Vos Calling It Quits (Hour 1)

Transcript

Vos Calling It Quits (Hour 1)

Civic Media Mornings · Fri Feb 20, 2026

Kathryn Lake

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Sure.

It is, Jamie, we got, it's big week all around, so we gotta try to wrap it up as best we can.

We

do.

And our gaze turns a couple blocks to the, what is it, from the studio east?

I don't know my directions, but I can see the capital right now.

It's over there.

It's down there.

When

I look to my left, I can see the Capitol.

There we go.

Because as you know, the legislature is gaveling out.

They need a nine-month vacation.

They've worked very hard, and they've tried to jam everything into this week.

The biggest news coming out yesterday, oh my goodness, I guess you had heard some rumblings.

I

had.

Bob and Voss.

Announcing that he is not going to seek reelection.

Oh my goodness.

Yes.

And obviously this will bring an end to a fairly historic run in state government.

He's 57 years old.

He's the longest serving speaker in Wisconsin history, holding that post for 13 years and of course shaping the Republican agenda for almost two decades.

Now he has said he's made this decision.

He made this decision last November.

He suffered a mild heart attack then and he's being

to reduce his stress.

Of course, lawmakers... He got nine months vacation.

How much... Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are reacting, obviously, today, some with emotion as he shared the news.

Voss will serve out the remainder of his term.

Meanwhile, he has also agreed to allow assembly votes on two previously shared bills.

We're gonna talk about those in just a moment.

And we're gonna actually have a representative from the 40th Assembly District, Karen DeSanto, joining us this morning.

You know, I think this is interesting because he really is heading off on that extended vacation, and it's not just ending the session early.

And I can be happy for anybody who's going to retire, but I'll admit in this case with Robin Voss, this news makes me just a little bit giddy.

He has a track record, and if you don't remember what his track record is, he's not just another assembly speaker.

He's not just there greenlighting things and being a gatekeeper.

He

is.

He is.

And he was the key legislative partner to former Governor Scott Walker.

He was a driving force behind the Walker agenda, as people like to call it.

Starting in 2013, he helped move through some of the most consequential as well as controversial policies in Wisconsin history, Act 10, effectively ended collective bargaining for public workers, income tax cuts, right to work at legislation, voter IDs, and then you also don't forget...

Foxconn, that incentive package that went awry, right?

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And

then after he lost in 2018, Walker, that is, Voss led that lame duck session that essentially stripped powers from Governor Tony Evers.

So that was pretty much the legacy he's going to leave behind in the state of Wisconsin.

I know his reasonings and his...

explanation for his retirement make perfect sense you want to worry you got to worry about your health and stuff and he he always seemed older to me than he actually is 57 is young I wonder if there's any little part of Robin Voss's mind that is looking at the polls looking at the way things are going and thinking boy are the Republicans run maybe coming to an end for a while because the public is not happy with the way things are going on a national level right

and that always carries over to the state level.

So I wonder if there's any of that in his thinking, or if he's just the kind of guy who would never see that coming.

Not that he wouldn't see it coming, but he just wouldn't admit

or

acknowledge

that there was even a

possibility.

He's very calculating.

And don't forget that a lot of people in this state have basically referred to him as a shadow governor, especially why Walker was in office.

So Robin Boss is very calculating and

You know, whether you love him, you hate him.

Some people I know, I was following on social media yesterday, reading comments, which I know you should never do.

But I was,

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because I'm a glutton

for punishment.

There were a lot of people who were very sad that he was stepping down and leaving this role.

And then there were others who were probably happier than I was seeing this news.

And let's be realistic, he's been in that role for over a decade.

Maybe get some new blood even for the Republican Party, right?

I mean, it's just, I feel like that's- You

think there's any politics in the future for Robin Voss?

Could there be a future gubernatorial run?

That's where I keep going.

That's

where my mind keeps going.

So I guess we'll see.

I mean, if being Speaker of the House and greenlighting everything the Republicans do is too stressful for the heart, we'll see if being in a higher level office would be ideal for him.

They're not out for nine months.

They

don't get that long vacation.

Well, unless you have Mike Johnson as your Speaker of the House and then, yes, you do give up.

There's going

to be a vote.

True.

If not, they hang around.

They do

some work or something.

They do

things, little things here and there.

But yes, if there's a big consequential vote coming up that you don't like, just

everybody go home.

It's two weeks.

We'll give you two weeks, because they even take two-week vacations.

They get us their plans in two weeks.

Everything's two weeks with this particular party.

But it was a big

day.

We didn't get our last two weeks.

No.

No, we did not.

I

can't even remember what... I can't even remember what we're supposed to have been getting for all of this.

Every two weeks we're supposed... something new is supposed to come in.

I'm not talking about the make-believe checks.

No.

I'm talking about

policy.

You know, if we started a running tab at this point, I think we'd be up into the millions if we were at a bar, you know, and we had our running tab and we just kept drinking with all the promises of two weeks here and two weeks there, we owe a lot to that particular establishment.

100%.

They are getting things done, though.

They

are.

They're moving

quickly.

Well, it's like if you know you're, you know...

if it's the last couple weeks of school you work really hard

to get

everything done so you don't have to stay late

or

at work you're trying to get a project done

or in this case it's robin boss's last hurrah right i mean it essentially is because i don't

foresee this particular legislative session regabbling in, even though Governor Evers would really love them to discuss important things like, oh, I don't know, gerrymandering.

I don't see them gabbling in once they've gabbled out.

So this feels a little bit to me like his last hurrah as Speaker of the House.

Well, you mentioned, and that could be because you did mention a couple

of things that he

decided to call a vote for that got huge, huge attention when he refused to call a vote for them.

So one of them was the postpartum Medicaid coverage.

Yes, and this is huge for new mothers.

This coverage now extends from 60 days to a full year postpartum.

The Assembly approved this 95 to one.

I don't know who that one person was, but you seem really lame.

when you look at those numbers.

You're on the wrong side of history.

Right.

Wisconsin had been one of the last states not to adopt the federal option, allowing 12 months of coverage.

Arkansas, now we were right up there with Arkansas.

That's what you're trying to be.

Yeah, I guess.

I guess.

It's

about time.

Supporters say that this change will help low income mothers especially maintain access to critical care during that first year after childbirth.

And this only came about.

I want to remind everybody that these votes only came about after eight Republican assembly lawmakers announced late on Wednesday that these two long-stalled healthcare bills would finally move to a floor vote.

They broke through this legislative log jam.

And I think before you give Robin Voss too much credit for doing something good, it's a better late than never scenario.

You have to remember that this...

was available to states at a nationwide level in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Most states adopted it years ago.

Wisconsin didn't, and the proposal had been stalled here since 2023.

It literally came down to Robin Voss saying he would not move it to the floor and cited concerns about expanding welfare.

expanding welfare for mothers who have just had children.

How does that

make you feel, ladies?

Before we give him too much credit.

No, you can't listen.

We're not going to give him credit.

We're going to say, okay, at least on the way out the door, he did a couple things.

I'm always amazed that one person can outrule the entire legislature when he could say, we're just not calling a vote.

No, we all worked on this.

This is a bill.

We want to talk about it.

Nope.

It all comes down to the whim of one man.

And that again, it's the same with the 400-year veto.

That's too much power for one person to wield.

If the legislature has worked and come up with this bill, it deserves a vote.

Some are going to be stupid.

But then hopefully then, if they're stupid, they get voted down.

But you can't put all this power on one guy because then you have a state that is shaped by one man's ideas for, well, 13 years.

Yeah.

I mean, we sat here for five years when we could have already been helping low-income mothers get access to better health care.

For five years, we sat on this bill because he thought it was too much welfare.

I mean, think about that for a second.

You're talking about

Anything can happen after a child is born.

If you're one of those moms who was able to snap back and get back to all of the normal things that you did pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy, I applaud you because I was not one of those mothers.

And I ended up having a few complications that took months for me to heal.

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And

luckily I had insurance, but not everybody has access to that.

So the fact that we sat here on a bill that could have been preventing

moms from going deeper into debt or even having life-threatening issues after childbirth is absolutely ridiculous.

And again, you know, there's always, there's been an assault on women from the GOP, not just in Wisconsin, but across the country.

And this just felt, I don't know, this felt like a very personal attack, I think, for a lot of women throughout the state who, who really could have used this access.

But again, I guess better late.

than never I

listen you can be grudgingly give credit where credit yeah the credit isn't due there but you can be grudgingly give an add a boy

yeah yeah

The second bill that passed yesterday, I mean, that's all I can say is, yay for you, you did the right thing.

I mean, that's all I got at this one.

That's all you, that's all you need to give

them.

The second bill, and this is a biggie as well.

It's known as Gale's law and it passed unanimously.

It requires insurance companies to fully cover additional breast cancer screenings, including MRIs and ultrasounds for women with dense breast tissue where mammograms alone can really fail to detect any tumors.

This bill is named for Gale Zeamer.

of Nina, she died in 2024 after her cancer was diagnosed at a very late stage.

Now, just in case anybody's wondering, this has been tied up since the 2023-2024 session of Congress.

And Robin Voss questioned the need for additional breast cancer screening requirements, saying that are they really necessary?

I'm not sure they're necessary.

Yeah.

Well, Robin, obviously you are...

You're wrong.

I was gonna

say, you're wrong.

Yeah,

you're wrong.

But men can also get breast cancer.

So but even if men couldn't, who cares?

Right.

Yes, this is a disease that kills women.

Yeah, unbelievable numbers.

Yes, they need if if there's more screening necessary.

And I remember when this when we were going through this whole thing originally, talking to a doctor who explained the dense tissue thing,

and he said,

Oh, my God, yeah, of course, then we need to be able to have more testing covered.

Right.

Both of these bills, as important as they are, will now head to Governor Tony Evers' desk.

He has pledged to sign them, so they are hoping to get that done early next week.

And honestly, I'll applaud the Republicans on this.

There were several Republicans who stood on the floor and shared their stories of their own family members,

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their own

battles with breast cancer.

So I applaud the Republicans for coming together.

And let me be clear, this already had basically unanimous support in the Senate.

Robin Voss was tying

them both

up.

Yeah.

619, right now, you're listening to Civic Media Mornings.

I am Jamie Martinson.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

How old is too old to be a judge in Wisconsin?

Well, we'll try to figure that out after this on the Civic Media News.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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622 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us on Civic Media Mornings.

You are listening to the Civic Media Network.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

How old?

Should a judge be should there be an age limit 8 5 5 7 5 civic 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 I know anytime you bring up cutting things off at a certain age people get upset You know I used to think well those old people now.

I'm like hey now easy whippersnapper That may not be your best.

Slow your roll there Pedro.

I don't want to hear about it, but there is

According to a proposed bill that was passed by assembly Republicans this week, no one over the age of 74 could begin a term as Wisconsin judge or state Supreme Court justice.

That's the key word.

They couldn't start at 74.

Yeah, okay, I'm good with that.

I have no problem.

I have no problem.

74, it's time to start enjoying your golden years, Jamie.

It is.

I know you

want to work till you're 160.

No, no I don't.

Keep

your brain in a jar hooked up to lead.

I understand that, but the rest of us are tired.

Here's the thing that I'll say about this.

I will always value anybody's experience, the knowledge that they've gained over the years.

I think that's important.

But I also think in some jobs, especially in government, you need to have realistic expectations.

Now, I'll be honest, I'm 48 years old.

by most stretch of the imagination in this world, that is not old.

Some days though, and you've heard the show, so you'll understand where I'm coming from, it's hard for me to get out of coherent sentence.

So I understand why there is some worry about this.

And to me, this is very much along the same lines of the debate of term limits for Congress.

And because we worry about our congressional representatives being too old to do the job.

And I fully support the term.

limits for Congress.

I mean, let's be real, there's bipartisan backing from both sides when you look at the polling that say that at least a mid 80% rage Republican Democrats and independents are really tired of career politicians and the concentrated incumbent power.

And that goes to the courts as well, because it's the same kind of outcome as far for people when you look at polling for the Supreme courts and what they want to happen.

And to me, this should also extend to the state courts, right?

I think that it's okay.

100% and this is not ageism because everybody is gonna have an example.

Well, my grandma was 95 and she was still sharp as attack.

And God bless your grandma if that is the case.

But let's line up 10 grandmas.

Right.

And let's see if they're all sharp as attack.

And let's see if their judgment is all as good as your grandmas.

And it usually is not.

Right.

That's just unfortunately that's as a human being we start to

deteriorate a little bit

Kathryn Lake

not only

physically but mentally and I always go back and I know I know she is held in high esteem and I hold her in high esteem too Ruth Bader Ginsburg Should have retired.

She was she was very ill for a long time.

She her mind may have still been crisp, but she couldn't There's a point where you have to be done and it's just like an athlete who wants to hold on too long and plays that one more season and

it almost erases their legacy.

When you get to be 74, you shouldn't be starting a new career as a judge.

If you want to do something at 74, take up a nice hobby, start some online business, do something.

You can still be vibrant, but I don't feel confident in someone that age making sound decisions.

I don't want

your interpretation of the law no matter how brilliant you've been in the past.

I don't want your your interpretation of the law based in the past.

I I don't want to think that you're being run by your aides or your clerks or anybody else who is younger and more on the ball and just waiting for you to kick so that they can take your spot.

It makes perfect sense.

to have age limits.

I 100% agree.

Tom from Hartford also agreeing this morning he's listening on WMDX texting in saying finally an idea that makes sense if you want to chime in 1-855-752-4842-185575 Civic.

Now this particular measure that we are talking about cleared the assembly on party of party line vote 54 to 45 and this would essentially bar anyone 75 or older from being elected or appointed to the

There have been similar proposals that have failed in previous sessions, and more than two dozen states already have judicial age limits, including Illinois, which caps judges at 75, and Michigan, where the limit is actually 70.

Now, in Wisconsin, we do have several justices who have served past the age of 75, including former Chief Justice Shirley Abramson, who retired at 85 after more than 40 years on the court.

The particular bill will now head to the Senate, where it has not yet received a hearing.

If they're gaffling out, I'm assuming this one will probably just kind of linger in stand where it is.

Yeah, absolutely.

We

have mandatory retirement in just about every other aspect of employment.

except

for

ours.

I can keep talking to you till I can barely spit out where all I can eat is oatmeal and I can spit out single syllable words.

We're already pretty much doing that, so it wouldn't be much different than we're doing now.

Yeah, except too many carbs in the oatmeal.

But

other than that, other than that, yes.

It just makes sense.

And it even makes more sense in the judicial area because you are making decisions that not only affect you and your family, they affect people for generations, potentially.

Now, here's a little fun fact for everybody.

We have so many fun

facts.

This is a good one.

The current Congress that we have right now in the United States is the oldest in US history.

The oldest in US history.

Thank you.

And the voters, obviously, when you look at what's been happening in these special elections and during, you know, regularly scheduled elections, there's some concern about the age of longevity in office.

I mean, people are

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speaking

out the polls.

We're looking at younger candidates with fresh ideas.

And I hate to pick on them, but you literally look at some of the people that are serving in Congress.

And I know this is about state judges, but same rules apply.

Same rules apply to both cases.

You have your Chuck Grassley's of the world, your Nancy Pelosi's, you have your Steny Hoyers.

Yes, it's

time to sit down.

The problem is most voters are older.

Yes.

You

know, you get a much bigger voter turnout in seniors,

and

they're voting for themselves.

That's right.

So come on, young people, get to the polls.

Yeah,

let's

get it together.

It's 6.29 right now, Civic Media Boardings.

I am Jamie Martenson.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

Hey, a bad buddy under review again.

to Civic

Media Network.

635 right now.

You are listening to Civic Media Mornings.

If you're in Appleton in Oshkosh, listening on WISS or in Richland Center on WRCE or Wisconsin Rapids on WFHR.

Thank you so much for joining us.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

We are glad you're here.

And, man, this is ongoing, this controversy.

I don't know, Jamie.

I was watching the Kid Rock halftime show because that's my America.

But I guess there was some bad... No, I loved the Bad Bunny halftime show.

Most people, it was highly viewed.

Most people...

gave it rave reviews.

I thought it was great.

I didn't understand a word of it till the end where he started talking about naming countries and I understood those words, but I didn't need to understand it because I got the vibe.

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I was

having fun.

But our idea of fun...

is so much different than Brendan Carr, the head of the FCC's idea of fun, and other people's idea of fun.

They don't want fun.

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They

don't want saucy Latin American gyrations.

They don't want people effusing their emotions and music.

And God forbid you have any sort of feeling other than, mother, this music is very soothing to me.

That's all we want.

But the FCC has requested transcripts from NBC of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance because some Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about possible indecency violations.

Here's the thing.

If it's indecent, you know it right away.

It's like that old thing.

I don't know what port is, but I know it when I see it.

If it had been indecent, that was a Supreme Court ruling.

I paraphrased it, but that was basically it.

I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it.

There's no question if bad buddy had been indecent.

There's some things that people could clutch

their pearls.

Like, let's be realistic.

If you watch the Bad Buddy halftime show at the Super Bowl, he was basically fully clothed from head to toe through the whole thing in multi-layers of suits as well.

Lady Gaga was very appropriately dressed.

The dancers were fully covered.

Ricky

Martin had a nice suit on.

Everybody was fully covered.

There were two men gyrating your pickup truck.

And those men those men made contact with each other's bodies and that

It's Adam and Eve, Jamie.

Not Adam and Steve.

This is true.

This is true.

I think it's interesting, though, because the FCC is now reviewing, as you said, all of the transcripts of this particular halftime performance.

And

in fact... They're totally because they didn't understand

and

nobody there can speak Spanish.

Right.

Right.

And so one FCC commissioner had to review all of the transcripts, and she found no violation of FCC rules.

and no justification for actually pursuing this matter.

Now, the FCC does not plan any further review unless new evidence emerges.

What new evidence is possibly going to emerge?

I don't know, but if you're Randy Fine from Florida and you're a Republican representative, you are going to find some because this was, in his words, disgusting.

Disgusting.

Does he know what state he represents?

Let's

ask that question for a moment.

There's a reason

Florida man is a term.

Right.

Right.

And I mean, if you were disgusted by this and you represent the great state of Florida, um, and I use that term because the beaches are awesome.

The culture is vibrant and then Florida's Florida.

But, uh, if you represent the state of Florida with the Hispanic culture, the Cuban culture, the Puerto Ricans who, who come to, and you found this disgusting, I think it's time that you reassess your priorities as a congressman, honestly.

delivering his opinions while eating tacos and burritos.

He was very upset.

Right?

Mark, for Prairie to Sack, shy we get this morning saying, I'd remind Republicans that Spanish is also a European language, but they are a brown European language, not a white European language.

And I think that's where the difference particularly lies.

Now, if you want to chime in on the conversation this morning, we'd love to have you join us on this Friday, 1-855-752-4842, 1-855-75 Civic.

Were you disgusted by the Super Bowl?

time show.

I

can't believe we're still talking about the Super Bowl.

How many weeks has it been since

the Super Bowl?

Two weeks.

Parker, is it two weeks?

You're a sports guy.

I am a sports guy.

The 8th of

February was

the

Super Bowl.

Yeah.

So we're still talking about the halftime show that really, I mean, we didn't talk about, well, we talked about Janet Jackson longer, but we actually saw her breast.

Yes.

We saw, listen, bad buddy, he was making sure we all knew that

he was bad and

he

had a little bunny, but that's every hip-hop artist, every a lot of male artists.

I'm sure Donny Oz, but we talked about him yesterday, gives him gives little Donny a little time in the sun, so to speak on stage.

So yes, it was it was funny to me as someone watching it going

at the beginning when Bad Bunny was up on top of, I think it was a car

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or

something.

I was like, oh, Bad Bunny really likes that.

He's very proud of himself.

Good for him.

But the rest of the performance, if you did any research, and I'm sure you did, Jamie, it was all about hope and family and country and togetherness.

And I can't believe I have to say this, but I'll do it for some people.

I know it's not.

And listen.

This goes beyond Republicans.

There's a lot of Americans who don't think Puerto Rico is part of America.

It is.

On both sides of the aisle, they don't get it.

If you are bored in Puerto Rico, you are an American citizen.

Yes.

It's a U.S.

territory, which is why I think it was funny that before the Super Bowl, or after the Super Bowl, I guess it would have been, the President of the United States was concerned about what the President of Puerto Rico thought about the

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halftime

performance and the celebration of Latin and Puerto Rican culture.

Well, Mr. President,

That would be you, so what did you think would be my question?

That's fake news, Jamie.

Jamie,

we're not, we don't associate, I go down there and I throw toilet paper, but that's really all that happens in Puerto Rico.

I hear they have some sort of banana, they don't even call it a banana.

It's a plantain.

Well, a plantain is where people grew cotton back in the day.

I don't know what's going on down there.

The island culture, Jamie, people get enthralled with that, the sea air surrounding them and rain forests.

And they can't think straight.

Mr. President, did somebody write that for you?

Because you used the word enthralled.

That's a big word.

John from Oscar.

I

slurred.

I was supposed to say I falled.

I falled down.

Going to the

bathroom.

John from Oshkosh time again, listening on WISS this morning saying same outrage for a Bjork halftime show in her native tongue, question mark?

No.

Wow, John, going deep

for Bjork reference.

For Bjork, I love it.

Now, of course, we know that President Trump did criticize the halftime show with Bad Bunny on Truth Social.

He called it absolutely terrible and an affront to the greatness of America, which I think is interesting because at his Super Bowl festivity at Mar-a-Lago, they were not watching

the Truth Social halftime show.

They were actually watching Bad Bunny and there is photo proof of that.

Yes and again Bad Bunny is an American.

Yes.

Singing about America.

Yes.

And all in the north and south America.

Yes.

Being one America and you know I why are you here.

Here's it.

Doesn't the FCC have something better do?

Can't they try to crucify late night talk show hosts?

Don't they have other free speech to squash that they don't need to go after Bad Bunny's halftime show two weeks after when everybody has moved on to a litany of other.

Yes.

There's really

disgusting things that have happened in this country.

There's really big things happening in the world.

Really, really large things that are happening in this world and across the globe.

And we are

concentrating on a halftime show from two weeks ago, which also should really anger you if you're a US citizen, that this is what our government is wasting their time on.

FCC Chairman Brandon Carr is going to try and pursue fines and maybe some possible license reviews over this halftime show.

I mean, this is truly what they are putting their efforts into right now.

Some reports say that, you know, reporters who are fluent in Spanish said some of the cited lyrics were not actually performed during the show, which also

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just

negates the case of some of the Republicans because they actually did tame it down in some cases so that it wasn't offensive and it did comply with TV regulations.

Everybody, everybody, even Green Day changed.

They made

some

adjustments.

You know going in when you make this deal, Jay-Z runs the halftime show.

He produces it.

You're also working with network television.

They tell you what you can do.

And as an artist, you're going to try to push that as far as you can, but you also know...

the backlash that will come if you go well first of all you'll get bleeped they'll cut the cover you'll be done so you push as far as you can to stay within their box and you do it and you do it that way and every artist that you've seen I don't care if you go back to whatever whatever you think was your favorite halftime show those artists made changes right

Any artist that's performing on TV makes changes.

Brandon Carr loves threatening license renewal because that's how he's gotten everybody to capitulate to their demands up to this point.

And for them to do it now, it is, it's just...

One more thing to go.

Boy, you really don't have a grasp on what's important.

Stephen Mount Horab chimes in on the text line.

You can't two eight five five seven five civic.

He says that's what entertainment looks like these days to all the Republicans who are snowflakes.

You have for for a party.

that complains that Democrats are always, oh, we're so woke and we're snowflakes and we cry

little tears

and blah, blah, blah.

Man, oh man, do they get offended easily.

They do.

And what I think is interesting is GOP representative Andy Ogles, who represents Tennessee.

Which is

an unfortunate name for

somebody who's talking about a

sexually charged performance.

He was already up in arms Monday after the Super Bowl because of all the gyration and the twerking that took place during this...

particular performance, he has now called it pure smut alleging indecent

Kathryn Lake

acts for

broadcast and he wants some sort of congressional inquiry into this halftime show.

Again, this is

Kathryn Lake

what they're

spending their time on folks.

Kathryn Lake

If

you're just catching up, this is what the big issues for this party are right now in DC.

Not funding DHS, not, you know, making sure that the president is following the emoluments clause.

We are concerned about gyrating on a halftime show during a Latin performance.

But

again, it was, I know what there's zero era in on, and it was on screen for about

a

second.

Yes.

It was

the two guys by the pickup truck door.

And

So so they were dancing to guys dance together.

Sorry.

It happens weird.

I know

we've got same-sex couples and they like to dance

I just

like just like hetero couples everybody likes to dance

D from Jamesville chiming in on yes, and he eventually relented to D from Jamesville chiming in on WMDX We lived in Florida for almost 11 years the locals told us there are reasons they call it floor duh DUH and FYI Florida man so many stories we escaped

back to Wisconsin after DeSantis was reelected.

Now, thank you for chiming in this morning, D. Ogles is actually taking his pursuit of this a step further.

He has now sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair requesting an investigation into the NFL and NBC Universal.

NBC, Comcast and the FCC have not really responded to these requests, but this is what they are spending.

their time mark pointing out over on the text line hey what about all those Epstein crimes they can spend all their time on this but those

gerations were not televised

no no they were

not that's why it's easy to cover up

there's only photos of those and maybe some you know alleged controversies and some

We're parsing now.

Now we're parsing through the facts and that's what we obviously don't like.

I

can't wait because these other countries are going to do investigations

which

are going to require all the files to be opened.

And thank you every other country for

your

attention to the law.

On a completely separate note.

We obviously have no clue.

We're going to keep talking about the law.

State Rep Karen DeSanto is going to join us on the other side of the news to talk about everything that's been going on in the house.

I am Brian Noonan.

I'm Jamie Martins and it's 648 Civic Media Mornings on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

6.52 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

It is Civic Media mornings on the Civic Media network.

Hey, we have to say that on Monday some...

new changes are coming to the Civic Media Network.

We've got

big changes

to this.

We're excited.

We're excited.

So

we are.

Let me tell you what they are.

No,

I can't tell you.

No, we can't.

We

can't contractually obligated.

Listen, I know my microphone.

It is it's gonna be exciting.

We're sure you will Appreciate them.

We hope you will one thing you don't appreciate probably is me not being able to read a rundown in correct order Well, no only because I told people that That we were talking to Karen DeSanto right now.

We're talking to her after seven o'clock.

We are

so

Yes, she's going to be here at 7 0 5.

So right after the news, Karen DeSanto will join us.

I, you know, listen,

it's Friday.

I was

very, I was very excited because we were going to talk about gyrations and I don't want

to wait.

Whenever gyrations comes into a conversation, I mean, everybody loses their mind a little bit.

I get it.

A little bit.

But I also, I'm so, I think like most human beings in this country, at some point you're like,

Can we please anything other than politics?

Yeah, we did that for a minute.

So now we're back because a report released by Adam Schiff says that the Department of Homeland Security, you remember them, don't you?

They committed more than $144 million in the first year of President Trump's second term for guns, ammo and related weapons equipment.

That's a lot of money to spend on weaponry.

It

is.

Guns are expensive.

I don't know if you've shopped for

weapons.

Sure.

I don't know why ice agents need this many weapons, but let's break it down a little bit.

All right,

let's break it down.

But to answer your question, because they're fighting the worst of

the worst.

Apparently so.

Those five-year-old little boys who just want to go home after daycare are obviously a nemesis to society and need to need every gun on the planet coming at them.

You've

got to come strapped.

So this report is based on federal contracting data, and it says that immigration and customs enforcement increased its weapons spending fourfold in 2025 compared to the previous year.

Now, customs and border protection doubled its weapons related contracts.

And among the purchases, a $9.1 million order for precision long guns and accessories for ICE, a $3.25 million order for Glock nine millimeter duty handguns, and an additional handgun order worth

more than $600,000, apparently the first order wasn't enough.

The report also cites more than $30 million for ammunition and over $25 million for less lethal crowd control tools like tear gas, pepper spray and tasers.

And of course, Schiff is arguing that the spending reflects this dramatic militarization of immigration enforcement, especially as these agents are being deployed into democratic led cities and blue states where confrontations

with protesters have obviously gained a lot of national attention.

Here's my question.

And it is a serious question.

Why do they need weapons of this magnitude?

I mean, I get their federal law enforcement agents,

Kathryn Lake

I get

that they have a job, but we can't really ignore the fact that there is more than $144 million of weapons going out to this agency in one year.

Well, when you look at...

a Glock and I did a little I did a little research Jamie mm-hmm okay love it just for you and I a Glock would cost anywhere from about 500 and it can go up to well over a thousand dollars that's for one handgun

then you add in the ammunition, you add in the holster, you add in the tactical thing.

This doesn't surprise me because the militarization of police departments has been going on for decades from when the first SWAT units came and now you see police agencies roll up and it looks like an army division.

Same with the federal law enforcement and the argument is they have to be at least as well armed as the people they may be going after, which I agree with.

I think law enforcement needs to

be well armed, and they need to be able to counter anything that comes at them.

The fact that we're giving this kind of firepower to people who have not gone through a lot of training, it is it is a huge expenditure.

But it's one of those where okay, these the things they need are expensive.

Yep.

And if you're if you've increased

the DHS, that's a whole other argument.

Do we need this many agents?

Does ICE need this many people?

If we don't have this much personnel, then we don't need this much firepower.

We don't need to spend that much money.

But as long as we are increasing the amount of agents, we have to give them, unfortunately, we have to give them the equipment.

So unfortunate meaning that they keep adding to ICE and DHS agents.

But I want

I want people patrolling the border or people in the DEA to have the weapons they need to do their job safely.

Yes.

And I agree that law enforcement needs to have the tools that they need to, again, do their job, whether it's safely or to just do the job in general.

But let's also remember that Congress has not yet passed a full year 2026 budget for the Department of Homeland Security.

Now lawmakers just a couple of weeks ago funded most of the government.

They failed to reach an agreement on a final DHS appropriations bill after that short-term resolution expired.

But because of the big

beautiful bill, that is where they are getting their money to purchase these weapons.

This goes back to just last year, in July, when they followed the big beautiful bill, and all of those purchases have been made since then.

Glenda chiming in on our text line this morning, listening on WMDX, follow the money.

How much did the gun industry give to Donald Trump's campaign?

I think that's a legitimate question.

Yeah, and we know, and this has been a joke since government started

Buying things government always pays way more than market price.

Of course.

So so there is there is a lot of money being made by the weapons Suppliers I we're not a we're not ashamed just you know, that's that's something Republicans will never Go against

right

spending on military spending

on weapons

for law enforcement.

That's

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Spend more on

the training.

Little oversight, little training.

We don't have enough time.

We have to get them on the

streets.

We do.

There's evil lurking everywhere.

Evil lurking.

There's housewives, moms dropping their kids off.

659 right now.

You're listening to Civic Media Warnings on the Civic Media Network.

Kathryn Lake

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