Michael Whatley on ICE funding and the Democrats' performance theater | 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 of the links, become a patron, go to thepeteclendershow 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. Already, So a couple of a lot of stuff to get to today. Actually we will do the latest in the Iran war. We actually have Michael Wattley joining me in about twenty five minutes or so. Got some election results to cover. But I want to start with I believe the president he was supposed to do the signing of this of this bill today this morning, and I think he did. He did. Yeah, Okay, he signed it after it passed through the House and Senate. This is the seventy billion dollar immigration enforcement package, CNN reports. So take this from where it's coming from. This is CNN. But I read these websites and these news organizations, so you don't have to. You're welcome. I'm a giver. The move will fully fund excuse me, will fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, specifically US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as. Yeah, US Customs and Border Protection as well. So this is ICE and CBP both getting money. It's the end of the malkmase. This will actually fund these agencies for the rest of Donald Trump's term. So this issue of the funding at least is put to bed. Democrats can try to run bills trying to abolish ICE and CBP and all of that. They can keep trying to do that sort of stuff. They can campaign on that sort of stuff, but it's not happening at least until a Democrat takes over in the White House. Republicans made the measure their top legislative priority this spring after Democrats successfully blocked Congress from approving a single dollar for ICE or border patrol. After federal agents killed two US citizens in Minnesota. And that's how CNN frames those deaths. That's it just agents killed two Americans, right, But why. Right? Why? Like CNN just leaves that up to the listener or reader to figure out suss it out all on their own. But both of those people had gone confrontational with federal agents who were in the process of doing their lawful duties. Right, So, when you are obstructing federal agents from doing their jobs and then you pick a fight with them, you enter into a physical altercation with them, things escalate very quickly. When you drive over one of them, or attempt to drive over one of them accidentally or not, doesn't matter. You point your vehicle at an agent, at a law enforcement officer and give it gas. You're probably you're you're a great risk of something bad happening to you. Okay, But that was renee good, and then there was pretty good and pretty Alex Preddy had this history of confronting federal agents in various street protests and such, and carrying a firearm, a firearm that allegedly has a history of going off, like the firearm has like it's like this was a glitch with the gun, if I remember correctly. And so he engages in physical confrontations with law enforcement thinking that the rules don't apply to him. That is what you call leftist privilege. They believe that they can hurl frozen water bottles at your face, that they can throw bricks and debris at law enforcement officers who are simply standing around the perimeter of a building to protect it from you. And so the leftist privilege is that I can do all of these things. I can act in an anti social way and suffer no consequences. Right, that's their privilege. CNN, of course, does not give us any of that information at all. It's just that Democrats were just seeking reforms after Ice killed two people to Americans. They just walked up in the middle of the street, just shot them dead. The House passed the bill by a two fourteen to two twelve party line vote. Okay, Kevin Kylie of California technically an independent now he was a Republican, but he has since changed his affiliation to independent. He did that right around the time when California was doing its new redistricted maps and such, right when they were doing their gerrymandering. Kylie cited the lack of limits on federal immigration enforcement and the process taken to pass the bill as part of his decision to not vote with the GOP conference on the package. He said, instead of relying on the normal appropriations process to approve the spending, lawmakers relied on a workaround called budget reconciliation. Well, yes, Republicans had to do that because when they went through what's called regular order, which I have been advocating, Congress returned to regular order instead of these massive, you know, omnibus reconciliation packages, to go through the twelve different appropriations committees and to have them draft their budgets and stuff and then present the budgets for votes and that sort of thing. That's the regular order. And they largely got back to that after I don't know, like fifteen years of not doing it that way, which has led to a massive growth in federal spending. It leads to the constant fights over the debt ceiling and the shutdowns and all of this stuff. And so when the Republicans brought forth the appropriations measure, Democrats blocked it in the Senate. They refuse to do anything on that Appropriation's bill because they want to abolish ice. Now. They say they want reforms, but when they were offered some reforms, they rejected them. So this was simply a campaign move to appeal to their base, to show that they are fighting Donald Trump and his gestapo. Right, That's what the political calculation was, and that's why Republicans responded with the reconciliation approach, and Kylie says, I don't like that approach, and so he voted against it, but he also as an independent in California, he probably needs to vote that way also, so this way he can not anger the left wing voters in California. Right. Ultimately, CNN says Trump is getting nearly everything he had initially sought. Republicans are approving the ICE money without any new reforms or oversight for an agency that's drawn heavy scrutiny in the wake of the fatal shootings. Bill Malugin had a great point on this. I'd been asking this as well during as the saga has unfolded over the last few months. Bill Malugin says, what was the end result of Democrats' DHS shutdown the Department of Homeland Security? Because that was the appropriations bill that included the ICE and CBP funds. They got no ICE reforms. ICE and CBP are now funded with an additional seventy billion dollars through the rest of Trump's presidency. After negotiations fell apart in the Senate, Republicans simply went around Democrats and funded Trump's immigration enforcement agenda on their own, and Democrats were powerless to stop it. And this is on top of the money that ICE and CBP already got in the One Big Beautiful bill last year. Right, So this is why all of the air traffic controllers and such in the airport personnel, this is why they were all working without pay, why they were starting to call out sick and such, was because Democrats used them to apply pressure to get ICE reforms. Republicans offered ICE reforms, Democrats said not good enough, and so Republicans said, okay, then we'll just go around you with reconciliation and do it that way. And so Democrats actually ended up with nothing for that shutdown. They got nothing. 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 art. Stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, 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. All right, back to the CNN story headlined Republicans send seventy billion dollars in ice and border patrol funding to Trump's desk. He signed it this morning. Trump gets everything that he initially sawt Now they tried to he and some Republicans, they tried to add more stuff into the reconciliation bill, like the they wanted the funding for the was it the one point seven seven six billion dollar compensation fund for people who were targeted by Biden's DOJH And they called it the weaponization fund, which, by the way, I know there's a lot of outrage overall of that. I don't support the creation of that fund. That think there were too few controls over it. However, I would point out that members of Congress got a weaponization fund. Did you know that members of Congress who got targeted by the intelligence community, they had their their emails and cell phones tapped into and listened to and whatever like, So they got some compensation out of that. But you know people who who took a tour of the Capitol literally waved through by the Capitol police and then charged with trespassing and had the book thrown at them, they get nothing. They get nothing. But I did not support putting that into this bill. And then there was the funding for the ballroom, not the ballroom per se, but the security upgrades that would have run somewhere about a billion dollars for the White House as well as the ballroom, to add all sorts of you know, new security around the White House, and that got mixed as well. But other than those two things, excuse me, everything else that Trump had originally asked for. He got. The Republican spending Bill was passed and Democrats spent all that time, expended all of that energy, all the political capital with the shutdown. They hurt all those people, all those workers, right, they hurt all those people. Why so they could score points with an ever increasing radical base, or I should say ever increasing le radical base. Right, the base that is out there throwing bricks at ice facilities, those are the people that the Democrats are playing to. They have to be seen as fighting because I've gone over this many times. The polling all shows the same stuff. When you ask liberals and Democrats their opinion of the Democrat Party, and they have a very low opinion. The Democrat Party's approval rating is lower than Trump's. For all of the news coverage about Donald Trump's low approval being in like the mid to high thirties or whatever, it is, lowest ever and everything, the Democrats are in like the teens. Okay, And you don't get that low unless your own party is mad at you, your own party's base, your own voters are mad at you. Well, why are they mad at Democrats? They're mad at them because they're not fighting Trump enough. Like you need to take a bullet. One radical actually said that in a news interview. So this is what the base demands of Democrats, So they shall comply. Here's a quote from of the squad members, Pramila Jayapola Ailau of Washington. I believe she is a representative of hellas she said a long time, she's a she's described here as a long time immigration rights activist. Mm hmm. It's always it's always amazing, Like you never see people on the right that are labeled as voter integrity activist. Right, you never see that title, Why is that right? Or anti fraud activist Nick Shirley for example, No, no, no, anti corruption activist James O'Keefe, No, no, no, they don't get those labels. Giapola accused Republicans of passing the bill with no guardrails while throwing seventy billion more to Ice. Quote. With seventy billion, we could end homelessness in America. Really, I think I think California spends about that much money on the homelessness problem and it's just gotten worse. See, here's the dirty secret is they don't actually want to solve the homelessness because, as we are learning with the LA mayor's race, that's how they get the votes, literally quite literally, that's where they find the votes. They go to skid row and they pay people. There are people living on skid row, homeless people who have gone on camera and explained what the operation is. Over the last twenty four hours, people have gone to skin row, put cameras in their faces and asked them like, oh you know, did you get ballots? Oh, yeah, we got ballots. And some people would come by like they do every election, and they give us two dollars and then we fill out the form how they want us to fill it out. We sign it and then they send and then they take it and they send it off. So that's the point of the homelessness problem. It's to fund the NGOs, the nonprofits, who then donate back to the Democrats so they stay in power, and it's the harvest votes. They don't want to solve the problem. If they solve the problem, then their pals lose money, they lose donations, and they lose votes. So anyway, Immigration Customs Enforcement did get its money, thank goodness. Michael Wattley will join me next stick around. Michael Wattley is the Republican nominee for the US Senate race here in North Carolina. Michael, how are you, sir. I'm doing great. It's good to be on with you. Yes, sir, so, I was just talking about the President signing the Reconciliation Bill to fund ICE and customs and border patrol, and noting that for all of the efforts that Democrats went through to prevent any kind of ICE funding without quote reforms, they ended up getting exactly zero reforms for all of their efforts. But I suspect the Democrat voting base might be okay with that because as long as they put up a fight against Donald Trump, I think that's really all they care about. What do you think, Yeah, the Democrats right now, it's performative theater. I mean is it is opposed Trump at every step, and it is make sure that they're fighting harder for criminals and illegal aliens than they are the people of the United States. It's absolutely amazing when you think about the Department of Homeland Security. This is the department that was created after nine to eleven, after thousands of Americans were killed in Washington and Pennsylvania and New York, that we had to go and create a department specifically to protect the homeland. And now the Democrats are going to vote against funding that critical department, funding border patrol, you know, funding all of the different functions that we have there, and then to turn around and say that we're not going to you know, fund border protection and immigration and customs enforcement is really terrible. And on all of the shutdowns that we've seen been a single concession that the Democrats have won. Yeah, which and as far as the strategy goes, I think everybody understands what they're doing and why they're doing it. Their arguments are kind of insane, particularly that they used to take the exact opposite side of the argument in you know, like a decade ago, particularly on immigration. What do you think of the idea. That Mark Wayne Mullen suggested about, you know, look, we just won't process any people coming in from foreign countries in these sanctuary cities that have international airports. What do you think about that idea? Look, I think that what we need is the Democrats to get serious and come to the table, you know, and we look at the immigration issues that are out there. Joe Biden allowed fifteen to twenty million illegal immigrants to come across that border, hundreds of thousands of them known criminals, thousands of them known you know, violent felons and murderers that they captured at the border and they let in and they let our communities become much less safe. You know, Roy Cooper, who vetoed legislation that would force sheriffs to honor ice detainers and get those violent criminals out of the state of North Carolina, is right into to that fact. We need the Democrats to stop the performance theater and understand that they have got to fund, you know, our efforts to protect this homeland. But they're not going to That's that's like, there's no indication that they're going to get serious. This is all their incentives are aligned to not do that. So then what well, we got to keep That's why it's so important for us to keep the Senate in Republican hands. That's why it's so important for us to keep the House in Republican hands so at least we have the majorities to go out and get this funding done. I think it's extremely important on this reconciliation bill that just got signed by the President that ice and customs and border patrol have been funded all the way through the rest of the president's term. To take the opportunity for the Democrats, you know, to have their performance theater, you know, stripped on these particular issues. As we're moving forward speaking, we've got to keep the majorities. Well, speaking of keeping the majority, have you gotten a Nazi tattoo? I hear that might actually improve your chances of winning a race in the Senate? Boy, I tell you what, the deats these days have just gone absolutely off a cliff. You know, you think about the twenty twenty four this election really kind of came down to common sense versus crazy, and what President Trump was running on was rebuilding our economy, restoring our borders, and keeping our kids and communities safe, and then making sure that we have the most, you know, the strongest and most respected military around the world. The Democrats open borders, inflationary spending, and a woke, weak America. That's exactly what they've doubled down on right now, and they're marching closer to crazy every single day. You think about James Taller Raco in Texas, you think Graham Platin are there. Well, the voting record of Roy Cooper is exactly the same. You know, this is a guy who is part of the woke Bob. This is a guy who has been out there voting for the Democratic special interests out of California in LA the entire time. The vetos that he cast as the governor here in North Carolina absolutely lockstep with a guy like Graham plattin Yeah. I mean, I Cooper presents himself and always has as a moderate and he has this this folks he you know, I call it the aw shucks, I'm just a country lawyer kind of approach, and everybody just laps it up. But when you look at what he actually does and the way he votes, he is as radical as the radicals in the Democrat Party are. So I mean, how do you how do you break through that kind of barrier? You know? I kind of feel like he's got a ceiling of support because people in North Carolina know him, right, He's got a record, people remember him as governor obviously, so and his numbers don't seem to be moving up any so it seems like he's got a ceiling. So how do you chip away at that? Like tell us all of the plans? No, I'm kidding, but like, how do you get through? We're going to talk about his record. We're going to talk about the fact that he vetoed the Parents' Bill of Rights, he vetoed legislation to prohibit transgender mutilation surgeries for kids. He vetoed legislation to keep boys out of girls' sports and men out of women's locker rooms. He vetoed the legislation to tell sheriffs like in Mecklenburg County that they have to honor ice detainers and get criminal illegal aliens out. You know, this is a guy who signed an executive order that radically restructured the judicial system and forced pre trial release and cash list bail and a revolving door put criminals back down the streets again and again and again onto North Carolina citizens. When Antifa and DLM were burning down our cities in twenty twenty, did he call in the Nash Guard to protect our cities. No, he went out and marched with him right, And of course he led over four thousand criminals, hardened criminals out of North Carolina prisons because he didn't want them to get COVID. And of course, as soon as he put those guys back on the streets, they went out and started committing crimes again and again and again. So you know, this is a record that we absolutely want to have a conversation about. There's a reason that Roy Cooper is running from the basement right now, there's reason he's not out doing events. I've been in ninety seven counties across this state since I announced my campaign. We've got three more to go, and we'll get there. But the fact is, I'm talking to the people of North Carolina and I'm listening, and I known that the issues they care about are the ones that we're putting solutions on. The table for. All Right, So you just mentioned all of your travel. I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but on social media there's this hot trend going on right now where you get all these Europeans that are in America because of the soccer tournaments or the big games or whatever. They I'm I don't know, but they're all on social media and they are like astounded by what they're seeing and experiencing, and so like they're like, oh my gosh. Like in Atlanta, they're like, look at all these trees. It's like a rainforest, which we all kind of take for granted, these things like and so I was just kind of curious, like if you could recommend something for these European travelers who are through the southeast right now to go and see in North Carolina what might that be? Now, keep in mind, these people are amazed by things like BUCkies or touchscreen soda machines that offer like dozens of choices, large college football stadiums and stuff, and the display of American flags. So like, is there something that you would say, this is something that a European should see to appreciate America. Well, look, I mean it's nice that they've already pointed out waffle House. Yes, they are absolutely in love with, you know, and certainly hope that they're going to get over to a Chick File and bo Jangles, you know, because the breakfast tours is obviously very important. Look, I mean, there's a reason that everybody in the world wants to be America. We are the greatest nation on the face of the earth, you know. And I remember back, you know, when we had I believe it was Gorbachev come over to go to a grocery store and said, no, this one is staged, take me to another one, yep, and realized that they had lost, you know, the Cold War because of what America's you know, greatness is truly all about, and it is great to see these other folks come over here and understand you know just how great our country is. Yeah, Michael Wattley, candidate for US Senate in North Carolina, thanks for your time, safe travels out on the campaign trail. Sir, Absolutely take care of you all right, see you. I did get a message on the text line as a matter of fact, saying I should hire Graham Plattner to record the GMC portion so that I wouldn't ruin my throat like. Good suggestion. But no, I generally have a rule against paying Nazis, So all right, John, Oh, sorry, John, I didn't see this before I talked to Michael Wattley there. John Stewart wanted to wanted me to ask Michael Wattley who his favorite district chairman is and why it's me? Sorry, John, I just saw that. Now, let's see, Danny says, Pete, you're homeless. Voting scenario funding. The NGO's example is exactly the definition of the democratic machine often spoke of but never defined. That's why they so fiercely oppose all of the common sense voter id laws and other such legislation. They know it it erodes their machine, and they can simply never win elections on the substance of ideas alone. Once again, Trump was right. They cheated every opportunity. And when Trump says the elections are rigged, this is the very thing he speaks of, but just not so eloquently. Yeah, I mean the Democrat machine machine politics. It's been around for you know, one hundred and fifty two hundred years in America. It's you know, whether it takes the form of a spoils system patronage. I've talked about various iterations over the decades, over the last century. In North Carolina specifically, you know, you did not get government jobs unless you were a Democrat, and then you had to They would pass the hat around the state offices and all of the employees would have to kick in cash to support the local Democrat running for office. Right, That's how the machine worked, and then you had to turn out the. Votes and stuff. These types of operations have gone on for a very, very long time. Democrats have now found another way to build a different kind of machine. But it is still a machine. To Danny's point, it is still a machine. Right, It's a it's a vote gathering, fundraising, you know, candidate elevating, machine, and it's all to protect those who control the machine, those who have the power inside of the machine. And I fear Charlotte is pretty well down this path as well. Uh, Danny or was that Yeah? So this is a message from the hellion who says is Hockey Gate over? Uh? Yeah? I did, Yeah, Like I did have a question, like I. Was gonna let's say here, because I always I always over prep and so I had to. Yeah. My question was whether or not he has abandoned all of his support for the Carolina Hurricanes, because we're not allowed to root for a local team unless you can name a bunch of the players. I also thought about maybe asking him who his favorite cricket players are, just to see if he was, you know, us senate material, But no, I went with the Nazi tattoo question. Let's see here, Peter says, uh, great name. By the way, Peter Pete, I love your clever sarcasm. What what are you talking about? I don't engage in any sarcasm. You make me belly laugh sporadically through my day. Also, your pronunciations of Middle Eastern names is spot on. Thank you for daily Roan War updates. Thank you for all you do well, Thank you, Peter. I appreciate that I worked very very hardly to get those pronunciations correct, and you will hear more of them later on in the program. And Trolley mctroll face, so you know where this is going. Your stick is getting really old, Buddy, Trolley, I'm not your buddy. I'm not your buddy. You're not my buddy. I'm not your buddy. You're simply somebody who is able to put their thumbs on a smartphone and text messages to me. And at some point, and maybe after I finish reading this text, I'm going to move you into the block file and then I will never see your rantings again. No other host will either. See that's the risk you run when you just are abusive all the time to everybody. Anyway, you said you don't care about ratings, that's why they have commercials for advertising on your show and only your show. Well that's not true, No, I said. I never said I don't care about ratings. You prefer the ratings to be higher than lower, obviously, because that's how advertising gets sold. Sure, you accused me of only saying things for ratings. That's what I said. I don't pay attention to I don't pick topics and talk about things or adopt opinions based on what I think the ratings will reward that I don't do. And I pointed out that I had a successful podcast before I came back to WBT, So I know who I am, I know my opinions, and I know the show I do. And at some point this job as a shelf life and it will end, and then you will be able to rejoice that I'm off the air. I finally got fired and all of that. It'll happen at some point, but I'll be fine, don't you worry, buddy. 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.