Live from Music Row Monday 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 Congressman Tim Burchett (TN-02) to the newsmakers line to discuss the out of control power trip of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, changing mask mandates, and the elusive role of John Kerry.
Leahy: We are delighted to welcome back to our microphones, the voice of sanity (Burchett chuckles) in Washington, D.C., Representative Tim Burchett from Knox County. Welcome back to The Tennessee Star Report Congressman Burchett.
Burchett: Thanks for having me on, brother. I really appreciate it.
Leahy: I don’t know how you guys do it up there right now with Nancy Pelosi running the House of Representatives like it’s her own little dictatorial club. How do you stand it?
Burchett: You pray a lot, honestly. There is no rhyme or reason and even our own party or parties and shambles. They’re on us about an election for the person who literally just schedules our meetings and at the end of the Republican Party. But dadgum, look at them.
We can’t even have a meeting during the day on a Zoom call because she scheduled three at the exact same time and we don’t have the bandwidth to do it. They are always collapsing. We were on with Secretary Buttigieg a few weeks back and I asked the chair lady, why does he keep freezing?
Why can’t we have this testimony? And she said, well, there are three other meetings going on at the same time. And that is just a small sample of a bigger problem. I think she and the President, their day is come and gone and the country is not being well served by them and all the radical agenda.
Gas lines, who would have thought we had gas lines in 2021? Inflation is rising, of course, at an alarming rate. The border is overflowing. There’s trouble in the Middle East. And all they’re concerned about is making sure that the media over there is taken care of.
And the media should know better and put their headquarters where Hamas headquarters are or where there are missiles being launched. And it’s just beyond belief. I think our priorities are completely out of whack with this bunch. We’re spending a one trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.
Then it went to a one-point three then two. Now it’s a three. And five percent of it, I think, goes to roads and bridges, traditional infrastructure. The rest is Green New Deal and virtue signaling. The midterm elections could not get here soon enough.
Leahy: I’m with you on that. How different is it under the Pelosi speakership now than it was previously when they actually had somewhat normal operations?
Burchett: This year, it’s just kind of gone. I’ve always been under her reign of terror so to speak (Leahy laughs) when I came in. But just in the last year, under COVID, she’s lost any resemblance of leadership. Then there is the mask mandate.
Everybody’s saying, well, take the mask off. And now I read early this morning that the reverse in that they’re saying, well, maybe we went too fast on that. She’s allowed unelected bureaucrats to dictate to us American citizens what we can and cannot do and to me, that’s that is wrong.
And she is wrong as she could be. I know there’s plenty of edited versions of her speaking but just go watch some of the unedited versions. It’s just unbelievable. It’s unbearable really is what it is.
Leahy: Yeah, that’s a good term. Unbearable.
Burchett: The Democrats know it. If you talk to any of them off the record, the vast majority of them, they’re just waiting their turn. It’s all they’re doing right now.
Leahy: Now you talked about the mask mandate. This is so very confusing. The confusion starts with the CDC, but also, I don’t know if you call it confusion more dictatorial anti-science policy in the House of Representatives itself.
I saw last week the CDC said you don’t need to wear masks if you’ve been vaccinated. Then on Saturday, they said, oh, but yes, school kids have to wear masks or they recommend you should. Now Nancy Pelosi there was a little bit of a brouhaha about this. One of your colleagues, I think it was Brian Mast from Florida who appeared on the House floor.
And even after the CDC said, you don’t have to wear a mask if you’ve been vaccinated, she set the little dictatorial rule that you’ve got to wear a mask on the floor. So Brian Mast from Florida went into the House and dramatically ripped his mask off.
When last I saw this, she said, you’re going to be fined $500. a day. And then thereafter $1,000. a day. Where does maskgate stand now in the House of Representatives?
Burchett: I’m sure she’ll make us wear it until the end of the year or something. It’s just more of her just showing her power. And it’s ridiculous because if you look on the floor and if the media would ever show it, the Democrats are always huddled over there and a very un-social distancing manner.
And they come over there and tell us to separate. We got to wear our masks. The Sergeant at Arms is threatening to fine us. And it’s just like the metal detectors, which is another ridiculous rule that she’s done. She waves it for herself.
She walks right through it. Don’t forget, she brought somebody there that was COVID positive to vote for her because it was a very close vote on the House floor.
Leahy: I remember that.
Burchett: The national media sort of forgot that. I mean, it was just a bogus deal all the way around. It’s just a power kick for them. And we all know it and it’s ridiculous, but we got to live under it because she is the Speaker.
Leahy: The Speaker does get to set the rules of behavior in the House of Representatives. But if the Speaker said, everybody has to hop on one foot before they speak, would that be a legitimate rule?
Burchett: I would say about half the people in there would start hopping on one foot. (Leahy laughs) The Republican Party would not because there are some others that think that she’s just the greatest thing in the world.
You know, something else I don’t get is how can a Catholic be just wide open on pro-choice? And if a baby is born alive, if a doctor is allowed to kill that baby, how can she get by with that? I question that. That makes me very angry. Her agenda is clearly for her and not for anybody else and not for the wellbeing of the country.
Leahy: Congressman Burchett, why do the Democrats go in lockstep along with this sort of dictatorial approach of Nancy Pelosi? Why is no one there of independent mind or courage or spirit on the Democratic side?
Burchett: I would say the Democrats use the carrot of the stick pretty much. If you act up, they give you the stick. If you don’t, they give you a carrot. Jim Cooper, your representative from right there voted against Pelosi a couple of times, and I guess he ended up in the closet for an office. But they punish pretty well.
They do a pretty good job of that. And we don’t. I don’t know that we should, but they sure do. They sure do punish their people. They get out of line like the girl with the throuple or whatever her name was in California, she was a wild card. And then, surprisingly, if something got leaked to the press.
Leahy: Surprisingly. (Laughs)
Burchett: I doubt that that was any Republicans that leaked it. But they just figured she was too much of a wild card and they took care of her. If I was a Democrat, I would fear other Democrats before I would fear Republicans because they’re a pretty vicious bunch. Everybody down there is trying to get to that Speaker’s office somehow. Everybody thinks that they got a shot at it.
Leahy: They want to be the Speaker. They want the power.
Burchett: I just want to make sure I get home to my wife and daughter.
Listen to the full first hour here:
– – –
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 Burchett” by Congressman Tim Burchett.
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 Congressman Tim Burchett (TN-02) to the newsmakers line to discuss his recent breaking story about Act Blue raising money for terrorism and breaking federal laws.
Leahy: We are joined now on our newsmaker line by Congressman Tim Burchett, who represents Knoxville and parts of East Tennessee. Tim, welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Burchett: It’s good to be back with you, brother. Thank you for having me on.
Leahy: It’s always great to have you on it’s and it’s always fun to talk with you. You are a straight-talking member of Congress, which is highly unusual, and we really appreciate that. So you did some investigating. And what’s this story about the big fundraising operation called Act Blue that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and your good friend Alexandria Ocasio Cortez on the left they use to raise money? What’s this about them being a source of funding for terrorist groups? You broke this story. What’s the deal on that?
Burchett: I appreciate you bringing that up. Act Blue hosts these pro-BDS. And that’s BDS groups on their fundraising website. It’s basically an anti-Israel thing. And these groups work closely with terrorist organizations. I’m worried money raised on Act Blue is actually financing terror. And Act Blue could be possibly and we think they are breaking some federal laws. Obviously, you can’t fund terrorism.
I know that might come as a shock to some of our listeners. (Leahy laughs) And I’ve asked the Department of Justice and the Treasury to investigate where the money is going. You know what you do down here in D.C., you send them a letter. It’s not like when you’re a state Senator or a House member you can just call the state attorney general up on the phone and say, hey, what’s the deal on this? And they’ll get you the answer. No.
You’ve got to write a letter. And then they refuse to respond is probably what Biden’s folks will do. They claim they opposed the BDS movement. And Blinken who’s their U.S. attorney or whatever I asked him in the House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting. And, you know, the Biden administration should investigate this if they’re actually pro-Israel like they say.
I never quite understand when Jewish folks side with the group that is anti-Israel. It boggles my mind. It’s kind of like, a pro-choice Catholic. It just doesn’t fit in. The BDS movement is a divest in sanctioning. It’s boycott, divest, and sanction. And that’s what they want you to do to Israel. And it’s our only regular ally in the Middle East.
Leahy: Yeah, that’s crazy, isn’t it?
Burchett: Yes, sir. And what’s even crazier is that this isn’t on the headline of major newspapers. But, you know, they’re so in bed with the left, the Marxist Democrat left, that the newspapers, they just can’t imagine this or even even if they imagine it knows it’s true they just will not report it. And that’s a disgrace. I’m surprised The Tennesseean or some of these others.
Leahy: If it’s real news The Tennesseean will not report it, that’s why we have The Tennessee Star.
Burchett: Yeah, exactly. That’s what I said to people in Knoxville because it’s written by the same bunch. I said, if you want to know what’s going on in Clarksville, Tennessee, pick up a Knoxville News Sentinel. And I’m not knocking Clarksville because that’s where my dad’s from. But they don’t ever cover any local news. It’s this big regional concern. And frankly, it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on as far as I’m concerned. But who am I?
Leahy: You are just pointing out the truth. Go ahead.
Burchett: I was going to say people need to understand what Act Blue is. It is the fundraising mechanism of the Democrats. They lump money in and they can raise it nationally. It’s a hugely successful thing. We have Code Red, which is the counter to Act Blue. And unfortunately, we’re running a little late on our Code Red in the fundraising department. But Act Blue is how they raise money. You wonder how these people raise all this money nationally. Somebody can give $20. and just click a button and it goes to AOC right out of Nashville, Tennessee.
Leahy: Yeah. I’ve argued that it’s the tithing mechanism for the religion of left-wing Marxist Democrats.
Burchett: I will probably steal that tomorrow and never give you credit for it.
Leahy: You’re free to steal it and use it all around the country Tim. You said something interesting. You are at a hearing where now the Secretary of state, what’s his name? Blinken.
Burchett: I always want to say winken, blinken, and nod after the old Andy Griffith Show.
Leahy: I think Well, I think they’ve got the same level of international competence that Barney Fife would have. That’s what I think of when I think of Secretary of State Blinkin.
Burchett: Yeah, well, hehe avoided answering any questions, which I guess is what a good Secretary of State does. They’ve been close with the Iranians and the Chinese, which, to me is just a nightmare. Why we ever give them a penny and why we trust them to do anything. It’s a terrorist state. They export terrorism about more than anybody, and they’re bad actors. That’s another reason we need to bring our people home.
We got Americans over there dying in the Middle East for what? Nobody really even knows. It’s to keep gas cheap? And look how high gas is going. We closed the pipeline down. And now gas is going through the roof. And this administration is just inept. Also, I think ultimately it’s their plan. They want to get people off of their own vehicles and in public transportation and in more government dependence.
You see, it in areas where they do this revitalization of downtown and make it almost inaccessible for automobiles. Don’t take the car, just take the bus. And it’s just more government control. And it disgusts me and I don’t know why we continue to yield to it. But I’m not any better.
Leahy: I want to follow up on that a little bit. So to me, sitting here in Nashville, it looks like the people running this country now in what I call a legal but not legitimate election of the President Biden, they seem insane and totally lacking in common sense and not interested in protecting the sovereignty of America. Now, if I were in your shoes and I were a minority member of the party, not in power in the House of Representatives, I would wonder, how do you get up every morning and deal with these people?
Burchett: Because if we don’t, we lose our country. Basically, that’s where we’re at. I told people and I’ve told my caucus and some of them are older. And some of them agree. But we’re past the Republican-Democrat. I mean, this is basically spiritual warfare. You’ve got a group of people that literally don’t believe in the sanctity of life. They’ve made it basically legal after a child is born and if a child lives through an abortion that they can kill the child.
You’ve got a border situation that they’re just in total denial over. They’re coming over in the thousands. We’ve got Democrat legislators down there who are now complaining because of the situation, and they realize how bad it is. We don’t have the social services to do it. Now we’re sending FEMA down to escort kids across the border. The kids shouldn’t be coming across the dadgum border. They’re human trafficking. They are dirtbags.
These cartels are doing it. We know they are. And again, the national media just turns a blind eye to it. And if I was a union person right now, I would be calling my bosses saying, what the heck did we support these people for if they’re going to allow unskilled labor to come in, that’s going to be paid cash under the table that won’t have any benefits and will drive us out of our job market.
In downtown Nashville right now, the guys will walk off a site for 10 cents an hour. They’ll go next door. It’s that competitive. And when you put an influx of illegals in there that are going to be paid under the table, you’ll see Americans losing their jobs. I don’t have anything against these folks coming up here from Central America. Honestly, if I was in their situation, I’d try to do it, too. But we’ve got to demagnetize our border.
We’ve got to continue back with the wall. That’s why Texas is going back to it. Biden has now mentioned that he agrees that there is a problem. Well dadgummit, if there’s a problem, you need to stop it. You need to put the wall back up. Start enforcing the laws. They’ve got this amnesty program where they get here and they turn them loose because they’re going to come back to their court case. Of course, they’re not going to come back to their court case. Once these illegals get into the system, they’re gone. We’re paying for their health care for the rest of their lives. And it’s all over.
Leahy: Congressman Burchett, can you stay through the break? I’ve got a big question for you. I’ll tell you what it is.
Burchett: Sure.
Leahy: And think about the answer during the break. When do you expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to answer your question about Act Blue funding terrorism?
Listen to the full first hour here:
– – –
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.
