Mayor Robert Burns Unfiltered: Nonpartisan Elections, Data Centers, and Political Pushback

Peter Pappas: Well everybody, good afternoon and welcome to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Pappas in studio with the lovely Laura Mussler Hello, hello. Hello, hello. And special guest today, Mr. Burns. Hello, Mr. Robert Burns. ⁓ well, maybe if I unmike unmute your mic. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, sir. So ⁓ nobody said I was technically proficient with all this stuff, but I'm getting there. So ⁓ Laura, we were on yesterday. Mm-hmm. ⁓ we had a we managed to eat up a whole hour, just me and you. I know. You and I. Sure did. You and I, you and I, me and you. Not only is she the emotional intelligent one of us, but also the gr the grammar Nazi as well. So Grammar Nazi. Wow. I I I I had my tattoo removed off my chest. ⁓ good yeah. Well so I guess I guess I well no, put it back on so you can run as a Democrat. ⁓ that's right. Okay. So that we're just called Nazis just because but they can get the tattoo and ⁓ they can actually be branded as such. Yes. Yes. But you know, people make mistakes. And I'm sorry I called you the Nazi because I just saw the soup Nazi episode from Seinfeld again. Because I'm watching that for like the twentieth time. It's okay. It it loses a little bit of ⁓ the sting when, you know, you're called it constantly. So it's okay. Yeah. Yeah, after a while it's like I I don't know why what are you who touched you as a child? So ⁓ Well let me tell you. So it was like no, I'm just joking. ⁓ Lord. Okay. Mr. Burns, go ahead. So let's let's talk about why he's here. And So our guest today is Mayor Robert Burns of Monroe. He is the one of the most talked about local elected officials in the state. He's a businessman, husband, and has six children. Holy smokes, his wife must be busy. He's ⁓ a very outspoken conservative leader. He first gained statewide attention after winning mayoral race in Monroe in one of the closest elections in North Carolina history. That's right. So him and his His ⁓ opponent got like nine seventy or sixty. Six seventy, nine seven nine seventy, nine hundred and seventy votes each, even. So then they did what? To you know, the democratic way is to no, they did not duel. They flipped a coin. That would have been nice. Arm wrestle or something. Arm wrestle, yeah, yeah. Arm wrestling would have been fun to watch. Yeah, but they just flipped a coin. And so now we now have Mayor Burns. Yes, yeah. So welcome. Congratulations, Mayor Burns. And I can depending on the coin toss. So was your opponent was it of the same party or no opposite. Okay. Complete opposite. So you don't do nonpartisan selections or you They were nonpartisan at the time. Yes. They're not nonpartisan any longer. Okay. Which do you like better? Partisan for sure. Okay. What changed or when did they change that? They changed that last July and they gave us partisan elections along with adding an extra year. That's why I'm still the mayor. ⁓ and yes, I'm not obviously running for reelection for mayor, so ⁓ But yeah, we we now have partisan elections in Monroe and I am absolutely for it. It's a great thing. Why do you like partisan better? Because it gives accountability and some responsibility even for those votes, right? So the biggest thing is is nonpartisan is completely nothing's neutral. Nothing is actually nonpartisan in actual politics. Right. Right. And that's the issue. And so typically what happens is you go in into an election, someone Many candidates tend to speak out both sides of their mouth. Mm-hmm. Okay. And they'll promise you one thing, sound like one person, go in front of another, you know, citizen and sound like another. And ⁓ and I heard for the first two years of my tenure, like, ⁓ this is nonpartisan, this is nonpartisan. But we would often vote on partisan issues and or platform issues, I would say, Democrat or Republican. And then, ⁓ no, this is neutral. Nothing is neutral. Nothing is neutral. And as a matter of fact, it's just the amount of chaos that I have seen that. And then ⁓ people need to know I think that's a great starting point, right? That doesn't explain who you completely are. I'm not I'm not completely just a Republican, right? I'm a Christian, I'm a father, I'm a business owner. ⁓ I mean, I can go on for days. I'm a conservative. You can we know that that might not be the case for some Republicans. Okay. And so those things I'm a constitutionalist, so there's a lot of things like that. ⁓ but at least it's a starting point. And I think that at the very basic level, when you go in to vote, people need to know at least I think it helps kinda educate people where at least they lie on major issues. Okay. I think it it takes out a lot of the hide and seek that you see you have, I think, in our own local ⁓ city council election. We have the runoff. Well, we had a candidate. ⁓ she won her election, but she was out there saying that her opponent was a Donald Trump and her opponent was ⁓ this and her opponent was racist. Another black female, by the way. Okay. So they but they kind of hide and seek behind that veil of ⁓ well they're a Republican or they're you know, or the idea that someone is running for all people. You know, nobody all people. Nobody speaks for all people. That I think in politics that's probably one of the most arrogant things I've ever heard. That's absolutely impossible. You cannot speak for all people. You're not God. Yeah. Yeah. As much as they think they are. See, now I think once you get into office that you don't speak for anybody because you try and kind of do things on your own that don't benefit our people, but that's we've seen a lot of that. Yes, we have. That's my personal. They forget that they're representatives. People say, ⁓ they're our leaders. No, they're not. They're not leading me anywhere. 1800 or 1900 votes in your election. How big is Monroe? Well, it was more than that. But just for the mayoral election because there we had five others that ran for mayorals. Okay. So yeah. And so and and so and that was all nonpartisan. We didn't have a primary. So a partisan includes a primary, okay? But we were nonpartisan. So that's also the issue. So what often happens we had a primary partisan even for no well, we don't we didn't have that. So I know that I guess that you know every area is different, but we had for the mayor Mirror election, there were five of us running. So that's incredibly important to know. There were five of us running. And one person had been in politics and and had run, been on city council a couple of times. ⁓ then another individual was the newly appointed, he was the appointed next guy up. We had a homeless woman also run. Guys she got ninety votes, by the way, which just mind blowing. And then we and then the guy that I ended up tying with, I'm calling Mr. Other Side of the Coin. He actually ⁓ had been running for eight years and so I'd only been running for three and a half months. So and we significantly beat the next guy who was, you know, get technically number th like third so it like dropped off to five hundred or four hundred. Pretty pretty close. Okay. Okay. So you you basically had a general primary. You just went straight to the November We did. Yep, yep. And in election cycle for us outside before we had a primary, ⁓ You you filed in July, you have a couple of weeks and then come November, then that's when you that's when that was. But now there is what they call H B three, House Bill three passed, it was local bill, gave Monroe primary elections, or I'm sorry, partisan elections with the primary, and then they bumped us all back or you know, add another year to everybody's term. So now we're on even cycle two. That's incredibly important because the turnout's gonna be much much larger. So your next election and your Would be this this November. This November. Okay. Yep. And my guy that I got behind, he ended up winning in the primary by sixteen percentage points to ⁓ a a woman, no disrespect, but she literally was per the establishment, not even establishment, the the Monroe ball that you and I were talking about earlier. She was the next anointed and appointed. And she was supposed to go in there and absolutely wipe the floor with either one of us. And ⁓ because of what I'm gonna be running for, I could not do that because I'm mayor to them this year. So we already gotta get kicked off and start doing things. What you're gonna be running for? Is there an announcement that you're gonna make on the Carolina campaign? We are literally running around the state right now, listening to people through listening to her and going around and yeah, we're absolutely considering and pretty much there ⁓ running for governor. Okay, great. Okay. But anyway, so he he beat he beat this anointed and appointed next Personally about sixteen percentage points. Excellent. And so now they're going into the general and that will be between a Republican and Democrat. Let's bring it home. ⁓ so what is your ⁓ partisan makeup ⁓ in Mon so in your municipality in Monroe, ⁓ how many voters do you have, do you think? I should have prepped you for Okay. So as as far as the amount of voters, I believe it's like registered around twenty three thousand. Okay. ⁓ wow. Yeah. Okay. And what was your turnout for the year election? Like twelve percent, eleven percent? Yeah, roughly. There's really so that's consistent among everybody. About twelve thirteen percent. Of your twenty or so thousand ⁓ voters, because we have in our city we have two the whole county has two hundred and twelve. I think in the city we have about a hundred and sixty thousand registered voters, but it breaks down ⁓ significantly. Republican about ⁓ thirty per c no, what was it, twenty five percent and then unaffiliated and democrats are seventy five percent. Okay. So we are heavily Well, how could we be thirty five and maybe seventy five? Just out of curiosity. What kind of Okay. It's good math though. Yeah. I'm mathing. I'm mathing, baby. ⁓ so what is the makeup up there in Moreau? ⁓ largest demographic is unaffiliated. Okay. Okay. And then it literally fluctuates back and forth between Democrat and Republican. Really? Yes, it does. Okay. But they have five city council members that are Republican and two that are Democrat, is that right? Correct. Yeah, just so well and we'll just You know, put a little asterisk beside that. Yes, and say registered. Registered. Maybe not voting like. Well, not every ⁓ PhD on Facebook is registered to vote, but they have an opinion. So So would you say that Monroe is more of a conservative area? I believe so. But because of the nonpartisan issue. Okay. You just don't don't know. You don't know. And ⁓ and it has been very blue purple ish a couple of years ago those w we got for I think the first time in a while, three registered, not just unaffiliated, three registered Republicans on. But since I've been there, they don't vote that way. And really since they've been there, they don't vote that way 'cause they were there two years before because we cycle our, you know, we have three council members run every four years. Okay. Stagger. Every two years. But they're staggered terms. Yes. Correct. Wow. That's crazy how that works. Well, Hope Mills just went to that. Yeah. We couldn't get City of Fable to go to that or ⁓ some people in this room were against that. What, stagger terms? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was. I like it now considering some of the ⁓ brain trust that's been elected. ⁓ yeah, I'd like to see some shake up. And and again, it doesn't always like match up for you, specifically if what happens is you have elected officials who ⁓ listen to the loudest voice who's not always the majority. Mm-hmm. Right. And so when they come in and they rattle the cage and they scream and they yell and send a thousand emails, bombard your the you know, ⁓ again, just remember it's impossible to represent all people. And so that type of understanding, oftentimes which I've seen in politics already in ⁓ in in Monroe, really that their own people that voted for them originally because that you have to admit that they were registered Republicans, even though it was a nonpartisan race, they got there originally. Every single one of those ⁓ individuals who were registered Republicans that were up this time, because I'm telling you they haven't voted on a Republican basis, now that were partisan, they just got wiped. The their floor on the floor. I mean it's bad. They got they all all three of them lost. So so now we have individuals who because it also did what it put them on record. That's the other thing you gotta remember. It put them on record specifically with their own party. Right. And so when that went forward and stuff that They were doing a lot of him and Holland and they were upset about it. But ultimately what happened is when it came down to it, the Republicans booted them out. They did not win. I like partisan everything. Me too. Yeah. Me too. And it doesn't benefit you everywhere. It doesn't re benefit Republicans everywhere, but at least you know where to start. Yeah. And and I I believe that we shouldn't have our open primary either. I think those of us Republicans should elect our nominate our people that we want to Yeah. Yeah. Just like people were saying, ⁓ i in here in Fayetteville, there were some people in this room that were saying, Go if you're unaffiliated, go pull a Democrat ballot because you have a bigger ⁓ chance of That wasn't me, by the way. Wasn't it? Well it wasn't me, so yeah, I don't know. But ⁓ yeah Joel. I I mean allegedly some things have been said that were incorrect, but ⁓ at the time they seemed like the right thing to do. Right, no, the Democrats should be voting for the Democrats. And if you want it if you want to stay unaffiliated, I respect that. That's cool. Absolutely. 100%. But you shouldn't have a s you pick a side or Okay, so let me qualify why I said something crazy like this. Okay, please. I will I will I will qualify. Let's hear. To me, any candidate needs to be out there discussing and trying to sell me on the value proposition of giving you my vote. Yes. There are so many candidates that we have locally that the elevator does not go to the top floor. That's the truth. And They think just simply because they are Democrats or they are Republicans that you should vote for them. And the excuse will be, well, would you rather have a Democrat in the seat or would you have rather have a Republican in the seat? I'd rather have a trained monkey in an organ grinder in the seat before I just vote for you based on what color cape you want to wear today. Okay. So to me, the the primary deal with the unaffiliates is sell them on why you're a good proposition. Yes. You have to have something more than look at me. I I I I do what Donald Trump is gonna say. Donald Trump has been wrong before. Just so everybody knows, yes. Some of his endorsements, in my opinion, are like way out of the way. Yes, yes. Well, well, you know, l let's even say let's p kind of put it to y'all like this. So the guy that I got behind for mayor, okay. His name's David Dotson. Excellent, excellent person. Okay. A great guy. He's we we've been on the same side pretty much voting almost every single time, which doesn't mean that like we don't have disagreements and things, by the way. Okay. But we work very well together. I'd have to say that in the city of Monroe, you can go back and you can look at to see how the unaffiliated's fall. And you do that by looking at how they vote in primaries. They voted thirty thirty, let me get this right, thirty-eight percent to twenty-four percent. Republican over Democrat when Donald Trump was in. So we knew going in that while the unaffiliated was the higher vote getter, okay, at the same or or registered or unregistered, I guess is the best way to put it. ⁓ while they might have been the highest party, because it's still kind of a party. Yes, they are. While while they're the highest, at the same time, they vote most of the time in the Monroe area as conservatives. And so they say that's true most everywhere. Most everywhere. And and except for actu actually except for like in Charlotte, but most everywhere, right? And so because of that, you know, we went in with with a level of confidence and knowing who to go after and stuff like that too. I think that the unaffiliated, now my guy David, he won by 16 percentage points. Okay. That's a lot. And we actually had a larger turnout in our primary this year because we pushed so heavily than we did in the entire election the previous year vote wise for mayor election, okay, which is awesome. But that that unaffiliated vote contributed to probably about four to five points. Now, the Republicans themselves came out heavily in drugs, but it does help. So there are those instances that that happens, but there was a push in Monroe. It just didn't stick. For the Democrats were pushing, and a handful of other people that lean very liberal, but they might be unaffiliated. They were swinging, like they were pushing this thing all over social media to register or when you go in to vote for a for the primary to vote for the ⁓ to pull a Republican ballot and then vote for everyone who was against David Dotson, so for the other candidate. Because the Democrat Party didn't have a primary. They she the the the Democrat candidate went in un you know uno unopposed so So there is a real reason why I can see it specifically in larger elections where a closed primary would prevent that swing. But I don't know if it it's hard. I'm kind of like in the middle. I see both arguments. I see both arguments too. However, as a person who I live my life through politics, a hundred and fifty percent. I've been to the leadership institute, I've taken clas every class that comes available I wanna know. I've been a campaign. Yes. I am a campaign consultant and the campaign manager and all of that stuff. So I love everything about politics. And why should I put on all my work supporting Republicans and Republican candidates only to have some unaffiliated that you don't want to pick a side and come decide who I have to support? I understand all that. Yeah. No. I I'm not gonna argue with you. I see the problem in that for sure. Specifically large elections. Yes. Yeah. I got you. Yeah, anyway. Okay. Well okay, so am I allowed to talk about not positive things and like things with like no confidence? Yes, of course you can. Okay. ⁓ so why did Monroe City Council ⁓ have a vote of no confidence in your leadership? Tell me what happened. What's all that about? So ⁓ It's gonna come out anyway, so I might as well Yeah, yeah. It's gonna come out, but it's gonna heavily benefit me now. Right. And the reason being is because of exactly what I just told you. We have a ⁓ it if anybody's listening and they don't know what a cabal is, that is a political elitist group. It you know, it it consists of people who try and sway elections almost like a religion in a in a sense. Okay. So we have something very similar to like that, like a lot of other towns do around this state. I am not the established group, cabals group, the group. that if you understand the logistics of Union County and why they're heavily Republican, I'm not the group that the guys who've been there for the longest, I wasn't that guy, I wasn't their candidate. I'd been asked when I first got ⁓ put my papers in, I was asked to remove myself because they saw what what the previous mayor told me. They saw the way in which the wind was blowing. Because I bring a lot more energy. We're a lot more organized. Even right now with our campaign, We're way more organized than anybody else at this level where we are two and a half years out. Okay. That's just the way that I operate. All right. And ⁓ and when I get focused on something, I'll outwork everybody. And so they saw that and they came and they asked me to step down, to remove myself, and they would ⁓ they would appoint me because the guy was currently on counsel. If he was gonna win, then they would appoint me to his seat. Okay. That's what I was told. But they didn't know me very well. I'm the guy that if you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to show you how it's done. That would have pissed me off too. And and and that's basically what I said. After multiple meetings and individuals wanting to go get lunch with me, they were like, no, this a he's supposed to be the next mayor. As a matter of fact, I was even told by one of those guys that I'm not the type of local candidate they want, but a state and federal candidate, somebody who pushes back on people. But locally, and it's understood basically in politics, right? People don't like the feathers ruffled too close to their home. That's true. So people do get uncomfortable, but that type of mentality is changing. Look at Spencer Pratt. Okay. People are actually sick of politics. I'm not the typical politician. All right. But I can work with people and I have tried for years. So starting off, I was already not their guy. Okay. Then they came in trying to ask me to do things and bully me around and stuff like that. And I'm like, listen, if it's right for the people, specifically the people who elected me, remember, I don't believe that you can. represent all people, but you're responsible for all people. Okay. So I was elected by individuals. I ran on on the fact I was a Christian, cons constitutionalist, conservative, okay, because remember you're not Republican at the at the time as a nonpartisan. And so I ran on those values. And then if you're going to tell me that I have to be okay with all age drag shows in a restaurant downtown Monroe, I'm not going to be there. And even they would tell you, well, no, we're not two, but we have to do it a certain way. You mean backdoor politics? Again, I'm not there with you. And so they did that for a long time. They pushed and pushed and pushed. And I then did, ⁓ and so we'll touch on the censure first because that's really what came, because a no confidence vote sounds worse, but it's actually less than a censure. I was censured because I put out a pro life proclamation on Roe v. Wade. I'm very pro life. I believe that life begins at conception. But what I don't do, unlike previous candidates and other people, is because I have a heart for people too. I have a heart for women and especially these babies and stuff like that. I will not condemn anybody who's gone through that. And I'm, but I just want these women and these families to know there's a better way. There's a better way. And so that's kind of my message. That's all that actually the censure or I'm sorry, the proclamation I put out was. That group, or really ⁓ the Ball and the group of politicians that have been there had never seen a politician like me before in Monroe. We're getting more stuff done in those first six months than they had ever done, you know, 20 years before me. ⁓ they wanted to control me. And some of them were upset with that. And even if you read the proclamation, there was absolutely nothing condemning or negative language unless you just simply hate life. I would just say that. Okay. So ⁓ There are those moments. There are those moments, but people too. Let's just say I don't hate my life some people some people. So so that then so then they censured me. But here's what happened. Not the being others got hold of that and that and every time they come after me, they've not figured it out. My name, I believe in the name of the Lord, gets out there even more. Okay. So that's how that mentality Thank you earned media. Yes, and that's exactly what happens. Plus I happen to be in the largest market and then one of the largest markets in the entire southeast. Right. So let's back up for just a moment. So tell me the cabal. Are we talking about people on our side of the fence? Generally registered. Registered. Registered. But okay, so the makeup of Union County about twenty, thirty years ago, was completely blue. Mm-hmm. Around the time that Charlotte started flipping and Mecklenburg County started flipping, what ended up happening was ⁓ it went red. Mm-hmm. So a lot of people deep into the city, right? City politics city politics, not maybe n maybe not necessarily country politics. Gotcha. We have a lot of blue dog Democrats, just as conservative as you and I, but they're farmers. Okay. So they were all flipped red, but deep into deep into the city of Monroe, they all started flipping red because they didn't want to be outside of the political structure that was obviously happening around the state. Mm-hmm. So we have a group of individuals and everybody knows who they are if you live in Monroe and I'm sure y'all have something very similar to it. I got a list. I'll go talking about yes. Come on. And so these individuals who have been in politics in the area for a very long time. That sounded really creepy, just you know. They they had a list. They they they want you to come kiss the ring, yeah, bow down and ask for permission. One guy told me that he and who's a part of that group, by the way, but how he got started was he wanted to be a part of the school board. And he had to he was on hold for about eight to nine years. Then they gave him the ability to do that. And then they blessed his ability to go into the to be a county commissioner. And then and then the county commissioner makeup structure all changed and he became very angry and aggressive and all this other stuff. But regardless of that, that's the cabal. So it it's a group of individuals that are just been in the politic the political system in Monroe slash Union County for a long time. And they are the ones that want you to ask for permission. And they are still there. I think they're just a cabal of some beta male beta male conservatives that supplicants and they want to just be told what to do. There's women that because I am the cog and the wheel, as you know. I speak out. I do I I know you're kind of a rock in people's shoes, but Yeah, and and and I do not fit into that cabal and because of that I have a lot of issues. Well, like I fit in. Well, you don't fit in anyway. I don't I you know, that's the What so I ran for city council out of the blue back in twenty one. And he did quite well. ⁓ I did. Good. But ⁓ the people at their GOP were like, ⁓ can you meet with us? Like we don't know who you are. Yeah. So but and that was fine. And you I met, but I was not I think ⁓ my initial friction with coming into politics then was I told people a lot of times to pound sand. Yeah. Well I didn't like you know, the thing about abortion. People get mixed up with it. I'm like, look That's this woman's worst part of her life. Why do I need to make it you know, so I I wasn't following that traditional party line and that that friction then showed the people that are of that cabal here in Cumberland County. You know, and so to speak going back to cause I don't wanna I'm just trying to give you guys some background to the no confidence vote, they created a process. They took away my ability to make proclamations. By the way, I I literally took that proclamation, sent it to our city attorney as every mayor did before me. Mm-hmm. And they said that I they were telling everybody else. They weren't telling the truth that I had worked outside of my authority. My our attorneys were the ones who okayed and even edited the proclamation and it went out. So they created a process. So you I couldn't make proclamations. Who's they? The city council created a process because all you need is four votes and hours, but it's basically always five or something. And so they made a process of me not being able to do that. Okay, fine. Whatever. Okay. Well, the following year when it was no confidence vote, it literally there was a letter. Y'all, I wrote a letter. And so they wanted to censure me again, and my attorney was like, you will be infringing on his First Amendment rights. You cannot do that. Well, then what's worse? Well, we'll do a no confidence vote. What does that mean? It has absolutely no teeth, as if the other one didn't anyways. Whereas censure really hurts you is on the state level. Yeah. Doesn't it it doesn't really do anything to you anyways on the citywide level. So they actually said that ⁓ we as we were in the meeting for the no confidence vote and all the media even asked our own attorneys sitting there, they tried to catch me on a bunch of lies and and I caught them and I and I literally directed them. I was like, that's not true. That's and so eventually the question was, it came up, did the mayor break any? And the attorney was like, No. Is there any real reason for them to do this? Our own city attorney said no, because he was the one who told them that they could not censor me. And so then they were like, Okay, ⁓ well, we're gonna do no confidence vote and they just did a no confidence vote. And and again, it sounds worse than it is. There there is no enforcement mechanism at the municipal level. ⁓ we've had ⁓ Councilman Dawkins, I think, got in trouble with councilman at the time, ⁓ Yvonne Kinston, who ⁓ Dino Hondras now has her seat, district nine. ⁓ he got into it with her at a meeting and became quote disrespectful and they censured him and Nothing happened. So it's gonna come up, but here's the best part. ⁓ they did it, they did it incorrectly. They I still believe that and and many others do as well, but I'm holding them at bay for infringing my first amendment rights. But then at the same time, these same guys now they they always put it on our agenda as ethics. Do you know that two of these individuals you have one year after you are elected, one year to take your ethics class? In the state of North Carolina as a municipal elected official. And one of the guys who's been there now who was up for reelection and he lost though. So four years. So he's been there for four and a half years now. Remember, because he got an extra year. He just took his ethics class. One of the ladies right now who's the mayor pro tem, she's in trouble because she's on a board of a company that's receiving money from our city council. She sits on the committee directing funding to them. We just found out. She's broken the law. It's a misdemeanor, it's a class one misdemeanor. So she's not getting reelected, so that really is No, no, no. She's the mayor pro Tem, who's a Democrat who's running for mayor. ⁓ okay. Yeah. So again, every it all comes back. Is it a nonprofit by any chance? It is a nonprofit. Of course. Surprise. Yeah. I love the grift always continues with these guys. I was the only I was the only one person running without a nonprofit. And I was like, why did it why did Every candidate have a non profit. She's on the board of this non profit though. She doesn't run it. The nonprofit is the modern equivalent of the mafia for ⁓ certainly because I too ran for city council. But I lost my forty one votes. Can you say forty one? So depressing. But anyway. ⁓ you can ask me anything though. I'm just being honest with So more of that than asking. Is your so your style of government as a ⁓ city manager and wait, he has more enemies. Well, I'm sure. The NAACP. ⁓ Wanted him removed from all because to me, if you're not talking about all the bad stuff, then you're hiding it and it comes out and it catches you off guard. So I'd rather get it out of the way so that it's talked about and then we can move on and be all the problems. So one So the type of government is just like Fable here. We have the city manager, you have the city staff. So you guys are figureheads for your districts and all, and then you advocate. I mean, you it's a council management type of government. I would actually tell you that in the court of public perception, I'm much more than a figurehead. But technically speaking, the council as a whole dictates the agenda as a whole, that of the city manager who then operates the city. When I when I was running, I was told consistently that I'm just a figurehead, just out kissing babies, doing ribbon cuttings. that's the case, why are they such an uproar over everything? Well and you are in charge of hiring that city manager and you I mean as but I'm and not the city. You see what I mean? Okay. And so you're just one vote. You just get to claim a state of emergency and be on TV. In in the public in pretty good in the court of public perception, I run the entire city. I am technically the head figure head of the city council. And that's what drives them crazy because w it's the same thing with the governor. Okay. Our governor has the absolute least amount of power than any other governor in in this entire union. So why would anybody want to run for governor? It's because just like a pastor or anything else, all right, the personality becomes that of the person who's in the head. So now, I mean, I can go on for days of great things that are happening in the city of Monroe, but it's because people now feel like there's less, because there is less regulation and so on and so on and so forth. But Yes, I have plenty of enemies and then we can address the NAACP. So what kind of social media posts and public comments did you have? Okay. So ⁓ because of my social media, which hits I told you earlier about eight and a half million people a month. Okay. after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, remember the guy didn't die from a heart attack or anything like that. The guy was assassinated. The local Union County Democrat Party, the old chair, Is quite possibly one of the most racist individuals you'll ever meet. You will, if you watch or go look at his social media, even when we're done with this, it will blow your mind. Okay. And it's the Republican Party? No. Democrat Party. Democrat Party. He is the ex ⁓ chair, but he is still on the Democrat Party Executive Committee of the State. When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, that dude went on and started saying that. He could rest in piss. He could, you know, he's dancing on his grave for all he matters. He was mocking Charlie, all the stuff. He's a he's saying some of the most hateful, crazy things. So to me, because he is in the executive party, the Democrat Party of ⁓ the state, okay, and Anderson Clayton knows me very well. And all of them, they don't like me. I don't like them. It's it's very well known. that, because of that, it had to be called out. Because political violence or violence in any sort towards any individual is absolutely ridiculous. And I would not be okay with that, but naturally because it was Charlie Kirk and of course nobody was saying anything. So there was obviously that time where all these people were going out and celebrating his death. What were people doing? So I called him out on social media and I did post who he was, what he does, and everything else. Not really, but yes. Okay. Sounds a little bit like It's not doxing unless you're sending him like SWAT teams to his door. No, that's called SWATY. That's called SWAT. Okay. That's a whole nother thing. Catch up with the ⁓ no, but I I mean I did. ⁓ and and and ha and you know what? I don't take that back at all. This guy was vile and people need to know who he is and what he's doing. And by the way, he has a position as the Democrat Party leader. As one for our entire state. And so, anyways, that said, it went viral and hit millions and millions of people. And other people picked it up, David Harris, all these other guys picked it up and they and everything. And keep in mind, even right now, I've not even mentioned the guy's skin color. I never mentioned his skin color, not one time. When I was asked about it. ⁓ even on the radio, I never mentioned this man's this man's skin color. I told them how he calls out white liberals. He and I mean even even people in his own party, it's he is a vile person. That said, because he is happens to be black, which I don't care if he's black, white, you know, red, nothing, they came after me. But here's the funny thing, is this gentleman also serves on the NAACP locally in Union County. Good role models. There you go. So that's what that is. And now can I also tell you that I got one individual reached out to me during all of this. I now spoke to Lorenzo Sol, who has who was the pastor, the one who gave the ⁓ the prayer for President Trump. Okay. And President Trump has gone to Detroit and seen him multiple times. I've talked to ⁓ Brandon Tatum and all these guys, they re you know, they were like, listen. The NAACP is a communist organization. They do not represent us. But I had the woman whose family is the largest donor ever in the history of Union County NAACP, and one of the largest ever in this entire state. She called me and told me, do not listen to them. They do not represent her or anything else. And so we've had that discussion. I've talked with John Imageo ⁓ recently, and he has even said the same thing. So that that was that was a political hit job, but People on the surface, if they don't know that the NAACP is running out of money, so they're talking about other things and they want the race baiting issue to come and to still be alive. If they don't know that it l sounds bad, but most conservative Republicans and even in unaffiliates don't even pay attention. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. Well and NAACP here locally in Cumberland County. I mean, they they organize a lot of events. They bring people together, it seems like, but I don't think it's an indictment on all of the NAACP chapters, but I think they just once in a while they get some pretty vile people in their leadership and that happens. I mean, ⁓ hell even the state democrat leader, the young lady, she's a rather outspoken little thing, a little spitfire. Everything that comes out of her mouth has to do with race. Everything. Everything. And for those of us that are brown, we we're not we're white. The problem is it precludes you from just being a straight up asshole. You know what I mean? Like it th like that can't exist anymore. You must be because you're black or white. You just can't be an a-hole of people. And when we just talked about all this with John Michuku, he asked me on his podcast the same exact stuff. And that this new what the president of the NAACP in Charlotte was like, if you're white and you're running for mayor to take over Vi Lyles, then then ⁓ step away. You're encroaching and you're like, whoa, how come yeah what a double standard? Because when Joe Biden was running for office and he stepped down. There was not another re-election. How come it's different when Kamala Hare steps up? And and so what it is is people are afraid to talk about it. You know, and and I'm not afraid to talk about it. Actually, people are not afraid to talk about it because one side talks about race all the time. Yes. And I'm I I'm white presenting. That's what I was told. I'm white presenting. Did I tell you that? ⁓ no bell I'm sorry, I almost said her name on the ⁓ no, our state senator. Our my my representative state senator said that. And I said, Well, as a as a Hispanic female, that I'm offen offended by that because not only do I with the last name Rodriguez, do I not in fit with fit in with the white folk, but because I don't speak Spanish, I don't fit in with Mexico. So you're right. I am maybe white a presenting but I don't fit in with anybody, so I can relate. But it's unfortunate because you should never, no matter who you are. You can't choose your skin color. You don't wake up and decide that you're gonna be lay the sun, you do. Well, not really. Not me. I go straight to lobsterly. But I'm just saying, like yeah, for for that to constantly go back to that, I think that it you know it's you thought we got past some of this stuff in the eighties and nineties. I feel like ⁓ like my college orientation in ninety seven was celebrate diversity. Right. But we were done. It was like cool, it's the nineties, I don't nobody cares. Until Obama rewoke up the race baiting in this country because, quote, Trayvon could have been my son. I mean, that kind of crap. Well, you know, I think that it's okay to talk about it in the sense that, you know, I mean, there are certain things, of course, I'm not going to feel comfortable talking about either because the reality is is because I believe everyone is made in the image of God. Everybody has inherent value. Okay? There's inalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And if you infringe on any of those, I don't care what color you are. I don't care what religion you are. I'm I'm a Christian. I believe, you know, Jesus Christ is the way. But you do have rights here. The second greatest document ever created outside of the Bible is the US Constitution. And so here we are today, your Declaration of Independence and or those two combined, you know, it are founding documents. And so that's why it doesn't make sense to me that we even are still talking about this. Right? Because ultimately you can talk to most people and in in this country it racism exists. Okay? It does exist, but it exists all over the world. We're we're we're not the founding, you know, we're not the founding in the country. Yeah, that's that's not that's not true. I mean, ⁓ I I'll be honest with you, I've literally gone over to ⁓ Lebanon and have served over in Lebanon in missions for individuals and Syrians that were, you know, displaced from the war that was happening. Okay. And so we're while we're over there, I can't tell if they're Lebanese or Syrian, but there was a real racist battle that was happening over there at the same time. And so it is it it's a condition of of humans that that we need to get past and we need to talk about, we need to get over at the same time. And so I don't believe in judging anybody based off of the way that they look. I think that's ridiculous. No. Absolutely. Unless you're fat. That just means well because you're because you're costing me more insurance fatty. Put down the spoon. ⁓ yeah. Come on, man. Be healthy. That was funny. I was making a joke. Please. I you know, whatever. I'm sorry. That was not nasty. Podcast host Musler hates fat people. I can see the headline now. Yeah. I know I'm just It's okay. They're my best customers. Are they? Yes. Of course. They're eating sandwiches. All that everybody loves some steak and cheese and mayonnaise. All right. Just back up a little bit. ⁓ So yeah, we don't want to judge people by the color of their skin. It doesn't matter. It it truly is content of the character. One podcast I was on, the guy tried to screw with me and he says, let's talk about reparations. And I said, Look, my dad immigrated in nineteen sixty eight. It wasn't my fault. So do I get a pass? Well, what I mean, like I you I mean, they really want to go down that. My my wife is directly related to General Sherman. Okay, people down here south might not like that, but what was he doing? He was fighting for the ending of slavery, okay. So like you see what I'm saying? Like that just doesn't line up. You can't Our history is colorful and full of holes. Nobody's perfect. There were lots of white people that were fighting to end slavery. That's right. It was not just although the war of northern aggression was not really all about slaves, it was about the states' rights, but that right would happen to be owning slaves. But ⁓ but it was the Republicans that freed the slaves. It was the Republicans party that It's just being co-opted by That's correct. Yeah. Well, let's take back the language. That's the whole thing, right? Let's talk about it. And that way that, you know, let's remove that uncomfortableness. Right? Let's that's what you gotta do. They would stop celebrating Juneteenth if they knew that it was really a Republican holiday. Yeah. Well they would stop breathing if they if Donald Trump said that ⁓ breathing cures cancer. I mean they just you know TDS is a real thing. I it really is. But Burns derangent syndrome I've realized in at least the Monroe and North Carolina area is real too. What is it? Burns derangent derangent but but but you know you have to be careful saying BDS, but at the same time, like you know, Trump deranged derangement syndrome is a real thing. Yes, it's real. It hurt it hurts me to f to see friends of mine that are liberal. I have some, you know, good out in the open. Yeah, and we're friends outside, you know, not just like in clothes rooms or anything. But it bothers me when they truly feel a certain kind of way. You know, they feel so, ⁓ we're in such a bad time. And I'm like, No it's not that bad. Nobody's coming for you. Nobody's you know You know how you fix all that though? Is you still show people kindness. Like I'm bold, but like not angry bold. Like like we can have tough discussions, but we still need to get things done for the betterment of all for of everybody, you know, it's just I believe like it used to be that the political system was that we all had the same ultimate goal, which was to make America great or better than it was. We just had two different ways of doing it. And so you can talk to people and show kindness. Like I don't I never go anywhere. I mean, you know what? We went and stopped and got a burger for McDonald's. When I went to go pay, I didn't ask the guy, hey, by the way, are you a Democrat? Because I'm afraid to give you this money. Like I would never do that. Like you don't, you know, I you you just that's not how you operate. No, like you have to treat people with respect and kindness, and you have to be able to ⁓ to work with them at the same time, right? And like, and a lot of those common goals are making sure that you're at least when you hit that light switch, the lights turn on. When you flush the toilet. It goes to the right place. When you turn on the water, making sure that the internet, everybody's got internet. Like there's things like that though. Your your roads are paved. Making sure that, you know, I believe in being fiscally responsible and start ask stop asking for all these government programs. We really shouldn't need an auditor, but we need one. Why? Because people don't know how to control their spending habits. And when you give extra power to the government unchecked, that's why you need an auditor on your side like bullying. That's why you need individuals to team up with. And that is why we've got to work better together. But for the betterment of all people, people often say, because I push out a lot of ideas, I'm I'm a big type vision type person, okay? And and I'll push out ideas and we'll start talking about, you know, different ways of bringing in revenue to the state and all these other things. Well at the same time, what you want to do is we want to reduce the burden on the pockets of the individuals around the state. Yes, affordability. But now affordability is becoming that one of those hot topic issues that Democrats are starting to own. It's not fair because as a matter of fact, Roy, you have been in power for forty years in the state of North Carolina. Right, right, right. So when you start talking about those types of things and the programs that are available and that type of stuff, we've got to be able to ⁓ to change the trajectory of the state. And ⁓ so anyways, I I I can talk about forever. I know you got other questions, but Yeah. So bef I wanted to ask you because it's local topic, hot topics here. Yes. ⁓ any any kerfuffle about data centers up near you? Okay. That seems to be the hot topic that you're lately down here. So data centers. I understand where the idea of data centers came data centers came from. Sorry, I'm pretty country sometimes. So then the there's extra R's every now and then, okay? ⁓ the data centers. in in where that came from. And so back around two thousand fifteen, two thousand sixteen for the state, they gave them a tax exemption. Okay. That if they invested X amount of dollars over I think it was over maybe seventy five million dollars, don't quote me on that, but it's something like that. They would be tax exempt for certain things. Okay. So the idea of the large amount of investment that would come into a city, any any other municipality or county or whatever, they would actually not be contributing back to the money for so many years. For so many years. Okay. So, however, it could be big business. The problem is, is that there is major issues with our infrastructure. And the fact of the matter is, like in Monroe, we have reduced regulation. I'm going to brag on our city for a second. I'll get to that. We've reduced regulations and processes and procedures. We've removed the silos that happened and we have real processes in our city. Where I am happy to tell you, and it's a hundred percent true, that we have roughly two and a half billion dollars since I've been in that we brought into the city. Okay. The thing is, is we have a new investment that's coming into the city that's almost about $400 million manufacturing. Okay. That four hundred million dollars in manufacturing is bringing roughly around two, like one thousand to two thousand employees. And the and it also brings in more economics. Sure. Tax money, so we're relieving the tax burden of the people, then multiple neighborhoods combined. So instead of having to bring in all of these apartment complexes and things like that, right? Instead of having to bring them all in and like have all this high-density housing that's also stranding infrastructure and everything, if you go after that, it is a massive tax benefit for the city for all citizens. Now, we had a data center come. And asked to be a part of the city of Monroe. It's a $500 million investment, y'all. Now keep this in mind though. Do you know how many people and jobs that would create? Five. Forty. Forty? That's better than I believe it was a hundred megawatts of power needed. Right. Okay. A thoul, I'm sorry, a million gallons of water. Guys, like that's the issue. If you can fix that issue, then maybe let's talk. D does Monroe already have ordinances in place or any s so what where we're at down here is that people have lost their minds because they want a moratorium, they want this, that, and the other, but because they're not realizing our development ordinance has zero mention of a data center because when we did the UDO it was twenty, thirty years ago. Right. It wasn't a construct. So our city council and county commission are trying to add that create a framework. So if data center come, then we have an idea of what we would ask or whatever. So do y'all have some kind of framework already? We have significantly overhauled our UDO. Okay. Okay. Significantly. ⁓ because of zoning, we do not have to and I I have not read your UDO. Mm-hmm. Okay. Let me be very clear. So I don't think that's good reading for a Sunday night. What your I'm sure. It's real interesting. I've read all of See, I was thinking Friday Friday night. Why not? Don't go out with your family. Read the UDO. No, ⁓ you know, our UDO doesn't need to mention the data centers. We own all of our own utilities in our city and we control all of that, including, you know, a lot of these regulations that we've already put into place and we've strengthened the UDO as well. Okay. Okay. Our UDO might be significantly different than yours. So it's kind of hard to Kind of well and our council and commission have said they're looking around the state for best practice to see how to apply. They're so they're not starting from zero. Right. But so you really don't have like a whole section for data center, you just have no other regul other ways to control it. General industrial, you know, large commercial, you know, you you have all of those things. Those things can help identify that. You know, ⁓ specifically where the where the ⁓ data center where they were looking at going. Did have a solution for it. Okay. And it was pretty brilliant. Just like I mean, I like to say that. That if they actually end up coming, so I can kind of share with you what happened. So we own all of our own water. We own all of our own power, all of our own natural gas. So okay. Well, right across the street. So we're starting a business park to bring in money into the city. Okay. Right across the street from our business park. Happens to your happens to be our water treatment facility. When you treat the water, what do you do? You send that out of the water treatment facility back into a basically the Yakin River basin for us. Okay. You send it back out. That is unsellable water. You cannot resell it. It has to go through the rivers and somebody else down the road uses that as a water source, maybe. Okay. All right. It's the way it all works. So we just we talk to them about potentially. Building a pipe, they would have to pay for it all on their own, a pipe across the street underneath the road, and pump a million gallons of treated water to them, run it through their filter system, and guess what we would be doing? We'd be creating income for our city to water that normally wouldn't be income for the city. So the next part, so we fix the water issue. Down the street is also our energy department. So not everybody has the ability to how does that affect downstream? ⁓ well that water gets recycled and still gets pumped back into the river. Still gumped in the river gets dumped in the river because it's recycled. It goes through and it cycles through. They filter it out and they send it right back. So the treated water isn't returned to the municipal system, it's the river and then we sip it from someplace else fresh for the actually goes into more than likely like sometimes. ⁓ and so then we fix the the energy issue. Down the street, about a mile and a half, is our energy department. We own an 18 inch and in some instances 24 inch ⁓ natural gas pipe that paw that that literally comes all the way through Mooresville, all the way down through Lancaster. We own it as a city. Okay. So we have a lot of income that comes in. All right. We own all of our own natural gas. So because of that, and we also created some ⁓ room in that by adjusting formulas about a year ago, something that we'd come up with. And so now we can we have extra, even though it's all still the same. Okay. And so we worked with them that said there's no way in God's green earth we will ever pull from our we own also twelve percent of the nuclear reactor in Lake Wiley. Okay. So we're in a really good spot, Monroe. I understand it's not for everybody. So we ended up agreeing with them that we would are talking to them saying, Hey, listen, you build a sixteen inch natural gas pipe up the road from There and it was going to be like eight million dollars or something like that. They would do it if this was really that profitable. Bring that up, and then they would have to put in their own natural gas power generators that that would generate 90 megawatts a day. Okay. Okay. And so we fixed that issue too. All right. It was not going to be a strain on our infrastructure, anything like that. But the only problem that kept us away from doing that and really pushing forward is still that tax incentive. That property then at the same time, this is what's going on in the state level. It needs to be fixed and corrected. Is because if it ever were to go anywhere, if you had a solution for all those things that everybody's talking about, with not strain on infrastructure, we would at least put 40 people to work, all this other stuff. But you're gonna try and influence me with a $500 million investment into our into our city. Okay. But I wouldn't be able to as a city receive any tax benefit. Are you out of your mind? Because that spot would be better use for a manufacturer, which is what we're getting a lot for. Wouldn't you get personal property taxes from what they from the equipment they buy? And they un Maybe. And it really depends. That's what we that's come up here. Yes is that we're gonna get well we would be getting the property taxes and so we wouldn't be trying to defer those. Yeah. We'd give them other ⁓ it just becomes a other incentives. Yeah. This this incentive that the state gave as a way to kind of be like on the forefront of the issue. Is also literally affecting these municipalities. If you could tell them, hey, listen, I'm gonna come in and we're gonna do $500 million for your city. So you don't have to raise taxes or when you have to do these new reassessments that go into your county over a long period of time. Yeah. Well, you don't don't worry about it. You don't even have to do it. Like don't even change the value of the penny. You're gonna do a tax reassessment, but we're not gonna change the value of your penny, which is what happened to could wouldn't that be awesome? But see, they're not doing that. And so things are more clear. It's also an ideal world that you probably are doing the math that other people are looking for how to grift back into their nonprofits before it actually makes it back. So here we go back at the day. So if ⁓ we wanted to learn more about you, we need a website or something. I I gotta put something up on screen, man. I you know, I'm kinda slacking here. So website what's your yeah, electrobertburns dot com. Yeah, somebody said it was ⁓ difficult. So that's right. Electrobertburns.com and we have a absolutely awesome sick campaign being built and ⁓ and our website is going to be Okay. And you have ⁓ this young man Joel over here. Yes. Joel is traveling with me around the state. Okay. And ⁓ he's incredibly helpful. All right. We've known him for a while and he's a he's a force too, man. Like locally in Monroe area and Union County, heavily active. Joel also was a part of Mark Harris's ⁓ staff for a little bit as an intern. And so man, he's on point. He calls everybody and I have to say he ⁓ got you squared away here very quickly. He's great. Yeah. So I'm very thankful for him. So ⁓ so what's next for you? You're I know you have ⁓ an appearance tonight as Republican Women's Club. The Fayetteville Republican the oldest women's club, Republican women's club, and the president is freaking awesome. He's all right. ⁓ Yeah. Shameless blocks. Well, we tonight, you know, we're we're speaking in a lot of places since ⁓ financial paperwork went in to run for governor and form that committee we've and then my wife got bid by Copperhead. That kind of like helped. I did not do that. What? The left didn't you know, yes, my wife got bid by Copperhead, or literally two days later after that all made the news and it made international news. So now we have so Satan is after him. Fifty we had what? Like fifty, like I mean, there's a ton. So we have a lot of places already. ⁓ that we're traveling around to over fifty in the next couple ⁓ you know, months. And then, you know, we're starting ⁓ a tour and I can't completely announce that yet because we're working on it. It's gonna be super awesome. I remember working with TP USA and some other organizations to do that. So yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, it was a pleasure having you on today. It's a lot of fun ⁓ as a guest. You make a good guest. I like having you. Thank you. Laura, anything else for the good of the cabinet today? Anything. Anything. No, but ⁓ Just remember that campaigns do not run on your ⁓ on your energy alone. They also need money and they need volunteers. So if you would like to give money or volunteer to help a new mayor candidate, please go see elect Robert Burns. Thank you so much for that. All right. Well with that, ⁓ everybody, thanks for joining the cabinet and we will see you Either tomorrow or Monday, I'm not sure. I think tomorrow too. I think Monday would be better. We'll see you Monday at six. All right. Everybody, thank you, have a good day.