ADAM MORGAN STOPS BY 5/21/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome back to the program Adam Morgan. He is a former South Carolina State Representative and former chairman of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus. And he is known as one of the most outspoken conservative voices that I personally love to listen to and turn to, follow on Twitter. And he's been following the redistricting topic, the constant play-by-play. And also I have some questions about Governor Henry McMaster's most recent appointment of Dr. Brandon Trackler as the I think she's the acting public health director or official. So uh joining us is Adam Morgan. Good morning.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

So good to hear from you. Um thank you for agreeing to uh give us some insight here. So maybe you can give us uh deliver the news, be a news reporter of sorts, and give us the latest news on the overnight redistricting fight that's going on in the uh state senate.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Yeah, it's been a a fast process, and if you go back just a few weeks ago, every Republican leader in South Carolina, like the Speaker of the House, the majority leader, the governor, the majority leader in the House and Senate, all said they did not want to redistrict and they weren't going to do it. Sorry that the Supreme Court ruled that uh minority-majority districts are racist and unconstitutional because they're drawn on race. Everybody knows they're unconstitutional, but yet we had them for years, and Republicans didn't want to fix that, which just blows my mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Neither did the Democrats, to be honest, because they had what they wanted.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Yeah, the Democrats loved it. I mean, it the reality is there's that um uh the Pro Publica article that exposed that Jim James Kleibern, Jim Clevern's the one that helped them draw his own district.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

And uh so they're complaining about it, but yeah, the whole thing is that the House flipped after President Trump got involved, and they have now passed it. It was a long slog, there were tons of amendments, 500-something amendments. Democrats did everything they could to stall it, but Republicans pushed it through. Uh McMaster obviously did a complete 180 after saying he didn't want to support it over and over again. He called the special session, he says he'll sign it now, and so that leaves the last remaining block is the Senate. And Shane Massey is the majority leader. And by the way, why do we have such bad majority leaders in Republican politics?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Like, why? Why a soon holding up the Save America and ruining all the good bills in the U.S. Senate? And then here in South Carolina, our Republican senators elected Shane Massey, who has stalled this from the beginning. He killed it once in the Senate already. Um anyway, it's just maddening. But the only way they can work around him is to invoke cloture, which limits debate. Because, you know, the Senate can filibuster and you know drag things out forever. If they don't get this done by next Tuesday, that's when early voting starts.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

So they they have to get this done before next Tuesday, and Memorial Day is Monday. So that we're on a very tight deadline.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

But they said they're willing to work through Memorial Day weekend.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Yes, I've heard that. Believe it when I see it.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Well, Shane Massey also said he just, you know, it's great for South Carolina to have a strong, vibrant Democrat Party.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Isn't that insane? Yeah. He actually that's a real quote. How is that not a joke? Like that it's it's maddening that that's the the state of the Republican Party. But, you know, it it's par for the course. They just voted to hike their own pay, legislators, after raising uh 30% of taxpayers' taxes, and um after killing the one big beautiful bill, tax cuts, the no tax on tips, and no tax on social security, the the child tax credit, all of that's gone. The Senate just killed that a few weeks ago, and then they voted to raise their own pay. And then now they have this plan to spend, they think around ten billion dollars completely demolishing and renovating their offices for new legislative officers. But they said, and Shane Massey said, quote unquote, we couldn't afford the one big beautiful bill tax cuts, which was like $300 million. Uh that uh that would have been in all of our pockets, even though we have a billion dollar surplus. Yeah, I mean it's just it's just maddening. So that guy is the majority leader and he's already held it up once, and so what we can do right now is we've got to contact our state senators and tell them to invoke cloture and pass this thing as soon as possible. But get it done. It was racist in the past, it's racist now, no more race-based district.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

So we have Senator Greg Hembry that I reached out to, um, and he said that uh he was troubled by the fact that District Seven would include the Mount Pleasant area and that that would change a lot for District Seven. And um you know, I understand his point, sorta, but uh District Seven already includes very heavily uh Democratic districts at the moment, like Dillon and Marion, I mean not districts, but counties. And so is that a real a a real reason why to vote why he voted no, or what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02 5:26

No, the simple answer is absolutely not. Yeah, completely fake. So like think about this. The vote that he's saying he voted no was nearly the vote to take it up and debate it and p and amend it. So he wasn't because if he has a problem, why not offer an amendment and fix the map?

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

So he wasn't against that map. He's against any map. He won that the his vote was to leave the race-based Democratic-controlled Jim Clivern district intact. And yeah, if he's got a problem with Mount Pleasant being there, just offer an amendment to change it. But I would agree with you. I mean, you already have Democrat areas and and you know, being so uptight about specific lines when our current map break it violates the Constitution. Are you not going to defend the Constitution, which is you took an oath to?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Well, they said that the Constitution already made it stay, uh you know, and said that it was constitutional, but I wouldn't court, yeah. Yeah, um sorry, the Supreme Court. So I went back uh to look at that Alexander versus South Carolina, and it was really only about district one.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

It had nothing to do with sex. It didn't look at the whole map, it only looked at district one. And they said, okay, it's not racist, but they made it so a Republican would win, and then we got Nancy Mace.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yes, exactly. Yeah, the ruling specifically, the the issue was whether or not they used race-based districting to harm uh minorities, which is something they've dealt with in the past as well. And they said, no, this this particular change is it was just for a partisan reason. What they now ruled on in Calais is that any state, the government itself cannot use race-based to help minorities by creating minority majority districts. That's the new ruling, and it's a bombshell ruling that is common sense. And the minor min the uh sixth district is a minority majority district that was drawn in the 90s explicitly to have a minority minority district. And is it true racist and unconstitutional?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Is it true I'm just wondering, because there was a claim by Vince Everett Ellison that said he's the author of Iron Triangle, uh is it true that if a Republican white or black runs in district six, they get no GOP support. No money.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Because he's yeah, I mean I think they just resign that uh those two uh the numbers aren't good for them, so they focus in other areas, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Yeah. Okay, um let's move on to do we have any questions on the budget of lines technology about redistricting?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

No, I just had one question on that because the the person you were kind of sparring with in that clip that we played from 2023 was earlier this week that the reason why that we're trying to redistrict here in South Carolina is because we're doing what our leader does, which is cheat at elections. That means Trump. He literally said that.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Because you know, Republicans are the ones with the history on that of cheating elections. Absolutely. You can't make this stuff up.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

What about you know, people say, hey, listen, I'm all for redistricting. Let's just wait until, you know, January or the next census. What do you say to those people?

SPEAKER_02 8:32

I do I just say, do you want to follow the Constitution or not? It's crazy to me. It's like you you know it violates the Constitution, are you gonna defend it or not? Fix the map. Also, if if somebody does sue and wins uh after they go through with this election, it it the election can get thrown out and a judge could draw your your lines. Is that a great idea? I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Yeah, I mean the iron's hot right now. So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

So use it. Drag while it's hot.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Absolutely. Okay, let's move on to Brandon Traxler. What the hell is going on with Governor Henry McMaster and this whole COVID thing?

SPEAKER_02 9:08

I this is it's insane. This person, Dr. Traxler, was the person who who controlled all vaccine campaigns and rollouts during COVID. She pushed for mask mandates for the masks on kids, for the school closures, and all the learning loss that happened as a result of that. She pushed for vaccine mandates on workers and on and on, wanted businesses shut down longer and parks and everything. I mean, she was a uh COVID extremist pushing the propaganda from the CDC and the WHO, never questioning anything, and constantly going on the news, telling everybody about the death numbers and how the unvaccinated, pushing false narratives and false information. And Henry McMaster chooses her to be head of the public health. And by the way, the public health director, they have sweeping powers like regulatory powers, administrative powers, and emergency powers that'll keep you awake at night if you read them. I mean, she can she can quarantine us, she can shut down roads, she can control local law enforcement and make them, you know, enforce these directives that she pushes out, can do mandates and shutdowns. And it's insane. You know, I don't know if you saw the news about this, but we looked into her because we already knew she was a liberal from her work as you know during COVID. Turns out she donated to Biden, she donated to tons of people, including the guy, the Democrat, uh Joe Cunningham, who ran against uh Henry McMaster, to the guy that just appointed her. And he called to impeach Trump.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Why is he doing it?

SPEAKER_02 10:46

I because I think it's because he's leaving office. He deep down is is a liberal, and I mean his he made the uh the appointment. Uh, Brian, what's his name? It's the uh Democrat who he appointed as uh Comptroller General. I heard about that. Like, why the first time we've had a Democrat appointment in years. Uh, you look at his library board appointments, and they're they're raging liberals. And this is far for the course with this administration. They McMaster has been absent on almost every conservative issue, and when it comes down to the few powers that the governor has, I mean, the South Carolina governor is constitutionally weak. They really can't do what a lot of other governments are.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Oh, until there's COVID, then you could do whatever the hell you want.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Exactly. The one thing that he's got is the emergency powers and the appointments and the bully pulpit, and the emergency powers and appointments, he just put a radical liberal in charge of all that, and then the bully pulpit, he he never uses it to actually attack the establishment ever. I mean, he he literally said, I'm not going to weigh in one way or the other on redistricting.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

That's what he said.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

How is that using the bully pulpit? Yes. Right. So it's just maddening. We we need um we need better Republicans, we need strong leadership. That's why I can't wait to see who who wins this uh gubernatorial campaign for the Republicans, because I think I think actually almost all of them will be better than the current one.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Uh and I just we need strong leadership through all of these issues.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

You know, I haven't made a decision on who I'm going to vote for. Um, I know who I won't won't vote vote for, but I'm just thinking like they're all kind of mediocre. Nobody's really standing out. And now we have people showing up to debates and choosing not to, and you know, I don't know what to think about these things.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

To that point, if I were Pamela Avet, I would skip the debate too, because she literally went on radio and said, I think we should leave Traxler in there until I'm governor, you know, for for the next what eight months or whatever? Let's leave Traxler in there. It's not that pressing of an issue. Like that's insane. Oh yeah. Uh just the other day on a if if people have been freaking out about it.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, I mean, it's that that kind of that Traxler won't be there if in her administration. She said that. I heard that part. That I heard, but I didn't know she kind of framed it in that way. That's even worse.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Oh, yeah. She went on and said, Well, it'll be hard to find somebody, so we should just leave her in there until my administration comes in and then and then I'll choose somebody else. I'm like, are you crazy? Like, are you can't just say remove her now? Actually, uh, you know, with hentavirus looming and this new Ebola outbreak and all this stuff. I don't want her in there today, much less, you know, six months from now. And so that's the thing. There's a lot of those guys that are more of the same. I'm pushing Ralph Norman. That I've worked with him as the Freedom Caucus chair. He was he, I mean, he actually helped us start it and has been a strong conservative voice on pretty much all of our issues at the state level. And that can't be said for most of the candidates running. Uh, but I like I said, I do think pretty much all of them will be better than than Henry.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

So I'm glad he was the biggest disappointment for me. And COVID was just COVID was don't forget about rewriting history saying we never closed anything down.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Yeah, because I know. Yeah. I mean, do they think we're stupid?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Yeah, they do exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yeah, they do think we're stupid because people say because then people say like like a true abused uh victim, they say But we weren't as bad as the other places.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

I'm only partially pregnant.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

We weren't closed as long. And it's like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

It's it's gaslighting, it's absolutely gaslight. By the way, I just had a flashback. Do you guys remember the last time you had me on your show? Yes. You played the clip that you just did. Yeah. Where you know Rutherford says how like, you know, you're you said tell us to listen to folks back home, and I literally just blasted it, yes, listen to folks back home. Right. Who don't know anything about it? We were all laughing about yeah, well, but then then the ne I think it was the next day, uh, Pamela Evet came on your show. And y'all were asking her about Scout, and she was like, Oh yeah, these politicians, they just go on there and they they they say things for clips, clips. And I one of you I don't remember was like gobsmacked. You were like, wait, what? Because you mentioned, did you hear Adam's clip that's going viral? And yeah, the politicians just say things around and and you were like, What wait, you're you're saying that it's just yeah, Scout's a really great deal. It's gonna bring all these jobs. $1.3 billion of your tax money was handed out to a corporation who now is asking for more, had it made one car and chose to put their headquarters in Charlotte instead of Columbia after we gave them $1.3 billion to awoke multi-billion dollar. And look at your roads, look at your schools. Like, what are we doing? That's the kind it's just maddening. We need better Republicans. That's the answer. We need better Republicans.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

I I think we need Republicans. Let's start there.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

At least to be Republicans. I know.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

And you know, Adam, Adam, I have to ask you this question. Where were you born?

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Uh uh Texas originally, but I've lived in South Carolina since um goodness, like I think.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

I've been speed up on the text line because they're like, we need South Carolina born people to do that. I was like, and how can we make that after working for you? How can we make a lot of people? How does it rank in working for you? These are the people that are on the list of everybody that's a remote. We need term limits. They're always talking about some grown people.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Yeah. I think I care a lot more about what people actually think and how they'll vote and what their character is. Okay, whether they're more technically.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Adam Morgan, I gotta ask. It's the elephant in the room. Are you getting back in politics or not?

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Well, we'll see. I I'm really enjoying uh just you know throwing bombs on Twitter all the time. That's that's a lot of fun. You know, I've been around.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

What is it that you are you a lawyer? Are you what are you?

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Yeah, I joke I'm a recovering lawyer. I run a family business up here. Uh it's like a Christian music publishing company, and we do a kids' radio program on yeah, a lot of Christian radio called Patch the Pirate. Yeah, that's what I do, and then I dabble in politics, and you know, I am a lawyer, but I don't really take clients or anything.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

That's that's really interesting. I that was like one thing I just didn't know about you. Look at that. You're like an onion. You know, we're peeling back one layer later.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

But what I will definitely do is I will keep hounding the establishment and keep focusing on these issues because when you call them out, if you look back at the record on the even just redistricting and traxler, almost nobody's talking about it. So you've got to blow it up and hound them and point out the truth and get the word out to folks, and that's when things change.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Why are they such pansies? I can't take it. Like people are who are running for office or in office just not standing up for us, and we elect them and Because they know better than we do. They're all vanilla.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Yeah, that's part of it. Absolutely. Part of it's just an arrogance, but a lot of it is cowardice. I'd say that's the number one reason. I mean, you look at you're uh they don't want to buck leadership. And when you have leadership who are appointing Democrats to key committee chairs, I mean you have Gilda Cobb Hunter who called Moms for Liberty terrorists, and who is a radical, raging liberal, um, she's number two, the vice chair of ways and means that controls your budget, and you have the chair, uh the chair of all um health and human services money in the budget, like the entire committee of all of your healthcare stuff, that's Democrat, and the entire the committee is majority democrat. The the Democrat runs the family laws uh in uh judiciary. Snight here is not the committee. Yeah, exactly. I mean it's the child custody. Like, so you know, if you're if you don't think your kid should be, you know, trans and whatnot, that that she's gonna control the custody laws like they have in California. I mean, it's maddening that Democrats have that kind of power. And that that is by design, it's because our current leadership is chosen by Democrats and moderate Republicans. And the conservatives that are in the Freedom Caucus, uh like the 17 to 20 of that of that group, they were kicked out of the Republican caucus for uh sharing pictures of the public voting board on social media.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Right, I remember that. Yes, remember that?

SPEAKER_02 19:27

That's still a thing. They have never left them back in the caucus. They let a Democrat who flipped parties join their caucus immediately, but they they've refused to allow all the most conservative members who call out all this crap.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Uh they don't want them in the caucus. And so that it it literally is as simple as you have uh a lot of lawyer legislators who are Democrats, you have a lot of people who lean Democrat. I think you guys even have a rep down there who was a Democrat. Um, what what was she? She was like a co-captain for uh for Hillary Clinton for that the the campaign in 2016. And it's like, well, of course she pushes all liberal policies and has a terrible voting record. It's not like she just magically became a strong conservative one day. And so that that's why. We you have to vet these people and you have to actually elect fighters and then hold them accountable, watch their record, and if they're losers, vote them out and and get some good people in there.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, absolutely. Uh yeah, it was Carla Schusler who voted for Hillary Clinton and Obama. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Yeah, I mean she was a ca I think she was on the campaign. Yeah, oh like that's my understanding. You can fact check me on that. But yeah, I've I've been told she was a like captain, whatever, for uh Hillary Clinton in the area. Oh my gosh. And now she's pushing like the bill that passed last week. We have the most liberal um eviction laws now in the country because of a bill she pushed through, by the way, through a Democrat controlled committee on judiciary. And that that stuff's just r it should not be happening in South Carolina, and we should have a governor who is calling it out and doing everything he can to make it change.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Adam Morgan, we're up against a hard break. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Thanks for having me on.