Dave McCormick Dishes On His Unique Friendship with John Fetterman

0:00As prices keep rising, social security is even more important to older Americans. I counted it to pay for groceries and prescriptions. Everything costs more now. AARP is fighting to protect the social security Americans earn through a lifetime of hard work. I've paid into social security since I was a teenager. It isn't a handout. I earned it. Join us to stand up for Social Security. Visit aarp.org slash Social Security voter paid for by AARP. The Voice of Free Speech. The Truth Delivered. The Common Sense for the American People. Welcome to the Scotting Show. Well, it was another spirited debate last night on CNN. The discussion revolved around oil refineries and diesel prices. You don't want to miss it. More arrests you guessed it for foreign nationals voting in our elections. Audio on that story ahead. A naval warfare expert Brent Sadler checking in shortly to discuss the latest with Iran.

1:04Think time is running out for the regime. Here on Thursday, October 1st, I'm Scott Jennings reporting for Salem and Broadcasting Live from New York City. On this day, by the way, 1908, something went on sale that would change how Americans lived. But the man behind it was thinking about something more than a new product. He was thinking about who could afford it. At the time, most families traveled by a horse, by train, or on their own two feet. But these new machines beginning to appear on American roads were there and largely play things for people with money. But this man had a different idea. He wanted to build something dependable and that could handle rough roads. And he wanted to find a way to make enough of them at a low enough price that an ordinary family could buy one. By 1913, the man and his team introduced something that would create affordability for his product, a moving assembly line. Assembly time fell, production rose, and the price came down as low as $260.

2:08In fact, more families could travel farther, more farmers could reach markets. And America began building the roads and the repair shops and the filling stations to support a new way of life. By the time production ended of this man's product in 1927, more than 15 million had been built. The man of course was Henry Ford and the machine was the Model T. And on October 1, 1908, America took a giant step toward becoming a nation on wheels when the first Model T became available for purchase. Old Henry Ford had an invented the automobile but he helped make it affordable and available to everyone. And that lesson brings us directly to something that we're arguing about today. How to keep a nation on wheels fueled at a price that we can afford. Your humble reporter appeared last evening on CNN's News Night program where we had a pretty spirited discussion about the price of diesel. Now as we go on the air today, it's about $639 per gallon nationally, a tough number for sure, and it's $2 higher than that in California.

3:14We'll get to that in just a minute. I made the point that part of the problem is refining our ability to turn the crude oil into the fuel that people actually use. And I asked the table a question, would anybody here support building a new refinery? More American capacity, more American fuel? For that, my argument was called silly and wrong. Take a listen, cut one. Does anybody here support building a single oil refinery so we can actually increase diesel supply? Because it doesn't just come out of the ground and go right into the trucks. It has to be refined. We've seen a reduction in refining capacity here because that's what Democrats have wanted. We've also seen it impacted by Russia, Ukraine. Would anybody here support building a single oil refinery to make more diesel? Is some of the consideration as to where you do it domestically or what you do it domestically at all? I'm talking about in the United States, what a policy maker would do if you were, say, governor of California or if you were governor of anything, would you say, you know what?

4:16We could help out the world if we got on top of building an oil refinery. That's the question. Does anybody say it? In this right moment, even if we built a diesel refinery tomorrow, that's not really what has caused diesel prices to skyrocket. It's a big part of it. No, not in the last, okay, the refineries we have today are probably the refineries that we had a few months ago. Are you suggesting that? It's also Russia, Ukraine. I'm talking about domestic refineries. You are arguing that a lack of domestic refineries led to a rise in the oil and gas. I'm saying we absolutely don't have enough refining capacity. We should do more. Let's just say it's not true. Yes, exactly. It's not true. What you're saying is not true. Long-term and short-term. You're arguing about six months. I'm arguing that Democrats of our U.S. are arguing about what domestic energy is for every single night. Now you want me to trust them on gas prices. I'm the double-priced. The lowest trade in the South Korea. The lowest trade in the South Korea. In the last few months, you have to refine it. We don't have refining capacity. It's been massively reduced. That is just not true.

5:16Every major economy will tell you this is true. Let me ask you a fourth time. Is our refining capacity today what it was a few months ago? I don't really know. I assume it's roughly the same. How can you claim that our lack of refining capacity has been reduced? Mostly because of Russia. You can just let go of that argument. You could let go of the fact that you have no idea what you're talking about. Let's walk through this. The truck drivers and the farmers and anyone who buys something delivered on a truck deserves an explanation. First, crude oil and diesel are different products. You cannot pull a tractor up to an oil well and say, fill her up. A refinery has to turn that crude into useful fuel, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. So there are two questions. Do we have enough oil and do we have enough capacity to turn it into the fuel that we need? A problem at either step can cost you money. And right now, as I argued, refining is part of the problem. But you don't have to take my word for it.

6:16On September the 18th, the US Energy Information Administration, your government, published an explanation of what's driving diesel prices. The report clearly identified reduced refining activity in Russia, China and the Middle East. Less fuel produced overseas, higher international prices and more American buyers looking for American diesel. The same report said American refineries were running at near maximum levels, with utilization at 97%. In other words, we're making all the diesel that we can make here in America. My argument doesn't sound so silly to our government experts who track these things. And they're hardly alone. Reuters reported on September 8th that a lack of spare refining capacity has helped keep global diesel supplies tight. Senior executive at Philip 66 said most American refineries were already running flat out, which brings us to an argument that I heard last night. Our refining capacity hasn't changed in the last few months, so how can it explain higher prices?

7:19Because our capacity can stay the same while the world around us is changing. Imagine two grocery stores in one town, one closes. The other still has the same number of shelves ahead yesterday, but now more people need what's on those shelves. Telling the customers that the remaining store hasn't changed doesn't explain away the shortage. If foreign refineries lose output and our refineries are already running near their limits, we have very little room to replace the missing fuel. Now, does the Iran War matter? Of course it does. Disrupted shipping, disrupted production, higher crude prices, all of that matters. But so does the capacity to turn crude into diesel. You have to understand the whole supply chain, which nobody at the table bothered to think about during our debate. And the Russia Ukraine War is part of this story. The IEA reported in September that Russian diesel production had fallen nearly 30% compared with last year's levels. That's a lot.

8:19Attacks on refineries have damaged the equipment that makes the fuel. Plus Russia has restricted their own exports. These are real disruptions with real consequences for prices. So my question is, wouldn't we be better prepared if we had more refining capacity here in America? New refineries, where they make economic sense, expansions at existing refineries, investment in the equipment that can make more diesel, more ability to meet our own needs and respond when foreign supplies are interrupted? Did you know that the last major green field refinery with significant downstream unit capacity built in America from scratch? Remains Marathons facility in Garyville, Louisiana, 1977? In 1981, we had 315 operating refineries in America today. We have just 130. It is an unassailable fact that the American left has worked its heart out to reduce domestic refining production in the United States of America for decades.

9:24We cannot control whether a Russian refinery gets hit by a drone, but we can control whether America makes it easier to build and expand our own refining capacity. More capacity would not make us fully immune to the global marketplace, but we would have more production here and therefore more options in a crisis. That's what I'd call energy security. That was the debate that we had on CNN last night. The rest of the debate was about what a Democrats want to do about high gas prices. I couldn't find a single person at the table who said we should increase domestic production or increase domestic refining capacity. It's common sense for the American people. Scott Jennings broadcasted for Salem. Let's talk about really factor for a moment. It's a supplement. When you think about supplements, you ask yourself, does it work and can you trust it? We get all sorts of cards and letters from customers who answer those questions for us. I bring them to you. Today's story comes from Rebecca. Rebecca was hesitant at first, but she was made to feel better because her lead factor makes it easy to adjust your order or cancel it any time.

10:34She thought, hey, this is a safe thing to do, but she's been on lead factor. Now, Rebecca says her knee pain is better. She doesn't rely on other pain relievers and she tells everyone everyone. It's absolutely worth it. Rebecca is just one of many customers that have written in with their relief factor story. Three weeks is $17.76. Go to reliefactor.com or call 1-800-The-Number-4-Relief. Our friendly local team will do everything they can do to help you and maybe just maybe like Rebecca. You'll be sharing your relief factor story with us very, very soon. We're going to talk more Iran war updates with Brent Sadler when we come back. Stay with us. Who answers America's call for more energy? People do. Chevron is helping fuel national energy security. Their US production has increased by nearly 60% in the past three years. And with plans to invest over $10 billion in US energy projects in 2026, they're helping boost economies create better jobs and build an America powered by America's own energy.

11:39Learn more about what Chevron's people do at chevron.com slash America. You've heard the narratives. Now get the truth. It's the Scott Jenny show. Little bit more news for you here on Thursday, October 1st. While a flight full of Israelis were thwarting a radical Islamic terrorist plot aboard an airplane in the Middle East yesterday, Texas police were thwarting an anti-Semitic terror attack here at home. NBC News reports that police have arrested a man who planned to shoot up the Texas state capital. Suspect told his friend that he was angry at APAC, which is the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and that quote, these people have to be exterminated. So the next time you hear a Democrat demonizing APAC, which is all the time. Remember, this is nothing more than a group of American voters who are legally organizing and donating to political campaigns,

12:43but you need to understand these Democrats could care less about the rage and hate and political violence. They are fomenting among their supporters. Tennessee last night after a court ordered delay, officials there tried to put murderer Christophe Pike to death by lethal injection, but they failed twice. Apparently she survived the attempts to kill her chemically and she was then taken to the hospital, sort of shocking here in 2026. We can't find a rope or a firing squad, but here we are. Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee has halted executions for the rest of the year and ordered an independent investigation. Pike's condition has not been released and no new execution date has been announced. And you can file this under the thing that never happens. Again, a Minnesota grand jury has indicted 10 foreign nationals for illegally voting in our elections. They came from Brazil, Ghana, Liberia, and they voted in 2022, 2024 and in this year's primary.

13:45Here's the Attorney General Todd Blanche cut to today. We are announcing that a federal grand jury returned indictments against 10 foreign nationals alleged to have committed unlawful voting and registration offenses in the state of the nation. In total, the grand juries indictments include nine counts of illegal voting by an alien and nine counts of making a false claim of citizenship in order to register to vote. I keep on talking about this basically every time I speak publicly about the great work of the department and the work that our prosecutors are doing. And I'm confident that at some point the media will actually start reporting it. It's quite a few announcements from DOJ this year cracking down on foreign nationals voting in our elections, but just don't tell the people who tell you that it never happens. All right, let's talk about what's going on with Iran. Seems to me the Iranian regime is on its last legs economically, militarily, and politically to discuss this is retired Navy captain Brent Sadler, a naval warfare expert at the Heritage Foundation.

14:5226 years of service including tours aboard nuclear powered submarines. He's senior research fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology over at Heritage. Brent get on in here. We've had many discussions about the Iran war. I want you to just analyze the news for us. The blockade is working Iran is not exporting any oil. Our Treasury officials say they're less than two weeks away from really running out of money that they made by selling some oil before the blockade went back into effect in July. How do you assess the situation right now? Are we on the brink of seeing Iran really running out of all options? Yeah, thanks for having me back on it. Just doing the math on the economy and the more importantly the ability of the Iranian regime to pay its muscle on the streets like the bossie agent to keep the IRGC, you know, clothed armed and willing to support it. That math leads to the regime running out of money right around the time of the midterm elections on the early end, but certainly by the end of the year they won't be able to sustain.

15:58And it would be just on the good will of their own forces being able to exercise their authority on the street. It would probably devolve the survival. But on the military side, the US hasn't changed its posture in the theater for several months now and has conducted responsive attacks when the threats of materialized. And what we are knowing now is that shipping is about 80 to 94% depending on which source you look at levels of export import shipping trends with petroleum products on board going through the streets or removes. So we're largely back because that doesn't include what's going through pipelines. We're back to where we were before this conflict started. But more interestingly in the last few days is the US is deploying another carrier strike group and an additional marine expeditionary unit knew and those forces could arrive in augment or add to the carrier two, the new carrier group some ring group that's there right now, which would signal that the president may want an option to exercise the military hammer shortly after midterm elections.

17:04That's Brent Sadler with the Heritage Foundation 26 years of service, Naval Academy graduate served on senior Pentagon staffs and as a military diplomat in Asia. Brent, we're going to have more with you coming up right after this commercial break. We're going to talk about what the president's options are right now. The economic option is working. He has been rattling the American saber in public. I want to talk to you about whether you think that's even going to be necessary once the regime's economic fortunes totally collapse. It's got jettings on Salem more on the Iran war coming up right after this. Don't miss one of the most powerful documentaries of the year. Can you hear me now featuring Charlie Kirk stream it now exclusively on Salem now dot com. Coming up in 60 seconds here on the Scotch Jennings show we continue our conversation with Brent Sadler about what's to come in the conflict with Iran, but first a word from our friends and Americans for prosperity on September the 17th 1787

18:1839 delegates gathered in Philadelphia to sign a document that would change the course of history. The United States Constitution. It did more than establish a government. It created a framework for self government under law, dividing political power, limiting its exercise and protecting the liberty of the American people. We the people reminds us that government doesn't grant our rights. It's authority comes from the people it serves. This month our friends at Americans for prosperity are asking all of us to take a few minutes to return to the document itself. No matter if it's your first time or your 100th read the preamble explore the principles behind it and reflect on the role each of us plays in preserving our American experiment. The Constitution can endure only if we understand the principles it was written to preserve. That's a project of our friends at Americans for prosperity. All right, we bring Brent Sadler back into the conversation here on the Scotch Jennings show.

19:19Brent, thanks for spending some time with us today. You have been analyzing this for the last several months. You've been very clear eyed about the opportunities and the challenges. In your opinion, are we two weeks away, six months away, somewhere in between of being able to declare this over and a full American victory? It's always risky to put a timeline on something like this because you're talking about dealing with a very human endeavor, combat. It's the most risky and uncertain of any human endeavor that you can make. It's better to basically talk about what you'll see when things are starting to go the way of a final in state. The thing to look for is IRGC units not being able to exercise operationally orders coming out of Tehran. This could be the movement of army units, ground forces could also be ability to launch strikes when shipping.

20:20The other is you start to see municipalities, cities or districts that decide to ignore the orders coming out of Tehran and they just start going about business as normal and not taking actions, such as say clamping down on university students, which are now back in session. Many of them aren't too pleased and they're starting to protest again. If you see crackdowns not happening, that's the occasion that authority is starting to crack. Once that starts to happen, it's going to be episodic at first and then it'll be very rapid. The money piece of it will start to be very inescapable for the regime to pay off and keep people in line. I'd say in the early part of November and if we haven't seen any of those indications, then there's probably going to be an adjustment made to the US approach. Well, let's talk about what that might be. The president has been saying he may resume bombing the Iranians after the midterm elections. Is that necessary at this point? Because it seems to me we've gotten our best results from this naval blockade and we're on the brink of them being fully without economic options,

21:30which may leave them without many social or domestic options politically internally. Do you think we need another round of strikes here or is the president throwing that out in public so that they understand that we've not yet just taken that off the table? The strikes I think is a necessary tool to have available. Certainly if the Iranians attack shipping, they need to get responded to preferably. Even as they're setting up to make a strike, they should be attacked. You know, not waiting until after they've launched the missile at an unsuspecting container ship or oil tanker, transiting the straights or hermuzes. But if we find out that the Iranians are behind some of these most recent terror attacks, the one on the flight going to Israel recently, and also the five that were arrested and run, and if we find out that the regime is trying to make good on its promise to expand this conflict through its, you know, not just its proxies, but its terror network. I think that also deserves a response, probably targeted against the IRGC leadership and wherever they may be across the world.

22:32So having that option to respond to punish bad action where it's threatened American lives and interests, absolutely. But if there's a need to push, you know, we find out that early November things aren't quite going as fast, where there are Iranian factions that are starting to rise up that they need a little bit more of a window, that might be the time to actually unleash the military again. Prince Sadler from the Heritage Foundation, Naval Warfare expert is our guest here as we discuss Iran. You raised the issue of the attempted terrorist attack on the air base in Great Britain, Brent, and there is an update here, this coming out of the New York Times, just a few minutes ago. British police say they have arrested a 27-year-old dual British Iranian national on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts in connection with Sunday's events near an air base in England, which is used by the American military. The man was arrested in Central London, and police say they have searched two properties in the area. Counterterrorism police also question another man, 26-year-old British national, neither was named, but that is in line with British policing rules.

23:40So we have at least one person under arrest in Great Britain with ties to Iran trying to attack an air base where U.S. bombers deploy from. Are we to expect this, Brent, more from the Iranians now that we have taken away their traditional military capacity? Is this what they are left with? One-off terror attacks in different places around the world? Yes, it is highly predictable because clearly this regime has been trying to bank on the fact that they could influence the midterm elections in a false sense that they could impact President Trump's decisions to continue the conflict against them. Against this regime in Tehran, it is a misjudgment of our system. But these types of attacks are intended to be spectacular and scary and frightful for a political outcome. So we should expect that there are more such attempts that are probably in the works, and not just over there, also very much here in the United States, given the fact that far too long we had non-existent southern border.

24:42And so we may start to see, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing reports of Americans or people here in the United States that are getting caught up in these Iranian terror networks. Prince Sadler from the Heritage Foundation, our guest discussing the war against Iran. Brent, let's talk about the nuclear material. When this all started, that was really the principle reason the President laid out for the American people. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Some bombing occurred last summer. We seriously degraded their capacity to make a nuclear weapon in Operation Midnight Hammer. I suspect through this activity for the last few months, their ability to make a nuclear weapon has been eroded even further. That having been said, there is still nuclear material inside of Iran. Do we in your opinion have to actually extract that material to conclude this successfully, or can we leave it there and install some sort of monitoring, whether that's aerial monitoring or other types of monitoring?

25:44What's your view on what needs to happen or what could happen to that nuclear material before we bring this to a close? I think we may have lost Brent's audio. On my monitor here, Brent, I see you talking, but I don't hear you. We're going to have to solve Brent Sadler's audio. I don't know if we've got him there, Gaz. What do you think? We're talking to Brent Sadler from the Heritage Foundation, a very experienced military strategist, about how to bring the Iran war to a conclusion. That is sort of the military, national security, and ultimately public relations decision that the president is going to have to make about this nuclear material. When he started this war, it was because he believed that the threat of Iran getting a nuclear weapon was imminent, and that they had to be stopped.

26:47That's why we are doing this. To bring it to a successful conclusion, you have to be able to go to the American people and say, through all of my actions, all in, from midnight hammer, through this war, through our economic pressure, through our sanctions, through our diplomatic allies, all in, we have brought about the condition that Iran cannot, even if they wanted to. Certainly they do. Iran cannot produce a nuclear weapon. That's what I promised you I was going to do, and that's what I am delivering you today. That is what he has to be able to go to the American people and say. Now, the real tactical question here is, do you have to take possession of the nuclear dust, the so-called dust that exists far underground and Iran to be able to make that argument credibly? I am starting to become of the opinion that you don't. I was ambivalent about this to begin with, although I think it would have been nice if in the beginning you sort of had a moment of extraction of material.

27:54It's something you can see and put your hands on and the American people can say, oh, we got this stuff. But as we've gone on here, I've begun to wonder, is this necessary? Do you have to have that physical moment of extraction? Or is it good enough to say we destroyed all of their centrifuges, we've destroyed all of their ability to put a bomb together, we've buried all the nuclear dust deep under the ground? There's really nothing they can do about it. I think that's where we are. And on top of that, we've created a system of allies in the Middle East. Every country over there, every country is now aligned with each other and with us against the Iranian regime. They don't want them to have a nuclear weapon any more than we do. So you have allies and partners in the region who are monitoring Iran. You have American military assets in the sky that will monitor Iran, just like we monitor things around the world.

28:57If they wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we would know it immediately if they made one step towards doing that. So my view is we ought to be able to pretty soon, as you see the economic pressure on the Iranian regime, further cripple, the political infrastructure there and the social fabric there, we ought to be able to get to a point where we're going to leave a monitoring situation in place that gives the President the ability to go back to the American people and say, the goal was this to stop them from ever having the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. And here are all the steps that I've taken to fully and firmly achieve that goal. And when you report that to the American people, you do so with allies and partners in the region and they affirm that what the United States is doing in partnership with them is going to work. You do it in partnership with international agencies who can say, yes, we're going to be part of affirming this ongoing.

30:00That's how it's going to end. And I think we're closer to that than we have ever been. I want to thank Brent Sadler from Heritage Foundation for coming on. I always lending us his expertise here and we'll get him back on here soon as developments warrant. Let's talk about sleeping arrangements for just a moment. If you're a hot sleeper like me and you wake up in the middle of the night because you're tossing and turning and sweating and the sheets are sticking to you and it's frustrating, I have a suggestion. The suggestion is get yourself a ghost bed. I switched to ghost bed and I am personally sleeping better than ever. It keeps you cool all night. There's no waking up, sweaty, none of the tossing and turning I discussed. It has cooling tech built into every mattress. It's not an upgrade that you have to pay for. They put it in every mattress. Hot sleepers are some of ghost beds, happiest customers. You can read the reviews everybody will tell you. You get great support, less stiffness, deeper sleep, more rested mornings. Ghost bed will give you 101 nights to try it at home.

31:10You're not going to need 101 nights. You're going to need like one night. And then you're going to realize Ghost bed is the thing to have. My audience gets an extra 10% off today. Go to ghostbed.com slash Jennings. Use promo code Jennings. Ghostbed.com slash Jennings. Promoko Jennings. More after this. Let me come back. One man standing tall against the leftist mob here's Scott Jennings. Anybody watching any baseball? I watched a little bit actually this week. I'm as you know as a dedicated St. Louis Cardinals fan I'm extremely disappointed at the way we sputtered across the finish line. But I have had some delight in communicating with the handful of Cubs fans that I permit in my social circle. And I couldn't help but notice on the Major League baseball store. They're selling these hoodies.

32:18The hoodies say Cubs. No time like October. And so of course they lost. They're not playing in October. So I got one of these hoodie graphics in my feed. So I downloaded it. And I crossed out the word October. And I put a text box in it said September. No time like September. And I sent this to a few of my friends who are Cubs fans. You know they're not taking it well. Actually I was hoping for a little more good humor. Out of our by the way the amount of running around that's going on right now. You would be shocked to learn. It's see I mean we've got running around doors opening and closing. It's wild in here right now because I get the feeling nobody really knows what's what's happening to our radio broadcast right now.

33:18Anyway you'd think the Cubs fans would have taken this little fun joke a little better than they did but they didn't interestingly. I tell you what else I saw yesterday. Playoff baseball produces amazing visual and audio moments. And in San Diego last night. If you just it's probably on your social media algorithm. You just go and look just not with the announcers but just look at the raw audio feed of some of the at bats sheets hit a home run. And the crowd there in San Diego. Loud the chanting. And then when the ball came off of sheets is bad it sounded like an explosion off the bat and then the place went bananas. Looking at this without any of the just just look at the raw feed and listen to it.

34:23And remember why baseball is America's past time and why it's so special all right mercifully this segment is over we're going to try to get the technical piece sorted out after this on this got Jenny show stay with us. The voice of free speech. The truth delivered. Common sense for the American people. Welcome to the sky Jenny show. Okay quick check of the headlines here on Thursday October the first British counter terrorism police have arrested a sixth man in the R.A.F. Fairford investigation 27 year old dual British Iranian national has been detained in London. On suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. The five men who were arrested near the base on Sunday remain out of jail on bail. They've not yet been charged investigators are examining possible foreign state involvement Iran. Denies any connection.

35:25The Supreme Court has agreed to review the Trump administration's policy of holding immigrants facing deportation without bond hearings the case could determine whether millions of people living in the country illegally can seek release. While their immigration cases proceed and a taxpayer funded facility housing dozens dozens of registered sex offenders and a daycare just 400 feet away city journal investigative reporter Haley strak. Join us with what she has uncovered in San Francisco and the questions that officials still need to answer Haley. Let's start here how in the world did you uncover this and give us the top line results of your troubling investigation. For sure so luckily for Californians Megan's law database catalogs where all of the sex offenders in the city live. So what we did was we pulled that data from the internet and we looked and thought we did a survey of how many of the buildings that sex offenders were in were taxpayer subsidized.

36:28We wanted to know how many people are paying for the sex offender who lives next door and what we found was that throughout the city in 55 taxpayer funded buildings 25% of registered sex offenders live there and our house there on the taxpayers down. Okay so who approves these placements and I guess what screening determines whether a sex offender can live this close to children I mean you said it was a few hundred feet from a daycare right. Yeah that's a good question so the facility that you mentioned at the start which has 31 registered sex offenders currently living in anger is controlled by the California Department of Corrections which is entirely taxpayer funded by Californian reports. So they basically send pretty violent sex offenders parolees into that building and it's not an exaggeration to say that's become a little bit of a dumping ground for sex offenders some of the worst the worst people who are watching child pornography people who are repeat offenders people who still exhibit increased sexual deviants to minors.

37:35And these people as we said are within 400 feet of a daycare are right on the street from an elementary school and live in the neighborhood in San Francisco with the highest concentration of children within a few blocks in this neighborhood there are 3500 kids living there. This is because it's kind of a low income area a lot of families are living there a lot of immigrant families are living in this neighborhood and they're all subjected to these praising San Francisco holidays that make it easy for sex offenders to live right next door. But to your broader question of who the heck is the loudness I think it's less of a result of San Francisco officials deciding let's put sex offenders right next to kids and instead just going full steam ahead on their housing for its policies we've seen this throughout San Francisco throughout California and reporting for city journal that California Dums will give anyone free housing it doesn't matter who you are doesn't matter if you're here legally it doesn't matter if you're a sex offender on parole they'll give you free housing and a lot of that. So free housing for sex offenders near the children let me ask you this Haley Strat from city journal and trepid investigative reporter did you find evidence that parents who were living nearby or schools or daycares that were in the area.

38:54Did you find any evidence they were notified about this high concentration of sex offenders or do they just have to find out on their own. Well they have to find out through us or through any reporter who's willing to do the work we actually went to the daycare that's 400 feet away from 31 violent sex offenders and the daycare leader Wendy she told us she had no idea they were living right down the street. She said that the parents walk their kids to school every day she said that she even goes on walks past that building past the sex offenders and she didn't know anything the city didn't warn her. The city actually doesn't necessarily have to California voters nearly unanimously passed the law in 2006 it would restrict sex offenders from living within 2000 feet of a school or a park this is pretty standard across America. I think probably 40 or upwards of 40 states have passed Jessica's law which does this exact same thing but unfortunately the California state Supreme Court heard a case in about 2015 from a group a cabal of San Diego sex offenders who said that that law made finding housing a little too difficult for them as if that wasn't the entire point to begin with.

40:03So now that blanket restricted is over and honestly sex offenders are pretty free to live wherever they want to in the state which again the state doesn't necessarily have to notify citizens that they're right there and in this case of a registered daycare they certainly did not notify. Okay so taxpayers are on the hook for this in your findings here in San Francisco. I hesitate to ask but I feel I must how much are taxpayers paying and what information have you received about taxpayer expenditures from the agencies and the contractors who are responsible for this. Such a good question unfortunately San Francisco doesn't have an earmarked fund that we can look at for sex offender housing probably because they you know as I mentioned are just giving housing 91 masks for it but what we do know is that the Department of Homelessness and Housing Support has almost a $1 billion budget annually just in San Francisco. I mean that's an astounding number first of all and this is happening in LA this is happening in San Diego but in San Francisco there's about a $1 billion budget to operate a lot of the city funded hotels and shelters 65 of which are housing sex offenders.

41:15So the best estimate we can come up with is that for some of the permanent supportive housing hotels in which these sex offenders are housed it can cost anywhere from 30,000 to $40,000 annually. And I just want to stress I mean I live in San Francisco the cost of living here is insane anyone in California will tell you that but you know we're all we're all front in the bill for our rent here and sex offenders just get to take our tax dollars and live down the street. Your report Haley identifies registration violations and a resident whose supervised release was revoked what did you learn about monitoring of these sex offenders and how quickly do officials act when one of them breaks the rules. So one person his name is Kevin Adams he lived in the facility and he's actually been out on parole for quite a few years and what his parole officer has found is that he's continued to watch child pornography he's continued to watch sexually explicit material. And they've been monitoring his devices but they gave him a phone so that he could try and find work and no surprise here they use that phone for bad sexually deviant behavior.

42:25So the concerning thing is that parole officers they actually do monitor these people and they know some of their activity nonetheless they still feel that it's right to keep them in taxpayer funded facilities throughout the city near kids. So there are residents in 111 Taylor who have reoffended during their time there there are residents throughout the city who are now in violation still living in taxpayer funded houses there are sexually violent predators who live very close to schools and no one's doing anything about it because I don't think anyone sees it as a huge problem again this is a very dense urban area. But I guess the point of our story is that honestly it doesn't really matter where sex offenders are housed as long as they're not near children and if that's an inconvenience for the sex offenders that's fine because it'll keep children safe. Hailey Strac is an investigative journalist for the city journal. Hailey city journal had a report a few days ago about all the money that California taxpayers are spending on housing illegal aliens.

43:25And now we have a story about how much taxpayers are spending to house sex offenders. There's an election coming up in California. Do you think any of this information is on the minds of any Democrat out there who may have been voting Democrat their entire life but maybe just maybe you're thinking might might be time for a change. Yeah, I wish but honestly given the reporting or given the response to some of our reporting I highly doubt it. I think a lot of Democrats are upset that you know a conservative think tank would blow the whistle on San Francisco's sex offender housing program. And I think the unfortunate part about that is that a lot of people in California truly cannot separate their politics from common sense and reality. We've seen this across the nation. We've seen this in presidential elections and now in local ones in California. But everyone can agree on the fact that we probably shouldn't be spending our harder and taxpayer dollars like you mentioned a billion dollars of them annually on welfare for illegal immigrants.

44:28And we probably shouldn't be spending 30 to 40 thousand dollars annually to house a sex offender right near a kid's school. But nonetheless because a lot of conservatives are now talking about these things Democrats have decided to stick up for California wholeheartedly. I don't think it'll have much of an impact. You know that last night we had the California governor's debate and actually this story was sort of brought up in coverage. But you know if they're still hemming and hawing around Trump without realizing that California citizens six million of us who voted for Trump in the election are really hurting right now. And we don't want our taxpayer dollars spent in crazy ways like this. But unfortunately the one party state will rule. Well, Haley, it sounds like you have unreasonable demands of your public officials. I'm just going to be honest. Haley's track is the investigative reporter for the city journal. Haley, thanks for your work on this. We got to take a break. More news right after this. It's got Jennings on Salem. Stay with us. Don't miss one of the most powerful documentaries of the year. Can you hear me now featuring Charlie Kirk stream it now exclusively on Salem now.

45:39There's a October the first Scott Jennings here on the Salem network. Now you've heard me talking about relief factor for over a year. Because I believe in taking care of ourselves so that we can enjoy life to the fullest. But there's a another family member I want to talk about somebody we do just about anything for our dogs. That's why the makers of relief factor have created a new product called friend factor a daily supplement treat for dogs with thoughtfully selected ingredients designed to support a healthy inflammatory response mobility and an active lifestyle. Because it's not just about moving more comfortably. It's about one more walk one more game of fetch one more adventure one more memory with our best friend. Fetch your first bag of friend factor today at relief factor dot com. You know, I had an older dog once I had a couple actually and honestly had friend factor been out there.

46:49When backster and roofless were in the twilight of their lives, I think I might have tried it out. So maybe if you've got an old dog out there and they're not moving around quite as well as they used to give it a try, you might be surprised what life you can give back to your good buddy there in your household. All right, let's do a little news. Shall we a six man has been arrested in the suspected R. A. F. Fairford terror plot. British police detained the 27 year old dual British Iranian national in London today on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts and added detail to all of this. Israel says it warned Britain about an Iranian sponsored attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made that claim while discussing the security scare near the base. Take a listen to the prime minister here. Cut three. Look up. You talked about this thing in Britain. You want to hear how absurd things are there and how far the anti Israel propaganda has gone.

47:56We gave the Brits the intel that there was going to be an attack and it's an Iranian sponsored attack and pretty much the next day they slapped sanctions on us. On us, you know, so it's it's wild. I mean that that caving in the collapse before the Islamist Marxist alliance is very dangerous for the future of the West. So Israel gave the Brits the intelligence about this possible terrorist attack and the next day the British government slapped sanctions on Israel. If you need some evidence about how Western civilization is literally crumbling over in Europe, how mass migration and the importation of radical Islamic terror into Europe has warped their domestic politics. Look no further than this story today. New details are emerging by the way about the attempted hijacking of that fly Dubai flight to Israel yesterday and how the passengers in crew prevented a major catastrophe.

49:09Israeli officials say the copilot stabbed the captain in an apparent attempt to crash the Dubai to Tel Aviv flight. The aircraft plunged more than well, I think it's I think it was 17,000, Vs. 14,000 or more than 17,000 feet in just a couple of minutes despite being seriously wounded. The captain unlocked the cockpit door so the passengers could rush inside. One passenger, a plumber says he put the attacker in a chokehold and pulled him away. A dentist helped restrain the suspect with headphone cords and plastic zip ties and then they treated the captain's severe wounds and heavy bleeding. A reserve flight crew that was on board took control and landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia. The captain is recovering in stable condition and the suspect remains in Saudi custody. Netanyahu says preliminary information points to radical Islamist indoctrination on that copilot who launched that attack.

50:12Just a crazy story. A lot of heroes were created on board that aircraft. Before we go to our next commercial break, I want to tell you about a public policy partner that we are working with here at the Scotch Jennings Show. We trust these guys at the Mackinac Center for public policy for 40 years. They've stood at the nexus of economic opportunity, limited government and the rights of working people. They're working at Mackinac Secure a landmark Supreme Court victory called the Janus Decision that established that public employees including police firefighters, teachers, nurses and corrections officers cannot be forced to pay union fees as a condition of employment. Since Janus Mackinac helped one and a half million workers exercise their freedom to choose whether to remain in a union, you should send out this information about workers rights to everybody that you know. There's a website that's called advancing liberty dot us advancing liberty dot us send that out. There may be somebody out there who doesn't know their rights and you could help them out. Thanks to our friends at the Mackinac Center for public policy. Senator Dave McCormick is next.

51:16Stay with us. Fighting the left with the best weapon we have. Common sense. This is the Scotch Jennings Show. He represents one of the most important swing states in America. Senator Dave McCormick from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania joins us. Thank you for coming back to the Scotch Jennings Show. You just wrapped up your work in Washington this week. The Senate took off late last night and will come back after the election. It was a flurry of activity on the Senate floor this week, but not that many bills were actually passed. Unfortunately for my read because Democrats were blocking a bunch of common sense things such as voter ID and elections. They voted against a ban on congressional stock trading and then they stop the implementation of the rate payer protection act, which actually is on the minds of a lot of voters.

52:19Senator, what did you make of the Democratic obstruction on the floor of the Senate over the last few days? Well, it just shows you how desperate they are to win that they will literally stand in the way of 80-20 issues because they want to stop Republicans from having successes that are good for the American people and the rate payer protection. I mean, how much have we been hearing about rates, energy prices going up, concerns about data centers. And this was a bill that passed in the House with 200 Democrat votes. AOC, Hakeem Jeffrey voted for this bill in the House and the Democrats in the Senate would not move forward on it. Simply because Chuck Schumer didn't want to give a win to John Hughes' dead and Republicans. And he then, Chuck Schumer then stood up and did a press conference that said the bill was a fraud. This was the bill that 200 Democrats voted for. So the obstruction, it's really, really disappointing. I mean, truck, the stock trading. That's something since the first day in Congress, I've said we need to put restrictions on members being able to trade stocks and voter ID, 80-20 issues.

53:31So, listen, we need to go make our case to the American people. We've made great things happen with a Republican majority, President Trump's leadership, securing the border, stopping the flow of fentanyl, energy dominance, lowest violent crime rate in decades, lowest poverty rate in decades, more money in the pockets of the American people, despite the increasing gas prices, which is definitely stinging many Americans. And we're running against people that are embracing a socialist ideology. So we got to get out there on the campaign trail and make the case. But if anybody's wondering what the Democrats are for, they're not for the American people because these are issues that most Americans agree with. Yeah, that's a good question. What are they for? I mean, I hear a lot of criticism of Donald Trump, and I hear a lot of criticism of Republicans, but I'm not seeing much evidence that the Democrats have an agenda. You ask a Democrat what they would do, and you get very little substance of answers back from them. And this week, in concrete evidence on the floor of the Senate, we saw them block a bunch of stuff that overwhelming majorities of the American people say they want.

54:36It's pretty troubling, actually, that this is where their party is heading into the midterm election. Something else that did not get done, but may, actually, there may be a silver lining or a glimmer of hope here, is on the issue of permitting reform. And Republicans and Democrats, I know you've been involved with this Senator, have been trying to hash out a deal on energy permitting reform. We've talked about it a lot here on the show. There was some hope it might get voted on before you left, but it looks like it's been teed up to be voted on as soon as you get back after the election. Talk to us about this deal that's been struck between the two parties, at least for now, on energy permitting reform and getting more projects out there in the marketplace. Listen, I think it's the single most important thing we could do for the American people. And it's not just energy policy, it's economic policy, because there's a trillion and a half dollars sitting on the sidelines waiting to be invested. And it's hung up in this permitting process. An average permit requires five and a half years in America to get a pipeline permit or a drilling permit. It took three and a half years to win World War II.

55:43So this is absurd. And we're in a fight for real leadership in AI with China. And to do that, you need compute power and have compute power. You need energy. So this is a really, really big deal. I'm, I'm, I'm cautiously optimistic. We're going to get this done. You have a deal that Senator Capito from West Virginia has been leading the charge along with Chairman Lee from the Energy Committee, which I'm on. They've done a great job. Senator Heinrich is the ranking member on energy, I think, is given a lot of positive indications that he thinks there's a path through this. And I talked to the president about it. And I really believe it's a legacy issue for him. And it'll bring down energy prices, which is the thing I hear in Pennsylvania, wherever I go, the people are feeling the bite of energy. So big deal. Lane doc, I think offers real possibilities to get this done. And I am going to be pushing for it. I think it's the most important thing we could do for my state.

56:43And in the deal, since both parties are involved here, I assume we are going to see the Democrats accept the fact that we're going to need some fossil fuel projects permitted out there. And the Republicans are going to have to accept some renewable energy products like solar and wind. And we even saw reports that President Trump himself is willing to relent on some of his opposition to wind and solar. So it feels like everybody here is locking arms and giving in a little bit on something that perhaps some people in their own parties wouldn't appreciate. But that's what it takes to get a deal done. And it seems like that's what you've been able to put together, Senator. Yeah, I think that's right. And listen, here's the bottom line. As Republicans and conservatives, I think we should be for no subsidies. So, you know, I voted to get eliminated all the subsidies on alternative energy sources. But we should let the market decide where the capital is going to go to produce the best energy and the best return on investment. If we let that happen and let that capital be unhindered by regulations, the slow things down to create uncertainty, we're going to have an energy boom.

57:53Unlike anything we've ever seen, we are so energy rich. And what's what's clear now more than ever is energy is not just about our economy and energy security. It's about national security. And because we're energy dominant, we have not suffered as much as other parts of the world from what's happening in the Middle East and the straight up or moose. But, but that should remind us how important it is that we be an energy superpower. And President Trump's been great on this issue, but he can only do so much with executive orders. And if we don't lock this in and we get a Democratic president or Democratic majority in the House or Senate down the road, we're not going to have the kind of reform this needed. So, it's a moment in time. Don't think of the same thing we could do that would be more important for the American people. Senator Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania, as our guest here on the Scott Jennings show, Senator, a lot of folks around the country are noticing your friendship and often partnership with your fellow senator from Pennsylvania Democrat John Federman.

58:53I'm interested in hearing more about your relationship because it's very unique. You've got a Democrat and Republican from a swing state who spend a lot of time together and are seemed to be friendly and working on solving problems together. Your latest partnership, actually I noticed this morning, you have a joint op-ed in the free press. And it says we are two United States senators from different parties, but we agree that a social media driven meltdown and partisan posturing will solve nothing we can't govern by ex post. The topic is how to deal with artificial intelligence and America's Americans concerns about it. Tell us about your peace with Federman and then let's talk about how you all find a way to get along out there despite the partisan divide. Well, I feel really lucky. One of my biggest surprises coming into the Senate was the friendship we've forged. And this is a guy who campaigned against me. And he votes with the Democrats 90% of the time, more than 90% of the time. So it's not like we agree on everything. But what we agree on is that we want to find ways to work together for the good of Pennsylvania.

1:00:03We agree that we're going to have each other's backs and we're not going to play political games. And I trust him. And I think he trusts me. And that's allowed us to do great things advocating for efforts to halt the flow of fentanyl and supporting the nip on. U.S. field deal, which has been a huge huge for Western Pennsylvania where we both live. We both grew up in rural Pennsylvania and small towns that got gutted by globalization. And so we just forged a great partnership. You know, when we first got when I first got in the Senate, we went with our wives out to dinner and he had his hoodie and his shorts on. We read a Brazilian restaurant in Pittsburgh and people were lined up around the restaurant to get a selfie with him because everybody recognizes him. And he four or five selfies in. He looked over very embarrassed. He said, hey, Jesus, send us or two. No one knew who the hell I was. So it is an odd couple. But we found we found common ground and what we both think on AI is we need to figure out a way to put these data centers in communities that want them that are that are great for for those communities.

1:01:07The great economic engines and there's a right way to do this that these communities will embrace them. We agree that we need to help workers retrain so far the AI boom has only created new jobs, but it will just be disruptive at some point. We need to make sure our workers are ready. We need to protect our kids and we need to we need to be very careful about the government over reaching in terms of trying to regulate AI because I'm in the government and I'm telling you, we should not have faith that government is not going to be able to do this. That government bureaucrats are capable of calling balls and strikes with these models. So we got to make sure the liability for these AI companies is clear and we got to induce them to start being much more purposeful about self regulation enforcement and compliance, which the president's announcement at the White House a day ago was a great step forward. I think there's probably a little more to do there, but that was a great step forward. So we agree on that and we want to set the tone. This is a partisan issue. Man, this is something where we got to be country first and above party and deal with this incredibly transformative moment.

1:02:13Senator McCormick, I've noticing that a lot of Democrats seem to be settling on this idea around artificial intelligence or super intelligence guardrails and it goes something like this. Well, we'll embed people from the government and all of these companies to keep an eye on them. I've heard numerous Democrats making that argument. Is that a non starter for most Republicans or is that something that we ought to be considering? No, I'm a business person. I mean, I just I'm practical. That will never work. The government people that were sitting inside of Silicon Valley bank when it went upside down. The government people who told us to shut down the government and shut down the economy during COVID. The folks from the Federal Reserve that were in these banks during the great financial crisis. We are unequipped. The government is unequipped to have government employees inside these companies calling balls on strikes. So that's why I think the idea that the industry should play a leadership role.

1:03:14The government needs to be involved, particularly on understanding models that could have bio-caror risk or nuclear threat risk. But we should commend that with a lot of humility that the government that we did. There's a lot we don't understand. We can't stand the way of innovation and the government if we're not careful could do far more damage than good. If we try to get in the middle of this innovation jug or not. And the companies really need to have a lot of care. There was a, you know, entropic just called it's S1 to go public. And then it's S1. It said, you know, there's a chance this technology could destroy humanity more or less. And we want to raise a couple hundred bucks in the same document. And that seems incoherent to me. So in other words, the government, the companies have a responsibility and a liability associated with what they do. And they need to take that responsibility very seriously. So that's the outline of what Federer and I say in the op-ed.

1:04:17Senator McCormick, we got about 20 seconds left here midterm elections are coming up to send it's out of session. You're now available. Are you planning to go out and campaign around the country for Republicans this fall? I'm I'm not going to endorse and going to help anybody that wants my help. And we got to win. We got a great track record to run on. There's still work to be done. And my cock can be campaigned with me in 24. And he said, there's only two ways to run paranoid or unopposed. We got to be paranoid. And I'm going to do everything I can to help. All right. That's Dave McCormick, Senator from Pennsylvania in the middle of some of the most important policy issues in Washington DC and making a real difference for his state. Senator, thanks for coming on. The Scotch Jennings show will check in with you in a few weeks. And we are going to take a break and wrap up today's episode right after this. Stay with us. The very definition of never back down here, Scott Jennings.

1:05:17All right. Before we get to Henry Olson, our elections analyst, I want to talk to you about investing in gold and silver. And when I think about these matters, I think of only one partner that I trust. It's called noble gold investments. They take something that sometimes feels complicated and they make it very simple, whether you want bars and coins or you want to put some gold and silver in an IRA, whatever. Noble gold is here to guide you. They're one of America's most trusted precious metals dealers. They put your interest first. They will not give you a one size fits all plan. That's what I think I like most about noble gold. They'll ask you for information about your thing. Like what's in your portfolio? What are your goals? What are your questions? And then they give you answers that are tailored to your specific situation. That's what you're looking for here. And that's what noble gold investments will give you. My advice is to call them up. Tell them Scott Jennings sent you. Here's their number 877-646-5347. Or you can visit them online at noblegoldinvestments.com.

1:06:21Again, mention my name Scott Jennings, all new investors who open a qualified account, get a limited edition to now Silver Bar commemorating America's 250th anniversary. Free Silver Bar? Sounds pretty good. 877-646-5347. Or noblegoldinvestments.com. Tell them Scott Jennings sent you their way. All right, let's wrap up the show and talk elections. Our friend Henry Olson is back. Henry, you've got a piece in the Washington Post today. You've taken a lot of polling data and sort of crunch it into a model to try to start to make some assessments about what the Democrats should be hoping possibly to do, at least in the House elections. Take a minute. Tell us what's in your model and what's in your piece today in the Washington Post. Yeah, my model takes a look at the generic congressional ballot where fullster just as people, hey, who you vote and force the House of Representatives, a Democrat or a Republican. And then I compare that margin to the actual partisan margins in the 2024 presidential race.

1:07:23What we know is that for the last 10 years, we have the lowest amount of split ticket voting, which is if you vote for a Republican for president, you're probably going to vote for Republican for Congress and vice versa. So most people win seats that their parties nominee carried. And so what this does is gives us an estimate of the partisan lean in this environment, not two years ago, in this environment when the Democrats have such a large lead. And what my model comes up with is Democrats should expect to win 225 House seats if the election were held today based on what the polling results show. Henry, and that would be a majority. Henry, are you seeing any movement in the generic ballot? In other words, is it creeping towards Democrats, having away from them or is it pretty stable right now? Last week it went up by about a point. It was going to averaging around 7.3 and then it hit as high as 8.7. Now it's at 8.3. We'll see whether or not that starts to come back in another direction. We've seen in the past from this point polls can change by as much as a point and a half over the last month.

1:08:34Obviously a point and a half in the Republican direction would bring the Democrats down to the mid sixes. And that would reduce the number of seats that they'd likely win and maybe give Mike Johnson an outside chance of remaining speaker. Henry, what do you think the biggest issue is for Republicans right now? Is it losing sort of persuadable independence who are in the middle or is it just struggling to get their own voters motivated to turn out in this election? The biggest issue is going to be that persuadable group is that the reason Donald Trump won was not because people loved him. It's because 8% of Americans didn't like either him or Kamala Harris, but he won that by a large margin. Those people are not voting for Republicans right now and then independence who might have liked Trump two years ago have sourred on Republicans. And what we see in a lot of these polls is that when Republicans can run even with independence or close to even like Susan Collins or Ashley Henson, they're doing pretty well.

1:09:38But most Republicans are losing by big double digits and that's the single biggest problem. You cut that margin among independence from being down 20 or 30 in some of these races to being down five or 10 and a lot of these races will come back for Republicans regardless of partisan turnout. Henry Olson is with the ethics and public policy center one of the best elections analysts and forecasters in Washington DC writes a column for the Washington Post. You can read about his forecast Henry before we go and in the show today. Five seconds short answer. I know you're forecasting a Democrat House majority. Are you forecasting a Democrat majority in the Senate presently? I don't have a model for that. I think that one is on the cusp. If you made me to bet I'd say bet yes, but there's 33 days left to go. A lot of time to change. Okay, well on that went blanket news Henry. Henry Olson, thanks for coming by the Scotch heading show will have will have more news and we got economic forecasting and data to do tomorrow. Come back please.

1:10:42It's Scott Jennings on sale. Thanks for being here. When someone you love is hurting what do you do? We're often quick to say if there's anything I can do just let me know. But what if we stopped waiting to be asked and simply showed up on the if there is anything I can do podcast Pam McConnell shares real stories biblical wisdom and practical ways to walk alongside people through grief loss and life's hardest moments.