Steve Marshall joins the Brandon and Christopher Show Podcast

MONTGOMERY, AL – Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) recently joined the Brandon and Christopher Show podcast to discuss his campaign for U.S. Senate.

Marshall was appointed Attorney General in 2017 by then Governor Robert Bentley (R) after two decades as the Marshall County District Attorney. Marshall was elected to his own term in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. Marshall is term limited from running for AG again.

"It's one of the most fascinating jobs I think that you can have and it's been a remarkable blessing for me for the last eight and a half years," Marshall said.

"I think maybe the most impactful, particularly just on the civil side, was the opioid cases in which we've been able to recover. almost three quarters of a billion dollars for the state of Alabama," said Marshall. "That case was personal to me. partly as a result of what I saw as a prosecutor, but also even the struggles that family members had with regard to opioids. And so the fact that we were able to deliver that um has something that I'll always remember."

"Conversely, I've been a prosecutor now for gosh almost 30 years. And I may be the first attorney general in a long time to actually try a criminal case," said Marshall, "A couple of years ago, I went down to Ozark. It was a 24-year-old cold case murder with two 17-year-old girls that were shot and killed, found in the trunk of a car. One of them was raped I went down along with a local prosecutor McMassie and Jimmy Thomas from my office and we were able to try that case to a conviction. So it was a special privilege to be able to be a voice for JB Beasley and Tracy Hawlet who were the two victims."

On July 31, 1999, Beasley and Hawlett left home to celebrate Beasley's birthday. They became lost near Ozark, Alabama, and called home to say they were heading back. They never made it back. Instead, the next day, their bodies were discovered in the trunk of Beasley's black Mazda. Both girls had been shot once in the head. Beasley showed signs of sexual assault, and DNA was recovered-but no match was found at the time. The case remained cold until 2018, when Ozark police partnered with Parabon NanoLabs, a company specializing in genetic genealogy. Using advanced DNA analysis, they identified Coley McCraney, a truck driver and preacher who lived near the crime scene. McCraney claimed the sex with Beasley was consensual and that he pleaded not guilty to the girls' murders. After years of legal proceedings, McCraney was found guilty on all charges in April 2023 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. His appeal for a new trial was denied in July 2023.

As AG Marshall has had to defend the state of Alabama against law suits by the Biden administration. Nowhere was that more challenging than defending Alabama's ban against medically transitioning children to the opposite gender.

"It was game on and we said we're ready for the fight," Marshall said. "When Alabama passed it if you recall we were only the third state. Arkansas had been the initial state to be able to do it and I don't remember who was second but we were right there behind them. I give a awful lot of credit to now Secretary (Wes) Allen for helping lead that charge in the legislature. I do think that Alabama was on the cutting edge of being able to protect kids from something that we now know has been experimental treatment not only in the United States but around the world."

Marshall said that in the early stages the leftists were winning these cases because they claimed that the science was behind them, but that proved not to be the case.

"There's this organization called WPath, which established standards of care to be able to deal with gender dysphoria," Marshall explained. "They say that testosterone for girls is an appropriate way to address this mental health issue. That you know boys taking puberty blockers is an appropriate way to deal with it. And even WPath would have allowed for uh surgery. So that scalpels to kids' bodies to be able to change their body was a way to be able to address this particular question. And they had advocates who were able to come down and try to tell the judge that this was the right way to approach it. Initially these cases were getting enjoined because judges weren't sure of really what was going on."

"I think Alabama made the most difference across the country," said Marshall. "Unlike some other states, we said we're going to dive in head first and we're going to get into the underbelly of what was going on here. What was at least known to us at the time was the fact that Europe, which is where this really began, was pulling away from this because they began to see that the research didn't support what the advocates were saying were the positive results that were occurring from what they were doing to kids. We had the ability through discovery to be able to find out that in fact the WPATH doctors that were a part of developing these standards of care acknowledged number one we can't do informed consent which is a bedrock of medicine. Right? If you're going to have some treatment done to you, you ought to understand the risks that are associated with it."

"How in the world do you explain this to a 12year-old?" said Marshall. "We learned that part of that narrative to parents was that they were sharing that look, your child's going to be at greater risk of suicide if you don't do it. And now we found out that in fact that was false. And then we were able to see where the Biden administration, specifically through Rachel Lavine, was attempting to intervene with WPATH, which should be immune from outside influences and should be focused on what the science is telling them. You had Rachel Lavine saying, 'Hey, you got to remove age restrictions on these surgeries to kids because if you don't, it hurts our transgender political agenda.' Absolutely insane effort by the Biden administration for political reasons to allow kids to be subject to this cruelty. And so I was glad to be able to have the opportunity for Alabama to really expose this medical, legal, and ethical fraud that maybe we haven't seen in an awful long time in the medical community."

Marshall said that he supports the decision by the Trump administration to use National Guard troops to restore order in the District of Columbia and compared it to action that he and ALEA took in the City of Montgomery.

"Kudos to President Trump for stepping up," said Marshall. "I think more than anything else, what the presence of the National Guard has done is to be able to back up those women and men in DC that have pledged to protect and serve through their police department. They got backup and they've got support. And I'll equate that a little bit to what we've been doing in Montgomery. If you recall, the violent crime statistics in Montgomery were just at unacceptable levels. We along with ALEA and our local sheriff here heard the request from those in the community to say number one, we don't feel safe in our homes. We don't feel safe in our communities. And that's a fundamental right. That's not a red or a blue issue. That's just basic human dignity and respect to be able to believe that you ought to be able to live in safe places. And so we put together what we refer to as MACS, the Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit that supplemented the work that was going on here in Montgomery along with Montgomery PD."

"In 162 days - I was sharing this data yesterday with law enforcement - they made almost 450 arrests, served almost a thousand outstanding warrants for folks that were already subject to being arrested," said Marshall. "I think 80 plus different types of drugs were seized. Um, lots of illegal drugs and, Glock switches taken off the streets. I think lives were saved. And one of the things that struck me and the reason I tell you that story is I had a a Montgomery police officer stopped me when I was at a convenient store getting some gas and he was sharing with me a story that things that pleased him the most was that he was on a stop and it was during the middle of the night and he turned around he had backup and it was backup from the members of that MACS unit that were there to be able to support him. I would guarantee you that if you were to talk to some of those police officers in Washington DC, they would tell you the same thing: that that it matters to be able to make that community safe."

Currently, the U.S. national debt stands at approximately $37.28 trillion. That includes: $29.9 trillion in debt held by the public (e.g., investors, foreign governments, mutual funds) and $7.38 trillion in intragovernmental holdings (e.g., Social Security and other trust funds). We asked Marshall how he thinks we should address the looming debt crisis.

"I do think that getting this nation's fiscal house in order is priority number one," said Marshall. "Not only because of what we need to do to preserve the legacy of this country for our grandchildren, great grandchildren and beyond, but it's a national security issue."

"I think we have to get back to this idea of what is the limited role of the federal government," said Marshall. "Obviously, national security, foreign affairs. We're doing that. Immigration and what's going on to make sure that we have a secure border and a strong immigration policy. But our founders, and look, we're coming up on the 250th anniversary, the Declaration of Independence. And maybe it's a great time to go back and investigate again. What do we believe the federal government should do? And then how it is that we fund the programs that are a part of those core services. I absolutely support what President Trump's trying to do to remove the Department of Education. Let's make sure that we're diving in through Congress and executive action to figure out agencies that are unnecessary or that need to be reduced."

Marshall said that as a Senator he would work to, "Figure out do we have duplication do we have waste do we have fraud in the system that we can somehow another try to deal with and so I think within the idea of dealing with our deficit is to truly evaluate what agencies we need and what are they doing and are we doing it efficiently. And then look, we have to deal with the entitlement programs. We got to decide how it is that we're going to preserve the promises that we've made to Americans that are a part of these systems, but also preserve the ability for these to have value in the future. And that's going to be some hard decisions that have to be made, and there's an awful lot of work that's got to be done" "Getting back to pre-COVID spending right now would be a huge step in the right direction,"

Marshall said that he was not in favor of a national abortion ban because it undermines the concept of federalism that he has fought for at the state level.

"I am a pro-life candidate," said Marshall. "We have made sure that Alabama was the first state following the DOS decision to be able to enforce our law and to remove the injunction that uh Judge Thompson created, but I think we have to be very careful when we try to federalize those decisions, uh, because they can not only in some ways right now potentially be in our favor, but also could directly impact the ability of Alabama to chart the course for itself."

Marshall was asked about the situation in Europe where Russia poses a dire threat at the same time that there is growing fear of China attacking our allies in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

"President Trump was able to get the European nations to step up and do their part," said Marshall. "I think other nations got to quit looking at the United States to be able to be the funder and defender of safety around the world. And look, we've gone way too far with regard to the amount of money that we spend in Ukraine. We continue to see how many resources have been misused that were sent there supposedly to be able to defend that country against what's going on with Russia. But I'm glad we have a strong leader in the White House right now that not only is trying to draw peace between those two nations in a way that gives safety and security to Europe, but also making it abundantly clear that while the United States will continue to stand strong and push back against those threats to the United States, the other countries need to be able to stand up and defend their own threats as well."

Marshall was asked how we field a navy to compete with China – the largest navy in the world.

"I think we have to continue to support the initiatives of the president to create manufacturing jobs here in the United States," said Marshall. "We're excited that in the port of Mobile that Alabama in fact has the ability through all to be able to help in that process."

Marshall expressed optimism about where his campaign currently sits

"We're gosh, what, eight weeks into a campaign and I think we have been to every tip of the state of Alabama already and excited about kind of where we are," said Marshall. "Polling is start off good. It just means we start in a good spot. there are formidable candidates that are out there running and Alabama's gonna have an opportunity to develop a vision for what it wants from its next senator and hoping that we can share what not only they've seen from me as attorney general as somebody that's been able to take on the tough issues and to get the really good results for the state. but they see that we're willing to fight for the principles that mean something to the people of Alabama and we'll give people of Alabama an opportunity to be able to do that now in the United States Senate."ando

Marshall faces a tough primary field the includes cattleman and businessman Rodney Walker, former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson, and Congressman Barry Moore (R-CD1).

The Republican primary is on May 19.

The Brandon and Christopher Show is cohosted by Alabama Gazette lead reporter and content manager Brandon Moseley and Alabama Political Contributor publisher Christopher Peeks.

To comment or ask a question email brandonmreporter@gmail.com