Senate Campaign Centers on Growth, Safety and National Security

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Let’s go around the country. Let’s go to North Carolina, and we have the former chairman of the GOP with us, Michael Wattley, who is running for the United States Senate. And well, Michael Wattley, we know each other a long time. Give me the post. So what the heck is going on in North Carolina for tele country?

0:23 Speaker 2 Well, I’ll tell you, North Carolina is doing great. We’re fighting every day to make sure that people can make more and keep more. We’re fighting to keep our community safe. We’re fighting to make sure that our men and women in uniform who are the tip of the spear when it comes to protecting our nation and our interests around

0:39 the world. The Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the Coast Guard. We’ve got ten percent of all the men and women in uniform based right here in North Carolina, so, you know, making sure that we’re going to have the resources that they need to protect our interests and allies around the world. You know, we’ve been to ninety seven

0:57 out of the one hundred counties at this point, and everywhere we go, you know, people want to see this company’s country succeed and they want to see common sense prevail in government.

1:11 Speaker 1 What are the big issues? Was drugs a big issue coming in from Venezuela that has been stopped. Was you tell us what are the big issues that North Carolina is? People are worried about it.

1:26 Speaker 2 Well, you know, there’s really two things. Right. Obviously, the economy is always going to be a driver, right, and we’re working on policies that will allow people to make more and keep more of what they make. Right. We want lower costs, we want lower taxes. We want people to have you know, more job opportunities, to be able to take home more of their money. Those are

1:46 really going to be the key economic issues that we do with every day. What are the tax policies, trade policies and regulatory policies that are going to help our farmers, that are going to help our manufacturers, are going to help our small businesses succeed. Those are issues we talk about every day. The other big issue that we deal

2:04 with right now is crime. You know, my opponent Roy Cooper let more than four thousand criminals out of North Carolina’s prisons because he didn’t want him to have COVID and unleashed a crime wave across North Carolina. That has really been very, very unfortunate. You know, we talk about four thousand hardened criminals with aggravated assault, assault with a

2:26 deadly weapon, sexual assaults, rapes, even murders. You know, he let seventy murderers out of jail, and of course as soon as those guys hit the streets, what did they do. They went right back and started committing more crimes and creating more victims. You know, the most famous guy on that list, a guy named Carlos Brown Junior, got rearrested

2:48 and re released thirteen more times under Roy Cooper’s soft on crime policies. And then last summer he got on a light rail car and Charlotte and brutally murdered Arna z Oroska, a beautiful young Ukrainian refugee, in cold blood.

3:02 And you know, that’s that’s obviously been a case that’s that’s been heard around the country and really unfortunate because she should be alive today. You know, that monster just should not have been on the streets. He should not have been on that light railcar. You know. But there are there are other victims, you know, twenty five other

3:20 victims that we could talk about. You know, one of the most heartbreaking ones a little girl named Ivy whose father had been arrested for drug and weapons charges. He was released by Roy Cooper, he went right back to a life of crime, and while he was in the middle of dealing with fentanyl, fixed a bottle for his daughter.

3:41 The fentanyl poisoning killed her sixteen months old. You know, these are things that are absolutely should not happen in North Carolina or frankly anywhere else in America. And we need to make sure that we’re going to have leaders here in North Carolina around the country who are going to keep our kids in our community.

4:00 Speaker 1 Say, well, I think the other two big items going on right now is we gotta you know, we got to bring this war to an end and bring the prices of loyal down and bring the price of gasoline down.

4:14 And contrary to what some people are saying, I would say, ten days after the war has ended, like President Trump says, the prices are going to go back down to normal, I would say that the price of gasolines will go down under three dollars a gallon. And it’s not a matter of months, it’s a matter of weeks. And once

4:37 that happens, and we have a new feed share. Interest rates will go down. People can afford to buy homes again with lower interest rates. Well, what say you.

4:49 Speaker 2 Well, I completely agree with you when you talk about housing, you talk about interest rates and talk about inflation. You know, Joe Biden and his inflation are spending and my opponent Roy Cooper absolutely with cheering it on the whole way.

5:02 You know, drove up housing prices, grocery prices, gasoline prices absolutely through the roof. The President has taken steps to you know, bring all of those down. You know, we talked about gasoline prices. Yes, they’re high right now, they’re lower than they were under Joe Biden. They’re lower than they were during his administration. And you’re right that this

5:23 is this is you know, going to go back down once we are we are free and clear of what’s happening in Iran. But let’s talk about a Ran for a second. I think it’s tremendously important. The President Trump, you know, made a determination that Iran was on the cusp of a nuclear weapon, and he had campaigned through

5:41 his entire campaign in twenty four saying Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon. They’re not going to be able to deploy nuclear capabilities around the world. They’re not going to deliver missiles into Europe. They’re not going to deliver missiles over here. And you know what, the President has stood up and said, we are not going

5:58 to allow rand to do that. That’s why we are deployed right now over there. And there there are you know, thousands of troops from North Carolina that are deployed in the Middle East right now, and my prayers are with them and their families. But you know, the President is absolutely right. If you allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,

6:18 they will use it and the world cannot afford to have that happen, and we in America need to stand up and make sure that they can’t.

6:25 Speaker 1 I agree with you one percent. And even with the skirmishes going on right now, President Trump is respecting the civilians of Iran, and he’s hitting all military targets, taking out all their missiles, taking out all their defenses. And let’s hope common sense prevails there because it has to.

6:51 And we need all our allies to be on our side.

6:57 Speaker 2 Well, we absolutely do. And I think the Abraham Cords, you know, is one of the most undersung accomplishments of the of the first Trump administration and the fact that he was able to bring these countries together to talk about putting a hedge around Iran, talking about understanding the threat that Iran poses not just to Israel, but to

7:18 the entire region in the Middle East, in the entire world. You know, we need to see the Abraham Accords expanded. But right now, what Iran has done through their unilateral actions and irrational actions is truly unite all of the Middle East against them. Right now, we need to make sure that we end their nuclear capabilities and desires and

7:44 keep the world safe.

7:46 Speaker 1 Michael Whatley, you were a great Toop Chamman. You’re going to be an even greater United States Senator from North Carolina, and we are there for you. America is there for you, and we need common sense to prevail in the United States Senate. Thank you for coming on this Sunday morning, and I’m going to go to church and light an

8:07 extra candle.

8:09 Speaker 2 Has one. John, thank you so much, Take care, Thank you so much.