Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor & Company. 807, good morning O'Connor & Company. Coming up in 30 minutes, Mercedes Schlapp will join us talk about the rally that we're having out in Leesburg. Mercedes will be there. Governor Glenn Yonkin and Slayer O'Connor with Cassie Smedley. Good morning Cassie. Good morning Larry. We're also tracking a developing story out of Annandale and we're still getting more details in on this. Two people were found dead in a home. Looks to be an apparent murder suicide. Man and a woman killed in an Annandale home that we know now it has been confirmed is owned by former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. Putting the pieces together, police have not given an official announcement on the identity of the two victims here or the victim and the apparent murderer will give you more details this morning, hopefully within the hour as those get confirmed. But again, murder suicide apparently in the home of Annandale, Virginia owned by former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. That's all we know for sure confirmed. Joining us right now, Katie McFarland, former Deputy National Security Advisor, President Trump, our regular conversation on a Thursday and well, well, well. Thanks for joining us, Katie. Busy, busy times in the Middle East right now as we saw these attempted negotiation is an Islamabad fall apart over the weekend and then the president moves forward with this blockade of Iranian ports and Iranian interests and Iranian ships. What is that blockade looking like? And are we now at a point where we can begin through this Navy operation to see the free flow of cargo ships and oil tankers through that area? You know, the blockade is a brilliant idea and it's an absolute master stroke of flipping the script. So Ron only thought that, well, it's got the it's got the final play that the one thing the world cannot do without is the straight of her moves. And they could blockade the state of straight of her moves. They could shut it down. No tankers would go through so that means no oil, but it also means no other trade. And that's the trade between Europe and the Middle East and Asia. So they thought, well, we're going to do that. But what they didn't anticipate was President Trump would actually have the final, final laugh, which is by blockading this straight, the United States Navy, the most powerful Navy in the world can do a couple of things. One, it allows the free flow of any non Iranian ships. If a ship is not going to dock in Iran, not going to deliver goods in Iran, not going to pick up oil from Iran, it can flow through. Fine, no problem. But if a ship is on its way to Iran or away from Iran, that ship is is denied entry to the straight or is denied exit from the straight. And we are enforcing it. It's working well. And what it's doing is economically strangling Iran. It's just, you know, we had operation Epic Fury. This is operation economic theory. Yeah. So just quickly, from your perspective here from a national security analysis perspective, does this stranglehold on the economy? Does this force a negotiated resolution and get around back to the table so that they can come out with a some semblance of government still intact and acquiesce to the demands of the American delegation? Or is this really more of a military tech? Are we now in this to just end this regime once and for all? We could do either. I think the president's preference, which he said a number of times is to bring them to the negotiating table and do a deal that we can live with. And that means no nuclear weapons primarily. But there's, you know, we're not there yet. But Iran has about 14 days and then the Iranian economy just completely collapses. Remember, they're getting no consumer goods in. They're getting nothing out. That means that they're not making any money. That means that they're forgoing probably half a half a billion dollars a day in any kind of trade in or out. But it'll do it'll massive unemployment. There'll be massive inflation. I mean, in date, every day, they'll be massive inflation. And then they're not making any money. They can't sell their oil. And then the reason there's a two week thing on it is because the way oil works, it pumps out of the ground. It goes in a pipeline. It goes to Kirk Island. And then it gets loaded into the pipeline goes into the tanker and then the tanker leaves the port and goes on its merry way. If there's no tanker to receive the pipeline oil, the pipeline starts backing up and there's about a two week storage lag in it. And in two weeks time, if there's nothing to take the oil, then they have to start shutting down the oil fields, which destroys the oil fields. Think about it as a sink. You have a clog sink and yet the water is still coming out of the faucet. Yeah, at a certain period of time, it fills up and it destroys everything. Wow. Wow. Fascinating. But my one remaining question, because we think, okay, if you squeeze them economically, if you kill everybody around them, but aren't these guys, I mean, their, their mentality is fight to the death, whether that's the death of their country or their death, it's, it's surrender is not part of their plan. So do you think that that is being factored in or do you, or do you think that they don't have the ability to actually fight to the death? They're going to stop one short of that because they want something left. Well, Kathy, that's a big question. Yes, I'm sure that there's a significant percentage of the IRGC and the regime that wants to fight to the death. But do 93 million people want to fight to the death? You know, at some point, this is going to crack. How it cracks, we don't know. We do know that though within two, in two weeks time, the whole economy just collapses. And yet at the same time, the president is saying, but here's the way out. You know, we wanted this golden opportunity for Iran, you know, the sanctions will be lifted to be welcomed into the world community. I mean, I guess it really depends on the message to 93 million people want to commit suicide. And now about those people. Is there an opportunity here and what would it look like if the people of Iran started to sort of stand up and start trying to take back this country because I understand that the there is still does seem to be a tyrannical regime in place that have terrified these Iranian citizens understandably into not speaking out because they just killed thousands of them in the streets. But at what point is that they're that breaking point where they start to lose that control and how can we assist that? Well, you know, do first of all the intelligence that we have that the public has is very is not going to be complete the intelligence that they say Massad has the American intelligence community have a lot of confidence in. At the same time, are the Iranians talking to each other? You know, if you're one of the Iranian leaders, you've just seen most of your friends get killed. You know that if you meet and have a meeting with two or three other guys, you're all going to be targeted. You're going to be killed. You can't really talk on your cell phone because there's a cell phone block. And anyway, right, somebody's going to be listening into those cell phone conversations. So how are you communicating with each other? Who's really in charge? I think that was one of the problems with the negotiation last week is that it was civilians negotiating but not the not the military negotiating. So can the civilians speak on behalf of the military? These are all unknown questions. And therefore the media is just speculating wildly. But I've got to assume that with all the intelligence so far that it's been stunningly accurate about where the leaders are, how to get to them, what are their vulnerabilities that we have intelligence about maybe who can we talk to who can we trust. This is not a time for weak hearts. This is going to be a white knuckle couple of weeks. But at the end of it, if you could have an Iran that doesn't have nuclear weapons, an Iran that rejoins the world community, it would be preventing World War III, you're preventing nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, you're just preventing a whole, at the whole generation that would live in terror. So I'm ready to do a little white knuckle panicking for two weeks to have a good result. While I've got you, Katie, I didn't get much coverage, but it sure seemed extraordinary. Secretary Stear Marco Rubio hosted a mini summit between representatives from the state of Israel and the government of Lebanon. And it appeared as though they reached some level of agreement that their common enemy is Hezbollah. People think that Israel is attacking Lebanon. They're not. They're attacking the Hezbollah terrorists who are living in Lebanon. And I think that there's a misconception that these terrorists are part of the Lebanese government. That's not necessarily the case, is it? No, I mean, the terrorists, and they are terrorists, Hezbollah infiltrates neighborhoods and infiltrates parts of government. The government, the military of Lebanon is not powerful, isn't powerful enough to beat back Hezbollah. But now that you have an agreement, or at least an understanding towards an agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government, maybe there is a chance to defeat Hezbollah. Now, remember, Hezbollah, where does it get its money? It gets its money from Iran. I just described a scenario. Iran doesn't have any money left to give. So this is a point of maximum vulnerability of Hezbollah. This is the time to make the move against Hezbollah. And there are forces within the Lebanese government who want that. They would like to normalize relations with Israel, it looks like. Those are normal people. Those are the people who want to have peace and prosperity. They are looking at their neighboring countries. They're looking at the Gulf Arabs and the Abraham Accords and the prosperity that's brought them. The Lebanese people want, they just can't figure out how to get from here to there because they're not powerful enough. Because Hezbollah has always been powerful, right? Because it's always been supported by Iran. No more Iran to support it. Iran doesn't have the bandwidth to do it. Hezbollah becomes degraded. Israel is going to work with the Lebanese government to get rid of Hezbollah. I mean, we could be looking at a very different world. Yeah, I just don't think, while all this is going on in the eastern reaches of the Middle East with Iran, over here on the left side, you've got Israel potentially making a peace deal with Lebanon and normalizing relationships with that neighbor to the north. This is like world changing stuff. Oh, this stuff is world changing. 2026 is going to go down as the year that changed the world. The year that the world was remade, the new world order, the old world order is dying. It's going to be remaking the Middle East. Oh no. Oh God, Katie, don't say, don't say, don't say new world order. The emails I'm going to get now. I mean, I don't mean it that bad, that bad way, but the world is going to change. Yes, the old world order is dying and the new world constellation is still going. There you go. Thank you, Katie. I appreciate it. And by the way, while all of that is going on and tyrannies are being toppled and pieces, you still get Chuck Schumer talking about affordability and screaming at us about it's amazing. All right, Katie, we'll talk to you next week. It's 8, 7, 8, 17. Next roll with Vernon Davis, the transformative journeys of athletes, artists and entrepreneurs. Ladies and gentlemen, lights out Sean Merriman. I want to be the biggest and the best when I do. And so whatever it takes, I'll get it done in business and everything else. All I do is know how to fight and earn what I want. My man, Malik asks, what actor, comedian would you want to collaborate with? Me, Jamie Foxley, Kevin Hart in a movie. We said it on Vernon Davis podcast. So we'll circle back and be like, yep, it's going to clear. Next roll with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Good morning, Cassie Smedley. I just got carried away there because let's not count our chickens, but if this incursion with Iran reaches some sort of either negotiated settlement with a new reasonable regime that we can deal with, or if that regime topples and a new one is put in place and now you've got Israel making friends with Lebanon possibly and I mean that the mind boggles at what could be on the horizon for us. I know you almost don't want to let that picture cement in your head. You don't want to say it out loud. But when you talk to KT, you're like, ah, they got everything under control. This is going to be great. Let's see. Let's see. All right. Clarence Thomas. We make no secret of the fact that we think Clarence Thomas is a stud. He is a stud, in fact, in one of the most important figures of the last 30 years in the United States history. And he rarely does public appearances, though, but he did yesterday and there's a little bit here that we want to share with you. Here's a cut 11. This is a back and forth. In fact, what is the setting of this? Did we even get this reported? Oh, University of Texas, Austin, where he had to sit down there marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He appeared on campus at UT Austin. Take a listen a little bit to Justice Clarence Thomas. I think if we don't stand up and take ownership of our country and take responsible for it, we are slowly letting others control how we think and what we think. The I think the beauty of going to school is that you learn how to think for yourself. You develop the discipline to think things through. If you think it's losing confidence, then you get up and you participate. You don't sit on the sidelines. You think that the state is being run and inconsistent with how you feel, then you get up and you participate. You prepare yourself. If you think that the medical profession is not right, whether you become a doctor or a medical person, and you deal with that. I think we need to take ownership of our country. It's our country. Thank you. I love hearing this because it's such a purely American way of viewing the society and culture you're living in. These are universal truths, but only in America, I think, does it really manifest in such an immediate way in making real change in our nation. Sadly, and great when it's our side doing it, it's also scary when you see the people who lean toward Marxism and leftism because the more power they get, the fewer opportunities we have to actually rise up and make a change. That's why it's so important that conservative voices are part of that equation. Yes. First of all, Clarence Thomas, of course, a national treasure, protecting them at all costs. But that's what I heard, too, is, so go get involved. Go get that education. Go be a part of the change you wish to see in the world versus what would Democrats answer be? We'll give us more of your money. We'll make that happen for you. Give them more power. Oh, you want changes? Great. Give us more power and we'll change it on your behalf. No, no, no, no. It's we the people. A little bit more here, by the way, about the role of a judge and justices in our constitutional republic cut 12. There isn't a single judge I know who does hard things because they get joy out of it. They do hard things because they signed up to do hard things. And they may not agree with it and it may be difficult. They may think it's not a great law, but their job as Article 3 judges is to enforce the law, to interpret it and to apply it to that particular case. When I first became a judge, Judge Larry Silverman, who's unfortunately passed away, said, ask yourself before each case, what is my role in this case as a judge? Notice how that limits you, not as a person, not as a Catholic, not as a policymaker, not as a husband, as a judge. And that is early on that required more discipline. There isn't a... If only, if only every judge followed that advice. Imagine. I read in my mind, I was like, well, we need to introduce him to Judge Boesberg. Yeah. Because just here we have those issues. But what I'm thinking for those in the room, what a gift. Yeah. And colleges really wasted on the young that they get that opportunity. But... Seriously. Can you invite Clarence Thomas over to our cocktail party we're having with Secretary Best? We'll get him at it. For sure. We'll send an invite. I think he'd like some vermouth. I can see that. But yes, what a statement. And if only that was the standard for all judges. It should be. Certainly what it was fired by. It should be. I hope Justice Thomas' colleague, the Chief Justice, John Roberts is listening because he can actually start instilling these values all the way down the judiciary. If only. I'll say it again. If only. 824. Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app. O'Connor & Company. WMAL. It's 837. It's O'Connor & Company. Good morning. Thanks for letting us be a part of your morning routine. Coming up in 30 minutes, that routine continues, but it'll be less than routine. It'll be anything but routine. It'll be Chris Plant taking over the Chris Plant show. Cassie Smedley, you know that Chris Plant man is just, well, the plant man's insane. He's just nuts. It's just the reality of the situation. You really never know what you're going to get. That's right. And Thursday listeners of this program, when they hear Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, it can mean only one thing. We're about to be joined by, well, she's no longer in Miami, but she is the Sound Machine in Northern Virginia. She is the one. She is the only. Mercedes, Viana, Schlapp. Mercedes, good morning. Hello. Hello. Hello, you both. How are you doing? Great. I mean, we've been spending all morning letting everybody know that at 4 PM today, it's 750 Miller Drive in Leesburg. They can hang with me. They can hang with Governor Glenn Yonkin. But more importantly, they'll see you Mercedes Schlapp as representative CPAC co-sponsoring this rally to get out the vote. Vote no on Tuesday. Yeah, I got to tell you, we have a chance, a real chance at winning this vote. And if we vote no on this Virginia gerrymandering attempt by the Democrats, it's such a power grab. And I got to tell you, I've spoken to not only, you know, rule voters, faith voters, Hispanic voters, independent voters. They're all saying, we got to vote no. This is outrageous. This would go from us having a nearly split congressional map to going 10 to 1 where Fairfax County would pretty much make these decisions for Virginia. And it, I think, is a complete outrage. And I got to tell you, it has mobilized. What I have seen, Larry, I'm sure you both have seen this as well. It has mobilized like this organic movement here in Virginia and people are coming out and voting. So we want to energize the base and get them out there. And, you know, we're not during typical, you know, midterm election or presidential election year. So people are a little more relaxed. I keep having to tell our scheduler, like, put it on our calendar, we got to vote. And you got to do the same. Go out today. Take a moment. Go vote no. Hi, you have the best walkout music, by the way, Mercedes, but the, um, as I was saying yesterday, I went to early vote and the hours are not typical. You've got to do a little bit of your research. Mine started at one o'clock. So to go look it up, to make sure that you put it on your calendar and plan for it. But as you're talking about the energy, I was talking to a guy at the polls and he was like, this is David versus Goliath. And we have a real opportunity here. And it's, it's feeling like that. I wish we had this enthusiasm last November, but I'll take it now. Well, you know, I got to say, I think there's buyer's remorse right now with, uh, Governor Virginia, Spanburg, Spanburger. I got to tell you a funny joke. So Lucia, Uncle Larry knows Lucia very well. He's the youngest. Little Lucia. And Lucia says, who the heck would ever eat a burger made out of spam? And I was like, well, it's not really spam, but that's good Lucia. That's good. I love the joke. I would like to go on record. I would totally eat a burger made out of spam. So let Lucia know that I'm all over that. Um, no, we only real grass fed beef from Dr. Brook Miller. Absolutely. But you know, I got to tell you like she is a wrecking ball. I mean, not only is Governor Spanburger, I would say one of the most unpopular, uh, governors as she only has been in office for three months. Yeah. And, uh, but, and just taking these extreme positions, um, on everything from we're going to raise taxes on just the most basic expenses that Virginians have to pay for to, you know, taking away our gun rights. And it's becoming a, a big, um, a big, a big, big problem right now. And I got to tell you, you know, like the Virginians have said, we don't want this. I mean, this is not what we voted for. I hope so. Mercy, I, I've been beating the drum here that, that we've been so outspent. I mean, the money that's coming in outside of the state of Virginia, it's even worse than the money that came out to get Spanburger elected in the first place from out of state. You see Hakeem Jeffries and his super PACs. You see these giant Democrat super PACs because they know that if they can win this gerrymandering thing, that's it. Hakeem gets that. I don't care what happens in November, the election for Hakeem Jeffries, that speaker and then, you know, two years of impeachment hearings. It happens this Tuesday in Virginia. If they win this, it's over. Yeah, it's over. You're connected. You know these groups are they, I know that money is starting to flow in now. Is it enough? And is it being spent right to combat these outrageous television ads, these lying television ads that Obama is starring in? Well, I got to tell you, I really want to, uh, hats off to speaker Mike Johnson, who was, uh, was basically out there rallying in Virginia with the wonderful former attorney general Jason Mears, who's really been the spearhead on all these efforts. Um, but I, but it's not enough. It's definitely not enough money. This is not going to be an election about money. It is going to be about the election of the people. I mean, it truly is. It is about the people speaking up saying, my voice will not be silenced. I will not be bullied by these elite Democrats and these very wealthy outside groups that are pouring in millions and millions of dollars into the Commonwealth. I got to tell you, we've seen the polls. We've analyzed the politics around this. Matt and I did. And Matt says, look, we can win this. We need our base to come out. We need to stand united, something that we need to be doing right now as conservatives and Republicans to push back against this illegitimate effort by the Democrats to take away our vote. And you know, we're so depressing as I was out in beautiful Madison County. Um, and watch, looking at those signs that say yes, vote. Yes. They basically on the top of it says, it says stop Trump. Their only goal is to destroy Donald Trump as they have been trying to do for a year in year out. And it's all the Trump's arrangement syndrome. That's all the Democrats are pushing for it's not because it's the right thing to do. And that's why today we're standing together. I am so excited about this event. It's at 4pm. It's over at a Leesburg, Virginia, 750 Miller Drive at the Loudoun County voting center. And we've got not only governor. Glenn Yonkin, who's been also a superstar on talking about this issue, but this great guy radio guy, Larry O'Connor is going to be there. I see your face all over social media. And we've also got Congressman Ben Klein is joining us. I got word yesterday he's going to be joining us. Oh, great. I'm so honored to have been with us. And we've got Jen Frederick who's bringing his big vote. No bus. No bus to the event. And we've got wonderful community voices that are going to talk about why we have to be standing together voting no and just getting it to the finish line. 4pm, 750 Miller Drive, Leesburg. I'll be there. Governor Yonkin is going to be there. More importantly, this lady, Mercedes Schlepp is going to be there. And Mersey, I'll just add one more thing to that brilliant analysis. Because I think a lot of people are counting on all the downstate and the red districts and the red counties to come out in full force. And they do. And I think it's a missing element here, the secret sauce that we didn't see in November. All the Republicans and Fairfax and Loudoun and Arlington, I know you're there. I know you feel defeated. I know you feel you don't have a voice. I know you feel like it just doesn't matter because you're overwhelmed. Well, you matter now because this is it. This is the last stand for Virginia. Every Republican, if you've ever voted Republican in Loudoun, Fairfax, don't sit this one out like you do sometimes. Come on out this Tuesday and vote no or vote today early. Mersey, thanks for joining us. I'll see you later today. Thank you both. All right. Take care. You bet. 845. Vince Colonies is redefining news talk. I'm Vince Colonies host of the Vince podcast. I'm bringing you the truth beneath the headlines of all of the nation's top stories. In-depth interviews. We feature newsmaking interviews with the top guests on the whole planet. And I'll ask the questions you only dream of other interviewers asking. And a front row seat to the most important conversations of the day. There's a show with an obsessive focus on what's good for America. You are going to love Vince. The Vince show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. We've been tracking a tragic story out of Anandale, Virginia that broke overnight. Let me give you the latest report here from Fox 5, our partners over there with their reporting. There was supposed to be a press conference, by the way, at 830 for Fairfax police to give an updated details on this apparent murder suicide in Anandale. But they have now pushed that back. So we don't have new details other than this report cut 13 go. Yeah, and we have been working our sources all morning long since this story broke a little after midnight. And what we can tell you is that this house here on Gwinnivere Drive in Anandale, Virginia. Property records, government property records and other official sources that we have been able to confirm say that this home is owned by Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. He was the Lieutenant Governor under Governor Ralph Northam. Now he's been in private practice since an unsuccessful run for governor in 2021. Let's talk about what happened in this home overnight. Again, we're going to be cautious here that Fairfax County police have not identified anyone yet involved in this. But the initial call came in a little after midnight. The person on the line said he thought his father had stabbed his mother. When Fairfax County police arrived, they found a woman unconscious and bleeding inside the home. Fairfax County police told me that she had actually been shot. Now the person who was in the home told officers he did not know where his father was and that the father's car was still in the driveway. There was an area wide lookout broadcast. That lookout was for a black male, 5'10 to 5'11", clean shaven with short hair. K-9 and helicopter teams were brought in. Then police radioed that they had discovered that man in another area of the house. Obviously a tragic situation in the fact that the child, a little boy reported this, is just horrible and horrific and prayers for those children. But you've got the home is owned by Justin Fairfax, a former lieutenant governor. He's been going through a marital dispute and a divorce with his wife. It is a father and a mother who have been killed and a parent suicide. The person that they had an APB out matches the description. Of course, 5'11", black male, clean shaven, short hair. That is the description of Justin Fairfax. But again, police is not 100% identified. We can only tell you what we know and that's what we know and that's what's been confirmed. And again, I just want to reiterate a tragic situation and prayers for everybody involved. Yeah. We will get more. And obviously, I mean, impossible to report on this story without recognizing that there are political implications to all of this that will be unpacked in the days that follow. It's 8.53". And just like that, it's been confirmed. Reporter Melanie Olnwick with Fox 5 says that Fairfax County Police Department Chief Kevin Davis has confirmed former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax and his wife Serena were the two that were found deceased from gunshot wounds in that Anandale home this morning. It appears to be a murder suicide once again confirmed now. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, former Lieutenant Governor and his wife are the two deceased at that crime scene. That's Melanie Olnwick, Fox 5 reporting. Next roll with Vernon Davis. I'm your host Vernon Davis. Okay, y'all, thank you. Thank you. That's my... Today we have Dietrich Wise. Through my example on the field, off the field, during game day in practice, that was one way that I led because they didn't lead the success. Next roll isn't about what's next. It's about why they do it. My man, Bobby Bones. Like, I've had a lot of stuff happen, bad and good. And so I don't have any fear of mixing it up. That's powerful, man. Next roll with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
