Stein chickens out of NC Governor debate (09-18-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_02]: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from

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[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Hold your calls because we're going to talk to Mark Starling. I think we're going to talk with

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Mark. I understand he has promised to be on a much better cell connection today than he was

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_02]: last week. Mark, can you hear me? I can, Pete. I can. Sounds much better today. Yeah, yeah.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_04]: Fortunately, last week Elon Musk let me down a little bit. We were on the Starlink system there

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_04]: and yeah, just didn't quite meet muster. Ah, that's too bad. I thought maybe you were using

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_02]: some old school technology at the time or something, which has since exploded.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_04]: It does seem to be happening again today, though, from what I understand.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Apparently today it's two-way radios that are going off, that are exploding.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_04]: Have any reports of any of these things exploding in other countries? That was kind of my thought,

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_04]: do any of these other Hezbollah fighters that maybe have been embedded in other countries

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_04]: have had today get any of those pagers? But I guess not.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't seem like the only other country I have seen that's been affected was Syria.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_02]: There were some people in Damascus, which that makes total sense too,

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_02]: with Hezbollah's presence there. So a couple of them got the pagers as well.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_02]: And then I guess now the second wave hitting a different electronic device. Because when I

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_02]: heard the first reports today that there was another wave of these highly targeted detonations

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_02]: going off, the first thing I thought was who is still carrying around their pager?

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_02]: If you are rank and file Hezbollah and all of your buddies just got blown up from their pagers,

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_02]: why are you still walking around with yours?

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_04]: Right. I would imagine that you have to be suspect of any small electronic device that

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_04]: is anywhere near you for at least the next two weeks.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, and so now think about that from a psychological warfare perspective.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh yeah.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_02]: You are now going to be trying to avoid any kind of tech, which that is definitely going to...

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Hezbollah is not Al-Qaeda or ISIS. They have got advanced weaponry systems and stuff that they have

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_02]: been shelling Israel with. So they rely on technology more so than say some of these

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Taliban did. They rejected all that stuff. And that's what made them very difficult to fight.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_02]: But I got to think going forward, you definitely can't be using...

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_02]: You got to be suspect of everything at this point.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, it absolutely would scramble your brain. I mean, think about it. Like if you wanted to

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_04]: make a phone call, you didn't have your phone. You couldn't ask for somebody else's phone to use.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_04]: Right? I mean, everything would be suspect from your microwave oven to your cell phone

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_04]: whatever it might be.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. I mean, and nobody's really thinking about this. I've not seen any attention paid to this

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_02]: at all. But what about the pot dealers? Like without pagers, what are they doing now over in

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_02]: the...

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, the pagers are blowing up, my friend.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_02]: All righty. So let me ask you also, I know you were talking about this a little bit this morning

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_02]: on your program, Mark Starling, the host of the morning show on WWNC up in Asheville.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_02]: So no debate. We're not going to get any debate here between the gubernatorial candidates because

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Josh Stein, following the lead of Rachel Hunt, who's running for lieutenant governor, and she's

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_02]: refusing to do any debates. And so now Josh Stein says he's not going to do a debate with Mark

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Robinson, and he claims that he doesn't want to legitimize any of Robinson's comments by sharing

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_02]: a stage with him. What do you make of that argument?

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_04]: I make it that Josh Stein is probably going to get taken to task on a debate stage with Mark

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_04]: Robinson. Mark might not be the most eloquent person sometimes, but he does command a certain

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_04]: stage presence. I believe Josh Stein would come out looking tepid at best against Mark Robinson,

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_04]: at least from an optical standpoint. I mean, I just don't think... I think you said it this morning,

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_04]: why would anybody debate at this point?

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if there's no penalty to be paid for not debating, and he's up by... I think I saw he's up,

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_02]: you know, double digits in the polling. So the only thing that happens there is he holds serve,

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_02]: or he loses support. So why would he go on a debate stage? This argument, I find,

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_02]: it's not plausible to me. Like, oh, I don't want to legitimize his views. Yeah, well, then why are

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_04]: you running ads with them? You know? Right, right. You're parroting everything he's saying,

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_04]: because all you're doing is playing these 10-second... what do they call that? Selectively

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_04]: edited sound bites, I believe is what they refer to those as. They do, yes. Which anybody... and

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_02]: you've worked in news for decades now, every single sound bite is selectively edited. That's

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_04]: the job. That's kind of the thing. So what says, hey, here's a minute and 10 seconds of sound,

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_04]: get me the best eight seconds out of it. Right. Like that's selective editing, basically.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_04]: Right. I just... you know, I think we're getting to a point now where politicians on both sides

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_04]: of the aisle are realizing that there is nothing advantageous about a debate, because if we've

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_04]: learned anything about debates in the past few weeks, it's that there's no such thing

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_04]: as an honest moderator. I mean, I'm still in disbelief about how bad David Muir was,

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_04]: and judging by the fact that his nightly newscast is down by like 12 SharePoints,

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm guessing a lot of other people feel that same way.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, but that's what they were... that's what Democrats in the media, but I repeat myself,

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_02]: that's what they were messaging after the CNN debate, where they were mad at Jake Tapper and

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Dana Bash, because they did not fact check, quote unquote, Donald Trump live in real time.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And they were very angry at CNN, and I suspect ABC thought, well, you know what, we're going to

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_02]: do this fact checking of Trump. And the problem there is that by not fact checking Kamala Harris

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_02]: at all during her lies... Right.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. Now you've communicated that anybody who knows when she's lying, like with the

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Charlottesville thing or the bloodbath thing, that now they know that you are in the tank for her,

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_02]: and the people who don't know that those are lies, they think they are truths,

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_02]: because you're not fact checking them and saying they're not true.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, they didn't even attempt to fact check Kamala Harris. Half the time they

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_04]: were helping her across the finish line. You know, I think both of... both Harris and Walt,

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_04]: we were lucky enough in Asheville last night to have Tim Walton. He's a liar. I don't know if you

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_02]: know about that. I do know that. Tim Walz, he's a liar. He's also an emotional support governor.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_02]: You can bring him around when you need him there, you know, just for emotional support during

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_04]: interviews. Yeah, and he's not to be petted when he is doing the emotional support.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. When he's wearing the blazer, you do not touch him because he's working.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_04]: Right. That's exactly it. You don't want to distract him from his very important job.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. Oh, no, wait a minute. Hang on a second. No, we're mistaken. That's a service

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_02]: governor. Service governor.

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. Emotional support governors, they're not licensed at all. You don't get any special

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_02]: treatment as emotional support governors. Well, as long as we've got that straight.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_04]: But he was in town last night. I talked to a couple of people who actually went

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_04]: there, they're Democrats. And they just said, you know, we're just not inspired to vote.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_04]: We just we're going to actually skip that race on our ballot. And that's coming from

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_04]: some Democrats. Now, granted, these are very centrist Democrats. But I just I don't think

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_02]: there's anything inspiring about these candidates. Well, I just saw from the Cook Political Report,

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_02]: David Wasserman just put out a tweet with some data in it saying that right now Kamala Harris

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_02]: stands at like forty seven percent of the what was it single women college educated vote,

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I think is what it was. And if she can boost that by two points, then she flips North Carolina.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_02]: So that's the play. It's just to get like that's the target that they are aiming at is to.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's why all they're talking about is abortion and student loan forgiveness and that

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_02]: sort of stuff is college educated, suburban white women. That's who their target is. So that's who

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Tim Walz, who is a liar, that's who he was put on the ticket to appeal to,

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_02]: not not to centrist Democrats and not dudes. Well, I I'm going to put a conspiracy theory

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_04]: out there for you. OK, all right. Let's hear it. We talked about it this morning. I know we're

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_04]: short on time, but the governor, Walter's wife, you know, she did that whole thing where she

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_04]: kind of had her own Howard Dean moment there. Put a picture of her side by side with Nancy Pelosi

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_04]: and look directly at it. The same crazy eyes. I feel like, yeah, like the meme with

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Jenna Elfman, right? Not Jenna Elfman. That's the other one. No, from the office where she's got the

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_02]: two pictures and they're the same picture. Yeah, that's you should do that meme. You know, go viral,

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_04]: man. Yeah, it's the same crazy eyes. Yeah, I got it. Don't stare at it too long, though. Just don't

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_02]: stare too long. Also, an Eric Carman tune, if I recall correctly. No. OK. All right. Mark Starling,

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Morning Guy, WWDC in Asheville. Thank you, sir. Have a great week. We'll talk to you next Wednesday.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_02]: You got it, sir. Take care. All right, buddy. Take care. That's Mark Starling.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Gubernatorial nominees Josh Stein and Mark Robinson will not meet for a televised debate.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Stein's campaign said rebuffing a challenge from Robinson on Tuesday. I do have yeah,

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I do have the audio here from Mark Robinson, who put out the following video statement regarding

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Stein's. Being a chicken. Well, Josh Stein, you like to misconstrue my Facebook post on television,

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_00]: you like to lie about the wonderful daycare center that my wife and I ran one of the proudest moments

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_00]: of our life. But will you debate me on television? I suspect that you will not. Why? Because me and

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: you on television will show the stark differences between Mark Robinson and Josh Stein. And you know

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: that I'll come out on top. I've already agreed to the spectrum debate. I've already given a multiple

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: date. You have not answered. And the reason you have not answered is because you don't want the

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: people of North Carolina to see exactly how weak, cowardly and quite frankly, what a liar you

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: actually are. So I'm challenging you to a debate right now, Josh Stein. Come on down. Let's do

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_02]: this mano a mano or let's get it done. And Stein's like, no, I don't have to discuss anything with you

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_02]: because democracy. That's how you that's how you really engage in a democracy. You keep people

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_02]: ignorant of anything about you and your candidacy. Don't let them see you debating your opponent.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_02]: You want to keep as many people in the dark about who you are. This is another basement campaign.

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_02]: It's an with an air war. Right. Just take in the tens of millions of dollars from outside

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_02]: the state of North Carolina, these outside packs and just bomb the airwaves with your messages.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. And then you never have to answer for it. Look, this is the guy, Josh Stein,

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_02]: the attorney general of this state literally argued in court that he should be allowed to

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_02]: lie about people in his campaign ads. He literally went to court for that. He got sued over it and he

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_02]: got investigated over it, facing charges over it because we have a state law that actually makes it

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_02]: a crime. And he went to court to defend his right to lie about his opponents in campaign materials.

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_02]: He said his campaign says, quote, Mark Robinson has spent his entire public life spewing hate,

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_02]: lying about. Oh, my goodness. Hang on. Is this a political. Oh, my gosh. Stop with the political

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_02]: ads already. I mean, he calls all day long from these. Oh, it's Josh Stein. No, I'm kidding. It's

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_02]: not nonstop. Sorry, that's not very professional. I should have turned my phone off. It's very

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_02]: embarrassing. I apologize. Stein's campaign put out a statement saying Robinson has spent his

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_02]: entire public life spewing hate, lying about his record and spreading dangerous and false

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_02]: conspiracy theories. A debate would only serve to legitimize him and provide a platform for his

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_02]: vile and dangerous rhetoric, and we won't be part of that note. They keep saying the word dangerous.

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Even after the second attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Democrats are still calling

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Republicans dangerous. They are conveying a message. They know they are conveying this message,

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_02]: whether they believe it, whether all of them believe it. At this point, I don't care. Y'all

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_02]: need to stop. You need to stop just because you don't like somebody's policies doesn't make them

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_02]: dangerous. And when you keep saying that, you help to inspire. What's the term you guys like

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_02]: to use so much? Oh, that's right. Stochastic terrorism. You're you are engaging in rhetoric

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_02]: that is inflaming. All right. Real quick. Let me introduce you to my friends Gabriel and Michelle,

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_02]: two lifelong North Carolinians who are passionate about everything North Carolina. They own Simply

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[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_02]: also Pete at the Pete calendar show dot com. We'll start with Tom. Hello, Tom. Welcome to the

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_05]: program. Hey, my friend. I listen to you give a very detailed report of the net that attempted

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_05]: to assassinate Donald Trump. And I appreciate that. And it kind of reminded me, Pete, have you

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_05]: ever seen the movie Taxi with Robert De Niro? He kind of reminds me one of those guys that

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_05]: want to be sitting around, you know, looking for a cause. And you reminded me of that when you

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_05]: were talking about he rescued somebody and then he did this and did that. He just a lost cause.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_05]: And I hope that they get him some help or lock him up forever. The second thing I want to say is this.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_05]: You were speaking about Mark Robinson, Josh Stern, like his staff said, Josh Stern's committee.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_05]: He has nothing to gain from talking to Mark Robinson. I mean, he's six point head in the

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_05]: polls right now. And he's his staff, as you said, said that they wouldn't give legitimacy to it.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_05]: I wouldn't either. I mean, even the guy that's running for president, Donald Trump, didn't even

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_05]: debate with the other potential Republican candidates for president. So to sum it up,

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_05]: it's like Kenny Rogers, who everybody knows in the gambler. He says, for a drink of your whiskey,

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_05]: I'll give you some advice. You got to know when to hold them and know when to roll them.

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to leave it at that. No, no one to fold them. Now you've got to know when to

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_02]: hold them and when to fold them. Yeah, yeah. That's a key difference there.

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. Well, so OK, so a couple of things. Number one, when Donald Trump refused to debate his

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Republican primary opponents, I ripped him for that because. Oh, yeah. You're fair. Yeah. Because

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_02]: he should have. I believe that. And to your point about Josh Stein not having anything to gain,

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I completely agree. But here's here's the key part, which is. The voters have something to gain

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_02]: and that's and that's the reason why you should debate if you're going to go up there and say you

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_02]: should hire me for this job. It's not just about how you're going to get a different position,

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_02]: a better position to get the job. It should be about making the pitch that you are, in fact,

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_02]: better for the job so the voters get to have as much information about you as possible.

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_02]: And I said it with, you know, Mark Starling also that the yeah, there there are three

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_02]: potential outcomes for Josh Stein and only one of them is a net positive. All of the others are

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_05]: neutral or bad for him. OK, you're right. The voters are the people that will gain the most

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_05]: from any debate. And in closing, I think that Donald Trump should give what's the lady name?

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_05]: Kamala. I got her name wrong yesterday. Oh, my God. That makes you a racist, Tom.

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, you're right. He needs it. He need Kamala Harris needs to give

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_05]: him another shot because he may wipe up the floor with her. So

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_05]: debates are good, like you say. And thank you for letting me speak. And you have a great day.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_02]: You too, Tom. I appreciate the call. It's I believe debates are important. I don't like

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_02]: the way that debates are moderated. I find them to be tedious and exercises in journalists

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_02]: trying to impress the audience with how much they know about a particular topic.

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's not the point of the moderator. Moderators should just be one that basically

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_02]: keeps time. And calls on people to manage the flow, you're not supposed to be there

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_02]: when you've got two people that are taking adversarial positions and they're debating each

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_02]: other. You don't need to engage in the debate. Your role there is just as a timekeeper and to

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_02]: hit the commercial breaks and make sure people don't talk over each other. Right. It's just

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_02]: a it's a it's more it's more of a mechanical kind of position. But but these journalists,

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_02]: they're TV people. Now, OK, I'm not meaning to like indict all TV hashtag, not all TV people, but

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_02]: there is this this theater, this performance art that is part of that gig, just like it is this gig.

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_02]: I do not deny that. But you have to understand the role when you are engaged in a political

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_02]: moderating debate, not debate, but a role. You need to dial that back. People are not there

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_02]: to watch you participate as a moderator. And let me go over to John. Hello, John. Welcome to the

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_03]: program. Yes, hey, hey. Regarding Mark Robinson and his debate, just have a debate and just have

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Mark or Josh Stein represented by his commercials and then Mark Robinson respond to the content of

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_03]: the commercials and help people would love that televised debate still, but against his

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_02]: commercials, we could roll out without that. Yeah, we could roll out like instead of an empty chair,

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_02]: we roll out like, you know, in the old in the old days with the school televisions where they would

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_02]: roll the TV cart in, you know, and we could put like a TV monitor up at the top of the cart.

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_02]: And we roll that bad boy onto the stage and just like play one of his ads and then give

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Robinson time to respond and just do that. I like it. Now, get that idea out there. I'm busy.

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, I am too. I'm busy. I'm a busy guy, too. Come on.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I know and I love you and I mean it. All right, I appreciate the call. It's a good idea. Yeah,

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_02]: instead of doing the empty chair, do like a max headroom kind of. Well, I saw this.

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_02]: I did not pull the story, but I saw it come across the.

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I don't know where I saw it. I think I saw it on the on the Twitter machine earlier

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_02]: this morning that they're getting ready to use or roll out some AI ads for Josh Stein.

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Is that I think I saw that like they've created. AI ads, artificial intelligence,

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_02]: and I guess they're using Mark Robbins, they're going to use like images of him or something.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. Which again, the attorney general of our state.

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Who went to court to defend his ability to lie about people in campaigns is now going to use AI

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_02]: against an opponent that he refuses to debate. And he claims the reason where, well, his

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_02]: spokesperson says. That a debate would only serve to legitimize him.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_02]: No, he's the lieutenant governor. Whatever legitimation, legitimation, legitimization.

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_02]: However legitimate he is. Is because he's already won the freaking office of lieutenant governor.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_02]: You may not like that, but he is already a member of the Council of State,

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_02]: just like you are. This is such a stupid excuse.

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_02]: That's all that is. It's an excuse. It's not even a believable one.

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_02]: But what do we know about narcissists and psychopaths is that they employ the Darvo.

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_02]: And this is the reverse victim offender. Aspect. We got first you get denial, anger, then.

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Reverse victim and offender. So you reverse the two.

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_02]: So somehow or another, he's being victimized or something. He would be victimized

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_02]: if he's on the stage with one Mark Robinson. That you somehow have the power to legitimate him.

[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Legitimize, legitimate, legitimization, whatever like.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_02]: That it's just it's just a very silly excuse. And I would have thought better of the comms shop.

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_02]: And Kate Frauenfelder, I would have thought that they would have had a better excuse ready to fire.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But then again, if you're a Democrat, you get intellectually flabby here because you don't

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_02]: ever get called out on this kind of dumbassery by the media. They just take you what you say.

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm OK. Just dumb. So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's and before he died,

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_02]: my mom and my dad and all of us really helped take care of him as he got progressively worse.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_02]: 40 years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Things are different today because of the work of so many people,

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_02]: including the Alzheimer's Association of Western North Carolina.

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a great organization with awesome people. They've got huge hearts. I've been a supporter

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_02]: for like 25 years. This cause means a lot to me. I participate in the annual walk to end

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Alzheimer's and I am leading a Charlotte team this year. It's called Pete's Pack.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_02]: You can sign up and join the team and walk with me. It's on October 19th at Truist Field in Uptown.

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Sign up at ALZ.org slash walk and then just look for my team Pete's Pack. And there's also a link

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_02]: in the podcast description here. Also, I'm going to be emceeing the Gastonia walk on October 5th.

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_02]: So make a team and join us or make a donation to help me hit my goal. I would really appreciate it.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_02]: There are a bunch of other walks around the Carolinas and you can go to ALZ.org for all

[00:26:26] [SPEAKER_02]: the dates and locations. We are closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. And if you can help us

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_02]: get there, we would really appreciate it. Will you come walk with me for a different future,

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_02]: for families, for more time, for treatments? This is why I walk.

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_02]: So Josh Stein not going to debate Mark Robinson. These are two members of the

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_02]: current Council of State in North Carolina. They're running for governor,

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Josh Stein, the Democrat. According to a recent WRAL news poll, Stein leads Robinson

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_02]: 51 to 37 percent. And so he doesn't need to debate Mark Robinson. And that's really the reason why.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_02]: He feels like he's got enough support. He doesn't need to risk that. There's very little upside

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_02]: to him getting on the debate personally, politically for him. Now for the voters,

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_02]: well, screw us. We don't need to see them debate. We don't need to hear from Josh Stein

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_02]: because he's got a money advantage over Mark Robinson. And there are reasons for that,

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_02]: right? Robinson's campaign, the things that he has said, all of that stuff matters. But

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_02]: he doesn't have to debate. So he's not going to. That's the reason. It's not about you legitimizing

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Mark Robinson, because if you were down 10 points to Robinson, you'd be demanding debates. We all

[00:27:50] [SPEAKER_02]: know this. So this is another lie that you're telling just like you're telling lies in your ads.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Seth writes into Pete at thepetecalendarshow.com, Pete, you have to play into the leftist's hands.

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Tell them they're racist if they don't vote for Robinson. Easy peasy. Yeah, well, I mean,

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_02]: if you want to play the same game that the left plays, then you would make that overt

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_02]: appeal, right? You would say, vote for this guy because he's black. You would make that argument.

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_02]: That's what they're saying with Kamala Harris, right? That you have to vote for her or Joe Biden

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_02]: said that you're not black if you vote for Trump, right? This is an overt appeal that Democrats

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_02]: always make. So why not make it now? Use it against Josh Stein. Oh, I know people be, oh,

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_02]: you can't do that. You can't do that. Well, why not? Does it work, right? To quote Harry Reid,

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_02]: he didn't win, did he? Right? The ends justify the means. And before people think like, oh,

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Republicans won't do that. Like, that's what you say Donald Trump is doing. He lies all the time.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_02]: He says whatever he wants to say. Nobody cares and all of that. So, I mean, precedent has already

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_02]: been set for Republicans and it was set long before Trump by Democrats. So yeah, I mean,

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_02]: that's one way to go. I would not advise it, but that is one way to go. John says Mark Robinson

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_02]: is the lieutenant governor, which is the number two highest elected statewide office in the line

[00:29:33] [SPEAKER_02]: of succession. House Speaker is number three. I am sure the attorney general is in that line

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_02]: somewhere, but it is much further down than Mark Robinson. So basically Mark Robinson outranks

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Josh Stein. Yeah, you got more votes than Stein too, if I remember correctly. James says back

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_02]: in 2014, then US Senate candidate Tom Tillis appeared on Spectrum News and it was a one-man

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_02]: debate where he represented himself and talked about the issues and his vision for North Carolina.

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_02]: The late Kay Hagan refused to show up and face him. Robinson should press Spectrum News for the air

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_02]: time and opportunity to do the same. Great show, you're a fan James. Thanks. That's a great idea.

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_02]: All right. Spectrum News had a debate, full disclosure, I worked for about six months for

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_02]: News 14, which later became Spectrum News, but Spectrum News should honor their scheduled debates

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_02]: even if the Democrats are refusing to show up. Hal Weatherman, the candidate for lieutenant

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_02]: governor, Republican nominee is running against Rachel Hunt of Mecklenburg County and

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Hunt, depending on who you believe here, never agreed to the debate or has backed out.

[00:30:59] [SPEAKER_02]: The Weatherman campaign has said she backed out. And I'm trying to remember the details and whether

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_02]: or not Spectrum confirmed that they had the date set and everybody had agreed to participate,

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_02]: but either way, she's not doing it. She's refusing to debate Hal Weatherman for lieutenant governor.

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, this all do you see the pattern? These are basement campaigns,

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_02]: much like Joe Biden ran, much like Kamala Harris has been running.

[00:31:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. Just let the let the media carry the water for us and we'll just just bombard the airwaves

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_02]: with tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, billions even in campaign advertisements.

[00:31:43] [SPEAKER_02]: And we'll let that do the talking for us. Because it doesn't matter, we don't need to have these

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_02]: debates about policy because what happens when we debate policy, we lose. We lose.

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_02]: We can't debate policy. Not that Donald Trump can either. But like you can't. They're not

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_02]: they're making arguments and you're going to hear it the next hour. I've got audio clips. Kamala

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Harris sits for a largely friendly interview with the Black Journalists Association. Oh,

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER_02]: I saw Ken Lemon was there formerly Channel nine here. He was like he introduced him up there.

[00:32:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if he's affiliated with the organization of their not. But you're going

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_02]: to hear when she's asked about Roe v. Wade, she doesn't actually have any answers for that.

[00:32:30] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know if she knows what she's talking about. All right. That'll do it for this episode.

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of

[00:32:39] [SPEAKER_02]: the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_02]: them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the peak

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_02]: calendar show dot com again. Thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.