WRAL runs interference for Roy Cooper on immigration record | Hour 2

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The headline on this piece is Cooper and Watley on immigration, a fight over how to focus enforcement. And as I said last hour, that is false. This is not a fight over how to enforce. It is a question over whether to enforce. Okay. That's, So right out of the gate, the headline is already misleading me. So I knew what I was getting. Well, I mean, I knew what I was getting when I went to WRAL, but I know now, okay, this piece is going to be slanted. And of course it is. It is slanted. As I went through some of the examples in the last hour, again, I'm not going to go back over those. But, you know, just real quick, you've got When it's Whatley, it's he's promising to do whatever Trump wants, but there's no similar assumption for Roy Cooper. It says Roy Cooper hasn't gone as far as other Democrats in calling for abolishing ICE, but it doesn't say what his position is. Then... Whatley is not the first Republican politician to blame immigrants for the opioid epidemic, although the data doesn't necessarily back it up. Most illicit fentanyl is made in Mexico, but it's typically smuggled into the U.S. by American citizens, according to government data and policy analysts. Okay, who do you think they're working for? Who do you think the drug runners, the mules, who are they working for? Could they be the cartels? Are the cartels legal citizens of America? What do you think? And they typically bring it in through legal ports of entry, not by sneaking over the border. See, so you guys, you Republicans, you're saying that the border crossings being open and Biden's policy of open borders, that's got nothing to do with the opioid overdose drug epidemic. Nothing at all to do. They're completely divorced because most of the drugs come through the legal ports of entry. Ha ha ha. See, now, if I didn't know anything. Then about this topic, then I would read that and say, oh man, those Republicans, they're just lying on Cooper. Except I do know something about this topic. And one of the tactics that the cartels use in order to get their drugs through the legal ports of entry is to overload the border in other parts. This is what they do. They send, because they're the ones that control the human smuggling routes, so they would send two, three, four, five thousand people to cross the border about, say, five miles away from a port of entry, which then requires a swarm of, uh, law enforcement officials, American officials to go down to that area where you've got this mass overloading, this gate crashing that's occurring. They all have to divert over there. Then you've got fewer inspections going on at the ports of entry. And now it's less likely you're. Going to get popped. See how that works. See, but again, if I didn't know this tactic, because I've been covering the border issues for 25 years, if I didn't know that tactic and I just read the story, I would think that the Republicans don't know what they're talking about. Now, maybe the reporter doesn't know what he's talking about. Will Durant, he may not know what he's talking about. He may not know that because he doesn't cover this issue. This is why you want people in your newsroom that have covered the issue from a different lens. I have a different lens through which I view this story, this issue than Will Duran does. So I see things differently. I am exposed to different information. Trump pledged to deport millions of immigrants. as part of his 2024 presidential campaign. But so far, and despite an extra $ 170 billion Republicans in Congress gave him last year to hire more immigration agents and implement other border security measures, his immigrations and customs enforcement agents have made 610,000 arrests, according to reporting this month by the Marshall Project. Okay, so you're bashing Trump here Trump pledged to deport millions, but they've only made 610,000 arrests. So he's a failure. So Trump is failing at the thing that we have opposed and obstructed. Ha ha. He's a failure because of us, but he's a failure. So you shouldn't vote for him and you shouldn't vote for Wadley. Oh, by the way, did you know that like 3 million illegal aliens have either been deported or have self-deported? Yeah. That's happened. So the thing that you guys are opposed to, that Trump promised he would deport millions, millions of illegals have in fact left the country, but you're bashing him because only 610,000 have been arrested. And you didn't even want them arrested. Oh, no, no, we're not. Saying the criminals, we want the criminals arrested. I mean, we're not going to tell ICE that we've arrested them, right? Like when we arrest them, we're not going to turn them over to ICE so they can be deported. But we totally want them deported. You guys are just lying all the time. And this is why I suspect none of these people sit down for debates. I reached out to the Cooper campaign today on Twitter because they posted, I thought, a very nice thing on the anniversary of Charlie Kirk's murder. they posted, you know, nobody should be killed for engaging in the political process. We, you know, this country is founded on a civil debate. And I said, I appreciate you saying that even if it's just the Cooper campaign, I appreciate that statement and the sentiment. And in that spirit, I would invite you to come on my show, come on my show. And we'll talk about your philosophy, right? Your ideology, right? your beliefs, how you will govern if you win this Senate seat. I would like to talk about those higher order issues, right? Well, I'll let you know, but I don't think they're coming. Many of the people who have been arrested by ICE have no criminal record, and critics of Trump's push have said it focuses too heavily on targeting people who have lived peacefully and constructively in the U.S. for years, working despite their lack of legal status. See, so here again, it's You're bashing him for not arresting more. But at the same time, you're saying he's arrested too many. And the ones that he is arrested and has deported, that not all of them have been breaking laws. I mean, except for being in the country illegally, right? And by the way, this argument used to work. This used to work before Biden opened the border. This used to work. I remember it working. This was what led us to the path to citizenship under George W. Bush, where you had chamber of commerce type Republicans that were working with the Democrats who just wanted, you know, more open borders, more immigrants because they wanted more voters. And so they were working together to increase the numbers and then give everybody amnesty. Joe Biden's term, just to be clear, Joe Biden's actions, you guys doing what you did under Biden, The path to citizenship and the amnesty debate, that whole thing, yeah, that's over. That's done. You have radicalized a sufficient number, a critical mass of Americans. That is not even on the table at this point. We'll talk maybe in a decade. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now, Creative Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. 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Check out GroupTravelVideos.com. That's GroupTravelVideos.com. Or call 704-846-7870, extension 206. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes, you can. You can email Katie. Katie at GroupTravelVideos.com. Group travel videos from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. All right, so finally, in this WRAL story on immigration and the Senate race in North Carolina, page three, we finally get to a mention of Roy Cooper vetoing various bills that were passed by the General Assembly. Here's what they say. Three times during his eight years as governor, Cooper vetoed bills passed by the Republican-led state legislature that would have forced local sheriffs to cooperate with ICE and hand over inmates suspected of immigration violations. This is the 287G program. This is when ICE asks the sheriffs, hey, can you work with us when somebody gets arrested for something else? Right. When a local police officer or sheriff's deputy makes an arrest for some criminal offense. And that person ends up in the jail that you run their name through our system and we will identify them if they are an illegal alien. And if they are, we're going to ask you to hold on to them so we can come get them. And you had these sanctuary sheriffs, like the one here in Mecklenburg County, Gary, not my fault, McFadden, that refused to cooperate with ICE. Refused to do it. So how does WRAL address this? Well. They just let Cooper tell his story, which is the same story that not my fault. McFadden told, which was crap. Okay. And I, I have debunked this lie that they have been using for years, but they, but WRAL allows Cooper to just say this. And there's no fact checking, no pushback on any of this. Cooper said the way the law was written was unconstitutional. It was not. It was not unconstitutional. And he says it. Would have opened up the sheriffs to lawsuits. It did not. You know how I know it didn't? Because it didn't. Because it's been in place now and no lawsuits. I wonder why not. Why has it not been the subject of litigation? Why has no other sheriff been sued into oblivion for these unconstitutional laws that are in effect in all these other states? Other states are doing it. Other jurisdictions, other counties in North Carolina do this and have been doing it for like 30 years. So why haven't they been sued? Huh? So it's almost like you're just saying that. So he says it's unconstitutional. It would open sheriffs up for lawsuits, right? while also making them take on federal duties rather than focusing on their main jobs. And that's just a lie. That's just a lie. The only thing the 287G program requires is some of the deputies, they get access to the ICE database. They go through a little bit of training so they can use the database. And they can work with the they're like deputized essentially by ICE. That's it. That's it. There's no there's no burden on resources or personnel. It's just a heads up. Hey, we got this guy running through the database. Hey, ICE, this guy is illegal alien. You can come get him. We all know why Democrats do not want to cooperate with the 287G program. We all know why. Because they don't want them deported. They don't want ICE to deport people from the jails, which then prompted the raids, which then prompted the Border Patrol going around, picking up people, doing traffic stops. Those were a response to the lack of cooperation in blue cities and blue states. We said this at the time. So they just let Cooper say that it goes unchallenged as if it's the truth. And it's not. They then say Watley, however, said that resulted in immigrants being arrested on charges, but then being allowed to bond out and sometimes fleeing the country. And that part's true. And what they leave out is they not only get out, they don't even have to bond out. A lot of times they just walk on cashless bail because that was also going on under Cooper. So they just walk out and then they commit more crimes. As governor in 2024, Cooper supported legislation in the U.S. Senate, here you go, that would have amped up funding for border security, created new pathways to legal status, so amnesty, and speed up the process for asylum claims. So amnesty for people arriving at the border, requesting entry while also increasing the standards required of them to receive it. This, you know, this was the bipartisan bill that Biden said we totally needed in order to get a handle on the border situation. That was a lie too. And the reason why this thing was killed by Republicans, it wasn't because Trump was like, I need this issue for the election. That's what Roy Cooper did on HB2 with his fellow Democrats. in 2016. No, no. It was killed because the triggers were not mandatory. The triggers that would have shut down the border, they were not mandatory, and the DHS secretary could have overridden the trigger at his discretion. It was too weak. When the Republicans saw what had been negotiated in this bipartisan gang of four, whatever it was, they were like, no, this is awful. This is a terrible idea. And it got killed. That's not score one for Cooper because he supported the Democrat bill. I am walking in the Walk to End Alzheimer's. Again, this goes on every year all around the country in October. And I would very much appreciate if you could make a donation to the Alzheimer's Association for our team. We're called Pete's Pack. And you can join the team. You can walk with us at the Charlotte Walk. I am also emceeing the Gastonia Walk as well. But if you go to ALZ.org, you can type in the search bar at the top. Just type Pete's Pack, and then you can make a donation. We're trying to raise $ 5, 000, and we are now about halfway there. I checked it. Yesterday i think it was yesterday yeah i checked it yesterday i think we're about halfway there so thank you thank you very much for everybody who has donated every little bit helps um if you want to join the team raise money bring more people onto the team that's fantastic go to alz.org type in pete's pack um you can also check out the podcast description i have links in the description uh as well And so thank you, by the way, all of the money goes to help people with Alzheimer's. It provides support for the caregivers. It funds the research that we just had a huge breakthrough with this new drug. That is actually. Reversed the plaque growth in the brain. So like we could be like, we're like, I feel like we're this close to curing Alzheimer's and. That would be, that would be amazing. All right. Let me, Let me get to a text message here from Timoteo, who says, I cannot speak for other parts of the border, but the Nogales sector is a sieve where in most places, nothing separates the U.S. from Mexico other than a simple barbed wire fence. Drug mules routinely come through that sector, especially across the Tohono O'odham reservation that straddles the border. I've seen them myself many times. I have explored many an abandoned mine shaft and cave used as cartel drop caves. There are plenty of drugs walking across that border at times with sympathetic locals who look the other way. I have seen my share of the rape trees, in case you aren't aware, people, the cartels and the coyotes, the ones that shuttle the people across the border, they will they will abuse young girls that are in the groups. And they do the crimes at a specific tree, and then they hang the undergarments from the tree branches. So you can see, if you see a tree with all of these underwear all over it, that's what that is. Also abandoned personal items and at times bones on the Mexican side. And then he's got some pictures here. Yep. He says the cartel will leave food, water, and a box of shoes in one of these drop caves for the mule coming over the hills. The gentry take a few hits of speed while in Mexico and then shred their feet as they scurry up over the hills and into the U.S. By the time they get here, they need a new pair of shoes. and another hit of speed to get them on their way up towards Phoenix. Um, all right, let's go over here to Ralph. Hello, Ralph. Welcome to the, uh, program. Yes. You had another segment earlier this week about Roy Cooper signing on with some of Biden's green new deals that it made the utilities, uh, conformed to certain regulations that made our utilities go up 36%. I'd like to see a commercial about that. I mean, he's talking about he's going to make things affordable. He hasn't practiced what he preaches in the past. Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, his signing on to the Paris Accords, putting North Carolina on the hook for these carbon reduction goals and such, the carbon plan, that the legislature actually put guardrails in, but even so, it still drove up the cost of energy. So, yeah, they should hammer him on that, too. Yeah, and another thing you said, he asked them that they could say North Carolina joined, but to keep his name down low. He didn't want anybody to know that he signed on for it. Yeah, his office, the governor's office, what Ralph is talking about is that the governor's office... Told the what was it? I forget what the organization was like the Democratic governors or something like that. They were putting out a big press release celebrating all of these these states signing on. And they put in the language they were like, you know, we're talking with the reporter. I think it was at the New York Times. And they were like, they've agreed to, you know, bury the North Carolina references. Don't don't highlight Roy Cooper. They his campaign in his office. They don't want his name to be like at the top of this thing. They want it buried. Yep. Yeah, that should be one of the most important parts. If they would make a commercial, it blows my mind that they don't go after, you know, the juggler, as you would say, in political games. Yeah, well, maybe some more of this money that we talked with Matt Mercer about in the first hour, maybe they'll start running some ads about that, too. We can hope. Ralph, appreciate the call. Regarding the immigration issue, This is one of the things why– it's one of the issues why I get so frustrated with people who are blackpilling. So there's a website, Flopping Aces, and they run through some of Donald Trump's achievements. And he says– this is, I believe, taken from a piece. There's a much larger piece by Rod Martin at rodmartin.org. which is kind of cross-posted at Flopping Aces. And it says, Trump is out here stacking wins, and half of the comments section is still playing the sad trombone. Nothing's happening. Brother, the border just posted its quietest year in a half century. Catch and release is dead. Remain in Mexico, as a policy, is back. Releases collapsed. Nearly 3 million people left the country, including hundreds of thousands deported and others taking the self-deportation route with a plane ticket and a cash bonus attached. Violent crime dropped harder. Murder dropped. Robbery dropped. Taxes got locked in and expanded. No tax on tips. No tax on overtime. Full expensing for factories and equipment. Agencies tore through regulations at a ridiculous pace. The endangerment finding got torched. Trillions in announced investment are aimed at factories, chips, steel, shipyards, energy, supply chains. Five advanced nuclear reactors hit criticality after decades of paralysis. NATO got told to reach deeper into its own pockets. Golden Dome got funded. Military recruiting rebounded. Supreme Court clipped the wings of nationwide injunctions. And somehow, the Black Pill choir is still in the replies whining because their favorite issue did not arrive gift-wrapped by Tuesday. That mindset is political self-sabotage. Midterms are turnout elections. Democrats are thrilled when Republicans convince themselves that nothing matters, nothing works, and staying home is some kind of principled stand. I'm going to run through some of the details on some of these wins. And again, the parties are not the same. Here is your daily dose of a white pill. from Rod Martin at rodmartin.org. Trump on the border. He made the border a real border again. In a matter of months, he reduced illegal border crossings to their lowest level in half a century. Catch and release, done. Wall being built, being expanded. Remain in Mexico, back on the books. The administration reduced releases into the country by 99.9%. He reversed mass migration. America recorded negative net migration in 2025. That is the first time in at least half a century that we have had negative net migration. So far, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the country either voluntarily or involuntarily. He signed the Lake and Riley Act and required detention of criminal illegal aliens. It requires federal authorities to detain illegals arrested for theft, burglary, shoplifting, assaulting police, or any crime causing death or serious injury. It also lets states sue officials who refuse to enforce it. Also, we saw the biggest drop in violent crime in history, the lowest crime rate in 126 years. I think that's good news, right? He made the 2017 tax cuts permanent and a little better. The one big, beautiful bill locked in the largest tax cut in modern history, including the doubling of the standard deduction, the expanded child tax credit, 100% expensing for factories and equipment. It also delivered no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and an abolition of most state taxes on Social Security benefits as well. Every Democrat voted no on that. And those tax cuts, they were set to expire in December 2025. Had Democrats been in charge, they would have expired, and that would have resulted in the largest tax hike in American history. That did not happen. That's a win. Let's talk deregulation. Last year, federal agencies finalized 646 deregulatory actions and five regulatory ones. That is a ratio of 129 deregulatory actions to every one regulatory action. 646 to 5, okay? And in nearly every case, by the way, the one regulatory action was basically to repeal the others. The crown jewel was the repeal of Obama's 2009 endangerment finding. What was that, Pete? Glad you asked. The legal foundation for the Green New Deal's vehicle mandates... The EPA calls it the largest deregulatory action in American history and estimates that by itself it will save Americans more than $ 1. 3 trillion. He also killed the federal EV mandate, restoring America's freedom to buy the cars and trucks they actually want. He shifted global energy dominance from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of America. Once the world's largest energy importer, exporting $ 700 billion a year to our enemies, America now outproduces Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. The U.S. Is also setting new records in oil, natural gas, and LNG exports, becoming the first country ever to export more than 100 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas in a single year. Think that's a win? Yeah, that's a win. Trump also opened land, accelerated permits. expanded pipelines, as well as export terminals, and made American energy a tool for prosperity and peace, says Martin. After four decades of nuclear paralysis, Trump brought five new reactors online in a single year, right? We had not one new privately developed non-lightwater reactor to reach criticality in America for 40 years. Trump ordered at least three By July 4th, 2026, and DOE, the Department of Energy, delivered four by that deadline. A fifth came online last month. Decades and decades of none. One Trump summer, five. That's a win. Or how about Trump versus Slaughter? The Supreme Court ruled for the first time in 90 years. that Article 2, Section 1 is in fact still part of the Constitution, that the president may fire subordinate officials in the executive branch overturning the 1935 precedent that insulated, quote-unquote, independent agencies from voter control. Martin says, ever wonder why elections often seem to change nothing? How about one president versus 5,000 political appointees Sorry, one president plus 5,000 appointees versus 2.8 million unfireable, unaccountable bureaucrats. That is the deep state. Trump then made that victory real. For the first time in a century, all policymaking bureaucrats can now be fired for misconduct, incompetence, or defying lawful directives. The permanent bureaucracy no longer gets to veto the voters. That's a win. And there's your white pill. 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 the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.