WEBVTT

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It's later with Mo Kelly kfi Em
six forty. We're live everywhere on the

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iHeartRadio app. It was a beautiful
day and absolutely gorgeous day. The traffic

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was horrible, but the day itself
was gorgeous, and as I was driving

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in, I could tell the world
was testing me. People were cutting me

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off left and right. I did
not let my inner mark runner come out.

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I refuse to give into the dark
side of the force, meaning you

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didn't give anybody the finger. I
did not give anyone the finger. I

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did not give anyone the side eye. I did hit my horn once or

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twice, but it was a very
polite. It wasn't one of those It

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was one of those horn horns that
you know is trying to instigate and escalate

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the situation. Did anyone deserve the
finger? Oh no, they deserved it.

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I chose not to do it.
I was a person who maintained control

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emotionally at all times. I was
very zen about it, and I had

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an epiphany in that moment. It's
like, look, I'm actually growing up.

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I'm becoming more mature. I am
actually keeping myself completely under control,

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because you know, years ago we've
had this conversation, I might have had

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a very very different response. I
don't want to be Mark Ronner at this

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age in life. No, No, you've heard the old adage spare the

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rod and spoil the child. Well, you spare the fingers. You're you're

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neglecting your civic duty on the road. I don't think that's how that Bible

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verse works now. I don't think
so. I might have to consult with

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somebody. I like consulting with experts. I don't want to make it up

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as I go. And speaking of
that, next second, we're going to

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talk about the Huntington Beach voter ID
measure. How that is being debated.

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Huntington Beach Pass, a law which
was voted on by Huntington Beach residents for

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in favor of voter IDEA state of
California is suing in regard to that.

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I have some thoughts on that,
and I consulted some constitutional law experts plural

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on that. No, I'll give
you my thoughts filtered through their expertise,

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so it's not just going to be
me just winging it and making it up.

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I actually consulted some constitutional law experts
on it, and the biggest story

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of the day, which needs to
be talked about even more. We're going

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to wade into the waters of what's
going on over at USC. The university

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has banned or prevented the pro Palestinian
valedictorian from speaking at their mad commencement.

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USC has cited quote unquote safety concerns. I'm going to dig into that issue

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and see where we can find if
there's one side or the other which is

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right on that issue. That's going
to be an issue which is going to

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be often talked about in US.
There are going to be a lot of

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emotions around it, but we're going
to try to keep the emotion out of

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it and just look at the facts
of the matter. But we'll get into

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all of that and so much more. It's Later with mo Kelly when we

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come back. We'll get into that
Huntington Beach voter id debate and what's the

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truth of it, what's the legality
of it, what the future of it

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might be. That's next you're listening
to Later with mo Kelly on demand from

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KFI AM six forty. Some big
news in southern California. The state of

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California is presently suing the city of
Huntington Beach over its recently passed voter ID

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measure. This is going to be
complicated. I'm going to try to make

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it as simple as possible. As
far as what this story is about Huntington

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Beach. Its measure was an update
to the city's charter and it was watty

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and was written saying the city may
implement voter ID, but city leaders have

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said it is their intention to do
so in twenty twenty six. That's the

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earliest the measure would allow implementation.
So the first point, and it's an

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important one, this would have nothing
to do with the twenty twenty four election.

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But then I started thinking about whether
this would be illegal on its face.

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As they say, Prima Fassia and
all of you constitutional scholars out there,

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you should already know this, because
you know you say you love the

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Constitution, you already know this.
But Article one, Section four, Clause

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one of the Constitution says, the
times, places and manner of holding elections

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for senators and representatives shall be prescribed
in each state by the legislature thereof.

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But the Congress may at any time
by law make or alter such regulations,

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except as to the places of choosing
senators in other words federal representatives, those

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election details, manner and times places
in holding that is up to the state

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to the side, not local municipalities. That was my interpretation of it as

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a non constitutional scholar. So I
reached out to a couple of constitutional scholars

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legit ones, and they told me
that as long as the voter ID measure

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is only for municipal elections, not
state not federal, then it would be

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okay. Seemingly okay, But then
I asked the question, Well, if

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you deny someone at the door for
not having voter ID, and the ballot

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also contains state and federal offices,
not just mayor for example, or dogcatcher

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or comptroller, you know, local
municipal positions. If it has state and

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federal, isn't that then in contradiction
with what the Constitution says and also the

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state purview. That's where it gets
real complied. And if you're wondering where

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I come out on voter ID,
personally, I don't have a problem with

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it, as long as you just
don't mix in something else with it,

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don't try to pass it in accordance
with something else. If you do a

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straight voter ID measure, I'm not
against that at all, But this seems

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like it would be implemented for the
purpose of not just municipal elections, but

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also state and federal That's where I
think it may get into some real problems

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because the laws, going back to
the Constitution, the times, places and

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manner of holding elections for senators representatives
shall be described, shall be prescribed in

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each state by the legislature thereof.
In other words, the state Secretary of

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State and ours is Shirley Weber,
who oversees elections across California. She said

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that the voter ID requirement would disenfranchise
voters and called it a solution in search

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of a problem that for me is
neither here nor there. I'm just talking

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about the legality or illegality, whether
it's constitutional or unconstitutional. She went on

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to say, this voter ID measure
conflicts with state law. That from my

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interpretation and my discussion with other constitutional
scholars, and I'm having ongoing conversations with

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them, that is where this lawsuit
by the State of California against Huntington Beach

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probably has the best footing, if
only because unless the City of Huntington Beach

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can demonstrate or prove that this is
only for municipal elections and will not conflict

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with the administration of state and federal
elections, then it's probably a non issue.

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But if they can't but demonstrate that, then it would be a problem

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in a constitutional sense. And let
me put it in another way. For

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example, see this to us logical
conclusion. You can't have Newport Beach saying,

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for example, sorry to pick on
you, Newport Beach, well,

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we don't want to have absentee ballots, and then the city of San Jose

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saying, well, we want absentee
ballots, and then Laguna will come in

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and say, well, we don't
want absentee ballance, and then it goes

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back and forth, and then you
have all of these different administration of elections

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as it relates to state and federal
representatives as opposed to what is prescribed in

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the constitution where the state decides the
Secretary of State or the state legislature.

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However it's drawn up. And let's
be clear. I know a lot of

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people would like to believe that we
have this issue with illegal voting and voter

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fraud and election fraud, but the
actual evidence of that is nonexistent. I

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can show you what has been on
file at the Heritage Foundation. I can

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show you the exhaustive summaries and investigations. There is voter fraud, which is

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done by an individual is so called
election fraud, which has done mass wholesale,

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which is done for the purposes of
swinging elections. There is ample evidence

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of individual voter fraud. You can
google that and find the names and the

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associated parties involved. But in terms
of election fraud, no, there is

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it. And that's a distinction with
a difference. If you were worried about

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someone voting twice, or if you're
worried about quote unquote illegal immigrants voting,

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which has always been weird to me, you need to at least check the

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facts of how that doesn't happen and
how virtually impossible it is. And if

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you're worried about absent te balance,
I'm just talking about facts, not your

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feelings, not your emotions, not
in my emotions. With absentee ballots,

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I vote absentee. For example,
what I had to do to register to

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vote, I had to give my
California driver's license, my California driver license

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number, obviously my signature, and
then when I vote, my signature is

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compared against that that's what we have
generally here in California. If you believe,

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for whatever reasons, that thousands of
people are circumventing that process to swing

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elections in Huntington Beach, I would
love to see the evidence of that,

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and then we can have an informed
conversation about what is happening, not what

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you say is happening. But back
to the issue of voter id I am

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not against that in and of itself, but I'm inclined to believe it's more.

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It's more at the climate. It's
a response to the climate, not

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the actual issue. And whether it
is a problem with voter fraud. If

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you believe that the person who became
mayor in Huntington Beach because of voter fraud,

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send all the evidence you have to
me. And here's something else when

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we talk about voter fraud, and
this is what I really find strange.

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The idea that the presidential election wasn't
legitimate, but every other election on that

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ballot was legitimate is impossible to reconcile
because when you vote for congress person,

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you vote for governor, and you
vote for president, it's all the same

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ballot. Well, what about Smartmatic, Well, Smartmatic was only in La

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County, not around the country.
If I had more time, I get

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into the wholeam settlement with Smartmatic today. But I don't have time. But

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I would love someone to explain to
me the conspiracy theory of how only one

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office was quote unquote illegitimate but everything
else was legitimate on the very same ballot.

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You can hit me up, you
can find my information. I'm not

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going to give it out to you. You just have to hit me up

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with Kelly six Live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. And this next story is

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going to be huge in the life
of Southern California. It's going to be

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an ongoing story, and it's going
to play out in a number of different

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ways on a number of different campuses
between now and graduation. This particular version

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or aspect of the story is only
taking place at USC, but these conversations,

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discussions, and decisions are going to
be made on campuses all around the

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country and definitely here in Southern California. By now, you've probably at least

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heard the headline that USC, the
University of Southern California, has banned That's

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how the headline reads, banned pro
Palestine and valedictorian from speaking at the May

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commencement, citing safety concerns. First, I don't even like that title.

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But I'm not gonna nitpick. I'm
gonna get into the issue itself. Usc

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citing safety concerns, announced yesterday that
who is described as a pro Palestinian undergraduate

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student who was rightfully selected as valedictorian, will not be allowed to give a

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speech in May at commencement. This
is the first time the university has precluded

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the valedictorian from speaking. ABC seven
dot Com has used the word banned.

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I would say precluded, prevented.
I don't think ban is the correct word.

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The provost, Andrew Guzman, had
this to say, quote, While

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this is disappointing, tradition must give
way to safety. This decision is not

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only necessary to maintain the safety of
our campus and our students, but it's

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consistent with the fundamental legal obligation,
including the expectations of federal regulators, that

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universities act to protect students and keep
our campus community safe. Close quote the

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student and let me apologize in advance
because I'm not sure of the pronunciation of

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her name, but I believe it's
Osna Tavasam a major in biomedical engineering and

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a minor in quote unquote resistance to
genocide. That's how it reads. She

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had already been announced as valedictorian,
it was fair to assume that she would

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be giving her address as valedictorian from
the class for the class. But because

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of public remarks as she's made about
the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,

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there are some groups on campus which
have accused her of being quote unquote an

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a Semitic. I haven't seen the
remarks, all the remarks, and I

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can't even speak to that. I'm
just giving you the foundation for the discussion.

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But this is what she had to
say quote. This campaign to prevent

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me from addressing my peers at commencement
has evidently accomplished its goal. Today,

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USC administrators informed me that the university
will no longer allow me to speak at

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commencement due to supposed security concerns.
I am both shocked by this decision and

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profoundly disappointed that the university is succumbing
to a campaign of hate meant to silence

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my voice. I am not surprised
by those who attempt to propagate hatred.

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I am surprised that my own university, my home for four years, has

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abandoned me. Close quote. This
is where I come into the conversation.

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Both sides can be right and both
sides can be wrong, and I hate

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both siderism. But this is one
of those times where it's not all of

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this, it's not all of that. It's some of this and some of

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that. Here's what I mean.
I can go back to when we were

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broadcasting live at USC for the California
senatorial debate. I know first hand on

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USC's campus what these protests look like. I think there were maybe one hundred

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or so people at that point.
I know how concerned the university was that

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night. I know how concerned law
enforcement was that night. I know this

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firsthand. It was something which could
have gotten out of hand relatively easily and

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quickly. So the idea of safety
is not coming out of nowhere. There

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is a reference point of legitimate concern
for the safety and welfare for individuals who

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may be attending graduation commencement, having
nothing to do with the issue that was

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months ago. If we look at
the time since then, the rhetoric has

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been the emotions surrounding it have been
escalated. We just had an attempted attack

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on Israel Byron this past weekend.
Everything has escalated. So through the eyes

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of the university, security and safety
is absolutely a legitimate concern and absolutely a

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legitimate reason to give. Now,
is there also a concern about backlash?

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Of course, Okay, I'm not
going to let one legitimate excuse cover up

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something that is also legitimate. I
know that this student doesn't have a constitutional

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right to speak at her own graduation
commencement. I know that, but it's

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fair to highlight this is the only
time that it hasn't happened, and it's

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fair to highlight how it is seemingly
after events unrelated to her, that this

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decision is made. That's what I
mean. It's not all this, it's

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not all that, But the ultimate
responsibility rests with the university if something were

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to go wrong. That is I
think the biggest variable in this equation.

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It's fine to say let her speak, she has a right to speak,

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She's earned that. I hear all
that, and actually I agree with all

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that, But I also understand if
something were to go wrong, all of

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those people will immediately disappear. All
those people will immediately have nothing to say.

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All of those same people say,
let her speak, let her speak,

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we don't care about this. They
will be nowhere to found and they

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will have no type of culpability responsibility
from that point forward. You know,

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the only issue I have with the
stance on safety concerns is that they think

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they be in usc is wanting us
to think that by disallowing this young lady

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from speaking, that that will alleviate
safety concerns without also taking into consideration how

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that could actually the removal of her
speaking and the press is getting not from

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KFI, the press that it is
getting, could that's an escalation escalation from

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the other side. Where is that
this equation? You're you're right, You're

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right. You can't you can't say
that one is going to eliminate the possibility

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of a conflagration, if you will. How that may ever play out,

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And it's not all this, it's
not all that. Now it may be

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from the university standpoint that this is
the path of least resistance. This is

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the decision that the university makes,
where hey, given what we do know,

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not what might happen, but what
we do know, this is a

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discretion as the better part of valor. This is something that at least that

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which we can control. It may
not be popular, but there's another aspect

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to this, because let's be honest, she probably will get up there and

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say some unpopular and uncomfortable things in
that moment, which and as a university,

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they also have to consider their endowment, their donors. I'm not saying

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it's right. I'm saying it's real. And those are things which are also

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in this discussion. Regardless of whether
you agree with what this student might say

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or disagree, these are all of
the things that are being considered by the

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university. It's it's fine for the
student in her eyes probably and I don't

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know, maybe reach out to her
her eyes to go up there. And

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I have this joke I want to
make this. We have guests who may

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come in the studio and I say, oh my gosh, they're gonna come

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down and just burn down the studio
because they know they can come in and

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say whatever they want and leave.
And I deal with the response MO,

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you had on this guest x y
z mo, why didn't didn't you she

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that you got. I've had a
number of guests who come on, burn

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down the studio and then leave,
and there there's no type of consequences for

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anything they said, I have to
deal with all the consequences. I see

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that as the same type of thing
with USC where a student and she's probably

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she's basically calling her shot. I
should be allowed to speak, and I

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got some stuff to say, and
you already know where I stand, and

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it's going to be it's going to
be more than just that speech in which

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everyone is going to have to deal
with it. There's the idea of actual

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protests, and there's the idea of
what she says and the news coverage and

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how the larger community is going to
respond to it, both the Islamic Muslim

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Arab community and the Jewish community,
and then the fallout for the university.

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And that's assuming nothing bad happens on
campus during the commencement. It's not all

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of this, it's not all of
that. There is a nuanced discussion to

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happen. And let me just say
this, for as arrogant as a lot

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of people who want to call me, I don't assume I know everything.

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I think I'm smart enough to understand
that there's not an answer for everything.

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There's not necessarily a right answer which
is going to make all this right there's

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not one answer which is going to
make the student body happy. In totality,

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there's not one answer which is going
to make the university and faculty happy

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and satisfy. And there's not going
to be one which makes the university feel

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that their interests, which are inclusive
of the students, had been met and

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protected, because ultimately this students graduating
university still has to deal with the days,

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months and years afterward. That's what
I think is not being discussed in

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this And this is just the second
week in April. We don't know what

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this is going to look like.
Rhetorically, we don't know what it's going

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to look like. Politically, we
don't know what it's going to look like

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in a protest sense. Between now
and the first week in May. What

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is going to happen in the Middle
East which is going to change the trajectory

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of this conversation. What happens if
if Iran launches another attack, What happens

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if Israel, as his thought is
going to be, it's going to have

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some response to this. Let's not
forget Iran is responding to the attack by

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Israel on the Iranian embassy, and
it's going to go back and forth.

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There's more than which is going to
happen between now and commencement that USC is

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saying, we know this more than
we have to deal with. And what

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we're not just talking about right now, we're not talking about an isolated incident,

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and we're not talking about a static
situation. And USC is saying we're

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going to err on the side of
caution and we would rather take the negative

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press from not allowing this person to
speak then deal with the consequences of what

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may be coming. Just tomorrow.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on

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demand from KFI AM six boarding.
I had a few more thoughts on the

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situation at USC where they are preventing
a pro Palestinian Valktorian from speaking at the

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May commencement citing safety concerns, and
let me just very quickly recap. I

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don't think it's all of this.
I don't think it's all of that.

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I see both sides of this,
and I hate both sides or rism,

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but there's no clear cut solution to
this. I thought the university was right

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to be concerned about security because I
saw it firsthand being on campus for a

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Senate debate, having nothing to do
with the issue. I saw how that

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could have gotten out of control very
quickly in nature. I saw how concerned

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police were trying to protect people,
dignitaries politics in that moment, and every

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graduation has dignitaries, politicians, civic
leaders, all of that. I understand

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the university's concerns, and I also
understand the idea that you're singling out this

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person in this moment when there might
be there's something distasteful about singling her out

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for what she might say or for
what might happen having nothing to do with

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her. In other words, you're
gonna have protests there no matter what,

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whether she speaks or not. And
to Twala's point, you might have inspired

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now new protests. That is my
biggest fear, because what does this say

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to the community surrounding USC. What
does this say to the student, to

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the faculty, what does this say
to your Muslim students and your Jewish students?

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Has USC unwittingly put themselves in a
position for a major intrusive protest from

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the opposition to this stands on the
day of commencement because now they've they've made

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their bid, they put it in
walking back, you can't walk it back.

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So now they could have inadvertently sparked
exactly that which they are afraid of.

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This is what I would say.
Now, if you don't have the

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valedictorian speak, there maybe some other
student speaker. There's nothing preventing that student

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speaker taking a paragraph or something else, changing their remarks that day because they

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are in solidarity. He or g
is in solidarity with this valedictorian. Because

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students they do stick together. You
have friends, they have boyfriends and girlfriends.

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You know, they take everything very
very seriously and personally. So my

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suggestion would have been, we just
don't have any speakers period. We just

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hand out these diplomas and keep it
moving. Now is that Is that disappointing?

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Absolutely, because you want to have
the full commencement experience. But if

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you're only going to take one student
off the dais and I assume the valedictorian

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is still going to be up there
on the platform with all the people,

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and she'll be recognized as a valedictorian, you know, Magna cum lattie,

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what have you. But you've just
opened yourself up for other things to happen.

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Actually, you've almost encouraged other things
to happen, and I would think

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that it would be easier to say, Okay, no speakers, We're not

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going to even touch this. We're
not going to single anyone else out,

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anyone out at all to not be
able to speak on this day, and

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then we'll just limit it to the
diplomats to heading out to diplomas. That

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would be to go with USC's position
of safety. If you are actually concerned

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about safety, you must be concerned
about the safety for all. And if

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you're concerned about the safety for all, the best way, best practice would

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be to have zero speeches whatsoever.
That is the only way I if I

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have a student graduating that I would
feel safe knowing, you know what,

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they're not going to have any speeches. My Sun or Dodge is going to

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walk up on stage get their diploma. They're going to throw their caps and

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we are out. That's the easiest
way to do it. But they're choosing

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at this moment not to do it
now. It will be interesting to see

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what the response is going to be
in the coming days, in the coming

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weeks. Like I also said,
there are things which may happen having nothing

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to do with the campus of USC. We could be things happening in the

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Middle East, which may change the
tenor and trajectory of this conversation. If

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there is a response from Israel that
could change what we're talking about in a

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week. It may be a point, it may be something where you know,

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none And when I started this conversation, I was saying, Hey,

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this is what's happening on USC's campus, but every school in California is going

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to have to look at what they're
planning, what they're willing to accept,

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what they're willing to have As far
as part of discussion that day. Don't

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think this is just about USC,
because every campus is going to have a

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commencement, and you can bet your
ass somebody's going to say something about this,

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because that's what commencement speeches are for. As they're sending these young people

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out into the world. They talk
about contemporary issues and how people sitting in

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that audience who are getting their diplomas, they're moving their tassels from one side

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or the mortarboard to the other.
How they are the future. You know,

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they're the leaders of the future,
and all that. I only have

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one and a half degrees. Mark
has eight degrees. You know, he's

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probably been more graduations. You can
have one of mine. I'm not using

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it all right, thank you,
but this is going to be huge in

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coming days, weeks, and months
leading up to commencements all over southern California.

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I can't speak about outside of California, but southern California because what what's

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happening at USC everybody's watching. It's
later with Mo Kelly can'f I am six

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00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:47.400
forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, perfect for achy, indecisive minds.

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00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:52.519
Canfi is cooling info. Jel quickly
relieves ignorance and leaves a fifty fresh scent.

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00:29:52.920 --> 00:30:00.680
K S I'm the Kost HD two
Los Angeles, Orange County bl everywhere

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00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:00.880
on the Eggart radio app