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Episode 2: Ted Davis on Hurricane Relief, and Election Accountability
11 Plays1 year ago
North Carolina State Representative Ted Davis joins our podcast to talk about the veto override of SB 382. We talk about the increased hurricane relief funds that are part of this bill. We also talk about the necessity of moving the oversight of the Board of Elections (BOE) out of the Governor's office to the Auditor's office.
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Transcript
Introduction and Award Clarification
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Nicki and Rule Podcast Experience. I'm Rule Sample. I'm joined by the winner of the best local long leaf political ad, Nicki Bascom. Nicki, good evening. It's good to see you again, my friend.
00:00:18
Speaker
Good evening, good evening. I did not win. I happened to be in the advertisement. It was about me, but um all the props to Meredith and Mary Margaret. they They are the genius behind that advertising. And congratulations to them for creating something so amazing. It it was a great ad. It really was.
00:00:41
Speaker
You gotta go. I might use it again for something. You gotta go to longleafpaul.com. That's longleafpaul.com. and And bring up the article about the best political ads. And you will see our friend Nikki Bascom there as she ran for school board. Nikki, who's joining us tonight?
00:01:03
Speaker
I am so excited. I get so excited about all of our guests on the show.
Genealogical Curiosity and Voting Story
00:01:09
Speaker
But um this is someone, as I've been looking at through through some of my genealogy, that there is a very slight chance that our family lines cross. And I'm so excited to welcome Representative Ted Davis. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. We're excited to have you. It's good to be here, Carlson.
00:01:27
Speaker
ah ah Oh man, it's gonna be one of those nights. ah taed can i tell Can I tell one story on Nicki during the election? Is it true that you dressed up like Supergirl and ran down the line at the voting site saying I'm here to save the day?
00:01:52
Speaker
I did. I did.
00:01:57
Speaker
That was awesome. It was Halloween, and I was dressed as Supergirl, and I did. um The lines were so long. Everyone was waiting. The line was about an hour and a half long, and I just ran down, just jumping around like a lunatic, yelling, I'm here to save the day. And they're like, oh, good. What are you going to do? bring us pizza, water, and I'm like, no, just me, just me. That's something my kinfolk would do. that means probably know yeah yeah I was handling my inner Ted Davis is what I was. No, no, no. i'm i I draw the line at thinking of of representative Ted Davis in tights. Well, now I'm going to have nightmares.
00:02:50
Speaker
ah Ted you're joining us from your man cave. You've got you've got symbols back in the background. I don't um You play the drums don't you sir? the and And you used to play drums in a contemporary style worship band for a while didn't you? No, I did it one night at our church when we started contemporary music Now that was my musical career st. Andrews covenant church that's That's Presbyterian. Presbyterian should never play drums in church, sir. It's just now it's just one of those things is that it's just that Calvin would would roll over it in his grave in for probably okay.
Legislative Challenges in NC House
00:03:28
Speaker
that was all want
00:03:32
Speaker
ah Well, ah Ted, you are finishing up an incredible two years. It hasn't been the easiest of two years there in the North Carolina house of really taking on the governor at every single tour. You've had, is it 29 vetoes, overrides? Is it 29 or 39? No, no, no, no, no. I thought it was 27. Is it 27? Wait a minute. Yeah. I have a folder here. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to pause here for just a minute as he goes into the archives of the Ted Davis personal veto override history book.
00:04:14
Speaker
29. 29. 29. 29 good betos. Vicky, I believe I said 29. Did I not say 29? You're correct. I plead the I plead the test. It's family. It's family. Why are you even putting me in the middle of this? but Well, your like your latest one, Ted, was SB, was it SB 382?
00:04:42
Speaker
three eighty two And this one this one got a lot of press because ah it they said it was all about um this ah ah this disaster relief for Western North Carolina, and that was in it. But there's a whole lot more to this bill. First, ah what was that what was the disaster relief aspect of this thing? Sure. oh One thing I will say that I did not like about the bill is that it was done as a conference report. That is where the House and the Senate leadership, being the speaker and the pro tem, get together and approve what the content is. And they they move it once again as a conference report, which cannot be amended. You either take it or you leave it. I will say what I did not like about this bill, I was driving to Raleigh the morning that we were gonna have session
00:05:41
Speaker
And I did something I shouldn't do while you're driving, but I got my phone and I looked just to see if I'd gotten any emails on my legislative ah web phone or website. And yes, I said, here's the final version of the bill. Now you got to imagine this is like 10 in the morning. I'm on I-40. And they send me a 131 page bill.
00:06:11
Speaker
expecting me to read it before we went in and voted on it. Wow. You know, I didn't like that. That's not the way you should do business. And one thing I'm I'm committed to and I've talked to some other members of the house that we want to go in and change our caucus rules.
Disaster Relief Funding Discussion
00:06:28
Speaker
We're not gonna do that anymore. We're not if the Senate wants to send over something like that, or if the house to do something like that for us to vote on, we've got to get it early enough to be able to look at it, then it I think it should go through the committee process really before we vote on it. But anyway, having said that, one thing that I've been disappointed in as a result of that bill passing is people making it seem like the appropriation in that bill was the only thing we've done. And that's totally incorrect. As you know, um we have had two appropriations prior to this bill.
00:07:09
Speaker
First off, I'll say that it's been estimated that the total amount it's going to take for Western North Carolina to recover is 53 billion dollars. That's 53 with a B, with a B, a Bravo. And the first appropriation we did was for 877 million. And then the second appropriation uh, we did was 200, I'm sorry. Um, so it was 877 million for the first two appropriations combined. Excuse me. And then this bill that we passed has another 277 billion. So that, that's a little over 1.15 billion with the B dollars that the legislature has already appropriated for Western North Carolina. And it hasn't been that long since this thing happened.
00:07:58
Speaker
So to think how that the legislative process has moved that quickly because we knew the importance of getting this funding done. And I will say most of it has not been spent yet. And the reason for that is we're not like the Democrats who just throw the money out out there. What we did before the first appropriation is we tried to get a list of exactly what needed to be done. Then prioritize that list.
00:08:27
Speaker
provide the funding that would accomplish what needs to be done there. We did the same thing before we did the second appropriation. And we're going to do the same thing again concerning this appropriation. So when you look at that over 1.15 billion dollars, yes, it's going to go to Western North Carolina. It's going to go in a way that we know where it's going and it's be going for for specific items. And if you remember,
00:08:56
Speaker
Previously, after the hurricanes, there was millions and millions of dollars that the legislature approved to help those people. There are still people that are living in motels because that money has not been spent. And we had a legislative investigative committee to call in the people. And these were Cooper's appointments. I'm not playing politics. I'm just telling you the facts. These were Cooper's people that were doing this. He was running by the Democrats. And we had them come in to answer questions, and they had the audacity to ask for millions, for a million more dollars because they were underfunded now, with no transparency, no explanation of where the money went. And, of course, the legislature did give some, but not all that the community and the person that was ahead of that agency got fired. That's one of the reasons why we are doing what we are doing now as Republicans. We are not going to go through that same route that happened previously under Cooper's leadership.
00:09:57
Speaker
We're gonna make sure, number one, that we, you know, once again, we prioritize what the needs are. We do the funding that is needed to meet those priorities. And there's gonna be accountability and there's gonna be transparency. In other words, they're gonna have to report back to the legislator saying, yes, this is the amount of money we receive. Yes, this is the amount of money that was expended. And yes, this is what it was expended for.
00:10:25
Speaker
So we're going to go about this totally different than we did before. And one other thing, too, that's interesting is that we are trying to get money from the federal government. President Biden has proposed a $100 billion dollars relief package for multiple states, and we had a delegation to go up recently and and trying to see $26 billion dollars of that money for North Carolina. And the thing is, as I'm sure you're aware, normally when the federal government gives you money like that, their strings are taxed. One of those strings is the state has to put in at least 10% match.
00:11:11
Speaker
Well, that's a lot of money. So another reason why we're being careful about how we spend the money so far is that if we just go and, you know, throw it out there right now, we may not have the money to make that match. So that's another reason why we're being very careful in trying to get this money from the federal government. If we have to do a match, we'll have the money to be able to do that. Plus we can do other appropriations for Western North Carolina, which we do intend to do in the next let to play a session.
00:11:40
Speaker
Uh, and I might add, this is going to be something that we're going to have to address for years to come. Cause, uh, we ain't got $53 billion dollars yeah to do. And I know, uh, the governor wanted us to appropriate, I forget how much it was. We totally depleted our rainy day flight and we're not going to do it. You know, and once again, we've talked about this before, if you remember Cooper.
00:12:07
Speaker
was criticized in the legislature years ago because we were creating this rainy day fund and not spending it. And what did we do when we had all these different catastrophes? We had that rainy day fund and we were able to help people, number one, and we were able to do it without either having to raise taxes or cut services. I mean, it's just reeks of the difference between the way we Republicans do things and Democrats do things. And the proof is the pudding, just look what happened.
00:12:34
Speaker
i I think I think those of us here on the east coast of North Carolina, Nikki, correct me if I'm wrong, is that we get hurricanes and storms here all the time. But no the major difference is that this hit Western North Carolina out of nowhere. And they're not really set up for this kind of stuff. they're they're not And most of the people don't have flood insurance.
00:12:59
Speaker
No, not at all. well you know and I think it's a little bit different here. you know We're not sliding down a mountain. Half of our belongings aren't 50 miles away buried in mud either. um the The cleanup is a little bit different. I think fixing the infrastructure is is totally different. I mean i couldn't imagine trying to fix the roads and the bridges and they're still parts of western North Carolina that you cannot get to.
00:13:30
Speaker
You just can't get to them. The one thing I can say, um and and Mr. Davis can attest to this because his family's from Western North Carolina, or actually you're from Eastern Tennessee, is they're super resilient. i they They can do miraculous things that we couldn't imagine. It's almost like comparing apples to oranges. A major hurricane in Western North Carolina is completely different from a major hurricane in Eastern North Carolina. The only difference is,
00:13:59
Speaker
They've never seen anything like this. We're kind of used to it. We know what to prepare for. They've never seen anything and we don't know how to help them either. It's something we've never seen before either. It's just one of the things yy that I really was very glad to hear from the people up there that one of the major avenues of help came from churches.
00:14:22
Speaker
The different congregations came and were helping people right off the get go and donating supplies, food. And that's a good feeling to know that that was going on. And of course, you got the field drama coming in, trying trying to help and do temporary housing. Of course, you hear complaints that FEMA's not acting quickly enough, you know, yada, yada, yada. But once again,
00:14:44
Speaker
It kind of reminds me a little bit of when this Genex thing came out. Nobody knew what it was. but That's kind of like up there in the mountains. Like you said, that they never experienced anything like this. There are stories I've heard of people sitting on rooftops watching other houses come by in the water. And it's just horrible. And businesses.
00:15:06
Speaker
you know It's going to take who knows how long for businesses to recover and people to get back to getting a livelihood. it ah it is and Just to hear those stories, I mean, it's awful. As a matter of fact, Representative Billy Green, who who lives up there, spoke oh when that that bill was the Senate Bill 382, the override was being addressed. And to hear him talk, I mean, he wanted to cry, literally, to to see what these people are going through there's this from fra can all There's a really good group in Western North Carolina called Operation Gila. I think it's called Gila. One of my girlfriends is working with them and they have already had over 80 mobile um homes, not mobile homes, but um RVs donated.
00:15:55
Speaker
and and for use in Western North Carolina for families to get them out of the tents. I mean, it it was, it was what, three weeks after the hurricane hit that they started having temperatures dropping drastically and still living in tent cities. It's, oh, definitely not. I've been receiving reports about that. And I know that people there are asking if they can have some relief from locals owning
00:16:24
Speaker
you know, and get all these permits and stuff so they can try to get some temporary structure, which those rules may apply to, waived so they can get in there. And they're doing it anyway. They tell us from one organization, said look, I may be breaking the rules, but I'm going to help these people. Yeah. ah And we that we saw that a lot with folks saying but just basically driving by blockades and say, listen, I've got to get, pete I've got to get things up up to ah folks who would need it. And you folks in the legislature actually moved pretty quickly on getting both ah financial relief, voter relief to them, and and all these these other, discussed in in record time, and probably because you were able to get that out of that out of that rainy day fund, you weren't didn't have to move money around, you already had it. If we didn't have that rainy day fund, it would have been not. Yeah. Well, the other thing about SB 382,
00:17:22
Speaker
that they didn't really talk about, they kept talking about you've folks withholding this disaster relief, is the reallocation of how the board of elections is overseen. That is a big deal, Ted, because we still have elections that are not that haven't been decided yet because of the board of elections.
00:17:50
Speaker
What did you guys do in SB 382 with the BOE?
Election Board Appointment Changes
00:17:54
Speaker
Something that made the Democrats very upset.
00:18:02
Speaker
Basically, um what it does, it it transfers election board appointment power from the governor, which would include the incoming Democrat, John Stein, and it transfers it over to the state auditor, which would be the incoming Republican day voting.
00:18:21
Speaker
And the Democrats are obviously are very upset about it. But to me, ru I looked at several things in in supporting that. Number one, which I think is very kind of ironic, you know after every election, people say, we want to audit. we We want a forensic audit. We want you to go in there and we want you to do this audit so we can determine whether or not this election was valid or not. Well, who better to do the audit than the state audit?
00:18:49
Speaker
oh my we're giving the people what they want. If if you you know it was the old ad, you better be careful what you ask for. You just might get it. Well, they're going to get it. And the other thing that think of all the election irregularities that have gone on in the last four years since Governor Cooper has been in charge. And a perfect example is what happened here in New Hanover County, this last election. I mean, you have an election.
00:19:19
Speaker
You've got the Board of County Commissioners, Dickey, the Board of Education, you know, wanting to know, all right, are the votes in? Did I win? Did I lose? You know, what's going on? And then days afterwards, the local director said, oh, by the way, we found all these provisional ballots that we didn't count, and they weren't counting violations of state law. And what really got me was that the election director said, well, I was directed by the state board that I could do this.
00:19:47
Speaker
yet the state board denied that they ever said that. And so the county commissioners have hired an outside law firm to go in and do an audit, if that's the correct word, to find out just what happened. And the local direct elections director is refusing to operate or take no part in that investigation. Now, that's got to tell you something.
00:20:10
Speaker
but they But they still have to do the audit, right? Well, they're going to do it with or or with or without the assistance of this local director. But that to me just reeks. And I have heard horror stories from other representatives of things that happened during the election that were totally counting votes from people um who were deceased.
00:20:33
Speaker
i mean can't just It was just incredible. And we did all, we had the big discussion before we actually went in and voted on the bill. We did discuss it in our Republican caucus. Of course, I didn't have time to read that. hundred and thirty one had the caucus And it was a long caucus. And we really, as a matter of fact, when that topic came up, nobody was saying anything. I raised my hand. I said, look, I said, I'm on the fence about this thing. I want to hear some discussion.
00:21:03
Speaker
about the pros and the cons, about why we should or should not do this, so I can make up my mind. Well, then everybody and their brother started talking. And it was really interesting to hear all the different things that people were saying. And by everybody ruling, Nick agreed that the process for which this bill was done was wrong. You don't wait till the last minute and shell out 131 page bill that you can't amend and expect people to be able to go in intelligently vote on it.
00:21:34
Speaker
oh But once again, it was a take it or leave it, either you do it or you don't. But by far, everyone commented about the procedure. There was no question that nobody liked the way it was done. But the biggest part of that bill that people talked about was the election part. And really, and different representatives from different you know districts throughout the state were telling things that went on that weren't right with their with their board of elections.
00:22:02
Speaker
And I mean, you can't make this stuff up. And you know it's not like they all got together and said, this is what we're going to say. So I mean, this was independent people, separate apart from each other, telling these things. And it really made me even better prepared to vote for that aspect of the bill. And I think what you're going to find, well, number one, I believe what you will find now is you're going to have Republican controlled board of elections.
00:22:32
Speaker
And I don't think you're going to find the stuff that's been going on like it was before. And and I mean that very seriously. but we have Like David Bullock said, he didn't ask for this. that This is not his idea. And he wasn't a part of it. It was just if if if we were going to do it and give that authority to somebody, who would be best to do it? And once again, it fell back to the auditor, which is what everybody wants after an election anyway.
00:23:00
Speaker
And the auditor is a statewide elected office, so it's not like we're giving it to some bureaucrat someplace. That's that's absolutely correct. And by the way, Bolek won the Longleaf North Carolina ah political ad competition, so not only did he get into office, he won that in that Now, Ted, if you had run a series of ads, I'm sure that you would have been in that running someplace. But but there you you weren't you weren't in that you weren't in the showing this year. Me and I met on several occasions, and and he was quite frank with what he wanted to do as an auditor, you know why he was interested in in doing that. And I supported him.
00:23:46
Speaker
One of the big things that we saw was, especially at UNCW, was this all this last minute same day registration. Are you folks talking about that at at the at the state level of of somehow getting that under control? you brought You brought early voting down, which was amazing. Is there anything that the legislation can do to to curb that a little bit?
00:24:14
Speaker
One of the things that I learned from this experience was I introduced a bill about requiring mail-in ballots to be in on, I think by the end of the close of business on election day. I had introduced, we talked about this before, I think it was like seven different election integrity bills. And what we ended up doing was the House and the Senate came up with a combined bill that addressed election issues. And one thing that I did not think about, I really did not when when I did that, and that language did go into that bill I'm talking about, the consensus bill, was what would be the penalty if you didn't count those votes like you were supposed to. So that's that's something that I know in talking with some of all the other representatives that we need to address.
00:25:06
Speaker
Because right now, even though the our local election director did not follow the law and did not do what they were supposed to do in those provisional ballots. What do you do about it? There's no penalty. There's, there's, there's. law so he And it it really, I could have fucked myself on the head, but I just never dreamed that anybody would violate, you know, that, that provision, but they did.
00:25:32
Speaker
So yes, I think that dog there there's a desire to look at that, to see what we can do, because if you got, if you're going to have a rule that you got to do something, then there should be something there to punish if you don't do it right or else you don't have the incentive to go ahead and do what you're supposed to do anymore. I mean, I know one of the things that, that I introduced was a bill to reduce the time for early voting.
00:25:59
Speaker
And o yes oh both the the speaker and the pro team said, no, we're not going to do that. There's enough going on as it is now. So we're not going to proceed on that one. So I want to look at addressing that again, because I think yeah what's going on now is absurd. I think it's absurd for candidates, and Nikki knows this, took to sit there and have to campaign all those days of early voting.
00:26:29
Speaker
then try to find supporters that are willing to go out and work the polls for you during all those days. And then the board of elections, having ah going to be responsible for that all of those days. And I guess what really gets me, when I was coming along, and I think through my first two terms as a county commissioner, you had one day to vote. That was it, that's the way it always was. Now there was an exception if you were in the military and overseas. But I mean, if you wanted to vote, you got in your car,
00:26:58
Speaker
or you got somebody to drive you and you went to your polling place and you voted. And that was it. And now we just got this ad nauseam of early voting days and all of this and all of that. And um the the least thing that we do, the Democrats say we're trying to suppress voting. And and to me, the whole thing is just totally absurd. And I think all these lawsuits are absurd. I think everything is absurd because why can't you have an election?
00:27:26
Speaker
People go vote, let's determine who the winner is and let's move on with the program. Yeah. You don't have that anymore. You know, Nikki in, in Iraq after the war, they went in, they voted and they, they, they had the, the elections, the results that same day in Florida, which is what five times the population of of North Carolina, they have the results the same day. And you as a candidate, you were waiting around for days to get answers.
00:27:53
Speaker
we were waiting around for days and then recounts and all of this. But um to piggyback on the long days of early voting, um something that I brought up last week is um we're all human with all the human fallacies and we're going to make mistakes. And when you're tired and and you have so many days and long, long hours and you're not allowed to leave because I worked for the elections for a few years. You're not allowed to leave. you You're hanging out in this room for days and days and days.
00:28:32
Speaker
the the tendency for something to go wrong or a temper to flare or you know, we're we're just creating a perfect storm all on our own by having all of these early voting days. And I understand that we want we we don't want to suppress a vote, but if the vote is super important to you, you will find a way to be there. You will be there.
00:28:54
Speaker
maybe looking into having non-traditional hours instead of a 13, 14, 15-hour day. it's It's grueling not only for the people electioneering outside and the candidates, but it's grueling for the Board of Elections. um I agree. It's a lot. One thing that really got me, the local director says, well, we didn't have enough people. The answer to that is number one, everybody in the room knew that these I know everybody in the world knew this was going to be a big election. yes yeah Everybody in the world knew that people were going to come out of the ying yang to go and vote. And I've talked to several of the commissioners who both said all they had to do was ask us. All that election board had to have done was go on the commission and say, look, we anticipate a huge turnout. We don't have enough people here. Can we hire some temporary help? They didn't do that.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah, because like because the County Commission actually gave them more money this year. they they the the board of the The BOE asked for more money and the County Commission gave them more money. It wasn't like they were underfunded. but did it Plus, if they even needed more, they would have given it to them. I really think it was set up to fail, just so they could sit there and try to blame it on everybody else. It's funny because everything that has happened since I've been in Raleigh,
00:30:13
Speaker
with the governor, or even this, and always come back, well, you don't give us enough money. You don't give us enough money. Well, you don't ask for it. And I know for a fact, on the state, we, the the General Assembly, asked State Board of Elections, do you need more money for this coming election? And they said, no. Well, we gave them money anyway. I'm serious.
00:30:37
Speaker
So even even if the state board comes in and says something like that, that is totally false because we gave them money after they said they didn't want it in the first place. And then you've got a new head over county saying we don't need any money, or excuse me, did not even go to the commissions and request more money for temporary help, which they would have been given.
00:30:56
Speaker
Now, Donald Trump, Donald Trump has said that he is not a fan of early voting. And if he had his way, he would get rid of it all the way across the country and, and, and, and go to paper ballots. Now the federal government has no say in, in state elections, but is there ever any chance of us going back to just one day of voting here in North Carolina? I wouldn't be my, I wouldn't mind it myself. I mean, if, if you want to have maybe two days of early, but a smaller amount. Yeah. Because I understand that people can get sick and not be able to vote. Yeah. Or people may have some sort of personal emergency that could could prevent them from a boat to vote on that one day. Right. So I'd be willing to sit down and and try to figure out a much better way to do this. But I think the way the system is right now is absurd.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah. Well, on a, on a lighter note, as I look at the two of you and split screen, I'm actually starting to see more and more of the family resemblance.
Holiday Plans and Traditions
00:32:00
Speaker
probably probably side ni you see that side view yeah I was, I was kind of looking in the, in the flowing lock of hair area, but that's okay.
00:32:11
Speaker
anyway don look hey wait a minute Don't pick on the ball.
00:32:18
Speaker
Uh, what do you got going on for the holidays? Uh, you're, you're home for the legislature. Is that right? Let me do one other thing. If I could, there's another thing we did that day. Yeah. And that is we, we passed, uh, a constitutional amendment. Yeah. We'll go on the next election about, uh, voter ID. And of course the beauty of a constitutional amendment is the governor can't veto it. Yeah. So we don't have to put up with that mess, but really it's very simple.
00:32:48
Speaker
of what that amendment would do. And that is, as you know, right now, it's the law in North Carolina that if you vote in person or if you do an absentee vote by a mail-in ballot, you have to provide a voter ID. Well, previously, there was a constitutional amendment that went into effect that says you have to have a voter ID when you do in-person voting. But there's no mention in the Constitution that that also applies to absentee voting by mail-in. So what this constitutional amendment would do would be to add that, so that the Constitution would say the same thing that our current law is. And so one thing that we do, obviously, is make it consistent with North Carolina law. Frankly, the other thing, it would make an error for courts or future legislature to undo these rules.
00:33:43
Speaker
So that, that was the reason why we went forward on that because you know, we have fought, we being Republicans have fought long and hard to get voter ID in, which the Democrats do not want. And you're going to love this. I got an invitation to Josh Stein's governor inauguration. Guess what you got to have to get in.
00:34:01
Speaker
and id yeah
00:34:06
Speaker
ah cool I remember still have it on my phone. That was years ago. You know, Reverend Barber, they had the moral majority Mondays and all that stuff. And it was so against but a voter ID. Well, he had a rally in Raleigh and I got ahold of one of the pamphlets talking about the rally. And one of the things that said, you got to bring an ID. Amazing. I guess to go to the the rally that was going to argue against voter ID. And the other, the other, kind the other edition of the state constitution is this whole idea of that you have to be a,
00:34:41
Speaker
a resident of the united as citizen of the United States in order to vote in any election and in North Carolina. So it's a lot of great things going on. So let me go back to my earlier question. As Nikki sits over there in her horrible Christmas sweater.
00:35:02
Speaker
ah And- Minto's favorite. What do you got going on for Christmas, Ted? I'm going to my cousin's house. Are you up there up up there in moonshine territory? Mr.
00:35:20
Speaker
ah no mr Davis, thank you for joining us tonight. It's true. I'm really glad y'all were doing this. Well, thanks. Thanks. i've i've i've I'm a co host to a wonderful, wonderful person. So um we're gonna I think I'm the co host to a wonderful person ruling. I have a lot of fun.
00:35:41
Speaker
I think rule is about the best part of that deal. I do. I do. that's to say It's the same thing in my marriage is that for ah during my anniversaries, I get congratulations and Pam gets condolences. I'm not really too sure why that happens. So, uh,
00:35:59
Speaker
dad, we're going to let you go. Thanks for joining us tonight. My pleasure rule Nikki. Thanks. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.
00:36:12
Speaker
So boy, that was great. That was great. I'll tell you what, that was fine. I love, I love representative Davis. He, what he is such a genuine person. I really do enjoy him. You know, we talk a lot about term limits and everything else, but you know what?
00:36:32
Speaker
He's been there for a while, and he gets a lot of things done. He gets, and he he knows how to move, and we have New Hanover County in the front row of the legislature, simply because he's been doing this for so long. Yeah, but you know what? I think the reason why we have to talk about term limits is because of people that get into office that are not as honorable as Ted Davis that aren't as honest. And and they use their position of power in nefarious ways. i I honestly think because we are just so lucky and so blessed to have Mr. Davis on our side. yeah Speaking for for all of our all of his constituents. he he doesn't He doesn't speak just for the Republicans. He's speaking for all of his constituents. which yeah
00:37:31
Speaker
gives you a good feeling that you know he he is honorable. He really is. He lives up to that name. He's a statesman. ah there's There are politicians, and he's a he's a wise politician in his own right, but he's a statesman, and that's always a good thing.
00:37:44
Speaker
so So let's moving on to some other things that are going on around the the the area of real quickly. um ah Crystal Magnum, Mangum, or however you pronounce your last name, out of the blue.
Reflection on Past Accusations and Forgiveness
00:38:03
Speaker
Wow, where did that For those of you who can't remember, if you haven't seen the the news lately, k Crystal Mangum accused three Duke lacrosse players back in 2006. Nicky was graduating middle school back then, but back in 2006...
00:38:27
Speaker
but ah yeah know out of that you're welcome you're Actually, that's the year I met my husband I was a single mom and Warren and I met in 2006 I remember this story um Because as a single mom that you hear about rapes and things like that It really stands out in your mind not saying that it wouldn't stand out in another person's mind But you know a single mom of two young kids it it really stuck out. I will never forget following that story every day. Yeah, I mean, it by the way, if you do have young kids who are and you're listening to this podcast, we're gonna, we'll we'll keep it PG. But just so you know, but she accused three Duke lacrosse players of of of gang raping them. And as the story went on, it got worse and worse and worse. Yet at the same time,
00:39:19
Speaker
There was less and less story to the facts. But ah the the prosecutor at the time, who is a Wilmington native, Michael Nifong, kept pressing forward. And it took a a a an attorney general by the name of Roy Cooper to step in and say, there's enough is enough. There's nothing here. And, and he issued, he, not only did he stop the process, he got on and and said, these three boys are innocent. And, and that I think was the, the, the, the starting point of this whole idea of the press
00:40:12
Speaker
to kind of taking over everything, these boys were condemned by the media, Nikki, and we're continuing to see that today. They were, they were. it It's, um you know, there there was a um newscaster here in town who told a friend of mine that there is a difference between a news anchor and and a media person. um A news anchor is going to tell you the facts, or at least you would hope that they would just stick to the facts. Media can sometimes drive a narrative yeah or or put innuendos out there. And it's kind of sad. And from what I understand, the lacrosse players actually did win a settlement with Duke University back in 2007.
00:41:06
Speaker
um because of how Duke University handled the case. So you've got so many different things that were playing into this court case, but why she comes out now so many years later and here she is, she she could be free in the next two years because she was arrested for killing her boyfriend? Yes, she was arrested for killing her boyfriend. I don't know if it was manslaughter charge or murder in the third degree or something like that and sentenced to
00:41:36
Speaker
uh, to time in prison and her earliest parole is, I think you said 2026. twenty twenty six So this is something that happened in 2011. Now I could understand 2011, she's going through this murder trial and and this comes out. But why now? Why just out of the blue, she decides that she's going to say, hey, by the way, I falsely accused them and I apologize. I hope they can forgive me. What what do you think? Okay. Coming from seminary school.
00:42:12
Speaker
What do you think? I think she ruined these poor guys' lives. ah Is there a forgiveness out there? what What could you do? What do you do? Well, you know, that's an interesting question. here Personally, I believe that there is forgiveness, if not in this life, and the in in in the life to come, but you still have to be held responsible and accountable. ah So, yeah, I believe in in in in capital capital execution. I believe that if you murder somebody, you pay the penalty. It's not a punishment because you can't learn anything from it because you're dead. However, yeah ah there is ah ah yeah there are plenty of people who are put to death who probably ah ah meet their Lord from a from ah a conversion at some point.
00:43:06
Speaker
And maybe that's what's going on with her. Maybe she has, in that the the podcast that she did all this on, she did talk about God a lot and she talked about forgiveness a lot. But at the same time, she is she has she has been diagnosed with several mental disorders. And so you never know what's going on with her. ah it's It's a tough call. The Statue of Libertyations on all of us have have ran out years ago. She can't be sued. She can't be prosecuted. In 2026, if she gets out on parole, she's a free woman. It'll be interesting to see what happens. So do you think it was just that she had a guilty conscience and she just had to get it out there just so she can go on living her life better or?
00:43:58
Speaker
I think i if i were if I were one of these young men's mothers, um I have a 28-year-old and a 26-year-old. So if if that would have happened to one of my children, and it ruined their lives. I mean, I raised this child. I helped put them through Duke University. Yeah. hard and And for her to come back so many years later and say, I'm sorry.
00:44:28
Speaker
I just, I don't know if I would have forgiveness in my heart. I'm just, what do you do with that? I mean, I just, I'm baffled. I'm baffled.
00:44:45
Speaker
i my i The statute of limitations may be over for, you know, suing her or she probably has nothing. But the statute of limitations for forgiveness, I'm just, ah yeah I think as a mother, I would have rather have not known and just, I mean, they've gone on with their lives. They're somewhere else. Well, one of them is ah yeah is is a lawyer himself. And he he went to law school and has become an attorney and a defense attorney. And so he's kind of used his anger ah in a constructive way.
00:45:22
Speaker
they were all they all received a $20 million dollars each of them received $20 million dollars from Duke University because Duke mishandled this incredibly badly. um And the whole wrap up of that is that if you've got boys going to so to college universities, you need to tell them Don't go out and party. Don't go out and get drunk. Don't go out and do all that stuff because you you don't have a chance. it's it's ah it ah it's it's It's going to be rough. What else you got going on there, Nikki? but i you know it It was kind of sad bringing this up because on um December the 5th, there were two students at UNCW that were arrested on
00:46:10
Speaker
allegedly rape.
Societal Impacts of Rape Allegations
00:46:14
Speaker
We'll see how that unfolds because it's still fairly a new case. But and I think the sad part about this as um I have two, I have two sons and I have two daughters. And um the sad part is, you know, you feel like you have to tell your sons, you know, be very careful when you go out there to, you know, do not put yourself in a situation Where you can be accused but then on the other side of the coin, you know, you're telling your daughters Don't put yourself in a situation where something like that could happen. Yeah and ah and I think when um people like crystal come out it it just it really damages we work so hard and I say we um
00:47:00
Speaker
ah people that um have dealt with sexual abuse and sexual assault, we worked so hard to not be that victim um because for a long time people didn't listen and that and that's where the hashtag me too movement came from is um there were a lot of allegations out there and many of them were true. And and this just brings up um when someone like Crystal comes out, it just destroys all of that.
00:47:29
Speaker
And it breaks my heart for all of those that are going through rape. And then I see this UNCW rape case and I wonder which side which side is it? And I think it just further divides everyone. There was a there's a small protest at the Wilmington Police Department over the Sunday. It was on WCT.
00:47:53
Speaker
There's a group of ah about 20, 30 women who were very upset about the way the Wilmington Police Department investigates um sexual crime issues. and And there are two sides to every story. But there's no question that how we go about this has got to change. Because on one hand, you've got to be responsive to the victim. But on the other side, you've got to protect the accused.
00:48:23
Speaker
and and and And oftentimes, especially on a unc on a college campus, not just UNCW, there's so much involved. You have alcohol involved, you have drugs involved, you have so many things going on. carmen Hormones. Hormones.
00:48:42
Speaker
but then But then it's also, um you're you're trying to deal with all of this, with the the alcohol, the drugs, the to being out on your own for the first time, trying to navigate all of this, but then so much becomes, um it's the court of public opinion, yeah um which makes it even worse.
00:49:09
Speaker
yeah because people, they'll read they'll read that sensational headline and all of a sudden you're guilty. It doesn't matter what what the article says. It doesn't matter what the facts say. It doesn't matter what the court says. and Because of that one sensational headline that popped up on Facebook or Instagram or X for one brief moment, um public opinion is already made and your You're guilty yeah because we live in a, we live in a new era of a 24 hour news and you've, ah you've, you've got to go with the story. And if you, if you have to retract it later, okay. But at least you were the first person to break the story that I think is, Oh yeah. Oh, you gotta be the first one. You gotta be the first one. And then we had another breaking story. You sent me this earlier today about a shooting in Madison, Wisconsin.
Coverage of School Shooting and Violence
00:50:06
Speaker
This is heartbreaking. and I was just watching it on the news right before we came on. It was at a Christian, um private Christian school in Wisconsin. I might have the facts wrong because it was about an hour ago that I was watching it that um two students were killed. um the The shooter was killed and two were um critically wounded. um At the time that I came up to do the podcast, they hadn't announced how old the children were, um but it's ah it was a K through 12. So it could have been a high schooler. I don't know any more details, but definitely something to watch as it unfolds. It's um heartbreaking, heartbreaking.
00:50:55
Speaker
JD Vance, the the incoming vice president, talked about this on the campaign trail. And he he was excoriated by, again, the liberal media when he said, this is our new reality. This is the world that we live in. Now, people were saying, well, they mistook his saying, his probably on purpose by saying that we have to live with it. We don't have to live with it. We have to do something about it. But this is the world that we live in.
00:51:23
Speaker
it and Unfortunately, it is. um you know it
00:51:31
Speaker
The times just change, the times evolve, and the things that we have to prepare ourselves for will change and evolve and as we grow, as a country. and um No one has the magic wand to fix that one either. So we're just going to have to find a way to come together and know that all of our hearts are breaking and we're all trying to strive and fight for a better way forward and to figure out why this is definitely some social issues going on. I would have to assume something else that we were going to talk about tonight is yeah is crazy weather.
Weather Fluctuations and Holiday Traditions
00:52:09
Speaker
What's going on?
00:52:10
Speaker
What's Al Gore must be in town or something? What's going on? It was freezing cold, ice everywhere. And now we're getting up to 71, 72, possibly 73 tomorrow. How are we even handling this? If you don't like the weather in Wilmington, just wait 10 minutes because, uh, um, so Frosty's gonna go to milk tomorrow. Uh, and, uh, but it's, it's supposed to switch back by Christmas, isn't it?
00:52:38
Speaker
it from what I'm looking at at the weather, it will and I guess it depends on who you listen to. ah I don't know about you, but I get I get I get pressure related headaches. So when these ups and downs the in the is that I am all over the place. So it's it's going to be a painful few days over here at the sample residence. And then i peppermint oil peppermint oil. ah And then now next week, we're not going to have a podcast next week because it's Christmas.
00:53:07
Speaker
And you and i you and I were talking about before the podcast about traditions. And what do you got going on over there at the Bascom House for traditions? Oh, goodness. and So traditions in our house is um Christmas vomits all over our house, as you can see.
00:53:30
Speaker
no don't no No, this is a high class podcast. Well, I guess that was better than the... That's better than the other one. What? You didn't like tree?
00:53:46
Speaker
no we um so i was raised as an only child with just my dad so um christmas was kind of quiet and now that i i have created my own big family um i i love christmas i decorate um our nature trail is 100 feet long and i decorate it i go all out um baking cookies. We're gonna make like 12 dozen cookies tomorrow. I love Christmas. that That just and I get up on Christmas morning. We unwrap presents and I make a big turkey. I don't care who's here. and It's gonna be a 20 pound turkey whether there's four of us or 20 of us. there' There's gonna be turkey for days.
00:54:32
Speaker
ah and I make homemade mashed potatoes. And here's something that we, being from the coast and um my aunt is from the New Bern area, she taught me how to make oyster dressing. So we always have oyster dressing for Thanksgiving. And now do you do that for Christmas as well?
00:54:53
Speaker
yeah Oh, did I say Thanksgiving? yes Yes. I do it for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We'll have oysters. Wow. And it's the only time we make it. And how about you? You were telling me something about... Well, my my wife my wife's family ah always has spaghetti on Christmas Eve. And it goes back to when Pam's grandmother was working retail. And she would always get off at five o'clock on Christmas Eve.
00:55:21
Speaker
and her grandfather would have pasta going by the time she got home, its kind it was kind of because then they would all go to church afterwards. And so they needed something to have so that they can eat it as a family. So we've always, we it's the one time, because my wife and I are on low carb diets, it's the one time during the the year that we can now have pasta. and And it's Christmas, so carbs don't count on Christmas Eve.
00:55:50
Speaker
No, they don't. I'll call those neither. ah say In case you're wondering. In case you're wondering. And if you combine the two, then you're good for the rest of the year, right? You're great. You're great. I think the only thing the only the last thing that I wanted to talk about tonight was um Shannon Winslow.
Celebrating Local Leadership and Trivia
00:56:15
Speaker
yeah and care of the endowment and why this gets me so excited with the headlines were first female chair of it but my reasoning is because she's a local girl i i grew up with shannon well i grew up near shannon her and i am kind of knew the same people and were in the same crowd. But um i'm I'm glad that a local person that understands our nonprofits, understands our community, understands the the way Wilmington is and was and is becoming is someone that's going to sit on the endowment board, um head of the endowment board. So congratulations, Shannon. We're very proud of you. Congratulations, Shannon. That's at the state level. Is that right?
00:57:02
Speaker
No, that's here locally. that's here that's That's even better. That's even better. That's our endowment. so Fantastic. Well, last week you had a trivia question all about the pardoning of a turkey.
00:57:17
Speaker
Now I, we asked people to respond. You can respond. And by the way, folks, uh, make sure that you like and subscribe. We are on all the major podcast platforms are on YouTube, on so Spotify. ah Um, uh, uh, so make sure that you like and subscribe. It really does help us grow. And, uh, we asked that you, uh, respond to the trivia question. I had one response. It was my father.
00:57:45
Speaker
course Who said Roosevelt, the second one. But he's not right, is he? You know what? I'm going to have to go back and look. We are hyperprepared here on the Nicki and Rule podcast experience. We are hyperprepared because I was just prepared to give you a new trivia question.
00:58:11
Speaker
We can't go on without answering the last trivi trivia question, answering the last trivia question. I'm going to get a look. I actually, um, so the, the, the question from last week was who was the president who did the first official, the first official pardoning of the Turkey was Carter. was Carter. Yep. And the, um,
00:58:38
Speaker
The unofficial was John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy. And yeah then, then, uh, so Carter, President Carter made it official. ah Okay. And then I think it was, I think it was under Obama that we started pardoning two turkeys. Oh, yeah. I learned something new every day. I think that's the case. Okay. What do you got for trivia for?
00:59:06
Speaker
for Christmas and we're gonna give you two weeks to stew on this one. Well, I gotta decide which one I was gonna do. um I like the one that you, I like the second one that I came up with tonight. All right, no, I like the first one, okay. Okay, then go with the first one. Now you're gonna have to remind me what the second one was. Is it first base or second base? Who's on home? No, who's on first base?
00:59:35
Speaker
Who's on first base? That's right. Okay. So my trivia question would be, um, what did my true love give me on the 11th day of Christmas? There you go. There you go. So what was, what was the gift from my true love on the 11th day of Christmas? So, uh, you can answer that on YouTube. You can answer that on our webpage. We have discuss set up so you can just log, you can answer that on our Facebook page.
01:00:05
Speaker
But the first person timestamp to give us to give us their answer gets that that sweater that Nikki is wearing. um mean you not Let me wear it anymore. My son said I couldn't wear it to school. Yeah, well, there's reasons for that. So, Nikki, Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas rule and thank you for for joining me in this wonderful adventure. My pleasure and my honor. my Merry Christmas to all of our listeners and our watchers, and we will see you in two weeks. Bye. Bye.