Transcript
Freedom Of The Press Is In Jeopardy with Keegan Kelly (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Thu Sep 18, 2025
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Good afternoon, everybody, Todd Alba, along with Mr. Aaron Zummers on the board.
It is now six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, September 18th, 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.
Glad to have you along from the World Headquarters in downtown Madison, Wisconsin at the intersection of State and Fairchild, where tonight get ready to do the Thursday night market for the five until nine.
If you're in the area, stop on down the State Street.
Meet some of our fine civic media staff, particularly from our flagship station, WMDX here in Madison.
It'll be a good time had by all little cloudy.
Most of that right now, I think is kind of wildfire smoke.
I think the rain is going to hold off mostly until this weekend.
Might get some soggyness in on the Badger game on Saturday.
More about that later on this hour, the bottom of this hour.
State Representative Francesca Hong of the 26th Assembly District here in the city of Madison is going to be on this show live.
She announced her run for governor of the state of Wisconsin in the Democratic primary yesterday and Representative Hong will join us here to talk about her touring around the state, what she sees as the biggest issues and why she is running for governor Francesca Hong after the bottom of this hour than an hour number two, a red meat edition.
of what's worse, looking forward to that.
But right now, Zommerz, I don't know what, by the way, I've got my October baseball, Brewer's shirt on today, went down to Ampham Field and saw the Brewers last night get another big win over the Anaheim Angels.
And I know it's, they go by Los Angeles now, by the Anaheim.
And the crew's a magic number down to six now after last night's victory to win the NL Central.
Good time had by all.
We'll talk more about the Brewers and later on in the show.
But so I'm walking in last night to the stadium.
My phone starts blowing up with alerts and I just said to my friends I'm with them like this can't be.
Oh my gosh.
I open it up.
Jimmy Kimmel.
They're using the term indefinitely suspended from ABC over comments that he made on Monday's show.
And it connects with the death, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which I think it's important to point out.
The day that the assassination happened, Kimmel put on his Twitter a very sincere, this is awful.
My wife and I are praying for the widow and the children and the family and friends of Charlie Kirk and called it out.
And so then over the weekend happens and Kimmel comes on Monday, wanna play for you the entirety.
of what Jimmy Kimmel said on Monday, and this was the clip that ABC is using as an excuse to essentially fire Jimmy Kimmel.
We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and do everything they can to score political points from it.
In between the finger pointing, there was grieving.
On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half staff, which got some criticism.
But on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.
He's at the fourth stage of grief, construction.
Demolition.
Construction... This is not how an adult greaves the murder of someone he called a friend.
This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.
Jimmy Kimmel
from ABC's late-night program, Jimmy Kimmel Live.
That's it.
That's... I mean, he kind of talked about it in other terms, I guess, later on, but that was the clip that they're saying.
That was why ABC pulled the plug yesterday after two of the biggest...
companies that own ABC affiliates, Nexstar and Sinclair, said they were not going to air the program any further until changes were made.
Here to break it down, to analyze it, to discuss it, our great reporter, he's been on the show several times.
He's a writer and editor at Cracked.com, joining us from his home in New York City, Keegan Kelly.
Keegan, thanks for being on.
Thanks for having me,
Todd.
It's great to have you here.
I wish it were under different circumstances, but I appreciate having you here because, you know, it wasn't so long ago, a few weeks ago, you were on this show talking about the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's late night or late show with Stephen Colbert on CBS.
And that was, hey, we're not going to renew you after the end of the season in May.
This hits different for me, Keegan, in that.
This is something that a late night host said on Monday.
We played it.
You heard it.
And two days later, he is essentially gone.
What was your first reaction when this broke last night?
My reaction was shock and amazement that this is the pretense that they're using to kick Jimmy Kimmel off of television.
I have been speculating since Colbert that horrible news broke that
He wasn't gonna be the last and I've been speculating that because that's what President Donald Trump has been posting on truth social constantly He's he's been naming these names of who he wants taken off television He followed up Kimmel with his choices of Seth Meyers.
He wants Jimmy Fallon gone now And but really more than anything I was so surprised that they picked what is one of the
least offensive monologue jokes I think they could have for this cancellation which is really what it is they're calling it an indefinite suspension but this is the FCC under Donald Trump's orders throwing its weight around and and getting one of his most prominent critics kicked off the air over
What I think is one of the more innocuous jokes that I have heard in this delicate time following the murder of Charlie Kirk.
I think that's a great point because we played the entire clip there.
He never once says anything derogatory or makes fun of Charlie Kirk himself.
It's poking fun at Donald Trump's reaction and people regular listeners to this show will recall
We, on this show, played that exact same clip of Trump, and Zommer keep me honest, but I think I said something like, well, he seems to be pretty much over the, for a guy who he claimed to be his closest friend, he's moving on to ballrooms already.
joke.
Yeah, I mean, I wasn't as witty or smart as the Kimmel or their writers, but because I just thought it was weird for Trump to be so aloof and flip, or flippin' about the whole thing, and...
And the fact that, as you said, Keegan, they use that to pull Kimmel.
Just seems really weird.
I'll see you brought up a good point.
Let's follow up on this.
The events of the day.
Earlier on in the day, Brendan Carr, who is the FCC commissioner, the head of FCC.
Now, he had been on the FCC before.
He was elevated to commissioner when Trump retook the White House.
And he was on a conservative podcast earlier in the day.
basically calling out this situation, correct Kegan?
That's right.
He appeared on this right wing podcast and the way he talked about it you would think that I mean Kimmel was trying to incite violence with
what
he was saying.
He was talking about how dangerous this was, how divisive it was, but then there were some really ominous moments where he called out ABC directly and he called out the local affiliates directly saying
I think you should preempt this.
I think you should take this off the air."
And this is the quote that really kind of made my blood run cold.
He told them, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.
Now, of course, as the head of the FCC, he does have the power to take away broadcasting licenses.
And that is the big fear.
Not just at ABC, not just at Disney, but
within the companies that own their many local affiliates, specifically this one company, Nextstar.
Nextstar owns hundreds of TV stations across the country, local TV stations.
They were the first ones to pull the plug on Kimmel saying they're going to preempt his show indefinitely.
They condemned his comments.
They said, we don't need division in this
difficult time for our country.
They were soon followed suit by Sinclair broadcasting another giant conglomerate and then not long after that the order came down from the Disney CEO himself, Bob Iger, saying that
Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live was to be suspended indefinitely.
We're speaking with, I'm sorry, Keegan Kelly, our writer editor at crack.com, a great publication, particularly for entertainment and humor.
But Keegan, I mean, I'm going to say it because you've been on this show several times.
You're a late night specialist in my opinion.
You really follow this genre of television.
So you know what you're talking about.
And I appreciate you being here.
Go ahead and finish your thought, please.
I was just, I appreciate that.
I was just going to say that.
All of this happened in an afternoon.
I mean, it's really frightening the speed of this, that it went downstream from car to next star to Sinclair all the way to Disney and before Kimmel could even tape his show, you know, in the early evening as they usually do, suddenly he's out of a job as are his entire staff.
I
mean, it's it's you're right.
It's crazy.
I want to psychs the comedian posted I think she was supposed to be the guest and she was either on the way or in the green room and She's like she posted something.
It was really simple and it just said if you're somebody who prays pray I want to psych said that right.
I mean, you know
So I think it is dangerous times.
A couple of things want to follow up here.
And we're going to keep going through, kind of do a little business, but we're going to keep this going through the bottom of the hour if you have time, Keegan, because I think this is so important.
You brought up Brendan Carr and, of course, the current FCC chairman.
This is a tweet from 2019 when he was a commissioner, but not the chair.
In 2019, from Brendan Carr, quote, should the government censor speech it doesn't like?
Of course not.
The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the quote-unquote public interest.
And in 2022, Brendan Carr put on ex-Twitter, quote, President Biden is right.
Political satires are the oldest and most important forms of free speech.
It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion.
That's why the people in influential positions have always targeted it.
for censorship, unquote, again, Brendan Carr in a tweet from 2022.
So what's changed,
Keegan Kelly?
What's changed is that this is the same Brendan Carr, who leading up to the 2024 election was recruited to write the FCC chapter of Project 2025.
Bingo.
This is one of the architects of this far right reshaping
of American government and American society.
So it doesn't surprise me at all that his tune has changed significantly.
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they found a tweet that said, I love Jimmy Kimmel.
He's my favorite comedian because none of that matters anymore.
It doesn't matter if he contradicts himself now that he's in power and executing his own plan.
And it really is, this is the plan.
This is not
This is not in response to what Jimmy Kimmel said on Monday.
This is not in response to a monologue joke.
This is not in response to him kind of pushing back on the narrative that these figures are trying to push on the shooter who killed Charlie Kirk and his possible political affiliations.
This is just the excuse they're using.
We're speaking with Keegan Kelly, writer editor at cracked.com ABC Disney.
has pulled Jimmy Kimmel.
As Keegan said, not for any real reason here, and that's the danger.
What does David Fromm over the Atlantic say?
When you look at the other side, when it happens to a liberal and conservatives make jokes, we'll talk about that with Keegan on the other side.
It's the all-post show for a Thursday on the Civic Media.
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started.
And on this Thursday, September 18th, talking to Keegan Kelly, writer and editor at Crack.com.
Normally, we have fun doing it.
He comes on.
We talk about entertainment and some funny, but nothing funny about this Keegan Kelly.
As last night, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, it was announced.
The his late night program, Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC announced it was indefinitely suspending.
That's the word they use, but the Keegan's point before the break.
pretty hard Keegan to imagine Kimmel because now I'm hearing reports that whether it's Sinclair, one of the big conglomerates companies that own a bunch of these ABC affiliates or ABC and Disney itself are saying that everything from he's going to have to make a substantial contribution to Charlie Kirk's turning points USA to offer an apology.
You know this industry better than anybody else.
I don't see Kimmel doing that.
I don't either.
And I really don't think there's a way back from here.
I think that Sinclair, Nexstar, and really ABC, they've kind of cast their votes at this point.
They've chosen a direction, and Kimmel, I mean, he's been one of Trump's smokes.
Prominent critics in comedy for as long as Trump has been around, he's not changing either.
Let's get this quickly because I think it's important.
Jake Tapper had a great post last night.
Follow the money, he said.
My old college professor used to say it all comes down to the dollar sign.
Explain this that Sinclair owns, or is it NextStar, owns 39% of it.
There is a big deal, a $6 billion deal, just like what happened with Paramount Plus and Skydance, that needs approval by the FCC,
Keegan.
You're right on it.
It's just like that.
There's this.
local TV giant Nexstar.
They own many ABC affiliates across many states, and they are in the middle of trying to finalize and secure FCC approval for a $6 billion deal to acquire a rival company, Tecna.
And if this closed, this would mean that Nexstar, the first company to condemn Jimmy Kimmel and the first domino to fall after FCC Chairman Brendan Card's comments,
would then own 265 local television stations in 44 states and Washington DC.
So this is a very powerful company trying to seek to become even more powerful, needing Trump's sign off and doing exactly what we saw Paramount and CBS do when they ended the Colbert contract.
And what do you know, two days later, the FCC approves the murder for Paramount.
So I
think that this is
This is a game that's going to pay off almost immediately for Nexar.
And Nexar is probably thinking, we don't care if we have to pay Jimmy because his contract is up either at the end of this calendar year or season.
He was talking about Kimmel was maybe retiring anyway.
And they're thinking, hey, whatever million we have to pay Kimmel to get rid of him.
It's not 16 million like Paramount had to pay was basically a payout for their merger, right?
Yeah.
I mean, this really this was going to be the end of the road for Kimmel.
Probably regardless because
yeah,
he's he's been talking about retiring for a long time now But just the fashion they're not even trying to hide it.
They're not waiting for the contract to expire this time It's all out in the open now.
Yeah,
that's really frightening.
They don't they they're not
They don't even need the pretense anymore.
Let's go to this quickly from CNN last night.
David from of the Atlantic on CNN talking about this situation and if the pages are turned and it's a Democrat who's assaulted, here's the reaction.
There's only one thing that matters.
There's only one thing that matters.
We had a threat of retaliation by a government official for not for someone not pronouncing government commanded speech.
There was an order from the state about what people must say.
Jimmy Kimmel did not say that and he was and his.
corporation was threatened with consequences by a government official.
This is not cancel culture, because it's not culture.
It's state repression.
It's an order from the government.
Here's the script you must read.
If you do not read it, you will be taken off the air.
Jimmy Kimmel didn't read it.
He was taken off the air.
This cannot be, because he's a comedian, there'll be people say, maybe we shouldn't take this seriously.
But here's the question I would, here's the comparison I would suggest.
When Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked, many, unfortunately, including the son of the former President Trump, made light of it, a terrible thing, heartbreaking, a terrible attack on an 82-year-old man.
Imagine if the Biden administration had given a script and said, this is what everybody must say about Paul Pelosi.
And if you don't say it, we will bring pressure to bear on your parent corporation to fire you.
Greg Gutfeld at Fox, you're not sad enough.
about Paul Pelosi.
You're not saying what we command to be said about Paul Pelosi.
Therefore, unless Fox fires it, fires it, we are going to bring regulatory havoc to bear on the parent corporation.
David Frum with The Atlantic last night on CNN, Keegan Kelly at Crack.com.
Your reaction to that, and we got about two and a half minutes left, your reaction to what Frum said, but also, where does this take us next in free speech, in entertainment, to
media?
dark place I think he hit the nail on the head there and one thing I want to you know he touched on this a little bit that I feel like a lot of people are gonna hand wave this away saying oh it's it's a multi-millionaire you know losing his TV show that's not such a big deal he'll be fine but if it can happen to the multi-millionaire God knows who else it could happen to if it can happen to someone with as much sway and and
cultural cache as Jimmy Kimmel, that CC can go after anyone for anything.
And that's
terrifying.
I totally agree.
Boy, here's a book that's making a lot of rounds today called It Can't Happen Here, a novel by Sinclair Lewis.
What will happen when America is a dictator?
Highly recommend reading that.
Also a shout out to, I'm going to tune our own horn for a second, because the leadership here at Civic Media, because I think a lot of people are wondering.
Like, are we going to start censoring ourselves?
And our COO Corey Hartman this morning put this out and said, no that we do not expect you to censor your comments simply because civic media's licenses are controlled by the FCC and we have a pending acquisition.
We believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press and we stand behind our hosts.
Now, I'm proud to work for this company, Keegan, and I wish that more people would be like that.
I would be too.
And we're going to need a lot of statements like that from a lot of people across the country because this is a pretty big domino to fall.
It really is.
Keegan Kelly, a writer and editor at Crack.com.
I appreciate you being here.
You can find all of Keegan's work at Crack.com.
We'll stay on this.
We'll have you back soon.
Thanks for your time on short notice, Keegan.
Thank you, Todd.
Who is running for governor now?
Francesca Hong, state rep here.
She calls herself the wild card.
We'll find out why she joins us live on the other side.
It's the all-most show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.
Ready now.
truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Now 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, September 18th, 2025.
Glad to have you along.
Things are getting exciting.
Exciting indeed in the governor's race had a brand new entry on the Democratic primary side yesterday.
State Representative Francesca Hong of the 76 district here representing parts of the Isthmus of Madison and kind of the northeast side is in the race like we
everyone else gonna play about a minute of her campaign launch video and come back with a live interview with Representative Hong.
It's so stressful to get by these days and I know a lot about stress.
I work in restaurants.
I started in this kitchen 15 years ago and you might recognize what's across the street.
A lot of people in that building don't get why it's so hard to get by right now.
Working hard doesn't mean you can always keep up.
One wrong step can lay you out flat.
This is by design.
I'm State Representative Francesca Hong.
I'm a service worker, community organizer, and a mom.
I work for a living.
Always have, still do.
Five years ago, my community sent me to the Capitol.
The system is rigged.
I'm running for governor to fix it.
For years, we've been told that doing better isn't possible.
Well, let me tell you, that's bullshit.
All we need to do is fight together.
We can fully fund our public schools and have universal child care.
We can guarantee paid leave and have cheaper health care.
We can fix a rape system that puts oligarchs over workers and small businesses.
We can do better.
State Representative Francesca Hong in her announcement video for Governor of the State of Wisconsin.
As we said, all the candidates are coming on and playing about the first minute.
That's called a tease.
If you want to see the whole thing, go to her website.
It is francescahong.com.
That's F-R-A-N-C-E-S-C-A Hong H-O-N-G dot com.
And Representative Hong joins us live via StreamYard.
First of all, Representative, welcome to the show and congrats on getting in the race.
Thank you so much, Todd.
I'm stoked to be here.
Happy to have you here as we do with all of our guests first time on the program.
We appreciate you making time for us.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, and how you got into being a state representative.
I am a proud daughter of South Korean immigrants born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, and a very proud service industry worker.
I've been working as a chef, line cook, server, bartender for almost 15 years now and had my own restaurant for seven years.
I've been in the state legislature.
This is now my third term since 2020.
And it has been an absolute honor to
be able to represent the folks of the 76 but also meet so many communities across the state who invited me to speak where we held Medicaid town halls and getting to know folks in other parts of the state and learning that a lot of people in Wisconsin regardless of zip code care about the same things.
It's one of the reasons that drove me to run for governor so I can represent more people in the state.
Uh, people that listen to this show know I don't have a dog in this fight, per se.
I'm not making any endorsements to the Democratic primary, but I have to say, as a person who used to be a general manager of a sports pub and had a couple of coffee, business, cafes, myself, it's great to have a service industry person in this race.
I think it offers a unique perspective, so I think that's pretty cool.
Uh, as I have all the candidates, Representative Hong, why are you running for Wisconsin's governor?
We are in a movement moment.
This is a devastating time for our country and Wisconsin and working class people.
You know, Wisconsinites work so hard and they hustle and they deserve a governor that works just as hard and hustles just as hard.
And so in a moment where we need to be building working class power as a community organizer, as a single mom, as a very proud service industry worker, I want to
be a governor that is for building working-class people power.
And so that's why I'm in this race.
It's about organizing.
It's about fighting back.
But it's also about fighting alongside folks.
And that's what I'm here to do.
As you travel around the state, and I know you have.
You've held town halls with Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan here on Madison, outside and other places, namely the Third District.
But I know you're somebody who gets around the state.
You don't just stay in Madison.
As you travel around, Representative Hong
What are you hearing from from Wisconsinites and what do you see as at least one or two top issues in your campaign?
Fully funding public schools.
There is no more unifying issue than our public schools right now because we know that strong public schools make for strong communities, especially folks in rural communities where often the school is their largest employer.
Folks are really concerned that they are.
forced to go to referendum and raise their own property taxes because the Republicans in the legislature won't fund public education.
I hear about childcare, and it's not just from families and working class parents.
It's seniors, it's employers.
Universal childcare is something that I hear about often.
And then speaking of care, our care infrastructure.
So care workers who are...
at home health care workers, mental health care workers, caregivers who are making sure that our elders and folks in the disability community can age and live with dignity.
That infrastructure is so fragile right now.
And we have to make sure that our caregivers are paid living wages so that we are able to have care for ourselves when we age as well.
I said, you know, laid out flat in my video and it's because one accident or something where you lose your job because you don't have care or health care is too expensive.
These are things that the system is rigged so that it gets harder for us to access the things that we need.
So this campaign is about
you know, strong care infrastructure, cheaper healthcare, especially for small business owners who want to do right by their employees and afford cheaper healthcare, universal childcare, fully funded public schools and guaranteed paid leave.
I, you know, people wonder sometimes why you go into a restaurant or a cafe or whatever, and there's a spill and people go apoplectic and get signs and get mops.
It's become, I mean, I've gone years.
when I was in the food service industry, not having health care.
And like you say, you slip and fall, you're bankrupt.
And so I think that's a really pertinent issue that's going to connect with a lot of Wisconsinites.
Representative Francesca Hong is our guest.
She is running for Wisconsin governor.
She is the 76th assembly, pardon me, yes, assembly person from Madison here.
You called yourself the wild card.
Why?
Well, I think Wildcard can net you wins and I want to get wins for the people of Wisconsin and I think folks
don't always understand why we need normal relatable people in office.
I'm an everyday working class person dealing with working class struggles now as a renter in a city that is majority renters and rent is too high as a mom where I'm worried about the summer camps that am I going to be able to afford them for my kid who is going to the amazing Marquette Elementary but we know that our public schools right now are struggling because they have been defunded for
over a decade and so this the wildcard is somebody that wants to net wins and we have to be bold and sometimes risk tolerant and so I think seeing myself not just as an outsider right from not running statewide but a normal everyday person who wants more for Wisconsinites and we need to imagine better for everyone and that we can make better possible together.
I think that then being a wildcard is a pretty good thing.
I've asked this question of of every Democrat that's coming on the on the show so far.
Right for governor.
Josh Shulman, the Republican side was on this.
Like we didn't have enough time with him, but I kind of got into a little bit.
But let me ask it this way.
And I'm honest.
Look, I'm I'm I'm not going to I'll call myself out.
I I admire you because you've always been in far as I'm concerned.
Someone who is not ashamed of who they are, their beliefs.
You've stayed true to that.
I don't.
I mean, I'm left the Republican Party in 2011.
Some things I agree with you on.
There are some things I don't.
I think that sometimes your style, I would say number one, you're probably the most progressive candidate right now out there on the Democratic side.
I don't always agree with how you go about things, but I admire you for who you are.
Tell me how as a progressive from Madison, how do you win this Democratic primary and not alienate people for a general election?
And push back on me.
I mean, that's fair.
I'm fair game.
Oh, no,
that's a that's a very good question, Todd.
And I am happy to answer it because I'm going back to the opportunities that I've had to go across the state, right, to hold these Medicaid town halls, to be invited to speak at the amazing among New Year festivals.
And when I go to
different parts of the state.
I am hearing a lot of the same things about folks worried about rising costs, being able to take care of themselves, their kids, their love.
ones and so being someone from Madison and don't get me wrong I love my large town but I also know that sometimes we're living on a little bit of a bubble and as a working class normal person right now I'm able to relate to a lot of other Wisconsinites regardless of where they live because they agree with me on cheaper healthcare on lower rents on making sure child care is accessible and providers have the support that they need to make sure their child care workers have
their wages?
I mean,
I worry when folks don't want to take care of our kids, because I'm like, who's going to take care of us when we're older?
And so while my style might not be for everyone, some of that came from working in kitchens for over 15 years.
And being a bartender, I like my brandy old fashioned sour.
But when I'm making those and someone wants to tell me about something that's going on in their life,
That makes me approachable and seen as somebody who was not a politician first, but somebody who understands a lot of the issues that are going on, and we need to work towards solutions for those issues together.
About three minutes left while we're respectful of your time.
Let's spend a little time on this because I do admire you as someone who came from the food service industry myself.
Talk a little bit about me or why they regarded as one of the top chefs and restaurateurs in the state of Wisconsin and rightfully so.
I've had your food.
Talk about that experience and what that uniquely brings to your qualifications to be Wisconsin's next governor.
Wisconsinites work so hard, they hustle, and we are proud.
And service industry folks, Todd, you and I both know this, we're built different.
We work to overcome the different obstacles that you don't even expect to come every day, because you can have all of your knees ready for service, but the customer is the variable.
And so being able to be nimble, knowing how to work on a team, knowing that like working a 16, 17 hour shift, the breakfast took a late night.
close that not only has
you know, shaped my values and working hard to be able to take care of myself and my community.
But it has allowed me to see that there are so many different types of people in the world.
But when you bring folks around the table, when you share the table, when it's more about just having a seat at the table, right?
We don't need more seat warmers.
We did to make sure that the table is big enough for folks to have what they need to take care of themselves, their loved ones, and maybe even someone they don't know.
I want to give you time for this.
I heard you on another show or another network this morning.
You thought you did great.
But this is important.
You've proven you can work across the other side of the aisle with Republicans.
Give folks an example of that.
We passed a historic piece of legislation that would require our K-12 public schools to include Asian American history in their curriculums.
I worked with a Republican representative on that legislation.
We had people come testify who were Republicans, Democrats, probably some independents as well, small business owners, educators, kids.
multi-faith, multi-generational, multi-ethnic coalition helped us pass a bill.
I worked across the aisle to make that happen.
Francesca Hong, who was the crepe of a wrong first Asian-American to serve the state legislature, and she very well could be the first woman and Asian-American to serve in the governor's office.
You can find all the information about her at francescahong.com.
State Representative Hong, thank you for taking the time.
You're always welcome here.
Safe travels and best of luck.
Thank you.
Can't wait to be back.
Look forward to it.
State Representative Francesca Hong, everybody, we appreciate her.
Come on back.
More on the other sides,
the title of our show on the Civic Media.
Ready
to...
Having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the Tahmah Ball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Eight minutes now before the hour of three o'clock at the top of the hour.
ABC, CBS News, with Petty DuPont station.
And listen to you a check of weather with Brittany Merleau and her weather team.
Mike Clemens, great sports reporter with a check of sports.
And then we'll get into some more things, including a little red meat edition of What's Worst Today.
So let's take her on for that.
How about that, State Representative Francesca Hong?
We appreciate her coming on, making time for us today.
Thought she did a great job.
is
And add somebody on the text line and say, well, geez, you asked her something that you wouldn't ask Hilda Royce or other people you've had on.
And yeah, I mean, because I think I try to be self-critical, right?
As I said right to her face, there have been, I mean, I really, I said this before the show to you privately.
I've always admired her because she's true to what she believes.
And I think that's a foundation for anybody that's going to do a good job of politics.
Look at my own bosses.
I didn't always agree with my own bosses.
But if you're dealing with someone who knows who they are and stands by that and is proud of that, I think you do business with those people.
And so I've admired that.
I haven't always agreed with what she did politically or how she said it.
And so I just thought it was fair to acknowledge that to her face and give her an opportunity to, you know, give it to me.
Right.
And I thought that she did a great job of that.
And, you know, not give it to me, but I thought she addressed it.
And because I think that there are other people out there in the state who are looking at this race and saying, OK, you got Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, who
is already a statewide elected official, you know, not as many years in politics.
That might be a good thing that other candidates have.
Then you've got executive county executive David Crowley in Milwaukee County, who's been endorsed by Mayor Cavalier Johnson in Milwaukee.
And, you know, he's kind of, I don't want to say gotten Milwaukee County sewn up, but certainly has a good head start there, right?
Then you got Dane County.
And the two biggest vote-getting counties in a Democratic primary statewide in this state are Dane, where Madison's at, and Milwaukee County.
So now you've got State Senator Kelder Royce, and now you have State Representative Francesca Hong, both from Madison, who are in the race.
And, and ideologically, at least outwardly, I mean, I think they all agree on a lot of core tenets of the Democratic Party.
But at least outwardly of all those people I mentioned, who has put themselves to be seen or perceived rightly or wrongly as the most progressive person out there, agree or disagree, Zobbers, I would say representative Hulm.
And so I think a lot of people are saying, look, we may like her.
We may agree with a lot of what she says.
We like her, you know.
Attitude, I guess I'll use that word, or the fact that she's proud and she's not gonna couch it, she's not gonna sugarcoat it.
And also, I think, in fairness, hey, maybe there's some misogyny out there as well, because if you had a guy doing that, they'd say, oh, he's strong, he's got great, you know, attitude.
And if a woman does that, suddenly, you know, they're the B word.
And there's a lot of perceptions.
So I just thought it was fair for her to address that issue.
And I thought, again, I thought she did a great job.
Yeah.
So, uh, and, and as I've said, any legitimate, I mean, you can't have Jane or Tom that, you know, down in the street corner saying, yeah, I want to run for governor.
But I mean, anybody on the Democratic, Republican, independent side who is a legitimate candidate, we want them on and want to give them the same, same length of time and ask them the same line of questioning to give so that you, the listening and viewing audience can hear what they have to say.
Indeed they
I want to end up, I guess, on this hour, a little bit more on Jimmy Kimmel, just kind of a couple of minutes left here.
And let's play the Trump cut zombers from, because again, it's all about free speech, right, allegedly.
And.
And this is from, how soon we forget, a lifetime ago, April 29th of this year.
April 29th of this year, here's what Donald Trump said about free speech.
This year, April 29th in Warren, Michigan.
That was a Fox News clip, by the way, where Donald Trump says he's restored free speech.
Okay.
And yet, last night, under obvious pressure from Donald Trump's FCC and from Trump himself, because his own tweets on his true social implicate him, where he's literally called for Jimmy Kimmel's firing.
He's literally called out ABC and Disney.
And as Keegan Kelly pointed out, and boy, what a great job he did today, that the timeframe, you say something on a Monday and then yesterday at the start of the day, a couple of interviews, and by nightfall, you're done.
That ain't free speech, folks.
And I think any Wisconsinite, as Zahmer said, given the truth, most of us would say the same thing.
I might not.
Like what Kimmel said and let's again point out it was not directed at Charlie Kirk or his family His joke was directed at Trump for his real reaction To dismissing the death of Charlie Kirk and for pointing that out ABC and next star instant Claire said you're done That's not free speech and this is where it starts to get really really dangerous
And again, I want to publicly thank this company, Civic Media, that is not a conglomerate, not a big investment group.
It's one guy, Sage Weill, who owns this company.
And the leadership team of this company made it clear that they are standing behind their on-air hosts, keeping it truthful, and we will not be intimidated.
to give you the truth.
Back after this on hour two, don't miss it.
It's the Tunnel of Bull Show for a Thursday on the Civic Medium.
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