WaPo scoop: NC Governor failed to appoint FEMA coordinator (03-11-2025--Hour2)

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[00:00:28] We had Andrew Dunn on in the first hour, and I asked him about a story that actually appeared at the Washington Post. It's a story by Brianna Sachs and Jake Spring. And the focus is on Donald Trump, because of course, right, it's on how folks in Western North Carolina that were devastated by Hurricane Helene, that, you know, they all voted for Trump and they thought they were

[00:00:58] getting Trump to help them. And now, you know, where's all the help and all of this? Okay, that's the that's the focus of the story. But there's a pretty amazing account in here that I had not heard before. And I, I feel like I followed this stuff pretty closely. I'm not sure why I was not aware of this. But let's just kind of go through this piece by piece by piece.

[00:01:28] So the story centers, you know, as you normally find with these types of stories, they go to Avery County. And it's a, you know, a two lane highway in Western North Carolina winds through a landscape littered with crushed cars, houses knocked off their foundations and thousands of downed trees. Five months after Hurricane Helene, about 300 privately owned bridges in Avery County have yet to be fixed.

[00:01:58] Okay, while Americans typically rely on a mix of state and federal aid in the wake of a disaster, the recovery for many here has become akin to a personal test of their relationship with President Donald Trump.

[00:02:15] That lingering frustration. See, again, they're, they're connecting Trump to these voters, right? And it's a personal relationship. If he doesn't deliver for them, oh, they're gonna vote against him next time around. Oh, wait. Yeah, never mind. Okay.

[00:02:34] Okay. The lingering frustration across parts of 27 hurricane hit counties in North Carolina's Appalachian Mountain region speaks to the complexity of rebuilding in a place dotted with federal emergency management agency centers. But people say they feel abandoned.

[00:02:55] Trump and his allies have blasted President Joe Biden's response, feeding an online frenzy that has portrayed FEMA's response as disastrous. So again, orange man bad. You get the sense. Let me skip ahead here because this is the, to me, this is the headline. To me, this is the story.

[00:03:22] Complaints about, and this is, I don't know, second page in on a six page story. Yeah. So complaints about FEMA always follow disasters. As the nation's lead disaster response agency.

[00:03:41] FEMA has a specific and often misunderstood role to provide funding, coordinate resources, and help state and local officials navigate a complex web of programs and resources.

[00:03:58] FEMA was on the ground even before the storm hit, according to Amber Silver, an emergency management expert at the University of Albany, who also happens to have both of her names, the names of alerts, Amber and Silver. Anyway, I just noted that it thought it was interesting.

[00:04:18] Very Dickensian. So she called it a common misperception that FEMA was late in coming or that they didn't get to certain parts of the state. Helene's sprawl made the response logistically complex, especially since some mountainous communities and hollers in Appalachia are extremely difficult to access.

[00:04:41] All of that is true. All of that is true. I was saying this from the very beginning, that the topographical challenges presented in Western North Carolina are not the normal kinds of environments that FEMA goes into. A lot of times they're at the coast, right? They got a hurricane that's slammed in to the country.

[00:05:06] It's usually it's usually at the coast and way more flat land, you know, to see something like this in the mountains and then the wall of water and the types of mudslides. It's just this is not something that that they deal with on a regular basis. Another potential obstacle was that North Carolina.

[00:05:27] Here it is. Never appointed a disaster recovery coordinator to take charge of communicating with federal agencies, which is what FEMA recommends. This is what the state's director of the agency confirmed that saying officials decided to take a different approach. So I'm not sure what what is that different approach?

[00:05:58] They were just not going to have somebody running point under Roy Cooper. But then when Josh Stein took over, apparently they did. They have somebody now. What the heck? What was Roy Cooper doing?

[00:06:11] How is it possible that Roy Cooper as governor for eight years with multiple hurricanes, right, that he never could quite figure out how to get people into homes after these disasters? It's been seven years, eight years since some of those hurricanes left people homeless.

[00:06:35] And some of those folks still don't have their homes replaced from Matthew and Florence, let alone Helene. This guy has gotten a complete pass by North Carolina media for his ineffectual disaster response. And we saw it. You heard the stories, right? This is the five year anniversary of the beginning of COVID. Right.

[00:07:04] And everybody, you know, ran to his. Well, they couldn't actually go in person to his press conferences during COVID. But reporters would go and join the Zoom call and patiently, you know, raise their hand digitally and wait to get called on and, you know, ask questions about how can we enforce, you know, these lockdowns? Lock us down harder, Daddy.

[00:07:31] You know, like that was that was the entire tone of all of this stuff. There was there was no like no skepticism at all. There was just this this rolling over and hoping that he knew what he was doing and just giving him the benefit of the doubt that he did know what he was doing. And that's fine if that's the way you want to play it while it's going on. But afterwards, you should take a look and see, did he actually make the right decisions? Did some of these things work?

[00:08:01] Did some of them not work? We should have an accounting and we have not done that. Nobody has done that with his policies. People haven't held him to account for some of these decisions. So this is a pretty big one. Right. Why? Why are we just now? How did the Washington Post figure this out? And nobody else. I don't know the answer to that, but they did.

[00:08:27] They figured this out, that apparently he never appointed a disaster recovery coordinator. Natalie Simpson, an emergency management expert at the University of Buffalo, said that she was shocked that the state did not appoint a disaster response czar and said this could help explain the uneven response.

[00:08:48] If there were genuine problems with FEMA's response, like not penetrating fast enough into the affected areas, somebody that the state appointed as the czar would have been sounding the alarm earlier. Right. That's why it seemed like the response was not being well run. It's because it wasn't. It wasn't.

[00:09:15] If FEMA was guilty of anything, the state of North Carolina is equally guilty of it, she said. It wasn't until early January that newly elected Governor Josh Stein appointed a leadership team to oversee the recovery in western North Carolina. Josh Stein did that. And even now, as we heard from Andrew Dunn in the last hour, I don't I don't hear much from that guy. Calabria, I think is his name.

[00:09:44] I don't hear much at all from that office, from whoever it is that's running point. Like this is one of the things that people expect of their governors. To be competent and surround themselves with competent staff to respond to these disasters. You have to. And we have known this since the days of Jim Hunt. Right. Going back 40 years. You got to know how to respond to natural disasters.

[00:10:13] And Roy Cooper just apparently never learned, which kind of makes sense because he went from, you know, a legislative seat then to attorney general. You're not really dealing with that stuff there. And then he ends up as the governor. And that was probably the first time in his life he ever had to really worry about disaster response. And he didn't do a very good job at it. Now, will that haunt him when he runs for U.S. Senate? If he runs for U.S. Senate against Tom Tillis? I don't know.

[00:10:42] Will anybody in the media care to ask him? I don't know that either. 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 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.

[00:11:09] You can check it out at check.ground.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.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:11:36] Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% 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. So the Washington Post with this story about our former governor, my good friend Ray Cooper,

[00:11:59] who did not appoint anybody as a disaster recovery coordinator to take charge of communicating with federal agencies. And this is something that FEMA recommends that the states do. But the state did not. Roy Cooper did not do this.

[00:12:20] And I saw Matt Mercer, who is the Republican Party, the North Carolina Republican Party's communications guy. And, you know, he points out here that after families down east went the entirety of Roy Cooper's

[00:12:46] tenure as governor without getting homes rebuilt because of incompetence or willful negligence in recovery from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence. The final act of Roy Cooper's time was screwing over the other part of the state, the western part of the state. Like that's three hurricanes, three hurricanes that Roy Cooper failed at and a once in a lifetime pandemic.

[00:13:14] Which, oh, by the way, did you see the protesting that they're doing around the country over the weekend? They were doing the rallies and such, the stand up for science. Not for Fauci. No, this is this isn't standing up for Fauci, a.k.a. the science. This is.

[00:13:37] This is this is in defense of government funded grants that have been identified for potential cuts by Doge. Right. And you remember Francis Collins? Remember that guy? The guy who wrote. Well, he led the NIH, but then he also sang like rewrites of folk tunes.

[00:14:04] And yeah, yeah, he did one somewhere after the pandemic. It was to the tune of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Yeah, that's well, he did it again. Yeah, I got I've got the audio. We'll take a listen to it. But let me get let me finish up this Washington Post piece that since the disaster, FEMA has poured nearly eight hundred million dollars into North Carolina's recovery.

[00:14:29] About half of that funding has gone to one hundred fifty six thousand households for rental assistance, home repairs and other relief. They were on the ground here with us since the beginning. And we're here with us all the way through the response, said William Ray, speaking of FEMA. In every response and recovery effort, we wish things had gone faster. But that is the nature of disaster response.

[00:14:54] Although many people said they were helped by the agency in 15 weeks of driving across the state from his home in Greenville. Sean Hendricks said he saw just two FEMA workers and to him and to other residents. All the federal rules and red tape have left people floundering in dire financial situations and unacceptable living conditions. And then they talked with Matt Vons Van Swole, a 30 year old marketer who was one of Sean Hendricks's avid followers.

[00:15:24] Sean Hendricks was apparently one of Mr. Beast's guys, the YouTuber, Mr. Beast. He was one of his guys. Like Hendricks, Von Swole remains outraged by what he described as FEMA's complete failure to help his community of Weaverville and those around him as well. Local elected officials in Avery County, all Republicans, say the new administration and Trump's executive order have made little discernible difference so far.

[00:15:50] William Ray, the head of North Carolina Emergency Management, said that the federal government's responsiveness on the disaster has been about the same under Trump and Biden. So that's where it stands now. I'm sure just like the homelessness problem. Now we now we can tell the story, right? Now we'll be able to tell the story because now it's Trump's FEMA that's failing. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina?

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[00:17:15] And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I got a message from It's All A Distraction who says, Hurricane Cooper was the worst storm to hit North Carolina. I did mention Francis Collins, and Russ says,

[00:17:44] I might be more disgusted with that guy than even Fauci. His fingerprints were all over the sketchy research programs and horrific response, but he used his faith as a shield against criticism and a cudgel to force people with legitimate concerns into compliance. He did the whole evangelical influencer circuit, questioning other people's faith if they didn't like what was happening. Yeah, I was not aware.

[00:18:13] I just recently found out about Collins' evangelical connections, and I was not aware of any of that effort that he was undertaking and had for a while. But I do know that the guy loves to sing some 1960s folk music protest songs. I do know that.

[00:18:43] He likes to do it. In fact, there was a rally on Friday, I guess it was, against the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to research funding and federal agencies tasked with advancing science. This is from the USA Today article. Dubbed Stand Up for Science, the rallies brought together leading researchers, former administrators,

[00:19:13] and people who benefited from medical advances. The main rally occurred on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., with an estimated 30 events held from Seattle to Tallahassee, Florida, and even in France. Why France? What? So, Dr. Francis Collins,

[00:19:40] the longtime former director of the National Institutes of Health. Here is, well, he took the stage, he made some comments for about a minute or two, and then he brought down the house here. I think if we're going to talk about people, there's one more thing we need to do before I sit down. We need to sing about that. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yes.

[00:20:09] We're going to hope the wind doesn't get the better of this. Okay. Yes. He's really working this crowd. Oh, yeah. There we go. Oh, my gosh. He got his papers paper clipped from the wind. Can we get a guitar? This is a sing-along. Yes. And it has a chorus that's really easy to learn. Can you find the guitar?

[00:20:41] I think I hear a guitar. Yeah, that's a guitar. Something. He can't hear the guitar. Hello, sound booth. Oh, gosh. Why? Can I get a little hint if we might be getting this to work? Yes, a thumbs up. We are good to go. You can? Okay. Good. I can tell. He couldn't tell.

[00:21:11] Okay. So this is a song that's often sung at the end of a folk festival, but it's been rewritten for today by me. It's a song about all the good people that I was just talking about. You are all the good people. Well, this is a song for all the good people, all the good people.

[00:21:43] Oh, my gosh. What the heck? We're joined together by this noble dream. Have you got that? So it's just all the good people, but that's... I'm sorry. I lost track of what lines I'm supposed to know for this tune, what with all of the technical glitches. I don't understand what's happening. I thought you guys had the sound thing figured out, but then some guy walks over. He starts adjusting one of the microphones. You get the static, and then you get the loud pop there.

[00:22:10] I don't even know what we're doing at this point. Like, this is... Well, who told this man he needs to sing in public? Why are they encouraging this kind of behavior in Francis Collins? Didn't you learn anything with the Somewhere After the Pandemic song? Why are you still doing this? Why are people encouraging him to do this?

[00:22:37] Now he's going to get everybody in a sing-along, and apparently there's one woman who is on a microphone. So you're going to hear her. This is like top quality production levels here, guys. Top quality. Second line, part of this family. And the last line, we're joined together by this noble dream. Do that with me. This is a song for all the good people. Come on. Oh my gosh. What the heck?

[00:23:06] We're part of this family. This is a song for all the good people. We're joined together by this noble dream. So you really do get a sense of the virtue signaling, right? It really does come through. You are the good people. We are the noble dream pursuers and havers and such.

[00:23:33] They really do think of themselves in these terms, in these ways. We are morally superior. Like, this is a perfect encapsulation of the left. It really is. Thank you, Dr. Collins. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life.

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[00:25:00] So Roy Cooper did not appoint somebody to interface with FEMA for the Hurricane Helene disaster as FEMA recommends. Well, wouldn't you think that FEMA would have asked who that person was? I would think so. Yeah. Like, this is literally the first I had heard about them not having a coordinator. That Cooper didn't set up somebody to be the point person with FEMA. And that is unusual.

[00:25:30] And this is the first I've heard about it. And it came to us out of a report at the Washington Post. Paul says, You love Elon Musk making cuts to save tax dollars. But when Cooper doesn't waste taxpayer money on a disaster team, there's a problem? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Or just, you know, don't have the funding. Right? This is like, this is the thing.

[00:26:00] If you're going to promise that kind of an operation, FEMA response, then, yeah, you should have somebody that runs point with that response. Otherwise, what are you like? What are you even doing? Look, maybe Cooper's approach would have been a better approach. I don't think it was. It turned out not to be. So, again, like there needs to be an assessment of whether his decision was the right decision or not.

[00:26:31] Ken says, thank you for highlighting the need for prayer for the woman facing surgery and her daughter in Durham who's in the hospital. I am one of hundreds who will heed your call. Secondly, I have been streaming on my phone since about 1250 p.m. and I have experienced no issues with fading volume. Thank you, Ken. I appreciate it. So, I don't know. Not sure. I pass along the reports just so this way if you are experiencing the same sort of an issue, you don't think you're crazy. You know?

[00:27:00] Like, wait a minute. Is this volume going up and down? It's hard to tell. It's all a distraction, says. Listening to Francis Collins makes me wish my feed was cutting out. That's fair. You know, he did get it going after, you know, the problems with the microphone and the feed and all of that. He did get it going.

[00:27:29] Well, this is a song for all of those dreamers. I don't know who the woman on the mic is. Looking for answers to come our way. Scientists, doctors, students, all seekers. Sharing the hopes for a much brighter day. Come on now. Well, this is a song for all the good people. All right. So, I'm curious. Like, does this actually work?

[00:27:56] Does this motivate the youth or really anybody that's not like, I don't know, a 70-year-old that remembers the 60s? Which I feel like then that you did the 60s wrong, if you remember it. But seriously, like, is this singing supposed to win people over to the cause? Oh. It's your dedication. That's our inspiration.

[00:28:25] When we see your courage, we have to stand tall. So, this is a song for all the good people. All the good people. You're part of this family. Like, this does not feel like, I don't know, this doesn't get me amped up, you know? It just doesn't, I don't know. Can we get some of the Hamas holies, maybe get some of them to show you how to do, like,

[00:28:55] the proper riotous chanting and beating on the drums and stuff? I don't, yeah, I don't even know what's going on there. Yeah, Francis Collins. No, Russ, I don't think he does have anybody in his life that loves him enough to tell him to never sing in public again. I don't think he does. Yeah, I don't think he does. Which is sad. Speaking of Elon Musk, have you heard what's been going on there?

[00:29:22] Terrorists are now attacking Elon Musk's Tesla dealerships and vehicles. It's happening all over the country. And it is, you know, the destruction, the vandalism, it is terrorism. That's the whole point, right? It's to try to force Elon Musk and anybody around him to stop doing what they're doing.

[00:29:46] And he's also been, Twitter was actually, or X, was also hit with a hacker attack yesterday. He said that the social media platform faced multiple outages around the world on Monday. There were several different hacks or DDoS, these like spam attacks, basically, that denial of service attacks.

[00:30:17] He said there was a massive cyber attack against X. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large coordinated group and or a country is involved, and we are tracing it. The reports of outages were not localized to the U.S. Users as far away as Europe had reported issues using the site as well. Again, this is shutuppery.

[00:30:47] This is shut up. Stop doing what you're doing. Stop participating in the democracy. You are not allowed to participate because I don't agree with your aims. And so you have to be stopped. Think about like what they're saying here is that we're going to destroy your free speech platform. We're going to destroy your efforts to root out waste and fraud because.

[00:31:16] We make money because what we have some sort of inside track on the platform or something like I'm trying to figure out why these are bad things per se. 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 thepetecalendorshow.com.

[00:31:44] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.