Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
From major events to local headlines. This is Charleston's morning
News on ninety four to three WUSC. Now back to
Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I feel a little insane in the membrane.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I actually had some guacamole in the snack bag from
over the weekend that I accidentally spilled on the floor
here for I guess we'll just chalk it up to
the fifth of May.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh great, happy Cinco de Mayo.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
There's splattered guacamole in the studio in here, so watch out.
I'm glad the carpets are dark.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
There was so well. For those that'll remember this radio
station back in the ninety six wave days. Sometimes I
go grab some food from the Chinese buffet for Uncle
Miles and myself and would go, you know, eat lunch
together back at the radio station. And so one day
I had like curry, you know, the yellow Yo Boy
(00:55):
yellow curry and all this, and I'm walking down the
hall and I drop one of the containers with the
yellow curry in it, and I mean a big old
pile of food right in the middle of the hallway.
And that yellow stain was in that carpet for years
after this. It's probably still there is still there anyway,
O Governor. This morning's top stories, Mike Waltz will face
(01:18):
an uphill battle during his confirmation hearing to become US
ambassador to the UN. That's what Virginia Democratic Senator Mark
Warner told CNN's State of the Union, saying he expects
it to be brutal. Waltz faced intense criticism for mistakenly
adding a reporter to his signal group chat that discussed
plans for a military strike in his former role as
(01:38):
National Security Advisor. Trump said that in the interim Secretary
of State, Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor
while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
This one's a tough one, Poor Marco Rubio.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
By the way, Well, Marco Rubio seems very capable, actually.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Is, but he's got a lot going on. This is
unbelievable in so many ways. The spin of this with
a whole UN ambassador thing. I just we'll hear from
Trump coming up. I'd be curious to hear what anyone
else thinks, because I just even we heard jd Vance
last week.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Saying that there was a promotion, that this was a promotion.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, the vice president, you know, here in the low country,
actually talking to steel workers, and it didn't hit.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
It's not hitting, not the way they wanted to know.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I mean, who believes that this was a promotion other
than JD. Vance Well, and I'm not sure he believes.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
The president says it here coming up, I'm telling you so,
I and.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Then all the saying who believes it, right, I know?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Well, and then also the confirmation hearing that, you know,
there's massive concerns that that's another nightmare.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean in a way, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I don't know how this should have been handled, but
I think not completely walking away from him was the
goal because it would have set a precedent with his
top cabinet picks and sort of people going after them.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's That's how
they want to frame it is that Trump doesn't want
to admit, you know, that mistakes were made and give
the other side the satisfaction you know of driving out
Mike Waltz, right, you know, and then you have to
wonder at the end of the day, how serious of
an infraction was it. I mean, I think it was
a big story.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yes, I would agree, but I also think to your
point about the level of severity, I you know, I don't.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This one's a tough one for me.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Well it is, and you know, and at the very
least they could say, well, look, we're revamping the way
that governmental departments and you know, administration level departments and
department heads communicate. Is what happened was somebody had forward
a message to Mike Waltz that was that had what
(04:08):
was his name, Jeffrey Goldberg attached to it. And remember
Mike Waltz said, I don't even know this guy, and
they're like, that's impossible. You had his numbers contact on
your phone. Well, it turns out that his number was
tied to a message that was forwarded to Waltz and
it went into his contacts under somebody else's name, Jeffrey
Goldberg's number, and that's how he got in on this
(04:31):
signal group chat. So it appears Mike Waltz was telling
the truth that he didn't know the guy and you know,
wouldn't have had his contact in his phone. That it
happened accidentally. So at the very least they can say, look,
we're reviewing this, and plenty of other government agencies use
this app because it's the most secure that we can find.
(04:52):
You know, when they're not able to all sit down
in the same room together. And in the modern world,
that happens a lot. I mean, it happens in business,
happens in government. So you know what's the answer there.
So I'm not even sure that all of this that
his departure is due to the signal chat dust up.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
No, because we're not talking about Pete.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Hegsea. Do you find that interesting? Not a whole lot
of conversation about Pete.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Yeah, Well, I mean they continue to come after him,
and I think they'll continue to come after him. So
coming up next, we'll have President Trump's comments on Mike Waltz.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Check out our website ninety four three wsc dot com.
Now back to Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
The coup whom I'm feeling it Alice Cooper. So if
you're an Alice Cooper fan, he's going to be here
at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center this Wednesday, So
tickets are still available. Get your tickets to go see
Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper was like huge in his day.
A lot of people don't give enough credit it for
being as big as star as he was. They don't
(06:03):
think he was that pick. Really, he had his own
square on Hollywood squares.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I think he's I think he's big time, but they.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Look at him as like the creepy guy. You know,
you're cutting the heads off of dolls and all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
He used to do well.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But anyway, I mean he was huge.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
He wasn't the one who ate the head off a bat.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
No, that was.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I know he toured doll heads apart.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yeah, Alice Cooper did all kinds of guillotine chopped his
hat off on stage at one point. Listen, stuff like that,
rock and roll, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Live music and oh I saw I did all weekend
Long Birdfest, Bluegrass Festival, Ricky Skaggs, Kentucky Thunder.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Who go see Alice Cooper. That'll be fun.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, Wednesday at the North Charleston Pack. So we've been
talking about Mike Waltz this morning and his supposed promo,
according to Vice President j d Vance, to be you
an ambassador. And we were talking before the break where
I'm like, you know, I'm not so sure that this
was because of signal gait, at least not by itself
(07:16):
that maybe there was something else at play here. Let's
hear what the President had to say about it.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
I didn't confidence those wight, did I list confidence? He's
going to the United Nations reverence?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
To me?
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I think it's personally. If I had a choice for
myself of doing it, I'd rather have got you up
than Neil.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well, there you go, so a plane side interview there,
which is why it's so noisy.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But could you hear what he said.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
I could barely hear what he said.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'd lose confidence.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
He said, if he had the choice, he'd rather be
you an ambassador. That's what Trump said.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I'm a little surprised about that last comment there, yea
why Well.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You know, I don't know. Well, probably because you get
to go to fancy parties and eat good food and
hang out with the rich and famous. Stress probably. I
mean we would have to ask Nicky Haley about that.
She had that same position she I.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Mean, she made a lot of headlines. I think we
have to remember that this has to get congressional approval.
And he also was asked about the timeline on this,
and you know what he said, could take six months.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
To get him approved.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Isn't that shocking?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That was not I mean, that seems pretty far out
considering how fast this administration movesment.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Of course we're talking about Congress.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, we're talking about Congress, and you know the well
look at how just like they move at the speed
of sloths, right, the federal government. And all you had
to do is watch that interview the other night with
Doge and the members of Doge, everybody from Elon Musk
to Big Balls, his whole team, and they're all sitting
(08:55):
there saying, telling these stories about just the inefficiencies of
government and how long it took for a federal employee.
Did you catch that part where how long it took
a federal employee to retire? And they found this, you know,
underground mine where they store papers, and they said the
stack of papers is like a phone book, and that
(09:16):
that's the process in this modern age in twenty twenty five,
you know that it's still a big old stack of papers,
and that it took I can't remember how long they
said it was a very long time to process the
retirement of a federal employee. You would think that you
could do that almost in the snap of you know, your.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Fingers electronically, right, not by printing out papers and putting
them in envelopes and stuffing them in the side of
a mountain. The whole thing is crazy. And they there's
two hundred people I think employ are employed just for
that facility you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, so they can't even make up.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
This is nuts.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
It's totally nuts. And so at least they're doing something
about that. But so when you say it's going to
take you know, up to six months to get Mike
Waltz uh well have a vote on him, I guess
that would be right.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah, I mean that's what the president said. And unfortunately,
you know they're they're short clips. I mean, I'm glad
that he's you know, making himself so available to the media,
the media obviously traveling with him, and so it's wasn't
a long form sit down, although he's had those two
on NBC and other places.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Well, he was on Meet the Press, YEP on Sunday,
so and you know, in his first hundred days they
did he was all over the place. So I mean,
he is very accessible. We're on the other hand, you know,
the previous administration, I've hardly ever heard from that doddering
old fool.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I don't want to hear any more of the screaming
in the works.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
He's going to be on the view this week, I
know with Doctor Jill. You must see TV.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Now Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Plays.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Approaching seven thirty. Welcome in.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Not good news if you have to hit the cross
town there to get through from a James Island West
Ashley area with one lean lost this morning. Not a
good way to start a work week or a Monday
morning commute.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
No typical Monday. Stuck in traffic ruing the day ahead,
but it'll be okay. Federal officials say the government began
collecting defaulted to student loan payments starting today. The collection
efforts will be the first since the start of the
pandemic the Trump administration. So the debt will be collected
through a Treasury Department program that withholds payments from tax refunds,
(11:32):
wages in government benefits. The US Education Department has not
collected the loan payments since March of twenty twenty. Officials
say in the last five years, student debt has risen
to over one trillion dollars.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Listen to the mess. This is twenty twenty yep. Does
that Does that blow anyone else's mind? Any debts that
you've had, that you owe, that you've been allowed a
grace period of five years to not pay anything.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Well, remember Biden wanted to write them off.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Oh I know, it went all the way to the
Supreme Court. Mm hm.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
And so you know, after yeah, five years, people are
going to have to start paying up. A lot of
them thought that maybe they wouldn't have to pay back
at all.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
This is going to be loud the pushback on this.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Well, I mean the whole thing. And if you dig deeper,
I mean, the cost of education is through the roof.
Why is it through the roof? It's because of this
these loans that were made available anyway, so they try
to make education more affordable. See this is the unintended
consequences of the federal government. And this happens all over
the place in the federal government. So they say, all right,
(12:49):
we're going to help people out. We need to give
them a low cost loan to go get an education.
So there was more money available, so of course, more
students available for these colleges. So the college just jacked
up their prices and took that savings that was meant
for the recipient of the loan, and the college is
(13:09):
made out like bandits, and people are stuck holding the
bag a lot of times with these degrees that they're
not even earning money on and having to pay back
a ton of money, you know, to have earned in
the first place, so you know the degree. So they
pay all this money to go to college, and then
they can't even put it to use, and then now
(13:30):
they're on the hook to pay all of this back.
College has got a bunch of money. The government give
themselves a nice pat on the back when they did it,
and then try to take another nice pat on the
back by writing it all off.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I just wonder how many people in the last five
years that they so called haven't collected continued to pay.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I'm sure there's a lot of people that feel the
need to do the right thing right.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Right, I just percentage wise, I wonder, but otherwise.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And there's some people that it has not been demanded
of them. And you know, it's been a tough time
in the economy. They're dipping into their retirement funds, they're
putting money on credit cards, and so it was a
relief for them to not have to pay these student
loan debts, and now they're going to have to start
paying up again. So it's that much more hardship for
some of these people.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Well, and I mean there are some people I know
that have student loans that are frankly as high as
a mortgage payment.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Sure, and so I mean to me, you better be
convinced that whatever you pursue educationally for that much money.
Listen to Dave Ramsey and some of these people, yes,
with their student loan debts and how much they've racked
up chasing an education and end up owing hundreds, literally
(14:49):
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in a lot of
cases they're not making it back. So I mean, again,
you have to be smart with your money and smart
with your education and make sure that you going to
use it. If you're going to PLoP down several hundred
thousand dollars to get it, and especially if you're going
to borrow money to do.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That, well, yeah, and I back in our day, I
mean a couple hundred thousand dollars in loan, in student
loans debt, that's you being a doctor or an attorney.
I mean, to your point about the jacking up of
a you know, good old American education and university in America.
It's gotten insane.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
It's totally gotten insane. So the President has now managed
to enrage some Catholics. What did he do? We'll have
that story coming up next.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Now Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Hey, thanks for being with us on this Monday morning.
I hope you're doing well this morning. President Trump's being
criticized for posting an image of himself addressed to as
the Pope. Trump shared the AI generated image on Friday
night on the official White House x account, just a
week after the funeral of Pope Francis. The image is
drawing outrage from Catholics. The New York State Catholic Conference
(16:01):
issued a statement on Saturday saying there is nothing clever
or funny about this image, mister President, They wrote, the
cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect
a new successor, and do not mock us. Do you
think he was mocking them?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I don't think that was it was meant to be
the case. I think we know he's troll. You know,
his troll game is pretty high, But who would he
be trolling with this.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I mean you can do.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I mean, maybe he just thought it was funny.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, I I don't know the timing on it. I mean,
if he were to share something like that, someone else
generated it. They generate AI images of him in all
kinds of ways, put his face on Rambo's body, and
I mean you've seen him as a gangster and exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
And the timing of it, I don't like, what.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Who is he gonna share that? Well, maybe not at all,
I guess, right, Uh? And was it going to be
after a pope was picked? I mean, you know, there's
no maybe good time to have shore heard it?
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Not according to them, I don't think there would be.
But at the same time, if and I say this
all the time, because people are like, that's not appropriate.
It's like if God wouldn't have meant for you to laugh,
he wouldn't have given you a sense of humor. So,
I mean, people are so uptight truth. And apparently there's
you know, the Catholic Conference, New York State Catholic Conference
(17:24):
is pretty uptight and they don't and it figures it's
New York, right, Like, I don't know, the Vatican didn't
come out and condemn it. That I know of or
anything else. So it was just and I've heard even
on the news last week or the week before. I
guess it was last week after you know, it was
(17:46):
announced that Marco Rubio was going to be taking over
Mike Waltz's responsibilities and that he's wearing so many hats,
and the interviewer from mainstream media said, you know, well,
you know there is an opening for the pope and
they had a good laugh. So is that not appropriate?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And no, it'll be no laughing.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
There'll be no laughing, no having fun. And this is
all solemn business. So anyway, I think again with the
uptightness man, people need to loosen up a little bit.
Seven to two one talk seven two one two five
fives number the studio this morning. Don't forget. You can
leave us a message on talk back and tell us
what's on your mind. Is a recession on the way.
(18:26):
That story's coming up next.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
This is Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Blaze.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Someone left us a talkback that says the pope picture
with Trump was him trolling them over the fact that
they didn't like he wore a blue suit to the funeral.
I don't know if that's the case or not, but
appreciate the talkback here this morning.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yeah, I'm not sure. President Trump appears to be okay
with a possible short term recession due to the tariffs
if it means creating a stronger US economy, he told
NBC's Meet the Presce This is a transition period. I
think we're going to do fantastically. Trump insists any short
term pain will far outweigh his long term goals. He
(19:09):
said the tariffs will bring manufacturing back to the US,
and that means more jobs and a stronger United States
of America.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
All sounds great if short term pain is what though,
we don't know. Don't know how short term, don't know
the pain this is on top of, of course, the
pain of the last four years of the previous administration.
Ain't COVID and everything else.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Well, I don't know if it's even going to mature.
The pain will materialize. To tell you the truth, it
may or it may not. But it's all speculation at
this point, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Well, Yeah, I mean this is why I you know,
I don't have answers to what He's not being any
more specific because I guess in a way, he doesn't know.
Except for the first go round Trump's first term, we
had tariffs, there was a teriff for it's bigger. Now well,
I mean the stock China is acting differently this time around.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
The STUF market is you know, back up. It's almost
regained most of the losses that have occurred. Now I
don't know if that's going to remain to be the case,
but as of this morning, it's nearly back, it's nearly
erased all of its losses. That's good news for today anyway,
what happens tomorrow I don't know. And you know, how
(20:21):
are these companies going to react? Ultimately? How is Trump
going to pivot on the tariffs? You know, as you're
going to hold fast. Is China going to come to
the negotiating table or are they going to work something out?
Clearly to your point, how long is all of this
going to take?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And in short term pain?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
How you know, people want to know how intense is
this pain going to be?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Well, nobody knows. I mean, how can you forecast that? Well,
like I said, well know, if it's going to materialize.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
In the first place, let's hope not.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
And then when you get to these companies. So you know,
not only have consumers been stockpiling, so they were buying
ahead of the tariffs. You know, if they had their
eye on a car or whatever, they're like, Okay, the
price is about to go up. If they're buying a
foreign car, it was about to be slapped with tariffs.
So they saw an increase, you know, in auto sales
(21:13):
and then so that's going to back off. Companies have
been stockpiling goods ahead of the tariffs that just went
into effect, and so I don't know how painful it's
going to be for the consumer at the end, but
expect the media over the next few months to be saying,
look at all these negative numbers, because the GDP rate's
(21:34):
going to go down. There's going to be because they've
been stockpiling. So that's going to affect things. And so
how all of this plays out, I mean you can
only guess literally, and if anybody's up there telling you
they know exactly how this is going to pan out,
I back at that with major skepticism.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Right, I would take that with a grain of salt.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Absolutely, And you know how they're going to They're going
to frame this moving forward, So we really have to
start looking at like six months to a year down
the road and see how the economy looks then to
start judging the success of his performance so far.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Oh, you're not going to have the propaganda press be
that patient.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Well, I mean they're never going to stop attacking him
or you know, going after him over certain things. And
this is where people come out of the woodwork, right,
because once they're affected, you know, then they're going to
come out with their own So in other words, you know,
these businesses that want to see things otherwise. Say you're
(22:34):
a business that imports all kinds of stuff from China
and that's your business base. Know, you're not going to
be too happy with this situation, even if you're a Republican.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I've actually seen people on their social I can tell
you know this is their business, is where they're marketing it,
and they're literally putting messages out we're closing.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Yeah, well I would say, you know, pivot and find
another way to make a profit. And yeah, and I'm
all for what is legal, but that doesn't necessarily mean
that it's good for the United States consumer or for
our country and importing things from China, and who knows
about I mean, there's so many issues with China, not
(23:17):
only the way they act, not only the way they
steal patents and intellectual property, and you have to wonder
about the safety of their items and what the you know.
I mean, we have so many laws in this country
from everything from lead based paint to whatever else, choking
hazards for you know, toys for kids and all this.
(23:38):
You think China is all that much concerned about any
of that?
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Oh my god, I'm thinking about what was the big drama?
Was it the red paint, lead paint and kids toys?
I mean, that was huge, as the President would say,
when it came to China and some of their toxic goods, right.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I mean I always joke that they're sending us toys
stuffed with you know, oily rags and lead and carcinogenic material.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
You know, not far off.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
It's really not in some of these cases. Actually.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Thanks for listening to the Charleston Morning Use podcast. Catch
Kelly and Blaze weekday mornings from six to nine
From major events to local headlines. This is Charleston's morning
News on ninety four to three WUSC. Now back to
Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I feel a little insane in the membrane.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I actually had some guacamole in the snack bag from
over the weekend that I accidentally spilled on the floor
here for I guess we'll just chalk it up to
the fifth of May.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh great, happy Cinco de Mayo.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
There's splattered guacamole in the studio in here, so watch out.
I'm glad the carpets are dark.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
There was so well. For those that'll remember this radio
station back in the ninety six wave days. Sometimes I
go grab some food from the Chinese buffet for Uncle
Miles and myself and would go, you know, eat lunch
together back at the radio station. And so one day
I had like curry, you know, the yellow Yo Boy
(00:55):
yellow curry and all this, and I'm walking down the
hall and I drop one of the containers with the
yellow curry in it, and I mean a big old
pile of food right in the middle of the hallway.
And that yellow stain was in that carpet for years
after this. It's probably still there is still there anyway,
O Governor. This morning's top stories, Mike Waltz will face
(01:18):
an uphill battle during his confirmation hearing to become US
ambassador to the UN. That's what Virginia Democratic Senator Mark
Warner told CNN's State of the Union, saying he expects
it to be brutal. Waltz faced intense criticism for mistakenly
adding a reporter to his signal group chat that discussed
plans for a military strike in his former role as
(01:38):
National Security Advisor. Trump said that in the interim Secretary
of State, Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor
while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
This one's a tough one, Poor Marco Rubio.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
By the way, Well, Marco Rubio seems very capable, actually.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Is, but he's got a lot going on. This is
unbelievable in so many ways. The spin of this with
a whole UN ambassador thing. I just we'll hear from
Trump coming up. I'd be curious to hear what anyone
else thinks, because I just even we heard jd Vance
last week.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Saying that there was a promotion, that this was a promotion.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, the vice president, you know, here in the low country,
actually talking to steel workers, and it didn't hit.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
It's not hitting, not the way they wanted to know.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I mean, who believes that this was a promotion other
than JD. Vance Well, and I'm not sure he believes.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
The president says it here coming up, I'm telling you so,
I and.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Then all the saying who believes it, right, I know?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Well, and then also the confirmation hearing that, you know,
there's massive concerns that that's another nightmare.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean in a way, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I don't know how this should have been handled, but
I think not completely walking away from him was the
goal because it would have set a precedent with his
top cabinet picks and sort of people going after them.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's That's how
they want to frame it is that Trump doesn't want
to admit, you know, that mistakes were made and give
the other side the satisfaction you know of driving out
Mike Waltz, right, you know, and then you have to
wonder at the end of the day, how serious of
an infraction was it. I mean, I think it was
a big story.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yes, I would agree, but I also think to your
point about the level of severity, I you know, I don't.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This one's a tough one for me.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Well it is, and you know, and at the very
least they could say, well, look, we're revamping the way
that governmental departments and you know, administration level departments and
department heads communicate. Is what happened was somebody had forward
a message to Mike Waltz that was that had what
(04:08):
was his name, Jeffrey Goldberg attached to it. And remember
Mike Waltz said, I don't even know this guy, and
they're like, that's impossible. You had his numbers contact on
your phone. Well, it turns out that his number was
tied to a message that was forwarded to Waltz and
it went into his contacts under somebody else's name, Jeffrey
Goldberg's number, and that's how he got in on this
(04:31):
signal group chat. So it appears Mike Waltz was telling
the truth that he didn't know the guy and you know,
wouldn't have had his contact in his phone. That it
happened accidentally. So at the very least they can say, look,
we're reviewing this, and plenty of other government agencies use
this app because it's the most secure that we can find.
(04:52):
You know, when they're not able to all sit down
in the same room together. And in the modern world,
that happens a lot. I mean, it happens in business,
happens in government. So you know what's the answer there.
So I'm not even sure that all of this that
his departure is due to the signal chat dust up.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
No, because we're not talking about Pete.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Hegsea. Do you find that interesting? Not a whole lot
of conversation about Pete.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Yeah, Well, I mean they continue to come after him,
and I think they'll continue to come after him. So
coming up next, we'll have President Trump's comments on Mike Waltz.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Check out our website ninety four three wsc dot com.
Now back to Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
The coup whom I'm feeling it Alice Cooper. So if
you're an Alice Cooper fan, he's going to be here
at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center this Wednesday, So
tickets are still available. Get your tickets to go see
Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper was like huge in his day.
A lot of people don't give enough credit it for
being as big as star as he was. They don't
(06:03):
think he was that pick. Really, he had his own
square on Hollywood squares.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I think he's I think he's big time, but they.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Look at him as like the creepy guy. You know,
you're cutting the heads off of dolls and all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
He used to do well.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But anyway, I mean he was huge.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
He wasn't the one who ate the head off a bat.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
No, that was.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I know he toured doll heads apart.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Yeah, Alice Cooper did all kinds of guillotine chopped his
hat off on stage at one point. Listen, stuff like that,
rock and roll, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Live music and oh I saw I did all weekend
Long Birdfest, Bluegrass Festival, Ricky Skaggs, Kentucky Thunder.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Who go see Alice Cooper. That'll be fun.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, Wednesday at the North Charleston Pack. So we've been
talking about Mike Waltz this morning and his supposed promo,
according to Vice President j d Vance, to be you
an ambassador. And we were talking before the break where
I'm like, you know, I'm not so sure that this
was because of signal gait, at least not by itself
(07:16):
that maybe there was something else at play here. Let's
hear what the President had to say about it.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
I didn't confidence those wight, did I list confidence? He's
going to the United Nations reverence?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
To me?
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I think it's personally. If I had a choice for
myself of doing it, I'd rather have got you up
than Neil.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well, there you go, so a plane side interview there,
which is why it's so noisy.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But could you hear what he said.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
I could barely hear what he said.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'd lose confidence.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
He said, if he had the choice, he'd rather be
you an ambassador. That's what Trump said.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I'm a little surprised about that last comment there, yea
why Well.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You know, I don't know. Well, probably because you get
to go to fancy parties and eat good food and
hang out with the rich and famous. Stress probably. I
mean we would have to ask Nicky Haley about that.
She had that same position she I.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Mean, she made a lot of headlines. I think we
have to remember that this has to get congressional approval.
And he also was asked about the timeline on this,
and you know what he said, could take six months.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
To get him approved.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Isn't that shocking?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That was not I mean, that seems pretty far out
considering how fast this administration movesment.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Of course we're talking about Congress.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, we're talking about Congress, and you know the well
look at how just like they move at the speed
of sloths, right, the federal government. And all you had
to do is watch that interview the other night with
Doge and the members of Doge, everybody from Elon Musk
to Big Balls, his whole team, and they're all sitting
(08:55):
there saying, telling these stories about just the inefficiencies of
government and how long it took for a federal employee.
Did you catch that part where how long it took
a federal employee to retire? And they found this, you know,
underground mine where they store papers, and they said the
stack of papers is like a phone book, and that
(09:16):
that's the process in this modern age in twenty twenty five,
you know that it's still a big old stack of papers,
and that it took I can't remember how long they
said it was a very long time to process the
retirement of a federal employee. You would think that you
could do that almost in the snap of you know, your.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Fingers electronically, right, not by printing out papers and putting
them in envelopes and stuffing them in the side of
a mountain. The whole thing is crazy. And they there's
two hundred people I think employ are employed just for
that facility you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, so they can't even make up.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
This is nuts.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
It's totally nuts. And so at least they're doing something
about that. But so when you say it's going to
take you know, up to six months to get Mike
Waltz uh well have a vote on him, I guess
that would be right.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah, I mean that's what the president said. And unfortunately,
you know they're they're short clips. I mean, I'm glad
that he's you know, making himself so available to the media,
the media obviously traveling with him, and so it's wasn't
a long form sit down, although he's had those two
on NBC and other places.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Well, he was on Meet the Press, YEP on Sunday,
so and you know, in his first hundred days they
did he was all over the place. So I mean,
he is very accessible. We're on the other hand, you know,
the previous administration, I've hardly ever heard from that doddering
old fool.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I don't want to hear any more of the screaming
in the works.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
He's going to be on the view this week, I
know with Doctor Jill. You must see TV.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Now Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Plays.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Approaching seven thirty. Welcome in.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Not good news if you have to hit the cross
town there to get through from a James Island West
Ashley area with one lean lost this morning. Not a
good way to start a work week or a Monday
morning commute.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
No typical Monday. Stuck in traffic ruing the day ahead,
but it'll be okay. Federal officials say the government began
collecting defaulted to student loan payments starting today. The collection
efforts will be the first since the start of the
pandemic the Trump administration. So the debt will be collected
through a Treasury Department program that withholds payments from tax refunds,
(11:32):
wages in government benefits. The US Education Department has not
collected the loan payments since March of twenty twenty. Officials
say in the last five years, student debt has risen
to over one trillion dollars.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Listen to the mess. This is twenty twenty yep. Does
that Does that blow anyone else's mind? Any debts that
you've had, that you owe, that you've been allowed a
grace period of five years to not pay anything.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Well, remember Biden wanted to write them off.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Oh I know, it went all the way to the
Supreme Court. Mm hm.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
And so you know, after yeah, five years, people are
going to have to start paying up. A lot of
them thought that maybe they wouldn't have to pay back
at all.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
This is going to be loud the pushback on this.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Well, I mean the whole thing. And if you dig deeper,
I mean, the cost of education is through the roof.
Why is it through the roof? It's because of this
these loans that were made available anyway, so they try
to make education more affordable. See this is the unintended
consequences of the federal government. And this happens all over
the place in the federal government. So they say, all right,
(12:49):
we're going to help people out. We need to give
them a low cost loan to go get an education.
So there was more money available, so of course, more
students available for these colleges. So the college just jacked
up their prices and took that savings that was meant
for the recipient of the loan, and the college is
(13:09):
made out like bandits, and people are stuck holding the
bag a lot of times with these degrees that they're
not even earning money on and having to pay back
a ton of money, you know, to have earned in
the first place, so you know the degree. So they
pay all this money to go to college, and then
they can't even put it to use, and then now
(13:30):
they're on the hook to pay all of this back.
College has got a bunch of money. The government give
themselves a nice pat on the back when they did it,
and then try to take another nice pat on the
back by writing it all off.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I just wonder how many people in the last five
years that they so called haven't collected continued to pay.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I'm sure there's a lot of people that feel the
need to do the right thing right.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Right, I just percentage wise, I wonder, but otherwise.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And there's some people that it has not been demanded
of them. And you know, it's been a tough time
in the economy. They're dipping into their retirement funds, they're
putting money on credit cards, and so it was a
relief for them to not have to pay these student
loan debts, and now they're going to have to start
paying up again. So it's that much more hardship for
some of these people.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Well, and I mean there are some people I know
that have student loans that are frankly as high as
a mortgage payment.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Sure, and so I mean to me, you better be
convinced that whatever you pursue educationally for that much money.
Listen to Dave Ramsey and some of these people, yes,
with their student loan debts and how much they've racked
up chasing an education and end up owing hundreds, literally
(14:49):
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in a lot of
cases they're not making it back. So I mean, again,
you have to be smart with your money and smart
with your education and make sure that you going to
use it. If you're going to PLoP down several hundred
thousand dollars to get it, and especially if you're going
to borrow money to do.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
That, well, yeah, and I back in our day, I
mean a couple hundred thousand dollars in loan, in student
loans debt, that's you being a doctor or an attorney.
I mean, to your point about the jacking up of
a you know, good old American education and university in America.
It's gotten insane.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
It's totally gotten insane. So the President has now managed
to enrage some Catholics. What did he do? We'll have
that story coming up next.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Now Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Hey, thanks for being with us on this Monday morning.
I hope you're doing well this morning. President Trump's being
criticized for posting an image of himself addressed to as
the Pope. Trump shared the AI generated image on Friday
night on the official White House x account, just a
week after the funeral of Pope Francis. The image is
drawing outrage from Catholics. The New York State Catholic Conference
(16:01):
issued a statement on Saturday saying there is nothing clever
or funny about this image, mister President, They wrote, the
cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect
a new successor, and do not mock us. Do you
think he was mocking them?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I don't think that was it was meant to be
the case. I think we know he's troll. You know,
his troll game is pretty high, But who would he
be trolling with this.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I mean you can do.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I mean, maybe he just thought it was funny.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, I I don't know the timing on it. I mean,
if he were to share something like that, someone else
generated it. They generate AI images of him in all
kinds of ways, put his face on Rambo's body, and
I mean you've seen him as a gangster and exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
And the timing of it, I don't like, what.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Who is he gonna share that? Well, maybe not at all,
I guess, right, Uh? And was it going to be
after a pope was picked? I mean, you know, there's
no maybe good time to have shore heard it?
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Not according to them, I don't think there would be.
But at the same time, if and I say this
all the time, because people are like, that's not appropriate.
It's like if God wouldn't have meant for you to laugh,
he wouldn't have given you a sense of humor. So,
I mean, people are so uptight truth. And apparently there's
you know, the Catholic Conference, New York State Catholic Conference
(17:24):
is pretty uptight and they don't and it figures it's
New York, right, Like, I don't know, the Vatican didn't
come out and condemn it. That I know of or
anything else. So it was just and I've heard even
on the news last week or the week before. I
guess it was last week after you know, it was
(17:46):
announced that Marco Rubio was going to be taking over
Mike Waltz's responsibilities and that he's wearing so many hats,
and the interviewer from mainstream media said, you know, well,
you know there is an opening for the pope and
they had a good laugh. So is that not appropriate?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And no, it'll be no laughing.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
There'll be no laughing, no having fun. And this is
all solemn business. So anyway, I think again with the
uptightness man, people need to loosen up a little bit.
Seven to two one talk seven two one two five
fives number the studio this morning. Don't forget. You can
leave us a message on talk back and tell us
what's on your mind. Is a recession on the way.
(18:26):
That story's coming up next.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
This is Charleston's Morning News with Kelly and Blaze.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Blaze.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Someone left us a talkback that says the pope picture
with Trump was him trolling them over the fact that
they didn't like he wore a blue suit to the funeral.
I don't know if that's the case or not, but
appreciate the talkback here this morning.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yeah, I'm not sure. President Trump appears to be okay
with a possible short term recession due to the tariffs
if it means creating a stronger US economy, he told
NBC's Meet the Presce This is a transition period. I
think we're going to do fantastically. Trump insists any short
term pain will far outweigh his long term goals. He
(19:09):
said the tariffs will bring manufacturing back to the US,
and that means more jobs and a stronger United States
of America.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
All sounds great if short term pain is what though,
we don't know. Don't know how short term, don't know
the pain this is on top of, of course, the
pain of the last four years of the previous administration.
Ain't COVID and everything else.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Well, I don't know if it's even going to mature.
The pain will materialize. To tell you the truth, it
may or it may not. But it's all speculation at
this point, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Well, Yeah, I mean this is why I you know,
I don't have answers to what He's not being any
more specific because I guess in a way, he doesn't know.
Except for the first go round Trump's first term, we
had tariffs, there was a teriff for it's bigger. Now well,
I mean the stock China is acting differently this time around.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
The STUF market is you know, back up. It's almost
regained most of the losses that have occurred. Now I
don't know if that's going to remain to be the case,
but as of this morning, it's nearly back, it's nearly
erased all of its losses. That's good news for today anyway,
what happens tomorrow I don't know. And you know, how
(20:21):
are these companies going to react? Ultimately? How is Trump
going to pivot on the tariffs? You know, as you're
going to hold fast. Is China going to come to
the negotiating table or are they going to work something out?
Clearly to your point, how long is all of this
going to take?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And in short term pain?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
How you know, people want to know how intense is
this pain going to be?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Well, nobody knows. I mean, how can you forecast that? Well,
like I said, well know, if it's going to materialize.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
In the first place, let's hope not.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
And then when you get to these companies. So you know,
not only have consumers been stockpiling, so they were buying
ahead of the tariffs. You know, if they had their
eye on a car or whatever, they're like, Okay, the
price is about to go up. If they're buying a
foreign car, it was about to be slapped with tariffs.
So they saw an increase, you know, in auto sales
(21:13):
and then so that's going to back off. Companies have
been stockpiling goods ahead of the tariffs that just went
into effect, and so I don't know how painful it's
going to be for the consumer at the end, but
expect the media over the next few months to be saying,
look at all these negative numbers, because the GDP rate's
(21:34):
going to go down. There's going to be because they've
been stockpiling. So that's going to affect things. And so
how all of this plays out, I mean you can
only guess literally, and if anybody's up there telling you
they know exactly how this is going to pan out,
I back at that with major skepticism.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Right, I would take that with a grain of salt.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Absolutely, And you know how they're going to They're going
to frame this moving forward, So we really have to
start looking at like six months to a year down
the road and see how the economy looks then to
start judging the success of his performance so far.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Oh, you're not going to have the propaganda press be
that patient.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Well, I mean they're never going to stop attacking him
or you know, going after him over certain things. And
this is where people come out of the woodwork, right,
because once they're affected, you know, then they're going to
come out with their own So in other words, you know,
these businesses that want to see things otherwise. Say you're
(22:34):
a business that imports all kinds of stuff from China
and that's your business base. Know, you're not going to
be too happy with this situation, even if you're a Republican.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I've actually seen people on their social I can tell
you know this is their business, is where they're marketing it,
and they're literally putting messages out we're closing.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Yeah, well I would say, you know, pivot and find
another way to make a profit. And yeah, and I'm
all for what is legal, but that doesn't necessarily mean
that it's good for the United States consumer or for
our country and importing things from China, and who knows
about I mean, there's so many issues with China, not
(23:17):
only the way they act, not only the way they
steal patents and intellectual property, and you have to wonder
about the safety of their items and what the you know.
I mean, we have so many laws in this country
from everything from lead based paint to whatever else, choking
hazards for you know, toys for kids and all this.
(23:38):
You think China is all that much concerned about any
of that?
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Oh my god, I'm thinking about what was the big drama?
Was it the red paint, lead paint and kids toys?
I mean, that was huge, as the President would say,
when it came to China and some of their toxic goods, right.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I mean I always joke that they're sending us toys
stuffed with you know, oily rags and lead and carcinogenic material.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
You know, not far off.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
It's really not in some of these cases. Actually.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Thanks for listening to the Charleston Morning Use podcast. Catch
Kelly and Blaze weekday mornings from six to nine
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