Critical judicial races & Cooper's rewrite of history (09-02-2025--Hour1)

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 dpeakclendershow 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. It's Tuesday. It's twelve o'clock noon, and that means we talked to Andrew Dunn. He is the publisher of long Leaf Politics. Longleafpol dot com is that website. He's also a contributing columnist in The Charlotte Observer. Andrew, how are you, sir? I'm great. I'm sitting out on my front porch and this weather is just unreal. Yeah, yesterday was beautiful, and I don't know, I mean, maybe it's the change of seasons or something now, because like I've got something that's like affecting my my chest. So hopefully I can make it through the show today. I like my chances, but I'm playing injured. So no, that's all right, that's Okay, I'll be fine. So I got to ask you, what the heck is a judicial palooza? I have never heard of this? This is an event you attended? I think I saw. Well. Is it like a band kind of thing? Like a jam band kind of a deal? No, much more exciting than that. Now. This was an event held by the Hornets Nests Republican Men's Club, great organization, the largest Republican organization in North Carolina, I believe, and they hosted a real powerhouse crowd of Republican judicial candidates to run in twenty twenty six. When and so when was that? It was a week ago, last Monday. Okay, and so, so what was the format? You just hang out and listened to speeches? Or is it like a Q and a A? Is it a meet and greet? Little bit of both. You know, there was time for meet and greet and then all of the candidates who were running next year came up and gave their little pitch, and a lot of it was mostly talking about what are the stakes in the judicial elections for twenty twenty six. You know, the Senate race is obviously going to take so much of the attention, but there actually are some important judicial races coming up next. Year such as well. The big one is the State Supreme Court seat. You know, right now Republicans have a five to two majority on the State Supreme Court. The seat that's actually coming up in twenty twenty six is Justice Anita Earls. You know, your listeners may remember she was elected in twenty eighteen. This was the year when all the rules changed, so there wasn't a primary, so the general election ballot had two Republicans on it, and then Anita Earls as the Democrat, and so she squeaked out of victory on there. So I think it's it's going to be a lot different dynamic in twenty twenty six, that's for sure. Right because the legislature reimposed the partisan designations for the judicial races, which then, of course they were accused of politicizing the judiciary, which is silly. It's not politicization to simply see the party label next to people's names. I think, in fact, it's a heuristic. It's a shorthand way that people can have an understanding of what somebody's judicial philosophy would be when they don't know anything else about the candidates. Because like you said, the top of ticket races usually get way more of the media coverage and stuff, And so she's running against the only one announced I guess at this point is Representative Sarah Stevens. Yeah, I think it's fair to call her the presumptive Republican nominee. She's a state representative, has been in the legislature a long time. I think I don't think she'll have too much trouble getting the Republican nomination there. So you have a quote in here from Court of Appeals Judge Michael Stadding, and I've interviewed him a couple of times when he was running, and he's to me, he's been a very impressive judge and he's on the Court of Appeals now, but he used to be a local judge here before he made the jump to the Court of Appeals. And so I guess what did he give a He gave a speech where he talked about if they're honest, judges will say or voters will say, I want a judge who will follow the law. And you say that that simple statement is Republican coded. So what does what do you mean by that? Yeah, that's exactly right. So you know, Court of appeals judges has to campaign statewide, as do state Supreme court judges, and so that means, well, they're not going to raise a whole bunch of money, So that means a lot of their campaigning is going to be door to door and talking to voters one on one. And so Judge stating in his speech, he talked about how he doesn't just go to Republican doors, He's going to unaffiliated voters, He's going to even some Democrats. And basically how he'll open up the conversation is you know, what are you looking for in a judge? And you know, ninety nine times out of one hundred people across the political spectrum, they're looking for judges who are going to fairly apply the law. There is a real a movement that you know, voters don't want their judges to be activists, right, They don't want judges to approach the bench with their preferred outcomes in mind. And I think what we've seen in North Carolina and around the country over the past couple of years as a real movement towards democratic judicial philosophy being more activist outcome oriented, and you'll see Republican judicial philosophy be a lot more process oriented, a lot more you know, strict constitutionalist, really trying to follow and apply the letter. Of the law. You also mentioned the local races, the superior and district court races, which are hugely important. People complaining about crime and you know, soft on crime and light sentences. This is where you actually have the opportunity to make a difference, although in Mecklamburg County that's pretty difficult, and I feel like there's a there's a structural disadvantage for any Republican that's running for these seats, not just because of the districts, but also because a lot of lawyers are on the left, a lot of lawyers are Democrats, and a lot of Republicans are not interested in sort of you know, running for an office and then losing and then having to sort of still move in the legal circles when you've challenged a Democrat judge and lost. Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, if you're an attorney with business before any of these judges, it really puts you at in an awkward spot if you're going to lose an election and then have to go have business in front of them, which is unfortunate, but that's just kind of reality. Yeah, but yeah, so all of the district court judges in Mecklenburg County are Democrats and two years ago was the last time those they were on the ballot, and not a single Republican even ran. But I think that's unfortunate. You know, I get why it is, but I think in this environment, when I really feel that voters, especially unaffiliated voters in larger urban areas, are getting tired of some of the soft on crime policies and there might be a path for a Republican judge to actually break through there. Well, we'll see, we can, we can hope, we could hope. Yeah. So you also had another piece the other day. Killing on the light rail should jolt Charlotte awake. This is about the stabbing murder of Arena Zarutska from the Ukraine and some homeless, mentally deranged guy just murdered her on the light rail car and the response from the city leaders not great, I don't think, And I think the statement from the mayor not great. Also, one sentence about the victim and then five paragraphs about how we failed somehow the suspect in the case. And now I think she mayor vy Lyles is looking to do some clean up with an MTC meeting tomorrow to talk about crime. This is a problem for them with this campaign for a referendum. No, yeah, it certainly is, and I'm going to write a piece about that. In regards to the referendum. At some point, I do think that we need to rethink where the money is going if the transit tax were to pass, and there needs to be some money carved out for public safety, because it is just it is not there. The emphasis on safety has just deteriorated over the past five, six, seven years. But you know, on the piece that I wrote, this case just has me so so sad just seeing you know, this woman left the Ukraine trying to flee to safety and came to Charlotte and here she gets stabbed to death and a completely random, unprovoked attack on the lightrail train and it just I just very upset about it. But the reason why I wrote about it was I, in my mind, this type of case, this type of event, should be a huge deal for the city of Charlotte, you know, this, this should be something that the public at large is outraged about that all of the politicians are feeling like they have to take some immediate action to fix things, and I just hadn't seen it. You know that you referenced the statement from the mayor, and you know she basically said, well, you know, the city is by and large safe, and the light rail is by and large safe. And you know, you know, tell that to this young woman's family. You know, that's that's going to be cold comfort to them. I really think that this sort of event, you know, if Charlotte really wants to keep its soul into the future, this seems to be the sort of thing that sparks immediate and dramatic change. Yeah. I did not realize that you were at UNC when Carson was murdered. I remember that story. I did not know you were there at the time, but that death had a very big impact in Chapel Hill. It certainly did. I mean, that was the sort of event where you remember twenty years later where you were when you heard the news, and you know, I was working on the student newspaper at the time, and that was, oh, just a horrific, horrific event, and it did spark some change and some better policies, especially aroung people who were on probation and parole, and so to not see that same level of response in Charlotte is disheartening. Yeah, we don't want to be complacent. We don't want to be I mean, I was just looking at the stats for this weekend in Chicago. They had like fifty eight shootings, fifty eight victims over the Labor Day weekend. And I don't know what that says about the leadership and the citizens of a city where that's just accept It's just not a big deal. Right, Yeah, complacency is a good word for it. I mean, I don't think Charlotte wants to be the kind of city where we just throw up our hands and say, well, you know, this is a city and this sort of thing just tends to happen now and then. I mean that that would be a huge, huge problem for the city of Charlotte. Yeah, that's the attitude we adopt. You can read his work at long Leaf Politics longleafpol dot com. He also puts up a column at The Charlotte Observer and his name is Andrew Don Andrew, we appreciate your time as always, sir. Yeah, thank you. I hope you start feeling better. Yeah, you and me both and everybody listening to the scratchy sound of my voice. All right, thanks sir, all right, thank you. Take care. That's Andrew Dunn. So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom and my dad took care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family. But things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause means a lot to me. I participate in the annual Walk to end Alzheimer's and I'm leading a Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth that truest field. Sign up at alz dot org slash walk and then you can search for my team name Pete's Pack. There's also a link at thepetepod dot com. There's also a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh, and so you can make a team and join that one too, or make a donation and help me hit my goal of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it. There are a bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas. You can go to alz dot org slash walk for all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you walk with me? For a different future, for families, for more time for treatments. This is why we walk so Republican Charlotte City councilman Edwin Peacock. He was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Tark Bacari, who took a job up in the Trump administration. He's now running for an at large seat, and he was previously an at large Charlotte City Council member. I want to say, maybe like a decade ago or so, he took a ride on the light rail and he shot a video. I don't know if it went straight to the TikTok or to the Insta or to the Graham. I'm not sure. I'm looking at it on Twitter, formerly known as x It runs just under two minutes, and he's on a train and you can see a group of men back behind him in the back of the train, and he does make reference to then led with Peacock. Tonight, I'm riding our light rail system. I'm going eighteen stops from South Penn's Newburn station, the uncc's main campus and back. Now. A week ago our community suffered a really terrible tragedy. Twenty three year old Ernold Zarutko, a refuge from Ukraine, lost her life on this train in a brutal stabbing. Tonight we are mourning Arnia and standing with her family. Now, as a city council member, I wanted to see things firsthand. Tonight I've met the two security officers that I met at the East West station. Both carried only handcuffs and some mace, and one told me he was on a ten hour shift. Now, it was interesting because neither I had. One of them asked me for a ticket, and I didn't see him asking anybody else. But I can tell you that their presence matter. Now. I've been riding with college kids heading home. I've been with hospital workers, and I've also been with several people in this train, particularly these guys behind me, where this is clearly a rolling shelter for them. They're partying and having a good time. So here's the central question. Is our open gate system keeping us no what consistent, fair checks or a stronger presence helped to prevent crime disorder? Yes? And I believe the answer is yes. So I've asked staff to bring us back three years of crime data on this system and to tell us whether offenders who were riding without paying in the first place. And we need to set clearer standards. If you ride this train, you must pay your fare. Now. Our lightrail system should be safe, it should be reliable, and it should be welcoming for all. And that is what our city deserves, this great system that we started. Thanks for tuning in all right. So that's Edwin Peacock. He called it a rolling shelter. There's three guys maybe four in the back of the train car and they're just hooting and hollering. You can hear them. They're like, I don't know if they're rolling dice or something in the back or whatever. I'm not really clear what they're doing because they're pretty far away. But Yeah, it's a rolling shelter, and if you're not going to police the fares, then anybody's going to get on and ride for free, and they will treat it just like these people are treating it. By the way, WBTV did a look back for crime on the light rail, and before the deadly stabbing took the life of the twenty three year old immigrant from Ukraine, the Charlotte Area transit system had reported at least five blue line injuries in a report to the federal government in twenty twenty five. WBTV analysis of reports submitted monthly to the Metropolitan Transit Commission revealed a small uptick in reportable injury since twenty twenty three, two years ago. There were no federally reported injuries or deaths on the light rail line. This year's numbers only run through May. Game on Week one starts now, and every touchdown brings you closer to a payout with Draft Kings sports book and official sports betting partner of the NFL. This isn't just football, it's first touchdown fireworks. Anytime TD rushes live bets that ride every momentum shift. A Draft Kings, ever replay is your next shot to win, Will the Panthers win? Will we even get a touchdown? New customers bet just five dollars and get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly, plus get over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. So your season starts now. Download the Draft Kings sportsbook app and use code Pete to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you place your first bet of five dollars or more plus over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. But you got to use promo code pete. 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Last week, the Smoky Mountain News ran a story called Helene Victims still waiting for Wattley Michael Wattley, that is, and Roy Cooper tweeted out this story and said quote the President put Michael Wattley in charge of federal recovery for western North Carolina. Wattley is failing North Carolina families. And Cooper then proceeded to get dragged in the Twitter comments that followed because in case nobody remembers, Roy Cooper was the governor when Helen hit want to welcome to the program. Welcome back to the program. Don Brown. He's former US Navy jag officer served in the Pentagon. He's a former Special Assistant US Attorney and also a national Best selling author. He is running for the US Senate seat, hopes to be the candidate from the Republican primary to go up against Roy Cooper. Don, how are you, sir, Seed, I'm great. Happy Labor Day Week to you. You should be on vacation this week. You should have brought the B team in many to hear your voice the appreciation of hard work. I am the B team. I am the B team, all right, Sonny? Yeah, So okay, So what struck you as a particularly noteworthy aside from the obvious that Roy Cooper was in charge of Helen response before Trump even took office. Well, I'm somewhat familiar with that tweet, and you know, first off, I have campaigned in the mountains of North Carolina, and neither Michael R. Roy Cooper are the most popular figures up there. Yes, it's true that President Trump said you're in charge, and really we can't see mce it was done. But let's take a let's talk about Cooper for a second. Listen, the Democrats were in charge of the response and Roy Cooper, Roy Cooper's president Joe Biden. This storm went through on the twenty seventh of November. Excuse me, twenty seventh September, and there was no federal response until October the third, you know, in other words, there were no military helicopters coming. There was no military response. I should say, the Democrats set back and did nothing, and you've got to act within twenty four hours to save lives. Only was there raising money somewhere. We didn't have helicopers or black helicopers coming in the following day delivering generators, delivering waterlve they should have done. We had the military presidents, both through the federal response from the President and through the North John National Guard to have gotten in there. And Roy Cooper was asweep at the wheel. And I don't think either one of the two wants to be pointing a finger too much of the old one about their lack of COVID response. But excuse me, the lack of Hellen response. I should say, COVID to us, Hey, don't give. Him any ideas on another COVID response. Good lord, no, no, please exactly. But it's kind of like, you know, two guys that didn't do too much pointing to finger at each other. But I guess Cooper started that we're going to take Roy Cooper down We're going to remind the entire state. Not only is his failure there, but his failure on multiple fronts as well. He shut the state down, you know how, he basically killed fifty percent of the restaurants in North Carolina. As I've said before, Pete, the last time I saw my daddy alive was looking through the outside of a nursing home in Plymouth, North Style, was standing out on a frozen courtyard, looking through a glass window, waving at him because of Cooper's unconstitutional mandates. So Cooper, hey, if he'd better hope than Mike Watley runs against him, not me, because I'm going to remind him of every failure that he has imposed upon this state, and I'm looking forward to doing that. You mentioned the fact that he was out of town. In fact, he was up in New York City as a matter of fact, when the hurricane hit. He was up there doing a speech to some donors talking about climate change. So yeah, so that's what he was doing. And then, of course we would be remiss if we did not mention the response or lack thereof, to two other hurricanes, Matthew and Florence, where people waited a decade to get back into their homes. So yeah, go ahead, right, No, that's right. And I've been down east as well, and it's it's a shame that it seems like the eastern part of the state and the western mountains kind of get screwed over for what a reason. And it's just a travesty. And you're absolutely correct. And millions of dollars were allocated for those two hurricanes Matthew hit and Florence as well. The money set there. You know, Cooper took no action to make sure the money got where it needed to be, and unfortunately, you know, the eastern part of the state was forgotten. And by the grace of God, this last hurricane veered off to the northeast and we avoided another buttential disaster to couldment a five point zero. But Cooper has been the most liberal a governor in the state's history, the most progressive, the most ineffective. And he's going to go down, he's going to go down to the selection next year, and he's got to come into him because he's he now is a record that we're going to run against, and run against hard and expose him at every nook corner in cranny. What do you make I've said since he announced that this he he is not going to be I think prepared for the amount of outside money that will now be directed at him in a way that wasn't before. And so I have to believe that that sort of elevating of these types of issues that's got to be helpful for not just you, but also Michael Wattley, but anybody running against Cooper. I think, does he still have a Democrat opponent in the primary? I know Wiley Nickel dropped out. Wiley Nickel got that I had read that somebody else is is a nominal candidate. They're coming and give you the person's name, but for all practical purposes know but you're correct, Pete, and he is. He has a he is he has a target rich environment in terms of his of his political missteps, his mismanagement of the state. He separated dying elderly North Carolinians from their families. My dad died alone because of that, sucker. I will never forgive him for that. And then the entire insistence upon keeping the state closed. When I'll cross down the border in the South carolin on which borders, of course, Meckenburgen and Union counties. During the COVID years, Henry McMaster was untightening the screws. You could almost feel the air of freedom compared to the tyrannical lockdown that we had here in this state. He's going to pay for every bit of that. He's going to be reminded about and how he and Mandy cod which stand in the back and they put their masks on the last second, then come out and give their jibber javish and go back and take the mask off. He's going to be reminded of every bit of political hypocrisy he's put on this state. He's gonna remind me how he blew the state up on, you know, with with Medicaid expansion. He's can be reminded of all of it. He says that he saved people money and health costs. Give me a break. Since Obamacare came in, average people can no longer afford Blue Cross and you got to wait forever to see a doctor. We're going to remind him of all that. We're going to hang the de mantra of the Democrat Party around his socialist neck and he's going to wish that he'd never heard of us before. This is over. He also marched with the Black Lives Matter folks, pulling the mask down off of his face so he could do the fist of power and solidarity even though we were all on lockdown. But I guess you could go and publicly gather as long as it wasn't for a funeral. And then remember he got. And the notion that anybody's job is not essential. It's a slap in the face of every North Carolina if you're out there trying to support your family, your job is essential, my friend. And the notion that bars may be essential but churches are not. And that particular group, Black Lives Matter, he was marching with. We now know that the founders of that group were were unabashedly communists. He's going to be reminded of all of that and knowing certain terms. I didn't mean to cut you off. No, No. The only other thing I point out also is that he ran his first run against Pat McCrory was over what the HB two bill right transgender and transgenders into women's bathrooms and locker rooms and such. And I kind of feel like the country has shifted its vibe on that issue now. Cooper has been a champion of grown men going into little girls locker rooms and bathrooms. And if you say anything about it, oh, you know, he's protected that concept because you discriminatory. We had that gone right on, going to be discriminatory against some dude coming into a little girl's bathroom. And this whole trans thing has gone off the rockers. He thinks he's not going to be held to the fire for this. He is going to be health to fire this. North Kilans don't want it. We have, we have drifted to the right conservatively. By the end of this year, there will be more registered Republicans and Democrats in the state of North Carolina and it's just going to get he And when you talk about his run against Pat McCrory, you know, you know Pat was running ahead in that race, and all of a sudden, the vote ferry starts showing up in Durham County and they start bringing boxes and boxes out, which still not an account for I hope my friend Dave Bullet, the auditor, will audit what happened in Durham County in twenty eighteen. We deserve to know. But he was elected initially against Pat McCrory under questionable circumstances. The pass the gentlemen, you probably said it was fair, but no, I'm wondering what happened because whenever the vote ferry shows up with boxes after the fact, how many times has that turned out well for the Republicans? You and I know the answer to that question. So he was elected initially under questionable circumstances. Its like beaten hard. He's going to be beaten soundly this time. Yeah, it was. I think he won by like one percent or less than one percent of the vote or something. It was. It was a very very tight race when he beat Oh, well, they. Found the vote saying even in Durham County, which is which has the most corrupt Democrat party in the state of North Carolina. So the vote fairy shows up, Well, we found the box, we found the we're to found the boxes. How do we know that they're verified? How does this happen? The same thing that happened to Trump two years later in twenty twenty. The vote fairy shows up. And when the vote fairy shows up, they always go overwhelmingly Democrat. How does that work? You should hire a vote ferry for your campaign. I don't know ferries don't work for conservatives. Oh is that right? Hey? If people want more information, brownfour NC dot com is the website Don Brown. Thanks for your time today, sir. We appreciate it. We appreciate you. Pete goblell. Let's have a great rest of the week. You too, Take care? All right? You hear me talk a lot about incentives, right, well, let's talk about incentive trips, the kind that companies offer employees to fire them up and reward their teams. If you own a business or you work somewhere that offers these incentive trips, first off, good for you. But also there is a custom app that's a game changer for these trips. It's called Incentive trip Kit. Private group messaging, shared photos, you're a tenor R travel details all built into a single, easy to use app. There's even a traveler locator so Carl from Accounting doesn't get left behind the best part about Incentive Tripkit it's totally private, no email captures, no sign ups, no cringe ads. It's simple, clean and secure, and when the trip is over, Incentive trip Kit turns those highlights into a professional storytelling video. So think about it when you launch next year's Incentive Trip campaign. That video becomes your greatest motivator. Talk about a return on investment, right, you gotta check out Incentive trip Kit for your business. Visit Incentive tripkit dot com because great trips deserve even better returns. On Thursday, September fourth, WBT and the One Blood, Big Red Bus is going to be at the Doghouse in Uptown Charlotte from ten am until three pm. Will be broadcasting live and encouraging you to give us your blood. It's a life saving blood donation. The sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive Thursdays September fourth at the Doghouse. If you want details on the location and also more importantly to register your appointment, go to WBT dot com. All right, so thanks again to Don h for jumping on and chatting about this. I've got we may have to carry this into the next hour. I just kind of carried away with Don and just going back and forth. But this story started with the Smoky Mountain News report by Corey Vallancourt. I've had Corey on the program before talking about stuff going on up in the mountains, you know, the the closing of the mill and Canton obviously Hurricane Helene, the storm and recovery efforts, and so he did this story Helene victims still waiting for Wattley and Roy Cooper went to Chimney Rock and that's where Corey, I guess interviewed him, got some comments from him, and he says that on January twenty fourth, four months after Helene carved a swath of destruction through Rutherford, bunkhom and Madison Counties, and four days after Trump was sworn in as the nation's forty seventh president. Four days after he sworn in, Trump flew into Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher with a twofold directive. The first by executive order was to establish the FEMA Review Council, headed up by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noman Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Ostensibly, the purpose of the council was to meet periodically and to issue a report on options for FEMA reform within one hundred and eighty days of the establishment of that council. The second directive was to tap Michael Wattley as Western North Carolina's recovery czar. So I would also point out one other thing it was that he came here to show that. He gave a flying fig Newton about the people western North Carolina. He knew that it was Trump country and there were already stories about FEMA, people not going to homes with Trump signs and stuff like that. And the Biden administration failed Western North Carolina. Roy Cooper's administration failed Western North Carolina. They were on their way out the door and nobody seemed to care. And Donald Trump four days after getting inaugurated, makes this his first trip. He did that for a reason. It's a messaging reason. It is to say to the people of western North Carolina, you are important. I do know what has occurred to you. I will be trying to help you. I am here. That was like overtly stated. Remember he got all these residents around him at the press conference. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. So there were other reasons why Trump came, but Cooper wanted to campaign off it. So he got some tweets out of it, he got some mileage, but he also got dragged. 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 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 dpetecallanarshow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.