Feb. 4, 2026
Morning Run: Murder Charges ForJill Biden’s Ex, Government Reopens, Melinda Gates Speaks Out, Nancy Guthrie Ransom Notes, Lindsay Vonn Will Compete, and Kid Rock Vs Bad Bunny
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RSS Feed Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”
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00:00:01
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast.
00:00:05
Speaker 2: Good morning everyone, Thanks for joining us for today's Morning Run. It is Wednesday, February fourth. I'm Amy Robots and.
00:00:12
Speaker 1: I'm TJ Holmes. We're going to get right to a lot of news happening this morning with the Run is going to take us to Delaware, to DC, to Florida, to San Francisco to Milan, but we do have to begin in Tucson, Arizona, where there have been significant and somewhat bizarre updates in the case of Savannah Guthrie's missing eighty four year old mother, Nancy. We're now learning robes. We heard yesterday about one ransom note sent to TMZ. Now we're hearing about a second note.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: That's right, the first was actually sent to a local CBS affiliate in Tucson ko LDTV. That note was sent on Monday. The station immediately handed that note over to police and agreed not to report on it. That's why we're just now hearing about it. But according to the Sheriff's Department, that first ransom note contained d details about the Guthrie home, what Nancy Guthrie was wearing the night of her abduction, and they did share that note with the Guthrie family.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: As the sheriff said, they cannot confirm the accuracy of the information or legitimacy of the note. They didn't let us know if some of the details in there matched up with what was going on in the home, so we don't know what they're legit. But still they were hoping to keep the note from becoming public. TMZ had other plans. They received what appears to be the same note the following day, on Tuesday. They chose to share the news about it with the audience after they saw the press conference from the sheriff, but before letting the sheriff know. According to the sheriff, yes, TMZ went public with this note before even letting authorities no. TMZ did not provide all the details of the note, but shared plenty that they wanted millions, that whoever wrote it said they wanted it in cryptocurrency, and said they needed by a certain deadline quote or else.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: Now, the only other new detail comes from that same CBS affiliate who shot some video and you'll probably see it everywhere on the news today of what appears to be some droplets of blood on the doorstep of Nancy Guthrie's home. Now, police won't confirm the existence of blood outside or inside Guthrie's home, but in yesterday's press conference they did say that they collected DNA from the scene and so far the testing of that DNA has not pointed to any one suspect. We also got word NBC announcing this is not unexpected that given the situation, Savannah will not be headed as planned to the Winter Olympics in Milan. She was going to be hosting the opening ceremonies on Friday. And a reminder everyone, I'm sure you know this by now, but Nancy Guthrie was reported missing at eleven am on Sunday. She was last seen Saturday night around nine to forty five pm. Police confirmed she was taken against her will and that the evidence left behind was gravely concerning. She left behind her cell phone, her wallet, and medication she needs daily, her family saying if she doesn't have access to that medication within twenty four hours, it could be fatal.
00:03:12
Speaker 1: No, we don't have any planned at this point, folks. They don't have any planned press conferences today, actually not until tomorrow. But if anything happens, just like it has been happening. We will hop on as always top right corner of your Apple podcast at where it says follow Click that and you can get subscribed to make sure all of our updates come to you, and there have been plenty as of late. We want to continue on the run. Here. Another headline yesterday, and a bizarre one because of its connection to the former First Lady Jill Biden's doctor Jill Biden's ex husband has been arrested charged with murdering his second wife, sixty four year old Linda Stevens In. A grand jury indicted seventy seven year old William stevens In with first degree murder after police say they found his wife unresponsive in their Wilmington, Delaware living room while respet bonding to a domestic dispute. This was back on December twenty eighth.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Yes so, police have not released any details surrounding Stevenson's death. They only said that the indictment came as a result of an extensive, weeks long investigation. Now, doctor Joe Biden married William Stevenson a long, long, long time ago in February of nineteen seventy, when she was just eighteen years old five years later. They were divorced by nineteen seventy five, which just so happens to be the same year that Jill met her current husband, former President Joe Biden.
00:04:33
Speaker 1: All Right, continuing on the run. Here now, it's sentencing day for sixty year old Ryan Routh, the man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump. It is Florida golf course back in September of twenty twenty four. A federal judge will decide whether Routh should receive a life sentence for his crime. Since September, a jury quickly found him guilty on all five felon accounts, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer.
00:04:58
Speaker 2: So here's what prosecutors have are in their court filing. They say Ralph's crimes undeniably warrant a life sentence. He took steps over the course of months to assassinate a major presidential candidate, demonstrated the will to kill anybody in the way, and has since expressed neither regret nor remorse to his victims. Ralph's new defense attorney is asking for twenty years on top of a seven year mandatory sentence for that one gun conviction. But he's sixty, so that would pretty much be a life sentence.
00:05:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, life sentence. All this for hiding in the bushes of Trump's West Palm Beach golf course with a military grade rifle, pointed the gun towards Trump, a Secret Service agent who then opened fire, causing Ralph to drop his weapon and run. He actually never got a shot off. He made an argument he was actually not there to do harm. But that's a tough argument to make when you have a loaded rifle pointing towards the president.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: That is a very tough argument, indeed, and not one that the jury was willing to stomach. All right, Next up on the run, The government has reopened, in case you were wondering, just before five Eastern time on Tuesday, President Trump signed that new funding legislation in the Oval Office, officially ending the partial government shutdown. Trump was surrounded by Republican members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was holding is it a new red hat? I haven't seen this one before. It says America is back.
00:06:17
Speaker 1: They all look the same to me, Yes, but we open and closed. They're starting to keep bankers hours our government. Yeah, we're won't close. They will open back up, and we don't get paid when you close. Right, it's a bizarre thing they're doing. We're having a ceremony. We're open again. We're open again. We're open again.
00:06:37
Speaker 2: You make a good point, like that's not anything we should probably be celebrating. It should always be open, the government should be it should never shut down.
00:06:44
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Both Republicans and Democrats have to discuss now funding the Department of Homeland Security, which has only been funded for the next two weeks, in order for both sides to negotiate tighter restrictions on immigration officials. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will have their very serious, detailed proposal on those reforms and restrictions quote, very shortly.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: Can't wait for that all right. In the meantime, though, Next up on the Run, Melinda Gates is speaking out about the latest Epstein Files release that included some damning email drafts about her ex husband Bill. You may remember, Melinda divorced Bill Gates back in twenty twenty one after twenty seven years of marriage. She cited an affair he admitted to and some ties, Yeah, some major ties to Jeffrey Epstein as a part of the reason behind their split. So Melinda sat down with NPR's wild Card podcast that's set to be released in its entirety tomorrow Thursday, but NPR released a preview where we hear Melinda directly reacting to this latest controversy surrounding her act.
00:07:47
Speaker 1: Did you see, dearies? What was the she was booked originally? What was the main topic.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: I actually don't know what the main topic was, but obviously, given the recent headlines about Bill Gates, the I thought that the way the podcast host asked the question was fair. She kind of just gave her an opportunity. Hey, this is in the headlines. Do you want to say something?
00:08:08
Speaker 1: And I think that is even more important because she was given an opportunity to back out respectfully, kindly. But she took this opportunity. She said plenty, including that she was happy to be away from what she called all the muck that was there. She also, I thought this was nice. She talked about the sadness she had, but she said, look, I have healed, I've moved on, and some of these women who were then girls are started being victimized, so she to be honest in all this Epstein back and forth, you rarely hear someone as sad as that sounds expressed like a genuine concern for the victims and what they're going through. I thought that was nice, But here was the one that's getting a lot of headlines. Whatever the questions remain and there that are out there, I can't even begin to know all of that. Those questions are for those people and for even my ex husband. They need to answer those things, not me. Wow. The latest document drop revealed a set of draft emails by Jeffrey Epstein, one of them labeled to Bill that referenced possibly Bill contracting an STD from quote Russian girls and asking for antibiotics to surreptitiously give to his wife. Yeah.
00:09:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a jaw dropper. Bill Gates, by the way, himself, was asked specifically about these emails. We know we got like a statement from his organization, but he actually directly talked in a recent interview in Australia where he said this. Apparently Jeffrey wrote an email to himself that email was never sent. The email is, you know, false, So I don't know what his thinking was there. It just reminds me, you know, every minute I spent with him, I regret and I you know, apologized that I did that. He said, it's factually true that I was only at dinners. You know, I never went to the island. I never met any women. And so, you know, the more that comes out, the more clear it'll be that although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to to do with that kind of behavior. The more that comes out, I don't think there's anything more coming out. That was a bizarre response.
00:10:08
Speaker 1: He should have rehearsed that.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: There was a lot of you knows.
00:10:13
Speaker 1: With a guy that brilliant, you had, you know, words to fill in.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: He was stumbling around.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: He fumbling around a little bit. But that was a damning that a guy wrote it to himself, essentially at.
00:10:24
Speaker 2: The time it happened without any thought that this would then be read in later years.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: It was only for himself at the time. Jeffrey Epstein wrote it to Jeffrey Epstein.
00:10:38
Speaker 2: It's tough. It's tough to refuse.
00:10:39
Speaker 1: That's a tough all right, Stay with us here on this Wednesday morning run. When we come back, Lindsay Vaughn, we love you. And we want to see you, but we are worried about what she is now trying to pull off at the Olympics. Also competition at the Super Bowl, not just between the Patriots and the Seahawks, it's against the Spanish speakers and the right. Stay here, we continue here on this Wednesday Morning Ron with Lindsey Vaughn. She says she is going to compete at the Winter Olympics in Milan. We knew that. We were excited to see her. The problem now is Robes. She's saying she's still confident about this, despite the fact that she completely ruptured her acl on a crash at the World Cup downhill in Switzerland just on Friday. She's forty one years old. She's back on the slope. She took a couple days off, but she did some physical therapy and was back out there yesterday. She says, the knees not swollen. She's gonna wear a brace and she's going to compete on Sunday.
00:11:51
Speaker 2: That is so nerve wracking. Look, you pointed this out. This is her last shot, almost certainly of being an Olympian.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: She wasn't going to take this one. Yes, she's super debating.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: She's forty one years old. I didn't realize she actually skipped the Sochi Olympics because of an injury, so I can see her mindset. Look, I missed one. This is my last shot. I'm gonna take it. But that is really nerve wracking. Her quote was, as long as there's a chance, I will try, I will do everything in my power to be in the starting gate. All right. So not only is her first Olympic event on Sunday, she also says that she is going to compete in the Super G and the new Team combined event, so she's got three events. Her first training session in Milan is scheduled for tomorrow on Thursday, so perhaps after that she will have a better idea of where she stands to compete on Sunday. So at least, well, I'm sure we will know more and she will know.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: She's testing it out. But that is so scary. You're a skier, but just watching it, just the way they compete, the strain on their bodies there going and making those turns. I was more worried, Yes, that she could hurt it worse, but what if it fails her and is weak and she can't control something and can't stop herself. Ah, they know what they're doing. Doctors are around. I just got nervous, lover want to see her if she could be triumph, But what a story.
00:13:15
Speaker 2: Look, I agree with you, and you said I'm a skier haha, I mean I can ski marginally well, but you're so so the little bit that I've done a couple times a year, you're so you're at the mercy of the conditions, and that is what they say went wrong in Switzerland. A lot of skiers had issues and crashed because of the conditions. So it's just just so much is out of your control. It's nerve wracking to think that you're doing that and exposing your body to that when it's not at its best, at its peak. So good luck to her. We wish her the very best. But we will be watching with probably my eyes like half closed. Ah, all right, for the final leg of our run. Look, there is a tremendous amount of excitement for this year's Super Bowl half time show. It's being headlined by the now Grammy winning I mean in every big way you can imagine Latin artists. Bad Bunny, he's just had a hell of a year. And he is on top. But there is also a significant amount of controversy. What well, you know what.
00:14:17
Speaker 1: I wrote it down just to get.
00:14:19
Speaker 2: It's because he sings in Spanish. He has been openly critical of Trump's immigration policies. The end of story. Those are the two reasons why he is now controversial according to many on the right and so yes, that has now led to some competition. The late Charlie Kirk's organization Turning Point USA has announced its lineup to counter program the NFL's halftime show with their own show called The All American Halftime Show. Want to point out that Bad Bunny is an American?
00:14:52
Speaker 1: Why do you have to point that out, Sweetenes.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: Because the title of this show implies that somehow he's not he's Puerto Rican, He's American. I just I wanted to make for people.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: I think people know that Americans both oh man, come on. Of course people know Bad Bunny is an American citizen. He travels to the mainland without a past.
00:15:17
Speaker 2: If you went out and actually interviewed people just to say, is Bad Bunny a legal American? I bet you you'd I bet you so many people would say no.
00:15:27
Speaker 1: Well, the All American halftime show is competing with the other American halftime show at the Super Bowl, but they describe there as as a family friendly, values driven event created for viewers seeking uplifting, patriotic entertainment. The headliner give you five seconds to guess, and you probably only needed too well.
00:15:51
Speaker 2: It was either going to be Lee Greenwood or Kid Rock.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: But Lee Greenwood can't headline.
00:15:56
Speaker 2: It's probably not.
00:15:56
Speaker 1: He's got one song and then you do a couple of remixes of it. Maybe I don't know, no, and I don't know Glee Greenwood's music. He might have a whole bunch of hits.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Proud to be an American is I don't even know that's the name of it.
00:16:07
Speaker 1: But yes, okay, but anyway, Yes, Kid Rock is going to headline this thing, accompanied by country singers Lee Brice, Yes, Brandley Gilbert. You know that one?
00:16:14
Speaker 2: Nope?
00:16:15
Speaker 1: Gabby Barrett, did you know that one?
00:16:16
Speaker 2: Nope?
00:16:17
Speaker 1: But you did know Lee Brice.
00:16:18
Speaker 2: It sounds familiar. Couldn't name a song, okay, just.
00:16:21
Speaker 1: Like Lee Greenwood. They probably collaborated. The All American half times show is going to begin at eight o'clock Eastern time, set to go inside with the NFL Super Bowl halftime show. Counterprogramming will stream on Turning Point USA social media channels, x Rumble YouTube, as well as Trinity Broadcasting Network and some conservative networks.
00:16:39
Speaker 2: Okay, but I was kind of look I looked at Kid Rock's comments and making this announcement that he was headlining. He said, we're approaching this show like David and Goliath. Competing with pro football with the pro football machine and a global pop superstar is almost impossible, or is it? And then he took a shot at Batuny, which he didn't need to do. He could have just left it at that, but no, he said this about Bad Bunny. He said, he's having a dance party, wearing a dress and singing in Spanish. Cool. We plan to play great songs for folks who love America. And the frustrating thing about that is you can love America and love Bad Bunny because Bad Bunny is an American. I just I feel like that just needs to be said.
00:17:28
Speaker 1: But you can you can also love America and have a lot of problems with things America has done in its history, that it's doing currently and the things it might do down the road, and still be proud of your country and love your country. That shows the love. Could you give a damn enough to speak up if you see something that's going wrong. It's okay, folks, there's space. And if Kid Rock were doing the halftime show with the super Bowl, I'd watch that too. I'll watch whoever they put up because this is the most of all American events and it has to be some way representative of all of us. We as Americans, have the biggest star on planet Earth right now. He's an American bad money I know, Taylor Swift is. He is just the hottest thing on the planet. We should be proud of that and all celebrate whatever we're about to see, and if that includes maybe learning a little Spanish.
00:18:23
Speaker 2: You were trying to learn the main lyrics, Yes, and I tried.
00:18:28
Speaker 1: I was.
00:18:29
Speaker 2: I gave up quickly. You kept trying.
00:18:32
Speaker 1: I'll do I'll know it before Sunday. Okay, It's just it's okay, why do we If it's not this, then it's not American. If it's not exactly this thing that you say, then it doesn't belong in America. I just I hate that attitude.
00:18:48
Speaker 2: It's so un American to even say that.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: There's room for all right, that's room for all of it. Sorry, I'm sorry the morning right now.
00:18:56
Speaker 2: It will be interesting to see though, just if they're able to take any sort of ratings or viewership away from the halftime show and direct it towards them. I'm sure we'll see the pr machines at work come Monday.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: Already you said he was trying to lower expectation life or is it right?
00:19:15
Speaker 2: Right? Okay, all right. Quote of the day as we leave you on this Wednesday, I took some time trying to find something. There's so much going on in the world, but I do appreciate this one from one of our favorites, Michael Singer. Here is your quote of the day. Whatever you focus on, you feed. If you give your attention to fear, it grows. If you stay aware and open love naturally arises, you are not helpless. You are a creator.
00:19:46
Speaker 1: Whatever you focus on, you feed. Yes, well was the next one.
00:19:48
Speaker 2: If you give, If you give your attention to fear, it grows.
00:19:52
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna give my attention to money. Great quote, mister Singer.
00:19:58
Speaker 2: If you stay aware and open love naturally arises, you are not helpless. You are a creator. I love that we all look to feed our fear or our feelings. We victimize ourselves. We act as if some things or some people happened to us. That is not a productive or positive way forward. I love that you are not helpless. You are a creator. I love it and create everybody. Love and openness, not fear and judgment. Anyway, I hope that helps on this Wednesday and without everyone, thank you for listening to us.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: I made me robots Man. I'm DJ Holmes from Yell Soon
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast.
00:00:05
Speaker 2: Good morning everyone, Thanks for joining us for today's Morning Run. It is Wednesday, February fourth. I'm Amy Robots and.
00:00:12
Speaker 1: I'm TJ Holmes. We're going to get right to a lot of news happening this morning with the Run is going to take us to Delaware, to DC, to Florida, to San Francisco to Milan, but we do have to begin in Tucson, Arizona, where there have been significant and somewhat bizarre updates in the case of Savannah Guthrie's missing eighty four year old mother, Nancy. We're now learning robes. We heard yesterday about one ransom note sent to TMZ. Now we're hearing about a second note.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: That's right, the first was actually sent to a local CBS affiliate in Tucson ko LDTV. That note was sent on Monday. The station immediately handed that note over to police and agreed not to report on it. That's why we're just now hearing about it. But according to the Sheriff's Department, that first ransom note contained d details about the Guthrie home, what Nancy Guthrie was wearing the night of her abduction, and they did share that note with the Guthrie family.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: As the sheriff said, they cannot confirm the accuracy of the information or legitimacy of the note. They didn't let us know if some of the details in there matched up with what was going on in the home, so we don't know what they're legit. But still they were hoping to keep the note from becoming public. TMZ had other plans. They received what appears to be the same note the following day, on Tuesday. They chose to share the news about it with the audience after they saw the press conference from the sheriff, but before letting the sheriff know. According to the sheriff, yes, TMZ went public with this note before even letting authorities no. TMZ did not provide all the details of the note, but shared plenty that they wanted millions, that whoever wrote it said they wanted it in cryptocurrency, and said they needed by a certain deadline quote or else.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: Now, the only other new detail comes from that same CBS affiliate who shot some video and you'll probably see it everywhere on the news today of what appears to be some droplets of blood on the doorstep of Nancy Guthrie's home. Now, police won't confirm the existence of blood outside or inside Guthrie's home, but in yesterday's press conference they did say that they collected DNA from the scene and so far the testing of that DNA has not pointed to any one suspect. We also got word NBC announcing this is not unexpected that given the situation, Savannah will not be headed as planned to the Winter Olympics in Milan. She was going to be hosting the opening ceremonies on Friday. And a reminder everyone, I'm sure you know this by now, but Nancy Guthrie was reported missing at eleven am on Sunday. She was last seen Saturday night around nine to forty five pm. Police confirmed she was taken against her will and that the evidence left behind was gravely concerning. She left behind her cell phone, her wallet, and medication she needs daily, her family saying if she doesn't have access to that medication within twenty four hours, it could be fatal.
00:03:12
Speaker 1: No, we don't have any planned at this point, folks. They don't have any planned press conferences today, actually not until tomorrow. But if anything happens, just like it has been happening. We will hop on as always top right corner of your Apple podcast at where it says follow Click that and you can get subscribed to make sure all of our updates come to you, and there have been plenty as of late. We want to continue on the run. Here. Another headline yesterday, and a bizarre one because of its connection to the former First Lady Jill Biden's doctor Jill Biden's ex husband has been arrested charged with murdering his second wife, sixty four year old Linda Stevens In. A grand jury indicted seventy seven year old William stevens In with first degree murder after police say they found his wife unresponsive in their Wilmington, Delaware living room while respet bonding to a domestic dispute. This was back on December twenty eighth.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Yes so, police have not released any details surrounding Stevenson's death. They only said that the indictment came as a result of an extensive, weeks long investigation. Now, doctor Joe Biden married William Stevenson a long, long, long time ago in February of nineteen seventy, when she was just eighteen years old five years later. They were divorced by nineteen seventy five, which just so happens to be the same year that Jill met her current husband, former President Joe Biden.
00:04:33
Speaker 1: All Right, continuing on the run. Here now, it's sentencing day for sixty year old Ryan Routh, the man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump. It is Florida golf course back in September of twenty twenty four. A federal judge will decide whether Routh should receive a life sentence for his crime. Since September, a jury quickly found him guilty on all five felon accounts, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer.
00:04:58
Speaker 2: So here's what prosecutors have are in their court filing. They say Ralph's crimes undeniably warrant a life sentence. He took steps over the course of months to assassinate a major presidential candidate, demonstrated the will to kill anybody in the way, and has since expressed neither regret nor remorse to his victims. Ralph's new defense attorney is asking for twenty years on top of a seven year mandatory sentence for that one gun conviction. But he's sixty, so that would pretty much be a life sentence.
00:05:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, life sentence. All this for hiding in the bushes of Trump's West Palm Beach golf course with a military grade rifle, pointed the gun towards Trump, a Secret Service agent who then opened fire, causing Ralph to drop his weapon and run. He actually never got a shot off. He made an argument he was actually not there to do harm. But that's a tough argument to make when you have a loaded rifle pointing towards the president.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: That is a very tough argument, indeed, and not one that the jury was willing to stomach. All right, Next up on the run, The government has reopened, in case you were wondering, just before five Eastern time on Tuesday, President Trump signed that new funding legislation in the Oval Office, officially ending the partial government shutdown. Trump was surrounded by Republican members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was holding is it a new red hat? I haven't seen this one before. It says America is back.
00:06:17
Speaker 1: They all look the same to me, Yes, but we open and closed. They're starting to keep bankers hours our government. Yeah, we're won't close. They will open back up, and we don't get paid when you close. Right, it's a bizarre thing they're doing. We're having a ceremony. We're open again. We're open again. We're open again.
00:06:37
Speaker 2: You make a good point, like that's not anything we should probably be celebrating. It should always be open, the government should be it should never shut down.
00:06:44
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Both Republicans and Democrats have to discuss now funding the Department of Homeland Security, which has only been funded for the next two weeks, in order for both sides to negotiate tighter restrictions on immigration officials. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will have their very serious, detailed proposal on those reforms and restrictions quote, very shortly.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: Can't wait for that all right. In the meantime, though, Next up on the Run, Melinda Gates is speaking out about the latest Epstein Files release that included some damning email drafts about her ex husband Bill. You may remember, Melinda divorced Bill Gates back in twenty twenty one after twenty seven years of marriage. She cited an affair he admitted to and some ties, Yeah, some major ties to Jeffrey Epstein as a part of the reason behind their split. So Melinda sat down with NPR's wild Card podcast that's set to be released in its entirety tomorrow Thursday, but NPR released a preview where we hear Melinda directly reacting to this latest controversy surrounding her act.
00:07:47
Speaker 1: Did you see, dearies? What was the she was booked originally? What was the main topic.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: I actually don't know what the main topic was, but obviously, given the recent headlines about Bill Gates, the I thought that the way the podcast host asked the question was fair. She kind of just gave her an opportunity. Hey, this is in the headlines. Do you want to say something?
00:08:08
Speaker 1: And I think that is even more important because she was given an opportunity to back out respectfully, kindly. But she took this opportunity. She said plenty, including that she was happy to be away from what she called all the muck that was there. She also, I thought this was nice. She talked about the sadness she had, but she said, look, I have healed, I've moved on, and some of these women who were then girls are started being victimized, so she to be honest in all this Epstein back and forth, you rarely hear someone as sad as that sounds expressed like a genuine concern for the victims and what they're going through. I thought that was nice, But here was the one that's getting a lot of headlines. Whatever the questions remain and there that are out there, I can't even begin to know all of that. Those questions are for those people and for even my ex husband. They need to answer those things, not me. Wow. The latest document drop revealed a set of draft emails by Jeffrey Epstein, one of them labeled to Bill that referenced possibly Bill contracting an STD from quote Russian girls and asking for antibiotics to surreptitiously give to his wife. Yeah.
00:09:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a jaw dropper. Bill Gates, by the way, himself, was asked specifically about these emails. We know we got like a statement from his organization, but he actually directly talked in a recent interview in Australia where he said this. Apparently Jeffrey wrote an email to himself that email was never sent. The email is, you know, false, So I don't know what his thinking was there. It just reminds me, you know, every minute I spent with him, I regret and I you know, apologized that I did that. He said, it's factually true that I was only at dinners. You know, I never went to the island. I never met any women. And so, you know, the more that comes out, the more clear it'll be that although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to to do with that kind of behavior. The more that comes out, I don't think there's anything more coming out. That was a bizarre response.
00:10:08
Speaker 1: He should have rehearsed that.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: There was a lot of you knows.
00:10:13
Speaker 1: With a guy that brilliant, you had, you know, words to fill in.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: He was stumbling around.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: He fumbling around a little bit. But that was a damning that a guy wrote it to himself, essentially at.
00:10:24
Speaker 2: The time it happened without any thought that this would then be read in later years.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: It was only for himself at the time. Jeffrey Epstein wrote it to Jeffrey Epstein.
00:10:38
Speaker 2: It's tough. It's tough to refuse.
00:10:39
Speaker 1: That's a tough all right, Stay with us here on this Wednesday morning run. When we come back, Lindsay Vaughn, we love you. And we want to see you, but we are worried about what she is now trying to pull off at the Olympics. Also competition at the Super Bowl, not just between the Patriots and the Seahawks, it's against the Spanish speakers and the right. Stay here, we continue here on this Wednesday Morning Ron with Lindsey Vaughn. She says she is going to compete at the Winter Olympics in Milan. We knew that. We were excited to see her. The problem now is Robes. She's saying she's still confident about this, despite the fact that she completely ruptured her acl on a crash at the World Cup downhill in Switzerland just on Friday. She's forty one years old. She's back on the slope. She took a couple days off, but she did some physical therapy and was back out there yesterday. She says, the knees not swollen. She's gonna wear a brace and she's going to compete on Sunday.
00:11:51
Speaker 2: That is so nerve wracking. Look, you pointed this out. This is her last shot, almost certainly of being an Olympian.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: She wasn't going to take this one. Yes, she's super debating.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: She's forty one years old. I didn't realize she actually skipped the Sochi Olympics because of an injury, so I can see her mindset. Look, I missed one. This is my last shot. I'm gonna take it. But that is really nerve wracking. Her quote was, as long as there's a chance, I will try, I will do everything in my power to be in the starting gate. All right. So not only is her first Olympic event on Sunday, she also says that she is going to compete in the Super G and the new Team combined event, so she's got three events. Her first training session in Milan is scheduled for tomorrow on Thursday, so perhaps after that she will have a better idea of where she stands to compete on Sunday. So at least, well, I'm sure we will know more and she will know.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: She's testing it out. But that is so scary. You're a skier, but just watching it, just the way they compete, the strain on their bodies there going and making those turns. I was more worried, Yes, that she could hurt it worse, but what if it fails her and is weak and she can't control something and can't stop herself. Ah, they know what they're doing. Doctors are around. I just got nervous, lover want to see her if she could be triumph, But what a story.
00:13:15
Speaker 2: Look, I agree with you, and you said I'm a skier haha, I mean I can ski marginally well, but you're so so the little bit that I've done a couple times a year, you're so you're at the mercy of the conditions, and that is what they say went wrong in Switzerland. A lot of skiers had issues and crashed because of the conditions. So it's just just so much is out of your control. It's nerve wracking to think that you're doing that and exposing your body to that when it's not at its best, at its peak. So good luck to her. We wish her the very best. But we will be watching with probably my eyes like half closed. Ah, all right, for the final leg of our run. Look, there is a tremendous amount of excitement for this year's Super Bowl half time show. It's being headlined by the now Grammy winning I mean in every big way you can imagine Latin artists. Bad Bunny, he's just had a hell of a year. And he is on top. But there is also a significant amount of controversy. What well, you know what.
00:14:17
Speaker 1: I wrote it down just to get.
00:14:19
Speaker 2: It's because he sings in Spanish. He has been openly critical of Trump's immigration policies. The end of story. Those are the two reasons why he is now controversial according to many on the right and so yes, that has now led to some competition. The late Charlie Kirk's organization Turning Point USA has announced its lineup to counter program the NFL's halftime show with their own show called The All American Halftime Show. Want to point out that Bad Bunny is an American?
00:14:52
Speaker 1: Why do you have to point that out, Sweetenes.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: Because the title of this show implies that somehow he's not he's Puerto Rican, He's American. I just I wanted to make for people.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: I think people know that Americans both oh man, come on. Of course people know Bad Bunny is an American citizen. He travels to the mainland without a past.
00:15:17
Speaker 2: If you went out and actually interviewed people just to say, is Bad Bunny a legal American? I bet you you'd I bet you so many people would say no.
00:15:27
Speaker 1: Well, the All American halftime show is competing with the other American halftime show at the Super Bowl, but they describe there as as a family friendly, values driven event created for viewers seeking uplifting, patriotic entertainment. The headliner give you five seconds to guess, and you probably only needed too well.
00:15:51
Speaker 2: It was either going to be Lee Greenwood or Kid Rock.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: But Lee Greenwood can't headline.
00:15:56
Speaker 2: It's probably not.
00:15:56
Speaker 1: He's got one song and then you do a couple of remixes of it. Maybe I don't know, no, and I don't know Glee Greenwood's music. He might have a whole bunch of hits.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Proud to be an American is I don't even know that's the name of it.
00:16:07
Speaker 1: But yes, okay, but anyway, Yes, Kid Rock is going to headline this thing, accompanied by country singers Lee Brice, Yes, Brandley Gilbert. You know that one?
00:16:14
Speaker 2: Nope?
00:16:15
Speaker 1: Gabby Barrett, did you know that one?
00:16:16
Speaker 2: Nope?
00:16:17
Speaker 1: But you did know Lee Brice.
00:16:18
Speaker 2: It sounds familiar. Couldn't name a song, okay, just.
00:16:21
Speaker 1: Like Lee Greenwood. They probably collaborated. The All American half times show is going to begin at eight o'clock Eastern time, set to go inside with the NFL Super Bowl halftime show. Counterprogramming will stream on Turning Point USA social media channels, x Rumble YouTube, as well as Trinity Broadcasting Network and some conservative networks.
00:16:39
Speaker 2: Okay, but I was kind of look I looked at Kid Rock's comments and making this announcement that he was headlining. He said, we're approaching this show like David and Goliath. Competing with pro football with the pro football machine and a global pop superstar is almost impossible, or is it? And then he took a shot at Batuny, which he didn't need to do. He could have just left it at that, but no, he said this about Bad Bunny. He said, he's having a dance party, wearing a dress and singing in Spanish. Cool. We plan to play great songs for folks who love America. And the frustrating thing about that is you can love America and love Bad Bunny because Bad Bunny is an American. I just I feel like that just needs to be said.
00:17:28
Speaker 1: But you can you can also love America and have a lot of problems with things America has done in its history, that it's doing currently and the things it might do down the road, and still be proud of your country and love your country. That shows the love. Could you give a damn enough to speak up if you see something that's going wrong. It's okay, folks, there's space. And if Kid Rock were doing the halftime show with the super Bowl, I'd watch that too. I'll watch whoever they put up because this is the most of all American events and it has to be some way representative of all of us. We as Americans, have the biggest star on planet Earth right now. He's an American bad money I know, Taylor Swift is. He is just the hottest thing on the planet. We should be proud of that and all celebrate whatever we're about to see, and if that includes maybe learning a little Spanish.
00:18:23
Speaker 2: You were trying to learn the main lyrics, Yes, and I tried.
00:18:28
Speaker 1: I was.
00:18:29
Speaker 2: I gave up quickly. You kept trying.
00:18:32
Speaker 1: I'll do I'll know it before Sunday. Okay, It's just it's okay, why do we If it's not this, then it's not American. If it's not exactly this thing that you say, then it doesn't belong in America. I just I hate that attitude.
00:18:48
Speaker 2: It's so un American to even say that.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: There's room for all right, that's room for all of it. Sorry, I'm sorry the morning right now.
00:18:56
Speaker 2: It will be interesting to see though, just if they're able to take any sort of ratings or viewership away from the halftime show and direct it towards them. I'm sure we'll see the pr machines at work come Monday.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: Already you said he was trying to lower expectation life or is it right?
00:19:15
Speaker 2: Right? Okay, all right. Quote of the day as we leave you on this Wednesday, I took some time trying to find something. There's so much going on in the world, but I do appreciate this one from one of our favorites, Michael Singer. Here is your quote of the day. Whatever you focus on, you feed. If you give your attention to fear, it grows. If you stay aware and open love naturally arises, you are not helpless. You are a creator.
00:19:46
Speaker 1: Whatever you focus on, you feed. Yes, well was the next one.
00:19:48
Speaker 2: If you give, If you give your attention to fear, it grows.
00:19:52
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna give my attention to money. Great quote, mister Singer.
00:19:58
Speaker 2: If you stay aware and open love naturally arises, you are not helpless. You are a creator. I love that we all look to feed our fear or our feelings. We victimize ourselves. We act as if some things or some people happened to us. That is not a productive or positive way forward. I love that you are not helpless. You are a creator. I love it and create everybody. Love and openness, not fear and judgment. Anyway, I hope that helps on this Wednesday and without everyone, thank you for listening to us.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: I made me robots Man. I'm DJ Holmes from Yell Soon