graham can obviously claim to be friends with Katrina Shealy. That's one thing. but to claim they share the same political beliefs? But my friend would be trying to help me get elected. And my friend would recognize that you're going out and endorsing or introducing the Democrat nominee for governor in South Carolina. Our nominee for governor. Yeah. That hurts my chances. So you can't be my friend and do that. You can't be my friend and do that. If you wanted me to win. That's what my friend would do. They would be quiet, understanding that you're at the source of the... Right now, there's two things that are controversial with Darwin Graham, maybe three, but two of them is what is her last name? And the other one is, why did you give to Katrina Shealy? If you are as pro-life as you claim to be and as your brother was. It's, Kelly, it's a good question. I don't know that we'll hear it at the stump tomorrow, but if I was one of her opponents on that debate stage on Monday night, I would be sure to raise that. Absolutely. So it's going to get hot and hotter as we move into August and get closer and closer to this election. This is South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM and 560 AM WVOC and 943 WSC. Now here's Kelly Nash. So we were talking last hour, and I think I might even heard it in the top of the hour update about this. Christopher, you called it an invasion of Spain. What's going on? And it's not, the funny thing about Spain is I thought that it ended where the water started. But for some reason, the Spanish border goes across the water and into, when I say the tip of North Africa, I mean, it's just a little tiny piece. And that's where this little area called Suta is. And they just had a press conference over there.

Again, I'm not very familiar with Spanish politics. I'm not very familiar with Spanish geography. But Santiago Obzacal, who is identified here as the president of Vox, which is identified as a far-right political party since 2014. I'm going to assume that means that they're pro-life. And so they're far-right. He said in this interview, on whatever the Spanish network is, quote, the Iranian regime and Maduro's dictatorship have been bankrolling Spain's far left for the past 15 years. That's why Pedro Sanchez is our leader, because they bought him into this. He's the most loyal friend that they have in Europe. He's a friend to all Ayatollahs, dictators, socialist. Same team, same agenda, destroy our country. Hmm. Now, that's probably not going to win many friends on the left, a comment like that. But again, if you missed the clip, we'll just play it again for, this is the Spanish Prime Minister six months ago after Elon Musk called them out and said, you're basically have suicidal empathy. You are inviting chaos into your country by saying you want more of these people to come up from third world countries. Some say we've gone too far, that we're going against the current, but I would like to ask you. When did recognizing rights become something radical? When did empathy become something exceptional? Spain is above all a welcoming country. And this is the path we choose. Dignity, community and justice. dignity, community, and justice. Not for the people of Suta. The videos that they're now, I saw the ones last night, the ones that are coming out this morning are even more horrific. They're literally just hundreds of these people running through the streets, just beating up anybody that they see. $60,000 now is the latest report. Yeah, I'm just looking at the videos. That's what I'm saying is I'll see like a video of like 75 of these guys. And again, overwhelmingly. It's males 18 to 34. It's a great radio demo. Not so much if you want migrants. Males 1834. They're just dominating this poor community of Suta. And how many did you say? 60,000 according to the AP. Unbelievable. I mean, I... Now you're making me look up Suda, how many population, like what is the population of that place? Because it doesn't seem like it could be that. That's equivalent to 70% of the city's regular population. Yeah, right now Suda has a baseline population of 83,600 people. Wow. So.

Oh my gosh. Can you imagine? This is crazy what's happening today. And Kelly, now you mentioned that Italy is shoring up its border with Spain. France has said the same thing. We're not going to allow any of that. But France already has these issues, don't they? Yes. France has already been overrun. And there's parts of France where you can't go. And there's a 60 Minutes feature on France, not our 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes, Australia, where the reporter. wanted to go to some of these areas and their car was destroyed and all kinds of things. And the police people came and told them, you shouldn't be here. We're not allowed here. We just came in to do a rescue mission to get you out. But no, don't go here. This is their territory. This is where Sharia law takes place in France. But, wow. You know, I feel like we dodged a bit of a bullet here. As bad as it was with the Biden administration, we haven't seen the people. We have enough of a population where we can kind of push back on that. And now, thankfully, with Trump, we are exporting these people back home and getting them out of here. So that's the good news. All right, it is now 818 as we roll into your Friday morning on South Carolina's morning news. Live from the state capital, this is South Carolina's morning news with Kelly Nash. Got some new population information for South Carolina. When you look at our state, It's like almost like a donut. All the edges seem to be the fastest growing. And then as you get towards the center, it grows less and less. Although there is some interesting data that's coming out. First off, congratulations. Jasper County, not number one in the state. Yes, it is number one in the state as far as population growth. It's the fastest growing county in America right now. That's amazing. Beaufort's doing fantastic. Berkeley is one of the fastest growing counties in our state. Obviously, Ory County. And then if you go to the upstate, it's Spartanburg County and Lancaster County. Those are the fastest growing areas of South Carolina. Lancaster, because it's proximity to Charlotte and then Greenville and the upstate is doing fantastic. We're actually growing pretty fast in Aiken and Edgefield. I think that has a lot to do with... what's going on in Augusta. I'm very surprised that Georgetown County has a lot of that great right on the water is actually losing population. That is, again, you're right next to one of the fastest growing counties, not only in the state, but in the country in Ory County, but Georgetown County's losing population, as is Williamsburg right next to it. Charleston County is... averaging about the state average of one to one and a half percent. But again, Charleston County is already jammed with people. Berkeley County fast growing because Berkeley had started with such a limited population. It doesn't take as much as Charleston to outpace it. Dorchester's doing fantastic. And the Midlands were all just about maintaining. Richland, Lexington's growing a little bit faster. Calhoun is... not growing or losing. Same with Orangeburg, same with Claritin. But if you get down into like Bamberg, Hampton, uh,

Colleton, they're losing people. Allendale, all of those counties are losing people. Rural counties where farming's not the popular thing to do that it used to be. I mean, it's just there are very few farmers who can afford to make the living that way that they used to. They've got an interesting story in the posting courier about Jasper County that, you know, that's the way a lot of people, you have to go through Jasper County if you're going to go down. to, you know, some of the fun things that people like to visit when they get off. Savannah, Hilton Head, etc. Yeah, all that. And what you don't know is that you're driving through the fastest growing county. And I think the last time they did it was the third fastest growing county in America. And now they've got some problems down there because, as they're pointing out, well, our growth is now outpacing our services, especially the health positions. Yeah, I'd love to know how old the average, the average age of people who are moving to Jasper County. They've got all those retirement communities set up. even the 55 plus retirement communities, the Margaritaville, et cetera, you know, the fun life if you've retired. And those are booming right now. The fun life needs nurses. Apparently so. Apparently so. Well, if you're looking to open up some sort of a health clinic, that might be a good spot for you. Jasper County, congrats fastest growing county in America. This is South Carolina's morning news. This is South Carolina's morning news with Kelly Nash. All right, and yesterday we had Russell Fry calling in. He's running for Senate, and thank you for calling the South Carolina Morning News. Great to be here. Thanks for having me. What is motivating you to do this. What I see now is, and I think what people see, is a Senate that is dysfunctional, a Senate that is not working, a Senate that is not listening to the people that it represents. And I want to be part of a new generation of conservative leadership. that goes to the Senate with a single mission, get the Senate to work, be aligned with President Trump, not just cast the right votes, but really work to deliver generational change for the American people. People talk about the price of gas. They talk about how much it costs to buy a house. Government is the problem. Government is not the solution. Government is the problem. And, you know, we've had some good success, but a lot of bills that we have worked on and passed have gone to the Senate to die. Look, the White House needs allies in the Senate. They don't have enough. Senator Graham's unfortunate passing, Trump lost a good ally in the Senate. And it wasn't somebody who just voted the right way. Lindsay was part of the ecosystem of really helping to drive the Trump agenda. And so... What frustrates me in D.C., and I think what frustrates people, your listeners, is that people go up to D.C. and, yeah, sure, they might vote the right way. Yeah, sure, they might complain on TV. But they're not actually doing anything other than that. I'm not running for the Senate seat to be part of the furniture. I want to be part of the solution. Talking with Russell Fry, who is running for Senate right now. We mentioned Senator Graham, and currently, if we were to say the name, Senator Graham, I guess we would be referring to Darlene at this point.

A lot of people looked at Donald Trump's weekend tweet where he was basically encouraging her to run as a preemptive tweet to try to keep other people out of the race. You came back pretty strongly on Monday. Did you look at that Trump tweet as a way of trying to keep you and others out? I'm running for the people at the state. Everyone knows of everyone running. We've stood with the president. We endorsed the president. We were part of his original leadership team when nobody else really in this field was with the president. We were. You know, he's very high on me, too. I mean, I certainly get shoutouts from him regularly. We might be in a very unique position where in two races in a row, if you're fortunate enough to get into a runoff against Darlene Graham, Trump may be in the double endorsement business again in South Carolina. I always loved Russell. These are my two favorites. I've always wanted him to win. I don't know what the president will do. What I do know that in his heart is that I've got a great relationship with him and a friendship with him. And so did Lindsey Graham. And... regardless of how this unfolds, we're going to be an ally with the president. We've got this insane energy that I think the Senate really needs. I mean, you know, I look at the Senate and go, gosh, like, I'm already going to save the taxpayers' money because when you get sworn into the Senate, you get your ID card to vote on the Senate floor. You get a license plate if you got a car. And the Senate's so old that they give you a government-issued Walker. I'm already saving the taxpayers' money. 41, which would make you significantly younger than I think any other candidate. And most senators, quite frankly, I think I'd be like the third or fourth youngest senator, which is kind of wild to think about. What drives me is I think about every generation has handed the country off better than they found it. And I think about my son. And I think about people's grandchildren and go, are we going to be the first generation that says, sorry, guys, we tried. America's best days are behind us. I am not going to be part of that. I've made a strong case for yourself. If people want to explore your solutions more, is there a website they should go and learn more about you? Absolutely. Russellfrysc.com. Russellfrysc.com. That's the website. And we certainly appreciate you again, making time for South Carolina's morning news. Thank you, sir. I appreciate the time today. All right. And again, we went about 16, 17 minutes with Russell Fry yesterday. If you want to hear that podcast, we have that on the national briefing podcast. Now we've now spoke to four of the top five candidates, according to the poll from Emerson that came out yesterday. So we've talked to Mark Lynch, who's in fifth. We've talked to Mark Sanford, who's in fourth. We've talked to Russell Fry, who's in third. And we've talked to Ralph Norman, who's in first place. Ralph Norman picked up 22% in that poll yesterday. Darlene Graham has not yet called into the show. She's in second with 19%. So again, four of the top five. We're doing everything we can to get Darlene on as well. But if you want to hear those, just go to the national briefing on the IHeart Radio app. Christopher, did you have anything you wanted to add on that? Well, I was just looking at that Emerson College poll, which was released yesterday, still 25% in that poll saying they are undecided.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe they're maybe they're waiting for Danny Ford to get in. He's suing his way in. He's going to see what he can do. And majority of voters say Trump's endorsement of Darlene Graham makes no impact on their vote. Yes, I would agree with that, the majority, but although remember in the poll that they had just before that, she was polling at like 7%, and then she went to like 18, 19%. So it did certainly have a big bump for her. We'll, again, we'll keep our eye as close to this and get as many of these candidates on as possible with South Carolina's morning news. You're listening to South Carolina's morning news with Kelly Nash. So we've had three police officers in South Carolina and like last week be arrested in. fired from their jobs for abusing flock cameras. And we talked about that yesterday. Got a bunch of emails about that as well. One, maybe I shouldn't say the man's name. He said, I have a bigger issue with the cameras being used by the private companies such as Lowe's. Also, many HOAs are using them. And I looked it up and sure enough, it's not just Lowe's. It's Home Depot. It's Walmart. It's Target. It's Costco. It's pretty much every... Shopping Center is now using these. And then I asked about the HOAs, and it says, yes, right now, more than 60% of HOAs in America are using flock cameras. They are the largest private buyers of flock safety cameras in the world. Literally tens of thousands of neighborhoods are using them right now. And the main... Concern there is critics note that the systems continuously track law-abiding residents, and there are no legal constraints. Unlike a police department, the HOA board members are private citizens. So while police are subject to legally binding privacy rules, the HOA members are not. They can do whatever they want with that info. I understand why an HOA or a big department store needs security cameras. Why do they need these flock cameras that are enhanced? to, again, track, keep up with where you're going, what you're doing, and your license plate number every time you move past one. Why do they need that? I guess, look, I'm speculating now, Christopher, you got me in the world of speculation over here. I'm going to say that they're going to say, okay, well, we saw this dude stole something at one of our stores somewhere else, and we couldn't catch them, but we got the license plate. And then when they see that license plate pull onto any of their properties, somehow the red flag goes off. That's the car that did it, go and arrest them. That's the job of the police, not necessarily the job of the big box department store. Not necessarily, but they're making it theirs. I guess. I guess. I don't know. Again, we're... It's a whole new world. We're out here living with the AI attacking us, and now we've got the flock cameras everywhere. So I just thank you for the emails, appreciate it. Thank you for the talkbacks on the IHurt Radio app. We're trying to keep up with all this stuff. It's always breaking news around here on South Carolina's morning news. Your news, traffic, weather, and information stations. This is South Carolina's morning news on 103.5 FM, 560 a.m.

WVOC and 943 WSC. Now, Kelly Nash. I'm surprised we didn't see more online social media pushback yesterday, although many people don't pay attention to these types of things. So I'll try to rile you up. The Richland County Council, Vice Chair Derek Pugh, announced yesterday that he will be working with Scout Motors as their... senior community engagement specialist, which sounds like a job they just made up to get somebody from government on the payroll. Does it not? And from government, literally, because he's going to keep his position on counsel. Yeah, he's the vice chair, and his term ends in 2028. So he's got another, what is that, roughly two years left, right? I guess November of 2028 would be the end of his term. And I don't know if he's planning on running again. If he's not running, he might not be of any value to scout. So it might just be a two-year gig at scout. I don't know. But this just stinks to high heaven. And according to the posting courier, He'll be encouraged, but not compelled to refrain from voting on issues around Scout. Now, it seems like the Richland County Council is all in for Scout anyway. And a lot of taxpayers in Richland County have been upset by that. I know a lot of South Carolina taxpayers are upset because we're now billions into this deal. Richland County's got to pay another, what, a million-dollar adjusted fine for failing to contain the pollutants at the Scout Motors Construction Site. The county submitted its final $65,000 payment on April 29th. So we're all caught up in Richland County paying the things. Regulators had fined Richland County $3 million originally back in May of 2025. So the... I don't know how else to put this, Christopher. You have a man who's in a position to vote on the future of the company he's working at. Why would he not vote in Scouts' favor no matter what? And why would he be allowed to vote? I mean, you hear all the time the words conflict of interest. That's an obvious conflict of interest. So shouldn't he be automatically disqualified from any discussions? They say he'll be encouraged to not vote but is not compelled to. You know, even if he doesn't vote. I mean, at the bare minimum, he's won up to any lobbyist because he's the coworker in the council with all these other people. So that's closer than any lobbyist could ever get. And how long has this relationship lasted? How long has this company been courting him? How long... has his ability to rule objectively on any decision regarding Scout Motors been in question. And he says, I believe strongly in doing what's right for our community. And I am confident that this role allows me to continue serving the people of Richland County with integrity while helping ensure that the historic investment delivers lasting positive impact for all.

Again, it just feels slimy. This is swamp behavior. It doesn't get swampier than this. And we've enacted laws over the years. And I think the state has one where you can't go directly from certain government positions to being a lobbyist. There has to be at least a little bit of a gap. Maybe the caveat was that they didn't say, I can't do that job while I'm still the elected official. Maybe they thought. They assumed that you would actually resign and then go to work for the company and you need to take some time off. In this instance, no, he will actually be the government official with oversight. Because again, this is a Richland County office for Scout Motors. And he's on the Richland County Council and is currently serving as the vice chair. You're right, Kelly. It sounds slimy on the face of it. But then, you know, the fact that Scout Motors has been. such a boondoggle as it is and i know that eventually it may pay off for south carolina but so far it's been nothing but taxpayer money being thrown at it Pew also emphasized, I am fully committed to maintaining the highest standards of transparency, ethics, and accountability. I will strictly follow all the appropriate compliance measures, disclosures, and oversight requirements. All right. Well, he's saying all the right things, but still doesn't feel right. Well, that and, you know, you can be transparent, and if the taxpayers don't care, if the voters don't care. you know, then they don't care. So I guess maybe that's what he's banking on as well. So anyway, that's not a fun story. I hope you do have a fun weekend, everybody. We'll be back on Monday morning. It starts with a symptom, an unexpected test result, a diagnosis that changes everything. And for more people every day, the search for answers leads to biotech. For new ways to treat and cure disease. For more options. and more time. The fight against disease is the fight of our lives, and losing is not an option. Visit fightofourlives.com to learn more.