Massie's loss proves the GOP is still Trump's party | 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. So I'd like to start with a quick little story, true story of a conversation, a brief conversation that I had had with former Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James. And Bill James was. A staunch conservative Christian conservative Republican, and he picked fights and angered all the Democrats, all the editors over at the Charlotte Observer, and I was talking to him. I don't remember if I was interviewing him or what, and I don't remember even what the topic was, but I was discussing an issue that was going on locally and a lot of the hosts at WBT here had been arguing against the position that he was advancing, and I pointed that out to him, and he said something and it is stuck with me for a very long time, which was, well, WBT is more libertarian than conservative, and as one who I was, for probably about a year and a half or so registered as a Capital l registered libertarian. And then then the party got decertified in North Carolina because it did not get enough votes for governor, and so then they made every libertarian an unaffiliated voter. And I've been unaffiliated ever since. But I've always disagreed whether I was voting for a libertarian voting for a Republican, even in the times when I voted for Democrats, which I have had to do living in Charlotte as an unaffiliated voter, I go to the primary and all I get is a Democrat primary, right, so I have cast votes for Democrats. Does that mean that I agree with that candidate on one hundred percent of the issues? No, it does not. It does not. Especially for the Democrats. I'm usually picking somebody, well, okay, it's a bit of a different strategy. I'm usually picking somebody. Who is going to give me the most show material, so in the Democrat primaries, but I have disagreed with the Libertarian Party position on a number of issues, which is why when they got recertified as a party, I never went back and reregistered as a libertarian. And so I am telling you all of this because libertarians are not the same as conservatives, and I think this is something that a lot of people are missing in their quote analysis of the primary vote in Kentucky in the fourth district where the incumbent Republican Thomas Massey lost. And Thomas Massey is a libertarian. He's not a capital L registered libertarian, but he is a libertarian, which is why the Libertarian Party loves him. Libertarians love him. So that's one thing to keep in mind. Another argument that I have been hearing regarding this race, and look, I have not followed all the ins and outs, all the campaign material of all the stuff that was going on up in Kentucky's fourth district, Okay, but I tend to try to like zoom out a little bit and. What are the larger issues going on? You know, is there something that this tells us about you know, other districts or you know, voters or whatever. And one of the arguments that I have heard is that Thomas Massey votes with the Republicans or with the Trump agenda. And I've heard various numbers people. I think I'm kind of thinking at this point they just make up some numbers, you know, but like ninety percent of the time and all this. But Massy has been over the last I mean, he's been there for like twelve years or something, and so over the last six years or so, he has been voting with Republicans less and less, So he's got a trajectory that is going down. So a lot of those that the higher number is propped up by earlier votes with the Republican party leadership, which when you're in the minority is easier to do. And he was in the minority, you know, off and on in the House. So the most recent numbers from the recent term or yeah, I think it's the most recent or the last two terms maybe, is that he's somewhere hovering around seventy five to eighty percent voting with Republicans and the president. Okay, And I hear people arguing, like, why would you replace somebody who even if you use the ninety percent number, he votes ninety percent with Republicans. Why would you replace him? Well, do you think that the guy that's just beat him in the primary by ten points. Do you think that he's going to vote less than ninety percent with the Republicans because he's also a Republican. Keep in mind he's a Republican. They're both registered Republicans, right, they're both going to caucus with the Republican Party. So do you think that the guy coming in is going to vote less than the seventy five eighty percent or less than even the ninety percent, Like you're not swapping him out for a Democrat. I have also talked about going after Republicans in safe districts because that's where you effectuate the change. Because if you're targeting a Republican in an R plus two district because there were a rhino, right, think like a Mike Lawler. I think he's out of New Jersey or New York. He's a Republican, he's more of a moderate, and he gets smeared as a rhino and all of this. Right, But he's trying to win a district that is easily flippable for Democrats, So he can't be as conservative, not libertarian. He can't be as conservative as as somebody from a R plus forty district, right, because if you are in an R plus forty district. That means you're a Republican's going to hold that seat. And so the time to knock out somebody who is not helpful in getting the legislative agenda passed. The time to target those people is in the primaries. Now you can target those people because they are quote establishment, they're rhinos, whatever, or you can target them because they're libertarian like Thomas Massey. This is just the reality that I'm laying out here the politics like I'm not but I don't live in the Kentucky fourth district. It matters not to me. So, but when I look at the results here and you've got fifty five percent of the Republican primary electorate that turns out to vote out their incumbent. There, long time incumbent who has a national profile, who has all of these influencers coming to town and you know, putting out videos and doing interviews with him. In all of this, he spent a lot of money. I keep hearing the number. Oh it's thirty six million dollars, you know, yeah, but that's for both of them. That was for both candidates. And the what's his name, Ed Gallrain, I think is his name? I don't even know who the guy is really. I know he's like a former Navy seal commander. But like it was thirty six million, and fourteen of it was for Gallrain and twelve of it was for Massy. So it's not like he got blown out of the water. In fact, even he said that during his concession speech last night, MASSI did. He said it wasn't due to a lack of money. But I keep hearing this argument that all this money was spent in order to oust Massy. As if the voters, the individual people living in Kentucky's fourth district that went and voted in their party primary, that they somehow what they were manipulated, that they that they were stupid, that what that their votes were bought. And here's the thing. If you're going to make the argument, which I have heard that uh, this is the uh the Israeli lobby bought the seat. Does that mean that the anti Israel lobby bought massy seat? Is that how that works? Or no? No, no, because he was principled. Say he was principled even though, like you could tell over the last few years, he has a bit of a pension for the grand standing smart guy but has been behaving a lot like a resident of podcasts, stand okay, And if you are part of the Republican caucus and you keep opposing the Republican Caucus at some point, if they especially when you have a closely divided House right where every vote is needed in order to get something, get a piece of legislation across the finish line, and you are you know, you can be counted on to vote no and to vote with Democrats. You are not a valuable asset to that team. And you can say, well, that's fine, I want him to oppose the Republicans on certain things, fair enough. But the voters of Kentucky they looked at it and they said, we want somebody else in there. And when you say that, oh, well it was it was the Israeli lobbyists or something. They bought that seat, They bought the election. How did they buy that election? Massey himself says that money wasn't an issue. He didn't lose because of fundraising. So what is he saying? What are you if you're saying this, what are you saying that somehow or other the Israelis duped everybody into voting for a Republican. That's what that's the argument this is. Do you hear how illogical that sounds that the that fifty five percent of Republican voters in Kentucky in the fourth district are being manipulated by. The Jews? Is that what we're saying here, because that's what it sounds like. You're saying, No, no, no, it's just the Israeli I'm anti Zionists. Look the Democrats, they've already cornered the market on the anti Zionist candidacies. So I'm not sure you're gonna make a lot of inroads there. But this has also been part of the libertarian movement for a long time. It has been. It's one of the things I didn't like about being, you know, being in the Libertarian Party their views on foreign policy. Not a fan, I'm not a fan. You know. Stories are powerful. 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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. Here's my takeaway from the Kentucky primary from last night, Thomas Massey losing to Ed Golry. It's still Trump's party, and I think there are a lot of people that have never come to terms with us or they thought that Okay, now you know, it's starting to heat won reelection and so now he's a lame duck and so now we're going to start, you know, fighting over the different elements of the Mega coalition right, We're going to carve out our piece over here, and we're gonna I've been talking about this for a while since Trump's reelection, so for a year, that there are elements on the quote right who don't care about philosophy, They don't care about any conservatism, Republican party platform, anything like that. They are simply attracted to power and they are trying to now drive a wedge in the maga right. Some of those people are bad actors. They are doing so because they are accelerationists, black pillars, nihilists, They're the trans right, the horseshoe right. Whatever you want to call them. These are the people that like Nick Fuente is, for example, like these people that have positioned themselves over on the quote right, even though they are telling everybody to vote for Democrats. Their purpose, my belief is their purpose is to splinter that base of support for whatever. They have various reasons for doing so, to elect Democrats, to try to, you know, carve out a base of support for themselves. They're doing some political project or something that's I'm thinking that's like Steve Bannon. So I don't know their motivations, and I frankly I don't care, right, But these are the people that are telling you that now the only option is to vote for Democrats. The people that I would point out here want to you know, transition your kid without your knowledge. They want the the dirty books in the schools. They want the boys on girls sports teams. They want open borders, they want criminals released with cash list bail. They want to defund the police. They want to decar sirrate right, they want to pack the US Supreme Court. They want to add in new states so they'll never lose a Senate majority. Right. Those are the people that you want to put in charge with that ideology. That should be. That should be a red flag if anybody is telling you that you need to vote for the Democrat candidates in order to teach Republicans a lesson, Like, that's just stupid, Okay, it is, that's just stupid. So once again, the party is still Trump's. You may not like that, that's fine, but this is not new. It's been Trump's party since twenty fifteen, over a decade, and people, I think thought that maybe this was the time to make their move and start, you know, going after him or opposing him and doing all this stuff. And what he has shown is that apparently they've got a get out the vote operation built, and I'm as surprised as you. Now will it work in a general election? I don't know. Can you motivate voters to go vote when Trump's not on the ticket, Well, it looks like they can in a primary like that's my analysis. And looking at this, it's still Donald Trump's party. Now, it's not going to be forever. But if you thought that it's already not his party anymore, I think the results here have shown it still is. Let us Ham and Tomato go over to the WBT text line and peru. Some of the comments this from Grumpy. Every time Massey voted against Trump, he was voting against the people who voted Trump in. But by god, Massey was gonna show Trump he can't be bullied. Joseph says, I don't like libertarians and think libertarianism is a lazy fantasy. But Massy has an important voice regarding a lot of major issues. But congratulations to Bibby Raytheon and Jeffrey Epstein on their big Kentucky four win. They say, there you go, see the Jews, right, Joseph, No, no, no, it's just antie Israel. So I guess all those voters in Kentucky, I guess they were manipulated or deceived and tricked by the Jews. I'm sorry. The israelis right, that's what happened there. It's not that Massy wasn't delivering like really anything for the district. It wasn't that the district voted like almost ninety percent for Trump and your congressman is getting into fights with the guy that you supported for president and he's blocking stuff, and it can't be any of that can't be that. And it's not like Massy was actually like thwarting stuff on the regular right, he was voting with Democrats on stuff. But like he voted against. The funding for Iron Dome. I know that. So like that's and he didn't want any money for the is to go to Israel. No, none of them foreign eight. But he was against foreign eight for all the countries, but only Israel is the one that gets targeted. Here. Notice that, like we get foreign eight to all sorts of countries, but nobody ever says it was like the Ethiopian lobby, or how about this the Liberian lobby. Do you know Liberia spends more money to lobby the US government than Israel does. That's why I call it a mind virus. It affects everything about your thoughts. Kentucky fourth districts just flip the bird to quote influencers, as did voters in thirty eight other races. Trump is thirty nine and oh in a Maga slam Texas Senate race on deck for a Paxton win. That's from Joey. Yeah, this is one of the things The online world is not real life. Okay. The stuff that you're seeing, you're seeing because an algorithm is pumping it into your face, all right. And the more you watch Tucker Carlson, the more of that kind of content you're gonna get, and it's gonna make you think that this is what all the people are thinking. And as the kids like to say, touch grass, go out and talk to other people. Right, There's a. Lot of stuff going on, a lot of different opinions out there than what the algorithm is sending to you. Allan says. I always tell people complaining about the money spent on campaigns that if they don't like it, to stop selling their vote. Well, I've never been paid for my vote. Where do I get this sweet, sweet money for my votes. Does that happen. Again? This idea that, oh they bought the seat? And I actually heard somebody make this reference in the last show Vin's Cochley Show, and somebody called in and mentioned that they spent one and a half billion dollars to drag Kamala Harris across the finish line. So does money buy elections or not? Now? Money helps, don't get me wrong, but bad candidates will lose your election even if they are well funded. But nobody ever wants to think their candidate might not be as good a candidate. No one wants to think that. Oh, Chuck says, thank you, Pete. Oh you're welcome. Chuck r J. Says thanks Pete. Realville is in good hands as the matter. Thank you. To do Rodney. Oh, don't read it on the air. Okay, I won't read that on the air. Thanks Pete for bringing perspective to libertarians and the race in Kentucky. I learned a lot from you. Well, thank you seven oh four number from keenan ninety nine point nine percent right. As always, Pete Massey was too much of a contrarian sometimes it seemed just for the attention. Yeah, it rubbed people the wrong way. And look, I don't have any animosity towards Thomas Massey. I never did. I liked a lot of the things that he had to say. I liked some of the positions that he was taking in that sort of thing. But I'm not in the Republican Caucus. I'm not one of the leaders. I'm not trying to get an agenda passed. I'm not a voter in Kentucky. So like my opinion on him and this challenger at Gulrain, like what like what impact does that actually have? Right? And I'm just looking at. Him saying, oh, he's a libertarian, and think about if you're a libertarian hiding out in the Republican Party, eventually somebody's gonna somebody's gonna come along and whack you because you're not really a Republican. You know, you're a libertarian. I reckon. I've known this for twenty years. People were saying, oh, the Libertarians should just you know, make inroads in the Republican Party and try to take it over and all of that, and we had that the brief Tea Party moment. Oh those were heady days. But yeah, there there's there are challenges to being a libertarian among Republicans. Asked Justin Amash to. Do Beth's favorite Russ, Well, Pete, the Jews probably do control the fifty five percent in Kentucky four. I have been told they control everything. If you don't, if they don't think they're controlling you, you're either one of the super smarties that can see through it, or it's absolute proof that they are already controlling you. Those are the only options available. That's it, another one of my favorite false dichotomies. Russ nails it. Hellian says it reminds us how polling isn't accurate. Also, yeah, the polls were and the polls were very difficult to read. I went through some of them and they were all over the place. But there was a couple that got pretty close. I mean, I remember seeing one right before. I guess it was like over the weekend, and I think it was like called Big Data or something or Big Pole, I don't remember, but they they put gall Rain up by eight and I was like, good lord, that's crazy, there's no way that could be the case. And then he won by ten. I heard the intro and that was it. I'm investing two hundred dollars into a set of AirPods so I don't have to miss anything because I had to walk into a store. Well, thank you, Timotheo. I appreciate that. Back to the text line, Chris says, where are you on the freedom and Liberty scores? Me, I think I'm probably at one thousand percent. I think I'm at an. A plus plus plus plus plus plus. I think I've not checked what my score is. Both MTG and Massy were high on those Okay, yuh, look, I mean the voters voted Massy out, Like I don't know, Like people want to make all these excuses for why he lost or something, but what it comes down to is that more people voted to change him and then to keep him. The voters of Kentucky made that call. And like, this is the same position I took after the during twenty fifteen and into twenty sixteen during the presidential primary season, and I was first, I was for Ran Paul. I liked Rand Paul because he was the only one talking about limiting the executive branch. Then comes along, then he drops out pretty early on after he goes after Donald Trump, and Trump just eviscerates him, and then he's out. And then by the time it comes to North Carolina's primary, Marco Rubio had dropped out after he had gone after Trump and Trump viscerated him, and then the last one left was Ted Cruz. And I was saying, you know, Ted Cruz, that's who I'm voting for. And Trump won the state and then Trump won the election. It's like, well, okay, well, like what else? What else is there to say? Like, the voters in the Republican primary chose Trump. That's what they chose. That's there, This is what the direction they want the party to go, and you cannot like that. That's fine, that's totally fine, But you know, trying to make excuses for why the candidate lost and robbing the candidate of any responsibility for why they lost. I just I've never been. I've never been one of those guys Ian says. During my wife's surgical residency, one of her fellow residents, Husbands, was a registered libertarian who called himself conservative. Not long into our discussions, he revealed himself to be a small government progressive. If that's even possible, is it, Pete? Is it true? Jail North is finally coming out of moth balls. Well, I mean the sheriff has said that, so we shall see. Gary says, I can go days or weeks or more of not thinking of or discussing Israel, but these anti Semites center their whole life around people they don't know or interact with. Yeah, it's I keep using the term black pilling. This is jew pilling. That's what it's it is. This is why it's the trans Right, It's why it's the Horseshoe right. It is the grievance Party. They're escapegoating, They're they're they're saying, these people over here are the reason why fill in the blank, and this way, I'm not responsible. I'm the hero or the victim. I'm never the villain. It's these other people. Then they're doing this to me. And then I could just sit back and not do anything and just complain about it all the time, rather than get involved and try to change stuff. Jim says it was a massy cur Yes. Well, Sean says Trump did not pick gall Rain, he endorsed him. The voters picked Gallrain, Massy ran Massy law. Trump is not a king. And I laugh when I hear people say that maybe you can explain all of this to your colleagues. Yeah. No, Trump is not a king. Trump is the leader of the Republican Party and he apparently he and his allies have built a get out the vote machine and they've deployed it. They deployed it into Kentucky's fourth district. And if you don't like that, build a machine, Monica says, I complained when we were interfering with Israeli elections. I am consistent, yes, and you took it just as well. I don't know what that's a reference to, Monica, Oh, the loss of I was laughing. I let people on the air in Asheville and they just I remember the very first call I got and she was like in your face, or he said in your face, and I was like, yeah, what's to be done? All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. 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