Lou Dobbs, the newest host on the John Fredericks Radio Network, joined the newsmaker line on Monday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy.
Dobbs shared details about his early career covering the southern border from Yuma, Arizona during the height of the Caesar Chavez era, and discussed how his early experiences shaped his America first world view.
Dobbs’ new show launches at 7pm Easter / 6pm Central on WENO AM760 The Flame – Nashville’s only America First news talk radio.
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Patrick Leahy: And the great Lou Dobbs is joining us now good morning Lou Dobbs. Thanks for joining us.
Lou Dobbs: Well, it’s great to be with you, Michael.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Lou, let me welcome you to the John Frederick’s Radio Network. Your radio program will begin tonight.
Lou Dobbs: It’s 7 pm Eastern time.
Michael Patrick Leahy: 7 pm Eastern to – is it one hour or two hours?
Lou Dobbs: It’s one hour,
Michael Patrick Leahy: It’s a one hour show. 7 pm to 8 pm Eastern Time on the John Fredericks Radio network, and of course here in Nashville, on 760AM WENO – the only America First news talk station in Nashville – you’ll be on 6 PM – 7 PM central.
So welcome Lou Dobbs to the John Fredericks Radio Network.
Boy, what a powerhouse lineup.
John Fredericks, Stephen K. Bannon, Lou Dobbs, and yours truly.
Lou Dobbs: Excellent. I’m looking forward to it.
Michael Patrick Leahy: I have to tell a nice story about you. You and I first met back in 2012. You were at Fox Business Network and I was up in New York City on a publicity deal. I had a book, Covenant of Liberty, the Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement, and I was on “Morning Joe” and I was on “Fox and Friends,” and they were all okay.
But the very best interview was you. So thank you for that.
Lou Dobbs: Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
It’s interesting how nice I’m always delighted to hear that people had a good experience on the show because so many times. You know, people don’t have that experience in New York. So I’m proud that we had a great experience.
I enjoyed our visit and our exchange. Just like I’m sure I’m going to enjoy this one. And we’re off to a good start, I have to say.
Michael Patrick Leahy: And Lou, the one other little point about that, so you had on that show and on the Fox Business show you had what was called the A team, which was on that particular day – it was Tucker Carlson and Monica Crowley and as they were coming off, I had a nice brief conversation with both of them. Very nice people. The programming on your show was great then. It’s always been great, Lou.
Lou Dobbs: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. You know, there’s one thing that an audience always enjoys.
And that’s people who actually know what they’re talking about, who are bright, who actually share – and I think this is really important. It certainly is important to me, and I know my audience – they share common values, whether it’s about most importantly, the nation’s state and politics and the reality that we live in, not the reality that some want to pretend is the issue is, as we’re experiencing right now.
To me, this the political divide, Michael is between people who are mentally healthy and engaged in reality and dealing with it on life’s terms versus a group of Marxist Dems leading the Democrat Party and the Left toward oblivion because they simply cannot stand nature as it is; they cannot accept reality as it must be confronted.
To me, it’s that straightforward.
To me, we have people trying to destroy a country that makes them possible. I don’t think it gets much more perverse than that.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Lou in the studio with me is my very good friend for more than 30 years.
We call him The Original All Star Panelist. He’s an entrepreneur from Nashville. His name is Crom Carmichael. You may have seen him do his ads on Stephen K Bannon’s WarRoom for his product Soltea for heart health. Crom is here and he has a question for you, Lou.
Crom Carmichael: Lou, what is your new program? Will it be more business? We’ll be, will it be more about markets? Will it be politics or a combination of all three?
Lou Dobbs: Well, it’s going to be a bit of a combination. My whole career, I’ve done a show on the political economy because I’ve never been smart enough to separate politics and economics. But whatever is of interest and importance to the listener and to the viewer, that’s what I try to bring each evening.
No question about it, this year we’re going to be very heavy on politics. We have an existential election confronting us on November 5th. I truly believe with all of my heart and mind and soul that President Trump is the only one who has the strength and capacity and character to lead the nation beyond the disastrous, the destructive policies of this Biden regime.
And I truly believe he must win. And so the politics of the presidential election will figure foremost in our programming on Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Lou, you and I have something in common. You grew up in Texas, you moved to Idaho. And then you went to Harvard. You graduated class of ’67, Quincy House.
I followed you a decade later. I was in one of the river houses, Elliot House.
Here’s my big question to you. We have both emerged from Harvard years later as what I would call Constitutional populists. I know why I became a constitutional populist. Why did you?
Lou Dobbs: I guess I started out that way. You know, I had a lot of ground to make up when I got to Harvard and my politics were pretty straightforward, you know, it was God and country ahead of everything. And none of the fancy discussions that were going on in our, you know, our common rooms or you know, in the eating halls dissuaded me.
And I just truly believe that if you’re not a populist simply means “the people.” And if you’re not for the people Who in the world are you for? So I thought I’d better stick with populist. And if you’re not going to put America first, what country are you going to put first? So I couldn’t square it up any other way than to be a constitutional nationalist populist.
So that’s, you know, a series of labels. I gladly accept all of those. I think of myself first and foremost as an American. Where we’re all created equal and have a responsibility to provide equal opportunity to all Americans.
Straightforwardly, I have no use for anybody who doesn’t put America first. I don’t have much use for folks who don’t love this country, and if they want to put people a second in this country the heck with them.
That constitution means something to me and I think it means something to nearly all Americans.
And what it means is that we have a free constitutional republic in which to live and we better cherish it and preserve it.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Lou, after you graduated from Harvard, you worked in banking, I guess in L.A. for a while and you found it boring and you decided to go and work as a beat reporter in Yuma, Arizona.
Tell us about that. Tell us what Yuma, Arizona was like.
Lou Dobbs: Arizona will always rank as, I think, my favorite experience as a young journalist because it taught me everything that I know today about the craft.
I was working at a 500 watt directional station in Yuma, Arizona, KBLU. I was covering at that time everything from drug trafficking, working with the DEA, the ATF the border patrol; Caesar Chavez had his so called “wet line” as he’s trying to bring the United Farm Workers into Arizona; working with the Teamsters Union and all that went with that is they tried to stop it.
It was this time of great conflict, and the Federales were shooting up buildings in the middle of the desert where they suspected drug dealers were.
I got to experience, there, everything from a hurricane in the Gulf of Baja – and coming up into Arizona to shoot out to the middle of streets and San Luis Sonora.
So, yeah, I get a little excited about my first job.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Yuma – it’s about 50 miles north of the border with Mexico, something like that?
Lou Dobbs: Yeah, a little less.
Michael Patrick Leahy: And so if you go back to Yuma today and you look around, there is a border invasion. How has Yuma changed in the decades since you were there as a reporter?
Lou Dobbs: Well, the whole border has changed. And Yuma is just because of the Yuma sector as it’s known in the Border Patrol, you know, it’s an onslaught.
And we’re talking about now in this country, people wanted to, I mean, they came out with a report the other day, as you know, Michael, talking about 2. 5 million illegal immigrants brought in the heck you say there have been an estimated 10 million – 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants brought into the country in the course of the past three years from the day that President Biden stepped into the Oval Office. The cartels on that border, both sides of it, and nobody should kid themselves.
They own the southern border. All 2,000 miles of it. And everybody who says otherwise is a liar. That’s what we face, and that’s what we’re going to have to deal with, and that’s why you can’t get a straight answer out of most people who live on the border right now in a position of government.
Because they have to lie.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Lou Dobbs, the great Lou Dobbs, now joining the John Fredericks Radio Network every weekday evening, 7 pm to 8 pm Eastern Time; 6 pm to 7 pm Central Time, right here on News Talk 760 WENO.
Lou, last question. We have 30 seconds. I know you live in a heavily-taxed northeastern state.
We have no state income tax here in Tennessee. I’m inviting you to move to Tennessee.
Lou Dobbs: Well, you know what, I’m going to take that invitation as you intended, and I’m going to think strong and hard about it. We’ve lived on this farm for 40 years in Northwest Jersey – it’s our hideout and it’s been our home for a while.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, come to Tennessee.
Lou Dobbs, the great Lou Dobbs. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Lou Dobbs: We love Tennessee.
Michael Patrick Leahy: All right. We’ll be back with more after this.
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Listen to The Tennessee Star Report weekdays from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm on WENO AM760 The Flame.
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