Jason Johnson Merrick Garland, Mary Katharine Ham, Voter Registration in Loudoun | O'Connor &...

now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the wal app o Conor and [Music] Company good morning it's Friday morning we made it 67 W News Talk 105.9 uh it is O Conor and Company Patrice onwuka every Friday as usual and I'm joined by Andrew Langer today happy Friday Andrew happy Friday Pat I'm so looking forward to this weekend me too me too we'll get into it later but we've got a lot of guests coming up today at 6:35 Mary Katherine ham good friend former uh morning show host Fox News contributor she's gonna she's also on the board of Travis Manion Foundation she'll be joining us 705 Hans Von spikowski manager of the election law initiative uh reform initiative at Heritage Foundation he has a lot to weigh in on in the Georgia case and everything else going on 7:35 Ram Weinstein play byplay announcer for the Washington commanders he's going to break down or preview this week's game 805 Gregory pton head of the DC police Union 8:35 Brett Bayer our friend from Fox News will be dropping in too but we're going to be kicking off this big hour with J with uh Jason Johnson he's the president law enforcement legal of the law enforcement legal defense fund l l DF also an attorney and former Police Executive Jason welcome to the program Good Morning Good To Be With You great to have you well we've got here uh a pretty shocking case a former DC police officer is now sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison for a police chase that killed Karen Hilton Brown uh this case I I we covered it a little bit more earlier this morning uh this was a lowspeed Chase so to speak this 20 20-year-old uh was on a uh a motor a moped was riding on the uh on the sidewalk did not have a helmet and was hit by a different car not by the police officer uh in in this case uh but this police officer has been charged uh and sentenced now to 5 and a half years in prison tell us about uh your involvement in this in this case and what you're trying to do and also just your your thoughts on him being sentenced to five and a half years in prison sure thank you uh so F first of all let me just say that you know the law enforcement legal defense fund the organization that I'm privileged to leave has been around for 30 years now and um we're a nonprofit uh part of a significant part of what we do is to help raise money to support the legal defense of law enforcement officers who are wrongly charged with crimes as uh these as these officers were officer suton and Lieutenant zaski um we are we became involved actually after those officers were convicted in federal court this is going back a couple of years now okay um our main goal now and and I'll and I'll turn to the to the sentencing in a moment but our main goal now is to make sure that officer Sutton gets Justice in the appell courts because you certainly did not get Justice in the trial courts um so so this case uh as you as you outlined involves first of all Karan Hilton Brown is a verified gang member member of the Kennedy Street crew violent history has been arrested several times in the pass by Officer Sutton himself uh he was operating a moped or a scooter one of the publicly available um conveyances that are in the city um he he was he was spotted he was spotted by offer Sutton who offer Sutton had been previously alerted that Mr Hilton Brown might be in the area looking for retaliation and there's a there's a long story behind that that that we probably don't have time to get into but so it wasn't just a random traffic stop although officer Sutton did note that Hilton Brown was not wearing a helmet he was riding on the sidewalk both of those things are against the law in DC those are probable cause to make a make a stop which he attempted to do Hilton Brown takes off now you say low speed it was a low speed you know those those uh Vehicles will only travel you maybe 25 up to 30 miles an hour so we're not talking about a high speed chase in and out of traffic or anything like that and this and it lasted for about three minutes and then the most important thing here and I think this is the part that I sometimes gets buried in in coverage of this case is that Hilton Brown pulled in front of a c Ian vehicle that struck him that's what killed him so he wasn't killed by police no no police officer struck him or used force of any kind and the other important thing to note that this is a murder case that's what that's what officer Terence Sutton was convicted of it's murder W and so he had he did not cause the death and that's that's a key thing that in in in a murder case the person charged has to have caused the death of a person and it didn't happen here and so that's why this is an you know it's an outr also unprecedented and I'm sorry Jason I mean the other aspect of this is to be charged with murder right this is the way I understand the elements of what makes something criminal right and and and you know and here it's it's there's has to be some kind of an intent you had to know that what you were doing was going to kill the person that's the thing that gets me here and this is the Listen by the way I I've been I've been uh uh I got my jury summons for federal district Court I'm I'm all in you know I want to go do this I can't don't want to do it when they want me to do it but I want to do it for this very reason is that we seem to have completely lost the concept of intent when we're talking about criminality here which is again we're through the Looking Glass your thoughts here on this well the rules are here's the problem the the rules are different when it comes to law enforcement officers and and this is this is something that I don't think you know most average citizens aren't monitoring this because just don't have time to to look at the details of these cases and we're seeing this play out across the country where prosecutors in courts are are extending a much different version of Justice to Law Enforcement Officers they're just responding to calls from a small segment of the public that wants a pound of Flesh from law enforcement no matter what and that that's what led to this case there's just no question about it this this case arose in the same year as the death of George Floyd there was lots of vitrio and and and everything around police and the US attorney office went after P Sutton and Andrew zasky with Reckless abandon didn't care about the law and and here we are and it's amazing that we're actually here you could see them bringing charges unjustly which they did to get to obtain a conviction for murder is is it's just outrageous right we're speaking right now with Jason uh Johnson president of the law enforcement legal defense fund you know what what kind of impact is this having for on police forces Nationwide I can imagine it has to be having a chilling effect if you know you for if you are uh have to look over your shoulder in fear a murder charge for just simply trying to keep the public safe well you're you're you're you hit the nail on the head um law enforcement officers are not going to attempt to enforce the law if doing so is going to result in a murder charge so um officers here in the district are most acutely aware of this because many of them know um officer Sut lieutenant zaski they know these are good cops they W they weren't out there doing anything wrong it's you know I mean you know the old every nobody likes bad cops right so even cops don't like bad cops and but they're not these guys were incredible if you sat through their sentencing hearing and listen to not only other police officers but civilians come up and and talk about how decades police officers uh teren Sutton had previously been a district of colum officer of the year I mean these are great these are really decorated cops so other officers that see this happening understand they're not protected that's right and just an effort to enforce the law could result in this well Jason thank you so much we have to leave it there but where can folks find out more about the um the law enforcement legal defense fund yes so uh probably our website uh as policed defense.org we're also very very active on Instagram Facebook and Twitter or direct all right terrific thank you so much Jason Johnson uh thank you for your your time and folks can go to the ite or your x.com post to to learn more about it right now we're going to leave it there at 6:15 all right so Andrew we've got uh the head of the justice department attorney general Merrick Garland took to the podium yesterday uh to have a press conference um you would have thought that he was going to announce the capture of some terrorist maybe the uh May who knows what he would have announced but instead what he gave us was uh his commitment to the doj reir reaffirming its Norms uh despite series of controversies he's he's he's in essence claiming that the doj will not be weaponized uh uh under his under his now or going forward and that he's putting certain measures in place to protect the doj sure wink wink nudge nudge no blind not's as good as a wink to a blind B no I don't know please keep I'm just me interrupting you go right ahead well Okay let's listen to what he had to say Michael can we play Cuts five over the past 3 and a half years there has been an escalation of attacks on the Justice Department's career lawyers agents and other Personnel that go far beyond scrutiny criticism and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work these attacks have come in the form of conspir conspiracy theories dangerous falsehoods efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out and threats of actual violence all right we can end through your work this this this the this makes me angry to hear this I mean listen I was going to make a joke about sort of the Jedi mind trick and you know you just don't look here these are not the George you're looking for you know we're we're doing this the when you have several senior Justice Department officials conspiring in the summer of 2016 to go after and investigate I'm sorry let me let me take it even a step further when you have a senior justice department official whose wife who's a former CIA case officer running a former British spy compiling dirt on one of the major presidential candidates when you have a meeting between the Attorney General of the United States and the husband of a presidential candidate on a Tarmac and miraculously days later the justice department switches their investigation from her to her opponent the political election it's somehow now you got the I almost dropped the fpom the Attorney General saying that it's dangerous and outrageous to criticize the justice department in what universe is this guy living Sorry there just imagine if he was on the Supreme Court right now I mean just imagine if he if he if he was like listen there there the doj we we could look at all of the failures of the doj that obviously are politically motivated um failing to slow walking the trial of a man accused of seeking to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh we remember the harassment against conservative justices at their homes meanwhile the people who are getting harassed were parents speaking up at uh School rallies or or school board meetings to vent their concerns about how their children were being treated and and the education that they were receiving I mean this is this is absolute gaslighting 100% the definition of the the fact that he wants us to believe that any sort of criticism skepticism uh scrutiny of the doj is somehow wrong and and and baseless and personal and dangerous is is is their just way of trying to use the race card they don't have a race card to play so they'll use the oh this is baseless these are baseless attacks I had quipped way way back when that Donald Trump should have uh uh appointed mer Garland to the Supreme Court um you know in the wake of him not getting on the Supreme Court the first time because you know that because that would have been that would have shut up them and by the way mer garland would have been made toxic as a result of this the left would never have wanted to touch Meritt Garland um but that being and I think some of this would have been neutralized that being said I do like the fact that there is a 63 conservative majority on the high court I would not trade that for anything in the world well maybe a maybe not having a a gaslighting attorney general now that I now that I say this but but the reality is you know this is you're right it's not just the laware against Donald Trump but when you have a a SWAT team showing up at the home of a pro-life activist after charges have been dropped against him by the local Philadelphia prosecutor for defending his son there's clearly something at work here oh it's obviously it's politics and they know that the the Heat and the amount of oversight that's been placed on uh Meritt Garland the doj and sunry of these other agencies uh because we have had a Republican slim minority majority in the house um they don't like that kind of heat which tells us all the more reason why we've got to make sure that the heat continues all right well we've got plenty more to get you our heat will continue we've got lots of heat our heat will continue it's 622 on Wal now on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the wal app o Conor and Company it's 637 wal Larry oconor and Company uh 10 wal 105.9 Good Friday Good Friday morning to all it's Patrice and wuka I'm here every Friday uh and Andrew Langer is here in for Larry one final Friday with us one final Friday and I really really could go for a thing of fries right now we're one of those McDonald's hash browns I could go for one of those right now you're making us hungry it's oh yes believe me it's 6:30 in the morning we're hungry but we've got a lot to get to this morning 7:05 we've got Hans Von sposi Heritage Foundation weighing in on a lot of the election news we've had coming up and some of the Trump uh cases 7:35 Bram Weinstein a play-by-play announcer for the Washington commanders he's going to preview this weekend's game 805 Gregory pton head of the DC police Union and 8:35 our friend from Fox News Channel Brett be will be stopping by but we also o have a great friend of the show former uh uh wal morning show host Mary Katherine ham she's also the outkick columnist and a Fox News contributor as well as a board member of the Travis Manion Foundation good morning Mary Katherine good morning guys hey hey how are you doing I'm doing great you should have gotten a biscuit before you got to work you know you got on the way I know well yes but MK listen did you ever get the Destin out of your son's hair that's the question that that's on my mind this morning I did I did there's a hack just like a little Exon vald duck you got to put Dawn in their hair and there you go then you can clean it out yep oh my good good to know maybe be in one of their ads well all right so Mary Katherine we would love to get your take on not just the debate this week but really The Fallout from it um apparently U Mark Penn former uh uh died in or sorry Clinton Alum he's saying that now ABC should be investigated because perhaps there was some sort of collusion against President Trump between the ABC and some of the hosts what what do you make of all of this do you think there was some collusion on the part of ABC and host just to take down Trump oh that's very interesting that Mark Penn said that I had not heard that uh I think they were heinous I guess is the word they were really really awful uh and every single question was designed to lift her and then pivot everything to any liability that Trump had that being said I do want to say Trump missed an opportunity there were so many moments where he could have just revers Tomahawk dunked on her about this economy and about her record that he let lie because she was pretty good at distracting him with things that distract him and that was that was a missed opportunity that he could have overcome however he was also being the moderator for half the debate because because he was asking her questions there was a great moment where he asked her okay well you didn't answer the question about limitations on abortion so is it seven eight nine months and she doesn't answer again and the moderators aren't interested in pressing her for an answer so they don't but it was a it was one of the worst performances I've ever seen from moderators and it was very noticeable because I think Jake Tapper and danab Bash and June were so good because they were so hands off right they just they asked tough question they asked some follow-ups but they did not insert themselves into the conversation yeah it was it was a situation in which Kamala was lobbed a softball question she gave a softball answer then tacked on a Barb and expected Trump to take the bait and in many cases he did but let me let me ask you this I mean it's astounding to me uh no bounce or at least as we can tell so far no bounce for kamla in the polls as a result of this Trump actually gained on the economy we had the reuter story six out of 10 of their undecideds going for Trump as a result of that debate what do you make of that so my thought on this is that she had to pass a plausibility bar right because people want to see her as plausible as president um and plausible as a different kind of President than the administration she's currently in right she I think she passed the plausibility bar for just kind of looking like she could stand there and seem like a person who does that job right she did not a bad the word salad was not terrible because she was treated with kid gloves Etc um he has a different bar every all of his liabilities are baked in and his plausibility bar isn't there you know why because he's plausible as president because he was already president yes oh boy right so so I think that is part of what's Happening Here and she voters keep saying independent voters in particular I want to know more about her and she won't give them anything because she's incapable of giving them anything without burning the entire record of the Biden Administration yeah yeah and she's incapable of giving them anything without doing the word salad so they just get a couple of sentences repeated and maybe that's not enough for them well and it may be also that she doesn't want to reveal who she really is I mean she says that she has not left her values behind but you know her policy flip-flops have been you know astounding so we don't really know who the real camela Harris is now that said um do you think president Trump has anything to lose in doing a third debate versus uh versus what she has to gain doing a third debate my take on this uh yesterday and I'll see if my my thoughts change on this as we go through the news cycle is that probably one's not happening because I don't think he did a great job I think probably he knows that somewhere down deep inside and I think she's so risk averse that maybe they don't do this again M okay yeah well we're going to leave it there Mary kathern ham but tomorrow or sorry Sunday September 15th in Annapolis you've got the 911 Heroes run can you just give us a quick plug for that yeah so I'm on the board of the Travis Manion foundation and we have these 911 Heroes runs all over the country you can sign up at 911 Heroes run.com there are 5Ks there's one in Annapolis this Sunday there's one in Oak in Virginia next Sunday that I will be at that I'm planning um we would love you to join us it's a great family friend friendly super patriotic event where civilians get together with the families of the Fallen veterans those who've served um and First Responders to honor all that that happened on 911 those we lost and those who served after it it's 911 Heroes run.com you will have a blast with us the Travis Manning Foundation attracts the most fun people it's a great thing to bring kids to I'm forcing my children to run a 5k they're gonna be fine they're gonna do a great job um it's three miles it's okay yeah can handle it and you guys should really get out with us it's really a it's it's a super group of people so 911 Heroes run.com if you want to sign up and join me in Oak all right terrific well folks know uh where to go 911 Heroes Heroes run.com to learn more this Sunday next Sunday Annapolis and Virginia thank you so much Mary Katherine thanks for having me guys W making sense of the economy because it's your money and your retirement download the wmal app to stream Us for free oh Lowden County back again we've got an interesting voter registration story here coming from a parent uh in Lowden County Andrew uh this parent posted a a post of a Virginia voter registration application okay sounds normal except the fact that this was given to this parent by the parents 16-year-old daughter and here's the and so that should raise red flags alone you cannot vote if you are not 18 years old and then the second flag is that this this registration form came to her daughter from the daughter's teacher who gave it to them in a in a hallway as part of a registration drive to get teens to register to vote does this sound crazy to you or is it just me well listen here's the thing I know that in Virginia you can you can pre-register to vote at the age of 16 right there's a thing you can pre-register you're not allowed to vote until you're 18 I always thought it was you can't do it before a major election right you have to do it if there's a major election is occurring after you turn 18 uh you can do it then um but I'm I'm looking at this uh National Conference of state legislator website 18 states in Washington DC permit pre-registration beginning at 16 years old what I don't like about this is that it's a teacher the teacher being insistent and if the story is correct and I have no reason to doubt that it's not correct insisting that the teenager complete the form without having a discussion with their parents first that's a problem right you know it's it's it's it's a I get this issue of uh of you know this move by the left to get teens to register to vote we know that as a result of of Taylor Swift's uh announcement the other night there would been a huge uptick in voter registrations amongst swifties I suppose okay um but the reality is uh uh teachers should not be bringing their politics and their political agendas into schools this is part of no listen if there's a student group that wants to do this right let's even say that it's a group of young Democrats a group of young Republicans that wants to engage in a a student voter registration drive that's fine um but no student should be forced to fill out a government form uh without going and talking without being able to go and talk to their parents first you know the responses on social media to this actually hearken exactly what you're saying uh one person the real parents of Lowden County shout out to them uh it's not right the teacher in school need to be reported free feel free to DM me or have your Source DM me uh let's see another go talk with that teacher immediately and the principal County Board of election Board of Elections police or sheriff and maybe the state director of Public Instruction ask other parents too the teacher is trying to commit some crimes potentially um but but I you raised a great Point um which is that their teachers are putting pressure on kids and the the students are absolutely right to stand up and not just bend to that pressure in the moment but actually to say you know what let me discuss this with my parents that is what needs to be done that kid is that parent is doing the right thing with this kid it is 652 we're we're actually G to have Hans Von sposi on we might ask him about this and just a lot of other election stuff coming up at 7:05 but it is 652 right now on oconor and Company at w