Transcript: Trump Already Pushing Ugly, Hateful Lie About Hurricane
Clayton: We already knew that law was going to disenfranchise voters anyway, dealing with how slow the postal service just is right now, thanks to Donald Trump and his taking over of the postal service in that regard during his first term. There is a huge impact right now on that. We also saw the state, the Republican Court of Appeals in North Carolina delay mail-in ballots in order to get RFK Jr.’s name off the ballot, and the Republican Supreme Court that also held up and backed up the Court of Appeals. There is a lot of postal zip codes that the postal service, or the postal offices, that are there that are not able to actually still take or receive mail. And so there’s going to be a problem making sure that we’re reaching folks like that too. Like I said, we’re still in an assessment phase. I am definitely leaving that up to the State Board of Elections and to our county boards. We are here and we’re going to be able to help figure that out, but we are still in a phase of trying to figure out what this looks like on the ground and the immediacy of it. Again, folks can go to readync.gov if you are in need of help or you would like to see resources in the state for hurricane relief right now. So far we’re going to be monitoring what voter protection efforts look like across the state henceforth.
Sargent: So let’s go back to close out to what people are enduring right now in western North Carolina. Where are you from in the state? Do you have friends, relatives, loved ones that you’re in communication with? What are you hearing from there?
Clayton: Right now, folks are just trying to make sure everybody is OK. I’m really lucky. My aunt lives in Madison County in Mars Hill and that got hit pretty hard, but she’s OK. I’ve heard from our folks in Morganton and we’ve also heard from a lot of our county party chairs. Some of their homes look flooded, but we’re lucky that they are OK. Some of our county party headquarters are also going to open up as places where folks can come get supplies, especially when the roadways open back up. Make no mistake, we’re in this for the long haul, and the North Carolina Democratic Party is going to be dedicated, especially in those counties that got impacted and hit the hardest. We’re going to do everything we can to help over the next month, two months, two years, because we know it’s going to take a long time to rebuild in communities. That’s what western North Carolina does though. That’s what Appalachia does. They’re resilient. They’re good people, and they deserve all the attention and time that we can give them.
