The Rod and Greg Show: Government Shutdown; Federal Workforce Cuts; Trumps Success in Courts

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Big event last night. I'll bet Utah State University. We've
been reporting on it all day, as has the national media.
Quite a turnout. You were there, Greg, will get your
thoughts on it. Yes, here in a few minutes, because
it was it was quite an interesting, interesting event, I think,
and you had an interesting observation that we'll talk about
that as well. Hey, the government is shut down. Did

(00:20):
you miss it today?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
No?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
No? Did I know?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
No?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Look, I'm sure there's people out there people are being
affected by Sure. It's weird because I think the executive
branch gets to pick what they call essential non essential.
So when Obama when the government shut down, he tried
to find like we're gonna shut down the airlines, the
national parks. I mean, he wanted to cause a lot
of pain, to embarrass the Republicans for not agreeing to
a budget or a cr I don't know what Trump's

(00:46):
going to do, but I think it put a bow
on it. I think there's a lot of things he
wanted to cut that he wasn't able to that this
is giving him rule. He can rule the school man.
He goes shut it all down.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
This may give him that chance. We'll talk about that
a little bit later on in the show, our Senator
John Curtis will join us here in a few minutes. Well,
as Abby mentioned in their newscast a moment ago, he'll
join us give us his take on that. So we've
got the government shut down, we've got the big event
up the Utah State last night. Boy, Yeah, turnout of
sixty sixty five hundred people inside that basketball arena. That

(01:17):
was a great turnout. A little bit later on, we'll
talk about the president's victories in court. What a winning
streak this guy has, Yes, and we'll also talk about
reading and why that is so important. Fundamental fun it's fundamental.
Ponics is coming back apparently, why did it ever lead? Well,
that's question, that's my question. We'll get into that as well.
So a lot to get to today. As always, we

(01:39):
invite you to via part of the show eight eight
eight five seven eight zero one zero dial pound two
to fifty say hey Rod, or you can leave us
a message on our talk back line. So that's how
we'll roll on. All right, event last night. Thank you
very much for this. I know people can't see this.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Folks, I want you to know. He is wearing his
Charlie Kirk freed Freedom. It's a white tea sure, freedom
right across in lettering, right across the chest, and it is.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Old and beautiful, old and beautiful. Right.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
But I gave to him as a gift to put
over the show. He's already wearing here at the studio.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
He's going to feel proud of marching.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Around the studios like five stations here. You just let
everyone know you're loud and proud.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh I know, yeah, you bet, you bet? All right,
you were there last night, Yes, we did the show
from You did your portion of those show from there yesterday.
You were there last night. Some of your initial observation.
So what do you think?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
So as you just described a massive crowd, massive crowd,
A lot, a lot there were, you asked the question
a number of times, who's in the audience these are?
It was predominantly our Utah State University students or I'm
just assuming the college kid. But there was a good
number of adults there were, and including lawmakers and members
of Congress. I think Congressman Mike Kennedy was there, Speaker

(02:50):
Shultz was there. I saw Trevor Lee sent Or represent
Trevor a lot, just a lot of lawmakers that were
there too, and I think that their presence at this
event was really to show respect for Charlie Kirk, and
as this is the first time they've come back since
the terrible assassination in our state, there was kind of
a a rally cry to to show support for tp USA.

(03:13):
But what was unique for me is that as I
was watching this rollout, the part that struck me was
you had speeches and you had some first Senator Senator
Lee couldn't be there because he was dealing with the
government shut down, so his his comments were recorded and
so they had that on the on the screen. And

(03:35):
then you had Jason Chaffitz there. You had Andy Biggs,
who's a congressman and he's running for governor in Arizona
right now, and you had Governor Cox. And so they're
sitting at their sitting in chairs and Tyler Boyer, who
is the I don't know if he's a COO, he's not.
You know, Erica Kirk is now the CEO, but he's
He and Charlie have been put this together from over

(03:57):
ten years ago, and Tyler's been part of it. He's Arizona,
but his wife is from here and he has deep
connections with Utah. Great guy. Uh, he's kind of the moderator.
And as I was listening to these, I'm gonna call
them old heads. And why am I calling them old heads?
And now as old as you, okay, I mean you're
you're like ancient head. I'm talking old heads. I'm one.

(04:17):
I'm an old head. I'm looking at old heads who
are either public servants or have been on the stage.
And you've got an arena full of primarily college students.
And what struck me was, I don't think Turning Point
USA was built by old heads and elected officials. And
I don't think it was made for old heads and

(04:39):
elected officials. And I and I watched it and I thought,
you know, it's missing. It's missing that what Charlie Kirk
brought and what I hope to see Turning Point USA
continue to do is you have you have this young
generation that is certainly younger than me, but they aren't elected,
and they are winning the hearts and minds of young people.

(05:00):
And they're talking about a Trump and they're talking about
the elected officials that are older, but they're defending it
there they're principal. They're having those through debate and dialogue
and hearing each other out. And that's not what yet
was going on. And I'm not being critical of last night.
I was glad I was there. I'm glad that I
saw it. I support everything that they're doing, but having
them speak, I don't think that's what the magic is.

(05:22):
I don't think that's the magic of turning point USA.
And I think it made me realize sitting there listening
to them, because the questions that were being asked, you know,
they're now asking the elected official instead of having someone
young like Charlie Kirk talking about, you know, challenging their
beliefs or what brought them to believe that, and going
back and then talking about the elected people. These elected
people are sitting there and they're kind of asking the

(05:44):
most questions. I realized that the reason I and I've
said this over and over in the program, and I
think many of us, if you're listening, have felt this
way too. Our kids knew more about Charlie Kirk than
our kids understood the spiritual side of what they what
he talked about, and how he there was no daylight
between his political beliefs and his spiritual beliefs, and and

(06:05):
and how well that was intertwined, and how how authentic
it was. The reason I didn't know much about Charlie
Kirk I realized last night is because it wasn't meant
for me.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
The idea was not meant for us.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
It's not meant for us. It was built by young
Americans to win the hearts and minds of young Americans.
That's what that's what they're all about. And and we
want auso hold heads, we want to thank them and
really acknowledge it. But none of it's for us. It's
it's it's and so I thought it was good to
hear from them all. But I I don't think it

(06:40):
missed the mark for me. I I don't know who's
going to replace Charlie Kirk, but if they keep having
like I hear Glenn Beck's going to be in North Yeah,
you had Governor Younkins, governor of Virginia and Virginia. These
are not this. Those are not the people, even even
a Megan Kelly. We're talking media, establish media people or

(07:01):
established elected officials. That's not that isn't what these young
college kids are coming to hear from. To who they
want to hear from, or the questions they want to ask.
I think the magic happens when the young people are
talking to the young people, and that is why I
didn't know as much about it, and that is what
I hope and I think again, I'm not I'm not
putting anything down. This was again to pay respect for

(07:23):
Charlie Kirk, and I understand why we were all there.
But going forward, I hope those campus events are really
about the young Americans reaching out and dialoguing and winning
the hearts and minds of young people, because that's what
that's what Charlie did with other young Americans, young Americans
winning over young Americans.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
And when we were talking this morning in our show
meeting this morning, you brought that up. But I'm thinking, well,
maybe this is the transition that they're they're going through
right now because they just lost their leader. Yes, they's
got to be tough on the TU tp USA people.
They lost Charlie. Charlie was everything to that organization about it.
So they're they're probably right now in those stages of
try and figure out, Okay, how are we going to

(08:04):
continue this? Right now, we can put big conservative media
stars in front of them answering questions that is not
the end result. We're gonna have to figure out a
different way to do this. I hope they do, because
they energize that that crowd. Last night they were singing
patriotic songs, chanting, chanting, USA, you name it. Hopefully that
will continue and hopefully they're really smart kids and I

(08:28):
call them kids at TPUSA are starting to figure that
out and go, Okay, we'll get this recognition of Charlie,
almost a memorial service to Charlie every time. We'll get
through that and then we'll take it to the next
phase because guess what, we're thirteen months away from the
midterm elections. That's right, if you think about it, and

(08:48):
you gotta get going. You gotta energize them because we
will need those young conservative Americans involved in so many
of these races or Donald Trump will not have the
Senate and Donald Trump will not have the House.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
And I've listened to Charlie kirk more after he's passed,
and in some of the issues he hones in on
are so unique to that crowd of college kids where
they feel like free markets really crony capitalism that's maybe
leaving them behind. Things that when he has brought us
up with are more mainstream media conservative types. They've been
surprised to hear Charlie talk about what's on front of

(09:23):
mind with our young, young eighteen to twenty four, eighteen
to twenty nine year old Americans. And Charlie Kirk was
he didn't come to those events knowing that that's what
he learned and what he's able to articulate. They've got
to I think that's going to be the magic of
turning point USA, and it's got to continue.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Going to be the challenge. All right now, when we
come back government shut down, Utah Senator John Curtis will
join us scheduled. Do you join us. We'll talk about
where this all ends up. That's coming up next on
the Wingman Wednesday edition of the Rod and Greg Show
in Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine. Knrs. Well,
the government is shut down today, and we decided to
call the White House today and see how the White
House would respond.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yes, we're outraged.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, here's the message we got. Thank you for calling
the White House.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
Commently, Hello America, this is White House Press Secretary Caroline
love It. Democrats and Congress have shut down the federal
government because they care more about funding health care for
illegal immigrants than they care about serving you, the American people.
Until Democrats vote for the Clean Republican Facts Continuing Resolution

(10:26):
to reopen the government, the White House is unable to
answer your call or respond to your questions. We look
forward to hearing from you again very soon, and in
the meantime, please know President Trump will never stop fighting
for you. Thank you and God bless you.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
I love that message.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
That's a great message. Man.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
We can't answer the phone. We're shut down.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
I can't take your call right now. We can currently
shut down by the Democrats. Well, joining us on our
any our newsmaker line to talk more about this. Someone
who has all the inside information is Utah Sendor. John Curtis.
Sender Curtis, how are you welcome back to the Routing
Gregg Show.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
Oh it's been too long. Hope you too are well?

Speaker 1 (11:04):
We are we are? Where is this going? Senator? Best
guest right now?

Speaker 5 (11:10):
Well, first of all, let me say, as much as
I love the voice recording, when they call the Curtis office,
they will actually get somebody with their problem.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I was going to compliment you for being on the job.
You know you technically get say well, hey, it's shut down,
I'm out, you know, call me back when they're ready
and you're working.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
And let me compliment my staff. They they they'll get
they'll likely get back paid, but they're all coming in
tomorrow and working and even though that you know, temporary,
they don't get paid. We will answer the phone, we
will do everything we can to connect people with the agencies.
Hopefully we can get the agencies. But I just want

(11:49):
people to know we're open for business.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Impressive, So so, Senator, we all watched yesterday. Five vote,
five votes short, Like any legislative race, any when you're
outing heads, five votes can be an ocean in terms
of differences between getting getting something done and not. It
sounds like a small number, but it can be a very,
very big and daunting number. How big is those fat

(12:11):
How large of a gap is that five?

Speaker 5 (12:14):
Well ask Kevin McCarthy, if you remember his speaker, Yes, yes, yes, one, yeah,
even one vote is a massive golf And the reality
of it is, if we're all honest, this shutdown started
a year ago when Chuck Schumer took so much grief
for not shutting down, and that he that cast the

(12:37):
eye that I've watched the whole time, and I've known
very well that we're headed for this. This is all
about his base. Sadly, many Democratic members would normally join
us and feel, you know, compelled not to to support
Center Schumer. But that's what this is about.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Sendor Curtis. A lot of the debate of courses on
healthcare for people who are not in this country legally
is that what it really comes down to is that
part of the debate. They didn't want that money restored.

Speaker 5 (13:07):
So well, so it's let me make it even worse
than that. During the Biden administration, does Biden put in
temporary subsidies in addition to what President Obama did. They
took up the subsidies to four hundred percent of poverty. Literally,

(13:29):
somebody making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars is who
they're arguing shouldn't have their premiums go back, not out,
but back to where they were before President Biden voted
in these subsidies. And it's better than that. The Democrats
are the ones who made them expire. This was their work.
They put in this expiration date of when it is,

(13:50):
and they had full control, but they knew they shouldn't
be long term, and it makes sense no zero premiums,
which means literally brokers are signing people up or for
the Obama Care that they don't even know that people
are being signed up. It's total fraud. And so that's
there's that, there's the legal immigrants. But it's just it's

(14:11):
much worse, I think, than what people are talking about
that the Democrats are going to pull off here.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
You know, It's it's different because it didn't matter what
the makeup of Congress seemed to be. Where the Republicans
sat in this issue of government shutdown, whether it was
a president or if it was a president was Obama,
whether it was a New Kings King Rich Congress or not.
The media always successfully framed this as always being the
Republican's fall. It was always a Republican's fault. I don't

(14:38):
think that's carrying the day this time around. I think
people are seeing this in a very different light. And
it's the first time I've seen this and usually but
the positions ever changed. It's Republicans really don't want to
spend us off a cliff, and Democrats always do, and
it's who's in charge it wants to get that ultimately done.
But do you sense that this is a different atmosphere

(14:59):
or climate the voters.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
So it's very different, and you articulated it well. The
Republicans have facilitated most of the shutdowns, and this is
the big difference. Those have been over financial spending. The
difference is now Democrats there are trying to shut the
government down to spend more.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
Right, So that's the irony of this is we've always
been fighting for like hold on, guys, we can't be
spending this money. We got to use this point this time,
and to make this point that we're spending too much money.
Democrats are literally saying, we are going to use this
as a time in place to demonstrate that we think
we should be spending more money. We think we should

(15:43):
be subsidizing somebody's healthcare that's four hundred percent of poverty.
We think that people should have zero premiums, even if
we're talking three dollars premiums, right, like some kind of
skin in the game. And that's what they're laying their
mark down on. And I'll tell you Republicans, no, this
doesn't end well if you're that party. It's generally not

(16:03):
ended well for us because the American people say, hey, listen,
don't shut down my social Security, don't shut down my
national parks, don't shut down the VA, don't shut down.
And even if these things aren't fully shut down, their
ability to respond to people is throttled. And then I'll
tell you another thing. That is a total miscalculation from

(16:24):
the Democrats. And Chuck Schumer knows it because he actually
said this when he voted for the CR last year.
You don't want to get President Trump a shutdown, you
hand him the keys. And this is not a normal huntdown.
This will be a Trump two point zero shutdown. And
you know what, He's going to shut down what he

(16:44):
doesn't want, and you to keep going what he wants.
And the Democrats have handed him. I mean, this is
like a Christmas. He's got to wake up and say, well,
is it December twenty fifth? Because I can do I
can do anything I want, and I I don't think
this ends well for Democrats. And I think you know,
we've all seen their pulling slip and slip and slip

(17:06):
and slip, and I think they do this as a
hell Mary and that's exactly what it is. And my
guess is it's dropped in the end zone or intercepted
if that makes sense. Yeah, and this doesn't do well,
could backfire on them. Sender love, your insight, love you
taking a few minutes of your time to share your
thoughts withdrawing.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
I don't know how long they can do it. But
if the New York Times is against him with a poll,
you know that it doesn't look good for him. If
she does not believe in the New York Times, all
of a sudden, he says they're biased.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
So I don't know if you saw that moment on
the floor, Yeah, oh yeah, you brought that up and
all the Republicans.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Just laughed at it spontaneously. It was brilliant.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Thunder Curtis, thank you, Stay well, Stay well. We'll talk
to you again, all right, you Andrew John Curtis joining us
on our news. Make a line. We'll talk about the
options the president has when we come back. Hang on, everybody.
That all coming up on the Rotten Greg Show.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
As our Senator John Curtis said in the last segment
that this is like Christmas morning, whatever you'd like, because
you know it's shut down and you don't have to
fund certain things. I think there's a lot of momentum
behind that a sentiment I'm thinking.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Well, joining us right now. Our new newspaper line he
wrote about this today is Matt Margola's columnist with PJ Media. Matt,
how are you welcome back to the show.

Speaker 6 (18:28):
I'm doing great, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
What kind of a disaster have the Democrats set up
for the President to take advantage of?

Speaker 6 (18:35):
You know, I just I really don't think they thought
this through. I think they always assume that the media
is just going to be on their side and they're
going to be able to blame the GOP for every
single shutdown. But you know, we're seeing that's just not
the case.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
This time.

Speaker 6 (18:50):
We're seeing the media report on the fact that you
know it's Democrats that voted against this build that you know,
the Democrats want want this and want that, and the
hold in the government funding hostage for their basically their
their pet policies. This is not going well for them,
and you know, I sincerely hope that that Trump really
gets aggressive and forcing them to cave on this.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
So what are we talking about? I mean, I see
one one. I think it's an expost from Russill Vote
the budget guy, saying that nearly eight billion dollars in
green new scam funding is to fuel climate agendas being canceled.
Is that permanently canceled? Is that temporarily canceled? What does
it mean when we say that it gives kind of
the president the ability to fund essential services not fund others.

(19:39):
Is that going forward even in reduction of workforce?

Speaker 6 (19:45):
Well, you know, in today's climb. But I think it's
clear that nothing is permanent, because there's always some judge
somewhere that's going to say that Trump can't do that.
But you know, I think that that Trump is being
given an opportunity here to follow through on some cuts
that that he's really been wanted to do that haven't
been as easy for him. And you know, especially when

(20:07):
it comes to you know, federal workers and cutting out
the bloat. I mean, I think that this is this
is a fantastic opportunity for him to follow through in that,
and Democrats will have no one to blame for themselves if, if,
if Trump does start bringing the acts of some of
these extra jobs that we don't need.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
So, Matt, this shutdown, by the looks of things, really
does give Donald Trump some amazing extraordinary authority to do
the things that he wants to do, and he may
look at some agencies and just say, you know what,
we don't need anymore bye bye. I mean he has
the power to do that, right absolutely.

Speaker 6 (20:41):
I mean you remember back in the day, back in
the day when Obama was president, he when when there
was a shutdown, he actually specifically made cuts to make
that the shutdown as painful as possible because he because
he because he believed that the Republic is going to
take the blame for And so yes, the president does
have a a lot of club in what happens. And

(21:02):
so you know, I think that Democrats haven't quite realized that,
you know, Trump is no ordinary president and and here's
the guy who was elected with an objective and and
a mission to to really make uh just fundamental changes
to how our government works. And he is going to
take every opportunity can to fall through.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
So here's my question, because I there's there's part of
me that thinks the longer it stays closed theoretically, the
more good things can be cut or there's things that
Trump could do, but at some point this thing has
to get They got to get sixty votes. Do you
think that there are five Democrat senators at some point
that will come over and vote for a clean CR
or do you what what happens from here? Do you think? Matt?

Speaker 6 (21:48):
Well, I know that we have three already, but you
know who the other five might be. I'm not sure,
but you know, I mean, I don't see Republicans, you know,
kind of fall, you know, caving to this just yet.
I think this is gonna be on the Democrats. Uh,
you know that the momentum is not with them right now.
How long it's gonna be, who knows. I don't think

(22:09):
it's going to be very long. You know. I think
if Trump were to say, you know, every day, I'm
gonna layoff you know, X number of workers and just
wait and see what happens, you know, I think that
would be a great way to get Democrats to start
getting serious about what's going on here and and maybe
get this thing, uh you know, nipping the button.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, yeah, Well, have to wait and see. It's going
to be interesting. Matt. As always appreciate a few minutes
of your time. Thank you, Thank you on our newsmaker line.
Matt Margolis with PJ Media, And you're right, Greg, he
has extraordinary power right now. And they the White House
indicated today they're going to think about it for a
day or two, but then they may do. So they're

(22:50):
trying to give the Democrats as much rope as they
possibly can, and if they don't respond, they're going to
yank that rope.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Look, President Trump is not does not have a real election.
He is. He has as much as he can accomplish
in the finite time that he has. And the man
understands that that time pressure he's under. You think he
doesn't take full advantage of this and do some things
and move that needle where it was going to be
a lot harder if the government wasn't shut down. Man,
he's got he is. I think he's going to go

(23:18):
at a pretty aggressive pace, which I love.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, Yeah, I think that's what Americans are waiting for.
I see how Dad goes.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
You know, there's no fear in this man. And I
and again, I just think that even a social media posts,
they're just a riot. They're funny, and it just shows that.
I think he when he went to met with Jefferies
and Schumer, I think he had a Trump twenty twenty
eight hats on the desk. He did really and just
just to you know, just to tell him. I know
you're coming here just to waste my time. So I'm

(23:47):
just going to enjoy it while you do it. And
you know so I just I just think he's he's fearless,
and that's that's the best kind of leader. I think.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
I wonder if russ Vote and the President are pulling
out their old Doge playbook oh and looking at over,
said well, we couldn't do that, but we can now.
We're coodn'tn't do that. I guess what we can now,
so get ready. I wonder if that's what they're going
through right now.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Eight billion dollars in Green New Deal scam stuff, the
climate John stuff gone is just awesome. I just hope
it doesn't have to come back. I just hope it's good,
gone for good.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
I'm here with you as well. All right, We've got
a lot more to get too, coming up here on
the Wingman Wednesday edition of The Rotten Greg Show on
Talk Radio one oh five nine knrs.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
I'm Citizen Greg Hughes.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
And I brought our cat. As you work your way
home tonight, don't forget we got Jesse Kelly coming your
way at seven o'clock tonight for your evening listening entertainment.
All right, let's talk a little bit more about the shutdown.
First of all, Greg, I want to play this audio
sound bite from one of our faves, Senator John Kennedy
from Louisiana, and he was on I think it was
News Nation, and he was asked about, you know what

(24:50):
this shutdown does and what it's doing to the Democrats.

Speaker 7 (24:53):
Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is
you're stupid and you made a bad decision. And my
Democratic colleagues have made a very very bad decision here.
I knew they were going to do this two weeks
ago when they listed their demands, or if you list

(25:14):
all of their demands and add them up, it's about
it's between one point two and one point five trillion dollars.
Now they know it's an unserious proposal, they know we're
not going to accept it. That tells me that this
decision to shut down government is not based on policy, Rob,

(25:35):
It's based on politics.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
And it is based on politics. That's what John Curtis
just said. And I think I wanted to ask it's
under Curtis as we didn't have time, but I think
what is happening right now really illustrates greg who now
runs the Democratic Party. It is not Chuck Schumer. It
is not Haikeim Jeffrey. It is AOC, it is Omar,
you name it. It is the radical left wing of

(25:57):
the Democratic Party that now controls that party because Chuck
Schumer is so afraid that AOC is going to primary
him next year that he's doing everything he can defend
them off. And I don't think he'll be able to
do it.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
You know, And here's here's I'm just kind of mixed
emotion about it all because, you know, you try to
save people. I hate the practice of trying to save
people from themselves. I don't like I didn't as a legislator.
I didn't like bills that did it. I don't like
that do we save them from themselves. I think they're
afraid of Mom Donnie's and you know how his political
star is rising. What that means they are the Democrats

(26:30):
are in the middle of a game of subtraction. They
are just alienating people every single day. Let them have
at it. If Mom Donnie wins that New York City race, great,
he had a lot of enthusiasm. How do you deliver
on the things that he's promised. You either have to
pull away from those or you have to have government
run supermarkets. I mean, and I just don't see how
that actually plays out in their favor, even in the

(26:53):
mid run, forget the long run. So just I don't
know how long they want to hold out on the
government shutdown. But I don't think this gets splashed on
the Republicans. They're the ones that we're Democrats are the
ones that want to spend a trillion more dollars do
we don't have?

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well, here's more confirmation of what the Democrats are really doing.
Does the name Medi Hassan mean anything to you?

Speaker 8 (27:12):
Now?

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Okay, he was a commentator I think at one time
on MSNBC and said something stupid and got kicked off. Okay, right,
but he does a podcast now, right. He really looked
at what is going on and what the Democrats need
to do greg to win. Listen to what he had to.

Speaker 9 (27:28):
Say, for a start, stop voting for things, stop voting
for everything, Stop stop this bipartisanship.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
This has to end.

Speaker 9 (27:35):
You've got even my friends over at the pod Save
Universe saying stop all this, Like you don't vote to
fund a government that is rounding up American citizens, right,
that is putting troops on the streets. This idea that, oh,
if they just fiddle with the bill here and there,
we can do a deal and fund the government. Stop
voting for things. Be obstructionist, be negative, be cynical. That's

(27:56):
for a start, just in terms of what you can do,
hold your own investigations, find out on the media with
actual communications people.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
I said this in a previous chat.

Speaker 9 (28:04):
You and I had have some kind of shadow combinat
that's ready to go a shadow.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
So here's here's what are you saying. The heck withsan bipartisanship,
stop everything. That's the Democrat game plan.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
And I think we make a mental note because you know,
when they're in charge, they that's all they cry for
is that Republicans need to work with them and they
need to be you know, need to do what's important
and put the nation's interests first first. When they're not
in power, it's we're not going to be bip We're
not going to there is no bipartisanship. We're in the minority,
we have no power, but we're not going to do
a thing. We're just gonna just throw a tantrum and

(28:36):
I okay, all right, try that out for a while.
Tell me how that's gonna work. I just don't see
how that how that ultimately lands on the Republicans to
have to save them from themselves. I just don't think
it will.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
I get a sense right now that Republicans are not
being blamed for this, and that is the Democrats.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
And let me just warn everybody. The Democrats are trying
to say it is a lie that this that they
are trying to fund healthcare for illegal aliens. I'm telling
you that, I've got the screenshot from the states that
are doing it. It is a fact that that's what
they want that money for.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
All Right, We've got a lot more to come. Hour
number two of the Riding Greg Show, coming your way
on Talk Radio one oh five nine. Okay, and arrest,
stay with us.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
This is the smartest listening audience in all the land.
I'd take any market in America and put our listeners
right up against it. Let's go, let's have a Jeopardy show.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
We have some great, great, very smart listeners as well.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
It's truly I'm already optronizing. I mean it, I mean it.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
What do you think I was questioning you?

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well, you moved on so quickly because I felt like
you were dismissing mim.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
No, I was not dismissing your coming. Okay, we just
have a radio show to do. We like to talk
to some of those great lists. Let's go, Shall we
do that? I'm right. You were at the event last night. Yes,
we're talking about the Turning Point USA event last night
up at Utah Stateia University, the spectrum. They had about
sixty five hundred people, jam packed, very boisterous at times. Yes,

(29:58):
in USA, singing some patriotic songs. A lot of people there,
you say, a pretty good mix of adults and kids,
but mostly kids, mostly college the college kids.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
But there were a lot of adults that were there
to pay their respects to Charlie Kirk. I mean, again,
someone that we all knew but have a deeper appreciation for.
And our hearts are broken here in Utah over what's
happened here. So there was a need to come to
that rally to just pay our respect and I think
there were a lot of adults that were there for
that reason.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Now, one thing you did point out, and now Spencer
Cox got a lot of play today on the national
news networks. Yes, I mean he was all over Fox today,
but they didn't take into account that he was not
warmly received. At the beginning of his appearance last night.
I explained what you saw happen there.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
So if you were there and if any and folks,
we'll go to the colors at some point in this
hour because if you were at the event, I'd love
to hear your take as well. This was my take,
and I was up in the cheap seats we came
the show was over at seven. It started about thirteen
minutes before the show ended. I just found off seat
up the top and on the side so I could
watch UH. When they introduced Jason Chafitz, Andy Biggs and

(31:07):
UH and Governor Cox onto the stage where they sat
in these chairs, and it was Tyler Boyer from Turning
Point USA that was kind of the moderator. Spencer Cox,
our governor got received a thunderous boo booing. Booing was very,
very loud, I would argue as loud as a as
a Republican convention or louder and as the questions began

(31:30):
to be asked, when when our governor tried to answer
the question. He was starting to get shouted down or
booed where you couldn't hear, and to the point where
Tyler Boyer said hey, and he was doing he says,
just as Charlie would say, because on the campus is
when that starts to happen. If somebody asked a question,
usually it's what he's saying this to let a liberal speak.

(31:50):
He said, Okay, we gotta have it. We're gonna it's
gonna be okay, We're gonna have a conversation here. It's
all gonna be good. But we got to show respect.
We got to listen to each other. That's kind of
the brand of tp US. A point saying Charlie kirksis
it did kind of bring the crowd down a couple
of notches in terms of their hostility.

Speaker 8 (32:08):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
And then they asked the questions. But hats off to
Tyler who did not avoid the hard questions. He asked
the governor, Uh, disagree better?

Speaker 8 (32:16):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (32:17):
You know, is it both sides? Is it?

Speaker 5 (32:19):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Do you really feel that way? Or have you has
your positions changed? And it was a bit it wasn't
a quick answer, but I think that the governor ultimately
did recognize that the left is much more hostile, and
certainly with terms like fascist and nazi. Uh, this these
are these are this is the vernacular of the left exclusively,

(32:39):
and he didn't mention that. He pointed out that, you know,
the right is not without its violence, and it does occur.
But look, I would just say this, I think if
if if the governor knew ahead of time the kind
of reception he would receive, or even the students that
lined up to ask questions had some very pointed questions
for for Governor Cox. I I honestly wonder if he

(33:01):
would have gone because it was it seemed to me
to be a kind of a rough night for for
Governor Cox. But maybe I'm seeing it wrong. Maybe it
was fine.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Let me ask you this, the those who were booing,
and did you say, would it be most of the
people in the in the at the event last night?
Was the younger? Was it the adult? Because there were
some adults who were selling T shirts. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
I wanted to interview some of the protesters against Charlie Kirk,
but all I could find was the protesters against Governor Cox.
I couldn't find the other ones. But but yeah, no,
I think it was a mix, but I think it
was students, but it certainly was students, but it was
it was adults as well. The decibel level it was,
it was pretty It came across that whole arena. It

(33:45):
wasn't from a section, It wasn't just some heckling from
over in a corner. It was it was pretty pronounced,
to the point where you couldn't hear someone speaking on
the microphone if they if they weren't, if they didn't
stop booing. And so it's that's pretty loud. And I
thought that it was all fine. But again, I just
think it's almost unfair to put elected officials old heads,

(34:08):
as we may you mentioned at the four o'clock hours,
it's not our crowd. I mean, you got young Americans
that created Turning Point USA to win the hearts and
minds of young people. So young people created it for
young people to bring them in and to to have
the debate and the dialogue and the discussion, and then
you put a bunch of elected officials, older people on there,
and it just changes the dynamics of that event. And

(34:32):
I think that they all felt that to some degree.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Well, see, I'm going to disagree with you a little bit.
I think Cox went there because he eats this stuff up.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah, idea, you might.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
I mean, he is creating since the attack on Charlie
Kirk three weeks ago today as a matter of fact,
you know, and he's getting a lot of national praise
for this. Sixty Minutes did a big piece on him
Sunday night, so I came about he's trying to build bridges.
Disagree better what that's all about, right, So I think
this further enhances, maybe not his image in the state.

(35:04):
I think his image in the state. You know, either
you love him or you hate the guy. There are
a lot of people who don't like the guy. A
lot of people love the guy. Yes, nationally, I don't
think they understand some of the things he has done
in this state that has ticked people off. So on
a national level, this feeds right into the persona that
he is trying to create. And that's why I think
he went there last year.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
You know, Roger, you might be right because there was
a question that Tyler asked the governor, and it was
is Utah too soft? Is this inclusiveness that is kind
of the culture here in Utah has that inclusiveness brought
the and I'm paraphrasing this isn't exactly what he said,
but the kind of you know, the wolves into the henhouse?
Have they? Have we brought in people that want nothing

(35:44):
but the worse for us by this effort of being
so inclusive.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Inclusive, which the governor, by the way, has really promoted.
Well would you agree?

Speaker 2 (35:52):
And I think that's where Tyler was going. He's saying,
has this backfired on us? Given how much they hate us,
how much they hate our faith, how much they they
you know, they are against everything that we're doing. Have
we have we brought them in? And now they're rat
There are professors are radicalizing our kids in our schools.
All of this and and the and what the governor

(36:13):
said in response is, I don't think it's soft at all.
I don't think it's that it's soft to try and
love your enemies. It's not soft to try and be
a peacemaker. It's it's hard to be a peacemaker. And
there were some applause to that. And I think that
in theory alone, when you talk that way, there's a
lot of people that love Charlie Kirkan love Turning Point, USA,
that agree with that. They would see Charlie Kirk in

(36:34):
that that he was someone that was going to go
and try to work out talk to people that hated
him and loathed him, and so there was that that
did resonate.

Speaker 10 (36:42):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
But boy Fox picked that up and he says, it's
not easy to be, you know, to be softer, to
be the the you know, to be soft. It's not soft.
It's hard to try and be good to the people
that despise you, and things like that, and so it
got a lot of national play. I honestly think though
that the people that were they were frustrated with the
governor would would say, it's not it's not the act

(37:05):
of trying to be a peacemaker. It's just that the
decisions that you've made just looks so similar. Yeah, two
the left that we've opposed. And look, I'll tell you
he's tried that pivot. It's just that people have a
long memory when it comes to Spencer Cox, and they
don't they're not giving them a pass.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
First impressions are and the first impression people have is
that with his desire to be more inclusive, it meant
that he's soft and it is not the conservative way
of thinking right now. I mean even he said last night.
You know, there was one point he said this a
quote Charlie understood. The cure for bad speech is not

(37:42):
a ban. Rather, it's a speech. In the marketplace of ideas.
Truth does not fear competition. Well, we're trying to tell
the truth. And yet I think this whole I have
totally agreed from day one, disagreed. I should say with
this whole idea of disagree better that the governor spent
a year promoting yes when he was president of the

(38:03):
National Governor's Association, Because I really believe Greg it was
targeted at conservatives like you and I who get on
the air every day and talk the issues and explain
to people the truth of what is really going on,
and we share opinions. And that's where he says, No,
you got to sit down and be nice. You know,
you've got to be bold.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Well, you can't confuse, you know you can be and
I think Andy Biggs tried to say this. You can
be compassionate, you can love the people you're talking to,
but you got to call balls and strikes. That was
the analogy. He used, balls and strikes, and you have
to even if it's uncomfortable. You have to be able
to say we agree to disagree, and you have to
have those moments of honesty. He said. It's not even

(38:41):
honest if you're leaving the person you're speaking with an
impression that you fundamentally don't agree with them. It's dishonest
if they think that you do agree with them. And
so you need to let them know in the most
respectful and kind way. But you need to let them
know we don't see that the same way. We see
things very differently, and so you know, you have different
personalities and Andy Biggs, Uh, you know Congressman Andy Bates

(39:03):
who's running for governor in Arizona, and and our governor
and and so I I think that again, the disagree
better and the and the reaching out, I think that
that has backfired, uh for us. I think it turns
out to be milk toast. I think it ends up
being straddling the fence. It ends up being wants wants

(39:23):
to do that, and here's the rule. And then in Pittsburgh,
you know, we were a little bit we thought brutal
honesty was a virtue. When I got to Utah, the
brutal part of honesty is not seen as a virtue,
so I get it now after all these decades. But
if you stand in the middle of the road, you
get hit from both sides. Okay, you're gonna get hit
from the cars coming one way, They're gonna get hit
from the cars coming the other way because you stand

(39:44):
a right plumb in the middle of the road. If
you do that in politics, it's the same rule. If
you stand in the middle with an attempt of trying
to make both sides happy, you're gonna get hit from
both sides. And and I'm telling you it's it's I don't,
I don't, I don't subscribe to it. I think it
would be incredibly hard intellectually to have a position that's
just an on a fence or in the middle of

(40:06):
the road. And I think that you cannot sacrifice honesty
and your principles for kindness or leaving someone with the
impression that you know you're you you actually do agree
with him when you might not.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
I don't know who said this, but I've remembered this
for a long long time. Greg, you cannot be a
moderate in immoderate times, and we right now are immoderate times.
That's where we're in right now. I've got a thought
or two more on this, but I want to hear
from our audience tonight too, our great listeners eight eight
eight five seven o eight zero one zero eight eight
eight five seven o eight zero one zero on your
cell phone dial Pound two fifteen and say hey Rod,

(40:41):
or you can leave us a message on our talk
back line. Just download the iHeartRadio app. More of the
Rod and Greg Show coming out and with the news update.
Now here's that thanks.

Speaker 11 (40:51):
Rod and Greg fallout from a partial government shutdown. Senence A.
Curtis says Democrats could have handed President Trump at Christmas
gift and Senator Mike Lee also weighing in details coming
up at the bottom of the howl.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
From the icon glass.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
You're Autoglass experts Traffic Operations Center.

Speaker 12 (41:13):
Pretty busy with the crashes all over the Wassat front.
There's a recond bang itter southbound at twenty first South Freeway,
a crash blocking two left lanes third west southbound at
fourth South Downtown. Looking onto I fifteen, there's a reckon
the left shoulder northbound at eighth North. The off rahip
is partially blocked I two fifteen southbound to go sixty

(41:35):
seconds south on the East Belt.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
This report is sponsored by Lows at Lows Save on
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Speaker 2 (41:46):
I'm citizen Greg Keith.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
And I'm roder Urrikeette. If you're just joining in us now,
you may have been at the event up in Logan
last night. We're getting your reaction to it, but really
talking about the exchanges that took place between the governor,
people on the panel, people in the audience questions they
were asking the governor. Remember one time Charlie Kirk said
Governor Cox should be expelled. I think was the term
he used from the Republican Party. This was in a

(42:08):
dispute over transgender athletes, and I think a lot of
people remember that. And he was called on the carpet
for last night.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
He was and you know, his veto letter was a
couple of pages, but one of the issues he thought
there was a legal problem with it where it would
not hold muster with the courts. And he emphasized that
as part of as his answer yesterday. But his answer
at the time he vetoed it was much broader than
just the legal issues he felt with the bill. But
that was, you know, that was part of the discussion

(42:37):
last night. Let's go to our callers or listeners and
go to Keaton. Who's in Logan. Keaton, Welcome to the
Rodd and Greg Show.

Speaker 13 (42:46):
Hey guys, love the show.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (42:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (42:52):
So I was at the event last night, and my
opinion is is that Cox seems to be a little
bit more interested in his image instead of of being
a man and saying that he's changed his opinion.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Did you feel like he was like he was? He
was saying that his opinion had opinion, his opinion had
changed without saying it. I think he was trying to
leave that impression, but he didn't really come straightforward with it.
Is that how you That's how I saw it, Keaton?
How about you?

Speaker 13 (43:21):
Yeah, he needed to be a little bit more upfront
with it him, with everybody, and I think we would
have it. We would have been a little bit more
impressed with that answer.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Keaton. Just a real quick question for you. What was
your overall impression of the event last night? What are
your thoughts?

Speaker 8 (43:38):
It was awesome.

Speaker 13 (43:40):
I loved being in the same room with that many
people who were patriots, so it was really good to see.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
All Right, all right, Keaton, thank you very much with
the event. And it kind of goes to what I'm saying.
I think Cock shows up just for his image.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Well, it's it's I'll tell you this, it's it's it's
unbelievably successful. If Fox Knew will take a clip of
him saying it's not soft to try to try to
be agreeable or to work with people that you don't
agree with, and that's the quote that they run with
in complimentary ways, then the governor was very successful. Yeah,

(44:15):
And what he was doing last.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Night thought hit me when I was watching and I
am seeing all of it, but I've been watching clips
here and there of his sixty minutes Peach last night
or Sunday night that Scott Pelley did, and there was
a segment where both Cox and Governor I think it's
Luhan from New Mexico where they're talking about and the
issue of abortion came up, and he brought up the
fact that you know, we are totally un up as

(44:38):
it ends of the spectrum when it comes to abortion,
but there are some things that we can agree on,
like you know, teen pregnancy, and how do we help
in that situation? But we still disagree. Now it goes
back what I was saying Greg earlier to this whole
disagree better thing. Let's say you do disagree better. Okay,
you have your opinion. I have my opinion, and we

(44:59):
share that opinion, but no stand is taken or no
action is taken on whatever issue we're talking about. Right,
So where does that get us?

Speaker 2 (45:08):
We've talked?

Speaker 1 (45:09):
But where does it get us?

Speaker 5 (45:11):
You know?

Speaker 1 (45:11):
If you know? And I hate saying one side wins
the other side loses. But in some cases that's reality.
And what when you disagree better and you walk away said, well,
at last they heard my opinion, but nothing changes. Where
does that get us? It doesn't get us anywhere.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
And this is the This is the thing is that
I I don't know if anyone would think that in
my when I was on the clock, that that I
was touchy feely, or that anyone would say, look at Hughes,
he's disagreeing better. Is that gandhi or is that huge?
I don't think anyone was like having those questions inside
internally or externally. But I will tell you this, there's
a lot of public policy where there is common ground

(45:48):
where you can get some things done. It's just it's
just it's just statutes, it's nuts and bolts, it's it's
not in a party platform necessarily. There are places where
you can really accomplish things, but you don't have to
herald it. You don't put you don't put lights around it,
you don't say I would go to some of these
these legislative conferences and they would think that bipartisanship was

(46:09):
the majority leader and the minority leader having a diet
coke together like that was some astounding thing. And I
would look around one and even to the Democrats that
were at the conference with me there along you look
at each other like, well, what does that mean? That's nothing.
You know, you got to actually find ways to move
the needle. That's that's actually your goal when you're when
you're on the job, on the clock. Let's go to Carl,
who's in provo. Carl, Welcome to Wingman Wednesday on the

(46:32):
Rodden Greg Show.

Speaker 8 (46:35):
Hey, it's good to be here.

Speaker 14 (46:36):
And I'm a little up in the air over Cox.
I know, originally when he became governor, I don't know
if I really wanted him to be governor. I thought
he would better, better than the alternative. But my daughter
in law tells me that Lyman should have been the guy,
and they were broad in the election, and I didn't
know about that. I guess there was some I don't
know what to think of all that. But nevertheless Cox

(46:59):
was there. And then when he got in there and
started saying my preferred pronouns or he and him, I thought,
oh no, not this, not this, please, not this and
the other nine he was on sixty minutes and I
couldn't have found I couldn't have had more praise for him.

Speaker 8 (47:18):
I thought it was excellent. On sixty minutes.

Speaker 14 (47:20):
There was nothing I could disagree with him over. I
just thought he was great on there. Has he changed
his viewpoint? Is he a better person today?

Speaker 2 (47:28):
So you know, as far as being a good I'm not.
He's a good guy, honestly, Carl. But I will tell
you this, he has worked very, very hard to pivot
away from those for those initial years that he was governor. Look,
I ran against Governor Cox, and I'm always sensitive of
I never want my criticism or my commentary to be
misconstrued as sour grapes or something like that. You know

(47:51):
he won that race. I did not, and that's fine.
I will say that when he was elected, he did
have equity and diversity as one of his as first
executive orders. He did have a lot of left of
center I believe left of center objectives that he thought
that he could bring along the people of Utah a

(48:11):
worldview that might not have matched when it went over
like a lead balloon, and he was seeing a lot
of those things vetoed. He pivoted, He pivoted hard, and
I think that he But so I think he's changed.
I think he's grown as a governor, but I don't
think people have forgotten those initial years of.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
His first impressions. All Right, more coming up on the
Roden greg Show and Talk Radio one oh five nine
k NRS.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
The reception that Governor Cox got at the Charlie Kirker
we call it that, but it's a turning point USA event.
I think many that were there were or honoring Charlie
kirk especially how personally we've taken this as a state
in his tragic assassination here in just in the month
of September, on September tenth. Anyway, if you've been there,

(48:55):
if you're watching it, if you have an opinion about it,
we want to hear from you, our listeners. So let's
jump into the phone. So let's go to David and Logan. David,
Welcome to the Rodding Gregg Show.

Speaker 15 (49:06):
Hey, thanks for taking my call. Yeah, my wife and
I went to the rally last night and we were
thrilled to see there were a number of people that
were there and how much support Turning Point USA got
from Logan and from Utah State University. I did want
to comment on the reception that Governor Cox got. There

(49:28):
was some pretty loud booing going on in a section
close to me, and I've never been a big fan
of Governor Cox, but I don't think that sort of
reception helps the cause for the people who are booing him.
And I was a little embarrassed by that. But at
the same time, I noticed that Governor Cox had some

(49:52):
explaining to do. And and you know it's I can
say this much that Charlie Kirk he debated better than
Governor Cox can tap dance.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
Yeah, but uh, it was.

Speaker 15 (50:14):
It was a good I have to I have to
give credit where credits due, and Governor Cox, I thought,
after the assassination handled the situation very well, very well spoken.
I haven't seen him on sixty Minutes yet, and I
planned to. I planned to look at that. But I
thought he really did do a good job in handling it,

(50:35):
this situation in that But yeah, he had some explain
to do and there were some pointed questions at him,
and hopefully he's taken that to heart. If he's pivoted,
I hope it's sincere. But yeah, I thought I thought
the booing was out of place and it kind of
created a sense of discord in the in the arena, I.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Thought, David Ia is a real quick question, did you
I I felt like Tyler Boyer, who's party. He He's been,
you know, shoulder to shoulder with Charlie Kirk as they
built that over the last eleven years. He made a
point when that began, saying, Hey, I'm going to tell you.
I'm going to say what Charlie would say right now,
and that is let's let's be let's let everyone talk,
let's have the debate. I felt like the crowd kind
of checked because, to your point, the whole mission of

(51:17):
Turning Point USA is to let that disagreement and not
just shout people down did you think that the crowd
might did simmer down a bit after Tyler made that point.

Speaker 5 (51:28):
Yes, I did.

Speaker 15 (51:29):
That's a good point and and and that was what
was going through my mind because we had some very
loud doing close, very close to us, and I thought,
this is exactly what Charlie Kirk was trying to get across.
It was hey, let him speak, let's hear what he
has to say. And so yeah, but I was really
thrilled with rally. It was it was a good, good gathering.

(51:51):
I will say this, and I agree with you Greg.
We we really lost something in Charlie Kirk because that
and what happened afterwards was not nearly as dynamic and
as stimulating is what it would have been with Charlie
Kirk there, and and the the uh, the age factor
that Charlie Kirk brought with that was really dynamic. And

(52:15):
I hope we can find somebody that comes close, but
right for right now, I don't think we have anybody.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
You're right, You're right, David. Thank you very much for
that comment. It's going to be a challenge. Now we
do have the comment from the governor and e Rate
found that where he's talking about disagree better, go ahead
and play that.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
He ray, And you've said some things that there's been
some inflammatory rhetoric. I'm on both sides, and that you've
coined the disagree better slogan. Is that really a bull
size issue or what's like? What's you what's your opinion?

Speaker 5 (52:46):
You know?

Speaker 16 (52:46):
So I want to I want to add to what
Andy said here because I think that's really important one
of your one of the tp USA staffers back there.
So this this isn't just about left and right.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
It's it's about it.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
It's about good and evil, right.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Up and down.

Speaker 16 (52:57):
And that piece really matters to me, and I think
that's that's what.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
We're talking about here. Look, there there is a thread here.
Is as as Andy.

Speaker 16 (53:08):
Said, when when you when you call people fascists in Nazis,
will we we went and liberated Europe from fascists and Nazis?
That that's that that is that is an evil. And
when you try to convince people that people who aren't
fashion fascist and Nazis are.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
Yeah, regular people participan civic process.

Speaker 16 (53:29):
That's exactly right that we get accused of that. Here's
two of the most dangerous trends that we've seen over
over the past few years, this idea that that speech
is violence is so so wrong and and even worse
than that, it's illogical, it's it's illogical. But but but
it goes a step worse than that, because then they think, well,

(53:53):
then violence is speech and when you see everything through
a lens of oppressor and oppress which is which is
which again is so dangerous because it allows you to
justify things that you would never otherwise do. And you
think that then by because someone said something that you
don't like, that's violence towards me, which then justifies me

(54:15):
being violent towards this person for speaking. And that's exactly
what happened in this case.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
And that that is Uh, that is Governor Cox last
night up at Utah State talking about disagreeing better. Yeah,
so I mean some applause for some of his thoughts.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, I and I think there's there. It was deserved
in terms of those those opinions. But you see how
our last color said, it's a bit of tap dancing, right,
it's a bit of a bit explaining to you and
Charlie Kirk's answers in the way they come across versus
what you just heard. Uh, you know, a bit different. Well,
some are more succinct and direct, some are a little
bit uh not that way. But anyway, that's that's a

(54:51):
good sampling of how that exchange went on last night.
And again I think that people did at first it
was very hostile, but I think it.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Out hopefully, So all right, mare coming up some of
our talkback comments coming up next right here on the
Rod and Greg Show in Utah's Talk Radio one All
five dye k NRIs the comments.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
If you don't want to call into the show and
wait and share it live, the talkback buttons always an
opportunity to give a thirty second take, and they don't disappoint.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
No, no, well let's go to that talkback line right
now and see what some of our listeners are saying
this afternoon.

Speaker 17 (55:25):
Sorry, Greg, but Cox has not changed one bit. He
pretends to change. You could tell it by his fake
apology last night. It's he hasn't changed. He never will change.
He's a great wolf in sheep's clothing. You can't believe him.

(55:47):
Just watch his mannerisms, watch how he does things.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
He is a liar, So tell me how you really shore.
I mean, this is a very feel keeps his cars,
very close to the vest is very hard, very new
wants the message we just heard. No, I hey, look
I I I could be wrong here, I'm not. I'm
I'm not. I heard what he just said, and I

(56:10):
can hear the passion which he shared it, and I'm not.
I'm not going to call that man wrong. So you know,
just you have to take the governor for you know,
take him at how you will. I mean, it's I'll
just say this, it's not the first time I've heard
that observation.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
No, no, it isn't. Here's another coming. I don't know
talk backline.

Speaker 14 (56:27):
Governor Cox says, to disagree better, But isn't that exactly
what Charlie Kirk was trying to do, was trying to
disagree better.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
And what happened to him anyone? I think? I think
in many ways, well, he was disagreeing better, but he
also took a stand on issues. He was not afraid
to be bold and say, you know, he'd asked questions
he one understood, wanted to understand where the questioner was
coming from, why they were asking that question, but he
was not afraid to say you're wrong, and here's why
I think you're wrong.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Well, and I'll tell you what I think.

Speaker 5 (57:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
I think he's the apex of disagreeing better if we're
going to use that saying with Charlie Kirk, and that
is he was never afraid of the uncomfortable conversation and
could pull it off in a way that was a
little bit more comfortable, but he would speak truth to power.
Let's go to Debbie and Draper. Debbie, welcome to the
Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 5 (57:20):
Thanks.

Speaker 10 (57:20):
I was there last night. It was a great crowd.
We actually sat right in front of the students and
talked to several of them there, and they were from
three different universities. They said that a lot of the
students there have probably never really listened.

Speaker 5 (57:33):
To Charlie Kirk.

Speaker 10 (57:34):
They were just there for the cause. And so I
wrote Turning Point, and I also wrote to Glenn Beck
because he's going to be doing some of their shows
and that was supposed to be more of a memorial.
I'm glad that COXS got called out on some stuff.
I don't agree with the booing. I don't like the
buoying myself, even though I can't stand the man, but

(57:56):
I personally think that I would have liked to see
more of the vignettes of Charlie Kirk, so the kids
would know how he reacted and what he stood for.
So I just said, I would have liked to see
more of him showing what he was, what his priorities were.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Well, that's a great idea, Debbie. Then you know, they
could have put a montage of him answering questions because
if you go online any of the social media sites
right now, there are a lot of those exchanges that
he has with students. They're very illuminating. I mean you
just go wow, you know, and it shows how smart
a guy he was.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
It really brilliant. I got there late because it shows anyone.
It began at four, what six forty three, and I
got there seven, a little after seven. But I heard,
I believe that they had some montage before it all
kicked off. They were kind of showing that on a
big screen, so they had some of that. But then
when that when they were beginning, then they started with
the speech. Is they had one speech and then they

(58:51):
had the everybody, you know, the four people come and
sit on at the chairs and have questions, and then
the students rolled up and started asking questions. But I
also agree with Debbie. I think that, uh, it would
have been good to see more of of because I again,
I'll go back to what Charlie Kirk disagreed with you.
He wasn't necessarily hugging you when he did it. He
was very respectful and and in the in the most

(59:12):
tender moments, I would say of Charlie's answers, which we
were uncomfortable in terms of disagreeing with someone or could be,
it was going back to your faith and going back
to your the relationship with your parents and really going
back to gospel principles. That's where he got better at
his disagreement.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
They did. All right, another hour coming r A. We'll
talk about the president's success in the courts. That's coming
up next.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Great discussion with our listeners. I really appreciate the calls,
talk back comments. I think, uh, I think we're seeing
the world similarly. I think it was a it was
a I think overall I would give the event praise,
but I do think that it will be good when
this initial tour with that they're they're having, they get
through that phase and then they got to find these

(59:55):
young guns, yeah, that are going to come out here
and really with a photographic memory and about a Hillsdale
College courses under their belt, really be able to go
and have these conversations with on campus again. I think
I look forward to that and there's got to be
maybe not as good as Charlie Kirk, but there's got
to be close.

Speaker 8 (01:00:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
You know what I found interesting. I think it was
our last caller, Debbie, who said she went up to
the event last night and they were sitting in front
of some students and they got talking to those students.
Some of those students didn't know who Charlie Kirk was. Yeah,
they wanted to come to the event to find out
what it was all about. Yeah, first, that was an interesting.
A point as well is that it has brought me
even more attention to what they're doing, which is a

(01:00:33):
good thing. And I do think that Debbie was right
too that they didn't really focus as much on Charlie
Kirk himself in that. But look, I thought that what
they were trying to get back to is that open debate,
open discussion. I hats off to Tyler Boyer, who I
thought asked the governor some pretty direct questions. I mean,
it was when our caller said, you know, the governor

(01:00:55):
had some explaining to do that didn't just come from
the audience asking questions. I thought Tyler Boyer from Turning
Point USA asked some needed questions and I, you know, so,
I just like the debate.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
I like the dialogue. I think it's it's their brand
and I like that brand.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Yeah, coming up on Monday, it's the first Monday in October.
You know what that means. The Supreme Court meets. Oh really,
they begin their session. Have you ever heard that? No,
first Monday in October, that's when they do it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
The judiciary.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
I don't pay attention, but he Here's what I always
find funny. They all get in their black robes and
sit there and have pictures taken. Yeah, it just looks
you know, they're just coming it up for the camera.
It's picture day.

Speaker 10 (01:01:38):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
I probably smell new shoes too. Probably it's like first
day of school.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Yeah, first day of school. Well. Uh, there's no doubt
that Donald Trump has faced his legal challenges this year.
But I tell you what, greg this guy is on
a winning streak.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Yes he is.

Speaker 8 (01:01:52):
He is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
But honestly, I can't see with the six y three
Supreme Court some of these rulings they have to rule
on or just cuckoo for Coco Pops. I mean, I
don't even think. I'm just glad that we have a
good Supreme Court.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Yeah. Well, joining us on our Newsmagaer line to talk
about the president his success in the courts is Michael Thln.
He is President and executive director of the Republican National
Lawyers Association. Michael, thanks for joining us tonight. Your assessment
so far the President's victories in court.

Speaker 18 (01:02:19):
Yeah, so we've known for a long.

Speaker 8 (01:02:22):
No, it's been a long term effort, and it's a payoff.

Speaker 19 (01:02:25):
I've been doing this for twenty five years and it's
a payoff of that effort. It all started when President
Obama did not really pay attention to the court. He
had other priorities. And in his first term, President Trump
came in and made the Supreme Court a top priority
and he pushed through. We got three three nominees through
on the Supreme Court itself, and we also redid the

(01:02:46):
circuit course, the district course a great extent. So it
was a long time coming in a conservative battle and
a conservative win.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
You mentioned all these wins that we're seeing Supreme Court,
but even going further into the circuit course and things
like that. Is the number of decisions that are being
made that I would argue are basic common sense? Is
it because the judiciaries in some court is making crazier
decisions like some of these ow Harvard money and it
doesn't you can't decide whether you're gonna appropriate it or not.

(01:03:15):
You have to give it to them. I mean, are
they just teeing it up for the courts to bat
down these bad rulings? Have they always been this bad
and we just have a good, good judiciary now or
is it? Is it we've got some real activist judges
going on, you know, decisions going on right now.

Speaker 8 (01:03:31):
A little both.

Speaker 19 (01:03:32):
I can make an argument that Biden's judicial appointments for
some of the worst ever, for example kbjs and John C.
Brown Jackson. Unlike let's say Kagan is a liberal. Kagan
is a reasonable liberal. I disagree with her philosophy, but
she has a philosophy. KBJ seems to more like be
aosc in roads. She seems to do policy decisions and

(01:03:54):
toxic a politician and Justice sodomy Or and Justice Kagan.

Speaker 8 (01:03:57):
Both blasted last time. So that's part of it.

Speaker 19 (01:04:00):
Part of it is you forum Shop, which basically means
you're not going to try your liberal wackadoo idea in Utah.
You're going to try it in crazy California, in Massachusetts
in front of a judge you know that will likely
decide or be more sympathetic to your cause. So that
means early on, in the first few months, Trump was
losing all these decisions in the courts as they went

(01:04:20):
up through the pellet system, and we had more reasonable
judges both on the left and the right, and especially
in the Supreme Court than Trump wins. Now, it's a
combination of factors. One, the left is cherry picking. Two
the left has gone more extreme on their lower court appointees.
And three Trump did a great job of confirming good
conservative justices and judges at the circuit level.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
I don't know about you, Michael, but we're a little
scared about Utah right now. So when you bring up Utah,
we've had some judges here making some really interesting decisions
of late. Michael, I want to go back to a
comment that you had because as we approach Halloween, this
is a scary thought. What if Hillary had won in
twenty sixteen, what would that looked like today?

Speaker 8 (01:05:02):
Yeah, that's a great point.

Speaker 19 (01:05:04):
Right now, the government's shut down because the Democrats don't
have any other options. They fail to stop things or
to get their policy agenda done. Previously, you know, twenty
years ago, they thought the courts.

Speaker 8 (01:05:15):
Could do that. Some of the unpopular.

Speaker 19 (01:05:17):
Items that they know could never be voted on successfully
or never happened in a straight up and down voter,
they didn't even want to talk about. They relied on
the courts to ultimately do. They don't have that option anymore.
And obviously, if Hillary would have won sixteen, she would
have had three Supreme Court picks, So that would have
been turning to court for generation to the left, and
they would still get those kind of liberal crazy wins

(01:05:39):
in the Court that they used to get years ago.

Speaker 8 (01:05:41):
So it was a big deal.

Speaker 19 (01:05:42):
It was huge, and a lot of kudos go to
former leader mcconaugh who kept that seat open for ten
months when Justice Scalia died, that ultimately went to Gorsic.
So those things do make a big difference. And I
think one of the things we forget is forget Hillary
for a second, because Trump appointed those three Spreme Court justices.

Speaker 8 (01:06:01):
He was winning when Brydon was in office.

Speaker 19 (01:06:05):
In other words, the Dobbs decision on abortion came down
in twenty two when Biden was in office. The affirmative
Action decision came down in twenty three when Biden was
in office, and that was all because of the Trump
Supreme Court that he set up sixteen through twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
So you point to some of the appointments he's made
in this his second term, what's the pace look like
for that? I mean, we're enjoining the fruits of a good, healthy,
first term. We're in the second term. Is he going
to see Are we going to see the same kind
of a production out of the courts and the appointments
that we did in the first term here in the second.

Speaker 19 (01:06:37):
You can hit on one of the reasons why I
wrote this thought at It wasn't just, you know, say
point out how good Trump's doing. But we have a
number of judges who could retire or take senior status
on the appellate level, and what that means is basically
their seat could be replaced by somebody younger who's going
to be there for many years. Obviously, the Democrats are
going to have with the White House again at some point,
and we want to have the judges there and the

(01:06:58):
courts there, so they can take winning winning God forbid
President AOC in twenty nine or something like that. Really,
oh right, but we were keep in mind, we were
winning in twenty two and twenty three and twenty four
in the courts, which is a huge deal of that
was because of what Trump did. So we need these
judges who are older to take that senior status.

Speaker 8 (01:07:20):
Or retire and let them be replaced by younger conservatives.

Speaker 19 (01:07:23):
And of course the left doesn't want to have that happen.
That's one of the reasons why they're attacking the legitimacies
of the Court. And there's some unfortunately on the right.
Hughes still don't trust President Trump, who I think's record
on the Court has been second to nine for conservatives.
It's better than Reagan. It's better than either Bush or Eisenhower.
And I don't care how far you want to go back,
you have to go back a long ways to find

(01:07:43):
a president who's had a better impact on the judiciary
than President Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
With Donald Trump in office at least for three more years,
Michael any concern about the future of the Supreme Court
if someone unfortunately may pass on or decide to retire.
Any concern there about the makeup of the court, knowing
that Donald Trump is still in the White House for
another three years, not in.

Speaker 8 (01:08:04):
The makeup on the court. But you know, it goes
to another thing.

Speaker 19 (01:08:06):
I mean, I don't want to Justice Thomas has been incredible, obviously,
but he's getting up there in years, there'll be rumors
about Justice Alito retiring.

Speaker 8 (01:08:14):
I mean, they need.

Speaker 19 (01:08:15):
If they're going to retire, and you know five years,
they shouldn't do that. They we should retire in three
why you know Trump is still president. I go even father,
it's always tough in a midterm year, and I hope
the Republicans do great this twenty six and gain a seat,
but historically you lose this seat or two in the Senate,
even though the map is.

Speaker 8 (01:08:34):
Very favorable to us.

Speaker 19 (01:08:35):
And obviously a fifty one Senate or a fifty to
fifty cent is not as conservative as a fifty three
seat Senate that we have right now. So yeah, I
think our justices should think about retiring who are older,
especially if they think they're not going to be there
for another ten years or so.

Speaker 8 (01:08:51):
And you know, that's their decision.

Speaker 19 (01:08:52):
I'm not trying to put pressure on anybody or anything
like that, or implying that like I am with the
Circuit Court judges, who I do think, who's to take
singer stash? But you know, it's something to consider. But
as far as it's something did, I think this would
be a great time from the retire We're in a
great spot to confirm a much younger conservative. You know
that said Justice Alito. I don't think it's enough credit.

(01:09:13):
He's been an amazing justice, and Justice Thomas, of course
is a legend of the conservative movement. So it's impossible
to replace those guys. But on the other hand, we
don't want to have happened to the left what happened
to arrth Vader Ginsburg. You know, we don't want to
die when there's a president in the other party.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Michael Falan, thank you, Michael. He is President executive director
of the Republican National Lawyers Association and great. You have
to admit he has had a great run in the
courts and we hope it continued for the next three years.
Are some challenges coming.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
I got to tell you, I think that this being
a democratically elected republic really was was hinging on that
election with Hillary or Donald Trump. And look at how
important this judiciary, the Supreme Court's been in even the
lower circuit court. Picks have been since. I mean, it's
it's it's kept America where it is. I mean, we're
not we got more work, but we'd be in a

(01:10:01):
lot bigger trouble without without those picks.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Do you just think where we'd be. Hillary would have
won and Joe Biden would have won.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
I have a clip. I don't know if we had
time to play it, but I'm telling you, when Elon
Musk was buying Twitter, she wanted she wanted the European
Union to put such strict censorship rules in Europe that
it would compel Twitter not only in Europe but also
in America. Just to keep it simple to put those
that censorship here in the United States. I mean, they

(01:10:30):
tried very hard to censor a free speech in the
state or in this country. Very scary, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
More coming up on the Rod and Greg Show on
This Wingman Wednesday and Talk Radio one oh five nine
k NRS a couple of updates on some very interesting
immigration stories. I think many people are aware of the
story involving the public schools superintendent in des Moines, Iowa.
They found out he was an illegal alien with a
gun charge and no, yeah, job.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Yeah, but there's more. I mean it's not just no. Yeah,
that doctorate degree, well that was.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
I should take.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
And he also was making well into six figures, three
hundred and five thousand a year. You know that whole
same when we tell our kids work hard, study hard. Yeah,
we're going to make some of the year. I know, lie
about your residency, lie that you have a doctorate degree
and make three hundred five thousand dollar taxpayer dollars a year. Yeah,
there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
When Roberts was arrested, they found three thousand dollars in
cash in his vehicle, a government issued vehicle by the way,
probably paid for by taxpayers, of course, had a fixed
blade hunting knife in the vehicle and a loaded himdgun.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
Well, and that sounds like that. That's that's a superintendent.
If I struction three thousand dollars cash. You know, he's
got a heater in the car with him, a gun,
loaded gun, and a hunting knife. There you go. Yeah,
what were we thinking?

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
The chairman of the school board there, her name is
Jackie Norris, who, by the way, is running for a
US Senate seat. I think Jony Ernst is retiring, so
she's running as a Democrat, right, and she apparently oversaw
his hiring.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
Well, that's going to be a that's going to be
a real great Senate stump speech, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
You think that could be an issue come next.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
To her selections, put a bow on it. I think
that's I think the Republicans that just went up ten
points in the polls on that little tidbit of information.
Now she looks after the people of Iowa the way
she looked after that school district. You're done, now you're off.

Speaker 8 (01:12:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
Illegals, Okay, where do you think immigrants went during the
unprecedented and influx at the US border?

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
By the numbers, I think they shipped them everywhere in
New York City.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
And they kind of did. But according to numbers from
the US Customs and Border Protection data they looked the
Associated Press looked at the data by state and metropolitan area.
The three top places Denver, Okay, Fort Myers, Florida, Okay,
and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
That makes me sad.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
Yeah, the AP in obtaining these records on self reported
destinations of nearly two point five million people who crossed
the border illegally, and they came legally through online. They
found that Salt Lake City, Denver, and Fort Myers, Florida
at the highest.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
Well, you know, some of that stands the reason and
that we you know, we had these multi jurisdictional task
forces gang task forces for this trende a agua gang
units that they were trying to combat. Before the election,
we had callers at called in and said the entire
you know, apartment complexes were occupied by either refugees or others.

(01:13:50):
Then they couldn't find uber jobs, They couldn't find side
jobs to pay the bills because things are so expensive.
We heard a lot of the impact from you know,
illegal immigrants or this this what we now know is
this money machine of refugees, I mean refugee service game
would make a ton of money. Anyway. It's having Utah

(01:14:13):
be one of those top three jurisdic metropolitan areas. Sadly
kind of correlates with what we heard from listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
Miami led all US metropolitan areas per capita greg with
twenty one hundred and ninety one immigrant arrivals for every
one thousand residents. All Right, that was followed by Ford
Myers with seventeen hundred and eighty two, Salt Lake City
with sixteen eighty five, Denver with sixteen seventy three, and
New York. We beat out New York with fifteen forty two.

(01:14:40):
That's per one hundred thousand, per one hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
Jeez. Yeah, No, I think that's in hindsight at least,
I actually, And when we were in the event, we
weren't happy about any of this. We respect o. We
were Hopefully people see the air of that whole process.
Now it looks pretty obvious now that the borders closed,
and we're seeing a lot of self deportations as well.
People are leaving on their own, which I think is

(01:15:04):
smart on their on their part, and I think makes
things better for us.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
Oh, we can hope. All right. When we come back,
we'll talk about reading scores and what did they do
when Mississippy get better. We'll talk about that coming up
next right here on the Rod and Gregg Show. Apparently
a huge accident down on the south end of the valley.
It's got things clogged up.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
Yeah. Now by the point of the mountain on the
Salt Lake County side, before you get the bang it.
I guess heading north one lane on my fifteen one
in lane open. So if you're commuting home and you're
going that direction, you're not going to you go talking
a lot. It sounds like to me, so.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
Well, you don't have worry about it because you go south.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
I go south.

Speaker 15 (01:15:43):
You wait?

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Do you wait by people when you you know, when
they're sucking drive going no way?

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
You know why because anybody looking over there slowing the
things down, those are called looky lose no way for you.
I even I see an accident, I will not even
look because I know whatever, and everyone slows down to look,
and then it just ticks me off.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
I have never figured that out. There could be one
police car from the UHP parked in the in the
right hand lane, not the lane, but you know, yes,
you know, and everybody slows down what to take a
look at the car. I've never figured that out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
I've driven, I've gone through traffic, and when I've got
to the point where the you know, the block and
the bottleneck and there's nothing there but like you said,
a police car, and I'm going really all you nebby
neb noses looking around slowing me down. I never look
if there's a if there's a parking if there's a
parking lot or something, I don't even look over there.

(01:16:36):
Just keep going. I'm on a mission. I'm going home.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
You are well, let's talk about reading and writing rather important. Yes,
both are.

Speaker 2 (01:16:45):
It's yes, reading is fundamental, as they say.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
It is fundamental. And the latest scores, the test scores
are showing that American kids are not cutting it. And
that's sad.

Speaker 2 (01:16:56):
And there's a lot of things I could give a
pass on math. I hate a science, and but reading
and reading comprehension. I don't know how you're getting through
this thing called life without it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Kind of gotta have it. So there are some states
who are doing some interesting things about it and joining
us on our Newsmaker line to talk Morris Kelsey Piper.
She is a contributor to The Argument magazine, talking about illiteracy,
illiteracy and reading in America today. Piper, A lot of
changes going on. What's your take on everything?

Speaker 18 (01:17:26):
Yeah, So we've known for a long time that we
need to do phonics, that is, teaching kids how to
sound out words to teach them to read, but some
states have been dragging their feet on actually making this
happen as a statewide program because it is not as
easy as just saying to teachers, hey, teach phonics. But
Mississippi really got this right. They paid for curricula that

(01:17:46):
are rich in phonics. They taught teachers how to get
the most out of that curricula. A lot of teacher
training is a waste of time, but they taught them
how to use these tools most effectively with your students,
they said, coaches into schools that were behind. And then
I said, if you can't read at the end of
third grade, you can't go to fourth grade. And that's
not a popular policy, but it makes it impossible for

(01:18:08):
later grades to do right by students if some of
their students just don't have the basic skills. And the
surprising thing they discovered was kids who work a lot
harder if they know then they need to master reading
to go on to the next grade. They didn't even
end up having to hold that many kids back because
kids and teachers and parents all got it together and
so almost all Mississippi third graders would pass the reading

(01:18:30):
test at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:18:31):
Yeah, we used to call that flunking, you know, and
knew kids are flunked. They flunked second fourth, third grade,
fourth grade.

Speaker 18 (01:18:38):
You know a lot of people decided to stop flunking kids,
but it turns out you need at least the threat
of that to get everybody to really buckle down and
learn to reader.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
I think it's why I got through. I think it
might have been the fire under me as a kid
to make sure I didn't flunk and miss out on
my friends and everyone moving upward and onward. Kelsey, let
me ask you this question. I love fun. Next, they
taught how to got people in there to help teach
and you know, to teach that curriculum. Interesting. Uh, description

(01:19:09):
is that there's clear accountability measures describing to me, what
what clear accountability measures do you have for teachers, instructors
as well as students. That really struck home because I'm
interested in the teachers side of it. How do you
know when the teachers doing it and it's not the
kid's fault that they're not learning it.

Speaker 18 (01:19:27):
Yeah, So nobody likes accountability because it means standardized tests,
and it means people coming into your classroom to evaluate
how well you're teaching. It means publishing records that you
know parents are going to be asking questions about and
stuff like that. And of course it's not fair to
a teacher who maybe gets a bunch of kids who
are behind and is expected to do miracles with them.

(01:19:48):
But if you base the accountability on how much you
advance a student from the beginning of the year to
the end of the year and how well you are
delivering the stuff that is your job to deliver, then
it's just a way of making sure expectations for teachers
are clear, they're fair, and then we recognize the teachers
who are succeeding, and we bring in a coach to
help out.

Speaker 1 (01:20:07):
The teachers who are failing.

Speaker 18 (01:20:08):
So I think there is a way to do tests
and evaluation that's not about trying to make teachers responsible
for the impossible, but just about are they delivering in
the classroom what needs to get taught to the kids?

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Kelsey, Why did we get away from using phonics? I
think Greg and I were both taught to read by phonics.
I mean, he's a he's a few years younger than
I am, but I know ill we were taught that.
How did we get away or why did we get
away from teaching phonics?

Speaker 19 (01:20:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 18 (01:20:36):
So I think this is a catastrophic mistake with good intentions.
Some kids will learn to read no matter how you
teach them. It's about half a kid's i want to say.
And it's a lot of you know, people like me
who are journalists, who are like highly wordzy, you know,
learn to read on their own three or four, whether
they teach us or not. The people who are designing

(01:20:58):
education policy were also that, and they were like, do
we really have to like sit all these kids in
a schoolhouse drilling them, like we're still the Puritans? Can't
We give them exciting reading material that is about stuff
that interests them and teach them just how to like
figure out unfamiliar words from context. And this does work

(01:21:18):
on some kids, So if you do a test of it,
it's not going to fail immediately because some kids it
will totally work for. But some kids need the sort
of systematic instruction that phonics offers, and so as you
move away from that, and especially as you get teachers
who don't even know how to deliver a good phonics education,
then those kids really really start to fall behind. So

(01:21:39):
our reading scores nationwide went down as people adopted this
whole language or whole word approach which was taught in
the ED schools and which was intended as a way
to make reading connect with kids and make them love
it more and get away from those drills. But it
turns out you need the drills.

Speaker 4 (01:21:55):
You can't love.

Speaker 18 (01:21:56):
Reading if you don't know how to read, and some
kids aren't going to learn how to read.

Speaker 8 (01:21:59):
Without the girls.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
So what really resonates with me is that third grade
is really a really important moment because if you're not reading,
I'm told, if you're not reading at a grade level
at third grade, once you get to fourth grade and forward,
you're not reading to learn, which puts you in maybe
an individual education plan for the rest of your time
in school. So it's a really important timing in terms

(01:22:21):
of curriculum. So I love hearing that. My question is
if you're showing if there's data out there showing that
this these reforms in Mississippi have taken them from forty
ninth to what thirty second or whatever? Whatever the progress is.
Hush my mouse see, I must have been bad at
mouse see. I didn't actual they should have flunked me,
I know, But what the kind of progress you're seeing?

(01:22:43):
What is the debate? Why is this not just being
embraced by everyone. If if it is that clear, and
Mississippi has its challenges in terms of household income, everything,
why on earth would this not be all the rage
at every school in every state.

Speaker 18 (01:22:58):
There are a couple of states that have started in
imitating Mississippi and are seeing benefits, but I do think
it's outrageous that there are other states that aren't. You know,
if you see a state that is spending half as
much on its kids as you're spending and they're getting
better results, you should stop the hall whatever you're doing.
You need to change what you're doing. I think a
lot of the time in education, you have these apparent miracles.

(01:23:20):
It turns out it's a statistical mirage. So a lot
of people have gotten very cynical and jaded, and they're like, oh,
it's probably not gonna last. But we've seen ten years
in a row now in Mississippi of these gains. They're
quite consistent, and we are seeing other states successfully replicate
parts of it. So I don't think it's a statistical mirage.
But I think that's part of it. People are cynical,
and I think the other part of it is it's embarrassing.

(01:23:42):
They don't want to be beaten out by Mississippi. There's
a lot of people who are like, you're not really saying.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
Mississippi's doing that.

Speaker 18 (01:23:49):
You just got to keep telling them Mississippi is doing
better than you. Yeah, you should be ashamed of that
tax it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
Piper joining us on our news maker line, talk about reading.
I love reading.

Speaker 8 (01:24:04):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
It's sad, Greg and I don't. I don't know if
you found that. You and I have to read so
much each and every day just to prep for the show.
You know, we read, we're reading constantly. Yeah, I don't
have time for enjoyable reading, just picking up a novel
and reading.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
Yeah, I try. I try to do. Yeah, I've got
a few books that I do that with, But I
do the Kindle and the audible.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
You don't like, see I like a book.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
I can't do that anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:24:31):
It's too heavy.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
No, it's just it's like you can you can read
kindle on a plane, you can read it wherever you can,
and then you can get and then it sinks with
your audible. So if you're in the car, you can
listen while you're driving, So you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
Listen to books. See I can't do that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
Well, I have to rewind a lot because out my
mind to wandering. I'll just get app for that. They
just it's a big old rewind betting for ten seconds
or whatever. You can hit it back and go back
to you last remember I need.

Speaker 1 (01:25:01):
To go thirty forty yeah, four minutes back. Yeah, I don't.
I don't do the audio books or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:25:08):
I have to look up what the last book I
read was. But I was reading those Jack Carr books.
I was re Yeah, you like Mark. Yeah, I'm a
couple of books back by behind.

Speaker 1 (01:25:15):
I have an author that I know, you don't know.
His name is Dan Silva.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
Yeah, I've heard of him.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
Yeah, he writes some very good books. And I've had
one sitting in my office for the last year and
I haven't picked it up yet.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
Yeah. Well it's because you're slack.

Speaker 1 (01:25:28):
No, I'm busy.

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
Yeah you are, You're very busy. Black. I'm just teasing.

Speaker 8 (01:25:32):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
We've got the final segment of the Rodden Gregg Show
on This Wing Men Wednesday coming up right here on
Utah's Talk Radio one O five dine o knrs. They're
going down with you know, I didn't even think about
that I do. I'm thinking every one of these guys
are just falling out by the way. Yeah, John Fetterman, I.

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
Think he's got a plus forty two percent favorability rating
amongst Republicans in Pennsylvania. That is a big, big number
for a Democrat senator from Pennsylvania. And Democrats are losing
voter registration at the voter registration by a lot that
people are just fleeing at an exodus out of that party.
So John Fetterman, I have underestimated that guy. But he

(01:26:11):
knows his audience, he knows the.

Speaker 1 (01:26:12):
State, he knows the state. He does Well, you were
talking earlier about with these with the government now being
in a shutdown, the president is already moving to cut
some things like what was it eight billion.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
Or two billion dollars on the green news scam.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
Green news scam. Well, the the CEO of Ford said
he expects that EV sales will be cut in half
at the end of tax credits. And I think they
expired this month, this next month. Are they gone now?

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
That September? It was in September, they're gone now?

Speaker 1 (01:26:43):
Yeah, apparently it ends the seventy five hundred dollars in
tax credits you get for buying an ev and Uh
the CEO his name is Farley, Jim Farley. I you
know Jim Farley. Now it's the same guys. Uh said
he wouldn't be surprised if sales of evs fell from
a market chair of around ten percent to around five percent.

(01:27:04):
When the text credits.

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
Go with, well, how pathetic that the government had to
help buy your car for you even want it. It
doesn't make it in the free market that you shouldn't
build it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
Yeah, California, remember the twenty dollars fast food wage law
backfiring big time?

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
Oh didn't see that coming.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
I didn't see that one coming to obvious. California, of course,
made national headlines when two large pizza hut franchises laid
off twelve hundred people. Apparently, a new report says they've
lost close to twenty thousand fast food jobs.

Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
Is that a state or is that a city law?
What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:27:38):
It's a state law? A state law, So state law,
you work in fast food, you get twenty bars.

Speaker 2 (01:27:42):
I went to the McDonald's in California, and good luck
even navigating the kiosks. They took all the employees out.
You got to use these kiosks, they don't make any sense.
I mean, I wasn't the only one that was confused.
There's a guy trying to use it, stabbing away at
one of those kiosks. He gave up and got in
his car and left. Yeah, but they're going to use
those kiosks instead of people if they're going to can
that high.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
Costing big time. Yep, twenty thousand jobs lost Colorado. We
mentioned this yesterday on the show. You know, they were
chanting against the margins of the players.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
Swear bear Mormons swear bear Mormons swear real swear.

Speaker 1 (01:28:17):
The university is now facing a fifty thousand dollars penalty
imposed by the Big Twelve Conference.

Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
It's times like this that I ask what would Porter
rock Will do? That's what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:27):
You are such a Porter rock Well.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:28:29):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
I think there was a role for Porter rock Well,
and I think we're missing that role today, and it's
one I would gladly accept. If asked I would, You'd
be the Porter rock Well. I would be our avenging
angel if asked, I am here for our faith.

Speaker 1 (01:28:45):
We mentioned the other day that the that the ratings
for Jimmy Kimmel have dropped seventy percent.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
Well from that, seeing if he was going to apologize
or not.

Speaker 1 (01:28:55):
Yeah, well, apparently the latest number show that CNN and
MSNBE are basically in a death spiral. Yeah, well, I
hate network. Someone called them the hate networks. Yeah, that's
what we should call them now, the hate network networks.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
They're not even regime media anymore. They're just hate networks.

Speaker 1 (01:29:11):
There, hate networks. Yeah, CNN, let's see what the number show.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Turning Point USA
founder Charlie Kirk, CNN was only able to attract average
of five hundred and seventy thousand primetime viewers. MSNBC attracted
an average of eight hundred and fifty four thousand viewers. Okay,

(01:29:35):
Fox News at that time they drew two hundred and
eight million.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
Not two hundred eight million, two point eight million, two
point eight million. Yeah, I'm not surprised by that. It
And look, at some point, revenue has to matter to
these people, right, There has to be a revenue stream
that's gonna matter. This is why Jimmy Kimmel is gonna
get the pink slip, and it's not gonna because what
he said inaccurately about the assassin that killed Charlie Kirk.

(01:30:01):
It's going to because a show is rotten, nobody watches it,
and that's the real reason. And I'm telling you, I
think they thought they saw him out and all of
a sudden, for whoever owns at a Disney, his spouse,
his social calendar got interrupted, so they brought him back.
And now they're going to say Nactually, it's it's that
nobody watches you. So that's why you're gonna get well.

Speaker 1 (01:30:20):
One was I didn't even watch this last night. I
saw some clips of it, but apparently Kimmel is now
doing his show in Brooklyn. So Colbert shows up and Cole,
you know, Fallon's side enough Fallon, but Kimmel's sidekick. They
all sat down and did a toast to hate Donald
Trump on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:30:36):
Oh it's that other guy, that's seth guy. What's his name? Anyway,
Good luck, good rings to all of them.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
I said, see you folks, all right, head up, shoulders back.
May God bless you and your family that great country
of ours. And we'll be back tomorrow with a brand
new edition of the Rotting greg Children. We'll talk to
you for it,

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