How does Whatley break through the racket media defenses? | 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 the peak calendar show.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'd like to welcome to the program Emma Hall. She is the Southeast Regional Communications Director at the RNC. Emma, how are you? Welcome to the show. Good morning or good afternoon. Excuse me. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, we're just right over the wire there for afternoon. I'll allow it. It's okay. All right. So first off, tell me what exactly is your territory as a comms person for the RNC in the Southeast? Is it like how many states you got? We've got a lot of states in the southeast that are going to be really big this November. Obviously, North Carolina spent a ton of time working with Michael Watley, spent a ton of time working with his team, all the way down to Florida, where we have a proud socialist running for the Senate, got a couple house races down there, and then all the way up to Virginia, where we fended off Democrats who are trying to to take over all Republican seats and we're fighting to keep control of those. So we've got a lot of important races in the southeast, but really, really excited to be working with Michael Watley in North Carolina. Were you at the RNC when when Michael was running it? I was not. I previously worked for the RNC in 2020, but we did not overlap there. But working with him in this capacity has just been wonderful. No difference. He is still a workhorse and nobody is outworking him. Not at the RNC as chairman in 2024, not during his Senate campaign this year. So I will relay to you the biggest issue or complaint that I hear about this race from conservatives, Republicans is they believe there's a serious imbalance in sort of the lack of advertising that they have seen from Watley versus what they're getting from Cooper. I see a lot of the digital ads on YouTube and stuff, but what is the, what's the RNC plan for North Carolina in this race? Well, we're 60 days out, I believe today is that 60 day mark. And we are about to kick off our Republican midterm convention featuring President Trump and Vice President Vance. And in North Carolina, we have been on the ground since day one with Michael Watley after he won his primary earlier this year. We have been working hand in hand with his team to make sure they have the resources, the support, the messaging, the backup that we can do to make sure that he is victorious in November. What I will say is that... No one is outworking Michael Watley in this race. I was just with him last week. We did events in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greenville with National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez talking about securing the border, how important that is, the contrast between what we saw under Biden and Harris, and things that Cooper supported as governor that saw the worst border crisis in our nation's history. We talked about how important it is to support law enforcement, not only at the border, but also in North Carolina. And these are policies that every single North Carolinian wants to feel safe in their communities. And it's something that Michael Watley has been very, very strong on. We've seen cabinet secretaries coming to North Carolina to support Watley and his team and his vision for North Carolina. And I think we'll continue to see just an uptick as we head into these final two months. to make sure that every single North Carolinian gets out to vote. Every single person is talking to their friends and family about just how important this race is. But are those are those arguments landing? Are they are they doing any damage? I mean, this is a state that sent Roy Cooper to statewide office, what, six straight times. And I get the suspicion that they don't. They don't want to be told that they voted for the wrong guy for the last 40 years, basically. And so, yeah, I mean, you're right. You're right. Roy Cooper is a 40 year career politician who has had some of the worst records that we've that we've seen. This is someone who cheered on Biden and Harris as they sent inflation to 40 year highs. This is someone who cheered on Biden and Harris. As they opened the border to millions of people, this is someone who released criminals from prison to reoffend and hurt innocent people. This is not someone who is, you know, a moderate. This is someone whose record, if you look at it, Roy Cooper is very extreme. He is very far left. And we are going to continue to expose the damage that he caused to this state every single day. So I chat with a local, he used to be the comms guy for the former Lieutenant Governor Dan Forrest, and he now does long-leave politics. His name is Andrew Dunn, and he has offered advice on how to go after Roy Cooper, which is to basically rehash the old Jesse Helms campaign ads. where do you stand the, where do you stand campaign? Because if you, have you been to Roy Cooper's website, he's got nothing on his website, like no policy positions, no track record. Like here's all the things I vetoed or voted for or anything like that. It's all just his make stuff cost less tour, uh, bullet points, slogans. And, um, and if he's not going to do a debate, which it doesn't seem like he is then in the media here in North Carolina is apparently going to let him just Just do what he's doing right now and not ask him any of these things. How do you break through if he's not doing debates, he's not doing interviews, and he refuses to disclose his positions on pretty important things like packing the U.S. Supreme Court, abolishing ICE, et cetera? Well, we know that Roy Cooper, we know what he stands for because, first of all, we've seen what he's done. We've seen his record on all of these topics that you've mentioned. And I have two points I want to make. First is you have to look at who his friends are. Gavin Newsom is in North Carolina starting today. He's going to have a rally tomorrow in North Carolina. He's going to knock doors for Roy Cooper. Gavin Newsom is with Roy Cooper. I don't know about you, and I don't know about any of your listeners, but I don't want anything to do with Gavin Newsom's California or any of the things that he's done in that state to really take it into the negative. Elizabeth Warren was in North Carolina a few weeks ago rallying with North Carolina Democrats. I don't know about you, but I don't want anything to do with Elizabeth Warren and the proud socialists that she supports. Alex Vindman, who was running for Senate in Florida, he famously, or I guess infamously, called Republicans Nazis. He just donated to Cooper's campaign. And there was a report that came out a few weeks ago that Cooper has been fundraising with some of the most far-left members of the Senate. That's because that is who he is. This is who he supports, and this is who he fights for. And I also want to mention that Roy Cooper's make stuff cost less is so laughable to me because if you look at what he did as governor, prices went up under him. We saw some of the highest healthcare costs in the nation, higher electric bills, higher housing costs, higher grocery bills. This is someone who worked with Biden and Harris. Again, inflation was at 40-year highs. And he also oversaw almost $ 50 million in fraudulent unemployment payments. This is not someone who did a good job in the economic department. And so I just I beg reporters. I beg the mainstream media to really, like you said, ask Cooper where he stands on these issues. And we're going to continue to beat the drum and expose it for sure. Yeah, I mean, I've been I've been asking the reporters that he lets into his events and he lets ask him questions. I've been asking. I've been begging as well. It doesn't seem to be working. They seem more interested in asking him to name the players on the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team. than asking him any of this stuff. Um, yeah. And I went over the, you know, the Cooper administration with their, uh, their green new deal signing onto the Paris climate accord and all of that. Like these are the reasons, and these are his appointments on the utility commission. It's like, this is the guy that's been in charge that, that was there and touted the same policies that drove up the, the costs of all these things that now he's promising to, But like my frustration, I think a lot of frustration among a lot of Republicans is none of this stuff seems to be getting through. And like, how do you how do you break through if you don't have media that's that's calling balls and strikes? How do you break through? And I know this is sort of an age old question for Republicans. Well, and it's something that we've been focused on for months now, and we are only going to continue to hammer home exactly who Roy Cooper is and the damage that he caused to this state. Whether you're talking about, you know, releasing prisoners. 50% of whom would go on to re-offend, including murderers. These violent career criminals that were let free under Cooper that went on and hurt innocent people. If you're talking about when he shut down small businesses and locked kids out of their classrooms during COVID, many people not to come back from that. The extreme learning loss that kids felt, the small businesses that were never able to reopen their doors. Talking about the fraud that he oversaw, including to illegal aliens. There was a report last week that he paved the way for non-citizens to be able to get driver's licenses. That's going all the way back to his days as AG. This is not new for Cooper, and this is not a new problem that People aren't holding him accountable for the things that he does and the damage that he has caused. But we're going to continue to hammer home just how extreme, damaging, and terrible Roy Cooper would be in the Senate. Because at the end of the day, he would just be another vote for Chuck Schumer, the Democrats, and all of the awful things they want to do to our country. Yeah, and the DSA, as it becomes more prevalent and powerful inside the party over there, he's going to fall right in line. And this is the concern that I've got is he runs as this moderate, oh, shucks, I'm just a country lawyer kind of a persona. But you watch the way he governs, as you said, and he governs as a far-left progressive, and he never gets that label. It's just very frustrating. Emma Hall, the Southeast Regional Communications Director at the RNC, thanks for your time. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me. All right, take care. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now, Create-A-Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. Introducing Group Travel Videos, perfect for family reunions, Church mission trips, group vacations, destination weddings, student trips, senior adult groups, sports teams. I mean, really any gathering of people that you care about that's traveling together. Group Travel Videos gives your traveling pack a private app where everyone can share photos during the trip, send messages, share schedules and important documents, even a traveler safety locator feature that works only during the trip. And family members and friends back home can follow along and enjoy the experience in real time. No social media, no ads. It's totally private. No emails, phone numbers, account setups or hassles. With group travel videos, you'll capture today's moments on your special trip while they're happening. Then after the trip or gathering. They'll professionally turn your shared moments into a beautiful storytelling video that your whole group can stream and download and treasure for years. Check out GroupTravelVideos.com. That's GroupTravelVideos.com. Or call 704-846-7870, extension 206. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes, you can. You can email Katie, Katie at GroupTravelVideos.com. Group Travel Videos, from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. All right, so over on the text line, which is driven by Keffer, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, the family store, that number, which is also the call-in number, is 704-570-1079. let's see here um eric uh says so her plan is to beg the reporters to ask cooper questions i mean that's that's not the only plan but that is my plan that's all i can do i because like cooper won't come on this show he doesn't even send us press releases and if you were to get in on like a uh a conference call or something with him or his team, you know, they're going to stick you at the kiddie table and never let you ask questions just like he did to us during COVID, right? So we can't ask these questions. So the reporters at the legacy outlets at, you know, all the local TV stations around the state, the local print operations around the state, Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News and Observer, right? You guys, not to be mean about it here, it's telling you this, though, because I want the press to be better, or as Melania might say, be best, right? I want you to be best. Do your damn jobs, okay? If you don't know what these issues are that half of the people in the state are recognize as issues, but you, for some reason living in your bubble, you don't know what those are. And you are hearing me say this right now, please go back and listen to the podcast because I lay out all of the various questions that you could be asking Cooper. Not that you have to ask it in the way that I am asking it. I am a, to be fair, I am probably a bit more combative in my delivery than you would be. But you don't have to say it exactly as I'm saying it. You can take the issue that I am raising and ask about it. Ask his positions. And then when he starts to dance away from it or not answer it, drag him back to it and ask him again. This is journalism 101. OK, you're not supposed to be picking favorites as reporters. That's what you've been telling us, right? This is the shield that you guys hold up all the time to say that you are objective and unbiased and you call balls and strikes. Well, let's start seeing you call the balls and strikes on somebody other than Michael Watley, because I've been watching your coverage for a long time in this race. I have talked about it before. You are quick to fact check everything Watley says, and that's fine. I don't care. Go ahead and do it. I expect you to do that. But I also expect you to do it for the guy he's running against. Then here's the dirty secret. Okay, the dirty secret in journalism. Access. Access. A lot of these people that are covering Cooper and Watley, they have prior relationships with both. One is positive, one is negative, right? One is, I'm just a reporter here to represent the people and to speak truth to power and hold the powerful accountable, blah, blah, blah. And that's the posture they adopt with Whatley. With Cooper, well, he's kind of famous. Cooper, I mean, he's been the elected attorney general. He's been the governor. And if you can be friends with him, he'll come on your show. Or he'll return your calls and give you an interview. He'll give you an exclusive. He'll give you a scoop, maybe. He'll know your name when you're at the press conference and there are all these people there. I'm just kidding. He doesn't do press conferences. But, no, if he did, like, there would be all these people there and he would look to you and he would point at you and he would know your name. That's how that happens. I tell people as voters, do not fall in love with politicians, right? That goes for the reporters too. But too often, they get close to power and they become intoxicated by this relationship. You are in proximity to power. And he knows your name. Oh, my gosh. I have the governor on my phone. Yeah. I did, too. Like, that doesn't mean anything. It doesn't. It doesn't mean anything. I'm not saying you have to be combative. I'm not saying you have to be a jerk. I have interviewed Democrats many, many, many, many, many, many times in my career. And whenever I get done with the interview, and people don't believe this, but when I get done with the interview, I get messages attacking me for saying that I... I treated them too nicely because people want me to rip their heads off. And I don't, I mean, I'll, I'll rip your head off when I'm reading stuff in the news and whatever. But if I'm sitting in a room with you and I'm interviewing you, like I'll push back on what you're saying. I'll ask you to go back to the question that I asked and answer that question, that sort of thing. And in debates, I drag people back. I would do that Democrats and Republicans, but I can ask the questions in a nice way. And you can too. Reporters can, You can ask these questions in a nice way, but it doesn't seem like you are interested in doing so. It's grotesque. What you're doing is disgusting. And here's the thing. You asking those questions and getting Cooper on the record, it's probably not even going to make any impact on the election. People do not want to be told, as I told Emma Hall, they don't want to be told that they've been voting for the wrong person for 40 years. They think they made the right call. They like Roy Cooper. And you got to tell them, yeah, you basically have been screwing up for 20 years in his statewide campaigns, right? And people don't want to hear that. You have to give them some other reason. Back to the text line here. Susie says, Pete, please press her again on lack of ads. I mean, I did. I asked three different ways. Like, message was conveyed. People are noticing a lack of advertising, right? And how do you break through? The media is not helping. What's the media plan? Now, did I expect her to tell me what the media plan was for this race to lay it all out? No. But I asked the question, why? Because here's the thing. I don't know when the, because the RNC reached out and said, hey, would you like to have her on? And I said, absolutely. And by the way, at the DNC, reached out and offered somebody, I would say the same thing. I would have them on. But they, for some reason, they usually don't ask. Anyway, I don't know if, all right, so let's go inside baseball or inside politics. So let's say that two years ago, The polling indicated that Roy Cooper would be a very strong candidate against Tom Tillis. And you know those polls were already done, right? The polling was going out asking about Roy Cooper to challenge Tom Tillis. And let's say those polls showed something like Cooper leading Tillis by five to ten points or whatever it may be. That Cooper had a real shot. if not, he may or may even have been the favorite, right, to knock off Tom Tillis. And maybe that's why Tillis quit, right? All of a sudden, out of the blue, he's like, I'm not running again. Well, that then clears the path for Roy Cooper. So who then on the Republican side is going to run for that seat that would actually be able to knock off Cooper, who again had won six straight statewide races. Who would be that person? So if you're the RNC and you're looking at this and you're saying, huh, polling already looks really good for him. We know where his ceiling is and it's over 50%. So how do you, how do you chop into that? Who is the candidate to do that? Oh, maybe it's Lara Trump. Maybe, maybe, maybe. And then it's not right. But who would that be? And maybe the party leadership determined a while ago that there isn't anybody that's going to beat Cooper. But you can't say that. Because if you say that, then what happens? Then money gets spent in other states where you might actually be able to knock off a Democrat, right? In other more competitive states. So this is always sort of the I mean, this is more it's more art than science, you know, and there are all sorts of bluffs and head fakes and such. So like you could come on like they could have come on the show. So when I ask, like, what's the media plan? And maybe they make an announcement. Maybe Emma Hall says, oh, you know, well, we're getting ready to drop 70 bajillion dollars into North Carolina. In which case, then what happens? The the Democrat money starts pouring in. But what happens if that was all just a bluff on the Republican side? They're not actually spending all that money. They just said that. And they said that in order to get the Democrats to spend more money in North Carolina so they won't be able to spend money in other states that the Republicans do think they can win. See, so there are all of these different games that get played sort of behind the scenes, all these different strategies and stuff. But if the Republican Party thought that Whatley or not even Whatley, but any Republican, that anybody was going to have a very steep uphill climb. But you can't just you can't just surrender. You can't just be like, oh, well, we don't have anybody. You got to put somebody up. And so and you have to you have to run the race. You have to make the Democrats spend money in this state regardless. So you need you need a good candidate. It can't just be a throwaway, you know. So did I expect her to give me a number? No, but it was possible that she could have if they, if the RNC was going to, you know, they said they were going to spend a bunch of money. But if the polling had indicated a long time ago, or even now, cause like Watley is still like, I think the real clear politics average is Watley's down by like eight points. Do I believe he's actually down by that? No, but that may, that may prompt people to not spend money in this state because they think it's a lost cause. And so Cooper knows this. He can just run his basement campaign, which is what he's doing, right? I mean, okay, he is going places, but he's going to select cities. Watley did a 100-county tour, and Roy Cooper's been to, like, I don't know, 12 cities. He just keeps hitting the same places. And bringing in all of these national people. Because that's who the crowd wants to hear from. Elizabeth Warren. Swoon. Slay queen. Oh my gosh. It's Elizabeth Warren. So he brings all these people in. And then he gets up and he says stupid things. Which I have audio of. But they don't care. Because he's a Democrat. And they know that he's sending a signal to them. So they know. That. When I bring in Elizabeth Warren and Gavin Newsom, when I bring these people in, that means I am on the same page with them. And so where they want the party to go is where you, the faithful, want the party to go, which is further and further left. I'm going to be right there with you. But Roy knows he can't say that to the general public. And that's why he doesn't do these types of general public types of events. Okay, let me go over to the phones here. Alex, welcome to the program. Hello, Alex. Hey, Pete, how you doing? All right, sir, how are you? Okay, I reckon. Okay. I just wanted to say, Cooper has the appropriate surname. He kept us all cooped up like chickens during that COVID mess. All right, thank you, Alex. I'm going with cut him loose, Cooper. See how? Back to the text line. Danny says, I agree with virtually everything that Emma Hall from the RNC, what she said in regards to our good friend Ray and all of his positions. But she dodged the question regarding what the communication strategy is and what the ratio of Cooper to Watley comms has been and will be in the next 50 days when they are going to take the very messaging she used on your program to the broader audience. disappointed in her answer and hope they will do better. If not, we could be stuck with the buffoon Ray. Yeah. And that's why, look, that's why it was my first question or well, second question, but like, it's why I asked her the question a couple of times, because this is the thing that I am hearing the most from you guys is that you're not seeing or hearing any of these Watley ads. And as I said to her, I, I see them pretty regularly on my YouTube. When I watch different programs on YouTube, But that's the algorithm. I don't see really any Cooper ads. But when it comes to TV spots, you know, that sort of thing, you know, I don't watch a lot of TV, so I can't, I don't know. I just know that this is the thing that I'm hearing from a lot of people. Alan says, the age-old art of talking around the question, we know the issues. Pete is thorough. It's your job to get the message to the people that don't have Pete. That's me. Or at least don't know they actually do have Pete on the Pete pod. That's correct. Exactly. Very good, Alan. And here's another Alan. Lost opportunity. Long non-answer. Sad. Tell Brett it's pronounced low-la-ni. Not it-la-ni. Okay. I don't know. Okay. I don't know. I do not speak Hawaiian. Uh, Dave, what is it that Cooper ever really did for the average citizen? Not that Republicans are great, but the line the Democrats seem to push is negative on the future of the USA. Clark says, apparently my texts aren't going through. But no, I see a couple of them here. Because I'm not getting a response back saying it was received. Well, Clark, you only get the one response here. um, per day. And I can see that you have been tweeting or sorry, texting quite a bit. So when you text the text line driven by Keffer, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, the family store, when you text that, um, the first text of the day, you're going to get the automated response. Thank you for texting. Right. And then, but that's it. You're not going to get that every time in response. Cause that would get kind of spammy, you know? Um, So Clark's original text was, which way does Mark Halperin lean? I'm not sure. He actually does a really good job, I think, of playing it down the middle. Which way does Halperin lean? Okay, you already said that, and then my texts aren't going through. Okay, so John says, does Watley really want to win if, yes, Willie Horton Roy? Yeah, Willie Horton him? Well, I think that's what they are trying to do. You know, people... like I get it. You're not hearing or seeing the ads, but like I, on Twitter, I, I follow several accounts and one of them, is like the like Cooper's mugshot Monday or something like that. I mean, the Wally campaign has been has been pumping out every day the mugshots and rap sheets of like the thirty five hundred people that Cooper released. But media doesn't care. I often say elections are about what media make them. And the North Carolina Press Corps does not care to make this election about criminal justice. Why? Because they know it is the soft underbelly for all Democrats. And that's why Whatley and the RNC keep hammering away at this issue, trying to make it break through. This was the same thing that happened to Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney was doing, you know, his tour around America to run for president against Obama, and he's hammering away at the economy. And, like, after, you know, he does this campaign, he loses, and I was reading a piece, his campaign people were like, like, we didn't understand. We're doing all of these events, the focus is the economy, and all the press is talking about is binders of women, haircuts, and a dog on the roof of a car. Like, nobody was talking about the economy because... The economy was the weak point for Obama, and they did not want that to be amplified, which is what we are seeing in our U.S. Senate race now. 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 the Pete Kalinor show dot com again. Thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.