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Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to

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this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon

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smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for

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your support. All righty, so came across this piece over

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at Inside Climate News, which is a website that is

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devoted to maintaining a comfortable temperature in your home. I

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believe inside Climatenews dot org piece by Lisa Sorg about

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the North Carolina officials who chose an outside firm to

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run disaster relief efforts in west North Carolina. I have

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some concerns. I have some questions. A company whose earlier

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disaster recovery contract in North Carolina was marked with serious

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communications problems will return to run North Carolina's disaster recovery

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program in western counties flattened by Hurricane Helene. The North

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Carolina Department of Commerce, which is a department under the

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governor Josh Stein. On May ninth, Commerce Department awarded a

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project management contract worth eighty one point five million dollars

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over three years. It was awarded to Horny Horn Horn.

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I think the he is silent there, horn LP. There

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were four other companies that bid on the project, but

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Horn was picked. Horn was the prime contractor for the

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North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency or ENCORE. It

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was later rebranded as Rebuild NC because it was not

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actually doing anything really fantastically and so they were like, ooh,

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this is bad. We got people down in eastern North

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Carolina still not in their homes. And it's been you know, eight, nine,

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ten years since Hurricane Matthew, Hurricane Florence. An ENCORE which

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was taken over by Governor Roy Cooper when he won

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the governorship. Because Hurricane Matthew hit right before the election,

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McCrory lost, Cooper came in and the disaster response was

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a mess. And to this day I maintained Pat McCrory

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would have done a better job with the disaster recovery

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because he was the former mayor of Charlotte for seven

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straight terms fourteen years, and we went through many disasters.

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You know snowstorms, ice storms and such, and so I'm

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not sure. I don't think. I think he may have

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been on council during Hurricane Hugo, but I think Sue

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Myrick may have been mayor at the time, but I

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don't recall. Yeah, because Hugo was eighty nine, so I

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think McCrory got in after that, but he may have

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been on council for it. So this Horn LLP organization

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was doing case management and other services for Rebuild NC

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for three years. The firm's contract was not renewed after

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many disaster victims complained about poor case management, which is

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what they were supposed to be doing. Last month, in

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West Virginia, Horn agreed to pay one point two million

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dollars as part of a settlement agreement with the federal

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government over alleged improper billing for services related to disaster

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recovery in that state. A Horn spokesperson named Meg Anderson

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said that the company did not admit any wrongdoing as

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part of the agreement, so therefore we did no wrongdoing obviously,

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because we didn't admit to any wrongdoing as part of

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the settlement. Horn has other connections to North Carolina as well. Oh,

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and the Governor's office. Yeah, Jonathan Krebs, the Western North

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Carolina disaster recovery advisor to Governor Josh Stein currently. Jonathan

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Krebbs worked for Horn until about twenty minutes ago April

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to April twenty twenty four. So he was there when

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Josh Snein was, you know, was running for election in

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the race against Mark Robinson. This guy Krebs was working for.

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He was there until April twenty twenty four. Krebs was

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on a team of six people who wrote the request

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four proposals for the contract, according to Commerce Department officials,

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But he was not involved in the review committee according

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to a governor spokesperson, And he will not financially benefit

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from it, not him personally. See, it's just his former

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firm that got the big contract, even though they didn't

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get their last contract with the state renewed because they

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were failing so poorly with the case management in eastern

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North Carolina. But I am sure they have learned their lessons.

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North Carolina received a one point four billion dollar grant

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from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development last

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month for disaster recovery, including the repair or reconstruction of

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single family homes, rental housing, as well as infrastructure and

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economic revitalization and mitigation. Horn will be in charge of

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implementing the one point four billion dollar grant, with oversight

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by the State Division of Community Revitalization, which is under

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the Commerce Department. State Representative Mark Plus is quoted in

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this article again by Lisa soor Get inside Climate News,

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State Representative Mark Plus, who represents Haywood and Madison Counties

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in western North Carolina, said the awarding of this contract

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quote causes me great concern. It would appear the executive

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branch has not learned from the massive failures of Encore

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or rebuild NC. With the funding appropriated to date, he says,

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the legislature has given the new administration a great opportunity

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to move western North Carolina in a positive direction. I

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can assure the victims of Helene I will not sit

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idle watching the same mistakes being repeat. Horn is a

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well known accounting and professional services firm. Krebs was a

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partner Jonathan Krebbs, now at the Governor's office. He was

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a partner in Horn's Government Services Division, a position he

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held for nearly nine years. In that role, Crebs oversaw

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multiple disaster recovery projects, including hurricanes, floods, and pandemic response.

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After Krebs left Horn, he contributed twelve eight hundred dollars

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to Stein's gubernatorial campaign another twenty nine thousand dollars to

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the North Carolina Democratic Leadership Committee in in kind donations

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in the twenty twenty four general election. Because that's what

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I do. Whenever I lose my job, I donate like

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forty k to politicians. It's very It yields a lot

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of fruit, you know. As Rebuild nc's prime contractor, Horn

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had many responsibilities, including communicating with hurricane survivors and guiding

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them through the early steps of the application process. It

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also hired subcontractors to do further work. She goes on

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to report that while Horn was in charge of case management,

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dozens of hurricane survivors complained they could not reach their

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case managers for weeks or even months at a time.

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Those problems continued even after Rebuild NC did not renew

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Horn's contract in twenty twenty two and then went on

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to hire its own case managers so the state. Just

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to be clear, the state wasn't any better, okay. In

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December twenty twenty two, Legal Aid of North Carolina sent

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a letter to a state legislative oversight committee describing the

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consistent communication breakdowns both under HORN and Rebuild NC. Applicants

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sent emails to unmonitored addresses. That's always fun, Like, yeah,

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if you got problems, questions, concerns, email here, and then

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you send the email and you never hear back because

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nobody's ever monitoring the email. They left messages on voicemails

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that were apparently never checked. When applicants were able to

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finally reach a case manager, they would often receive different

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and even contradictory information. As case managers churned through the program,

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Legal Aid wrote, the applicants did not know who to contact,

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but were withdrawn for failure to communicate. So what does

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that mean? You call a case manager, They're like, hey,

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what's going on? I need some information. You can't get

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a hold of anybody, You leave voicemails, you send emails,

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and then you get kicked out of the system for

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failure to communicate. In testimonies submitted to a state legislative

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oversight committee, Horne attributed program failures to Rebuild NC. Rebuild

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NC attributed the failures to Horn. So I say let's

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try it again, shall we? Why not? All right? If

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you're listening to this show, you know I try to

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keep up with all sorts of current events, and I

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know you do too, And you've probably heard me say

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get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's

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how you detect media bias, which is why I've been

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so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's

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a website, and it combines news from around the world

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in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information.

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You can check it out at check dot ground, dot

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news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast

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description too. I started using ground News a few months

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ago and more recently chose to work with them as

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an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories

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get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows

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you which stories get ignored by the left and the right.

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See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news, slash pete.

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Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off

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any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited

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access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps

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my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they

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make the media landscape more transparent. Back to the story

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here inside climatenews dot org piece by Lisa Sorg on

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the firm that the North Carolina Department of Commerce has

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hired to run the disaster relief efforts in western North Carolina.

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And it's a company that used to work for the

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Encore or Rebuild NC that took and still hasn't even

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finished all of the disaster relief down east from like

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a decade ago. So yeah, we're going to give them

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another shot. The company's name is Horny, Sorry, Horn the

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e Asilent LLP, Horn LLP. And in this piece, Lisa

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Sorg details some of the other, shall we say, issues

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that Horn has run into in other states. For example,

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in Louisiana, the state auditor investigated Horn back in twenty

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twenty two after several company employees allegedly received COVID related

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relief funds they were supposed to be administering earlier that

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year twenty twenty two, the state of Alabama had to

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return more than forty two million dollars in pandemic aid

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back to the US Department of Treasury after Horn failed

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to distribute emergency rental funds in a timely fashion. Horn

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has successfully managed distributed. Oh, hang on a second, that's

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their response. I'll give you their response in a minute.

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More recent scrutiny of Horn came in West Virginia, which

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dates to historic flooding that occurred there in twenty sixteen.

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West Virginia investigators discovered that many of Horn's services provided

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to the state were quote unquote problematic. Many of for example,

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many of the personal consultations that Horn was billing nine

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hundred and fifty dollars each for they were actually just

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cold calls. You know what that is? A cold call.

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I did some of this back in my youth when

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I was, you know, even less employable than I am

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right now. You would just you just get like people's

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names and phone numbers, and you just call them and

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you ask them, Hey, do you want to buy some service?

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Hey do you want to you know, get some insurance

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or whatever. It's just a cold call. So many of

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what Horn was calling personal consultations with again victims of

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a disaster, and they were billing nine hundred fifty dollars

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each and they were cold calls in which homeowners would

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tell Horn that they do not need services, and so

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Horn would bill the state for that call nine hundred

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and fifty dollars and call it a personal consultation. Horn

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created an applicant file for every person, complete with fictitious

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birth dates, social Security numbers, and fake signatures on legal documents.

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This is all according to the US Attorney's Office. Investigators

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also found that in some cases, these personal consultations were

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actually performed by staff for voluntary organizations active in disaster.

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That's the name of a group VOAD or VOAD as

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I like to call it. So Horn wasn't even making

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the cold calls, but they were billing as if they were.

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Further investigation revealed that forty eight of the physical property

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inspections where the Horn person apparently went out there to

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personally inspect the property at a cost to the government

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of almost nineteen hundred dollars a pop. That these inspections.

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Forty eight of these property inspections were for vacant lots

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where an inspection was not required. Also, Horn billed almost

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seventeen hundred dollars for each of seventy two repair estimates

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where there was actually nothing to repair, but seventeen hundred

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dollars just to make sure. That's Horn Now. Horn says

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that it has successfully managed, distributed, provided compliance, and overseen

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more than one hundred and twenty two billion dollars in

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funds related to natural disasters and COVID nineteen. We are

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proud of our record of helping and supporting communities in

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their recovery from these disasters. So if you look at

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the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse, it's very, very

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small when compared to the one hundred and twenty two

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billion dollars that we have ethically and properly administered. See.

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So it's so it's nothing to worry about. Okay, I

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know it's a bit of a spotty record here in

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North Carolina too, but nothing to worry about. We got

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Jonathan Crabbs leading this show. Crabs with the governor's office,

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who just happened to have been an employee of Horn

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for like nine years before he went to the governor's office.

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This is completely confidence inspiring, right, I am here for it.

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I will say that the benefit of the previous governor

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bricking the the response to hurricanes Matthew and Florence for

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a decade, it has given the legislature more of an

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incentive and more authority, more political capital to ride heard

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on these efforts. Now they are intimately involved with these programs.

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They have held hearings, they have been bringing people in

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front of them, asking them questions. They forced out the

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last Encore director. So I do have a little bit

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more confidence because you've got a lot more people. These

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are locally elected representatives from western North Carolina that are

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actually providing real I hope oversight on the recovery efforts,

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but we shall see. Oh speaking of recovery efforts, Congressman

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Chuck Edwards went to a rotary club meeting in Asheville

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to give an update on hurricane relief and stuff, and

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then he was accused of hitting a guy. Here's a

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com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. The McClatchy papers.

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00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:13,759
I'm not sure if this was out of the Charlotte

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Observer or the News and Observer. Well, it's Danielle Battaglia,

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so I think she is based in Raleigh. Had the

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story the other day of an event that was held

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by the Rotary Club, the Rotarians, and this was in Asheville,

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but it was like a larger conference of all of

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the various chapters of Rotarians in western North Carolina. It

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was the Rotary District seventy six seventy Okay, So they

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had their conference and Representative Chuck Edwards, Congressman Chuck Edwards

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from Western North Carolina, was one of the scheduled speakers

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where he talked to He was supposed to come in

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and talk about Hurricane Helene relief efforts and such. I

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you know, full disclosure, I have worked with the Charlotte

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Rotary Club for you know, to raise money for childhood

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literacy programs. And I actually I spoke to the Ashville

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Rotary Club when I was When I was up there,

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they were very nice. It went very well, if I

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do say so myself. I mean, like I wasn't assaulted

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or anything, which is always a plus when I would

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go out in public in Ashville. If I could come

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home unscathed, that was a win for me. Okay. So no,

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they were all very nice. These are you know, civic leaders,

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business people and stuff. And it is an apolitical, non

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partisan type of an organization, and so they had their conference,

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Chuck Edwards scheduled to appear. I think this was on

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yes Saturday night, and a freakus occurred or fracas. I'm

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not here to tell you how to pronounce the word.

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I'm just saying that something like that happened. But we're

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not really sure because the eyewitness wasn't really eyewitness at all.

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So Chuck Edwards said he was the victim of a

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drunken man's belligerence, which Check's notes Ashville right. Okay, so

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that does that tracks. But a rotarian who helped to

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organize the event where Edwards spoke, said the congressman was

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the aggressor, striking a man in anger with a clipboard

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or maybe a folder, or maybe it could have also

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been a binder. We're not really sure. Not a binder

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of women, but I think a binder. Nonetheless, after he

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was done with his speech, this incident occurred. The rotarian

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who is the quote witness, his name is Guy Gooder.

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Guy Gooder. He says he heard, but did not see

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Edwards hit the man, and he couldn't tell where the

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blow landed because he didn't see it right, And the

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reason he didn't see it was because Edwards' body was

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between him and the other guy, so he because this

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guy Gooder is sitting at a different table. Edwards comes

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walking down the center aisle to leave after he's done

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with his speech. He exchanges words with this unidentified third person,

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the quote victim or the belligerent drunk guy not sure,

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and Edwards, I guess, has his back turned towards Gooder.

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So Gooder can't see what actually happened, but he's the

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one that the observer is relying on for this ear

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witness account. I guess you would call it. So. Guy Gooder,

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the district's community service project chair and a corporate sponsor

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of the event. I think he runs a company called

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like Gooder Graphics or something, said that he had concerns

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as soon as he learned that Edwards was a speaker. Ah, okay,

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so you know this guy's politics. Gooder is a graphic

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designer from Franklin, North Carolina who has a history of

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sharing antifah posts on social media. I'm sure that has

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nothing to do with his ear witness account, right, I'm

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sure his loathing of Edwards and his concerns as soon

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as he heard Edwards was going to be speaking, his

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Antifah posts. I'm sure I have nothing to do with

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his recollection of what occurred here, he said. Edwards was

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invited to speak about Hurricane Helen relief and recovery, he said. Edwards, though,

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used his speech to defend President Donald Trump's administration, including

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on tariffs and cuts to federal agencies, Gooder said, while

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Edwards said that he might try to rest or funding

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to the State Department to help the Rotarian's cause of

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polio eradication, he also spent his speech insulting his word,

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insulting the federal agencies that the Rotarians work with most closely. Quote.

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He spent thirty minutes basically insulting the Rotarian's intelligence in

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his speech. Again, i am sure Guy Goodter's politics have

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nothing at all to do with his interpretation of the

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remarks that Chuck Edwards made. Although Gooder is described as

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a critic of Trump, who is registered as an unaffiliated

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voter and he serves on the Franklin Tourism Development Authority Board,

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so a critic of Trump. When Edwards finished his speech,

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he walks down the center aisle between the tables of

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the Rotarians so he can exit the room out the

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back and according to the ear witness, Gooder, this other

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guy the drunk, belligerent or you know, the angel among us,

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depending on your politics, I guess. The other rotarian basically

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said that was a load of bs. Chuck stops and

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kind of bends over, kind of in his face type stuff.

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Who said he was at the next table over. Good

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Er says, he was at the next table over, and

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then it continues from there. Edwards, he said. Gooder says,

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Edwards then hit the guy with his clipboard while the

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man was seated, Gooder said. The two men then left

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the room and continued arguing out of view of the rotarians.

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All right, let's just stop for just one second. Let's

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imagine you're sitting at the table and Chuck Edwards or

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filling some other politician that you that you don't like.

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They give a speech, they start walking out, and you

359
00:25:52,799 --> 00:25:55,799
yell at the guy. You yell at the politician, and

360
00:25:55,839 --> 00:25:58,759
the politician comes over and leans over, has some words

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with you. And then when the politician hits you, do

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you think it is a normal reaction? Do you think

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you would react to such an action by standing up

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and walking out with him into the lobby area to

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continue having a conversation. Does that sound that? Yeah, that

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doesn't sound that doesn't sound right. Some politician hits me

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with a clipboard like it's on right, unless, of course,

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maybe the guy isn't a he's a lover, not a fighter.

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Maybe he doesn't know how to fight. I don't know,

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but like of all the guys that if you had

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to pick, like, hey, I might need to go toe

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to toe with a congressman, Like, there are definitely a

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bunch of congress people that I would not want to

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I don't think Chuck Edwards is in that category. You know.

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I think if the Chuck Edwards hits me with a clipboard,

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he might be eating the clipboard, you know, like that's

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just me. But I don't know. I think I'm about

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like fifteen years younger than him, Gooder says. The two

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men leave the room, continuing arguing out of view of

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the rotarians, which why wouldn't you go out then? If

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you saw this assault happen, Why wouldn't you go out

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00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:19,640
into the lobby. Wouldn't you be afraid that Chuck Edwards

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would just start, like, you know, pounding the bejeebus out

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00:27:23,279 --> 00:27:28,960
of the rotarian. Why wouldn't you go defend your fellow rotarian. Now,

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Gooder identified this guy, but that guy who told McClatchy

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that he couldn't answer any questions, but that he had

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just got off the phone with the police detective and

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00:27:37,839 --> 00:27:41,680
that they're trying to come to a resolution. So they're

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00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:46,000
not identifying the guy. So everybody else gets identified except

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the potentially drunk belligerent or the angel among us, whoever,

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00:27:50,519 --> 00:27:53,880
however you choose to describe him. Good Or defended the man,

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00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:59,119
saying he was not belligerent. He says he's never seen

393
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,160
anybody be belief and that that would be shut down

394
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,559
quickly if a member did something like that. I don't know.

395
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,240
It kind of sounds like the guy started it, right,

396
00:28:10,319 --> 00:28:14,079
wouldn't you say it's belligerent to as good Or claims,

397
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:18,279
He says, there's a load of bs. He starts, you know,

398
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:21,799
cussing at the congressman. That's kind of belligerenty, don't you think?

399
00:28:22,279 --> 00:28:25,319
Seems like it to me? So I'm not sure I

400
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:31,559
believe this guy Gooder's story APD. The Asheville Police Department.

401
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,000
They put out a statement. All right, so spring is

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here a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries,

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making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But

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VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photos slides? Are they preserved?

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Memories since nineteen ninety seven, located in mint Hill, just

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off four eighty five, mail orders are accepted to get

419
00:29:33,799 --> 00:29:37,640
all the details that create a video dot com. The

420
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:45,599
Ashville Police Department declined to file charges on anybody regarding

421
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:53,160
the incident non incident between Congressman Chuck Edwards and a drunk,

422
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:58,480
belligerent or angelic Rotary club member in Nashville. In a

423
00:29:58,519 --> 00:30:02,599
statement released this this week, the department confirmed that yes,

424
00:30:03,279 --> 00:30:07,359
APD responded to a call from quote an individual who

425
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:12,559
reported having been assaulted by Congressman Chuck Edwards. The caller

426
00:30:12,599 --> 00:30:16,079
was not identified in the statement, nor were the allegations

427
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:21,920
details made public, which I feel is kind of odd.

428
00:30:23,119 --> 00:30:27,240
The initial report does not contain any narrative written by

429
00:30:27,319 --> 00:30:31,640
the responding police officers, nor does it mention Edwards or

430
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:36,759
contain the name of the caller. I don't know how

431
00:30:36,759 --> 00:30:39,720
many police reports you have read in your lifetime. I

432
00:30:39,759 --> 00:30:43,599
have read quite a few. And in fact, when I

433
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:48,039
was a reporter here at WBT, I would head on

434
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,480
down to CMPD headquarters every day at the beginning of

435
00:30:51,519 --> 00:30:54,720
the shift and I would do what we called cop shop,

436
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:57,799
where you go when you look around to purchase a

437
00:30:57,799 --> 00:31:01,640
police officer. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, No cop shop was.

438
00:31:01,799 --> 00:31:04,839
It was the beat and you would go and they

439
00:31:04,839 --> 00:31:09,640
would print out all of the police reports from overnight

440
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:13,759
and they would be sitting in a tray on the

441
00:31:13,839 --> 00:31:18,240
desk in this little office, and reporters would go in

442
00:31:18,279 --> 00:31:23,640
there and look through the police reports and if anything

443
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,799
jumps out, you're looking at you know, famous people, You're

444
00:31:25,799 --> 00:31:30,079
trying to find, you know, names of famous people. And

445
00:31:30,119 --> 00:31:32,359
this is before the days of cell phone, so like

446
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:34,720
I'd have to write everything down off of a police

447
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:36,480
report because you were not allowed to take them out

448
00:31:36,559 --> 00:31:39,839
of the room. Although I have always suspected that some

449
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,359
reporters would swipe some of them. I cannot prove this,

450
00:31:43,799 --> 00:31:47,559
but that was a suspicion. But the police would always

451
00:31:47,599 --> 00:31:51,519
write out what happened in their report, so obviously you

452
00:31:51,599 --> 00:31:53,440
know what happened in the report, there's a record of it.

453
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000
The statement that was issued by Astville Police characterized the

454
00:31:57,119 --> 00:32:01,599
encounter as a quote disturbance, and said the department conducted

455
00:32:01,599 --> 00:32:04,880
a thorough investigation, which included interviews with the reporting party

456
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:08,640
and multiple witnesses. After reviewing the findings and consulting with

457
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:11,720
the Buncom County DA's office, who was a Democrat, it

458
00:32:11,799 --> 00:32:15,319
was mutually determined that no criminal charges against any party

459
00:32:15,359 --> 00:32:18,839
involved in the incident will be initiated. A statement released

460
00:32:18,839 --> 00:32:23,680
by Edwards' congressional office said, immediately following a speaking event,

461
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,559
I refused to engage with an intoxicated man that was cursing.

462
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,039
He became more belligerent and later called the police. His

463
00:32:32,119 --> 00:32:35,359
behavior was embarrassing to the people at the event and

464
00:32:35,519 --> 00:32:40,599
was duly noted by the police. The congressman had been invited,

465
00:32:41,079 --> 00:32:44,960
as I mentioned earlier, to talk about helene relief efforts.

466
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:49,880
One rotary member told the Asheville Watchdog the AVL Watchdog group,

467
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:51,640
which is what I'm reading from now, that the speech

468
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,960
did not go well from the outset, and it was

469
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,920
a partisan tone that may have triggered the angry outburst

470
00:32:58,319 --> 00:33:01,279
that Edwards faced. So in other words, he totally deserved it.

471
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:06,000
You should have seen how short his skirt was. All right,

472
00:33:06,039 --> 00:33:08,400
that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much

473
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:10,480
for listening. I could not do the show without your

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support and the support of the businesses that advertise on

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the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too

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and tell them you heard it here. You can also

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become a patron at my Patreon page or go to

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dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening,

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and don't break anything while I'm gone.