Thursday, Nov 12: The Nvidia Scandal

Good morning. Good morning. It's not a bad day out there. Your phone calls are welcome at 508-996-0500. A very enjoyable Veterans Day at the Military Museum. What a great group of all volunteers down at the museum. I can't stress it enough. You got to check it out. If you've never been there, There, you should go there. Absolutely fantastic place. Last night. And right before, I was watching a little television and about 7:30, all of a sudden I got a note. Carlos came up on my Facebook. He was heading out, Carlos Felix, New Bedford Live to go cover Shots Fired, Car Chase, all of that. And so what did I do? I put the scanner on it. I heard Tim before the crossover talking about the scanner apps. I have them. They're fantastic. They're a little delayed, as you would expect. But they're really a good a good tool to have. So they put it on and really sad, right? That this all went on and then the guy killed himself apparently. That's what I'm assuming. I think the most people are assuming that this gentleman who threw shots at the police, there was a young child in the car. I mean, it's a really sordid story. And As Mayor Mitchell points out, it's one of those stories that's made for Boston television, right? They love stories like that. Fits in with their vision of the area, their stereotype of the area. Sad. Look, the men and women of the New Bedford Police Department, highly trained, motivated professionals, acting with a lot of discipline and a lot of bravery. So you got to think about it. What it is to be a police officer. I mean, the day's going along, and all of a sudden, they're going 100 miles an hour, right? It's a car chase. People are firing bullets at them. Then guys on the SWAT team, and I use guys, you know, unisex. Thanks, Alex. Guys on the SWAT team doing whatever. Suddenly, they're deployed to the south end of New Bedford. They've got their long rifles, body armor. Let's think about the EMTs wearing the helmets down there. And again, I know all this. From watching the videos that Carlos Felix made of the of the scene. So I appreciate Carlos for that. And you see EMTs, they look like soldiers. They got flak vests on, bulletproof vests, Kevlar helmets in an urban environment. I mean, it's just nuts. It's nuts. World is dangerous. No doubt about it. Do any of you live in that area? What did you see? I kept hearing on the scanner, and again. I qualify this by saying just what Tim said, the scanner is a lot of people calling in and police communications back and forth, and none of it's been edited or filtered. But from my interpretation of the scanner traffic, it seemed like there was a lot of crowds developing, they were trying to push people back, they were staging a lot of vehicles. Real show of force and professional trained police officers and EMTs and fire trucks as well were involved. From what I understood on the scanner anyway. So it's another day in paradise, right? Another day in paradise. What kind of a person leaves a child? What kind of a person lobs bullets at the police knowing they're going to have to fire them back with a child in the car? So sounds like a mentally ill person. Certainly deranged in some capacity. You wonder what was going on and what initiated the traffic stop and all of that. That was last night in New Bedford. And we woke up to the news all over the television and all over the internet. And certainly here at WBSN. So 508-996-0500. Happy to hear your commentary on what took place in the city last night. And once again, we had the mayor in yesterday, gave an abbreviated version. Again, he had to be at the parade. He was talking about his ordinance for license plate readers that the city council, we're going to see what they're going to do with it. But guys, if you ever needed more information about how dangerous it is out there and why the police need tools like automatic license plate readers. Pull up the scanner so you can get the recordings of what was going on last night in the city of New Bedford. Adding another tool, a benign tool, like a license plate reader, automatic license plate reader, I think is the least public officials can do, elected officials can do, for the public and for the men and women who put on a badge and go to work every day. Whether they're in New Bedford or Fairhaven or Dartmouth or Rochester. In the 10 o'clock hour, we'll be joined by Rick Trapillo, Board of Selectmen here in Fairhaven. They've had some interesting developments. If you read, and I hope you do, the Fairhaven Neighborhood News, they had an article about it. And if you watch the videos, I watch them so you don't have to, of the public meetings in Fairhaven and New Bedford, I watch. You know that they had a convicted sex offender on a board. An appointed board, two of them actually, here in Fairhaven. And so when the board was made aware of it, they quickly moved to now start to do quarry investigations for people that get on the volunteer boards in the town government. So we'll talk with Rick Trapillo about that and the Fairhaven working. But the Budget Working Committee, which was his brain. Child, right? He came up with the idea, he ran on it, and they've implemented, and there's a lot of great people from all walks of life, but really experienced people, on the Fairhaven Budget Working Committee. That was Rick Trappello's idea, and he and the rest of the board brought it to fruition. They're doing a lot of incredible work for the town of Fairhaven as volunteers. And there's obviously some tension there as well. So we'll be talking with Rick Trappello about that in the 10 o'clock hour. Again, I know there was a lot of local fireworks, so to speak, yesterday in the south end of New Bedford. If there's any city councils that want to call in and comment on it, certainly happy to hear from you. But if the phone doesn't ring, I know it's you as well. The big story, international story, we've been talking about it here, is Jensen Huang, the CEO and founder of Nvidia, a multi-trillion dollar company. He has now resigned. Over the course of yesterday and the day before, we found out he'd been involved with an alleged female Chinese spy. He was cheating on his wife with a woman who I don't believe he knew was a Chinese spy But also. One of his direct reports in the company, NVIDIA, a woman, I found her attractive when I saw the pictures of her, but he was having an affair with, alleged having an affair with her as well. A Caucasian woman as opposed to an Asian woman who he's also alleged to be having an affair with, and she's alleged to be a Chinese spy. So why does it matter? That is one of the most important companies. In the world, for technology, they make computer chips that everybody wants. They go into missiles. They go into all kinds of national security and national defense systems, weapon systems. So they're controlled items. You just can't ship them to China, North Korea, Russia, Iran. But yet, they're finding out that maybe some of those chips were diverted. To rivals and enemies of the United States. So it's a huge story. And now we're learning right now that he's resigned from the board of, from the CEO of NVIDIA, one of the most important companies. So it's a really, a lot going on this morning, people, a lot going on, both locally and nationally. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be back. Taking your calls at 508-996-0500, whatever's on your mind. Do you feel the city is safe? Do you feel that you got nothing to worry about in the city of New Bedford, Fairhaven, the suburbs? How do you feel after what happened last night? We'll take a break. We'll be right back. South Coast Now with Chris McCarthy. Weekdays on 1420 AM and 99.5 FM. WBSM. Welcome back to the program. Good morning. It's Thursday morning. I want to thank the great Americans at South Coast Towing, Chris Medeiros, the owner, for getting me in this morning. They got a great program over there. God forbid you're in an accident, but it does happen. You got to prepare for it. Remember, they got a great after accident program that they do. They're very unique with that South Coast towing in. If you have the police, something happens, you need to have your car towed. Remember, you can leave it up to fate and the next in line list, or you could tell the police officer, I want to trust my car to South Coast Towing. You have that power as the car owner to say, I'd like South Coast Towing to take my vehicle away. After all, it's one of the most expensive things that you probably own. So always tell the police politely, I'd like South Coast Towing to handle my vehicle. Um, so guys, this. The Jensen Huang story is really, really a big, big story. Now, he's resigned, he's resigned, but there's a lot of facets to this. How much did he know, quite frankly? What did the US government know? And keep in mind, in espionage cases, we're not entitled to know much. We really aren't. Eventually, and there are legal issues here, because these chips, computer chips, The NVIDIA products are so sophisticated, there are federal controls on what can be exported and who they can be exported to. And NVIDIA has to have controls within their company to make sure that when they sell their products, they know who the end user is gonna be. So there are possible criminal penalties involved here. Also for the board. As these numbers are becoming available, they're talking about, it's a publicly traded company, so a lot of numbers are available already. But the amount of business that they were doing with certain Asian countries, at first glance, seems really impossible that they weren't also being diverted to a different end user, such as China, the Russians, Iranians. Or other groups like that for sophisticated missiles and weapon systems that would make it lethal to our soldiers. So this is an interview from yesterday against a fast-moving story. But there is a select committee on the threat posed by China to the United States. At one point, Jake Auchincloss, who represents Fall River and Freetown and Rehoboth and certainly Newton, Was on that committee because he was a Marine Corps officer before he got in the Congress. I've reached out to his staff, see if we can get him on at some point. So this is an interview on Fox Business with a member of that committee. House China Select Committee Chair John Molina joins me now. Congressman, you've asked Jensen Huang to testify before your committee. Has he said yes yet? Well, we've given him to the end of business today, and we expect that we've invited him to... Thank you, Mr. President. Was, you know, were they accessing information from NVIDIA, privileged information? Was the Ministry of State Security their intelligence operation? Did they have access to that? And then secondly, were they influencing national security policy for the American people? And those are two important questions, not to mention the supply of chips. NVIDIA has the most advanced chips. And were they limiting supplies to American companies based on their desire to supply Chinese entities? So these are major concerns and we want answers. Congressman Marco Rubio says he warned President Trump about Jensen Huang's relationship while they were on their way to China. Separately, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been briefed on the situation right before he signed off on Nvidia chips routed towards China. Is this becoming who knew what and when, and what did they do about it? There's politics here, isn't it? This is international politics involved. Well, it clearly, I mean, you think of NVIDIA chips, this is the crown jewel of technology for us to win the AI race, and China's our foremost competitor. So these are very serious concerns. We need to get to the bottom of it. I think Marco Rubio has done a great service by alerting the administration, as well as now the American people, to this situation. NVIDIA has lost a lot of credibility because they've been some of the main proponents of selling advanced chips to China and have influenced this debate. So we need to make sure that we're setting the right policies. Commerce needs to be in the business of enforcing export controls in investigating these situations. The good news here is that But in Congress, I believe there's a growing consensus that we need export control legislation within our National Defense Authorization Act. And there's some important legislation that we can put in and hopefully get done by the end of the year. Do you think anybody in the administration should be fired about this? I would say it's premature to, I haven't seen, what we've seen right now are reports in the media and unnamed sources. I think those questions need to be answered and there needs to be accountability. Got it. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. All right, so that was a clip from yesterday's Fox Business with the chairman of the China Select Committee, a Republican, all right? And- There's a lot of questions here about this Jensen Huang, his involvement, how much were the Chinese manipulating him? What did he know? When did he know it? But also, what did the U.S. government know? Now, again, if you really want to know that, it's going to take probably 20 years to find out really what the government knew and when it knew it, when eventually this story becomes a declassified story. But we might get a taste of it when. When they start to have hearings on this, guys, it reminds me, quite frankly, of what was going on in the 90s, if you'll remember back to then, with guys like Schwartz and the missile technology that was going to China, and how China had infiltrated a lot of US companies and the US government. We had what were alleged to be Chinese spies. Within the Commerce Department during the Clinton administration, they are always trying to penetrate our government. By the way, we spy on them as well, right? We spy on them as well. 508-996-0500. Whatever's on your mind, it's open phones, guys. Again, in the 10 o'clock hour, we'll be joined by Fairhaven selectman Rick Trapillo. Talk about everything going on in Fairhaven. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Hi, Chris. Good morning. Good morning. How are you, Skeddy? I am awesome. Thank you. Beautiful show yesterday. Just want to compliment you. Thank you. Really well run. Oh, my gosh. You, yeah. That was great. So this is a story that's just going to keep on giving and giving and giving. I love it, but I hate it. It's one of those things that's so juicy, you're like, wow, espionage, blah, blah, right? We all love to get our teeth on that. But at the same time, it's very disturbing because it's like, holy moly, our highest technology, China needs it. That's scary. They need what we've got. And this young man, and it's funny, thank you for playing that clip, too, by the way. I really enjoyed listening to that. Wow. So my question is, yeah, how long had everybody known? Now, listen, Marco Rubio, he had given a letter like eight months ago about this. From what I understand, at least eight months ago. Maybe even a year. That's what I'm, my understanding too, yeah. Yeah, and it was just left out of the desk. And now all of a sudden it comes to light. And I'm like, why is all of a sudden it comes to light? Because the elections are over? I don't know. But it's like, are you kidding me? Like, now you want to start talking about this? So to me, I'm saying if he knew that. Obviously, a lot of people, somebody, a lot of somebody had to have known about this. Heads are definitely going to roll. There's no doubt heads will roll for this. But now the other girl, I heard about the other girl. I did not know she was Caucasian. Had no idea that she was actually within the company itself. Yep. She headed up the healthcare division. Yeah. Did not know. I knew about her, but I didn't know of her. Sure. So, So I'm just so curious as to, how in the world did everybody know this? And where is this Asian woman? Is she locked up? Well, see, she was the CEO of a separate company who was one of the largest purchasers of these high tech Nvidia chips. Mm-hmm. And what they believe is that she was diverting them to the Chinese government. So she would buy, these are round numbers, she would buy 100,000 chips, but she really only needed 20,000, because 80,000 of them were going to the Chinese. Yeah. Right, that's what they were doing, because she was on the list that she could buy the chips, but she was supposed to hold on to them. She wasn't supposed to divert them, but they believed she was diverting them. So is she in the prison? Is she locked up in the Pentagon? That's interesting. Nobody said, where is she? Yeah, that's interesting, I don't know. Yeah, and this Caucasian now that is totally exposed, where is she? I mean, she's gotta be, I would like to think they're both at the Pentagon. Well, no, I don't think that the woman who worked for NVIDIA and was the healthcare executive for them, head up the healthcare division. I don't think she's suspected of doing anything wrong other than just violating company policy with her boss. An affair, right? I don't know. There might be something there, they were saying. Oh, no, it's entirely possible. Yeah, it's all interesting, very interesting. And this story, it's going to make a movie, no doubt. Quentin Tarantino. Yeah, Quentin Tarantino. Yeah, I can see him making, he's a great movie maker. He doesn't make a movie very often anymore, but I can see him making a really good movie out of this. But yeah, like you said, it's something we're going to hear about for the next 20 years. No doubt. But I want to talk real quick about the cameras, the license plate readers. Yeah, go ahead. From what happened, that young man obviously having possession of a gun, he's definitely has a mental illness to take his own life when you obviously very rash, very rash decision to do and very scared of what? What was he so afraid of that he had to, you know, shoot his brains out Who's your ward councillor Leo Choquet? Okay. Ward one. Yeah. Ward one, everybody. So, with the mayor, though, negotiated a deal with where he's not going to use the Fox cameras, but we still will have some type of- You know, camera reader, and I say to the mayor, go for it. Absolutely. And any city board councilor that doesn't want this, say we're new. Because last night's a perfect example. There's a baby in that car. Now, had he taken off on the expressway, we wouldn't know. We'd be like, what? There's no block cameras. There's no license plate readers. We can't follow him. You know, ring cams aren't everywhere. Ring cams are not on three-story apartment buildings. Right. Ciao. You know, wake up and I'm very disappointed. I think this might be a deal breaker for me. I think for a lot of people, it's a deal breaker. Yeah. But look, the final vote hasn't been cast. So don't condemn Leo Choquet yet. He's going along with the Shane Denistas in the defund the police. But he's a man who can be reasoned with. So I would try to talk to him. You know him. Yeah, I know. I think he's wonderful. I've got nothing but things to say about Leo, but I can say that I'm highly disappointed. Disappointment, you know, comes from a whole different level of liking somebody. It does. It really does. Yeah. It's like, what? I thought more, like I thought more of you and like, come on, get it together. But it's, you know, whatever his reason is and like I said, I... I think he's great. He's a wonderful human being, very hardworking at his job and everything else. But everything's fine there. But when it comes to this, this is what I'm going to try to learn. All I want this. I want this for the police department. They need it. How did this man even get this gun? This is why we need this in the city, everybody. right. Thank you so much, Scotty. I do appreciate it. Yeah, look, I think a lot of people need to reach out to their ward counselors, to their at-large counselors. This is a great example of why you need the very benign technology, automatic license plate readers. It shows exactly why you need them. So you got to reach out to James Roy. Shane Burgo, that's a lost cause, I think, but maybe not. Maybe not. Certainly reach out to Ryan Pereira, reach out to Leo Schochetti, Ian Abreu. The three that are solid on this issue, Sean Oliver, Brian Gomes, Naomi Carney, they're all in favor of not defunding the New Bedford Police. All right, let's go back to the phones. Good morning, thanks for holding. Hey, good morning, Chris. How's it going? Good, how you doing? Hey, previous caller brought up very important questions. Where is she? Where is she, Chris? And another very important question. This has been going on since 2024. Are you sure they just found out about this now? Or what did the US government want Mr. Huang to do that he refused to do? So instead, they blackmailed him with this. And they were like, we're going to ruin your life. What did the U.S. government want him to do? These are real questions that should be asked because this affair has been going on since June of 2024. You're trying to say it took him two years to figure out what was going on? Impossible. So you're saying that the U.S. government potentially applied pressure to Jensen Wong and he wouldn't do whatever they wanted so they exposed him? 100%, which was probably we want to monopolize the microchips because as you know, that company, look at the stock prices, look at the need for the microchips that they manufacture. It's the number one market. So what did they want this guy to do that he refused to do? And why did they ruin his life in order to put people in position that were going to go along with the go along? That's what people should be asking. But that'll be an impasse. Thanks for the question. Thanks for the call. It's really just another layer to the questions that are out there about this. Jensen Wong, what was going on? Who knew what and when did they know it? We're going to take a break and then we'll be right back. Stick around. Back to Chris McCarthy and South Coast now on WBSM. Call 508-996-0500. Welcome back to the program. We're talking about whatever's on your mind, but this NVIDIA story with the director, the founder of the company and the CEO has now resigned. It's a real personal tragedy, obviously, and it could be a major national security problem, likely is. Having problems in life, it happens, certainly with technology. Even like your automobile can give you problems. And as the seasons change, you need to update your automobile as well. I recommend you make an appointment today with Mac Auto Sales. Mac Auto Sales, a family-owned business right in the city of New Bedford. It's a brother and sister that own it. And, um... They repair all makes and models of automobiles, including the car you're driving right now, if you'll let them. All you got to do is make an appointment. They're happy to work with you. Call Mac Auto Sales and Repair today at 508-565-6221. They're open weekdays, 9 to 5, for your convenience. You have a foreign car that's perfect. Mac Auto Sales specializes in servicing foreign-made automobiles. They do a wonderful job with American-made as well. And they will winterize your automobile. Again, all you got to do is raise your hand and ask them to do it. Make an appointment today. Mention WBSM. They'll give you a healthy break on the repair bill. Ask about their aftermarket accessories. Take a drive by 188 Rivet Street, check out all the quality used cars for sale at Mac Auto Sales. So this story, and you're going to be hearing a lot more about it as it continues to unfold. Many of you own NVIDIA stock. It lost billions in market share, market value yesterday, billions. And now that he's resigned, I don't know where the free fall ends. They create crucial chips, but I don't know how much of the company required Jensen Huang, his abilities and his management style to develop. So how crucial he is, is yet to be seen. But here's more news about it. Board of Directors, they met last night to plan to remove CEO Jensen Huang from his position. I mean, not terribly surprising. Yes, yeah. This comes after he admitted to having an affair with a woman believed to be a Chinese spy. And the New York Times now reported he allegedly had an affair with an NVIDIA executive who reported to him. Scripps News Group Chief Washington Correspondent Joe St. George right now live from D.C. And Joe, Congress is reportedly preparing to subpoena the CEO. Isn't that right? This is a tech story. This is a Wall Street story. This is a political story. Guys, Jensen Huang isn't just one of the most powerful executives on the planet. He isn't just the leader and founder of one of the most valuable companies in the world. He's also a close confidant of President Trump. He's advised the president formally and informally on tech policy, AI policy, computer chip policy. Over the years, a lot of these allegations read like a movie plot, Doesn't it? And members of Congress They want answers. Republican members of Congress have said perhaps it's better if Jensen Huang comes in and talks to them before a subpoena gets issued. There are calls for the Trump administration to provide a classified briefing to members of Congress on any state secrets shared. Did China. Get anything valuable out of this alleged affair between Jensen Huang and this and this Chinese spy. One cabinet secretary to keep an eye on is Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, who has great control over what acts, what computer chips China gets access to, doesn't get access to. What did NVIDIA get do as a direct result of this? Again, these are questions, not answers. But it is a story that is not going away. As you guys said, we're waiting to see if he's staying with NVIDIA. This isn't just any old executive leading a company. I mean, he built this company. NVIDIA is Jensen Huang in so many ways. And so many 401ks and pension plans and retirement accounts have NVIDIA stock in it, guys. This is a big economic story, too. Absolutely. All right, Joe, thanks so much for that. Again, yeah. All right, so there's a lot of news out there about this story. And as that gentleman pointed out, what I tried to point out is many of you own this stock. You may not realize it because your pension plan or your 401k, your mutual funds have it in there. It's a horrible story, but it points out certain corporate executives have to be very careful. All government officials have to be careful. The Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, the Israelis, the British, the French, they spy on us, we spy on them, and people in government have to be careful. If you look at Cuomo in New York, Feinstein in California, they had Chinese spies around them. It happens, and so you got to be very careful about who you elect and make sure that they, to the degree that you're capable, Of knowing this, have the sort of discipline and the worldliness to recognize they are targets as well. Because even at a lower level, the Chinese and the Russians, the Israelis, the English, the French, they recognize that in American politics, you could be a city councilor today and a congressman in a year from now. You could be a mayor and then a US senator. You could be the governor. Then you could be the governor, then the president. So they look to get people around them when they're less suspicious, right? You know what you want for Christmas? You want an open bar party. So do your employees, all right? This year, give your employees and your best customers exactly what they want. They want an open bar party for Christmas and the holidays. So throw them one. Throw them a company holiday party at Rose Alley Alehouse. All you got to do is talk to Riley. Tell her you want an open bar party this Christmas for the holidays at Rose Alley Alehouse in downtown New Bedford. Go down there, set up the party, have a great party, watch your employees kiss each other and make all kinds of mistakes, except they'll Uber them home, all right? There'll be an Uber ride from Rose Alley Ale House. So nothing to worry about except what you have to do with HR later on. But throw your employees an open bar party this year at Rose Alley Ale House. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Yeah, good morning. Good morning. I've seen the caravan of illegals heading up here. I did see them, yeah. It reminded me of the Biden era. The border is not open yet, you know. Right. Trump is still in office and we still have a closed border. It's going to happen when they hit the border here. I kind of blame Mexico in a way because Mexico was letting them through. Of course, you've got to absolutely blame the left-wing government of Mexico, totally. Yeah. And so the border is closed, so they're going to stay right in Mexico. But there might be some trouble on the border. I would imagine what's going to happen is they'll set up Palestinian-like camps on the border. And it'll be nothing but regular news reports and people going to the border, encouraging them to stay. It's going to create a lot of problems on that southern border and for northern Mexico as well. Well, you know, you see how it is like these coyotes right away. The Republicans didn't do good in the election, so the way they... It's going to be chaos, I will tell you that. And when they saw the wins by the Democrats, the open border crowd, they started moving north. It's no surprise, right? Next stop, New Bedford. Next stop, Fairhaven. Dartmouth. Think of where all the... Refugee camps, the Healy hotels were. She's still the governor. You guys gave her four more years. Stick around. Welcome back to the program. You know, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we here at WBSM want to help local families celebrate together with our Hunger Heroes food drop. It's very easy. We've been doing it for 34 years, helping local families with the United Way Hunger Heroes project. It's very easy. Join us at Aldi in Dartmouth on Saturday, November 14th from 10 a.m. to noon. To donate the necessary Thanksgiving items, you can find all the details at WBSM. Give as little or as much as you want and can afford to do. Hunger Heroes Food Drop is made possible by our friends, those great Americans, at Carefree Homes here in Fairhaven and Aaron Pools and Spas. Great companies looking to help out the most American of holidays, right? Thanksgiving. So it's going to be a tough year for some people, but you can make it a little easier. Join us at all these on Saturday. November 14th from 10 a.m. to noon. Check out wbsm.com for the list of items that we're looking for. It's a little bit specific, can't be perishable stuff, but all the details are at wbsm.com. We're going to have the local news, the national news, what we've got on the shooting in the South End, that whole fiasco that went on last night in the late evening. All of it.