Now, on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor and Company. It is 5.07. Good morning, and thanks for tuning in to the last show of this very busy and full week. But we are all loaded for four straight hours of important information news, and hopefully we'll get you entertained too. as you get about your day and head out wherever you're going. Or if you're staying home, that's okay too. But stay with us because starting at 635, we're going to speak with Victoria Cobb from the Family Foundation, talk about Sage at the State of the Union. Remember we talked about Sage's Law, the young girl who was sort of encouraged to transition behind her mother's back. It was a big moment at the State of the Union for us. At 8.05, Susan Friccio, Washington Times, covering the Capitol. But right now she was focusing on the testimony of the Clintons up in Chappaqua about Jeffrey Epstein, 835. John Minidakis, he is the CEO of Jimmy's Famous Seafood and currently the hero of the Internet. That's all coming up. It's me and it's she, Patrice Anwuka, for our Friday extravaganza. Good morning, Patrice. Good morning. Happy Friday, everybody. Oh, we made it. It did. This was a long one. But the State of the Union didn't help. In fact, the fallout or the repercussions of the State of the Union continue to ripple. And we'll get into that. Some new polls are out. And the president and Republicans should be pretty happy with how the American people took to that speech. He did it again. We'll get into that a little later. But in media and in business news, there was a huge development yesterday. You'll remember that Netflix was working on a major blockbuster merger with Warner Discovery. This obviously has huge media implications in terms of streaming services, content providers, content creation. It also affects the news media as Warner Discovery is the parent company of CNN. Although if I remember right, and I don't always remember right, Patrice, But I think that CNN in some way was going to be broken out of the Netflix Warner deal. It spun off in a separate deal. However, and they were both real happy and they wanted that deal to go through and they were hoping to get congressional approval. It would have affected certain levels of FCC requirements. But really, this was more of an antitrust Justice Department, SEC sort of approval that they were looking for. And you'll remember the Netflix CEOs and Warner C. A lot of CEOs were there and they had to endure some withering challenges from Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and other senators about the political bent of the content that comes out of Netflix. It was some pretty good stuff. Anyway, let's cut to the chase. There was a hostile bid made by Paramount. Now, Paramount's company is right now run by what many believe to be a consortium of owners that are a little less woke, let's just say. I mean, they're not, you know, hardcore right wing MAGA or anything for crying out loud. But they're not the woke at Netflix. They're not the woke at Netflix. And let's not forget that Paramount currently owns CBS News where they've hired Barry Weiss to sort of reform 60 Minutes, reform their approach to journalism and actually bring themselves a little bit off of the liberal brink where they were teetering, if not completely falling off. Now, Warner Discovery has been fending off these bids by Paramount. You know, bid after bid, they were like, nope, nope, don't want you. We want Netflix. Nope, nope. Finally, there's been a confluence of events here that we can detail. But the bottom line is Paramount wins. I love it. It was announced yesterday that Warner Discovery is is now allowing Netflix to renege and back out of the deal that they had originally offered. that was on the table. And now, if this is approved by the Justice Department, and it might be easier for this to be approved, partly because, well, frankly, the Paramount people have friends at the White House and in the administration. But also, I don't think it has quite as much of a tangled web of antitrust concerns that Netflix would have, because Paramount is not as huge a behemoth in the marketplace on streaming content as Netflix was. If this goes through, it means that Paramount Warner will be a less woke competitor for the Disney conglomerate for media and information and entertainment. And my understanding is that in this deal, CNN is part of the new Paramount family, which means theoretically, and again, the details have not been revealed, But theoretically, Barry Weiss, who now runs CBS News, could in fact be in charge of CNN. Let me just put it this way. It's going to make Jake Tapper very, very upset. And that makes us happy. Can you imagine Abby Phillips having a roundtable that isn't just Scott Jennings taking on five other wokest with the same talking points and the same message, only appealing on emotion and not on substance? You know, this deal is really interesting, Larry. When you think about what Paramount brings to the table, I'm just looking at their assets. You know, you mentioned CBS News, the CW, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, you know, Showtime, Paramount+. It's really interesting because these – think about the content that a lot of these networks have put out. Let's hold MTV and BET aside. Yeah, I think MTV is actually folded now, if I remember right. Well, that's true. I don't even know if they're really producing anything. But they still have assets from that property, yes. But, I mean, Paramount, it's the home for Landman. It's the home for the 1883 series, that whole series of Western life, you know, historically and come to life. I love Paramount Plus. All the FBI shows, a lot of thrilling action television content. Even the Nickelodeon stuff is a really good counter to all the woke Disney content. Nickelodeon is not perfect, but it certainly is not as bad. So, I mean, when I think about what it means for consumers, I actually am very excited. I don't think you're going to see consolidation to the point where you have fewer options. I think you're going to have better options. And as parents, as just TV consumers, we're going to get to see more of what we like to see. There is a reason why television shows that have good, strong characters, male figures in leading roles where they're not dopes or dummies, but actually strong men. We're going to get to see more of that, and I think it pushes back against a lot of the liberal agenda. So this deal is not done, but I think it's definitely – I'm all here for it, and I'm excited about what it means for us as consumers. Well, we have been so beaten down by the overtly partisan liberal storylines from Netflix. The ideological agenda. So every show has some sort of character or storyline that encourages the transgender ideology, et cetera, et cetera, that we think because Paramount Plus, through some of its – or Paramount Plus, specifically the streaming arm, has produced Landman and the other Western show that Kevin Costner had started for a while there. Oh, yeah, I know. I'm thinking 1883. Yellowstone. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate that. Thank you, yes. Yellowstone and all of the prequels. Exactly. It's like, oh, so they're conservative. But if not really Paramount Plus is also producing all these woke Star Trek spinoffs including Starfleet Academy which is just it become a punchline It so funny But that the thing It like please don think for a moment that Paramount is some way some sort of you know MAGA bastion It's just that they offer a couple of different alternatives. But the ownership is definitely more right of center. Okay, there you go. And I truly do believe that the key component here is going to be, or at least from our perspective, and how it's going to affect us ultimately is going to be the CNN module. For CNN to find themselves now under the Paramount umbrella. Don't forget, Jake Tapper was absolutely beside himself when 60 Minutes and CBS knuckled under and reached a settlement with Donald Trump over the way they edited the Kamala Harris interview. Jake Tapper went nuts about it. He said, this is just because of the merger that CBS wants with Paramount. And it's like, okay, maybe. But if that's the case, guess what? They're your new boss, Jake. So now what are you going to do? It's pretty fascinating. And also because we believe that politics ultimately is downstream from culture. Yes, that dramatic content, that entertainment content that's now being created and now we'll have wider distribution with the Paramount Plus and Warner Umbrella connected. That could be a game changer for giving parents an alternative at least and some safe choices for their families. Huge news there. Also, if you bought stock in Warner Discovery, you're a happy man right now or woman or Democrat. 515. If these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to play by the old rules and say, oh, never mind, we'll forgive you for all the people you've fired, all the policies and principles you've violated, all the laws you've skirted. I think they've got another thing coming. I think, you know, whether you're a law firm, whether you're a university, whether you're a media entity, whether you're a big corporation, whether you're big tech, you need to play a long game, not this short game that has been so detrimental. There will be an accountability agenda. You know, companies already are starting to hear they better preserve their documents. They better be ready for subpoenas. If they've done something wrong, they'll be held accountable. And that's Susan Rice talking like a mafia thug there, talking like a mobster, sending the signal to people in the private sector that when Democrats get back into power, they better be prepared to be held accountable. Held accountable for what? For cooperating with the Trump administration. That's Susan Rice. She was the Bill Clinton advisor that oversaw the Rwandan genocide. She was the Obama advisor that oversaw the Syrian genocide. And she was the Biden advisor who oversaw the open borders of this country and the illegal immigration cultural genocide that occurred in those four years. Susan Rice also happens to be a board member of Netflix. Bingo. Bingo. And one wonders if this was the final nail in the coffin, if Netflix recognized that with her speaking out this way on a podcast, it absolutely. You know, by the way, President Trump, the day after this podcast aired, he took to Truth Social and said Netflix should fire racist Trump deranged Susan Rice immediately or pay the consequences. One wonders if Netflix and Warner Discovery basically said, guys, there's no way we can recover from this. There's no way we're going to get approval on this merger after what Susan Rice has done. Let's just call it a day. But that's who Netflix is, Patrice. Well, exactly. That's who Netflix is, which is the point, because it filters down into the agenda they've been trying to drive. I mean, we teased it a little bit just before the break. But, you know, let's look at some of the ridiculous content, not that they're not just providing to adults who can choose, but driving into the content for kids. Cocomelon Lane, you guys know Cocomelon, baby characters, very fun thing. But it's a Netflix show for children. In this one, it's a little boy dressed up in a dress dancing for his two gay dads. No, a little boy dressed up in girls' clothes dancing for two gay dads is not the kind of content that I think most Americans would want their children consuming, especially if it's trying to indoctrinate them, Larry. It's been ridiculous. I mean, we've got some other clips here. But, you know, one of the creators of one of the Netflix shows, Dead End Paranormal Park, features this character who looks like a trans teenager, whatever the case is. But he himself wished Charlie was celebrating Charlie Kirk's death on Blue Sky after the assassination. So this is the show. Yeah, the creator of the show. So this is what Netflix is. And I think that's why, you know, them moving away from this deal, leaving the deal is a good thing when it comes to ensuring that that kind of content is not going to be more widely distributed and moved into new and forced into new content created. Well, and when you're taking sides in the culture wars, just recognize that the people who aren't on the same side of that war, they're not going to be happy to just sit back and let you continue to build your power and build your wealth and have the ability to create things like this. Here's the Dead End Paranormal Park show on Netflix with the transgender character. This, by the way, this show is labeled on Netflix as appropriate for seven-year-olds. Okay, take a listen. Cut to. It's not the park. it's it's me i'm trans normal and everyone at school knows and everyone at home knows and being here it's like a whole new place i can just be barney and i can choose if and when i tell people i've never been happier yeah that's uh seven year olds for seven year olds yes for seven year olds it was that show oh and then there's this one this was the kids show jurassic world camp this is also animated. It's designed for kids and tweens. Cut four. Take a listen to this storyline. Folks, you need to check this out. We just sent our kids to bed. This Jurassic World was still playing and we came across this. The truth is, Sammy, I've fallen for you. Lord have mercy. My heart. Real heart. Jurassic World, you know. Jurassic World. Since when did this happen in Jurassic World? I'm full of dinosaurs. This is the storyline, by the way. That's a girl falling in love with another girl. Yeah, for another girl. That one got me because my kids watch Jurassic World, the series of shows. Now I'm going to have to ban them from watching it because if this is what they're doing, I don't want this in my household. It was this kind of content, by the way, that inspired Elon Musk famously to let everyone know on his social media platform that he's canceled his Netflix subscriptions. my tipping point was about three years ago they had a show that featured it was out of France it featured little girls in a dance competition dancing in highly sexualized you know they look like they should be dancing with a striptease pole basically they were dancing like strippers and they were celebrating I think it was the show was called cuties yes and I think there was some weird element too of like sex work or you know prostitution involved there was some weird story sub storyline as well in that show. It was incredibly exploitive of children and fed right into what a pedophile's, you know, dream television series would be. But it had the rubber stamp of Netflix and the imprimatur of propriety and, you know, high drama associated with it. It just goes on and on. The reasons why, you know, and again, they're a private corporation. Well, they're a publicly traded corporation. But listen, you're a business. You engage in the kind of political speech that you want to engage in. Absolutely. It your right It your freedom Netflix took sides in the political and cultural wars of this country That fine We know where they stand It doesn mean we need to participate in it too It doesn't mean that we aren't going to make our own choices with our dollars. And by the way, it doesn't mean that we can't also engage in the political and cultural wars by supporting politicians and elected representatives who can be in a position to say to Netflix, Yeah, you know what? We're not going to approve your merger because you are creating content that is antithetical to the advancement of American ideals. You can go ahead and do that, but we don't need to support it and empower it. And that's part, I believe, of what happened here. The political climate has made it such that Netflix Warner is not going to happen. Paramount wins at the end of the day, partly because they had a better deal to offer shareholders. But a big part of it is because they were not creating the garbage, the unapologetically creating garbage like Netflix has been creating. And finally, you know, there's some sort of repercussions for that. Netflix and the CEOs, maybe they'll think twice now before giving the green light to this garbage and pumping it into our homes and gearing it to our children. All right. I could talk about this for four hours, but guess what? It's 525. Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor & Company. Worldwide streaming is what we're all about here on O'Connor & Company, WMAL. Coming up at 635, Victoria Cobb Family Foundation. Talk about Sages Law may be going national. At 8.05, Susan Ferriccio on Hillary Clinton's testimony about Jeffrey Epstein. And today, it'll be Bubba Bill Clinton, 835. I haven't heard that name in a long time, Bubba. Minidek is the CEO of Jimmy's Famous Seafood, which has gotten national exposure for their very patriotic and pro-American support of the USA hockey team. If not, somewhat not made for family audiences' support for the hockey team. But it's okay. It's social media. Anything goes. Larry O'Connor here with Patrice Unbuca. Morning, Patrice. Good morning, Larry. let's uh let's turn to the united states senate where uh if you were paying attention you saw a big part of president trump's speech had to do with the save act and again for those of you who may only be watching cnn when you're not listening to us god help you i just want you to know that the save act which has passed the house now and is waiting for a vote in the senate has two very simple, modest proposals to it. It would be a federal law that would require proof of citizenship when a person registers to vote. And let's just be clear here, only citizens are allowed to vote. That's the law. That's right. It has been since the adoption of our Constitution. And so when you register to vote, if only citizens are allowed to vote, it seems pretty logical to have proof of citizenship. And by the way, real fast, if anybody, you know, rebuts that on your Facebook page or the liberal in the cubicle next to you at the office and says there's no evidence that there's widespread voter fraud with non-citizens voting. First of all, A, that's not true. B, the states don't really investigate this crime. So they don't know for a fact how rampant it is since there are no units really assigned to investigate non-citizens voting. But number three, the best rebuttal is this. Tell me, do you lock your doors every night? Or when you leave the house, do you lock your doors? And do you only lock, and if so, and I'm guessing your friend will say, yes, of course I lock my doors. You can say, oh, really, how many attempted break-ins have there been before you decided to lock your doors? How many times did you have a home invasion before you decided to lock your doors? Or did you lock your doors even without having to have those crimes committed against you? In other words, we all go through preventative measures to ensure that the law is not broken in our personal lives. It's why we don't leave our cars in our car when we leave it overnight on a street in D.C. Not because we've gotten a car stolen in the past, but because we want to prevent the car from being stolen. And that's why you ask for birth certificates or proof of citizenship. And if they're also a D, if there's no worry about – if there's no evidence that there's illegals voting in elections, then this law should be a nonstarter. There should be no impact, right? So why would you be afraid of a law that has no impact unless you actually do believe that there are people who are voting illegally who should not be? Well, and you want them to. And you want them to. The other part of the SAVE Act is that when you go to vote, you just show a photo ID to prove that you are who you are, which is, by the way, I believe 98 percent of Western democracies all have that provision in their elections as well. All right. So John Thune, the majority leader in the Senate, has come on board as a co-sponsor of the SAVE Act. They have over either 50 or over 50 supporters. So they have enough votes to get it passed. But the Democrats have threatened a filibuster. They said, nope, we're not going to let you get to 60 for cloture on this. So it's a nonstarter. There's been a lot of pressure on John Thune to push this issue to force Democrats to the floor and make them actually do an old fashioned filibuster and talk through the night so that the American people can see that their priority, their focus, their energy is on ensuring that noncitizens can vote in this country rather than actually doing the work of the Senate. But Majority Leader Thune has said, well, we don't really have any time for that. That's going to bog down the Senate, and we have a lot of other very, very important things to do, which is a really reasonable argument for the leader to make, except for the fact that there's now a video that's been released showing the United States senators, the same ones that John Thune said are way too busy dealing with military funding and housing regulation and all those other important things the Senate has to do. There's a video showing those senators engaging in a dog parade. A what? I said a dog parade. No, no, seriously. What were U.S. senators doing? Well, apparently it's a tradition. Apparently it's – here, take a listen. I believe this is in the Rayburn building with all the staff out there watching and senators cheering the whole thing on. They had a, well, here, take a listen. Come on in. Oh, yeah, and the senator came, too. That's Senator Tom Tillis on a megaphone giving the play-by-play coverage of the parade. And the cheer was there for Baby Dog Justice. That's the big fat bulldog that belongs to Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia being pulled along in a little Mardi Gras style cart. And we love baby dog justice. Don't get me wrong. And we love dogs for that matter. This is in the middle of a work day. It's in the middle of a work day. And Tom Tillis is one of those Republican senators who's kind of wishy washy on making sure noncitizens. And by the way, he he is a he is a sponsor of the bill. So that's true. Well, it's easy to put your name on a bill and sponsor it and get the political credit if you don't actually try to get it passed. Right. It's like, what does that mean exactly to sponsor it? If you know that it's not going to reach, you know, that's that's a you know, that's a no brainer, I guess. Anyway, Tillis was asked about this, about the pushback he's getting online over his parade. And he said oh anybody who criticizing us for having the dog parade are either sad cases or they cat owners With all due respect I like cats My God it was a 45 session I can walk and chew gum at the same time They should try it Yeah, but is he walking and chewing gum at the same time? He is working against the SAVE Act, which his constituents support, which Republican voters support, which, by the way, most Americans support on the grounds that, yes, you should be able to demonstrate your citizenship when you register to vote. So I'm fine with you having a dog parade if you're not stalling one of the most consequential pieces of legislation after the tax cuts last year that this session of Congress should be able to hammer out right now. Like, you know, the time is fast approaching towards the midterms. And I understand that a lot of Republicans like to be kind of on the on back footing when it comes to raising money. So they want to seem like their opponents. But you know what? If you want to ensure that you continue to hold the majority, passing the SAVE Act is one way to demonstrate that giving you the power and the reins to govern was not a mistake on the part of voters. So, you know, get your act together. That you'll actually do what the people who put you there want you to do. Yeah. And also, just in terms of political optics, the dog parade video broke on the exact same day that Majority Leader John Thune said, nope, there's no way. We can't do a talking filibuster. We're not going to hold up the important business that we've got here by making Democrats stand up and proclaim to the world that they don't want any provisions in place to ensure that noncitizens are voting in this country. The same day that he made that announcement is when the dog parade was released. So not a good look for majority leader. No, not a good look at all. And by the way, I just want to reiterate, it's really important, vital legislation to make sure the American people have some level of confidence that even if they lose an election, at least they know that only citizens voted. That's right. You're removing the elements that could have thrown the election. And keep people from thinking that maybe it was stolen by people who shouldn't be voting. So it's really good policy. But also, for God's sake, you amateurs, it's great politics. Did you not see what happened this week at the State of the Union? Thank you. That is exactly what I was thinking, Larry. When President Trump put the left on blast, when he said, stand up if you believe that you should be protecting citizens rather than illegal immigrants or whatever the case was. That is what you need when it comes to the SAVE Act. So eliminating the talking filibuster, that takes that element away for every ad that could be cut coming up later this year. That's right. Ridiculous. Think of the ad. Think of the ad. Showing a Democrat literally standing in the well of the Senate, talking in a filibuster to keep the vote from happening, and then cut to that same Democrat sitting at the State of the Union, refusing to stand for the American people. They won't stand up for you, but here they are standing up for illegal immigrants and letting them vote. Exactly. This is who they stand up for. For God's sake, Republicans in the Senate, it's such a no-brainer. Just do it. It's great politics. All right. I'm 546. Well, the polls are in from the State of the Union, and it's very good news for President Trump and Republicans. If this Tuesday was the starting gun for the midterm elections, even though they've got an uphill race, the Republicans do just based on historic trends, they at least got out of the blocks pretty well here. the numbers are very, very strong in terms of the American people jumping on board with the agenda the president laid out on Tuesday, numbers that he hasn't seen in quite some time. Here, take a listen first to the irrepressible Harry Enten on CNN, locking down some of the numbers, cut 12. All right. What about border security in general? Okay. Border security in general. So this is immigration at large. What about border security? Look at this. Look at these numbers. Hello. Party trusted more on border security. Again, at this point, Trump's terms. Look at this. In 2018, Republicans had a 13 point advantage. If anything, the advantage is a little bit larger now. Republicans up by 15 points. So when you put it all together, you put immigration with border security and the idea that Democrats will be able to take the ball and run away on it. The polling data suggests no, no, no. This is actually an issue that Republicans should be more comfortable running on than Democrats. Democrats running on immigration may actually be to the Republicans' advantage. All right. All right, buddy. Simmer down. Oh, interesting. So in other words, Democrats think that by talking about ICE, talking about DHS, talking about border security, and of course, the current shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, they refuse to fund it because they want to change the policies of ICE. It's actually working in Republicans' favor. As of now, Republicans actually have gained support on border control and immigration. in light of everything that happened in Minnesota. Well, and it should be a reminder that Republicans should be, you know, taking a bow, tipping their hat for closing the southern border. Excuse me, guys. Closing the southern border and then enacting federal law, supporting federal law enforcement and cracking down on illegal immigration. That's a good thing. And that's one of the promises that they ran on in 2024. And now get this. Are you ready, Patrice? Yeah. Just in general, going into the speech, the American people were polled. The question was, do President Trump's policies, will they help move America forward? 54% of Americans said yes before the speech. After the speech, well, take a listen. Cut 13. And look at the growth President Trump made over the speech. So pre-speech, it was 54% of speech watchers said his policies will move the U.S. in the right direction. After the speech, that number goes up 10 percentage points. So Donald Trump made some progress with people watching the speech from their pre-speech expectations to what they saw in the speech itself. And that 64% number, that's pretty much in range across all of his State of the Union addresses. In his first term, last year, the joint session, that's about what we've seen. roughly two-thirds have walked away from his speeches thinking he's going to move it in the right direction. So a lot of red meat for the base. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. If you're a Republican on the ballot in 2026, I think you leave this speech being as happy as you could possibly be that he sort of stuck to the script on the economy, he gave red meat to the base on immigration, and they can leave the hall tonight and sort of take that out on the campaign trail. There you go. So 64% of Americans after the speech now think that the president's policies are moving the country in the right direction. If Republicans running in the midterms in the House and in the Senate can't take that number, and you just heard from the analysts there, if you're a Republican on the ballot, you're as happy as you could possibly be. The president delivered. He did what he needed to do. He's given you the roadmap. Take that speech. Take the themes. Take the messages. Run with it. The election is on. Let's go, guys, because this is the winning formula. Don't fight against it at this point. The president can't run every single one of your races, but he's shown you how it's done. Now go. Well, and look at what President Trump talked about in his speech. He didn't shy away from affordability. He said, hey, we are winning. We are making good progress on affordability. He got into some of the, he got talked about border, about protecting our elections. He talked about some of those very core issues that Republicans and conservatives won on two years ago. And so, you know, he didn't get into DEI. He didn't get into a lot of the other issues, a little bit of the global stuff, but he really focused on what's going on here in this country. And I think that's what Americans wanted to hear, that while we are engaged on a global perspective in lots of different parts of the country, parts of the world, we're still – the administration is still very much laser focused on what's going on in your backyard. And that's what Republicans need to run with that message. It is 554.
