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 Tennessee Star National Correspondent Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line who foresees Biden’s coming demise and how and when it will occur.
Leahy: We are joined on the line by the best national reporter in Washington DC for Star News Network Neil McCabe. Good Morning Neil, How you doing today?
McCabe: Very glad to be with you Michael.
Leahy: So Washington going crazy. They’re spending money like drunken sailors. They passed this one point nine trillion dollar coronavirus aid package that only contains nine percent for coronavirus. Nancy Pelosi that has an iron grip upon the brains and other parts of the Democrats in Congress, she says they’re going to spend more on covid relief spending. Ask the virus she says. What do you make of that Neil?
McCabe: Well, let me say this. And it’s pretty clear to me that the wheels are coming off the cart for the Biden administration. They are just saying we’re not even 100 days in we’re approaching the Ides of March. And it’s pretty much over for the Biden administration. I don’t think it’s any kind of victory for Biden that he was somehow able to convince people on Capitol Hill to vote for a two trillion dollars pork package. That seems pretty easy. I think if I was Speaker of the House I could get that. I could convince Congressman to send to spend two billion dollars on pork.
Pelosi’s basically got a lot of things that her progressive caucus wants her to do. She’s not going to get any of them done. And she can spend more money. But if she tries to do anything else she’s going to get into a world of hurt. Right now the calendar has kept against Biden and I just don’t see how he recovers anywhere and getting anything done in 2021. And then 2022 is going to be even worse for him.
Leahy: So he’s not held a press conference yet. How many days are we into this? 45, 46, 47. No press conferences yet. If this were a Republican president how would the mainstream media react to that silence from Joe legal but illegitimate Joe Biden?
McCabe: When you talk about Trump, there is no president in the history of this planet or any other planet in the universe that has given as much access to the press as Donald J. Trump. And reporters never had it so good. How many of these reporters became famous for their snarky questions and their back and forth with the president interrupting him, being so rude, and obnoxious? And now crickets. And, of course, it’s complete hypocrisy.
But what do you do? Joe Biden does not have the mental faculties to be president of the United States. Not only does he not remember the name of his defense secretary but he doesn’t remember both the name of the very large five-sided building that that man works in. He’s got a lot of problems. There was a gaffe the other day about four or five days ago where he’s doing a virtual tour some kind of call with NASA and he mentioned Joe, his vice president is of Indian descent.
His chief speechwriter is of Indian descent. There are more than 50 senior leaders in his administration who are of Indian descent. And Biden says wow, the Indians are taking over. Now forget Republican or Democrat. If anybody made that kind of ethnically charged gaffe, there will be hell to pay. The reason Biden gets a hall pass is that everyone knows he can’t be held responsible for what he says. It’s amazing.
And of course you look at the press coverage. How many articles did you read Mike about how great it is to have dogs in the White House again until one of the dogs attacked the secret service officer? (Leahy laughs) now, we’re being told it was the secret service. So now basically Major and Champ these two German Shepherds have been exiled to the Biden estate in Delaware. Biden was joking when he said the Indians were taking over. But Kamala Harris is going to be president of the United States sooner than he expects. He’ll have plenty of time to play with Major and Champ when he’s in private life back in Delaware.
Leahy: Give us a date. What is the last day Joe Biden serves as president of the United States?
McCabe: I really believe they have to take him out between Thanksgiving and Christmas because it’s all about the calendar. The major push for any kind of legislation on Capitol Hill from the state of the union and straight through Memorial Day. And after Memorial Day is going to be two or three things that you got to get done. And then there’s that final push for specific items to the Fourth of July.
From the Fourth of July to Labor Day nothing is done. Then you have a budget crisis. And the budget crisis then basically you hit all these holiday weekends, right? So you hit Columbus Day. You hit Veterans Day you had Thanksgiving and then you hit Christmas and then the cycle starts over again and it reboots with the state of the union. So they’ve got to take him out probably between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Leahy: And just remove him from the office of President is what you mean by that, right?
McCabe: Well, yes. I mean either it’s the 25th amendment or they sit him down and they say listen…
Leahy: It’s time to resign.
McCabe: (Inaudible talk) Hunter, or whatever we have to say or do to make him go away. And the question is, you know, will Biden’s team around him, this is the interesting dynamic. Because the Biden family in the Biden team obviously loves being in power like anyone else. That’s not a Republican or a Democratic thing.
That’s just people. So are they just going to how are they going to push back as Harris and Obama and that crowd basically try to push crazy Uncle Joe out the door. An interesting dynamic may develop where the Republicans actually sort of reach out to sort of keeping Joe in so that Kamala doesn’t become president of the United States. Let me ask you this Mike. When is the president’s State of the Union? When is he making his address?
Leahy: Supposedly he’s making an address this month sometime right? But is it a state of the union? I don’t know.
McCabe: No. He’s not going to do it. If you don’t know then join the club. Because no one knows. If Easter is April 4, it’s not going to be before Easter. You can’t do it in holy week. Then you have Greek Easter which pushes you to the 11th. The earliest he could do it is probably the week of April 18. So if I just said the hardest push for the legislation from a president of the United States is between (Inaudible talk) or Memorial Day. (Chuckling)
If he’s kicking off his administration on April 18th Well, well, how do you do sir? We have like three weeks. I think I think there are house votes scheduled for seven days in March. Eight days in April. Eight days in May. I think they’re in for 12 days of votes in June. On July 30th the House goes on recess from July 30th to September 20. So basically nothing’s getting done from August and then more than half of September.
Typically a president comes in and he does what’s called a skinny budget where you basically give the new president the chance to make his own personal amendments in the fiscal year budget that’s ongoing. They call it the skinny budget. How do you do a skinny budget when you don’t even have a director of the Office of Management and Budget? They dragged that out with Neera Tanden.
Leahy: And she’s gone right?
McCabe: (Inaudible talk) An Indian American by the way. And she pulls her nomination in March. She dragged that thing out. How do you go into March where you do not have an acting director? It’s not good for the Biden administration.
Leahy: Neil McCabe, you are on the record. March 10th, 2021. Come January first, 2022, Joe Biden will not be president of the United States. Neil, thanks for joining us today.
McCabe: Be good guys. Take care.
Listen to the full third 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 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 the Independent Women’s Forum Senior Policy Analyst, Patrice Onwuka to the newsmakers line.
During the second hour, Onwuka reviewed the Biden administration’s COVID relief package that would essentially bail out blue cities and states and sweeping legislation not mentioned on the campaign trail. She also forewarned in the coming weeks of rubber-stamped legislation that would be detrimental to American workers and families and highlighted the hypocrisy of the left.
Leahy: We are joined once again by Patrice Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Forum a very important writer here. And she’s been tracking what’s been going on with the Biden administration. I think you’re perhaps less enthused about it than many in Washington D.C. are. Welcome, Patricia. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Onwuka: Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Michael Patrick.
Leahy: By Patrice that that is very common. People actually refer to me as Patrick sometimes because it’s in their mind that Senator Patrick Leahy my distant cousin whom I’ve never met. Distant cousin. Is perhaps the most famous Leahy of the world at the moment. And I have to say we’ve never met and although I did invite him to be on a Leahy Family Feud program back in 2009 when I was at the PJTV with a little Internet TV show.
He declined. We’re on opposites of the spectrum. But he does look a bit like my grandfather. (Chuckles) I’ll tell you that. You have been talking and writing a little bit about the Biden administration. What’s your current take on what they’re up to?
Onwuka: It’s distressful. Frankly all of the things that then-candidate Biden at the time hid. Everything from his energy policies to his labor policies that he didn’t cover on the campaign trail. But we’re now seeing between the sweeping executive orders that were passed within the first month to now this $1.9 trillion COVID relief package which has everything and the kitchen sink that Democrats have always wanted to pass through.
And that’s just the start. I think over the next few weeks we are going to see some major sweeping legislative proposals that he has been rubber-stamped. Everything from election changes to labor policies. It’s going to be scary for the American worker and the American family.
Leahy: Yes. I must agree with you about that. Many Republicans have said look this one point nine trillion-dollar coronavirus relief package as it’s called, only about nine percent of the one point nine trillion dollars actually goes for Coronavirus relief. About 350 billion goes to bailouts for fiscally irresponsible blue cities and blue states. There is a lot of other pork in that bill as well.
Onwuka: Oh absolutely. There’s money for union pension. Money for Planned Parenthood. For the universities for the arts. Even Nancy Pelosi, she’s going to be bringing home tens of billions of dollars to California for things like transit projects. So it’s not surprising that that that I think progressives or those on the left would try and use this massive sweeping spending bill to tuck their favorite pet projects in there and hope that because it has the name COVID relief that people will just pass it right off the bat.
We did see that the House passed the bill. Although there were there was enough pushback from Democrats. And the question is what’s going to happen when it comes up for a vote in the Senate either this week or next week? And not surprisingly it’s going to be a party-line vote. However, they’ve got to ensure that all 50 of their Democrats stay in line. If not, this bill could be sunk.
Leahy: So the two Democratic senators whose names come up most often as possible opponents to the bill are Manchin of West Virginia and Kristen Sinema of Arizona. Do you have any indications reading the tea leaves of where they stand?
Onwuka: Because the $15 minimum wage increases if not likely to be part of the final package. They’re more likely to vote Yes. Now that’s not guaranteed but that $15 federal minimum wage hike was going to be the death knell for this whole bill. Now thankfully we saw the parliamentarian the person who decides, what can and cannot be in a sweeping spending bill like this.
She said hey, no this can’t be in there. Unfortunately, Senator Bernie Sanders was very sad. I insert the meme of him sitting with his legs folded and a sad face because this was really his pet that $15 minimum wage. So because it’s not likely to pass with that in there I think you’ll see Sinema and Manchin come on board. Now, that’s not to say that that something someone else may not hop out. I mean, it’s like a basket of kittens you put one in another one can come out if they don’t get some guarantees or something in that bill that they really want for their folks.
Leahy: I’d be curious as to your reaction to President Trump’s speech at CPAC over the weekend. Did you like it? Do you think he was on top of his game? And who reported on that? I didn’t see much of it in the mainstream media.
Onwuka: No, I think Fox News maybe and Newsmax and some of those more right leading Outlets or are actually independent leading outlets. They covered it. I watched a speech I thought I would have loved to have seen more of this President Trump on the campaign trail because he really number one touted a lot of the great accomplishments that his administration passed on everything from Immigration policies shoring up our borders to the robust economies we had going into the coronavirus pandemic.
And thank goodness the economy was as strong as it was because I think that has softened the blow for workers and I know we’ve got millions of people who are still unemployed. But I think it could have been worse. So he did a great job of laying out what he did when he was in office and then contrasting with what Joe Biden is doing.
His far swing to the left and the fact that a lot of these policies that he kept on the campaign trail and that the media did not ask him about we’re now seeing. And so I think it’s in its opening the eyes of many people. I wish you’d stayed away from the electoral stuff and kind of the campaign was stolen language.
But he absolutely did redefine that the Republican Party is a party based on ideas and policies of low taxes, leadership, America first policies that prioritize American workers and American businesses, and of secure safe borders and safe neighborhoods and communities. Those are really strong conservative topics and issues and I think he’s saying this is who we are.
Leahy: Patrice and woke us senior policy Analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum. One word comes to mind when I look at what Joe Biden is doing with the Biden administration is doing what all the Democrats in Congress are doing. That word is hypocrisy. (Laughter) and you know, there’s a case in point. Did you see the story about what the leader of the California teachers union has been doing?
Onwuka: Oh, yes. Oh yes. (Chuckles)
Leahy: Tell our audience about this because it just I mean I saw this and my eyes glazed over.
Onwuka: Oh this guy, he’s priceless. He’s a young man with a little girl and I think she was in Pre-K or a Kindergartner. He was walking her to Pre-K in the morning. Both of them wearing their masks crossing the street. And that should be fine right? Except he is the president of the teachers’ unions in one of the biggest I think cities or maybe the across the state of California and he is taking his daughter to a private institution where she’s able to learn and play.
Leahy: In person!
Onwuka: In person. But all of the kids in California in a lot of districts in public schools do not have that blessing or that benefit. And I think it highlights the hypocrisy of a lot of these leftist leaders and particularly teachers’ union folks who rail against school choice. Who rail against the idea that poor kids should be able to take the federal funds that go to public school and take those two private options, to parochial schools, to charter schools, or even homeschooling and giving them that choice these folks they have a choice they can afford to pay for private school.
They can afford to pay for private tutors, but they do not want to give that to you know, the poor black and brown kids. And hey, by the way, listeners, I’m a Black kid. I grew up in a poor neighborhood with an immigrant family and I made it. And thank goodness. I wish my story could be replicated because of school choice but the teachers’ unions will not allow it.
Leahy: Patrice Onwuka, senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum. Thanks so much for joining us again. And please come back and come visit us in Nashville.
Onwuka: Alright. Thank you, Mike.
Listen to the full third 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.
Photo “Patrice Onwuka” by Independent Women’s Forum.
