the next week. Now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMA L app O'Connor and company. You M A L. Good morning. It's seven 0 seven. It's O'Connor and company coming up at 805 KT McFarland will join us latest out of Iran. Will there be a second round of negotiations this weekend? How effective is this naval blockade and when will the next shoe drop in the last six weeks for the Spanish standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards I'm going to be there at 4 PM. 7 50 Miller Drive, Leesburg, Virginia, Larry O'Connor with Cassie Smedley. Cassie. I know that you have a very busy lifestyle, but will you be at that rally today at 4 PM and Leesburg? I will be there in spirit. Oh, but it's going to be awesome. It sounds great. It is. It's going to be something else. In fact, Cassie, let's turn to our next guest, George Taplan. He is the chair of the Loudoun County Republican Committee. I'm going to be there today to rally the troops to vote. No. Absolutely. Even though I try to usually keep a low profile, I'll be there. Yeah, yeah, you try to keep a low profile. That's why the chair of the Loudoun County Republican Committee. Listen, um, I think that the biggest story about this redistricting really has to do with downstate Virginians, Southern Virginians who are now being disenfranchised and their voice ripped from them and sacrificed at the altar of the most wealthy, plugged in elitist Democrat woke agenda. But you tell me from a Loudoun County perspective, how bad is this gerrymandering? Oh, it's incredible. I mean, if you if you go by what the redistricting lines that were drawn by the Democrats, uh, five of the 10 districts that they wanted to take over would actually be running through Fairfax County. So you would have five Fairfax County Congress. Uh, that would basically control the state of Virginia in our in our national, uh, conference itself. Yeah. It's like taking over and not allowing anybody down south to have a voice. In fact, not allowing anybody else in Virginia to have a voice. I'm I'm with you. I'm a Fairfax County resident. I voted early yesterday and the whole time I was thinking, I don't I don't need five representatives. I want one good one. Can I have that please? But we were talking about the of course the gun control bill that Spanberger signed yesterday, the impact that that could have downstate. Are you hearing those types of mutterings from folks that the aggressiveness of the Spanberger administration is potentially backfiring on this effort? Well, I think part of the aggressiveness is due to the fact of all her campaign was moderate everything I'm doing. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna do anything bad here here here, including gun control and abortion and all this stuff. The problem is, is that, you know, as soon as soon as she was sworn in, it was a complete three complete 180 and all of the bills that they're passing all of the stuff that the Democrats are pushing through. They want their Democrat ideals, but there's no way that they're contributing to the quality of life of people in Virginia. They're just things that they want to control in the way that they want to do. And that doesn't help the people in the schools that are doing things that are not necessarily the ones live lives and that doesn't have doesn't translate to better jobs, more pay for the for the workers. It doesn't help the people in school, the kids in school from being indoctrinated. It doesn't help for protecting girls in sports doesn't help with school choice. It doesn't help with any other things. And they say, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, all we're doing is restoring fairness to the process here. George Taplan, you crazy right winger. And by the way, it's temporary. It's temporary. Everything goes back in, you know, 20 30. So how do you respond to that? Well, it may be temporary, but I've never known a government program to be really temporary. The temporary part of this means that it only goes through actually three full election cycles. Yeah, so being temporary, what it eventually does is it turns Virginia blue, just like Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Connecticut and so forth. So that there won't be any Republican representation in the state at the federal level. But more importantly, what happens then once people are disenfranchised, they tend to give up and not do anything about it. You know, there's nothing we can do so why go out and boat type things. You know, they're not going to be able to get their position. And by the time you really realize what has happened, it's blue and you're going to California. You are Virginia. Yeah, you're not wrong about that. And that's someone who's lived in California. I saw it coming and here we are. But after the election in November, where it was as a Republican when you woke up the next morning, it was hard to take any positive out of this and and they're applying their power that they have right now and trying to get everything they possibly can get. Most political observers on the national scale who don't get granular in Virginia politics, they're looking at this and they're saying, well, there is no real Republican party apparatus anymore in Virginia and Democrats are going to be able to roll with this constitutional amendment and Republicans don't have us anymore. What are you seeing on the ground? I'm seeing a lot of Republican party. I know that you're the chairman in Loudoun County, but what are the early voting numbers looking like? And what are you seeing in terms of action and motivation that's going to reverse this trend from last November? Well, I'm really excited by what I'm seeing on the ground. I go out, distribute signs, talk with people all the time, and I'm seeing at this point in time with early voting. I'm seeing it's a really interesting thing that I'm seeing is the enthusiasm of the voters who are going to come out there. It's a stark difference. We're standing at the same sidewalk handing out pamphlets of people going in voting. The Republican side seems to be really energized and happy and talking and laughing with people, and the Democrat side is really glum here, do this, here, do this, here, do this, and it's a stark difference. The enthusiasm is there. What we're missing is the fact that we don't have outside money to help us do this, so it's all grassroots. It's all from the people themselves. We have one woman, her name is Beth Pascale. She didn't even involve herself in any of the Republican apparatus, as you're saying. She went out on her own and spent her own money to get people to come out and vote, no, for this initiative. I mean, that's the kind of enthusiasm and work ethic that we have here in Northern Virginia. And it's endemic. It's across the whole northern section of Virginia. We're getting energized because we're seeing how the people, the politicians in Washington are trying to frame the way people are in Virginia. They look at the state as monolithic. They look at it as everything they see in Northern Virginia is throughout the entire state, and nothing could be further from the truth. It's more difficult here. There's a lot of things going on, but we're now operating on a different type of paradigm. We're getting out, we're talking with people. We just launched a new website. It's called LoudonGOP.win and it's state of the art. It's really fast. People will like it, and there's all kinds of information on there that they can digest and if they need to find out any additional information, there are places that people that can contact and volunteer and help the rest of us to get the vote back for the Republican side. That all sounds great. That was going to be my next question. How do you get involved? Because I'm with you. When I was at the voting booth, not only was it a happier tent, the Republican tent outside, but there was enthusiasm. People were signing to help get people on the ballot, but then you'd say, but how do I get involved? What do I do? I understand the website, but in terms of really re-energizing and reorganizing the base of the party, the grassroots base, what's the best first step someone can take if they want to do more than just vote? They want to get involved. Well, obviously, the reason I mentioned the website was because that's the starting point. You go there for information and once you get that information, you'll find that there are many people within the apparatus here in Loudon County and with Katie Gorca and Fairfax, Jacob Alderman and Prince William and so forth. What we have, and we're working together on this, what we're going to do or what we are doing is we're reaching out to the individual voters. Instead of going out and telling the voters, we're going to do this for you, we're going out and reaching out to voters and saying, what is it that you want us to do for you? Here's a town hall. Tell us how your quality of life is under the current regime versus what it was like under Governor Youngkin and see if we can make a difference and move forward in your quality of life. This is about the people in Virginia and I think that the Democrats typically ignore the people. They just want the control. We got to leave it there. I'll add to that one other good way to start getting involved right now that goes beyond just voting, show up at the rally today, find some friends, know that you're not alone out there, that we are still there and we are still a critical voice to be accounted for. It's today 4 p.m. 7 50 Miller Drive. See me, see Mercedes Schlapp, see Glenn Youngkin and frankly, most importantly go check out George Taplan while you're there. He's the brand new chair of the Loudoun County Republican Committee and he's ready to shake your hand and get you involved. George, thanks for joining us. We'll see you today at 4. Thanks guys, appreciate it. It's 7 17. I'm going to go and listen on your favorite platform. Cassie Smidley, are you ready for America State Fair, the great American State Fair? I am so pumped. This is when I thought celebrating America. This is what I hoped it would look like. Yeah, this is kind of a cool thing and some the details are starting to evolve right now on the 250th freedom to 50 and the celebrations over the summer. This specifically is one that everyone has been sort of anticipating and wanting to get the details on. It'll be on the National Mall. It is running from June 25th through July 10th. The grounds will span from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument. So that whole side of the mall will become a giant state fair even though Washington D.C. of course is not a state and never will be and never should be. But it's as if we have one giant state fair here in the nation's capital. It's going to look cool. And the rendering right now of a giant huge ferris wheel on the mall right in front of the capital is getting my goosebumps going. Amazing. First of all, what a thumb in the eye to the Democrats. We're going to have a state fair and you're never going to get a state. But in the spirit of American patriotism and unity I hope this is going to be over July 4th if you're coming to D.C. for all those celebrations. This is either going to be mayhem or a core memory. But so cool. Here's what we know so far. Again, the dates. June 25th through July 10th. The space will be from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument. It'll be a 16 day fair. There will be a 110 foot ferris wheel. Also the Smithsonian National Carousel which has been going through a refurbishment process for quite some time. That will be up and running for a while. And then the state fair will be debuting after the refurbishment. And then all 50 states and 6 territories will be uniting with their own themed sort of presentation representing the best of their state. For instance, you know, Texas will be there for the standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards standards nation story. Thanks to President Trump's leadership, the Great American State Fair will bring all 56 states and territories together in one place, showcasing the people, landscapes and traditions that define this country. It sounds like it's going to be super, super cool. And I also am quite sure that they're focused on security and making sure that it's going to be a real safe place for families. It'll be a very family oriented event. And what a cool backdrop for those fireworks that we're expecting on July 4th. Oh, completely. And to think, you know, this is the same group that did the Washington Monument over New Year's with the Space Shuttle. Yes. Yes. They know how to put on an event. Then you have this and then you're going to have the IndyCar race in August. DC is just going to be electric. And thank God, I'm sure the National Guard and our police officers are all going to be very involved in this. Thank God for them so that this can be fun and safe for everybody. But I'm excited. I just want to know, I'm my only, honestly, I think it needs to be said. What about the parking? What about the congestion? What about the traffic? What about, I mean, I know this is part of living in Washington, DC anyway. And I know that this is just sort of goes with the territory, but we're begging for a nightmare downtown, right from June 25th through the July 10th. I mean, use the metro, use your walking feet. But I bet Jamie Witton, if you had a summer vacation, you're not going to be able to take it. We're going to need you to give all of the traffic news. It's going to be rough. It's going to be rough. And by the way, you know, Molly Hemingway pointed out, she took, she mentioned that she was sitting on a plane next to a guy who had like American flag star spangled loafers. Did you see this post? And it's gone viral. It's gone viral because she said, these are the greatest, took a picture of them and put it out there. And there's really cool men's loafers with the stars on the left foot and the stripes on the right foot. And she said, why are we not being inundated with just, just gallons and gallons of red, white and blue all over the place with all the 250 swag? I have vague memories of the bison 10 a on 1776. I know you don't Cassie. I don't think you were born yet, but there it was everywhere. It really was a big deal. Maybe it's just summertime when it starts to come out. But we haven't really seen too much. I think it's coming. I think it's a little early and you know, those vendors are preparing all of their merch for the state fair. You can just wallpaper yourself. All right. That's where it'll be. By the way, the rendering that the government put out here showing the Ferris wheel on a, you know, what it looks like there's like the net, the mall looks like it's populated with about 110 people to little misleading. It's going to be insane. And I can't wait. 723 now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMA L app O'Connor and company. It's 737. It's O'Connor and company here on this Thursday morning in your nation's capital. We're continuing to track and get more information on this murder suicide in Annandale, Virginia. And we'll give you more specifics as they come to us. Keep it here. You'll hear it here first. Also coming up in the program at 805 KT McFarland, the latest developments in the Middle East and then at 835 our friend Mercedes Schlapp on today's rally, I'll be joining Mercedes and former Governor Glenn Junkin in Leesburg, Virginia for a rally at 4pm. That 750 Miller drive Leesburg, Virginia come out, hang out with us and let the Democrats in Richmond know that we're not going to take this lying down the redistricting gerrymandering power grab scheme by Abigail Spanberger and her Democrats. It's Larry O'Connor with Cassie Smedley. All right, let's get to Iran here. Like I said, at 805 we've got KT McFarland to shed some expertise on it. Let's tell you what's happening. First of all, the blockade is holding and I want to be clear here again once again, because there's a lot of, you know, bizarre misinformation, disinformation, confusion or just sloppy coverage of this. The United States Navy is not blockading the Strait of Hormuz. The United States Navy is blockading Iranian ports and Iranian interests in the Strait to keep them from being able to traverse the Strait and to keep them from harassing private vessels. In fact, we now have reports of of several tankers who have been able to now traverse the Strait. This happened overnight. And here's one moment that happened. The audio was released by the White House and by Senkcom of a Navy vessel engaged in confronting a tanker that tried to breach this blockade. Take a listen to this, cut seven. The U.S. has announced a formal blockade of Iranian ports in coastal areas. This is illegal action. All vessels are advised to immediately return to port and leaving and discontinue transit to Iran if that is your next port to call. Do not attempt to breach the blockade. Vessels will be boarded for interdiction and seizure, transiting to or from an Iranian port. Turn around and repair and be boarded. We do not comply with this blockade. We will use force. The whole of the United States Navy is ready to force compliance. Now, oh my gosh, it's phenomenal. Do not attempt to breach the blockade. Vessels will be boarded for interdiction. If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force. The whole of the United States Navy is ready to force compliance. So what did the ship do? Well, that ship and nine other ships turned around and went back. Now, this is what's been referred to as Iran's shadow fleet. This is a fleet of ships that have been traversing the Strait on their own. The only ships that have been going through really and some foreign nation like India or China has paid a so-called toll to the IRGC. This shadow fleet has been able to slip through and deliver oil to continue to fund the government, not anymore. Reading now from the Sencom dispatch as written up at the Wall Street Journal, the ship such as the Rich Starry, which has changed names twice in its 11-year history, according to shipping database Equasis, are part of another world of shipping that enables Iran to evade sanctions, including those on its oil industry. Early signs are that after years of dodging restrictions, the Iranian shadow fleet may have met its match in the U.S. naval blockade. Its ships now appear unable to leave the Persian Gulf. On Wednesday, Sencom, which oversees U.S. forces in the region, said that no ships got through its blockade of Iranian ports in the first 48 hours. Nine vessels obeyed direction from U.S. forces to reverse course and re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman, according to Sencom. Ships with ties to Iran have so far had a better time getting into the Persian Gulf than out, possibly pointing to the difficulty the U.S. Navy might have in determining where a vessel is heading before it arrives. That's the thing. Not every ship going into the Persian Gulf is necessarily heading to Iran. It's easier to find them as they're leaving Iran. But so far, this is working. Here's a gen-gryphon of Fox reporting now on how this is working. And also, more importantly, reporting on, apparently, Iran's use of a Chinese spy satellite at the beginning of the military engagement. Take a listen. Fox has confirmed exclusive reporting from the Financial Times that Iran used a Chinese spy satellite to target U.S. bases in the Middle East last month. The IRGC obtained access to the Chinese satellite shortly after its launch in late 2024 and apparently tasked it with monitoring U.S. military sites before and after drone and missile strikes on the U.S. bases. If China supported and helped this, that is going to be awkward and it will certainly come up when the president goes to Beijing next month, four weeks from now. One suspects that that kind of activity has now ended since the president has put China and all other countries on notice of what kind of repercussions they would be hit with if they did cooperate with Iran and help them out. And then there's this. Scott Besant, the secretary of the treasury yesterday during a briefing, talked about what's going on with the bank accounts of Iran and what they used to be able to get away with with their Arab neighbors. Take a listen to this. Yeah, I think that's the not a correct characterization. Yesterday we announced Operation Economic Fury and we for over a year we have had maximum pressure on the Iranians, both on blocking payments into the Iranian state and going after the accounts of the IRGC. One of the what may prove to be fatal mistakes that the Iranians made was bombing their GCC neighbors and who are now willing to be much more transparent in terms of the funds or do a deeper dive in investigating the funds that are held within their banking systems. So we have pushed out to them the request that we want to freeze more funds of the leadership of the IRGC and any members of Iranian leadership. Yeah, in other words, the Iranian leadership, the corrupt theocrats in charge of that government repressing the people of Iran, the IRGC, the terrorists, they've been hiding their money in these Gulf state countries in the Middle East and then they made the mistake of actually attacking them after the first military strikes five weeks ago. And so now all of those Gulf governments, they're turning to the U.S. and saying, hey, you know, we're holding on to their money here in our accounts. And now they're going to be frozen as well. Iran has run out of friends, run out of allies, and they're about to run out of money. Coming up at 8.05, we'll get more into it with Katie McFarland. In a moment, Clarence Thomas had a very rare public appearance and well, he displayed himself to be as brilliant as we all know he is. Just wait till you hear it. It's 7.44. Hi, I'm Joe Salcihi, host of the Stack In Bedouin's podcast. Most economists agree small amount of inflation is actually good. 2% is what you're going for. But why is everybody freaking out? Oh, because it's the fallout. People don't track their budget. You have this slow slipping that happens every month. To all of a sudden you go, man, I don't have any money. The reason is now two people go to a restaurant. The bill is 60 bucks for two. Two guys walking to a restaurant. They start screaming. It's hilarious. $60. Stacking Benjamin's. Following listen on your favorite platform. By the way, before we get to the remarks of Clarence Thomas at this public event that were just fantastic, the Secretary of Besson was part of the briefing yesterday. By the way, did you see the giant blown up headline from Town Hall right behind him there? Talking about the tax cuts and how President Trump was the greatest tax cut president in history. And then there it was, TownHall.com, right behind him, a giant headline. I hear that's a great source for all your news. It's a fantastic source. Right as center analysis in context. A great podcast every day live at noon. Who's the editor of TownHall? I forget. Do you know that? Oh, let me google it. Ah, that would be the great Larry O'Connor. Very cool to see the Treasury Secretary there with TownHall up there right behind his shoulder. But then as he was in, it was tax day. So he was talking about the tax cuts and of course questions came about the blockade and freezing Iranian funds as we just shared with you. But then there was this moment when he talked about the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. Take a listen carefully to Secretary Besson. Go, go. President said this morning that he thinks we're nearing the end. The US kept their side on the ceasefire. We've stopped firing. The Strait of Hormuz have not been completely reopened. Hold on. Did you catch that? The Strait of what now? Firing the Strait of Hormuz have not. He said the Strait of Hormuz, didn't he? I hear no issue. Sounds right to me. He's like, he doesn't like his martinis too dry, apparently. He likes to make sure that there's just enough Hormuz to give it a little flavor. I'm with him. You know, people, there's some reason people decided that a martini is just straight gin or straight vodka. That's not a martini. That's straight gin or straight vodka. No, you need some Hormuz in there. Hormuz is good. Driver move. I trust you and Scott Besson on that. And I love that he's as we're unleashing economic fury, the Strait of Hormuz. It all goes together. It all goes together. And he's got that country club. I've just had a couple martinis sort of air about him, doesn't he? And in fact, the way he talks, I mean, listen, he sounds like maybe he's had a three martini lunch already. Hiring the Strait of Hormuz have not been completely reopened. I don't know why that just brings joy to me. And I am a big Hormuz fan by the way. You got your driver move in your martinis, but then don't forget your sweet Hormuz. Sweet Hormuz with bourbon and some bitters makes for a Manhattan. And Manhattan lately, I'll be honest, Manhattan is more of my go-to cocktail than a martini is. I am hearing that you and Secretary Besson need to have a martini tasting summit together. I think you're hearing correctly. And I think you need to arrange this. I think you have the connections, Cassie Smidley, to make this happen. I'll put in a word. Our mutual friend, Kevin Walling, Fox News commentator, one of my co-analysts on the morning meeting. He's one of those connected political Charleston, South Carolina guys. Scott Besson is clearly a connected political Charleston, South Carolina kind of guy. I'm thinking it's happy hour at the Smidley's house. Can we make this happen? All right, we'll see what we can do. We'll let you know if this comes to fruition. We'll talk about it on the show. By the way, we've already talked about doing a Gulf of America cruise, you know, and maybe take it up to Greenland once they rename it Trumpland. What about a Middle East cruise right through the Strait of Vermouth? The Strait of Vermouth? I'm ready. I'm here for it. Are you ready? Let's do it. It's 753. Vince Collin A's is redefining news talk. I'm Vince Collin A's 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. It'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.
