Live from Georgia Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream – host Fredericks welcomed Georgia Senator Chuck Payne, Rep. Kasey Carpenter, and Rep. Jason Ridley to the show as they took lashings from callers named Jeff and Nancy who explained their embarrassment of the Republican Party and called for the statesmen to act.
Fredericks: Thanks for being with us today. I am your Godzilla of the Truth in America. Your Oracle of the Deplorables. And we’re trucking the truth every day. The truth my friends will set you free. We’re battling the fake news. We’ve been in Georgia for three weeks. We’ve got two more ahead of us on our 10-day intensity road tour.
Today Dalton, Georgia. That’s North Georgia for those not familiar with the terrain. About 50 minutes south of Chattanooga. Somewhere in there. Half hour. I was in Dahlonega yesterday and Wednesday I’ll be in Cartersville. On our power round table here on the power panel we have state senator, all republicans Chuck Payne. Chuck welcome.
Chuck Payne: It’s good to be here.
Fredericks: And we also have state representatives Kasey Carpenter and Jason Ridley. Without further ado guys we’re going to go right to the phone lines and we’re going to start with line one. Jeff in Warner Robins, Georgia. Line one. Jeff, you’re live.
Caller Jeff: Hi, John, and thanks for taking my call. I’m a retired master sergeant in the United States Air Force. A Georgia resident and born in Georgia. And I don’t know if I’m more angry or embarrassed by the panel that you have there. Where is the fire in these guys? Where is their sense of duty? Did they watch the Arizona citizens that stood up and seemed to have more passion than these guys do?
It’s embarrassing. And I’m so angry and I’m embarrassed. And I hope that the citizens across this country don’t think that most citizens in Georgia feel the way that these guys do. You need to get a fire in your belly and you need to remember you took an oath to our constitution and stand up and fight for this President. This is the time of our life.
Fredericks: Well I’m going to give you guys a chance to respond. You’re not exactly getting the love of representatives. Let’s start with Jason Ridley.
Ridley: Hey listen. I’ve fought and I’ve been fighting. I’ve been answering about 70 phone calls a day from my local constituents trying to explain exactly how and what we can actually do. Like I’ve said you know before on here I’m pissed as everybody else is. I feel like everybody’s abandoned our President. I feel like that you know even though we do have these two senate races that are important I feel like that we’ve kind of turned this coach over to him a little bit to concentrate on these.
And I know that there’s that those are important but I understand that the whole purpose of voting is is is what this nation was built on. And if we can’t elect a president I understand people’s frustrations about how’s this senate race going to turn out. And like I said we can have all the meetings we want to. We can let the public come out.
But if I can’t get anybody there to put it under oath if I can’t get Stacey Abrams there and if I can’t get some of the people from Dominion there and really ask the hard questions what answers am I going to get besides what I already know? And that’s what we’re all mad about this election and mad about what’s going on.
Fredericks: All right. I’ll give you a chance to respond to that in Warner Robins. Jeff go ahead.
Caller Jeff: I don’t see it. You say that you’re angry. Sir, I have contacted my representatives and I don’t think it’s just these three gentlemen I think that’s what’s happened to Georgia. It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever seen. I’m 58 years old. It’s just it’s so widespread and it’s so disheartening. I have contacted my reps three times each through email which is on the My Georgia voter page where it’s easy to access and I would encourage all Georgians to do the same but they will not respond.
I have called them up at the Secretary of State’s office. No reply. I’ve emailed the Secretary of State’s office. I’ve called the governor’s office and you get incompetence even when they take the phone call. You just have no idea of the angry feelings that I have and the anger that is livid throughout the state of Georgia outside of these representatives. And that’s why I’m so shocked and I’m so angry. And it’s because I don’t hear it and I don’t see it.
Fredericks: Jeff you don’t feel it. This is what I’ve been seeing here. I’ve been here now for three weeks. This is consistent with every call I’m getting that there’s no feeling. I mean that’s basically it. I had Senator Steve Gooch on yesterday who is a really good conservative from Dahlonega and he’s like well we’ll figure it out on January 10th’s special session. And Beech is like screw that. You know the the the the guy Beach from where is he Cherokee County? I call him Beach Balls. The guy’s a moderate Republican and he’s fighting everybody and he can’t get anybody to stand with him. He’s demanding that the governor call him. Jeff thank you. Let’s go to line two, Nancy in Atlanta. Nancy, you’re live.
Caller Nancy: Thank you. I have a question and a comment. I feel like a lot of the other Georgia Republicans, I’m embarrassed to be a Georgia Republican and I wish these guys would grow a set. They say they can’t do anything. What they can’t do. Wha, wha, wha. Take action. Tell us what you can do. You could have a hearing. The press would be there. We the people will be there. We will protest. Maybe we need to be in Athens at your caucus and protest there. Start telling us about what you can do and not about what you can’t do. And all this waiting around, it’s just not acceptable. We the people will not take it. We will primary you. We will remember this. I’m waiting for your response and look forward to it.
Fredericks: All right Nancy from Atlanta line one. Thank you. Let’s go to Senator Chuck Payne for that. Beach and others have called for a hearing on these allegations of fraud. Senator Payne, what say you?
Payne: I would have no objection to having hearings. But also the first caller that called in, he neglected to say something that stuck out my mind and that is that we also swear an oath to uphold the state constitution. And so after the election that’s why I think a lot of people the disconnect is and I think most of the lawmakers feel this way is we’ve gone from the political climate of an election to now becoming law enforcement officers.
And so just as any good detective will tell you when you’re in the process of processing information and facts and evidence that’s not when you go public and run a public campaign. And so I think that’s why a lot of people feel the disconnect because we’re now into that law enforcement mode making sure that not only the U.S. constitution is upheld but the state constitution as well.
Fredericks: Well what do you think about the fact that your party led by David Shafer who by the way has been a fighter in this the whole way. I just want to tell everybody that it’s not the party. It’s not Shafer and it’s not Ginger Howard. They’ve been fighting but the party has demanded that Raffensberger do an audit of the mail-in ballots. I mean and I guess a lot of the frustration senator is that the representatives that we have on have not except for Beach have not really gone that passionate over it. I mean why can’t we do an audit of those envelopes Senator Payne?
Payne: Well I believe that we should do an audit of those envelopes. I’ve been saying the same thing. I think many of us and I stand with the lieutenant governor. Now he’s come out and said we need to audit those envelopes and those absentee ballots.
Fredericks: You can’t be serious? I mean Jeff Duncan the guy that runs to CNN and MSNBC and defends Raffensberger at every move and now tepidly says yeah it’s probably a good idea. I mean do you really think that’s the kind of leadership that people want? Honestly?
Listen to the full interview here:
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Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by Autiger. CC BY-SA 2.0.
