Political tensions rise over a controversial nativity scene in Denham

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corner. >> WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, >> WBSM presents the Barry Richard Show [music] streaming live on WBSM.com and the WBSM app. Call 508996500. [music] Text us using App Chat on the WBSM app. Now, the Barry Richard Show. [music] >> Hi, welcome back to the program 107 on a very chilly Friday afternoon. just looked at the thermometer and it's at 26° out here on the neck with it feels like of 17 and um that's here near the water. So I would imagine inland a little bit it might be even cooler than that and um so do try to keep yourself warm and this is shortlived. It's going to be back up around 40 tomorrow and um and we can say woo our winter is over thanks to global warming. Right. All right. Um so the name Tim Dunn, you may remember Tim Dunn. Tim Dunn worked here for a while. He was the news director, worked in the newsroom for a while. He's worked at a number of publications throughout the area. Most recently, Tim worked as um a writer for Fox and Friends on the the Fox News Network in New York City. He is now the political reporter, the main political reporter for the Boston Herald. And Tim um has agreed to um do some drops with us. What that simply means is um you join us from time to time to update us on things that are going on, help us with our understanding of what's happening in the state politically and that's going to be very important for us with the um election coming up uh next year for governor and so many other important issues uh that are playing out. And Tim joins us right now. Tim, how you doing, buddy? Thanks for uh thanks for >> being part of the program. We always love having you here. >> Thanks for having me. I'm doing great. Hey, well, you know, I always loved having you on my show when you were uh, you know, just uh covering news and stuff. So, this is great. You got a a great job. You're doing a great job and you've covered a lot of important things and uh so we're glad you can take some time today. You know, we I invited you on to talk about the um the Seth Molton story. We're going to get into that in just a second. But since or in between the time we spoke and and and now uh you've got a breaking story up on the Boston Herald website and that has to do uh with the same subject, ICE and immigration, but this involves a church in Denim, St. Susanna's parish where apparently parishioners have decided to um leave the baby Jesus out of the crush display and replace it with a sign that says ICE was here and that's not sitting well with the Boston Arch Dasis. What do you know? What's going on? >> Yeah, Barry. Exactly. It was it was pretty incredible the uh you know when I first saw the sign myself and uh you're right. The sign there says um ice was here and it's where uh baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph are intended to be. So the implication there is that ICE came and snatched up Jesus and Mary and Joseph and um and we first got a response from uh acting ICE director Jim Lions who uh you know called it really a sad uh display of a political rhetoric. And we got uh a call I got a call today from uh the communications director from the Boston Arch Dascese and he was telling me that uh they are really against this and they're condemning it and they uh they're actually urging the church take it down immediately. So you know my first thought on this when you mentioned it to me was that this was a case of somebody kidnapping the baby Jesus and replacing it with a sign. But it seems as though this was sanctioned by the folks at the church, right? That's correct. Yeah. So, it was um a reverend who uh this a gentleman named Reverend Steven Just. He's known for doing uh stuff like this in the past, putting up different signs or having different demonstrations and doing different different stunts for whatever the political wind is blowing, you know, at at the time. And uh he is the one who came out and did this one and he's came out and admitted it and some of his parishioners, some of the parishioner council um at that at that parish are supporting him on it. But uh largely we've seen uh a negative reaction to it especially coming from the acting ICE director and now from the arch dascese who's speaking out and uh they they said that they didn't even give them permission to do this. They're supposed to get permission from the church to to have displays like this and they're uh they're really hoping they take it down. >> Yeah. So my understanding is that you don't mess around with the baby Jesus. And uh so you know this is this is something that I would assume parishioners many parishioners even even some who may agree with the message um are offended by. Is that the sense you're getting? >> Yeah, that's the sense I'm getting. I think it's more of uh it it's that and more of the sense of uh you know people should be able to go to church for church and to have a uh you know you know for whatever religion you are wherever your your your place of practice is just to you know or your place of worship is to to you know follow that religion and to participate in that religion not have a political ideological message you know being kind of thrown in your face we already get that enough nowadays so I think that's really more of the arch dasis stance they don't want to be in the middle of this kind of political debate >> yeah so what is the message from the arch dasis then I mean they told St. Susanis to uh get that sign out of there and and bring the baby Jesus back or or what? >> Yeah. So um the uh communications and public affairs uh specialist for them uh Terren Donalan he um he told me in a statement that they are urging them to I don't know whether he I was only able to get a statement from a gentleman. I didn't speak to him over the phone but he didn't get into whether they have the authority to you know to order them to or not. I'm not sure how that that um exactly works, but I I he did say that they were supposed to get permission. So, I'm imagining if they are supposed to get get permission, there has to be some sort of authority the arch dasis has, but as of right now, he's he's just he's urging them to take it down. Um and and as of we know so far, as of yesterday, it was still up. >> As of yesterday, it was still up. All right. So, you had an opportunity to speak with the acting ICE director, Todd Lions, and the conversation was about um this whole situation with ICE and uh um immigration and so on and so forth. And Massachusetts certainly has been front and center in this whole discussion about ICE and immigration. And um so Congressman Seth Molton who's a Democrat and um uh right now probably the um lead challenger or if not the only challenger really to um Senator Red Marky for the Democrat nomination for Marky's seat next year. um has has again made some waves and um according to your story uh that you wrote, um Molton is is is extremely critical of of of ICE and ICE operations and feels that if the Democrats get control of the White House again that they should um prosecute ICE agents uh for doing their jobs essentially, right? And uh and Todd Lions, who is the again the um acting ICE director, um didn't like those statements very much, did he? >> No, not at all, Barry. He uh he actually um we we reached out to him after Molton made the comments on Monday. And the whole backstory with Molton is he had uh visited the ICE facility in Burlington conducting an oversight tour. He had he had originally been there back in June uh uh based on complaints from local activists saying that the detaines held there were being held there for way too long of a time and they were uh lacking basic necessities like uh um like you know like bed sheets and soap, water, that kind of stuff. All the you know t typical complaints and allegations you'd hear from you know kind of most places around the country with ice facilities near them. And um Molton went and checked that out. He he complained about uh the conditions he saw there and he went back for a follow-up tour on Monday and he uh had said to reporters when he left that uh most of the conditions he noticed in his opinion did not change but uh the uh detainees are being processed faster and after he said that he was calling for ICE to be prosecuted. So we reached out to to uh director Lions and um he responded in kind very quickly and he's a very busy man. So he responded Monday saying how furious he was. We we finally got him on the phone yesterday and he went up on on on uh Molton. He was uh calling it pure political theater and disgusting and he doesn't understand why the congressman uh wants to go ahead and call for the prosecution of these ICE agents and and officers, some of whom are are his own constituents. >> Yeah. And and to quote um to quote Molton from your story, the abuses of ICE need to be prosecuted, not just defunded, prosecuted, they need to be held accountable uh to the law that they claim to enforce. And you know, we've seen a lot of this particularly from the Massachusetts delegation uh where they throw ICE under the bus. But uh according to the record uh you know your newspaper and others uh have reported and according to Department of Homeland Security a lot of the people and there have been several thousand that have been taken into custody rounded up here in Massachusetts by ICE. I mean we're talking about bad ombres here. We're talking about uh child rapists. We're talking about murderers. We're talking about drug dealers, gang members, and so on and so forth. So I I don't get I I really don't get other than the politics of it why um why these folks are finding it necessary to defend um the violators and and and and go after ICE and and demand prosecution. It just it just doesn't make sense to most people. >> Well, that seems to be what Director Lines is saying also. And he actually uh you know forwarded us uh the the uh the records or the char the charges I should say of the uh the four detainees who were at the Monday you who were at the prison that Congressman Molton is advocating for who you know the ones who the whole reason he went to that Burlington facility. Here's some of their their charges they were facing a Dominican national that was arrested for distribution of fentanyl distribution of crack cocaine assault and battery carrying a dangerous weapon and a pending charge for armed robbery. They also had an El Salvadorian with convictions of rape of a child, rape of a child by force with three counts. And they also had a Cambodian with convictions of raping a child and indecent assault. So not, as you said, some bad ombres who were who were over there in that Burlington facility. >> Yeah. And and again, I mean, the the somehow or another, ICE is the bad guy here for trying to round these folks up and get them out. And it doesn't stop with Molton. I mean, as you point out in your story, Congresswoman Ayanna Presley um claims that her office has documented quote hundreds of cases of ICE unlawfully arresting legal residents using excessive force and racial profiling. What did um director Lions say about that? >> He said it's absolutely ridiculous. And uh and as he pointed out and um and he's totally right. uh agencies or offices, government offices get tons of reports all the time. Whether they're substantially, you know, you know, whether they're substantial claims or not is is, you know, has to be seen and investigated. I mean, I I personally at the Herald, I get emails, my emails right in my by line in the papers. So, I get I get tips all the time. And if I got a hundred tips about apparent ICE abuses, I could go out and say, uh, you know, I got a 100 claims of ICE abuses, 100 reports, but it's kind of a double speak with what I think Presley is doing. And I'm sure her office gets tons of complaints all the time. How many of them are the same complaints? How many of them are actually legitimate complaints, >> right? And what she went on to say, rogue masked federal agents, rogue masked federal agents are violating people's civil rights, glorified bullies masquerading as public servants. Uh they terrorize our communities in the name of so-called law and order while detaining and deporting our neighbors without due process. I mean, this is insanity. I mean, Lions must be going out of his mind over this stuff. >> He seems to be. Yeah. And Molton actually, he he sent us a a bunch of fiery statements in response to, you know, what we put out that Lion said yesterday. And he's even going off on the mask thing, too, which I I'm I'm not too sure where that little ar I've seen this argument pop up a little bit more recently along the on the left, saying that they're criticizing the uh ICE agents for wearing masks and and Molton compares it to Marines and and uh and US soldiers who don't have to wear masks and are getting shot at. While they're obviously very admirable and very brave for doing that and being in war to begin with, they're in a different scenario. I would say I would say that with the problem with the ICE agents wearing masks, I'm sorry, the reason they're wearing masks is from all the doxing that they've had to deal with. I mean, and I wouldn't want to have my personal information and my address posted everywhere in this political environment. Well, Department of Homeland Security has indicated that assaults um against ICE agents have increased by 8,000%. As a result of this behavior on the part of the the Democrats and the media, many in the media, um by vilifying ICE agents and um so this this has got to be a concern and you got to you wonder why these guys want to wear masks. So, but it doesn't stop there. Congressman, Senator Marky, I mean, he's according to your story, he also chimed in with his own allegations of abuses by ICE, posting on X on Tuesday about an oversight tour of an ICE facility in Louisiana where he says pregnant women detained at the facility reported medical neglect and infections resulting in miscarriages. >> Yeah, I don't know what to say about that those allegations. I, you know, and and Director Lions kind of laughed too and said it's absolutely ridiculous. he pointed to the you know that especially in Massachusetts but around the country there's uh very adequate ice facilities and they have a lot of you know they they re they reach a lot of standards with uh with detainey treatment. So, back in the springtime, maybe late winter, um Tom Holman um said that we're coming to Massachusetts and we're bringing hell with us. And we saw what was it? Operation Patriot or the Patriot Operation or whatever it was called one and two. And um quite a few folks were rounded up and and taken out of Massachusetts. um any indication from Lions or any of your reporting that um that we may see another one of those or that they're not done with Massachusetts at this point? >> We did ask them. He didn't answer us on that. I I imagine that probably goes back to you don't want to, you know, you don't want to, you know, publish your plays before the game, I guess, but the sense I got is that they're not done with Massachusetts. I But I didn't get any, you know, hard confirmation that they're going to be back. >> Yeah. Um it would be a good guess though, I bet. Right. >> Yeah. I mean, I can imagine. So, especially well, especially as you've seen with the Trump administration, if you if you kind of poke the bear, you're going to get a response. And we've se certainly seen a lot of poking of the bear from our federal delegation, never mind Governor Healey as well, on other issues. >> Yeah. And you've been chasing the governor around um the last few days. Has she had anything to say about any of this, S? >> Um I we haven't chased her down really on the immigration issue. I mean, she's came out with her statements and her tweets really kind of, you know, toing the same tune as our federal delegation. She's more harping on the Trump administration lately for um for energy costs for uh for um right now I'm actually publishing an article for the Herald this afternoon about um the CDC voting to to do away with a recommendation of uh of giving HEP vaccines to newborns. She's been slamming uh RFK Jr. on that. So, she's really kind of going after uh on those two topics as of as of now. >> Yeah. and and of course I predicted this and a lot of others have as well that more heal is running for re-election against Donald Trump. Um even though there were three Republicans um she hasn't got much of a record to run on. So it appears as though Trump's going to be her her uh sparring buddy in the uh in the election next year. Tim, look forward to reading your future columns and um and look forward to talking to you a lot more about what's going on in the state and uh I know the listeners appreciate it. and I'm sure they're glad to hear you back on the air here and um good work. Keep it up. >> Thanks, Barry. Thanks for having me. >> All right, my friend Tim Dunn and Tim Dunn, a political reporter for the Boston Herald and also former uh WBSM news director and um uh also former writer for Fox and Friends said, "I couldn't afford to live in New York anymore. I had had to come back home." All right, quick break. 5089960500 is our phone number. We're coming back after this. Back to Barry [music] Richard on WBSM. Call 5089960500. [music] >> Silver and gold. Silver and gold. Everyone wishes [music] for silver and gold. How do you measure its worth? [music] Just by the pleasure it gives fear on earth. >> All right. 127 Burl Ives. And Burl liv I lives of course Sam the snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer which is now well over 60 years old but it is still my favorite. I love Rudolph. And um if I remember correctly, I think it's on this weekend somewhere on TV. Anyway, it's probably broadcast like at some point uh this time of year. Anywhere you are in the world, you can probably find it. Um anyway, thanks for joining me. Appreciate it on a Friday afternoon. Very chilly Friday afternoon at that. And um thanks to Tim Dunn also for uh for joining me. you know, between we do have a very big uh election season before us and with the help of Tim Dunn and um Holly Roashad um I think we're going to be able to provide you with some good insight uh as to what's going on. Of course, the governor's race coming up and uh got the midterms next year and um you know, you got the uh the the US Senate race for Massachusetts next year here in in you know, here in the US Senate race for Massachusetts here in Massachusetts. Yeah, that'll be going on. The race for Ed Marky seat, the nomination and all of that. So, a lot of interesting stuff that we're going to be talking about. So, it's good to be tapped in uh to people in the know um people that you know talk to all of the players and and that and be able to provide us with some information. So, that's wonderful. You know, speaking about um speaking about the news, um well, we weren't really, but kind of sort of maybe. Um one of my favorite columnist is John Doli. He writes um he writes really powerful and and and interesting stuff for um Breitbart, but he's got a piece out today. Um number of Americans who closely follow the news crashes. And it's not surprising to me. It's not surprising. I've seen it happen. And I think a lot of that has to do with the um the atmosphere, the political atmosphere, the um scorched earth, the anger, the hatred, the um the lies, fake news. People are turned off to it. They've had enough. It's overload. And so they're turning away from it. They're not paying attention to it anymore. And you know, I think the only thing worse than um people having to wade through information to determine what's true and what's not true is people that tune out completely. But Noli writes here um in um 2016 51% of US adults said they closely followed the news. Today that number has crashed to 36%. from 51% 9 years ago to 36% now. People who say they closely watch the news. People in every age group are less likely now than in 2016 to say they follow the news all or most of the time, writes the far-left Pew Research. But older Americans remain more likely than younger adults to do so. For example, 62% of adults 65 and older now say they follow the news all or most of the time. That's down 13 percentage points since uh 2016 according to Pew Research. The decline is similar 12 points among adults under 30. The decline in Americans attention to the news over the last over the years has also occurred across other demographic groups including education, gender, race, ethnicity, and political party. People are tuned out, they're burned out on it. They're burned out on it. And and what makes it more difficult is you just don't know what is true from the news. Let let me give you an example of that before I go [clears throat] back to John's piece here. Just listening to monitoring ABC at the top of the hour a few minutes ago, right? Well, gee, it was a half an hour ago now on the pipe bomb story, pipe bomber. And um at the very end of that story, if you listen to the reporter, I I don't recall who it was, but um the reporter indicated or reported or stated without even citing a source that the pipe bomber or the alleged pipe bomber was unhappy with the results of the 2020 election. Now, that certainly places an image in your mind, right, of what? What? What does it place an image in your mind of? A disgruntled Trump supporter, somebody who might want to blow up the capital, somebody who might want to take part in in an insurrection. I would imagine putting pike bombs in two locations um near the capital while 600,000 people are gathering, that's kind of an an act of insurrection, don't you think? So, that's what ABC reported. Now, that is completely contrary to what NBC is reporting because NBC is reporting this guy had ties to Antifa, left-wing organization, and may have been connected to Nancy Pelosi. NBC is reporting that there may be, according to their sources, I can't confirm this is NBC's sources that there were there's phone locks between this guy and Nancy Pelosi. Now, we're going to find out. He's doing court any second. So, the difference here if they had, you know, because what Cash Patel and what Pam Bondi are telling us is um you know, the Biden administration sat on this on purpose. They did not investigate it or at least they didn't come forward with what they knew. Bondi said yesterday there was no new information, no new tip, no uh you know uh anonymous phone call or or whatever. They just took the case and they took it apart and they used oldfashioned policing and solve the crime. And this could have been done four years ago if they wanted to. But what's being suggested um by some is that maybe they didn't want you to know this guy's political beliefs or who he might have been working with or who he might have or or what his motive was. We're going to find out what his motive was. He didn't he didn't die in the operation. He's alive. So, uh, ultimately we'll find out what happened and why he did this. Right now, everything's speculation and, uh, sources say and all that kind of stuff, but, um, we'll find out. So, just think what this does to the narrative, right? Just think what this does to the narrative. a bunch of crazed insurrectionist Trump supporters invade Washington on January 6th hellbent on killing and capturing members of Congress and and destroying the capital and overturning the election and so on and so forth. That was the narrative that they gave us. And then they gave us a kangaroo court investigation in which real Republicans were not allowed to serve on the panel and uh many important players were never called as witnesses. Nancy Pelosi and and others would have certainly hurt the narrative if we knew four years ago that this guy may have had ties to Antifa and was not a crazed Trump supporter. We're going to find out and I think the truth is going to be um I think the truth is going to be very interesting. But Noli um goes on to talk about maybe some of the reasons why people are just tuned out to the news, people who follow the news regularly, dropping from 51% in 2016 when Trump first ran for president to 36% now. Note he asks, "Gee, I wonder if this might have something to do with," and he has quite a list here, the Heg Seth kill everybody hoax, or maybe the Trump destroying the White House hoax. Uh, maybe the photo of starving Gaza baby hoax. How about Hunter Biden's laptop is Russian disinformation hoax? Trump told people to drink bleach hoax. How about the bloodbath hoax? And the hoaxes are not just limited to the United States. Remember the uh the other big media panic about the 900,000 kids hospitalized with corona virus hoax. or that the children buried in Canada, mass graves of native children found buried in Canada, that hoax. Remember that hoax? How about the Coington KKK kids hoax? Very fine people hoax. Sevenhour gap hoax. Trump trashes troop hoax. Policemen killed at mostly peaceful January 6 protest hoax. Border agents whipping illegals hoax. Remember that? Border Patrol agents on horseback whipping whipping these people that were trying to come across the border. Border agents whipping illegals. Yeah, that was that was a hoax. NASCAR noose hoax. Remember that? Trump, this was always my favorite and will always be. Trump assaulted Secret Service agents and grabbed the steering wheel of the beast. Remember that hoax? Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. Trump tariffs will explode. Prices hoax. The Maryland man hoax. The black newborns much more likely to die if the doctor is white hoax. Elon Musk's Nazi salute hoax. Trump called for Liz Cheney to be executed hoax. Violent crime down under the Biden Harris administration. Hoax. Hands up, don't shoot hoax. Jesse Smlet hoax. And I could go on and on. He's got like two and a half pages here of all of the hoaxes. Could that be why people just don't consume news anymore? Number of Americans who closely follow the news falls from 51% in 2016 to 36% this year. How about doctorred videos? altered videos like the one of Camala Harris. It cost the CBS News millions and millions of dollars. How about the um you know uh ABC's George Stephanopoulos, the pride of F River, stating that President Trump had been convicted of rape when that was fake news. So many hoaxes and fake news stories. You know, I mentioned yesterday, what about um what about the you know, you can insinuate things, too. I mean, the media talked about how uh Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. were going to be let out of the White House in handcuffs. There are only so many times you can lie to people before they don't want to listen to you anymore. And that has happened. 5089960500. We're coming right back. Stay >> back to Barry [music] Richard on WBSM. Call 508996500. [music] All right, welcome back. And uh that is the great sound of Vince Galdi from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. I don't know when that's going to be on if it is, but I mentioned earlier that um Rudolph is going to be on. Well, it's tonight. It's tonight on NBC at 8:00. So, you want to make sure you pop the popcorn and get the kids around the telly. Uh because Rudolph will be on tonight, right? Nice way to kick off the weekend for the kids. 5089960500 is the number. You are next on WBSM. Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon, Barry. >> Hi. >> Hi. Did you get your walk in today? >> No, it was a little bit too cold. I didn't go out today. >> Oh, you're not dedicated. >> Yeah. No, I'm a chicken. I'll walk in I walk in 100 degree weather, but today it was a little bit It was It was like 12 degrees during the time when I go out for my walk. Yeah. A little too much. I I didn't I didn't >> Did you go? >> I walked No, I walked inside. >> Yeah. Oh, inside. Okay. Yeah. >> Treadmill, you know. >> Yep. Yep. Yep. >> Yeah. >> Well, that's an idea. Now, we have I have a treadmill in my building where I live. Maybe I'll do that later. >> Yeah. You got to have one in the station. >> Yeah, I agree. Are the bosses listening? [laughter] >> Have a gym in here. Yeah, let's get a gym going. >> Well, on your spare time, you know, you could work out here a little bit >> while I'm on the air. Hey. Uh, yeah. I you had a guest on uh before. Dunn, is it? >> Yeah. Tim uh Tim Dunn. He's the political writer for the Boston Herald. >> No. Um I didn't catch all of it, but I um the you're talking about the uh the guy that's running against Maki. Uh what's his name? >> Uh Seth Molton. He's a Democrat congressman. >> Yeah. Okay. and uh he was criticizing ICE for rounding up the illegals. >> Yeah. He's saying essentially that um you know they're being mistreated and that when the Democrats win the White House back that ICE agents should be um uh prosecuted in court. >> Yeah. Yeah. It seems every time I get to like someone, something comes out about him. Uh he's uh he's another loser, I think. >> Oh my god. Big time. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. You got to bum in there, Marky. And uh and this guy going to run. I won't even go out and vote unless someone else is >> going to run. >> Yeah. He's going to run against Marky. And you know, I I think Mark is going to win the nomination. So, um I I don't think Yeah, I don't think that'll be too much of a problem. But I mean, you say, "Well, Mark is a better alternative to this guy." Um the only reason I think Marky might be a better alternative is because he's older and he won't be around too much longer in the Senate. >> Yeah. you know, uh that's a good job for a young man um getting into uh ICE, especially when you come out of the military. When I came out, I was looking for a job. If that was around today, I boy, I would I would enlist that right away. [clears throat] >> Yeah. Very similar u kind of uh um position. But you went into the fire did you go to the fire department right after you got out of the service? >> Uh no, it took me a few years. Yeah. >> And uh that's why uh the military helped me get that job. >> So I didn't like I got drafted. I didn't like it when I first got drafted, but uh I done my time. I got my honorable discharge and uh in life that helped me a lot, you know, except uh >> And you served overseas, so are they treating you good for that? >> Uh well, I'm just a veteran, that's all. >> Yeah. You don't you don't get nothing else. So, you know, >> but you get you get benefits, right? I mean, I realize you're not going to buy uh a mansion with them, but >> Well, I'm a veteran. I I don't participate in the veterans uh you know, uh I got my own insurance, so I I don't I don't ask anything from them. >> Right. >> Uh I just wanted to ask you, uh do you think uh M Mitchell is going to run again? >> Yeah. >> You think so? Yeah. >> Yeah. I think Mayor Mitchell has reached a point now, and some folks won't like hearing this, but I think um um I think Mitchell is going to be mayor for as long as he wants to be. Um >> yeah, you think he's uh unbeatable? >> I think he's unbeatable. And I, you know, it's I don't remember who I was talking to the other day. Might have been Chris. Um but um I think Mitchell rises to a different level from any other mayor that we've had. And um I think Mitchell has made some um huge changes to the city and the way the city runs and the way um the city is developed. We had a lot of good mayors with good ideas, but um I don't think they had the same kind of impact that Mitchell has had on this city. And um I think Mitchell is going to be long remembered as a transitional mayor. And that took us out of the doldrums. You know, we went through a long period of time. Industry was leaving. It was gone. and the education system was in the toilet and everything and we have evolved um with with very little help from Boston and um I think the credit for that largely goes to John Mitchell >> and John Mitchell and I don't agree on everything that's for certain but um I think Mitchell's done a pretty good job in turning the city in a different direction. >> Well, I kind of disagree with that. I I think he is uh I don't I don't believe he's unbeatable. It it all depends on runs. >> Who can beat him? >> Uh, right. Well, all depends. If we get a credible person, uh, I think I think they'll put him out. I don't think a lot of people are too happy with him. >> Well, you know, the guy runs every year. He's what, in his 14th year, if I remember. I think he's in his 14th year. And he's he's he's never had a a credible challenger. Um well I I I don't know what he actually done [clears throat] something credible that what has he done? >> Well he's he's rebuilt the the educ I don't have time to get into everything but I mean he's rebuilt the education system in the city. >> When when Mitchell took over I mean they were writing they were still writing things on on on little scraps of paper >> um and and the the the graduation rate was low and uh you know various things like that. and he's turned the education system around completely in the city. Um, look at downtown. We got apartments all over downtown now, new businesses everywhere downtown. Um, you know, there's this Yeah, >> I think the only I give him credit for raising taxes every year. That's about all I give. >> Well, the mayor doesn't raise taxes. The city council raises the taxes. >> Well, yeah, but his budget is uh >> Yeah, [clears throat] but even that, I mean, he proposes and the city council disposes. So, it's the city council that votes the budget. City council makes millions of dollars of cuts every year. The city council, it's the legislative branch that deals with the money. The mayor can propose and say, "Here, I'd like to spend this amount of money." He sends that over to the council and the council slices and dices and and does all of that and they cut they cut it out. So, >> there's a couple of city councils I think would give him a good run for his money. >> All right. Tell you what, I got to get the break in. So, next time we talk, you tell me who they are. 50899 60500. Have a good weekend, my friend. Appreciate it very much. I got to get this break in and we're coming right back up. [music] >> All right, welcome back. It is 159. We're going to head into the newsroom and that is itty bitty teeny tiny Michael Jackson when he was just a little kid part of the Jackson 5. I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus from their Christmas album and it's simply called Jackson 5 Christmas album. And that's an easy one to remember if you're going into uh Music Box or you're going into Salt Marsh and you're looking for uh the album, right? You just say, "Hey, I'd like um Jackson 5's Christmas album." "Oh, yeah. It's right over here." Yeah. Remember those stores? Remember the music box? Remember uh Salt Marsh going to buy all the 45s? I used to get the 45s and go in the booth and listen to them. And when the woman said, "You want to pay for those?" I'd be like, "I just wanted to listen to them. Thank you. Here they go." used to.