Talkline | Nov. 4, 2025

Robert Bolton, FSU Political Science Professor, discusses the life and career of former VP Dick Cheney. Dave & TJ talk about the impact of SNAP benefits running out with Amelia Knisely, of WV Watch and Metronews' Brad McElhinny. Fox News' Ryan Schmelz stops by. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wants to dive into today the latest on the government shutdown?
Could there be some byparts talks going on? Brad McIlhenny
stops by the latest on the effort to distribute food
across the same as staff benefits remain suspended, and Vice
President former Vice President Dick Cheney passing away. It's Metro

(00:38):
News talk Line.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
We are underway radio turned off from the studios of
w v RC Media and the Metro News Radio and
Television Network, The Voice of West Virginia comes the most

(01:00):
powerful show in West Virginia.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
This It's Metro News talk Line.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
With Dave Wilson and DJ Meadows.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
At Switch Network control from Charleston.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
To Morning stand by to David, DJ. You're on. Metro
News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling you
with coverage to protect what you care about most. Visit
incovia dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Good morning, Welcome into the program. It is Metro News
talk Line from the Encova Insurance studios. Glad you are
part of our morning eight hundred seven sixty five Talk
is the phone number eight hundred seven sixty five eight
two five five. You can text the show at three
oh four Talk three to zero four as well. Appreciate
you tuning in on one of our great affiliates across

(01:50):
the state of West Virginia, or if you're watching on
the Metro News TV app. Jake link is Our video producer.
Ethan Collins is sitting by audio technician today, and of
course TJ. Meadows is in the Charleston studio. Good morning, TJ.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Morning, sir, I'm watching this New York may oriol I
tell you, man, I never would have thought a socialist
had a chance of being the mayor of the financial
capital of the world. That just blows my mind.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
We'll get into that a little bit later on. Today
there are elections not here, not here, but there are
elections in neighboring states Ohio, Virginia, up the road in
New Jersey. Of course, the New York City mayorol Race
folks are keeping an eye on. We'll get into that
a little bit later on. Ryan Schmelz will join us
from Capitol Hill as well. Earlier this morning, the news

(02:41):
broke that former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away at
the age of eighty four due to complications with pneumonia
and cardio and vascular disease. He certainly transformed the position
as one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents
in our country's history. To talk more about his career
and impact, please welcome to the show. Fairmont State University

(03:02):
political science professor, friend of the show and newlywed Robert Bolton.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
Robert, good morning, Hey Dave, glad to be on. Thank
you for the kind.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Words, and first of all, congratulations, sir.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
Thank you. I got married on October eighteenth to my
beautiful bride, the former Jennifer Secure, and we spent about
a week up in New England, and I'm back to
the grind now. I'm actually at Fairmont State as we speak.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
All right, Robert Wellgan, congratulations. Dick Cheney powerful and polarizing.
How did he change the vice presidency?

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Oh, there's no question that. With the possible exception of
a man from the late nineteenth century, William McKinley's vice president,
a guy named Garrett Hobart, Dick Cheney was undoubtedly the
most powerful vice president in American history. When a presidential
candidate is looking for a good mate, there are really

(04:01):
two things that they're looking for. One is someone who
can be a good hatchet man, as Richard Nixon would
have said, someone who is willing to go out into
the muck and defend the president's policies, criticize his opponents
in a way that maybe would appear too undignified for
the executive office itself, and always back his position publicly.

(04:24):
The second thing, and perhaps more importantly, although it never
came into play with Dick Cheney, is would a vice
president be someone who is prepared to step into the
oval office and assume the presidency if the president is
incapacitated or passes away. That's what you're looking for in
any vice president, but Dick Cheney went far beyond that.

(04:46):
He assumed a level of responsibility for managing the executive
branch of government during George W. Bush's presidency that was
really pretty unheard of. He was most impactful in regard
to the Uni States as foreign policy and our national
security programs.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Robert, again, my congratulations as well in your nuptials, sir.
That's awesome, great to hear you think about Cheney. He
was a low key kind of guy. Though he was
a low key campaigner. He had that almost ben Stein
kind of monotone delivery. So the public facing Cheney maybe
not necessarily what was going on behind closed doors seems

(05:27):
like two different guys.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
Maybe, yeah, undoubtedly, It's pretty obvious that he was a
devoted family man. For example, his daughter Liz, who was
a congresswoman from Wyoming who has butted heads with President
Trump on the number of occasions. He was someone who
openly defended her when she hearned Trump's hire. And then

(05:50):
also his other daughter, Mary was or is a lesbian
and she came out to him. I believe it was
in the mid seventies, late SEVENI when that was still
a very unusual thing, and he, to the best of
my knowledge, fully supported her and basically gave up running
for president in nineteen ninety six in no small part

(06:11):
because of that. But on the public front, he was
not as warm of a man. He famously once said,
if he want to be liked, to go be a
movie star, and he was willing to. When he made
a decision, for good or ill, for correct or wrong,
he would not back down from that and he would
remain defend that position until the end.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Robert Bolton joining US Fairmount State University political science professor
former Vice President Dick Cheney dying at the age of
eighty four, his family, releasing statement early this morning, had
passed away last night. Robert he really was, in a
lot of ways the ultimate number two guy because he
approached the vice presidency with the idea that his agenda

(06:57):
was the president's agenda. He wasn't looking to possible run
when George W. Bush's term was over. He was going
to be the number two guy, and in a lot
of ways that is unique for that position.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
Absolutely. I'm trying to think back the last time you
did not have someone who was vice president run for
president himself, And the last time I can think of
one would probably be, oh my, it maybe was Truman.
I forget if Albin Barkley as vice president ran ever

(07:33):
for president. I think he did. Yeah, I would be
I'm hard pressed. I think the last one I can
think of for Shore who never ran was FDR's Vice
President John nance Garner. Pretty Much everyone else at least
has dipped their toes into the Republican or Democrat primaries
or was selected as the nominee. Chaney was never interested

(07:53):
in that, though. He was willing to be someone who
operated in the shadows and understood that true power doesn't
come from public rhetoric. Necessarily, it doesn't come from being
in popularity ratings. It came from knowing how to do
the administrative side of the job, how to cajole people

(08:16):
into adopting your position, knowing where the bodies are buried,
knowing how to manage the paperwork. And that was something
Chaney was able to do in spades.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Chaney wanted a strong presidency. He worked for that, advocated
tireusly for that. Is it somewhat ironic that what he
wanted in a strong presidency may have propelled what Donald
Trump has been able to do a president and a
presidential candidate that Chaney himself did not endorse. He endorsed Terrace.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
Yeah, undoubtedly. Chaney was a big defender of something that's
known in the legal community as the unitary executive theory.
It basically he says that the president, as head of
the executive branch, should be suzerin of the executive branch.
Pretty much any public official who's within that branch of
government he should have control of, he should be able

(09:13):
to terminate. Chaney, I suspect was probably not a big
fan of the civil service, for example, but he also
locked heads with Donald Trump. Now some of the recent
Supreme Court rulings that have come out in favor of Trump,
particularly his ability to fall fire people who are in

(09:34):
independent offices in government, for example with the Federal Reserve.
Cheney would probably look on those favorably. But the man himself,
Donald Trump, he was not a fan of at all,
in no small part because Trump heavily campaigned for the
opponent of Liz Cheney and the Republican primary out in

(09:54):
Wyoming and basically is the decisive factor on why Liz
Cheney lost her job in the House Representatives.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Fairloan State University political science professor Robert Bolton joining us
here at Metro News Talk Climb. We have to talk
about the Iraq War, the Second Iraq War. Obviously, Cheney
was involved with HW Bush as Secretary of Defense in
the first Golf War, but the second one, Robert, a
lot of the assertions that Cheney made and pushed for

(10:23):
reasons to go into Iraq turned out to be incorrect,
and he was a major proponent of our country's involvement
in Iraq in the George W. Bush administration.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
Yeah, people forget that Dick Cheney was George H. W.
The first Bush. His Secretary of Defense during the Golf
War and played a big role along with Colin Powe
as the Joint Chief of Staff as Chairman of the
Joint chiefs of Staff in making the go War such
a massive success. Really, the Golf War is the only

(10:58):
war we've won since World War Two outright, But then
we got bogged down in two thousand and three onward
until we withdrew in twenty eleven. In the Iraq War,
Chaney was a big proponent of it. A lot of
people don't know that. In the earliest days of the
Bush administration, he was initially a little bit skeptical about

(11:19):
the potency of Iraq's WMD program alleged WMD program, but
he quickly revised his view, and by late two thousand
and one, almost immediately after the September eleventh attacks, was
advocating for a potential invasion of Iraq. He probably would
have did it even earlier than March of two thousand
and three if he'd had his druthers, And unfortunately that

(11:42):
what George W. Bush, who in September October of two
thousand and one had the highest recorded popularity rating ever
for a modern president. By the end of his second
term was in the high twenties, low thirties, and and
that's no small part because of the Iraq War, Chaney's
advocacy for it, and quite frankly, the policies he used

(12:06):
to combat what he perceived as the potential of terrorist
attacks did a lot of damage to our international standing abroad.
In regard to enhanced interrogation what some people would and
I think correctly called torture, that was part of it.
Also the wire tapping program of American citizens that came
out early in Bush's second term. Many of these decisions

(12:29):
were extremely controversial. Chaney, to his credit, never apologized for
his opinion, and he said, I made this decision and
I'm going to stick with it. But they were unpopular
and I do think that they in the long term
probably damaged the United States position internationally for a number

(12:50):
of years.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Thinking about Dick Cheney this morning, the first thing, admittedly
that popped into my mind was nine to eleven and
that image of him him in the PIOC and I'll
defer to your recollection of history, Robert overmine, but he
actually he because of communications failures with w being on

(13:12):
Air Force one. Chaney was the individual that gave the
shootdown order, and then I came in. I was reading
a piece brent S. Gocroft talked about how he believed
that Chaney was never the same after nine eleven. Would
you agree with that? And I'd like your thoughts on
nine to eleven as it reflects on Cheney as well.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Absolutely somewhat notable that that bunker that he was famously
photographed in probably doesn't exist anymore after the recent demolition
of the East Wayne. Just bringing that up for a second.
But yeah, No, he was the one who gave the
initial order to shoot down any carrier planes if they

(13:50):
were unable to identify themselves in land, because at one
point there appeared to be that flight ninety three was
possibly going to hit either the White House of the
United States capital. There's still some uncertainty about what its
final target was, but it had the passengers not overwhelmed
the terrorists, that probably would have ended up resulting in

(14:14):
the plane being shot down. Yeah, in the early hours,
Chaney was the one who was in control as President
Bush was returning from the South. Chaney, to his credit,
everyone said that he was cool and collected. After the
initial report came that the twin towers had been struck.
He almost immediately pivoted and was in control, was willing

(14:37):
to aggregate information, was willing to lead. Had, for example,
President Bush been in the White House had been killed
that day, had flight ninety three hit the White House,
Chaney would have been in the Oval Office, And I
don't have much doubt that he would have been in
control and known what he wanted to do in regard
to al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. And I

(14:59):
do think it cemented his worldview that that day we
saw three thousand people burn to death, and he was
determined that was never going to happen again under his watch.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Robert, I gotta admit I doubted you during this interview
because I thought dan Quayle never ran for How do
we forget about dan one? I mean, it's easy to
forget about dan Quayle, But even dan quail for a
hot minute was seeking the Republican nomination for president in
two thousand.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
He did run through my mind, and he did. He
didn't do very well in the primary. I was think
him there for a second, but no, he did for
a brief, brief moment, didn't go anywhere but yes, you
gotta have faith in me.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Dave, I do.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
I will never doubt you again. Robert Bolton, Fairmont State
University Political science professor, Thank you for the context and
perspective this morning. Robert always appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (15:45):
Hey, hey, thanks guys, have a great day.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
You too, well, take a break, We're just off rolling.
This is mentioned news talk line from the Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
Governor Patrick Morrissey has set a very bold goal fifty
gigawatch of new energy capacity by twenty fifty. Thanks to
House Built twenty fourteen, West Virginia's coal plans will be
upgraded to run longer, stronger, and more efficiently, thus delivering reliable,
affordable baseload power. Our families and businesses will be able

(16:15):
to count on. West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton
stated Governor Morrissey's plan to grow West Virginia's energy generation
capacity to fifty gigawatts by twenty fifty is a dynamic
approach to economic development which will supercharge our state's coal
industry and broader economy. With Governor Morrissey's leadership and the

(16:36):
action of the legislature, West Virginia is once again America's
energy leader. Coal is powering Progress, Coal is powering West Virginia.
Brought to you by the West Virginia Coal Association.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance and
circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Three or four Talk three or four is the text line.
Eight hundred and seven six five eight two five five.
That is the phone number. And I gotta admit TJ. Still,
I'm not saying I doubt Robert, but now it did
pique my curiosity. Go back and look at the list
of vice presidents for the last old I don't know
century m h. And he's right, especially in modern times,

(17:38):
a very rare attribute where the VP wasn't actively at
least considering running for president after the current president's term
was over. The president he or she served with, they've
all done it outside of you know, I think we,
like he said, going all the way back to Truman
and they you got to go back to the forties there.
That's a unique quality to be the number two guy

(18:01):
and say I don't want to be the number one guy.
I just want to be the number two guy.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, most presidents are governors. I mean that's the path.
They come right out of the governorship. They don't come
out of the Senate. They come out of being, you know,
a state executive. But Cheney, you know, he really was
like the ultimate chief operations officer if you think about it,
and understood the power of being the number two guy,
the man behind the man. But also I think and

(18:26):
we didn't get a chance to get into this with
Robert maybe another time, but Lynn Cheney, I mean, let's
face it, you read some of the biographies. Cheney was
a little bit of a screw up as a kid,
and Lynn Chaney kind of whipped him into shape. So
it's one of those deals. Where would I be but
for my spouse? And how common is that in politics?

(18:47):
Very three or four Talk? Three or four is the
text line eight hundred and seven and sixty five talk.
That's the text line and the phone number.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Coming up. Ryan Schmell's going to join us. I have
double checked with him. He will join us coming up
at ten thirty this morning, which is just a few
minutes away. We'll get the latest on the government shut down.
Reading reports out there that at least some it's not
leadership DJ in the House, but there are some bipartisan
talks going on about putting together some sort of deal

(19:15):
in principle to extend these ACA tax credits. It's not
going to happen till the government gets reopened. But as
Riley More indicated yesterday, there are talks going on. It's
not leadership, but at least somebody's talking.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
Well, maybe they become leadership. That's how we get new leadership.
I mean, remember the days that if leadership didn't deliver,
they were out. They weren't leadership anymore. I mean that
still happens in corporate America all the time. And you
know what, Marjorie Taylor Green, who I quite literally never
agree with, she just doesn't come off the way I would.

(19:49):
And in terms of her positions and everything. She's out
in front on this thing, and she's on Bill maher
the other night, she didn't really really well. She's using
this right or wrong political or not political. She's using
this opportunity to really up her profile on this issue.
And she's one of the few Republicans that seem to
be on the right side of this ACA thing, at

(20:10):
least in terms of how she's being I think anybody
who's not talking about it, I don't think you can
just you know, we talked about tapering yesterday with Jeremy.
I don't think you could just cut it. I mean
I don't like it either, but the idea of tapering
off of it, finding some kind of way to move
forward without just pulling the rug out from under people,
I mean, you at least have to be willing to
negotiate and talk when you just want to say we're

(20:32):
not going to do it. To me, that seems impractically.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
They have indicator they're going to talk, they have indicator
they're going to have negotiations after the government's reaching.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Well, maybe they will, maybe they will, But at this
point that CR has elapsed. To what if we passed
that CR today, would we have two weeks left in it?
I forget exactly, move on. The whole thing is over.
Start again. The CR doesn't matter anymore. It's about a
deal moving forward. If you only have two weeks on it,
what's that byue two weeks? Well, I guess two weeks

(21:01):
is better than none, But you get my point. I mean,
it's all kind of moot. Now.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
I don't know, I don't know if it's mood or not.
But the Republicans have said they're willing to negotiate on
this deal, but the government has to be reopened to
do it. We're gonna have to pass a clean CR
either now or you're gonna have to do it later.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
We'll get a deal that goes more than two weeks,
I guess, is what I'm saying. That old CR is
kind of pointless in my mind right now.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Three or four Talk three oh four is the text line.
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred
seven to sixty five, eight two five five. That's the
phone number. Ryan Schmell is going to join us, coming
up on the other side of the break, and we'll
get you caught up basketball, getting under away last night
as well, get you those updates before the top of
the hour. This is a talk line on Metro News
for forty years, the voice of West Virginia. It is

(21:46):
ten thirty times to get a news update. Let's check
in on the Metro News radio network. Find out what's
happening across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 6 (21:54):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins. Governor Patrick Moore
is he getting a first hand look this hour at
those distributing food because of SNAP benefits not being available.
He's with State Adjutant General Jim Seward at Step by
Step Family Support Center in Charleston. Charleston City Council last
night approved sixty thousand dollars to the Kanaw Valley Collective
to purchase and distribute food. Mary michul, A good one says,

(22:17):
they're meeting and need.

Speaker 7 (22:18):
People are hungry, and you know, while you may not
think it is a lot on average, I think it's
about one hundred and eighty seven dollars, it matters. It
matters to families that are struggling, that are literally putting
budget plans together every month.

Speaker 6 (22:33):
State lawmakers will returned to the state Capitol next month
for interim committee meetings. This month's interims didn't offer much
in the way of policy discussion, at least not publicly
the end today at Pipestein Resort State Park, where most
of the work's been done on site visits. The state's
revenue picture continues to do a little better than some
may have predicted. Four months into the fiscal year, revenue
collections have exceeded estimates by one hundred and three million dollars.

(22:55):
State Revenue Secretary Eric Nelson says consumer sales tax showed
a solid increase last month and collections along with severance taxes, those.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Tax cuts continue to oftenk be.

Speaker 8 (23:05):
Reinvested and consumer sale and purchases.

Speaker 6 (23:09):
And Nelson was a guest Mondyal Metro News talk line
with Dave and TJ. Weatherwise across the state today, turning
partly setting warming up into the sixties. You're listening to
Metro News for forty years. The voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
Governor Patrick Morrissey a set of very bold goal fifty
gigawats of new energy capacity by twenty fifty. Thanks to
House Built twenty fourteen, West Virginia's coal plans will be
upgraded to run longer, stronger, and more efficiently, thus delivering reliable,
affordable base load power. Our families and businesses will be

(23:43):
able to count on. West Virginia Coal Association President Chris
Hamilton stated Governor Morrissey's plan to grow West Virginia's energy
generation capacity to fifty gigawatts by twenty to fifty is
a dynamic approach to economic development which will supercharge our
state's coal industry and broader economy. With Governor Morrissey's leadership

(24:04):
and the action of the legislature, West Virginia is once
again America's energy leader. Cold is Powering Progress. Cold is
Powering West Virginia. Brought to you by the West Virginia
Coal Association.

Speaker 6 (24:21):
Former Calhoun County Commissioner Jacob Maccumbers remains free on bond
after facing a magistrate of Monday on fifty counts of
sexual abuse against a child. The magistrate found enough evidence
to ford the charges to a grand jury. Beckley police
say a medical facility is completely cooperating with their investigation
into a small vial making its way into a Halloween
basket Halloween night. It appears that vile came from that

(24:42):
medical facility, but police suspect no foul play. From the
Metro News anchor desk, I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Three before Talk three or four is the tax line
eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred
seven sixty five eight two five five texts, says Dave.
If the Republicans said it, then it must be true. No,
I don't really trust anybody, but at some point, at
some point, you have to. But maybe we don't have
to reopen the government. Maybe we've just proved all of
this is unnecessary. Maybe, I say facetiously at self, you

(25:39):
point you got to reopen the thing and move forward.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
If you go Appropriation's bill by appropriations bill, then you
kind of do reopen some and not reopen outhers, don't you.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
But Thunas said he doesn't want to do that, or
at least that was the message a couple of days ago.
They don't want to go appropriation, open a piecemeal, open
the government back up. Yeah, this thing's moving again. I
do not see the point of what we have done
for the last thirty five days. What have you approved?

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Oh, you've proven absolutely nothing. And that's why I say
you talk about being on the right side of it,
I think more and more of the right side of
it is anyone who just says, look, take the Democrat
talking point, throw it away, take the Republican talking point,
throw it away. Just get it open, and you have
to move beyond the basis. Neither side has moved beyond
their base in their talking points. They're not going to.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Three or four talk Three or four is the text
line at eight hundred and seven six five talks the
phone number, it's go to Washington, DC. Fox News Radios,
Ryan Schmells, Ryan, Good Morning, day thirty five of the shutdown.

Speaker 9 (26:44):
Any updates, Maybe we've got a couple, you know, seems
like there's an off ramp. There seems like a sense of,
you know, optimism that there is going to be a
solution soon. Now, what Leader Fune has alluded to is
that they might not be doing the November twenty first
deadline anymore for reopening the government. They think it's gonna

(27:06):
they're going to probably have to vote on something a
little bit later, like December or January, and that could
be something that you know, has some disagreements on, but
you know, ultimately, if they were too good down that road,
they would have to bring the House back in order
to reopen the government. So Speaker Johnson's talking right now,
and we'll see if he has any thoughts on that.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
So, is that basically the the cr that we've talked about,
I think was seven weeks. We're what five weeks, and
so it's it's basically moot, I guess, is that what
I'm hearing you say?

Speaker 9 (27:35):
Well, I mean it's only a two week funding bill. Now,
it was a seven week funding bill originally. So yeah,
I think there's a thought that there's no you know,
the whole point of it being until the November twenty
first was to give them enough time to figure out
what to do for an entire fiscal year budget. But
you know, they don't really have much time to negotiate
that anymore because they've been out out of session. So uh,

(27:56):
I think, yeah, I think that the idea is that, well,
they're going to be a little bit more time than that,
so let's extend it.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Fox News Radios, Ryan Schmells, Ryan, there were some reports
I read that over on the House side there were
some bipartisan talks. It wasn't leadership, but some bipartisan talks
trying to work out at least in principle a deal
for those ACA text credits.

Speaker 9 (28:15):
Yeah, there's there's been some talks about that going on.
There's already been a couple of piece of legislation this
and byporters and signatures that would extend it for a
year or so. But obviously, if they want to fix
the thing, or they want to have this in a
form that's actually going to pass both chambers, Uh, there's
going to need to be some substantial reforms, because it
doesn't seem like Republicans will be able to vote for

(28:37):
something that that that's just the way it is right now.
You know, there's income caps that Republicans want their significant
reforms to it. So you know, a blanket extension is
just probably not something that's on the table here.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
So what the Speaker saying, the House is an in session,
he's not calling them back. They're working in their districts
as you're there in DC. Are more and more members
of the House. Are they coming back to Washington so
they can have the those informal conversations that Dave is
talking about to at least be in their office and
have that perception that they're working on something. Are they
staying home? Just kind of curious if anyone's defying the
speaker on that.

Speaker 9 (29:10):
There's definitely been lawmakers who've been here. You know, He's
been bringing different chairmen and in different members of the
House to his press conferences every day, so there's definitely
lawmakers who are here.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
You know.

Speaker 9 (29:21):
Obviously, remember Mike Lawler was here a couple of times
one week and he got into a shouting match with
two different I guess like Mark Kelly and Ruben Gaig
and then went downstairs in a similar shouting match with
Hakeem Jefferies. So yeah, there's definitely people here, and you'll
see lawmakers actually giving tours because you know, you cannot
do tours during during a shutdown unless it's led by

(29:44):
a member of Congress. So that's been going on every
once in a while.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Giving tours.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Hawks and these radios. Ryan Schmells joining us here met
his talk line this morning. The Trump administration says that
we'll pay for partial snap benefits, but it seems like
that may still be a couple of weeks out before
folks would see those funds come in on their accounts.

Speaker 9 (30:06):
Well, yeah, I guess with the Snap benefits too. I
mean the the the ruling that came in from that judge.
It's only a temporary fix. That reality is that SNAP
benefits are are like everything right now, kind of on
life support and the unable to function at their full capacity.
So until the government's reopen, those SNAP benefits are going
to be a question mark.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
One of the talking points about SNAP and others to
get it back open is well, let's get past these elections.

Speaker 10 (30:31):
Now.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
It seems like there's always a moving goal line. We
want to get past this, get past it. Does that
really matter at this point?

Speaker 9 (30:37):
Well, if you if you saw Chad Program's package from
yesterday on Special Report, he went back and showed every
single one of the different, uh you know, breaking points
that Republicans thought Democrats would would move on. Was the
new King's Rally, it was a snap benefits having a deadline.
It was federal workers and their paychecks hitting a deadline.
It was now it's election days. But at the same time,

(31:00):
a lot of these things are kind of starting to
build up and and kind of leading to people to say, okay, well,
we got to really, you know, cough this up and
get this thing over with, because you know, a lot
of people are hurting right now. So there's you know,
there's definitely, i think a sense of urgency that's starting
to pick up that may not have been there before.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
That's the diconomy here, though, Ryan. There are people hurting,
But then there are people who are going about their
business every day and have not even noticed this is
going on.

Speaker 9 (31:26):
Exactly, and and and that's how it usually is until
you go to the airport and then you have us
three hour delay or you know, your flight gets canceled.
It's kind of yeah, you don't. You don't need the
government until you need it. And you know, all these
talks about TSA, I mean, we've had some pretty bad
stoppages for for airports across the country. Right now. It's
it's getting to a kind of a breaking point. And

(31:46):
of course, you know, troops are are you know, the
administration has been moving some things around to make sure
troops get paid, but that can only last for so
long too.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Ryan Schmels, Fox News Radio joins us also an impersonator
of Chad Pergrim his downtime. If you know, you know,
Senator Shelley Moore Capito is on one of the local
shows this morning, and she's been adamant she doesn't want
to use or break the filibuster. She likes the filibuster.
With that said, how long until Republicans who have said
that all we can't do that, we can't, you know,

(32:16):
break the glass. How long does this thing go on
till they start to shift that narrative and they say,
you know what, we didn't want to do it, but
we had no choice. It went too long, all these
things are happening. We had to break it. I mean,
do we get to that point.

Speaker 9 (32:29):
Well, Republicans are still very much in favor of the
filibuster and so well there doesn't appear that they want
two chrains with filibuster. But yeah, no, you know, Fune
was asked about this yesterday. There are a couple other
senators asked about this yesterday. It doesn't seem like there's
really a wide appetite in Republican circles to change the filibuster.
There There's maybe been a push here there from more

(32:53):
conservative members like the House Freedom Caucus and whatnot. But
besides that, it seems like ending the filibuster is is
not exactly on the table for Republicans. We'll point out
too that Trump to just put out true social posts
out pretty much doubling down in that stance where he
just pretty much did in all caps and the filibuster
multiple explanation points. So he hasn't really taken his foot

(33:14):
off the gas on this at all.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Well, Trump would love to in the filibuster, Yeah, I mean,
for any number of reasons, but Republicans know that pendulum swings.
Almost called you Chad geez, you guys, Ryan, that pendulum swings,
and eventually you're going to be back in the minority.
And if you if you break that ceiling, you break
that box, it's you're never putting it back in there.

Speaker 9 (33:37):
It's it's it's a major concern that a lot of
people have. And you'll remember this was done, you know.
I believe it was Harry Reid with the Supreme Court
judges saying we should go nuclear on that. Well, Mitch
McConnell went nuclear, and he got three conservative justices approved,
and that's why the court's now six to three.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
I think it turns into one of these deals where
Republicans say, in this day of spin, the Democrats may
let us do it. The Democrats made it. I mean,
all the talking heads on all the Sunday shows, they
made us do it. We didn't have a choice, you
the people needed the government open, so we did it.

Speaker 9 (34:10):
I mean, yeah, I mean, I mean, they're a breaking point.
I mean, it's just the this has been going on
for We're going to hit record tomorrow. So the last
government shutdown, it was just because of exhaustion essentially, is
why it ended. And that it feels like we could
be at that point too. I mean, you know, there's
a number of off ramps that can be done here

(34:30):
and whatnot, and and it's it's it's as simple as
having a vote. And this thing is over with. And
you know what, they're going to have another vote here
at eleven thirty and we'll see if any Democrats flip.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Well, you know what they say, Ryan, go beg or
go home. If you're not going to set a record,
you might as well just sit it out, I suppose. So, yeah,
here we got thirty five. Tomorrow be thirty six, so
might as well set the record. We've come this far.

Speaker 9 (34:54):
Yeah, I mean all these times that we avoided a
government shutdown and now I'm actually sitting through one. And
uh well it's already a record, So not not a shock.
I don't think it's a shock.

Speaker 10 (35:06):
No.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Fox News Radios, Ryan Schmells. Ryan, always appreciate the update.

Speaker 9 (35:10):
Thank you very much, buddy, of course, thank you.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five talk and three
oh four talk, three oh four. Those are the phone
numbers and the text line your opportunity to weigh in
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(37:07):
jackpot is up to eight hundred million dollars. To go ahead,
play today text line three or four. Talk three or four, guys.
If Democrats do bad in the elections today, the shutdown
will be over by the end of the week. If
Democrats think they did well, they think that is a
mandate to keep the government shut down, says the Texter.

(37:28):
I don't know about that. That's drawing a lot. It
is going to be interesting to watch these elections in Virginia,
New Jersey, in particular New York City. It looks like
Zoron Moondai is going to be elected mayor up there.
I'm always careful to draw too much of a conclusion
too quickly, especially in an election, but there'll be some

(37:48):
who try to draw too much out of these elections
I coming up here today.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Here's the problem with that thinking. I mean, Northern Virginia's
deep blue. Virginia's blue. It's not read anymore. You don't
have a cross section of enough states, I think to
really have a true litmus test on that too. Yeah,
you gotta be careful how much your way into that. Now.
Will people use it absolutely, will people use it to

(38:13):
spin absolutely? But I just Virginia New Jersey. Yeah, it
is not big enough, not enough cross section there to
really get a feel one way or the other.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Virginia is like three different states. I mean we could
split up again. You've got Northern Virginia deep dark blue. Yeah,
You've got the Tidewater area which is deep blue. Then
you got the rest of the state, which is kind
of like us really as far as culture, as far
as politics go. A lot of Virginia is very rural.
A lot of Virginia is conservative. But those population centers

(38:46):
and there are a ton of people northern Virginia and
down in the Tidewater area.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, Richmond proper, Yeah blue, Richmond, Charlotte's Blue. Yeah blue.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Other side of that like Grundy, Abingdon Yeah, South Boston
red red, can be but just not enough people overall.
Three or four talk three oh four. They should lower
the filibuster threshold to fifty six or fifty seven. Then
the speaker gets a mulligan added to the count.

Speaker 14 (39:13):
All for mulligans.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
The shutdown is like COVID Republicans are in charge, and
they blame the Democrats, says the Texter. What people don't
seem to remember is that the clean cr currently being
voted down by Chuck Schumer and the Democrats was written
by Chuck Schumer under Biden, and they voted for it
twelve times, says the Texter.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
That's why facts don't matter anymore. Uh three or four?

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Talk three or four? This is not both sides. Get
off the fence. Who's voting no? Asks the Texter Davin TJ.
What happens in six months if the government still has
not reopened. I do think it's going to reopen. And
this is just a hunch. I have no good information here, TJ.
But eventually Austin sets in. Eventually you will get your

(40:03):
act together. Maybe thirty six days and maybe forty days,
but eventually, eventually somebody has to come to their senses.
At least four people. Is there? Are there four people
who would come to their senses in the Senate. Let's
say they put up a new spending bill that'll get
you through January or February, whatever the case may be.

(40:24):
To you, jay, same situation, all all things the same, right?
Are there four or five people in the Senate that
will go, you know what, this is ridiculous. We've got
to move this thing forward. Are we just going to
dig in and be totally dysfunctional? Maybe?

Speaker 3 (40:37):
I mean I think they're there now. They just don't
want to speak up against Chuck Schumer. And depending on
what happens in some of these elect maybe Jersey is
close enough to New York that Schumer goes one way
or the other politically. I mean, I don't know. I
think it's also practical though, I mean, how well of
a job do we do feeding people? If we can

(40:58):
do that for the next month, month and a half
with some of these charity functions and these plans, I mean,
it can't last indefinitely, but how well did we do?
If we did well enough and people aren't going hungry,
it makes that case, what do you need these benefits?
If we can get through open enrollment like we talked
with Jeremy yesterday and move people onto different plans and

(41:18):
not see as many people facing those huge jumps, and
we get through it.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
So maybe we're into March before the government reopens.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
I mean, I don't know. Your guess is as good
as mine.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Let's get through the final four. How about that three
or four? Talk three or four. I mean, it's just again,
I say these things facetiously because it's this is ridiculous.
This is not how you govern. This is this is
just ridiculous. You're pandering to both parties, pandering to the
far edges of their their bases. And when you'll pay

(41:53):
the price, maybe they'll pay the price. I would like
to think they'd pay the price. I'd like to think
normies would eventually step up and go, you know what,
we've had an enough of this, We've had enough of this.
We're going to put some normy candidates out there. We're
going to put some moderates out there that can actually
govern and function. We're tired of this. I don't know
if they're out there. I mean, I know they're out there,
t J. I don't know if they're going to step up, because, well,

(42:14):
who wants to run for public office.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Here's what do normies care about the filibuster? I mean,
does the average person understand why the filibuster is in place?
Does the average person understand what the founders wanted the
Senate to be, which is not what it is today
post seventeenth amendment enough to care.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
About the filibuster.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
Yeah, I don't know. If you just want the government open,
you don't care. Just get the government open. If you're
the guy walking down the street who needs to go
get a passport and can't, or who gets delayed in
an airport because they don't have enough air traffic controllers,
or just smells his point, it finally hits you in
one way or the other. Do you give a care?

Speaker 1 (42:53):
I thought you need to use the eight second delay
on you there for a second. I'm not doing that
to not come on. But you get my point. You
get my point. Yeah, I get your point. It gets
your point. But as a lawmaker, you have to have
and look because the other side might do it. To me,
is not the best reason in the world to not
do something. But it is a pretty good one. Yeah,

(43:14):
it is a pretty good one. Hey, Dwayne, hang on,
I got to take a break. We'll get your call
before the top of the hours. Talk line from the
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Speaker 1 (44:38):
A couple of minutes here, Dwayne in Morgantown wants to
weigh in on the shutdown.

Speaker 8 (44:42):
Hey Dwayne, Hey guys, one real quick just point at
pointing out that those that are in favor for socialism,
where you know, the government takes from one group of
people and gives to the other group of people. Forty
two million people right now are without food. This is
just a really good example of what could happen in socialism.

(45:04):
So if you're on that socialism train, you might want
to look at what's going on. And this is the
main reason I called in. I don't believe this has
anything to do with tax credits. I think this has
to do with the illegal immigrants that are in our country.
I think that this is the Democrats wanting to make
sure that they are still getting enough funding to support

(45:25):
those individuals to keep them here, and I think that
the Republicans are trying to get rid of them.

Speaker 17 (45:29):
There's an upcoming census coming soon, and they don't count
US citizens. They count how many people are in that state.
And if you take away some of the services for
some of these individuals that don't have any other means,
then they either have to go back to where they're
from or they starve. So I think it's a little

(45:50):
bit more complicated than just extending tax credits. That's just
my thoughts on what do you all think about that?

Speaker 1 (45:57):
TJ. We'll go before we got about a minute and
a half here.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
Very possible, right, I mean, all of that would not
be beyond the pale of reason.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Uh, Dwayne, Again, I agree with TJ. Anything as possible.
I do believe though health care and health insurance is
one area where Democrats pull very well. They do much
better than Republicans in that area. They have an opportunity
to latch onto that. With these elections coming up, they
have an opportunity to really use this as a way

(46:27):
to build to the base a little bit. I think
that's the main motivation. But again, I'm not putting anything
past anybody at this point.

Speaker 14 (46:35):
Dwayne.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
Thanks for the call. Appreciate it, buddy. Bill. If you
can do it in about thirty seconds.

Speaker 18 (46:43):
I'll try. Noi' out post United States Army nineteen sixty
five to sixty eight. Veterans Day is one week from today.
Do you believe that Donald Trump will miss an opportunity
for one week day to put on a veteran salute
and a Resa Arlington to show the Democrats this is

(47:08):
what you're up against.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Bill, Gotta leave it there. We got to hit the
herd break here. Top of the hour coming up hopefully
we'll hear from Brad mclhonney, Metro News statewide correspondent. This
is talk Line on Metro News, the voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Metro News. Talk Line is presented by Incovia Insurance, encircling
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Visit incova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Second hour of Metro News talk Line underway eight hundred
and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred seven sixty
five eight two five five. That's the phone number. Ethan
Collins is our operator standing by awaiting your call. You
can give us a text as well. Three or four
Talk three oh four that's the text line. Those are
the two ways you can be part of this program.

(47:59):
Appreciate you tuned in. You know one of our great
affiliates across the state Metro News TV app as well.
Jake Link is our video producer over there. Milia Farrell
nicely going to join us, coming up on loan from
Western Virginia. Watch she was out yesterday talking to folks
and looking into these the impacts of snap benefits being

(48:19):
suspended during the government shutdown. We've talked to her at
the bottom of the hour. Plenty of time for your calls, texts,
and tweets as well. Eight hundred and seven to sixty
five Talking three h four Talk three four once again. TJ.
Meadows anchors coverage from the Coba Insurance Studios South in Charleston. Morning.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
I'm gonna go over to Virginia and you know, do
a little fraudulent voting and write Jake in for Congress.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
Why not Jake for Congress?

Speaker 3 (48:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (48:45):
All right, that sounds good for.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Me, even though that may not be a possibility, but
why not.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
You know what, we can get his Let's start now.
Let's work on his writing candidacy for the twenty six midterms.
We start now. We can get him elect did uh,
Let's see if we it's the downtown Morgantown house district.
We'll get him into the house. Tjan he made one
of these bills.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
Yeah, he may want to be governor of Virginia. We
could talk about that too, don't.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
We can collectively be his Dick Cheney about that. To
bring it full circle. Yeah, metch New state wide correspondent
Brad Mcklelhenny's been a busy man yesterday. He was in
the Canawa County courtroom today he was covering a Governor
Morrissey's at news conference earlier this hour or earlier this morning.
It's over now because we're in the eleven o'clock hour match.
New state wide correspond at. Brad mclhenny joins us.

Speaker 19 (49:32):
Good morning, Brad, oh Hi, good morning guys.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Appreciate you stopping by, so, Brad. Governor Morrissey this morning
holding a news conference. What did the governor have to say?

Speaker 19 (49:41):
You know, it was not what I thought, in part
because of the timing and because of other events that have.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Occurred the last couple of days.

Speaker 19 (49:50):
Federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use emergency contingency
funds for the Supplemental Nutrition SINCE program, and the administration
yesterday said, all right, we're willing to comply with that,
but we've got roughly fifty percent of the funds for
what would typically fund SNAP for a month. The Governor

(50:13):
of Maryland yesterday announced that Maryland would fill that gap,
would would provide enough money for the additional fifty percent.
The governor of Virginia, the current governor, Glenn Youngkin, made
that move a couple of weeks ago to say, all right,
Virginia is stepping up and we're going to fund snap.
The governor of West Virginia, Patrick Morrissey, announced, you know,

(50:36):
first a million dollars of support for food food banks,
maybe last week or maybe the week before. Then last
week announced a matching fund where the state would kick
in up to thirteen million dollars if the citizens do also.
I was thinking that that, given the timing, maybe Morrissey

(50:58):
was going to do something along the lines of what
Maryland's governor more or what Virginia's Governor Younkin might be doing. Instead,
it was to say that West Virginia is is continuing
to do its best to live up to the prior
support that was announced for the food banks putting that

(51:19):
money ahead. It was an update regarding the how much
the citizens have put forward for the state match a
pledge by the governor that his administration is going to
assess this situation day by day, evaluate it, and potentially
transfer an additional roughly two and a half million dollars

(51:41):
into funds supporting food banks and food pantries by the
end of the week. And then he did say in
his more extrapolated comments that he's willing to call the
legislature back into session if more resources are needed beyond
the roughly fourteen million dollars state has already been prepared
to commit. So Governor Morrissey has not ruled out the

(52:05):
state stepping up even further, but did not go so
far in the splashy ways that some of the neighbors
have done. Maryland and Virginia.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
A lot of points there. Talk to me about this
federal match, I mean, I would think it would be
pro rated. Did the Governor get into any details at
all about how much money we might expect from the administration,
what that pro rated sum would be like. And then
I read some reports earlier, Brad that some states are saying,
since it's not the normal amount of money, they may

(52:38):
have problems with the vendors getting that on because it
would be a different allocation. Same kind of issue about
the state not being able to use its money on
a snap ebt card, anything at all on that.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
You know.

Speaker 19 (52:50):
So one thing, just quickly, I should credit the National
Guard for its work on this across the state of
West Virginia, and I did not do so in my
introductory remarks. So credit to the National Guard for its participation.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
Without a section.

Speaker 19 (53:04):
Yeah, but to your point, you know, I think, in fairness,
Governor Morrissey and his administration are still trying to figure
out where things stand with the federal government. I think
it is still uncertain how quickly the amount of money
that's becoming available from the federal counterpart, from the US

(53:24):
Department of Agriculture is how quickly that's going to flow
onto cards. The Governor talked about maybe four to seven
days for that money to be available, so I and
he did specifically describe an advisory that his administration received
just this morning from their federal counterparts. So I think

(53:46):
a lot of what you're asking is still being assessed
not just but by me and you, but also by
the administration, and that is an underlying factor in Governor
Morrissey's sort of day by day will assess this incrementally
approach mention.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
New state Wide correspondent Brad mcilhenney joining US Governor Morrisey
holding a news conference earlier this morning. Brad, with regard
to the National Guard, how long is this sustainable? Has
Governor Morrisey given any indication how long he thinks this
is sustainable? The idea and what is being executed here
of gathering donations, distributing food to local food banks. It's

(54:23):
working now, but how long is this sustainable? If this
shutdown continues into the foreseeable future.

Speaker 19 (54:29):
You know, he addressed that generally, but talked more in
terms of still nobody knows when the shutdown might end.
We are now at record duration of this shutdown, and
you know, it doesn't seem like it's going to come
to a close anytime soon. But on the other hand,
you know, you read some of the national reporting from

(54:53):
reporters who are close to the scene, and they do
talk about maybe some breakthroughs coming out of the sort
of bipartisan gangs, the gangs of senators that are getting
together maybe with a longer continuing resolution. So you know,
I think add that to the uncertainty that the governor

(55:14):
of West Virginia faces when he tries to assess what
is the state's contribution, what is the use of stage
resources like the National Guard. He just doesn't know how
long it's got to go because it's out of his
hands at the federal level.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
Senator to Capito was on the Local Show with Dave
Allen this morning, and she talked about an anecdote hearing
a story of a lady who was shopping at Walmart,
got up to the registerate didn't have enough money on
her EBT cart had to leave the groceries there. I
would assume that was in West Virginia. She didn't say
that specifically, so I'll make that assumption with that, said, Brad,

(55:50):
given the Guard's role and doing the Lord's work, with
the logistics of trying to ensure that no one goes unfed. Here,
are we hearing any instances in these pressers of hey,
we've identified a gap here and now we're going back,
or any instances of someone being missed, or just any
facts about the logistics of how they're ensuring that no
one gets missed in distribution.

Speaker 19 (56:13):
You know, I didn't hear anything like that. The press
conference information was that the National Guard has delivered six
six hundred and fifty three boxes of food and established
twenty pop up pantries. Private sector contributions have allowed for
fifty five thousand cartons of milk and fifty thousand dollars

(56:35):
worth of fruits and vegetables. How far that goes, I
don't have the background or the feel the context for
how you know, how thinly or how well that might
spread across the state. Of West Virginia. But you know,
I think the Guard, on fairly short notice, has been
really instrumental in trying to make sure what Virghians are covered.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
So I'm gonna mention your State Life correspondent Brad mac olhenny. Yesterday,
Brad was keeping an eye on the Canawa County Court
where the case exploring the basis of Western National Guard
deployment to d C continued, and Brad, it looks like,
well the judge wants a little bit more information what
happened yesterday.

Speaker 19 (57:17):
Well it did go two hours, but this was Judge
Richard Lindsay of Knawk County, and he had already heard
about an hour of testimony a little more than a
week ago, heard two hours yesterday, and then decided to
resume again two pm November tenth. You know, I can't

(57:37):
quite get to the bottom of why he felt that
he needed even more time. I think it was procedural
lawyer stuff and we can just maybe leave it at that.
But it is I would say, a complicated cross section
of law involving the National Guard. For one thing, this

(57:58):
this deployment is kind of a high ybrid. You know,
the President requested the presence of the National Guard in Washington,
d C. Which is a federal district. The Guard is
being paid and everything being paid at the federal level
is a question mark right now, but under the intent

(58:18):
is to pay the National Guard from federal funds, but
they remain under the authority of the governor of the
state of West Virginia. So it's kind of a state
federal hybrid, which means that it falls under both the
state and federal law. People might talk if we have
a second I don't know. People talk about the Posse

(58:39):
Comatatis Act. That's the federal law that prevents America's military
for being used for law enforcement. The posse part is
kind of like the Wild West, like it literally is
a posse. You're not allowed to use the military as
a posse because in this case the title thirty to

(59:00):
order that allows it puts the National Guards still under
the authority of the Governor of West Virginia their use
for law enforcement activities. I think my caveman reading the
law puts the Posse Comatadis Act off the board, but
because they are under the authority of the governor.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
To unpack it a.

Speaker 19 (59:24):
Little further, state laws do apply, and there are a
couple of sections of West Virginia Code that allow the
governor to order the National Guard to active state service,
including an order to allow the National Guard to serve
out the state for several things, training parades or other duties.

(59:46):
That's a little broad, you know, this may be one
thing that the judge has to think through training parades
or other duties. Is that's what's going on in DC?
Another section of state law describes the governor's powers to
call out the West Virginia National Guard into the active
service of the state in events like war, insurrection, riot, invasion,

(01:00:07):
or public disaster. Again, is that what's going on in DC?
These are the kinds of things that I think it's
reasonable Judge Lindsay is having to kind of think through
and define.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Let's analyze this for a second before I do. Do
we have a data when the Guard is supposed to
leave DC? Is that out there we do? Well?

Speaker 19 (01:00:26):
The most recent official date was the end of November,
with some flexibility to continue. There is reporting in the
Washington Post and CNN that that is now going to
move to February that I have not seen that officially,
and I have a question out to the National Guard
they were involved in this morning's event regarding food banks,

(01:00:49):
so they haven't gotten back to me yet, but it's
looking like February.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Okay, well let's say November for now until it's official.
Just for illustrative purposes. Does this highlight through no one's
fault it is what it is, not blaming a judge,
not blame an attorney's not blaming the guard? Does this
highlight a problem in our judicial system in this modern
day strong presidency that we have. I mean, the issue

(01:01:15):
is should the Guard be in DC? This is going
to be over potentially before we go through what we
need to in the judicial process to answer the question.
I would think the White House is aware of that.
I think all the parties are, so, I mean, are
we really just talking about precedent moving forward? And if
we're going to continue down this realm of a strong

(01:01:37):
presidency doing these kinds of things, continuing to talk about
these actions Brat, I don't know that our court system
is prepared to handle that, given the processes that we
have to go through to answer some of these questions
that you're talking about, and the time it takes to
do it.

Speaker 8 (01:01:53):
Well.

Speaker 19 (01:01:53):
The National Guard compared to what's say, the Army, the Navy,
or the Marines is a bit more of a gray
area when it comes to this kind of cause, which
is why judges on several levels are analyzing this. It's
not only Judge Lindsay in West Virginia, but there's a
very similar case in Tennessee, the same set of questions

(01:02:13):
as moving forward in the federal court in a case
brought by the I think it's the Attorney General for
the District of Columbia. So the court's trying to sort
this out. But the original emergency that was cited by
the president that's expired. The President declared a thirty day

(01:02:35):
emergency in August that expired in September. That was the
one that allowed the federalization of the DC Police force.
But this was in conjunction with that that emergency now
not active, but the National Guards still in DC and
maybe un till February.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
He's mentioned a state line correspondent, Brad McIlhenny. You can
read his story from yesterday's hearing over at the website,
of course, wv Metronews dot Com. Always appreciate it, Brad,
Thank you, buddy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Thanks guys.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Eight hundred and seven and sixty five Talking three or
four Talk three oh four. This is a talk line
from the en Cove Insurance Studios. We are there for
you too, care for you at the health Plan.

Speaker 20 (01:03:15):
The health plan is still growing, giving you a large
network of doctors, friendly and helpful customer service for representatives,
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Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Plans that meet your needs. Log on to health plan
dot org for more information.

Speaker 21 (01:03:29):
We are there for you to care for you and
the plan.

Speaker 13 (01:03:34):
We are here.

Speaker 22 (01:03:41):
Some say he's a man of mystery. Others say he's
the holiday hitmaker.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
No one saw coming.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
It's showtime.

Speaker 22 (01:03:47):
The holiday hit Maker walks the office halls with West
Virginia Lottery holiday scratch offs and an unstoppable spirit.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
What are you doing bringing.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
The holiday high here? Enjoy scratch off? It's on me
whom ticket? My work here is done?

Speaker 22 (01:04:03):
Be the surprise hit maker. West Virginia Lottery games fun,
festive and full of flair. Please play responsibly.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Citty net is bringing ultra fast fiber internet to more
West Virginia holmes every day right now. Get fifty percent
off any plan for your first year. Check availability and
join the fiber revolution at citynet dot net. Citty net Connects,
Protects and Perfects told you basketball season underway yesterday. The

(01:04:47):
Marshall men won their opener seventy eight seventy two over
UMass wyat Frix Lathway sixteen points, fourteen coming in the
second half. Marshall Women's basketball one it's opener over Buffalo
fifty to thirty, built an early fifteen point lead. Olivia
Olsen led the way with fourteen points in. The Mountaineer
women won their opener eighty three forty seven over Purdue

(01:05:09):
Fort Wayne, had a huge edge of the paint forty
two twenty four and had fifty one rebounds going on
to the eighty three forty seven win. WVW men we'll
make their debut tonight. The Ross Hodge Era begins seven
o'clock at Hope Coliseum the tip off between the Mountaineers
and Mount Saint Mary's. And of course, we've got you

(01:05:30):
covered over at WDV metronews dot com. Also the updated
high school football rankings presented Metro News. High school football
rankings presented by tutors as voted on by the highly
esteemed broadcast panel votes on that each week. Let's see Martinsburg,
our Huntington Martinsburg, Morgantown. Your top three in Class four A.

(01:05:53):
Bridgeport is number one in Class three A Frankfurt, and
then whamma. You can see the four rankings over at
the website wv metro news dot com. Updated playoff ratings
come out later this afternoon as we head into the
final week of the regular season. A couple of text
three or four talk three or four. Enough, guys, Trump's
destroying the country. This is way worse than the stupid tariffs,

(01:06:17):
which are causing serious economic disruption, and then all link
to a New York Times story. I'll read it, but
i'll read it later. Today's National Skeptics Day. But I
don't believe it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
But I'm chung bear a rim shot.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
At one time I had one on the hot keys
page and various computer updates later that has disappeared. Three
or four talk three or four. You know. I think
it's time people learn how to do couponing, especially if
you receive taxpayer funded EBT food stamp benefits. I have
to stretch my dollars as much as I can, then

(01:06:55):
so should welfare recipients. You can get digital coupons for
most stores on their apps, and there are also a
lot of cash back apps that are available where you
can cash in points for gift cards. It's time to
start taking responsibility for yourself and managing your own money,
says the Texter.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
Why wouldn't everybody coupon? They're giving you money, Why wouldn't
you take it? Effort, effort, I'll taught that hard these days, though,
to the texture.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Point, you know, Okay, let me, I'm guilty, TJ. I'm
guilty in my marriage. My wife is a great shopper.
She can go to Kroger, all right, if you gave
us both a hundred bucks, right, yeah, and we went
to the grocery store, she would come out with three
times as much stuff as I could go in and
come out with. She would have coupons, she would have
doubled up things five for this, and you know, two

(01:07:46):
off that and three free and something. And I would
come out there with, like, you know, four bags of
chips in a Cuba mountain dew. Why I want them?
You know, because I just want to go in and
get my stuff and leave. I'm not saying, I'm just
saying it takes effort. It takes some effort, and a
lot of people don't want to put that effort.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
In myself included Well, you know what I would say,
what's that take the difference invested in an index fund?

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
YEP should have done that. People think I'm joking. I'm
not joking at all, not one bit. Texter says TJ.
There are some things that I do not think markets
can deal with effectively. Okay, let me let me come
back to this text. It's long, and I know you're
gonna want to respond, but we're up against the break
cool PPD postponed. Coming up. Amelia farrellt nicely is going

(01:08:39):
to join us. We'll talk about the way folks are
being impacted by the suspension of snap benefits. She's going
to join us from the Charleston studios coming up in
just a moment. I will get to your text, including
the one that I started to read but realized we
were almost out of time. Here at the bottom of
the hour, eight hundred and seven to sixty five talk
and three or four talk three oh four. This is
talk Line on Metro News. For forty years, Metro News

(01:09:03):
has been the voice of West Virginia. It is eleven
thirty and time to get a news update. Let's check
in on the Metro News radio network. Find out what's
happening across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 14 (01:09:16):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lawrence. Former Vice President
Dick Cheney being remembered by many today here in West Virginia.
US Senator Shelley Moore. Capito reflected on her relationship with
Cheney during a conversation on Metro News flagship WCCHS radio.

Speaker 4 (01:09:31):
He was a man of few words.

Speaker 20 (01:09:33):
He didn't really talk a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:09:35):
He came to.

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
Charleston several times to campaign for me.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
It was awesome.

Speaker 14 (01:09:38):
This was one of those campaign visits in two thousand
and two.

Speaker 23 (01:09:41):
She's been able to gain the respect of her colleagues
on both sides of the aisle. They see her as
a person of conviction, that's common sense and independence.

Speaker 14 (01:09:49):
Cheney would return to campaign for Capito a couple of
more times in two thousand and three. It was as
much about explaining policy in the war on Terror as
it was getting her re elected.

Speaker 23 (01:09:58):
But good defense is not enough. We all know the
best defense is a good offense. The problem with terrorist
organizations is that even if you build successful defenses ninety
nine percent successful, the one percent that gets through can
still kill you.

Speaker 14 (01:10:13):
Former vice president of Dick Cheney dead today at eighty four.
A Wheeling couple has been arrested after the discovery of
a body of a relative buried in a yard in Wheeling.
Andrew Downs of Whitehall, Ohio was rewarded missing in July
of twenty twenty one. The remains found in January of
twenty twenty three, but it took some time to actually
identify Downs as the victim and multiple agencies, Polis said.

(01:10:34):
Christopher and Sarah Riley, relatives of Downs, were suspects from
the beginning, turned themselves in September twenty ninth and face
a charge of concealment of a dead body. You're listening
to Matter News for forty years the Boys of West Virginia.

Speaker 24 (01:10:46):
How can you measure the value of education based athletics. Well,
the value is in what makes it invaluable. That's because
school sports aren't just about winning. They're about learning and growing.
School sports just about gaining trophies and accolades through about
learning life lessons, bringing the whole community together, developing character

(01:11:07):
and integrity, having coaches who mentor you and teammates who
become lifelong friends, and you can't put a price on
any of that. That's what makes education based athletics invaluable.
Of course, when you participate in school sports, you want
to win and become a better athlete, but the purpose
is so much greater becoming a better person. Support your

(01:11:31):
local school sports programs and if you have a student,
encouraged them to get involved.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
This message presented by the WVSSAC and the West Virginia
Athletic Directors Association.

Speaker 14 (01:11:44):
Western City Council of Montagea County vote unanimously to promote
Debuty Police Chief Scott Carl as the next police chief.
Karl has been with the department since twenty twenty one,
when they were battling problems caused by a federal civil
rights lawsuit. A longtime radio newsman in the Beckley area,
former contributor to Metro News, has died. Warren Ellison had
been a radio personality a news voice in Rodley County

(01:12:06):
dating back to nineteen eighty seven. He died suddenly Monday
at the age of sixty six. From the Metro News
anchored ESK, I'm Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
Three Have four Talk three or four is the text line.
Let me get to this text, then we'll get to
Amelia nicely on loan from West Virginia watch TJ. There
are some things that I do not think markets can
deal with effectively. Medical care is one of them. Before
the ACA, my son, as a child had no major
medical care. Insurance companies are in it for the money.
If healthy people don't have to purchase insurance and only

(01:12:55):
the sick and injured to purchase, the insurance companies cannot
make any money. We need universal payer, says the Texter.

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
First off, let me say I'm sorry about your child.
I'm apparent too, and I understand how helpless it can
make you feel. Luckily, my child hasn't any of my
children have had those kinds of issues yet, and so
you have my sympathy my empathy there. Secondly, I don't
disagree insurance companies are about the money. It can be
a racket. I think the best thing sometimes is you
get to a point you can self ensure. That said,

(01:13:24):
what is the purpose of insurance. It has one purpose,
one purpose alone, that is to mitigate risk. And once
that risk is known, no one wants to take you
in the pull. That's the way it is. Whether it's
universal health care. You want to have a single payer
system to help accommodate those people and get your son

(01:13:46):
or your daughter the care that they need. I understand
that desire. Respectfully, I would say I think there's another
way to go about that. I think charitable causes, nonprofit hospitals,
those that don't turn families away, are a better way
than the government doing it. But we can agree to
disagree on that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
And I'll just add this again, this is kind of
one of those existential things that we're is never going
to change. When we talk about the cost of health care,
we are often and most generally, not talking about the
cost of healthcare. We're talking about the cost of health insurance.
Two different things that get conflated. Obviously one impacts the other,
but that's most often we're talking about the cost of

(01:14:28):
health insurance. We're not talking about the actual cost of
health care. There's a long conversation to have there that
really doesn't get us anywhere on that subject. But I'll
just add that in as well. All right, three or four,
talk three or four. That's the text line one hundred
and seven and sixty five eight two five five The
phone number Amelia nicely friend of the program. You can
read her work over at West Virginia watch dot com.

(01:14:49):
Was on assignment yesterday traveling through southern West Virginia. Why well,
let's ask her. She joins us from the Charleston studios
this morning, Amelia, good morning, thanks for coming in.

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
Good morning.

Speaker 10 (01:14:59):
How are you guys?

Speaker 1 (01:15:00):
Good? Doing great? So why'd you go down to Southernwest Virginia?
What were you looking for yesterday?

Speaker 17 (01:15:05):
Well?

Speaker 10 (01:15:05):
I was going to go to interims, but the SNAP
stuff just really to me rose in importance for me,
so I headed down that way and I was talking
to both families that have been impacted by the delayed
Snap benefits, but I was also looking for helpers, and
specifically I was looking for people that are helping children

(01:15:26):
get food right now. And I was able to stop
and hinting at a family resource center there that was
packaging meals that they were going to give out to
families in a drive by car situation last night. And
one thing that really stood out to me is I
was I talked to people from all over the state
yesterday on the phone as well. One thing that has
stood out to me is how with specifically feeding children,

(01:15:48):
we have a lot of organizations that are figuring out
how to do that anonymously, as far as how do
we get food to kids to where they don't feel
the shame of not being able to afford food. And
so the people I was with yesterday were making their
food look like to go containers from restaurants, so as
the parents gave it to the kids, they didn't know
that it came from a free place in town. And

(01:16:08):
so that has really stood out to me is that
we have a huge need in West Virginia. We heard
this morning. I was at Governor Morrissey's press conference and
I you just had brad On. I just zipped over
here from the presser. The need is real. These are
not just statistics. These are not just scary things were
throwing out that could happen. We are seeing more families
in need of food in our state. It is also

(01:16:30):
cool to see the creative ways that West Virginians are
stepping up to feed their neighbors right now, especially children.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
Have you heard any stories of anyone being missed? Because
I worry about that. I worry about the fact that
some children given the new process, and I get it's
a raw deal, right that the governor has and there
are issues with the vendor getting the money on get
that I worry that someone's being missed.

Speaker 10 (01:16:53):
Yeah, so I have been contacted by a few families
on Facebook looking for food, and they all have the
same problem. They don't have transportation. And when you can
use your Snap benefits, you can do Walmart delivery to
your door, you can have Kroger delivery. So of course
not everybody in our rural state has access to services
like that, but there are some changes that come with

(01:17:14):
no longer being able to use your Snap benefits. And
so every family who has contacted me, they were having
the same issue where they don't have a way to
go to the food pantry and get food. And I
talked to a food pantry yesterday in Raleigh County where
the only way they can deliver is if you qualify
for meals and Wheels or the Healthy grand Families program,
which is a grandparent raising a grandkid. So if you're

(01:17:35):
maybe you know a mom who's in her twenties without
a car, you may not qualify for a delivery service.
And so I think that is something to watch moving forward.
And this I've been thinking a lot in the last
couple of days the level of stress that I think
I feel and we all feel, and this heavy time
is reminding me a lot of COVID when we had
issues getting food to kids, and I did a story

(01:17:56):
back then about a school bus driver driving food up
into Alcnna County because that was the only way these
kids could eat. And so I think the transportation piece
is going to be something to watch moving forward, especially
if this stretches into Thanksgiving break when these kids will
not be in school getting a hot meal.

Speaker 1 (01:18:12):
Melia Pharaoh nicely joining us at West Virginia watch our
schools day. If you had a chance to talk to
schools school districts, are they stepping up to make certain
I mean kids can get breakfast and launch at school conceivably,
but I mean you got to go home or how
are they stepping up?

Speaker 10 (01:18:28):
So I have not talked to a school district specifically,
because I talked to several nonprofits all run by moms.
Shout out to moms that are making sure school pantries
are stocked and so they have a no question to ask.
Pantries in schools all over the state. All the people
I talked to you yesterday are seeing an increased need
in their school pantries, and so they're trying really hard

(01:18:48):
to stock the pantries with protein rich food as well
as microwavable meals, things that kids can take home to
eat in the evenings, because they are seeing more kids
coming in to look for food to take home for
their siblings, for their parents, etc. So haven't talked to schools,
but those nonprofits that are in the schools getting food
to kids are on it and are trying really hard,

(01:19:08):
and of course, like everyone asking for a donation so
that they can keep these pantries stocked with beef jerky,
granola bars, they're really stressing we need to make sure
we have protein rich food for these children.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
A couple of things. Educate us on the difference between
a food bank and a food pantry, and then as
you talk to both organizations. We're rolling this money out
in stages. Not trying to be critical of that, but
I would think they are used to getting an influx
of money up front. I'm wondering if they're having flow

(01:19:41):
problems and cash flow problems as a result of how
it's being divvied out.

Speaker 10 (01:19:45):
I'm probably not going to do a great job explaining
the difference between food banks and food pantries, because there's
lots of differences, but in general, we have two food
banks in West Virginia, Mountaineer Food Bank and Facing Hunger,
and they funnel money to their local pantries and commodities
right because they're able to food pantries can purchase food
at a cheaper rate from their food bank versus going
down the road to Kroger and buying a bulk of

(01:20:06):
onions to give out. So that's kind of the difference there.
There's more, but that's a general difference. I was actually
pleasantly surprised to talk to a food pantry director in
Raley Kenny yesterday who had already gotten what she called
the Morrissey money, and so we are already seeing that
money flow out to our food pantries. So I was
encouraged to hear that because I think when government is involved,

(01:20:28):
money is involved, you wonder when are you going to
see a check? Right, So I think that's good. The
Governor Morrisey did say this morning that they feel like
they're meeting the need. There has been an increased need,
but they don't feel like they're coming short, but they're
going to evaluate it.

Speaker 9 (01:20:44):
Day by day.

Speaker 10 (01:20:45):
And see, you know, when do we need to distribute more?
But I think it's worth noting. I mean, he's pledged,
the Governor's pledged up to fourteen million. He's already used
eight million of that or not that many days into
the delayed benefits. So to me, it seems like we
could get to that total fourteen million that he's pledged
pretty quickly. And there's really no timeline. As Brad McElhenney

(01:21:08):
said earlier, we don't know the timeline of when people
are even going to get their fifty percent of their benefits.
We don't even know what the next round of benefits
is going to look like. This is all very up
in the air, so it's definitely going to be a
day by day thing.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
I mean, nicely joined us West Virginia watch. We talk
a lot about the kids. What about the seniors, the
retirees who depend on snap benefits to go to the
grocery store week in, week out. How are folks reaching
out to them?

Speaker 10 (01:21:33):
So senior centers that I have talked to have seen
an increased need. They are trying to meet that need.
Of course, like all pantries, they are feeling the stretch
of this as well, meals on wheels is trying to
meet the need, but they have financial constraints, so it's
definitely there. I would like to remind if you're listening
and you're a senior or family in need, the West
Virginia two one one number is a twenty four to

(01:21:55):
seven hotline to get you access to food. Our governor
has said time and time and again he does not
want people going hungry, and so I think it's important
that we make sure those resources are getting to where
they need. But I think the senior thing comes back
to the issue I raised earlier about transportation. I do
worry about seniors sitting at home unable to have maybe
a grocery delivery or enough meals and wheels delivered to

(01:22:19):
meet their need.

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
Well, and they're more boomers than gen z jen x.
I mean just the demographics, so you've got more people
to take care of yeah, less people to take care
of them. I know a number of seniors, you know,
for whatever reason, life happens and that family, yeah, have
anybody to depend on.

Speaker 13 (01:22:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:22:38):
And in West Virginia, our rate of seniors using SNAP
is higher than the national average, so we do have
a large number of seniors on this program and kids,
which is interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
So did you talk to any food pantry directors or
food bank directors about how long this is sustainable? How
long can we do this if the government can't get
it ack together.

Speaker 10 (01:23:02):
I think I did ask that question. They're they're hopeful
that they can meet the need, but they've all said
this is not sustainable long term. In fact, the governor
said that this morning at the press conference. This is
not a sustainable situation long term, especially at their rate
that we have people dependent on SNAP in West Virginia.
But yeah, they're trying. I mean, I think the real
test is going to be if this drags on a

(01:23:24):
week and the fourteen million that the governor has pledged
has already been spent, you know, kind of what happens
next at that point.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Let's think about the numbers here for a second. I
think the ratio was nine to one, right, for every
one meal that a food bank provides or a food pantry,
SNAP provides nine Yes, so that's a delta of eight. Yeah,
and times that by two hundred and seventy thousand, yeah,
I mean, geez, yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:23:50):
And I asked the governor today not to get too
deep in the weeds on government and technology. But essentially,
we use this company called Fidelity to give out our
EBT benefit outside vendor. They were told last week they
couldn't accept or states were told not to send them
contingency funds. Well, as Brad pointed out earlier, the governor
of Maryland has said he's going to fund SNAP. They

(01:24:12):
use Fidelity, So really, So I asked the governor this morning.
I said, from my understanding of the order with the
Trump administration, you are allowed to send money to Fidelity. Now,
would you consider paying the rest of the SNAP to
bring those benefits up to one hundred percent? And he
kind of gave me the we'll just take a day
by day, let's evaluate answer.

Speaker 3 (01:24:31):
So who's pushing harder? I mean, I'm not trying to
be pejorative of the governor, but go back to my
business background. Whoever's pushing the most, whoever's making the most noise?
Two gets the deal through and find a way. I mean,
what good is the private sector, Dave If it can't
find a way.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
It's about as useless as government for that. But that
is interesting that in Maryland you can do it, but
we're we're not doing that here. Yeah, now can question.

Speaker 10 (01:25:01):
So we can we can The cant is no longer
on the table from all the research. I stayed up
late last night reading the can't is off the table,
and we could we it would be about twenty six
million dollars which we have to bring SNAP up to
its total so that.

Speaker 3 (01:25:16):
No session needed for that twenty six million.

Speaker 10 (01:25:18):
I mean, as far as I can tell, I'm not
in the weeds of the Governor's correct, But yeah, I
think so either way we've got away. Yeah, and yeah,
I mean I think at this point we all know
that Snap, as you said, TJ. Snap is able to
get more meals to people. It seems like this would
be maybe a more effective route of making sure people
are fed. It also gets money back into the grocery

(01:25:39):
stores because they're seeing a hit as well with these
hundreds of thousands of people not spending their SNAP. So
I don't know, there's going to be a lot to
watch in the coming days to see how our government
deals with us.

Speaker 1 (01:25:50):
More questions that we probably don't have answers to, but
I'll throw it out there. So sir, well, let's play
the hypothetical game. We'd love to do that here. If
the state were to match those benefits bring them up
to one hundred percent, while the federal government daily dally's around.
Would the state be able to Could it get reimbursed
by the federal government? Is that just money that's gone,

(01:26:13):
I mean not gone, but is that just comes out
of rainy day fund that's gone? Does it reimburse? Do
we know?

Speaker 10 (01:26:19):
So we don't know short quarters, and now we're talking
about the press conference this morning. Afterwards, you know, we
gotta stand around in gossip about what we just heard.
Of course, and we do think that maybe Governor Morrisy
has a fear that we will not be reimbursed by
the federal government, and that's why he's kind of playing
this slow trickle rollout, you know, which I kind of get.
You know, it's a day by day thing. We don't

(01:26:40):
know when the shutdown is going to end, et cetera.
But if I may, is there anything less political than
making sure kids have food?

Speaker 3 (01:26:49):
Optics would be horrid?

Speaker 10 (01:26:50):
So I don't like that because we continue to hear
from leaders in the state. We don't want to make
this political. We want to make sure people are fed,
but it seems like politics are playing into it a
little bit. But yeah, I don't know what the I
don't know that he would be reimbursed, and he does.
Morsey is very adamant about being a good steward of
state resources. I get that, but we do have the money.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
Well, if he feels that way, pick up the phone
and call Shelley and Jim. That's what they're there for,
Carol Miller, Riley, that's what they're there for. A simple
as that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
Amelia Pharrell nicely online from West Virginia Watch. You can
read her work over at West Virginia Watch dot com.
Always appreciate you stopping by, and hopefully you're properly caffeinated
at this point.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
I am.

Speaker 10 (01:27:33):
I told Dave earlier I hadn't had a drop of
coffee because I've been on the radio this morning and
went straight to a presser. And man, I should not
be asking questions in public with no coffee about government databases.

Speaker 3 (01:27:45):
I mean, gosh, working mom needs coffee.

Speaker 10 (01:27:49):
But I got through it.

Speaker 3 (01:27:50):
The green room. We have a bunch.

Speaker 19 (01:27:52):
Thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:27:52):
It's good to talk to you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
All right A Milia Fhairrell nicely read or work over
but West Virginia Watch dot com. We'll be back. We'll
get your texts coming up three or four Talk three
oh four. This is talk line from the Encode Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 1 (01:29:28):
By the way, go to doubledv metro news dot com
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You can scan that and donate to Facing Hunger Food
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(01:29:52):
Three four talk three oh four is the text line.
Let's get in a couple of texts before we got
to take our final break. Here text says, kudos to
the governor for attempting to be a good steward of
the state's money. Until he's certain they'll be reimbursed. He
should go slowly, of course, step in when necessary. I
do think it is a fair question. We do have
a rainy day fund. We have the contingency fund whatever

(01:30:14):
you want to call it.

Speaker 14 (01:30:15):
There.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
If this is not a time to use that money,
well when is a good time to use the rainy
day fund? I think it's a fair question. Again, I
don't know the processes, all the legalities TJ that have
to be taken into consideration, reimbursements, all of that, and
I understand that has to be part of the decision.
But isn't this what a rainy day fund is there

(01:30:37):
for when when it rains, then it's raining.

Speaker 3 (01:30:39):
Currently, decide what it is. It's either a rainy day
fund an emergency fund, that's fine, or it's a we're
going to hoard cash and interest sparing accounts so that
we can get cheaper bond rates on our debt. Both
are fine. Both have a function. But say what it is?

Speaker 1 (01:30:55):
Three or four? Talk three oh four guys. You can't
ask Big Jim about the state getting money to pay
back state for food relief because he's not in DCA.
What's the use of having rain day fund if we
don't use it when it's pouring the rain, says the
Texter Dave and tj Any senator voting no is voting.
They do not want to negotiate. They should be voted

(01:31:17):
out next election. By the way, do we have an
updated reports on the presidents and Snap benefits? What's the latest?

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
President Donald Trump posted on truth social that the government
will not will not be releasing snap benefits until Democrats
agree to reopen the government. Here's the tweet or the
social post. I should say snap benefits which increased by
billions and billions of dollars manyfold during Crooked Joe Biden's
disastrous term in office, due to the fact that they

(01:31:45):
were haphazardly handed to anyone for the asking, as opposed
to just those in need, which is the purpose of snap.
Will be given only when the radical left Democrats open
up the government, which they can easily do, and not before.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
Three of four Talk three of four. The text line
We're back to wrap things up in just a moment.
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Speaker 1 (01:33:27):
Friend of the program, fellow Blue Devil, Stephen Allen Adams
setting us straight, reminding us it's nicknamed the rainy Day Fund,
but the official name is revenue Shortfall. It's meant for
when tax revenue is not meeting the monthly revenue estimates
back to back to back. It's not just a slush
fund for whatever. So thank you, Steven. Appreciate setting us straight.

Speaker 4 (01:33:53):
There.

Speaker 3 (01:33:54):
Can we get that on a bumper sticker? What's that?
It's a revenue shortfall fund, not.

Speaker 1 (01:33:59):
The rain Well, you know what, Let's fix the nicknames.
If we're going to nickname things, let's nickname it correctly.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
Fair and thank you, Steven, valid point.

Speaker 1 (01:34:07):
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