Morning Run: Growing TSA Lines, Student Found Dead, Iran War Escalating, Trump Pearl Harbor Joke, Bachelorette CYA, BTS Is Back and March Madness Underway

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Morning Run. It is Friday, March twentieth. I'm Amy Robox and.

00:00:13
Speaker 2: I'm TJ Holmes, and I don't even know where to start. It rolls on this Friday. It's been a heavy week, it seems, with war and reality show cancelations. We got heat waves, we got hell at the airports. What's the positive news? Give me the upside? Will you spring?

00:00:28
Speaker 1: Yes, That's exactly what I was going to say. It's the first day of spring, a time for renewal, a time for hope, okay, birth, all right, yes, and we could use all of the above and some warmer weather for here, at least for those of us in the Northeast. I know a lot of you guys, as you mentioned, have way too hot of temperatures, but we would take some of that heat from y'all right now.

00:00:50
Speaker 2: In fact, one City Rose is crazy. Yesterday, folks, One city yesterday recorded the hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States in March. Ever. Wow, we will tell you where exactly that was. But as many of you know what's happening at the airports, We're going to start with that, and we'll say out loud. I think we're going to start with every show by saying, please pay your TSA agents. Please call your congressmen and women and tell them to pay these folks. The airport's robes are still a mess right now, the long lines and whatnot we're seeing. But Sean Duffy, a guy we've given a lot of credit to the Transportation Secretary, he came out and said something I couldn't even was like, did he mean to say that?

00:01:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, he said, this is so concerning. He wrote this on X so there's no wondering. If you heard him right now, you can read it. He said, the airport lines you're seeing now are child's play compared to what you will see next week if TSA misses another paycheck. You didn't like that, yeah, because we're traveling next week.

00:01:51
Speaker 2: Well, you know, he's been a straight shooter on a lot of stuff, and I don't think he's just he hasn't been one robe that we liked how he handled He has handled things. But that's a pretty dire warning. This partial government shutdown robes start at February fourteenth. We're knocking on the door now of getting to a longer shut down than the full shut down at the end of the year last year.

00:02:11
Speaker 1: My goodness, yes, what day are we on right now.

00:02:14
Speaker 2: February fourteen, fourteen through the math area over thirty plus days, My goodness, so yes, and we're seeing and it's heartbreaking that these folks are having to have food banks and have donations. They're even tip boxes set up at airports for some of the TSA workers. Our first line of defense right against terrorism, as we're told, as we are told, toll right, folks will continue now on this Friday morning, Ron, We're going to be making stops today in Barcelona, Spain, and Richmond, Virginia on Capitol Hill. We'll make a stop at the gas pump, even making a stop at Pearl Harbor. We'll explain that. But we do need to begin now, Robes with what is now the fourth week into the.

00:02:54
Speaker 1: War, yes, with Iran, and by most accounts, things are escalating as Israel and Iran are now going after energy targets. Israel attacked Iran's huge natural gas fields and then in retaliation, Iran has been targeting the energy infrastructure of its neighbors.

00:03:11
Speaker 2: So of course all these developments now attacks on energy infrastructure. Doing a number on oil and gas prices. The average price of a gallon of gas in the US now at three dollars and ninety cents. That is up about a dollar in the past month. Who's paying the most? I guess that's an easy guess for a lot of people always paying higher prices. In California, average gallon is five dollars and sixty five since the cheapest gas you'll find is in Kansas and Oklahoma they are about three dollars and twenty five cents. But everybody's up.

00:03:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you think about that a dollar more a gallon? How much are most oo gas tanks or what? Twenty gallons? Sixteen gallons? But you start doing the map once a week, you have to fill up maybe twice a week. Yes, that adds up very fast. And you pointed this out yesterday. For those TSA workers driving to work marketting paid now having to spend a lot more to fill up their tank to go to a job that they are getting a paycheck for. Whoo, all right, next up on the run. It takes money to kill bad guys. That was the response Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave yesterday to a question about a massive Pentagon budget request.

00:04:14
Speaker 2: Kind of on brand for him, right, totally.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:04:18
Speaker 2: Well, they're asking for an additional two hundred billion dollars for the war with a Run as part of what they're calling an extra spending budget for this year. They haven't formally made the request to Congress. They said the number could change a little bit, but that is the one that is currently floating around.

00:04:35
Speaker 1: But it's not going down.

00:04:37
Speaker 2: Who it could, uh huh.

00:04:39
Speaker 1: All right, Next up on the Run, some sad, sad news to update you on. Authorities in Spain have found the body of that missing University of Alabama student. We're talking about twenty year old James Gracie. He was last seen around three am outside of a popular nightclub with tourists there, and his body was found in the water just off the beach where he had been partying with friends. Right now, we have no word on the cause of his death, but of course we will keep following the story because there have got to be some updates on exactly what happened, how it happened, and why it happened.

00:05:11
Speaker 2: Right continuing on this Friday morning run, now, we're going to head back to Capitol Hill, not Capitol Hill. Back to DC and in particular the Oval Office where President Trump cracked a Pearl Harbor joke yesterday while seated just inches away from the Prime Minister of yep to Japan. This was Prime Minister Sanek Takashi. She was sitting right there next to him. You've seen plenty of shots with the President when he has a meeting he has with a foreign leader, they sit in that cozy little spot right the fireplaces behind them. So that's the setup for the image. Someone was asking the question robes, having to do with why didn't you give other folks like Japan and some of your allies a heads up before you attacked Iran? Like why did you go kind of make it a surprise to other people? Was the question. That's the setting.

00:06:03
Speaker 1: This is hard for me to even repeat what the President of the United States said in front of the Japanese Prime minister. He said, we didn't tell anyone about it because we wanted a surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan. Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? You cannot make this up? And then to her credit, to her credit, yes, her reaction was very subtle but distinct. When he said that, her eyes widened and you could see the shock and surprise speaking of surprise in her face. Yet she held her decorum, and frankly, I don't think anyone would have been would have faulted her if she hadn't.

00:06:44
Speaker 2: She took a deep breath. That was grace on a international level. That was world class. I give her credit. That was very difficult to hear. I only I only listened to it this morning. I've been reading about it and I saw clips and I intentionally avoided it.

00:07:00
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, that is awful. I just did it was so uncomfortable. It was so uncomfortable, awful. All right, we'll continue to here on the run the president. The man that President Trump wants to replace, Christy Gnome as Homeland Security Secretary, passed the key nomination hurdle yesterday. The Senate Committee voted to advance his nomination to the full Senate. This vote was close, though, eight to seven. Only happened because a Democrat voted to a Federman right and voted to push it forward. So the full Senate is going to vote on it next week.

00:07:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was there's not a concern really about it passing him passing in the full Senate, but the committee vote was up in the air, with Ran Paul being as forceful as he was a Republican about not supporting him. All right, next up on the run, everybody involved and the Bachelorette has now gone into c why a mode? Not surprising because guess what, Yeah, I'm pretty sure somebody is going to have to take the blame for the Bachelorette. Absolute disaster, financially, reputationally, just from a credit standpoint. This has just been a massive, massive disaster, could be.

00:08:07
Speaker 2: A franchise killer. Franchise was already in trouble and now you have this. But Disney, as many of you saw the news yesterday, announced that it was canceling the Taylor Frankie Paul season of The Bachelorette, which was set to premiere on Sunday. Now. The cancelation came after video was leaked of a twenty twenty three domestic violence incident in which Paul Hit kicked tossed metal barstools at her ex boyfriend. Was this one, you know what? She might survive it and her reputation down the road would be very hard for Disney to survive putting that show on after people saw that video.

00:08:44
Speaker 1: That video that you said was leaked, but had always been there. It was a part of a police investigation. So Paul is currently under a new investigation for a separate domestic violence incident that allegedly happened late February. Disney's statement in canceling the show read like this, in light of the newly released video just surface today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The bachel Read at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family. The newly released video just surface today. It's a video that they reportedly had known about for quite some time.

00:09:19
Speaker 2: In light of it, in light of the newly released system and they knew.

00:09:23
Speaker 1: About the video. This is the issue all right now in terms of Taylor or Frankie Paul. Her statement was this, Taylor is very grateful for ABC's support as she prioritizes her family safety and security. After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse, as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm. There are too many women who are suffering in silence as they survive aggressive, jealous ex partners who refuse to let them move on with their lives. Her ex has spoken out and categorically denied the very significant implications here in that statement and pointed out that he's never sat down, he's never done a tell all. He's tried to hope that it would go away or stop happening. So look, there is so much more to come on this. He actually filed a restraining order against Taylor Frankie Paul yesterday.

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Speaker 2: On that first line, I stopped. That's how our statement statement would have started as well, right Amy and TJR. Very grateful for ABC's support as they prioritize family. Right now, Okay, folks, stay with us here on this Friday morning run. When we come back, where was it in the US that had the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country in the month of March, We'll tell you where that was. Also, BTS is back. I have to be honest, abe, little anxiety about it, but not as excited as I was yesterday watching basketball from noon to midnight. Stay here we continue here on this Friday morning Ron with a record that was set yesterday for the hottest temperature ever recorded in March in the United States Ropes.

00:11:26
Speaker 1: If I had to guess, I would have guessed Death Valley, but I would have been kind of right. Okay, it's actually technically Martinez Lake in Yuma County, Arizona. It reached one hundred and ten degrees and records are falling all over the Southwest and southern California as they are dealing with a historic heat wave, or as the meteorologists like to call it, a heat dome. Temperatures are in the nineties and in the hundreds and it's expected to last at least through the weekend.

00:11:55
Speaker 2: Wait, we're doing the dome thing again.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard that heat dome. Heat domes.

00:12:00
Speaker 2: Sorry. Next up on the run, let's head over to Seoul, South Korea. BTS officially back. I'm a little excited. I am very personally invested in these guys. I love this group, the K pop stars. They haven't had an album in four years, haven't worked in four years, essentially on their careers. Because it's cool. They were required to do military duty and they went and did it.

00:12:21
Speaker 1: That is very cool, and so they are.

00:12:22
Speaker 2: Back now the new album just dropped yesterday and they are going to be performing a live, a live free concert. It's on Netflix. I do believe it's tomorrow night. But they're expecting two hundred and fifty thousand plus to show up for the concert, and then they have an eighty plus tour date plan they're going out is going to be Mainium.

00:12:41
Speaker 1: I feel like two hundred and fifty thousand people showed up in Times Square when they were on Good Morning America. So that is going to be fascinating to see those crowds.

00:12:49
Speaker 2: When you throw it up to work and like, well they are not here for me, Like, who are you?

00:12:54
Speaker 1: We're waiting for BTS. Sorry. Next up on the run. Yes, March Madness is officially under way. And in this house that means at least six screens are going on at all times. You had to like have multiple Hulu accounts to have all the different life.

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Speaker 2: Feet I did. I had to come to you yesterday, did I said, Babe, can you log into this for me? I did? I said, I had too many screens going and that is fine. This is what this is. We got another day of it today, sixteen game yesterday, sixteen today after that we'd be down to thirty two. By Sunday we'd get to sweet sixteen. But yesterday the game, you were exhausted, tied, sleepy, about to pass out, and even you stuck around for the UNCBCU game.

00:13:35
Speaker 1: I did, and it was very cool. They were down by nineteen then of course I was thinking, like, I'm going to bed. Then of course it gets closer. Then it gets closer, then they go and they tie, then they go into overtime.

00:13:47
Speaker 2: That's what I thought. I was gonna lose.

00:13:48
Speaker 1: You yes, and I was like, oh my god, overtime, then they tie again at the end of overtime. It was It was pretty impressive.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: But that was on you. I didn't push it in. You stuck around on your own. But this is what the tournament is. Just beautiful. Congrats to the folks in High Point. Twelve seed beat five seed Wisconsin. That messed up a whole bunch of brackets. Yesterday. The BCU game, we should mention that was the biggest comeback in the first round of the NCAA tournament history. Really, they were down by nineteen and won that game. They beat North Carolina, that is a blue blood school, that is devastated right now. But the brackets. ESPN does the Bracket Challenge. Twenty seven million submitted robes. How many perfect practics after day.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: One, ten, seven hundred and thirty five, I had.

00:14:33
Speaker 2: A twenty seven million. That's all you gotta left.

00:14:34
Speaker 1: That is one from our day of basketball. And that's why we don't Well, that's one of the many reasons we don't do brackets. Also, Georgia lost and I didn't stay up for it. And I'm not upset about it. It was too late. I can't stay up that late. Oh know why? I was a dud, blown out.

00:14:49
Speaker 2: I didn't play well.

00:14:49
Speaker 1: Oh well, but you know what, we have the razorbacks. That's exciting. That is very exciting.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: Saturday, Right Saturday, I got to play High Point the little darlings right now.

00:14:58
Speaker 3: So.

00:15:00
Speaker 1: All right, well, quote of the day on this Friday. Look, there has been so much he said, she said, who said? Who knew? What? I thought? This quote worked well. And by the way, it's so easy to apply this quote to other people. Apply it to yourself.

00:15:16
Speaker 2: Oh okay.

00:15:17
Speaker 1: We are all unreliable narrators of our own lives. The stories we tell protect our identity, not the truth.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a lot of folks are guilty that.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: Say all of us are. That's the point. We are all unreliable narrators of our own lives. The stories we tell usually protect our own identity, not the truth, what we think of ourselves, how we value ourselves, what we want other people to think of ourselves. We recreate what happened to justify us and to protect what we value in ourselves. And it's not the truth, it's a version of it that we've told ourselves, and then we act based on those untruths, and just it's a matter of kind of recognizing and recognizing when we do it. It's not if we do it, when we do it. I thought that was a really good way to look at maybe all of this mess in other people's lives and in our own, that's.

00:16:17
Speaker 2: On your unreliable narrators of your own life, and so much of that, Like we have a little issue with someone else narrating our lives as well.

00:16:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you're dealing with your own truth and other people's truth. And then yeah, exactly so, yes, remember that when you're doubling down about what you think happened, just remember that everyone is called the ego We do it to protect ourselves. We are all unreliable narrators of our own lives. The stories we tell usually protect our identity, not the truth. And with that everyone, I'm Amy Robot, thank you so.

00:16:52
Speaker 2: Much for running with us, and I'm DJ Holmes. We'll talk to Elsi