The National Guard in D.C.

Today on the Jimmy Barrett Show:

• Dr. (Colonel) Josh McConkey on the National Guard in D.C.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense, the.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Breaking down the world's nonsense about how American common sense.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
We'll see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston. This
is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by viewind
dot Com.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Now here's Jimmy Barrett. Hey, welcome to our Thursday show. Today,
we're going to talk about the UFC, you know, Ultimate
Fight Club. Yeah, we're gonna talk about them to Dana
White in his organization. It's this sounds like something that
somebody would have made up or a sketch from Saturday
Night Live, but it is true that for the fourth
of July, this upcoming fourth of July, which is our

(00:52):
nation's two hundred and fiftieth birthday, Dana White is going
to set up the UFC on the south lawn of
the White House, with the White House as a backdrop
for his next set of matches. You know, President Trump's
a big fan of UFC, and I'm sure they cook
this up together. They are very well acquainted with each other,

(01:13):
and Dana White is a big time Trump supporter. So
there you go. That's how that's one of the ways
we will celebrate our nation's birthday is with fighting on
the soft lawn of the White House. Cage fighting. Of course,
that's how they do in UFC style. So we got
started today with a question of the day on KTRH
that I'll share with you nowt here on kPr C

(01:35):
having to do with matchups that we would like to see.
You're in Washington, d C. Right which there's a lot
of fighting that already occurs. It's just it's fighting by
word of mouth, it's not actual physical fighting. And we
started thinking to ourselves who would be good cage matches,
especially amongst the political types. I mean, it doesn't necessarily

(01:56):
have to be a politician, but the idea of opposing
politicians getting into the UFC ring and settling it you
fight style, martial arts, mixed martial arts style, just seems
like a whole lot of fun. For example, Jasmine Crockett,
who wouldn't like to see Jasmine Crockett going to a

(02:18):
cage and have to fight somebody who could actually kick
her butt? And I could only think of one politician,
especially female politician, that could give her a run for money.
How about Marjorie Taylor Green against Jasmine Crockett in the
UFC Ring. That's one of the ideas we thought of.

(02:39):
Here's another one. Famous pacifist, even though he was a
member of the military, refused to go off to war.
Tim Walls against Marcus Latrelle, who is now a representative
and of course as a war hero. I mean, how
good would that matchup be? And we challenge our listeners
to come up with a few ideas of their own.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
It's Richard from Crosby. I'd like me versus Newsome, Aroic
and Hunter. I'd like to square punched all three of
them right dead square in the nose. They're both just
big piles of dung.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
This is Donnie from Kingwood and I would love to
see Ted Cruz up against better Rouric rematch.

Speaker 6 (03:22):
This is Mike from Cyprus, and I'm not as interested
in the main event being Joe Biden versus a paper
sacked as I am the undercard, which I have Digham Smack's.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Frog versus the Rabbit from Tricks Syrium. Before that, I
got too can Sam from the Fruit Loops versus Count
Chocula ought to be.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Great cereal wars. Oh that's funny, all right? Who wants
to tack on Tony of the Tiger. Yeah, I didn't
think so he's great. All right? Do we have any
more for John Ball?

Speaker 7 (04:03):
I say, Joe Biden versus the door to get out?
Give him a fighting chance to leave the door open.
He can do enough damage with that.

Speaker 8 (04:11):
I would love to see Lena Hidalgo versus since it
probably has to be a woman.

Speaker 9 (04:16):
It can't be Michael Berry Nonditha Berry, what a fight?
Come on?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I'd like to see Chuck Schumer versus j D.

Speaker 8 (04:24):
Van's skip from Webster Ken Paxton versus Beto Roor.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
I'd love to see that little panty waist his butt whipped.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
For that matter, Greg act, but probably whip his butt
to Baul. You feel the love for Betto and for Lena. Yeah?
See who could be put in the cage with Lena?
I don't know. You know, she's she's a little crazy.
She's uh Hispanic, you know crazy Hispanic women can Mike

(04:57):
Mike sneaking suspicious that she fights pretty, So you'd have
to find somebody who's a real dirty fighter to take
her on.

Speaker 9 (05:04):
Good Morning, Jimmy James from a Taskasita from my WWE
fantasy matchup. I would love to see Tulci take on Kamala.
He took her out once. I'd love to see it
for real. Have a good day.

Speaker 7 (05:15):
This is Chuck from Montgomery.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
What happened to the Elon versus Zuckerberg fight?

Speaker 9 (05:19):
Let's get that going.

Speaker 10 (05:21):
This is Carla Silcie.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I'd like to see Donald j t versus Adam and
suck the ship.

Speaker 11 (05:27):
Hey Jimmy, this is Dennis from Conroe.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I think it'd be cool to see Tim Walls and
Pete booted Jay.

Speaker 11 (05:35):
That'd be that'd be worth watching.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Tamp on Tim versus Transportation Pete mayor Pete. Yeah, that
might be a match of equals. I don't know that
that one might turn out to be a draw.

Speaker 9 (05:50):
Hey Stephen from Hollands.

Speaker 7 (05:52):
How about Putin and Zelenski? That would be fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Keith from Cyprus.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
How about Bill versus Hillary?

Speaker 7 (05:59):
Didn't she throw something at him once upon time? Could
be interesting to see who can take that one.

Speaker 9 (06:04):
Hey Jimmy, Linda McMahon versus Nancy Pelosi.

Speaker 7 (06:09):
Joe from Conrad.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Oh, Hillary and Bill? Yeah, I don't know. Bill's a lover,
not a fighter. I'm not so sure he'd want to
tackle her. Anyway, those are your ideas. I thought those
were fun, a lot of fun. Actually, yeah, if you'd
like to leave a talkback at KATRH, you're welcome to

(06:34):
do so, that's where I'll find it. You can also
talk back on KPRC. You know that, right, either one.
You just find either station on the iHeart Radio app.
There's a red button there, a talkback button. If you
hit that, you get up to thirty seconds to leave
your comments. You know, first name, where you're from, and
whatever your comments may be about the show or anything
else you want to comment on. All right, quick little

(06:56):
break back with Bourn a moment Jimmy Barrett show here
on Name nine five KPRC. All right, let's talk about

(07:25):
what has been going on here locally as far as
I'll put it under the topic kidnap or potential kidnapp
to victims. A couple of incidents. One actually happened in June,
but for whatever reason, we're just kind of finding out
about it now because evidently they have not been able

(07:45):
to find the person that they think is responsible for this.
And the other one involved a sixteen year old girl.
Did you get an amber alert yesterday? Sixteen year old
girl in Spring. Let me quickly talk about that one
before we play a report on the other case. Sixty
year old girl in Spring evidently met up with some
guy that she met online. I forget what the app was,

(08:06):
doesn't really matter, you know, there's all these different communication
apps out there, and met up with him at a
park and told her parents she was going to the park.
Of course, she didn't tell her parents she was going
to the park to meet a guy, but that's what
she did. And her dad kept texting and checking in
with her, trying to keep an eye out. Hey, you

(08:28):
still at the park, and she text back yes. And
then one of the last times he texted, like something
along the lines of winning coming home, she didn't respond,
and so he started getting very worried about it, as
well he should, and he reported it to the police.
Long story short, she I assume willingly she got into
They from surveillance cameras. Here's the thing. You can't get

(08:50):
away with anything these days. With everybody, homes and businesses
all having cameras, it's pretty easy to figure out what happened.
And they saw on camera that she had gotten into
the car with this guy voluntarily. And is it turns
out thank God, because I'm thinking, I'm watching this story
and I'm thinking, well, this isn't going to turn out well,

(09:11):
you know what I'm thinking, You're probably thinking the same thing, right,
this is not going to turn out. Well, she's going
to be dead somewhere. Well, as it turns out, she wasn't.
She was alive. The mom of this missing sixteen year
old had done some detective work and found the mother

(09:33):
of the twenty two year old. As it turns out,
twenty two year old male who had taken this girl
with him found the mother and started communicating with the mother,
and the mother is communicating with her son, and her
son is denying everything. He's denying he's at the park.
He's denying that he met this girl. He's denying that
the girl is with him, or anything could have happened

(09:53):
to the girl. And at one point he's crying and
she's going, oh my god, what does all this mean? Well, however,
they manage to do it. They find these two in Huntsville,
and he has been arrested. He's twenty two years old,
you know, picked him a sixteen year old girl who
knows what he had planned to do with her. Luckily,

(10:13):
nothing bad happened to her, but it's another reminder of
the dangers, especially for young naive women. I'm gonna give
this girl the benefit of a doubt. I think she thought.
I think she thought that this kid was homeless, thought
this kid was more her own age. I don't know

(10:34):
what she thought, but she did something very dangerous. She
met up in a granted, a public place, but she
met up with a stranger and then got coerced into
going away with this stranger. You know, we always have
to have these talks with our kids. You just never
know what's going to happen. The other story that's interesting
is this a seven year old who was almost abducted

(10:56):
from his own backyard. Here's the report from our television
partner KPRC two.

Speaker 11 (11:02):
This seven year old had been playing baseball in his
own backyard when his mother says, this complete stranger walked
up to the front gate, reached through it, and then
tried to lift the boy out of the backyard. He
thought back and this afternoon, Houston Police are asking for
any tips in this attempted child abduction. New sketches released
Wednesday show a man in his distinctive arm tattoo that

(11:22):
Houston police say tried to snatch a seven year old
from his backyard on Bethlehem Street in northwest Houston.

Speaker 12 (11:28):
Not only was it our own backyard, it's a gated backyard.
It's not like he you know, there was easy access.

Speaker 11 (11:34):
The boy's mother, who didn't want to be identified, says
her son had been playing baseball in late June when
he hit a ball into the driveway, went to get it,
and once back inside the closed gate, the man, described
in his thirties and over six feet tall, stood at
the gate and tried to lift him over it.

Speaker 12 (11:49):
My son, then, you know, realized that he was in
danger and started hitting the man, and he dropped him.

Speaker 11 (11:56):
The man got back in his car and sped away,
she says, leaving on Bethelhelm Street, not far from a
community park and schools Now, it's the talk of the neighborhood.

Speaker 12 (12:05):
Our neighborhood is like a little pocket. We're very quiet,
it's very family oriented. I couldn't believe that it was real.

Speaker 11 (12:11):
When you heard that he fought back and was able
to save himself.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
I mean you had to be pretty proud.

Speaker 13 (12:18):
I was. Yeah.

Speaker 11 (12:19):
Mom gets emotional thinking about how much worse it could
have been as detectives are looking for clues to find
this man with a Queen tattoo on his arm.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, they have a you know, they have a pretty
good sketch of him, but they haven't any luck trying
to find him so far from this kid us in
his own backyard. You know, you'd like to think of
if there's one place your child can be, especially in
the fence yard, is in their own backyard and not
have to worry about it. But these people are brazen.
All right, quick little topic change here, because I wanted

(12:48):
to play this for those of us who are worried
that Center Point might not have made all the fixes
they need to make. There's a survey over two thousand
Houstonians and the biggest fear that they have this summer
is losing their power. For more than a day, seventy
percent were either very worried or somewhat worried about that issue.

(13:09):
So I had David Holt on our program this morning
to talk about it, and I share that with you now.
It is six twenty two, now here on Houston's Morning News.
That is your biggest concern, Harris County resident, Seventy percent
of us worried moderately or very worried about your home
being without power for more than a day, despite all
the work the Center Point has done to try to

(13:32):
strengthen the grid, and which tells me two things. Number One,
Mother Nature is quite a force here in the griter
Houston area, and you're probably best seventy percent of us
are probably worried about a hurricane or a tropical storm
or some other major weather event that could dock your
power out. You know, if millions of people without power,
you're gonna be without power for a couple of days,

(13:53):
because it's just godn't take that long for Center Point
to get to you. But it also tells me that
people are concerned about the grid in general and the
resiliency of the grid. David Hall joins as president of
Consumer Energy Alliance. I think Centerpoint still has to build
back some trust in this town. What do you think.

Speaker 8 (14:11):
Yeah, I think it's right, and I think it's right
for Houstonians to assume that we're going to lose power
at some point. You know, it's beyond just Houston. Millions
and millions more Americans are living within you know, twenty
five miles of the coast, fifty miles of the coast,
and as Houstonians, you know, we're used to weather, We're
used to hurricanes, We're we're used to these weather events.

(14:32):
So sometimes you can't beat mother nature. Mother nature always wins,
and obviously we always need to heed the warnings of
experts that are saying we need to evacuate or move
the higher ground. But listen, center Point after and all
utilities around the country, after every major storm event, they
do kind of an after action review. They find out

(14:54):
what went right, what went wrong. They're constantly trying to
improve their systems operations. They're dispatching crews during the storm
in most cases to make sure that power stays on
or they return power as.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Clicks as they possibly can.

Speaker 8 (15:10):
I know Centerpoint is added a lot of redundancy, a
lot of resiliency to the grid in and around Houston
to make sure that we can withstand storms. But you know,
many times it's going to be inevitable. Again, you can't
beat mother nature, and we always need to be prepared.
But in my personal view, I think Centerpoint has done
a lot of good work to prepare and be as

(15:34):
ready as they possibly can.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Well, you know, they did it to themselves. Though, David,
to be honest, I mean they were behind the curve.
They didn't do the necessary maintenance that they should have
been doing. And when they finally got to the point
where even the governor's threatening to come up with a
different solution regarding our power needs, then well you got
to take action at that point, don't you.

Speaker 8 (15:54):
No doubt, no doubt, you know. And center point was,
to their credit, took ownership of it.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
And admitted some some things they could have done better.

Speaker 8 (16:04):
And you know, they've added some communication tools. There's apps,
there's online tools for folks when you lose power. It
gives you a pretty good update on when power is
going to be restored. Things like that. But you're right,
you know, the more good communication with the community, making
sure if folks understand what's going on, what they've done,

(16:25):
what they've done since you know, the last big storm
where you know, I think admittedly things could have gone better.
You know, that's that's how you restore trust. And you know,
more conversation, more communication to go for sure.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
I think the trust gets restored if we get a
big storm and power is restored relatively quickly and people
can see that, yeah, they did all the things that
they said.

Speaker 8 (16:47):
They did exactly right, Yeah, exactly right.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Nothing they can do about it until then. It's interesting
though to me that we're more worried about losing our
power for a day this summer than we're worried about
high wind damage or flooding. Only forty four percent are
worried about flooding, and we get a lot of flooding.

Speaker 8 (17:03):
You know, that survey was very interesting, and you know,
it was over two thousand Houstonians, so it's, you know,
a pretty good sample size. But you know, I think, uh,
to me, kind of maybe all that rolls in together
a little bit. And you know, regardless of how you
you lose power, Houstonians are rightfully aware that power is

(17:25):
likely to go out at some point due to some reason.
So I think that's the That was my takeaway at it.
And and we are right to be concerned and aware and
planning for power outages because in our community, you know,
sometimes it's going to be inevitable.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, I hope we're also doing the same kind of planning.
David Holidays. It relates to the future electrical needs here
to Bill with Apple making the announcement of doing doing
AI here in Houston that draws a lot of power.
We better be ready to generate some more power, don't
you think.

Speaker 8 (17:56):
Oh, that is one of the big big is use
for the state of Texas, for Houston, and for the nation.
You know, we're going to need about fourteen percent more
power nationally just in the next two years to power
AI and data centers. How we get that power is
a big question. We need to start adding it quickly.
It needs to be what's called, you know, dispatchable baseload power,

(18:20):
which is kind of always available, largely coming from natural gas.
How do we add nuclear to our grid. All the
issues that you know we've talked about of time or
two on resiliency, redundancy, reliability, all those things are big concerns,
and of course we want to make sure we keep
the prices death so you know, affordable, reliable, redundant energy

(18:41):
is greatly needed. And the AI race with China is
a national security issue, so we've got we've got to
win it.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
We've got to.

Speaker 8 (18:51):
Create those jobs. We want those jobs here in Houston,
here in Texas, and that means the more power that
needs more grid support, and a lot of that starts
with the LEGISPUC and obviously Centerpoint as well.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Ran David, thank you appreciate your time. All right, we
are watching with great interest what is going on in Washington,

(19:25):
d C. And so far, what's going on with the
I've used the term federal takeover, but it's not really
a federal takeover. What it is is the President authorizing
the use of the National Guard to assist the local
police and to get a handle on crime, and so
far it appears to be spectacularly successful. Now a lot
of Democrats are complaining about it publicly, but I'm hearing

(19:47):
in the background a lot of them are very glad
that this is going on. They don't want to admit
to it, but they're glad it is going on because
they agree Washington, d C. Is a very unsafe place.
Joining us to talk about it. Emergency Management Officer for
the National Capital Region and Lee as a officer for
Defense Support of Civil Authorities. Colonel doctor Josh mulcauckey. Do

(20:07):
you prefer the colonel title or the doctor title?

Speaker 7 (20:11):
Yeah, you can use either of one.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Thank you, you bet. This has been done before, obviously
involving the National Guard, not in Washington, DC, per se.
But what do you see the National Guard's mission in Washington,
d C to be are they there strictly to assist
the local police? How are they going to be utilized?

Speaker 7 (20:31):
So it has been done once before previously with President H. W. Bush.
There was I think a big push against drugs during
his administration, so there was a brief period where he
activated them. But their role is really a support role.
So whenever you place National Guard troops under federal control,
that's titled ten orders, and they therefore cannot do policing duties.

(20:56):
But what they are able to do is do other
duties for police and other local you know, enforcement agencies
to free them up to then do the policing duties.
And he did call in some FBI and DEA agents
that do have you know, those policing duties. So it
really it's a win win for both Washington, d C.

(21:19):
Because they get free work and freeman power. And then
I think safety is by part is an issue.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
I would agree with that.

Speaker 7 (21:27):
I don't think you can really argue with that.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Well, and you can't argue with the fact that that
is the number one job. I hear the mayor complaining
and calling for statehood and all these other things, but
at the end of the day. That is her job.
Her number one job is public safety. We have a
Democrat mayor here in Houston, John Whipmeyer. He understands that,
he knows that safety is the most important thing that
the cities expect to provide with police and fire and

(21:53):
those types of things, and then infrastructure comes second. You know,
the politics, all the behind the scenes politics is you know,
it has nothing to do with the everyday life of
a resident of a city where you hope to be
able to get to work in one piece.

Speaker 7 (22:10):
You know, in Washington, d C. Has always been under
federal control. It's a federal district. It's always been under
the control of Congress. It wasn't until nineteen seventy three
that they passed the DC Home Rule Act to give
them some limited you know, just local governance there. But
you know, this has been a federal district since the
inception of the country.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
So let me ask you this. It's a thirty day mission,
although I get the impression from everything I've read that
the President would like to extend it well beyond that
that would require an Act of Congress. If they're only
there for thirty days, things probably go right back to
where they were once the National Guard leaves correct.

Speaker 7 (22:50):
Well, well, if that would be speculation, I think they
have a lot of time here in thirty days to
change some processes. And now I hope that the democratministration
there for the city understands the importance of crime. You
can't make this a part of an issue. I've got
three kids. If I was dealing with that level of
crime in my home state of North Carolina, I live

(23:11):
near Raleigh, I would be livid.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, although one of the biggest issues here are the judges,
and we have the same problem here in Houston, and
we have it in major cities all across America where
we have people who have been arrested for violent crimes.
They're being let out on personal bail, you know, no
cash bail, and go about repeating their crimes. If they

(23:34):
were to round up the really serious criminals and keep
them incarcerated, we wouldn't have this major crime problem.

Speaker 7 (23:42):
Yeah, that is something that the administration is addressing. I
do believe they are planning on filling some of the
district court judge vacancies, and those would be some Trump
appointees that I think would probably have something to say
about that. But you know, that's certainly something that the
administration is addressing.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I want to I want to ask you about this
because it just, on one hand, it seems kind of funny,
and on the other hand, it tells you how seriously
the Trump administration is taking this problem. Janine Pirot was
appointed US Attorney for d C. Yesterday, she announced that
felony charges are going to be placed against a man

(24:21):
who is arrested for a costing an ICE agent in Washington,
d C. There's been about I think there's like twenty
three illegal immigrants who are rounded up, and this person
acted up. He got in the face of the ICE agent,
and then as he was leaving, he turned around and
threw a subway sandwich at the ICE agent that hit

(24:43):
him in the chest. He was arrested, and now he's
facing a felony charge.

Speaker 7 (24:48):
Well, you know, you cannot assault federal officers. I know
as an emergency department's physician in emergency staff. Many states
have passed felony level law for assaulting healthcare workers. And
the stuff that I deal with everyday at work is crazy.
But I definitely support that you cannot assault a federal

(25:09):
police officer. I think most people could agree with that.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Doctor McConkie. In addition to being a colonel in the
National Guard, you're obviously also in the medical field there.
You're an emergency room physician. Are you an emergency room
physician in DC itself or just in that region?

Speaker 7 (25:28):
No? No, I live in North Carolina.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
All right, so thank goodness for that, But I can
only imagine.

Speaker 7 (25:33):
I'm an Air Force reservist by the way.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, oh, I'm sorry, Okay, I'm not I must have
misread this. I apologize. I want to ask you though
about as an emergency room physician, you probably have seen
some amazing things over the course of your career, and
I can only imagine what you're dealing with in a
city like Washington, d C. With a very high homeless

(25:56):
population as far as the people are coming in and
out of that emergency room.

Speaker 7 (26:01):
So that is a huge thing that a lot of
people overlook when you're trying to address these type of
crime and homeless issues. There is so much social work
things that need to be addressed. Mental health issues have
a large part to play with that. So that's something
else that the Guard is very adept at dealing with.
They can handle those types of issues that freeze up

(26:22):
the local authorities to then do those other policing duties.
So I think anybody that's worked with police officers or
have heard those stories, the amount of social issues that
they have to deal with is very burdensome, and that
paperwork they can pump that off to the Guard.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah. How long have you been a member of the
National Guard?

Speaker 7 (26:41):
So I was in the National Guard for nine years
and then have been in the service now as a
reservist for about twenty three.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah. What's required to maintain your reservist status? How often
do you expected report?

Speaker 7 (26:56):
Well, there's the traditional reservist that does their weekend a
month's We kind of joke about that because it's clearly
much more than that. But that's all that's required. And
then you have your two weeks of annual training. I
know for me, I stay quite active. I just finished
a command tour and boy, it's it's probably at least
a week a month.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Okay, so you spend how do you balance that with
a medical career? I mean, those hours alone have to
be horrific. If you have the National Guard commitment there,
you don't have a whole lot of free time, do you, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (27:28):
It's it's a lot of work. I have a wife
and three kids as well, but I'm very fortunate as
an emergency physician that it's all shift work. So I
don't have my own practice that I'm maintaining. I don't
take a call, so it's although I did just start
work as a medical director for Tesla, so I take
some call for that, but you know, I balance most
of those and it's shift work.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Okay, Well, listen, I want to thank you for your
time today. Colonel. It's sir, doctor. Colonel, colonel doctor, I've
appreciated your insight very much. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 7 (27:59):
Yes, sir, thank you.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
That is Colonel Josh McConkie or doctor Josh mconukay hill
answer to either back with mornema. But Jimmy Baird Show,
you're an AM nine to fifty KPRC. All right, did

(28:26):
you see that President Trump is going to be hosting
the Kennedy Center Honors. Yeah, I know, I know what.
He's going to be hosting the honors. At a press
conference they you know, he obviously got asked about it
and he was hilarious as usual. Greg Guttfield was riffing

(28:46):
on that on his show last night. Here's here's Greg
and some also some great audio here from President Trump
on the upcome coming Kennedy Center Honors, and Greg begins
with Who's going to be honored at the Kennedy Center
this time? I'm around choices over Trump's choices.

Speaker 14 (29:03):
This morning the press announced his picks for the Kennedy
Center Honors. They include country legend George Strait, Broadway.

Speaker 9 (29:13):
Obviously, some of his relatives.

Speaker 14 (29:14):
Are here, Broadway star Michael Crawford.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Wow, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria.

Speaker 14 (29:23):
Oh, Gloria Gaynor, and a band known as Kiss. I
guess he's waiting to announce my name at a later date,
But I wonder has he been asked the host?

Speaker 10 (29:39):
I've been asked to host? I said, I'm the President
of the United States. Are you fools asking.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Me to do that?

Speaker 10 (29:47):
Sure you'll get much higher ratings. I said, I don't care.
I'm President of the United States. I won't do it.
They said please, and then Susie Well said, to be
sure I get a horse. I said, okay, Susie' so
I have agreed to host. Do you believe what I
have to do? And I didn't want to do it? Okay,
they're gonna say, who insisted? I did not insist.

Speaker 14 (30:10):
That's Trump for you, already anticipating how the left wing
media will paint it. But have The Kennedy Center Center
Honor has been the most prestigious award since nineteen seventy eight.

Speaker 10 (30:20):
Since nineteen seventy eight, to Kennedy's Center, Honors have been
among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
I wanted one. I was never able to get one
this year.

Speaker 9 (30:30):
That's true.

Speaker 10 (30:31):
Actually I would have taken it if they would have
called me. I waited and waited and waited, and I said,
you the hell with it. I'll become chairman. I'll give
myself an honor. Maybe I'm gonna honor next year, will
honor Trump?

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Well, at least he's honest.

Speaker 14 (30:45):
If you can't get the award, take over the place
that gives the award and then give yourself one.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Is that that classic Trump? Oh my god, that's funny.
That is so f funny. So you know he is.
He's spent a lot of time revamping the Kennedy Center Honors.
I know that Gene Simmons from Kiss is a Trump fan.
I don't know about Gloria Gaynor or several of the

(31:16):
other people who have are going to be receiving Kennedy
Center Honors this time around. But they're all Americans. That's
nice for a change, because a lot of times the
Kenny Saner anders. I mean, they love to do rock
and roll bands. I remember the year that led Zeppelin
got a Kennedy Center Honors, and I will say, even
though this is under Obama, even though they're British, it

(31:42):
was worth watching that just to see Heart, even though
they are progressive musicians from Seattle. They did a great
job doing Stairway to Heaven. I mean I could listen
to that. I mean you talk about songs. We talked
the other day about songs you do over and over again.
I could listen to Heart do led Zeppelin Stairway to

(32:03):
Heaven over and over and over again. I like their
version better than I like led Zeppelins. And that's saying something.
So anyway, that's kind of interesting that you got that
going on. And then from a more practical standpoint here,
as far as you know what's going on with home sales,
everybody's concerned about that. You know, you may have heard

(32:25):
earlier today the inflation number, the consider Price Index four
last month came out and it was up point nine
percent higher than expected. Wall Street didn't particularly like it.
There might be some news coming, decent news anyway, coming
out of the housing market, though the Big Money Show

(32:45):
on Fox Business was talking about that.

Speaker 13 (32:47):
Okay, So, sky high prices and mortgage rates have kept
home buyers on the sidelines, but they may finally.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
See some relief.

Speaker 7 (32:55):
The data shows more.

Speaker 13 (32:56):
Than half of home sold in May went for below
asking ice on average, forty five thousand underlisting. The report
says buyers are now in a market primed for negotiations
on price reduction, closing costs, assistance, and mortgage rate buy down. So, Kenny,
this sounds like good news. Can't last?

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Listen, I think it is good news.

Speaker 5 (33:20):
I think it's overdone. I think housing prices have gotten
way overdone and they needed to correct.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
And I've been saying that.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
For a while that rate should stay where they are
and mortgage ate should stay with it to force a
correction in the housing market, which is what we're starting
to see now.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Do I think it can last.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
It can last unless mortgage rates suddenly start to go lower,
and then it's going to ignite the housing market again,
which is really kind of what you don't want to
see happen.

Speaker 13 (33:40):
So that's everybody's hope. Everybody's hope has been mortgage rates
come down, correct, and that's probably going to stoke buying,
but it's also going to get sellers off the sideline.
Maybe that's the theory, Jackie. Are you as concerned as
Kenny that if rates do come down, this thing's going
to heat up again.

Speaker 15 (33:57):
I definitely think it would heat up again.

Speaker 13 (33:58):
Because you're looking at ierson sellers. You want to talk
about stuff.

Speaker 15 (34:01):
I've been thinking about the sellers, and this has been
just a big game of chicken. When the rates went up,
they all put their dream number house on the market
for the dream number. I got to get this to
be able to move. When they weren't getting it, they
would take it off the market. A lot of people
have those low interest rate mortgages and they're like, what's
the incentive for me to move or to go somewhere.
But then time passes and life events happen, or sometimes

(34:23):
you're forced to sell for various reasons, and it just
sort of takes some time to get those people up
to bat. And I think that's what we're starting to
see that tipping point where people are having to sell
for various reasons, and therefore they understand the buyers don't
have the money to make the math work with mortgage
rates where they are, so the prices have to come down.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
I think she's absolutely right about that. I also agree,
I think the market heats right back up as his
interest rates get down to something around five percent. Something
they do get down around five percent, the market will
definitely start to heat back up. There's pent up demand
out there, and I, for one, you know, I wouldn't
mind selling. But the problem I have is that now

(35:03):
is not a great time to sell. So you know,
there's gonna be people who don't have to sell, who
don't have to move. They're gonna be waiting for things
to get better before they finally decide that that's what
they're gonna do. All right, enough for today, listen, Thank
you for listening. I do appreciate it. See you tomorrow morning,
bright and early, starting at five am over a news
radio seven forty KTRH. We are back here at four

(35:25):
I think nine to fifty KPRC