Donald Trump attends college football game between South Carolina and Clemson as the former US President gets a loud ovation from fans at Williams-Brice Stadium
Trump could be seen waving to the crowd before the Palmetto State matchup
He has made regular pilgrimages to college football games in recent years
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Donald Trump received a warm welcome from fans in South Carolina as he took his seat at Williams-Brice Stadium for the school’s rivalry football matchup with Clemson.
The 5-6 Gamecocks are hosting the 7-4 Tigers in the conservative-leaning state that former US President Trump won in both 2016 and 2020. But while the bulk of voters in South Carolina are Republicans, USC happens to be in Richland county, which overwhelmingly voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
However, the fans in attendance at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night still appeared pleased to see him, with footage on social media showing Trump earning cheers as he takes his seat in the stands.
The 77-year-old can be seen waving to the crowd before the Palmetto State rivalry game, where he is hoping to upstage his Republican opponent Nikki Haley on her home turf.
Trump has made regular pilgrimages to college football games in recent years, attending an Iowa State game in September as well as several other SEC matchups, national championship games and Army-Navy battles during his only term in office.
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Donald Trump attended South Carolina’s rivalry matchup with Clemson on Saturday night
The 5-6 Gamecocks are hosting the 7-4 Tigers in the conservative-leaning state that former US President Trump won in both 2016 and 2020
The former US President received a warm welcome in South Carolina – the conservative-leaning state that he won in both 2016 and 2020
As tens of thousands of Gamecock and Tiger fans gathered around the stadium on Saturday afternoon, more than a half-dozen electronic billboards around the capital city of Columbia boasted a message noting his 2020 election loss and his pending legal cases. ‘You lost. You’re guilty. Welcome to Columbia, Donald.’
Some vendors around the venue, meanwhile, hawked Trump-related merchandise, including ‘Trump 2020’ flags, from the previous election cycle.
Trump comes from New York, an area known to prefer the NFL, and did not attend a college football powerhouse (his alma mater, Penn, is in sixth place in the Ivy League at 3-4).
However, he has embraced college football crowds in the South and Midwest, where he’s traditionally been received very well
And recently, the presumptive Republican candidate for 2024 got a standing ovation at UFC 295 in New York, where he appeared next to promoter Dana White, conservative media personality Tucker Calrson, and musician Kid Rock.
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Donald Trump attends college football game between South Carolina and Clemson as the former US President gets a loud ovation from fans at Williams-Brice Stadium
DURHAM, N.C. – A strong two-way effort helped Gamecock volleyball end the opening weekend of the season with a win, taking down Duke (1-2) in four sets to cap the three-day tournament in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Riley Whitesides led the offense with a career-high 23 kills and the defensive duo of Victoria Harris and Elizabeth McElveen combined for 40 digs to key the team.
1st SET: The Gamecocks (2-1) took the opening game by a 25-18 score, a credit to clean play on offense and defense. The offense committed just two errors over 37 attacks and finished with 15 kills, led by Riley Whitesides’ six. Duke trailed 15-8 at the first break of the set, but rallied to score a 5-1 run out of the break and would cut the deficit back to one point, 17-16, before South Carolina pulled away for good. The Gamecocks scored a 5-1 run of their own out of their called timeout, aided by kills from Whitesides, Alayna Johnson and Ellie Ruprich, along with two service errors from Duke. Errors behind the service line would be the key for the entire set, as the Blue Devils committed four compared to zero for Carolina, negating almost identical offensive numbers for the two sides.
2nd SET: The home side jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the second and were able to hold the Gamecocks off late to take a 28-26 decision that evened the match. South Carolina was able to tie the score at 9-9 but was never able to push ahead. Duke set up set point with a kill to make it 24-21, but Whitesides would not let her side go quietly. She strung together a kill, a block and a kill in successive points to tie the score at 24-all. The Blue Devils had set-point chances at 25-24 and 26-25 that were also denied, but final were able to close out a must-win game for them. Duke was able to terminate on offense in the win, scoring 23 of its 28 points off kills, compared to just 14 for South Carolina.
3rd SET: The Gamecock defense answered the call after Duke’s strong offensive showing in the third, Oby Anadi had her strongest set of the afternoon and energized the team in a 25-18 win. The key run came midway through the set, when South Carolina broke out of a 14-all tie with four unanswered points, including a pair of kills from Alayna Johnson. The trio of Whitesides, Anadi and Johnson accounted for all 13 of the team’s kills, and Anadi sparked the defense with a pair of loud solo blocks. Behind her, Harris and McElveen totaled 18 of the team’s 23 digs to help hold Duke to a team hitting percentage of .045 and just 10 kills. To put it into perspective, McElveen’s 11 digs in set three was almost as many as she had over 31 sets as a freshman in 2023.
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4th SET: South Carolina closed out the win with a 25-21 win in the fourth. There were eight ties in the first 20 points of the set, but a 4-0 run for the Gamecocks broke an 8-8 tie and the team never looked back. The defense held Duke’s offense to under .200 again for hitting percentage, while the combination of Johnson and Whitesides carried the load with 23 of the team’s 37 total attacks and nine kills.
NOTABLE
Riley Whitesides matched her career high for kills, set previously over five sets against Florida on 11/12/20. It is her third career 20-kill game.
Victoria Harris led the defense with 23 digs, the most by a Gamecock freshman since Taylr McNeil on Sept. 6, 2014 (23 vs. Furman)
Elizabeth McElveen shattered her career high for digs, popping up 17 in the win. Her previous high was seven, against Kansas in the season opener. McElveen had 13 digs total in her freshman season (31 sets).
Sarah Jordan enjoyed her best game of the weekend, passing out 46 assists and adding 14 digs, one block, two kills and a service ace.
After allowing 23 kills to Duke in the second set alone, South Carolina’s defense limited the Blue Devils to just 25 kills combined in the final two sets.
Efficiency behind the service line was a key stat on Sunday; both teams had just one service ace but Duke committed 10 more errors (13-3).
This is South Carolina’s fourth win all-time at Duke, in a series spanning 19 games and 46 years.
QUOTABLE: TOM MENDOZA Reflecting on the opening weekend “We’ve played well at home so to be able to go back to the CVC 2-1, we’re excited to be home. We knew going into this weekend, three wins would be a dream. We were capable of it, but it would be the dream scenario, 2-1 would still be great because of the strength of the four teams that were here. Long term, it’s two good resume wins as we try to build the case for postseason and try to build that season-long resume, but short term for our team to be able to draw upon these and know we’re good enough to beat good teams.
I don’t think we were perfect, but we were good enough on two of the three days and that’s a good thing for us to build on and gives our team confidence. Starting from Friday to today, we thought we were more and more confident that we were going to come up out on the positive end of tight sets and tight matches and that’s invaluable as you go through the season.”
On the team’s defense making adjustments in-game “The defense was awesome. Until you play other teams it’s hard to know how good your defense is and that was a really pleasant surprise. Not that I didn’t think our players were capable of it, but to see the plays that they were making consistently is what you want to give yourself a chance to win. The fact that we could match teams, especially as scrappy as Duke, is a great thing to be able to draw upon as we go through the season.”
UP NEXT: The team returns home and will host matches next weekend, welcoming Temple and North Carolina to the Carolina Volleyball Center. The Gamecocks open against the Owls at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6 and then end the weekend with a 2 p.m. match against the Tar Heels on Sunday, Sept. 8. South Carolina last played Temple in August of 2012, and Sunday’s game will be the first time North Carolina has visited Columbia since 2004. Both matches will air on the SEC Network+.
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An Orangeburg, South Carolina, man has been charged with murder after the remains of a former roommate was found buried under a fire pit in the backyard of his home, according to police.
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The Myrtle Beach Police Department said 54-year-old Sheridan Dirk Fogle of Orangeburg was arrested on Thursday and charged with the murder of 51-year-old Penni Whiteside.
The U.S. Marshals Service and Orangeburg Department of Public Safety assisted police by executing an arrest warrant at Fogle’s home on Broughton Street at about 7:30 a.m. that day in connection to a missing person and murder case that was launched on May 11, 2022.
“On June 12 in the 600 block of 1st Avenue in Myrtle Beach the remains of Penni Whiteside were located buried in the yard outside of her home,” the Horry County Coroner’s office said. “Ms. Whiteside was last seen in the spring of 2022 — she was 51 years old at that time. This death is being investigated by MBPD as a homicide.”
SOUTH CAROLINA POLICE FIND BODY OF MASSACHUSETTS MAN WHO VANISHED FROM HILTON HEAD FAMILY VACATION
Sheridan Dirk Fogle is charged with the murder of Penni Whiteside, who went missing in May 2022.(Horry County Jail)
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Whiteside and Fogle lived together in 2022, according to police, and an investigation found that statements made by neighbors suggested the victim may have been buried in the backyard of her home under a fire pit.
MASSACHUSETTS MAN’S MYSTERIOUS SOUTH CAROLINA DEATH ON HILTON HEAD VACATION SHAKES FAMILY: ‘UNIMAGINABLE LOSS’
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the property in the 600 block of 1st Avenue South in Myrtle Beach on June 12, 2024.
During the search of the property, investigators located human remains later identified as those of Whiteside.
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“This is a tragic loss of life and a senseless crime of violence,” Myrtle Beach police said in a Facebook post. “Please continue to pray for the family and friends of the victim.”
For the second time in less than a week, an earthquake hit South Carolina.
A 2.1 magnitude earthquake was recorded Sunday morning in McCormick County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Not only was it South Carolina’s second confirmed earthquake in a six day span, it also was recorded near the same part of the Palmetto State where the previous quake occurred.
Sunday’s earthquake was confirmed at 2:53 a.m. near Jackson, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said.
The earthquake happened about half 3.5 miles beneath the surface, according to the USGS.
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This was the 12th confirmed earthquake this year in South Carolina, after 28 quakes were recorded in 2023, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
The last time seismic activity was recorded in South Carolina was on Aug. 26, when tremors were recorded as a 1.9 magnitude earthquake hit in the Jackson area of Aiken County, state Department of Natural Resources data shows.
This was the first earthquake recorded in McCormick County since May 25, 2019, and it’s only the third time since 2006 that seismic activity has been confirmed there, according to the USGS.
History of earthquakes in SC
It has been uncommon for earthquakes to hit outside of the Midlands area of the Palmetto State, specifically beyond Kershaw County, where 62 earthquakes have been confirmed since the end of June 2022, according to the South Carolina DNR.
That’s also where South Carolina’s most powerful recent earthquakes were recorded on June 29, 2022.
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On that day, two earthquakes — one a 3.5 magnitude and the other 3.6 — were included in a flurry of tremors and aftershocks. Those were the two largest quakes to hit South Carolina in nearly a decade. A 4.1-magnitude quake struck McCormick County in 2014.
Anyone who felt tremors and shaking or heard rumbling from Sunday morning’s earthquake can report it to the USGS.
The South Carolina Emergency Management Division map of fault lines in the Palmetto State where there has been a swarm of earthquakes.
The most recent earthquake means at least 116 have been detected in the Palmetto State since the start of 2022, according to South Carolina DNR. All but 13 of the quakes have been in the Midlands.
In all, 108 earthquakes have hit the Columbia area since a 3.3-magnitude quake was recorded Dec. 27, 2021, according to the DNR.
No major damage or injuries have been reported from any of the recent quakes.
Earthquakes that register 2.5 magnitude or less often go unnoticed and are usually recorded only by a seismograph, according to Michigan Technological University. Any quake less than 5.5 magnitude is not likely to cause significant damage, the school said.
It had been typical for South Carolina to have between six and 10 earthquakes a year, the S.C. Geological Survey previously reported. There have been 130 earthquakes in South Carolina since Jan. 18, 2021, according to DNR.
During a 2022 town hall to address the earthquakes, state geologist Scott Howard said as many as 200 smaller tremors might have gone unnoticed and unrecorded.
Why the increase in earthquakes?
An explanation for the outburst has eluded scientists.
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Some experts have theorized there’s a link between the Wateree River and the earthquakes northeast of Columbia. They said the combination of a single moderate earthquake in December 2022 and high water levels in the Wateree River during parts of 2022 and 2023 have contributed to the earthquakes.
But no one has settled on the single cause for the Midlands’ shaking.
Elgin, about 20 miles northeast of Columbia and situated on a fault line, experienced an unusual earthquake “swarm,” leaving some residents feeling uneasy.
The series of quakes might be the longest period of earthquake activity in the state’s history, officials said. But they don’t believe the spate of minor earthquakes is an indicator that a bigger quake could be on the way.
“Though the frequency of these minor earthquakes may alarm some, we do not expect a significantly damaging earthquake in South Carolina at this time, even though we know our state had them decades ago,” South Carolina EMD Director Kim Stenson previously said in a news release.
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“Now is the time to review your insurance policies for earthquake coverage, secure any items in your home that may become hazards during a tremor and remember to drop, cover and hold on until the shaking passes. These are the precautions South Carolinians can take to properly prepare for earthquakes.”
The strongest earthquake ever recorded in South Carolina — and on the East Coast of the United States — was a devastating 7.3 in Charleston in 1886.
That quake killed 60 people and was felt over 2.5 million square miles, from Cuba to New York and Bermuda to the Mississippi River, according to the state EMD.