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 Tennessee State Rep. of District 77, Rusty Grills, to the newsmakers line to discuss his background growing up on a farm and his two bills dealing with farm protection and a bill that repeals the civil asset forfeiture bond.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line by state representative Rusty Grills who’s from Newbern which is in the northwestern corner of the state. He’s a vice-chair of the agriculture committee. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report.
Grills: Good morning. Good morning. How are you?
Leahy: Good. So are you in town for this meeting of the general assembly?
Grills: Yes, sir I sure am. I got here yesterday afternoon.
Leahy: That is a bit of a travel isn’t it?
Grills: It is. But it’s a perfect opportunity to catch up on phone calls and make some of the little decisions you have to make for a week. And set some things up and have the opportunity to talk to different folks. So really the time flies by when you’re driving in.
Leahy: Tell us a little bit about Dyer, Lake, and Obion Counties, in the northwestern corner of the state. How would you compare that part of the state to other parts of the state?
Grills: It’s like all of Tennessee. It has its regents that live there. But you know, I like to think it’s the front porch to heaven.
Leahy: That’s a good line. The front porch to heaven. Where are Lake County and Dyer County and parts of the Obion County?
Grill: That’s right about two-thirds of the western part of Obion County.
Leahy: Why is it the front porch of heaven there?
Grills: I live in a farming community. I’m actually a full-time farmer by trade. I’m a ninth-generation farmer. So that’s a unique job title for a representative or politician. But I was raised on a farm for a living. And generations passed a farm. Not only that but everybody in my community pretty much a farmer and that’s the number one industry for that part of the world and we know it’s a little different than it is here. A little flatter. We still have the Rolling Hills. In the fresh green grass and the fresh and clean air. It’s a good small community where everyone knows each other. And if you’re on the side of the road with a flat tire, you don’t have to worry about somebody stopping to try to help you.
Leahy: State Representative Rusty Grills, how big is your farm?
Grills: We farm about 3,000 acres. Me and my dad and two brothers.
Leahy: 3,000 acres. Let me just tell you, I come from dairy country in Upstate New York, and actually, my Grandfather had a farm in Hemmingford Quebec. We still own two acres of the farm. We sold that off in 1970 when my grandfather passed away. But that farm was a dairy farm. It only had a hundred acres. When I hear somebody in Tennessee say they’ve got three thousand acres I go. Wow! What do you grow there?
Grills: Primarily row crop. We do have some cattle, but I’ve got rid of my cattle because it’s too hard to be up here and take care of cattle throughout the winter. But corn, soybeans, wheat, or triticale. Those are the primary crops we grow.
Leahy: What’s the market like for a farmer? What are the economics of being a farmer today?
Grills: Lots of capital and you make it only make money on the margins. It’s like anything else. you have to manage it correctly. And you know, I feel I feel like it’s a wonderful opportunity to raise a family and it to be close to your family. And that’s the biggest positive for me. Other than the fact of being raised on it. When I was young four to five years old, I was in the field every day. There are pictures of me driving a tractor way before some of these people on the talking heads on TV think it was it was appropriate for you to be driving a tractor.
Leahy: We won’t tell them. (Chuckles)
Grills: Everybody is looking for a way to get their feelings hurt now.
Leahy: So true. So true.
Grills: I’ve been married for 15 years this coming Thursday to my wife. And we have two daughters. Four of us with children. My mom and dad raised us in a conservative Christian home. So with that, you know, I had the opportunity to you know, spend a lot of time with family and to develop a close bond with them. So I feel like I’m blessed in many ways and we didn’t have the financial blessings that a lot of people may have had but we had a lot of other blessings that others would want. You can’t have it all but what you can’t have you are grateful for.
Leahy: Sure. So I’ll get you your committee assignment on agriculture in a bit. I noticed I’m looking at the bills that you personally are sponsoring. There was one I thought about and what really caught my eye which basically is out there that says that in an emergency of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency cannot force or impose unlawful restrictions on the operations of churches. Tell us about that.
Grills: The goal of this legislation is just to protect churches and make sure liberty and that the religious freedom that we are guaranteed by the Constitution is not infringed upon. Who would have thought that Gavin Newsom from California with churches down, but he tried. I always want to call him Mario Cuomo from New York. I guess you remember him.
Leahy: I remember the late pious Mario and his son Andrew.
Grills: Well, you know, then you got Andrew up there that wanted to do the same thing. Governor Lee obviously did not have the same does not have the same political mind that those liberals do. However, I actually talked to Governor Lee. This is in no way shape form or fashion to stick a finger in his eye or to be to do anything that might be against Governor Lee he did not shut churches down here in the state. I think that was great.
But when you never know what Governor Lee may have coming in the future or knowing what pandemic or you know extreme circumstances. I just don’t believe that the governor by the stroke of a pen should be able to stop religious services. Everyone is worried to death about their their physical well-being. But at the same time, our spiritual well-being is important because it has eternal value. So we need to make sure that our churches have now the doors open and willing and ready to allow congregations to meet.
Leahy: What’s the status of that bill?
Grills: Well, we’re going to get going on it here in a little while. I think I think we’re going to be okay. I had several conversations with different legislators that are on the committees. And right now I feel comfortable about it. I don’t get you ever feel good until it’s signed, but I feel comfortable now.
Leahy: Also, is there a companion bill in the state Senate?
Grills: Yes, sir there sure is.
Leahy: Who is sponsoring that? Do you know?
Grills: There are several. Janice Bowling and you get Joey Hensley. Some of those rocks whenever it comes to a conservative legislation that you can depend.
Leahy: Do you personally have other legislative priorities beyond that bill? I actually have I have a farm protection bill. We have a huge problem with agriculture vandalism over in West Tennessee and across the river counties. We have a huge problem with you know, with had bales of cotton been burned. We’ve had individuals taking metal shavings and pouring down the hydraulic reservoirs of tractors.
Leahy: What! Why are people doing this?
Grills: Well, they don’t have anything else to do on Saturday night. So what are they doing it so go burn some cotton barrels. I’ve personally have had a trailer truck set on fire.
Leahy: Who’s doing this?
Grills: We don’t know. I know some of the people that have done it. I don’t want to call them agitators potentially but these are people that are vandalizing farms.
Leahy: Do they live in your area or are they coming from someplace else?
Grills: Most of the time they live in the area. For instance, they’ll take the wires off of a pivot. I’m not sure you know what a pivot is but it’s an irrigation rig and they’ll strip the wire.
Leahy: I’m glad you explain that to us because you did not embarrass me by having me show my ignorance of what a pivot is. Thank you.
Grills: But they’ll what back up to a pivot with a pickup truck tire chain to the wire and take off with a pulling the wire off the pivot then they’ll roll of wire up take and it home and melt the plastic off of it and take the copper out of the wire and go sell it at the scrapyard.
Leahy: Oh, so these are criminals then.
Grills: That is correct.
Leahy: Wow! When you were growing up was just sort of stuff happening?
Grills: Not like it is today. And as as as prices go up for for scrap metal those things become more regular. Thoe are just a few things there that were working on. I also have a bill that repeals the civil asset forfeiture bond. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that.
Leahy: Yeah, that’s a great idea by the way. I love that idea.
Grills: Looks like we’re getting looks like we’re getting some traction on that. I believe we’ve got it right at 40 co-sponsors, which I’m pretty proud of that. I feel like that’s moving forward a little. We’re going to get that passed here in the next couple of weeks and over in the Senate Frank Nicely has that.
Leahy: We know Frank. He’s a great guy. State Representative Rusty Grills, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Will you come in studio sometime when you have a longer conversation?
Grills: Hey, I look forward to it one of these days.
Leahy: All right.
Grills: Keep up the good work.
Listen to the full 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 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 Republican candidate for Nashville’s fifth district Robby Starbuck to the newsmakers line to discuss his appearance at CPAC over the weekend, what motivated him to run for office, and his top priorities.
Leahy: We are joined by Robby Starbuck who gave a great speech at CPAC the other day and was very well received. Attacking big Tech in his Monopoly. He’s running for congress here in the fifth congressional district in Davidson County. Good morning, Robby.
Starbuck: Good morning Michael. How are you doing today? Thanks for having me.
Leahy: Well, happy birthday. Your birthday was over the weekend and you announced for Congress and gave a ten-minute speech that was very well received at CPAC. How did that come about?
Starbuck: Well, that’s actually you know, that’s an interesting question. It’s a long line, like anything good in life a lot of good people telling good people, hey, you should meet this person and you should meet this person. I mean that’s kind of the nature of life. So eventually it got to the people who run CPAC. And they reached out to me or like hey, we’ve been told that you’re doing great things and we looked you up. We saw what you had to say. We watched some of your other speeches and we would love to have you. And it was really that simple.
Leahy: You’re a director and producer known for your cinematic style that you’ve brought to the music video genres. You’ve directed a number of Hollywood stars like Natalie Portman, Jamie Foxx, Brad Pitt, Megan Fox, and Josh Duhamel.
Starbuck: That’s right.
Leahy: You have quite a background there. What happened when you said you were a Republican back in 2015?
Starbuck: I don’t think there’s anything worse you can say in Hollywood than admitting you are a Republican. So it didn’t go. You go from being invited to all the parties and all that stuff, which I never went to anyways and never liked. I was never one of those people. But you’re invited to everything and everybody loves you and blah blah blah and you come out and say you’re a Republican and it’s like telling them you’re a leper and you want to touch them. (Leahy chuckles)
It’s the worst possible thing you could do. But I would do it over and over again And I said that in the CPAC speech that I would do it over and over again despite the loss of business and the way my kids were treated and all that. Freedom runs in my DNA from my family coming here from Cuba. I will always be eternally grateful to America because I would not be alive if it were not for the existence of America.
So every chance I get to stand up for freedom I will take it and I will do it. And I saw the signs many years ago that what happened in Cuba could happen here. And when it got to that boiling point where I knew I had to make a decision about whether to keep my career or to speak up, it was a very easy decision for me. One because of what happened in my family. Leftism stole everything from them in Cuba. And I mean literally everything.
But secondarily because I know that if I didn’t do anything one day when I go to heaven my grandma would be waiting there with a shoe and she’d be smacking me with it for the rest of eternity. And she would rather me take that beautiful experience and have turned it into help for me hitting me with that shoe if I didn’t do something now. So it was a very clear decision that I had to do something.
Leahy: When did you formally announce your candidacy for the Republican nomination in the fifth congressional district here in Nashville?
Starbuck: Well, I first actually did it after the election in November because I was so upset about how things were running. And sort of how some of the establishment were defending the ideals that I hold, which when I say defending, I mean they were not defending it. And so I felt like I’ve got to stand up and do something. And I also saw a great opportunity to get rid of one of the Cooper’s because I don’t know that I have met very many people in Nashville who care for the Coopers. And I think that is the best opportunity there’s ever been to get one of them out of office.
Leahy: Now, do you have a campaign website?
Starbuck: For now people can go to FreedomForever.us. People who live here for have lived here for a long time will know that we have to redistrict this year. And so there’s a minute possibility the district name or number rather changes. So we’re waiting another week or two before we do the filing where we’ll start fundraising doing all that stuff. But you can sign up at FreedomForever.us right now to sign up to volunteer.
We’re also going to help other candidates who don’t have as much of a national platform that are great candidates because I think one of the problems we have in America as you know, we’ve seen some of these people who are just there in there for 20 terms and they’re not doing anything. All they’ve done is rename a post office in the 20 years they’ve been there or 40 years whatever it is.
And we need real fighters for America and fighters for freedom. So I’m going to do everything I can to help other candidates that really have sort of the more American agenda that we can help with. And if I can use that platform to help others I will. FreedomForever.us is the best place for us to do that.
Leahy: FreedomForever.us. Now tell us about the redistricting you anticipate for I haven’t seen a lot that says that the fifth district will be that much different in the 2022 election than it is in 2020. Do you have any indication that will be significantly different?
Starbuck: I think that it will be. I do. I think people are going to be surprised. I do think that they will re-district the fifth and we have the room to do it. If you go back a decade ago and you take a look at a lot of the redistricting plans there were you can look and see that those outer districts if you go back when you say hey, what would have happened in these elections had we done it 10 years ago? We would have won every one of those districts by significant margins and we would have won the Nashville district five and done so easily.
I think it’s a no-brainer and I think a lot of people in the legislature understand that. But it’s a no-brainer to better represent the will of citizens here in Tennessee. And if you look at a state like Tennessee you look the way we vote and you go around anywhere it’s insane that we have two people in Congress who are Democrats in the state of Tennessee. Not just Democrats, but they’re voting you know with the far left many times. The very far left. We’re not talking about the blue dog Democrats of 20 years ago. It’s a very different party now.
Leahy: If elected, what would be your first top priority?
Starbuck: My top priority not just when I’m first elected, but for the entire time would be to protect and expand freedom. And that’s the lens I’m going to look at everything through. Am I protecting freedom and my expanding it and I’m making life better for people? If things are not making life better or easier for people in this district and it’s not expanding and protecting freedoms that they have here, then it’s not something that I’m going to throw my weight behind. But those are the very simple things and I’m going to look through the lens of when I’m looking at policy.
Leahy: Your speech was about pushing back against Big Tech. What specific legislation in Congress would you support to push back against Big Tech?
Starbuck: So I support Josh Hawley’s model. I want to break up Big Tech. You look at the effect it had on small businesses. Let’s take Amazon for instance. We used to do this as Republicans. We used to trust-bust. And these companies like Amazon, they’ve destroyed small businesses. So many small business owners have lost their businesses lost their way of life because Amazon was allowed to play really dirty games with how they grew their company.
They did it in a way where their business model was essentially to lose money in order to choke out small businesses until they had such a large market share that they couldn’t be beat anymore. And so we need to look at those companies through that lens. And then on top of that there’s just the freedom of expression issue. Social media has turned into the public square and we need to treat it that way.
And people whether they are a Republican, Democrat, Socialist, or a Communist I believe you have the right to your voice in the public square. And I think we have seen far too much censorship. We’re seeing now with the Amazon they cancel conservative books even. And you have the majority of books sold on Amazon. All of these companies, social media companies, and big tech companies as a whole largely need to be broken up. And the few that do not need to be broken up do need some regulations in place that make it very clear that they cannot discriminate against people for their political beliefs.
Leahy: Do you support or oppose the revocation of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the Communications Act of 1996, which provides litigation liability against censorship efforts by Facebook, Google Twitter, and that crowd?
Starbuck: Yeah, so the truth is the best way to handle 230, for now, is to rewrite it. We need to rewrite it, but it can’t be entirely cooled because what will happen then is and I think for a lot of people this hasn’t been explained fully, but what would happen if we pull 230 entirely? And we just got rid of it with nothing in its place? Then social media companies would not allow you to post immediately.
So if there were some big event happening today and you wanted to post about it and you said oh I saw this great speech today blah blah blah you would submit it and Twitter would have to hold that Tweet and have it reviewed by legal to ensure that it was not something that they saw as a legal issue. And so I don’t think that that is something Americans want to deal with when you’d have to wait a week for your posts to be approved. So I think revising it and making it very clear is the path forward.
Leahy: Robby Starbuck director and candidate for Congress in the fifth congressional district for the Republican nomination. Will you come in studio and talk more with us in the future?
Starbuck: Absolutely. Absolutely. I would have done it today. If it was just this was so tight coming back.
Leahy: We got you on that one, Robby. Thanks so much for joining us. Have a great day. We look forward to seeing you in the studio.
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.
Photo “Robby Starbuck” by Robby Starbuck.
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 (R) TN State Representative Jason Zachary to the newsmakers line.
During the third hour, Zachary discussed next week’s special and legislative sessions that will focus on learning laws and how Tennessee will prepare to be the first state in the nation to use the block grant initiated by President Trump. He described his roles as being part of the ad hoc committee regarding executive powers and that he will be going after unelected health boards that are attacking individual liberty.
Leahy: And on the newsmaker line state representative Jason Zachary. Good morning Representative Zachary.
Zachary: Good morning. How are you guys?
Leahy: I’m great. You may not recall this but you and I first met in 2013-2014 up in Maryville when you were running for Congress, I believe. And I was organizing the Beat Lamar campaign. Do you remember that?
Zachary: I do absolutely I believe it was even at the Blount County Library.
Leahy: Yes! You are exactly right. It was at the Blount County library and you have had quite a career since then very conservative member of the State House of Representatives here in Tennessee. What is the big agenda issue that you see in both the special session on education and in the regular session and thereafter?
Zachary: Sure. Well interestingly enough This is my fourth term and we are actually starting at a faster pace right now than we’ve ever started. Committees actually are going to be meeting today. We have something that most Tennesseans because of everything that’s gone on nationally most of what we’re doing right now is not getting attention. But we are getting ready to be the first state in the nation to move forward with a block grant from Medicaid.
The president approved that. We actually suspended the rules yesterday to be able to hear that in committee and walk that through the process. That will be an all-day endeavor for us here in the legislature. And that’s big news. But in terms of next week’s special session, I’m glad the governor’s done it because it really gives us the ability to focus on learning laws and focus on BEP funding especially for a county like my Knox County.
We are a donor county so we would take a significant loss with students not being in the classroom this year for BEP funding. We’ve got students and teachers that have just my wife’s a teacher. She’s a middle school teacher and the incredible stress that they’re under just keeping the doors open. So we’re going to address testing and holding schools and teachers harmless as we kind of walk through this.
Still providing accountability, but holding them harmless. It’s an important step to take and to get this off the table. Some of these steps we usually don’t take until May of the session. So it’s good to be able to take this now. But overall in terms of a special session when we come back probably that first week of February just from my perspective it’s really just doing what we’ve done since I’ve been here.
It’s making sure we do the best we can to limit government and limit regulation. Keep taxes low and keep spending under control. We’ve done a great job with that over the last 10 years and the record kind of speaks for itself. But we’ve got bigger work to do especially with this pandemic kind of hanging over everything that we do.
I’ve chaired the ad hoc committee regarding executive powers. And then I’m going after these unelected health boards that are attacking liberty and are big areas like it’s never been done before. Those are those that will be the two big things I’m involved in.
Leahy: Last night Murray County Mayor sent a letter to the governor and to the speaker and to the lieutenant and two members of the House and Senate and said look Facebook, Google, Twitter Amazon are stifling free speech. The state has some Authority here. There are $70 billion under management and invested by the state. He wants the state to divest of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon stock. And also to stop advertising with Google, Facebook, and Twitter. What do you make of that proposal?
Zachary: Well, I think that we have an oligarchy of tech companies that have been enabled by our federal government through Section 230. And it’s not something that has been talked about much. And I believe that indirectly the federal government is able to able to launch an assault on the First Amendment. I know some people have said well, it’s the first amendment, free speech and the First Amendment doesn’t really apply because it’s not government.
I completely disagree. What I have done through The Heritage Foundation and is more reading on Section 230. And I believe it’s Section 230 in Section ACB and it specifically says that through Section 230 they have certain protections and immunities. It references them as internet companies because back, when this was passed there wasn’t a Google and there wasn’t a social media and there wasn’t Amazon.
But it specifically says the internet companies are allowed to censor constitutionally protected speech. It says that specifically. I even Tweeted that a couple of days ago. And so the federal government is indirectly coming after the first amendment and working to silence us through that. I truly believe that. And these tech companies are leading the way. And if we have tech companies that are more powerful than the president of the United States then that’s a problem.
So I appreciate Andy. I know Andy, I appreciate him drafting that letter. We had a little bit of conversation about that this week. I think that will probably ramp up. We had an organizational period. And again we spent which never happens. We spent hours on the House floor yesterday going through this Medicaid block grant that we’ve got that we’re working to get past.
So I believe those conversations will ramp up after we get through this. And I’ve already had some conversations with various departments about where we stand as a state with those tech companies and absolutely it’s something that needs to be addressed. I’m glad he wrote the letter.
Swain: Now what are you all doing to prepare for the assault from the left? Because we know what the Biden administration, we already see it with the media and the local media. They’re willing to lie and distort when it serves their purposes. They will come full force against you guys. Have you planned your strategy?
Zachary: Yes, Carol. That’s a great question. It’s interesting you ask that because actually the governor and I were texting about that a couple of days ago and about firewalling the state of Tennessee. What steps do we need to take and what planning needs to be done even above and beyond what we typically do to firewall us from the federal government.
So if three, four, or five months from now, they come to us and say these are the steps that you need to take and we say no as Tennessee and we’re not going to take those steps because we’re not going to be complicit with a government that will probably be initiating a socialist agenda and try to continue to strip away our Constitution. Tennesseans are not going to be complicit with that.
Swain: Well that’s the problem. But the other part is that when you’re dealing with the Medicaid block grant and these other issues the left is going to come at you full force as far as the media. Do you have a plan as far as selling your ideas to the public so that they will not be distorted by the left?
Zachary: We do. actually yeah we had a caucus meeting and discussed that yesterday specific to the Medicaid block grant program. Here are just the quick details. So it’s basically a block grant that comes to us from Medicaid and it gives us incredible flexibility. Right now we have what could buy what most publications considered one of the top five run Medicaid programs in the country. Ours is TennCare.
But right now when we are not rewarded or incentivized to save and steward resources well. So we can save money. But we as Tennesseans don’t get to participate in those savings. So now what this block grant does is they provide us with the block grant with just a few requirements versus the incredible strings and entanglements were under now. But any savings that we incur we’re able to keep half that money versus sending it all back to the federal government.
Swain: The part that you keep, are you able to use it for medical expenses? Because we know that there are increased costs that relate to the elderly and those costs will probably be increasing rather than decreasing because of the age of the population. So, how will the savings be used?
Zachary: Yes ma’am that’s a great question. That was going to be my very next point. It will give us the ability to do is enhance the services within Medicaid. During the pandemic that role has grown by 100,000 Tennesseans have been added to the Medicaid program. But with the additional savings, it will allow us to give enhanced services. It will allow if we chose to do so to increase the various populations that we’re servicing.
Provide a higher quality of healthcare because of that savings. It will give us much more flexibility to run it the Tennessee way. But it won’t cost more money to us or the federal government because we will be much more efficient. Because we don’t have the entanglements and requirements of the federal government. Something we talked about yesterday Carol, in talking about messaging. I’ve already started getting emails about it.
So many continue to bang that Medicaid expansion drum. Which thank the Lord we did not take that step. That was just before I got here. But if you were for Medicaid expansion and you are on the left, yesterday we had two hours of Democrats railing against this. How could we do this? How could we take this step with a block grant? If you are for Medicaid expansion you should absolutely be for this block grant because it will allow us to service Tennesseans better under Medicaid.
But it will allow us in the Tennessee way to expand populations if we chose to do so without the entanglements and the cost associated with what would have been Medicaid expansion. We’re going to be so much more efficient in the way we run the program that we will be able to serve larger populations in some respects if we chose to do so. It doesn’t mean we have to. The rolls have swollen to 100,000 over the last year and we’ve been able to walk and manage through that.
Leahy: Jason Zachary. Thank you so much for joining us today. Very enlightening.
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.
