Sec. Hegseth faces impeachment threats & Annika Tournament preview

Good morning everyone and welcome into Fox Tampa Bay Live. I am Regina and I will be with you for the next hour. Thanks so much for spending part of your Tuesday with us. As always, we're going to give you a little lay of the land and what we are expecting to bring you as far as live events, in-depth conversations. And all the headlines you need to know about before we get to some weather. So let's do just that. We are going to start this morning with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth firing back. He's defending his record as an effort to impeach him moves forward. We're going to hear his response. He did have a press conference from the Pentagon not too long ago. But it was happening as a lot of people were getting out the door, headed to work and starting their day. So we'll play about five minutes of it. And then we're going to speak with Professor Jeffrey Schwartz from Cooley Law on what it would take to remove him. we're going From this position, if that's even at all possible and realistic. to speak with So that is coming up as well. And then we are also going to discuss a $90 million funding decision Professor for the Rays proposed Tampa ballpark. Jeffrey We are following today's county commission meeting, which I can show you is happening live right now. Swarbrick. It does not look like they have gotten to this agenda item just yet. But Fox 13's Evan Axelbank is present in this meeting and he's going to step out. To kind of break down how we got to this point, what this money is for, I know he did a piece yesterday on will Amendment 3 affect anything that has to do with the Rays Ballpark project construction. So we'll have a little chit chat with him about that. And then just a horrific story that we followed yesterday. We're also going to head out to court in Pasco County. Yesterday, we learned in the case of a 16-year-old girl who was found dead in Pasco that her Her boyfriend is accused of killing her, so he's expected to be in court around noon. Erin Mesmer going to join us around 11:30 to get us up to speed on the case and what we could possibly see happen in that courtroom. And then if you live in Pinellas County, you might be heading out to the Annika Golf Tournament. Well, a return to Tampa Bay for former USF golf standout, Melanie Green, representing The Bulls and returning to. To where she went to college and where she really excelled in the sport to play in this tournament. She's going to get ready for I believe play starts Thursday and she's going to join us live to talk all about competing this week. And then we actually just got this really cool. Event that came in and not too long ago. I just want to make sure we've got the right video here. If you were tuning in with Fox 13's Kylie Jones and on Good Day Extra, we saw a really amazing event take place at Palm Harbor High School. There was a flyover, there was a band performance and a whole ceremony. Veterans Day is tomorrow. And it was just really cool to witness our local JROTC men and women honoring our veterans. veterans with this amazing performance. And we also want to honor the veterans in your life as well. So you know the drill. Scan the QR code on the left-hand side of your screen and either send us a favorite story. If you are a veteran, thank you so much for your service. Tell us a favorite story from your experience or if you have a favorite photo, if you have a favorite photo of a veteran in your life. We want to see it, and we will play some of the photos and read some of the stories and comments you have throughout the show. But first, I know it's been a little chillier than normal, not too bad outside. But I know we're going to see some chilly temperatures as we get closer to the end of the week. It's about to be sweater weather, as we call it. So we're going to head out to the Weather Lab to check in with FOX 13 meteorologist Jim Weber. Hey, Jim. And if you think this has been chilly, well, you get set this weekend. I'm ready. Big changes on the way, but today, another beautiful day. We do have some high clouds that are moving through the area. Temperatures are mild, though. Most areas are sitting in the 70s. You look outside, Clearwater Beach looking just fantastic. I just love this view. Here we are. Middle of November, you still have people out there enjoying the water. I'm sure they're not locals. That water temperature about 76 degrees. So maybe a little too cool for anybody that lives here year round and is now considers themselves a Floridian, but still plenty of sun there. You see the visible satellite loop showing some of these clouds moving through the area. So from time to time, you may have a few more clouds. You may get some more sun at times, but really not expecting to see any rain around today. We may see a stray shower tomorrow. This is all part of a cold front, which will be pushing in our direction over the next several days. And it's going to be a process over the next few days where we have a series of fronts that come through, bring a couple of showers. Bring us a little cooler air and then that much cooler air behind that secondary front. But right now, mild temperatures, 78 degrees right now here in Tampa, St. Petersburg, near 77, Sarasota, 82 degrees. Over in Lakeland, throughout our interior locations, Lakeland currently seeing at 77 degrees. But those dew point numbers. Still comfortable in most areas, but as you look just down to our step, you're starting to see some of these numbers heading back up into the 70s. We like to make that kind of that benchmark. When you see that number crossing back into the 70s, it feels more humid. So you're starting to see this moisture level, that humidity creeping back over the state. You do see that dry air, which is sitting just to our north, that yellow shade. That's what we'll be heading in our direction once again. So you see that dew point tracker. Notice as we head towards the end of the week, heading into the weekend, fronts move through, drier air, cooler air, much drier as we head into Saturday and Sunday. So this is what we have going on. We've got that jet stream, which is basically bottling all that much cooler air well to our north. But watch what happens as we head through the rest of the week, right into the weekend. Big trough develops across the east that's going to drive that much cooler air down to the south end. And some of that, it's going to reach us as well. So as you watch the Fox weather model, invariably cloudy skies as we go through today into tomorrow. Here comes that front, a little more moisture around, a couple of stray showers, 10% chance as we go through the day. But then first front moves through, it doesn't quite clear us out. Here comes that secondary front. That's the one that will bring the much colder temperatures as we head into the weekend. So look at these daytime highs. As we get into the weekend, we're looking at daytime highs only in the 60s, 67 degrees on Saturday. That also means those overnight lows, they are going to definitely be on the chilly side because we're dropping down into the low 50s. We're likely seeing some 40s, especially away from the coastline as we go through Saturday and Sunday morning. So that's gonna be a big change, and I like to think that a lot of us will be pretty happy with that change as well, just to get a little break from some of the heat and humidity. Yeah, I'm definitely ready for some cool, crisp weekend walks, Jim. Thanks so much. Get you in the spirit of the season. Right, right. I finally feel like fall, finally feel like Christmas is coming, Thanksgiving first. Exactly. Thanks, Jim, we'll talk to you soon. We always forget about it, don't we? All right, everyone, we are going to go from Tampa out to a live look we have from Capitol Hill. This is what we like to call a stakeout cam, trying to see if any House or Senate members want to speak as they move forward with some call of business. And actually, really quickly, before we get into some of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's remarks from this morning, Here's a look at a post from Thomas Massie. The Republican who basically started all this, he first brought impeachment articles forward in September and returned to the House floor yesterday with eight charges against the defense secretary. Well here, he said today the House will vote on the Hegseth impeachment resolution. The first vote will be on a procedural motion to kill the resolution such as motion to refer to committee. If we can overcome that effort, we will proceed to a real debate and vote on the articles of impeachment. A whole conversation on this coming up, but at the center of his case, Massey's case are allegations that Hegseth waged war against Iran without congressional authorization. Those charges also include allegations involving civilian protections and other military operations. Now those are allegations and Hegseth pushing back this morning arguing that the effort The effort against him is rooted in policy disagreements rather than impeachment misconduct. So we wanna let you listen in to basically the gist of what he had to say, and then we'll continue on with some live commentary. What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it's not accountability. It's a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment. Time for one man's final days in Congress to try to do damage to this president, this This country and most irresponsibly. The warriors who defend it. It's a farce and it's a stunt and everybody knows it. In the 250 years of our American republic, no secretary of war or secretary of defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations. And in our case, successful ones at that. Not once, war powers resolution or not, not under Reagan in Lebanon, not under Clinton in Kosovo, not under Obama in Iraq and Syria, not under Biden in Iraq and Syria. That's the standard. The history is clear and it's very straightforward. And one disgruntled congressman wants to shred it over policy disagreements. That's what it is, policy Disagreements. Not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause. The proper remedy for a policy disagreement, it's legislation, it's debate, it's the next presidential election. It's not handing the House and Senate floor to the Democrats so that they can run a show trial against the president and the secretary of war while Republicans still control Congress. And should be delivering wins for the American people. You see, we've seen this show before. They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call. They impeached him again in his final week in office. Both times they failed. Both times he came back stronger. And the American people sent him back to the White House. Now they're trying a third time. This time against a member of his cabinet. They will fail again. And if standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I'll take that company every day of the week. Let's be clear about what this resolution actually does. It tells our enemies, Iran, the cartels, every adversary watching that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations. It tells them that a single rogue legislator loaded with personal animus for the president can attempt to veto national security decisions made by the duly elected commander in chief. It puts a target on the backs of American warriors. By signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time. This is not patriotism. This is sabotage. You know, five years ago, America was humiliated in Kabul, Afghanistan. And every enemy on earth took notice. But somehow, as the president pointed out yesterday, no impeachment vote for Lloyd Austin for that terrible withdrawal. Not even one vote. Or no impeachment vote for when he went AWOL for over a week. No impeachment vote for when he let a Chinese spy balloon fly over the country for over a week. See, President Trump ended that kind of wokeness and weakness, peace through strength, not as a slogan, but as a way of war. The Houthis found out first. They fired on American ships. Biden had let it happen. President Trump said no more. Operation Rough Rider hit them more than a thousand times. They cried uncle, and they stopped shooting at our ships to this day. Iran found out next. Operation Midnight Hammer, B2s from the heartland, halfway around the world, straight into Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Flawless. The largest and most successful B2 strike in American history. Nuclear sites obliterated. Later in Operation Epic Fury, by every measure, we achieved a historic military victory. Under 40 days of sustained combat, more than 13,000 targets struck, their Navy sunk, their Air Force grounded, their defense industrial base gone, more than 80% of their nuclear industrial base gone, their military in ruin, the ironclad blockade unbroken. We control the Strait of Hormuz. Crazy Islamists in Tehran will never, ever have a nuclear weapon. A historic effort. Only made possible by a courageous commander-in-chief. History will judge the Iran war quite differently than conventional wisdom right now. We didn't start this war. Iran did 47 years ago. But President Trump is willing to do what no other president would. He did the tough, right thing. Not for politics, but for the safety and the security of the American people. That's leadership. All right there, so that was a big chunk of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's remarks this morning, making it clear that he is fighting this. He called the impeachment effort a political spectacle and insisted the military operations at the center of these allegations were lawful. So we are gonna get in a first quick commercial break and on the other side of that, we're gonna welcome in Professor Jeffrey Schwartz to talk about how this impeachment process even works. Is it possible to impeach Hegseth in a position like this? What are the legalities? Stay tuned. And if you have a question for Professor Schwartz, be sure to scan that QR code and weigh in. Welcome back on in to Fox Tampa Bay Live, everyone. As promised, we are continuing the conversation as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending his honor this morning, facing an effort in Congress to impeach him, led by Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who first brought impeachment articles forward in September. But yesterday, on the House floor, announced eight charges against the defense secretary. So joining us now is Jeffrey Schwartz, friendly face of Fox Tampa Bay Live distinguished professor emeritus at Cooley Law School to break this all down for us Professor. How are you doing today? Thanks so much for being here. I'm doing just fine, just living the dream. I know we're always watching a lot out of Washington, D.C., but I guess let's backtrack to yesterday when Massey announced this. I think it was about two o'clock in the afternoon because we kind of broke it on Florida Live. Were you surprised by that? And what did you make of his remarks and what he had to say about all this? Well, first of all, Representative Massey, who's out of Kentucky and apparently lost his election for reelection to the House, had introduced such articles a few months ago. And it was the reason why the House broke early, because it would have had to have come to a vote before they recessed for the election. So Speaker Johnson just said, we're in recess, bye, and sent everybody home. And so this is just a refile, a little bit more detailed, but it's just a refile by Representative Massey. And now it sits with a lame duck Congress, who if they vote to uphold these articles The articles of impeachment will then be handled by the new House and the new Senate in January. Now, we saw Secretary Hegseth respond to this pretty quickly, given the fact that Representative Massey only really announced these eight articles yesterday to the public and to his colleagues. Hegseth calls this a political spectacle. Can you help us separate the political argument from the legal one? What makes something an impeachable offense rather than a disagreement over policy? Okay, first of all, the Constitution says that impeachment can be had by alleging high crimes and misdemeanors. People think that that's just criminal offenses that they may or may not have committed, and that is a high crime or a misdemeanor. However, high crimes Crimes and misdemeanors are anything that the House of Representatives believes them to be. And that would include policy decisions. We've seen that with Secretary Mayorkas, who is the head of Homeland Security. And Republicans impeached him because they didn't like his policies on the border. So that's happened before. We had one secretary, the old Secretary of War before it was the Defense Department, back in the time of President Grant, who was also impeached. But that was for purposes that he was corrupt and he was caught in a corruptive scheme. And he resigned before he was actually impeached. The articles were introduced against him. So this is nothing new. We are fighting over more than policy though. The policy does get set by the president, but the execution has to be legal. And there are many ways that are described in these articles of impeachment as why the acts of Secretary Hegseth were illegal. That is that he was told to do things that were illegal or he chose to execute them in an illegal way. A perfect example of that was when he was shooting boats out of the water. In claiming that they were running drugs, one, he has never introduced or shown any proof that these boats were running drugs. That's number one. Number two, he actually ordered a second strike on helpless sailors in the water and ordered them to be killed. That's a violation of our manual of war, if it was a wartime crime. If it wasn't a war crime, then he had the armed forces, acting as law enforcement officers and that's a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. So as a result of which when he claims everything that he has done has been legal, that's just not true. Now professor, he also pointed to how his predecessor under President Biden was treated. Was that more finger pointing in your eyes or does that comparison have any legal bearings on the allegations against him? That was really improper, what we would call, that he was conflating those acts with what he has done. The acts done by Obama, the acts done by Biden, the acts done even by some by Bush, okay, were very short lived. They were within the 30 days, they were able to allege that they were protecting either our troops that were over in the Middle East or in Kosovo. Same thing went for Clinton. Clinton went back to Congress and got authority after 60 days to continue to act in Kosovo. So they fell within the War Powers Act, and they did it exactly as the War Powers Act have done. We've been involved in this kinetic activity for over six months. And Congress has never been advised, never asked for powers beyond the 60 days, never entered a declaration of war. And that's exactly what Massey has put into it, that the acts that Hegseth did were illegal because they were not authorized properly by Congress. Now, Professor Schwartz, I want you to walk us through what happens next. We saw this post on social media from Representative Massey talking about today's vote in the House. But I mean, what options does the House have? And if it votes to impeach him, what would still have to happen before he could possibly be removed? Okay, first of all, I think it's more likely than not that these articles of impeachment will pass. Democrats cannot say no to this. Many of them have already said, if it gets before the whole Congress, they will vote for it. Many of the Democrats have already said that. It doesn't need Republicans. Democrats will vote for it, and there will be enough votes. So that's how I feel about it. I don't see any way they can say no. Now, the question is, how does it get handled? Does it go to a committee? They can vote to send it to a committee for an investigation to be reported back to Congress, who would then vote out the articles of impeachment themselves, and then it would go to the Senate. They can vote out these articles without any further investigation, and the Senate itself can investigate. The House can continue to investigate before they put their case on before the Senate. It would take a two-thirds majority of the Senate. That means there's gonna be a need for 11 Republicans to vote guilty on the articles of impeachment for there to be a conviction. Okay, that's assuming that all 56 senators who are Democrats would vote for this because this isn't going to go to trial till after January. There's no way this is going to get tried during a lame duck Senate, it's just not going to happen. So as a result of which, there will be 56 Democrats and they're gonna need 11 Republicans, in order to convict him, they need 67 votes. So as a result of which, that's where we're going to be. Now, the House can vote not to put them out after there's an investigation, in which point there would be no articles of incorporation, excuse me, articles of impeachment that are forwarded to the Senate. And that's generally the way it works. The House has the power of impeachment because these- The ones, when you are appointed and confirmed by the Senate, the only people that can remove that person from their job is the president can fire that person or the House can impeach. And then the Senate has to make the decision to remove. All right, well, clearly a lot to watch out for and lots to follow. Professor Jeffrey Swartz, thank you so much of elaborating on this, walking us through this process, the legalities of it. I'm sure we'll be talking to you again soon as the story develops. I'll be around. Have a good day, okay? You too. Thanks so much, Professor Schwartz. Bye-bye. All right, everyone, we're going to take another quick commercial break. And when we return, we are going to take the headlines back on home here. We are monitoring a Hillsborough County Board of County Commission meeting regarding some money involved in the Rays Ballpark project. So Evan Axelbank stepping out of that meeting so kindly to get us up to speed on what's going on today. We'll be right back with that. All right, everyone. Today, Hillsborough County Commissioners taking up another major piece of the plan to build a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark in Tampa. It's about how to put the funding in place, really. On the agenda, a proposal to move $90 million from the county's community investment tax extension. And it reserves into a budget for the ballpark project. So commissioners also considering separate financing that would authorize up to $263 million in bonds to be repaid using designated tourism tax revenues. I know this is a lot to take in. So who better than to break it break it down than Fox's Evan Axelbank, who stepped out of that meeting to join us. Evan, I don't believe they have gotten to the agenda item just yet. Good morning. Next morning, they have not gotten to it yet. We're expecting that. I'm hoping in the next 20, 25 minutes or so, they're doing some, there's a lot of business right in front of county commissions. Any county commission is a county with several million people in it, over a million people and there's lots of issues. So right now they're talking about some drug policy. They've also been talking about some policies related to scooters and bikes and e-bikes and all the rest. So, there's been public hearings on those, yeah, there's the shot there. They've been in a public hearing for about the last hour on that first topic. And then they talked about bikes for another 20 minutes or so, a half hour. So we haven't gotten to it yet, but such is life, that's the way it is at these meetings. This could be an important vote, I expect it to pass. The County Commission has always been the smoother sailing of the two boards between Between the city and the county. And so I do expect that they will approve this funding. We're looking at two separate votes today. One is a $90 million portion of the county CIT sales tax pot that would go for the stadium. Some insist on the board that it's illegal to use that funding. The county attorney disagrees. I'm going to go ahead and Then the second vote is on 263 million of tourist tax dollars. That is about 80 or so percent of the entire. County tourist tax pot. So overall, the county has to approve over time $360 million of sales taxes and $303 million of tourist taxes. I do think those things will get done, but we're still waiting for the board to take it up today. And Evan, I know that you recently did a piece about amendment three passing a week ago today and how that's going to affect and if it would affect a project of this scope that involves so much tax money and the community's input. So what was the correlation there? What did you find? The thinking is that it's going to be a minimal impact. CIT sales taxes are from sales taxes, so that's not a problem. Tourist taxes are paid by tourists when they come to stay in a hotel room, so that's not a problem. There is a $100 million pot that comes from other county sources that could potentially be impacted by any funding shortfall that Amendment 3 would create. It's too early to know how much. Of an impact that's going to be on that particular pot of funding, the board would have to make political considerations. What options are there to cut things and what would be politically feasible? $100 million represents like 1 23rd of this project. So it's unlikely that that loss of funding would be an enormous problem, but it could be an issue. And so it's something that's gonna have to be, it's gonna be a bridge that's gonna have to be crossed once we get to that. The county is gonna look more at Amendment 3 and the impact of it coming up in January. They're gonna have several presentations on that, but it's just too early to know whether Whether that sort of $100 million Miscellaneous pot is going to be impacted by this loss of funding that every local government is going to have to deal with. Yeah, no, it's very true. Well, Evan, I know you stepped out of that meeting to talk to us. Hopefully they'll take up this conversation in the next 25 minutes to an hour, like you said. Fingers crossed. I know, I know the meetings can get a little long there. We'll let you get back to work. We appreciate you checking in with us and I know you'll have updates for us later Later on Fox 13. That's my joy. Bye, friend. All right, everyone, we are going to take another break. And when we come back, it was a heartbreaking story out of Pasco County yesterday. A teenage girl killed her boyfriend, now being accused of killing her. And he's making a first appearance in court in a matter of minutes at this point. So we're gonna check in with FOX 13's Aaron Mesmer on the other side of this break. All right, everyone, welcome back into Fox Tampa Bay Live. The man accused of killing his 16-year-old girlfriend facing a judge today. Robert Timmons expected to have his first appearance within the hour. Investigators saying Victoria Perez, who was just pictured on your screens there an dTimmons were arguin gb Before he allegedly shot her in the head and dumped her body. All right. People, as I've clearly pictured on your screens there in Timmins, were arguing So we wanna waste no time heading out live outside of the courthouse in Pasco where he's expected to make that first appearance. That's where Fox 13's Aaron Mesmer joining us right now. Aaron, just a horrific story for people who may not have been following this case. Can you get us up to speed on some of the details here? Good morning. Good morning, Regina. Yeah, and Robert Timmons is expected to appear in for his first court appearance today. And just let's start right there, since that's what's happening within the next hour or so. Typically, with first court appearances, not a whole lot happens. He'll likely be held without bond moving forward, at least for now, and then the case will proceed from there. But he's facing a murder charge based off of what investigators say happened over the weekend. So yeah, let's take a step back here to what Sheriff Jeff Harrington talked about Yesterday here at a news conference, he says that it started out. As a missing persons case called in as a missing person, 16 year old Victoria Perez, her family couldn't locate her over the weekend. Sunday morning, they reported her missing. About four hours later, her body was found not far from Complex about 15 feet off of the side of Creeler Road in Spring Hill. As investigators began looking into what happened, they identified Robert Timmons as a possible suspect. Family members told the detectives that Timmons and Victoria had a tumultuous and toxic relationship and they were worried that he might have been involved. Investigators looked at some security video. They saw that she had gotten into his car at about 1.15 Sunday morning. So in the process of talking with him, According to Sheriff Harrington, Timmons admitted to what happened next. He told investigators that they got into an argument in that car. It turned violent. And then Timmons shot his girlfriend, Victoria, in the head. Not long after that, he's accused of then dumping the body about 15 feet off of the side of Creeler Road, which is right next to the apartment complex. And then a little while later, that's when investigators found her, like I said, several hours after that. Now, he's facing that murder charge in court today. For his first appearance Regina. Now Aaron, do we know at all how this 19 year old could have gotten a gun? It's a good question. We don't know if that was a gun that the family had or if he got it from somebody else. That's something that investigators, I'm sure, are looking into. They also, at the moment, don't have the weapon. They are looking for it at this point. The sheriff yesterday said that they are searching a body of water where they believe Timmons tossed the gun sometime after murdering his girlfriend. So at this point, That's part of the investigation. They probably have to find the weapon first before then they figure out where it came from. Aaron, have you been able to just talk or see on social media anybody who may have known this victim? What are people saying about her as a person, Victoria Perez? What we know is what the sheriff told us at this point, Regina, and that she was loved by her family, of course, and that they are devastated by this. They reached out to the sheriff's office because she was missing, and that this relationship they knew already was, according to family members, tumultuous and toxic. I asked the sheriff yesterday if it had ever turned violent prior to this situation, and he said they had no reports of violence between Timmons. And Victoria, but that doesn't mean that the violence hadn't happened and was going unreported. But they don't know at this point. That's something that, of course, they're going to be looking into this relationship. But the sheriff also made it a point to use this as a very tragic example of the importance of seeking help and trying to get out of relationships like this if you can. And if not, call and get help. That's something that he said yesterday. Try to get the help that you can to get out of a relationship like this. Because if it hasn't turned violent yet, we've seen so many times that sadly it can't. And unfortunately, in this situation, it led to this. Yeah, just so heartbreaking. Aaron, I know you're gonna keep us up to speed on everything that happens in that courtroom coming up. So we will let you get back to work. Thank you so much for checking in with us. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Thanks, Regina. All right, everyone, we are going to take another quick commercial break. On the other side of that, we are going to touch base with some folks in Pinellas County because you've got the Annika Golf Tournament getting underway this week. And we also want to hear from you guys because tomorrow is Veterans Day. It is Veterans Appreciation Month. And we know that a lot of you, we've done so many stories with people across the community who have served, who continue to serve. And the organizations and families that support them. So we want you to send us a photo or a favorite story. Be sure to scan that QR code and do either one. We'll be sharing them throughout the course of our coverage after this break. All right, everyone, welcome back into Fox Tampa Bay Live. Throughout the course of the last hour, we have been asking you to scan the QR code on your screens and send us a photo of a veteran that means something to you. Or if you are a veteran or know of one, a special story that really resonates with you. So before we get into some coverage of the Annika Golf Tournament that's happening in Pinellas County, We do want to show. Some of what you've submitted. So we've got Brad and you know what this, I want to read it here. The crawl on the bottom of the screen making third class on the USS. Tarawa, this is fantastic. Look at that photo. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for this, Brad. I came down from Michigan in 2011 and met my favorite veteran at a bar. We've stayed in touch ever since. Lorraine from Tampa, that is awesome. What a fantastic photo. Thank you so much for sharing this. Miranda. Was born and raised here in Pinellas Park and met her husband Matthew Baker in the army. He was injured and she has, I do, I cannot see the bottom of that. Are we able to remove the crawl for a second? There we go. Thanks, ladies. He was injured and she has three more years till retirement. Thank you both for your service. This is amazing. Krista from Clearwater. What a story there. Thank you so much, guys, for submitting these. We've got James Harold from Spring Hill, a photo from the Army. Thank you truly to all the men and women who have served our great nation. We are going to have some great coverage tomorrow throughout the course of all of our shows honoring Veterans Day parades, ceremonies. We took you to a flyover in Palm Harbor not too long ago. And I know that the Annika. Driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, they are going to feature a special Veterans Day celebration at the Pelican Golf Club in Bel Air. So there's actually going to be a ceremony starting at 8.30, and it is just going to be such a beautiful sight. We love to see all of the ways you are commemorating our local veterans here across the Tampa Bay area. And I want to waste no time getting to some coverage about Annika, because- I was able to go for the first time last year and it was just awesome and there is going to be someone awesome representing the Bay Area and playing in this tournament. So I do believe that she is actually joining us live as we speak. She has competed for the USF Bulls. She's played alongside the world's best Melanie Greens golf career, bringing her back to Tampa Bay this week. The former USF Bulls. All-American preparing for her first appearance at the Annika at Pelican Golf Club. And she is actually live with us right now. Melanie, can you hear me okay? Everything good? Thanks so much for being here. Thank you so much. Yes, I can hear you perfectly. Oh, I love it. I love it. We're so happy to have you. And I know you just wrapped up a press conference. So we're so grateful to you. Walk me through. I apologize. We were in some other news, but that press conference, give me a lay of the land of what you just told the public I know just a rough everything between going to Asia and schedule for next year and talk about the season, just all the things. That's awesome. And I know you spend such an important part of your golf career at USF. What does it mean to come back and compete here? Oh, it means the world. I luckily never left. I still live in Tampa. But yeah, no, it's awesome. This is a phenomenal golf course. And just to have the tournament come back here year after year, I think is pretty special. But yeah, no, it's a full circle moment for sure. Come here as a as a student athlete is almost like a little media person for a few days. And, you know, to now come back here in the field, you know, having access to the to the player locker room and to the dining and all these things that, you know, I had already seen, you know, as a student athlete without the tournament, you know, being built up here. But but now to to experience it fully is, you know, obviously I haven't experienced the full thing yet because it's just Tuesday. But, you know, it's it's exciting. I know, I was gonna say, Melanie, can you walk us through how this week is gonna go for you? I know play technically starts on Thursday, correct? Yes, ma'am. So what do the next few days look like for you practice wise? Do you try to take it easy? What is this like from your perspective? Yeah, for me, this will be my fourth week in a row, and I just came back from Japan. I landed at like 5:40 PM yesterday, so I actually do intend to go back to my house. I need to do some laundry, and I need to take a nap, and so I will do that today. Got some work done on my neck before this, but tomorrow I'll play the pro-am, 7:10, bright and early. And then I'll probably practice a little bit Wednesday before the start of Thursday. But yeah, no, nothing too crazy. Luckily, I have seen this golf course a few times, so it's not totally new to me. But yeah, no, nothing too crazy. We cannot skip over the fact that you just mentioned that you just got back from Japan. Tell us about your trip. 26 and a half hours of just pure joy. I love it. What were you doing over there? Golfing. Yeah. Yeah, it was Korea, Malaysia, Japan. And the tour was also before Korea, they were in China. So they had four weeks of our Asia swing. Wow, I mean, what was that? Have you ever been before in a tournament overseas like that? Overseas, yes. To Asia, no. Yeah. We had a swing over in Europe. We were in Canada, we were in Mexico, obviously throughout the US. But first, I guess I was in China at the very beginning of the year. My first golf tournament was in China for Blue Bay. But yeah, no, first time being over there for three weeks. It was a lot of fun. Very hospitable people took care of us. Tremendously with flights and accommodations and all that stuff. So even going to the airport, we had people, it was like, they were our mama hen and we were just the little ducks just going to the desk and getting our tickets, everything. They had everything planned out. If you got lost, it was your own fault. I mean, that's good, that's good to know that you have so much support in obviously a country that you're not really too familiar with. Melanie, last year, you were the Epson Tour Player of the Year. This year, you're an LPGA rookie. I guess my question to you is what has been the biggest adjustment and have you really had a moment where you thought, wow, I'm really here? Yeah, I mean, surely, biggest, Adjustment, everything is just bigger. I always try to give Epson very large kudos as our developmental tour, just because it is our best developmental tour that we have. I think that Epson does a really great job of trying to emulate the LPGA in everything Everything that they can, but you know. Epson and LPGA, I mean, everything is bigger here. Signage, people, staff, player ability, it's just everything is bigger, which is awesome. But definitely, you know. Puts you in a humble seat for sure. But I'm grateful to be out here. There's a lot of things that I will learn and definitely take with me next year. Thank you so much for being here. But yeah, no, it's definitely been a bit of a hectic year, but that's okay. Yeah, hectic, but fun, right? I can imagine. Melanie, have you had, I loved going out there myself last year and meeting Annika. What a special woman, incredible player. Have you been able to talk with her a lot? And has she given you any advice? Not a lot, but I played in one of her junior events in the AJGA, probably, I guess, man, Eight or ten years ago, and she did like a little chipping clinic. It was at the World Golf Hall of Fame in Florida. And I remember she was just. Talking to us about some chipping techniques and stuff like that and she kind of opened up the door for questions and I asked her some questions. I don't even remember what the question was. But it was about chipping and she chatted with me for a little bit. But yeah, no, very sweet lady, gives back, pours a lot of herself and her life into the game of golf, which is really cool. But yeah, no, she's definitely willing and able to talk to people, which I think is very kind of her. Melanie, I think one of the coolest things for me also when I was at Annika myself is seeing so many little girls and so many children watching players that they are just so enamored of, like yourself. If there is any young girl out there wanting to be like Melanie, what would your best advice for them be, especially this week? No, I hope that they don't be like me. I want them to be like them. But yeah, no, I always try to say do the thing that you're gifted in and work at it. And do it because you love it, not because everybody's forcing you to do it. But yeah, no, definitely work Work hard at whatever you feel like you're talented in and use it. Definitely, Melanie, before we let you go, I love that you're from here, I love that you're representing. I saw you hang out with the Rays not too long ago, I'm sure it was awesome to support them in the World Series. Anybody, Bulls, family, I'm sure you're gonna have a huge support system out there this week, huh? Yeah, parents are flying in today, best friend and teammate is gonna be on the bag. I'll have some. Some family friends come up from Naples and I'll have some family friends from Tampa come out. So I'll have a little bit of people here and there. As you said girl, Melanie Green, thank you so much for making time for us. Good luck this week. We are all rooting for you and I'm sure we'll talk to you again soon.