National political correspondent Neil W. McCabe weighs in on the state of the 2024 presidential election cycle with his signature insider intel on the candidates, players, and the game in Wednesday’s can’t-miss episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy.
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Patrick Leahy: 7:19 a.m., broadcasting live from our studios on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. In-studio, all-star panelist Carol Swain, author of the book, The Adversity of Diversity; on the newsmaker line, the best national political correspondent in the country, Mr. Neil W. McCabe.
Good morning, Neil.
Neil W. McCabe: Hey, good morning, Mike. Good morning, Carol. Very good to be with you today.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Neil, today, a couple things going on, and I guess I’m wondering what will people be watching? On Fox Business News, there will be a debate among the second through eighth people that are polling way back of Donald Trump in the Ronald Reagan Library.
Our friend Stephen K. Bannon calls them “The Seven Dwarfs or “The Keebler Elves,” I call them “The Munchkins,” and on tonight, at the same time, counterprogramming, Donald J. Trump will be speaking to former and current UAW members in Detroit.
What will tonight’s television be like, Neil W. McCabe?
Neil W. McCabe: My guess is that people will be watching Donald J. Trump.
And what’s interesting is it’s not only going to be the sort of the popular audience but also the insider audience because it is a political masterstroke. It’s like MacArthur’s Inchon to actually pull this off, and if Trump pulls it off, it will just be another brick in the wall against anybody who wants to stop him from being president.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Yes, I think you’re probably right. Look, and you saw last night this news from this hack of a judge in Manhattan who, without a trial, granted the summary judgment request of the attorney general of New York, Letitia James, calling Donald Trump a fraud because of some statements he made about his net worth.
By the way, in that, the judge said Mar a Lago, which has a fair market value of about a billion dollars. The judge said, ‘Oh no, it’s only 18 million.’
I think, look, my sense is all of this is going to work to make people increase their vote for Donald Trump.
Your thoughts, Neil W. McCabe.
Neil W. McCabe: Yeah, what’s interesting about that, even the whole trial itself, is that what Tish James is doing is she’s criminalizing basic negotiation. And just like in our legal system, we have two competing sides who are trying to get to the truth, trying to get to justice.
In business, you have two competing sides to come up with a price, so it’s basically she’s criminalized the price mechanism.
It’s like when you go into business with somebody, and maybe it’s a loan, and you say, okay, my property – the property that I want to finance is a $100 million.
Deutsche Bank says, I don’t know, I’m thinking it’s $80 million. And you negotiate. There’s private market value. And unless, you know, unless there’s an actual bill of sale, nobody knows. Nobody knows what things are worth. You know, you think about these private companies.
You know, like the Koch brothers, their business, is it worth 10 billion? Is it worth 100 billion? No one knows.
These private companies aren’t even – they aren’t even required to report certain parts of their business. And so it’s just odd that this would go on.
And I guess the final point on what’s going on with Tish James, the attorney general from New York going after Trump is that good people in New York are not standing up to say this is wrong.
And there was a time in this country when people would put politics aside and they would say, ‘Hold on’ and cry foul.
And the reason why they’re not crying foul is because anything to get Trump. Now, there are people who are afraid to speak up, which I completely understand, having grown up in Massachusetts, although I’ve lost my accent.
But there are a lot of people who want to take Trump down no matter what, and if it means destroying what used to be a country run by the rule of law, they don’t care.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Carol Swain has a comment on this.
Carol Swain: I would say the timing is oddly suspicious for this judge’s unilateral decision. It comes on the heels of polls showing Donald Trump leading Joe Biden.
And so I think that the Democrats are desperate, and I also believe that this DA’s case is so weak. She needed something. And so she was handed something that grabs the headlines and makes Donald Trump, you know, look bad on the surface. But people that understand business, the way you explained it, Neil, they understand that there’s nothing about nothing and that the judge’s decision will probably be thrown out on appeal, or it should be.
Neil W. McCabe: Yeah, the whole civil lawsuit process or system, right? We have a criminal system, and we have a civil system. And the criminal system says, hey, you two parties, you may have worked it out, but you have disrupted the king’s peace, you have disrupted the king’s justice.
And so even though you two parties have worked it out, The government still has an interest in saying you’re not allowed to throw a brick in the window.
The lawsuit or civil process, that’s basically the old tribal system, where basically, it’s like you hurt somebody in my tribe, you have to pay, it’s like this whole workout.
And so, basically, the civil system is set up between parties, to resolve sort of victimhood and aside from the king’s peace. And so what Tish James is saying is there is no victim here, but we’re still going to prosecute a violation of the king’s peace on the civil side, which is just bonkers.
Carol Swain: It is. It is. And I think it really points out the DEI problem because they’re using black prosecutors and in some cases judges. And these people don’t seem to be following the law or understanding the law. They’re being used by white progressives to push an agenda aimed at destroying Donald J. Trump.
Neil W. McCabe: And so the question is. I guess for you, Carol, is what kind of agency does James have, or is she just a sock puppet?
Carol Swain: I would say she’s a sock puppet and that they’re just trying to get headlines and attention to see who can do the most damage to Donald Trump. Can they take him out?
Michael Patrick Leahy: Speaking of sock puppets
Neil W. McCabe: As we do.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Krispy Kreme Kristy and Mike Judas Pence and five others – Steve Bannon calls them the Seven Dwarfs, the Keebler Elves, I call them the Munchkins – they’re going to be on the debate stage at the Ronald Reagan Library tonight. It’s going to be on Fox Business News.
Is anybody going to watch? What kind of news are they going to make? Who’s going to go after whom? Will there be anything worthwhile to report on this debate?
Neil W. McCabe: I think what’s going to be interesting is how Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley sort of resolve that sort of “not Trump” pack that they’re sort of in.
Nikki Haley has really done well since the last debate. And, you know, I think Vivek had tremendous momentum, and I think he sort of stalled out.
And then you have this problem of Ron DeSantis, and it’s really a problem for the country, and it’s a problem for the Republican Party, where you had someone who is obviously going to be a superstar in American politics and has the potential of being a president of the United States, who basically has flamed out, himself.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Flamed out. Big time. Unfortunately.
Neil W. McCabe: Well, personal ambition, maybe, you know, his wife had some very serious health challenges two or three years ago and, you know, maybe there are promises that she made because during these health crisis, you know, anybody who’s gone through it understands that tomorrow is not a guarantee and that maybe this, ‘Maybe this is our time, Ron, and we have to do it now.’
Whatever the motivation was, Ron DeSantis has been an insane flame-out.
He’s now at the 13 percent in New Hampshire. I think he’s at 21 in Iowa. And, and that’s just not gonna do it. He’s going, he’s going to lose. And there’s, there’s three dates in March that are gonna be critical for the Ron DeSantis story if he makes it that far.
You have Super Tuesday, March 5th. He gives the State of the State address opening the two month session in Florida on March 11th. March 15th, the Ides of March – that’s the Florida primary.
I don’t think DeSantis will even be in the race for the Florida primary.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Carol has a comment here for you.
Carol Swain: I think it’s terribly unfortunate for DeSantis.
And my take on it is that he listened to political advisors and maybe donors, and that’s a sign not strong leadership; but he’s clearly I would say the strongest of the bunch, and Nikki Haley may be the establishment’s new darling, but she would be disastrous.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Any predictions for tonight?
Will there be a big winner, big loser tonight in that debate, and will anybody care?
Neil W. McCabe: I think we’re almost reaching the point where people don’t care, and it’s also sad because you know, David Bossie was expected to challenge Ronna McDaniel for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee.
He didn’t do it. He cut a deal with McDaniel where he had control of the debates and some other things. And the debates for the RNC have just been run horribly and they just failed to properly negotiate and navigate with Trump and this whole thing has been, as the president would say, ‘Very sad, a huge mistake.’
Michael Patrick Leahy: And on that note, the great Neil W. McCabe. Thanks so much for joining us today, Neil.
Neil W. McCabe: Take care, guys.
Michael Patrick Leahy: All right. We’ll have more when we get back. This is the Tennessee Star Report. She’s Carol Swain. I’m Michael Patrick Leahy.
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