The Charlie James Show Podcast

H1 - Segment 4 - Tue Aug 19 2025 - about 3 hours left to vote in sheriff’s race - folks on left looking for a MAGA rebrand

H1 - Segment 3 - Tue Aug 19 2025 - If you’re paying attention to the networks some shaking up is happening SC’s own Stephen Colbert done away with

H1 - Segment 2 - Tue Aug 19 2025 - President Trump had historic meeting w Putin in Anchorage Alaska and Historic meeting with Zelenskyy in Washington

H1 - Segment 1 - Tue Aug 19 2025 - Speaking of last night Rep Sheri Biggs Salute to Liberty in Anderson there were so many people there absolutely packed

H2 - Segment 3 - Mon Aug 18 - SC House District 17 Mike Burns

Well, everybody talks about, closing the primaries, but how many people are actually doing something about it? Joining us right now is, a state representative from the from the Seventeenth District, Mike Burns. Representative Burns, welcome to the program. Hope you're doing well. I am doing well, and I appreciate getting the chance to, talk on your show a little bit about a couple of bills.

I hope that, we'll be getting some hearings on them when we go back in January. I filed for many years, I filed the, closed the primary bill, I think, thirteen years now. 13 bill Murphy, thirty three ten. And then I've also filed multiple times. This year's version is, house bill thirty three eleven, which would, bring in watermark paper ballots.

So That is and well, let's get to that in just a second. But the the thirteen years you've been filing the these bills, has it surprised you how much pushback you've gotten against closing the primaries here in South Carolina? I'm shocked. There's a, Republican platform issue written in the documents for the state Republican platform. Right.

And we have a, we have a huge majority in the, state legislature, a super majority in both houses. Mhmm. And we can't get a hearing on it. And I can tell you why, but you'll have to ask me before I tell you why. Tell us why.

Well, many years ago, we had a different, judiciary committee chair. And one of the first years when I filed it, I found out it was never going anywhere. And the the proverbial question is, why not? You know, it's a republican platform issue. Many people across the state are interested in doing this.

And the answer I got was some of us can't get reelected if we pass this through. And so it's staying in the trash can. So instead of doing trash can for thirteen years. Instead of doing what the people of South Carolina want, they're just they're too busy covering their necks? Apparently so.

That was the answer that, came back. And I can tell you that senator Corbyn who preceded me in the house before he went to the senate, I happen to remember that he filed it before I got down there and filed it. So it's been multiple people who've worked on this, and I'm sure we're not the only two that have worked on it. Let's talk about closing the primary bill first. What now we know that there has been a bill prefiled, but this really doesn't go as far as everybody wants it to because it's still it's pretty ambiguous.

Right? The one that was was filed earlier well, late in last session? Well, I filed this one on the first day of pre filing. Mhmm. It's not got any press, obviously.

There's another bill that's a closed primary bill, but it doesn't go far as this bill goes. Right. Two differences. The differences between the two are the other bill will let independence crossover without penalty and vote as Republicans. My bill will only let Republicans elect Republicans in the primary and then, of course, in the general, anybody can vote how they want to.

Sure. Sure. But if you vote okay. So, have you gotten a lot of support? Because Sarita Edgerton, posted something today over on Twitter or Facebook or something.

She said basically the same thing you did that when she talked about this bill, somebody standing next to her said if this gets passed, I'm never gonna get reelected. I mean, that Yeah. That's I mean, that's Serita is the cosponsor on the bill. Steven Frank is. Josiah Magnuson and I are on the bill.

Bill Cholmonde supports it. We got we got a lot of local people that support this. I could go on and on and on. Well, how could the local people here don't match up with the rest of the state. Well, that's what I I wanna get to now.

How can the people of the Upstate help you out in getting this bill passed? Well, here's what's happened that, is probably not known, but I was, encouraged to file a letter on the last day of session when we left in May, asking for demanding ...

H2 - Segment 1 - Mon Aug 18 2025 - SC Solicitor David Pascoe about his run for SC Atty General

Months ago, and everybody was speculating what his plans were, and we found out this morning. Joining us right now is solicitor David Pascoe. Mister Pascoe, thanks for joining us this this afternoon. How are you? Yes, sir.

Doing great, Charlie. I appreciate you having me on. No more speculation today. No. No.

As it you you gotta admit, this is like the worst kept secret in the history of South Carolina politics. Right? Absolutely. That's why I didn't play any games. That was when I came up to Greenville a few months ago, I laid it out.

I knew then that I was gonna run for attorney general. So what what was it that made you decide to do that? We know that, Alan Wilson will be stepping down here shortly, to run for governor. What what made you throw your hat into the ring here? The corrupt the numb look.

I've got four major goals. I laid them out today. I'm gonna lay them out again tomorrow night in Greenville. But the overwhelming reason why I ran or why I'm running is because I'm tired of the corruption in Columbia. And as I've said many times, you cannot ticket corruption, you have to crush corruption.

The greatest days of my thirty two years of being a prosecutor was when I was the special prosecutor that took down the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Tem of the Senate, the two majority leaders, and we sent the judiciary chairman of the House to prison. And they were the most rewarding years I had, but they were without a doubt the most challenging years I ever had. And I wanted to go further because corruption in Colombia goes much, much deeper than those convictions. But when I tried to go further, the Supreme Court told me I had to stop because they said, Pascua, you're not the attorney general, so you can't go any further. Well, today, I decided to do something about it, and I'm running for attorney general to get back to Columbia and crush the culture of corruption that we have up there in the general assembly.

You know, when, we were at dinner a couple of months ago, I asked you the question, was corruption worse then, or is it worse now? And your answer was? Now. Nobody's watching. At least during the corruption probe, there was some fear and people started doing the right thing, but nobody's watching.

I got a phone call I get phone calls every day, certainly every week, but I got one just last Thursday from someone saying, Pasco, the illegal lobbying that is going on up here is incredible. What can we do about it? And I said, I feel your pain. Give me about a year, year and a half, and I'm gonna get up there and we're gonna stop it. So when when and you're gonna make this announcement in Greenville, tomorrow night.

What time is that is that, talk gonna be? It's tomorrow night, 06:30, Wade Hampton High School. And this is and I know people are going to say Pasco is overstating it or I'm blowing this up. I promise you all this, please come because it is going to be the most important presentation of any candidate for any office this year because not only am I going to lay out what some of the culture of corruption is in Columbia, but I'm going to tell you exactly what I'm going to do on day one. And I promise you, it's things that will be done on day one and it's things that no other candidate for office has ever thought about even doing.

And I'm gonna do those things. Are people going to be shocked? I think they're gonna be shocked at what I say tomorrow that I'm gonna do, but the people are not shocked about the selfish government and the corruption that takes place at the state house. Are we gonna be shocked about the the players? I don't think they will.

Really? I don't think they will. And I'm not gonna point out any players right now. I'm not gonna play the game of the Leticia Jameses of the world, up in New York. Prosecutors shouldn't do that, and they should only lay out what the what the fact ...

H1 - Segment 4 - talking with SC District 3 Rep Sherri Biggs about her event tonight at The Anderson Civic Center

Good to see. Hey, Chad. Good to hear you. You know? Alright?

You're good. I just got to, shake hands with Chad Conley as he walked in here like he's a VIP or something. Welcome back to the program. We are waiting. Representative Sherry Biggs.

She'll be here in just a moment. We're gonna talk to her because this is her event. I mean, this is this is this is her event. This is the this is the big, thing that she is doing. They were now normally and I was talking to some folks, in the know.

They say when, you know, first term congresswoman, comes in, they hold an event like that, you might expect three, four hundred people. Folks, they are set up and ready for about 1,200 people in there tonight, and this place is gonna get absolutely slam packed as, the representative is making her way to the, to the radio setup that we have here and quite the entourage that she has, of course. But it's gonna be a fantastic night. Again, we are hearing that they do have am I right about this? Banana pudding tonight.

There is gonna be banana pudding. That's what we're hearing. So that's always good. Again, we are at the Anderson Sports And Entertainment Complex. If you would like to, come on out here, and I know you would, we got governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

She is gonna be on the, on the stage speaking tonight. You always wanna take a good opportunity to hear that woman speak because she is absolutely amazing. She is just so fantastic. Congresswoman Sherry Biggs, could you just scoot right over there for me just a little bit? There you go.

That would be absolutely perfect. Thank you very much. Joining us right now alright. Let me ask you something. We'll just start with this.

How long ago did you start planning this event? Hold on just a second. Let me make sure you're all you ready to go? I think I'm ready. Alright.

How long ago did you start planning this? We've been working on this for months. My team, has done a great job and worked really hard. And so, how many people got involved in in in the planning and the operation of all this? Well, we have a lot of volunteers, that I'm very grateful for their support, and they've worked with us early on, and we couldn't do this.

My team is fairly small, and we couldn't do this without their help. You know, you and I briefly talked out in the, in the lobby there. What president Trump is doing has just been I mean, it's nothing short of absolutely remarkable. What are we going on, almost seven months, two days from from seven months into the end of this administration? It's been absolutely earth shattering what he's been able to do.

It has. And it's exciting to be a part of that. And it's exciting for the Third District to see what this means, to my constituents. And, you know, I looked up. You have a 100% freedom index score in voting with president Trump on his initiatives.

That's that's something to be mighty proud of. Well, I I think it represents what the what the Third District believes in. And I believe that, I'm going to Washington to work for them, so I'm voting as I feel like, my constituents expect me to. What I mean, when you see what's going on in Washington and you see the people that are fighting back against Trump, and does it does it make you wonder why? What is their agenda?

What's their initiative to do that? You know, I think they're putting themselves first, as far as I'm concerned. I understand what the president's doing. He has been very clear and concise about what his expectations are. He talked about this during, you know, during his campaign before he was elected.

Mhmm. And he's kept his promises. So I personally don't see the need in going against him, especially when what he's doing is advancing our, our liberties and taking care of of America. Absolutely. Mike Johnson is I mean, mean, Mike Johnson and, of course, Thune over in the senate ...

And welcome to the program on this Monday afternoon as we are broadcasting live from the Anderson. I call it the Civic Center, but I think the actual name is the Anderson, Sports And Entertainment Complex. That's we wanna be very precise about that as we were getting ready for representative Sherry Bigg's Salute to Liberty, that is gonna be going on this afternoon. I'll tell you what. I just walked into the main auditorium.

We're in the VIP area right now. Just walked over into the main auditorium. It looks fantastic. It really, really does. It looks absolutely amazing.

So it's gonna be a great event tonight. And, if you haven't got your your tickets yet, you can always go online. I think you can go to salutetoliberty.org, or you can go over to Eventbrite and, check out those there now. For an event like this, first term congresswoman, you know, expecting maybe four or 500 people, except tonight, they are saying they've already had reservations for over 1,200, and that is, that is gonna be a huge event. Of course, we got, governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders gonna be here later on this afternoon.

And, that is, that's a oh, a huge draw. She is what a a a wonderful, wonderful conservative Sarah Huckabee Sanders is. Let's see. Charlie, I just read an interesting article about Laura Loomer and Lindsey Graham. We'll talk about that article coming up because I have seen that all weekend long.

But I guess the big news right now is that Volodymyr Zelensky, was at the White House today. And let me tell you something. You wanna talk about a change between what happened today at the White House and what happened a few months ago at the White House. Everything was different. A couple of months ago, Zelensky walked into the White House with an attitude.

So once the Zelensky walked into the White House with with a sweatsuit on and and combat boots, he walked in with with just such arrogance and it you know what? It did not play well with Donald Trump. It did not play well with JD Vance. Today, much more subdued, much more relaxed. In fact, they were joking and kidding around there in the White House about Zelensky's suit.

I said the one that attacked you last time. I wanna go back and get this this whole comment here. President Zelensky, you look fabulous in that suit. I said the same thing. Yeah.

Look. You look good. I said the same thing. Yeah. It was good.

I said the one that attacked you last time. See? That was an I remember that. I apologize to you. Look you look wonderful.

No. My first question for you, president Zelensky. In the same suit. You see, I changed your eyes. Maybe yours is better.

Much more levity, much more lighthearted, much more, shall I say, respectful of the office of the presidency of the United States. So that happened today. Also, there was there there was some talks about, Zelensky, giving up some land. He said there's there's not gonna be any redrawing of maps. Of course, this is all a negotiation.

We will see about that. But remember, it was during the, during the Biden administration that everybody said in order for there to be peace in Ukraine, Ukraine was gonna have to give up something. And old Joe Scarborough even reminded us of that over on Morning Joe today. Let's take a listen to what he said there. Here we go.

Hold on just a second. Here's old Morning Joe. Oh, I'm turning the wrong knob here. Hold on. I got a 100 knobs here.

Here we go. Wait a minute. Doggone it. Here we are. Thanks, sir.

Just again, to set expectations, to be realistic. Even during the Biden administration, every Biden official, including the chairman of the joint chief says they're gonna have to give a plan. They're not gonna like giving up land, but they're gonna have to give a plan, number one. Number two, they're not going to become members of NATO. There may have been people writing articles in the Wall Street Journal or elsewhere saying they have to be members of NATO, but you go around to every European leader, th ...

Hour 2 - Segment 4 - Thurs Aug 14 2025 - The Sheriff's Runoff Debate - Rusty Clevenger vs. Bill Rhyne hosted by Charlie James part 4 of 4 -

You know, we just talked about, community policing, the importance of the average citizen in law enforcement. There's a new study that was done by NPR, and I hate to quote them, but NPR said that most people don't report crime because they just don't feel like anything is going to be done about it. Bill Ryan, can you just let the people know that they're very important? Absolutely. This is about taking a proactive choice and making a proactive choice, not just from law enforcement, but also from the people.

You know? We need to be a proactive agency. We need to not be a reactive agency. When you become a reactive agency, what is happening is crime's already taken place. That's where I get back to talking about crime prevention.

We need to if you are proactive, you begin to reduce crime. You absolutely 100% that has to be the mindset of the people too because they want crime to go down. If they see things, they need to report it. They need to talk to us. Just as Rusty gave an example just a minute ago, it takes just one thing, just the smallest of things, and we say this all the time with, like, hit and runs.

We would have, say, a felony DUI with death, and it was a hit and run. How many people saw that crash? I mean, let's let's realistically think about how much traffic is. Now, they could have been in the area they might not have seen it, but in most cases, there's gonna be a lot of traffic around those areas. Some people just choose to not get involved.

I don't know if it's because of fear of, repercussions. I I really don't know what it is, but we all have to have a, vested interest in our county. And, you know, this is such a wonderful area to live. You start looking at Spartanburg County. You start looking at Greenville County and the growth rate.

Let me tell you something. Greenville and Spartanburg County are what drive the state of South Carolina and will continue to drive the state of South Carolina for years to come. Mister Clevedger, how can we assure people that when they do report a crime, something's gonna be done about it? Intelligence is a an unbelievable important part of law enforcement now. And as Bill stated, you know, we've gotta look at, doing something before crime's actually committed.

If we can, you know, work a vandalism that might lead up to a more serious crime burglary, other things. That's definitely worth our time and, you know, to make sure that, the citizens are are taken care of, and it could be as simple as that. And so the most minute thing may just like I was talking about just a moment ago, the most minute thing or the the the littlest of information that's passed on, is extremely important. But I believe your question was, you know, can the citizens rest assured that sheriff's office is gonna be receptive and responsive to those issues? Yes.

I've, if I were elected sheriff, yes, I would make sure that was a priority because that's the way I was as a detective. I actually won a crime stoppers award one year while I was a detective, and that is citizens calling in, making sure that, you know, their concerns are heard and understood. And following through with that is what got me that award that year. And simply, I mean, simply put, if you're doing a great job, if you're, you know, a good detective, you're following through with that. And as sheriff, I would evaluate and make sure we have good detectives in that, in that department to make sure and take care of the crimes and hopefully solve them before we have something more serious come up.

I wanna thank the folks from Palmetto House Republican Women. We've got Debbie Baker joining us. Debbie, do you have a question for the candidates? And I think this is going to involve some of our students in Spartanburg. Right?

Yes. Thank you, Charlie. I am also a sitting board member on Spartanbur ...

Hour 2 - Segment 3 - Thurs Aug 14 2025 - The Sheriff's Runoff Debate - Rusty Clevenger vs. Bill Rhyne hosted by Charlie James part 3 of 4 --

I have a really good question from one of our texters over on the common sense retirement planning text line. We're about to elect, the first new sheriff in Spartanburg County in twenty years. We'll throw this one out to to you, Rusty. Do you believe in term limits for sheriff? I sure do.

And how long should that be? Well, I particularly have, set a term limit on myself of seven years. It would be the remainder of this term and one more if I'm, elected sheriff. Alright. And you, Bill?

Yes. I I do believe in term limits. And mine varies just a little bit. I I do think and you you get into a really gray area when you start talking about term limits because you run yourself and you back yourself into a corner. So let's just hypothetically say if you said it was twelve years.

So, they get out and they work really, really hard their first two terms, but what holds them accountable to working hard that last term with they know that they're going to finish? Are they still gonna be doing what you expect them to do? That doesn't change the fact that I believe in term limits because, you know, if you look at a lot of the standards within the military, if you get stuck in the same rank for ten years, you're probably not gonna be in the military too much longer because you're no longer effective at that point in time. You have to surround yourself with people that are gonna want to challenge you, that are gonna want to hold you accountable, that are gonna push you to continue to get better. But, you know, as as mister Clevenger said, you know, I'm 50.

The maximum that I would do would I would finish out this three year term. And then if elected again, I would do two more terms for a maximum of eleven years because I would never do more than twelve years at its at its max. Mister Ryan, you brought up a minute ago about mental health. Yes, sir. Are there situations now we know that one of the most dangerous situations that a deputy can be in is when he's called to a domestic violence situation or domestic situation.

Are there certain instances where law enforcement deputies should back off and mental health professionals go in and take, I don't wanna say control of the situation, but me be more forward in the situation? That's that's too subjective of a question to be able to actually answer that honestly because if it's a situation that you have to deal with it right right away. So we'll look at what took place at Westgate Mall this past week. Right. That individual obviously was suffering from some type or at least appeared to be suffering from some type of mental illness at that point in time.

Obviously, that's not confirmed, but based on what you're seeing from videotape, they were they were I mean, there there was something else going on there other than somebody just being combative and not wanting to do what they said. So, you know, in that situation, they posed an immediate threat. There's not a time limit for mental health to come in. Certainly, if you ran into a situation where there was not an immediate threat that you could bring somebody out in with that expertise if you had those relationships, then that may be something that you would consider. But at the end of the day, it boils down to more of getting your officers the proper training that they need so they can recognize those mental health issues that they're dealing with and providing them with the training that they can actually kinda cross that and bridge that gap between mental health and law enforcement.

Because there's no reason to think that a law enforcement officer could not be trained in such a manner that they could have those same techniques and information those mental health specialists, are dealing with to be able to deescalate those situations and help them, bring that situation to a close. Mister Cleverj ...