Join us as we examine the current political climate, marked by a significant cultural shift and a call for accountability. From media personalities grappling with the consequences of their statements to the political ramifications of party decisions, we break down what it means to uphold truth and integrity in today’s society. This episode also provides an exciting preview of an upcoming event in Phoenix that promises to be a pivotal gathering of prominent voices.
That’s kind of mean of you, Mark. No, stop. As you texted to me, all he had to—it’s funny, all he had to do was apologize. That’s like saying to a chimpanzee, all you’ve got to do is sprout wings and fly to the moon. No, but he could have apologized.
SPEAKER 01 :
But he could have. Look, he wasn’t apologizing for an opinion. He would have apologized for something that was factually incorrect. Let’s look at a couple things real quick. First of all, there’s so much misinformation. Trump and the FCC and the Benny Johnson podcast and Brendan Carr, they didn’t do this. Nexstar and Sinclair did. Two companies that own dozens and dozens of ABC affiliates. This is just fascinating to me when people who don’t know how the business even works try to react with hysteria that somehow this is the fascistic dictator at work. They know. They know full well how it works. They know how this works.
SPEAKER 02 :
They’re lying to make it seem like Trump has bullied ABC.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right. But for the benefit of our audience, let’s make sure you understand something. Nextar owns dozens of ABC affiliates. Sinclair was about to do the same thing. They own even more stations than Nextar owns. There’s only about 200 ABC affiliates in the country. You can’t have that kind of revolt by your own… and survive. They were saying, well, that’s it, Jimmy. Sorry. Handwriting’s on the wall. You’re not going to survive this round. We’re going to take you off the air and put you on ice. So that’s point number one. Point number two, you can opine all day long about how you didn’t like Charlie Kirk. Lord knows we’ve got no shortage of that going on right now. You can say you didn’t like his message. You can say, but you can’t lie and say that the killer was MAGA. And if you got that part wrong, which Jimmy Kimmel obviously did on Monday night, then by Tuesday you’ve got to say, hey, sorry, I misspoke. I said that MAGA was spending the whole weekend trying to pretend he wasn’t one of their own. I clearly was telling my audience he was a MAGA guy, and he wasn’t. He’s clearly a leftist. His own mother said he was indoctrinated and was hard left. I’m sorry I got that wrong. That’s all he had to do. Now, that’s what makes me think, Mark. I’m telling you something. Uh-oh, here we go. Here we go. Candace Owens. Here I come. Here comes the latest conspiracy theory. He did it on purpose. He sabotaged it. Look, it’s no secret his ratings were in the toilet. Because his ratings were in the toilet. He was hemorrhaging money, apparently. Not unlike Stephen Colbert. Not him personally. No, but his show. So? And the executive… And he knew that they were probably going to blow him out anyway, so he wanted to make himself a martyr of free speech. I’m telling you, there’s something to that. Look, you say he isn’t capable. I’ve got to believe in his illustrious career. He’s apologized before.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t know. I don’t know. I wonder. I don’t wonder about this moment in which there is nothing in his king size, a whole list of behaviors of Trump hatred that indicates one molecule of a capacity for even saying that he missed it. He savaged half of America already. On so many occasions, and listen, back to Mark’s TDS axioms, Trump derangement syndrome makes funny people not funny, makes nice people mean. The book on Jimmy Kimmel is that he and his wife Molly are some of the nicest people you’d ever want to hang with, if you politically agree with them. But he is a political bigot. He is a political hate monger. And it ate his heart as well as his brain. And now, FAFO, buddy, this is it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I’m just in a little bit of bewilderment. Let’s just stipulate something. I’d rather Charlie was back. I’m more concerned about Charlie’s death than I am a late-night comic losing his show. And look, he’s just like Colbert. He will not be eating dog food, exactly. They’ll find a show.
SPEAKER 02 :
But go ahead and make the point I think you were going to make, if I’m right. Of course, we’d all rather have Charlie alive, but Charlie in death for barely a week is already looking down on an America that is changing, where standards are coming back, decency is coming back, accountability is coming back.
SPEAKER 01 :
The change is real. In fact, we all feel it. I mean, there is something that has been unleashed with this. It’s as if people on our side are finally saying enough is enough and we’re not going to tolerate this anymore. We can’t unify with people who want us dead. There’s an awakening. Selena Zito wrote about it over at the Washington Examiner. The awakening is happening. There’s a spiritual awakening with young people. They’re filling the churches. There is a cultural awakening where ABC isn’t going to, you know, stations aren’t going to tolerate the Jimmy Kimmel’s of the world. Maybe the view will be next. I don’t know. They’re upset about Antifa being made a terrorist organization, which tells you everything you need to know about how they’re always on the wrong side of every single issue.
SPEAKER 02 :
They’re pro-Antifa now. They’re pro-Antifa.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good. Pro-crime.
SPEAKER 02 :
They are. Pro-carving up children for sex changes.
SPEAKER 01 :
What is the list you’re on? Astounding to me. Axios, and for some reason, Tracy, I don’t have this in my stack, and I sent it to you twice. I need the Axios story, which is so fascinating from this morning, about how Democrats are lost right now in the wilderness in a way they’ve never been, Mark. Mark, this has never happened. Axios writes, it’s from Jim VandeHei, a message for liberals, how to respond to all of this. And the first line in the article is all about how Democrats, for the first time ever, are seeing an enormous pushback to everything they’re doing. They are recognizing they’ve got nothing right now. And I shared that with my son last night, the MAGA son, and Micah said he pointed something out that was so proficient and so prophetic. He said, Welcome to our world. This is where we’ve been for so long. Absolutely. And now they’re feeling it. The shoe is on the other foot, and I must admit, Mark, I really like it. But that brings me to the four members of the House of Representatives, Republicans all, Mike Flood, Nebraska, Tom McClintock from California, Jeff Hurd from Colorado, and Corey Mills from here in Florida. Mm-hmm. That brings me to the four Republicans who voted against censuring Ilhan Omar. Now, will you please tell me in what, in God’s name, these four Republicans are thinking in siding with the Democrats and giving her a pass?
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s revisit for those unfamiliar because she too was caught up in the Charlie Kirk bad reaction festival. Her paraphrase was…
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I don’t even care. I mean, he had it coming. He brought it on himself. I don’t even care. What I know is, and I posted this on X this morning on my X account at Gallagher’s show, these four feckless Republicans who gave her a lifeboat, I guess their argument is, well, free speech, free speech, free speech. In the U.S. Congress, censure is a formal and public expression of severe disapproval against a member or other government official. It is a disciplinary measure that is less drastic than expulsion and carries no legal penalties. Yet for these four Republicans, that’s a bridge too far for Ilhan Omar. Why, Mark? Here we go again. Why do Republicans want to play nice with these awful, horrific, horrid people like Ilhan Omar, who was laughing and besmirching the memory of Charlie and saying that he basically brought it on himself in a despicable podcast, whatever it is she was saying. Why would you not… Why would you not…
SPEAKER 02 :
acknowledge that she should be censured what free speech nobody stepped stopped her from being despicable and and you have identified a complete confusion in what free speech is what it means and and if everybody can just get re-familiarized it becomes a first amendment issue when government says we’re going to make it illegal for you to say a and b and c and d Short of that, it’s the broadcasting marketplace, the professional marketplace at your workplace, or in this particular case, the political marketplace of your Democrat and Republican colleagues. I think you’ve nailed completely correctly that the Republicans that you mentioned, they just didn’t. They would probably tell you, we don’t want to go down a road of hovering like a drone over everything everybody says.
SPEAKER 01 :
By the way.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Neither do I. But that doesn’t mean that you turn off your radar completely for singular examples of just horrific, horrific views made public. We are not that numb and we shouldn’t be that.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, look, now I think even these four Republicans have to face. some kind of accountability. Many people are calling them cowards, saying that you’re going to be primaried. They have some explaining to do.
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, you’re right and I’m right. America has the attention span of a gnat. I get it. This will be forgotten by Halloween.
SPEAKER 01 :
I get it. I get it. Meanwhile, after the show today, we’re off to Phoenix. We’ll be broadcasting from Phoenix tomorrow. This is really sweet and tender.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is going to be amazing.
SPEAKER 01 :
The dress code, here’s the dress code. Everybody’s asked who’s going to be going to State Farm Stadium for Sunday morning service. They actually have a dress code. They’re asking that you wear your Sunday best and that it be red, white, and blue. I’ve got my blue suit, my white shirt, my red tie. And I am so honored to get to be in that room with so many people. I mean, the stadium seats 63,000. We’re trying to figure out the door opens at eight doors open at eight. We’re going to get there. I told I was just talking to Phil Boyce, our boss this morning, because we’ve got a little bus. We got a minivan of about, you know, like a 25 seat, one of those sprinter vans for, you know. We’re going to leave the hotel at 6 a.m.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s a really good idea. It starts at noon there. That’s mountain time in Arizona, and that is 1 p.m. our time here on 668. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. It starts at 11. It starts at 11 their time. So let’s get it. It’s noon. Okay, gotcha. Whatever it is, we’re going to air it locally. So it’ll be 1 p.m. your time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is Phoenix Pacific time? I don’t know, whatever it is.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, they’re on the West Coast. But I’ve got to read this to you real quick before we go. I finally got my hands on this article. Many Democrats in America, for the first time, feel not merely powerless, but like targeted strangers in an occupied land. I mean, well, hey, okay. What do you think? Where do you think we’ve been under Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton? But this is different, though. This is different. This is such an important article. So I just wanted to read that first line to you. But anyway, we’re going to be there tomorrow. Let me confirm something.
SPEAKER 02 :
Phoenix is indeed. I’m good on time zones. Phoenix is indeed Pacific time.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right, right. So it’s 11 o’clock. Two hours prior to Central. Two hours prior to Central.
SPEAKER 02 :
Central time.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yep, yep. And I believe – I haven’t gotten this confirmed. I’m almost positive Salem News Channel and many of our affiliates – No, we got it live. Absolutely. You do have it live. Good, good.
SPEAKER 02 :
Totally being provided. We will carry it right here on 660 AM.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good, good.
SPEAKER 02 :
A bunch of other radio stations. Well, for a speaker’s list that – well, first of all, speaking of speaking, you’ll be doing the show tomorrow from Phoenix. And you’re going to stick around so that Monday you and I will have this segment to talk about what you witnessed in person, what we all saw. Speakers include President Trump, Vice President Vance, obviously Erica, who still is in our hearts every day. Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Tucker Carlson. That’ll be interesting. And it’ll be great, I’m sure. We’ll get good Tucker on the stage for that. And a lot of other folks. No Candace Owen. Gee, I wonder why.
SPEAKER 01 :
She’s got a theory now about Charlie’s killing. Wow, look at the time.
SPEAKER 02 :
You ready? Go ahead, sure.
SPEAKER 01 :
I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m going to. He was about to turn on the Jews and the Israelis got him killed. Nope, nope. She’s saying, hold my beer, I can do one better.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yep. Our federal government did it. Inside job, eh? Inside our government did it. And why would we have done that?
SPEAKER 01 :
There’s only so far down the rabbit hole I can go with her. I mean, I don’t know what happened to her. I don’t know. And the other day, Megyn Kelly, and bless her heart, I mean, Megyn Kelly praised Candace. Megan is guest hosting Charlie’s show today. Cool. Quite the lineup this week. And Megan’s a powerhouse.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I love Megan. That SiriusXM show of hers is really great. I’ve enjoyed her. But was the praise retroactive and nostalgic, which I would join in?
SPEAKER 01 :
It was before this latest chapter. I know that. Maybe Megan will rethink her, you know, praise of Candace. I don’t know. I don’t know what. And I used to love me some Candace.
SPEAKER 02 :
She was something. She was a force of nature, and I hope she can sort of rediscover that beacon. But meanwhile, there’s you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, here we are. All right. See you tomorrow from Phoenix, my friend. I love you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Take care. Travel safely, man. Travel safely. That’s Mike Gallagher. He’s with us today at 10, soon as we are done on 660 AM, The Answer. For full shows live and on demand, it’s Salem News Channel.
