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.
Speaker 2: And if you want exclusive.
Speaker 1: Content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my
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subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your
smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. President Donald Trump arrived in North Carolina. He
was in fact greeted on the tarmac by North Carolina
Governor Josh Stein. He then proceeded to tour some of
the devastated areas in Swannanoah, which is a town just
outside of Ashville. You've heard me mention Swanaoah repeatedly in
the last four months since the Hurricane Helene ripped through
that area because Swannanoah is the location of an organization's
headquarter called Hearts with Hands. It's a disaster relief organization,
and so they are based right there and they mobilized immediately.
Their warehouse was spared actually, so all of their equipment
and supplies and stuff they could immediately deploy and they
are a good organization. I've donated money to them if
you're looking for one to donate to heartswidthhands dot org.
So that's Swana, Noah, that's where the president is. I've
gone to the beginning of the comments.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: They've got a podium set up and looks like Reverend
Franklin Graham starts off the.
Speaker 2: Stars, starts off the comments.
Speaker 1: Trump is there, Malani is there, and then there are
a bunch of local residents that are with him.
Speaker 2: Okay, so here he goes. He's walking I think up
to the up to the lectern.
Speaker 1: There are some more people standing behind the lectern there.
Speaker 2: In front of a house that's just been just destroyed.
Speaker 1: There's an RV off to the side of it as well.
Franklin Graham is shaking people's hands one, two, three.
Speaker 2: Four or five. Looks like about it's probably about ten
to twelve.
Speaker 1: Local folks that he's you know, walking down the line
shaking their hands.
Speaker 2: All right, here's Franklin Graham.
Speaker 4: It's a great honor to be here with these people
today that have suffered so much and to lose everything
you have and you just wonder what you're going to do.
And where you're going to go. And we just thank God.
And that's one of the I want to say, thank
God that he's given us the resources to be able
to help. And a lot of people have helped, and
not just some Meriton's Purse, but there's been many different
organizations and volunteers have just come to Western North Carolina
and East Tennessee to help. I grew up. This is
my backyard. I grew up about eight miles or so
from here, and a lot of went to high school
right down the road, about a mile down the road,
and so this is this is home to me. But
we've got a family today, and we've got the West family.
This is their house. So we're here today to show
the President just a little bit of the damage and
the problems that the people of Western North Carolina are facing. So,
mister President, thank you for what you have done for
Western North Carolina. Thank you for coming again to see
Thank you your son Don Junior, he came with us twice.
And so they've taken a real interest. And this isn't
a politician coming down here looking for votes. This is
a man who wants to do something, who wants to
see some changes, who wants to make life better for you.
So thank you, and Malanna, thank you so much for coming.
It's an honor to have you here with us. So
mister President, please thank you very much.
Speaker 5: Thank you. All Right, good man. He's done a great job,
fantastic job. And we've come to North Carolina with a
simple message for all the people of this region who
were hit so hard by Hurricane Helene. And that message
is very simple. You are not forgotten any longer. You
were treated very badly by the previous administration. And I'm
here after a few days of the administration. We're going
to California, Los Angeles.
Speaker 6: They got hit hard, as you know. A lot of
that could have been prevented.
Speaker 5: I think if they had water, which they had plenty of,
but they didn't use it. But I'm going there. But
we set up to go there, and they said, what
about North Carolina? They said, well, what would you? I said,
I have to stop there first. I'm stopping in North Carolina.
So we made the stop and I feel very good.
You're represented by some great people, great great congressmen are
with us, and we're going to get involved with him.
And Michael Wattley is here, who is the head of
the Republican Party. He worked with Laura Trump to take
us through to a tremendous victory, one of the as
the media says, one of the most consequential presidential elections ever.
They say, in one hundred and twenty nine years. Whatever
that may mean, but whatever it is, it's it was
a great election we had and we won year State.
All three times we won year State, and all three
primaries we won year State. So we wanted six times,
I guess, mister Congressman, And it's a great place, and
I wanted to come here. And before I went anywhere, frankly,
in the campaign, I promise that I'd come back to
western North Carolina to help the people of the state.
Speaker 6: And today here I am to deliver on that promise.
Speaker 5: And we have a lot of things in mind, and
we're getting the core of the Army Corps of Engineer
Engineers all set. You need your riverbanks fixed, you need
a lot of roads fixed, and we're going to get
it done in rapid time. And I've asked Susie Wiles
and all of my people to start calling up get
the core ready, and they're going to get ready to go.
Speaker 6: I don't know what it is.
Speaker 5: I don't know what took so long for the other administration,
but remember I wasn't here for the first four months
or three months, whatever it may be. See, we can
only start as of essentially one or two days ago,
and we've made a lot of progress over the last
couple of days. Michael, I understand. We're going to get
you the resources you need and the support that you deserve,
and we'll be at your side through every step of
the rebuilding. And no American is going to be left behind.
The people that I just met are so great, and
the people that don't that house, that house is going
to be very beautiful in a little while. And who knows,
if Franklin decides maybe he'll rip it down or build
him a new one, because sometimes you can do that
just as easily. But we're going to take care of
the people. I want to thank our great first lady
for coming today. She really wanted to be here. She said, no,
I want to go, and you know, she sees what happened,
and she felt very badly and she wanted to go,
and were then going out together to Los Angeles, but
she wanted to be in North Carolina. She said, what happened.
She has a feeling like I do for North Carolina.
So thanks as well to a great gentleman, Franklin Graham
and his father.
Speaker 6: Billy Graham.
Speaker 5: I used to go with my father to Yankee Stadium
and places to watch his father preach. And he was
some preacher where you got good stock. You come from,
you come from the ultimate jeans.
Speaker 6: I can tell you. But he was really something.
Speaker 5: And Franklin, though, has done so much, and his father's
looking down her him right now. I guarantee you for
a long time he's been looking down on Franklin saying
I'm very proud of you, son. He really is, because
what Franklin's done with Samaradan's purse is incredible.
Speaker 6: They told me just yesterday. The Samaritan's person has been great.
But the FEMA people sort of left you high and dry.
But we're going to change that around.
Speaker 5: We're not happy with FAMA as well as all of
the representatives. You have great representatives here, Chuck Edwards, who's
here someplace?
Speaker 6: Where's Chuck? Where's Chuck? Chuck? Tim Moore? Tim?
Speaker 5: Thank you Tim. Great job to both of you guys.
Virginia Fox a power She's a power that one. Don't
ever have her as your enemy. It's not good, it's
not healthy. Pat Harrigan, good job, Pat Addison McDowell. These
guys were just here, just put in and they're doing
a fantastic job. Addison, thank you very much. Great Mark Harris,
Thank you, Mark, Thank you, Mark, Brad Not thank you, Brad.
Greg Murphy, fantastic guy, my friend for a long time now, right.
Speaker 6: And the RNC chairman Michael Wattley, who.
Speaker 5: Really, as I said, brought us to a great victory
with Lara the chairman of the party, the whole Republican
I took Michael Wattley from North Carolina because he did
the best job and put him in judge of everything.
And the job they did together was incredible. Last September,
Hurricane Helene became one of the deadliest natural disasters in
modern American history.
Speaker 6: Rainfall rows to far more than thirty.
Speaker 5: Inches, which is lethal, unleashing unprecedented devastation throughout western North
Carolina and many other states.
Speaker 6: As you know, but you got hit the hardest.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna poster. I'm gonna pause it right there,
and we'll pick it back up in a minute.
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All right, let's pick up where we left off. We
were running them back so we can hear what he
had to say out there and his plans for FEMA,
and his plans to help the people of western North Carolina.
Speaker 5: It's ability and deepest obligation of the American government is
to protect its people, and that's never truer than in
times of emergency like this. Unfortunately, our government failed you,
but it wasn't the Trump government.
Speaker 6: There was a government run by Biden. A What a
terrible situation.
Speaker 5: But our government failed the people of North Carolina and
this horrible crisis for two months Asheville lacked running water,
and even today, some North Carolinians can't take a hot
water shower, they can't drink water.
Speaker 6: They don't know where to get it. They have to
it's delivered.
Speaker 5: To them by some where they just go out and
somehow find some It's been four months since the storm
made landfill and still one hundred and eighty roads remain
closed and in ruins. Earlier this month, the Biden administration
kicked two thousand displaced North Carolinians out of their temporary
housing inter freezing twenty degree weather.
Speaker 6: I don't know how they did that one.
Speaker 5: Because it was cold, even while your government provided shelter
and housing for legal.
Speaker 6: Aliens from all over the world.
Speaker 5: But under the Trump administration, the days of betrayal and
neglect are over.
Speaker 6: They are over.
Speaker 5: As I said in my inaugural address, we restore the integrity, competency,
and loyalty of the American government. And I think I
said most of it in the inaugural address. We said
a lot of things, but one of the groups of
people I was thinking about is you in North Carolina.
A lot of that was in reference to you and
what you've had to suffer. I'm pleased to announce that
under our leadership, the federal government will be surging housing
solutions of the state. They go beyond mere temporary hotel
stays that ended up being very short termed. The government
wouldn't do it any longer, which is ridiculous. Will marshal
all available resources that bring back poudable water and make
your water and infrastructure dramatically more reliable, very quickly. Today,
I'll also be signing an executive order slashing all red
tape and bureaucratic barriers and permits to ensure the rapid
reconstruction of the roads here in western North Carolina. We're
going to go through a permitting process that's called no permitting.
Speaker 6: Just get it done. That's the way they built them
many years ago.
Speaker 5: I guarantee you that right we will get them back
very quickly, and we'll begin the work of fundamentally changing, terminating,
or overhauling FEMA.
Speaker 6: FEMA has been a disaster no matter where they are.
Speaker 5: We're honored to be joined today very quickly by several
families affected by the vicious storm. I'd like to ask
each of them to share their story. Chris and Kim West,
you could come forward.
Speaker 6: Ramona.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna stop there, because at this point,
he turns the microphone in the podium over to like
three or four different families and he just lets them talk.
And I would point out here, as we were watching
this occur, we looked over at the other TV, the
other monitor here in the studio and CNN is not
covering this live. CNN is instead showing the behind the
scenes story of the giant pandas at the DC Zoo.
That was literally the story that they were covering, rather
than the President's visit to Western North Carolina. Now, I
don't know if they're going to cover his visit to
Los Angeles. If I was a betting man, I'd say yes,
but maybe not because it's Trump. After that story, they
went back to their studio to discuss in depth the
deportations of criminal aliens. Those were the stories that they
decided were more worthy of your attention as a CNN viewer,
as an American CNN viewer, than the people of Western
North Carolina that, four months later, still are living intents.
All right, I hope you had a happy holiday season.
But tell me if something like this happened at your house.
Your family and friends are gathered around, Maybe y'all are
in the living room, You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing, and
then somebody says, hey, Dad, remember those old VHS tapes?
Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room
gets all quiet. All eyes are on Dad, who says, oh,
you know, well, I've been meaning to, but I just
having gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless
memories sit in a box for another year.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Create a Video has been helping families in the Charlotte
area preserve their history nineteen ninety seven. Simply bring in
your old camquarder tapes and Creative Video will transfer them
to a USB flash drive for just fourteen ninety five
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those memories, imagine gathering the family to watch them together.
Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did.
Trust the experts at Creative Video, conveniently located in mint
Hill right off I four eighty five and online at
create avideo dot com. President Donald Trump went to Western
North Carolina. He wrapped up remarks.
Speaker 2: They lasted.
Speaker 1: I think it was about twenty five, Yeah, twenty five
thirty minutes or so. He wrapped up about half an
hour ago. We're listening back to it. He has made
his opening remarks, and now he has turned over the
mic to or he's turning over the microphone to a
couple of families that are there with him standing around
him so they could tell their stories to the media
that is in tow to get to get the word
out about what has occurred.
Speaker 5: To that next Jackie Mitchell and Thomas gary Bright and
finally the right family and come on.
Speaker 6: Up and maybe say a few words. Please, thank you
very much.
Speaker 1: I come on in here, So Trump adjusting the microphone
for this is Kim West, I believe.
Speaker 7: Whenever it started, we started moving our vehicles to the
top of the road. And uh, by the time we
got the vehicles moved, the water had already hit our
ankles in the house, and so I grabbed my purse
and my little pug dog and my husband grabbed the
dog food and put it in a trash bag. And uh,
by the time we got out into the driveway, it
was already waist deep and there was still and that
kind of thing. I didn't think I was gonna make it,
but we did make it out, and we made it
to the top of the road, and we were kind
of stuck there for hours because we couldn't get out
any of the ways because it was flooded all the
way around. It took us hours and we sat there
and finally it receded enough to where we could actually
get out. It was probably like close to midnight and
it started like five six o'clock in the morning. We
just lost everything that we had. Didn't even have a
brush for like three days.
Speaker 6: Hurricano, thank you?
Speaker 5: Okay, would you like to say something with that beautiful day?
Speaker 6: So hey?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. So when the hurricane storms.
Speaker 2: Trump adjusting the mic Alin hit.
Speaker 3: Our home, my daughter and my wife and I were
actually out of town, but unfortunately my dad who was
still at home and my mother was staying at our
house with our with our animals, and the water has
got so high that it actually lifted between that and
the tornado that came through or micro versus what they've
been calling them, and lifted his home and the house
that I grew up in and crashed it into our barn.
It took away his business, It took away all of
our tools and tractors and everything needed to keep the
farm going. And my mother was trapped in the house
and there was no way to escape because the water
got so high. The only thing she could do was
rided out and wait till the waters came down. So
we've been doing a little bit of battling with our
insurance and FEMA. We did have proper insurance with flood
insurance and homeowners insurance that since we had proper insurance,
FEMA has not been able to assist us with a
whole lot of things. And again we've been having some
issues with trying to get some payout for our insurance
in a timely manner.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: We had to do mold mitigation on our home, which
is extremely expensive, before the structural engineer even came out
in order to get our flood payout. And to me,
that was not really acceptable.
Speaker 6: This company been responsive or not.
Speaker 2: Real, not not so much.
Speaker 3: You know, again, give you.
Speaker 2: The money they have to give you.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping so, and we might mean we need some
assistance with that. We reached out to an attorney insurance company,
North Carolina Farm Bureau. That's what we're after here.
Speaker 5: When the insurance companies general different insurance companies and they're
all difficult or just the one particular one.
Speaker 3: I've heard different stories from others and a lot of
folks are and I've heard some some good instances of
even Farm Bureau themselves. But in my case, you know,
they'd send out a third party adjuster immediately. Will they
wound up firing that third party adjuster group. He gave
us a quote for a much higher estimate than what
we received and then he got let go.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he got fired.
Speaker 3: So then they brought in another third party adjuster to
come in and low ball us. We've not received any
kind of so the flood insurances are primary insurance. And
so there was roof leaks in the home that the
inspectors found. The adjusters will that contributed to us losing
some of our personal properties that come in the third
story where there's no or second story living space where
the floodwater well above the flood waters. So they've neglected
us for yes, yes, she said, she's right here. Okay,
so we yeah, we made it.
Speaker 8: It's not exciting, right, that's right.
Speaker 9: I was scared.
Speaker 4: Were you scared?
Speaker 9: You thought?
Speaker 6: Did you think you were gonna make it? No, you
didn't think so, No, I just started praying. So you
were sort of in a boat.
Speaker 5: Your house became a boat at some.
Speaker 4: Story because at the beach house on the steps. I'll
bet this.
Speaker 8: Guy I was next door to the house and my
son was out of town. So when he came in.
Speaker 2: To Charlotte to my.
Speaker 8: Sisters, he called about two in the morning, because at
midnight the water was still in the strain right within
the banks. So when he called, the water was coming up.
So I started moving vehicles up till about five thirty
in the morning, and she was in the house and
I pulled up to the steps and I said, hop
on the fender and I'll get you out. Well, he
built a beach house on stills right, five times higher
than the flood plane. And she said, well, he said,
I'd be okay, So I'm staying with the dogs, right.
So I went to the higher ground with some vehicles, hers included,
and the water covered everything. But I had already seen
it come around both sides of my place. So I
got my buying and deaf dog and a bag of
aables and took up off the side of the hill
behind my house and then was heading to the cemetery
back there, cause I knew it was open cause there
was trees falling right and right uprooting. It was Brian, No, no,
I've been three floods all my life.
Speaker 2: But you're okay, right, yep?
Speaker 8: Pause, destroyed.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're gonna help you out.
Speaker 2: We're gonna help you and appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Thanks for me everybody else you guys.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I'm gonna stop right there. There's one
more I think, uh individually is about to tell his story.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: If you're listening to this show, you know I.
Speaker 1: 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
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ground news as they make the media landscape more transparent.
Listening to the news conference being held in Swana, Noah,
that's western North Carolina. President Trump has been visiting, touring
the area a little bit and talking with families, and
he's giving them microphone time at this media availability to
let them tell their stories to the national press. Here's
the third family, that or fourth family, I guess. I
came to the Microcrafita day.
Speaker 9: That morning began a little taller with some trees falling
into our house, which our houses goes back four generations
eighty years and never came close to flooding. And we
woke up with the trees about four thirty or five
in the morning. And our house sits three tenths of
a mile back off the road and the water. You know,
we've had flooding and such in the lake, but nothing
like we saw. And like most everybody else, we moved
five vehicles this far up, lawnmowers and everything else, and
the water started coming in the house and we got
up to about ankle high. We have a loft. I
got her up in that and tried to gather what
you might want, which was totally random. And then when
it made it to the loft and started getting up
to about our hips, I built a little makeshift ladder
and we got out on our roof and we spent
four hours on the roof. I had a little bag. Yeah,
I did notes on my cellphone to my two kids,
had some of my two grandkids, and something to identify
me in case we were lost in it. It now
we're yeah, we do, We're going to make it at all.
I mean our house was twenty five feet underwater and no,
we were watching houses, trailers, bodies coming by us.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 9: And we lived in the Azalea Road area in East Ashville, Tea. Yeah,
we watched our garage float by. Yeah, but uh, you know,
we we got to a point where it crested about
four feet up on the roof. We took about three
or four hours for it, so we could kind of
do everything in reverse and got out in the mud
to higher ground. Uh. And I got out higher ground
up to a subway and got over to her daughter's house,
where when she saw that I didn't have her, she
lost it and I was like, she's okay, she's alive
and we tried to make our way back in there
and out of things best we could, but you know,
found a.
Speaker 6: Body right away.
Speaker 9: We had their about eight bodies in our area that
first two weeks located and we were lucky we weren't
one of them and blessed, but like other people, of
no insurance on flood insurance, so we we had to
depend on FEMA. They did what they could do, and
of course it's not enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's crazy.
But again we're thankful to be alive. But it's a
long haul staying in the camper. I've never been off,
y'all knowiced I'm a big guy. I don't sleep in
camper very well. And the first night we spent in
the camp, were very grateful with the actual dream Center
coming through with one and oh yeah, it's it's family land. Yeah,
the land it looks like a beach now it's sand
but be built on.
Speaker 6: Yes you intend to do that, Yes, you want to
build it again.
Speaker 9: It's Amaricans purse. We're working with them, We're working with people.
We you know, it's it's it's eighty years for generations.
Speaker 6: But the house is totally done.
Speaker 9: The house is there was down to you. They came
in and muttered it, but everything in it was completely destroyed.
But yeah, it's it's tough. I think we're at a
point in Ashville where people's forgot about Asheville and it's
it's staggered. Everything is stopped, you know, you know, take
you some appreciate that. They thank check, thank you please.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: So this these are you know, personal testimonials from various families.
There's a I think there's another woman there that that
speaks as well. And Trump said it at the very beginning.
He said, We're going to get you all the resources
you need. And uh, he said, we're going to We're
gonna slash red tape, remove bureaucratic barriers, and remove permitting
to get stuff built. He said the Army Corps of
Engineers has been dispatched. He said, I don't know why
this hasn't been done. He says the government failed the
people of North Carolina. But the days of betrayal and
neglect are over all. Right, that'll do it for this episode.
Thank you so much for listening. I could not do
the show without your support and the support of the
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You can also become a patron at my patreon page
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much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.