Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning everyone, Thanks for joining us for today's morning run. It's Wednesday, April sixteenth. Your Morning Run guaranteed every Monday through Friday by six thirty am Eastern Time.
I'm Amy Robots and I'm TJ. Holmes. I suppose a lot of people slept well last night. Tax Day it's over, it's done. Your refund is coming or your check is on the way. Either way, it's done. So this should be a good day for people.
Yes, yes, I mean I feel my shoulders relaxing now that that's all been taken care of. The worst is over, and now I have twelve months until I have to worry about it again. Or eleven months maybe.
Oh my. Yes. We hopefully we have a good quote of the day so you don't have to be worried about something a year from Yes. Now, we're just gonna embrace today, still in the moment, on this morning run. Yes, we always appreciate you running with us. And on today's run, it's a showdown between Washington and Harvard, with President Trump now demanding an apology from the Ivy League.
School and former President Biden may not have mentioned Trump by name, but he certainly had a lot to say about him in his first public comments since leaving the White House.
Also on the Run this morning, the IRS just got all of our returns, but they've also just lost a quarter of its workforce. Also this morning, anybody expecting a package from China may be waiting for a very long time after one all important region announces it's won't be sending or receiving any US packages.
Plus a second school shooting at the same high school in Dallas, sending four students to the hospital. The suspect arrested late last night, And a new CDC report confirms autism rates in this country are rising, and it also acknowledges that our nation's Measle's outbreak is worse than being reported.
Also this morning, OUCH Blue origins all female astronaut team is facing some scathing criticism by several notable female stars, calling the mission disgusting and privileged. And this morning, beloved game show host of the seventies and eighties, Wink Martindale dies at the age of ninety one. These guys seem like we're losing them, but these classic classic game show guys, was we're going to get into some of his background. But we've lost another one.
Yeah, tic tac dough. That was a staple at my house in the early eighties. I remember it.
Well, all right, we're going to start our run. The first leg, we'll have us in DC. And well, that escalated quickly after Harvard rejected a White House list of demands. President Trump has made one more demand of the university apologize, and he's thrown in a new wrinkle or maybe a threat, you could call it, and the escalating beef by suggesting Harvard's tax exempt status be taken away.
In a social media post yesterday, the President said perhaps Harvard should lose its tax exempt status and be taxed as a political entity if it keeps pushing political ideological and terror inspired supporting sickness. Remember, tax exemp status is
totally contingent on acting in the public interest. Now. During the press briefing yesterday, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt called on Harvard to say I'm sorry, saying President Trump wants to see Harvard apologize, and Harvard should apologize for the ar regious, egregious anti semitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish American students. Now.
Of course, all this comes after the White House announced it was freezing two point two billion dollars in federal funding to Harvard after the school refused to make changes the administration wanted, including changes in admission policies, hiring practices, among other things. President Trump claims he wants to cut down on anti Semitism at elite schools, after several were the site of protests about the Israeli Gaza war.
This feels a little bit like the US China trade war escalating. We've got another one now between Trump and Harvard.
I don't know who he's going to blink first on this one, but that's a lot of money.
Yes, and a lot of live who will be absolutely upended without that funding. All right, Next up on our run. Former President Biden was back at a podium last night in his first major appearance in speech since leaving office, and he never mentioned President Trump by name, But that does not mean he didn't have plenty to say about him.
Yeah. Instead, last night he chose to call him this guy. That's how he referred to President Trump. Biden revealed for the first time publicly, though, what he thinks of the new administration using words like devastating and heartbreaking. The former president was speaking last night at a conference in Chicago that was focused on social security.
He told a group of about two hundred people, in fewer than one hundred days, this new administration has done so much damage and so much destruction, it's kind of breathtaking. The former president also presented this warning, saying, and we'll quote him here, why are these guys taking aim at social security now? While they're following that old line from tech startups. The quote is move fast, break things. They're
certainly breaking things. They're shooting first and aiming later. The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights. They want to wreck it so they can rob it.
Also, of note, the former president reference the heated political divide we have in this country, saying, we can't go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are. I've been doing this a long time. It's never been this divided. Granted it's roughly thirty percent, but it's a thirty percent that has no heart. Now a lot of people are questioning what exactly is he talking about there. You can maybe jump to your own conclusion,
but it didn't sound good. Who those thirty percent necessarily were. Now. The White House responded to Biden's speech before he even gave it. Actually, the White House spokespursion Carolyn Leavit during the day yesterday said, I'm shocked that he is speaking at nighttime. I thought his bedtime was much earlier than his speech tonight. And that was it. I don't know if we is that petty? Is it funny, is it silly? Is it mean?
Is it mean? You know I was also thinking it was funny, but then it was mean. So it's just the mean spiritedness of everything just weighs It can weigh you down, can't it. But I yeah, I mean she did take a shot, as did Biden. All right, next up on the run. Now that you've hopefully filed your taxes, or at least filed your extension, you may be less likely to face an audit. There has been a mass exodus at the IRS. So far, nearly twenty two thousand
employees have signed up for Trump's offer to resign. They get paid leave through September, but there are further layoffs on the horizon as well.
Yeah, before the president took office, the RS had around one hundred thousand employees. It's now on course to lose a third of that staff. Some experts out there will tell you the agency will be in a weekend position to collect taxes, perform audits, and may even make people think they can get away with not paying their taxes altogether.
Yeah. Like, oh, so there are fewer people who are looking at returns, so maybe I can sneak something in or leave something out. Oh yeah, give it a yeah, that's a lot of worry I don't need. All right. Last week, the Acting Commission of the IRS, along with other top officials there, quit their jobs over an agreement to share taxpayer information to help deport undocumented immigrants. The
IRS has previously kept all taxpayer information confidential. And look, a lot of people we talked about undocumented immigrants pay their taxes. So there is also concern about lost revenue, with those immigrants possibly now afraid to file tax returns because they will then be targeted and deported.
All right, we'll continue our run here on thisres Wednesday morning, on this next leg, and if you are expecting a package from China, you might be out of luck. Hong Kong in particular announced today that it's postal service will no longer be sending packages to the US, and this is in place effective immediately.
The postal service there said it wouldn't. It would contact anyone who had already dropped off packages that were headed to the United States and they will return your packages and refund your postage. Hong Kong government is retaliating to the one hundred and forty five percent tear if Trump has imposed on Chinese imports, and they posted this on their website.
Yeah, they say the public in Hong Kong should be prepared to pay exorbitant and unreasonable fees due to the US is unreasonable and bullying acts. Trump also closed a loophole that allow Chinese retailers to send clothing and other goods to the US without paying any tariffs roads. We were talking this was a big deal because there are a lot of low price Chinese retailers that we're finding a way to send that stuff.
Absolutely get there. It's called fast Fashion, and there are several companies in the Asian market. Shean is one that I know my girls use and I have used as well. And you get these goods for a lot cheaper because yes, they are not paying the terrifts. But now if these companies and these businesses are being forced to pay that one hundred and forty five percent tariff when they were
paying zero, everything's going to change, all right. Next up on the Run, we're going to head to Dallas, where a second school shooting has happened at the same high school in less than one year. For student thanks were injured. They were all sent to the hospital, but one of them seriously injured when a gunman opened fire at Wilmer Hutchins High School just after one pm yesterday.
Yeah, this is DejaVu of a heartbreaking scene. Look, we've covered a lot of school shootings and you see this on TV. But that scene where the parents are rushing to the school to try to find their kids, well that scene played out once again at the same school, So parents were rushing trying to reunite with their children. Police arrested the shooter late Tuesday evening, but have not
released an identity. According to Dallas official, someone at the school opened the door to the suspect, who then began firing.
Wilmer Hutchins High had already implemented metal detectors and had a clear backpack policy following a school shooting there nearly a year ago, so a lot of people were asking how did he get in? And the best we have gotten from the Dallas police so far is that he entered. This gunman entered in off hours, so it wasn't the fault of their staff or their metal detectors. Somehow he knew how to get in ahead of time, or at
least at a time when no one was there. Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted our hearts go out to the victims of this senseless act of violence at Wilmer Hutchins High School and offered law enforcement resources to bring the gunman to justice.
Abbott also said he's adding another five hundred million dollars to the more than three billion he's already directed to school safety since he's been governor. The school will be closed for the rest of this week. Dallas police will be stationed at other district schools for an added safety measure.
Yeah, it's just tough. We're still still still talking about school shootings.
I stayed with us folks here on this Wednesday morning run. When we come back. We've been talking about how bad the measles outbreak is in the us. Well, actually it's worse also coming up. Yes, it was all smiles and all cheers and at all celebrity female crew came back to earth. Well now they're really being brought back down to earth by a number of notable female celebrities who call that trip disgusting.
Stay with us, Welcome back to the Wednesday morning run. Next up on our run, this country's measles outbreak is likely much worse than we know, the Centers for Disease Control said. The agency is struggling to keep up with state's requests for support with battling this disease.
And so far this year, there've been more than seven hundred measles cases nationwide, and that's been across twenty four states. But a senior CDC scientist said yesterday that there are a large number of cases that have not been reported.
And probably will never be reported, so we won't know the full scope of it. But to twenty twenty five, we know this is already the second worst year on record for the disease. The CDC just deployed a second team to West Texas, where the measles out outbreak began, after already sending fifteen employees earlier in the year to try and help stop the spread. So far, it has done little to curb the spread. Children and one adult
have already died from this measle's outbreak. Dozens of others have been hospitalized, and it doesn't look like it's easing up at any point.
All Right, we'll continue now the next leg of our run. The CDC making headlines around a new study it just released about the country's rising autism rate. In twenty twenty two, nearly one in thirty one children was diagnosed with autism by the age of.
Eight, but that is up from one in thirty six back in twenty twenty The other some of the other points that came out of the report, Boys continue to have higher rates of autism diagnosis than girls, and it was also more common among Asian, Black, and Hispanic children than it was in white children.
And the report acknowledge that improvements in identifying the disorder have been apparent, which may explain the increase in cases. Simply put, we are better at identifying it, so of course you're going to have more cases identified, simple as that. The Department of Health and Human Services has asked the CDC to study a relationship between vaccines and autism. However, there's decades of evidence that shows there is no link between vaccines and autism.
Yes, and they are doing that at the best of this DH excuse me the Department of Health and Human Services Director RFK Junior, who said yesterday that autism is preventable and that the risks and costs of this crisis are a thousand times more threatening to our country than
COVID nineteen. A lot of people pointed out that the CDC the results of this report stand in contrast to what RFK Junior is saying about a possible link between measles and autism, saying, no, this is just simply, as you put it, about diagnosing and identifying this disorder.
Didn't he say this was recently? He said, they're going to know by September. They have a new task force or whatever they're going to call that, but they are going to identify a cause of autism. Y.
Yes, and it would be nice at least to put the argument or the concerns behind us and move forward.
Never, well, let's stay what it's here now or we're continuing now the next leg of our run, folks. And this is a heck of a talker here that all female star studied Blue Origin crew is now being brought back down to Earth figuratively, as several notable celebrities are openly criticizing the trip as nothing more than an unnecessary, wasteful publicity stunt. Words like privileged, exploitation, gluttonous are being thrown around woo.
Katy Perry and Gail King were among the six woman crew that went on the ten minute ride to space on Monday aboard Blue Origin. The trip had been promoted for weeks as history making and inspiring. The women were on the cover of magazines. Gail's preparation was followed closely by her CBS Morning colleagues. Bezos fiance was on board, Oprah was there to support her friend. A couple of Kardashians were there at the launch. Katy Perry even saying in space, Okay.
This was a well produced, made for TV moment if you've ever seen it, And that was just a kind of a general sense of excitement that this was taking place. And we will have to admit we got caught up and we're excited about it and watching it as well. But one person's excitement is another person's disgust. Yes, disgusted is the word that model Emily Radikowski Radakowski Okay, Emily Radakowski used in a social media video talking about the
Blue Origin trip. And this is what she said. Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space and for what for what? What was the marketing there? I'm disgusted, literally, I'm disgusting.
That seems like a lot. But guess what she was just getting warmed up. She went on to say this, having a man who has gained his power and become a part of the one percent purely through exploitation and greed, deciding to take his fiance and a few other famous women to space for space tourism is not progress. Nope, still not done. She added. This privilege is not an accomplishment.
Exploitation is certainly not an accomplishment. And being able to take the privilege that you have gained from exploitation and greed of the planet, of resources, of human beings and then doing something like going to space for eleven minutes is certainly not an accomplishment. I think we're at a place in the world where we need to be able to discern what real progress looks like, and what happened yesterday was nothing like that.
No, no, this was not a one offer, folks. This was not just her popping off on her own. Actress Olivia Mile Wild excuse me, Olivia Wild chimed in saying, simply this a billion dollars bought some good memes. I guess. Comedian Amy Schumer mocked the trip and a video online, and then actress Olivia Mon said, prior to the trip quote, there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now. What are you guys going to do up in space? What's the point Is it
historic that you guys are going on a ride. I think it's a bit gluttonous. The cover of L magazine, I don't know.
I think she does know what she thinks. Gail King and Lauren Sanchez have acknowledged that some criticism was out there. King had said that people who are criticizing don't really understand what's happening here, and she encouraged them to do more of a deep dive on the trip, and Sanchez said this, I would love to have critics come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don't just work there, but they put their heart and soul
into this vehicle. They love their work and they loved the mission, and it's a big deal for them.
You know.
I wasn't expecting that much pushback or that much criticism, and notably by other women. I don't know that we've heard a man way in on this, and perhaps maybe smartly so they have not.
We know better. I'm just going to sit here quietly. You can say whatever you want to say. But I was but why why? It makes sense? But very strong criticism. There's some criticism having to do is like mother Earth? Why be you that kind of wasteful? But I don't know, there's some balance you have to find. I think they made an argument that there was inspiration, science, there was something behind this other than a joy ride. But I don't know if that message. Yeah.
I mean, everyone's obviously entitled, entitled to their means, but I just don't know that it's to me. When you're throwing words like disgusting out there, you're adding to the problem, not solving it.
That is strong. You're right, it's a matter of some time. You could. You would listen to it differently, depending on the words that were chosen. But why all women? Why it seemed it's tough for me to hear very prominent and successful and talented and respected women criticize this other group of respected, talented women.
It's not fun to watch as a woman. I can say that much. It doesn't It doesn't make you feel good, does it. I think you can still have a conversation, you can still disagree without using certain words and going below the belt.
All right, Well, next up on our run here, the last leg of our run. Here, on this Wednesday, we are going to talk about long time in legendary game show host Wink Martindale. He has passed away at the age of ninety one. Died in California with his family by his side, according to a statement from the family.
Yes, Martindale was the host of what seemed like countless game shows starting in the seventies, most notably notably as the host of Gambit High Rollers and Tic Tac Dough He had, Yeah, that was the when we watched. I was looking at the years too. It was like laid seventies to like mid eighties, like eighty five sweet Spot, seventy five years in broadcasting, But we were actually talking. You know, his name wasn't on the same level.
Obviously.
I knew Bob Barker and Bob you Banks and Chuck Woolry, but Marketdal Martindale. I had to look him up, and as soon as I saw his face, I knew exactly who he was.
See, I didn't make the link. I knew the name, and I would have. I was thinking was an actor, and then I saw his face. I was like, oh that guy. So anybody who's hearing us right now, you probably know the name. You certainly one hundred percent know the face. I did not know he's star I had. I am just blown away. Now he's a homeboy. This
guy is from Jackson, Tennessee, was born there. Started his career in Jackson, but moved to Memphis, which is where he became he really took off, and where he befriended a young rock star by the name of Elvis Presley. He actually gave one of his first ever television interviews. He did with Elvis Presley. I had no idea.
That's so cool, and I don't know, it's funny, like I think about Memphis and Tennessee and back in the day, and I still remember him here. I never heard his Southern accent from him, so that's actually interesting too.
Do you ever hear mine? O?
Yeah, you got a drawl to you?
Yeah, you do.
You get a nice Memphis drawl. It's not Yeah, it's perfect for broadcasting. It's just a touch, little drop. You can tell you're from the South.
Well, he's great, Wink Martindale. And I also didn't know this wink whose name is Wink. Well, his name is actually Winston Conrad Martindale as I was born, and he got the nickname Wink and it stuck. But he had a bunch of shows. Another Little Nugget Gambit was a successful show. He was hosting until nineteen seventy five when another show came along that became popular and kicked it off the air.
That show was Will of Fortune.
I launched in nineteen seventy and that was his competition. His show went off the air and he ended up later doing Tiktac Dough. But just what a career, what a life in ninety one. Yes, it's always sad when somebody passes, but what an extraordinary life he was able to live.
Yes, and we want to thank him for all the years of entertainment he provided so many of us.
All Right, folks, as you go about your day, as always, we'd like for you to consider this as you go about your day. It is our quote of a day.
Yeah, hump day. It's Wednesday. He might have a lot of I don't know, arduous tasks ahead of you, so I love this quote getting through the week. The difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is how high you raise your foot. That feels empowering. I loved it.
How you raise your foot you take a bigger step.
Yeah. Well, you can look at something as a stumbling block because you couldn't lift your foot high enough, or you can look at as a stepping stone that's getting you closer to your goal.
It's how you're viewing what's in front of you. Yeah, now I get it. And folks, if you don't know, Robes is respond before our quotes of the day most times, so she puts them in. Sometimes I don't see him until this moment. So that's why I'm right now trying to piece it together.
All I can see the light bulb go off in your head.
There it is, so, folks, your quote of the day is this the difference between the stombaching block and a stepping stone is how high you raise your foot. And with that, folks, we certainly hope you have a good hopesday Wednesday. Congrats on getting past tax day tax Day, and we will of course sue you back here old and run tomorrow.
Tej and I'm Amy Robock. Have a wonderful day everyone, See you tomorrow.