Live from Music Row Thursday 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 recovering journalist Clint Brewer in studio to discuss why he thinks Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) could win the 2024 presidential election.
Leahy: We are delighted to welcome back into our studios, our very good friend, all-star panelist, recovering journalist, family man, public affairs specialist and I can’t call you man about town.
Brewer: Yes. I don’t like that.
Leahy: Man about town evokes Fred Astaire, dancing around with beautiful girls at nightclubs.
Brewer: I guess if you born in the 1920s, maybe.
Leahy: Clint Brewer, welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Brewer: Thanks. I’m so wired on Mike’s coffee. I’m not sure what I’m gonna say.
Leahy: Do you like the coffee? It’s pretty good today.
Brewer: It’s pretty strong. It’s like an electric jolt.
Leahy: We need it at this hour of the morning.
Brewer: I used to be at the leisurely 7:00 a.m. hour, and now I’m at 6:00 and have been for some time.
Leahy: That’s why I make you coffee.
Brewer: I think it’s because I get here on time. That’s why I’m at six.
Leahy: You are very punctual, which is good, and we appreciate that. I had a clip that we played in the 5:15 segment, and I want to talk about this a little bit with you. We have a new entry into the presidential race on the GOP side.
Brewer: Yes, we do.
Leahy: He’s established an exploratory committee, Senator Tim Scott. And the reason I wanna talk about it right now is during the break I asked you was any Republican candidate who would have a chance to win in 2024.
You might say it’s a more pessimistic view of our chances in 2024, not because of the quality of the candidates necessarily but because the demographics of the country have changed, particularly with those under 30.
I think right now the people under 30 have been so brainwashed and they so hate Donald Trump, that if Donald Trump were to get the GOP nomination the under 30 group would go against him 90-10, something like that.
And Kellyanne Conway has publicly said the under-30 crowd is going to be a vote-generating machine for the Left. I think she’s right, asterisk. So then I ask you the question, is there any GOP candidate you think could win? And you gave us this answer. What was your answer?
Brewer: Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina.
Leahy: Now tell me why you say that.
Brewer: First of all he’s from South Carolina which you’ve got to get the nomination to win, right?
Leahy: And the path, just to remind all of our listeners who may not be the same kind of political junkies that Clinton and I are the path on the GOP starts out in Iowa where we have The Iowa Star and our great reporter Matt Kittle, is. They do caucuses, which are quite an event.
And then those caucuses set the tone for the GOP, and that’s first in the nation. Democrats are doing it differently this year, asterisk. Then you go to New Hampshire, then you go South Carolina, and those are the, like, the three that matter, right?
Brewer: Yes. Tim Scott, you talked about the demographics of the country changing. The demographics of conservative voters are changing. For all of Donald Trump’s faults and electoral losses, both as the titular head of the party in the midterms and in his own races, he increased GOP gains with Black and Hispanic voters in a way that has never been done.
Leahy: He did.
Brewer: You have seen in traditionally Democratic districts in places like New York and other places and even increases with Asian voters in GOP candidates. There is a trend here now. It’s not a trend you’re going to read about a lot in mainstream media. Tim Scott is a black senator from South Carolina.
This isn’t a matter of political affirmative action. He is a very solid statesman, and I think that’s the keyword is he’s a statesman. I think he can connect with moderates. I think he can connect with Independents. I think he can connect with suburban women voters. These are all things that Donald Trump failed to do last time, and the party has failed to do in the midterms.
Leahy: I think Donald Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson was great. He makes excellent points and he would be so much better at foreign policy than the disaster that we have right now.
Brewer: Agreed.
Leahy: But I don’t think Donald Trump appeals to any of those groups.
Brewer: He doesn’t. And to me, the threshold issue is foreign policy in this race. If you’re just looking at America’s challenges and problems, until we get our footing on the world stage again, nothing at home is going to settle down.
Leahy: But the reality of suburban women and kids under 30 don’t care about that. They care about other stuff. I’m not disagreeing with you.
Brewer: Well, they’re gonna care if we have to get into a ground war in Taiwan because a lot of the kids under 30 are going to end up going.
Leahy: After the fact, they’ll care about it because we are headed in that direction.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
– – –
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 “Tim Scott” by Tim Scott.
