Speaker 1: What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to
this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon
to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you
want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,
my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron,
go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the
subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your
smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for
your support. All Right, so, North Carolina's governor has now
waded into a Democrat primary here in Charlotte. The primary
is the Democrat primary for state House seat that is
currently held by Carla Cunningham. We've talked about Carla Cunningham
in the context of her signing on to the petition
to oust the Mecklamburg County sheriff, Gary not My Fault McFadden.
She alleges that he called her and attempted attempted to
intimidate her and extort her vote on House Bill three eighteen,
which would require greater cooperation between the sheriff's office and
all sheriffs in the state with ice Because Gary Not
My Fault McFadden originally ran for office and won on
a platform of not cooperating with ICE, and he has
in his two terms so far he has fulfilled that
campaign promise, so credit to him. Right. He ran around
on the campaign trail promising to scrap the two eighty
seven G program, and he did. He ran around promising
that he would not cooperate with ICE, and he did
not like. He refused to work with them, and that's
how we ended up with people getting released who were criminal,
illegal aliens that ICE wanted to deport and were unable
to do so because Gary let them walk even though
Ice had asked them at the Sheriff's office hold on
to these people for an extra forty eight hours with
this detainer request, and Gary said, I'm not going to
honor your detainer requests. And then when House Built ten
was passed about two years ago, saying hey, you gotta
honor their requests, he then would not call them to
let ICE know that somebody was about to be let go,
so they had to tighten that up as well. That
was House Built three eighteen, and Carla Cunningham broke ranks
with all of her fellow Democrats in the House to
vote for House Built three eighteen and broke rank with
the Democrats to override Governor Josh Stein's veto of House
Built three eighteen, only Democrat to do so. So, now
Governor Stein wants to see her primaried. He wants her
to be defeated so they can get a Democrat in
there that's going to be loyal to Democrats, that's going
to vote lockstep with Democrats on every single issue, particularly
when it comes to overriding one of his vetos, maybe
even particularly when it comes to immigration and customs enforcement.
So there was a Council of State meeting the other day,
and Council of State is these are the ten elected offices,
statewide elected offices. They make up the Council of State.
They have regular meetings, I think like once a month
or something. And this is the you know, governor, Lieutenant governor,
Attorney General, Secretary of State, Insurance commissioner, Labor commissioner, like
all of the treasurer, the auditor, all of those statewide
elected seats. And there were ten of them, and I
believe right now it is a five to five split
Democrat to Republican I think. Anyway, after this meeting, Stein
was asked about his endorsement. So here is the story
out of the News and Observer, reported by Dawn Baumgartner. Vaughan,
North Carolina's governor says that he stepped into a Democratic
primary election to endorse a challenger because of a floor
speech during a contentious veto override vote on an immigration bill. Okay,
so it's not her vote. According to this reporting, Stein
didn't endorse Cunningham's challenger, Rodney Sadler, who is a he's
an act, Reverend William Barber of the Moral Monday Movement,
the Momomo right, So we are to believe that it's
not because she crossed Stein and voted to override his veto.
That's not the reason. It's because she made a comment
during her floor speech. Okay. I don't believe that, not
for a minute. First off, the floor speech occurred six
months ago. Okay, six months ago. Stein could have come
out with an endorsement at any point after candidate filing.
He did not. He's only doing it now after she
attaches her name to the petition to remove Gary McFadden.
So I don't know if Stein has been briefed on
you know, how awful the sheriff is and how legitimate,
these accusations are or anything like that. But this story
that he's telling that it's based on her comments made
from the floor, I don't buy that. What I believe
is it's because she voted to override his veto and
he needs every single Democrat in the House to stay
in line. Roy Cooper did this as well, and kudos
to the reporter at the News and Observer for pointing
this out as well. Stein did not rule out making
more endorsements in legislative races. He's not the first governor
to endorse a challenger in his own parties primary for
a seat in the General Assembly. His predecessor, Roy Cooper
aka my good friend Ray, endorsed the opponent of former
Senator Kirk Devier, a woman by the name of val Applewhite,
who went on to win the election and still holds
that seat because Devier had crossed Cooper by voting to
override his vetos, including a bill to reopen schools during
the pandemic, which was the correct vote. Right, But you're
not allowed to cast a correct vote if a governor's
veto is on the line, So think about that. Roy
Cooper primaried a Democrat a fellow Democrat in order to
keep schools closed. That's what he did. Okay. Now I
don't know if anybody's going to care as he's running
for US Senate, but that's the kind of fall in
line Democrat machine politician Roy Cooper is. And there were
a lot of people that were wondering whether Josh Stein
would operate in a similar fashion. And I believe we
have our answer now. Yes, Stein looks to be like
he is trying to take control of the Democrat party
machine apparatus, and this is how you do that. And
for the people who are new to town and aren't
aware of the historical nature of the Democrat Party in
North Carolina, I will point out machine politics is how
Democrats controlled this state for a century and a half
after the Civil War. Okay, that's how they rose to power.
It's how they maintained their power patronage spoil system so
like you couldn't get a state job unless you were
a Democrat and then made donations to Democrat politicians. You
couldn't get jobs at the local level, like everything was
on lockdown these The Democrat political machine was so powerful
it stayed in power for a century and a half. Okay,
and they only lost that power in twenty ten.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's the history, the history of the Democrat Party.
The machinery still exists, not as powerful as it once was,
but it still exists. So Stein endorsed this guy, Reverend
Rodney Sadler. Steinhold reporters yesterday after a Council of State
meeting that he could not endorse her because of her
speech during the veto override debate. I will play for
you what she said, and then I will read to
you what he said. She said. They're different, all right.
If you're listening to this show, you know I try
to keep up with all sorts of current events, and
I know you do too. And you've probably heard me
say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because
it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've
been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and
it's a website, and it combines news from around the
world in one place, so you can compare coverage and
verify information. You could check it out at check dot ground,
dot news slash pete. I put the link in the
podcast description too. I started using ground News a few
months ago and more recently chose to work with them
as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how
stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature
shows you which stories get ignored by the left and
the right. See for yourself. Check dot Ground, dot News
slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen
percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to
get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not
only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News
as they make the media landscape more transparent. All right,
let me go back to this News and Observer piece
by Dawn Vaughan. The headline is that Democrats speech on
immigrants led NC governor to intervene in primary. He says,
I say, I'm not buying that explanation. My opinion, my
speculation is he's primary. He wants to primary Carla Cunningham
from Charlotte because she voted against his veto. She voted
to override his veto. She was the deciding vote, the
only Democrat to break ranks on House Bill three eighteen. Okay,
this is the same bill back in July that our
sheriff may or may not have threatened her over. That's
the subject of her complaint that she filed against the
sheriff as part of the petition to remove him from office. Okay,
so that's the backdrop. And of all days, Stein chooses
the day that Cunningham appears in this petition to announce
that he's endorsing her opponent. Stein said he endorsed Cunningham's
primary challenger because quote, I want to have the best
General Assembly that we possibly can have, one that is
committed to moving North Carolina forward, to creating opportunity for
more folks, to embracing this value that everybody deserves a
shot in this state. And Reverend Sadler, I think is
great and he embraces that vision as well. I suspect
that Carla Cunningham would agree with all of that. See
I'm not buying this as an explanation. It doesn't have
the ring of truth to it. He then says, Representative Cunningham,
you heard the same speech I did on the floor
where she said that some people are better than other people,
and that is not something I can endorse. Okay, Carla
Cunningham did not say that. She did not say that.
And I have been dragging democrats, one of whom appeared
on this very program local state representative or state senator
who made this same accusation that this her comments have
no place in the Democrat Party, no place in North
Carolina discourse or whatever. She did not say that some
people are better than others. She said not all cultures
are equal, and that is true. She is one hundred
percent correct on that. And when I had that state
senator in here, what's his name, ted Drose something or other,
I forget his last name. But when I had him
on the show, and I asked him to explain that,
explain what she said, why what she said was wrong?
And I asked him, do you think all cultures are equal?
Because if you, if you cannot make a positive argument
to support your assertion, then she is correct. And he
could not. He refused to do so. He said, oh,
it's in the context of the debate we were having,
and he never answered it because he can't because if
you were to claim that all cultures are equal, people
would know that's not true. And he knows it's not true.
Stein knows that's not true. Anybody with half a thinking
brain knows that's not true. So that's why I suspect
has to reframe this with a lie. Stein is lying
where she says that some people are better than other people,
not what she said. Now, if she had said that,
that's not a defensible position. Although some people are better
than other people, right, But if you're just making a
sweeping generalization about like all people of this kind or
all people of that kind, like, that's not defensible. But
specific individuals, yeah, i'd say so, Like, for example, I
would submit that, hmm, mother Teresa is better than Adolf Hitler.
I feel like I'm on some pretty firm ground on
that one. No, So like that would be an indication
that what Stein is saying here where she said some
people are better than other people, some people are better
than other people in that context individually. But Carla Cunningham
didn't say that either. She said not all cultures are equal.
And again that's true. And I went over examples of this.
I listed various examples of how some cultures are not
very good. They don't have things about them that I
would prefer to adopt here in America. For example, I
don't think we should bury women up to their necks
and stone them to death on mere accusations of infidelity.
So like that's my personal preference, to be sure. But
I would say that you could even make all sorts
of arguments from a philosophical, from a religious, or from
just an ethical standpoint, that as a cultural feature, stoning
women to death on accusations of infidelity is not a
cultural norm that is superior to our cultural norm of
not stoning women to death for infidelity or allegations of such. Also,
here's another one. I don't think that as far as
a cultural norm goes, I don't think we should toss
gay people off of rooftops if that's part of your culture.
I don't think that that is a winning cultural feature.
I find that to be indefensible. So when Carla Cunningham
says something to the effect of not all cultures are equal,
then what's the problem? Oh, but it's the context of
the argument that you know. No, it's that she voted
to override his veto in order to get Mecklimber County
Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden to cooperate with Ice
to legislate cooperation. That's what has angered Josh Stein that
he vetoed the bill and she helped Republicans override the veto.
All right, Holiday football has a right. With Draft Kings
sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL, the
unexpected can turn game day into payday, and don't forget
Draft Kings as you're back with early exit pretty neat
function here. If your player goes down in the first half,
you still get paid in cash. Download the Draft Kings
sportsbook app and use the code PETE. That's code pete.
New customers can bet five bucks and get two hundred
dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins instantly. In
partnership with Draft Kings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem
call one eight hundred gambler In New York call eight
seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and
Why to four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut,
help is available for problem gambling Call eight eight eight
seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG
dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill, casino
and resort Kansas. Pass through of per wager tax may
apply in Illinois twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies
by jurisdiction. Void in ontariostrictions apply. Bet must win to
receive bonus betts which expire in seven days. Minimum mods
required for additional terms and responsible gaming resources see DKNG
dot co slash audio limited time offer. So Governor Stein
says that he's endorsing a Democrat challenger against the Democrat
incumbent Carla Cunningham here in Mecklenburg County because of her
floor speech from six months ago, where he claims that
she said some people are better than other people and
that's not something I can endorse. She did not say that. Actually,
here is what she actually said during the floor speech.
Speaker 2: First, as a people, we need to recognize that is
not just the numbers that matter, but also where the
immigrants come from and the culture they bring with them
to another country.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 2: As the social scientists, all cultures are not equal. Some
immigrants come and believe they can function in isolation, refusing
to adapt. They have come to our country for many reasons,
but I suggest they must assimilate, adapt to the culture
of the country they wish to live in.
Speaker 1: She is correct. Everything she said there is correct. There
are groups that come to America that come from a
culture that is not at all like the existing American culture,
and they refuse to assimilate. And if you want a
good recent example, the Somali population in Minneapolis. This has
been well documented. It is isolated, insulated. They do not adapt,
they do not assimilate. Right, and might even posit that
a cultural norm of piracy and stealing from the government
and defrauding the government because you come from a war
torn country and so the culture is you do whatever
you have to do and there are no real laws
because it's a war torn country with very little law
enforcement or yeah or government control. That when they arrive
here and they don't assimilate, they will engage in some
of those same cultural practices that they had in their
home country. Right. Carla Cunningham is correct. In her floor speech,
she went on to say, this.
Speaker 2: Is this not your country. This is my country, with
the good and the not so good. This is my country,
tears a bee. Now, if you want to adapt to
my country, not isolate yourself, and come here legally, I'll
welcome you.
Speaker 1: Oh there is the problem. I think that was the problem.
She said, If you want to come to this country, adapt, assimilate,
and come here legally, that's the problem. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You're a democrat we're not. We don't make distinctions between
legal and illegal. Right, But that is the key here.
She's talking about illegal immigration, and she's talking about the
refusal from by some people who come here to assimilate,
to acculturate, to adopt the ways of the host country. Okay,
if you go and visit somebody's house and they're like, hey,
take your shoes off when you come into my house. Look,
I don't have that rule in my house. But if
I did, or I went to somebody's house who said
take your shoes off when you come into the house, right,
I would expect to be thrown out of the house
if I don't assimilate. Right, I either follow their rules
it's their home, or I can leave. This is basic stuff. Well,
Cunningham has now apologized. All of the crap that Democrats
have been hurling at her for the last six months
seems to have broken her. She on her website posted
a video where she apologizes.
Speaker 3: Hi, I'm North Carolina State Representative Carla Cunningham to my
constituents and our Charlotte community. We see divisiveness and disunity
all around us. That's why I need to address an
important matter. There was a spirit of disharmony that surrounded
me before I voted on House Billed three eighteen. In
the days and the hours leading up to my speech,
I had received so threats from elected officials and community leaders.
This intimidation and bullying included a high level danger that
prompted the House Speaker to provide me with law enforcement protection.
I was shaken to my core in this state. I
said things that offended members of the community. And I
take full accountability for my words and my actions, and
I sincerely apologize throughout my life.
Speaker 1: Okay, And then she goes on to talk about all
the stuff that she's done and how you know she
should win, you know, be re elected in all of that.
So she sincerely apologizes because she was getting death threats,
she was being intimidated, she's being harassed by the left.
By the way, that's by her own party, which you'll
recall Tricia Cotham, former Democrat who flipped and became a Republican.
She said the same stuff when she crossed Democrats on
I believe it was the school voucher vote. This is
the kind of abuse that she was subjected to see
when people who are insulated in the Democrat bubble, you know,
and they're all pals and chums and allies with all
of these leftist moonbats. They don't they don't get this
kind of abuse. People on the right, we're used to it.
We've been getting this abuse for thirty years. Me personally,
I can tell you I've been getting this abuse for
all well twenty five years. Okay, so after a while,
you develop a pretty thick skin on this stuff. But
for Democrats, they don't get this kind of abuse. And
then you go off the reservation for one vote, you
have a difference of opinion on a single vote, and
the damn breaks and all of a sudden you feel
what people on the right field this is. I remember
talking to a fella up in Ashville who had run
for the Asheville City Council and he was a Republican.
Mark was his name, and he said when he filed
to run, he was dragged savagely by the leftist brigade
up in the Asheville area. And he's like, no, wonder,
Republicans don't want to run for office. This is the
kind of abuse that they get subjected to. That's why
I call it Democrat privilege. They don't get this kind
of stuff. And then there's the Charlotte Observer, their deputy
opinion editor page Maston headline, and embattled Carla Cunningham makes
curious accusations against Mecklemburg sheriff. Curious accusations. Again, as I
said earlier, I could describe the accusations that as a
lot of different things, but curious would not be a
word that I would ever think to use. It's not
curious at all. In fact, you just heard the apology
from Cunningham and she references the intimidation from local officials.
That's McFadden. She's talking about McFadden there, and she outlines
the accusations in the petition filed with the court. So
here's what Maston writes. In an unusual clash between two
embattled politicians. North Carolina Representative Carla Cunningham has joined a
petition attempting to remove McFadden from office. The filing alleges
McFadden threatened Cunningham last year as she was facing criticism
for supporting a controversial immigration enforcement bill, which McFadden vocally opposed.
Cunningham ultimately voted to override Governor Josh Stein's veto of
that bill. And she drew sharp criticism for a floor
each in which she claimed immigration is quote destabilizing our communities.
True and that all cultures are not equal. Also true.
She was talking about mass illegal immigration and immigration of
populations that refuse to assimilate.
Speaker 3: See.
Speaker 1: So many of our debates are filled with wasted time
because people on the left pretend not to understand what
the issue is about. This is an example of it.
You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense
of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the
people of our past while transcending generations. They help us
process the meaning of life, and our stories are told
through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video
started in nineteen ninety seven and mint Hill, North Carolina.
It was the first company to provide this valuable service,
converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos,
and out. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative
Video will go over all of the details with you
to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off
in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a
week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos
for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or
just your family stories all told through images. That's what
your photos and videos are. They are your life told
through the eyes of everyone around you and all who
came before you, and they will tell others to come
who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Let's bring
this baby in for a landing. Final segment of the
program a tweet from Sarah who says, josh Stein has
the same position as Cunningham's speech, and he thinks that
Democrats have better values and ideals than Republicans. Right, he
thinks that Democrat values are better, So he's a hypocrite. Yeah,
this is why I don't believe his cover story here
that six after a speech on the House floor where
Democrats clutched all of the pearls within arms distance. Six
months later, josh Stein then turns around and says, that's
the reason I'm not endorsing her. I don't believe it.
I believe he's not endorsing her because she voted to
override his veto. Now back to the piece at the
Charlotte Observer by the Deputy opinion editor Paige Maston. According
to the petition that was filed to remove Mecklamber County
Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden. Cunningham feared for her
safety after a conversation with McFadden in which the sheriff
said the people of Mecklamberg County would come after her
if she voted to override the governor's veto. The filing
says that, based on McFadden's tone and manner of delivery,
Cunningham believed he was referring to physical harm and not
political opposition.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Yes, Also for the fact that she had had threats
against her that prompted the Speaker of the House to
provide her with a security detail while in Raleigh, she
had to go and hire a private security force here
back home in Charlotte. So that's part of the equation
here too. It's not just that, oh, well, she may
have misinterpreted what he said. And by the way, I'm
old enough to remember when all of the training modules
were telling everybody that it doesn't matter if you intended
to offend somebody with something that you say. The only
thing that matters is how it is received by the
offended person. That was the standard, that was the woke
left standard in corporate settings, in public communications on social media,
if you said something that some hyper sensitive, emotional basket
case took as an insult or offensive or something, then
you were to blame for that. That was your standard, lefties,
your standard. That was like three years ago, okay, which,
by the way, is why nobody believes any of your crap.
Now we just don't. We are done playing this game.
Just done. And by the way, you also prompted the
rise of people, these edge lords who now just seek
to offend because they think it's funny, because now it's like, okay,
everything was offensive, so now let's just go ahead and
just be as offensive as possible. The filing also claims
McFadden told Cunningham, I don't want to see you get hurt.
You live in my county, which she understood to be
a threat. Now, Paige Masden may not believe Cunningham's interpretation
of McFadden's comments, I would tend to believe her, you
know why, because I haven't been ignoring our sheriff's behavior
with his own staff for the last eight years. He
has told people have documented in the petition that was
filed for his removal, but also in the resignation letters,
the public statements, the interviews that former employees. I think
there's probably I've got I don't know, seven or eight
of them in my macfadden file over there, former employees
who talked about how this is how the sheriff behaves.
He says these things. Now, maybe he didn't mean it,
but that's the way he comes across. That's the way
he says this stuff. She took it to be a
threat to change your vote, override the VET or don't
override the veto fall in line with the Democrats, because
I oppose House built three eighteen and it'd be a
shame if something happened to you. I don't want to
see you get hurt. You know, Meckelberg County people, they
are going to come after you. These folks are going
to come after you. She already had private security, and
the sheriff is telling her, I don't want to see
you get hurt. You live in my county, my county,
it's his county. Both Cunningham and McFadden are running for reelection,
Maston says, and will face competitive Democrat primaries in March. Cunningham,
for her part, seems to be feeling the pressure, She
posted a video her campaign website Sunday apologizing I played
that clip. She said the comments that she made were
influenced by the intimidation and bullying by macfadden she received
prior to the vote. It's the second time in the
past month she has tried to publicly walk back her comments,
which she had previously defended. Meanwhile, Stein announced his endorsement
of Charlotte Paster Rodney Sadler, one of her primary challengers.
Which is why the timing of the petition and Cunningham's
participation in it raises questions. Wait a minute, the petition
came out on Monday, right, it was published Monday, sent
out to media. Stein made his endorsement Monday. And you're
telling me that the timing of Cunningham's presence in the petition,
in the release of the petition, that the timing of
that is suspicious, But not Stein's endorsement, which came after.
What are you doing? Seriously, what are you even saying here?
This is the line that McFadden has now seized on.
Dare I say or maybe he's doing a little pouncing,
but he's seizing on this and that's why you heard
the comments last night at the forum where he's talking
about how oh, this is an election cycle, smear campaign.
These are lies. It's all about the election. It's been
nearly six months since the vote and McFadden's alleged threats
took place. Why is Cunningham just now choose to come
forward about it less than two months before an election? Well,
I already went over the timing. It's because McFadden slow
walked his announcement that he was running for reelection. If
he hadn't done that, then, if he hadn't announced he
was running again, then there would be no petition to
remove him. But the fact that he is running for
reelection now, they filed the petition to get him out,
and they did so immediately after the holiday season. It's
a law firm. They're working through the holiday season. They
did the work and looks like about four weeks. Did
she attempt to contact the authorities about this potentially illegal
act when it happened. If not, why does she have
any proof beyond her own recollectioncy, Now here's the standard.
You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to me
the media person before I believe all women, sorry, this
woman right, oh, how the standards change when the politics
require all Right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank
you so much for listening. I could not do the
show with about your support and the support of the
businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like,
please support them too and tell them you heard it here.
You can also become a patron at my Patreon page
or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so
much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.