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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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to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you

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want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,

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my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron,

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go to dpeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the

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subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your

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smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for

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your support. As we do on Tuesdays at noon, we

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chat with Andrew Dunn. He is the publisher of long

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Leaf Politics longleafpol dot com. I highly recommend you subscribe

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to that. He is also a contributing columnist at the

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McClatchy papers seen locally here at the Charlotte Observer and

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The News and Observer in Raleigh. Andrew, how are you today, sir?

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Speaker 2: All?

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Speaker 3: I'm doing all right good. I'm tired. I made it

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to the fourteenth inning of the World Series game last

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night and then I had to go to bed.

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Speaker 1: Surely you are not a Toronto Blue Jayson fan.

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Speaker 3: Oh no, No, can't root for a Canadian team.

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Speaker 1: Okay? Are you a Dodger fan?

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Speaker 3: No, I'm a baseball fan, though.

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Speaker 1: I'll say, if you watched fourteen innings of two teams,

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it was exciting. Yeah, no, it sounds like it was.

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I actually grew up a Dodger fan in New York,

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just mainly because my whole mom's side of the family

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were Brooklyn Dodger fans from way back in the day.

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But yeah, they were always Los Angeles Dodgers to me,

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which stunk because I could never see the games unless

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they played the Mets or otherwise I'd have to read

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about it like two days later in the paper when

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they published the scores.

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Speaker 3: You know, right, of course. Yeah, grown up in North Carolina,

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we're all Braves fans. You know. That was the Andrew

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Jones Chicker Jones, Maddox, Glavint and Smolts era. It was

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a good time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I remember it alrighty. So let's chat about

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some of your work over the last few days. You

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had a piece that was born from a Twitter discussion.

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I think because I saw the Twitter discussion and I

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think I'm being I think I'm being charitable calling it

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a discussion from where it devolved into not between you,

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but I think I may have actually contributed somewhat to that.

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But you say that on these maps that the legislature

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passed last week, that you don't think that the precedent,

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and we've talked about this redistricting exercise, you don't think

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the precedent was a good one. But you say the

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map is not a quote unquote extreme gerrymander as was

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advanced by Democrats and particularly this left wing organization Carolina Forward.

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And I've encountered this argument over the last gosh what

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fifteen years since the GOP won control and started drawing maps.

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Which is, North Carolina is a fifty to fifty state,

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so it should have fifty percent basically of the congressional

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seats apportion to it. But you say that's the long

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way to think about representation.

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Speaker 3: How so right exactly, And we've talked about this before.

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You know, I don't think it was a great idea

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to go back and redraw congressional districts in the middle

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of the decade. It might come back to bite Republicans

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down the line. But I also am just so frustrated

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hearing again and again from Democrats that you know, this

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is an extreme, extreme gerrymander. You know, there was one

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post from Carolina four the most extreme gerrymander in North

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Carolina history. And you know, I just responded with one

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of the maps from the nineties early two thousands. It

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was just a ridiculous shaped districts that were carved to

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give democrats an advantage. So the point I'm trying to

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make is a gerrymander is a specific term that has

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a meaning, and that meaning is not just a map

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that democrats don't like. You know, if you wantize these maps,

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then let's talk about how a district carves up distinct

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communities and splits them apart. I mean, that is an

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intellectually honest discussion that we can have. But just saying

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because not enough Democrats are elected, that in and of

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itself does not make a gerrymander.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you're drawing based on geography and you know,

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communities of interest and county lines the rules. Basically, when

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you're following that kind of blueprint, the Democrats are at

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a geographically structural disadvantage because they cluster in a few urban.

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Speaker 3: Areas, right exactly, So you know, Charlotte or Raleigh overwhelmingly Democrat,

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but all in a very compact area. So yeah, they

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get a district and it's probably an eighty twenty Democrat district,

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and that's fine, but that leaves the whole rest of

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the state that gets carved up, and so it's naturally

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going to lean more Republican.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you say at the end of this piece, this

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is at long leave, politics in a state that elects

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people from place is lines that respect real places are

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the standard. I think that's exactly right. And it has

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been one of the frustrations over the last decade as

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all of the litigation and you know, then there's the oh,

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these are racist districts, and it's like, well, no, when

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you're drawing based on partisan affiliation, if you draw heavy

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Democrat district, chances are it's going to have a lot

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of African American voters in it, simply because African American

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voters are registered ninety percent plus for Democrats, and so

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when carving up by party affiliation, it could look very

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much like you're using race when you're not. And the

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legislator said they did not, right.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think there's really any legal challenge

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that has any chance of surviving here. So I probably

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won't even follow it all that closely. I just don't

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see it happening.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, just because there isn't a solid legal challenge,

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does it mean there won't be any. In fact, there

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already is. So this is where we are, right all right,

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So real quick, there's not a lot of info on this,

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but I saw this the other day too, that there's

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a bunch of ads being pushed digital ads being pushed

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out against Senate President pro Tem Phil Berger. He has

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a primary challenge from the Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.

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This was rumored to be the case also like two

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years ago, and then Paige did not jump in, but

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he did this time. And there's a whole bunch of

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money now being pumped into this district. You took a

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look to try to find who North Carolina Families for

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Prosperity is and no, luck.

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Speaker 3: Not exactly. I've got a couple hunches, but yeah, I

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keep really close tabs on who's spending money on digital advertising,

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and when I saw this name pop up, North Carolina

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Families for Prosperity, I wanted to figure out who it was.

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I can confirm it is not affiliated at all with

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Americans for Prosperity, which it seems pretty clear that this

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group is trying to make it sound like they're a

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conservative group in that vein, but based on the messaging,

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it really seems like it's a democratic group that is

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trying to make itself look conservative and try to attack

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Philberger here.

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Speaker 1: So it's like it doesn't quite know the language of

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the right. It's like a it's like a third grader

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trying to use the cuss word that they heard their

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older sibling use, but doesn't quite know how to say

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the cuss word correctly exactly.

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Speaker 3: And you know, my first thought when I saw that

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the spending was, oh, maybe it's a Sam Page as

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a group helping him out, but that does not seem

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to be the case.

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Speaker 1: Interesting, Well, if anybody knows anything about him, reach out

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to Andrew dunnet long Leave Politics, because I'm sure you

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would want to know. And finally, op ed over at

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the Charlotte Observer, the No King's protests are a win

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for conservatism. Explain yourself, Andrew.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so, I'm sure you have talked on your show

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about the No King's rallies around North Carolina. Over well,

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I guess it's been almost two weeks now, and my

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editor over at the Observer asked me to what my

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take on it all was and to put it simply,

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you know, if they mean what they say, and you know,

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everyone out there was waving flags and quoting the founding fathers,

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and if they really mean that, then I think that's

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a great thing. It means that maybe normal people are

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actually going to retake the left away from the far

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left crazies and actually believe in patriotism again, which I

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would be all for. I'm a little skeptical because, yeah,

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not so much in North Carolina. Around the country, you

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had plenty of folks who were passing out Communist manifestos

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and stuff like that. So my guess is that probably

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just your same old far left groups trying to dress

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up as patriots. But you know, I'm trying to give

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them the benefit of the doubt here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you do say. The more cynical view is that

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No Kings protests were simply interest groups united against President

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Donald Trump, and that is Maybe it is cynical, but

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that's my view on it. I don't I think it's

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costplaying as you know, patriots, particularly when you see the

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Gallop polling on this, you know, and people are asked

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by are they proud to be American? And Republicans are

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around ninety two percent, Independents are at around fifty three percent,

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and Democrats are down around thirty six percent. So I mean,

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that's pretty disturbing if two thirds of Democrats aren't even

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proud to be American. So I don't know why you

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would be waving American flags if you're not proud to

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be American. But a lot of that is probably also

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connected to Donald Trump. But that decline has been going

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on for quite a while.

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Speaker 3: Exactly. Yeah, and it's extremely disturbing, but I honestly think

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it would be a much better thing for our country,

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even if it makes it harder for Republicans to win,

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if we had an opposition party that loved America and

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shared some of our fundamental ideals.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and if they would apply this standard, which I

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know that maybe asking a bit much to apply a

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consistent standard in politics generally, but specifically with a lot

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of these leftists, you know, to apply a consistent standard

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that if you don't want any kings, then you can't

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allow any kings, and that means if they are of

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your own political persuasion as well. And I thought you

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were completely right to bring up former Governor Roy Cooper

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during the COVID nineteen experience, that everybody is just sort

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of memory hold for some reason. And you know, the

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behavior that he engaged in had people sounding a whole

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lot like No King's protesters, But back then they were

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on the right. So do you think that people will

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apply a consistent standard here, No.

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Speaker 3: Of course not. You know, I still call him King

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Cooper around the house and people. I don't know how

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people have forgotten that we had more than two years

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of emergency powers and you know, all sorts of edicts

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from on high. I mean, that's a king right there.

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Speaker 1: You say, you don't know why people forgot? Do you

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have any guesses?

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Speaker 3: I mean I have to go back to the cynical view.

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I mean people, especially people who are now waving the

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flag and saying no Kings. I mean that was their guy,

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that was on their side. So it's just partisan.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think also maybe terror fear high rates of

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neuroticism that is prevalent mainly on the political left. You know,

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this this bent towards catastrophism, you know, I think there

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was a lot of that, and you know, people get

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you know, when you get sent home and your business

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closed by the government, and I think that it lends

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support to the idea that we are all in imminent

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you know, life threatening danger, and so if you are

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already prone to neuroticism, you probably saw that as proof

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that your neuroses were justified. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think that's right. And there was a time, you know,

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especially at the very beginning when they're of COVID, that

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there were so many unanswered questions, and I think everybody

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kind of bought into what was it, two weeks to

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slow the curve?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, whatever, But.

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Speaker 3: Then two weeks turned into eight and eighty eight days.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, give or take all. Right. Andrew Dune

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you can read his work at long Leaf Politics. That's

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long leafpol dot com. Uh. He's also a contributing uh

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what is it a contribute columnist there, you though, contributing

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columnists at Charlotte Observe Andrew. Always a pleasure, Thank you, sir,

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Thank you, Take care. All right, that's a Andrew Dunn. Say, Andrew,

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did did I call them Andrew Bates? Okay, good, because

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I just was looking at something Andrew Bates was in

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another news story. Oh my goodness, that would have been embarrassing.

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I mean, for Andrew Bates.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things,

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to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of

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our past while transcending generations. They help us process the

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meaning of life and our stories are told through images

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through the eyes of everyone around you and all who

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who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Alrighty, so

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this piece that Andrew wrote on the No Kings, it's

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at the Charlotte Observer. And by the way, if you

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follow him on Twitter, he gifted access to this column

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so you can read it there. He says, the overwhelming

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tenor in North Carolina at these No Kings protests was

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sober and patriotic, and I will engage it that way. So,

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like he said there, he tried to give him the

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benefit of the doubt. And you know, they're talking about

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things that we've talked about. I've talked about for years,

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which was this concept of the imperial presidency in twenty fifteen.

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This is why during the primary I was a supporter

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of Rand Paul because when he was running for president,

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he was the only candidate that was talking about reigning

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in the power of the chief executive. And he and

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his father basically are the only candidates that ever talk

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about that, because I believe the executive branch has grown

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far too powerful. And now that there's somebody in there

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that the left hates, now all of a sudden they're like, oh,

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you know what, this isn't so great. We don't want

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a king, we don't want the imperial presidency. But as

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Andrew points out in his Peace, it did not appear overnight.

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It wasn't invented by the Orange Hitler. He didn't say that.

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I say that, No, it grew in fits and arts

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across a century, right, and so it's going to take

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it's going to take some effort and time to unwind that.

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But it's also going to take a unified electorate and

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a unified legislature to claw back those powers and give

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them back to the legislative branch, but more importantly to

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the people and to the states. He says, if No

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Kings just becomes shorthand for no Trump, then we'll have

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learned nothing. And I think that's what actually No Kings was.

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It doesn't I don't think it will become no Trump.

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I think that's exactly what it was. It's what it

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was from the beginning. It's just a brand, you know,

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it's marketing. But if it were too mature into some

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renewed respect for process and restraint, then he says, something

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important will have shifted. If the No King's crowd is

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serious about putting the Constitution back in the driver's seat,

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that's an overdue course correction, and I, along with Andrew,

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I would welcome that. But again, when I look at

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the polling and Gallup tells me that every time Trump

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is in office, Democrats are not proud of America by

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a two to one margin, whereas Republicans consistently are always

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above eighty five percent. Going back to two thousand and one,

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they've been above that. So like, so you can cosplay

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as a patriot for your no king's protests, but call

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me when you know a Democrat is in the office,

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and then you want to reign in the imperial presidency.

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Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to

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a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina.

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of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene

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proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces,

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memories that'll last a lifetime. Mitch on the text line says,

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none of the no kings folks complained when Joe Biden

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decided to just not enforce our immigration laws, laws made

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by our elected officials. Indeed, our representatives made those laws.

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That sounds a lot like something a king would do,

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just ignore laws that he doesn't like. Now they're all

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bent out of shape when the next president enforces those laws.

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So in regards to immigration, who's acting more like a king?

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Trump or Biden.

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Speaker 1: Very good point, Mitch, fantastic point, and then got a

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message from John with a screenshot of a piece that

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was written by Dean Oberad Ah. Wow, I think that

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is how he pronounces that it was a piece that

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he had published at CNN dot com back on June eighth,

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twenty twelve, headline, liberals want Obama to be a king,

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not a president. And by the way, Dean obadallah he is.

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He's of the left, he says, some liberals want a

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ruler who would be unrestrained by Congress. Indeed, he had

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a phone and a pend famously, right did Obama a

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phone and a pen? And he would use them. That's

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why I have him. That's my Obama impression. It's a

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little rusty, you know, having had to bust it out

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frequently over the last twelve years now, but there was

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a time when it was quite mediocre. Yes, so yeah,

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it's a fair point. When you have the Biden administration

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that refuses to enforce law and essentially writes new law

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without even actually writing it. They just reinterpret it into

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a way that they want for their outcomes to be achieved.

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And in this case, I'm thinking specifically of the blanket

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asylum status that they granted and parole status that they

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granted to you know, millions of people. They were supposed

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to have gone through individual case assessments and they did not.

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They were just given blanket approvals. That's against the law,

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but that is what the Biden administration did, so, which

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is a more king like activity, you know. All right,

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So yesterday I mentioned the weekly updates that the Michael

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Wattley campaign. Michael Wattley the former Republican State Party chairman

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and then he went on to lead the Republican National Committee,

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the RNC, and now he's running for US Senate against

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Roy Well. He's in the GOP primary. He's got Don

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Brown also in that primary, and I think there's a

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third candidate on the Republican side. I'm not aware if

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Roy Cooper really has any opponents at all. If he does,

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it's some person that nobody's heard of. So Cooper is

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expected to just coast and that's why he's not really

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doing any campaign events. And he's recycling those old photos,

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as we discussed yesterday with ap Dylon in case you

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didn't catch that, Roy Cooper has been caught by National

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Review recycling old photos as if to give the impression

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that he is actually out campaigning around the state now.

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But these photos are from like over a year ago,

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so he's and as we talked about yesterday, he is

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probably in the windowless basement making phone calls to donors,

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because that's the Chuck Schumer playbook. That's what he told

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Jeff Jackson, the former member of Congress who wanted to

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run for the seat that was left open by Richard Burr.

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But he wanted to do one hundred county tour and

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Chuck Schumer told him, no, don't do that. We're going

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to stick you in a windowless basement and have you

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call and raise money. And Jackson said he didn't want

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to do that, and so he dropped out of that race.

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If he had ever actually even filed to run for it.

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So he said he wasn't going to run for it.

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He's now the attorney general. And that's what led to

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cal cunning him entering the race, and then you know

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he lost. Hm, oh no, I take that back, Yeah, yeah,

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that was yeah, that was the cal Cunningham election anyway,

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And that's how Ted budde no, Ted Bud won. He

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beat Cherry Beasley, so this would have been six years ago.

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Oh my gosh, I'm getting old. That's how long ago

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that was. Holy smokes. I guess it was. Okay, so yeah,

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so he yeah, cal Cunningham lost against Tillis. I guess

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it was, so all right, So Michael Wattley running for

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this nomination now, and yeah, and I think last week

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they started on this campaign on Twitter and on social

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media where they were doing a thing called mug Shot Monday,

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where they would highlight some of the you know, the

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worst offenders that are repeat repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat,

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00:24:30,839 --> 00:24:32,960
repeat repeat. I mean, I think we need a seventy

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strike law. I mean, I know Democrats don't want to

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do like a three strike law, but surely we can

404
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come up with a number like maybe fifty. If you

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get arrested fifty times, then it's like that's it now,

406
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:50,119
it's you get like double this the sentencing or something

407
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:54,559
like that. Maybe that's who they highlighted today, a guy

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with seventy priors or sorry, yesterday was mugshot Monday. Seventy

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prior arrests. This guy had, yes, I can tell you

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00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:14,599
who he is. Kevin Williams arrested over seventy times. For assault, robbery,

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00:25:14,759 --> 00:25:19,640
indecent exposure, breaking into cars. He was repeatedly released from

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jail under Roy Cooper's North Carolina Courts Commission appointee Lauren Freeman.

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She is the DA in Wake County and Cooper apparently

414
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appointed her to the North Carolina Courts Commission. She's a Democrat,

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and so this was in her jurisdiction. So, yeah, this guy,

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he's got mugshots. I mean, I can pull up all

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of the I mean it's possession of drug paraphernalia, second

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00:25:46,839 --> 00:25:51,960
degree trespassing, common law robbery, second degree trespassing. I mean,

419
00:25:52,079 --> 00:25:57,359
just his rap sheet goes back years, seventy arrests, right,

420
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I don't I think this is restorative justice. If this

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is restorative justice, it's definitely not working. The only thing

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00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,000
it does, apparently is restore the criminals to the streets.

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All right, if you're listening to this show, you know

424
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:13,960
I try to keep up with all sorts of current events,

425
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,079
and I know you do too, And you've probably heard

426
00:26:16,079 --> 00:26:20,160
me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well,

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because it's how you detect media bias, which is why

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I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app

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and verify information. You can check it out at check

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dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link

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in the podcast description too. I started using ground News

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a few months ago and more recently chose to work

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with them as an affiliate because it lets me see

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clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind

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left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground,

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get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage

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ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent.

444
00:27:14,599 --> 00:27:17,799
Chris in Charlotte on the text line says, face it,

445
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the No King's crowd are the same knee jerk folks

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as the Monday morons or the moral Monday Ers. Yeah,

447
00:27:25,319 --> 00:27:27,920
they're just less likely to be following a moron wearing

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00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:32,279
a collar. Well, I mean, if somebody with a collar

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were to get up and speak, I'm sure they would

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00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:42,119
like the left is so acutely aware of their detachment

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00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:46,039
from religion and how that plays to the normies. And

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00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:51,319
so anybody that stands up that claims to be of

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00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:55,279
clerical background, you know, they will elevate. That person's that's

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00:27:55,759 --> 00:27:59,599
Reverend Barber, you know, William Barber, leader of the Moral

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00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:04,640
Monday and all that. That's why they elevate, they gravitate

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00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,440
because it's like, oh, yes, he is our he's our representative. Like, look,

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00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,759
we love Jesus too, you know, we're we're good Christians.

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00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:16,240
You don't have a monopoly on on faith. Right wingers,

459
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:24,680
you loathe some deplorables. We are christ like, right, So look,

460
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,720
the right has their own, you know, their own avatars,

461
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:32,200
just for different things as well. But yeah, that's who

462
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,359
the that's who the no no King's crowd. And by

463
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:36,039
the way, if you doubt me on this, go look

464
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:40,400
up Zoron Mamdani as I just saw a song somebody

465
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,720
cut Mamdani the Kami. I love it. But they put

466
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:51,559
out some ridiculous rabbis for Zoron and this these four okay,

467
00:28:51,559 --> 00:28:57,559
hang on, three female rabbis and a dude dressed as

468
00:28:57,599 --> 00:29:01,720
a woman who seems he seemed on the spectrum. Let

469
00:29:01,759 --> 00:29:07,079
me just say it that way, and he's he's trans

470
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,720
and has makeup that looks like it was applied by

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00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,960
a four year old, and it's just it's unsettling anyway,

472
00:29:15,279 --> 00:29:20,079
these four people, Hello rabbi, Hello rabbi, Hello rabbi, Hello rabbi,

473
00:29:20,119 --> 00:29:22,440
and these these four rabbis, and like where for zorim?

474
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,400
I'm donnie, you know that's what I mean, Like they

475
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:33,319
will elevate clergy on the left like this. Meanwhile, you know,

476
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:38,799
clamoring about separation of church and state and all that. Sorry,

477
00:29:38,799 --> 00:29:44,720
So that was Chris on the text line. Uh, Steve said, hey,

478
00:29:44,759 --> 00:29:47,640
we can't forget when Biden ignored the Supreme Court about

479
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,599
student loans as well. Yep, he did that. Remember also

480
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:58,480
the the rent forgiveness. Remember that during COVID got sued

481
00:29:58,519 --> 00:30:01,440
over that had to stop doing that, that he was

482
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,759
going to ignore the US Supreme Court on that as well.

483
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:10,640
Very king like behavior. Indeed, Doug says Pete Trump should

484
00:30:10,759 --> 00:30:13,920
keep up with the cost of securing the border and

485
00:30:14,039 --> 00:30:18,920
the deportations and then send a bill to the Democrat

486
00:30:19,079 --> 00:30:25,519
National Committee that would wipe them out financially. Yeah, I

487
00:30:25,519 --> 00:30:30,599
mean it would make for a good pr move. Bill

488
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:33,480
wants to know why would New Yorkers vote for a communist?

489
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,359
Is the end near? Well, the end of New York

490
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,400
City might be near. This is like New York has

491
00:30:41,559 --> 00:30:44,880
a history of doing this, right. It's why they've got

492
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,759
what I forget what it's called. It's like the Finance

493
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,079
Commission or something like that. They had to, like the

494
00:30:50,119 --> 00:30:52,720
federal government had to bail out New York in like

495
00:30:52,799 --> 00:30:56,079
the seventies because they had bankrupted the city. So they

496
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,240
just they do this. And honestly, I think it's because

497
00:31:00,319 --> 00:31:03,799
when you put man and women, but when you put humans,

498
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,599
you pack them into a city. I think it's very

499
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:13,480
easy for people to lose connection to God and you

500
00:31:13,519 --> 00:31:18,279
start thinking in terms of materialism and and just you

501
00:31:18,319 --> 00:31:21,680
become a very human kind of focused person. Right, Like

502
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,599
all of my uh, all of my needs are being

503
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:27,880
met by humans, and I just interact at a very

504
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,160
human level. This is why it's important. You know, the

505
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,200
kids say, go out and touch grass, right, getting out

506
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:37,039
into nature, go and see you know, the sweeping vistas,

507
00:31:37,079 --> 00:31:39,160
Go to the mountains, go to the beach, whatever, and

508
00:31:39,279 --> 00:31:42,640
kind of reset, recharge. It puts you back in touch

509
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:46,599
with something bigger than yourself and bigger than just people

510
00:31:46,759 --> 00:31:50,960
you know and anyway, so I think that that there

511
00:31:51,039 --> 00:31:52,519
is something to that. You get a lot of people

512
00:31:52,599 --> 00:31:55,319
packed into a city and they just start losing touch

513
00:31:55,359 --> 00:32:00,480
with what I would submit is reality. And there's also

514
00:32:00,519 --> 00:32:02,240
the crime. When you pack that many people, you get

515
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,200
a lot of crime, which is as I was going

516
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:08,559
over before the break Michael Wattley's campaign with their mugshot

517
00:32:08,599 --> 00:32:13,920
Mondays and as I expected, Roy Cooper getting a lot

518
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:17,440
of coverage now from outside the state of North Carolina

519
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,519
because he is running for US Senate in a pivotal

520
00:32:20,559 --> 00:32:25,119
swing state. The Republicans and Democrats both need this Senate seat,

521
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:29,640
and so now Cooper is being subjected to investigative stories

522
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,039
about his record, about what he has done in a

523
00:32:33,079 --> 00:32:38,160
way that he has never had to grapple with. Yeah, okay,

524
00:32:38,359 --> 00:32:41,480
and in a way he's never had to grapple with because

525
00:32:41,599 --> 00:32:44,599
he has had sort of kid glove treatment in the

526
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,119
North Carolina political press corps his entire career. He is

527
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:52,640
a career politician. He has been in office like almost

528
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,759
my entire life, and he's pitching himself to voters as

529
00:32:56,799 --> 00:33:00,319
a tough on crime governor who kept thousands of island

530
00:33:00,319 --> 00:33:03,880
criminals behind bars and signed stricter bail laws when he

531
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,160
led North Carolina from twenty seventeen through twenty twenty five.

532
00:33:08,079 --> 00:33:13,720
But a Washington Freebagon review has found that several of

533
00:33:13,759 --> 00:33:19,039
Cooper's judicial appointees granted leniency to violent repeat criminals, some

534
00:33:19,079 --> 00:33:22,279
of whom went on to kill North Carolinians after their

535
00:33:22,319 --> 00:33:27,160
release from jail. And then they list a few. Octavius Wilson,

536
00:33:27,599 --> 00:33:31,720
repeat repeat, repeat offender caught on surveillance footage in November

537
00:33:31,759 --> 00:33:35,079
of twenty two repeatedly punching a twenty nine year old

538
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:37,480
Charlotte woman who had just got off a city bus.

539
00:33:37,599 --> 00:33:39,960
He then forced her into a porta John against her

540
00:33:40,039 --> 00:33:44,039
will and sexually assaulted her. Smears of blood and a

541
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,920
blood soaked tissue later discovered at the scene of the crime.

542
00:33:48,519 --> 00:33:51,400
One month prior, he had been arrested for missing court

543
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,200
on a separate charge of attempted rape in which he

544
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,559
threatened another Charlotte woman with a pocket knife. Both of

545
00:33:57,559 --> 00:34:00,319
his crimes occurred in the same area of the city.

546
00:34:00,759 --> 00:34:02,519
He admitted to having sex with the woman in the

547
00:34:02,519 --> 00:34:05,000
porta John. He was charged with second degree rape, first

548
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,400
degree kidnapping. A magistrate set the bond to two million dollars,

549
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:12,400
but that was reduced by Mecklenburg County Judge Tracy Hewitt,

550
00:34:12,519 --> 00:34:16,000
a Cooper appointee who got involved in the case and said, quote,

551
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,559
we're gonna help you out, according to a court hearing,

552
00:34:19,039 --> 00:34:21,559
and took his bond from two million down to fifty

553
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:23,039
thousand dollars.

554
00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:27,079
Speaker 2: All right, that'll do it for this episode.

555
00:34:27,159 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. I could not do

556
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:31,440
the show without your support and the support of the

557
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,480
businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like,

558
00:34:34,639 --> 00:34:36,719
please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

559
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,400
You can also become a patron at my Patreon page

560
00:34:39,519 --> 00:34:43,079
or go to thepetecallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so

561
00:34:43,159 --> 00:34:50,199
much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.