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 public affairs specialist Clint Brewer in studio to discuss the 2024 presidential candidates and the victimhood mentality that is plaguing the conservative movement.
Leahy: In studio Clint Brewer. Clint, I think I mentioned to you that we’ve launched The Iowa Star. Our 12th state-based site. We’re just focused there, really mostly. It’s a special 2024 caucus edition. And you know the road to the 2024 GOP nomination goes through The Iowa Star.
Brewer: Oh, okay.
Leahy: Part of The Star News Network. Okay, we’re gonna say it until it becomes true.
Brewer: Will it into reality.
Leahy: We’re gonna will it into reality. But actually, you know, if somebody’s, if a presidential candidate’s in Iowa we’re covering ’em, we’re there, we’re on site. Matt Kittle, our great reporter, and national political editor is based in Des Moines.
The Democrats, they’re a ballot machine. There’s not gonna be true competition there. The machine is gonna pick the candidate, and that’s why they’re going to go to South Carolina first.
Brewer: Oh, yeah.
Leahy: So that they can put their stamp on the octogenarian, demented, nurse-loving, legal, but not legitimate, a Grifter-in-Chief Joe Biden.
Brewer: That’s a long title, Mike.
Leahy: I know.
Brewer: I’m gonna have to cut that down a little bit.
Leahy: You think so?
Brewer: You gotta lose part of that somewhere.
Leahy: I just like piling it on for that guy. All right. Donald Trump is headed to Iowa sometime in the middle of this month, and our guy will be there. Our pal, Viva was there, we got exclusives with him. Vivek Ramaswamy, who’s got a very bold anti woke agenda, anti-China agenda. Nikki Haley was there. She’s one of the munchkins and she’s not got a chance. The contrast between Vivek ran a campaign event and how Nicki was like night and day. Vivek was open and anybody could talk to him. Nikki. Control central.
Everything was scripted. It was a town hall, but the only people allowed to ask questions were Nikki Haley supporters. You’ve seen that kind of a play out at events. Trump is gonna be there in mid-March, so that’ll be interesting. And then the other people, Tim Scott, is probably gonna run, um, the other kind of munchkins, Mike Pence, he’s probably gonna run. But it will be embarrassing for him. He’s got no constituency. He also, by the way, said he’s not sure if he will back the GOP nominee if it’s Donald Trump. Bad move.
Brewer: He may not be alone.
Leahy: But it’s a bad move, Mike Pence. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Thinking about it. Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu; Larry Hogan from Maryland. I think Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas, has thought about it. I don’t think he’s gonna do it.
Brewer: Mike, let’s be fair. Anybody who’s been elected to the State House on up has thought about it.
Leahy: Well, you know, I’m only 68. In eight years I’ll be 76.
Brewer: Every member of every city council’s already there, or even talk show hosts already decided they can be mayor, and every mayor’s already decided they can be governor and every governor’s already decided they can be president.
Leahy: And you know, you see all these national polls, national polls are meaningless. Because the president is selected by the electoral college.
Brewer: State polls.
Leahy: State polls are what matters. If you look at the general matchup.
Brewer: The local snapshot gives you a better picture.
Leahy: As we sit here today since we live in the land of speculation. It’s Trump-DeSantis. I’ll throw in dark horse Vivek because I like him. And then the munchkins. That’s how I look at it. And if you look at it, Trump, for all of his stumbles post-presidency is remarkably resilient in these polls.
Brewer: Let me back up. If Senator Tim Scott gets in, he will not be a munchkin.
Leahy: Okay. We’re told he is gonna announce.
Brewer: If he announces he will not be one of the munchkins that will open the field up.
Leahy: We’ll see. We’ll see. We’ll see what he’s bringing.
Brewer: It’ll be two candidates from South Carolina, but, you know.
Leahy: It’s all right. As we look at this right now, Trump is remarkably resilient in the polls despite all of the stumbles post-presidency. My theory is that it’s because people know who he is and they know how he would handle foreign policy, and it’s the exact opposite of Joe Biden. People don’t like what Joe Biden’s doing in foreign policy.
Brewer: I don’t even think it’s that. I think he has a brand that people know. I don’t think there’s any particular part of the portfolio that people are clinging to. I just think that they like the general idea of Trump.
Leahy: And so that’s what, 35 percent of the Republican Party? 40 percent maybe?
Brewer: Yes, maybe something like that.
Leahy: Ron DeSantis got his book.
Brewer: Just kind of getting geared up at the national level. About to go on a book tour, doing his book tour instead of CPAC the Florida Yes.
Leahy: And going to The Breakers with the Club for Growth. But not going to CPAC, which is not such a big deal. They’re taking the Florida blueprint to America. He’s lost 20 pounds. Probably in June, he announces. It seems to me one of his great lanes to go after would be, I opened up during COVID and everybody else was closing down.
Brewer: I completely agree. I think that’s a great line for him. I think it runs very counter to what President Biden will have to stand by.
Leahy: President Trump. I mean, if you look at it, he was the president when all of these lockdowns took place and he let Anthony Fauci run the show. It was kind of a disaster. But he let that happen.
Brewer: You know, conservatives have a big decision to make this time around. You look at DeSantis and you look at a guy like Senator Scott from South Carolina, who’s just a total rising star like DeSantis is in conservative politics.
Then you look at former President Trump. My concern is that in some way, some warped way, the culture of victimhood in this country has seeped into conservative politics.
Leahy: They like to be aggrieved.
Brewer: There’s a slice of the party and the broader conservative movement that, in their hearts would rather be perpetually aggrieved and victimized. And they’re more comfortable not winning these elections and complaining about it for another two to four years. Then just saying okay, this is the person that can win. Let’s go with this person.
Leahy: I’m afraid there’s some truth to what you’re saying. This is anecdotal. And I know this from the people that I talk to. I, I hear, well, this is bad. This is bad. Well, what are you gonna do about it?
Brewer: Or, or, we can’t win. We can’t win. They’ve fixed it. We can’t win, which is just not true.
Leahy: It’s not true. However, where we stand, March 2nd, 2023. We are 16 months away from the nominee. That’ll be July of 2024.
Brewer: And there are people who’ve been conditioned under former President Trump to accept failure.
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.
Live from Music Row, Wednesday 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 top gov tracker Neil W. McCabe to the newsmaker line to discuss Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee creating a woke National Guard and Ron DeSantis’s legislative agenda and presidential aspirations.
Leahy: Joining me and Crom Carmichael, top gov tracker, my very, very good friend Neil W. McCabe. Good morning.
McCabe: Hey, Michael! Very good to be with you, man. Hi Crom.
Leahy: You’re a guy who served in the military and is still in the Army Reserve. And you sent me this thing last night and I said, really? There’s this story out by William Jones from Tennessee National Guard Public Affairs Office. Nashville, Tennessee, February 27th. I can’t believe I’m saying this. “Diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity are critical elements for success in the military.” Are you kidding me? Has Bill Lee created the Wokeist National Guard in the country?
McCabe: Well, apparently, that’s the goal, right? Because why would you start, uh, a joint diversity executive council if you didn’t want it to be the best? I can’t imagine a governor of Tennessee going by half-measures. Why would he do this just for show? He’s gotta believe it.
I got, I gotta believe that Bill Lee wouldn’t do something just to, uh, you know, throw a sop to the leftists. I think he’s into it. And of course, Major General Jeff Holmes who is the adjunct general of the Tennessee National Guard as you’ll recall was all set to jab, everybody with the COVID-19 vax. We’ll see how this plays out.
Leahy: And you found this, interestingly in, uh, it’s kind of a special military news service, right? Dvidshub.net.
McCabe: I’m a connoisseur of military public affairs. That’s how I make my living in the military. And so Divids is this depository where all the videos, all the pictures that the military takes, and the stories, is a resource for public affairs offices, but also for civilian journalists if they want to know what’s going on in the military. Not everything gets the full play, but this struck my fancy.
Leahy: Yes. And Neil, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna call this fellow up, William Jones, and see if, he’ll come in and talk about why Governor Bill Lee is creating the Wokeist National Guard in the country.
Carmichael: Is there a public affairs officer?
Leahy: He’s the public affairs.
Carmichael: Then that’s his job, is to explain things to the public.
Leahy: We’ll have him come in and sit right next to you.
Carmichael: That would be wonderful.
Leahy: Neil, you’re down there in Florida for One America News Network. You’re the Florida top gov tracker. You’re the national correspondent. Ron DeSantis has announced his book tour, The Courage to Be: Florida’s Blueprint for America. I wonder where this is headed.
McCabe: Yes, well, I think the point that the governor is trying to make is, uh, I was able to have success here in Florida and I can, and I can show other states how they can do it as the governor of Florida or maybe something else. Now there’s some talk that he’s running for president.
And just because he never dismantled his campaign committee from his re-election or the fact that they’re continuing to hire new people, that’s creating speculation. Just because instead of going to CPAC, like a lot of fancy people this week, he’s gonna be going down to Palm Beach where the Club for Growth, which basically is in charge of laundering money for the Koch Brothers, they’re having their own sort of candidate conference.
Leahy: They are at The Breakers, which is like three miles away from Mar-a-Lago. By the way, remember when you and I were both at Breitbart working the rope line on an event down here in Nashville where President Trump was speaking when he was running for president and he got into a dust-up with the Club for Growth.
And I leaned into him and I said, hey, Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, Michael Patrick Leahy with Breitbart here. I work with Steve Bannon. And he leans into me. He says, Breitbart, I love those guys. I love you guys. I love Bannon. What’s your question?
And I said you are in a dispute with the Club for Growth. Any comment about them? And his comment was, it was the headline of Breitbart. Club for Growth, they’re a pack of thieves. (Laughter)
McCabe: Well, it’s very simple, right? If I wanna attack somebody and I don’t want my fingerprints on it, I transfer a million dollars to the Club for Growth and then the Club for Growth runs the ads. They’re guns for hire. And God love ’em. You know, we all have to make a living.
Listen, everybody needs to buy their kids a bike for Christmas. I want people to be able to order a ham sandwich for lunch. I’m not trying to knock somebody’s job, but that’s what they do.
Leahy: Crom has a question for you.
Carmichael: Neil, I wanna switch gears just a hair here. Because I heard DeSantis being interviewed and he was asked, are you gonna run for president? And his answer was, it was non-committal. But he said we’re just starting the legislature here in Florida and I have a very strong agenda and things I want to get accomplished over the next 90 days in Florida.
So any decisions related to any possible run are not even going to be considered until after the legislature’s out. What are the big things? Because these would be the types of opportunities that DeSantis could have to make news. So what are the big issues in Florida that you think would resonate?
McCabe: He signed a peace treaty with Disney, so that issue is now over. He withdrew and declared victory. They’re keeping their district. It’s just that the governor gets to appoint people to the board who run the district. And so that’s done. A lot of people were expecting a concealed carry bill to go through the special session of the legislature that didn’t.
Florida used to be called the Gunshine State because gun laws were so far more advanced than other states. Now there are probably 30 states that have more free gun laws than the state of Florida. And so people are anticipating that the session begins Monday or Tuesday after CPAC.
I don’t know if it’s the sixth or the seventh. The state of the state is March 7th. The session itself is two months long. No bill can be considered unless it is filed before the session begins. So everyone is wondering why is there no pro-life bill being filed and what’s gonna happen with the gun bill.
And, of course, the insurance in this state is complete in the process, and so that’s gotta be addressed. They keep fixing the insurance laws but because of the hurricanes, you cannot live in this state, and you cannot invest in this state unless something is done to subsidize insurance. That’s just a fact.
Leahy: He’s got a pretty big agenda. That’s gonna take him until the end of May. Putting your predicting cap on here, what do you think is gonna happen in June?
McCabe: I think in June he’s going to say that after reflection and prayer, he has listened to the people across the country who are demanding that he bring his winning recipes to the White House.
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 “Bill Lee” by Bill Lee.
Live from Music Row, Tuesday 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 Aaron Gulbransen, director of Tennessee’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, in studio to comment upon the recent announcement by former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to run for president in the 2024 election.
Leahy: In studio, the official guest host of The Tennessee Star Report, all-around good guy, all-star panelist, formerly our lead political reporter here in Tennessee, he was, of course, stolen from us by the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Gulbransen: Did you give grief for that in the previous segment?
Leahy: I should have.
Gulbransen: I got to hear part of it.
Leahy: But I should have. But because I’m so polite, because I’m always nice to everybody who’s on the show, asterisk.
Gulbransen: I was going to say, who’s on the show?
Leahy: You are now the Tennessee state director for the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Welcome, Aaron.
Gulbransen: Good morning. How are you?
Leahy: Well, the first Munchkin has announced, and so just, you know, for our listeners, the way I’ve described the race for the GOP nomination in 2024, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and the Munchkins. Now, Trump has announced. And by the way, a listener called in and said that President Trump has denied calling Ron DeSantis a meatball. That’s on the record.
Gulbransen: That’s what he denies calling him?
Leahy: I mean, come on.
Gulbransen: To some people, meatball could be a term of endearment. It’s better than Santimonius as an insult. I mean, distinctive Monius is not up to Donald Trump’s level. I’m not even talking about the contest between the two for the presidential level, but you’re going to raise the Trump insults.
President Trump, if you’re listening, or people who have a pipeline that is not sitting in the studio. I mean, I have one, too, but you got to come up with better insults. This is below the standards of 2016 and 2020.
Leahy: Here’s a clue, though. This is not 2015 or 2016.
Gulbransen: That is correct.
Leahy: This is a longer discussion. As I’ve told you, the way I’ve described the 2024 race for the GOP nomination, it’s Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and the Munchkins. John Bolton, he didn’t even rise to the level of Munchkin, I don’t think. The former National Security Adviser said a month ago he’s going to run for president.
But I don’t think he’s mounted a campaign. Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and also the former UN ambassador, appointed thereby Donald J. Trump, announced just today that she is running for the 2024 presidential nomination. I have met Nikki Haley, and she is a very effective communicator in person.
She’s very articulate. But the complaint with Nikki Haley is she really doesn’t stand for much ideologically. First of all, to say the nice things about actually, I know you’re going to get mad at me for doing this.
Leahy: I never get mad at you.
Gulbransen: But I do want to announce to our audience, as the Gadfly candidates are starting to come out, that I have declined to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. And I know you’re not running either, Michael. So just to get that out of the way.
Leahy: So you’re not running?
Gulbransen: No.
Leahy: If we’re going to ask about political campaigns, I got to ask you this. Are you running for mayor of Nashville?
Gulbransen: (Laughs) No, I don’t live in Nashville. Nikki Haley does have a formidable resume, and there are plenty of people that have formidable resumes. But this is one of those situations where I’ve had conversations with a number of candidates who run for president that fit what I call the “what the heck lane.”
I can’t imagine she thinks that she’s going to win. She’s probably at the point, and with her and her team’s calculus, that if 45 different things happen perfectly, she could potentially have a shot at getting in the top three in her campaign calculus. The time she served with President Trump and then…
Leahy: She gave a couple of good speeches. But then she kind of left quickly.
Gulbransen: And then turning on him, essentially. This is a lot different.
Leahy: Do we have a Trump nickname in the waiting? I won’t volunteer it.
Gulbransen: I don’t know. I’m not going to begin to fathom it because I can think of about 15. (Leahy laughs) But Trump, we’ll see if he returns to four. But this is a tactic of the former president. He may say something that we can’t repeat. Who knows? But she doesn’t really have a true political core.
Leahy: She doesn’t have a base either.
Gulbransen: She doesn’t have a base. Foreign ambassadors don’t tend to do too well in these things. She and Bolton can go up on a stage and talk about their hawkish foreign policy views.
Leahy: If you listen to Stephen K. Bannon on WarRoom, he is no fan of Nikki Haley. He calls her a neocon, kind of a pro-American intervention all over the world, not focused on American security, but the projection of American power in places where probably others ought to be involved. She seems to me to be likable personally, but not particularly outstanding in terms of what she stands for.
Gulbransen: I’ve followed her for a long time, and I can’t tell you what she’s for.
Leahy: I think she’s for Nikki Haley. (Laughs)
Gulbransen: And famously, she defended, for example, the former flag of the state of South Carolina until she didn’t and thought it was politically expedient.
Leahy: Because it had a Confederate symbol.
Gulbransen: And let’s be very clear, she defended it when it was popular in South Carolina, and then she abandoned her position when she thought it was a safe political stance to have. That’s the kind of politician she is.
Leahy: By the way, Nikki, former ambassador, former governor, you’re welcome to come on The Tennessee Star Report. We’re happy to talk to you. I think the odds are that our Iowa Star reporter Matt Kittle is more likely to get an interview with her.
She’s going to be out in Iowa shortly. And of course, Aaron, as you know, we launched The Iowa Star just over the weekend, and now it’s quite clear. The road to the GOP nomination in 2024 goes through The Iowa Star.
Oh, you didn’t hear this, but Tim Head, who’s the executive director and your boss at the Faith and Freedom Coalition, I gave him an invitation that The Iowa Star would be delighted to co-sponsor any Faith and Freedom Coalition forums out there in Iowa. So we’ll see what happens with that!
Gulbransen: Many things are possible. That’s a very cool scenario.
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 “Nikki Haley” by Nikki Haley. Background Photo “The White House” by Ken Lund. CC BY-SA 2.0.
