Highlights from the US Senate debate in South Carolina | Hour 1

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the peak calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. Yeah, so full disclosure, I might sound a little bit ornery today just because, you know, I had my doubts about sending the cat to masseuse lessons. I had my doubts. I did not think this was a good idea. I thought it might be a waste of money. And now it. Turns out, like, he's practicing his techniques on me at, like, 4 in the morning. And so. That was a bad decision. That was a bad decision. Because once he's got the knowledge on how to do the massaging and all of that, it's like you can't unlearn that stuff. It's probably also because he slept through the Talktoberfest event that apparently you did too. No, Nick, Craig, and I, we did our Talktoberfest event last night. And Knox was there, but he was in the background and he was sleeping. And no, I do not have a shock collar for the cat. I don't use a shock collar to keep him from getting out of his little hammock there behind me. He was just sleeping and he slept the whole time. And so I think his sleep schedule got out of whack or something. And so anyway, all that's to say I've been up since about four in the morning. And so it's yeah. So if I'm a little out of sorts today, This afternoon, that's why. That's at least my excuse. Okay. Also, I watched the South Carolina U.S. Senate debate, and then I rewatched it to get the audio. It's like you got to watch it first, record it, and then you got to go back through it again and pull the audio clips. So that's what I did as well this morning because I did have a bunch of extra time. So I did that. So I pulled some of the highlights out of this Senate debate. And I got to tell you, So first off, everybody is aware, Senator Darlene Graham, sister of the late Lindsey Graham, right? She's the Republican nominee. Then there's the Democrat challenger, Annie Andrews. There's also a libertarian in the race, and her name is Casey Whitener, and she is described as a radio host and professor, okay? And I have to tell you, In my opinion, not that I agree with all of her positions, but she, to me, was the most impressive one on the stage last night. That was just my assessment. Watching her and listening to her answers and her suggestions or proposals on how to address some of the big issues, I thought she was the most impressive. I don't think she has a chance to win. Um, and that of course presents a problem for people who are, you know, Republicans, limited government types. Um, you know, who do you vote for in the U S Senate race? If you know, you are not thrilled with either of the major party candidates. Um, and I mean, I have no doubt, um, you know, Darlene Graham as a Republican in South Carolina, the odds on favorite. I mean, that's what everybody's predicting. I'm not doing that because I don't predict election outcomes, but it like, this would be a, this would be. A tough choice, you know, because well, not really. I mean, seriously, like you could actually go, if you're in South Carolina, you could vote for the libertarian candidate as sort of a protest vote with the knowledge that Darlene Graham is probably still going to win, um, We don't have that luxury in the Senate race in North Carolina. I don't feel we do. So like. Like to me, that's like Roy Cooper is a is a rubber stamp for whatever the Democrat leadership wants, as much as Roy Cooper and Democrats in media. But I repeat myself, they claim Michael Watley is just a rubber stamp for Trump. So, OK, so who am I going to rubber stamp? Am I going to rubber stamp Trump or am I going to rubber stamp the guys that opened up our border and want to pack the U.S. Supreme Court? and want to abolish the electoral college. Yeah, no, I'm not going that route. Not a fan. All right, so let's play some of the audio. Here is the first. These are the opening statements. This is first Casey Whitener. She is the libertarian. I'm Casey. Let's start with titles. I'm a libertarian, which means I'm for maximum personal freedom and minimal government control of our economy and our community. I'm a doctor. I have a Ph.D. In organization and management with a focus on global leadership. That means I know a lot about complex systems like our federal government and more than a little bit about foreign policy. I teach entrepreneurship at the University of South Carolina, which means I know about building new things, solving hard problems, and managing budgets. I'm a missus. I've been married to my best friend for 25 years. We have a great partnership and a great kid to show for it. We decided in 2020 that I would run for U.S. Senate when we saw how broken our government is. You remember 2020, COVID lockdowns? One of my students said that it was the first time he saw a bunch of grownups not know what to do. South Carolinians are doers. We build businesses. We provide jobs. We plant gardens that flourish. We create art that wins international acclaim. South Carolinians are fans. We cheer on our... Bulldogs, our Chanticleers, our Gamecocks, our Tigers, win or lose, we're loyal to them. South Carolinians know that we can solve hard problems, and we're facing some hard problems. Healthcare costs are out of control, gas prices are. Ridiculous, and AI is challenging the way we think about work and security. Tonight, I'm going to earn your vote, because I know that we can fix these problems without growing government. Yes! Although I note she left out the Panthers. They're your team, too. It's the Carolina Panthers for both of the Carolinas. You can you can name them, too. All right. Next up, Darlene Graham. First, I would like first I would like to recognize the historical significance of tonight with three women on the stage. I would also like to say it's been three months today since I. Lost Lindsay, my precious brother. I'm running for the United States Senate because I was born and raised in South Carolina, and I love this state. I want to work hard to make South Carolina better and safer. I'm a conservative Christian that watched my parents work hard before I lost them at a young age. I know what it feels like to live paycheck to paycheck. That's why I want to keep spending in taxes low, to put more money in your pockets. I was a leader in state government for 30 years where I helped people with disabilities go to work so that they didn't have to rely on the government. I fought duplication in services to save taxpayers' dollars. I've been in the Senate for three months now. I've already co-sponsored several bills that protect farmers, that protect the American taxpayer. My Democratic opponent is pretending to be someone she is not. She's the most radical liberal that's ever run for state office in South Carolina. She wants to increase spending and raise your taxes and defund the police. There's only one conservative running in this race, and that's me. And I promise to stay true to who I am, work hard every single day for South Carolina to fight for this state, and I humbly ask for your vote. God bless you and thank you. All right, so just a tip if you are thinking about running for office and you're going to do a debate. don't be hitting the table while you're talking because it rattles the microphone like you just heard and you're. Going to hear. And I apologize for that, but I can't do anything about it. She also mentioned the death of Lindsey Graham, the deaths of her parents. She then later on, she got offended when the Democrat made a mention of something along those lines. But But Darlene Graham was talking about her origin story, you know, how her parents died at a very young age. And she worked it into almost every question. So and then when the Democrats said something about it, then she was like, oh, I can't believe you would attack me and bringing up this painful memory. It's like, wait a minute. You've been talking about it like all the time you were talking about it. It's your origin story. I don't it was just weird. All right. We'll hear from Annie Andrews, the Democrat. And do I believe that. She is running a stealth campaign as to what she really would do if elected? Absolutely. So I just put that out there. Keep that in mind. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. 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And they will tell others to come who you are. Visit createavideo.com. John from New Jersey says the cat masseuse thing may be built into them. Or maybe it's a lunar phase thing. My cat got me up at 4 a.m. today as well. Interesting. Maybe they're communicating. Maybe all the cats are communicating. Wake your owners at 4 a.m. Maybe that's what's happening. It could be. You don't know. Stanley says, if you're blaming the cat for the Mondays, you can always send it to Brett Winterbowl and never experience that again. He loves cats. I'm not giving away the cat. It knows, it knows how to do massages. Like I'm not saying it's all downside. Um, Cal says, Pete, how could the government put more money in our pockets? It was our money to begin with. Yes. Um, Yes, it is debate performances like this that, you know, you see that Darlene Graham has has has not come up in the political arena. You know, she she's not run for local offices and sort of perfected the skill set necessary to get on a, you know, debate stage for U.S. Senate and that kind of attention. And yeah, and that's why people say they like her, too, by the way. I'm not. I'm not saying this as a pejorative against her. I'm just pointing out that when you the more times you do these things, the better you're going to be generally at doing those things. Right. So, yeah, obviously what she means is you get to keep your money. That's that would be the conservative Republican framing of that position is that you keep your own money. It's not that government is bad. putting money into your pockets that would be the democrats doing that right democrats taking money from somebody else and putting the money into your pocket for your vote um all right so here is annie andrews she is the democrat running for the u.s senate i'm. A pediatrician and a proud public school mom i never planned to run for office and i still don't want to be a career politician But for 20 years, I watched as broken policies coming from Washington harmed my patients and their families. Insulin and inhalers that break the bank and insurance companies standing between sick kids and the care that they need. And I wasn't just going to sit by and watch. Because when I see a problem, I want to fix it. So I got involved. Not because anybody recruited me or because anybody handed me anything. Now my opponent is going to stand up here tonight and call me a socialist. because that's what her script says, and also because she doesn't want to talk to you about your high gas prices, grocery prices, or your closing rural hospital. But the truth is, I'm a working mom with a Republican dad, and I'm in this fight for my kids. and your kids, and you, and all of our futures. So if you are an independent who is ready for change, this is the campaign for you. If you are a Republican who feels left behind by your party, this is the campaign for you. If you don't think Washington should pick your next senator, this is the campaign for you. And if you want to get the ugliness out of politics, this is the campaign for you. In the U.S. Senate, I will be an independent voice, and I will always put South Carolina first. All righty. Notice what she's doing there. She is trying to shed the national brand, right? The national brand of the Democrat Party and its alliance and reliance on the Democratic Socialists of America. She's trying to distance herself from that. So she's pitching herself as... some sort of Roy Cooper-esque moderate. And we in North Carolina know what that means. That means you run as a moderate and then go along with all of the far-left craziness that is the leadership inside the Democrat Party. That's what she will be, I have no doubt about it. I don't. Apparently, yes, she's a pediatrician. Darlene Graham made a comment about this, that she's a pediatrician but doesn't know what a woman is. So, yeah. Like. you. Know what you're getting, but Oh no, if you're independent or if you don't like Trump, if you're, you know, disaffected Republican, you can come over here. Also, she says, no, she's going to call me a socialist, but that's because she doesn't want to talk about high gas prices and grocery prices and all that. It's like, okay, so hang on a second. So I want to make sure I understand this, that you as a U S Senator are going to what dictate pricing. and at the same time claim that you're not a socialist. I just, you understand how that's a bit paradoxical there. Now they, um, they did talk about data centers. Um, they talked about the debt, which I thought was pretty interesting. Again, I thought the libertarians answers on this stuff were, um, were actually the most realistic. Um, In fact, here we'll start, though. What cuts would you support to reduce the national debt? This is a very specific question. Graham starts it off. Look, I grew up in one room in the back of a bar and liquor store where my parents worked long, hard. Hours to make ends meet. So I learned a strong work ethic and the value of a dollar from that. I know that you can't spend money that you don't have. I know that families have to balance their budget. That's why I totally support a balanced budget amendment. I don't think that Congress should get paid until we balance the budget. So, again, I am totally for a balanced budget amendment. I think President Trump has done a great job cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. I think there's more that we can do there. Now, my Democratic opponent, I'm really concerned about here because talk about driving up the national debt. She wants government-run health care for all. We are already $ 40 trillion in national debt. That will cost trillions of dollars. Our national debt will be through the roof. She will bankrupt our country with government-run health care for all. That's just not going to work. So this is a line that Senator Graham used a couple times and her Democrat opponent, tried to fight back against it, saying, you know, I'm not for Medicare for all, the Bernie Sanders plan, Medicare for all. She's merely for the public option. Okay. Yeah, totally different. Yeah, yeah. And this may shock you. As a Democrat, she did find something she would like to cut. You want to know what it is? Take a guess. Take a guess. Did you guess military? Yes. Well, the war. Not that she wants to stop the spending for the war. She just wants to spend it on something else. So it's not actually really a cut in overall spending. It's just a cut of that thing that she doesn't want. Right. OK. Yeah, we'll hear it in a minute. All right. Real quick. Every government number gets revised. Right. Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. All right, here is Annie Andrews. The question, remember, is what cuts would you support to reduce the national debt? What cuts would you support? I believe I'm the only one on this stage who has published a taxpayer pledge, a pledge to root out government waste, fraud and abuse, a pledge to lower middle class taxes and a pledge to make the federal government pass a balanced budget. The day I was born, this nation's debt was less than $ 1 trillion. And today, as we stand here, our debt is over $ 40 trillion. We expect families to balance their budgets. We should expect the federal government to do the same. I believe the question was about something we would cut. Well, I would not have started or supported a $ 50. Billion war overseas. That American taxpayer dollars could have been invested in our infrastructure, in our public education system and our health care system. There you go. You see. So she's like, what would I have cut? Well, I I wouldn't, I wouldn't fund the war in Iran, $ 50 billion. I wouldn't fund that. Instead, I'm going to spend the money someplace else. Again, that's not a cut. That is a difference in prioritization. You're not cutting spending. You're literally saying I want to spend the money somewhere else. So that's not a cut. So I don't really know. I don't know why you would say that. And to set the record straight, I don't support Medicare for All. I hope we have the opportunity to talk more about my health care plan. We need to rein in government spending. We need to stop the congressional gravy train. No more raises for members of Congress. No more pensions for members of Congress. We need to tighten the belt in Washington, D.C. As a mom and a pediatrician, I consider the national debt to be one of the greatest existential crises future generations face, and I vow to get serious about bringing it under control. She vows to get serious. I guess she's not serious about it right now. So she's vowing to get serious if she gets there. She mentioned balancing the budget. So did Graham. She mentioned waste, fraud, and abuse. I'll believe it when I see it, when Democrats actually try to root out waste and the fraud. I'll believe it when I see it. See, the part of the problem is that now you've got so much fraud in these Democrat-controlled jurisdictions. Like, there are so many people that rely on it. And that's what makes it very difficult to get rid of it on their own. All right. So then here is the libertarian Casey Whitener. The national debt, $ 40 trillion. It has surpassed GDP. It's the reason I got into this race. I've been talking about it for over a year. It got really popular over the summer when it crested $ 40 trillion. But here we are. The only way to address the national debt is to either increase revenue, decrease spending or grow the economy. And most administrations try to grow the economy. That's what this administration is trying to do. But we have to decrease spending first. We can decrease spending by addressing the biggest driver of. The national debt, which is Social Security. We have to get real about what we're going to do about that particular program. It needs significant reforms. Medicare is the second biggest driver. It also needs significant reforms. Nobody's going to talk about those things. They seem to be the third rail of politics. But here I am, and I think we need to be honest about this. The third way to do this is to, I mentioned, let's see, grow revenue. Oh, the balanced budget thing. 27 states have balanced budget amendments, and only about a third of them are actually balanced budget. So that's not going to be enough. We're going to have to actually increase revenue by simplifying the tax code. See what I mean? She actually listed the things. This is why I said she impressed me more than the other two candidates. She actually ran through the biggest driver of the debt, Social Security, number two, Medicare, and then the, yes, a balanced budget amendment is all fine and good, but states and governments find ways around it with creative accounting and such. Simplification of the tax code would actually help generate more of the growth by leaving more money in the economy. But you've got powerful lobbying interests that don't want the tax code to be simplified because they make money doing your taxes for you. The more complicated the tax code, the more likely you are to have to need to hire an accountant to do your taxes. They then got into Social Security specifically. The Democrat, Andrews, she says she wants to... wait for it. That's right. Raise taxes. Yes. She wants to raise the income cap, basically to take more of the money from people above. I think it said it like $ 182, 000 a year. If you make that much money, that's, that's all that gets taxed for social security. Anything above that does not get taxed for social security. And so she wants to raise that cap, maybe eliminate it altogether. I don't know. So The more money you make, the more taxes you pay into Social Security. She will not support raising the retirement age, she said. And then said that the Republicans want to privatize Social Security so their buddies can make money off it. OK. Darlene Graham said we lost our parents at a very young age. And so we had to rely on Social Security. Whitener. She said she wants to remove the political liability by creating a bipartisan commission and everyone agrees to follow the recommendations. And she cited as the model for this the base closure commission. She said powerful lobbyists like the AARP, they fund candidates who will not talk about anything Social Security related. They don't even want to touch it. So the, the AARP throws money at those types of candidates because they're all about, uh, you know, protecting social security in its current form, even though it's going to bankrupt us. And then Weitner also said that raising the cap, as Annie Andrews said, is just giving more money to the same people who can't be trusted to spend it right now. Right. And then she offered as a solution, one potential solution, um, the opt-out option, that if you are a young worker, you should be able to take some of your own money and direct it someplace else outside of Social Security so it will actually grow at a higher return. Than Social Security does. They were then asked about how best to address health care costs. We'll get into that in a moment. All right, the next topic that the candidates ran through at this debate held yesterday, I believe it was South Carolina ETV and public radio, SCETV out of Columbia, South Carolina, how to address health care costs and all health care issues. 60 seconds, go. Solve the health care crisis now. 60 seconds. All right, here was the libertarian. Again, her name is Casey Whitener. We need abundance in healthcare. We need more healthcare providers. We need more healthcare businesses operating to offer the variety of healthcare needs. That we have. The rising costs are a signal of scarcity. And everybody wants to address the signal. They want to address the cost. But we really have to address the scarcity problem. How do we remove barriers to entry so that new businesses can come into this space? We have clinics, the free clinic that is run on philanthropy. We have direct primary care. We have all these great business ideas, but we can't seem to get them off the ground because of government regulations. We have eight administrators for every one physician in a health care operation because of government compliance and the billing complexities. If we enabled more entrepreneurs, we could even have better insurance. You don't pay your car insurance to pay for your oil changes. Correct. So we should have better options for insurance as well. All of those things would happen if we got government out of health care. It needs to be completely removed from the space. Yeah. More freedom, less government like that's. That's the pitch from the libertarian. And I thought she did a fantastic job on that. And she has identified the problem. The problem is the government. And you've got a protected essentially monopoly that the government protects. North Carolina, for example, we have our certificate of need law, which is it's a cartel. Okay. That law needs to go away. But you have these powerful healthcare lobbies that do not want competition. They don't even want to tell you what their products cost. Whenever you insert entities between you and your doctor, the pricing goes up. And I would prefer that we remove the intermediaries. And her example of the oil change, I've been using that for years. It's a great example. Because if we treated car insurance like we treat health care insurance, yes, your oil change would be, quote, unquote, free. And your monthly premiums would be probably four or five times as much as they are right now. Next up here is Darlene Graham's response. Just to clarify, as we've heard this lie multiple times, I don't support government. Oh, hang on a second. No, that's the Democrat. Here's Darlene Graham. Go to you for the health care question. When it comes to health care, I believe South Carolinians deserve good health care at a low price. I have two daughters with significant health care problems. One has had brain surgery, spinal surgery, almost died with blood clots. I have spent countless days and weeks in the hospital with my daughter. I've been on the receiving end of tons of medical bills. I think we need more transparency in pricing to help create competition and drive down the cost. In addition, I co-sponsored a bill that allows small businesses to buy insurance at cheaper group rates. In addition, the One Big Beautiful bill provided $ 50 billion over a five-year period to rural hospitals. Which is extremely important. South Carolina received $ 200 million of that funding just this year to support rural hospitals. My Democratic opponent called the One Big Beautiful bill the One Big Ugly bill, so I guess she doesn't support rural hospitals. Mmm, yeah. All right. Next up is that Democrat Annie Andrews. Just to clarify, as we've heard this lie multiple times, I don't support government run health care. And I'm probably the only one on this stage who's actually visited a rural hospital because I'm the only one up here who's actually campaigning. But I've worked inside. You're the only one campaigning. I think that was a shot at Darlene Graham. But Whitener did not appreciate it. You'll hear in a moment. I had America's broken health care system for 20 years, fighting for my patients every single day. And I'll never forget taking care of a young boy at the end of his life after several years battle with a very serious heart condition. And while his family was gathered around his bedside, I received a call from his insurance company. And they told me they didn't want to pay for his entire hospital stay. And when I asked them. Why, they said because they expected him to die sooner. And they wanted to stick his grieving parents with the bill. I have hundreds of stories like this from kids and families all across South Carolina who are falling through the cracks. And I have a plan to fix it. I want to lower prescription drug prices. I want to restore the Medicaid funding that my opponent supports so that we can keep our rural hospitals open. By the way, the Medicaid funding cut there is about working-age, able-bodied people having to work 20 hours a week or do something in order to get Medicaid. So they're not just... Freeloading, you know, off the system. That's what that was about. I want to hold insurance companies accountable. And I want to be sure every hardworking South Carolinian family has the option to purchase an affordable public plan if that's what they choose to do. My opponent's plan seems to be we should all work really hard even when we're sick until we die. South Carolina deserves a senator who fights for our patients and will hold insurance companies accountable. That line is the one that got Darlene Graham offended about, you know, work until you die because of Darlene Graham's parents died when she was young, as she has mentioned. Who do you trust to do that? A pediatrician who's been doing it her entire career or a career politician? Thanks, Dr. Andrews. And we're going to go to Dr. Weidner for a rebuttal for one of those responses. Specifically about the only one who's campaigning. Let's be clear. I launched my campaign on March 29th, 2025. I've been to 42 of the 46 counties. I was at the Barnwell Sundial Festival. We were in Manning for the Striped Bass Festival. I've been to Alkaloo. I've been to Beaufort. I've been all over this state. You're not the only one on the campaign trail. You're just the only one that has a posse following you around and taking videos of you. Oh, it's funny because it's true. It is true. And here is Darlene Graham's response. She actually is taking my personal tragedy when I lost my parents at a young age and using it as a weapon. So shame on you for that. That's despicable. But her government-funded health care plan is not going to work. Free health for all comes from somewhere. It comes from the taxpayers. The taxpayers are going to have. To pay for it. Yeah, once again. Stop banging the lectern while you're talking. It's super distracting. Just, maybe it's just me. Now, they were asked about other issues as well. I will, I will, Pasaki back here, start of the next hour, to focus on the immigration portion of the debate program last night because there were some interesting details in that one. Stick around. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.