Alabama's Morning News for Tuesday August 11th, 2026

I know President Trump has, who won Wisconsin in 2024, his endorsed candidate is, gosh, the name is not on my screen in front of me. Yeah, no, I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I'm just wondering, she's grabbing all the attention now, but is this really what Wisconsin voters want versus the Republican candidate? Well, right. Well, that's the question, right? Because President Trump won the state in 2024. It states legislature has long been controlled by Republicans. So some say that she is a response to that. Others say that, you know, they could ride those coattails for the Republican in November. It's a bit of a wait and see when we set this up. But yeah, it's one of those purply swinging states. So we'll have to wait and see what happens. Well, I got to tell you, you know, a lot of people say, no, these people can't win. I mean, they're winning all across the country in certain pockets for sure. So, yeah, we got to take these people serious. And if this becomes the way of the American life with them leading, it's going to ruin this country, completely ruined. It's not sustainable. Their policies and they're completely anti-American policies. So, yeah, this madness, hopefully is a pendulum that will start to swing back in the normal scene. two in Michigan, just what, last week? I mean, Democrats have been funneling huge amounts of money to keep the middle ground, right? And that's where they're losing. They spent, well, 30 million from the party, 30 million from APEC in that Wisconsin, in that Michigan race last week. And you still saw Abdul El-Sayed pull off the victory. I'm hoping. that these are pockets only and the majority of the United States of America, even Democrats, the majority of Democrats, are not on board with these crazy socialists that are just wanting to spend everybody else's money. You know what? It's going to run out and it won't work. And they're already seeing, you know, voters remorse in New York City with Zohran Mamdani and that whole nightmare there. All right, let's switch gears. America's shrinking workforce here now. More than a million people over the past year have left the workforce. What's going on here? Yeah, now look, there are a bunch of different reasons. Some are just not participating anymore. They dropped out, frustrated they haven't been able to find a job. They say on average it takes about 25 weeks to find a job these days, and that's almost five months, and that can convince a lot of people to drop out for a while. It's more than five months. So we'll see if that's a pendulum that swings back. But that labor force participation rate is down to the lowest it's been since the pandemic. Other factors, you've got immigration, right? We're enforcing immigration laws. A lot of those people have left the country or taken out of the country and that workforce isn't available. Or they're laying low and don't want to try to tempt fate going to work every day. And then I saw a report just an hour ago saying they're also seeing more baby boomers and Gen Xers are retiring earlier because their stock market portfolios have done so well the past two years. Well, I better check mine again because I was kind of flat there for a minute. And there was a period of time that 401K was dipping below. I quit looking at it. I'm tired of seeing red on the screen instead of ringing. All right, Roy, thank you, buddy. I appreciate you. We'll do it again tomorrow. Alabama's morning news. I'm J.T. How many times do you get a telemarketing call? Spam alert. Could be problems. Don't answer. I mean, it's more than we can stomach sometimes, right? Joining us now. Jonathan Savage, our Fox correspondent, in London.

in France making a move now and put a ban on unsolicited telemarketing calls. Boy, I'll tell you what, they must not have the free market system over there. Good morning, sir. Hello, good morning. You might say the French government have made a big call because until now, the French system operated mainly on an opt-out basis, much like you have in the United States with the do-not-call list. But now it's gone the other way around. And you have to opt in if you want to receive unsolicited calls. Now, who would do that? Yeah, exactly. So the complete ban now? How do they get away with this? Do they just, you're going to get fined if you're a business and you send these out? What's the deal? Yeah, there's quite strong penalties here. Individuals who are caught making illegal calls can face fines of up to $86,500. For companies, the maximum fine is $430,000. And there are even tougher penalties where vulnerable people get targeted. In the most serious cases, illegal telemarketing, targeting vulnerable consumers. can lead to up to five years in prison and a fine of more than half a million dollars. Good heavens. I mean, I can't tell you how many I had yesterday. Probably, if I had one, I had at least ten of these spam calls that come in here. And then every once in a while I'll think, okay, I just called somebody because I needed information on a product or something. Maybe this is them calling me back. Now I left a message. All right, I'll take the risk and answer it. Hello? And then you hear nobody on the line. And then you hear somebody from a foreign country. I mean, it's just, okay, why did I answer this phone? Are they in my system now? Are they going to continue to be in my system and take my data? You know, so I'm kind of on board with the annoyance of getting rid of these calls. But on the flip side of this, I mean, is it a slippery slope if I'm a business and I want telemarketing? And, you know, it's a big part of what we do in this country, telemarketing. So where do you draw the line on decent telemarketing or is... an oxymoron. That is obviously going to be a big question. What the French government is doing is they're framing this as a way of protecting vulnerable consumers from aggressive commercial practices. There are some particular industries which are associated with that in France, improvement, energy savings, insurance and things like that. So that's kind of the idea behind it. They want to try and protect people. And if it's not a good company, calling customers they've already got a relationship with. It's not going to stop them from calling customers if they've managed to persuade them to fill out a forum in the store while they're, you know, offering more information. You know, can we call for down the line? Well, I've got to tell you, I'm kind of on board with this, really. Jonathan Savage, thank you for the update. I appreciate that. Could it happen here in the United States? Yeah, I think so, probably. I mean, we're pushing that direction when it comes to social media and protecting our kids. Will we get rid of spam calls? 100%? I doubt it. But once we sign up for something, there's always had fine print. Page 17, paragraph C, the third sentence in that area. We are allowed to call you and contact you. When we sign up for things, we...

Do you agree with our policies? It's five pages. You just scroll to the bottom. I agree. Just get me signed up for whatever. Well, now you've opened the door for them to hassle you for the rest of your life. So what I'd like to see, you know, kind of nipped back is when I'm standing in my kitchen and I'm talking about getting new floors and Alexa's not even, you know, playing anything or talking to me about anything, but she's listening. And next thing you know, I'm getting all kinds of ads on flooring for my kitchen if I'm talking to Judy about it. So that's the madness I'd like to see. Stop it. Stop it. Quit listening to me. And if you unplug her, I'm still not sure that she's not capable of listening. Well, we're back to school here. Interesting story here. Not hard to talk to young kids into taking a back-to-school photo like where they're holding one of those chalkboards or something. But it can be a challenge with older kids. A mother in Colorado named Amanda wanted to take a photo of her son, Colton, on the first day of fifth grade. But he was throwing a fit. He was inhabited and refused. So Amanda turned to the cops for help. What? Yep, she saw a cop on the way to school and told him about the situation. So the officer turned on his lights and arrested Colton. He even put him in handcuffs, informed him that refusing your mom on first day of school picture is, in fact, against the law. CBS Colorado there says they're trying to confirm which state statute was cited as the offense and whether booking photos are allowed in the school's yearbook. That's hilarious. They're being playful, of course. He won't actually be taken to the clink. That said, Amanda did get an awesome back-to-school photo of Colton being arrested. That is awesome. Well, is it really? Just take a quick photo and save yourself from coming a criminal kid's. All right? Just smile for mom. She loves the memories and you'll thank her later. But I got to tell you, that picture of him in a handcuffs, I mean, that's going to be a life story for sure. I don't know which direction I might go on this. I don't mean to prompt any kids to misbehave now. Get your photos. The Alabama's morning news. I'm J.T. once again. Yes, it is time to vote once again here in our area. Get out this morning. The polls do open up at 7 o'clock and a lot of, you know, decisions to be made. This is all about the redistricting decisions made by the courts. So we've got districts, let me see, we've got District 6 and 7, that's for sure. Congressman Gary Palmer will be in the studio a little bit later this morning. Amy Aiken is also... running for District 7. Gary's in District 6. Terri Sewell is what's going on in District 7. That's where Amy Aiken is running against another Republican to find out who's going to be taking on Terri Sewell in that district. So a lot up for grabs in all of this today. As we know, it's an important day to get out and vote. Grab your friends. Grab your family and do, you know, do what you. I mean, if you can't go, you can't go. But, you know, a voter turnout of 5%. I mean, we really shouldn't be doing that. Come on. Everybody get out there and vote today. All right, 635. President Trump. Oh, my gosh. I mean, Iran, they're just coming out of the woodwork here with crazy demands. You know, I don't know how these negotiations are really going. But the president obviously has the upper hand in this. The United States, no doubt does. We are still negotiating.

The big move has not been made yet. But the president was talking to reporters yesterday about Iran says, you know, we want reparations from the United States. We need money from you. I'm sorry, Barack Obama is not in the office anymore. No pallets of cash showing me up on your tarmac at your runway. It's not going to happen. And we're not paying for anything that's happened because of what you've been doing. President Trump talking about this yesterday to the reporters. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 racing. The rush of racing, nothing beats it. But Chumba Casino comes close. Chumba's got fast spins, fun games, daily bonuses, and all the action you can handle. Now that's a run. Ready to hit the throttle? Get in the driver's seat and head to chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law, 21 plus, terms and conditions apply. And they asked for reparations, you might say, or they asked for money for the damage that we've done. And I said, that's a good idea. Well, we're going to ask for money for the damage they've done over a 50-year period. Whether you go SS-Col or whether you go all of the people that were so badly hurt, so badly wounded or killed, many thousands of people, and maybe damages for the 52,000 protesters over the last four months that were killed in Iran, we think their family should get damages. killing their person or their child or mother father that were protesting. It's at least it was $52,000 a month and a half ago. So now what is it? So if there's damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages. Amen, Mr. President. Amen. Mike Pompeo, our former Secretary of State, weighing in on this situation as well. Those are maximalists requests. The Iranians are in no position to try and actually achieve those. They know that, by the way, all of them know that. The foreign ministry would know that. Golobov would know that. The IRGC leader of Ahedhi, he would know that too. So what we can see is the president was talking in the middle of the week, but how we were very close to a deal. I think you can see we're not remotely close to that. The Iranians are not yet willing to give up, not because they're not good business people, but because they're not business people. because they are terrorist dogs who want to destroy Israel and the United States of America. And so the blockade will have to continue not to put pressure on the Iranian people, but to put pressure on the regime itself. And I think that's the path that President Trump has chosen to go down. Mike Pompeo, what do you think about that path? One of the objectives I know President Trump is driving towards getting energy prices back to normal, getting the straight actually opened. While I agree with the president that we're in control of who's coming in and who's coming out, it's not free commercial travel there today. It's just you can see it by the insurers' unwillingness to insurerships that are moving through the strait to get back to that place that we want to. I think it's going to take more than just economic pressure. I think it's going to take more continued military efforts as well.

And I think the president will come to that same conclusion. Yeah, Mike Pompeo, very smart guy. And I would have thought made a great president as well. And certainly a great secretary of state. So, yeah, his thoughts on this carry some weight. Why does all this matter? I think it's simply a dispute over the money. You know, it's not just about the money. This has become part of the actual negotiation and the strategy that's going on here. In this dispute, you know. comes as both sides negotiate over that straight-of-home use. That's front and center right now. One of the world's most important oil and shipping choke points. And if that's disrupted or shuts down and there's constantly, you know, attacks going on in there, that can have long-term effect on the global economic picture when it comes to the oil. In any agreement over the waterway, I mean, this could have major consequences, you know, major consequences down the road. So they do need to keep that open. International waterways is the way it should be. Iran says no. We have still not really gotten to the point of this entire conflict. The nuclear capabilities or the lack of for the Iranian leadership. The bottom line is, no, can't have a nuclear weapon. But we're not even at that point right now. It's all about this other stuff that's continuing. So will we go big and strong, like the president continues to say? Well, he holds the keys. And right now is negotiation and attacking them already, destroying their military. And now the economic picture getting worse and worse by the day for those Iranian folks, they're running out of money. And at some point, they're going to be the first ones to blink, I do believe. Boy, I tell you, the president, I don't know when he sleeps because he never stops. And today's got a big trip planned over to Ohio for the Patriot Games. Our White House correspondent, John Decker, will be traveling with the president today and joins us now. Good morning, John. Hey, good morning to you, J.T. So you may be wondering, or members of your large audience may be wondering, J.T., what are the Patriot Games? Well, it's a youth sports competition. It's taking place in Geneva, Ohio, the president, traveling to Geneva today for the finale. It celebrates America's 250th anniversary. We have 120 student athletes aged 14 to 17. One male and one female athlete were selected to represent each of the 50 states. And then the winners, the one male, one female will receive a $125,000 scholarship. So all of that taking place today. They got a lot of events. You have an obstacle course. You have a tug of war. You have it all tests. strength, agility, teamwork, and all of that taking the place in Geneva, Ohio. It's going to be broadcast, by the way, on ESPN.

On Thursday, they have the rights to this, but the president will be there for the finale today. I love these kind of events. I love seeing kids get involved in this, and I love the president being a part of this as well. In addition to the Patriot Games, will the president be doing anything else in Ohio while he's there? Any political discussions with anybody? Any other rallies planned anywhere else, or is this the main event? Well, this is the main event. This is the reason for the president's day trip to Ohio. I'll be with the president, traveling with the president. I believe on that new Qatari gifted Air Force One. So looking forward to that, I'll give you the full review tomorrow, JT. But this is really the focus of the president's trip today. Although, as you can imagine, he's got a lot of travel that he has planned after Labor Day associated with the midterm elections, traveling to all these. Very important states where competitive Senate races in particular are happening and will be happening North Carolina, Ohio, Maine, Iowa, maybe even Alaska. You know, I'm traveling to Alaska actually next week because there's a competitive Senate race there. So the president has a lot of travel planned in the fall. All right, very good. John Decker, enjoy today. That should be a lot of fun. And yes, we'll get the recap with John Decker tomorrow. as he travels with the president today to Geneva, Ohio. Thank you, John. Don't forget, check out John Decker on the IHeart Radio app. Every day he updates his podcast there and the latest with John Decker once again and a podcast on the IHeard radio app. It is 646 now to Alabama's morning news. Some good news. Carrie Underwood does this on occasion. She goes to church in Nashville and she joined her church just this past weekend and performed Hillsong worships. What a beautiful name and what a beautiful voice, Carrie. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my king. What a beautiful name it is. Nothing compares to this. What a beautiful.

Does I want to bring tears to your eyes, man, the girl's voice is just amazing. Carrie Underwood, Dan, what a blessing to that congregation. And all of us, Carrie, thank you so much for that. Welcome in. We've got lots to cover for you this morning, coming up in about 20 minutes or so. At 7.10, FBI Special Agent in Charge, David Fitzgibbens here in Birmingham will be along. He's in charge of this area as well as North Alabama, Central and North Alabama. As parents are getting their kids back to school, some good advice from David Fitzgibbon, FBI Special Agent in Charge here on what you ought to be thinking about when you're taking photos of your kids, social media posts, having a good time, but also protecting your kids from the creeps that are out there looking at your kids. too. So more thoughts on that coming up at about 7-10. Luigi Mangione back in court today as his defense is challenging the press restrictions. They want to live stream portions of these proceedings. We'll talk with our Fox correspondent, Tonya, Jay Powers. Coming up next hour on that as well. Also, more on the primaries, not only here in what's happening with Alabama, but also around the country, South Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin. Some of the biggest storylines to follow will check in with Jeff Minasso at about 7.30 this morning. Also flocking. You're familiar with this? With the cameras everywhere to keep an eye on what's going on and helping and assisting police and catching the bad guys. Well, there's some pushback on some of this saying that, wait, is this too intrusive? Are we violating people's right to privacy? Cameras everywhere. I'm telling you right now, if you go to Manhattan, there is a camera every 10 feet on something. You can't walk in Manhattan without being on camera. It does help with law enforcement. There are some concerns about it. We'll talk with DW Nance, who is somebody that's outspoken as far as protecting our rights in this at 740 this morning. And then Alan Treadaway will join us 37 years in law enforcement and also former deputy chief at Birmingham PD and a state representative as well. on what goes on with flocking. So we'll hear both sides of this coming up in the 7 o'clock hour at 740 and 750. Also on the way, Aiken is a candidate for District 7 here in Alabama. She'll join us at 810 this morning. And Congressman Gary Palmer, District 6 will be along at 840 this morning as well. So lots to cover. Step into the world of power, loyalty, and luck. I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. With family, canoles, and spins meaning. Everything. Now, you want to get mixed up in the family business. Introducing the Godfather at Chamba Casino.com. Test your luck in the shadowy world of the Godfather slot. Someday, I will call upon you to do a service for me. Play the Godfather. Now at Chumpacasino.com. Welcome to the family.

This craziness that's going on in the WNBA right now is just out of control. I mean, when Caitlin Clark came into the league, finally they got the attention that I would think everybody would want in the WNBA. Nobody was watching that before she came along. And now it's become front and center because of her and Sophie Cunningham, but also not in a good way. Chicago Skyguard, Deongonee Carrington recently, who was... I mean, got a flagrant foul, too, a level two, a flagrant two. I mean, you know, where she jumped in Sophie Cunningham's face to try and block a ball. Then halfway through, it looks like she decided to just bring that forearm right across her face and knock her to the ground. Well, they looked at it. The referees called it. Hey, that's a flagrant foul. You're out. See you later. Go take a shower. You're done for the day. A flagrant two is an intentional. So a lot of people said, well, that wasn't really intentional. Even Sophie Cunningham's coach, who the foul was against, came out and said, well, that's just basketball. And kind of stood up for the opponent in this. I mean, what? Okay. Well, this whole thing about Sophie Cunningham has become just such a lightning rod because she is very outspoken about men in women's sports. No. She doesn't want trans men playing against girls when it comes to sports. And she, you know, like Riley Gaines, has become extremely outspoken about this. So when Dianjanae Carrington responded to the backlash over the social media posts, She went to the locker room and then she came back and posted something that said white privilege and tagged the Indiana fever, Sophie Cunningham's team, during the, you know, after the foul. White privilege? What does your foul have to do with white privilege? You're the one that hit Sophie Cunningham. How is that white privilege? You knocked her to the ground. You got called on it. It's a foul in a game you're playing. How do you take this into a political, you know, platform of your activism. Unbelievable. Carrington has now pushed back on the interpretation, but she didn't really claim what it was all about when you post white privilege. I think we get where you're coming from. She said the comment was part of a broader discussion about systematic issues in sports rather than the claim that the referee made the particular foul. Oh, please. What is the broader discussion? Men in sports?

She went race immediately in this whole thing, which is drawn a lot of criticism from black people as well. An NFL player, Manuel H.O., he said he came under attack because he basically said, this has nothing to do with race. What are you doing? I mean, he criticized her for this comment. As well, he should have. It was ridiculous. Well, then, you know, she says, okay, well, you just need to go check your, you know, your exercise, your critical thinking skills. Oh, okay. This is not a racial lens here, folks. Even Sophie Cunningham says that this is not race. I think the girl's jealous. I think they're upset that all the attention is going to Sophie Cunningham, Caitlin Clark, and the WNBA right now. And common sense prevails on this whole trans thing in men and women's sports. I mean, even Caitlin Jenner, who's transgender, obviously, Olympic athlete has said, look, no. It's not right. It shouldn't happen. So I don't understand the push on having trans men play in women's sports. Have you seen where a couple of retired NBA players men have decided to clear themselves legally for the draft in 2027 for the WNBA? Let's see how they respond to that. Alabama's morning news. I'm J.T. And as the kids go back to school, a lot of precautions need to be thought about before you jump out there and start taking all these pictures and posting and joining us now the special agent in charge. Dave Fitzgibbon's is with me. Good morning, sir. Good to see you. Good morning, JT. honor to be here. So special agent in charge means you run the office for the FBI in Birmingham, Alabama. Yes, sir. Central and North Alabama. Central and North. So Huntsville as well, you're the guy. Yes. In Tuscaloosa, you're the guy. My whole listening audience area, you're the guy. Well, I'm honored to have you here. And there are so many kids going back to school. I've got my granddaughters going back to school this week as well. And there's no doubt there's going to be those, hey, first day of school pictures that moms and everybody likes to post. And they're cute. I love them too. But there's some things going on. in the dark side of the world that we need to know about. So what do parents need to know about this? Yeah, JT. The FBI just wants to remind parents, students, educators, caregivers that these internet-related crimes are real. They're evolving and they're at our doorstep. And we've got to be very cautious on what we're putting online and who our kids are talking to online. Is it okay to take pictures in front of the school that would give away where they attend? Yeah, I think pictures, this is an exciting time as kids go back to school this week, pretty much all throughout Central Alabama. And pictures in front of a school are perfectly fine, right? We want to remember these moments. Yeah. But we just don't want to put any identifying information like a potential home address. If you're taking a picture or, you know, it may have the address right there on the mailbox curb, things like that. You just want to be cautious of. And most importantly, you want to be cautious of who they're...

communicating with online and social media. You know, it seems younger and younger. Kids are getting on social media. They're getting phones. They get smart watches. And they're engaging in this technology. It seems younger every year. You know, my 10-year-old granddaughter has this smart watch. Obviously, my daughter's all over it and monitors everything that happens with it. But these guys, these bad guys, you know, every time we get ahead of the game when protecting kids, they seem to be another step ahead of that and breaking through to our kids. So what do we need to be watching for? And how does this happen? Well, online predators, they're pervasive and they are targeting younger children more and more. have kids. You mentioned your grandkids. Those are concerns as they start getting on the internet, especially social media and who they're communicating with. And it's important for parents to know what apps they have and who they're communicating with. And if there's anything suspicious at all, or if they have concerns, tell a parent, tell someone you trust. It's so important just to stop before, especially you share any photos or information that you feel uncomfortable about. You know, in today's world, it really is the Wild Wild West out there. So you're basically opening the door for your kids to go play in the danger zones that exist globally, not just in their neighborhood. Maybe there's a weird old guy walking up and down the street. But now you're out there and they have access to your kid from all types of different environments. And the evil is out there. And his parents, you kind of like to assume, they're just having fun on social media. We're in a safe neighborhood and all this. But stay in your kid's business, I think, is the message, right? No matter what, look into their phones. What messaging are they getting? Where are they going in there? Yeah, that's really important, JT, to see who they're communicating with. What are they doing? Who are they chatting with? Also with gaming consoles, right? They're not just games anymore. They're online chats. People are communicating, sometimes via video. important and myself included to make sure we understand what our kids are doing and who they're talking with. And explain to these kids that just because you're online and they sound nice and friendly, they could be wanting to kidnap you and you don't want to scare the heck out of them in an early age, but you also want to be real with them. How far should parents go and explaining what's going on with these kids? Well, I think as far as needed to make sure they understand. And it's hard to get through sometimes the kids. I'll speak for myself. Yeah. But they have to understand the threats out there. When people are asking them maybe to go to a private chat, that's a red flag. Or to send a picture of themselves? Never. Right. Once that picture leaves their device or their phone, it's public. They have no control over that anymore. And then they could get extorted, potentially sextorted. There's a lot of threats out there online. Is it easy to groom a... kid and pull them in? Easier than we think? Well, they're very pervasive. These cyber criminals, these predators, these pedophiles. Yeah.

They're very persistent, right? And they groom at an early age. And just like any kid, sometimes, you know, they could be naive or not understand the full picture. So important for parents and trusted individuals and school principals, teachers, to be watching what kids are up to. You see these specials on news shows like 2020 and things like this where the parent thinks, you know, don't talk to strangers, right? And then the guy gets with the parents, says, really, let's see if that works. And they go to a park and then all of a sudden hidden cameras are catching this stranger approached that seven-year-old girl and next thing you know she's walking away to go see the puppy yeah and and there's the van and they stop everything and it's an actor obviously to prove a point and that kids even though they're told sometimes they go oh they seem so nice and you have a puppy let's go how do you avoid that Ready to put a little spin on your day? Then check out Chumba Casino's new online social casino game, Ryan Seacrest 10K Ways. It's free and packed with 10,000 ways to play. Only at ChambaCasino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, void where prohibited by law. CTs and Cs, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumpa Casino. Just awareness. Making sure kids understand, don't do that, don't ever do that. Tell an adult, walk away, run if you need to. And then online, it's just as scary, right? And child safety doesn't stop it at the steps of the school. Right? It continues with phones, computers, social media. It's a nightmare out there for these kids. I mean, you've got to be aware of everything. Right. You've got to be aware there's a lot of, you know, good opportunities with technology nowadays, but just making sure parents, teachers, educators were really engaged with what they're up to. It's an exciting time of year, too, at the same time, JT. Dave, is there a website where people can go to find out more and get tips on this? Absolutely. We have tips.fbi.gov, or they could call 1-800 call FBI, or they could call their local police department. For us, it's all about partnerships as well. We went very closely with local state law enforcement. reported if they see something suspicious. Awesome. Well, Dave Fitzgivins, I really appreciate you, a special agent in charge here in Birmingham and Central Alabama. Thank you, buddy. Come back soon. Thank you, J.T., appreciate it. Alabama's morning news. I'm J.T. and Luigi Mangione. Yeah, this is the guy that's accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare. You remember this story, right? Join us now for an update on what's going on with the court proceedings. Tanya J. Powers, our Fox correspondent in New York. Tanya, welcome in. Thanks for being here. Sure. Thanks for having me on. So here we go. The, I guess, final major pretrial conference before they start selecting the jury, right? So what's expected today? Well, this one is expected to focus on media access to the state trial. The state trial is still about a month off. September 8th is when it's expected to start. His attorneys are bringing up issues they feel they need to about how much of the public and the press will be allowed inside the courtroom. There was a media plan that was released by the court. Now, let me back up. This is the New York state case, not the federal case. The federal case, there's no cameras in the courtroom. The state case, that's what they're kind of haggling over right now, is what they're going to allow. The court's plan apparently uses, reveals that six journalists will be allowed for jury selection, just six. Mangione's, you know, lawyers.

objected to this, they want to know why the court is not going to use an overflow courtroom. They want to know how the six reporters are going to be chosen, why this is all not going to be live streamed. They say that limiting access could violate his constitutional right to a public trial. The prosecutors say the defense is trying to spread misinformation. Now, the overflow courtroom thing doesn't. sound like a very big deal. But if you're only allowing six reporters into the actual courtroom, big trials like this, you know, sometimes, you know, it's not uncommon for them to have overflow courtrooms. That is actually the way that I was able to cover the Joe Hars-Sarniaf trial in Boston for the Boston Marathon bombing several years ago was from an overflow courtroom because, you know, the actual courtroom was completely packed. The... You know, hearing is going to be, you know, kind of hammering out some of this stuff. His attorneys say they want to know if the Manhattan DA's office had any involvement in creating the media plan that was released by the court. He has, of course, pleaded not guilty to both the state and the federal charges of shooting the United Health Care CEO, Brian Thompson, outside the Manhattan Hotel there in December of 2024, just down the street from where I'm at right now, as a matter of fact. So we should hopefully find out, you know, maybe today or maybe shortly after that what the judge is going to decide on this if they're going to allow it to be live streamed. To say that there's a lot of interest in this case is an understatement. You know, most cases are open to the public. We have seen where judges have ruled, no, we're not going to allow cameras for whatever reason. We're not going to allow everybody to come in during certain. I guess, you know, hearings until the big trial begins after the jury's been selected. So, you know, the defense wants all the public to see it that can possibly see it, including let's stream this thing too. Remember, the OJ trial became must watch TV. So where do you think they're going to land on this petition from the defense and the argument from the opposite side? Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, they're still kind of going back and forth over this. The prosecution has asked, you remember I said that they said the defense is trying to spread misinformation. They've asked the judge to admonish or warn his attorneys about their ethical obligation to not knowingly make false statements or to the court or to the public. The judge. has not found that his attorneys have violated any kind of ethical rules. They have not granted the prosecution's request for a warning. So basically the judge is like, yeah, they didn't do that. So it's interesting to see if this is a...

if this was a starting point by the court and they're expecting them to come back and say, no, there should be more access. I mean, there is apparently going to be the public and the press inside. It's just how much room is going to be inside this courtroom for something that is such a huge trial. The federal trial is not supposed to get underway until January. There's also the, and I expect to hear more about this in the days to come, New York Times had a piece on this last week. a few days ago on the 7th about, you know, isn't this double jeopardy, which is probably something that we're going to hear more about in the days to come. Yeah. For him to be, you know, tried on the same, you know, charges basically for the same crime in two different courts. So that I expect us to hear more about. But hopefully today will get a better sense of what, you know, what's going to happen with this media, if this court's going to stick to this media plan or what. Yeah. Well, I'm generally, you know, open for, let's see it. I mean, get the cameras in there. It's public information. We need to see the trial. I'm generally speaking okay with this. But with two trials going on, as you mentioned, the double jeopardy possibilities, I don't. I don't think that's going to come into play. But, you know, they got the state trial first and then a couple of months later, a few months later, they're going to do the federal trial. Could that state trials results impact the federal trial? And maybe they don't want to have everything. you know, to taint the potential jury for the federal trials. So Tanya J. Power is interesting. Thank you for the update. By Alabama's morning news. I'm J.T. Jeff Minasso joins us now our Fox correspondent over there in Chicago. Ryan Crest here. So every great barbecue takes a little patience. And while the food does its thing, you can enjoy a little Chumba Casino. The perfect recipe. Chumba Casino, always good to have you back. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, void, were prohibited by law. CTs and C is 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. Take a look at some of these primaries happening around the country. Jeff, welcome in. Thanks for being here. Hey, buddy. Good to be with you. Major primaries in several states today that could offer an early read. where both parties are headed into the 2026 midterms in South Carolina. As we just heard, President Trump, he looks to see if his endorsement can produce another win with a Republican Senate primary there to replace the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Ten Republicans are competing, including Graham's sister, interim Senator Donald William, who has President of the Trump's endorsement, along with reps Russell Fry, Ralph Norman, and former Governor Mark Sanford. If no one gets a majority tonight, that race will head to an August 25th runoff. In Minnesota, a critical Senate race that pits progressive-inant governor in Flanagan against moderate rep, Angie Craig, with immigration, public safety, the federal crackdown in Minneapolis and questions about electability dominating that race. The winner will inherit an open Senate seat and immediately become a major national.

target in November on the Republican side of that Senate primary former sports broadcaster Michelle Tofoya has led rivals in polling and fundraising in the state's governor's primary Republican My Pillow Founder and prominent Trump ally Mike Lindell has surged after a recent Trump endorsement Recent polling has put Lindell above top, essentially ahead of a top rival, GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who won the Republican Party straw poll while Lindel has that support from President Trump. A big story, Wisconsin. The question is, can the Democrat establishment stop Francesca Hong in the state's open governor's race? The Democrat Socialists have become a frontrunner. And she's been endorsed by Ilhan Omar and the DSA, though notably Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aren't touching her. I mean, controversy that she once called for the abolishment of police forces and the holidays like Thanksgiving. Critics pointing to a post few years back when she called it a colonizer holiday. She's now walking back calling it her favorite holiday. Sure. She also resurfaced a clip in which she, which Hong discussed her navigation of identity railing about her proximity to whiteness and white people. Yeah. Insane. Current Democrat Democrat Bernie Evers had seen to snap down in fact Milwaukee County exec, David Crowley. You guys have a race down there, don't you? Oh, yeah, we've got a few races here because of the Supreme Court's decision allowing Alabama to use these congressional maps that, you know, have been changed. Now you've got the first and second district here as well as Gary Palmer's District 7, Terry Seuss District 7 there. Amy Aiken, who's a candidate in the Republican Party, is going to join us here in the studio next hour. Gary Palmer will be here as well. So I'm really curious, Jeff, to watch this. Wisconsin gubernatorial situation with this crazy hung. She is just way, way left. And if you don't have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders back in you, you know, that's the kiss of death, I would think. But, you know, we've been surprised by so many other pockets around the country with these socialists left part of the Democratic Party. Look, we better take these people seriously because the more and more they win, the more and more craziness is going to be happening for this country. And ultimately, just they want to ruin our country as we know it today. Jeff Monasso, thanks for the update, buddy. Once again, get out and vote this morning. The polls are open. They'll be open until 7 o'clock tonight. It matters. So go vote. A 5% turnout is not good. All right, coming up next. When it comes to police surveillance, there's something called flocking, and it's about surveillance with cameras and license plate readers. There's two arguments on this. One, Fourth Amendment. Is it in jeopardy? What are you doing? Privacy. Number two. It's a good tool for law enforcement. Absolutely. It helps criminals. Big discussion going on flock safety and what's going on when police use the flock system to surveillance and its cameras to read license plates and helping law enforcement's capturing of bad guys. Now, there's been some recent activity that made this thing come front and center here where cops misused it. And I think one actually...

tracked and followed an ex-girlfriend, foul ball officer, and not good, lost her job. Join us now to talk a little bit about the concerns on this, is DW Enhance, who has been a bit outspoken on making sure that this isn't going awry here, and our Fourth Amendment is protected. DW, welcome in. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much, JT. I appreciate the time. So talk to me about this whole surveillance. It's been used for years in big cities. I mean, you can't go anywhere in Manhattan. You can't walk a half a block without being on a dozen cameras. They're everywhere for purposes of law enforcement and crime prevention and crime investigations. Now, this recent incident I spoke of obviously raises red flags and the misuse of this by officers clearly should come with consequences. like they have, you know, shown here. So your thoughts on this whole process? Yeah, for sure. So this sort of license plate reader technology has been around for several years, just like you said. What's a bit different about flock specifically and, you know, the way that the technology has been driving change in law enforcement tools is. the network and the drag net effect about this. Several years ago, there wasn't hundreds of thousands of cameras across the country all talking to each other and using algorithms to try and decide who should be where and what should be going on. And that's really the big difference is, you know, somebody in Georgia can have access to travel patterns for somebody in Oregon. across the country. Tell me why that's a concern and why that raises a red flag. To me, it's sharing information looking for bad guys. Tell me the other side of it. For sure. The other side of it, in Georgia alone, in the last, I don't know, a couple of months, I believe we're at 27 officers that have been fired or arrested, not just fired, arrested for stalking. Exes. When we looked at the Blunt County Tribune, I believe, they had a... records requests that provided searches from their sheriff's officers. And you can see that they're just searching random stuff, their own license plates, other license, like they're just doing kind of whatever they want with it. And when I spoke with Alia, they're supposed to have audits on these and supposed to create a report once a year. They've never created that report. Ever. Yeah. And what you're speaking about in Georgia, you're right. I mean, recent investigation found some allegations in departments in Georgia and also in Texas, including Savannah, Albany, Sandy Springs, Baytown. And in Albany, apparently, five officers were fired. And in Savannah, they did an internal audit reportedly found 127 inappropriate searches out of approximately 39,000 searches.

Now, that may not sound like a lot, but 127 inappropriate searches using technology that's deemed necessary for law enforcement, yeah, that's a foul ball. And these people are facing serious consequences now. I like the fact that you're bringing this point up and a bit of a watchdog, if you will, to make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to do with this. And I think there should be more transparency and more audits. I wouldn't mind that either. An internal audit or an outside source audit where it's strictly to make sure that, hey, look, you know, as the chief of police, I want to make sure you guys are doing the right thing. So we've had cases where it's not going in the right direction. So we've got an independent audit that's going to take place and we'll look at this. So I like the fact that you're bringing this to front and center. Are you gaining any movement in the right direction as far as you're concerned on making sure they're using it the right way? As far as making sure they're using the right way, at least in Alabama, I think movements a little bit slow. Awareness is spreading. You know, more people like you are taking up this topic and letting their audience know. And I think that's hugely important just because... There's a lot of misinformation. We talk about flock cameras as if they are the camera. Alabama uses, I don't know, four or five different vendors of automated license plate reader camera. So flock is kind of like a Kleenex sort of situation where it's a brand is taken over what they actually are. And so many of these cameras do so many different things, right? Some of them are license plate reader cameras. Some of them are live stream cameras where people are watching them constantly. Our surveillance contracts in Birmingham and. 80 plus municipalities aren't even with flock safety or the vendor they're technically with Alabama power and Alabama power can give that data to whoever they want As long as it's not illegal. That's what it says in the contract. Well, there you go. It's got to be legal, and the police departments have got to police, no pun intended, their own employees to make sure they're not misusing this. And if they are, consequences need to follow. Well, I appreciate you this morning, DW, and we'll chat again because I'm sure this is still going to be out in front and discussed on how police departments operate and, you know, concerns the public has. So thanks again, buddy. I appreciate you. Yes, sir. Anytime. Just let me know. All right. Alan, good morning. Welcome in. Thanks for being here. Yes, sir. Good morning. So, as you may have heard, the guest we just had on, raising some concerns, some flags about what's going on with police surveillance, the flock system, surveillance cameras. And we pointed out that obviously a lot of law enforcement uses as a tool. in investigations and catching bad guys. So he says, well, watch out now. Fourth Amendment, you know, privacy and yada, yada, yada. Tell me about, first of all, how you use this or how law enforcement uses this. You spent 37 years in law enforcement, Deputy Chief at Birmingham PD. So tell me how you have used it and how you're familiar with it and how beneficial it is.

Well, it's vitally important to law enforcement. It has solved crimes all the way up to murder, crimes that would not have been solved otherwise. A lot of issues, I'm getting phone calls about it from several other folks that I represent in my district. But I think those concerns can be alleviated by proper guardrails put up. But last year alone, 10,000 missing persons, and that's a conservative number. of missing persons found because of this technology. There's no doubt positive. But when you see the, you know, the stats coming out of Georgia, I was mentioning 127 inappropriate searches like ex-girlfriends and other things out of 390,000 or 39,000 searches. That seems like a drop in the bucket. But... Using this improperly inside police departments, there are consequences for this, correct? There's no question. Most of your larger departments have policies and procedures in place. People, as you had mentioned earlier, a lot of these folks in Georgia have been fired or severely disciplined. We need to take a strong look at putting their safeguards in place. to alleviate the citizens' concerns of privacy. Those are legitimate. But, you know, we can go back. That's why the HIPAA laws evolved there. Or criminal checks. We stop you on the side of the road. We're going to do a criminal check. If officers abuse that, excuse me. Yeah. They can be charged criminally, terminate it and charge criminally, and it happens. We've got to have better policies in place in many of the smaller departments. And this is evolving, this technology, obviously. But it is vitally important. If you had a loved one that was kidnapped, murdered, you want that crime solved. The quicker we solve it, the better we have this individual in custody and not repeating other serious crimes. So we've got to look at the positives there. And yeah, I agree with the positives on this outweigh the negatives a thousand to one, you know, and you're right. When you get the one incident, it spoils everything for everybody in the department. It makes it look bad. So, yeah, stand on top of this for sure. Alan, I'm up against the clock, buddy. I'll have you back soon. I appreciate your work you've done for years. And thank you so much for being with me this morning. Yes, sir. Bye. It is Election Day. Get out and vote. And one of the candidates today is Ammy Aiken. is in the studio. She's running for District 7 here up against a guy named David Perry and then obviously Terri Sewell, if and when she does win this little primary we've got going on. Amy, welcome in. Thanks for being here. Thanks, J.T., for having me and for saying my name right. Well, first of all, what's up with Amy versus Amy? Well, it was my great grandmother's name. Okay. Yeah, so. passed a long family name, but my boys are Jack, George Henry. Easy, so they don't have to correct anyone for the rest of their lives. I like that. I like that. Well, I appreciate you coming in, and I want to hear all about you and why people should vote for you versus David Perry and versus Terry. So, well, we don't need to go there. We know that. But tell me about your background. What led you to this? Yeah, so a quarter of a century, 25 years, I've been in education working with people, just ready to step into more.

And that more is District 7. Yeah, your district is all over the map, by the way. It's from up here in Fultondale all the way down to almost the coast, isn't it? Isn't that weird? 100% by Square Miles District 7 is the largest district. And yes, you're right. We go all the way from Fultondale and into Huey Town and Bessemer and McCullough and all through Tuscaloosa County on through, oh, just name it. Well, you're Hoover, too. Yeah, Hoover. We've got about. Let's see, 18,000 homes in Hoover. Yeah, all through Hoover. And then we go all the way to Washington County. I mean, named the counties in between. Chop, Tall, Perry, yeah, Wilcox. I mean, we got the whole state, really, almost. Well, I was looking at your website and your background in education is, you know, pretty exemplative. exemplary or exemplary or whatever the word is. Pretty fascinating. How about that? And impressive, too. And what you've done outside of education with other parts of your life and in the community work, talk to us about some of that. Yeah, sure. So I would say one example of working with the community as a project that I've been working on with my husband. And it's called Hubbing the Hills. And basically we noticed across the board that nonprofits spend way too much on overhead. And is there a better way so they can spend more money on the people they serve? And so Hubbing the Hills is a shared space for nonprofits. And I use that example because that's how I lead. Are you the executive director of that? No, I'm not the executive director of that. Just. Created it with my husband. Okay, very cool. Well, you know, and running nonprofits, I was in an organization Youth for Christ for a number of years, which is a teenage ministry to help kids make a better decision based on the relationship with Jesus versus the world. But you have to raise money as a leader of an organization like that. And, you know, we don't do it for money, but it takes money to do what we do. Drew McIntyre here from WWE. Weilding the Claymore can be a life of chaos. When I'm not dominating in the ring, Chumba Casino is how this warrior takes a wee break. With hundreds of online social games and new weekly releases, there's always something fresh to try. And those daily boosts next level. Even my free time feels like Valhalla. So when life feels like a battle, kick up your feet, have some fun, and let's chumba. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law, CTs and Cs, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino. Was it difficult for you to get out and do that type of thing, raise money and spread the word on what you're doing? Well, when you believe in something, it's easy to tell a story. Yeah. And that's authentic. And people want to get on board with things that are good and that help people. And I would say, as I pivot even to the campaign, I mean... Our campaign is all about people, and we do. We have to raise money for that, too. We've got a short, I think, like 83 days until November 3rd, but it's going to take a lot of money to get us there. Well, let's run down some of the items that are concerns of voters here in our state. And obviously, the economy is always front and center. Number one, whether it's a local election, a state election, or a presidential election, if the economy's not clicking, you know,

you better be bringing change to make it happen. So what are your concerns and thoughts on where we are economically in the state of Alabama? versus the nation and your thoughts on improving it? Yeah, sure. So what I would say and what I would point you to first is District 7. And I could have come in here with a five-point economic plan, but the reality is the economic plan for Jefferson County and Tuscaloosa County is going to look different than what the economic plan might be in Connecticut County. And so all the needs are different. parts of the state are different. So what that's about is meeting with the people, actually being face to face, being in the community, seeing what's going on there, and then we develop a plan from that that we can execute and is sustainable. So is there a model out there? Probably across the country. But the reality is every city, every county is different needs. Different needs. Yeah. When you travel the district and talk to people that are. potentially going to vote for you. What are the biggest concerns? What's the biggest one that you think surfaces every place you go that people want to talk to you about? Sure. Well, I would say there are three things. It's affordability, crime, and education. And if we get education right, well, the other things will typically... fall into place. Right. And so those are the three things no matter where I am that people want to talk about. And I'll tell you something else, we're not even talking about a lot of partisan issues. What I'm hearing is people from across the aisle who just want their communities to be better. They want safe communities in good schools, and they want to be able to afford where they live. And they want their children not to leave and never come back. They want their city and their county to be a place that their kids can return to. I think it's just... obnoxiously disgusting with the push from the crazy lefts and these socialists these days that want to defund the police, get rid of ICE, get rid of the presidency, as we know, and have Congress appoint the president. I mean, it's just one thing after another destroying what the founding fathers established this nation on years ago. It bothers me that they're gaining some traction in these liberal cities and these leftists, you know. coming in here, just like socialism is the way to go. And does that concern you at all that we're seeing some growth in this arena? Well, it concerns me and the people that I'm meeting with, again, from both sides of the aisle. They're not socialist, and that is not who they are. And I don't believe that's who America is. I believe those are the loudest voices right now. But if we don't step out there as conservatives, if we don't step out there and fight in the voting booth against it, then absolutely. Yeah, that will take over. And does it concern me? Yes. But that's what makes our country incredible and different from any other country in the entire world, is that we can control that by showing up.

I still want to believe exactly what you said, that the majority of this country, 80, 20, 70, 30 is common sense and one's good for our lives and our family's lives. And we're not putting up with this crazy nonsense. And you're right, the screaming crazies on the left, and there's some on the right, too. They seem to grab the cameras and the microphones because it's titillating, sensationalism, whatever you want to call it, it grabs the headlines and gets more attention. But I pray that the reality is... the common sense will prevail in all this, and God's will be done in these elections. So I appreciate where you stand on everything. We've talked more about this before, and I've seen more issues on your website. If you're interested in seeing what Amy is all about, go to Amy Aiken, A-K-I-N, her website, her page there, lays it all out where she stands on things. And you sound like somebody could lead real well. You got my vote. Well, I appreciate it. And I encourage everyone that's listening today to get out and vote. And I would be honored. I'd be honored to have their vote. And what I would say is for the last eight terms. the representative for this district. Goshly, yeah, 16 years coming up. It's time for change. Right, it's time. Well, look at the district. Is it better or not? Yeah. Has it changed or not? Amen. Well, thank you for coming in. I appreciate you. It's great to meet you. Good to meet you, too. Alabama's morning news. I'm JT. and joining us now our Fox correspondent to Evan Brown on what's happening with our kids back in school now. And, oh, the cops, they want us to be really aware of what's going on out there. Evan, welcome and thanks for being here. Good morning. We taking photos of your kids can go real sideways real quick there if the wrong person gets a hold of it and, you know, digs into eyeballing your kids. So what are these officers talking about when it comes to, you know, the awareness for parents around the country? Yeah, so parents love to take these photos, especially with young kids. You know, the kids are waiting for the school bus. It's the first day of school, and they're out there in front of the house, and they hold up a sign or a chalkboard that's very well decorated. It says, Billy's first day of first grade, Mrs. Jay Jones class, Happy Dale Elementary or something like that. You know, at one point in time, Billy will grow up. He'll be 18 and will have a checking account, and he will have to. type in an answer to a question to recover his password. What's your elementary school's name? Or who was your first grade teacher? Something like that, right? Well, that information is now out there because mom took a photograph and posted it on her, on her Instagram, you know, some years ago. And the AI scraped it and gave it to some, you know, bad, bad actor who just now has all this information sitting around at their disposal. So the idea here is to just be a bit more careful with the kind of personal, you know, personable and or personalized and identifiable information.

with regard to your kids. So go ahead and take that photograph, but the sign should just say, Billy's first day of school, mom and dad, love you. The grandparents are going to love the picture no matter what. be careful about posting it online, make sure it is restricted, so maybe only friends and family can see it and not the internet at large. And if you're taking the photograph in front of the house, please don't have an angle where we can see your house number. Yeah, not a good idea. No, no. And, you know, I've talked to officers about this as well, and I say, what about the name of the schools? Like, that's fine. Your child doesn't live there, but they said the exact same thing you just did, and that is. Don't take it with a house number, you know, in front of your house and open the door for, oh, okay, now I can really zoom in here and find out what's going on with this kid and keep an eye on them. Because, you know, the bad actors are out there. And, yeah, unfortunately, just be more aware and keep your kids aware of all of this as well that, you know. As much as we love first day of school pictures and things like this, you need to have some serious conversations with, you know, what's really going on out there sometimes. Not scare them to death, you know, the first day of school, but certainly, you know, make them more aware and age appropriate and keep them informed on him. Evan Brown, thank you for the update, buddy. I appreciate you. I'm J.T. We are glad to have you along this morning. I appreciate you on this Tuesday, August 11th. Congressman Gary Palmer is going to join us here in just about five minutes or so. How about the Anthony Fauci situation? This guy ought to be in jail. I'm not sure he's going to spend a day in jail. We'll get Gary's thoughts on this as well. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, I mean, misled us, lied to us, blatantly lied to us and put people's lives in danger in all of this. And I've got to tell you with what's come out in these text messages, what I guess it was from 2021. And the folks that got this all out there was represent, I guess it's a Senator Congressman Johnson. brought this to, you know, front and center and made it, you know, available for all of us to take a look at it. They took them up before Congress to answer questions. You heard it 111 times. I'm pleading the fifth. I'm not answering anything. Lawyers recommended he do that, which to me just screams, you know, problems, if nothing else. Here's Congressman Johnson on how he feels now that this whole thing has come out. We tell pregnant women don't even have a glass of wine. And yet we coerced them, convinced them, sometimes mandated them to get an experimental Jane therapy as early as the first trimester. This is truly sick. And the way this has been, I've known about this for years. But finally, because we have a text associated with St. Anthony Fauci, it's finally getting the play in the media that's been deserving for years. First of all, I've never heard if federal health official admit that about the injections. So again, if you remember, cytokine storm was the thing that was causing all kinds of lung problems. So that's a serious adverse event, which is the second injection, particularly, apparently. But then that could theoretically...

cause miscarriages in the first trimester. Well, there you go. So the question I think now is who knew what, when, and if the senator there, Ron Johnson, knew, and as he said, he knew this, and now it's come to fruition, out in public, why wasn't something done at the time? Why wasn't there more pushback from our elected officials on what Anthony Fauci was doing? If there was a lot of concern with everybody taking these shots that were brand new, six feet separation everywhere masks on no matter where you are Step into the world of power, loyalty, and luck. I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. With family, canolis, and spins mean everything. Now, you want to get mixed up in the family business. Introducing the godfather at chumpacasino.com. Test your luck in the shadowy world of the godfather's slots. Someday, I will call upon you to do a service for me. Play the godfather. Now at chumpacasino.com. Welcome to the family.

If there was concern like that from the public, where were our representatives on this? So moving forward, yeah, I think the guy should be in jail. Will he likely go to jail? Probably not. But he's worth a lot of money. I'd be bringing lawsuit after lawsuit on this guy. In Alabama's morning news, I'm J.T. Congressman Gary Palmer in the studio with us now to talk about a number of things in seven minutes. We've got a lightning run, Gary. Good to see you. Welcome in, buddy. Thanks for having me on, J.T. Of course. So, Dr. Anthony Fauci, let's go there first since we were just talking about him. Your thoughts on these text messages, and Senator Johnson, unveiling this along with Rand Paul, I believe, was the other guy. Well, I think this guy's got to be in jail. He lied to us. Well, and you made the point. I was listening to you, said, you don't think he'll ever go to jail, but he's worth $12 million. He got rich off of this. And if we can't put him in the jailhouse, we ought to put him in the poor house. People ought to sue him. I know there's not going to be a lot of recovery there because he only got about $12 million, but he shouldn't be allowed to profit from anything. The other thing is look at how the Democrats defending. Every Democrat supports this guy. I don't get that either. And, you know, this is one of the things I'm trying to get across people. Just look at how they support Anthony Fauci and how they support some of these other crazy people, criminal people. If we lose a majority, just think about what's coming after that. Well, you think about what Democrats are now, and even they are split now with these crazy socialists. And you're seeing them pop up and win these different primaries around these, you know, obviously liberal-run, leftist towns and cities. It's alarming. And we better pay attention to this. With the exception of only a couple of them, though, J.T., they're all scared to death to say anything. They won't oppose their colleagues who are supporting Anthony Fauci. They won't oppose their colleagues who are supporting these communists. They're not socialists. They're communists. Read their platform. Right. Everybody listen to you ought to go look at the Democrat Socialists of America's platform. I was talking, I was on a flight home, and a guy sitting next time he was from his body language. It's very evident that I'm not on his Christmas card list. But he was watching me edit letters to our constituents. We get lots of letters from constituents. We respond to every one of them, and I edit every one of them. So I think he was reading what I was saying. And when I finished, I closed my laptop. We're about 30 minutes from landing. And he looked at me, he said, I disagree with every position you hold. And I thank him for letting me know and how much we both should appreciate living in a country where we can have opposing views. And then he starts telling me there are no one can earn a billion dollars. Why, yeah. Did you get into it with him? Yeah. And then I talked to him about the Democrat Socialist platform. He said, oh, they really don't mean that. Are you kidding me? You posted on... For the public, for everybody to see, and that's what you're running on, and they really don't mean that? Yeah, they do. Yes, they do. They mean more than they're saying. A lot more. This infiltration of Islam in this country is alarming right now, and it's happening right underneath our nose. They're taken over with not one shot fired. You know, what worries me is that we've got so many conservatives out there and people who don't support any of that.

who won't bother to vote. Get out and vote today, folks. I don't care if you think it's a shoe in for whoever. Well, in 2018, vote anyway. In 2018, we lost the majority. And there were 8 million people who voted for Trump in 16 who didn't vote in 18 in the congressional races. And we lost the majority by a cumulative less than 135,000 votes total. And it's just because people are sitting at home. And these socialists, they're motivated, man. They have an agenda and they're pursuing it. So we do. I got to believe. And I was talking to Amy Aiken about this, who's running for the Terry Souls District on the Republican side, about, you know, the lack of voters getting off the couch and getting out there. You know, and these socialists and, you know, they make Hakeem Jeffries look like a moderate. I mean, the Democratic Party, do you believe that they're split or they'll coalesce at the end of the day? Or do you think this is, you know, because I don't believe that the country is as big as supporters of these, even the Democrats. I believe that common sense, 80% of this nation is common sense and doesn't want this madness in office. Here's what people need to understand. It's largely, they're winning races in heavily urban areas, New York, Denver, places like that, Detroit. Minnesota. Well, I don't think it's going to play well in some of the suburban areas. And I think that advantages us because there are a couple of freshmen Republican that were concerned about their seats. Both their opponents are Democratic Socialists and it's more suburban. So I think that helps us. But what everybody needs to understand is if they win a few more seats, they may have won enough already, and then join forces with the squad, they will determine the leadership in the Democratic Party in the House. They will, and if they were to get the majority, you think about committees that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would chair, or she might even be the speaker, Ilhan Omar might be chairing judiciary. this is what's at stake and people need to wake up. Yeah, this nation won't stand for it. I'll tell you that, but it'll be too late if you don't get out and do something about it now. And really, get motivated to go vote. Every chance you have an opportunity to vote whether you think it's important or not or matters or not, go vote. I mean, just make it part of what you do. And this country's going to go to hell in a handbasket if we're not careful. You know, I'm talking to a lot of people out of long discussion yesterday about the affordability issue. And all of us are, none of us want to pay the high gas prices or anything, but I just pointed something out. In March of 22, gas was $4.45.9 a gallon. It went nationwide. The average went to over $5 a gallon by the summer. Inflation in June of 22. Okay, this is 18 months into the Biden administration. hit 9.1 percent. The last report for us, three and a half. We're making progress, but people just need to give us time. We had eight years of Obama, four years of Biden that we're trying to correct course on. They increased the debt by $8.4 trillion in just two years. The two years that Biden had a majority in both houses.

Give us time. We're working toward that. We know who our base is. We know that people are struggling. We're trying to get this fixed. You know, every financial person or economist I've spoken to says the economy appears to be, you know, sluggish because of the Iran war. But, you know, foundationally, the economy's in good shape. And when this war is over, we're going to be on track to bounce back pretty quick. It's not like the entire economy struggling with this. Look at Wall Street. I mean, it's just kaboom. And this whole thing about tax anybody makes more than, you know, whatever it is, you know, millionaires and billionaires. just to accomplish, you know, socialist platforms and give everybody free Medicare and free this and free that. Even Governor Kathy Hochul in New York is backing up on Zohran Mamdani. I mean, it's not sustainable. And these people that are winning these elections, I don't know what the attraction is. I've seen the crowds that show up for these people. It's a little bizarre looking if you follow me. They're not for taxation, JT. They're for confiscation. There you go. Exactly. So, you know, next one of my, you know what I'm going to say? Oh, let's say, you made $100,000 last year? Let's say I made $80,000. That's a $20,000 difference. Why you cut me a check for $10,000 right now? Let's make it even. You want everything even. Or if you're in the government and controlling everything, you'll just take it from it. Oh, sure. Yeah. No, it's got to stop. Well. Get out and vote. I know you're going to go vote, you know, and get things moving in the right direction for us, folks. We got to go vote. We can't sit on the sidelines anymore on this. So your thoughts quickly before you go. Where are we with this war? I mean, President Trump's obviously in control of the situation. Iran militarily has been decimated. Economically, now we're getting to where it really punches them in the gut. I mean... They're going to be broke, and I would imagine at some point they're going to flinch, but we can't keep our eye off the nuclear ball that is the stickler in all of this. It's all straight to Hormuz right now, but let's not forget the big one. Your thoughts on where we are right now. You and I've had this discussion several times, and I felt like if we were going to go in, we needed to finish the job. And the only way you're going to finish the job is to remove this regime of homicidal maniacs. My concern is if we don't shut them down, if we don't. do what it takes, and they get a bomb, they'll use it. And the other thing that people need to understand is if Iran ever gets a nuclear weapon, Egypt's going to get one, the Saudi is going to get one, there's going to be nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle East. There's so much at stake here.

But we've got to finish it, and I think we will. I agree with you. 100%. Well, Gary, thank you so much. Good luck today. I appreciate you. Thanks, J-T. Appreciate you. Ryan Crest here. So every great barbecue takes a little patience. And while the food does its thing, you can enjoy a little Chumba Casino. The perfect recipe. Chumba Casino, always good to have you back. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, void where prohibited by law. CTs and C is 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.