4.27.2026 - Trump Security, Kempthorne Legacy, Political Temperature

Send us Fan MailNeal Larson and Julie Mason spend the morning processing a heavy weekend: a third public assassination attempt against President Donald Trump and the death of Idaho statesman Dirk Kempthorne. We talk through the whiplash of covering high-stakes national news while also being knee-deep in an unusually intense legislative election season. On the Trump attempt, we push back on the “false flag/actors” narrative and point to how constant demonization and normalized calls for unrest can flip a switch in unstable people—especially when political opponents are described as existential evil. At the same time, we try to be clear-eyed about what actually happened at the event: it’s a hotel, you can’t hermetically seal it, and the Secret Service stopped the attacker before he reached the main room—good execution in a hard-to-control environment, even as we all worry that “law of averages” thinking means more attempts are coming.We also take time to honor Dirk Kempthorne—governor, U.S. senator, Boise mayor, and Interior secretary—as one of Idaho’s truly defining leaders, the kind of public servant respected even by people who disagreed with him. Callers add personal context, including Kempthorne’s forest management focus and his major role in the USS Idaho commissioning (with Idaho touches throughout the submarine). From there, we pivot into the messiness of modern politics: how conspiracy thinking spreads, why “scorecards” can be misleading if you don’t examine what the controversial votes actually were, and why citizens should be smarter than viral memes. Underneath all of it is a plea to lower the temperature—argue policy, not personal hatred—because the trajectory we’re on is corrosive and dangerous.### Highlights- Breaking down the latest Trump assassination attempt and why “staged” conspiracies don’t hold up under the actual details  - Remembering Dirk Kempthorne’s legacy—and why he’d belong on an Idaho “Mount Rushmore”  - How political rhetoric and media echo chambers can normalize violence and radicalize unstable people  - Why voting “scorecards” can be noisy, cherry-picked, and misleading without context  - Inside look at the USS Idaho commissioning and Kempthorne’s role in making it happen  ### Tags (copy/paste)Neal Larson, Julie Mason, Donald Trump, assassination attempt, Secret Service, political violence, rhetoric, conspiracy theories, media polarization, Idaho politics, Idaho legislature, legislative races, Dirk Kempthorne, Boise mayor, Idaho governor, U.S. Senator, Interior Secretary, USS Idaho, Mountain States Policy Center, voting scorecards, party-line votes, civic discourseLet’s talk advertising. When you want to advertise on the radio, you call the station, right? But what about Facebook, Instagram, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, and other streaming platforms?You could try clicking around, reading books, or taking online courses to figure it out—or you can let us handle it. At Sandhill Media Group, we’re your local experts in both radio and digital marketing.Visit SandhillMediaGroup.com today.<a href="https://www.sandhillmediagrou