Now, on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor & Company. WMAL! 707, good morning, O'Connor & Company. Thursday, 26th day of February. Happy birthday to my brother David. Yes, that's right, three days after my brother Kevin's birthday, it's my brother David's birthday. I now have no other brother's birthdays I have to worry about until July 4th. My other brother's birthday. There you go. Oh, really? Really? Yeah. I thought you were going to say, I don't know, your brother George Washington's birthday or something, but that's good of you to remember. They were close to Washington and Lincoln, but no, my brother, my brother. Happy birthday, David. Coming up at 735, Ron Halber of the Jewish Community Relations Council, 805 KT McFarland will join us. And then at 835, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman. Larry O'Connor here with Cassie Smedley. Good morning, Cassie. Good morning, Larry. Always good to be with you. He's joining us right now to discuss politics in general and his upcoming CPAC conference. Moving to Dallas, Texas this year, the Dallas-Fort Worth area to the Gaylord, is the one and only chairman of the American Conservative Union and Grand Puba of the CPAC conference, Matthew Schlapp. Good morning, Matt. Thanks for joining us. Hey, Guy. How are you guys? Good. You know, we started the day talking about sort of this continued. Here we are in day two now of the fallout from the State of the Union. I think that's kind of the hallmark of a grand slam by the president that we're still talking about this, and most specifically, not the laundry list of legislative goodies that we're used to hearing from presidents when they give a State of the Union. President Trump seemed to create some visual narratives there that I think the Democrats are really going to regret now going into the midterms, don't you? Yeah, you know, my wife, Mercy, and I, we argue every day about how bad is it with the midterms, how many seats could be lost, blah, blah, blah. You know, my view is we got a real chance, a really good chance to do well. And one of the main reasons for that might sound negative, but they have truly become the wacko party, the crazy party. They're not the party you would say, hey, we got to leave. Can you watch the kids? They're the party that you want to say, oh, my God, do they really think that? Yeah. Yeah. In fact, Cassie, I'll hand it over to you. But Matt, you're echoing Selena Zito's column today in The Examiner. The headline is, these people are crazy, is the campaign Democrats should fear the most. The moment Trump off script looked at those Democrats sitting at one of the most, I think it was on the idea of taking children away from their parents if they don't affirm their gender. And the fact Democrats couldn't stand for that, he said just off the cuff, these people are crazy. And that kind of is the campaign narrative, Cassie. Yeah, that was the moment that stood out to me truly. That and along with the moment where he said, stand if you're for Americans. And, of course, the Democrats didn't stand it. I just saw this morning that the first ad is out with that scene in it. And I imagine we're going to see it all over the airwaves for the next 10 or so months. Is that enough of a narrative, Matt, do you think, to not turn the tide but overcome historical norms about the party that controls the White House in the midterms? No, it's not enough, but this has never happened before. So the Democratic Party, when I was a younger man, had to appear to be not crazy in order to win elections. And that's why people like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton won, because they were seen as Democrats who were a little bit different, Democrats who maybe sounded different and were for national defense and would stand in photos with policemen and think that families are good. And, you know, they were just Democrats that probably believed in a little more spending, maybe a little less constitutional rigidity. But otherwise, you know, they were somebody you wanted to have a beer with or Jimmy Carter's case, you know, a hot tea. But the you know, so this is this is the difference today is that they don't think they need to hide from the American people their extreme views. They think the American people have embraced their extreme views. And in my neighborhood in northern Virginia, they're right, sadly. There's a lot of America in this very divided country that they have taken on very extreme views. I was with a bunch of people from Greece last night, and we were all talking about how we used to all laugh at the craziness of European politics. And now the Europeans look at America and say, what the hell happened to America? And it's a really fair point. We're speaking with Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, and of course the CPAC conference now. You're four weeks away, I think, looking at the calendar, and you're going to be in Texas. Texas is about to have a primary for Republicans and Democrats. By the way, the latest poll shows Jasmine Crockett with a double-digit lead, despite Stephen Colbert's best efforts to elevate Congressman Tallarico. But what do you make of the Republican primary there, a three-man field that's going to have a runoff? But it really does sort of paint the picture of some ongoing internal debates within the conservative movement. Kind of. You know, I see you're talking about the Senate primary with John Cornyn. Yeah, I'm sorry. Cornyn, the incumbent, Paxton, the upstart challenger, and Wes Hunt, who's a rising star and obviously has a great future with the party. Yeah, so I've known John Cornyn a long time. He's a good and decent man. But I actually don't think this is surprising, which is, you know, Republicans look at people they sent to Washington for a long time, and they have grown impatient from those that say, we'll get this done next decade. They want it done now. And I think John Cornyn's problem is, is that he's fallen into the Senate kind of problem, which is because it's so hard to get things through the Senate. you end up being perceived as someone who doesn't really get anything done. And I think he deserves the criticism that it always seems like he's talking about, well, if we get a few more votes, we'll be able to get that done. Ken Paxton, who's the AG, is like maybe the strongest AG in the country. He's fought back against Lafayette. And Wesley Hunt is a really great conservative congressman from Houston who is, once again, an impatient young guy who wants to go. And I want to get one of those guys in the Senate who will join Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, and let's get some stuff done. The Democrats want to turn this country into a socialist hell on earth, and we are very close to them succeeding. If they get the majorities in Congress, you just watch out. And then if they get the White House, this country's over because this is not your grandfather's Democratic Party. This is a socialist party, and we'll never look back. Like in Virginia, when they get these super majorities in the governorship, they change voter ID laws, and then it's impossible for us to win a race again. And you can look at all the states that have happened in Illinois, New York, California. Just a decade and a half or two decades ago, we could win in these states. And then they change voter ID, and they let in all these illegals, and you cannot win again. Incredibly fair points. And I take your point of would you rather have a senator who is part of the establishment, hasn't been able to get the things done that he said, just give me more time to get done? Or do you have, OK, the opportunity to get someone fresh in there? But if you're Jasmine Crockett, you're hoping Cornyn doesn't win this primary. She has said as much. They think they have a better shot. So then at the end of the day, so you think ultimately Texas stays red and any candidate that we can put up from our side is okay? I have news for the establishment wing of the Republican Party You run around telling people that you have to pick a kind of an inert do nothing Republican because if you pick a hard charger you running the risk that you don win We so avoided risk as a Republican Party for so many decades. We have so many people in office who are inert and don't want to do anything because that's exactly why they were picked. They were picked to be safe. and we're not in a moment of safe. Don't send any more safe Republicans. Send Republicans, even if they're moderates from tough states, send senators who will fight like hell against socialism. And the problem is we have too many taking naps at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and thinking that success is a good fox hit. If you can't get a red meat Republican from Texas, then what's the point of being Texas, for God's sake? And how does Ted Cruz win if you can't win and be Red Bee? It just doesn't make any sense. And Ken Paxman has won statewide in Texas so many times, more than John Cornyn. So I don't understand this argument that only John Cornyn can win. It's a false argument. Stop listening. If John Cornyn wants to get this win in the primary next week, I've got advice, free advice. Go to the floor of the Senate right now. Don't campaign in Texas. Go to the floor of the Senate right now and begin the motion to bring the SAVE Act up for debate. Lead the debate and don't leave the floor until you start pushing John Thune to get a vote. What's the point of being in leadership if you can't lead? Move the SAVE Act and then maybe you'll actually win that primary. I don't think he'll do it. Yeah, and lead the charge. Don't be the last one to be forward. And how about this? We've got all these judges that are breaking the Constitution left and right trying to stop Trump's initiatives. Once you start working with your House members and get impeachment and say that you'll vote to convict, like there's so much on the table you could do if you wanted to demonstrate to voters that you're willing to put your fortune and your reputation and your life on the line to save this country. Too many senators think this is just a fun little parlor game, and it's not. This is about the future of the country. We are on the knife's edge. If Donald Trump hadn't gotten off the canvas in Pennsylvania and hadn't been willing to put his life on the line and perhaps go to prison, we would not have an America. anymore. And that's what we have to remember. And that's going to be the theme, I think, of CPAC in Texas, which will be ground zero of this ongoing conversation within the conservative movement. Coming up in Dallas, y'all can get your tickets and get out there and get to CPAC. It's going to be something, Matt. We get to see you, Larry. And see me. And see me. There it is. Thanks, Matt. Give our best to mercy. All right. Bye, guys. By the way, stop arguing with Mercedes. She's right. He said he was arguing with Mercedes. about the brand. No, you're right. Never argue with Mercedes-Benz. No, ever. Or any wife in particular. 717. Mike Drop. Hosted by former Navy SEAL Mike Ridland. What does it mean to be an American? Be American is you love your country above all else. I love this country. I was born here, raised here. I offered my life to serve this country. And if you don't do your part to preserve what we have here and our culture, it's going to be gone. And we can't let that happen. Yeah, that's Mike Drop. Mike Drop. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. I'm not going to lie, Cassie. It's been a crazy week. I haven't gotten a lot of sleep. It's been a lot of work. Really fun, though, of course. This is the kind of work that we love doing. Last night, as I got to bed, just to sort of clear my mind, I went to my social media platform X and I searched out the golden goal, the overtime goal from Jack Hughes that gave the U.S. their hockey gold. I just wanted to watch that over and over again to just sort of cleanse myself. I love it. You remember what it sounded like. Even if you're not looking at it, you've all seen it, so just relive the moment. ...up behind the net. And it's Wierenski. Now Jack Hughes puts it around the car. United States with numbers. Back across it comes. Jack Hughes wins it. The golden goal for the United States. For the first time since the 1980 miracle, the United States takes the gold. So good. I went out to dinner with some friends of mine last night. We were reflecting on the State of the Union moment where it's just so audacious that Trump had them enter in the press pool, forcing the image of all those, you know, America-hating reporters just sitting there on their hands, annoyed that they're the focus of attention. Would it have hurt? You know reporters. You've dealt with journalists your whole life. What would have been the harm for them to applaud and get excited about the hockey team? Oh, my gosh. I've thought about that so much, actually, the optics of these journalists who say, oh, we are the fourth estate. You know, as if they're the Supreme Court justices who can't show any emotion. Like the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Right. But they do it in everything they write. You know they're literally typing Donald Trump, the hater of the universe, the worst man alive. But we're impartial. But we're impartial. And we can't possibly applaud the gold medal hockey team. Well, these memorable moments continue. And last night we add another one to the list because now these hockey players are going back to their jobs to play hockey professionally for the National Hockey League. Jack Hughes, the hero of that game, he appeared for the first time in front of his hometown, well, not his hometown, but his professional hometown crowd, the New Jersey Devils, and they made a big show before the game and introduced him, and he spoke to the faithful there in New Jersey. Take a listen. I'm so proud and I'm so happy that the men's and women's USA hockey teams brought gold medals back to the United States of America. And you guys are making me emotional, but I'm so proud to represent the New Jersey Devils organization. And I'm so, so proud to represent the great state of New Jersey. So proud. from the bottom of my heart all our all my teammates usa teammates we just want to thank you guys for all the love and the support we feel it thank you amazing moment there by the way the devil's lost to the buffalo sabers two to one at home there and uh here's the beauty of it no one cares no one cares because we won the gold we won the gold All right. By the way, one other storyline that reflects our backyard in Maryland, Jimmy's Seafood, Jimmy's famous seafood in Baltimore in the Inner Harbor. They have a very active sort of sarcastic social media account. And I mentioned the other day that the Huffington Post put out an article the day after the Olympics saying if waving the flags makes you uncomfortable, If waving the American flag and chanting USA makes you uncomfortable right now, you're not alone. And it was all sort of like, you know, it's okay to hate America during the Olympics because Trump is president kind of thing, right? So whoever runs Jimmy Seafood's social media account replied to that under Jimmy's famous seafood logo with three words very succinctly, go F yourself. for the restaurant. Get your crab cakes and get your go F yourself if you don't like America. Here's today's lunch special. Exactly. That post has gotten over 8 million views, over 160,000 likes, over 13 reposts over 3 bookmarks because people want to come back to it and look at it again It pretty amazing And the proprietor of Jimmy Seafood actually took to social media and shared a video thanking everybody for their support Because, you know, you represent a restaurant. You stick your neck out like that and support America. And you're going to be a target. People are going to come after you. And so he thanks everyone for their support. And here's the best part. We're going to have Jimmy's Famous Seafood on the program to talk about this tomorrow. Just a huge get, Heather Hunter. Honestly. Other than Jack Hughes, the game-winning hockey player from the gold medal, I don't want to talk to anyone else about the Olympics than I want to talk to the guy who does Jimmy's Famous Seafood social media campaign. So they'll talk about what inspired them to tell the Huffington Pes to go F themselves tomorrow. So great. Make sure you tune in. It's 724. Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor and Company. We are not tired of winning over here on O'Connor and Company at 737. Thanks for tuning in to our little extravaganza. If you missed any part of the show so far, that doesn't need to be the case. You can just subscribe to our podcast and it's super convenient. That way all of our segments and our interviews will be broken down hour by hour and sent right to your device. Can't get more convenient. Find yourself, you know, bored or not liking, you know, what you're hearing on the radio. Just turn us on instead. Coming up at 805, KT McFarland will be our guest. 835 Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman. He's dealing with the school board there and with the governor in Richmond. Larry O'Connor with Cassie Smedley. Good morning, Cassie. Good morning, Larry. Earlier this morning, we told you how the Democratic Socialists of America, the same party that gave rise to Zoram Amdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and many other candidates, including one of the leading candidates for mayor in D.C., have not put together what can only be described as a loyalty test to ensure that if you were to get the Democrat Socialists of America's endorsement, you have to pledge your support for, well, the same terrorists and the Palestinian cause that we saw reflected in the October 7th massacre. Ron Halber is the chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. And, Ron, you've put out a pretty strong and unequivocal statement about this. This truly is, as I put it, a loyalty test, isn't it? Yes, it is. It is an absurd document that I think if most people took the time to read through, they would find out that its attitude towards Jews and Israel is one thing, but just its entire political philosophy is something that is so far out of the mainstream. It reads like just plain socialist propaganda. I can imagine there's two arguments to support this, so I'd love for you to respond. The first would be, hey, all we're saying is that you don't have to blindly support the government of Israel. What's wrong with that? Where's your loyalty? Well, number one, you know, my job is I advocate for the Jewish community and I advocate for the Jewish community and for the general community and our values and interests. And I don't blindly support all the positions of the state of Israel. First of all, just remember, I'm an American. I'm loyal to the United States. There's no doubt. And we care deeply about Israel because it is our ancestral homeland. and we work to strengthen the relationship between these two democracies. But we're not asking people to agree with every government decision. I mean, that's crazy. Nobody in America agrees with every government decision. What they're asking, what this questionnaire is basically doing by setting up a set of criteria that encourages their candidates not to interact with Jews at all, erase them, not even consider their view because of their political philosophy, basically boycott Jewish people. It's as simple as that. They can try and obfuscate it. They can try and twist the words. But the result of what they're asking their candidates to do is in exchange for our support, please do not go ahead and speak with Jewish people or be involved with any of their institutions and meet with them. Don't even dialogue with them. It is total erasure. And what's amazing to me, other than the anti-Semitism, of course, insert any other group, ethnicity, culture, religion into this, and they wouldn't do it. There seems to be – they don't fear saying this about the Jewish community, about Jewish Americans. I mean, do you have any thoughts on that first before I get to my other question? Yeah, I have some very strong thoughts about that. I mean, well, that's why anti-Semitism is an obsession. It's been with us forever. Anti-Semitism is a very convenient tool. You can use it to explain. It's used to explain the unexplainable. And it's been used by the right, the left, the center, everyone throughout history. And this is part of why America's fabric of society is falling apart. there has this when people hear that they should be calling for the erasure of jews or people who are pro-israel which is by the way it's pro-israel people so they're calling for the they're also calling for the for the for the for the tens of millions of christians in this country who still support israel not to even be uh consulted as well everybody should be speaking up this is beyond we all have our crazies we have our tucker callsons on the right who are who are absurd. We've got our democratic socialists on the left. They're equally bad because they're calling for people based on who they are not to have their views considered. This is bad for America. America is about the competition of ideas. About the competition of ideas, about clashing. This is what our founding fathers set up in the federal newspapers. They wanted to see the clash of ideas, but these people don't even want people in the Jewish community to have their ideas heard and don't want Jews to even participate in the system. It's almost as if they want them to be non-citizens. There was a time when the DSA, you would have said, oh, this is just a fringe organization. This is a fringe questionnaire. Nobody worry about it. Nobody pay attention to it. But now this, I mean, it's Mindami. It's AOC. It's one of the leading candidates for mayor in D.C. You can't just ignore it. And a strongly worded statement is one thing. But at what point do you send a signal to the broader Democrat Party to say you guys need to get rid of them or we need to really put our muscle and power behind putting some real pressure so that candidates aren't compelled to answer this questionnaire? But right now, this is the DSA is the Democrat Party. Well, I don't think we can go as far as that. I don't think the DSA is the Democratic Party, but there is a history in America of fringe philosophies, whether it be on the right or the left, when they keep pounding at the door that the ideas enter the mainstream. Now, sometimes that's good. Sometimes these are ideas that are very good and have gone on to better American society. But this is hate-filled, and that's why. I work for a nonprofit. I can't speak about any specific candidate, but I do not want the ideas of DSA becoming mainstream. And we are telling candidates who have accepted their endorsement to reject their endorsement and to ask people not to consider it. So it's ridiculous. It's like if you fill out this questionnaire, it's like 40 pages. First of all I don know any candidate who has the time It a 40 page questionnaire I mean it like going for a security going for a security coordinator I've never seen anything like this in my life. It's like ridiculous. We put out a copy of the application. And by the way, we also found out that a couple of candidates had their staff members that actually filled it out. And when we brought it to their attention, they were upset and disavowed what they had written. But they had already written. They had already submitted it. So they felt they couldn't pull it back. But this is very dangerous. Ron Halber is our guest CEO of Jewish Community Relations Council here in Washington. And I think that goes to Cassie's point, which was brilliantly made. This used to be a fringe group. We used to laugh at the Marxists with their little red flags marching. But now you're right. They're not the Democratic National Committee, but they are – there's a whole lot of crossover there. And I guess the question that I would ask is, who is the prominent member of the Democratic Party who has joined you in condemning this? We have not sought out, but we haven't. And I mean, I think the closest thing, the closest person who's ever said anything is Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who many years ago said the Democratic Party should even be mentioning the word socialist. Well, yeah. Well, hold on. If I may, you don't mention it. Go ahead and follow the policies and seek their support and seek their endorsements. But just don't say socialist out loud. No, no, no. She was a CIA case officer that ran off. Yes, she was. This is not a liberal. She's a moderate Democrat. Oh, Ron, come on. She literally took Zoran Mondani's talking points and used them for her own. No, I disagree with you on that. We will have to disagree over a fine glass of wine on that one because we're out of time. Okay, make sure. We'll leave it there. But listen, but you answered the question. You're right. That is probably the closest. And by the way, that isn't condemning the DSA. But that is the closest. Abigail Spanberger, six years ago when she was a congresswoman, but nothing since then. And I think that's my point. Chuck Schumer should be shoulder to shoulder with you condemning this question. I think all mainstream Democrats should be condemning this without equivocation and unapologetically. Thank you, Ron. Good talking with you. Thank you, sir. It's 746. Every week on the Stacking Benjamins podcast, we talk personal finance trends. Not paying attention to the headlines is the strategy proven to work. One headline, economists fear global recession. Literally the next headline, stocks at all-time highs, investors optimistic on the future. They're even doing it to the weather now. 28 million people in the path of this snowstorm. That means 340 million people have got good weather. It's just weather. Layers, people. Layers. Stacking Benjamins. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Well, hopefully, Cassius Metley, you can help me make sense of this. Trump administration is facing criticism right now because they're considering an executive action that would require banks to collect citizenship information on their customers. Again, not banning non-citizens from holding accounts or just collect the information. We would like to know how many non-citizens in this country are banking in this country. Maybe even you can say, well, how many of that? And again, not specifics on an individual necessarily unless there's criminal behavior going on. But, you know, and wouldn't it be great for us to say X number of noncitizens in the country without paperwork are currently holding this many bank accounts in America and they're engaged in foreign wire transfers? I would think that that would be an important data point to have as we discuss immigration policy in America. I think it would be a good thing. Again, this is not barring people from opening accounts or banking in America. It's, hey, when you open an account, get this information from people. Sure. I mean, of course, we know banks only ban conservatives. They're not going to ban illegal immigrants from banking. So don't worry. Unless you're a conservative and an illegal immigrant, then I don't know. No, this is not about banning. What a great point. The same people who were screaming about this cheered on the idea of Donald Trump and conservatives being debanked and were incapable of being able to open an account. But if you're an illegal immigrant in the country, by the way, again, I'm sorry, I'm not an expert, but I feel like I have a pretty good working knowledge as an American citizen with a brain that has lived for the last 40 years in this country or more. didn't we after 9-11 require a good amount of information and proof of you know identification citizenship before you open a bank before you do a wire transfer don't you have to jump through a couple of hoops here to prove that you're you know not doing anything nefarious that that was that was 9-11 when we did all of that I thought and I think people were largely in favor of it then from a, just take the illegal immigration debate out of it. You know, I used to work at a credit card company and what you had to do just to change your address. Cause you know, I also recently moved. It was, I was glad that they were making me go through those hoops. I was glad that they were making it more difficult for someone to impersonate me and have access to my money. Now I'm not saying that even this has to do with that, but it's to say that it is good to have a, I don't know, minimal amount of security around banking and money and to know, yes, how the money is flowing through our country, where it's flowing through, who's doing it, but also to make sure that it's you doing it. Also, by the way, a big component of illegal immigration in this country is employers breaking the law by hiring illegal immigrants, and they should be prosecuted for that. I say it over and over and over again, And the Trump administration should make that a priority. And number two, the illegal immigrants working illegally and taking money under the table and dodging federal income taxes by taking the money under the table. I would think that it would be a priority for the government to have banks collect information so that they could maybe prosecute those crimes. What is wrong? I have to give information every time I go get a quarter pounder, for God's sake. And I have to require proof of X, Y, and Z. Why is it suddenly controversial to ask someone in the country illegally to, you know, show a little bit of something when they open a bank account or do a wire transfer to Guadalajara or to Somalia? Right. Well, and you're right, Larry, it's not that controversial. But if you put this to a poll, just like Save Act, just like voter ID, you'd have 85, 90 percent of Americans saying, yeah, what's the debate here? But there's always the few who have their reasons we know of to make something out of this. They want to make it as comfortable and wonderful as possible for people to thrive here illegally. Because, well, if I didn't follow the other night, it almost seemed Tuesday night that there's one political party here who thinks that their priority is to protect illegal immigrants and not American citizens. It seemed to come across that way. I could be misreading. I mean, maybe they just couldn't bring themselves to stand. They were too busy sleeping. They had a really long day on their feet, yeah. 7.54. The C.J. Pearson Show. Every week, we'll take on the biggest cultural, political, and moral battles in America head on. C.J. presents the most passionate voices in the black community. When you're going around and talking to people in actual communities, you get to know what people actually care about. As a black man, why can't I be the first one in my family to graduate from college? Why can't it be me? Yeah. Shift the way that I think about the world. Bold truth, real conviction, zero permission. This is The C.J. Pearson Show. The C.J. Pearson Show. 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