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 GOP candidate for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District Robby Starbuck to the newsmaker line to discuss the latest gossip on aiding his friend North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn and his high-profile and local endorsements.
Leahy: We’re joined on our newsmaker line now by our friend Robby Starbuck. Robby has announced back in August that he’s a candidate for the Fifth Congressional District here in Tennessee. Turns out that’s interesting because no one knows exactly what the Fifth Congressional District will look like yet. Good morning, Robby. How are you?
Starbuck: I’m doing well, how are you doing, sir?
Leahy: Good. So just for our listening audience, give our listeners a little reminder of your background and where you live now and what you’re doing.
Starbuck: Absolutely. So background-wise. What’s inspired me to do this is my family lost everything in Cuba, and I love this country so much. It’s given me so much. I was able to go to the top of my career in Hollywood, directing Oscar-winning actors, also some of the country music stars.
But my heart is in the south and my wife’s from the south. And this is where we raise our kids. And I want us to have the representation that Tennessee deserves. The conservative values that I know we have here. And Jim Cooper just doesn’t do that for us.
And he hasn’t done that. He’s bent his knee to The Squad and to the left on every turn recently. And so we deserve to have a representative who’s going to stand up for the conservative values that make this country great.
I came out in 2015 and endorsed President Trump and burned down my career in Hollywood. And that was sort of the beginning of this journey for us. And we’ve been blessed to have the support of people like Senator Rand Paul, Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, and President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Rick Grennell who is now the head of the president’s PAC for 2022.
So we’re very excited about this race because this district is changing, as you mentioned, and we expect the district to become much more conservative as a result of redistricting. And that’s going to give us the opportunity to win the majority with this seat.
Which is going to give a lot of power to Middle Tennessee voters. And it’s going to give a lot of power to us to do great things for the state of Tennessee. And not just the state of Tennessee, but for the country. Reinvigorate this country with the freedom that makes our country great.
Leahy: When will we know what the boundaries of the Fifth Congressional District will be?
Starbuck: That’s interesting this Friday, actually, they’re having a meeting with the committee on redistricting, and they’re supposed to release some maps during that.
Leahy: Those are just maps for the state House of Representatives, not for Congress, right?
Starbuck: Yes. Exactly. That’s for state House Representatives. And then they’re going to release another round of maps later in the month. And then in early January, this district will be finalized. I’m just trying to give people a little info on the entire process because your state House seats are going to be changing, too.
Everything should be finalized in January in terms of what it should look like. Based on the math of Middle Tennessee and the growth that’s happened, there’s sort of limited options in terms of what will be possible as long as you keep every other seat safe in the state of Tennessee.
And you just kind of follow the math. And when you follow the math and our own modeling, we see this seat being turned into a firm Republican seat.
Leahy: Once it comes out as finalized there will be court challenges and after that’s all done will you have to evaluate whether or not you’ll proceed with your candidacy depending upon the shape of the district or are you all in regardless?
Starbuck: No. We are all in period. And I think Jim Cooper understands actually, this district is changing. He’s been on a media tour recently to CNN. He just wrote an opinion in The Tennesseean and essentially begged Tennessee’s legislature to not take this seat because he knows the math.
And he admits, actually, I thought this is very interesting, in The Tennesseean piece that he has no recourse to stop this because he knows the math. He knows that they have every single legal responsibility to do this.
And so it really gives him no legal recourse. And the Democrat’s top lawyer who generally attacks redistricting cases his name is Mark Elias has a list of all the states he’s going to sue. Tennessee is not on that list and that’s because we have a very clear law in terms of how we approach this.
And the math is so simple. Honestly, this should have been done 10 years ago where they redistricted it to make it a conservative seat because we had the room to do it 10 years ago. But there was, I guess, a lot of nervousness then, and that nervousness should not exist.
Our state has gotten much more conservative. And sort of paradoxically, something that people don’t always realize is some of that growth we’ve had from blue states is a lot of conservative people fleeing here.
And these are people who want to make sure that the state of Tennessee doesn’t turn into California and it doesn’t turn into New York. They love this state and they want to keep the conservative values.
So those people are helping to make that possible and that we’re able to flip this. Hopefully, at the end of this, we’ll only have one Democrat seat left down in Memphis.
Leahy: Right now, the congressional delegation, seven Republicans, two Democrats. Jim Cooper and Steve Cohen are down in Memphis. What you’re suggesting is redistricting could turn it into eight Republican seats and one Democrat. Let me go to this question for you.
I saw your name in the news. We’ve not had a chance to talk about this, but I saw a report. I think it was last week that current congressman, I think it’s Madison Cawthorn, the young kid from North Carolina that replaced Mark Meadows in Congress. Very conservative, a Freedom Caucus guy.
I saw a report that he brought you onto the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He got in a little procedural trouble for that. Was that true? Did you go on the floor of the House and how did that come about?
Starbuck: I was on the floor of the House, but, yes, the story is really taken out of context. They made it sound like he snuck me in and that was not the case. (Leahy laughs) Madison, as many know, is disabled. He’s in a wheelchair.
According to the ADA, he has the ability to have an aide that is able to help him. And he needed help. I’m his friend. I’m not just somebody running for Congress. And as his friend, he asked me if I could act as his aide and help him with his chair.
And that was something I think any friend would do. And I was honored to be there. I didn’t cause a ruckus in there or anything. I mean, I helped Madison. That was about that.
Leahy: The press reports claimed that the reason you got in is that you falsely claimed or that he falsely claimed that you were a staff member. That’s what the press reports were, right?
Starbuck: Yes. I think it was entirely dishonest. And I would love to figure out who exactly made that the story. But Madison is a great guy, and I think North Carolina is really lucky to have him, and we would never do anything like that.
They try to frame everything like it’s an insurrection. I actually saw somebody afterward from the left, and they’re one of those conspiracy accounts, and they say, oh, Madison and Robby, this is a dry run for a terror attack. And I’m like, are you serious?
Leahy: Are you kidding me?
Starbuck: They’ve lost their minds.
Leahy: It sounds like it was just like a normal thing, right? He probably always needs somebody to help him because he’s disabled in a wheelchair to help him get on the floor. And on that day, he asked you, his friend to do it. It’s no big deal. It seems to me.
Starbuck: It really wasn’t. To be honest with you. Neither of us even thought twice about it. It was like a very normal thing. And if you’ve ever looked at the House floor, it’s very steep. And there’s a portion of it that actually is not the easiest to get the chair through.
It’s really tight, and it’s steep. And I’m sure they have video from the House where you can see I was pushing his chair up, that steep part of it. So it’s just odd honestly. I found the story really odd, and we were like, you know what?
This is one of those stories. The media will make anything up. And there are other people, too, who have their own sort of motivations around why they want to do it. I was talking to somebody recently.
I was like, honestly, we should just throw this back at them and say, do you have a problem with disabled people being able to have an aide?
Leahy: Complying with the Americans Disability Act, right? Hey, tell me briefly. So you’ve racked up a whole series of high-profile endorsements. Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, and Rick Grenell. Ric Grenell, what a great guy he is. How did you secure Ric Grenell’s endorsement?
Starbuck: Ric and I have talked for a long time throughout Trump’s administration, and I think that he understands that my instincts are really strong and that I am the type of person who’s going to go on offense.
He definitely understands that our country cannot withstand another generation of leaders who want to be on defense. It’s how we’ve lost every segment of our culture. We’ve lost academia, we’ve lost the media, we’ve lost entertainment, and we’ve done it by sitting around, playing defense.
We need people who are on offense. And my ideas and everything along the way had crossed Trump’s administration and it made an impression on him. And I think it was something where when he found out I was going to do this, he said, I’m all in. Let’s go for this. You’re going to win this.
Leahy: You’ve got a lot of high-profile national endorsements. You’ve lived here just what, a couple of years? Two years. Three years.
Starbuck: Four.
Leahy: Four years now?
Starbuck: Almost four.
Leahy: So what level of local endorsement have you received?
Starbuck: Yes. Senator Bowling. She has endorsed us. That’s actually one that I have not said before. That just happened recently.
Leahy: Are you breaking some news here on our show?
Starbuck: I’m breaking a little bit of news. Ralph Norman, who is a Freedom Caucus member, he’s a member of Congress. He’s from South Carolina. He just endorsed us as well. That’s also breaking news. So those are great ones we’re really excited to have.
And we’ve been really supported. A lot of the groups here in Middle Tennessee are patriot groups, and I feel like those are really the types of groups who matter in elections in a national sense, and even locally, a lot of people may not know their names, but these groups that are people meeting at their houses, and it’s 40, 50 people.
These are the groups that win elections. They’re the doorknockers. They’re the phone callers. They’re the people who are rabid about us winning this country back and having a majority and actually fighting for America’s first values. Not the old establishment values, but really this American first movement. And I think we get that.
Leahy: Robby Starbuck, candidate for Congress. Thanks so much for joining. Come on in person again, if you would please.
Starbuck: Absolutely.
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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 “Robby Starbuck” by Robby Starbuck.
Live from Music Row Friday 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 host of the new evening talk show “Candace,” Candace Owens to the newsmakers line to talk about her tweets on the elder abuse of Joe Biden, the trial of Derek Chauvin, and Meghan Markle’s cries for attention.
Leahy: On our newsmaker line Candace Owens. Candace, on Wednesday you tweeted, the president of the United States is in severe cognitive decline and the entire world knows it. He gave an orchestrated kind of bizarre speech last night. What was your reaction to that speech?
Owens: I didn’t watch even a second of it because I’m not into elder abuse.
Leahy: That’s a good line. Your show is really going to be funny Candace. That’s a funny line. (Laughs)
Owens: I do not. We have a senile person that’s been installed in the Oval Office who was not given a press conference and over 50 days. Everybody in the entire world knows that Joe Biden is in cognitive decline. Everyone has known this since the second he announced that he was running for president of the United States. And the left stream media has done everything they can to protect him and to hide him and it’s foolish.
It makes America look weak. and I will not be adding myself to the group of people who are going to pretend that this man is leading our country. He’s not. He is a puppet. His strings are being pulled. I’m interested to see how long they are going to go without making him answer any questions from the press.
Leahy: What’re your guess of if he will ever hold a real press conference?
Owens: I think the answer is no, you know, I think they used covid-19 as an excuse when he was running obviously when he was nobody was showing up to hear him speak and he just had a couple of cars honking at him in hidden locations. And they don’t have an excuse now. So I think that they just keep you know doing what they’re doing and pretending that it’s completely normal that he’s not speaking in front of the press or taking any questions.
It’s a terrifying state to be. It’s like is this even a real country? There was not a single person and not even the people that are pretending that they don’t realize it that go to bed and think this is a man that is a strong leader of this country. It’s actually quite sad and it’s quite serious and it’s bizarre would be probably the correct adjectives.
Leahy: Yeah. I think you’re absolutely right about that. Other news of note. You’re just so non-controversial Candace. (Owens chuckles) You had another tweet yesterday about the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. Will he get a fair trial?
Owens: If he doesn’t get a fair trial then I think the implications are scary for the future. And I want to be clear here because people misunderstand I don’t think there’s a single person in America who thinks that Derek Chauvin is guiltless. Like we all think that Derek Chauvin did not act the correct way that day irrespective of the situation.
There’s just no reason when somebody stops moving to remain on their neck for that long. But what we’re talking about specifically are the charges that have been trumped up against to appease the public. This is not a third-degree murder charge. It should never have happened a third-degree murder charge. They can’t prove it was their degree of murder.
The autopsy shows the longer form of people who have not snippy should go out and look for it to be longer form tape of exactly what happened that day. You know, George Floyd was saying he couldn’t breathe long before he got onto the ground. It was clear to me having watched it that he was having a drug overdose. And that it’s highly likely given the results that came back in his autopsy report that he put drugs in his mouth to get rid of it when the cops were approaching the vehicle. And he had an overdose.
So Derek Chauvin did not cause George Floyd’s death. Unfortunately, the public is being deceived largely by the emotionality surrounding this case. And if he doesn’t get charged with third-degree murder, which is likely he won’t, based on evidence and we’re going to see riots as we’ve never seen before because people don’t understand that he should have never been charged for third-degree murder. So it’s unfortunate. And it’s almost like a catch-22. I don’t see how it’s good either way.
Leahy: Last question for you. A former Nashville resident Oprah Winfrey had a special interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle where they made a lot of allegations. My first question, will you invite Meghan Markle to be a guest on your new show, Candace?
Owens: As much as I think she’d love that because she’s obsessed with getting attention and pretending that she wants privacy, she will not be receiving an invite to my show because I am not looking to highlight a couple that has the audacity to accuse an entire country or to try to import America’s obsession with race overseas to England.
It’s is just so patently wrong and has upset my family of course on a lot of levels because my husband is English. And I spent a lot of time in England and it’s just so not indicative of who they are. And it’s just such scapegoating. Such spinelessness. And to Oprah, I don’t think we should be calling this an interview. We should be calling this a PR stunt. She didn’t ask any hard-hitting questions. She didn’t ask them for any proof. She is friends with Meghan Markle.
So pretending this was a no-holds-barred interview is just foolish. Meghan and Harry had the questions long before they were ever asked about them. And they crafted this interview to help them launch their careers in America and a race-obsessed America because the United Kingdom wanted one nothing could do with the narcissist Hollywood-driven couple. But let me tell you how I really feel. (Laughs)
Leahy: I was so glad to see your comments about that because I’ve studied the difference between a constitutional monarchy and a constitutional republic. I have to say Queen Elizabeth II who’s been the queen since 1952 has been a tremendous Monarch in England, in the United Kingdom, and it seems to me that Prince Harry has got some unresolved issues.
Owens: Right.
Leahy: And Meghan Markle making these allegations substantiated allegations is just looking for publicity.
Owens: That’s exactly right. And I think the worst part of the entire interview is when she says there were questions surrounding his skin color. She made that seemed like that was something harmful. It is completely harmless. I have a biracial child. If I told you how many times while I was pregnant we were saying, I wonder what color is skin color will be? I wonder how dark he’ll be?
Do you think he’ll be light? Do you think he’ll be dark? such a natural question for excited parents and family members that are trying to envision what your child is going to look like when they’re multicultural and multiracial. And she left it absent of context and just said there were questions surrounding his skin color.
I could just see right through her. Look Meghan Markle was a d-list actress. Nobody knew who she was. And today she remains a d-list actress that unfortunately, we all have to know who she is because she keeps inserting herself in this victim narrative that’s a never-ending series of victimhood.
Leahy: Candace Owens, her new show “Candace” debuts next Friday.
Listen to the second hour here:
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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 Friday 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 conservative political commentator and host of the new show ‘Candace’ to the newsmakers line to talk about becoming a Nashvillian and her new show “Candace.”
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line by that great conservative Candace Owens who’s moved to Nashville and has a new talk show coming called “Candace.” if you’re driving into Nashville today, you can see the Billboards announcing the program. Welcome, Candace.
Owens: Hi!
Leahy: We are delighted that you’ve moved to Nashville. How do you like it here so far?
Owens: Oh, we are so thrilled. Actually, my husband had always wanted to move to Tennessee and this just ended up lining up. The stars lined up so we couldn’t be happier to be here. And what a perfect place to start a family.
Leahy: It is a great place. And of course, we love and I’m sure you’ll love the no state income tax. How about that?
Owens: That’s the best thing especially coming from Washington D.C. So that is what we call a perk.
Leahy: It sure is. So tell us, Candace, you are now part of the folks at The Daily Wire. I was over there a couple of weeks ago and had lunch with Jeremy the CEO. Great guy, great group. You’re launching a new talk show tell us about it called “Candace.”
Owens: Yes. I’m so excited. I’m actually going to be the first girl to join the guys over at The Daily Wire. So I get to break that up a little bit. And it was really such a creative process. Jeremy and I came together and said what sort of missing from the media spectrum. There’s a lot missing first and foremost. Obviously just allowing conservatives to be in culture has always been problematic.
But we also felt like we were losing sort of the late-night talk show greats. It kind of feels like it died with Jay Leno and now it’s sort of everything is so politicized and so polarizing at the expense of the conservative. So we thought why not actually do a live studio audience show that has a late-night vibe and sort of brings something unique to the culture at the same time. And bam! Candace was born.
Leahy: What a great idea I cannot watch any of the other late-night shows. They’re just unwatchable, unbearable. I turn it off within like two seconds of seeing it.
Owens: They’re also just not funny anymore. It’s like they’re trying so hard to be offensive and to do everything at the expense of more than half of America. They just sort of lost their touch and they seem to be angry all the time. And that’s not to say that my show is going to be all humor. Obviously, I think that I sort of sit somewhere in the middle.
I think humor is the best way to deliver it. Sometimes you just need to deliver the message. And we have so much going on and so many people that feel are unheard. and so to also deliver monologues that are meaningful and hopeful I think is also probably the most important adjective. Because a lot of people are feeling hopeless in today’s circumstances. But there’s plenty to be hopeful about.
Leahy: I like that hopeful angle. and you’re very right. These other late-night talk shows are just not funny. They’re just bad to watch. I think your program will be a big big hit. Now, you said something very important. You’re going to be taping this before a live audience here in Nashville. Is that right?
Owens: That is correct. And that is something that I think is so exciting.
Leahy: Just you and me here talking now. How can I get tickets?
Owens: (Laughter) You know what? I don’t know. I’m telling you there are so many things at The Daily Wire the other day. I was walking through the offices and a girl had on a Candace t-shirt, and I went where do I get one of those? The marketing department knows more than me about these things. But they will be announcing I think this week, you know, the first episode that we’re shooting is obviously a smaller crowd.
And then I think that by the end of next week, they’re going to launch a link live on the website where you can grab tickets. And now I guess we will be the required stop for every party coming in, every bachelor party, and every bachelorette party will say they’ve got to go for a live taping of Candace.
Leahy: Oh absolutely now, so this is going to come out once a week on Fridays, is that right when it comes out?
Owens: That is correct. And then we might scale up. We just have so many ideas right now that we’re so excited about. We’re already in our heads were 10 episodes out. We’ve already written so much content that we think inevitably we’ll end up scaling up the show but we are going to start with just once a week.
Leahy: So the late-night shows have writers do you have a group of writers working with you? So actually I write my own monologues. I am a writer obviously a published author and majored in English and journalism. So I love to write. But it is a collaborative process. They brought in some other writers to kind of go back and forth on ideas.
And that is just such an exciting process. I mean to be in the room and be talking about the topics that I say to them hey, I want to make this entire episode regarding this specific topic. And then we sort of you know, fit in the room and throw around a ball and laugh and come up with funny jokes. Just at one another. So it is a collaborative process but it’s being largely led by me.
Leahy: So Candace, here’s what I think. I think this is going to be such a big hit that you won’t be able to just do it once a week.
Owens: From your mouth to God’s ears.
Leahy: Take a look at me right? So I’m 66 years old. I remember listening to Johnny Carson. I remember listening to Jay Leno. I can’t listen to any of these other folks. I will watch your program and I will find it interesting and amusing. My guess is it’ll be informative but hopeful and funny. That’s what you need. That’s what you need.
Owens: Right. We just need to not take ourselves so seriously. And at the same time, there are obviously incredibly important issues that are going on. I’m so hopeful that we’re going to bring something really unique to listeners. And once again to just sort of say to the world that we’re not ashamed to be conservative. I think there’s this sort of this feeling that’s definitely like being pushed upon us by the mainstream media that we’re somehow not allowed to exist.
Leahy: Right.
Owens: And there’s so many of us. So it’s going to take a little bit of courage. And I want to always inspire that courage amongst my listeners and my followers to say, you know, I’m here, I’m Candace, I’m doing this unapologetically and you should too.
Leahy: So your Twitter account is @RealCandaceO. How can people get your program? Is it part of the daily wire subscription or is it going to be free for a while? How’s that going to work?
Owens: Yes. And you definitely want to subscribe to the daily wires? You can go to DailyWire.com/subscribe. You can use my code, which is CANDACE of course. And you are correct that you can follow bits of the show. We have an Instagram handle and a Twitter handle so you can follow me as you mentioned at @RealCandaceO. But you can also follow @thecandaceshow. And of course, if you follow me on social media, I’ll be pushing out so much content that it will be very hard for you to miss.
Leahy: So the first show is coming a week from today. It’s going to be released a week from today?
Owens: That’s correct.
Leahy: So what we’ll do is just you and me talking here. We’ll talk to Jeremy about this. Just send us a few clips of it like, you know before and we’ll play them on the show so people on the radio show will have an idea of the fun that’s coming.
Owens: So people have an idea of the fun. This coming absolutely will give you guys a little bit of an exclusive Tennessee deserves the exclusive everything’s happening in this state. so we can definitely make that happen.
Leahy: Why is it do you think that so many conservative media outlets and people are moving to Nashville, Tennessee and in Middle, Tennessee?
Owens: Because they’re being chased out. (Laughter) The policies of New York and LA are no longer desirable. It’s not a place to raise a family. Look at the crime rates that are skyrocketing. What you’re really seeing in these coastal cities is just a manifestation of these socialist policies. The socialist thuggery as I like to say that these Democrats come up with and people realize that you just can’t live like that.
It doesn’t work when you’re incentivizing criminality. It doesn’t work when you’re punishing people as law-abiding citizens. It doesn’t work when everything becomes an expense to the law-abiding taxpayer and everything becomes free to people that don’t want to pay taxes. People that don’t want to have borders and that don’t want to have rules. And so the people are fleeing. I think I read the other day that the top two states that people are running to are Texas and Tennessee. And we were itching to get to one or the other and here we are. I’m a Nashville resident and that just feels amazing to say.
Leahy: You are a Nashville resident and we are so happy. And you have a baby. You just had a baby.
Owens: I do. Yes, it’s crazy to think that. My son who is half English and half American is going to be raised in Tennessee. It’s just an amazing feeling. We always talk about that just being raised around people with good morals and people that I love this country. His name is Georgie. And he is only eight weeks old and he’s already a Tennessee resident. How cool is that?
Leahy: That’s very cool. You’ve been out there as a prominent Black conservative woman who’s just not taking any guff from the liberals and you’ve become a target. And you masterfully punch back in a way that is fun to watch. And that’s why one of the reasons why you’re so popular and why I think your show is going to be such a success. What has changed in your life now that your mom?
Owens: People ask that question and I think that the correct answer to that is that all of these topics just bear more weight to them. And what I mean by that is that you can obviously debate political topics just on the merit of the discussion. But when you have a child you realize that how we decide these debates.
You know who ends up winning these debates is really determining the future of how your children are going to be raised. I often ask myself is my son going to be raised in the same America that I grew up in? And really with the Democrats at the wheel, the answer is no. And so everything becomes so much more severe and you just want to give it your absolute all when it comes to informing listeners and saying to people this is really not okay where we’re headed.
And we need to sort of stop this train which is falling off of the tracks at the moment. So I definitely think these discussions have just become so much more real to us. And I definitely want to give it my absolute all to make sure that we don’t lose America and we don’t lose this country.
Leahy: When we come back after the break with Candace Owens we’ll ask the big question, which is did she watch the Joe Biden event last night, and what was her reaction? So Candace, think about that over the break. I’m sure you’ve thought about that quite a bit.
Listen to the second hour here:
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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.
