September 8, 2025 • 34 mins
Tune in here to this Monday's edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Breaking Brett Jensen kicks the show off by talking about the growing national attention surrounding the tragic murder on Charlotte’s light rail system and the mounting public outcry for stronger transit safety. He highlights how the story—originally local—has now made headlines nationwide, including coverage by CNN and Fox News, largely prompted by comments from former President Donald Trump. Brett is joined by veteran reporter Mark Garrison, who shares his firsthand experience riding the light rail to investigate safety conditions. Garrison reports limited and inconsistent security presence, open violations of train policy, and a lack of regular ticket enforcement. He reveals that even minimal enforcement—such as standing at train doors—successfully deters fare evaders and loiterers.
Later, Jensen has an exclusive interview with Charlotte City Council candidate Namrata Yadav to discuss public safety, accountability, and her motivation for entering the race. Yadav, running as a Democrat at-large, shares her concerns about the light rail tragedy and calls for urgent reform in security, transparency, and leadership. She expresses support for police recruitment and retention while advocating for preventive measures like youth programs and mental health resources.
We’re also joined by Charlotte mayoral candidate Brendon McGinnis to discuss his sharp criticisms of current leadership and his vision for the city’s future.McGinnis expressed frustration over the city’s delayed and weak response to the recent light rail tragedy. He criticized Mayor Vi Lyles for what he described as a lack of leadership and planning, calling her Charlotte’s version of Joe Biden due to her apparent confusion and hesitations during public statements. McGinnis attended the city’s transit safety meeting and dismissed it as ineffective, arguing it lacked transparency and failed to engage concerned citizens.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi oh, let's go hi oh, let's go oh, Let's
go oh.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Let just talk eleven ten and ninety nine three WBT
Brett Jensen here with you on this very very busy
edition of Breaking with Brett Jensen on a Monday night.
As we go up until seven o'clock tonight, you can
call the show seven oh four or five, seven eleven ten,
And that is also the WBT text line driven by
Liberty buw at GMC.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So we're gonna get straight into it. Over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
On Friday, you guys heard me talk about the video
that was released Friday night about the stabbing on the
cat's light rail. Well, since then, the last seventy two hours,
the story has finally gone national, has finally gone national right.
CNN picked it up finally only because Donald Trump spoke
about it earlier today, Fox has picked it up. It
(01:14):
is everywhere as I look at my TVs right now.
WBTV is doing a big thing about it. CNN has
Tom Tillis talking about things. You've got Fox News that
led the six o'clock hour with it. WSOC is still
talking about it, and we are talking about it. Papers
and media outlets overseas have been talking about the situation
(01:35):
because it is so horrific. Well, obviously everyone's calling for safety.
So Mark Garrison, reporter extraordinary. He decided, you know what,
let's go on the light rail and let's do it
in the middle of the afternoon, and if things are
crazy at night, let's see how crazy things are in
the middle of the afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
They need more security on here.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And as I rode light rail for several hours Sunday afternoon,
and there was a little more security than normal train approaching,
I got onto the train and Noda and immediately saw
two women and yellow security vests on board. They were
ticket checkers and they checked mine.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I just had the ticket off these sure, thank you
so much.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Then at the next stop, this top is Seventh Street station,
the young ticket checkers stood in the doorway asking everyone
entering for a ticket.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Chuck off me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
One homeless guy with a lot of stuff walked up,
but when he saw the woman at the door, he
turned away. But I noticed the ticket checkers weren't on
here very long.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Doors are closing, train.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Is about to move.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Both of the ticket checkers got off, and now the
train is off and running with no security on. It
will be third street and it stayed that way clear
to the end of the line in Pineville. No security,
no ticket checks, which opened the door for a homeless
guy named Reginald, who asked me for money. Yeah, two dollars,
(03:02):
I think I do, if you'll talk to me. Reginald
was drinking, had a beer in a brown paper bag.
That's a violation of train policy, and he had no ticket.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Has anybody checked.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Your ticket today?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Not today, but yesterday and you had one? Well no,
not really.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Did they put you off the train? Yeah, but on
Sunday finding a train with no security was no problem
with so many homeless guys like Reginald on light rail,
a lot of regulars like Carlos, a passenger I met,
told me they always ride with a little bit of fear.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So anytime somebody sits next to me on the links,
I just literally get up and said another seat away
from them, just because I don't know what their intentions are.
They're drugged up, drunk or something.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Train approaching.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Once we arrived at the Pineville station, two security guards boarded.
One was armed, the other was not. The armed officer
stood in the doorway at several stops asking for tickets.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
You love your ticket ready for the train.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Once we were rolling, he found a guy on board
who said, I got no ticket ticket. I'm gonna let
you report the next time you can get off their
So at the next stop, the ticketless guy got off.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Doors are closing, train.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Is about to move.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Then a few stops later, so did the two security guards. So,
as Cats has said, security is hit and miss. You'll
see it sometimes but certainly not all the time, which
is what homeless guys such as Reginald they're counting on.
As he rides light rail for free. So why are
you riding the train without a ticket.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, they go donate some plasmas and get some money.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And as we approached his stop, Reginald addressed the other
riders with a smile.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Radio station.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Guy's gonna let me hold ten dollars so I can
get some of the.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So that is Mark Garrison, and Mark joins us now.
And so Mark, first of all, thanks for joining us
on this night, because I know you are a sure morning.
So now let's talk about this that okay, the fact
that now the Charlotte City Council is being reactive and
everyone is being reactive, they haven't been proactive even though
(05:13):
violence on CATS buses has been an issue for quite
a while, and there's been issues on the light rail,
but now everyone's reactive. But even so, as you pointed
out in your piece, it's still just random security, which
means are they not going to do full time security
until another horrible incident happens.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
No, they are not going to do full time security.
In fact, the director of CATS, Brent Cagel, made it
very clear to the council last week. In fact, demple
ash Mara said to him, you know, if you've done
your job in check tickets, this woman would still be
alive because the guy who killed or walked on and
he didn't pay. And his response was, we can't check
one hundred percent of the tickets, but Brett. What's interesting
(05:56):
is within the last twenty minutes, Mayor vy Lyles has
put out yet another statement. She said, effective immediately, they
will step up their ticket checks, but she still is
falling short of saying they're going to check every ticket,
so who knows how that will work out, But she
issued a statement a few minutes ago saying they would
step up ticket checks. She also said for the first
(06:18):
time that the killer should not have been on the
streets and that that was a failure of the court
system to keep him locked up.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Well, I mean, that's different than her first statements blaming society,
you know, yeah, and everyone else.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
But then you know, but then again, Mark, you know,
it's she can keep doing. This is her third.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Statement, and we're going to get into all this in
the next statement. I mean, josh Stein finally made a
statement today, seventeen days after the fact. The Attorney General
Jeff Jackson finally made a statement today, seventeen days after
the fact. All while the White House is making statements
and Trump is talking about it, everyone, all the Democrats
finally seem to be making a statement about this seventeen
days after the fact. But like listening to your piece,
(07:02):
how many people were on the light rail on a
Sunday afternoon when you were taking it.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
When I first got on it, there were a dozen
people on the train. As we got closer into the
uptown and south end, the train got full, so there
were quite a few people on it, mostly young people
and working people. There were a couple of families that
were on there. And then as we moved down toward Pineville,
(07:29):
the crowd began to thin out and it was interesting
that on the platform where you board the train at
stops such as Woodlawn, the platform where you get on
the train was loaded with homeless people who were panhandling,
and nobody's been doing anything about that either.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
No, they haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And like I said, I mean, I literally almost ran
over a panhandler in the middle of King's Road what
three weeks ago that I had to call nine to
one one because he was so drunk. He just fell
over in the median at five point thirty in the
afternoon during rush hour on King's Drive and he was
just laying in the middle of the street and I
almost ran over him. And so it's but they remember
(08:11):
the end, they were supposed to do things about that,
and they have it. And so I'm curious real quick
how much of an impact because we've seen that the
voter turnout is extremely low across the city and we'll
see what happens tomorrow in the final day of primary voting.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
But what kind of impact do you think this, if anything.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Will have at the polls for Mayor of vy Laws
and maybe other city council members.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
To be perfectly honest, if she had some quality democratic opponents,
she could be in trouble over this. But the Democrats
running against her in the primary are no names who
have no money, and people will look at their name
on the ballot and go who is this? So she
will probably get a pass and easily move on to
the November election. But the Republicans have their hands full
(08:56):
too trying to beat her in November, because you know,
the guy running against her, McGinnis, he's a political newcomer
and a no name as well, so she does have
that advantage. But clearly this is I think damaging to her.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, oh no, it's between this on top of the
Johnny Jennings situation. Yeah, you know, had there been any
you know, a real viable candidate with like a lot
of money to be able to get to get the
message out, that could have started campaigning in early June
as opposed to five weeks to try to win a
primary against the incumbent.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
But any last thoughts though, or any other things that
you want to talk about concerning your your wonderful and
joyous ride on the light rails yesterday, sort of like
at least you weren't a hobo riding the rails.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Well, the one thing I can tell you is when
whenever they did check tickets or stand at the open
doors to check tickets, people who didn't have a ticket
turned away. I saw a couple of instances where a
homeless guy would come up and if they were checking tickets,
he would walk away. So clearly, guess what checking tickets
works keep riff raff off the line.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, and it's funny because they did say, hey, you know,
the policy is if people say they can't afford a
ticket or don't have money for a ticket, you're supposed
to let them on regardless. They actually said that in
the meeting, and so it's interesting that they're kicking people off.
Mark Garrison, seriously, thank you so much for doing this tonight.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Great job. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
All Right, when we come back, let's get into some
of the stuff concerning mayor by laws and President Trump
and a lot of the people nationally, Ted Cruz, all
these people now talking about Charlotte and all for the
wrong reasons. Welcome back to breaking with Brett Jensen on
(10:42):
this Monday night, like crazy Monday night, coming off and
oh about ten minutes or so, Namarada yet off. She
is running for Charlotte City Council at Large. And then
also we're gonna have Brendan McGinnis, who is he joined
last week, had some very pointy things to.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Say about Mayor Vi Lewles.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I put his repost to that statement on my Twitter
page today and you need to go see it where
he compares and says Mayor Vi Leawles is Charlet's version
of Joe Biden. She's getting lost quite a bit. So
two candidates coming up later because the primary election day
is tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
All right, So, as I.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Mentioned with Mark, this stabbing thing, the horrific situation is
finally seventeen days after the fact, making.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
News, making national news.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
CNN had no choice but to talk about it because
Trump discussed it and a couple of different times, and
others are having no choice like Josh Stine and Jeff
Jackson taking seventeen days to make it a statement about
it seventeen Mary by Laws as Mark, as you just
heard from, Mark Garrison just released in the last thirty
minutes or so, her fourth or her third statement on
(11:54):
the situation. It took her five days to make a statement,
which was the singularly worst statement I have ever seen.
I'm a politician and what made it so bad was
it was actually crafted. It didn't come off the cuff.
And then she came out like eleven days later and
made another statement which was nearly as bad, where she
thanked people for not thank the media for not showing
(12:15):
the video.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Are you insane? Thank the media?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
She goes, out of respect for the victims' families. Really,
because you had zero respect for the victims family in
your first.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Statement zero points zero zero. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And so now Fox has been covering on all day,
all the big media outlets online, the Daily Wire and
Dave Rubin and Charlie Kirk and like all these people
are you know, Benny Johnson.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
They're all covering it, getting millions and millions and millions
of views.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And here's Matt Watsher from the Daily Wire, the useless
mayor of Charlotte cannot bring herself to condemn the man
who stabbed the woman on the right light rail.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Hey, but at.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Least she's quote thinking hard what safety looks like? Yes,
keep thinking by that, I'll fix it. How many millions
of us do you think that got?
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Like?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I'm telling you, like, these.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Are big time people making big time statements. It is
the New York Post putting things out there that got
three hundred and ninety thousand views. Let's see, uh, Eric
Doherty put all kinds of stuff out there.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
By the way, so they put something on Wikipedia. Have
you heard about this?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So people put out the stabbing on Wikipedia because you
know it's making big news. And Wikipedia editors have they
pushed to delete the killing of Arena Zaruska by a
blackmail and Charlotte and it says an editor has nominated
this article for deletion on Wikipedia. Right editors posting his
(13:59):
things such as nothing is remarkable about this killing, therefore
it should not be on Wikipedia.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
They want you to forget her memory.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
According to this person, Eric Doherty, the White House released
a statement today real quickly, before we get to the news,
let me put this.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Out here real quick. Horrifying video. This is from the
White House.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Charlotte murder exposes Democrat failures after career criminal freed by
woke policies.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Not wrong, not wrong, even as an impartial media member.
Not wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
And I put the entire statement on my Twitter page.
You can go there and see it like it is
all over the place. Everyone coming out. You've got Ted
Cruz that were making statements the end of the Department
of Transportation, going hey, wait a minute, Charlotte wants all
these billions of dollars for federal funding for the transit system.
He said, why would we give Charlotte billions of dollars
(14:59):
when they can't protect what they already have. Oh, oh,
that'll get you. By the way, tomorrow night is election night,
and we're going to be doing deep, deep dives into
all of this stuff. And I hope to have special
guests on tomorrow concerning the Arena Zaritska stuff, even more
things about it, and we will take a look at
the politics. But the polls do not close tomorrow night
(15:21):
until seven thirty, so just remember that.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
So my show will end and then at seven thirty.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And I also will tell you if there's like big
breaking news tomorrow night. Garrison and I will be jumping
in probably tomorrow night if there's big breaking news concerning
the elections, if there's major.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Upsets or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
All right, so we got a lot coming up. Coming
up next is Nomaradia Yatof and she will be joining
me to talk about running for at large city council.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Welcome back to Breaking with.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Bred Judson again on this this Monday night. Really hecktic
this is one of those nights where I needed a
two hour show, but we don't have that. So we
will continue this tomorrow with even more information. And ABC
News is talking about the un World News tonight.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
They're talking about the attack later.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
It's not the lead, but they'll be talking about it
as well as some other things. All right, So earlier
I wanted to I thought to myself, you know, I
need to reach out to some of these people on
the Democrat side. So Mamarada yet off. I've heard a
lot of people talk about her, and only in good ways.
So I'm like, Okay, I need to find out more
about this woman because she's running for Charlotte City Council
(16:39):
at large and a lot of people have mentioned her
name to me.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
So I wanted to just, you know what, let's get
out there and let's see what she's all about. Namarada.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Obviously, the big news over the last two and a
half weeks has been the light rail tragedy. What concerns,
if any, do you have about the light rail system
or the cat system in.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
General, bre and you know, honestly, till some time ago.
I felt pretty safe about the light rail, but this
tragedy has shaken me. I think you've shaken the entire family,
shaken my neighbors, shaken the community. It is terrible what happened.
And the more I'm reading about it, the more I'm
trying to understand where we've faulted. I feel there's so
(17:22):
much more we can still do. I recently got the
endorsement of the Federation of Police and I've been talking
to them. I think it really matters. Policing matters right now.
We are down officers. Response time matters. We need to
push and think about what is recruitment, what is retention,
What does great training for our officers look like? How
(17:46):
do we get more of that. We need to also
continue thinking about how do we do preventive policing. If
that means investing in mental health resources for our communities,
it means in you know, youth intervention programs. How do
we continue building some of that which are city back
and maybe partnering with the private side and figuring out
(18:07):
how do we do it work but not for profits
and our local businesses. There's a lot we can do,
and the biggest pace is accountability. I do think city
officials need to be extremely transparent about what they are
planning to do. How are they reporting on some of
this information? How are they sharing what is happening in
(18:30):
our city in a very proactive way, so that the
public can be part of the decision making and understand
exactly what the city officials are doing and how they're
showing up for them.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Speaking with Namarada Yadov, who was running for Charlote City
Council at Large as a Democrat, well, transparency leads me
to another controversy. What were your thoughts about the Johnny
Jenning's secret payouts.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I mean, that's the reason I'm running, Brett I had.
I'm not a career politician here. I didn't put my
name in the hat because I thought things were great.
I've been following the city council meetings and the more
I've followed them, and I think a lot of us
are following them, and you're looking at the headlines. You
don't have to go far, just look at the headlines.
(19:12):
It is sad to see the dysfunction at our city
council right now. I am standing because not just all
these you know, backdoor dealings and this secrecy in how
these decisions are made and public not being aware. Because
at the end of the day, this is our money,
this is taxpayer dollar. We need to understand what has
been happening. I started also digging into our own city
(19:36):
council leaders. Who are showing up? You know, are they
doing town halls, are they meeting with people? Are they
explaining the votes? So I did a whole attendance analysis
of the last year. I just took one year, and
I looked at the attendants of our city officials and
it's so interesting to see, like, right now, there are
two at large members who are perpetually late, don't show
(20:00):
up fifty percent of the time, and this is the
last lay up. And that's what triggered this for me.
And I'm like, wait a minute, why should we as
a community be okay with such low standards for our
city officials. We have to hold them accountable. That's the
basic job of a city council member right now to
show up. And if you're not showing up, you are
(20:21):
not bringing the community voice on the table. You are
not ensuring that voting is happening in an effective way.
You are not ensuring that people are being heard and
those voices are being dropped at the table. And I
do have an issue. So accountability and transparencies are going
to be a big thing for me on city council.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You are allowed to name those two city council.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Members I'm happy for here, so I can tell you
that Councilwomanagemera and council Councilman Mitchell has the lowest attendance
based on my one year analysis, they were at that
fifty percent mark. And Levana in the late eighties. She's
been showing up and doctor Watlington was in the seventies.
(21:05):
So and that data is on my Instagram. You can
go see it. And again, this is not about the
people and how they're you know, you know, doing their
policy making of voting. I have in seen expert anybody
doing the job right now. But I want them to
show up and through the job. So that is the
piece that is bothersome for me.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Speaking to jam Arrada, Yadolpho is running for Charlotte City
Council at Large in the Democratic primary. So, Namarada, if
you're elected, you would be one of eleven people. What
kind of influence or what kind of policies would you
like to see enacted.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You know, one of the things when I started running,
a lot of my friends like, you have no idea
about politics, and you really think one person can make
a difference. And I want to believe one person can.
I do believe that. If I don't have that hope
that one person can make a difference, I mean I
have nothing left in this crazy world right now, Brett.
But having said that, for me, this piece around just
(22:02):
having high standards for city officials and having a voice,
just telling them that, hey, guys, we are here to
serve Charlotte. We are not here to serve our personal
beliefs and personal values. Really, it is really about the
city of Charlotte. How do we all work together in
a unified way. How do we have a unified mission
(22:23):
as a city council? The more I watch these meetings,
we don't even have that. And the vision could be
as simple as how do we make Charlotte the best
city in the world. And we all are working towards
that right now. As we watched the council, everybody has
their own agenda. There's so much performative council politics happening,
(22:44):
which we don't need. So I think that piece that
voice of reason to be able to talk through, hey,
what are our policies together as a team, what are
we trying to do at the city. And my expertise
is in workforce development. I want to focus on creating
jobs in our own own communities for people without college degrees,
and that's what I've done for about twenty years in
(23:05):
my corporate career. So I want to push for more
of that, and that's what I want to be able
to bring in and talk about.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So, Nomada, is there anything that you'd like to say
to the unaffiliated voters are the Democrat voters who can
still vote tomorrow for the Charlotte City Council at large.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I would say that if you all are okay with
the statistical if you're good with the way things have
been going in our city, then continue to vote the
way you know for the incumbents. But I urge you
to give new people a shot. I urge you to
look at what is happening and think about are we
(23:39):
ready for some bold, future focused leadership. I'm not a
career politician, which I also see as people see that
as a liability. I see it as great because I'm
politically nice. I'm asking the tough questions at this level.
I don't think these politics should be partisan in any way.
We need to see me thinking about the city. So
(24:01):
I want us because at the end of the day,
Brett a porthole and garbage doesn't care whether you're a
Democrat or Republican. We need to solve problems for the
city and that's what I want to do, and that's
what I want to bring to the city council. So
I would say, please take a chance on me. I'd
be honored to serve you, and I'd be honored to
get your vote as well. You know, I left her career.
(24:21):
I actually was a Bank of America. I left Bank
of America to do this because truly it was born
out of our real frustration. I was really tired.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Of seeing this.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
And the funny thing is the amount of people I'm
talking to, the kind of stuff I'm hearing is, oh
my god, aren't you too over qualified for this job?
Or aren't you too smart for this job? And that
makes me so sad and hurt that we are okay
having lower standards for us. If you elected officials, why
shouldn't we have higher standards. We should be demanding that
my own party. If I'm calling out my own party
(24:52):
right now, I'm a Democrat, I'm a proud Democrat. But
Democrats run the city and they're not doing a good
job and we need to call that out. And as
soon as I'm calling that out, it's like they're going
crazy right now, like how dare you do that? I'm like,
if I show any kind of support for the police,
like hmm, interesting, why would you do that? But those
(25:13):
are real I mean, all sides, these are real issues.
I just don't understand why we can't be calling out
things that are not working and that are broken anyway.
But it's tough. I know, it's been the most eye
opening process for me. It is difficult. I'm realizing that
there is not an appetite for new people to run
(25:35):
or even like a platform or you know, support for
new people to run.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Mamarada, YadA, if it was running for Charlotte City Council
and the Democrat primary as an large candidate.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I really appreciate you joining me tonight.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You brat some very candidate frank talk that you often
don't hear from politicians, and a lot of times, especially
Democrats politicians here in the Shott Area. Okay, so once
again thanks to Namarada YadA for joining me tonight. And
if you want to learn more about Narada, you can
go to her Instagram page or her website which is
NY for Charlotte. And she wanted me to make it
perfectly clear that she believes you should pick the city
(26:10):
over party politics. All right, when we come back, let's
talk to another politician. My name is Brett Jensen, and
you're listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen ninety nine to
(26:41):
three WBT. Brett Jensen here with you on this raucus
Monday night edition of Breaking with Brett Jensen. As we
go up until seven o'clock tonight again, seven oh four
or five seven eleven ten is the WBT text line
and telephone number to get in on the show. Of course,
the text line brought to you by Liberty Buick GMC. Okay,
(27:02):
we're going to finish tonight's show by speaking with another candidate.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I interviewed him last week.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
He had some very blistering things to say about current
mayor Vilals, including calling her Charlotte's version of Joe Biden,
because she does seem to be at times maybe getting
a little loss in her train of thought, you know,
whether she's calling people by the wrong name or whatever
the case may be. So anyway, Brandon McGinnis, running for
(27:28):
mayor election days tomorrow, is in the Democratic primary and
he joins us now.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
So first of all, Brandon, I really appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
And second of all, the national media and several Democrat leaders,
including Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson, are
finally just speaking about the tragic situation that actually took
place seventeen days ago. What are your thoughts about it
finally getting to the national media and the fact that
it's taken so long, even for state leaders to discuss.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
I think it's it's let me by saying here, right,
I think you do a very good service for your listeners.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
I think you sit there and go past kind of
the partisan stuff and talk about the issues. And I
think that's why you've been talking about it this whole time,
and legacy media, national media hasn't you know. I think
when we talked in our interview a couple weeks ago,
you know, I saw the Independent UK paper covering this,
So it's like, why is there the UK paper covering this?
(28:24):
But then you'll have national outlets covering it. And yeah,
I don't know why they're not covering it's just you know,
they legacy media has a bad rap and then you
or what you have it and then they do something
like this to deserve it.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Speak with Brandon McGinnis, who is running from mayor in
the Democratic primary, and that takes place tomorrow. So Brandon,
since we last spoke, City council had a meeting with
the cat's authority people to talk about possible future light
rail stuff and safety or whatever, and they said, we
will never check every single ticket.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
That's just not going to happen. And we all know that.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
The killer did have a ticket to get on the
light rail. But they also had a big transit meeting
on Wednesday morning. So what are your thoughts about how
everything took place and everything that occurred.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Uh, you know, I can't say this doesn't happen all
the time, but you know it's it's I think it's
just a delayed, delayed delay and then expect the media
to get bored and move on to the next subject.
And that that tactic isn't working this time. That's why
it's still persisting. Over and over again. You know, all
the mayor had to do come out and she waited
(29:31):
four days to come out with a first Stavent. All
she had to do was come out there and say
we've got a plan. These are a couple of things
we're thinking about, and we're gonna put it. You know,
we're gonna start putting some plan and action. Do that.
And she didn't. She basically just said again, we've talked
about it before. She she mentioned the victim and then
she talked about mental health and had talked about talk
about the attacker, and you know, so she's like, okay,
(29:53):
you got you know, we messed up this time. Let's
have a transit meeting and let's talk about what we're
gonna do differently. And then I was at the transit meeting.
It was a public is open open to the public. Now,
mind you, open to the public does not mean public form.
And so they went to open the public store. There
the several concerned citizens, YadA, YadA, YadA. That meeting could
(30:17):
have been an email. They just talked about kind of
what they had kind of done. They talked about, well,
we've increased are our numbers, you know, we've increased the
spend on safety since twenty twenty three by from three
three times amount, and one of my questions, one of
my thoughts was like, well, okay, what's your return on investment?
(30:37):
Have we had a decrease in violence relative to that spend?
I mean, you can throw money at stuff, doesn't mean
necessarily solvent. But then they talked about stuff, and the
mayor didn't have any anything to add. It really was
just the matter all the other mayors only think Mayor
Washington was about the only one who actually had a
(30:58):
question that was relevant. I say, think Lee Altman, the commissioner,
she kind of had some stuff too, but most of
it was like, yeah, we're doing a great job. Thank
you for putting this together. And then they didn't open
it up for questions, and you know, there was a
couple that there, like I had eight questions, and I
was like, what's going on? Why aren't we asking that?
Speaker 4 (31:15):
You know? And the.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Mayor went to her usual line, I'm not a lawyer today,
you know, so I can't answer that, which is the
most tiredest line I've ever heard, considering that you have
a lawyer on hand. If someone like myself says that,
it actually means something because I don't have a lawyer
sitting right beside me. So she had the lawyer, and
the lawyer's like, ah, well, we didn't we didn't announce
this to the public. So we can't have questions come
(31:38):
back in two weeks at the regular scheduled meeting to
ask your questions. Who's going to come back in two
weeks to answer the questions. Who's going to sit there
and take the notes that I do unless I go
back there to ask those same questions. So that happened,
and then you know, finally they released the video, and
so the mayor got one more shot to get it right.
And she comes out she says, I've been thinking a
(32:00):
lot about what safety means to Charlotte, which is you've
got eleven whatever how many days, twelve days, fourteen days
to think about this and actually come up with something.
And your second statement is worse than your first statement.
See it's strike three. And this is the reaction you
get we talked about in our interview. This is the
reaction you get on the national stage from the President,
(32:22):
from Sean Duffy, from Stephen Miller, from Elon Musk. When
you don't have a plan and you show weakness, and
it's ridiculous, and it's ridiculous that they're letting her do this.
They're center out there and just you know that they're
letting her do that. And then it's ridiculous on the
media on the local level besides you that's just finally
(32:45):
picking this up and finally talking about it, even though
I've been talking about it for weeks and everybody's been
talking about it for a long time. So it's just,
you know, it's a failure of the system, whether you
talk about the mayor's office, whether you talk about local
Democratic leaders who should have been talking about this more,
and the local media at the same time too. I
(33:08):
don't know, maybe they're on her Christmas card lists or
something like that, and maybe that's why they don't want
to cover it or something like that. But it's just
a filure on so many levels.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Okay, Brandon McGinnis, who's running from mayor in the Democratic primary.
In the last thirty seconds or so, is there anything
that you'd like to say to the Democrat voters and
the unaffiliated voters that can still vote tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, it's not too late. It's not too late. Again,
the media hasn't really cover it except for you and
maybe some normal interviews. I talked about this on a
WBTV interview as well. I talked about this on a
WSOC interview that they ended up I guess editing out
and they just talked about transparency. You still have time.
(33:47):
Tomorrow's election day. I've got a plan. If you've gone
to my website www. McGuinness formayor dot org, I've got
everything laid out, whether it's public safety, transit, childcare, affordable housing,
transparency is all there in numbers one, five, ten year.
(34:09):
I've got a plan. The current mayor doesn't and nobody's
seeing it. You still have time. Let's bring hope home.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Brandon McGinnis, I really do appreciate your time tonight.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Sure, thank you Broth.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Once again, I want to thank Mamaradi Yadov, who was
running for Charlot City Council at Large, for joining me
earlier tonight, as well as Mark Garrison for his big story,
and of course Brendan McGinnis, who is running for mayor
on the Democratic primary side.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
We've got a big, big show for you tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Don't forget tomorrow's election day, so I'll have a lot
of stuff about that, But until then, my name is
Brett Jensen, and you have been listening to Breaking with
Brett Jensen,
Hi oh, let's go hi oh, let's go oh, Let's
go oh.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Let just talk eleven ten and ninety nine three WBT
Brett Jensen here with you on this very very busy
edition of Breaking with Brett Jensen on a Monday night.
As we go up until seven o'clock tonight, you can
call the show seven oh four or five, seven eleven ten,
And that is also the WBT text line driven by
Liberty buw at GMC.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So we're gonna get straight into it. Over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
On Friday, you guys heard me talk about the video
that was released Friday night about the stabbing on the
cat's light rail. Well, since then, the last seventy two hours,
the story has finally gone national, has finally gone national right.
CNN picked it up finally only because Donald Trump spoke
about it earlier today, Fox has picked it up. It
(01:14):
is everywhere as I look at my TVs right now.
WBTV is doing a big thing about it. CNN has
Tom Tillis talking about things. You've got Fox News that
led the six o'clock hour with it. WSOC is still
talking about it, and we are talking about it. Papers
and media outlets overseas have been talking about the situation
(01:35):
because it is so horrific. Well, obviously everyone's calling for safety.
So Mark Garrison, reporter extraordinary. He decided, you know what,
let's go on the light rail and let's do it
in the middle of the afternoon, and if things are
crazy at night, let's see how crazy things are in
the middle of the afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
They need more security on here.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And as I rode light rail for several hours Sunday afternoon,
and there was a little more security than normal train approaching,
I got onto the train and Noda and immediately saw
two women and yellow security vests on board. They were
ticket checkers and they checked mine.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I just had the ticket off these sure, thank you
so much.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Then at the next stop, this top is Seventh Street station,
the young ticket checkers stood in the doorway asking everyone
entering for a ticket.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Chuck off me.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
One homeless guy with a lot of stuff walked up,
but when he saw the woman at the door, he
turned away. But I noticed the ticket checkers weren't on
here very long.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Doors are closing, train.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Is about to move.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Both of the ticket checkers got off, and now the
train is off and running with no security on. It
will be third street and it stayed that way clear
to the end of the line in Pineville. No security,
no ticket checks, which opened the door for a homeless
guy named Reginald, who asked me for money. Yeah, two dollars,
(03:02):
I think I do, if you'll talk to me. Reginald
was drinking, had a beer in a brown paper bag.
That's a violation of train policy, and he had no ticket.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Has anybody checked.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Your ticket today?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Not today, but yesterday and you had one? Well no,
not really.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Did they put you off the train? Yeah, but on
Sunday finding a train with no security was no problem
with so many homeless guys like Reginald on light rail,
a lot of regulars like Carlos, a passenger I met,
told me they always ride with a little bit of fear.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
So anytime somebody sits next to me on the links,
I just literally get up and said another seat away
from them, just because I don't know what their intentions are.
They're drugged up, drunk or something.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Train approaching.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Once we arrived at the Pineville station, two security guards boarded.
One was armed, the other was not. The armed officer
stood in the doorway at several stops asking for tickets.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
You love your ticket ready for the train.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Once we were rolling, he found a guy on board
who said, I got no ticket ticket. I'm gonna let
you report the next time you can get off their
So at the next stop, the ticketless guy got off.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Doors are closing, train.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Is about to move.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Then a few stops later, so did the two security guards. So,
as Cats has said, security is hit and miss. You'll
see it sometimes but certainly not all the time, which
is what homeless guys such as Reginald they're counting on.
As he rides light rail for free. So why are
you riding the train without a ticket.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, they go donate some plasmas and get some money.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And as we approached his stop, Reginald addressed the other
riders with a smile.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Radio station.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Guy's gonna let me hold ten dollars so I can
get some of the.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So that is Mark Garrison, and Mark joins us now.
And so Mark, first of all, thanks for joining us
on this night, because I know you are a sure morning.
So now let's talk about this that okay, the fact
that now the Charlotte City Council is being reactive and
everyone is being reactive, they haven't been proactive even though
(05:13):
violence on CATS buses has been an issue for quite
a while, and there's been issues on the light rail,
but now everyone's reactive. But even so, as you pointed
out in your piece, it's still just random security, which
means are they not going to do full time security
until another horrible incident happens.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
No, they are not going to do full time security.
In fact, the director of CATS, Brent Cagel, made it
very clear to the council last week. In fact, demple
ash Mara said to him, you know, if you've done
your job in check tickets, this woman would still be
alive because the guy who killed or walked on and
he didn't pay. And his response was, we can't check
one hundred percent of the tickets, but Brett. What's interesting
(05:56):
is within the last twenty minutes, Mayor vy Lyles has
put out yet another statement. She said, effective immediately, they
will step up their ticket checks, but she still is
falling short of saying they're going to check every ticket,
so who knows how that will work out, But she
issued a statement a few minutes ago saying they would
step up ticket checks. She also said for the first
(06:18):
time that the killer should not have been on the
streets and that that was a failure of the court
system to keep him locked up.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Well, I mean, that's different than her first statements blaming society,
you know, yeah, and everyone else.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
But then you know, but then again, Mark, you know,
it's she can keep doing. This is her third.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Statement, and we're going to get into all this in
the next statement. I mean, josh Stein finally made a
statement today, seventeen days after the fact. The Attorney General
Jeff Jackson finally made a statement today, seventeen days after
the fact. All while the White House is making statements
and Trump is talking about it, everyone, all the Democrats
finally seem to be making a statement about this seventeen
days after the fact. But like listening to your piece,
(07:02):
how many people were on the light rail on a
Sunday afternoon when you were taking it.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
When I first got on it, there were a dozen
people on the train. As we got closer into the
uptown and south end, the train got full, so there
were quite a few people on it, mostly young people
and working people. There were a couple of families that
were on there. And then as we moved down toward Pineville,
(07:29):
the crowd began to thin out and it was interesting
that on the platform where you board the train at
stops such as Woodlawn, the platform where you get on
the train was loaded with homeless people who were panhandling,
and nobody's been doing anything about that either.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
No, they haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And like I said, I mean, I literally almost ran
over a panhandler in the middle of King's Road what
three weeks ago that I had to call nine to
one one because he was so drunk. He just fell
over in the median at five point thirty in the
afternoon during rush hour on King's Drive and he was
just laying in the middle of the street and I
almost ran over him. And so it's but they remember
(08:11):
the end, they were supposed to do things about that,
and they have it. And so I'm curious real quick
how much of an impact because we've seen that the
voter turnout is extremely low across the city and we'll
see what happens tomorrow in the final day of primary voting.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
But what kind of impact do you think this, if anything.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Will have at the polls for Mayor of vy Laws
and maybe other city council members.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
To be perfectly honest, if she had some quality democratic opponents,
she could be in trouble over this. But the Democrats
running against her in the primary are no names who
have no money, and people will look at their name
on the ballot and go who is this? So she
will probably get a pass and easily move on to
the November election. But the Republicans have their hands full
(08:56):
too trying to beat her in November, because you know,
the guy running against her, McGinnis, he's a political newcomer
and a no name as well, so she does have
that advantage. But clearly this is I think damaging to her.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, oh no, it's between this on top of the
Johnny Jennings situation. Yeah, you know, had there been any
you know, a real viable candidate with like a lot
of money to be able to get to get the
message out, that could have started campaigning in early June
as opposed to five weeks to try to win a
primary against the incumbent.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
But any last thoughts though, or any other things that
you want to talk about concerning your your wonderful and
joyous ride on the light rails yesterday, sort of like
at least you weren't a hobo riding the rails.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Well, the one thing I can tell you is when
whenever they did check tickets or stand at the open
doors to check tickets, people who didn't have a ticket
turned away. I saw a couple of instances where a
homeless guy would come up and if they were checking tickets,
he would walk away. So clearly, guess what checking tickets
works keep riff raff off the line.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, and it's funny because they did say, hey, you know,
the policy is if people say they can't afford a
ticket or don't have money for a ticket, you're supposed
to let them on regardless. They actually said that in
the meeting, and so it's interesting that they're kicking people off.
Mark Garrison, seriously, thank you so much for doing this tonight.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Great job. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
All Right, when we come back, let's get into some
of the stuff concerning mayor by laws and President Trump
and a lot of the people nationally, Ted Cruz, all
these people now talking about Charlotte and all for the
wrong reasons. Welcome back to breaking with Brett Jensen on
(10:42):
this Monday night, like crazy Monday night, coming off and
oh about ten minutes or so, Namarada yet off. She
is running for Charlotte City Council at Large. And then
also we're gonna have Brendan McGinnis, who is he joined
last week, had some very pointy things to.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Say about Mayor Vi Lewles.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I put his repost to that statement on my Twitter
page today and you need to go see it where
he compares and says Mayor Vi Leawles is Charlet's version
of Joe Biden. She's getting lost quite a bit. So
two candidates coming up later because the primary election day
is tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
All right, So, as I.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Mentioned with Mark, this stabbing thing, the horrific situation is
finally seventeen days after the fact, making.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
News, making national news.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
CNN had no choice but to talk about it because
Trump discussed it and a couple of different times, and
others are having no choice like Josh Stine and Jeff
Jackson taking seventeen days to make it a statement about
it seventeen Mary by Laws as Mark, as you just
heard from, Mark Garrison just released in the last thirty
minutes or so, her fourth or her third statement on
(11:54):
the situation. It took her five days to make a statement,
which was the singularly worst statement I have ever seen.
I'm a politician and what made it so bad was
it was actually crafted. It didn't come off the cuff.
And then she came out like eleven days later and
made another statement which was nearly as bad, where she
thanked people for not thank the media for not showing
(12:15):
the video.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Are you insane? Thank the media?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
She goes, out of respect for the victims' families. Really,
because you had zero respect for the victims family in
your first.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Statement zero points zero zero. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And so now Fox has been covering on all day,
all the big media outlets online, the Daily Wire and
Dave Rubin and Charlie Kirk and like all these people
are you know, Benny Johnson.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
They're all covering it, getting millions and millions and millions
of views.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And here's Matt Watsher from the Daily Wire, the useless
mayor of Charlotte cannot bring herself to condemn the man
who stabbed the woman on the right light rail.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Hey, but at.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Least she's quote thinking hard what safety looks like? Yes,
keep thinking by that, I'll fix it. How many millions
of us do you think that got?
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Like?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I'm telling you, like, these.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Are big time people making big time statements. It is
the New York Post putting things out there that got
three hundred and ninety thousand views. Let's see, uh, Eric
Doherty put all kinds of stuff out there.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
By the way, so they put something on Wikipedia. Have
you heard about this?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So people put out the stabbing on Wikipedia because you
know it's making big news. And Wikipedia editors have they
pushed to delete the killing of Arena Zaruska by a
blackmail and Charlotte and it says an editor has nominated
this article for deletion on Wikipedia. Right editors posting his
(13:59):
things such as nothing is remarkable about this killing, therefore
it should not be on Wikipedia.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
They want you to forget her memory.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
According to this person, Eric Doherty, the White House released
a statement today real quickly, before we get to the news,
let me put this.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Out here real quick. Horrifying video. This is from the
White House.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Charlotte murder exposes Democrat failures after career criminal freed by
woke policies.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Not wrong, not wrong, even as an impartial media member.
Not wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
And I put the entire statement on my Twitter page.
You can go there and see it like it is
all over the place. Everyone coming out. You've got Ted
Cruz that were making statements the end of the Department
of Transportation, going hey, wait a minute, Charlotte wants all
these billions of dollars for federal funding for the transit system.
He said, why would we give Charlotte billions of dollars
(14:59):
when they can't protect what they already have. Oh, oh,
that'll get you. By the way, tomorrow night is election night,
and we're going to be doing deep, deep dives into
all of this stuff. And I hope to have special
guests on tomorrow concerning the Arena Zaritska stuff, even more
things about it, and we will take a look at
the politics. But the polls do not close tomorrow night
(15:21):
until seven thirty, so just remember that.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
So my show will end and then at seven thirty.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And I also will tell you if there's like big
breaking news tomorrow night. Garrison and I will be jumping
in probably tomorrow night if there's big breaking news concerning
the elections, if there's major.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Upsets or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
All right, so we got a lot coming up. Coming
up next is Nomaradia Yatof and she will be joining
me to talk about running for at large city council.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Welcome back to Breaking with.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Bred Judson again on this this Monday night. Really hecktic
this is one of those nights where I needed a
two hour show, but we don't have that. So we
will continue this tomorrow with even more information. And ABC
News is talking about the un World News tonight.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
They're talking about the attack later.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
It's not the lead, but they'll be talking about it
as well as some other things. All right, So earlier
I wanted to I thought to myself, you know, I
need to reach out to some of these people on
the Democrat side. So Mamarada yet off. I've heard a
lot of people talk about her, and only in good ways.
So I'm like, Okay, I need to find out more
about this woman because she's running for Charlotte City Council
(16:39):
at large and a lot of people have mentioned her
name to me.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
So I wanted to just, you know what, let's get
out there and let's see what she's all about. Namarada.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Obviously, the big news over the last two and a
half weeks has been the light rail tragedy. What concerns,
if any, do you have about the light rail system
or the cat system in.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
General, bre and you know, honestly, till some time ago.
I felt pretty safe about the light rail, but this
tragedy has shaken me. I think you've shaken the entire family,
shaken my neighbors, shaken the community. It is terrible what happened.
And the more I'm reading about it, the more I'm
trying to understand where we've faulted. I feel there's so
(17:22):
much more we can still do. I recently got the
endorsement of the Federation of Police and I've been talking
to them. I think it really matters. Policing matters right now.
We are down officers. Response time matters. We need to
push and think about what is recruitment, what is retention,
What does great training for our officers look like? How
(17:46):
do we get more of that. We need to also
continue thinking about how do we do preventive policing. If
that means investing in mental health resources for our communities,
it means in you know, youth intervention programs. How do
we continue building some of that which are city back
and maybe partnering with the private side and figuring out
(18:07):
how do we do it work but not for profits
and our local businesses. There's a lot we can do,
and the biggest pace is accountability. I do think city
officials need to be extremely transparent about what they are
planning to do. How are they reporting on some of
this information? How are they sharing what is happening in
(18:30):
our city in a very proactive way, so that the
public can be part of the decision making and understand
exactly what the city officials are doing and how they're
showing up for them.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Speaking with Namarada Yadov, who was running for Charlote City
Council at Large as a Democrat, well, transparency leads me
to another controversy. What were your thoughts about the Johnny
Jenning's secret payouts.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I mean, that's the reason I'm running, Brett I had.
I'm not a career politician here. I didn't put my
name in the hat because I thought things were great.
I've been following the city council meetings and the more
I've followed them, and I think a lot of us
are following them, and you're looking at the headlines. You
don't have to go far, just look at the headlines.
(19:12):
It is sad to see the dysfunction at our city
council right now. I am standing because not just all
these you know, backdoor dealings and this secrecy in how
these decisions are made and public not being aware. Because
at the end of the day, this is our money,
this is taxpayer dollar. We need to understand what has
been happening. I started also digging into our own city
(19:36):
council leaders. Who are showing up? You know, are they
doing town halls, are they meeting with people? Are they
explaining the votes? So I did a whole attendance analysis
of the last year. I just took one year, and
I looked at the attendants of our city officials and
it's so interesting to see, like, right now, there are
two at large members who are perpetually late, don't show
(20:00):
up fifty percent of the time, and this is the
last lay up. And that's what triggered this for me.
And I'm like, wait a minute, why should we as
a community be okay with such low standards for our
city officials. We have to hold them accountable. That's the
basic job of a city council member right now to
show up. And if you're not showing up, you are
(20:21):
not bringing the community voice on the table. You are
not ensuring that voting is happening in an effective way.
You are not ensuring that people are being heard and
those voices are being dropped at the table. And I
do have an issue. So accountability and transparencies are going
to be a big thing for me on city council.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You are allowed to name those two city council.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Members I'm happy for here, so I can tell you
that Councilwomanagemera and council Councilman Mitchell has the lowest attendance
based on my one year analysis, they were at that
fifty percent mark. And Levana in the late eighties. She's
been showing up and doctor Watlington was in the seventies.
(21:05):
So and that data is on my Instagram. You can
go see it. And again, this is not about the
people and how they're you know, you know, doing their
policy making of voting. I have in seen expert anybody
doing the job right now. But I want them to
show up and through the job. So that is the
piece that is bothersome for me.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Speaking to jam Arrada, Yadolpho is running for Charlotte City
Council at Large in the Democratic primary. So, Namarada, if
you're elected, you would be one of eleven people. What
kind of influence or what kind of policies would you
like to see enacted.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You know, one of the things when I started running,
a lot of my friends like, you have no idea
about politics, and you really think one person can make
a difference. And I want to believe one person can.
I do believe that. If I don't have that hope
that one person can make a difference, I mean I
have nothing left in this crazy world right now, Brett.
But having said that, for me, this piece around just
(22:02):
having high standards for city officials and having a voice,
just telling them that, hey, guys, we are here to
serve Charlotte. We are not here to serve our personal
beliefs and personal values. Really, it is really about the
city of Charlotte. How do we all work together in
a unified way. How do we have a unified mission
(22:23):
as a city council? The more I watch these meetings,
we don't even have that. And the vision could be
as simple as how do we make Charlotte the best
city in the world. And we all are working towards
that right now. As we watched the council, everybody has
their own agenda. There's so much performative council politics happening,
(22:44):
which we don't need. So I think that piece that
voice of reason to be able to talk through, hey,
what are our policies together as a team, what are
we trying to do at the city. And my expertise
is in workforce development. I want to focus on creating
jobs in our own own communities for people without college degrees,
and that's what I've done for about twenty years in
(23:05):
my corporate career. So I want to push for more
of that, and that's what I want to be able
to bring in and talk about.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So, Nomada, is there anything that you'd like to say
to the unaffiliated voters are the Democrat voters who can
still vote tomorrow for the Charlotte City Council at large.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I would say that if you all are okay with
the statistical if you're good with the way things have
been going in our city, then continue to vote the
way you know for the incumbents. But I urge you
to give new people a shot. I urge you to
look at what is happening and think about are we
(23:39):
ready for some bold, future focused leadership. I'm not a
career politician, which I also see as people see that
as a liability. I see it as great because I'm
politically nice. I'm asking the tough questions at this level.
I don't think these politics should be partisan in any way.
We need to see me thinking about the city. So
(24:01):
I want us because at the end of the day,
Brett a porthole and garbage doesn't care whether you're a
Democrat or Republican. We need to solve problems for the
city and that's what I want to do, and that's
what I want to bring to the city council. So
I would say, please take a chance on me. I'd
be honored to serve you, and I'd be honored to
get your vote as well. You know, I left her career.
(24:21):
I actually was a Bank of America. I left Bank
of America to do this because truly it was born
out of our real frustration. I was really tired.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Of seeing this.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
And the funny thing is the amount of people I'm
talking to, the kind of stuff I'm hearing is, oh
my god, aren't you too over qualified for this job?
Or aren't you too smart for this job? And that
makes me so sad and hurt that we are okay
having lower standards for us. If you elected officials, why
shouldn't we have higher standards. We should be demanding that
my own party. If I'm calling out my own party
(24:52):
right now, I'm a Democrat, I'm a proud Democrat. But
Democrats run the city and they're not doing a good
job and we need to call that out. And as
soon as I'm calling that out, it's like they're going
crazy right now, like how dare you do that? I'm like,
if I show any kind of support for the police,
like hmm, interesting, why would you do that? But those
(25:13):
are real I mean, all sides, these are real issues.
I just don't understand why we can't be calling out
things that are not working and that are broken anyway.
But it's tough. I know, it's been the most eye
opening process for me. It is difficult. I'm realizing that
there is not an appetite for new people to run
(25:35):
or even like a platform or you know, support for
new people to run.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Mamarada, YadA, if it was running for Charlotte City Council
and the Democrat primary as an large candidate.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I really appreciate you joining me tonight.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You brat some very candidate frank talk that you often
don't hear from politicians, and a lot of times, especially
Democrats politicians here in the Shott Area. Okay, so once
again thanks to Namarada YadA for joining me tonight. And
if you want to learn more about Narada, you can
go to her Instagram page or her website which is
NY for Charlotte. And she wanted me to make it
perfectly clear that she believes you should pick the city
(26:10):
over party politics. All right, when we come back, let's
talk to another politician. My name is Brett Jensen, and
you're listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen ninety nine to
(26:41):
three WBT. Brett Jensen here with you on this raucus
Monday night edition of Breaking with Brett Jensen. As we
go up until seven o'clock tonight again, seven oh four
or five seven eleven ten is the WBT text line
and telephone number to get in on the show. Of course,
the text line brought to you by Liberty Buick GMC. Okay,
(27:02):
we're going to finish tonight's show by speaking with another candidate.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I interviewed him last week.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
He had some very blistering things to say about current
mayor Vilals, including calling her Charlotte's version of Joe Biden,
because she does seem to be at times maybe getting
a little loss in her train of thought, you know,
whether she's calling people by the wrong name or whatever
the case may be. So anyway, Brandon McGinnis, running for
(27:28):
mayor election days tomorrow, is in the Democratic primary and
he joins us now.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
So first of all, Brandon, I really appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
And second of all, the national media and several Democrat leaders,
including Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson, are
finally just speaking about the tragic situation that actually took
place seventeen days ago. What are your thoughts about it
finally getting to the national media and the fact that
it's taken so long, even for state leaders to discuss.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
I think it's it's let me by saying here, right,
I think you do a very good service for your listeners.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
I think you sit there and go past kind of
the partisan stuff and talk about the issues. And I
think that's why you've been talking about it this whole time,
and legacy media, national media hasn't you know. I think
when we talked in our interview a couple weeks ago,
you know, I saw the Independent UK paper covering this,
So it's like, why is there the UK paper covering this?
(28:24):
But then you'll have national outlets covering it. And yeah,
I don't know why they're not covering it's just you know,
they legacy media has a bad rap and then you
or what you have it and then they do something
like this to deserve it.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Speak with Brandon McGinnis, who is running from mayor in
the Democratic primary, and that takes place tomorrow. So Brandon,
since we last spoke, City council had a meeting with
the cat's authority people to talk about possible future light
rail stuff and safety or whatever, and they said, we
will never check every single ticket.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
That's just not going to happen. And we all know that.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
The killer did have a ticket to get on the
light rail. But they also had a big transit meeting
on Wednesday morning. So what are your thoughts about how
everything took place and everything that occurred.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Uh, you know, I can't say this doesn't happen all
the time, but you know it's it's I think it's
just a delayed, delayed delay and then expect the media
to get bored and move on to the next subject.
And that that tactic isn't working this time. That's why
it's still persisting. Over and over again. You know, all
the mayor had to do come out and she waited
(29:31):
four days to come out with a first Stavent. All
she had to do was come out there and say
we've got a plan. These are a couple of things
we're thinking about, and we're gonna put it. You know,
we're gonna start putting some plan and action. Do that.
And she didn't. She basically just said again, we've talked
about it before. She she mentioned the victim and then
she talked about mental health and had talked about talk
about the attacker, and you know, so she's like, okay,
(29:53):
you got you know, we messed up this time. Let's
have a transit meeting and let's talk about what we're
gonna do differently. And then I was at the transit meeting.
It was a public is open open to the public. Now,
mind you, open to the public does not mean public form.
And so they went to open the public store. There
the several concerned citizens, YadA, YadA, YadA. That meeting could
(30:17):
have been an email. They just talked about kind of
what they had kind of done. They talked about, well,
we've increased are our numbers, you know, we've increased the
spend on safety since twenty twenty three by from three
three times amount, and one of my questions, one of
my thoughts was like, well, okay, what's your return on investment?
(30:37):
Have we had a decrease in violence relative to that spend?
I mean, you can throw money at stuff, doesn't mean
necessarily solvent. But then they talked about stuff, and the
mayor didn't have any anything to add. It really was
just the matter all the other mayors only think Mayor
Washington was about the only one who actually had a
(30:58):
question that was relevant. I say, think Lee Altman, the commissioner,
she kind of had some stuff too, but most of
it was like, yeah, we're doing a great job. Thank
you for putting this together. And then they didn't open
it up for questions, and you know, there was a
couple that there, like I had eight questions, and I
was like, what's going on? Why aren't we asking that?
Speaker 4 (31:15):
You know? And the.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Mayor went to her usual line, I'm not a lawyer today,
you know, so I can't answer that, which is the
most tiredest line I've ever heard, considering that you have
a lawyer on hand. If someone like myself says that,
it actually means something because I don't have a lawyer
sitting right beside me. So she had the lawyer, and
the lawyer's like, ah, well, we didn't we didn't announce
this to the public. So we can't have questions come
(31:38):
back in two weeks at the regular scheduled meeting to
ask your questions. Who's going to come back in two
weeks to answer the questions. Who's going to sit there
and take the notes that I do unless I go
back there to ask those same questions. So that happened,
and then you know, finally they released the video, and
so the mayor got one more shot to get it right.
And she comes out she says, I've been thinking a
(32:00):
lot about what safety means to Charlotte, which is you've
got eleven whatever how many days, twelve days, fourteen days
to think about this and actually come up with something.
And your second statement is worse than your first statement.
See it's strike three. And this is the reaction you
get we talked about in our interview. This is the
reaction you get on the national stage from the President,
(32:22):
from Sean Duffy, from Stephen Miller, from Elon Musk. When
you don't have a plan and you show weakness, and
it's ridiculous, and it's ridiculous that they're letting her do this.
They're center out there and just you know that they're
letting her do that. And then it's ridiculous on the
media on the local level besides you that's just finally
(32:45):
picking this up and finally talking about it, even though
I've been talking about it for weeks and everybody's been
talking about it for a long time. So it's just,
you know, it's a failure of the system, whether you
talk about the mayor's office, whether you talk about local
Democratic leaders who should have been talking about this more,
and the local media at the same time too. I
(33:08):
don't know, maybe they're on her Christmas card lists or
something like that, and maybe that's why they don't want
to cover it or something like that. But it's just
a filure on so many levels.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Okay, Brandon McGinnis, who's running from mayor in the Democratic primary.
In the last thirty seconds or so, is there anything
that you'd like to say to the Democrat voters and
the unaffiliated voters that can still vote tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, it's not too late. It's not too late. Again,
the media hasn't really cover it except for you and
maybe some normal interviews. I talked about this on a
WBTV interview as well. I talked about this on a
WSOC interview that they ended up I guess editing out
and they just talked about transparency. You still have time.
(33:47):
Tomorrow's election day. I've got a plan. If you've gone
to my website www. McGuinness formayor dot org, I've got
everything laid out, whether it's public safety, transit, childcare, affordable housing,
transparency is all there in numbers one, five, ten year.
(34:09):
I've got a plan. The current mayor doesn't and nobody's
seeing it. You still have time. Let's bring hope home.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Brandon McGinnis, I really do appreciate your time tonight.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Sure, thank you Broth.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Once again, I want to thank Mamaradi Yadov, who was
running for Charlot City Council at Large, for joining me
earlier tonight, as well as Mark Garrison for his big story,
and of course Brendan McGinnis, who is running for mayor
on the Democratic primary side.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
We've got a big, big show for you tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Don't forget tomorrow's election day, so I'll have a lot
of stuff about that, But until then, my name is
Brett Jensen, and you have been listening to Breaking with
Brett Jensen,
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