Name: Full interview: Butterfield discusses congressional highs,lows
Uploaded: 2021-11-19T16:44:26-0500
Duration: 1097304
Description: As he prepares for his final year in office, Democratic 1st District Congressman G.K. Butterfield reflects on his time in the U.S. House.

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As he prepares for his final year in office, Democratic 1st District Congressman G.K. Butterfield reflects on his time in the U.S. House.

Tell me, tell me tell me what you think is the best thing about that deal that just passed today. Well, you know, during the campaign, president biden made two very bold promises. One was that the nation's infrastructure needed to be repaired and that he would promote legislation to get it done, uh, including investment in broadband, particularly in underserved communities. But he also went a step further. He talked about the incredible importance of providing a safety net and support for those individuals in our society who who have fallen on hard times those communities and individuals who are marginalized. And so we call it the human infrastructure package. The technical name is reconciliation. And so President biden has promoted both physical infrastructure and human infrastructure. We were able to get the physical component passed a few weeks ago and it was signed into law at a very appropriate ceremony this past monday. And this morning we were able to pass the human infrastructure bill which will invest significant sums of money in communities and in families to help struggling moms to help communities with with their K 12 education to provide preschool education for, for our precious Children. Uh, it will expand the Medicaid program since north Carolina is unwilling to expand its Medicaid program. We came up with with a plan whereby we will give vouchers to, to, to low income adults, uh, to go out and to purchase insurance at no cost to themselves. And so it's, it's transformational. The build back better legislation that we passed this morning is absolutely transformational. I'm excited about it. I have reason to believe that it will pass the United States Senate, there might be some changes, but I believe it will pass the United States Senate and signed by President biden. I'm excited about it. North Carolina should understand that there are significant investments that will come our way. Uh, this is a game changer and it will empower communities all across our state. Now. I know that you are on one second. I thought I had brought the microphone over, but I guess I didn't. Okay, never mind. Sorry. So you have spoken about, you know, the other day, you released a video. I think it was just yesterday they released a video that said that you are not going to be running again. Can you tell me a little bit about why you're not running again? Let me tell you, I've served in Congress now for 18 long years and it's, it's a, it's a very difficult responsibility. Uh, many people do not realize all that that is entailed in congressional service. The first challenge is getting from the district to Washington D. C. Uh, that that in and of itself is a challenge, particularly during a pandemic. Uh, and remember some members travel from the west coast to come to Washington. And so getting to Washington has really, really been a challenge. But that was not my reason for making this decision. It certainly is a factor, but it was not the main reason the most significant factor I believe that, that I can share with you is that the congressional map that the Republican legislature handed to us on november, the fourth is the most extreme piece of legislation that I have ever seen before. The The map is gerrymandered. It is politically gerrymandered is racially gerrymandered and it will result in at least 10 Republican Congress members being elected in 2022 and only three or 4 Democratic members. Our state is evenly divided between democrats and republicans. Actually, there were more democrats who uh, who voted in the congressional elections for Democratic candidates than republicans. Let me rephrase that in the 20 18 election and the 2020 election, Democratic candidates received more votes, more electoral votes than the Republican candidates. And so by any definition, North Carolina is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. That means that a fair map would result should result in a 77 map. Uh, and that we do not have, it is a 10-4 map is going to elect 10 Republican members of Congress, uh, for certainty. Uh, and, and the map needs to be overturned. And so when I looked at the map, excuse me for you. Okay, something happened to my computer. Okay, the map that was produced by the north Carolina legislature is a gerrymandered map is politically gerrymandered. It's it's racially jerry mander. You look at Wake County. Wake County is divided into three congressional districts. Guilford County is the same Mecklenburg County the same when you look in the eastern part of the state, you look at Greenville, which is pitt county african american voters and Democratic voters who live in pitt county have now been taken out of a Democratic district and submerged into a Republican district, thereby diluting their voting strength. And so that's why we say is politically gerrymandered is racially gerrymandered and it needs to be overturned by the court. My district, the first congressional district that the Democratic performance has now been reduced to 22 to a district. That is almost impossible to win. We were going to challenge it in court. Some say it's a toss up district. But let me tell you when the republicans start coming in with their lives, uh, and and misrepresenting the background of the candidate, whether it's me or someone else, uh, then it's going to be very competitive. And so we need a fair map. We need a map that is 77. That would be a fair map. But right now the first congressional district has been gerrymandered and, and I made the decision that it's time for me to pass the torch to another progressive Democratic candidate and let that candidate compete vigorously against the Republican nominee, and hopefully we can hold on to the district. Let me ask this. Um, if they were to change the maps. Um, and to fairer maps, would you consider coming back into the race or are you just ready to pass the torch? No, Leslie, I've been asked that by several organizations this morning. No, I'm not willing to reconsider. I'm 74 years old. I have served in the in the Congress for 18 years as a judge in North Carolina for 15 years, 14 years as a practicing attorney before that, two years in the military. I've been in the workforce now for nearly 50 years and there comes a time in everyone's life where you have to make a decision to retire. I'm in excellent health, I believe. Uh, and and and and I have many friends and relationships and and family members all across the country and it's time for me to reconnect with the people. I love, I certainly understand that. Um what do you think? You know, looking back at your long and storied past, of course, what what of all of that you think was the one thing that you were proudest of at the moment that you remember the most fondly during my congressional career, during all of it. If there was something before that, that that that stands out to you? Well, during my congressional days, I was very pleased to be the chairman of the election subcommittee. I presided over hearings all over the country as we are trying to update the john r lewiS voting rights Advancement act. We we have a dire need to enforce the voting rights act. But in 2013, the Supreme Court removed the the the availability of section five, which is the preclearance section of voting rights because the Supreme Court said that Congress has not adopted a formula to determine which state should be included. And so I presided over hearings to collect the evidence to reinstate the voting rights act. We have compiled it, we have passed it in the House, we are waiting for Senate action. And so that is one of my, my, my, my uh proudest moments in Congress that we've been able to develop a record. But aside from that, I've been able to help low income communities, rural communities in eastern north Carolina in significant ways, many of these communities don't have resources for community facilities and I've been able to get grants and loans to these communities so they can build fire stations and community health centers and town halls and the like and these communities appreciate it, but because without federal health it would not happen. And so I've been very instrumental in what I call rule economic development and cities and towns in eastern north Carolina can tell you that I've been able to to bring resources into those communities. Much needed resources. Very proud of the community health centers in eastern north Carolina. Our citizens just don't know how valuable and effective they are federally qualified community health centers are doing great work they are, they're serving the patient population, they're taking the load off of the emergency rooms and hospitals. Community health centers are doing a great work and I helped lead the way to get significant funding. Additional funding for these centers. Broadband is something that I paid special attention to. I was on the broadband uh, caucus, the broadband thinking group working group that put together ideas to get broadband funded in the physical infrastructure bill. We wanted $100 billion. We ended up getting $65 billion $15 billion $80 billion dollars that can be invested in broadband, particularly in rural communities in eastern north Carolina needs access to high speed and reliable internet. And I've been a part of that. I've been very much a part of bringing broadband into reality. Okay, so to flip it, uh, the other way around, um, what is your biggest disappointment or the thing that you wish you had been able to accomplish that you haven't been able to accomplish in Congress Leslie, when I came to Washington 18 years ago, there was partisanship between the political parties, but there was civility, there was cooperation, there was respect for each other, respect for a difference of opinion that was during the George W Bush era. Uh, it was partisan, but it was respectful. Members had respect for the institution. We we debated. Certainly we debated, but, but it was respectful and not nasty. Uh, we we we we we respected each other, but the days of civility have have left us and we now find ourselves in very toxic divisive debate. We cannot have toxic and divisive debate and survive the institution. The institution depends on civility and we don't have civility. Today. Today in Washington, 22% of the American people feel that Congress is broken. I don't actually disagree with that. 22% of the American people believe that we need congressional reform and that it needs to happen now. It needs to happen on both sides of the aisle. And and I agree with that President Trump came to office in in in 20 16. And and created a new paradigm, a new atmosphere, new political atmosphere that was that was not productive the trump administration and and the supporters that that that enabled president trump. Uh, they have they have caused invisible damage to our country, to our democracy, to the institution. And so we are recovering from the trump era. President trump did not do it alone, but he contributed to to the unfortunate lack of civility that we have in Washington. And so there's been a change. There has been a sea change in the atmosphere in Washington since I since I first joined the institution. We've got to change it. We've got to look at the way we fund congressional campaigns. And that is a problem. Uh too many members of Congress depend on on corporate donations and large donations from their rich friends who have special interests. Uh and and we need to rethink the way we fund congressional campaigns. We have to look at independent redistricting commissions. No longer should we entrust the redistricting process to state legislatures who are hyper partisan and that that reigns on both sides of the aisle. We need independent redistricting commissions in every state who can fairly draw maps. And so instead of Congress members choosing their constituents, we need maps where constituents can choose their Congress members and and do it fairly. We need to protect minority communities. The voting rights act needs to be fully enforced. And right now the voting rights act is not being enforced because the Supreme Court has taken away the effect of section five of the voting rights Act, which which gives the federal government oversight to make sure that bad things don't happen with the election systems. We need to bring back section five. And finally, I'm concerned about social media. I know we have a right to express ourselves and in social media and and and and new with news outlets and in speeches and in conversations that that we engaged. But right now there are too many lives being told. You should not, we should not tolerate deliberate lies about elected officials, whether it's democrat or Republican the american people deserve to hear the truth about the issues and about the candidates and right now we're experiencing lie after lie. After lie and it's infecting the whole political process. And so I look forward to my retirement. I'm going to work very hard for congressional reform to try to ensure that that Congress takes a fresh look at the way we conduct our business. I will be doing it from a distance, but I will certainly still be involved. When you say congressional reform. Are you talking about, for example, public financing of campaigns. Is that where you're going with that issue? I am a supporter of public financing for congressional campaigns. I believe that that will significantly reform the way we do business in Washington and reform it in a good way right now, we we have outside groups on the left and the right who spend millions, tens of millions of dollars in influencing legislation, influencing the outcome of campaigns and guess what these donors are anonymous. We don't know who they are when they give money to third parties. When they give to our political campaigns, they have to be disclosed. But but when super pacs received money from very rich donors, even corporate donors, these contributions are are not disclosed and that is affecting democracy. It's affecting legislation. It's affected every political campaign in the country. And I want to work very hard to try to bring in a new era of reform in the way we finance campaigns. How do you see yourself doing that? I guess it would be, you know, I mean, because you're talking about, you know, you're not going to be in Washington. Um, you know, is there a group that you're planning to join or do you want to start something? I mean, what, you know, how do you see that moving forward? No, I don't plan to start a new organization by any means. But there is an association of former members that is very active and very well respected. I would like very much to join hands with other former members who are like minded and to see if we can advocate, advocate the change and in the atmosphere, the change and and in the way we finance campaigns in this country. I would like to join hands with like minded individuals and try to make that happen in their groups in the country and good government groups who have the same philosophy and I'd like to align myself with them. But public financing of political campaigns is a solution to the problem. I think that's just about all the questions I have for you. Is there anything else you wanted to add? No, I think we've covered it. I guess the worst day that I've experienced on Capitol Hill was January six uh, that that day will, will, will tarnish our democracy. It will tarnish this institution for decades to come and democrats and republicans must join hands in trying to put that behind us To find the truth about what happened on January six. To find the identities of those who were culpable and participated in in making January six happened. We need to bring those individuals forward. The American people need to know who they were and if they violated the law, they need to be fully prosecuted for their misconduct. January 66 was reprehensible. It was an assault on the Capitol. It was an assault on democracy and there were some very powerful people Who who, who instigated and promoted that fateful day. We need to get the truth and I'm looking forward to the day when the January six committee will issue its final report. I think the American people will be enlightened. So I really appreciate your time, congressman. Thank you so much. Thank you Leslie, thank you

Laura Leslie

Matthew Burns

Full interview: Butterfield discusses congressional highs,lows

G.K. Butterfield

Congress,Congressional redistricting,G.K. Butterfield,US House

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I'm meteorologist K Campbell in the wr a severe weather center. It's been a warm spring so far. In fact, when you look at the spring to date numbers, it's actually the second warmest on record at RDU running about 4.5 degrees above normal and for rainfall about an inch and a half below normal. And we really need some rain. You know, it's been a pretty dry April so far we've seen less than an inch inch of rain this month tomorrow. It's a nice dry day for us, but I, you know, at least it's gonna be a nice day, right? 72 in the Triangle, as well as Siler City in Wilson. 70 in Rocky Mount. 67 though in Roxboro and 67 for Roanoke Rapids, a little cooler to the north. 76 degrees in Fayetteville, 73 Goldsboro in Smithfield and 75 in Southern Pines. It is going to be a little bit cooler in the morning because cold front moved through 50 degrees for the low in the triangle, right around 7 a.m. by 10 a.m. We're in the upper fifties, lunchtime, mid sixties and then in the lower seventies during the afternoon, dinner time, temperatures dip back into the upper sixties. A cold front passed earlier this evening and behind it, we are going to be drying out but cooling down briefly. It's not a huge drop in temperatures, but we will see this dip in the jet stream delivering some cooler air. We start to see a reversal of the jet stream flow and that changes really on Sunday with a warming southwest wind at the surface and at the jet stream level, that's going to drive temperatures up to 80 beginning on Sunday and the eighties will last into next week with a strengthening ridge of high pressure. So we expect a big climb in temperatures just throughout the course of the weekend, 48 degrees Friday morning, but back up to 80 by Sunday afternoon and then much warmer weather is on the way for next week. We're looking at seventies for the next few days with mostly cloudy skies for the weekend days. The sun's back out though next Monday and with a warming wind, we're back in the upper eighties three days in a row all the way up to 89 on Tuesday. Tuesday might be the 1st 90 degree day of the year for parts of North Carolina.

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Good evening. I'm Gayle Hurd. Welcome to tonight's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Well, let's get started tonight with our Carolina pick three. Our first winning number is a seven. Our second number is six and the third number tonight is a nine and our pick three. Fireball number is six. Joining me for tonight's show is our auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. Now let's move to the Carolina pick four. Good luck. Everyone who's that first winning pick four number, it's zero. Our second number is a nine. Third number tonight is three and our fourth number is one in our pick for fireball number. There it is. It's three. Again, we're turning now to the Carolina cash five and no one was the top prize tonight. Tomorrow's top prize is estimated at $620,000. Good luck. Everyone here's their first win in cash five number. It's a 29. Our second number, it's 37 3rd number tonight. It's 34. Our fourth number is lucky 13 and the final number in our cash five this evening is 12. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Get your winning numbers right here every night on your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery. Thanks for playing. Have a great night.

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Ball. Good evening, Ruan, I Randy trainer. Tonight. We have another life changing jackpot. It's worth an estimated $130.2 million. So, get your tickets ready here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 26. Right after that America. We have the number two and congratulations to Gina Magnum from North Carolina. She won $50,000 playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning numbers tonight 20 47. And let's round it out tonight with the number 22 and tonight 20 powerball number, that's gonna be 21 and your power play multiplayer is four. Let's take another look at tonight's winning numbers. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

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Good afternoon. I'm Luis Fernandez. Welcome to this afternoon's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three number is two, second is eight and the third is eight and our pick three fireball number is five. Join me for this afternoon's drawing is our auditor for mcconnell LP. Now let's move to Carolina pick four. The first pick four, number is five. The second is one, the third is three and the fourth is zero and our pick four. Fireball number is five. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education and thanks for your support.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

RDU Airport Authority gives an update on a plane crash that sent a physician and pilot to the hospital. The crash occurred Wednesday morning on a flight that took off from Wilmington.

<p>Landguth first, I want to extend my thoughts to those affected by this morning's aircraft accident and thank our first responders for their quick action to respond. The airport authority and its mutual aid partners responded to an aircraft accident at RDU involving a general aviation aircraft. The accident occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. in the grass next to runway five, right 23 left. The flight was arriving from Wilmington, North Carolina. The A the aircraft is owned by medical Air Inc and operated by UN C air operations. The aircraft had two people on board, one pilot and one passenger. Both were transported to area hospitals. The federal A Bush administration issued a ground stop that was lifted at approximately 1130 this morning. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified. The National Transportation Safety Board is en route and expected to arrive within the next hour at which time we will conduct an accident investigation. Rdu's runway five left 23 right reopened to departing and arriving aircraft around 11:30 a.m. this morning. Are you experiencing approximately 70 delays and several arriving flights were diverted to other airports? Until ground stock was lifted, travelers should contact their airline for the latest updates regarding the flight status. And of course questions about the identity and condition of the pilot and passenger should be directed to UN C health. And at this time I'll try to answer any questions. You may have, uh, the one, any other accidents in, in the past. I'm not familiar with any other accidents have occurred with that operation. I don't know, uh, that's the role of the National Transportation Safety Board. They'll actually come in and do the investigation. Uh, and at some point in the future, they write up a report and determine what the cause of the accident was. You know, that there was no notification to the airport authority or to the FAA uh about any type of emergency on board. Do we have a guy? We don't, all we know that we've got them out of the airplane and we've got them transported to local hospitals. We know situations like this and delays have a ripple effect on, you know, flights. Do you have any idea what type of impact we'll see here in our view and for not sure, but what we're going to encourage everybody to do is reach out to your airlines. We'll be able to give you real time information about the impact of your particular flight. Ok. I believe some of them went to Greensboro and I think a couple went to Charlotte as well. What, what to be impacted due to the NTSD. Say that one more time at this point in time, what we call the west side of our airport is now open the investigation they'll conduct will all be on the east side. So at this point, we are anticipating normal operations returning to normal operations from this point forward. I don't think that anything that they're doing regarding the investigation or where they would have to investigate would have any impact to the west side of the airport. No, the aircraft is still on the airfield itself. It's on the east side of the field. So terminal one that runways the east side of the field, that's where the debris field actually sits, the west side of the field is open and operational and safe to operate. Not that I'm aware of in operations for you throughout this event today. What was your main concern concerning the passengers that were in the internals? Right. I think our primary focus when, when that accident occurred were the two people sitting in that aircraft? Our primary mission is to make sure we can get to them and try to rescue them and try to make sure that we can get them in a safe condition as fast as we possibly can. Uh secondarily is trying to figure out then how we recover and get our operations back up and running. Mhm. How does that affect? What goes on term? Yeah, so great. Question. So the team has figured out a way to get all the aircraft they're gonna operate at terminal one. Your Southwest develops. Uh We've got a crossover taxi way that we can actually get them through our general aviation aircraft. We've got a crossover taxiway, we can get them to. But the rest of the uh accident scene is actually kind of isolated and closed and locked off. Yeah, you're terminal one at this point in time. Once they can get back on their schedule, it's going to be a normal operations. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Grab your phone, right.</p>

Full interview: Butterfield discusses congressional highs,lows

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