President Trump's visit to Rocky Mount (12-22-2025--Hour1)

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 Thepete calendarshow 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. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, happy holidays. Hope you had a great weekend. I'm not Pete Calender. I'm Tony Marino in for Pete the next couple of days while Pete hopefully enjoys his well deserved vacation. It's always kind of tricky when you fill in for somebody you know, you don't want to disrupt the apple cart too much, kind of stick to the format. Pete, of course, talks a lot of politics. We'll be talking politics. I am thrilled to be here. This is truly, truly a very special radio station staff with some of the most talented and dedicated people in the industry. I also love the Queen City. I love Charlotte even with all that's been going on there in Charlotte. I do love it. I'm not just saying that because I'm filling in today. But as many of you know, you may know or may not know, I had the privilege of being the morning news anchor here with Bo and Beth and Zochi and Pam a few years back. I was actually here when it was just Bo and then Beth came on board. Not only is it a great live and local morning show, but this is probably one of the only radio stations, or very very few radio stations left in the country that is actually live and local all day. So you may not realize how fortunate you are as a radio listener to have this radio station. Nationally syndicated shows fill up the airwaves everywhere. If you travel around the country, you listen to news talk stations other markets, you hear a lot of the same stuff. You don't hear that here at WBT. All Right, three days now, if you can believe it or not, we are three days away from Christmas. How insane is that. I know we say the same thing every single year, right, but this year, I don't know if it's just me. This year was like the fastest run up to Christmas ever, Right, I mean every years, the same thing. You're in Costco or Sam's or Walmart wherever, late September, maybe maybe sober they got the Christmas stuff out already. This is ridiculous, right, You put pictures on social media x, Instagram, whatever, and then all of a sudden, it's like Thanksgiving and you're like, oh, Thanksgiving already, Christmas will be here in a month, plenty of time. And then somehow it's the same thing every single year. Somehow it's all of a sudden, a couple of days away from Christmas and you're freaking out. But this year, like I said, it just seemed to fly by faster than anything. I spoke with WBT program director Mike Schaeffer a few weeks ago about filling in, and I'm like, oh, I've got plenty of time to get this all figured out, right, get some guests, what not, and then boom, next thing you know, it's here. A huge win by the Panthers, as Zokie reported, as I just mentioned yesterday, moving in the first place in the division after beating Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I live in Orlando, Florida. I am broadcasting remotely, so you will have to be patient with me and producer Nick. There's a lot that goes into this, and we hope it all works out. But I live right in the middle of all three Florida NFL teams, all right, So I'm in Orlando. Got the Dolphins to the south, the Bucks to the west, the Jaguars to the north. Sadly, I am a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan. I also lived in South Florida for a while. Pam Warner and I, in fact even worked at the same place in Miami before we work together at WBT. But as a lifelong Miami Dolphin fan, I don't have room to criticize or say anything about any team or any player. However, the Panthers started out almost as bad as the Dolphins, and now they could very well win the division. All right. President Trump is home in Palm Beach after visiting Rocky Mount, North Carolina back on Friday. We are going to talk about that, the Epstein files Venezuela. We'll get into all of it over the course of the next few hours. We have plenty of time, plenty of ground to cover. I'm curious, though, are there more Bryce Young fans in Charlotte now that he's playing better, or are there all of a sudden more Drake mayfans, or you know, New England Patriot fans wearing Drake May jerseys because they're Drake mayfans since he's from here and taking the NFL by storm. My gosh. I mean, we knew he was going to be good, right but did anyone imagine him having the kind of success that he's having right now? And there was no Powerball winner. If you've been paying attention to that, I don't know if you're following this or not. Even if I won, I'd probably still be here just to talk about the fact that I won and all the great things I would do with the money. Tonight's jackpot now more than one point six billion, one point six billion dollars. I know Pete sometimes takes phone calls, of course, and sometimes he doesn't. But your participation in the show the next couple of days is going to be crucial. I want to take a lot of phone calls over the next couple of days. Always love to talk to the people. Hear from the people, get your opinion on what's happening in the news, of course, nationally locally seven oh four five seven oh one oh seven nine, seven four five seven oh one oh seven nine. If you don't already have that in your phone, put it in your phone now. Seven oh four, five seven oh one oh seven nine. What would you possibly do with hundreds of millions of dollars? Even after the taxes, the lump sum payment, you take the lump sum payment and like forty percent taxes, you're still going to have hundreds of millions of dollars. One of the many things I would do is make a massive donation of contribution to Samaritan's Purse. What an unbelievable organization. And then I would be on the phone with Rick Hendrick probably getting me a new Corvette Z six, or maybe buying a whole dealership, give my friends and family jobs. I mean, that's what you would do, right, Excuse me, hopefully that's what you would do, right. You would help friends and family. You want to do the right thing. I hate to admit it, but I really didn't know that much about Samaritan's Purse until I worked here at WBT, and it started with the Ukraine War, which we'll get into a little bit but I was actually anchoring the morning news the day that Russia invaded Ukraine, and we broke the news about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we followed the war very very closely every day from that point. Brett Jensen, who I'll be filling in for next week, Brett Jensen. And you probably know this if you're a regular listener or a longtime listener. But he had a good friend that lived in Ukraine, young lady that was calling in every day giving us updates. If you listen to my podcast, you know, I think Putin is not really interested in making a deal. Brandon talked about more strikes in Ukraine over the weekend as the war continues. But everything that Trump says, everything that Marco Rubio says, I really don't think Putin. I mean, he's essentially jerking our chain. I think I've said this before many times. He's essentially jerking the whole world's chain, because I really don't think he has any interest in making a deal. He only wants to make a deal if he's going to get to keep some of Ukraine's land, which is not going to happen. I don't think so. Although they keep saying. They said it again over the weekend. We're getting really close. We're getting really close to having a deal. I honestly don't think we're that close to having a deal because I don't think that Putin is interested in a deal. But getting back to Samaritan's Purse, it started with the Russia Ukraine War. Then it was the hurricanes. Then it was Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, then Gaza, etc. Etc. Just last month the hurricane in Jamaica. Who's there, Samarnan's Purse. That's an organization. I'd give a lot of money too, if I had a lot of money. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. 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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. As I mentioned going into the break, a lot happened over the weekend. As usual, The weekend kicked off with President Trump over in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, right Friday night, talking about the economy, talking about what he's done to help the tar Heel State, talking about farmers. This was all after the big announcement of the massive cuts in pharmaceutical costs. If you go to WBT dot com, you'll see a story there about the tar Hill State's biggest I guess you would call it the you know industry or revenue generator, is actually pharmaceuticals. But President Trump talking about the announcement coming out on Friday. Of course, the whole thing was really a rally for former RNC chair and Senate candidate Michael Watley, who we are going to talk to a little bit later in the show. And as I mentioned Trump, Yeah, he talked pretty much about everything like he always does, right, pretty much everything that he talked about on Wednesday night he talked about again on Friday night here in North Carolina. And then the lamestream media is like, oh, he just says the same stuff all the time. You know what did Trump talk about? Talked about the same thing he talks about all the time. He's telling the same lies. Well, he talks about the same thing all the time because not everybody, you know, pays us close attention to it as the media does, right. I mean, you may watch Fox News, you may watch news Max, you may watch ABC. That's all you're going to see and depending upon which network you're watching, you're only going to see a part of it. So if you do, you if you are close to the news cycle, I mean, if you're a newshound and you're close to the news cycle, you know you're going to hear a lot of the same stuff over and over, like you may do on certain radio shows because not everybody is listening all the time, and he's not getting enough credit for the stuff that he's doing, so he needs to keep talking about it. Like the address on Wednesday night, Why is he so angry? You know, if he was nice and mellow, then they would say, oh, Trump was really tired. You know, he gave that address to the nation and his voice he was slow and tired. And then he comes out on fire because he's excited about everything that's happening, and it's like, why is he so angry? Why is he yelling at us? And I did see a video clip of a guy protesting at that event in Rocky Mount. It was from one of the one of the local TV news stations, I think out of Raleigh, but it's probably all over social media, you know. Of course, there were some protesters, and there was a guy at the event that was protesting in support of the Venezuelan drug smugglers being killed. And I'm not kidding. He literally said, I'm here in support of the Venezuelans that President Trump is killing. He's violating there on the boats, you know, on the Venezuelans that President Trump is killing on the boats. He's violating their human rights. I mean, these are the same people that are protesting ICE or just making it difficult for ICE agents to do their jobs while illegal aliens continue committing crimes. Did you see last week the illegal Haitian immigrants in Massachusetts arrested for stealing seven million dollars, which you know, that's like nothing, That's like twenty bucks to me and you. Benny Trump on Friday night and on Wednesday night, of course, talked about all the fraud in Minnesota and Representative il han Omar and all that, But these Haitian illegals in Massachusetts set up fake retail locations. This was pretty sophisticated. They set up fake retail locations to run the EBT cards, the snap cards and steal all the money million, seven million. I mean, that's just one small example of things that are going on all over the country. And yes, there are legal Americans that are also taking advantage of government systems that we know as well. So, knowing that I was filling in today here in Charlotte on WBT, all I could think about the last few days is at what point in the show do I mention Arena Zarutska, the story that thrust Charlotte into the national spotlight. I mean, I didn't want to just come on and say, Hey, welcome to the Pete Calnder Show. I'm Tony Marino, Happy Monday, Merry Christmas, and what about Arenas the Root's gut, right, I didn't want to just open up with that. But I also don't want to go too long without talking about one of the worst stories of the entire year, the story that thrust Charlotte into the national spotlight and everything that has happened since then. When I watched that video, and I will say, because I pay a lot of attention to what goes on in Charlotte prior to that, Prior to that incident, and probably some of the Ukraine rallies that had been happening in downtown Charlotte, you know, or uptown Charlotte prior to some of the big Ukrainian rallies, Ukraine support rallies, and then that. I mean, Charlotte is not typically a city that's on the national radar, right, If you watch national news, you don't hear about Charlotte that often unless you know there's something major happens. But I pay attention to Charlotte news because I used to live here, uh, and my connection to WBT and friends you know, in and around the city. So but when I watched the video, like everybody, right, I was so angry on so many levels. But I don't and I'm not going to say I was the first person, you know, to talk about it nationally. But I started talking about it on the Newsmax Daily. It was probably I mean, it was a few days after it happened. I heard about it because I pay attention to Charlotte, like I said, a couple of days after it happened, and I mentioned it on the news Max Daily, and I mentioned it every day after that, And it took at least a week for the national news to start talking about it. And by the time President Trump talked about it in one of the Oval Office news conferences, it was probably like two weeks before it had gone by. But I was angry on multiple levels, and especially when I heard the response from Mayor Vililes, the initial response when she didn't even mention Arena by name. She talked about how the city needs more resources for the homeless. When you've been the mayor for eight years and this guy had been arrested fourteen times before right, Mayor Vi Liials talked about all the things that the city was lacking as far as resources and services for the homeless and for mentally ill. Well, you're the mayor and your fellow Democrat Roy Cooper was the governor. Why didn't they fix anything. Why hasn't she done anything about crime in eight years except to watch it get worse. Yeah, the city has made huge strides economically. It's grown massively, which some people are happy about, some people are not. She's focused on growth. Well, with all this growth comes more crime. I can tell you, even when I lived in Charlotte and especially now, they need way more cops on the streets. I know. This is something that Brett Jensen talks about quite a bit. He's obviously much more in tune to it than I am. But this is the only city, this is the only city that you can stand on the street in the middle of downtown or uptown literally for like hours and not see a cop. I mean, you cannot compare it to New York City, which I was in last week, where there's probably more cops in two or three streets than there are in the whole city of Charlotte. But where I live in Orlando, for example, Orange County Flow Orlando. Cops are everywhere when you go downtown. Downtown Orlando is not nearly as bad as I shouldn't say that it's almost as bad. Downtown Orlando is a city that is starting to face a lot of problems on its own, but there are literally cops everywhere. You need more cops on the streets in Charlotte. And her platform doesn't say anything about fighting crime, right, affordable housing, city growth, nothing on fighting crime. Thankfully, Carlos Brown wasn't granted bond. He's in federal custody, and even though he faced his first degree murder charges, his trial has been delayed, as you know, for mental health evaluations. So what does that tell you? Yes, mental health is a very very serious issue, no doubt, and a lot of the crime does have to do with mental health. But when he clearly was walking up and down the train saying I killed that white girl. I killed that white girl multiple times, he knows exactly what he did. And the fact that no one did anything or even said anything, that was another thing that made me extremely angry. Angry. I mean, it's hard to tell if the people knew what was going on and just didn't know what to do. Did they know what was going on and they just didn't know what to do, or they know they weren't paying attention, they didn't care. I don't know, but it's extremely it was extremely frustrating. Now, what about this Kenyan Dobie guy who was stabbed while protecting people from an attacker on the light rail a couple of weeks ago. That's a hero. I don't know. Did Mayor Lyles come out and say anything about him? Is he being treated like a hero? I'd like to know. All right, Holiday football has arrived right With Draftking sports book and official sports betting partner of the NFL, the unexpected can turn game day into payday. And don't forget Draft Kings as you're back with early exit. Pretty neat function here. If your player goes down in the first half, you still get paid in cash. Download the Draft Kings sports book app and use the code Pete. That's code pete. New customers can bet five bucks and get two hundred dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins instantly. In partnership with Draft Kings, the Crown is yours gambling problem. Call one eight hundred gambler. In New York, call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why two four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill, Casino and Resort Kansas. Pass through of per wager tax may apply in Illinois twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets, which expire in seven days. Minimum mods required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources see DKNG dot co slash audio limited time offer. We're going to go right to the phones I mentioned earlier in the first segment that you know, having the opportunity to be here today is an opportunity to speak to a lot of listeners, and you know, here from folks see what's going on out there since I'm not here all the time. First up, as Mark, Mark, thank you very much for holding on. As I said, working remotely, we're figuring out the you know, the kinks I actually thought you sent in a text message and then I realized that you were on the phone. Yes you Mark, Now you would never get a text message for me. Well, thank you for holding what's up? But sure, when you said something about Ukraine a little bit ago, you know politics, I'm I'm a former Democrat. I actually loud it for Joe Biden back in the Democratic Caucus back in the eighties. Okay, and now I mean, i'm somebody has you shorted the party and the communist Socialists or whatever? And I don't agree with just about anything they do. But when it comes to Ukraine, do y'all not remember that? The reason I think that Joe Biden went all in and with billions and millions never let up. To me, it was just plain as the nudge on your face. His son, Haunter was sitting on some board of directors or some you know. You said when you said, do you remember when you said, do you remember? I knew exactly where you were going to go when he said, if I don't have if I don't have the money in six hours, are going to fire the prosecutor. And I didn't get the money, so we fired the prosecutor. I mean, in its on tape, and it's like it's like treason. But yeah, do you remember that Hunter sold his paintings for five hundred grand apiece. It's laundering, it's money. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't know how much he sold them for. But yes, I know that that he became an artist to help to help raise money. But here's the deal. So I think they had the goods on him, him and his son and all their their nefarious activities, and that that's why we're in it so deep, and nobody seems to be checking up on I just don't understand anyhow. Well that is yeah, well, Mark, I appreciate the phone call. Uh it was obvious back then that they had the goods on him. Uh, it was obvious on many occasions after that that they had the goods on them. But uh, the same way that it became obvious in the last year that he really didn't know where the heck he was. The same people that wanted him to run for reelection and swore you know that he was is capable of not only being the president but continuing to be the president for four more years are the same people that didn't want to pay any attention to what happened in Ukraine and what happened everywhere else. So you know, that's that's where we're at, right, And it's not I mean, it's not just it's not just that, right, It's it's not only the Biden investigation. There's still an ongoing investigation into the so what you know, what what what the what James Comer calls the the Biden crime family investigation. Whatever happened with Joe Biden's brother, whatever happened with Hunter Biden? Nothing then he got pardoned? What about auto pen? President Trump said he thinks it's the biggest scandal, one of the biggest scandals in the history of the United States, the Joe Biden auto penn scandal. Nothing's happening with that. Nothing's happening with James Komy. They're going to try and you know, gin up some new charges against James Comy that probably won't stick. Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, apparently getting off the hook as well. All right, I'm trying to look at the I'm looking at the I'm trying to look at the phone log here. I think Alex is up next. Alex you there, Yes, yes, I'm here. How you doing great? How are you? Thanks for holding on? Okay, I just wanted to say that you remember, following the brutal murder of Irena Saruska by that sadistic animal that mayor vile lies wrote this. Letter. It is so disgusting, vile lies, it showed, It shows she showed much, so much compassion for the criminal, the sadistic thug that murdered Arena, than she did even missioning Arena. She just barely even mentions her, and she just spent the paragraph after paragraph expressing compassion and sympathy for that thug. And I was just wondering, do you think she would have written such a letter if site young black thing out Rwanda and refugee had been brutally murdered by some statistic quite thug with a criminal record a mile long? Do you think she would have written such a thing? Well, everything that you said about her response is what I was saying earlier. And you know, the crime itself obviously made me very angry. Then her response made me very angry. The lack of response from people on the trade train made me angry. But to answer your question, yes, just like a lot of crimes and a lot of very blue cities. I think her response, what she wrote and what she said, would have been different under those circumstances. I think we're up against a break and Alex, thank you again for the phone call. I do appreciate it. All right, 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 can 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 so ports ground news as they make the media landscape more transparent. So just to wrap up on this whole Irena Zerutzka thing, you know, and mayor live ales vy Liles what did that? What did he call her? Vi lying whatever? Okay, at least at least they have taken a big step forward with the Irena law right, eliminating the ridiculous cashless bail, the dumbest thing ever, and expanding mental health evaluations. And I mentioned at the beginning of the whole conversation so so, so you had the Irena Zarutska stabbing, then there was another incident after that, I think it was a shooting. And then there was the incident with the hero right what was his name, Kenyon, Kenyan Adobe or Kenyan Dobe, the guy who got stabbed protecting people from attacker from an attacker on the light rail. In the brief period of time I lived in Charlotte, I never rode the light rail. I rode that other I rode the other rail that goes, you know, up and down downtown through uptown. All that I never actually rode on the light rail. I don't know what's going on on the light rail. There wasn't that much violence on the light rail. I don't seem to remember that much violence on the light rail when I lived there, So I'm not sure what's going on there. But did Kenyon get as much publicity or you know, sympathy from city leaders as to Carlos Brown? Did? That's the question that I'm trying to get at. I mean, is the hero being treated like a hero? Yes, I'm sure some of the TVSS, WBT and probably WBT TV. I mean, I know people covered it, but is he getting the is he getting a hero's coverage? Did Viylyles talk about him? Is he going to get the key to the city or anything like that? And this is something you know, to think about as far as criminals being arrested multiple times and being let out of jail and the whole cash list bail thing. Not just in this case. De Carlos Brown was arrested fourteen times, but we've seen this over and over in other cities. Right If a bartender can be held responsible for serving drinks to someone who drives drunk, and I have to say that I got this from a friend of mine that is a bartender at a high end restaurant, and this is something as a bartender he has to deal with. Right. If a bar can be held responsible for serving drinks to someone who drives drunk and kills someone, why shouldn't a judge who lets someone off multiple times be responsible be held responsible in some way, shape or form after that person goes out and kills an innocent person. I'm going to leave you with that thought. A couple of minutes to go here, there was a Turning Point USA event in Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, home of Turning Point US over the weekend. Vice President Vance was there. He delivered remarks, Oh, Vance, oh, by the way, Erica Kirk, she already endorsed Vice President Vance for twenty twenty eight. I don't even really want to start talking about the midterms already, which we are, but now people are starting to talk about twenty twenty eight. But you know Vance and Erica ooh, shut up already, all these no list basement writers trying to get clicks with all their hate for Erica Kirk. I mean, it's it's ridiculous, right the JD. Vance divorce or rumors and all the stuff that's going on with Erica Kirk now about her ex boyfriend and whoever she dated before she married Charlie Kirk. Shut up. The woman is a mother of two children. She just watched her husband get executed, and then she's kind of forced more into the limelight than she already was. Right, She's at the White House, she's giving interviews on big national shows, she's doing speeches. I mean, give her a break. Really, that's something that's really bothering me. And it's it just comes down, you know, to the Internet and social media and the gazillion different so called news platforms that are out there today. Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna also spurt spoke at the Turning Point amerfest Nick, if you would play that cut from Anna Paulina Luna, she's the representative that is pushing the discharge petition to force a vote on congressional trading. By the time that she announced that she was no longer seeking office, had outperformed Warren Buffett. We've nicknamed her the real Wolf of Wall Street, and she's currently outperformed the SMP and made over seventeen thousand percent returns on her stock investment that statistically does not happen unless you are engaged in instead of trading. Both Democrat and Republican members of Congress that have promised to protect the American people and our country are making on average six hundred percent on their returns. They sit on committees of jurisdiction to oversee the policy that impacts this country. Do you think they're ever going like, first of all, let's just talk about foreign policy, right, we see this debate? Are you pro? Are you pro Ukraine? How about you be pro American? Maybe not advocate for four and worse? How about that? Yeah? How about that? How about not, dear average. That's a sitting member in the House sendate to vote for peace when they are personally invested and backed and owned by the military industrial complex. Do you ever think that's going to happen? The answer is no. 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.