Morning Run: Trump Addresses Nation,  WH Mocks Former Presidents, Nick Reiner In Court, Brian Walshe Sentencing, Brown Manhunt Update, Florida Executing Serial Killer and Oscars Are Moving

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Morning Run. It's Thursday, or as I like to say, Friday eve. It's December seventeenth. I'm Amy, robots the eighteenth. Oh god, it's the eighteenth. Wow, I screwed that. I thought you are correct, and I started off Morning Run with a bang.

00:00:22
Speaker 2: That means you got the rest of Morning Run to make up for it. No, that was nothing. I'm tj ols. Hey there, folks, you really think that's the biggest screw up we're going to have to day? Probably not, but welcome everybody. We did have a late night, so we can please give her a break. I had a late night and had a tough time getting to sleep, stayed up and watch the Trump speech and had difficult time sleeping afterwards. Usually do when I get yelled at for twenty minutes right before bed, And that's what it felt like last night. Look, this is not about politics. A cat any observer. He was amped up last night.

00:00:56
Speaker 1: He was amped up, but he was also speeding through his prepared remarks and racing almost Yeah, he was.

00:01:03
Speaker 2: He was.

00:01:04
Speaker 1: I think he knew that the networks wanted to get back, or at least CBS wanted to get back to Survivor's finale.

00:01:12
Speaker 2: Well, you know, if he'd taken his time like normal, this might have been a forty five minute speech. But that's true. This is what it was like. So we'll tell you and get into that. But that wasn't the only jaw dropping thing really that came from President Trump. Yesterday they revealed the new plaques at the Walk of Fame in the White House, and you won't believe some of the things written on the official presidential plaques of the likes of Biden and Obama. You really will not believe it. Also this morning, we don't see this all the time, and wrote this is difficult to stomach for those families, But the government is taking responsibility for that deadly crash over Reagan National Airport, that deadly mid air collision that happened in January. The government is actually saying, and in pretty clear terms, this was the fault of the army in those pilots.

00:02:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll get into it, but it's amazing. Look, nothing's going to bring back, sadly, the sixty seven people who died, but hearing someone take responsibility for it It's amazing how that actually goes towards healing, and so that was a huge step in that direction. Also on the Run this morning, Nick Reiner made his first court appearance yesterday, and we heard directly from his siblings for the first time since their parents, Rob and Michelle Reiner were murdered. It's also sentencing day for Brian Walsh. Rhode Island officials are asking for the public's health and finding a second man who is not a suspect. An Oklahoma preacher is facing life in prison, and a teenage serial killer is set to die tonight by lethal injection, forty years after his first murder.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: Also on the Run this morning, the Academy Awards says announced a major change of address and power Ball. I'm kind of ready to just get this one. Let's just get over with. Were doing the same thing every two to three days, saying okay, yes it's nobody won again last night. So now we're getting up to an incredible record in Powerball. Remember it was one point two five billion before. Where do y'all think it is now? But yes, it is going up.

00:03:09
Speaker 3: All right.

00:03:09
Speaker 1: We begin our run though about last night President Trump using that primetime address to the nation pretty much to blast former President Biden while at the same time touting his economic plan for the country. It was eighteen minutes long. As we mentioned, he was racing through his prepared remarks, and it did look like, and this was unusual, that he pretty much stayed to the script.

00:03:33
Speaker 3: He didn't add.

00:03:34
Speaker 1: Lib very often. When he did, it was very obvious. And even though the partisan tone was on brand for Trump, we shouldn't be surprised by what he said, but it still felt incredibly uncomfortable for him to use a primetime address on network television to be remarkably partisan.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: Oh, it was a stump speech. It was uh yes, him touting what he thinks or his accomplishments, and we heard Biden's name repeated. He blamed pretty much everything. Every economic problem the country has he blamed on Biden said that he President Trump inherited a mess from Biden. It's going to take time and effort to fix it. Now. One thing that jumped up Robert I thought this was beautiful. Every US service member, he said, is going to get a check for Christmas in the amount of seventeen hundred and seventy six dollars. You can imagine what that is. In honor of of course, but yes, the nation's two hundred and fifteenth anniversary said they are going to get these checks. They said they've started going out already calling this a warrior dividend and bragged that, hey, we're making more money off Tariff's got some extra and give it to the soldiers wherever it's coming from, whatever they're doing. I love this. I actually love, love love this.

00:04:40
Speaker 1: It was the one bright spot. Yes, as President Trump was saying his favorite word is tariff, he did at least put some of that tariff revenue to very good use that I think everyone can applaud. All right, Next up on the run, speaking of having a partisan tone, this one. When I saw this story, when I said, jaw dropped, my jaw actually dropped. President Trump has installed new plaques, like official permanent plaques, underneath the pictures of all the former presidents. This is in the portrait gallery along the West Wing. But he instead of giving just the details of someone's presidency, he used the plaques to hurl insults and make unfounded claims beneath several of the photos. And if you read the plaques, they actually sound like his truth social posts. Oh they've been punctuated, yes, with exclamation points.

00:05:31
Speaker 2: In all caps at some point. Look, we understand he's not a fan. But history is history. Every president did some things good, some did some bad economically and even personally. It's fun, we get it. This is other level. So to set the tone for you all here to understand what this is. Every president has a portrait up there except one, Joe Biden. Instead of Joe Biden's picture there, there is a picture of an auto pen making a signature Joe Biden. That is as partisan and crazy as you can imagine. That is why it's it's almost un certainly beneath the office. But it's almost unbelievable that anyone would do that. But this is what's happening in the White House. But yes, oh, it even gets better, folks. Part of the I think Joe Biden has two plaques right, because he couldn't get it all in and one right.

00:06:23
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they were stacked on top of each top sleepy.

00:06:27
Speaker 2: Joe Biden was by far the worst president in American history. That is how the plaque starts, folks, And it goes on from there. Taking office as a results of the most corrupt election ever seen in the US, blames him for pretty much everything, also starting a couple of wars. It says up there, quote seeing Biden's devastating weakness, Russia invaded Ukraine and Hamas terror has launched the heinous October seventh attack on Israel. Again, folks, this is in the White House, on an official wall, it also says on the other plaque it starts. Nicknamed both Sleepy Joe and Crooked Joe, Biden was dominated by radical left handlers. They and their allies in the fake news media attempted to cover up his severe mental decline and his unpresidented use of the auto pen. Again, folks, this is not He didn't post this on social These are those thick, bronze made plaques that go on the wall, and this is the hall that honors every US president. And this is what's under there describing Biden.

00:07:26
Speaker 1: Biden got the worst of it, but President Obama didn't fare too well either. Under his photo at least he got his photo up there, it says Barack Hussein Obama was the first black president, a community organizer, one term senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American history.

00:07:45
Speaker 3: He claims on this.

00:07:46
Speaker 1: Plaque that Obama spied on the twenty sixteen presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump and presided over the creation of the Russia Russia Russia hoax, the worst political scandal in America history. He also mentions Hillary Clinton under Obama Yeah, under Obama's plaque, saying that she was his hand picked successor, and then noted that Hillary would then lose the presidency to Donald J.

00:08:14
Speaker 2: Trump.

00:08:14
Speaker 1: He also mentions Hillary's lost to him under President Clinton's plaque as well.

00:08:18
Speaker 2: She was never president and got two mentions yep. Also underneath President Reagan's pick this one is this might be the funniest one talking about. It might be the funniest one, but he's talking about Ronald Reagan. Of course gave him a lot of good praise during the plaque, but at the end it said that Reagan quote was a fan of President Donald J. Trump before President Trump's historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his exclamation point that's at the White House now, folks up on the wall, this is where.

00:08:53
Speaker 3: We are, Okay, but you do It's disgusting.

00:08:56
Speaker 2: I don't know what to say. He's rewriting history. This is his hist This is not the people's house. It's his house. He can do whatever the hell he wants, and that is how he's treating it. Fine. He's redecorated, he tore down ballrooms, he's put up a new ballroom, all this stuff. It is not the people's house. It is his until he leaves, and he's treating it as such. That's his mindset. And if he's going to have that mindset, I ain't mad at him. But I was told it was supposed to be.

00:09:23
Speaker 1: The people's white house, white all right. Next up on the run, Nick Reiner made his first court appearance Wednesday, and he didn't enter a plea because his arraynment hearing actually got moved. Now for the second time, that will happen on January seventh. The only words we heard Nick Reiner accused of murdering his two parents. He only said, yes, your honor, three words. He is facing two counts of first degree murder with special circumstances.

00:09:48
Speaker 2: His attorney spoke outside the courthouse afterwards, Alan Jackson, a very renowned attorney, has some big time celebrity clients, but he said this is a very complex case with some serious issues and said that people should not jump to conclusions. We don't exactly know what he's referring to with complex and serious issues. We did hear from the siblings of Nick Reiner, his older brother, younger sister, saying words cannot begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. Said that Rob and Michelle Rein or their parents were not just our parents, they were our best friends. They go on to ask for privacy, but you noted one thing. They did not mention their brother in that statement. Nothing about a sibling, not his name, not even acknowledgment of any circumstand They just talked about their parents.

00:10:31
Speaker 3: Yep.

00:10:32
Speaker 1: They and I think we both talked about how it was impressive how they wrote this, and they just asked for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity. And that's something that we can all do for them, for the Reiner family, and honestly for everyone in our lives. Next up on the Run today, Mark's day six of the manhunt for the Brown University shooter.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: He killed two students, injured nine others.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: Well.

00:10:54
Speaker 1: They had a late afternoon presser yesterday, and that's when we heard from Rhode Island authorities who are saying.

00:11:00
Speaker 3: Hey, we need your help.

00:11:01
Speaker 1: We're looking for another person who may have encountered the person of interest. And they showed photos of this guy, making clear he's not a suspect, but they're hoping maybe he can help them find the man they're actually looking forward.

00:11:14
Speaker 2: How was that again? They say, this is not a suspect of any kind, But how is that person feeling like the whole country is looking for you because they're looking for him.

00:11:23
Speaker 3: That's that's crazy.

00:11:24
Speaker 1: You're just walking down the street and now all of a sudden, your face is plastered all over the world.

00:11:28
Speaker 2: I thought this person would have been found pretty quickly. I just wonder how much information they have. But everybody's watching this story. Somebody's gonna reckon that face? Is there? Pretty clear?

00:11:37
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:11:38
Speaker 3: And that was what late afternoon. We haven't heard a peep peep.

00:11:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also, again, I think it's a more of an indication every day that goes by, just how desperate they are for information. They put up a map yesterday doing the press conference and showed an area where they think this person of interest was last seen, and they're telling everybody you live in this area, please go through check all your cameras and everything you got. They even said if you don't know how to work it, we will send an officer to your house and help you. With this video. They're trying to remain as positive as possible, saying we're going to get this person, not going to stop until we find them. But also the one positive update we got ropes that seems like all those that who were injured are starting to do better. One remaining in critical, but five others in stable. These few others had been released, but the ones even they were saying in stable condition were getting better according to their parents.

00:12:25
Speaker 1: That was certainly the silver lining in that press conference where they certainly seemed desperate at this point to find this man all right. Next up on the Run, it is sentencing day for Brian Walsh. He was convicted of murdering his wife Anna Walsh in the first degree. You remember, he admitted to dismembering her or he pleaded guilty to that and to manipulating her lying to police, but he was convicted by a jury after about six hours of deliberation, and the other two charges.

00:12:54
Speaker 3: He pleaded guilty to are actually important.

00:12:56
Speaker 1: We were explained by a criminal defense need that just in case this murder conviction somehow gets vacated or overturned or whatever on the appeals process, at least we know he'll still be behind bars because he pleaded guilty to these two other charges.

00:13:11
Speaker 2: So yeah, we are expecting court to start at nine o'clock this morning. We are told local affiliates reporting that yes on, the Walsh's family members will be reading impact state Whens. Don't know how long this is expected to last, but always powerful moments. This is a chance for them to face and speak directly to the man now convicted of killing on a wash.

00:13:30
Speaker 3: That's right, and next up on the run.

00:13:31
Speaker 1: Police have arrested and charged an Oklahoma preacher on child sex abuse charges. We're talking about sixty eight year old Joe Campbell. He ministered thousands of children across four states for the past fifty.

00:13:44
Speaker 2: Years nam but now arrested. He was arrested at the children's camp that he runs in Missouri. Some of his victims, alleged victims, have been trying to get him charged for the past forty years, so if convicted, he faces life in prison. The charges here one count of first degree rape, one count of leude or indecent acts to a child under the age of sixteen.

00:14:07
Speaker 1: This is a horrific story, and it's not just it's horrific obviously by the acts he's accused of, but also by the inaction of some police local authorities who they say did nothing. Five women have said that he sexually abused them as children in the seventies and eighties when he was their minister. Nine others, including four men, said they showed him He showed them pornography, made lude comments, touch them inappropriately.

00:14:32
Speaker 3: So that right.

00:14:33
Speaker 1: There is fourteen people and police do believe there are many more victims out there, and they are actually asking those folks to come.

00:14:41
Speaker 2: Forward now, I fole as we continue our run on this Thursday morning now at Florida, set to execute it's nineteenth inmate tonight. This one fifty eight year old Frank Athan Walls. He was a teenager. He was a teenage serial killer. He first murdered someone back in nineteen was eighty five. He was seventeen, I believe at the time. But he murdered a nineteen year old woman by the name of Tommy Lou Whitten and then went on to commit at least four more murders after that. This was the case. I didn't remember, it, didn't recognize, but it was called the Tuesday murders because all of them happened either on a Tuesday or in the overnight hours of Tuesday. Don't know why. I never saw a reason why. They think could just be a coincidence, but that's what they were called. The former sheriff said, this guy terrorized the town because these murders. They didn't know who was doing it. They were happening in really close proximity for each other.

00:15:32
Speaker 1: And complete random strangers. There was no rhyme or reason as to who he chose. But many of these were sexual crimes before they were murders. He was convicted and sentenced to death for two of the murders, but he later confessed to all of them. Many of his victims family members haven't lived to see tonight, given the forty years that have passed, but here's what one relative had to say about his execution tonight.

00:15:52
Speaker 3: I thought this was fascinating.

00:15:54
Speaker 1: She said, I'm going to have a drink and toast to my grandma and close that chapter. She was two years old when her Grandma was killed by this man. She said, I don't think it's ever going to be healed, but I will feel relief knowing that all the other families will sleep better knowing it's done and over with and there's no way for him to fight it anymore. And with that, we are going to take a break. But coming up next on the run, we're going to talk about the government in a rare moment, taking responsibility for the fatal collision, the mid air collision over Reagan National Airport at the beginning of this year.

00:16:27
Speaker 3: Also the oscars.

00:16:28
Speaker 1: They are moving, making a big change that's going to affect a lot of folks viewing habits.

00:16:34
Speaker 3: And yes, we're talking Powerball. Get your tickets, folks.

00:16:38
Speaker 1: We are looking to have another potentially record setting jackpot.

00:16:50
Speaker 2: All right, folks, we continue on this Friday Eve run now with the US government taking responsibility for that fatal collision between an Army black Hall helicopter and an American Airline Lines plane near Reagan National Airport at the beginning of the year. Sixty seven people die. The Justice Department is now saying, and I quote, the United States admits that the helicopter pilots failed to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid the passenger plane, and their failure to do so was a cause, in fact and a proximate cause of the accident. End quote. That is as much of a this was our fault statement as you're going to get. Yep.

00:17:30
Speaker 3: And that was the government's admission.

00:17:32
Speaker 1: They made it as part of a civil lawsuit that's been filed by the family of one of the passengers killed in that collision. But it was remarkable to see full admission, no excuses, it's our fault. The blame rests here. That's pretty remarkable, all right. Next up on the run, it is the end of an era for broadcast television and the Academy Awards. The OSCARS ceremony is moving beginning just three years from now, in twenty twenty nine. For the following four years, the Academy Awards will now be seen on YouTube. The awards show has aired live on ABC since the nineteen seventies.

00:18:11
Speaker 2: This is just what's happening. This is just another big step in everything moving from linear to freaking streaming someway. Yeah, most recent ceremony brought in twenty million viewers. That sounds pretty good. And they used to be happy with that, but still it's a fraction of the audience that tune in for the award show back in the day. So take the Titanic year fifty five million, the year that one is.

00:18:34
Speaker 3: The weezt That was the peak year of the Oscars viewing.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: But several years before, before the past two there was a steady decline to the point they thought they would get it off ABC altogether because it cost too much.

00:18:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, last year they actually had a little bit of a peak. But yes, you're right, starting from the pandemic. Right after the pandemic, it was like abysmal.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: So now they're going to be available live and freedom viewers around the world on YouTube. YouTube has the largest share of US streaming viewing. By the way, the Academy is hoping that all this leads to a bigger international audience. I think Conan last year, I think he has this job for life. He did such a good job, Like finally looked like somebody got it right in that room. I'm not dogging the other but it's a tough gig. He seemed to really get it. He's going to be back forever.

00:19:18
Speaker 1: Uh Yeah, And look, I think it's It's fascinating. I wonder what ABC is feeling like. That was such look during our years or that was such a huge part of the network and look, you don't get many events where you have that many people looking at your network, and this was really we didn't have the Olympic because we didn't have but we.

00:19:37
Speaker 3: Had the Oscar. So this is a huge loss for ABC. All right, final leg of the run. Nobody won again.

00:19:45
Speaker 1: We are at forty four consecutive drawings with no jackpot wins, but that means the jackpot just got quite a bit bigger once again.

00:19:53
Speaker 2: One point five billion. This is where we are. So Saturday night's going to be a good night for somebody possibly, but yes, one point five billion. That would be the second biggest of the year and the one before. Wait, so these are back to back to have this right? Or was there a little one in between the one point seven eighty seven billion jackpot in September?

00:20:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was no.

00:20:12
Speaker 1: I don't know if there was one in between or not, I don't know, but that was the largest one of the year.

00:20:16
Speaker 2: Of the year, so these are almost back to back us correct with these billion dollar jackpots? Cash Valley of course six hundred and eighty six point five million, I say, of course, like, of course I'm gonna mention that, and of course you should take that option.

00:20:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was hoping for a six in front of that number with the cash ash. Remember we were at a four, then we're a five, now we're at a six.

00:20:35
Speaker 2: The four looks good. Everything looks good once the four get three is.

00:20:41
Speaker 3: Right, that's hilarious. All right.

00:20:43
Speaker 1: On this Friday Eve, we are going to leave you with our quote of the day. This one comes from one of my favorite monks. He is a well known philosopher. Everything he says it will just be golden monk tick. Not Han, Yes you have a fat and have a foul.

00:20:58
Speaker 3: He's my favorite monk.

00:20:59
Speaker 2: Who is your third favorite?

00:21:01
Speaker 3: I don't know that I have a list. Take not Han is amazing. Look him up. Everything that he has said is just incredibly powerful. All right.

00:21:10
Speaker 1: Quote of the day. Sometimes your joy is the source if your smile. But sometimes your smile can be.

00:21:18
Speaker 3: The source of your joy.

00:21:19
Speaker 1: Oh your joy, yes, your own joy, yes, or and other people's as well. But if you find yourself smiling, you can't help. Like sometimes you kind of just push that, like I'm gonna smile. I'm going to react in a positive way and it changes your whole energy and it brings joy. And yes, you're right, it's not just you. It does affect everyone around you. Without a doubt.

00:21:38
Speaker 3: You're around someone who's smiling, you just feel better.

00:21:42
Speaker 2: You know what. Everybody, please try that today. When you get on an elevator or make eye contact with somebody, just smile. Just give him a big old smile. It really does change everything.

00:21:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, walking across the street practicing, I've done that in New York before, and it really is uplifting because it lifts you up, but it also lifts up the people around you.

00:21:57
Speaker 2: And New Yorkers get a bad rap for being like harsh or even loud and whatnot. New Yorkers are some of the kindness they keep to themselves, like the head down, I got somewhere to be. But if you need help, you make eye contact. I have always found that to be the case. The New Yorkers are wonderful.

00:22:12
Speaker 3: I totally agree.

00:22:13
Speaker 1: So sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. And without everyone, thank you so much for running with us. I'm Amy robot and

00:22:22
Speaker 2: I'm TJ Holmes be running with you all soon.