Speaker 1: What's going on.
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and again, thank you so much for your support. Alrighty,
so it's been about a week I think, maybe a
little bit longer since we talked about Tijuana. Not the city,
not the shows. No, no, about Tiajuana Brown, the indicted
Charlotte City council member, Tijajuanna Brown. She's made news again.
Not for the indictment. It's nothing new on the indictment.
She is still indicted, don't get me wrong. She is
still under federal indictment for fraud along with her two
adult daughters.
Speaker 1: But that's not what she has made news for now.
Speaker 2: Now she has made news because she is not going
to run for reelection. Psych she is going to run
for reelection. Hah, That's all part of her plan.
Speaker 1: You see.
Speaker 2: She's on a mole hunt. Yeah, she's looking for a leaker.
And so she drafted an entire statement about how she
was not going to run for reelection after telling everybody
that she was going to run for reelection. She said
it at her press conference, which was an absolute train wreck.
She said it after her court appearance in federal court
where she was you know, had to go in because
she got indicted. Right, So on her way out, she's
walking to the car and she's like, I'm not going
to resign. I'm going to run for reelection. Almost I
got more of votes or whatever. I carried every precinct.
It's a Democrat stronghold. Of course you're going to carry
every precinct. So she drafts this letter, this press release,
I should say, it's a press release, Hello family, colleagues, constituents,
and okay, you've got to add some commas, and I
know you know how to do that, because you put
a comma after hello and after family. But then she
just abandons the comma for colleagues, constituents, and faithful supporters
of District three. It is with a humble and heavy
heart that I share this message with you today on Thursday,
May twenty first, my life changed forever. After much prayer, reflection,
and deep conversations with my family, I have made the
difficult decision not to seek reelection. Psych she's totally not
seeking reelection.
Speaker 1: She doesn't say that right, but the statement like.
Speaker 2: This is a very lengthy statement. You don't draft this
statement unless you have it drafted in order to send out,
in order to say you're not running for reelection, she says.
The past three weeks have been overwhelmingly painful for me,
for my family, and for those who love and support me.
The media, smear campaigns, the hate, the silence of some
I once called friends. Would that be your colleagues on
city council that you said totally supported you, but so
far nobody has come out and support of you.
Speaker 1: Would that be the people you're talking about. I don't know.
Speaker 2: All of it has been a storm, she says, But
through it all, we stood, we survived, we fought. Yeah,
I don't think the storm is over. I kind of
feel like it's just beginning for you, Like you just
did a first appearance in federal court. Like you haven't
even gone you haven't even gone to trial. You're not
even you're not even close to that yet like you're
not through this storm. So I don't know why you're
saying that, like we stood, we survived. I mean, I
guess maybe if you want to say, all right, I
survived the first battle in this war, and so now
you live to fight another day. Okay, Fine. She goes
on to say, if there's one thing you know about
the woman you elected, it's this. I am a truth teller,
except on federal forms when I'm asking for money, and
a fierce defender of justice, except if it's coming at me.
I have never backed down from a fight rooted in
love and truth. Always the hero or the victim, never
the villain. Right, is this a fight rooted in love?
You lied allegedly on applications to get federal money, federal
COVID dollars. You submitted allegedly as part of your application
a fake IRS form, a scheduled see form, and so
did your daughters same form. So I'm not sure this
is a fight rooted in love. You know, I kind
of feel like I'm playing left wing mad libs where
you just you know, got a whole bunch of blanks,
and you know, give me a noun, give me this,
give me that, and the left. He just throws in
all of the words like the work, you know, love, struggle, whatever.
But this fight, she says, is rooted in love and truth.
She says, I was born into struggle and I have
risen through it again and again got it. Look, hey,
it got her to where she is now, right, This
this this personal origin story of how you know, she
had a very difficult upbringing and she got.
Speaker 1: She got hooked up with the.
Speaker 2: Wrong guy and was involved in all of this fraudulent activity,
got arrested and sentenced to prison, and then had her
first or had eight child. She was pregnant at the
time when she went to prison, so had the child
in prison. Like, but now she's you know, out of prison,
and I've turned my life around. And that was her
origin story. That was her compelling narrative, and that propelled
her to the city council despite a lack of any
relevant experience. That's what got her elected was look at me,
I went to prison for fraud and then lo and behold.
A couple of years later, we find out she's accused
of more fraud. If only there was a sign, right,
if only, she says, it's easy for people to pass
judgment when they don't understand how the criminal legal system works.
That's exactly why I've chosen to live my life as
an open book, and why I've just well, you really
don't have a choice. You really don't because everything is
public records. You don't have a choice but to live
with this story. You can't deny it because there are
public records, right, so you have to lean into it
at any rate, She says, why I've dedicated myself to
fighting against a system that was never designed for us.
Speaker 1: Who's us?
Speaker 2: Uh? Race card in coming everybody? Yeah, systemically racist? Like
she didn't do the things that she did. That that's
what I'm to believe that she was convicted for that.
She wasn't stealing people's identity and credit cards or whatever
all those years ago, committing all of that fraud. She's
the victim and the hero. As of now, she says,
two individuals, mister Montravious King and miss Joy Mayo are
seeking that. Well, you know who I'm back in that race,
Mayo obviously. I mean, come on, I am a fan
of Mayo. I can't I cannot deny that. So these
are the two announced candidates, She says, I want to
be clear.
Speaker 1: Ugh, there's that crutch again. Then may be clear.
Speaker 2: I will not be endorsing anyone in this race. I
will stay in the seat that you put me in
until my term ends in December twenty twenty five. Many
of you have sent cards, flowers, messages, and made personal
visits encouraging me to run again. Please know this decision
was not made lightly. I carry your love with me
as I take the next steps through jury selection. I
look forward to what the future holds. I will remain present, active,
and deeply rooted in the community that raised and supported me.
I am committed to continuing to serve, to heal, and
to walk through this legal battle with my head held
high and my faith unwavering. All my life I've had
to fight, and when we fight, we win. It's a
total ripoff of Kamala Harris until the next chapter. Thank
you from the bottom of my heart with love and patience. Councilwoman, doctor,
she's a doctor?
Speaker 1: When did she get.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, what kind of doctor? Is this one
of like those? I guess you a medical doctor? I
don't think so. Is she one of the like like
a like a doctor? Jill doctor? I wasn't aware of that.
Maybe she did get a PhD somewhere or is this
one of those honorifics, the kind that doctor vill Ma
Leek was awarded without actually doing anything to get said honorific.
That was a big scandal about twenty years ago. Vilmalik,
County Commissioner, when she was on the school board, was
always referred to as doctor Vilma Leik, not a doctor
in any way, not a medical doctor, not a PhD doctor, nothing.
It was an yeah, she like went to some like
I don't know, strip mall kind of storefront thing or something,
and they gave her some honorific and she called herself
doctor and CMS called her doctor Leak for years for
years until we were like, hey, well what's her doctorate in?
And nobody could answer it. And then all of a
sudden it became this huge scandal. CMS scrubbed its website
and I'll never forget doctor Wilhelmina Rembert, and she has
a doctorate. She was the school board chair maybe I
think at the time she became chair, but I don't
know if she was chair at that. She made an
vice chair at that time. And doctor Rembert said, it's
not a big deal. She's not offended by it. She
you know, has a doctorate and Vilma didn't. But she
didn't mind that Vilma was called doctor because it's a
term of endearment in the black community.
Speaker 1: She said, So that's is that? What this is?
Speaker 2: I don't know, Like I'm genuinely curious. What did she
do to earn a title of doctor? Tiyojana Brown? All right,
so there's the statement. But psych it's a lie, a fraud,
you might say, but it's serving a larger purpose like
increasing her bank account. No, I'm kidding, but it serves
a larger purpose. What's the larger purpose, glad you asked?
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.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 2: 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 can 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.
Speaker 1: See for yourself.
Speaker 2: 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. She so, she has this press release drafted,
sounds like she wrote it herself, Does it not?
Speaker 1: Does to me?
Speaker 2: Very lengthy press release about how she will serve out
the remainder of her term. But she's not going to
run for reelection again, not going to make any endorsements,
and so obviously then news media starts calling up, like
you're not running for reelection, can you, you know, do
an interview? She says, though, that a former campaign staffer
linked that press release and that this was done intentionally
buy Tiyawana Brown in order to smoke out a rat Yeah,
she's on a rat hunt, uh huh, or mole hunt
or a leaker hunt. Right, She's she's seeking the leaking,
much like the City of Charlotte is. I don't know
why are they doing that? They said they were gonna
do that. City of Charlotte very interested to find who's
been leaking information out of their closed sessions when they've
been paying out a bunch of money to the police chief. Right,
how dare you inform the public about this three hundred
five thousand dollars payoff to the chief? So they're they're
on their own, uh leaker seeking mission. So she decided
to do one herself. So she wrote up a fake
press release and then she handed it off or I
guess emailed it to one of her campaign staffers who
this may be relevant or not, but I think it is.
This campaign staffer has in the past for Tijuana Brown,
sent out press releases for Tijuana Brown. So right, So
Tioana Brown gives the press release to one of her
trusted staffers, who then sends it out to the media
as she has done with other things. And Aha, busted,
You're a disloyal laker. Brown represents West Charlotte's District three
and faces wirefraud charges. She has said that she still
plans to run. The email quote should have never been released.
Brown said she promised to tell the media if she
changes her election plans. How will we know if it's true? Now,
I can't trust anything that comes out of her office,
her campaign. Now, why would any media trust anything that
comes from anybody associated with the with the Brown campaign?
Speaker 1: This is so stupid. Why would you do this? Oh?
I had to find out who's leaking what.
Speaker 2: Oh. I have been following the details of this story.
I'd like to think pretty closely. I mean, it's not
my beat. I'm not a reporter covering like every single
aspect of it. But I feel like I have been
aggregating a lot of the coverage over the last few
weeks since she got indicted. Everything that the media has
reported has been public information. I'm not aware of anything
in any of the stories. I have the whole stack here.
I've got all of the coverage right here, you can look.
I mean, it's like, I don't know a quarter of
an inch thick. It's a bunch of stuff. It's my
file that I started on her when all of this
stuff first popped There isn't anything in there that's like
a leak. This stuff came off of your Instagram. You
posted the photos of your birthday party with the horse
drawn carriage the throne. The indictment made all of the
allegations public. Nobody broke open this story. You did a
press conference, so I'm unclear what the leaking is.
Speaker 1: But then again, not my beat.
Speaker 2: So maybe there is some leaking going on, or she's
just paranoid about it, which I think that might be it.
So she writes up this press release, gives it to
a person that has worked for her in the past
and still apparently is a supporter, and that person's job
was to give stuff to the media, was to issue
the press releases. And so now Tijuana Brown says it
never should have been released. The email was only sent
to Collette Forrest, a former campaign consultant. Quote, she leaked it.
You have my permission to print this. Clearly, I don't
need your permission to print something that you tell me
unless I just so. I don't think she understands. She
may claim to know how all of the criminal justice
system works, but I'm actually kind of doubt that now
with her indictment and all. But you do not understand
how media works. If you think you can say, oh,
she leaked it, and you have my permission to print that. No, no, no, no,
you said it, I can print it, she says, clearly,
I cannot trust her. She's the only person I sent
that email to. Forrest told the Observer that she's worked
on Brown's previous campaigns and that the council member sent
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memories that'll last a lifetime. The indicted Charlotte City council
member who drafted a press release that said she would
not be running for reelection didn't actually mean it. It
was all a lie. She did it to smoke out
a leaker in her ranks, and apparently that link leaker
is Forest. A former campaign consultant, Tiojanna Brown said she
leaked it. You have my permission to print this. Clearly
I cannot trust her. She's the only person that I
sent the email to Forest. For her part, told the
Charlotte Observer that she had worked on Brown's campaigns and
that the council member would send her emails in the
past to share with the media. That was her job.
So when she got the announcement, she sent it and
she said that she was heartbroken and hurt and saddened
that Tijanna Brown was not running. After she saw the
email on Tuesday and mentioned her feelings during a conversation
with a reporter about Monday nights council meeting, I later
on find out that she was testing me, and I'm like,
am I a labrat? Forrest said she's perplexed by the situation.
I had no idea that this was a fake.
Speaker 1: News email, which is exact exactly what a leaker would say. Mmm.
Speaker 2: So, this to me quite clearly illustrates things are not
going well in Tijuana Land, in the Brown land, well
in whatever well that's or Tijuana World, that's what they
call it, Like in the campaign world, you know, like
in Biden world or in Trump world. In so in Brown,
in Brown world or Tijuana I like Tijuana world. It
just flows better. Things are not going well in Tijuana world.
It is obviously a siege mentality that has gripped that operation.
However many people are in it, I'm assuming not many.
It is just the Charlotte City Council race, to be sure.
But this is indicative of a paranoia and a siege,
a bunker mentality. She's lashing out. She doesn't know who's
with me, who are my who are my loyal friends?
And who's you know, who's Lencoln? Who's telling people's stuff?
Everyone's out to get me. This is not healthy, not healthy.
This political post might not be the best for her,
and if the I guess federal prosecutor has anything to
say about it, she won't be in it for much longer.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: She was indicted on federal wire fraud and wirefraud conspiracy charges.
She and her grown daughters all pleaded not guilty at
their first court appearance. So that's the Charlotte Observer. Over
at WBTV, a piece by David Hodges and Cassidy john Cox,
an apparent press release was forwarded to WBTV on Wednesday,
June eleventh that appeared to originate from council Member Brown herself.
According to Brown, the email announcement forwarded out this week
was part of her effort to catch a mo mole
inside her circle of trust. The email saying Brown was
not running for reelection was apparently drafted by Brown and
shared with Koleette Forrest, Brown's former campaign volunteer and communications staffer.
I sent her the email to see if she would
leak it, and she did, Like why would you? I'm
just thinking you could have gotten to this same you know,
conclusion in your mole hunt by doing by sending something different, right,
creating some sort of a rumor, or like saying something
to her that so like, you didn't have to draft
this very long news release because it's a news release.
It reads like a news release and everything else. If
you're trying to smoke out a leaker, you would want
it to be something that's particularly juicy and untrue. Right,
here's the thing. We don't know if this press release
is untrue because when you wrote it all up, and
maybe you're you had to write it up anyway just
in case you do need to resign. Maybe you wrote
it up at a point where you thought you would resign,
but then you were like, no, no, no, I'm not
going to resign. I'll just you know, like abe Lincoln
would write letters to his enemies, and he would just
put him in a drawer and then never send them.
Maybe that's what she was doing.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: A student of history, maybe she is. Why not just
come up with something shorter, something salacious, that then you
could easily knock down and then turn people against Koaled
forst because like, honestly, I don't believe the councilwoman.
Speaker 1: Why should I.
Speaker 2: She's been indicted for fraud and she served time for fraud. Like,
it's not that big of a stretch to think that
this might be a fraud, and in fact it is
a fraud. She said it was a fraudulent press release
that she gave to her campaign staffer to smoke out
the leaguer. Why not just say you're no longer part
of a team, which I don't even know if she is,
if call At Forrest is part of the team. The
reelection announcement, which Brown has since said was an attempt
to try to identify a leaker, does not include any
note or message that the document was meant to be
kept secret. Oh well, that's a problem when you draft
a press release and give it to your comms staffer
without saying something like keep this to yourself for now,
like embargo this just just in case. Here it is,
but don't send this out like you didn't even tell
her that. So if you give your comms person a
press release, you should expect them to release it. It's
kind of part of the gig. Former campaign staffer Forrest
spoke with the WBTV and confirmed that she did send
the email to local news stations. Forrest said she was
shocked and saidened after receiving the email about Brown from Brown,
and that she viewed it like many other news announcements
that she sends to local reporters. Yeah, I get stuff
from her. Forrest said she has sent several emails on
behalf of Council Member Brown to Charlotte media members to
promote events or speaking engagements for Brown. For Brown, So
the leaker basically is your comms gal who you used
to send press releases just like this one. As far
as as far as mole hunts go, as far as
rat hunts go, this is not the most well constructed
one I've ever heard, But then again, it does seem
to be kind of a similar pattern with the you know,
the level of complexity and thought paid to the application
for the COVID loans that she got indicted for. It
does seem to be kind of like that, like she's like, Oh,
I'm so smart, I found a way around this. It's like, yeah, no,
that's not actually the best way to go about doing that.
So anyway, I guess Colette Forrest is off the campaign
if she wasn't d already, and Tijuana Brown will continue
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create a video. Dot com Tiouanna Brown, Charlotte City council member,
indicted on a mole hunt trying to figure out who
the leaker is. And oh my gosh, it's the person
who was communicating with the media as your comms person,
which is her job to communicate with the media. So
when you give her a press release she sends it
to the media, it kind of feels like entrapment, you know,
like I'm on a search for the leaker. So I
know your job is to forward out press releases to
the media. So I'm gonna give you this press release.
I'm not gonna say don't send it to the media.
I'm just gonna give it to you as if I
want you to send it to the media. And then
when you send it to the media, I'm gonna say, Lika,
you're the Liaka. I'm glad we could all play a
role in this paranoid bunker play.
Speaker 1: Let me get to some messages here.
Speaker 2: Jay says, when I lived in San Diego, we called
Tijuana tj oh Okay, not gonna call her TJ. Dennis
says he's a little concerned over my preference for the
candidate Mayo Joy Mayo to replace Tijuana Brown in District three.
But I've said, like, I am a fan of Mayo,
and I think I just like, for consistency's sake, I
would need to I would need to back any candidate
really named Mayo. When it comes to Mayo, I hope
you catch up on the fact that she's a community
activist and what she can cut the mustard as a
council woman. I just want to spread my concerns. There
no nicely done holding all the So this is from Kevin,
who says he's surprised I haven't been accused of being
a racist. Actually I have been accused of being a
racist for covering the tia Wana Brown story. So Stan says,
you misunderstand Pete. When she said her fight is rooted
in love, she meant it's rooted in love for money.
John says the Tiawana mole sounds like a character from
Hannah Barbera. It amazes me that she thinks she is
so important that first the federal government indicted her simply
to stop her from being a city council woman, and
that there's somehow a conspiracy to leak her inner campaign workings.
My question is where did the email come from? What
email address sented? Was her email or her campaign? It
sounds like it came from her, That's what it sounds like.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: She did hold a town hall a couple of days back,
or actually that was she did two of them over
the last like two or three weeks. And despite the
federal indictment, the constituents who attended the town hall did
not show much interest in the indictment at all. Nobody
asked her any questions about it. Actually, during the Q
and A, most questions focused on Charlotte's growth and public
safety down in the Steel Creek division, and one constituent
told WBTV that what happens to Brown because of the
charges is more concerning than the actual charges. Quote, what
happens if we lose her, what happens with her challenges.
I think that's a big question, said Patrick Burris. Will
someone succeed her with the same ambitions, Well, definitely, same aspirations. Definitely.
I think that's what the biggest concern and is at
that point. Yeah, here's another idea. Maybe somebody better gets elected.
Oh my gosh, these people voters, man, I'll tell you
all right.
Speaker 1: That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much
for listening.
Speaker 2: I could not do the show without your support and
the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast,
so if you'd like, please support them too and tell
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thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.