Roy Cooper threatens media for asking a question about his health | Hour 3

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Now, I know there were some reporters in the North Carolina political press corps that were very, very concerned about not being able to pepper Michael Watley, Cooper's opponent in the U.S. Senate race, not being allowed to pepper Watley with questions about the lineup of the NHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes. But I feel like asking a question about Roy Cooper's health being met with a cease and desist letter from a law firm, I feel like that's a little bit worse, right? Maybe? Yes. Yes, it is. So this is our pal AP Dillon. We talk with her every Monday at 2. And she had a story yesterday afternoon about their interaction at the North State Journal. when they asked the Cooper campaign for the, I believe this may have been like the ninth time and they were met with a threat of litigation. So here's the story from NSJ online.com North state journal in recent years, health related issues have arisen for national, excuse me, national figures like former president Joe Biden. Wait, what was something wrong with Joe Biden? Well, that's news to me. I don't know what they're talking about. I don't know what AP is talking about here. Joe Biden was fit as a fiddle. Joe Biden was doing jumping jacks and was running circles around his 22-year-old staffers. That's what I remember hearing from everybody around Joe Biden. There was no problem whatsoever at all. Also, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell. Wait, what? What's wrong with Mitch McConnell? I mean, I follow the news, but something wrong with Mitch McConnell? I mean, look, just because he sits there motionless in a chair for like six hours during a Senate floor debate, that doesn't mean anything. He's totally fine. What are you talking about? Also, the abrupt death of Senator Lindsey Graham. And so. they were thinking over at North State Journal, you know, my good friend Ray Cooper, cut him loose, Cooper, he is 69 years old, and this is a six-year term, and so that would put him at age 75. By the end of that term. And so, you know, as long as as long as we're interested in whether or not people are up to the job at their advanced ages. And that's not to say that people can't do the job at an advanced age. Some people age better than others, right? There are some members of Congress that you would not know that they are in their seventies. They are, I believe the official word for it is spry, right? Which I hope to attain at one point in my life. I would love to be known as. A spry 70 something year old, you know? Um, So with that as a backdrop, North State Journal asked former Governor Roy Cut-Em-Loose Cooper's Senate campaign if he was committed to fulfilling his six-year term if elected in November and if there were any health problems that might impede him. Well, that sounds like a legitimate question. Do you intend to serve the whole term? Are there any health issues that could prevent that from happening? That seems more of a legitimate question then name me three players from the Carolina Hurricanes starting lineup, right? Who are your favorite players on the Carolina Hurricanes? Because you said go Canes when they were in the Stanley Cup playoffs or Stanley Cup finals. The actual question from the email says, our outlet is seeking to clarify Mr. Cooper's position on whether he intends to complete the entire term should he be elected to the U.S. Senate in November. Additionally, we wanted to see if the campaign can confirm or deny if Mr. Cooper has health issues as sources have told us he has been experiencing a neurological issue. Okay, I've not heard of this, so I'm not the source. I have not said this. This is the first I've heard of this. Sources have said he has been experiencing a neurological issue. Okay, again, that seems like a legitimate question. Are you having a neurological issue on the campaign trail? Is something happening or has something been happening? Whatever, it's sort of like John Fetterman. Remember that scandal, right? Fetterman has a massive stroke and they basically downplayed the massiveness and the severity of the stroke. And then it turned out it actually like made him the only rational Democrat in the U S Senate. So, um, so the North state journal has previously emailed questions to the Cooper campaign eight times this year, all but two went unanswered. Okay. So six of the eight emailed questions. Were unanswered. That's the Cooper campaign. That's the way they deal with the North State Journal. This was the ninth time that they emailed these questions I just read. And according to the report, they received a cease and desist letter threatening legal action. The letter came from the Elias Law Group. And you can't spell Elias without the word lie. I'm just pointing that out, okay? Mark Elias, this odious lawyer. This is the, he was the cutout for the Russia, Russia, Russia collusion hoax, right? This is one of Hillary Clinton's and the DNC's super lawyers, right? Suing everybody over voter ID laws, suing all of the Republican states over their redistricting maps, but never the Democrat states, right? Only the Republicans get sued for gerrymandering. The newspaper received that reply within about five and a half hours from when they sent their questions. So think about what she is reporting here. Let's read between the lines if we can. Again, this is not being stated. I'm just looking at the timeline. And over the course of one year, They send nine different emails to the Cooper campaign. Only two of them get a response until the final one. And this response comes within hours after being sent. And it has to do with a question about his neurological problems, if he has any. And their response is, you better not run anything about this because it's false and we will sue you. Have you ever heard of the Streisand effect? Do you remember this story? Barbara Streisand? I believe it was a story somebody did, some outlet did about like her home. It was like they took pictures of her house, like some multimillion dollar mansion someplace. I don't even remember the particulars. It's not even important. The story was published. Nobody cared. Nobody read it. Nobody saw it. And then Streisand got all upset about the story and threatened litigation about it. And then that action then drove traffic to the website so people could read the story that they otherwise did not have any interest in. In other words, her reaction was the action to quote Saul Alinsky. Her reaction was the action. So, like, why would you do this? If you're the Cooper campaign, why would you do this? This doesn't make any sense. Unless... I. Don't want to get a cease and desist letter, so I'm not going to finish that sentence. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. 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And they will tell others to come who you are. Visit createavideo.com. So, there's so many different, there's so many different angles of chutzpah. I think that's the second time I've used that word in the last two days. But for Roy Cooper's campaign, of all the campaigns, to complain about somebody lying about them, this is a man who ran campaign ads against a political opponent. What was his name? Boyce, I think was his name. For Attorney General back in like 2000 or something. And he ran a campaign ad that lied about his opponent. And the opponent sued, I believe his name was Boyce, Dan Boyce, I think. He sued. Cooper fought in court for years and eventually lost and had to apologize. The fact that you would now threaten litigation against a news outlet For asking a question about whether or not you are healthy enough to serve out a six-year term if elected, it's chutzpah, I think is how it's pronounced. I don't know another word for it. So the Elias Law Group, run by Mark Elias, the former campaign lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid, Elias has been involved in multiple lawsuits against North Carolina over voting, a voter ID, voting measures, redistricting, blah, blah, blah. And so here is the letter. Now, Elias did not sign this letter. This is from a lawyer inside his firm named Ben Stafford, who is counsel to governor Roy Cooper and Roy Cooper. For North Carolina. Okay. So I guess a long-term lawyer for Roy Cooper. So again, just keep that in mind. You're mad about gas prices, right? You want to hire a guy whose law firm is Mark Elias's firm. Okay. That's okay. From the letter. We write as counsel to governor Roy Cooper and Roy Cooper for North Carolina, his principal campaign committee regarding your inquiry. Let us make this exceedingly simple and crystal clear to you. Governor Cooper intends to complete his entire term and any suggestion that that he is, quote, experiencing a neurological issue, end quote, or that any health condition would prevent him from completing his term is, and this part's underlined, categorically false and defamatory. This letter places the North State Journal on notice of these facts. If it publishes such false and defamatory statements, it will be acting with knowledge of their falsity or, at a minimum, with reckless disregard for the truth, the definition of actual malice. Then they cite the New York Times Sullivan case law. Should the North State Journal publish these falsehoods in its plain pursuit of online clicks and a political hatchet job, it will be sued. I see. So asking the question, like you could have just said, like the campaign could have just said, there are no neurological issues. He's healthy. He intends to serve out his term. Like you could have just answered the question. Why would you resort to this? Why would you send a letter? Why would you pay a lawyer to draft a threat to a media outlet when all they did was ask a question? And she even gave you In her question, she says, sources have told us he has been experiencing a neurological issue. All you had to say was, he is not. Your sources are incorrect. The attempt here, excuse me, is to kill the story, right? That's the point of this letter. It's to scare somebody into not publishing the story. And I'm old enough to remember that When people criticized Donald Trump for doing this very same thing, Donald Trump's organization and Trump himself, they would send these kinds of threatening letters to media throughout his entire career. They would threaten media and reporters if they were going to do a story negative about Donald Trump. He's done it as president. He has sent cease and desist letters and threatening letters and stuff from the lawyers and all that. And every time he does it, everybody gets all outraged about it. But I guess this is your Democrat privilege, right? It's different when Democrats do it, right? The letter goes on to state attributing such claims to unnamed quote unquote sources offers no protection. Well, she did not say. They were unnamed. You, lawyer guy, you added the unnamed part into that. She just said, sources have told us. She didn't say they were unnamed. They very well might be. They very well might not be. Because there is not a shred of truth to them, no source can supply any factual basis whatsoever for such claims. Well, I... I could actually think of a couple examples. For example, let's say some members of his security detail accompanied him, because they're security, they accompanied him to a neurologist appointment with his family. Maybe they overheard them talking about a diagnosis or something. That would be, what'd you call it here? A shred of truth, right? we would have to know what the sources know. We would have to hear what the sources say before we could determine whether there's a shred of truth to them or not. And no, I'm not just taking your word as the lawyer for Roy Cooper, who's a liar. So like, I'm not, I'm not going to just take your word for it that this is not true, but you could have just said, no, it's not true. But see, then that would have been the statement in the news story. And the source's evidence or shreds of evidence, right, the source's statements would have also appeared. So this letter is designed to kill the story. That's why they did this, rather than just answer the question. All right, real quick. Every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. Let me jump over to the text line. Get to the latest question. Here we go. 864 number says, asking a question can create defamation if the question implies a false factual assertion rather than seeking genuine and truthful information. Okay, well, let's go back to the question. Our outlet is seeking to clarify Mr. Cooper's position on whether he intends to complete the entire term should he be elected to the U.S. Senate in November. Okay, so there's your first question. That's a simple yes or no. Additionally, we wanted to see if the campaign can confirm or deny if Mr. Cooper has health issues. As sources have told us, he has been experiencing a neurological issue. That's, again, another yes or no. Does he have any health issues? Yes or no. Are any of those health issues, if he has any, a neurological issue? Yes or no. If you just say no. No, no to all of the above, no, then no, he doesn't have any neurological health issues, don't know what you're talking about, he doesn't have any health issues, perfectly good health, whatever. Like, you just answer the questions. Unless you fear that the North State Journal actually has sources that that are going to make claims that he has been experiencing some sort of a neurological issue. And those claims may be credible or believable, right? That's why you would send a cease and desist. It's to try to stop the North state journal from publishing the story with the sources claims, right? Them saying he doesn't have a neurological issue. would have headed that off at the pass or something, but, like, you could have actually answered, like, could have said, like, well, what are these claims that you're talking about? He doesn't have any neurological issue. What are you talking about these claims? They're false. And then the reporter could come back and say, well, here's, you know, here are some of the instances or here's some of the claims. This is the evidence, whatever. They don't have to identify the sources unless they've gone on the record. That's the thing. We don't know if these are unnamed or named sources. We don't know. So, you sending a cease and desist is quite obviously an attempt to quash the story, to kill the story, which then, of course, draws more attention to the story. I don't know if there's an implication in the question of a false factual assertion. I don't know that anybody has implied a false factual assertion. A.P. Dillon is informing them, and she didn't even have to do this, by the way. She could have just said, does he have any health issues, and just left it nebulous like that, and let them say yay or nay, right? But she gave them a specific thing, and that specific thing then prompts a cease and desist letter to try to kill the story. Make of that what you will. I'm not trying to get my own cease and desist letter from Mark Elias, although I do have a spot on my wall that I could frame it, hang it. The Nice Marie says, I shudder to think who Josh Stein would put in to replace Cooper. Anita Earls or Alison Riggs would be my first thought. Yeah, so again, this is from the rumor mill up in Raleigh. If Cooper cannot fulfill the term, right? If he can't serve through the end of the term, then Josh Stein would make the appointment to replace him. That's why people are asking this question because of his age. And if there are rumors swirling or there's named sources, unnamed sources, evidence or whatever, I don't know if people up in Raleigh are talking about Roy Cooper having some health issues and he may not be able to serve the full term. that then starts up this rumor mill of, you know, people talking about who would be named as the replacement, who would be in a position to be named, right? And people inside the Democrat party would be the ones engaging in those conversations. They would be the ones because they would be trying to get themselves into a position to be named. Um, But yes, I agree. I would be very worried about who Josh Stein would put in there. Oscar says, get Jake Tapper on the Cooper story. He'll get to the bottom of it. No, he won't. No, he won't. It meant to be the rim shot. That's my bad. And then Oscar follows up, did they ask Whatley campaign the same question? Ah, that's a fair point. Are they just picking on Roy Cooper? According to the North State Journal, Cooper's opponent, Michael Whatley, is more than a decade younger than Cooper, having turned 58 on October 1st. The Watley camp was asked similar questions earlier this year by North State Journal and was re-asked those questions after receiving the Elias Law Group's letter. Both times, the Watley campaign said he would complete his term and he does not have any health issues. Okay. So that's how you answer the question. if you're not worried about the story. If you are worried about the story, you send a cease and desist letter. Jamie says, I'm confused, Pete. So politicians can lie about their opponents in ads, but reporters can't ask a candidate about their health. Yes, that's the standard. That is not allowed. And by the way, you'll note, I haven't covered the James Tallarico story, right? Over the weekend, I saw this, the, the, the viral story going around the James Tallarico is MIA for like 12 days off the campaign trail. His campaign said he had the flu. And then people were like, no, he was. In a, he was admitted to a mental health facility. And I was like, I'm not really sure. Like this, this does something about this story. Doesn't sit right with me. and I didn't do anything with it. Now it turns out that that wasn't, that wasn't true. So yes, there are dirty tricks in politics. That stuff happens. And maybe that's what the rumors about Cooper are. I don't know. I don't know. Um, Alan says, if there was a lawsuit regarding Ray Cooper's health, would that not open the floodgates of, uh, inquiry and discovery? Um, it could, but I think any lawyer worth their salt would not, would, would, would prevent that from happening because it would just be about defamation. It wouldn't be about, um, his health records, right? I think a good lawyer would be able to restrict the focus to just a defamation component without having to disclose all of his health records or something. Uh, but maybe not. Maybe, Maybe they wouldn't be able to do that. Maybe a judge would say, no, in order to prove truth, we would have to get his health records. John says, is Parkinson's disease a neurological condition? I think so. I don't know. I'm just Candace Owensing here. You know, just asking questions. We're just asking questions. And then Alan says, I think he doth protest too much. Yeah, this is the Streisand effect. Former Governor Roy Cooper has his law firm, the Elias Law Group, and the Elias Law Group attorney, Mr. Ben Stafford, who is counsel to Governor Roy Cooper and Roy Cooper for North Carolina, sending a cease and desist letter to the North state journal, a media outlet here in North Carolina for inquiring about whether he intends to fill out his entire six year term because he's 69 years old, right? He'd be 75 by the end of the term and whether or not he has any health issues and in the question that the reporter, A.P. Dillon, sent to the campaign, said, can you confirm or deny if Mr. Cooper has health issues as sources have told us he has been experiencing a neurological issue? And their response is that this is categorically false and defamatory, and you are now on notice, If you run with anything regarding this topic, whatever, you publish anything from these sources, you will not be protected from a defamation lawsuit. Because there's, quote, They go on to say, Should it make or regurgitate false claims about Governor Cooper's health, North State Journal and you personally will be acting with knowledge of falsity or at the very least with reckless disregard for truth. Right. So you have sources that say that this is that he's got these issues or has an issue or something. I don't know. And then you have. The campaign saying, no, that's not true. Is that a defamation case? He's saying it's not true. So he's rebutting the accusations depending on what they are. Like I, and we'd, nobody knows what, what the sources have said, who the sources are, whether they're credible or not. So they're just trying to kill the story, which leads me to believe that they're more worried about like that kind of a story being out there three weeks before the election. All right, so from the text line, 704 number says, has Cooper retained Mark Elias as his attorney? If not, why is he making threats to journalists? Yes, the Elias Law Group represents the campaign. Jeff says, Racky McGregor for senator-in-waiting? Oh, my goodness. Yeah, like, well, maybe. Maybe. Um, Brenda, a quick question. Did you go over the $ 5, 000 for your Alzheimer's Association goal? I did. As a matter of fact, we surpassed our $ 5, 000 goal, um, the other day. So yes, I have the list of donors. Thank you to everybody who donated. We did meet the goal this year. Uh, and I'm, uh, I'm very grateful for everybody who donated and we'll see you at the walk next Saturday, not this Saturday, next Saturday. Here's Kevin, the fake Republican. He claims to be a Republican, but he's not. Okay, I'm not sure how a horse files a complaint. I'm also not sure how a dead horse files a complaint, but okay. Cooper's going to win. WBT's predictions are going to age like milk in the July sun. I'm sorry. What's my prediction on the North Carolina U.S. Senate race? Oh, that's right. I don't make predictions. Kevin, I don't make predictions on elections. Because I don't know how it's going to turn out. I don't. Would it surprise me if Cooper wins? No. Would it surprise me if Watley wins? Yes, a little bit. But I don't make a prediction as to who's going to win because I don't know. That's why we vote. As the pundits will say, it all comes down to turnout. So I'm not sure what you're talking about there. And your audience is being punished with the same tired talking points. No, this is actually, this is what you would call news. And the way you can tell it's news is that it's right there in the name. It's like three quarters of the word news. It's new. New. This is a new story. This is new information. It's right there. News. New. News. New. News. Right there. Do us all a favor. Find another topic before the horse comes back to life just to tell you to shut up. Again, it's okay. Now the horse that can file an HR complaint or something that's dead is now going to come back to life. So it's like it's going to be like a divine horse or something and it's coming back to life and then it's going to speak to me? Well, now I'm going to keep doing the topic just to see a dead horse that can file an HR complaint, come back to life and speak. My gosh. Um, it almost makes me wonder though, Kevin, if you don't want me to talk about Roy Cooper for some other reason, but, uh, just in case you're wondering the answer to your demand that I shut up is no, just for the record. Um, the good Jeff says, if there is nothing to hide, why Sue, right? Why threaten litigation? What could he and his team be possibly thinking? Yeah, I think they were just trying to kill the story. Uh, will this Cooper story make it to the mainstream? I, that's a good question. I've not seen it reported by any of the, the quote unquote mainstream or legacy, uh, news outlets yet. Um, I don't know what that means, Tim. I'm not following. Please proofread your texts, especially your voice to texts. Going into discovery with Roy could get interesting, says Jay. Yeah, I don't know. Last part of the letter. We demand you cease and desist from publishing any article or other public communication that is false and defamatory against Governor Cooper. Now, mind you, she did not include in the report The question about the neurological issues, they did in their letter. They included that part. And so the North State Journal included it in their article after. Right? So... I don't know. This letter puts you on notice that any attempt to disseminate false and defamatory claims against Governor Cooper is actionable for defamation. As such, you are hereby on notice of potential legal action and are required to institute an immediate hold on. And the North State Journal must also immediately preserve all materials, physical and electronic, relevant to this matter, including notes, drafts, and communications with any purported sources. Oh, so you want to go after the sources? Oh, isn't that interesting? So you have a candidate for U.S. Senate that's going to try to, what, subpoena anonymous sources from a reporter because the information may be damaging to that person's political campaign? Imagine if this were Trump. Oh, man. 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 thepeatcalinershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.