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Speaker 2: So some breaking.
Speaker 1: News today that could affect the North Carolina General Assembly
and the ability to override the governor's vetos, at least
in the short term. So the story is that a
North Carolina state lawmaker representing Guildford County has been charged
within decent liberties with a child as well as statutory rape.
The representative is Cecil Brockman. I have interviewed Cecil Brockman
in the past. He was one of the very few
republic or Democrats. Rather, he's a Democrat. He is one
of the very few Democrats that would ever cross over
to vote with Republicans, specifically on school choice issues. He
was a proponent of school vouchers, the opportunity scholarship program
more competition, and so he was arrested yesterday charged and
he makes his first court appearance today at two pm.
The county's detention center website says he lays out the
charges he was picked up yesterday, and that is from
w XII twelve dot com. So the reaction is now
pouring in in the last couple of hours here as
people became aware of his arrest after the news broke
a few hours ago. This from the McClatchy papers, The
News and Observer, the Charlotte Observer, and the Durham Herald's Son,
all owned by McClatchy. This story is by Avi Bajpai,
who is he's the politics state politics reporter for the papers.
Top North Carolina Democrats and Republicans called on Representative Cecil Brockman,
a Democrat, to immediately resign after he was arrested and
charged Wednesday with taking indecent liberties with a child and
statutory rape. I believe he's facing two charges in each
of those categories. North Carolina Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton,
who's Breezy, said in a social media post this morning
that Brockman should resign effective immediately. I am as surprised
as anybody, but kind of not really. I will explain
why Democrats are dare, i say, seizing on the opportunity
here to call for him to resign. She said the
profound seriousness of these criminal charges makes it impossible to
represent his community. House Speaker Destin Hall said that the
charges against Brockman are shocking and extremely serious. Given the
evidence that's publicly known, he should resign immediately, so these
charges do not distract from the work of the North
Carolina House. Then there is this statement from the House
Minority Leader Robert Reeves, the top Democrat in the House.
He said that the allegations against Brockman are serious and
if true, would disqualify him from public office. He added
that this is a developing situation and it's important to
let the legal process unfold. So he I mean, he
kind of pulled up short there. It sounds like, right,
he didn't say he should step down. He's saying they're
serious charges and if true, would disqualify him. Well, you
know what's your standard to determine if they are true? Well,
that would be the criminal court proceedings, a trial, right,
And so it's not an outright immediate call for him
to resign right now. He is being held at the
County jail in High Point. A magistrate denied Brockman pre
trial release, saying that he has access to abundant resources
to aid in his flight from prosecution. So we found
a magistrate in North Carolina who will not release somebody
like this back out onto the streets. So like baby
steps here, I think that's progress.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: The magistrate also said in an order that Brockman quote,
now this like this to me.
Speaker 2: Is bad.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the charges are really bad, but this
supporting evidence because we don't know really the details here,
and you've got a minor involved, because the victim was
thirteen to fifteen years old, and from what I understand,
the victim was fifteen years.
Speaker 2: Old, and the crime allegedly occurred.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing there were molt there were at least two
instances of this that occurred, and apparently it was like
in August of this year, and I believe they were fifteen.
The victim was fifteen, so their identity is being obviously withheld.
We don't know a lot of the details of what
the you know, the nature of the allegations. We just
have the charges, but in making the decision not to
release Brockman or even give them bail, the magistrate also
said in the order to hold him that Brockman quote
has made attempts to contact the victim in this case
and has gone as far as attempting to locate the
juvenile in the hospital and attempting to use his status
to gain information on the whereabouts of the victim. Okay,
so like that's all I know at this point, and
I don't know, like I don't know if Brockman does
work with kids or something. I don't know if he's
like part of some you know, private school or charter
school or something like that. I don't know his background.
But usually when you know you've got when you've got
a Democrat who's crossing over to vote with Republicans on
the school choice issue, they generally have some sort of,
you know, personal knowledge of the way the public school
system has been failing kids. And before we know any
more of the details here, I would just point out
that when you know, if he was some sort of
an educator and this was a student kind of a relationship, right, Like,
we don't know if he's trying to locate this kid,
or he's trying to talk to the kid because he's
trying to you know, obviously influence the kid to drop
the charges or something, right, trying to intimidate a witness,
but although he's not charged with that, but or intimidate
a victim. Right, that's obviously like that's where my mind
goes immediately. But I also have to consider the possibility
that he's wrongfully accused and he's trying to you know,
reach the kid to say, what are you doing, Like,
stop doing this. This is going to hurt me, it's
going to hurt you, this is not worth it.
Speaker 2: Whatever. So we don't know, waiting for more of the details.
Speaker 1: To emerge, but I will point that out just to
kind of keep it out there.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: There are political implications here because he is a North
Carolina Democrat.
Speaker 2: He's in the House, and.
Speaker 1: He has in the past voted with Republicans on certain
issues like school choice that angered a lot of the
Democrat party leadership. Right, they and the like the Young
Democrats of North Carolina Caucus and like those organizations, like
there are a lot of these Democrats have like I
think a billion caucuses now, and so they they have
all these different groups, and they had targeted Brockman among
others that would ever cross over to vote with Republicans
on anything. So they would go out and they would
field primary candidates to try to knock off these these
incumbent Democrats because they were trying to, you know, protect
a Democrat voting block right. So I suspect that the
call I mean, I would like to believe that they
would immediately well, that they should call for him to
resign based on the seriousness of the charges. Destin Hall
did that he's a Republican though, well, what is the
political motivation there? Well, if Brockman resigns his seat, say immediately,
the local party can't step in and make a recommendation.
Speaker 2: They can't replace him.
Speaker 1: Yet they have to run through a process, which means
Republicans could try to bring back all of those governor
vetos and override them before Democrats get somebody into that seat.
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Speaker 2: I do have a message from John.
Speaker 1: He points out that a Republican state representative, Jared Lowry,
resigned last week to take a position with the Trump administration.
His brother John Lowry, who is also chairman of the
Lumbee Indian Tribe, was elected by the Robinson County Republican
Executive Committee to take his place. But I don't know
if he has been sworn in yet. I don't know either,
So losing this Democrat pervert representative, does that really change
the balance of the total votes for a veto override
until the Republican has actually sworn in. I don't know
if the governor has approved Lowry yet, right, So if
we're waiting on the governor to approve Lowry then, which
is usually just a formality. Stein Governor Stein, who, by
the way, just within the last hour I think, also
is now called for Cecil Brockman to step down to
resign after he was arrested and charged with statutory rape
and taking in decent liberties with a minor. He may
slow walk the appointment the you know, the final approval
or something for the Republican because if he were to
appoint him, maybe he already has I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'll have to.
Speaker 1: Check if he because if you end up with Lowry
getting into the seat before Brockman's replacement can be put
into their seat, then you end up overcoming that that
one vote deficit that Republicans need in order to override Vetos.
Speaker 2: So like all of these.
Speaker 1: Kind of machinations and like that, that stuff is going on.
People are now getting you know, the lay of the land,
and they're looking at calendars and how do we get
somebody into this seat very quickly?
Speaker 2: How do we get a vote together?
Speaker 1: Like all of this stuff is now happening, but it's
still it depends on whether Brockman steps down on his own.
If he doesn't, the House could try to remove him.
Believe they did that once before. I think it was
in like the eighties or something, but there's not really
there's not any recent history of this. I mean, the
last time would have been I think it was in
like eighty but maybe not. I may be a mistaken
on that. But they can't I think they can do it.
They could try to expel somebody from the from the body,
So I don't know, I don't know. We shall see,
but yeah, the timing of this is going to be
critical and I suspect Democrats are going to you know,
lay the groundwork as they need to in order to
protect this seat and to protect that that one vote
in order to prevent an override of some of the
vetos that Governor Josh Stein has signed that are kind
of waiting right now that the Senate has already overridden,
and Republicans have been clear, they've said, like, if we
you know, we're in session, we're we're in the building,
and we you know, do a head count and see
that Democrats haven't shown up in sufficient enough numbers, We're
going to call for a veto override vote on these
remaining bills. It's what they did, It's what they always do.
They have the bills sitting there waiting, and if Democrats
don't show up one day, then the Republicans say, move to,
you know, override this veto.
Speaker 2: Boom, the vote is held, boom, veto's overridden.
Speaker 1: So it requires Democrats to actually be in the chamber
every single day all the time, which they don't really
they don't really appreciate all the time. Danny says, I
sure hope this is not a false accusation. Democrat unaffiliated
or Republican it's no good, whether true or false. I
really don't like that these things happen. I really don't
like false accusations. Either is not a win. Yeah, I
mean like, but it's something that you have to keep
in mind. Particularly and again I don't know, I'm trying
to remember what Brockman's line of work is or if
he was working with troubled youth like that would be
something to keep an eye on, like if he's dealing
with like there was or there is. I believe it
was Quentin Miller, the sheriff up in Bunkholm County, and
Republicans tried to make a big deal about these police
reports that were that were filed against him by minors,
by a minor maybe I think it's been several years
and they tried to make a big deal about it.
But when you when you get the details of what occurred,
he was false. He was a foster parent. He and
his wife were fostering kids, and sometimes you get kids
in there that have troubles and one of them ran
away from home and you know, he went and got them,
and they, you know, accused him of abuse or something
and nothing ever came of it. So like that stuff
does happen, So I again, I don't know that to
be the case.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: These are very serious charges, and you know, we need
to know what the what the details are, I mean
some of them.
Speaker 2: I don't need to know all of them.
Speaker 1: I don't want to know all of them, but in
order to sort of make a better informed judgment. And
like we haven't heard from Brockmann. He could very well
get out and say like this is all false accusation,
this is a troubled kid or whatever, and then he
could be lying about that too.
Speaker 2: Like keep that in mind as well.
Speaker 1: Couldn't the legislature go ahead with the veto override since
the guy is in jail and cannot be there to vote.
I guess they could unless Representative Lowry hasn't been seated,
so you're still at a one one vote, one vote deficit,
so it would be equal basically, So you would need
to wait to see if Lowry. I'll do a search
and see if Lowery got appointed. I don't think he
has because I think that story was last week, so
I don't think he has been formally approved yet, and I.
Speaker 2: Don't know if there's a timeline on that.
Speaker 1: I also see Steven Wiley who Stephen Wiley, who is
a partner at nc Folkrum. But he was also longtime
campaign guy for the North Carolina House of Representatives, the Republicans.
He would help recruit candidates and work on their campaigns
and stuff. And he's got some info on Brockman, which
seems to indicate a man who is spiraling. So when
I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and
before he died, my mom and my dad took care
of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there
were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family.
But things are different today because of the work of
so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina.
It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts.
I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause
means a lot to me. I participate in the annual
Walk to End Alzheimer's and I'm leading a Charlotte team
again this year, and it's called once Again Pete's Pack.
You can sign up and you can join the team
and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth that truest
Field sign up at alz dot org slash Walk and
then you can search for my team name, Pete's Pack.
There's also a link at thepetepod dot com. There's also
a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll
be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh then,
so you can make a team and join that one too,
or make a donation and help me hit my goal
of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it.
There are a bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas.
You can go to alz dot org slash walk for
all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to
stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you
walk with me? For a different future, for families, for
more time for treatments.
Speaker 2: This is why we walk, all.
Speaker 1: Righty, So went and looked up the process here and
this is according to Brave the Brave Browser, their AI
search results, their summarization that they offer, and they've got
footnotes and such which check out. So Cecil Brockman is
the Democrat now charged with these, you know, crimes against
a child, and he's got a court appearance at two
o'clock today being called on to resign by Democrats. The
governor called on him to resign, the state Democrat party
chair called on.
Speaker 2: Him to resign.
Speaker 1: The Republican Speaker of the House has called on him
to resign. So it's all coming, you know, coming from
all quarters. Does this effect the balance of power in
the House, because right now Republicans have a one seat majority. However,
Jared Lowry resigned to take a position in the Trump administration.
Jared Lowery represents part of Robinson County, and so that
meant that it was an even split. Then because they
lost that that representative not an even split, It's not even.
So the Republicans have a one seat majority necessary to
override vetos. They have a large majority in the House. Okay,
they have a large majority, but if they want to
override the governor's vetos, they are one seat short of
having that super.
Speaker 2: Majority to do so.
Speaker 1: Okay, sorry, So they lost that that that one seat,
then it became two seats basically that they had they
had to peel away two Democrats. But now with Brockman
in this legal trouble, if he is out, then it
becomes even easier for Republicans than to override the governor's
vetos which are sitting there in the House waiting for votes. Okay,
so Jared Lowry resigns and he is then replaced he
had He was replaced by his older brother John, selected
by the Robinson County Republican Party Executive Committee to replace
his brother. The committee unanimously recommended John Lowry to the
governor to fill the vacancy that was created. That took
effect the vacancy I guess takes effect or took effect yesterday.
State law requires the governor to appoint the individual recommended
by the departing legislatorwards political party, and Governor Stein has
seven days to formalize the appointment.
Speaker 2: So Stein can slow.
Speaker 1: Walk that for a week in order to give the
North Carolina Democrats time to put somebody else in Brockman's
seat and then do them at the same time, and
then everything remains the same. I suspect that's what he'll do.
If it's a big if, If Brockman steps aside, if
he doesn't step aside, if he doesn't resign his seat
amid these charges, then things become more difficult for the Democrats. Right,
So we got a week, So today's Thursday, so a
week from today, we'll see what happens. Let me get
to I mentioned that Brockman seems to have been spiraling somewhat.
Stephen Wiley, I mentioned him before the break, used to
work with the House Republicans, recruiting candidates, helping them with
their campaigns, doing oppo research, doing media buys and stuff.
I've interviewed him several times over the years. He posted
up on Twitter formerly known as x that the detail.
Speaker 2: He says the.
Speaker 1: Details are abhorrent and if true, Brockman must resign immediately.
It seems like Brockman may also misrepresented living in his district,
getting evicted from an apartment earlier this year that is
in House District fifty nine. Brockman has claimed to live
at eleven sixty six Roberts Lane, which is owned by
his mom. So he has claimed to be living at
the home with his mother, But he just got evicted
from an apartment in a different district.
Speaker 2: That's a problem.
Speaker 1: That means he wasn't living with his mom, he had
a different apartment, he wasn't living in his district. And
apparently she was also sued this week by a plaintiff
represented by Chris Anglin. Does that name ring a Belle
Chris Anglin lawyer, Yeah, that guy Chris Anglin who registered
as a Republican to run in the state Supreme Court
race so he could siphon votes away from the incumbent
Republican Supreme Court justice and she lost to Anita Earls.
That Chris Anglin, he is representing somebody suing Brockman's mother.
See what I mean, Like these are like there's some
stuff going on. I'm not sure what's going on, but
it's like this when you start seeing some of these
stories come down the pike all together, it's like, this
looks like a guy whose life is unraveling.
Speaker 2: You know what else?
Speaker 1: Chris Cooper, professor at Western Carolina Full Disclosure, former fraternity
brother of mine. It went through. He says, the General
Assembly does have the power to remove sitting legislators, but
there is no set clear process to governing the rules
or the criteria. Essentially, they create new rules every time
they want to do it. The one thing that is
clear is what happens to a vacant seat. The incumbent
candidate's party nominates somebody to fill the unexpired term, and
then the governor approves it, same process. If somebody dies
or resigns their post, the last member of the General
Assembly to be expelled. Okay, so I got this wrong.
Was Thomas right in two thousand and eight, so it's
a little.
Speaker 2: Bit more recent. I thought it was in the eighties.
Speaker 1: But anybody who is convicted of or pleads guilty to
a felony is disqualified from serving according to the state constitution.
How that would play out not really sure, but filing
for the twenty twenty sixth election is in early December.
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dot com. Alrighty, so Cecil Brockman, the state representative from
Guilford County, arrested yesterday. He's got a court appearance in
about an hour. Indecent liberties with a minor and statutory
rape charges I believe two charges of each. The victim,
reportedly of fifteen year old was The fifteen year old
was at a hospital and Brockman, allegedly, according to the
McClatchy reporting, tried to get access to the victim. Tried
to It sounds like he pulled one of the do
you know who I am? Or maybe he flashed some
sort of I don't want to say badge, but like
maybe his legislative ID or something, you know, try to
use his credentials to get in. That's what it seems
like it's not the exact reporting, but that's what it
kind of sounds like occurred that he tried to tried
to use his position in order to gain access to
the victim. I would imagine it would be to get
the victim to drop the charges to recant. Whether that's
because they were you know, false allegations or true, we
don't know. We haven't heard from him at all, but
obviously the state Democrat Party, the leadership of the Republican Party,
basically everybody's calling for him to resign.
Speaker 2: Stepped down.
Speaker 1: And there was a comment made by our friend Andrew Dunn,
who is the publisher of Long Leave Politics. We talked
to Andrew every Tuesday here on the program him and
he's also a contributing columnist for the Charlotte Observer and
used to be the comms guy for Lieutenant Governor Dan
Forrest in his campaign. So Andrew posted onto Twitter number one,
the allegations are horrifying. Number two. Democrats are going to
be privately ecstatic about this. Brockman was one of the
Democrat House members who would occasionally vote with Republicans. I
imagine he'll resign, and then the Guildford County Democratic Party
would get to pick a replacement who will tow the
party line. And I think I think Andrew is exactly right,
Like I can separate these two things in my head
that there is like this awful crime, right if he's
guilty of like this, this horrendous act, and yeah, obviously
punish that guy, you know, put him under the jail,
like don't ever want to hear from him again, Like
your life is now ruined, just like you scarred this
poor child. Then there is the second component, which is
the politics of the matter, because he is a politician,
and most importantly, he is a Democrat that has crossed
over to vote with Republicans. That has angered Democrats for
years years they put candidates up against their own to
try to primary him. He has talked about the bouts
of depression that he has gone through. I want to
say that he is I believe I think he was
the first openly gay state representative in North Carolina. And
he has talked about like the abuse he has taken,
like in his like long before he got into politics,
but then the abuse he has taken since he's been
in politics, and is battles with depression and such and
so they've been going after him for a while. So
like them rising up immediately to say he needs to
step down. Yes, that's the right call, but sometimes doing
the right thing is also good politics for you, you know,
and in this case for Democrats, it is saying he
should step aside immediately, he should resign his post. That's
the right thing to call for, but it's also good
politics for the Democrats because now they don't have to
primary him. They can just get him out and then
put the person up there and replace him with whoever
it was that ran against him in the Democrat primary
last year. Right, they basically won the election. They got
rid of this guy who would work with Republicans on
a couple of issues. And it is just a couple
like you're gonna hear, and well, here you go. We
have in the response on Twitter, this is from somebody
with a ridiculously long last name. I don't think it's accurate.
I don't think it's an actual name, but it's this
is what they say. It's a great day when someone
who hurts a child is held accountable. Number two, it's
no surprise that another pedophile was aligned with the GOP. Wait,
excuse me, Brockman is aligned with the GOP. Really Democrat
lawmaker elected multiple times to Guildford County safe blue seat.
He is aligned with the GOP because he voted with
them on the on the on the school voucher issue,
like but this is And then there was a response
from a guy who used to work here at the
City of Charlotte. He says, I don't think anybody is
privately ecstatic about someone allegedly committing horrible crimes because it
may change a house seat. I think they're just horrified.
And I pointed out, like six weeks ago, I may
have agreed with you on that, but since then I've
seen the reaction to Charlie Kirk's assassination, So yeah, I'm
not so sure anymore. All Right, that'll do it for
this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could
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