Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, we are living in almost a giant Saturday Night Live skit. You have crime across the country going through the roof. You have over a hundred thousand people, mostly young people under age 40 who are dying from fentanyl poisoning and you have homelessness that is going crazy.
You have just a degradation of social and societal values and you have a financial mess at the federal level in that the deficits are ridiculously high, and the regulations are forcing businesses and institutions to waste money complying with regulations.
And then you have the banks, which now we see a report over the weekend that up to 200 banks have similar problems to SVB and are at risk of a similar fate. You have JP Morgan and 10 other banks essentially extending a low-interest line of credit to First Republican.
You have Janet Yellen ridiculously saying, this is, I’m quoting here. “Administration officials maintained that the move to say First Republic was done at the initiative of the private sector.” But multiple outlets reported that Janet Yellen leaned on Jamie Diamond to get the deal done. I believe the second comment is more accurate than the first.
I don’t think a bunch of CEOs from 11 of the biggest banks all called each other and got on a conference call and said, hey, let’s all pony up a total of $30 billion. I think they were strong-armed to do it. And that in itself is telling. But you have all of that and you have many problems.
You have the tremendous stories out there now about the level of corruption between all these entities in China giving money to various Biden family interests, and then you have an indictment from New York over an issue that is seven years old. And it has to do with some hush money that Donald Trump paid to Stormy Daniels, as if that’s news.
It’s not news.
And then you have from The Epoch Times they’re now investigating gifts that were given by foreign dignitaries to Trump claiming that he didn’t properly register the foreign gifts when they came in. As I say, it’s like a Saturday Night Live skit.
You have Jonathan Turley who has said that the biggest initial hurdle that Alvin Bragg is gonna have to overcome is the statute of limitations on the use of a particular section of the code that that they’re trying to leverage to indict Trump. But the code says that there’s a statute of limitations of two years, but then if you can tie that particular offense to some federal offense, then it extends to five years.
The problem is that the document in question is more than six years old. And that doesn’t even matter when you think of what it really means is there’s zero question in my mind, zero question in my mind that the people in Washington signed off on Alvin Braggs, if he indicts Trump that this is a political prosecution that was approved by the powers in Washington.
And you have this expression, what goes around comes around. I’ve had discussions with people about what if Republicans get power. What if they treat Democrats the same way? And most of my response was, oh, that would not be good. That would not be good.
And then I asked him, I said how do you stop a bully from being a bully? Well, you punch ’em in the face.
And if they recognize it, that every time they’re a bully, they’re gonna get punched in the face. They’ll quit being a bully. I said, okay. I agree with that. And so now the question is if Republicans do regain power, and that’s an open question, and Republicans believe that the way the Democrats, the two-tiered system of justice that we have is akin to a bully on the playground. The question is how should Republicans respond. Historically, how Republicans have responded has not yielded a change in the direction of the country.
And that’s the great question here. No matter who is president, if Republicans are president we don’t go in the wrong direction at as a rapid speed as when Democrats are in power, but we still go in the wrong direction. We have an opportunity here to see what bullies do and we’ll see how we react.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this Crommentary:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Janet Yellen” by Janet Yellen. Photo “Donald Trump” by Trump White House Archived. Photo “Alvin Bragg” by Alvin Bragg. Photo “Jonathan Turley” by MSNBC. CC BY 3.0. Background Photo “Silicon Valley Ban” by Coolcaesar. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to discuss reactions to Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy McNally’s recent social media snafu and his removal from office.
Leahy: In studio, the original all-star panelist. Crom, The Tennessee Star, we’ve been in business now for over six years. We’re the only real conservative news site in the state, and in that six years, I have never written an editorial until yesterday. And so with your permission Crom, I’m gonna read that editorial and I’d like to get your response to it.
Carmichael: Alrighty.
Leahy: Alright, here we go. Headline: Tennessee Star Editorial: Lt. Governor McNally Must Resign from Leadership Now. It is painfully obvious to anyone who has watched the confused public responses of 79-year-old Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally to the controversy surrounding his inexplicable social media postings that he’s lost a step mentally.
McNally also faces health and physical challenges, not unusual for a man his age. In February, he underwent a medical procedure to install a heart pacemaker. On Saturday, McNally was skewered mercilessly in a Saturday night live skit that went viral around the country and subjected him to withering ridicule.
Sources familiar with the Tennessee political landscape tell The Tennessee Star that McNally is simply not all there mentally and has been declining for some. Recently he has had difficulty recalling the names of colleagues he has known for years. Those sources add Lieutenant Governor McNally can no longer perform his duties as Speaker of the state Senate. and Lieutenant Governor and he must resign from both leadership roles immediately.
Now, he was elected to reelected to the state Senate this past November, and while his constituents in the Fifth State Senate District deserve representation for the balance of this session of the Tennessee General Assembly, expected to adjourn sometime in May, McNally must carefully consider whether he is capable of serving the remainder of that four-year term, which ends in January.
He was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives 45 years ago in 1978. He was 34 years old at the time. He has served in the Tennessee General Assembly ever since. He was elected Speaker of the State Senate and Lieutenant Governor in 2019 and reelected in 2021 and 2020.
If Lieutenant Governor McNally cares about his constituents and the state of Tennessee, which we at The Tennessee Star believe he does, he will resign as Speaker of the State Senate and Lieutenant Governor immediately. The McNally era is over. The Lieutenant Governor can do this the easy way and resign from leadership now or he can do it the hard way.
If Lieutenant Governor McNally chooses the hard way, the outcome will be the same. He will be removed from his position of leadership, either by a vote of the Republican caucus in the state Senate or by impeachment proceedings.
It is our hope that Lieutenant Governor McNally and those who advise him will choose the easy way and he will resign his leadership position immediately. And I signed that in my capacity, Michael Patrick Leahy as editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Crom, that was our first editorial – and so far, only editorial – at The Tennessee Star. Your thoughts?
Carmichael: I saw the piece on Saturday Night Live and I didn’t see it because I watch Saturday Night Live, but you sent it to me.
Leahy: I sent you the three-and-a-half-minute clip.
Carmichael: And I watched it. And my first reaction to it was, well, this, this, this must be a gross exaggeration, and those tweets must be fake. Well, they weren’t. I was surprised and confounded. And as I’ve also learned and as you have pointed out in the editorial is Randy McNally is no longer the person he used to be.
Leahy: And that’s sad.
Carmichael: It’s sad that he’s not the person he used to be, but Tennessee deserves a person in that in that particular position who has all of his faculties and is thinking clearly because our state requires that. He served 45 years.
Leahy: That’s a long time.
Carmichael: And that’s a very long time.
Leahy: And he’s had a strong record over that period of time and has served his constituents well.
Carmichael: This isn’t a condemnation of his record until recently. What he did recently is inexplicable.
Leahy: It’s inexplicable
Carmichael: It’s also bizarre.
Leahy: It’s telling.
Carmichael: And so for that reason, I hope as your editorial suggests, that he takes the honorable way out as the head of the Senate. You said through when?
Leahy: His term ends in January 2027.
Carmichael: Then he should also consider resigning his senate seat but not during this session.
Leahy: He doesn’t need to resign this session from the Senate seat.
Carmichael: Right. But from the Senate leadership. He should withdraw.
Leahy: That’s what he should do. The problem is if you’ve been in power, even if you’re not all there…
Carmichael: Now, let me ask you a question. You said there are a number of different ways that this session is going to last for another six weeks.
Leahy: Six to eight weeks.
Carmichael: Six to eight weeks. So let’s say that he doesn’t resign, when is the person who holds that position elected to that position? Is it the beginning of each session?
Leahy: The Speaker of both the state senate, who is also our lieutenant governor under our constitution, and the person who would succeed the governor, if the governor is, you know, incapacitated or leaves office for whatever reason. And then the Speaker of the House, they’re all elected at the beginning of the session.
Carmichael: Of each session?
Leahy: Yes. Of each session for a two-year term.
Carmichael: Is the second year next year?
Leahy: Yes. So if they came back in January of next year, and he still was Speaker of the state Senate, they’d have to go through a process to bring it to the state clerk and bring up a special vote on whether to keep him.
Carmichael: Is that an impeachment or a special vote?
Leahy: There are two elements. They could actually go through the process right now in this session to remove him as the Speaker of the State Senate and Lieutenant Governor.
But that would require a vote and they’d have to put it before the clerk of the State Senate who I think reports to the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker. So that would be problematic. It could happen. They could remove him now by a vote of the state Senate. There would have to be some machinations going on.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Randy McNally” by Adam Kleinheider. CC BY-SA 4.0. Background Photo “Tennessee State Capitol” by Andre Porter. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Host Stephen K. Bannon welcomed The Star News Network’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Ohio Star, Michael Patrick Leahy, on Wednesday evening’s War Room: Battleground to talk about the confusion over who is in control of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Bannon: This is revolting. And I take great pride with Michael Patrick Leahy at least being a tiny group that’s forced these people to start coming forward with their lies and their misrepresentations and just the gross incompetence. Michael Patrick Leahy, you’re putting up another story right now. Explain to me first. Josh Shapiro has now gotten off the dime. He sent a blistering letter to the CEO.
But one of the things he was whining about, he said, hey, we never heard about it for a couple of days or a while because nobody contacted my head of EPA. That’s not the response. The company yes, they should. But, hey, if they don’t, big deal. You guys should be all over this.
You hear a different story every day about what they tested, what they didn’t test, all that. Walk us through where we stand right now at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the 15th, on Wednesday the 15th, and this entire thing, Michael Patrick Leahy.
Leahy: The headline here is that the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, Steve, agrees with you. Yesterday on your program, you said that it was a mistake just to look at one option to do the vent and burn, the controlled burn of vinyl chloride. There were other options. He completely agrees with you. He released his letter, I think, about half an hour after you said that. And that KDKA report came just a little bit after you said that.
The other thing that’s noticeable about this is Josh Shapiro wants to entirely be separated from “the we,” the collective “we” that Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio said we’re responsible for the control of the controlled burn decision. In fact, he put this all up on Norfolk Southern.
His letter didn’t mention a word about the governor of Ohio, which I found quite interesting. But look, that letter basically and the story is up now, by the way, at The Ohio Star headline: Pennsylvania Governor Blasts Norfolk Southern for ‘Vent and Burn’ Plan In Aftermath of Train Derailment. Listen to this, Steve.
So in the letter, he took the CEO of Norfolk Southern to task because they provided inaccurate information and conflicting modeling about the impact of the controlled release. That made protective action decision-making more difficult in the immediate aftermath of the derailment. And then he agreed with you.
He criticized Norfolk Southern for their unwillingness to explore or articulate alternate courses of action to their proposed vent and burned. And that, he said that limited state and local government officials from acting properly.
Bannon: Hold it. But when they say it’s not upon Norfolk Southern to give the only model, that’s fine. They should do it through the company. But their focus is going to get these tankers off the track so we can clear the track and get trains running again and try to make some money here. When he says conflicting models from the company, yeah, that’s bad.
But you cannot base your decisions on models from the company. We’re going to be talking about financial models in a second. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen? The Congressional Budget Office just gave us the model for the next 10 years. What have we been asking the Biden administration to do it. Well, the CBO did it, okay? Because we asked for these models. Let’s get to reality. What’s the mathematics of this?
The model, ladies, and gentlemen, Navarro is going to come in here in a second. $19 trillion was added to the national debt over the next 10 years. Let me repeat that. $19 trillion. That’s $1.9 trillion per year as I said it was going to be. That means you’re over $50 trillion and the country is out of business. That model doesn’t work, but at least they put it forward. It’s the same thing here.
When you make these complicated things, you just can’t wing it. It’s not a feel play. You got to have common sense. But that is all based on what science and math tell you. We believe in evidence, data, and science here at the WarRoom. Not happy talk. And now all you do is get spinning. This thing is totally coming. When are you going to press the DeWine? Because DeWine is lying here.
Didn’t DeWine, we just had the clip up here. He said the DOD. What the hell is the Defense Department got to do with this? I don’t care about as far as finding get another opinion. But I don’t care about the Defense Department. Tell me which way the wind is going to blow. I want the guy that’s accountable in response. I want the node of responsibility, accountability. Boom.
Right there. And authority. That three boom. Who’s in that nexus? When I look at the flowchart responsibility, authority, and accountability. Who is in that box? Oh, it’s the field commander for EPA. What’s that guy’s name? You noticed they haven’t come up with that. Have they responded to your request to EPA to give the name and the function, and did they make the decision?
Leahy: The EPA has said nothing to us since we asked for them to give us the name of the onsite coordinator and whether or not they made the decision to do the vent and burn, which the former Assistant Attorney General Clark, who was your guest yesterday, said was the legal authority. By the way, we’ve also asked Governor DeWine by what authority did you, Governor DeWine, authorize this vent and burn?
They’ve not responded to us on that. And also notice that Governor Josh Shapiro is completely distancing himself from the collective “we” who made this vent and burn decision. He’s putting it all on Norfolk Southern. Presumably, they gave the advice to Mike DeWine, but this is a huge mess.
Bannon: Yes. I’m going to go out on a limb here. The model, when it finally comes, we got to get the model on the control there’s two things. They got the crash and you got the National Safety Board has got to be on that. And let me worry, Alfred E. Buttigieg, where is this clown? Right? He should be on top of that and he should have been on top of that.
In the modeling, you have two things, a controlled release and then a controlled burn. Number one, and I’m just going to say it, I will guarantee the model does not back up the fact that there were going to be, the excuse that he used, it’s going to be in jeopardy. These are unstable elements. It’s going to blow up, and you’re going to put shards of those iron tankers are going to be in houses and people’s heads everywhere, blown sky high. I’m calling BS on that. They wanted to put that stuff out of there so they could remove…
Leahy: Governor Shapiro must have been listening to you on WarRoom yesterday because, in his letter, he said you failed to look at all the other array of alternatives that might have taken longer but would have been safer. So he’s not a former naval officer. I’ve checked that out. But I think he’s got a little bit…
Bannon: I don’t think he’s a fan. I don’t think he’s a fan of War Room. So, Michael Patrick Leahy, where do your reporting and your investigative reporting with this crack staff you got? Where does it go from here?
Leahy: Our great reporters on this, both Matt Kittle, our national reporter, who just put the story up about the Pennsylvania governor, and then Hannah Poling, who’s based in Ohio, who’s been asking the governor to respond and the EPA to respond.
Where we need to look right now, Steve, is we got to get the EPA to respond and the Department of Justice to respond to the legal authority used to authorize this vent and burn, this controlled burn of this very dangerous vinyl chloride on February 6th. I think the law would have created a very big problem for Mike DeWine.
Bannon: And give me the controlled release. By the way, CNN licked. If you want to start covering news, you don’t need to send them halfway around the world. Just send them out there to eastern Ohio. Big story breaking. You guys should be all over it. Should be 20 people. There’s nobody. Crickets. MSNBC, crickets. Except they needed a clean-up in all three, so they let DeWine come on. Not one hard question got asked of DeWine today came on Morning Mika, and it was a cleanup on aisle three. Hey, guess what?
The WarRoom is there. You’ve broken too many bottles. You’re not going to get a cleanup. This is outrageous. And it’s because it’s working-class people who don’t think count and they don’t think has any power. That’s why they’re doing this. Leahy, how do they get to The Ohio Star and The Star News Network?
Leahy: I recommend right now going to theohiostar.com. It was published about five minutes ago. Our story there is about Governor Shapiro, in essence, agreeing with Steve Bannon that there should have been more options considered, and he would have recommended, I think, that he would have preferred a slower take, but a safer approach. And you can reach me on Twitter, GETTR, and Truth Social at Michaelpleahy.
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Saturday morning on WarRoom: Battleground, Stephen K. Bannon welcomed The Star News Network’s National Political Editor, Matt Kittle the program to discuss the Iowa caucus, Kari Lake’s reception, and the newly launched Iowa Star digital newspaper.
Bannon: Matt Kittle, Michael Patrick Leahy had this vision of doing the battleground states and doing these new sites, and it’s just been incredible what you guys have accomplished. Tell me about Iowa.
You’re launching a new site. I guess you launched it a little earlier this morning, but you’re launching a new site in the very important first state to kick off Iowa caucuses next January. Tell us about your new site, sir.
Kittle: You bet. Thank you, Steve. Iowa is still critical to the political map, whether the Democrats want to acknowledge that or not. As you well know, the DNC has basically turned its back on Iowa, which has long been traditionally the first state to enter the fray. And it’s Hawkeye cauceye, if you will.
The Republicans here will still hold the first in the nation caucuses, but the DNC, as I said, has turned its back in Iowa. The Democrats here want to continue to be the first in the nation to hold those caucuses. They have to by Iowa state law. The issue is the DNC has gone in a different direction.
They don’t think Iowa is diverse enough. But Iowa, Steve, as you well know, as we just saw in the last segment, is very much, in many ways, Trump country. And Kari Lake last night in the Quad Cities, and I think today in suburban Des Moines will bring that full message and bring out the kind of crowd that we saw last night.
Bannon: Look, here’s what Iowa provides, and it is Trump’s MAGA country, and that’s Trump wins. It is now big, and that’s one of the reasons the Democrats don’t like it. What’s the importance of Iowa? It’s discernment. Iowa, New Hampshire, those flinty Yankees up in New Hampshire, and this common sense heartland of America in Iowa weigh and measure you, right?
They weigh and measure you. And this is very important. It’s important for the country. Retail politics. You got to go into those small rooms. You got to have small gatherings. Now President Trump ran it a little differently, but still, the Hawkeyes have a discernment that the nation depends upon. I think it’s great that it starts in Iowa, and it’s going to be very important. Leahy is always ahead of the curve. Tell me about the site and tell me about your thoughts on Kari Lake.
Kittle: You bet. As you said, we just launched last night. You’ll find all kinds of information on our site, theiowastar.com. It includes the meeting last night that Kari Lake had with so many good Iowans. We will continue with our special Iowa caucus edition 2024.
We will continue the blanket coverage on Iowa, Iowa politics, all this stuff, particularly the kind of inside stuff we have here in the Des Moines area that no other publications can offer in many ways.
And frankly, as you know, the mainstream media refuses to offer. It’s interesting about Kari Lake. Every story you see here in Iowa, the mainstream press, as you see in The New York Times or The Washington Post, they can’t begin a lead without saying Kari Lake has made all kinds of charges that aren’t true.
They put this stuff in their lead when we know that the election integrity problems in Arizona, just as we’ve seen in the major states during the Zuckerbucks era of 2020, are very real and they’re very troubling. And what they hate is Kari Lake is shining a big spotlight on it all.
Bannon: Big time. Matt, how did they get to the site? How did they get to you guys on social media? What are the coordinates for The Star News Network and all the work you’re doing? The Tennessee Star has broken I think the most important thing about this Memphis situation with Mr. Nichols, about it being a targeted hit about everything, and with the whole thing about the text messages and the relationship of the police officer’s female acquaintance with Mr. Nichols and all this. You’re doing great reporting. How do people get there?
Kittle: Thank you so much. Yes, that’s a big story. We’ll continue to follow up. But in terms of Iowa, the new site again launching is theiowastar.com. And as I said, we’ll be at the Kari Lake session later on this afternoon in Ankeny, Iowa.
Bannon: Thank you very much, sir. Appreciate it. Matt Kittle from The Star News Network. Head reporter, head political editor.
Listen to the interview:
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Live from Des Moines Tuesday morning on The Simon Conway Show with Matt Kittle – broadcast on Des Moines, Iowas, 1040 WHO (4p-7p weekdays) or in the Quad Cities on 1420 WOC (4 p.m.-6p.m. weekdays) – guest host Kittle welcomed former Arizona Governor candidate Kari Lake to the show to promote her upcoming event in Iowa and America First policies.
Kittle: I’m tickled pink to have her on the show with us, Kari Lake. A lot of people will tell you today, she should be right now, the governor of the great state of Arizona. She’s coming to her own home state! It’s a homecoming call, of course. Kari Lake, good to have you on the show. How are you?
Lake: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me, Matt. I’m so excited to be coming home. And we’re going to be talking to people in Des Moines and then, of course, in Scott County, where I grew up while I’m there, kind of killing two birds with one stone, as they say, while I’m there.
I’m always trying to get the word out about how critical it is that we reform our elections. And even in a state like Iowa which has pretty good secure elections, when other states are running banana republic-style elections, it affects the folks in Iowa, Missouri, Montana, and Alabama, because everyone in this country wants a secure border. They don’t want illegal immigration out of control.
They don’t want people being trafficked. They don’t want fentanyl pouring across. And when we sit back and allow the kind of crazy elections that they run here in Arizona to happen, it affects every single state. And so we’re going to talk about that. I’m just looking forward to connecting with my family, first of all, and seeing some folks from Iowa.
Kittle: Absolutely. Let’s get the details. You’re going to be in Bettendorf, and then you’re going to be in Ankeny as well. Give us the times, the dates, all of that good stuff.
Lake: Yes, we’re coming in; we’re doing an event in Scott County on Friday the 10th, and we’re looking forward to that. That’s through the Scott County Women’s Republican Women’s Club. And then we’re going to be in Ankeny at the district venue, which looks really nice, I must say. And we’re going to be doing that on Saturday the 11th. And doors open at 4:15 p.m. And if you want to get free tickets, you can go to karilake.com/events.
Kittle: Excellent. Kari Lake joining us. Just a minute left. What’s at stake in 2024?
Lake: Everything. I feel that 2022 was really important. And we led such a movement here, and we still lead the movement here in Arizona. People want a secure border. They want the fentanyl poison to stop pouring into this country. They want safe streets. They want their kids to learn something at school so they can get out and be ready for the world. They want sanity.
And my campaign, my candidacy threatened the status quo so much here in Arizona that they sabotaged Election Day. There’s no other way to put it. And that’s why my election case is in the appellate court here in Arizona. We’re fighting on that front. But 2024 is critical. I believe that America First policies are the way out of the mess that this political class has gotten us into.
Kittle: You’re absolutely right. What we learned more than anything is the swamp isn’t just in Washington, D.C. It happens to be in Capitol cities across the country. You know that better than anybody. Looking forward to it Saturday in Ankeny, and I think I’ll be there. So we’ll meet you then.
Lake: Looking forward to meeting you in person.
Kittle: Absolutely.
Lake: See you guys on Saturday.
Kittle: You bet. God bless. Safe travels to you.
Lake: Thank you. Thank you.
Kittle: Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for Arizona governor. What a mess that whole thing is election integrity so critical, and Arizona showed exactly that.
Listen to the interview:
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Photo “Kari Lake” by The Kari Lake. Background Photo “Iowa Capitol” by Billwhittaker. CC BY-SA 3.0.
