Gov. Cox meets the moment (09-12-2025--Hour3)

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 vpeteclendershow 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. I promised I would play this like two hours ago, so let me play it now. This is Governor Spencer Cox of He's the governor of Utah. This was his comments at the end of the press conference earlier today. I don't want to get too preachy, but I think it's important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what's happening in our country today. I've heard I've heard people say, why are we so invested in this? There's violence happening all across our country, and violence is tragic everywhere, and every life taken is a child of God who deserves our love. And respect and dignity. This is certainly about the tragic death assassination political assassination of Charlie Kirk. But it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals. This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been, and who we could be in better times. Political violence is different than any other type of violence for lots of different reasons. One because in the very act that Charlie championed of expression, that freedom of expression that is enthrined in our founding documents, in having his life taken in that very act, makes it more difficult for people to feel like they can share their ideas, that they can speak freely. We will never be able to solve all the other problems, including the violence problems that people are worried about, if we can't have a clash of ideas safely and securely, even especially especially those ideas with which you disagree. That's why this matters so much. Over the last forty eight hours, I have been as angry as I have ever been, as sad as I have ever been, and it was as anger pushed me to the brink. It was actually Charlie's words that pulled me back I like to share some of those and specifically right now, if I could, I need to talk to the young people in our state, in my. State, and all across the country. As President Trump reminded me, he said, you know who really loved Charlie the youths. And he's right. Young people love Charlie, and young people hated Charlie. And Charlie went into those places anyway. And these are the words that have helped me. Charlie said, when people stop talking, that's when you get violence. He said that week can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. The only way out of the lab of suffering is to forgive. Welcome without judgment, love without condition, forgive without limit. He said, always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much. A few months ago, I referenced this. Last night, Charlie posted to social media. When things are moving very fast and people are losing their minds, it's important to stay grounded, turn off your phone, read scripture, spend time with friends, and remember Internet fury is not real life. It's going to be okay. He again said, when you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to commit violence. He said, what we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable agreement, being able to have reasonable agreement where violence is not an option. Now, again, to my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage, It feels like rage is the only option. But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path. Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now, not by pretending differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations. I think we need more and moral clarity right now. I hear all the time that words are violence, words are not violence. Violence is violence. And there is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable. And yet all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different. I want to thank my fellow Utah's you know this bad. Stuff happens, And for thirty three hours I. Was praying that. If this had to happen here, that it wouldn't be one of us, that somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country. Sadly, that prayer was not answered the way I had hoped for, just because I thought it would make it easier on us if we could just say, hey, we don't do that here. And indeed, Utah is a special place. We leave the nation in charitable giving, we leave the nation in service every year. But it did happen here, and it was. One of us. But I want you to look at how Utans reacted the last two nights. There was no rioting, there's no looting, there were no cars set on fire, there's no violence. There were there were visials and prayers and people coming together to share the humanity. And that, ladies and gentlemen, I believe is the answer to this. We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate. And that's the problem with political violence, is it metastasizes because we could always point the finger at the other side, and at some point we have to find an off ramp or it's going to get much much worse. But see, these are choices that we can make. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country. But every single one of us gets to choose right now, if this is a turning point for us, we get to make decisions. We have our agency, and I desperately call on every American Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, maga, all of us to please, please, please. Follow what Charlie taught me. I'll I'll just conclude with uh with words I share often from a friend, an author you've all lived in, who was asked if he was optimistic about our country, and he said, I'm not optimistic. He said, I hate optimism. God, that sounds bad, but he said, he said, optimism is a vice. It's this idea that good things are just going to happen. And he said, in the history of the world, good things have never just happened. He says, I'm not optimistic, but I am hopeful. And hope is the virtue that sits between the vices of optimism and pessimism. Hope is the idea. That good things are going to happen because we can make them. So I still believe in our country, and I know Charlie Kirk believed in our country. I still believe that there is more good among us than evil. And I still believe that we can change the course of history. I'm hopeful because Americans can make it so. That's Governor Spencer Cox from Utah, and I would submit meeting the moment well done. 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 the petepod 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. 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. You've heard me over the years. Reference and quote Jonathan Heit Hai Dt his last name. I think I'm mispronouncing that, but I don't know. And he went on to the Twitter machine earlier today and he said, we must repudiate the idea that speech is violence. This has always been a ridiculously absurd argument, or I shouldn't even say argument, because it's not. It's an assertion from leftists, and it started percolating several years ago and it is now sort of taken as an article of faith that this is true, and it is most certainly not true. Speech is not violence. You feeling offended at something I say is not violence against you. Right, you need better mental health coping skills. Right. This is an affliction that is more pronounced among younger people because they have been told this by the ambassadors of our trusted institutions, that words are violence and somehow violence isn't violence, which I was happy to hear the Governor of Utah make this very point that words are not violence. Violence is violence. And this is what Jonathan Hate has been pointing to as well, and he says Greg Lukianov and I wrote about the dangers of promoting this idea on college campuses way back in twenty seventeen. Twenty seventeen, they were saying, guys, stop promoting this idea at college. And this is what they wrote in the Atlantic. The implication of this expansive use of the word violence is that we quote unquote we we are justified in punching and pepper spraying them, even if all they did was say words. We are just offending ourselves against their violence. But at this way of thinking leads to actual violence, and if that violence triggers counter violence, then where does that end in the country's polarized democracy. Telling young people that words are violence may in fact lead to a rise in real physical violence, which is true, which is what Charlie Kirk was fighting against. Words are not violence. But if words give you license to commit violence, and then your opponent and acts violence on you, then all you get is violence all the way down. Now, maybe that's the point when raising up an army of radicals to undermine and overthrow the cultural institutions in Western civilization. You need the shock troops. You need radicals, right, You need these street radicals to go out there to quote anti Maxine Waters, to get in their faces at the gasoline stations. Right. See, like I again, like I have clarity. I've been covering the rise of these people in this movement for a long time, and the tactics change, the issue changes, but the goal is always the same. Revolution. It is to tear down the Western civilization by going after these institutions that make up its foundation. And that goes to the family, it goes to the churches, it goes to civic organizations. Right. It is an attack on all fronts, and it has been going on for one hundred years. Free speech properly understood, is not violence. It is a cure for violence. JK. Rowling, who has been just an absolute warrior on the transgender issues, women's rights issues and such, but also as it relates to those issues, free speech, and she like she is uncancellable, which you know makes her very formidable because she is wealthy beyond you know, my wildest dreams. Right, she's made all this money. She's the author of the Harry Potter series. And when she saw what was happening in the UK with the rise of transgender politics and such and the insanity, and she began speaking out against it, trying to protect women's sports, women's locker rooms and changing rooms and bathrooms and such. And she's been savaged for it ever since. And here's what she said. If you believe free speech is for you but not your political opponents, you are illiberal. If no contrary evidence could change your beliefs, you're a fundamentalist. If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you're a totalitarian. And if you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, well you're a terrorist. 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. At Draft Kings, every play is your next shot to win 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. 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Digital games and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply additional NFL Sunday Ticket terms or at YouTube dot com slash go Slash NFL Sunday Tickets Slash terms Limited time offer. UH. Kudos to the Charlotte Observer for printing an op ed by David Mastio. I think he's out of Kansas City. Yeah, the Kansas City Star. He does a both sides ism thing here, but I'm going to just focus on the first part where he addresses this this notion, and here's the headline. Charlie Kirk died fighting the idea that words are violence. This idea and even somebody's presence, but words or their their their mere presence on your campus is somehow violence. This idea has spread from petty campus authoritarians out to censor those they disagree with, to the pages of the New York Times to the broader culture, where a twenty twenty four poll by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression or FIRE, found that four in five Americans agree at least slightly with the idea that words can be violence. The connection between speech and violence has grown even closer. A report today by FIRE found that twenty two percent of students at Texas A and M think that violence at least rarely can be justified to stop a speech. At UNC Chapel Hill, it's thirty eight percent. Thirty eight percent of students at UNC Chapel Hill think violence can be justified to stop a speech. Our democracy runs on speech. The kind I take part in, the kind Charlie Kirk took part in on campus before he was shot, The very kind that the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania took part in before his house was set on fire. The kind of Supreme Court justice performed when it would be assassin came to his home armed with a gun and knives without speech to resolve odd differences. There is only violence. Think long and hard about the society you want to live in. 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Right, You got to check out incentive trip Kit for your business. Visit incentive tripkit dot com because great trips deserve even better returns. Little segment we like to call pregame in with Brett Grennable break Grennables in studio coincidentally enough, how. Are you, sir? Great? How are you? I'm doing okay? It's been a heavy week, you know, very heavy heavy. Yes, I can I just compliment you on something right out of the box. Always, Yes, you did a great job yesterday over at over at what He's you had a lot of incoming, man, Oh yeah, lots of it. And uh but I I wanted and I get people and you know today I don't matter. I get people who send me emails and messages. Why do you let them on the show? Why are you talking to this you know, crazy lefty person whatever. But like I have always put them at the front of the line. You have to, right, because I get more clarity, and I think other people it's like what Dennis Prager says, Like I, you know, I seek understanding, not agreement, right, And if people if people go into any kind of a discussion or debate, I think with that mindset, you're looking for clarity, understanding, right, not agreement. You don't have to agree with me, And and that's why I bring them on. That's why I want them on. And uh yeah, because I was. I was on there with CaCO day in the mornings up in Raleigh. In Greensboro, I do a live hit with him on Friday mornings and I asked him, Hey, did you get any calls yesterday from lefties? And he said no? And I said, oh, I said, I had like four or five. I mean it was everyone. And he was like, oh, I'm so jealous. Can you got to be like a doctor and be like, can I refer you to to my friend he'd like to talk to me, right, Yeah, And that's the thing, like and you, I mean, you actually take way more calls than I do. But you know, it's it's clarifying. That's why. That's why I do it. And I want to know what their arguments are, and more importantly, I want the audience to hear these arguments the way they're presented. So this way, if you're in a debate, yes, with family, friends, wherever, and you hear this argument, yep, you will now be able to argue against what you've just heard and it's not going to surprise you in the debate. That's exactly right, right, that's great. So it's really it's a it's a public service. Really, I wonder if I can get some us ai D money for the the public worse. Hold on, let me call Doje nice. All right, So I want to I did not get to this and we only have like two minutes here, but yeah, so I want to. I want to get to this. You heard the soundbites from our mayor yesterday, I'm sure during the newscasts. I did. And she says in this interview with WBTV about the her response to the light rail murder, and she said, I admit that, you know, the good thing about it is not a good thing about the murder, but about how they're going to work on transparency and communication. She admits she fumbled the initial responses and all that, which is true, but she says the good thing is being able to be in a city where you can say I made a mistake and people say that's okay. TSF TSF system failed. Oh right, this is the fail right. So now, I don't know, I cannot speak for everybody in the city, but I have not heard anybody saying, yeah, oh it's okay. Nobody that is zero, I mean nothing nobody, right. I guess she's I guess she's counting the fact that she won her Democrat primary in like an eight percent turnout, right and saying, well, that's proof that everybody said, oh, you completely bricked the. Response to this murder. You've now garnered national attention to the city because of it, and you think that you clearing the Democrat primary means that everyone's like, you made a mistake. But it's okay. Yeah, No, it's terrible. No, it's not okay. No, I didn't think so either. It's really bad. We also saw have you seen this? The state auditor released the probe into the the payoff to the police chief. Which day of the week is is? I feel like we need one of those boards, like it's been this many days since a scandal and the. City correct they're stacking up. I mean, let's let's be on it. It is being stacked up in a in an inappropriate way. 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.