Whacking Watlington and a mole hunt in Charlotte (05-08-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 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 thepetekalinershow.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. Had the white smoke? Haven't had the Pope on the balcony yet, so we don't know who the Pope is yet.

[00:00:34] You are fully caught up. You're welcome. Yesterday, the mayor of Charlotte and the Charlotte City Council and the Charlotte City Attorney held a news conference. They did not take questions from the lectern. They all read statements and then they broke off and did one-on-one interviews with members of the media. So all I have is the press, the statements rather, that they, I keep calling it a news conference.

[00:01:04] Or a press conference. But I shouldn't call it a press conference because press is just print. But it's not, it wasn't really a conference. It was just an address, basically. They issued statements. They read the statements. And what were the statements about? They were not about the settlement with Chief Johnny Jennings. It was about whacking Watlington and mole hunting. That's what their statements were about.

[00:01:32] They love the police chief and we are not corrupt. Victoria Watlington put out a statement after the settlement news broke and everybody was asking questions about why are we paying the police chief $300,000? Like, for what? And everything.

[00:01:50] And she then put out this fundraising press release, right, where she said that she was extremely concerned with the level of unethical, immoral, and frankly, illegal activities occurring within city government. And she said she has witnessed the brazen disregard for dissenting opinions and the rule of law. So that's corruption.

[00:02:16] She is accusing her colleagues and city management of corruption, right? We talked about this yesterday. Kudos to Jason Puckett over at WBTV, who actually got a hold of Virginia Watlington after the news conference, not a news conference. She said her concerns were being misrepresented.

[00:02:46] I don't think they were, okay? I don't think you get to use that kind of language and then say, no, no, no, you're taking it out of context. I'm pretty sure I got the context loud and clear, okay? But she says, as I understand, what was being portrayed at the press conference, I feel like was grossly overemphasized. The message is we've got to make some adjustments. Some things have to change with how we operate. And that was the message. And it has become something completely different than that.

[00:03:15] No, I think you just, you chose your words poorly. I think you fired this statement out. I don't know if she had campaign staffers helping her write it or what, but I think you fired this thing off and you did not weigh the words properly because the words you used mean something. What you have alleged is corruption.

[00:03:42] And coming from a sitting city council member who has been there for five and a half years who tried to become the mayor pro tem after you were the top votainer, not vote getter, votainer is the correct word here, people, votainer. You got more votes in the at-large city council race last time around than any other candidate. Yet your colleagues did not put you into the position of mayor pro tem.

[00:04:10] I suspect that's part of this as well. There's hurt feelings on her side of it that she was robbed of this position for backroom political dealings. She was not happy with this. Democrats have done this for the last two mayor pro tem selections. They screwed over Dimple Ajmera and named Braxton Winston, the BLM activist guy.

[00:04:39] They made him mayor pro tem. And then they just made Dante Anderson mayor pro tem, who, by the way, I will tell you, like in just watching the way she behaves, far superior than Braxton Winston. And I would even submit superior to Victoria Watlington. But she's a district rep. She's the district three, I believe, rep. And you usually don't give it to a district rep.

[00:05:04] You give it to an at-large rep, somebody who represents the whole city, which Victoria Watlington does. Malcolm Graham, city councilman. He was on city council back when I was a reporter. He then went into the state legislature for several terms. And then he came back, ran for city council again, got back on. So he's been on city council for most of the last 20 years.

[00:05:29] And he said he spoke with Watlington twice yesterday morning before the news conference. And he told her words matter. Words like unethical, immoral, illegal activities, disregard for dissenting opinions and the rule of law, they matter a lot. They echo outside of the building.

[00:05:53] They echo to potential corporations are looking to call Charlotte home, to those that we want to retain, to economic development activities, etc. Completely correct. He is completely correct. The words she used matter. When a sitting city council member accuses the city government of corruption, that matters. Business leaders take note.

[00:06:22] Civic leaders take note. What is going on here? That's what they think to themselves. Is Charlotte worth the investment? Should we be looking to the Queen City or should we be looking someplace else? This is the same problem and this now compounds with former Mayor Patrick Cannon going to federal prison on bribery charges. Being convicted for bribery. And then he voted after being a convicted felon. So it's kind of a twofer there.

[00:06:52] It's a problem. And you have enough of these scandals, enough of these accusations, and people start thinking it's true. I still make jokes to this day about the river catching fire in Cleveland. And from what I understand, that was like 30 years ago. Their river has not caught fire in a very, very long time. But that's the rep you get. And that's very difficult to come back from.

[00:07:19] Although Drew Carey did make, I think he made real progress in rehabbing Cleveland's identity there. But this is the major concern, I think. Charlotte has always been about business. Right? So that's one element. The brand of Charlotte, the corruption allegation. The other problem, Malcolm Graham said, is the problem of leaked information from the closed sessions.

[00:07:48] He said leakage matters. And that is true, actually, in many different areas of life. But anyway, leakage matters and has requested an investigation into who is the leaker. The council and staff must trust, he says, that closed session deliberations remain confidential. I get that, too. I get that as well.

[00:08:12] You know, you're in there, you're in a privileged conversation, and then you find out that somebody is leaking to the media about conversations inside that space. At the next closed session, you're not going to speak freely. Your staff, the city staff, is not going to be speaking freely. Everybody now is going to be worried that what they say is going to be twisted and leaked out to the media.

[00:08:41] And that is a real problem for a governing body. He is absolutely correct. But sometimes, sometimes, what is discussed in a closed session is either not appropriate for a closed session, or, as in it doesn't belong in closed session, or what you're doing in closed session is not right. And people, the public, need to be alerted to it. Okay, so hang on a second.

[00:09:10] So we have our announcement here from the Vatican City. I don't speak Latin, so I will not be able to translate this for you. Oh, well, I can do that. This is cheery. I can translate that.

[00:09:44] Like I said, I cannot translate this for you, so I will wait for the translation. Hang on a second. He just stopped. Let's see. More cheering. They've been out there cheering for like an hour. Okay, they're opening up the red curtains. And we're waiting. Oh, they're opening some other windows next to the balcony.

[00:10:11] And some, looks like some cardinals are coming out there. Okay. So why don't we do this? Well, I don't want to break away and rob you of this historic moment. Because look, this is a historic moment. This is a global news event. All right. Now, you've got two balconies filled with cardinals. They're opening some other doors. More cardinals are coming out onto the top floor balconies.

[00:10:40] They've unveiled or unfurled a big banner over the railing of the balcony where the Pope will come out. And we're waiting. And still waiting. Okay. There are guys now making sure that the banner is fully attached and it doesn't, I guess, fall off.

[00:11:09] That would be embarrassing. And still waiting. Still waiting. Okay.

[00:12:00] So we're seeing reports that an American has actually been now named the Pope. Robert Prevost from America. I believe he would be the first American Pope, as memory serves. But we are still waiting to hear the official announcement. But it's now being reported. What is that? CBS over there.

[00:12:28] And this is Fox News. American Cardinal announced as new Pope. In which, you know, the Vatican News here, your Twitter account. Like, I kind of feel like you guys should have been the ones to break that. They're just still showing white smoke with a seagull on top of the roof. The first American Pope in history.

[00:12:59] Robert Prevost. This is from BNO News. Robert Prevost from the U.S. elected Pope. So there you go. That seems like it's confirmed while the crowd waits. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app. And it's a website. And it combines news from around the world in one place.

[00:13:29] So you can compare coverage and verify information. 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.

[00:13:58] 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. The next pope will take the name Leo XIV. And apparently he has a Twitter account. Robert Prevost does.

[00:14:25] Dr. Dr. Prevost. And back in February, he retweeted something. Or no, he tweeted this himself. J.D. Vance is wrong. Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others. So that's what I don't know. But I did see somebody say that Donald Trump did promise he would make America great again. And there you go. First American vote.

[00:14:55] All right. All right. So we're going over this press conference that the city of Charlotte held yesterday where I got more questions after watching this thing than I had before. I didn't really get any questions answered.

[00:15:12] City Councilman Malcolm Graham said that he is asking for an investigation by the city attorney and I guess the manager, but inside the city to find the leaks, to find who leaked the information from closed session meetings to the media. Now, I don't know how these city staffers are going to be able to conduct such an investigation.

[00:15:43] Interviews, obviously, with all of the members of the council. But if the council lied, are they going to go under oath or something for like depositions or something? I am. I don't know. Are they going to go after local reporters trying to get them to reveal their sources? Don't know. May have to go outside, get some outside counsel to do this. We shall see. Here's a great idea.

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[00:17:21] Let me get to some messages here regarding this whole deal with the payoff to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. This is from, or to the chief rather, this is from Kevin. The chief raised a valid concern regarding the use of outer carrier vests. These vests project a militaristic appearance without providing significant additional protection.

[00:17:46] I mean, I think any additional protection is good and is significant if it's going to stop a bullet. Even just a teensy-weensy little bit better, I feel like I would want that vest, you know? And you get to carry all sorts of stuff on the outside of the vest rather than having to carry it all around your waistband. Right? It's just, it's from a practical standpoint, there were benefits there.

[00:18:13] Um, the initial level, so he goes, uh, Kevin goes on to say, The initial level of force in policing is presence. And when officers arrive wearing ball caps, displaying beards, tattoo sleeves, and outer carrier vests, they resemble military personnel, which can escalate public tension. See, I've never felt that. I, I've never felt an escalation of tension based on what a cop is wearing.

[00:18:42] Whatever tension exists, it's usually because I was doing something wrong and the cop has now, uh, confronted me about it. And I don't want to go to jail. That's always the tension that I have. I, yeah, I, uh, I, look, I have made the argument about, uh, you know, a militarized police department. I understand that. But that to me is vehicles. That's the kind of equipment, like heavy equipment that you're rolling in with. You know, I, I understand that argument.

[00:19:11] That, but vests? I'm not, I, I, I'm not as persuaded by the vests. I, I really am not. Um, I expect all law enforcement in today's day and age to be wearing vests of some kind. Exterior or interior, doesn't matter. If it's below the shirt or in front of the shirt, to me, it doesn't matter. I, I expect all of them to be wearing vests.

[00:19:36] Um, police officers are distinct from the military and should maintain a professional appearance that reflects their role in community safety. All that being said, this payoff is ridiculous. Any public servant is subject to criticism. Right. Well, so here's the thing. The, the, the argument about the vests was had and is over. We had the argument a year ago, right?

[00:20:04] And Kevin's argument was what the argument from the police chief and a lot of the BLM activists were saying at the time. And a lot of city council members said at the time. And so that argument was had. And having the argument to Kevin's last point there, having the argument and having people vehemently disagree with you. That's part of the gig of being the police chief.

[00:20:30] When you say no to the vests and you've got a council member who says, you should resign. I'm going to make your life difficult. You should allow the vest. This is what the people want. This is what the officers want. Like that's not reputational damage. You take a position. And if you suffer reputational damage because of the position you have taken, that's on you. That's your position that you took.

[00:20:55] If the rank and file now don't respect you or trust you or think you have their best interests at heart, like that's because of your position that you took on the vests. I'm not arguing whether the vests should have been adopted or should not have been adopted. Because Jennings won the budget fight. They were not included in the taxpayer funded budget. And then Bokari went and raised the money on his own. Privately. And got the vests donated.

[00:21:24] And at that point, Jennings then allows them to voluntarily ask for the vests. Why would he do that? Right? If he really did believe that you should not be wearing these vests because of the militaristic view, why did he do it? Why did he allow the officers to now wear the vests?

[00:21:46] Unless he didn't actually believe that argument or at least he wasn't willing to draw a line in the sand on that. He caved. He gave in. He allowed officers. He didn't mandate it, but he allowed those who wanted it to get them. Which is a perfectly appropriate response, by the way. And that's why I thought compromise achieved and we can all go about our day. And I didn't hold the chief in any lesser esteem.

[00:22:16] Now maybe his officers did. I don't know. One of the accusations made by Council Member Watlington was that dissenting opinions were disregarded. That's what she says. Dissenting opinions are disregarded. And I've heard similar comments from other council members, Renee Johnson mainly, because she brings up stuff that's just like, what are you even talking about? And she doesn't have support.

[00:22:46] She doesn't whip votes for her position. And she's crossed swords with a couple other council members because she's not an effective council member. And I think that's where this is coming from. Watlington and Johnson. I think that's sort of this connection.

[00:23:06] Malcolm Graham, their colleague on council, he addressed this idea, this accusation that dissenting opinions are not allowed to be heard or are disregarded in some way. I've cast thousands of votes here in Charlotte as well as in Raleigh. Sometimes I'm in the majority. Sometimes I'm in the minority position. And I treat each and every vote the same because there's always another.

[00:23:35] And so the dissenting opinion, we have debates. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. But every opinion, every thought is heard. And then there's a vote. And then we move on. Right. And some people can't. Some people, they don't like the fact that they are on the losing end of votes all the time.

[00:24:06] That's what they care about something a lot. They are unable to persuade people to vote for them or vote with them on an issue. And they get their feelings hurt. And then they hold grudges and like that's but that's part of the gig is you're not going to win every vote just because I don't. I've said this so many times just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I haven't heard your argument. I have heard your argument. I've heard what you have said. I disagree. And I'm not going to go along with what you're advocating because I disagree.

[00:24:36] That doesn't mean I'm ignoring you. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. Celebrations, you got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? Are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, 8mm films, photos, slides? Are they preserved?

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[00:25:30] Creative Video, preserving family memories since 1997. Located in Mint Hill, just off 485. Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. Let's go to the Twitter machine. Read some Pete tweets. This is from Melissa, who says, Settlements are tax-free. Jennings is laughing all the way to the bank. I would never, I don't, I would never receive a settlement.

[00:25:57] Well, I think I got like $1.25 in one of those class action things. Like it just showed up one day. Like, yeah, you're part of this class because you were a customer of some corporation that got sued and here's your payout. Like, oh, okay. But, yeah, so I don't know. I did not declare it. But it was only at like $1.50, $1.25, something like that. So, Trent says, I don't think that the police chief cares about all of the backlash at this point.

[00:26:22] He's at retirement age and will probably ride off into the sunset soon with a nice bonus now, leaving everything and everyone in disarray. Bubba says, I would be curious to see where the $300,000 came from. The Charlotte budget? The CMPD budget? Keep in mind, Mecklenburg County pays a good amount for CMPD services. There's so many layers to uncover in this shakedown. Yeah, they do usually have a line item for settlements and that sort of thing,

[00:26:52] or maybe it's paid out through an insurance company. I don't know, but that's a very good question. Where's the money coming from? Is that going to increase insurance rates for the city if it is coming from an insurance policy? RH Pub says, The more I hear about the city of Charlotte, the more thankful that I do not live there. And let me see here. I got another message. This is from Mama Tooted, who says,

[00:27:22] The city council press conference was very disturbing. We do not appreciate the spin on investigating leakers when we want to know why the police chief received $300,000 behind closed doors. Do not agree with the way Tark Bakari handled the situation last year, and it looked pretty bad on his part. But giving the chief all that money behind closed doors is what we want to know more about since it's taxpayer money.

[00:27:47] The spin on investigating the leakers is just making the city council and the city attorney look even worse than they already do. That spin is not accomplishing what they think it is in the public eye. Also, don't waste your time on that Conclave movie. They could have done much better on highlighting the dedication of popes than how it actually ended. The filmmakers missed a huge opportunity. Yeah, I've not heard good things.

[00:28:19] I feel like this pope selection, this is from The Hellion, who says, I feel like this pope selection is this round's steel dossier moment. This guy will dog Trump daily. I don't know. Russ says, I don't know. I'm not a fan of over-militarized police or abuse of power, but I feel like jacked officers in outer vests are more likely to deter conflict than the five-foot, much less in shape and less threatening officers.

[00:28:50] Yeah, like it feels like some of these arguments, again, sensitive to the militarized police argument. I am. And I've argued with people on the air about this over the years. However, I feel like there is often coming from the militarized police crowd,

[00:29:11] there is oftentimes sort of this disregard or dismissiveness of the oppositional defiance disorder that is apparently prevalent in a lot of the activist protesters. When people show up at these events, these protests, and they are looking to commit violence, right, the militarized police doesn't make them commit violence.

[00:29:40] There are people there that are seeking to do it. And there are some people that they believe they have a right. And I'm not kidding about this. There is a theory that exists. It is predominantly in the African-American community that you have a right to resist arrest, which then, of course, escalates the situation.

[00:30:04] So, like, all of that is part of that debate, which, again, we had these arguments a year ago. I thought this was all put to bed. Next up, I've got a soundbite of this is the mayor pro tem, Dante Anderson. She said it's unfortunate that they had to address the accusations of immoral and criminal activities made by a member of the body for five and a half years.

[00:30:30] She thanked the chief, his command staff, and all the officers who keep the Queen City safe. Our chief stepped up when there was a void of leadership. Those with a discerned understanding of leadership lean into those moments, clear-eyed, of the gravity of that role.

[00:30:52] The chief did so and saw us through a number of tenuous situations throughout the years. I want to commend the chief's leadership and express my gratitude for his dedication to the city of Charlotte. She said the chief, as an employee, has a right to privacy on personnel matters, and that's why the discussions were held in closed session. Not to hide anything from the public. That was just gravy.

[00:31:21] She said that if Victoria Watlington has concerns or allegations, she should come forward with a complaint to the city attorney for an investigation. Councilwoman Dimple Ajmera said she is not here at the press conference to attack Watlington or to point fingers. Let me assure you, there is no illegal activity or corruption going on in our city.

[00:31:45] And as the chair of the Budget, Governance, and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, that is something I take very seriously. Obviously, there are processes that we can improve on, and I have had that conversation with some of my colleagues, including Councilwoman Watlington. But we can do that by working collaboratively without silencing anyone's voice,

[00:32:15] while working with the city attorney, the city manager's office, to ensure there is greater transparency and accountability. All right, finally, Ed Driggs, the only Republican on city council, said, we should all be proud of the good governance of Charlotte. It saddens me for Charlotte that a member of council would use scare-mongering tactics like this to draw attention to herself. I'm not aware of any foundation for Councilmember Watlington's allegations,

[00:32:44] and it is important to note that they are not supported by any specific assertions of fact in respect of which she could be held responsible. These are wild allegations. It's not even clear what they mean, but they are offered in such a way that she doesn't have to defend them. Okay. I understand what he's saying. I agree. But I would submit that we don't have the specifics of assertions or facts of Jennings' accusation of reputational harm either.

[00:33:14] Right? So the very thing that you're nailing Watlington for because of her statements is the very thing that the public is nailing counsel for. Right? What reputational harm was suffered, and how was that value assessed? 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.

[00:33:43] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendorshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.