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 Tennessee State Representative (R-TN-69) Jody Barrett in studio to describe what it is like in the Tennessee General Assembly as a freshman legislator.
Leahy: We welcome to our microphones a good friend, state Representative Jody Barrett from Tennessee’s 69th Congressional District, a newly elected member of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Good morning, Jody.
Barrett: Good morning. How are you?
Leahy: Good, good. I think you were telling me how much you enjoyed waking up at 4:00 am in the morning at your house in the Dickson area just to drive in. And drove in just for this program. We appreciate that.
Barrett: My regular office staff back in Dickson will laugh knowing that I’m not a morning person.
Leahy: Are you not a morning person?
Barrett: Usually not. I can work well into the night, but getting up early is a little bit tough.
Leahy: The patterns of when you get up, when you go to work, people get into certain patterns. And it’s difficult if you are a night person, it’s very difficult getting up in the wee hours, isn’t it? The unnatural time even before farmers would go out to milk their cows. You have to get it before that to come on the show.
Barrett: This body is an old 73 Ford. Sometimes you got to pump the gas a little bit to get her to crank.
Leahy: A 73 Ford is much better than a 55 Edsel. (Laughter) So listen, you were in here before with your good friend John Rich, who was very supportive of your campaign to become and you’re the state representative from the 69th district that covers what? Dickson County?
Barrett: Dickson, Hickman, and Lewis County.
Leahy: And you’re an attorney?
Barrett: Yes.
Leahy: And tell me, what it’s been like being a freshman member of the Tennessee House of Representatives?
Barrett: It’s like a lot of things that you get into for the first time that they don’t give you a handbook that tells you what all to expect and what you need to do. They just kind of throw you into the deep end of the water and say, hey, figure it out.
Leahy: No training?
Barrett: No training. Very little training, actually. What a lot of folks won’t know is that on the first day, November 8th, you have an election. In my case, it was a birthday and an election party at the same time. And so you wake up on November 9th and you start getting phone calls and emails from folks that…
Leahy: Why aren’t you doing this, why aren’t you doing that?
Barrett: Exactly.
Leahy: I got a problem over here. Why are you sitting on your you know what and not fixing my problems?
Barrett: That’s right.
Leahy: Do you enjoy those calls?
Barrett: Oh, yeah, it’s part of the job.
Leahy: It’s part of the job.
Barrett: And you talk about John getting me into this. I’ll have a talking to with him later.
Leahy: John, really?
Barrett: But emails right off the bat, folks that need help. And look, a lot of them are not emails that are from inside of my district. So things that you don’t necessarily have experience with.
Leahy: If somebody from Chattanooga says, Representative Barrett, I got this problem, and you say you also have another state representative who represents you.
Barrett: Depending upon the issue that they’re dealing with. If it’s a local issue or something along those lines, I’ll try to point them in the right direction.
I’ve gotten a lot of emails and calls about things that are federal and things that their congressman or their senators should be helping them with. So just try to help point people in the right direction and get them where they need to go.
Leahy: And somebody who’s got a federal problem, where do they go? They know you. And you say well talk to the feds.
Barrett: That’s right.
Leahy: What’s been surprising about this for you?
Barrett: I get that question a lot, and a lot of it there’s not been a lot of surprises because I was a legislative intern when I was in college. So I spent a session up here.
Leahy: So you saw the sausages get made.
Barrett: Exactly. I’ve seen it go down. Certainly from an outside looking in perspective, it’s different, certainly, as an intern as it is as a representative, but seeing the inner workings, seeing how the lobbyists work, seeing how the leadership does their thing. Nothing’s really been surprising up to this point.
Leahy: Seeing how the lobbyists work. Are there a lot of lobbyists up there? (Chuckles)
Barrett: Yes. I kind of got into the weeds a little bit on lobbyists during the campaign with my predecessor, who is now a member of the lobbyist group.
Leahy: Did he send you a thank you note?
Barrett: I haven’t heard much from him.
Leahy: (Laughs) I’m teasing.
Barrett: No, I haven’t heard much from him. And, look, he’s playing by the rules. He’s supposed to lay low for a year, and he’ll get back into it this summer. But lobbyists play an important role as a lawyer. I understand that people need advocates. They can’t spend 24 hours a day up on the Hill for themselves.
Leahy: You could, except you would not be able to make a living at it.
Barrett: Exactly. Right.
Leahy: It’s a full-time gig.
Barrett: It is.
Leahy: To pay attention to what’s going on up there.
Barrett: It is.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Jody Barrett” by Jody Barrett Tennessee State Representative. Background Photo “Dickson County Courthouse” by Brian Stansberry. CC BY 3.0.
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 original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss the unethical practices of left-wing historian Jon Meacham, the Democrats, and undisclosed purchasers of Hunter Biden’s straw art.
Leahy: We are joined in studio now by the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael. Good morning, Crom.
Carmichael: Good morning, Michael.
Leahy: Well, lots going on today. The news is filled with – what can we say? Irony. Is that the right word?
Carmichael: That’s a good word.
Leahy: That’s a good word. And Michael Avenatti was sentenced to two and a half years in prison yesterday. Because he was trying to extort $25 million. from Nike and basically threatening them with bad publicity unless they paid him $25 million.
It’s a little bit more complicated than that. But apparently, he was sobbing in court. Crying tears. Tears, tears, tears. Just dribbling down his left-wing liberal face.
Carmichael: Was he apologizing?
Leahy: I didn’t hear any apologies.
Carmichael: I didn’t know if he was admitting that he did wrong or was he just blubbering?
Leahy: I just saw the blubbering. What’s interesting about this guy is you go back to some media clips a couple of years ago Crom. You sent me one of the Bill Maher, which basically he lionized the co.
Carmichael: Yes, all the people, all the people in the media from Brian Williams, who’s just a disgrace and discredited liar. But he’s back on the air because that doesn’t matter.
I don’t know what Jeffrey Toobin had to say at the time. I’m sure if he had anything to say, he lionized him because the people at CNN got down on their knees and prostrated themselves before Avenatti on how great he was.
Leahy: How great he was!
Carmichael: Our friend Jon Meacham actually referred to him as the savior of the Republic.
Leahy: One of the preeminent historians or biographers of the left.
Carmichael: Of the left. He’s preeminent of the left.
Leahy: Yeah, I would agree.
Carmichael: He’s no longer a great historian because of his own words. He also said in an interview that the Constitution is there to protect us from demagogues, but yet he supports Joe Biden. I think he was a speechwriter for Joe Biden.
Leahy: He was a secret speechwriter and then he wrote about it.
Carmichael: Extolling how great the speech was.
Leahy: He secretly wrote the speech. He may or may not have gotten paid for it, but he did get paid for his commentary about the speech.
Carmichael: On how great the speech was on MSNBC without acknowledging that he wrote it.
Leahy: He failed to disclose it.
Carmichael: Here’s the problem with all this. You have Hunter Biden now, who I think you mentioned to me as I walked in the door and we talked about this is the person who knows how to both take into his body stuff through a straw and blow stuff out through a straw.
Leahy: That’s interesting because he has experience with straws and his nose.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: Apparently he’s using a straw again.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: But for a different purpose. Tell us about how what he’s doing.
Carmichael: He’s doing paintings by blowing paint through a straw through his nose.
Leahy: Is it through his nose or his mouth? We don’t know.
Carmichael: I think it’s through his nose.
Leahy: That’s where his experience is.
Carmichael: Let’s just say it’s through his head on one of them in his head. And he’s selling the paintings for $500,000.
Leahy: And it takes him how long?
Carmichael: I don’t know. A few hours.
Leahy: A couple of hours. And they look like kindergarteners.
Carmichael: Well, they looked like the COVID-19 virus. (Leahy laughs) I think I saw somebody compare it to that on TV. The gentleman from Canada, Mark Steyn was referring to it and said, let’s show the picture of the COVID virus.
Let’s show the picture that Biden makes by blowing paint. But it’s really a very serious matter because when Hillary was the presumptive nominee for the Democrat Party, she raised money in her foundation and raised hundreds of millions of dollars.
And these are people who wanted access to the president. Well, if you want access to the president now you just buy Hunter Biden paintings.
Leahy: Or you could do like former FBI director Louis Free did, who gave, like, $100,000 to a foundation to support the education of Biden’s grandchildren. You saw that, right?
Carmichael: I did not.
Leahy: I’m just telling you.
Carmichael: Louis Freeh did that?
Leahy: You’re almost stunned.
Carmichael: I am stunned.
Leahy: The brazenness of it.
Carmichael: I actually thought Louis Freeh was a pretty straight-up guy.
Leahy: Think again.
Carmichael: Oh, it’s just terrible. But so what I’m saying is that this gets back to the French Revolution when you have two different systems of government and two different systems of applying the law.
Leahy: Yeah, that’s where we are right now.
Carmichael: That’s where we are right now. So will the Democrat members of Congress, will their children start doing finger painting? And I’m being very serious here.
Will it be legal for their children to sell their finger paintings for $50,000 a piece right before the lobbyist wants to come in and get a bill passed?
Is that legal because there is no difference. The Biden administration says, well, they won’t know who paid the $500,000. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
Leahy: It’s a joke.
Carmichael: That is more insulting than Biden claiming he hit a baseball 368 feet. It’s just a big lie.
Leahy: The ethics people in the White House.
Carmichael: There are no ethics people.
Leahy: I’m using the purported ethics people in the White House are twisting like Pretzels to figure out…
Carmichael: No, no. This is the way Democrats think. And this is what’s unfortunate. Jon Meacham doesn’t isn’t sad about what he said.
Jon Meacham truly isn’t. Jon Meacham is an intellectual power, there’s no question. He has no ethical compass. He has none.
But then he’s no different than the rest. He really isn’t. And this is just absolutely just frightening. As I was driving in.
Leahy: Chuck Fleishmann.
Carmichael: I did not remember that Congress passed that and President Trump passed an appropriation for $2 million. The Supreme Court has ruled previously…
Leahy: To build the wall.
Carmichael: Thank you. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that when a bill is passed to spend money they must spend the money.
Nixon tried to do that line-item veto. He tried to do that. And the Supreme Court set them down, said, no, you can’t do that. And so Biden is thumbing his nose at the Constitution.
The Democrats are thumbing their nose at the Constitution, and they’re thumbing their nose at any pretense of being ethical.
Leahy: Well, not at a pretense. I want to come back to that.
Carmichael: Oh, no, they pretend to be ethical because they say, well, we won’t know who gave the $500,000. And Clinton said there wasn’t anyone giving me $100 million.
Leahy: It has nothing to do with a government influencing government policy.
Carmichael: That didn’t influence government policy. I mean, that it’s so preposterous on his face. But then our news media goes along with it.
Leahy: So if you’re a lobbyist right now and you have a bill that you want to promote or policy, even a policy at a regulatory agency, whatever it might be…
Carmichael: That’s another good point. Go to the regulators and say, gosh, can’t your child just do a stick figure for me? I’ll pay the child $25,000.
They’re even in a lower tax bracket than you are. (Leahy laughs) So, in fact, if you have five children or three children, you know what?
I understand you have two dogs. Do a paw print. Do a paw print. I’ll frame it. I’ll put it up in my house. I’ll pay your dogs $10,000. a piece.
They don’t even pay taxes. Dogs don’t pay income taxes. (Leahy chuckles) And we’re laughing about this one.
Leahy: Does Hunter Biden have a dog? Maybe they give the money to it.
Carmichael: We know that Biden had a dog that bit people in the White House.
Leahy: He’s no longer with us.
Carmichael: I think he died. Maybe hit bit the painter. We are reaching a point where the greed and avarice of the Democrat party, and I’m not saying Republicans are Puritans.
But I can’t find an example where Republicans have just essentially sold their souls like this and done it publicly and been applauded. And then to be applauded by the media.
Leahy: Well, I want to go back to this idea of the lawyers in the White House twisting in pretzel-type shape in order to justify essentially the bribes of half a million bucks or so that will be going to Hunter Biden and will obviously be for the purpose of influencing governmental policy. It’s plain as the nose on your face basically is what the intent is.
Carmichael: It’d be interesting to find out if the Mexican cartels by the paintings.
Leahy: Of course they will. Carlos Slim.
Carmichael: He’s not a member of the cartels directly. I’m talking about the ones who are doing the coyotes and making hundreds of millions of dollars.
Leahy: Well, the cartels, which are the biggest beneficiaries of the Biden administration’s failure to enforce our immigration laws. They want to continue it.
Carmichael: Why should they pay?
Leahy: The logical thing for them to do would be to buy up for half a million as many of these paintings that Hunter Biden has done to keep those illegal policies of the Biden administration rolling.
But just to see how pretzel-like they are and void of morality they are. This idea that it would be anonymous is just a joke.
Carmichael: It is. I want to give a quick shout-out to my friend George. We had dinner last night. He’s heading to Idaho in a car. 23 hours. He needs to stay awake. My friend George needs to stay awake.
Leahy: George need be safe on your travels, George, and travel safely to Idaho. By the way Crom, we’re going to be opening up a new title in Idaho in the next several weeks.
Carmichael: Oh, really?
Leahy: We’re going to call it…wait for it. The Greater Idaho Star. There’s a story about that.
Carmichael: I want to hear about it.
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.
