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July 28, 2025 • 13 mins
Willie talks with the Senior US Senator form Ohio Bernie Moreno about the violence erupting in downtown Cincinnati over the weekend, and why local leadership is failing to keep the citizens safe.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Bill Cunningham the Great America. Of course, the senior senator
from the state of Ohio is a Senator Bernie Marino,
and he issued a posting this morning about some ideas
about the US Department of Justice and the Civil Rights
Division is so much more. Senator Marino, welcome again to
the Bill Cunningham Show. I know you're in Washington. You're
real busy, a lot of confirmations to occur, but you're
keeping an eye on Cincinnati and Ohio. And what is

(00:29):
your reaction to what happened this weekend at the so
called music festival in which his couple was beaten to
within an inch of their life.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, it's a HATEUS attack, completely unacceptable. Cincinnati is a
great city. It is we call it the Queen City
for a reason. At at one point, as you know,
it's supposed to be the capital the United States. Yeah,
and it is a city built by great people, very
thriving area. But unfortunately the current political leadership has let
it slide into a mess. There's violence, you see. The

(01:01):
numbers are staggering, the number of shootings, the number of homicides,
the number of crimes, the number of vehicles stolen, all
on a major optic. And it's not the police. The
police go to work every day to do their job.
It's the political leadership that thinks that Cincinnati should be
more like New York City than a great Ohio town.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
You know, we've had on ken Kober, the FOP ahead
of the FOP, and he'll tell you the CPDS down
about two hundred and fifty police officers. They have approximately
fifty to eighty resignations every few months. The recruit class.
It's hard to recruit in this climate because of the
political climate. You made a reference to the US Department
of Justice Civil Rights Division and what's happening in Cincinnati

(01:42):
is filled with dei hires and we have in this
particular incident, according to the inquir in Fox News. Look
at the video. You've seen the video. The people being
beaten or white. The perpetrators are black. No winning dialed
nine to one one. It was a fight and altercation.
It was something different. What can the US Department and
Justice do, if anything about this, Well, we.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Need to obviously understand the facts and get to a
proper investigation. But if it's what it seems, a hate
crime is a hate crime, it doesn't matter your skin color,
if you were targeted because if your immutable characteristic, it
is a federal crime and we will pursue it as
a federal crime. And the fact that the mayor, who
comments on all sorts of things that are completely irrelevant

(02:26):
to this office, hasn't made a statement, hasn't led Your
Congressman Greg Lansman comments almost daily about what's going on
in Ukraine, and he cares more about what's going on
there than what's happening to his own constituents. This is
the problem, Bill. You have elected officials there who don't
care about the safety and security of their own constituents.

(02:49):
And the only way to change that is you got
to get rid of these guys and put new people
under that actually put the interest of Cincinnatian's before anything else.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
You can't keep doing the same thing, anticipating in different roules.
And at this point we hear that this couple may
have said the end word which precipitated this attack. I
hear online this event with stage, I hear everything accept responsibility.
And at this point, when you talk to ken Kober
and the cops, they'll tell you they can't cover this
event because of the lack of personnel, and right now

(03:21):
they're walking the streets of OTR, which, as you know,
is a little bit north of downtown Cincinnati, which is
a massive lawless this there's three businesses that shut down
on Thursday on Fountain Square, which is the middle of
our great city, the Tyler Davidson Fountain, the genius of
the waters because of what's happening, just rocks through the windows,
break into one type or another, and beat downs. It's awful.

(03:42):
And do you see could you in Washington d C?
I made the comments center to Marino that what's happening
in Cincinnati is a little bit behind what's happening in
other cities, but we're getting there. What major American city
is not crime ridden? What major American city have great
public schools? What major American city is functional with low taxes,

(04:03):
low rules and regulations? What major major American city is
a great place? Do you want to raise your family?
Would you raise your family in downtown Washington, d C?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Oh? My god, no, I mean, look, the answer to
your question is the ones run by Republicans. I'll give
you one example. Miami, Florida, huge city. Uh, they don't
put up with this kind of nonsense. You want to
create you want to create chaos or commit a crime
in Miami, will be arrested immediately. The mayor Suarez down there.
It's all about law enforcement and law and order. Unfortunately, uh,

(04:36):
the mayor of Cincinnati, mayor of Columbus and Cleveland, they
come from this Mandami school of of running cities that says, oh,
you know, it's the it's the it's the perpetrator, saut.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
They're the victim.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
They had a rough upbringing bill, Let's give them a
little grace and what And then, by the way, the police,
we don't need that many police off. Let's use that money, uh,
to for more free stuff. Everybody. Look, I drove around
that exact area of this crime committed with the Cincinnati
Police Department. I'll give you an example of what I saw.

(05:09):
There was a street where there was a lot of
street parties that would just happen on random nights, and
the police hated it because of course it's dangerous. You
if people out on the street. Streets are for cars
now for people to congregate on. Rather than just stopping it,
they created barriers to quote unquote make the illegal street
party safer. That's that was the answer. From the political leadership.

(05:31):
Can you imagine if you're a police officer, how demoralizing
that must be. That's why they can't recruit people. That's
that's why they can't find officers to go there. When
you're when you're seeing killings. And look, we saw Larry Henderson,
a deputy that was run over by the father of
some guy who shut up police and getting murdered. I mean,

(05:53):
this is this is not the Cincinnati that we deserve.
And the only way to fix it get rid of Landsman,
get rid of that mayor. But somebody there that actually
wants to fight for their constituents. And I'm not going
to stay silent about that. We deserve law and order
in this country. That's what makes us different than every
other nation on Earth built.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
You know, Senator Marino. We're living in an area now
in which Clifton, which is a great area around the
UC campus. They have street takeovers most Saturday night Sunday
mornings in which they block access to the Ludlow Avenue,
the main drag a party takes place, the boom boxes
come out, the fire department says we can't get fire
trucks out. The police do not show up. Because the

(06:34):
police say, I don't want to get involved in that.
We have street takeovers in other parts of Cincinnati, including
the Banks area in which there are shots fired at
passing barges. We have a situation where in Cincinnati you
have open air drug dealing. The inquir did a little
bit of a story about Saint Francis Serif, which is
on Central Parkway and which is open air drug dealing,

(06:56):
open air smoking marijuana, the passing of needles back and forth,
open air prostitution, and the business owners and the families
that live there say, can't you do something about this?
And the answer is no. And the Channel nine had
these videos of these police officers in uniform in their
cars passing by open air prostitution, drug use, urination, defecation,

(07:17):
and fornication. And they simply pulled away and did nothing.
And then the OTR, Steve Leaper is a great guy,
said we have to have some of this. So now
in overtime they're having a couple cops walk the beat
between four pm and midnight up and down Vine Street
and Main Street. And so they simply moved the party
a couple blocks down the street, takeovers the crime. How

(07:39):
about this Bernie a Senator. Twenty thousand shots going to
be fired in the city of Cincinnati this year. Twenty
thousand shots are going to be fired. They're going to
be four hundred people wounded. There's going to be seventy
to eighty people murdered, and we have street takeovers and
now the music festival takes place, no cops anywhere to
be found. The police chief is home sleeping, the mayor's gone.
Landsman can't be located with a search wall. So that's

(08:00):
why I think you're called the Department of Justice. May
make some sense. What can they do that city can't
do well.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
We have lots of federal funding that we provide cities,
and they're not going to enforce their laws. We have
to use that as a leverage. But look, their job,
their number one job is to provide safety and security
for their citizens. And let me just give you.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Some quick stats.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Seventeen percent increase in violent incidents this year, twenty five
percent increase in aggravated assaults, fifty seven percent year over
year increase in property crime. This is the Cincinnati that
we have right now because we have a young mayor
who's interested in being a social media celebrity that thinks
he's the next Obama and instead of actually enfourteen laws

(08:43):
and then the same thing with our Congress, and we
have a congress in there that watch it. Look, I
urge your listeners, look at his social media feed. It's Ukraine,
This Ukraine that all the poor people in Ukraine. Look,
that's a I have effidotes to the people in Ukraine,
and we're going to end that war. But I have
a lot more empathy so the people in Cincinnati who
pay taxes and deserve to live in a city that

(09:04):
is safe for their kids, that they can walk the
streets and not be afraid. And the only way we
change that, we get to get all these guys out
of there, because the last thing we want is Cincinnati
or any other Ohio city to even remotely resemble the
hellhole that is New York and DC.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Right now, we're on the way. Now, last lay, Senator Marina.
I know you're busy. I watched this morning, the interview
of was this Afternoon at Turnberry Trump, in which Donald
Trump held court with the European leaders getting this massive
deal for America fifteen percent tariff. You're going to BMW
Volkswagen you're gonna have Ferrari, You're gonna have Fiat wanting
to build cars in America. A great deal, and we

(09:41):
went through. You weren't in politics at the time. Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.
Twenty fifteen through twenty twenty four, Russia, Russia, Russia, and
now it's Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. I often think the
mainstream media is the source of election interference. Our media,
the mainstream media, probably didn't see it. You're busy there

(10:01):
in Washington. MSNBC after a two hour news conference with
the President, came out about Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, as
if that's the only thing happening in the country. Is
the mainstream media in this country per se election interference
itself by the way they cover events and don't cover events,
the way they attack Trump and leave every Democrat alone.

(10:23):
When the Republican's in the White House, they attacked the
White House. When the Democrats in the White House, they
attacked the Republican for criticizing the Democrat. Is the mainstream
media is that election interference?

Speaker 2 (10:35):
There is no daylight between the Democrat Party and the
mainstream media, especially with the ccanty Acquirer and the Columbus
Dispatch being owned by this massive company Gannet. There is
no difference. The Democrats will say a lie, the media
repeats it, and another Democrat politician will just echo it
and pretending it's coming from the media. They lied about
the one big, beautiful bill we're funding medicated twenty percent

(10:56):
more than we would have without the bill with the
child tax credit would have been z Now it's twenty
two hundred dollars, historic investment or air traffic control system,
no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. They can't
talk about the wins that we've had because it's been
six and a half incredible months bill. We've never seen
victories for America like we've seen, so they have to

(11:17):
go and do a fake tabloid story, which by the way,
they didn't cover during the Biden times. And I forget
to mention that the Trump administration was a little arrested.
I've seen him put them in jail, arrested Maxwell put
her in jail, And of course when you have nothing
else to talk about, they just make stuff up. So look,
at the end of the day, we're going to continue with America.

(11:39):
But I'm very about Cincinnati. We're going to make Cincinnati
the great city deserves to be, and it starts getting
these He's quite frankly, they're gonna say of office to
really care more about their social media image than they
care about the real lives of people.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Well, Senna Marino, thanks for checking in this afternoon. And
you can't anticipate change with the same characters involved in
Cincinnati's teetering. And we can go one way or another.
I don't want to go the way of Atlanta, Washington, DC,
Chicago with Johnson. I don't want to go. I'm Donnie.
I don't want to go. I want to save my city,
and my city's worth saving. And you can't anticipate results

(12:17):
with the same characters involved with such incompetence. And at
this point the police need to be fully funded. Two
to three hundred more cops get on the city streets,
walk the beats, arrest, convict and sentence. Right now, we
have magistrates and judges. They will give no bonds to
people that shoot each other in the back of the head.
We have a common Police Court judge who released someone

(12:38):
on death row after thirty years of sitting there. And
the murder of a woman in blue ash and she
found evidence no one else had ever located. It's a
multifaceted problem, but it begins with police arresting wrongdoers, locking
them up high bonds, convict them and sentence them, and
the madness will stop. Senator Bernie Marino, you're a great
American and thank you, thanks again for coming on the

(13:00):
Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you, Senator, Thank you, Bill. God
bless you all. Let's continue with more and when you
have the Senators in Washington calling the Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division to look over the city of Cincinnati,
that's a good start, but we'll see what happens down
the road in your reaction. News coming up later plus
Reds Baseball and more. That's home of the Red's News

(13:20):
Radio seven hundred WW
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