Democracy Defenders look for ways to usurp law and consolidate power | Hour 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 thepetcleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. All Right, So I may may may have been following the Virginia redistricting case a little too closely, okay, And I did not come to this conclusion on my own or this suspicion. I'm not concluding it just yet. I'm just I'm suspecting that I may have become a little too invested in the story. I say that because. My wife told me that I sort of kind of woke up talking in my sleep Saturday night about the Virginia redistricting. I don't remember this. I don't remember if I said something that was brilliant or bizarre. I don't remember it at all. I just I went to bed and at some point I started talking in my sleep about the redistricting case. That's what she told me Sunday morning. So I may I may be maybe two in deep on this, but I'm I'm not getting out yet because we have developments in the story. First off, I would like to point out something because I don't give enough credit where credit is due, so for particularly for Democrats in Virginia, and so I do want to give them credit because you'll recall, while they were voting on the maps, do you remember what the map or the referendum language said on the ballot they said that this would restore fairness, right, And they said that if people voted yes and the referendum passed, then that would restore fairness. And so voters went out to the polls, they cast their ballots. The yes position won barely, barely, very close race, but they but it won. And then of course the Supreme Court weighs in and Democrats were in fact correct, fairness has been restored. So it is exact. I mean, they did say that turn out vote yes to restore fairness, and that is what ended up happening. They're keeping their six to five maps, not the ten to one map that the Democrats tried to get passed. But do not count out the no King's people, do not count out the defenders of the democracy, because they have some ideas on how they would get the ten to one unfair map rammed through regardless of a Supreme Court ruling against them. The Supreme Court ruled that the process they used to do this referendum was unconstitutional. And if you've been listening to this show, that's not a surprise because we went over why it's unconstitutional. So first up, before I get to the schemes, Ken Kutchinelli, who. Is hang on a second. I got his title here. He is the former Virginia Attorney General and former acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Ken Kutchinelli from Virginia, and he was one of the people that were that was the charge against the Democrats' efforts on this jerrymander. And he wrote a piece that appeared at the Daily Wire and he said the Supreme Court of Virginia, with a four to three majority, struck down the democrats brazen attempt to jerrymander Virginia's congressional map from a fair six' to five split into an outrageous ten to one partisan. Stranglehold the ruling is a triumph for the rule of, law for The Virginia, constitution and for the nearly one and a half Million virginians who voted against this scheme despite being massively. Outspent. RIGHT i mentioned this last week, too that the amount of money The democrats poured into This yes, campaign the last TOTAL i saw was somewhere around eighty million dollars that they, blew and they did real damage to their, brand right because they were positioning themselves as the fair maps. Party whereabout fairness and? ALL i, mean even the language on the ballot said this is to restore fairness and all, that and then you ram through a ten to one map. Unconstitutionally. Right this is Why i've said it many. Times this is WHY i do not Believe democrats when they argue over. REDISTRICTING i just don't because you do not behave as if you have a standard principle that you will apply across the board in all. States, right you ignore the gerrymanders that your party has done for, decades and you harp on The republican, jerrymanders who actually those gerrymanders are those redistricting maps they actually because they had to create majority minority, districts they actually have More democrat representation than you guys do in your. States they actually republican. Maps, well until this, Year republican maps would Afford democrats more seats in their states Than democrats would Afford. Republicans And i'm sorry if that hurts people's, feelings that's the. Truth the classic example Is New, England New. England there's about forty percent of the registered voters in the Entire New england region Are, republicans and yet they have zero congressional seats over in The. House In, maine they actually Elect Susan, collins A REPUBLICAN Us. Senator they've been sending her what she've been, there like fifteen sixteen terms or something like she's been there. Forever so they will Elect republicans, statewide but they're not allowed to have a seat in The. House, Indiana i'm. Sorry illinois also. Jerrymandered maryland, jerrymandered, Right so this is part of the problem That democrats have, now is that embarking on this great jerrymandering war of twenty twenty, six you don't have many states, LEFT i, mean and that's the problem is that you've already drawn as Many republicans out of seats as you, can and so there's not a lot of ground for you to make. Up and that's Why virginia was such this big. Get if they could just have you done it, legally but they. Couldn't so the, Scheme kutchinelli, says was as cynical as it was procedurally. Reckless during a disputed special session which was called for budget, purposes and then they shoehorned in the referendum question in order to put that to. Voters but that's not. Lawful in order to call a special, session you have to say what it's going to be. About they, said it's about the, budget and then they shoehorned this other topic in, there and you can't do. That they ran through a proposed constitutional amendment on a party line, vote one that would temporarily suspend The Bipartisan Redistricting commission and let The General assembly redraw congressional districts to their. Liking they did this On october thirty, One halloween twenty twenty. Five slight. Problem more than one point three Million virginians had already cast their ballots in the ongoing general election for The house Of delegates that is the same election in Which Abigail spanberger was elected governor And democrats won the. Trifecta so people had already. Voted one and a half million people had already voted before you stuck this thing into the special. Session and that's what ended up killing the measure at The Supreme court because it was about the timing you're supposed To the state constitution says that you have to. Do you have to introduce the referendum if you want to change the, constitution, right The house Of, delegates the legislature has to vote on. That then there has to be an, election and then there has to be a second vote in the legislative. Branch three separate, Incidents and this, way voters have the ability to directly weigh in on the referendum, vote but they also have a way to indirectly weigh, in which is in the two elections on either side of the. Referendum, well they didn't do. That they were already voting in the twenty twenty five, election and that's when this thing got stuffed into the budget session and then put on the. Ballot one point three million people had already, voted so they couldn't even weigh in to vote against any members of the legislative branch that did, this and that's what The Supreme court. Said and The democrats then after The Supreme court said, this they were, like. Well you should have told us that before the, vote before we went to a. Referendum, now mind, you these Same democrats lobbied and argued at The Supreme court to let the vote, proceed and now they say it shouldn't. Have 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, Minhill 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. Albums 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 kevin says on the text, line no doubt you are more coherent discussing politics in your sleep than aoc Or Kamala harris is speaking, publicly reading from a. Script that's very kind of. You i'm literally doing show prep in my. Sleep. Right so The virginia legislature and, governor they they rig this scheme. Up they violate their state constitution in order to ram through some gerrymandered, maps, Right and as soon as they, did when they as soon as they put together the, referendum they got. Sued and then a. Lower court heard this is the court out of Tazzy well AS i call, it because that's the way it. Spelled and the lower court judge, said, no you violated this state constitution in your, process and a couple of other, things and so, no this is not. Valid and so he put a temporary restraining, order basically an injunction against the. Referendum and so then The democrats go to the they appeal to The State Supreme court and they say you have to let us have a vote because and The Supreme court, agreed, saying, well if you know it, fails then the whole question is moot and it won't even. Matter so why even bother hearing the case right? Now we'll, wait, okay Find democrats will wait until you, know a, referendum and then they win the. Referendum then the lower court ruling gets appealed again by the same plaintiffs now to the State Supreme, court and The State Supreme, court in a four to three, ruling says, yes actually the lower court was, corrected was. Unconstitutional and The democrat response has, been how dare you the people have, voted you're disenfranchising the. Democracy it's you asked us not to hear, this not to weigh in on the merits of the case until after the. Vote so what does this? Indicate kind of gives away the, game doesn't. It they wanted to pressure the, judges that's why they asked for the, referendum so they thought we could end up back at The Supreme court because they knew it was going to get litigated, again and so they're going to end up in front of The Supreme. Court but had they had a wider margin of, victory like if it was an overwhelming, majority then maybe the judges with the wardrobe change would have, said, okay, fine the people have spoken the, democracy and they would have just ignored the state. Constitution that's what they were hoping, for and they darn near, succeeded. Right it was a four to three split on that, court meaning there are three judges on the State Supreme court In virginia that are willing to ignore their own. Constitution that should be. Terrifying, Now. Democrats are big, mad very big mad at all of, this and so they had a they had a. Call they did a conference, call maybe a zoom, call not really. Sure so they had this call to develop a new potential. Strategy the new strategy is actually a pretty old, strategy which is to pack the court once. Again When democrats do not get rulings that they, like their response is to add more judges so they can get the rulings that they, like notably ones that run counter to the rule of. Law. Right so if the law SAYS, x and you do NOT, x and they want you to do NOT, x and then you, rule, sorry NOT x is not. Allowed ONLY x is. Allowed and then they're, Like, okay, well we're gonna find a bunch of other. Lawyers we're gonna give them, robes we're gonna put them on your, seat and then they're going to say NOT x IS. X The New York times has the story. Today democrats are struggling to respond to a major redistricting setback In, virginia with some party leaders discussing and. AUDACIOUS i love the way they, WELL i love the Way The New York times describes this. Idea it's audacious and possibly far. Fetched, yeah is it? Though is it really that far? Fetched wouldn't it be like a power? Grab isn't that what you're really talking? About and undermining of the rule of, law a destruction of the norms that you guys were so interested in protecting from The orange. Hitler, Right, so this audacious and possibly far fetched idea for trying to restore a congresstional map that was voided by the, court but showing little indication that they have a clear, Plan, right so they got some, ideas and AS i always, say, look there are no bad ideas under the cone of, creativity, Right so they were. Under the cone of. Creativity they were just spitballing a whole bunch of dumb. Ideas and they came up with a bunch during a private discussion On saturday that Included Democratic house members From virginia as well as THE Us house Of Representatives Minority Leader Jakim jeffries Of New, york the lawmakers vented anger at their defeat at The Virginia Supreme. Court i'm, wondering remember the guy or was it a, Girl i'm not really, sure the person that was wearing the lime colored fluorescent vest At trump's first inauguration holding the sign up over their head and just wailing and whaling while on their. Knees remember that it became a whole meme went. VIRAL i get the sense like that's what this call, was or, like remember like the group outings that leftists would. Organize they'd go out into the woods and, stuff and they would just like scream really really. LOUD i feel like that's probably the nature of the. Call they were all just kind of sitting around just screaming, no, No but they also spoke about a collective determination to flip two or Three republican held seats under the existing, map and discussed a bank shot proposal to redraw the congressional lines, anyway in other, words in violation of the. Law that's what they were talking about. Doing on the text, Line john, Says, pete you, know lawyers are allowed to build their clients anytime they even possibly think about a. Case they could even build two clients at the same time for thinking about a. Law so you surely can BUILD wbt for show prepping in your. SLEEP i, could BUT i am, salaried so they get one hundred percent of my work. Product twenty four to. Seven all, Right so back to The New York times article talking about this phone call That democrats held On, saturday and they were throwing out all of these different ideas about how they can you, know take control rule over the state Of virginia in perpetuity for the people, obviously for the democracy right and then also you, know give The democrats at the national level the best chance they have of winning the. Majority and. This was described as a bank shop, proposal a bank, shot which is a term that comes from, pool BUT i guess also. Basketball but that so you're you're aiming at one, thing but the desired outcome is what happens after you hit that one. Thing that's the bank. Shot. Right so the, conversation, oh, sorry they did not land on a specific course. Forward they're going to have to talk to their lawyers some. More the conversation reflected the desperation and fury that have gripped the party since The State Supreme court. Ruling the most dramatic idea they discussed was to replace the Entire State Supreme. Court just everybody's got to go the even the ones that voted for our unconstitutional, scheme they got to go. To everybody's got to. Go oh, NOW i think his first name Is, ed last Name. Shipley he goes by the Name Shipwrecked. Crew he's a, lawyer defense, attorney has represented a whole bunch of like the j six defendants and. Stuff and he points out that the current. Ages oh, so HOW i should say this, first how they drew this up on how they would go about doing it is to, say, hey let's lower the mandatory retirement age of The Supreme court, judges because right now it's seventy five years, old, okay and the State Supreme court In. Virginia those are all appointed, positions and they are appointed by the state. Legislature so if we were to take the retirement age from seventy five down to a lower, age then we could basically force everybody to. Retire how low do you have to? Go, well As shipley points, out here are the ages of the judges seventy sixty, nine sixty, seven sixty, four sixty, one fifty, six fifty. Four so you would have to put a cap on the maximum oldest age at fifty. Three, yeah prime retirement, age, yes fifty three years. Old we all know judges don't really do a lot of work on the, bench you after age fifty. Three he goes on to say that this idea is beyond. Wild they would then the legislature would then install seven new justices who would have to basically commit in advance to reversing the prior court's, decision, right because that would be really, embarrassing is if you put seven new people on there and you end up with another their decision against your unconstitutional. Process. Right so you would have to make sure ahead of time that these people are willing to ignore the state, constitution which tells you everything you need to know About who would pledge to do? That what kind of a lawyer would pledge to do something like? That three judges who voted in the, Minority, right you can't leave them on the, bench because while they may have been willing to overlook the, constitution they may not be so willing to you, know agree to a plan that kicks them out of their. Job, Right so they, say you Can't you're not going to be able to be sure about this unless you get a whole new slate of, judges, which of, course if they were to do, this it would destroy the functional independence of The Virginia Supreme. Court and he says it would be a permanent stain on the votes of Every Virginia Assembly democrat who went along with this kind of. Idea it would bring condemn nation from courts and legislatures all across the. Country he Advises virginians to take a hard look at the people that you are electing and ask yourself whether these people have the foundational commitment to the Great american experiment that has held the country together even through a civil. War back to The New York times, story any plan to enact a new congressional map for this year's midterm elections would require action in the next well thirty six. Hours in a court filing last, month the commissioner of The Virginia department Of, elections a fellow by the name Of Stephen, kuski said that any changes to the maps after Tomorrow may, twelfth quote will significantly increase the risk that his agency would be unable to properly prepare for the state's Scheduled august fourth primary. Election so whatever The Virginia democrats are going to try to do, here they're going to have to do it within the next twenty four. Hours twenty four to twenty eight, hours, right they're on a. Clock one key to the plan would be Having democrats In richmond lowered the mandatory retirement, age an idea that began circulating among state lawmakers and members Of. Congress this idea was prompted by a column that was written over at a website called the Down Ballot that is a. Quote unquote progressive. Newsletter, okay so the No king's, crowd this is their, idea this coming from the progressive wing of The Democrat, party is to fire all of the judges under a scheme to lower the mandatory retirement age down to fifty three years old in order to fire them and then pack the. Court these are the, ideas see as they. Percolate this is WHY i, said, like The Democratic party has no natural immunity to fighting back against its. Base they really. Don't their base just, says you, know you need to fight the orange, hitler, fight, fight, fight you need to fight. More and so whatever the progressive base is telling the you, know the leadership of The Democrat, party they're going to go. With the first step in the process would be to invoke A january ruling by a circuit court judge down In Tazewell county or taswell As i'm told it's. Pronounced but THEN i think you need to eliminate the e because otherwise it's taz e will or. Tase. Well so the Lower court in one of the previous rulings when it was, saying, hey your process is all jacked. Up it's unconstitutional for a whole bunch of. Reasons one of the other reasons cited by that low Or court judge was that the redraw of the maps was invalid Because county officials did not post notice of it at courthouses and other public locations three months before a general, election and So democrats would have to claim, That, aha we didn't do that when we passed the previous constitutional amendment to create the Independent redistricting. Body, see so we didn't do that for that one, Either so that constitutional amendment is null and void. Too. Haha that'll get rid of the Whole Independent Redistricting. Commission let's jump over and check with one such caller Named. John, Hello, john welcome to the. Show, hey, yes, sir this is really going to tax your. Geniosity, okay but needs your help. Operation you know The Civil, war that's When West virginia was established as a counterweight To, virginia which east Of West, virginia you, know it was more or Less. Confederate in the mountainous region it Was. Union so The West virginia broke. Away should we consider Bringing West virginia? BACK i know we'd lose two senators at the national, Level but could the population Of West virginia dilute the craziness Of Northern. VIRGINIA i feel like doing that would just put More republicans under the thumb Of Northern Virginia. Democrats so how about, this how about how About Western virginia secedes and Joins West. Virginia, okay all, right, right, right. So you take that part that's kind of the back spine of the left hand spine of the. State that whole, chunk like basically the One republican district that The democrats drew that like took up like a third of the. State you take that chunk and move it Into West. Virginia Then West virginia gets More house, Members virginia Loses house, members and they are of probably you, know similar political, culture and they would probably enjoy being governed more under The West virginia state legislature than The virginia. One it would be double plus good jerry, manders that's. Right so, YEAH i, mean, LOOK i mean it's an, idea and there are people that are actually mounting a. Campaign they've been doing this for a. WHILE i doubt it'll, succeed but you never. Know right there are people that have plans to break Up. California that's another. STATE i, like that state is too big just in, principle it's just too. Big you shouldn't have the whole, coast you, know so like that they would want to break Up. California there's, uh and there's this plan to also put part Of virginia Into West. Virginia and then there's also another idea out. There it's called MAKE dc square, again which would basically make the go back to the original square map which included a lot of That Northern virginia, area and move them into the into The district Of. Columbia, yeah all of these are good. Ideas, yeah no bad ideas under the cone of, Creativity, JOHN i appreciate the. Call thank you all, right, buddy take. Care seven oh four number. Says people always talk about states having the ability to secede from the, union but can a state be kicked out of the. Union, HMMM i don't think. SO a state that would kick out all their judges just to get a map they want don't deserve to be part of a. Republic well maybe we could censure the. State we could write a strongly worded. Resolution jeff. Says it's pretty stunning to how much democratic destruction The Virginia democrats are willing to resort in order to protect the. Democracy. Yeah seven oh four number, says if little word big, meaning if The Democrat party are successful in totally Repressing republicans and their. Principles reminds me of an old story about a group of people who started a war because they were being taxed without. Representation have you heard of such a? STORY i have. Not that sounds like a that sounds like a, banger THOUGH i would watch that. Movie, yeah in, seriousness, though if the And i've seen some PEOPLE i think it was the second the State senate majority leader In VIRGINIA i, think has come out and said that they're not they're not going to do the judge. Thing they're not going to pack the court let me see, here, Right and not the least of which is because of the deadline THAT i told you. About it's, Tomorrow so if they were going to try to do something like, that they're on a very tight timeframe and they're probably not going to be able to get something like that. Done there is also the idea that they would try to appeal to THE Us Supreme, court but THE Us Supreme court doesn't have any jurisdiction, here so it's, like what exactly would you be asking us to rule? On? Right so basically what we're watching is the person in the lime vest screaming at the sky during The trump. Inauguration, right that's that's what this. Is there was a representative From virginia at the state level named Suhas, thrubramanyam A democrat who Represents Loudon, county and Told The New York times that he supported doing whatever was necessary to preserve the map voters approved in last month's, referendum including replacing The States Supreme court. Justices, quote everyone has got to have a strong stomach. Right, now he, Said, Yeah, okay your. Opponents they get a, say right when you're picking a fight with, somebody they also get to participate in that. Fight and if you are going to eliminate all seven judges and pack the court in order to achieve an, unconstitutional gerrymandered map to seize, power you need to expect a. Response AND i, like you want to talk about turning a you, know this kind of cold war into a hot. War, Like i'm pretty sure this might do. It this might do, it because now you've gone beyond legal, rules, right you are now engaging in DARE i, say king like, behavior authoritarian, behavior tyrannical, behavior the very things that you claim you. Oppose of, course it's just. Projection so, now. SO i don't think that they're actually going to be able to pursue these, options but the fact that they are seriously entertaining them on a conference call With Hakeem jeffries And Hakeem jeffries is saying we're going to look at all of these. OPTIONS i, mean, yes you're saying that for the base to show them that you're fighting as best you. Can but what you're talking about is tyranny is, nullification and that's how wars. Start 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 thepetecleanershow dot. Com, again thank you so much for, listening and don't break anything While i'm. Gone