Not sure we learned much in the SC GOP debate for US Senate | Hour 3

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 dpetecleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. Okay, the South Carolina Republican Party has to pick a replacement for Lindsey Graham who passed away, and we had a debate last night. I watched it so you did not have to. You're welcome. I am a giver. I actually watched it. Well, I watched it once as it happened, and then I went back and listened to it again so I can pull these magnificent sound bites. Oh my gosh, such captivating audio do I have for you? Okay, first off, I have to say not a fan of the format. I understand you got five people on the stage and you only have one hour. However, giving people forty five seconds and then asking them questions like how do you make everything more affordable, Like that's you're like, you're not going you're not going to get really good answers here, How are you going to fix healthcare? Forty five seconds go? That's just absurd, Like this is you have been better off just sticking to like one topic, one question or something forty five seconds and you're not getting a lot. Okay, So just a heads up on that. This is from news to announcing the debate. It aired across next Star television stations in South Carolina and surrounding markets Charleston, Queen City News here in Charlotte, WSPA, in Spartanburg, Myrtile Beach, Savannah, Augusta, all over the place. The candidates were US Representative Ralph Norman from the local area here, US Representative Russell Frye. I believe he is out of I think the Greenville area, former governor and Congressman Mark Sandford, former Representative of the Appalachian Trail Greenville, or maybe Mark Lynch is from Greenville. Maybe I don't know where Russell fry is. From, but he's a member of Congress right now, and also he was in the state legislature as well. And then there is the woman who is holding the seat right now, Darlene Graham, sister of Lindsay Grant, and people started attacking her like, how dare the governor appoint her to fill the unexpired term, which you know, Graham just went through a primary where he defeated Mark Lynch, and this like the widow's appointment. People refer to it as sometimes like this happens pretty frequently because okay, you only have a couple more months, so they they put like the widow, or they put a family member in there to just. Fill out the unexpired term. Now, she is now running for the seat to be the US Senator, and as far as I know, she has no experience as in elected office. Now maybe that's a plus, it could be a minus. I'm just pointing that out. No experience, although I did see one of her campaign slogans included the word proven. I'm not really sure how that happened if you haven't been elected. But according to the polling, twelve well before well okay, you got twelve Republican candidates have filed. But the polling they did a cutoff here for the top five in the polling. That's how these people made it to the state. A new Emerson College Polling Nexttar Media survey released last week shows US Representative Ralph Norman leading the field with twenty two percent, Darlene Graham at nineteen percent, Russell Frye at twelve, Sanford at eleven, and twenty five percent are undecided. The polling found the economy is voter's top issue, with sixty percent saying it should be the next senator's main focus. Majority of respondents, fifty three percent also said President Trump's endorsement of Graham had no impact on their vote, So fifty three percent said no impact on their vote. Eighty eight percent said the candidate debates are very important or somewhat important, which is what people are going to say. People are going to say that. All right. So the and by the way, the special primaries on all August eleventh. Early voting scheduled to start August fifth, so tomorrow it'll last until the seventh, so you get two days and then if needed, a run off election would take place in late August. All right, So let's. Get to some of the audio. These are their opening statements. First up, as Mark Sanford. It's a tree to have this conversation tonight and I appreciate the chance. For many of you. I've represented you in Congress. Still more, I've represented you as governor. I've started a business and built it over the last five years. I'm a dad. I can't believe I'm a granddad, but I think that all of us would agree on a whole host of issues, whether it's a secure border or the importance of a little boy not competing with a little girl on the soccer field, or wandering into the restroom. But there is one distinguishing factor that I bring to the table that I hope we get to talk about tonight, and that is the importance of the national debt, and it's implicating for our lives, affordability, and ultimately the American dream. I look forward to that conversation. Yeah, so you're not going to get a lot of in depth discussion because you know forty five seconds at all. Yes, Here's Mark. Flynch, the lifelong South Carolina born in Greenville, married thirty eight years, with two children, four grandchildren, and I'm a successful businessman in Greenville. We've operated a family business. Now in our seventy fourth year under my leadership, we've grown the business thirty five times in the last forty years debt free. So I understand budgets. I understand tackling the giants that we face every day. I understand that we have to win in our business every day with every issue, serving customers and making sure we take care of them better than our competition, or we would be out of business. I know what being debt free means. And we can't print money out of thin air in our business, and we can't do that in government. And it's time to tackle those issues that are causing our debt at thirty nine trillion. All right, Next up, Congressman Russell Frye. I was born in Surfside Beach in a center block house with no heat or air conditioning. My parents worked hard for every single dollar, teaching us the values of hard work, faith, and personal responsibility. I know what it's like when every dollar matters, because my family lived it. Tonight. Too many families across South Caroline are wondering how they're going to fill up their gas, how they're going to provide groceries for their family, or even afford a home. Steve Spurrier used to say, you are what your record says that you are. Tonight, I want you to listen closely to that record. I'm South Carolina Congressman Russell Frye, and I would appreciate your vote in the August eleventh primary. All right, Next up, Darlene Graham, thank. You for your prayers. My family and I are truly appreciative. When President Trump called, I answered because I'm a hard worker and I'm proud to have his endorsement. I'm not a politician, but like Lindsay, I have a servant's hard I grew up in the back of a bar in liquor store, where I learned a strong work ethic and the value of a dollar. For nearly thirty years, I've worked hard for the people of South Carolina, helping them find jobs and live independently. I managed an agency with one hundred and thirty employees and a ninety million dollar budget. I want to continue working hard for the people of South Carolina, and I want to earn your vote. Okay, And finally, Ralph Norman. I'm Ralph Norman. Thank you Paull who are joining by the TV. Look. I'm forty year business, been to the business forty years. I have got a record. There's the most conservative that I'm proud of my resume, is my record. I look forward to serving in the United States Senate for the next six years because I want to take that to Washington, DC. And I think now is the time because we're at a tipping point in this country in so many ways, and I'm just excited about the challenge. I'm excited about the prospects of what we bring and it's going to be a new day and for a great like South Carolina, and we can take that on to the rest of the country. Thank you. Okay, I got to tell you, like that opening statement, it didn't done tell me anything, especially like he's been in Congress and he's talking about you know, like, oh, I want to bring my you know, bring my resume. Well you're already there, You're already in DC. So yeah, I didn't. Get a lot out of that opening statement, but you only got forty five seconds, so I get it. You already heard affordability right mentioned by three of them, National debt spending, all of the kind of relation that related topic, and that would be a focus in a lot of their answers and in some of the questions. So they did talk about deficit spending, national debt, affordability. But aside from like cutting, waste, fraud and abuse, there wasn't really anything offered as to how to manage. It all right. For over a year now you've heard me talking about Creative vid. 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Carolina it probably doesn't matter as much because it is such a Republican state. So whoever comes out of the primary is going to have a huge advantage. But you want somebody who can you know, who can argue against Democrats. So that's what I look for. How will they perform in the debate, because that would indicate how they would perform in a debate against Democrats. Then you're also looking for moments, a moment or two, something that happens in the debate. Remember like Joe Biden saying how he got rid of Medicare or whatever, and Trump responding like, I don't even think he knows what he said, right, Like, that's a moment, and it like that, can that can elevate a campaign or destroy a campaign? There were no moments last night, Okay. I did not see any moments that are going to captivate any he's attention. So and I think that is because of the time constraints and the limited interactions that these five people had with each other on the stage. Mark Lynch did go after a couple. Of the other members or the other candidates, but then they would get a rebuttal and it was kind of yeah, there were no moments, okay, So this is so the first question out of the gate. Should a senator's primary responsibility be to support the president's agenda or to independently represent the interests of the people of South Carolina, even if those interests may differ from the President. Sandford said that he's agreed with Trump overwhelmingly, like ninety percent of the time, but he has disagreed with him on spending and on local interests. Then Congressman Fry, when it should a senator's primary responsibility be to support the president's agenda or represent the interest of the people of South Carolina, He said, yes, yes. I think the short answer is yes. The president was elected to be our commander in chief. Over eighty million people supported him in that endeavor. He is the coach, and I think in Congress it is frustrating for our conservative voters to constantly see people grandstand and jump up and down and oppose him. The President has always had an open door policy. When you disagree with him, he has an open phone line. I think it is really important as we face Marxism in this country, the radical left moving into Congress and winning some of these nominations. People elected us to do a job. They elected us to secure the border. They elected us to cut. Your taxes, to rein in this out of control bureaucracy, and they expect us to get the job done, not grandstand and not get in the way. Okay, So it sounds like he's saying yes to the first part of the sentence, which is the primary responsibility is to support the president's agenda. Ralph Norman said he supports Trump's America First agenda. Trump appreciates debating positions and ideas with people. He says he has done this with the president. Darling Graham said, and she would say this repeatedly, that she completely supports Trump's agendas. She's one hundred percent behind him. He endorsed her, and she loves Trump, and Trump loves her. And then Mark Lynch said, he said, I support I supported Trump. I voted for him six times with the primaries and the general elections. Uh. He then says twenty twenty was stolen from Trump, and he says, you know, if we disagree, then I'll talk to Donald Trump about that. But he's, you know, he's on board. So everybody again, like this is a Republican primary, so they're all going to be obviously like. In line on most things. Okay. The only one that indicated that, no, sometimes I'm going to cross Trump was Sandford, which he did. I can't really run from that. Everybody's aware Mark Sandford did did get sideways with Trump, and that led to him losing to Nancy Mace Right a couple of years back then they were asked about lowering prices, as if somebody in the Senate can do this. But yeah, some of these questions. All right, we'll get to that in a minute. Going over some of the highlights as they are from the debate last night for the US Senate seat down in South Carolina. Question you have forty five seconds. Question what will you do to lower grocery prices, housing and daycare? Forty five seconds go? All right? Fry said, we need more energy production. It's the biggest driver of costs and to keep taxes low. And I thought that was a good answer because that is true. You like, you're worried about AI, you're worried about data centers, you're worried about prices. Right, Build more nuclear power plants, build more energy. Okay, energy makes everything go. Ralph Nor pointed out that Trump inherited an economic disaster from Joe Biden. True, he stopped I legal immigration. Also true, and he said when the war is over, gas prices will come down. Graham said, fifty percent of South Carolinians live paycheck to paycheck. She said, I've been in that group for a long time. The farm bill is going to help. We're going to bring jobs back. Trump has done a great job. Also, she said we should have transparency in healthcare pricing. Mark Lynch said, stop spending, break up monopolies that are priced, fixing homes. He did not really elaborate on that, and then he also said end the h one B visas. Mark Sandford said, as governor, we cut the grocery tax and the property tax. You can't say you completely agree with Trump on all matters and not see the spending problem in DC. Both parties have been bad, but Democrats are worse, he said. Related to that, the national debt, how to lead us back to fiscal responsibility? Ralph Norman said that our spending is unsustainable, that's true. Interest on the debt now exceeds our military spending. And he said we need to do more. Doge right, government efficiency and all of that. But Congress did not enact cuts that were recommended by Doge, and he is correct about that. Now he was a member of is a member of Congress, so I'm not sure why that did not happen. But that is true. Doage identified a whole bunch of stuff, and we're still seeing the ramifications. I just saw they did an announcement today, I think it was in was it Pennsylvania or something, where they just nailed a bunch of medicaid fraud and healthcare fraud. There is a massive amount of fraud. I think one of them said there's like five hundred billion dollars a year in fraud at least in just like the medical in the government medical stuff. And this is what happens, by the way, when you create these massive government programs and then you have, you know, one political party particularly that is not interested in policing it. So this is what occurs, which is an argument for limiting these programs, limiting the scope of these programs. To Darlene Graham said, we have to stop growing the government. That's true. Trump has done a great job cutting fraud. Mark Lynch said, well, Ralph Norman supported bringing illegal aliens in and they go on welfare. And Norman was like, what are you talking about? He called it a silly, bogus accusation. He says, I've been the most conservative member of Congress. I've voted against open borders, and so later on Lynch I think explained what he was referring to. This was the eight thousand Afghans that were brought in like all of the blankets. You know, No, I'm kidding the people from afghanis Stan. When Joe Biden pulled out and we brought in a bunch of people from Afghanistan. They were supposed to have been people that we had helped or that had helped us, helped our military while we were there. That was the original intent. But I think we brought in probably people that are that are not actually friendly to us. But I think that's what he was referring to there. But he did not have the time to explain himself in that answer because again forty five seconds Sandford said, we held the line on spending when I was governor. Meanwhile, Congressman Fry, when he was a member of the General Assembly, he was overriding Nikki Haley and Henry McMaster and their vetos on spending, so he hit Fry. Fry said, we need a balanced budget amendment at the national level, and he said the five hundred billion dollars waste, fraud and abuse, and that we should grow the economy next up data centers, because, of course, Graham said, we can't let China get ahead in tech and control AI the tech company build their own power plants for these. I think she's correct on that. Mark Lynch said, we are tired of seeing one hundred acres of trees bulldozed. And we're told the data center is going to go right next to our neighborhood. It is horrible noise pollution, they're robbing our water. Takes millions of gallons to cool data centers, and it's causing our electric utilities to increase. We already have a problem with inflation and affordability, and we've got to look at that. So we got to we got to have the local communities have a say on where they're put. And we're bringing in flock cameras now, and that's a major problem. And we're moving towards a surveillance state with flock cameras. I'm only one talking about that, and that's that's a horrible thing of an invasion of our American Citi problem. Thank you very much. Okay, So, so this is why I always ask people when I when they start arguing against data centers, I ask them about the flock cameras because they people are connecting these two issues, because see, if you don't have the data centers, then you can't have all the flock cameras. I see them as separate issues. I understand the flock cameras utilize the data centers, as does like basically everything now, but I view. Them as separate issues. You can be opposed to flock cameras being put everywhere and the creation of the you know, the mass surveillance. You could be opposed to that, but also support the construction of data centers. And by the way, on the use of the water, the water is recycled. It is a closed loop system in the data centers. This idea that they're like just like straight piping water from your reservoir, now you're not going to have any water to drink from is It's not. True from what I have read about it. And I've been compiling a file on this for the last few months, educating myself on various aspects of the data center issue. So a lot of this stuff, remember is fund A lot of the anti data center stuff is being funded by the chry cooms for a reason. They do not want us to build more because they would like to build more and have more than us. The question at the debate now is data centers. How bad are they and when can you stop them? Look, I understand a lot of people are negative on the data centers. I've said this from the beginning when this issue first came up locally, which was these are zoning issues, right, So these are local decisions where these things are going to be located and that sort of thing. I don't believe there should be any tax breaks given to them. I don't want any of that, but I don't want that for any kind of development. So that's been my take on this, and I think the fears are being driven and overblown. But that's not to say that I want a data center built right next door to my house, and I understand people who don't want that. And I understand why people wouldn't want a heavy industrial plant built right next to their house either. That's a zoning issue, okay, And I think a couple of the candidates, and the debate last night actually hit on this, Mark Sandford being one of them. I think at the national level, you need one piece of legislation that gets us in line in looking at the ways in which the United States is going to compete with China, we cannot fall second to China on this front. But tied to that, you need this notion of federalism of local control. I think the Desantus administration in Florida got it right wherein they said, Okay, we want to have a standard, but when it comes to where the data center goes, that is a local decision. And you cannot have a data center taking local water or driving up local electric prices to the exclusion of a local voice in that process. So I think it's a bifurcated answer again, a federal policy that encourages but local control, all. Right, And then Congressman Fry said, yeah, two things are true at the same time. One, we're in a race with China on who is going to control AI, who's going to control these technological advances, and so the use of data centers is incredibly important from a national perspective. But also two people are concerned, and rightfully, data centers aren't meant. For every community. If they're right for a certain community, then they should have one. If they don't want one, then they shouldn't have to. They shouldn't have to be forced to swallow that. And so President Trump's agenda on this is quite clear. Data centers must pay their own way in power, they must pay their own way in water. They can't be noisy and have noise pollution. They need to make sure that they are not onerous. But they've got to have the least amount of footprint possible and make sure that they're not sucking up the resources that are citizens. Thank you very much, all right, and then Ralph Norman said, yeah, build more nuclear power to increase supply. And that's just yes. You will always get a yes from me on that. Next, what is the realistic path to get the Save Act passed? Mark Lynch said, we should have a clean act. So we absolutely have to have an ID and proof of citizenship, but that's all. We got to have a clean Save Act. It doesn't need to be tied to more pork and other things they're sneaking in. We had we had the NDAA UH connected to that recently and UH that passed in the in the House. That's the National Defense Authorization Act, the Military spending. It came out from the government that we passed the Save Act. Well, we can't. We can't. We can't merge our military intelligence to any other foreign country and give them all of our secrets. That's losing sovereignty in our country that we have to protect. That's America first. All right, you're disqualified. You're out. Sorry, man like if you're if you're pushing this merging of the military's lie, then yeah, you're you're disqualified. Sandford said, uh, you know. He pointed to Zoron Mamdani requiring I D for government grocery stores, but not to vote. That's absurd. He supports the Save Act and that's why it's important to send stalwart conservative votes. To the Senate. Fry said, eighty plus percent agree with the ID and citizenship proposal. The Senate is the problem. It needs to be shaken up. He then said we should change the filibuster. Ralph Norman also said, abolish the filibuster. It passed through the House, and they're going to try to get it passed through reconciliation as well. But we'll see. I mean the yeah, I mean, I do like what Lynch said about a clean bill, but I don't know if the Senate leadership is going to allow that. And then Darlene Graham said she also supports eliminating the filibuster. So you've got three of the five that said abolish the filibuster. And Graham said, because you know the Democrats are going to do it anyway. So there's that again. Not a fan of the format. You got forty five seconds, you know all the problems. Tell me how you're gonna do it? Forty five seconds go? Just a terrible format? Have I said that? 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.