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And good evening, everyone across the Mid-South. I'm Todd Starnes, and you are listening to an exclusive conversation on the Mighty 990 KWAM, the 9th Congressional District Republican primary. Folks, it is fired up, and we have a lot of great candidates in the race, a lot of great choices for you. And one of the things that we promised to do when I bought KWAM seven years ago was to make sure we provided a local source for news and information. And this is one of those moments when we have that kind of a conversation here for the next 90 minutes.
Not only are we going to be taking questions from the candidates, but also we're going to be taking your questions as well. I want you to write down our telephone number. You will need this if you plan on calling in and asking a question. That number 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.
Well, for us. Before we get started, I wanted to introduce all four of the candidates who have graciously taken time off of the campaign trail to hang out with us. First, we're excited to welcome Charlotte Bergman, a native Memphian, a lifelong Christian, and a dedicated conservative leader here in the Mid South. She is a graduate of Northside High School and was the first person in her family to pursue higher education, earning an associate degree from State Technical Institute and also getting a Bachelor of Science degree from Christian Brothers University. She began her professional career at FedEx, where she worked as an information technology project manager.
She went on to become a small business owner. She has been actively involved in the Republican Party, both statewide, locally, and nationally. Serving on the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee, she was named Statesman of the Year in 2018. In 2019, she authored the book The Last Trumpet, which addresses the battle for America's future and the dangers of government dependency. Charlotte is a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother.
And we are also excited to welcome Jeremy Thompson, an Afghanistan Special Operations and Military Intelligence Combat Veteran, a retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class. He served as executive director of the Special Operations Association of America, where he advocated for veterans, military readiness, and national security and helped shape federal policy. Mr. Thompson has served as a reserve deputy sheriff, a volunteer firefighter, and EMT in his community for many years.
He is also a small business owner operating the Revolutionary Tavern in downtown Fayetteville with his wife Lindsay and their two children. Our Senator Brent Taylor, a successful small business owner, an outspoken conservative leader, and of course, a state senator who spent his career fighting for Tennesseans. Born and raised in a rural community before moving to Tennessee after school, in 1995, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Memphis City Council at the age of 27. Senator Taylor, who never voted for a tax increase, was viewed as the leading conservative voice on the council. He and his wife Kimberly purchased their first funeral home in 2004.
They have been married for over 30 years, and they are parents of two adult children. They reside in the EADS community and are active members of Trinity Baptist Church. And State Representative Todd Warner, an eighth-generation Tennessean, born and raised on a dairy farm in Chapel Hill in northern Marshall County. To this day, he is a row crop farmer of corn and soybeans, and he's worked the same land his family has worked for eight generations. He graduated from Forest High School in 1989, married his wife Cindy in 1991.
Todd and Cindy have three children, Patrick, Kathleen, and Kayson, and he began his career with United Telephone.
Well, we're going to get to know a lot more about these four wonderful, great American patriots. If nothing else, they took a stand, and as Theodore Roosevelt said, Our great Republican president, they are men and women in the arena, and we certainly respect that. Welcome to everybody. Thank you for having us. I do appreciate you.
All right.
Well, you know, we were going to start out talking about the squad coming to town, and we're going to get to that in just a moment. But we do have some breaking news to share with everybody. President Trump earlier this afternoon announced that he is endorsing state senator Brent Taylor in the ninth congressional district race. And I want to ask all of you, and we'll start with you, Charlotte Bergman, how does this impact your race moving forward? Oh, great question, Todd.
I'm so glad you asked. I respect President Trump. I respect his decision. When you have people like Marshall Blackburn, Bill Haggerty, and the State senators, Jack Johnson, advocating for an individual, they wouldn't know. Uh Mr.
Senator Taylor better than the President. But I respect him, but President Trump do not know what is happening on the ground. And we are meeting people on a daily basis, and it has been exciting, and I love it.
So I respect our President. Representative Orner. Same question. Yeah, I respect our President, Donald Trump, but he just endorsed the biggest rhino in the race. All right, before we get to that, he just called you a big rhino.
First of all, what makes him a rhino? First of all, we passed 15 two-way bills this year in the House. Send em over to the Senate. I think he sits on ju uh judiciary committee with with uh Senator Uh Todd uh Gordon Hire. He allowed the senator to close that committee without objecting with those 2A bills that we were trying to fix.
Here in Tennessee. Senator, the representative called you a rhino. How do you respond to that?
Well, I'm not sure he understands what a rhino is, but I will say on the Second Amendment, the NRA just sent out their grades today, and I received an A grade from uh the uh National Rifle Association.
So uh I I'm not sure why he is trying to assign Todd Garden Hire's uh refusal to hear those bills in committee, which he's chairman. uh why he's trying to assign that to me. Obviously the National Rif uh National Rifle Association did not. They gave me an A gr uh A grade uh on their endorsement today or their uh A grade on their um announcement today. All right, Todd, real quick, you wanted to respond to that.
Yeah, he didn't object to the chairman closing the committee. Had I been sitting on that committee, I would have objected. To a close, and I would have said, Mr. Chairman, we have unfinished business, we have bills on the table, let's take care of it. We could have done it real quick.
No doubt the president's endorsement is the gold standard, but it doesn't necessarily equate to victory, as we just saw in South Carolina in the gubernatorial race. The president's nominee there did not exactly win. Jeremy, so what is your path forward? You're the new guy on the block jumping into the race. Yeah, so our strategy for the whole race so far is just to be the best candidate, to tell the people our story and let them know that we're going to Congress to serve them and let them make the decision between now and August the 6th.
You know, early vote starts next week, and we're trusting that the people do not have to depend on endorsements or any other kind of following to get into the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is an honorable position of respect, and that's what we plan on going to do for them. I want to switch gears here and get back to, and well, first of all, Senator, I should give you an opportunity to respond to the President putting out that endorsement this afternoon on True Social. Your response to what the President had to say.
Well, I appreciate that. The President called me this afternoon. We had a brief conversation. Obviously, I thanked him for the endorsement. endorsement.
But you know, Todd, what we spent the most of the time talking about Was something you were actually involved in, and that was asking the President to send the Memphis Safe Task Force to Memphis. We talked about how crime has been cut in half, and he said that. Part of this endorsement of me in this race was because of my work. Here, fighting crime, fighting illegal immigration, and fighting China in the state senate. And that's part of why he was able to make that endorsement.
At this point in the race, it was because of that. But we did talk about you and the fact that you had invited him to send the Memphis Safe Task Force here.
Well, I'm glad the President did, to be honest with you. Charlotte, there is no denying that you have been standing in the arena when nobody else would stand in the arena. I mean, going election cycle after election cycle up against Steve Cohen and that KFC fried chicken that he brought up on up on the Capitol Hill. You've also been sounding the alarm on socialism. That has become a big thing on your campaign plate.
We now know later on this week, the squad is coming. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayana Presley, as well as Summer Lee are coming to campaign for Justin Pearson in Memphis. And I'm wondering: should Mr. Pearson be the nominee, how will that impact the race you are running? And how concerned should we be about socialism?
Oh, my gosh. Let me tell you, and it is imperative that we get on the road and share with people the dangers of socialism. This nation is at war. It is not a war whereby we're shooting bullets. It's a mental war.
It's an ideology. But here's what is happening. The people that are coming here to support Justin Pearson, AOC, Ioni Presley, and Summer Lee, they are members of the Democrat Socialists. of America organization. What they want to do is eliminate the United States Senate.
They want to grant amnesty to illegal. Aliens. They want to defund the Department of Defense, replace the President and the Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary group. And have them subordinate to the Congress. They want to defund police, and they want to encourage more woke and LGBTQ agenda.
Pearson is not he has not been endorsed by that organization. AOC and the others have, but you know what this is about. This is about trying to destroy our communities, and we're just not going to have it. We're not. We're not going to sit back and allow it to happen without pushing back.
This guy is dangerous to our community. But I'm the only one who has stood up with him. I'm the only one in this room who has gone in rooms with him and let him know and the people around him know that, first of all, A Republican will win this district. Secondly, if you want to ensure that you have your rights and is not a socialist, you need to vote for me, Charlotte Bergman, because everybody else, Justin Pearson, is going to actually take down and call them racist, KKK, and et cetera. You don't think Todd Warner here would take on the socialist?
Todd's a good man. Would he take them on? Todd's a good man. What they're going to do is bring those people here to the Civil Rights Museum, and they're going to just make a big issue out of it and cause people to bleed in their heart, bleeding heart liberals, and they are going to actually bring in money to this community, and we're going to have a war on our hands. I want to give our other candidates a chance to respond to that.
This is the 9th District of Tennessee, we're talking about, and we're watching the rise of this radical progressivism. It's turned into democratic socialism in some other parts of the country. How concerned should we be here and what are you going to do about it if you're elected?
Well, I I'm going to be elected and look, this district is plus twenty Republican. Twenty percent. Republicans go out and vote. On Election Day, a Republican will be elected. I've stood toe-to-toe with Justin Pearson.
Uh With Justin Jones in the state house. I've seen them act a fool. I know what they do. Yeah, they don't scare me one bit. I welcome him to come over, you know, come on down through the district.
This district is made up. Of good Southern Christian folks, and they're not going to stand for the radical left. You know, the the you know, this ain't the old Democratic Party of our grandfathers. This is a radical left. Democratic Party.
Jeremy, the rise of socialism, the rise of radical Islam. We're seeing this fight played out and this debate played out in many other states, including Texas. We're watching it unfold here in the volunteer state as well. Your platform, your race that you're running, how concerned are you about these issues? Yeah, the reason we got in this race is because I have fought our nation's enemies in their own backyards.
I know what it looks like. I know what the creeping of Marxism, socialism, and communism looks like for this country. And that's really what we're looking at. We're not looking at soft socialism anymore, and that's what we keep talking about. We're talking about full-blown infiltration of communism and now Islam and Sharia in the United States.
And we're not compatible. We're not compatible in any way. It needs to be fought. It needs to be cut off. And it needs to be resisted.
And I think you start with the House and Senate rules in the United States government, and you start disqualifying people who are running for these offices and pushing these agendas. Senator Taylor, same question to you. Yeah, so uh the the best way once I get to Congress that I'm going to fight this socialism that is creeping into our government and to our electorate, is we need to stop illegal immigration, number one. And quite frankly, we need a pause on all immigration to allow these people an opportunity to assimilate into our Western culture. We're taking in way too many people from outside this country and they're bringing those socialistic values with them.
And what we need to do is to do what we did in the early 1920s when they ended all immigration. They put a pause so that the people, particularly the Italians and the Irish, to give them time to assimilate into America and become Americans. We need to do the same thing now. America needs some me time. And the best way to fight this socialism is to fight those that are already here, that are trying to infiltrate our society.
But also, we need to stop the illegal immigrants, and we also need a pause on our legal immigration as well. Representative Warner, that's an interesting point because there is a debate within the Republican Party over what to do. How far do we go in dealing with this illegal immigration issue?
Some people say just we need to get rid of the worst of the worst and figure everybody else out. Others are saying everybody's got to go and come back the legal way. You're elected to Congress. What say you? Your last statement there: everybody that has come the wrong way must go.
But I also got to mention: when Islam was brought up, the senator here. Voted this year, and he voted last year to fund Islam here in this state through the school voucher program. I want to get to that. And that is actually one of my questions here. Charlotte Bergman can confirm the voucher question is coming up.
So let's put a pin there and we'll get right back to that. Jeremy, to you as well. I mean, if you're elected to Congress, you have a decision to make. Does everybody go or do some people get to stay? Illegal is illegal.
We have laws that have to be followed and enforced. And we're making it more and more difficult on our federal, local, and state law enforcement officials every single day by not getting out in front of this. It's a failure for multiple generations now. And immigration reform is necessary. But in the meantime, they have to go.
There has to be a moratorium on immigration right now. Charlotte Bergman, what say you? I think it's imperative that we actually identify the fact that there are a number of illegals still in this country, and although there are measures that are being placed put into place right now to actually Send them back home. It's just not enough. It's not fast enough.
They're going to be involved in our voting pretty soon. They're coming here and they're taking jobs, and Americans don't have jobs, or if the wages are being lowered, people are suffering, and they don't really realize it. And what the Democrat Socialist of American Party does is convince people that you you're racist. If you object to that, forget about your own well-being and go ahead and support people that are not in this country. That cannot be allowed to stand, and people have got to realize the truth, and we're taking that message to them.
So you, Charlotte Bergman, have been a little critical of Senator Taylor's support for this voucher program that Senator Representative Warner just brought up, writing on social media that Tennessee taxpayer dollars are now funding Muslim schools as a result of the Senator's vote.
So I'm curious, and this is for you, and then Senator, I want you to follow up with you. Where did the senator get this wrong? The senator got it wrong. First of all, I don't know what he was thinking about. I just wonder if he knew what he was thinking about.
I think it was a go-along to get along type of issue whereby most people voted for the bill. He was told that President Trump wanted the school bill, the voucher bill, to be passed. But the problem is. You're right. The the problem is, uh, the General Assembly put so much in there, including the um allowance for the schools to be able to Support Sharia law, which is anathetical and anti-Christian and anti-constitutional.
There needed to be thresholds, there needed to be oversight in those bills. And he wants to say that the Department of Education and organizations like that should do the oversight. No, it's yours' responsibility to do the oversight. Yeah, thank you.
So first of all, this was President Trump's signature education piece of legislation the states to pass. And the reason I supported it, and look, none of us support funding Muslim schools. The reason I supported this was because my district is in Shelby County. And you know, Todd, you live here. Shelby County has the absolute worst school district in the state.
And I wanted to empower parents. To be able to keep more of their tax dollars so that they could send their children to the school that best suits their needs. And we have seen, we just took over. The state just did an intervention in MSCS. The forensic audit found $120 million in waste, fraud, and abuse.
They were graduating, Todd. They were graduating students. That 75% of the students could not even read when they graduated.
So, what we passed over the Democrats' objection was a school choice bill that allows these students to get scholarships so their parents can send them to a school that suits their needs, and many times that is Christian school. But sometimes it may be a Muslim school, though, right? The courts have said, whatever you do for a Christian school, you have to do for others. And that's why I wanted to make it clear. I was voting my district.
My district is in Shelby County. They have the worst school district in the state, $120 million in waste, fraud, and abuse, the largest. Fraud in Tennessee history, and I wanted my parents in my district to have the opportunity to send their kids to the school of their choice, which could include a Christian. I want to get to Jeremy here on another question, but first I know you've been wrangling to weigh in on this one. Yeah.
First of all, Todd, it's un this bill that we pass is unconstitutional. Second. We've done it in a special session. They cooked this up in a special session. We gabbled out of session when we were already in session, and we passed this bill.
They rigged the committees, and now it's resulted in funding Muslim schools in this state. 75% of the voucher money is going to students that's already in private schools. This is not helping poor kids. This is helping the rich kids. Yeah, this is taken from the poll we're given to the review.
Jeremy, jump in here. Yeah, so the federal scholarship tax credit to create free market competition and what happened in the state of Tennessee are two very different things. And I think it's important for the listeners and the viewers to understand that federal legislation and state legislation, while they sometimes mirror, they don't always get it right. I don't think Tennessee got this right at all. I think we implemented an allotment of money from the federal government under an intended purpose and program that got messed up in communication and implementation.
And now we're in a recovery from it. I think it's going to have to be revisited. As Todd alluded, it's probably an unconstitutional movement. And I think the Tennessee state legislature is going to have to go back and get this one right. Anything you push money toward in terms of schools and educational programs has to come with some kind of standard of accountability and oversight.
Todd, the courts have already ruled on this. When they passed the first school choice from 2020, It was challenged in court. It's already been withstood the court challenge. But look, the important thing is. Again, as I said, this was Donald Trump's signature education legislation.
He tweeted out, congratulations to Tennessee legislators who are working hard to pass school choice this week, which I totally support. Minus so long. We passed this legislation at the request of President Trump. Trump's initiative and what happened in Tennessee are two very different things. Exactly.
Exactly. And you know, I love this community, and I've always felt safe in this community. But while that was going on, Mr. Brent Taylor and I were at an event at Fairleigh High School, and the parents came up and they wanted to attack Mr. Brent Taylor because he said the children are like the last tooth in a crackhead's mouth.
And I tell you what, he had protection, and I didn't, but people started coming after me because of what Mr. Brent Taylor said. He is not for unity, not for this community, and he does not deserve to have that distinction of representing this community. Senator, thank you. Can you tell who the frontrunner is in this race, Todd?
Let me say this. The comment she's referencing is when we were looking to pass the school intervention bill. There was a move to delay that on the Senate floor. And uh I agreed to the delay for a week. To allow us time to get the votes necessary to pass the school intervention bill that this community needed.
And what I reminded my colleagues on the Senate floor was that there are people back home. The the the kids back home are hanging in there like a crackhead's last tooth. That is not calling the kids a crackhead. That's what the parents thought. I said that they were hanging in there like a crackhead's last tooth or like a hair and a biscuit.
And we ultimately came back and passed that last year. All right.
To another Southern saying here: Will that dog hunt State Representative Warner? Which dog? I don't know.
Well, I'll just tell you. I'll tell you about the dog. The dog in the room is Brett Taylor was behind today in the polls. I don't know what they'll show after President Trump's endorsement, but we've polled this race three times. And he's been begging Marsha Blackburn and the folks.
that are in the higher ups to help him get this endorsement. And President Trump is They've been giving some advice. All right, guys, we've got to take a quick break here so everybody catch their breath. We're taking numbers 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.
We will be right back.
Now, back to the 9th Congressional District Radio Forum on the Mighty 990 K-WAN with your host, Todd Starnes. All right, and welcome back, everybody. It has been a little fiery here, a little spicy in the Mighty 990 studios. Our 9th Congressional District debate has been a great conversation, sort of a rollicking conversation. We're honored to have with State Representative Todd Warner, Charlotte Bergman, Brent Taylor, State Senator Brent Taylor, and Jeremy Thompson.
Before the break, guys, we were having a pretty spirited conversation about these vouchers and the fact that students are able to use these to attend Muslim schools. Representative Warner, we left it off with you. Go ahead and then, Jeremy, you jump in.
Well, as I was saying a while ago, we cooked this up under a special session. We gabbled out of the session, went into a special session. To pass these vouchers. That's the only way they could do it. And I've been attacked the last.
Three weeks. Probably had eight or ten mailers mailed into the district attacking me for voting against it. I'm sure with the. The help of Mr. Taylor over here helping these folks, or they're doing it for him, but consistently attacked.
But the reason there's a difference in the school choice and the school voucher, and I'd be glad to explain that to you. as a true conservative why I voted against it. If you would allow me. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, we just.
Yeah, I'll be real quick. Real quick here.
So in Williamson County, we have a public school district called the Franklin Special School District. run by the city of Franklin. If I wanted to take my child, which I'm just south of there down in Marshall County, into that city of Franklin Special School District, That child would not qualify for the voucher. The city charges you. $4,000 to bring an out-of-county student into the uh and to the c and to the city school.
With a voucher that we passed in Tennessee will not pay for that. To me, that's not true school choice. You can't go to public school to public school, but what you can do is go to public school. I mean, to public school to a Muslim school. Jeremy, I want you to weigh in, and then we have State Representative Mark White, who's phoning in, who wants to weigh in on this, and we'll see what he has to say.
Yeah, Mark, he should have run for office. Hold on.
Well, he's a constituent here. Let's, Jeremy, go ahead. Hey, all is fair and love and war, right? We're all running for the same position on August 6th. We're all on the same team.
But between now and then, the Tennesseans, I would encourage Tennesseans to get involved in this process and energize the Republican Party, the conservative way of life that's gotten us 250 years in this country. We just celebrated that, and I think we need to continue it, and we can't do it if we continue to beat each other's throats.
However, we can be differently aligned on federal intent and state implementation. And I think there's a lot of work that has to be done at the state level to make sure that we get federal-level initiatives correct. All right.
To put a bow on this, I think, let's bring in state. Representative Mark White, Chair of the Education Committee. Representative White, good to have you with us on the debate. What's on your mind? Thank you, Todd.
Appreciate it. Very interesting show. Appreciate all four that are running for that office. I'm a citizen of District Nine, and I just wanted to add to the conversation on the Scholarships, vouchers, when we passed that, there was a lot of debate on money to do money going to Buzzwood Schools. We did put in the legislation, you could not teach Sharia law.
And I believe we also include you couldn't teach anything anti U. S. Constitution and receive voucher dollars.
So I just wanted to add that to the conference conversation. I also voted for the scholarship legislation because parents need choice, especially living here in Memphis, where we have parents that need options for their children in the family school system. Representative Warner, jump in here. We didn't have no debate. We didn't have no debate on it.
Not one single question was asked in committee because they were told by the Speaker not to ask any questions. They stripped me from the committees. And us true conservatives that vote against this bill did not get to speak on the House floor. They kept a list of who they were going to let speak on the House floor. I don't know what they did in the Senate, but we didn't get to speak on the House floor.
Well, we did debate it robustly in the Senate. I don't know what the House did, but. I appreciate the fact that Mr. Warner is saying that the true conservatives voted against it. The Democrats voted against it.
So I'm not sure how Democrats are true conservatives. There were 22 of us, true conservatives, people like Jody Barrett, Monty Frith, Michelle Renault, that voted against this bill.
Okay. This is a hot topic, and Representative White, we appreciate you phoning in, but we do have a lot more to get to. And I just want to say right out of the gate, if I forget this sometime during the evening. I think the voters in the 9th District greatly appreciate the fact that That all of you are here, that you are willing to sit across from each other and have those conversations. I will tell you that not every major race is doing that right now.
And I think that's really sad. I think if you're running for office, you ought to be able to have the courage to man up or woman up and sit across from your opponents and talk about the big issues of the day.
So I just want to say thank you all for doing that. Are you talking about the governor's race? Is that what you're talking about? I am talking about the governor's race. And again, I've been pretty open and clear that I believe that every single person running for office needs to debate.
I mean, it just makes for a strong, vibrant Republican Party. All right, I want to move on because, Jeremy, when I saw this story, I immediately jotted down, I wanted you to respond to it. There has been a lot of controversy over Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. He had an op-ed published in USA Today, and it has been widely condemned by the Tennessee Attorneys General Conference, the Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane. And here's what Mulroy said that really set everybody off.
And I'd like for, you know, if anybody else wants to weigh in, but Jeremy, to you first. Our district attorney here said one thing I learned was the DA can't prevent police killings if the police are trained to kill. What say you? Yeah, so I've carried a gun in Lincoln County, Fayetteville, Tennessee as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff since somewhere around 2006. I started out as a corrections officer in 1998.
I've served under five different sheriffs. We believe in the rule of law in the state of Tennessee, and if the district attorney in Memphis, Tennessee, does not, he needs to find another line of work. That's where I'm at on that. And the people have to understand that it's their responsibility to get out and make sure that people like him never see those offices again. Charlotte Bergman.
I believe in the rule of law, I too carry, and I feel safe carrying him, but I'll tell you what, more Roy. I'm con concerned. I was in a parade, the Bartlett parade, and State Senator. Taylor was on the float with me. Moroy was Standing on the side of the street, they started engaging with each other like they were best of friends.
And I started thinking, what's going on here? I mean, Taylor comes across like he's hard on crime in public, but then get him in a social environment. What's going on? What were you thinking? I was taunting him and telling him Merry Christmas.
No, no, no, no. It was more than that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, Todd. I carry a gun every day too because it's my Second Amendment right, not because I'm a deputy or reserve deputy or whatnot. I'm going to carry a gun. But I if I think I'm correct on this, the Gen the General Assembly can impeach this guy. The governor needs to call a special session, and let's go in and do some real business instead of passing a bouncer scam under a special session.
Jeremy. I would like to address just for a second, as a law enforcement officer, we have a high and great responsibility to protect those around us. Every Tennessean, every American has the right and deserves to feel protected and safe anywhere they travel in the United States. As a sitting elected official, unfortunately, I just don't see where we have room to taunt those that are in front of us while we have tasks. Law enforcement officials, the National Guard, and other people in protective services.
You're talking about Justin Pearson. I'm talking, well, unfortunately, taunting them as a Republican or a Democrat is equally unworthy of the positions we were. What do you mean by that?
Well, we were just talking about Senator Taylor taunting those who were protesting and using ICE and other metrics to taunt the crowd in front of law enforcement. You do not have. Have the right as a sitting state senator, a state representative, or anybody at the federal level to taunt an already hyperbolic crowd and make it more dangerous for those that are there for your protection. Senator. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up D.A.
Mulroy because no one has fought D.A. Mulroy more than I have. I have fought. and did it back down and I fought and won against DA Mulroy. We actually passed this last session, we passed legislation that provides state oversight.
over the DA's office. We now have someone in the Attorney General's office that has to is doing a deep dive, a review of his office, particularly in grant funding, because I believe there are issues with the grants that are being awarded to his particular office. The other thing we did, we have had A lot of arrests with the Memphis Safe Task Force. There's been a lot of of treasure and blood and sweat that has gone into reducing crime in Memphis and Shelby County by 50%, Todd. And what I did, I was able to pass legislation that says when the DA downgrades otherwise refuses to charge.
People who have been arrested under the Memphis Safe Task Force, he has to document that in writing and provide that to the United States Attorney as well as the Attorney General so that. that people who are serious about prosecution Will actually prosecute those crimes. And so I've said before. Steve Mulroy wants to try to save people. I would encourage him to resign, join the seminary, and he can save souls like all the other pastors, but leave.
Prosecution to the serious people who are serious about reducing crime and putting people in prison. All right.
If you have a question that you would like to ask, all you have to do is pick up your phone and give us a call. 901-260-5926. That number, 901-260-5926. We'll be taking your calls momentarily. Charlotte, you live in the 9th Congressional District.
You live in Memphis. I'm just wondering about this Memphis Stafe Task Force. Was it the right decision President Trump made to send in the task force, and has it worked? You know, it The decision that President Trump made was great, and I applaud what he did. The problem is.
The Memphis Safe Task Force uh personnel are doing their jobs. They are ar arresting criminals. Moroy Is still releasing them. It's still setting low bonds.
So we're still having a problem. Guys, everybody's talking about crime has gone down in Memphis. The fact of the matter is this that When President Trump was here, yes, it was low, around 50%. But now it's gone back up, especially since it's gotten warm outside, people are out. There are still people in my neighborhood that are shooting guns, that are dead and away with crimes.
People are safer to an extent. But the problem has not been solved, and nobody has a right to pat themselves on the back and say, I've got the job done, because it hasn't been done. Yeah, I think what President Trump done was was the right thing to do, but we didn't have to wait on President Trump. The governor has that authority to send the National Guard over here. That's true.
And we didn't act. Should have gone to special sessions for that, but no, what do we do? We pass vouchers. We waste $500 million of your tax dollars on vouchers instead of sending the National Guard.
Well, Ty, let me also say we passed other things. We passed a lot of bail reform. I passed a lot of bills. We ended Tennessee's version of cashless bail. Matter of fact, there was a bill in the legislature that says that you cannot offer cashless bail.
To anyone who uses a firearm or displays a firearm in the commission of a crime, and Representative Warner voted against that. And so we were doing a lot to reduce crime before the president ever sent the Memphis Center. You want to respond to that? Yeah, I think that you're right to, you know, keep and bear firearms. Certain crimes, you know, if a firearm is present, don't mean that you're a dangerous criminal.
But the way that the bill was structured was terrible. No, it said if you displayed or use a firearm in the commission of a crime, it's not just walking down the street with a firearm. That's perfectly legal. But when you commit a crime, and use a file arm or display it. He voted against requiring bail for that person to be released from jail.
I don't think. I don't remember how I exactly voted, but it shouldn't be a crime for carrying a firearm when you get. When you run a stoplight or you do something, it's not a serious crime. I see Jeremy scribbling furiously over here on the paper. Jeremy, what are you?
Hey, I think we're missing a lot here in honoring those who are serving on that Memphis Safe Task Force. I mean, I was in the National Guard for 22 years. As I said, I'm a previous law enforcement officer. And when elected officials start making decisions to put those men and women in harm's way, they have a responsibility to support them to the fullest.
So one of the things that has bothered me a lot during this process is you can't be the person responsible for that and make a major claim to fame for the Memphis Safe Task Force and then go out and put those same men and women in harm's way and make their job that much harder by your physical presence and the way you present yourself to those who oppose them. Senator, I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm talking about taunting crowds that are already ready to fight. You don't go out and taunt crowds when they're already ready to fight when you have uniformed protection between you and that crowd. Don't be tough.
Don't be tough. Don't be tough when law enforcement officials and the National Guard are there if you're not going to be tough outside their presence. I experienced it when State Senator Taylor opened his mouth, said something derogatory toward parents, and they wanted to attack me, and they've never wanted to attack me before. Justin Pearson's behavior is no different and no better, and we have a responsibility to be better than that. We're going to have to address him, Senator.
Todd, I have never gotten up off the House floor and gone to the gallery and stood nose to nose with. with uh law enforcement and called him an MF boy. Justin Pearson did that. What did you do to hold that accountable? I'll tell you exactly what I'm going to do to hold him accountable.
He's likely to be the Democrat nominee, and I'm going to take the fight to him when I win the nomination. We're all going to take the fight to him. And I'm going to take the fight to him, and I'm going to ensure, Todd. That the only way he ever sees the inside of the United States Capitol is through the visitor center on a guided tour and not through the members-only door. And as it relates to taunting crowds, these crowds show up at Republican events.
When we are When we are welcoming the National Guard, The weathered purple-haired hippies show up on a counter-protest, and I'm not afraid of them whether the law enforcement officers are there or not. You can't fight these socialists. By being the nice guy and saying, Well, I wish you would please not do that. You can't fight a Soros-funded DA who gives people a warm, hot cocoa, a hug and asks them not to do it again. You have to take the fight to them, and I've demonstrated that.
Nobody's suggesting being soft on the issue. What I'm suggesting is you don't make an already bad situation worse when you've got men and women there trying to do their job. Charlotte Bergman. I just wanted to say, I've seen him be surrounded by protection. He has to, because he opens his mouth and puts his foot in his mouth and offends very much the people in the community.
And they just don't like you. They call you racist. That's because I don't really give a damn what they call me. They can call me racist if they want to. I'm not afraid of that.
But we've got to be united in this community. A house divided against itself. I will tell.
Okay. I will take that's cute. I will take the fight. I've already demonstrated that I'm doing that. I'm not afraid to stand up.
To these purple hair, weathered purple-haired kids. We forum in Savannah, Tennessee, with the Farm Bureau, and he's got a story that he's very proud of that he tells all the time about. the grit of David Crockett and how he told people to go to hell and he was going to go give the Democrats hell.
Well, we didn't tell the same story when you were on the stage with the two running for the same position, and I wondered why. It's because sometimes we find ourselves very tough in protected situations and then we're not so tough when we're not so protected. Brent, I tell that story all the time. And by the way, District 9 is David Crockett's old district. And I tell the story that When he lost his last reelection, he stood on the courthouse steps, said, I'm going to Texas.
All you folks can go to hell. And I'll remind people: I've got the same Tennessee grit that David Crockett has, and I would say it a little bit differently, Todd. I would say it that I'm going to Congress and I'm going to give the Democrats help. Yeah, David Kirk was a war for the first Democrat that I'm going to get into Justin Pearson to ensure that he never gets an opportunity to see the inside of the United States Capitol unless he's on a guided tour. All right.
Well, I think we've said all that needs to be said there, and we've got a lot of other topics I'm hoping that we can get to. We're going to try to work in one the top of the hour. Folks, watch, take a quick break for the news, then coming back with more of our conversation and your calls, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.
I want to switch gears here and talk about the economy for just a moment. Memphis has been pretty hard hit. Layoffs are increasing across the entire area. Businesses are shutting down and leaving. We have seen a mass exodus of citizens.
We are the largest county in Tennessee to see a mass exodus of citizens. And I I want to start with you, Todd. What can you do in Congress to help fix what is broken in Memphis? First of all, we what we got to do is stop. uh growing our government.
We need to cut regulations. We need to cut business I mean, cut small uh Cut taxes for small business. Cut regulations. And we need to drill, drill, drill. We need to produce as much oil in this country as we can.
And B en energy. sufficient without relying on any other countries. Charlotte, what about yourself? Listen, with the socialists coming to town, they want to make sure that people do not have jobs, business owners do not own businesses. When they reject every attempt that President Trump tries to implement in the Congress behind him in order to make things much more feasible and much more prosperous in this community, As long as they are able to get away with doing that, we will not have advancement in the Memphis area.
But I'm positive, I feel like things will be changing because as it has been stated, District 9 is going to be a Republican district. It's just a matter of which one of us will be the last man standing because Justin Peterson will not win. But he is going to cause so much chaos and trouble and get people riled up and want to come out to attack. But when the smoke clears, it's going to be a Republican. We'll be able to work with President Trump and their fellow legislators in order to pass bills comparable to the big new beautiful bill in order to make things more prosperous in Memphis.
Senator Taylor. Yes, I will, as Congressman, I believe the question was how this would benefit Memphis and keep people from moving out. And that is that I will continue to work with President Trump, and I've demonstrated that, as evidenced by his endorsement of me today. What I want to do is to make sure that we have federal resources in place that we can lock in the gains made by the Memphis Safe Task Force. And I think that includes continuing to fight violent crime to ensure that it does not spread out of these cities into these rural communities.
to fight illegal immigration because illegal immigrants that are here are driving down wages, they're driving up housing costs, and they're using benefits that are intended, safety net benefits, that are intended for Tennesseans. And then lastly, I want to fight China, just like I've done in the state legislature, to keep them from robbing intellectual property and trade secrets and proprietary information through the funding of lawsuits and then counterfeiting our products and flooding the market with our businesses. products and services and flooding the market with it. And I'm going to help put a stop to that in Congress. Yeah, y y, Todd.
What Brent failed to m mention, he was on the uh city city council here, what, for fifteen years. He was part of the problem for a long time. Yeah. Through 2007, when I was on the city council, crime was at its lowest until now. Crime was at its lowest, and we hired more police officers with the highest complement of police officers at any time.
During that period of time when I was on the City Council. All right, Todd. Yeah, quick. I'm not sure that's exactly correct, but we had to pass a bill in the State House to allow your police officers and county deputies to live outside the county because it was so dangerous inside the the city that they they don't they don't want to live here and i actually sponsored that same legislation on the city council and county commission when i was on there jeremy So Justin Pearson has a thing going right now about stop the occupation. This is not an occupation.
This is a law enforcement presence to reduce crime, and that's exactly what they've done. The men and women in law enforcement and the U.S. Army National Guard, Tennessee National Guard, has done their job. They've reduced crime by half. The statistics are amazing, and I think it should be the model set for the rest of the country, places like Chicago, New York, places in California.
But what will a congressman do to affect this and make it better? Um Memphis and the Ninth District all the way around to Nashville has great companies and employers, but we have to reduce the tax burden and start to deregulate. Deregulation has to be the theme for anybody who gets elected into this office. And we have to make energy and groceries more affordable while serving Manufacturing, agriculture, and logistical networks. And again, you know, say what you will about Congressman Cohen, but we're finally getting a brand new bridge across the Mississippi River to repair the dilapidated one that's not even, you know, God forbid, we have an earthquake.
That's one of the first things that goes into the river.
So I think it is, and I might also add, as Vice Chairman of the Transportation Committee in the Senate, I secured $250 million in matching funds from the state to go with the federal funds to get that bridge built. Listen, I won't correct uh the senator on that. I don't do nothing down at that state. It takes 50 House members, 17 Senate members, and a governor and a bunch of taxpayers across this great state to get something done. All right, gentlemen, hang tight.
Lady, hang tight. We're going to have to get ready to take a quick break here. When we come back, we're going to be hitting on some of the national issues, including H-1B visas, also the Save America Act, which is on the President's agenda. It is top of the agenda. And we want to talk about what would happen, what would that look like if, in fact, you are elected to Congress.
We're also going to be taking your calls. We have Mike in Memphis. Thank you for holding on. We're going to get to your calls. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number.
That's 901-260-5926.
Now, we're monitoring the clock here, so we're going to go around real quick, real quick, and just give your website address where people can go if they want to get more information. Charlotte, we'll start with you and just kind of do a round-robin. Thank you for that opportunity, Todd. My website is bergmanforcongress.com, and that's two ends on Bergman, and the four is not a number, bergmanforcongress.com. I would encourage everyone to go to Brent Taylor for Congress, but I would also encourage everyone to follow me on social media.
They can follow our campaign chronicles, including Ant B and the sign manager side quest with Caleb. Uh, putting out signs. All right, good stuff. Todd, ToddvotWarner.com. All right, JeremyThompson.com and Jeremy Thompson for Congress on Facebook.
All right, Todd gets the award for being the most pithy there of the shortest of all the commentators. All right, hang tight, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to give our candidates a chance to stretch their legs, grab some water. That music means we've got to take a quick break.
Again, our telephone number: 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926.
This is the 9th Congressional District GOP debate on K-Wham. The Mighty 990 K-Wham Exclusive, the 9th Congressional District Radio Forum, hosted by Todd Starnes. Yes, that is me. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to our very special debate.
We have had a wild, wild evening so far, and we're just honored to have with us four of our great Republican candidates, all wanting to be the Republican nominee for the 9th Congressional District, taking on more than likely Justin Pearson. We're honored to have Charlotte Bergman, Brent Taylor, Jeremy Thompson, and Todd Warner with us. Guys, before in the break, we were talking about food, and there does seem to be a thing. I know everybody's got their differences of opinion, but when it comes to food, there is some commonality here. Charlotte, I understand that, and I actually saw pictures.
Judge Joe Brown, how you corralled this guy to man the grill at one of your big campaign events the other day. Judge Joe Brown is a superb griller. He actually has the Judge Joe Brown barbecue sauce. I don't know what he did with the hot dogs, but they were so delicious. Really good.
So, in other words, it was not like Chuck Schumer, right, who had the. Everybody remembers that debacle. Oh, that was good.
Now, Brent Taylor, you're driving around. A lot of people say Ant B. They've learned, they've come to know Ant B and this thing that you guys have with chicken livers. And you got to help me understand that when I'm not a big chicken liver guy.
Well, neither are most people that are in the campaign car with us, but Aunt B likes chicken livers, and she bought them at a service station. And she eats about half of them, covers them salt, eats about half of 'em, and then leaves them in the hot car. And so by the time we make that long drive back home, the the car is Pretty rank. I make them try to roll the windows down. That is chicken.
So we need to get you some February. We need a lot of February's to get rid of the chicken lever. All right, now, Representative Warner, I understand now you're a farmer, and we were talking about farming before the start of the show, but you've got this great tour that you're on called Catfish and Common Sense. How does that work out?
Well, as you know, this district runs along the Tennessee River, the Duck River, the Buffalo River. And some of my staff came up with that. And just, you know, we've been making stops in these small towns and providing a little bit of catfish and listening to some common sense. Nothing like good catfish and some hush puppies. That's exactly right.
A lot of slaw to go with. Oh, I'm there. I'm there. Give me some charter sauce. All right, Jeremy, we got to talk about this.
You actually own the Revolutionary Tavern, and I was checking out your website.
So it's like a Revolutionary War-themed pub. Yes, sir.
So Lincoln County, Fayetteville, was named after Benjamin Lincoln, who served in second. In command under George Washington. And Marquis de Lafayette was a 19-year-old Frenchman that came over and fought in the Revolutionary War.
So we honor both of those as well as other influencers and writers of the Declaration and Constitution. But yeah, everything on our menu is framed around either a previous Revolutionary War general or a Revolutionary War battle. Freedom rings. Freedom rings, yes, sir. I love that.
And the Founder's Smash Burger, do you recommend that? Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, they've done a phenomenal job. We have a chef, Joe Albergo, that came in from some upper-class cooking, and he does us a really good job. I was trying to figure out how you guys keep your figures on the campaign trail with all the great food and all the places that you guys go, but I think it's because y'all are out there putting your signs out everywhere.
Representative Warner, you're all over the place. All over the place, and we've also knocked $25,000. Is that $25 and $30? Wow. And Bergman here, she's got the RV now.
And you're heading out to Williamson County? We're starting out in Williamson County, Franklin. Frankfurt, Tennessee. We're going to hit Muffersboro and various other counties along the route. And we're going to do this for approximately two weeks.
Can I ask you guys just a general question about the awesomeness of the 9th Congressional District? I mean, what do you guys see out there? Love it. Senator. enjoyed.
I I s I tau tell a lot of people that, you know, the Oh. Since we did the redistricting, there's a lot of complaints from particularly the Democrats that we did this, but All of these districts now look like Tennessee. And District 9, for example, it's got an urban core, it's got two suburban communities in Shelby and Fayette, and then up again up in Williamson County, and then a lot of rural area in between.
So I think it forces the next congressman to really be attuned to Tennessee issues, Tennessee values, because we have to work to ensure that we represent everyone across the district, whether they live in an urban area, suburban area, or a rural area. Jeremy, you want to weigh on that? Yeah, absolutely.
So, we've been all over the 9th District, the 15 counties, and the five partials. We encounter no one who is not good. Tennesseans are just naturally good. We've been embraced fully. And I tell people all the time, you know, I'm either getting lied to in some cases or people just feel like they have to tiptoe the political spectrum.
But we are working every day to earn votes. They're good people. I mean, they're just hardworking salt of the earth people. Absolutely great people. It's small town Tennessee at its best for the majority of them.
And I'll say this to Jeremy about. People lying. The only people that aren't lying to you sometimes are the ones who said, I'm not going to vote for you. Right. They'll be the ones.
They're telling the truth. I've been that person. I had to tell a deputy sheriff that ran for sheriff in our county one time that I wasn't voting for him. It didn't go very well. Oh, geez.
You told him the truth. Absolutely. All right.
I want to work in some calls here if we can. Let's go to Mike in Memphis. Mike, what is your question? Greetings all. It was about a year ago I called into your radio show and I asked a question to Senator Brent Taylor.
Why the so-called Christian conservative Republican supermajority legislature in Nashville? can't seem to figure out how to eliminate unconstitutional statutes. specifically the ones that infringe on our God-given right to bear arms. And I didn't get an answer, not not a direct answer, but again tonight. I will ask now that it's Brent Effectively the Trump toolman Taylor the candidate for Congress If you will be elected, and this is for everybody too on the panel.
If elected, will you pledge allegiance to the Constitution Not as you would have it, but as it is written. And for all the people in Tennessee, will you pledge allegiance to us? not any person, not any political party, Not any foreign country or any globalist corporation.
Okay. Thank you for that call, Mike. Senator. Thank you, Mike, for that question. And I thought I had answered your question some time ago when we were on the show.
Look, it's important to remember these rights that are enumerated in the Constitution, those are not given to us by government. Those are rights given to us by God. The Constitution is there to protect the rights that are given to us by God. And that's why I support the Second Amendment. Every bill that has come before the legislature, I have voted for.
And um And I think that's why I got an A rating from the NRA.
So I'm as strong a Second Amendment as anyone here in this studio and will continue to do so in Congress, just as I have. In the legislature. And look, this is not something newfound for me. When I was on the city council, I passed an ordinance that opened up hunting on President's Island. I actually, there was a Myron Lowry, who's a former councilman, did a gas for guns thing where you could turn in guns.
I actually raised money. Uh and allowed people to go and get their concealed carrier permit. This was in the early 2000s, go get their concealed carrier permit and we paid for it and we had over 350 people take advantage of that and it was twice as popular as the people who turned in their guns just to get free gas. Again, the senator's weak on the Second Amendment, very weak on the Second Amendment. I can't sit here and let him get away with saying that he's strong on it.
As you know, in Hugh versus Lee, I'd say conservative Second Amendment folks got a win. Our governor and Attorney General tried to take that to the next court and get it overturned. They failed again. There were some of us House members and maybe a few Senate members that sent a letter to the governor asking him to drop that case and let's take that win to the House. The senator didn't sign that letter.
That's not true. I sent a letter. I was the first legislator. You should talk to Richard Archie about this. I sent the first letter.
To the governor and to the attorney general, and I'm happy to provide copies of it, to the governor and the attorney general, asking them not to appeal that decision. They did it anyway. But I was the first legislator to send a letter asking them not to, or asking them to not. Appeal that decision. I want to get some more calls in if we can.
Can we all address at least the Second Amendment? Because I think that's incredibly important. We talk about God-given rights and being enumerated by the Constitution, but time after time after time, we make laws after law after law.
So we talked about permits, we talked about legislation. Constitutional carry is a Trump initiative at the federal level right now. That gets us back to the original intent of the United States Constitution. We have the right to protect ourselves against those who would threaten us. We have the right to protect our country against those who would invade us.
And that's what the Second Amendment exists for, and it does not require conversation or legislation outside the original intent. I agree. Let me just say this. Let me, real quickly. Let me get Charlotte in the way in a minute.
Right after I say this. It's important. We've got too many gun-free zones in this state. That's why no one ever goes and shoots up a gun range. Nobody ever goes and shoots up a police station.
They go to places where there are soft targets because we have too many places that are gun-free zones. I'm for eliminating those gun-free zones. And that was my point earlier when they let the 15 bills die in the Senate that they let die. He sat there on that committee and let those bills die. And one of those bills was Monty Fritz that would have done away with gun-free zones.
And he sat there on the committee and let the chairman close the committee. My gosh, the truth comes out. Listen. I appreciate the fact that our rights Second Amendment rights come from God. I also think it's imperative that we as individuals are able to protect ourselves, not necessarily against people who come to our home to try to harm us, but even against a radical government.
We need to be able to protect ourselves. In addition, I look forward to having an opportunity to have a national reciprocity law such that if we leave our states and we're traveling all the time, we should still be allowed to protect ourselves. It's stated in the Constitution. It's very simple. It shall not be infringed.
Yeah, but you've had legislators that have changed things.
So we've got to get back to the original intent. We have to do it. We are over-legislating this country to absolute death. We're over-legislating the state of Tennessee to death. In the last three years, we have passed over 500 to 600 new laws every year.
Why can we not go into these legislative offices and get back to our founding documents and stop adding to the original seven articles and the 27 amendments? We now have over 225,000 laws, and we're really getting in a bad spot right now with that. With respect to the supermajority Republican correctly. Yeah, this is ridiculous. And I will just say this: you know, uh, the The NRA came out with their ratings today.
And I received an A rating. I did too. And Todd received an A rating. Uh Charlotte received an AQ, which means an A, based on the questionnaire. Jeremy did not even fill out the the The questionnaire, and that's a missed opportunity to let people know.
I've absolutely filled it out and submitted it. I'm interested in what your TFA rating is.
Well, NRA rating is the one I've looked at. I don't know what TFA rating is, but I have supported every piece of legislation that has come to a vote. I have supported it with TFA and NRA, and that's why I got to. Yeah, anyone who knows me knows that I am a 100% constitutionalist on the Second Amendment. There are no discussions outside of that.
So, thank you. You should have filled out the questionnaire. Yeah, that questionnaire is not going to let you. Get you any points here. Absolutely.
I want to bring into the conversation Marie, who's listening to us in Pulaski, Tennessee. Marie, you're on the air. What's your question? Hi, this is a issue that is very near and dear to me. And I the reason why I ask it, so I'll ask the question first and then I'll give some background is Ben Flush funds for Congress when someone sexually harasses someone.
I have a good friend who was actually has. been a victim of sexual assault by the senator on a conference in Oklahoma. And so how do we have confidence in someone that we're sending to Congress that has been on a legislative conference, paid for You know, by taxpayer dollars and has sexually harassed or assaulted a woman before. And so, are our taxpayer dollars going to fund a man who has already taken advantage of a lot of people?
Well, Marie, let me, I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm not sure what you're talking about here. I'm not at liberty to say the person's name, the victim's name, or anything, so I think we need to protect the victims.
Well, just let me say this. Marie, all right. Yeah, Marie, I think I got the gist of your question here. And this is something we've talked a lot about. Guys, thank you.
We've talked a lot about this on the national radio show. That Congress, which they have certainly done away with that slush fund for all the victims of these alleged sex crimes and whatever was going on up on Capitol Hill. But the issue is: should we be holding these people accountable? Should the lawmakers, should those names of those who committed those offenses be made public? Yeah, there should be no exemptions for a United States congressman or anybody else for that matter.
If you commit a crime, a heinous crime that's sexually oriented, especially rape or sexual assault, you should be charged, prosecuted, and convicted to the fullest extent of the law. There should be no exceptions. Everybody agree with that? Yes. Absolutely.
And the slush fund needs to go away. And I. I don't know.
Who she was referring to here, but is does there need to be some discussion about that? I think it was in general terms. I have no earthly idea. Yeah, I I agree. And matter of fact, it shouldn't even be Whether or not a crime has been committed, if it was just A sexual harassment where there was actually a civil.
Um a uh a civil settlement. That should not be done with tax dollars either. And if it is, it certainly should be made available to the public. If there's been a sexual harassment, should that person have to step down, Senator? If there's been a sexual harassment or a sexual assault, um, absolutely, they certainly should not be uh receiving any uh taxpayer funds to pay or settle a lawsuit.
There are expulsion criteria in the House and the Senate, and it appears that we have nobody with the backbone to stand in the gap and hold people accountable. That may be unlikely. That will change if I go to Congress. I'm just letting you know. Good to hear.
I want to move on because one of the big issues on President Trump's agenda is, in fact, the Save America Act. And clearly, the Senate does not have much interest in moving this legislation forward. Charlotte, I want to start with you. You're elected to Congress. Where do you stand on the Save America Act?
Well, you know, the house has passed the save Act, Save America Act, over and over, multiple times, and the Senate has not done their jobs. I certainly think it's imperative that whoever is elected, that they will bring attention to this matter to get our Senators to do their job, to have press conferences and just present it. But when you have a situation whereby You have elections that you cannot trust. That's not good. Our State Senator.
Taylor was the chairman of the 2020 election when President Trump. Quote unquote loss at election too. Joe Biden. I have some numbers here. I won't go over the numbers, but there definitely are a number of reasons why that election should not have been certified.
Now, Tina Peters did the right thing, and she was only a clerk. This guy was the chairman of the election commission. He allowed that election, which appeared to be fraudulent. I've done numbers and did calculations, and I can see that there were some discrepancies. This has got to be resolved.
If even one fraudulent vote is cast, that messes up the election for everybody's everybody. And the people's voices need to be heard. Thumb needs to do his job in terms of the Americ Save American Act, but our President has something up his sleeve. He has his executive orders, and he's going to work hard to make sure that our elections are Trustworthy. Senator Taylor, do you want to respond to that?
Yeah, so I was chairman of the election commission during the 2020 election, and Tennessee. uh in the 2020 election cast more votes For President Um or the spread was the largest vote spread in terms of raw votes of any state in the Union. I think it was like 800,000 votes more that Trump got than than Biden. And if you remember, the Trump legal team, they were going all over the country trying to hold up the certifications in the states where there had irregularities like Arizona. Tennessee, there were no reported irregularities.
And in order to lock in President Trump's 11 electoral votes, and the state of Tennessee needed to certify the election to lock in those 11 electoral votes, and you could not do that unless Each county certified their elections, and we did exactly what the Trump administration asked us to do, and that was certify the election results in each county so that Tennessee could certify its election results, which gave Tennessee or President Trump the 11 electoral votes from Tennessee. I want to give our other two candidates here a chance to respond. Jeremy. I think Tennessee should be the model around the country for election integrity. I think I've had to produce an ID and a registration to vote since I was 18 years old in every election I participated in, and I think that should be no different for anybody else in the country.
You have to show an ID to purchase basic. Items at a grocery store or to get into some venues like concerts, but we can't show an ID to vote for who's going to lead this country. I think that's disastrously broken, and it deserves attention immediately on all forms of government, local, state, and federal. Representative Warner. Yeah, I agree.
I support the Save Act 100%. And I think it's a shame in Tennessee with a super majority in Nashville. I've carried the bill as my fellow conservatives that we cannot get the primaries closed in this state. Again, it goes to rhino leadership in this state, and it's got to stop at some point in time. And also, we're talking about President Trump.
I'm not sure, but I think I'm correct on this. And I stand to be corrected if I'm not. But I think the senator here was a Rubio delegate back in 2016.
So I don't know how deep he runs with Trump, but I was a Trump delegate. I think my friend here was a Rubio delegate. I'm not sure. The Secretary of State. Am I wrong?
That's right. President Trump's Secretary of State. I did support him in 2016 and actually. Actually, I had that conversation with the White House, and they were actually fine with that and endorsed the regardless. I bet they, I don't know about that, Senator.
All right, let's try to work in one quick call here, Robert from Collierville, Tennessee. Robert, what's your question? I just discuss the the DA and the crime issues and in Memphis and what Um yeah, what's your question?
Okay. Did you hit yeah, I just wanted uh y'all to discuss it.
Well, we yeah, we discussed it earlier today, and I think everybody is of the opinion that our DA is nuts.
So I'm he is nuttier than a port-a-poly at a peanut festival. The people of Memphis have to get rid of him. That's what it amounts to. You gotta you gotta vote him out. General Assembly can do it, can't it?
All right, as we're wrapping up our time here, guys, and Robert, thank you for that call. There is a report out from CNBC. They collected data from all fifty states, and CNBC named Tennessee. as of the worst state to live in. And personally, I'm actually okay with that because I don't want any more liberals from up north coming down to our beloved volunteer state.
But I'm curious, Charlotte Bergman, we'll start with you and go around the table here real quick. Um, your reaction to that report. Tennessee, I love you. I was born and raised here. As I travel around the ninth congressional district and I'm in God's country, it is so comfortable comfortable and so tranquil and so Wonderful to be able to run into people who love this state.
So, if you don't like Tennessee, stay away. We don't need you here. Senator Taylor. And that was CNBC, you said? CNBC.
CNBC. Well, I think they're the worst TV station on cable. Look, Tennessee, if Tennessee were as bad as they said it is, people would not be moving here in droves. And obviously most of those folks are moving to middle Tennessee, but once we improve education with this intervention, That I was able to get through the legislature and with the Memphis Safe Task Force, reducing crime. We if we fix those two things.
Middle uh West Tennessee and Memphis, there'll be no stopping it, and there'll be no stopping Tennessee, and we can take Tennessee to the top. Representative Warner. Yeah, Tennessee is the greatest place in the state. It's been home for my family since the late 1700s. And I'd say C N B C don't know their But from a hole in the ground.
You can say that. Yeah, it's not NPR. Yeah, it's not NPR. You're good. You're good.
Jeremy. I've lived my entire life in Tennessee. I'm raising my family in Tennessee, and we watch every day come into Tennessee like they are into the United States. Tennessee is a fantastic place to live and raise a family, and I'll just stand with that narrative. CNBC, I don't even know why we're discussing it.
It's not really worth a response.
Well, you know what? I think we all love our state. We all love the 9th Congressional District, and we want the very, very best for our people. And I just want to say, as a small business owner and as a citizen, a resident, say thank you all so very much for taking time to join us. Here on KWAM and talk to our listeners and have a spirited debate.
We really appreciate that. Thank you, Todd, for having thank you, Todd. And I appreciate Jeremy, Todd, and Charlotte for doing this. This is the voters will benefit from it. The bigger question: are you going to give them discounts if they come to the Revolutionary Tavern?
Yeah, just let me know ahead of time. I don't want you standing out on the sidewalk when you get there. There you go.
Well, guys, again, we certainly appreciate all of you joining us. You'll be able to go back and watch the entire debate on all of our social media platforms, kwamradio.com as well. Of course, be sure to follow us, download our app, all of that great information you'll be able to find at kwamradio.com. I want to thank our entire team here at the Maddie Nay Nadi working a little overtime this evening to bring you this very important conversation. Go and vote, 9th District.
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Air One, worship now. In a world that screams for your attention, there's a place that invites you to peace. You don't need a building. You don't need a choir. You just need to turn your heart to Air One.
Air One: Songs That Heal, Lyrics That Pray for You When You Don't Have The Words. From Lauren Daigle to Elevation Worship and more. This isn't just radio, it's worship for the everyday. Escape the noise and worship now. Download the Air One app.
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