NC Governor targets fellow Dem in primary (01-07-2026--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 dpeteclendershow 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. All Right, so, North Carolina's governor has now waded into a Democrat primary here in Charlotte. The primary is the Democrat primary for state House seat that is currently held by Carla Cunningham. We've talked about Carla Cunningham in the context of her signing on to the petition to oust the Mecklamburg County sheriff, Gary not My Fault McFadden. She alleges that he called her and attempted attempted to intimidate her and extort her vote on House Bill three eighteen, which would require greater cooperation between the sheriff's office and all sheriffs in the state with ice Because Gary Not My Fault McFadden originally ran for office and won on a platform of not cooperating with ICE, and he has in his two terms so far he has fulfilled that campaign promise, so credit to him. Right. He ran around on the campaign trail promising to scrap the two eighty seven G program, and he did. He ran around promising that he would not cooperate with ICE, and he did not like. He refused to work with them, and that's how we ended up with people getting released who were criminal, illegal aliens that ICE wanted to deport and were unable to do so because Gary let them walk even though Ice had asked them at the Sheriff's office hold on to these people for an extra forty eight hours with this detainer request, and Gary said, I'm not going to honor your detainer requests. And then when House Built ten was passed about two years ago, saying hey, you gotta honor their requests, he then would not call them to let ICE know that somebody was about to be let go, so they had to tighten that up as well. That was House Built three eighteen, and Carla Cunningham broke ranks with all of her fellow Democrats in the House to vote for House Built three eighteen and broke rank with the Democrats to override Governor Josh Stein's veto of House Built three eighteen, only Democrat to do so. So, now Governor Stein wants to see her primaried. He wants her to be defeated so they can get a Democrat in there that's going to be loyal to Democrats, that's going to vote lockstep with Democrats on every single issue, particularly when it comes to overriding one of his vetos, maybe even particularly when it comes to immigration and customs enforcement. So there was a Council of State meeting the other day, and Council of State is these are the ten elected offices, statewide elected offices. They make up the Council of State. They have regular meetings, I think like once a month or something. And this is the you know, governor, Lieutenant governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Insurance commissioner, Labor commissioner, like all of the treasurer, the auditor, all of those statewide elected seats. And there were ten of them, and I believe right now it is a five to five split Democrat to Republican I think. Anyway, after this meeting, Stein was asked about his endorsement. So here is the story out of the News and Observer, reported by Dawn Baumgartner. Vaughan, North Carolina's governor says that he stepped into a Democratic primary election to endorse a challenger because of a floor speech during a contentious veto override vote on an immigration bill. Okay, so it's not her vote. According to this reporting, Stein didn't endorse Cunningham's challenger, Rodney Sadler, who is a he's an act, Reverend William Barber of the Moral Monday Movement, the Momomo right, So we are to believe that it's not because she crossed Stein and voted to override his veto. That's not the reason. It's because she made a comment during her floor speech. Okay. I don't believe that, not for a minute. First off, the floor speech occurred six months ago. Okay, six months ago. Stein could have come out with an endorsement at any point after candidate filing. He did not. He's only doing it now after she attaches her name to the petition to remove Gary McFadden. So I don't know if Stein has been briefed on you know, how awful the sheriff is and how legitimate, these accusations are or anything like that. But this story that he's telling that it's based on her comments made from the floor, I don't buy that. What I believe is it's because she voted to override his veto and he needs every single Democrat in the House to stay in line. Roy Cooper did this as well, and kudos to the reporter at the News and Observer for pointing this out as well. Stein did not rule out making more endorsements in legislative races. He's not the first governor to endorse a challenger in his own parties primary for a seat in the General Assembly. His predecessor, Roy Cooper aka my good friend Ray, endorsed the opponent of former Senator Kirk Devier, a woman by the name of val Applewhite, who went on to win the election and still holds that seat because Devier had crossed Cooper by voting to override his vetos, including a bill to reopen schools during the pandemic, which was the correct vote. Right, But you're not allowed to cast a correct vote if a governor's veto is on the line, So think about that. Roy Cooper primaried a Democrat a fellow Democrat in order to keep schools closed. That's what he did. Okay. Now I don't know if anybody's going to care as he's running for US Senate, but that's the kind of fall in line Democrat machine politician Roy Cooper is. And there were a lot of people that were wondering whether Josh Stein would operate in a similar fashion. And I believe we have our answer now. Yes, Stein looks to be like he is trying to take control of the Democrat party machine apparatus, and this is how you do that. And for the people who are new to town and aren't aware of the historical nature of the Democrat Party in North Carolina, I will point out machine politics is how Democrats controlled this state for a century and a half after the Civil War. Okay, that's how they rose to power. It's how they maintained their power patronage spoil system so like you couldn't get a state job unless you were a Democrat and then made donations to Democrat politicians. You couldn't get jobs at the local level, like everything was on lockdown these The Democrat political machine was so powerful it stayed in power for a century and a half. Okay, and they only lost that power in twenty ten. Okay. So that's the history, the history of the Democrat Party. The machinery still exists, not as powerful as it once was, but it still exists. So Stein endorsed this guy, Reverend Rodney Sadler. Steinhold reporters yesterday after a Council of State meeting that he could not endorse her because of her speech during the veto override debate. I will play for you what she said, and then I will read to you what he said. She said. They're different, all right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You could check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot Ground, dot News slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. All right, let me go back to this News and Observer piece by Dawn Vaughan. The headline is that Democrats speech on immigrants led NC governor to intervene in primary. He says, I say, I'm not buying that explanation. My opinion, my speculation is he's primary. He wants to primary Carla Cunningham from Charlotte because she voted against his veto. She voted to override his veto. She was the deciding vote, the only Democrat to break ranks on House Bill three eighteen. Okay, this is the same bill back in July that our sheriff may or may not have threatened her over. That's the subject of her complaint that she filed against the sheriff as part of the petition to remove him from office. Okay, so that's the backdrop. And of all days, Stein chooses the day that Cunningham appears in this petition to announce that he's endorsing her opponent. Stein said he endorsed Cunningham's primary challenger because quote, I want to have the best General Assembly that we possibly can have, one that is committed to moving North Carolina forward, to creating opportunity for more folks, to embracing this value that everybody deserves a shot in this state. And Reverend Sadler, I think is great and he embraces that vision as well. I suspect that Carla Cunningham would agree with all of that. See I'm not buying this as an explanation. It doesn't have the ring of truth to it. He then says, Representative Cunningham, you heard the same speech I did on the floor where she said that some people are better than other people, and that is not something I can endorse. Okay, Carla Cunningham did not say that. She did not say that. And I have been dragging democrats, one of whom appeared on this very program local state representative or state senator who made this same accusation that this her comments have no place in the Democrat Party, no place in North Carolina discourse or whatever. She did not say that some people are better than others. She said not all cultures are equal, and that is true. She is one hundred percent correct on that. And when I had that state senator in here, what's his name, ted Drose something or other, I forget his last name. But when I had him on the show, and I asked him to explain that, explain what she said, why what she said was wrong? And I asked him, do you think all cultures are equal? Because if you, if you cannot make a positive argument to support your assertion, then she is correct. And he could not. He refused to do so. He said, oh, it's in the context of the debate we were having, and he never answered it because he can't because if you were to claim that all cultures are equal, people would know that's not true. And he knows it's not true. Stein knows that's not true. Anybody with half a thinking brain knows that's not true. So that's why I suspect has to reframe this with a lie. Stein is lying where she says that some people are better than other people, not what she said. Now, if she had said that, that's not a defensible position. Although some people are better than other people, right, But if you're just making a sweeping generalization about like all people of this kind or all people of that kind, like, that's not defensible. But specific individuals, yeah, i'd say so, Like, for example, I would submit that, hmm, mother Teresa is better than Adolf Hitler. I feel like I'm on some pretty firm ground on that one. No, So like that would be an indication that what Stein is saying here where she said some people are better than other people, some people are better than other people in that context individually. But Carla Cunningham didn't say that either. She said not all cultures are equal. And again that's true. And I went over examples of this. I listed various examples of how some cultures are not very good. They don't have things about them that I would prefer to adopt here in America. For example, I don't think we should bury women up to their necks and stone them to death on mere accusations of infidelity. So like that's my personal preference, to be sure. But I would say that you could even make all sorts of arguments from a philosophical, from a religious, or from just an ethical standpoint, that as a cultural feature, stoning women to death on accusations of infidelity is not a cultural norm that is superior to our cultural norm of not stoning women to death for infidelity or allegations of such. Also, here's another one. I don't think that as far as a cultural norm goes, I don't think we should toss gay people off of rooftops if that's part of your culture. I don't think that that is a winning cultural feature. I find that to be indefensible. So when Carla Cunningham says something to the effect of not all cultures are equal, then what's the problem? Oh, but it's the context of the argument that you know. No, it's that she voted to override his veto in order to get Mecklimber County Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden to cooperate with Ice to legislate cooperation. 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As the social scientists, all cultures are not equal. Some immigrants come and believe they can function in isolation, refusing to adapt. They have come to our country for many reasons, but I suggest they must assimilate, adapt to the culture of the country they wish to live in. She is correct. Everything she said there is correct. There are groups that come to America that come from a culture that is not at all like the existing American culture, and they refuse to assimilate. And if you want a good recent example, the Somali population in Minneapolis. This has been well documented. It is isolated, insulated. They do not adapt, they do not assimilate. Right, and might even posit that a cultural norm of piracy and stealing from the government and defrauding the government because you come from a war torn country and so the culture is you do whatever you have to do and there are no real laws because it's a war torn country with very little law enforcement or yeah or government control. That when they arrive here and they don't assimilate, they will engage in some of those same cultural practices that they had in their home country. Right. Carla Cunningham is correct. In her floor speech, she went on to say, this. Is this not your country. This is my country, with the good and the not so good. This is my country, tears a bee. Now, if you want to adapt to my country, not isolate yourself, and come here legally, I'll welcome you. Oh there is the problem. I think that was the problem. She said, If you want to come to this country, adapt, assimilate, and come here legally, that's the problem. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're a democrat we're not. We don't make distinctions between legal and illegal. Right, But that is the key here. She's talking about illegal immigration, and she's talking about the refusal from by some people who come here to assimilate, to acculturate, to adopt the ways of the host country. Okay, if you go and visit somebody's house and they're like, hey, take your shoes off when you come into my house. Look, I don't have that rule in my house. But if I did, or I went to somebody's house who said take your shoes off when you come into the house, right, I would expect to be thrown out of the house if I don't assimilate. Right, I either follow their rules it's their home, or I can leave. This is basic stuff. Well, Cunningham has now apologized. All of the crap that Democrats have been hurling at her for the last six months seems to have broken her. She on her website posted a video where she apologizes. Hi, I'm North Carolina State Representative Carla Cunningham to my constituents and our Charlotte community. We see divisiveness and disunity all around us. That's why I need to address an important matter. There was a spirit of disharmony that surrounded me before I voted on House Billed three eighteen. In the days and the hours leading up to my speech, I had received so threats from elected officials and community leaders. This intimidation and bullying included a high level danger that prompted the House Speaker to provide me with law enforcement protection. I was shaken to my core in this state. I said things that offended members of the community. And I take full accountability for my words and my actions, and I sincerely apologize throughout my life. Okay, And then she goes on to talk about all the stuff that she's done and how you know she should win, you know, be re elected in all of that. So she sincerely apologizes because she was getting death threats, she was being intimidated, she's being harassed by the left. By the way, that's by her own party, which you'll recall Tricia Cotham, former Democrat who flipped and became a Republican. She said the same stuff when she crossed Democrats on I believe it was the school voucher vote. This is the kind of abuse that she was subjected to see when people who are insulated in the Democrat bubble, you know, and they're all pals and chums and allies with all of these leftist moonbats. They don't they don't get this kind of abuse. People on the right, we're used to it. We've been getting this abuse for thirty years. Me personally, I can tell you I've been getting this abuse for all well twenty five years. Okay, so after a while, you develop a pretty thick skin on this stuff. But for Democrats, they don't get this kind of abuse. And then you go off the reservation for one vote, you have a difference of opinion on a single vote, and the damn breaks and all of a sudden you feel what people on the right field this is. I remember talking to a fella up in Ashville who had run for the Asheville City Council and he was a Republican. Mark was his name, and he said when he filed to run, he was dragged savagely by the leftist brigade up in the Asheville area. And he's like, no, wonder, Republicans don't want to run for office. This is the kind of abuse that they get subjected to. That's why I call it Democrat privilege. They don't get this kind of stuff. And then there's the Charlotte Observer, their deputy opinion editor page Maston headline, and embattled Carla Cunningham makes curious accusations against Mecklemburg sheriff. Curious accusations. Again, as I said earlier, I could describe the accusations that as a lot of different things, but curious would not be a word that I would ever think to use. It's not curious at all. In fact, you just heard the apology from Cunningham and she references the intimidation from local officials. That's McFadden. She's talking about McFadden there, and she outlines the accusations in the petition filed with the court. So here's what Maston writes. In an unusual clash between two embattled politicians. North Carolina Representative Carla Cunningham has joined a petition attempting to remove McFadden from office. The filing alleges McFadden threatened Cunningham last year as she was facing criticism for supporting a controversial immigration enforcement bill, which McFadden vocally opposed. Cunningham ultimately voted to override Governor Josh Stein's veto of that bill. And she drew sharp criticism for a floor each in which she claimed immigration is quote destabilizing our communities. True and that all cultures are not equal. Also true. She was talking about mass illegal immigration and immigration of populations that refuse to assimilate. See. So many of our debates are filled with wasted time because people on the left pretend not to understand what the issue is about. This is an example of it. 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. 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Let's bring this baby in for a landing. Final segment of the program a tweet from Sarah who says, josh Stein has the same position as Cunningham's speech, and he thinks that Democrats have better values and ideals than Republicans. Right, he thinks that Democrat values are better, So he's a hypocrite. Yeah, this is why I don't believe his cover story here that six after a speech on the House floor where Democrats clutched all of the pearls within arms distance. Six months later, josh Stein then turns around and says, that's the reason I'm not endorsing her. I don't believe it. I believe he's not endorsing her because she voted to override his veto. Now back to the piece at the Charlotte Observer by the Deputy opinion editor Paige Maston. According to the petition that was filed to remove Mecklamber County Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden. Cunningham feared for her safety after a conversation with McFadden in which the sheriff said the people of Mecklamberg County would come after her if she voted to override the governor's veto. The filing says that, based on McFadden's tone and manner of delivery, Cunningham believed he was referring to physical harm and not political opposition. Well. Yes, Also for the fact that she had had threats against her that prompted the Speaker of the House to provide her with a security detail while in Raleigh, she had to go and hire a private security force here back home in Charlotte. So that's part of the equation here too. It's not just that, oh, well, she may have misinterpreted what he said. And by the way, I'm old enough to remember when all of the training modules were telling everybody that it doesn't matter if you intended to offend somebody with something that you say. The only thing that matters is how it is received by the offended person. That was the standard, that was the woke left standard in corporate settings, in public communications on social media, if you said something that some hyper sensitive, emotional basket case took as an insult or offensive or something, then you were to blame for that. That was your standard, lefties, your standard. That was like three years ago, okay, which, by the way, is why nobody believes any of your crap. Now we just don't. We are done playing this game. Just done. And by the way, you also prompted the rise of people, these edge lords who now just seek to offend because they think it's funny, because now it's like, okay, everything was offensive, so now let's just go ahead and just be as offensive as possible. The filing also claims McFadden told Cunningham, I don't want to see you get hurt. You live in my county, which she understood to be a threat. Now, Paige Masden may not believe Cunningham's interpretation of McFadden's comments, I would tend to believe her, you know why, because I haven't been ignoring our sheriff's behavior with his own staff for the last eight years. He has told people have documented in the petition that was filed for his removal, but also in the resignation letters, the public statements, the interviews that former employees. I think there's probably I've got I don't know, seven or eight of them in my macfadden file over there, former employees who talked about how this is how the sheriff behaves. He says these things. Now, maybe he didn't mean it, but that's the way he comes across. That's the way he says this stuff. She took it to be a threat to change your vote, override the VET or don't override the veto fall in line with the Democrats, because I oppose House built three eighteen and it'd be a shame if something happened to you. I don't want to see you get hurt. You know, Meckelberg County people, they are going to come after you. These folks are going to come after you. She already had private security, and the sheriff is telling her, I don't want to see you get hurt. You live in my county, my county, it's his county. Both Cunningham and McFadden are running for reelection, Maston says, and will face competitive Democrat primaries in March. Cunningham, for her part, seems to be feeling the pressure, She posted a video her campaign website Sunday apologizing I played that clip. She said the comments that she made were influenced by the intimidation and bullying by macfadden she received prior to the vote. It's the second time in the past month she has tried to publicly walk back her comments, which she had previously defended. Meanwhile, Stein announced his endorsement of Charlotte Paster Rodney Sadler, one of her primary challengers. Which is why the timing of the petition and Cunningham's participation in it raises questions. Wait a minute, the petition came out on Monday, right, it was published Monday, sent out to media. Stein made his endorsement Monday. And you're telling me that the timing of Cunningham's presence in the petition, in the release of the petition, that the timing of that is suspicious, But not Stein's endorsement, which came after. What are you doing? Seriously, what are you even saying here? This is the line that McFadden has now seized on. Dare I say or maybe he's doing a little pouncing, but he's seizing on this and that's why you heard the comments last night at the forum where he's talking about how oh, this is an election cycle, smear campaign. These are lies. It's all about the election. It's been nearly six months since the vote and McFadden's alleged threats took place. Why is Cunningham just now choose to come forward about it less than two months before an election? Well, I already went over the timing. It's because McFadden slow walked his announcement that he was running for reelection. If he hadn't done that, then, if he hadn't announced he was running again, then there would be no petition to remove him. But the fact that he is running for reelection now, they filed the petition to get him out, and they did so immediately after the holiday season. It's a law firm. They're working through the holiday season. They did the work and looks like about four weeks. Did she attempt to contact the authorities about this potentially illegal act when it happened. If not, why does she have any proof beyond her own recollectioncy, Now here's the standard. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to me the media person before I believe all women, sorry, this woman right, oh, how the standards change when the politics require all Right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show with about 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 dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.