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 Columbia, Tennessee conservative mayoral candidate Debbie Matthews in-studio to discuss the failed policies and direction of incumbent mayor Chaz Molder and the growing hotbed of rabid progressives.
Leahy: In the studio, candidate for mayor of the city of Columbia, Debbie Matthews. Debbie, you’re telling us that Tuesday night you had a debate with the incumbent Chaz-with-a-Z Molder, an attorney, and a left-wing progressive from everything I can tell.
Matthews: You had Mayor Andy Ogles on yesterday who’s running for Congress. So during the pandemic, these two guys who had been elected at the same time, it became the tale of two mayors.
Leahy: Really?
Matthews: During the pandemic.
Leahy: Andy was in favor of keeping everything open.
Matthews: Well, he saved us. You know, Davidson County’s revenues went 35 percent lower because everything closed, but Maury County went 40 percent higher and the city of Columbia went 40 percent higher because we were open.
People traveled from here in Williamson County to do business in Columbia and Maury County during that time. But at the same time, while Andy was trying to keep everything open, Prince Chaz every day would call out on Facebook or the governor, please close us down. Please close us down.
Then he got on CNN, he must have gotten some agent or something. They had him on CNN four times, and he sat there and said, we need a government department that tells us to mask up. And my little community here won’t mask up.
And so after I watched him on CNN – I live four houses up from Chaz – I walked out onto my front stoop, and here he comes by me with his dog, with no mask on. He had just told the nation that he was positive for COVID and to wear a mask.
And then he’s going by me without a mask on. I’m like, going, laws for thee, but not for me. This is what Democrats think. So it’s just insanity. But thank God we had Andy during the pandemic.
Leahy: So he wants to do more of that sort of government control.
Matthews: That was the thing. And now he’s touting downtown. It’s like downtown would have closed. All of those small businesses would have been gone if we had closed. Full stop. That is correct. And so all of those businesses were furious during the pandemic during this time because Mayor Chaz wanted to shut us down.
So anyway, another thing that has happened is Columbia has become a very popular place to move, just like anywhere in Middle Tennessee. But Columbia specifically, because Maury County is now number one in the state for growth, and fourth in the country.
But we have a 40,000-person population. In the last three and a half years through the city, he has approved 200 building permits.
So if there are just two people per house, he’s doubled the size of Columbia in three and a half years, and he does not have any revenue source or plan on how to do this.
At the debate on Tuesday night, it was like we all came and petitioned the state to try to get an impact fee as Williamson County has. Where were you, Chaz? It’s just like you to do this stuff and then push it off onto somebody else to pay for it.
Leahy: So this debate was held at the Ledbetter Auditorium at Columbia State College. What was the evening like? Was there a moderator to the event?
Matthews: The Maury Alliance had someone ask questions, and they called it a forum because then everybody has to stay fairly polite.
Leahy: It was a forum or debate?
Matthews: It was, well, a forum that I turned into a debate because I took advantage to ask Mayor Molder, where were you when the rest of us were trying to get a different revenue source to help all this growth you’ve started to where it doesn’t fall on the backs of our property owners?
We have a 30.57 tax increase that is coming out in the mail next week, and it’s based on this, with no plan for growth, and no other revenue sources other than the property taxes. It’s about to be weary in Maury County.
Leahy: Tell our listeners, what is the Maury Alliance?
Matthews: It’s like your Chamber but they call it Murray Alliance. Columbia gives so much to the yearly funding of the alliance. The county does.
But they did a forum, and they did it for state rep seats with Scott Cepicky and those guys and they did one for the mayor. It was the Maury County Republican Party that truly held debates. But we had a forum.
Leahy: Now, there were a couple of hundred people there.
Matthews: I would say a couple of hundred people.
Leahy: How does the audience react to this?
Matthews: Well, they told them they all had to be completely quiet, so there was not a lot of interaction. But everyone in Maury County is concerned about growth, unfettered growth with no way to pay for it. It’s insanity right now just to have 20,000 building permits.
And right now, we’re five schools behind Maury County in terms of where we are today. We have 13,000 students in Maury County. If all of these permits go through, it’s going to be doubling the inventory school-wise for the county immediately.
And so how do you build? This last property tax that’s coming out next week was for one school, $110,000,000, which is insane to me. And that’s one school, and we’re five behind. So you talk about your elderly, you talk about your poor.
Progressives always want to say, what about the poor? They have zero concern truly, on the ground, about what’s going to happen to these folks.
Leahy: I want to ask you a question about how there appears to be a sort of hardcore left-wing progressive crowd developing in various parts of the state of Tennessee. And we saw it, obviously Nashville has always been that way.
You’ve seen Knoxville flip over the past 15 to 20 years. Are you seeing a coterie, shall we say, of hardcore progressives developing even in the city of Columbia?
Matthews: Yes, and they are rabid.
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 “Debbie Matthews” by Debbie Matthews.
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 Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs to the newsmaker line to talk about its upcoming first annual Fall Festival in Corrington, Tennessee and the infiltration of Clinton backed groups influencing local governments.
Leahy: We joined on our newsmaker line by our favorite retired wrestler, Mayor of Knox County Glenn Jacobs. Good morning, Glenn.
Jacobs: Good morning Michael. How are you, sir?
Leahy: I am great. So you got a fun festival going on in Knox County? I love to have a fun story. Tell us, is this the first annual fall festival, or have you been doing this for a while?
Jacobs: This is the first annual fall festival. It’s going to be October 26 this coming Tuesday at Oaks Farm in Corrington, Tennessee. It’s a beautiful place. There are all sorts of stuff, games, and fun activities for kids of all ages.
And, of course, a pumpkin patch, a corn maze. And we’ll even have live music by Gone Country, which is one of America’s top country cover bands. So we’re really looking forward to it and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Leahy: That’s great. Now, who’s putting it on? And why do they decide to do this fall?
Jacobs: This is with my campaign. We are putting it on, and we just want to have a good time and get people out. And fall is my favorite season.
The temperatures are dropping. Football is in full swing. I love autumn. We thought what better time than to get folks out to Oakes Farm and just have a good time that evening.
Leahy: It’s interesting you say that fall is your favorite season. You’re a little bit younger than I am. But I remember I had the same exact feeling because as a kid playing in a little small high school in upstate New York, I had visions of NFL glory.
Didn’t make it past freshman football in college. But I always dreamed of being the star on the football field. Fall would come around, football practice would start. I was ready. It was just so much fun. And I sense that a lot of us sort of have that feeling about fall.
Jacobs: Absolutely. Of course, I played football and before that basketball. And basketball you’re ramping up during the fall. So this is a great time of year.
And of course, the harvest is done. And back in the day, there’s big celebrations about that. And to kind of carry it on now, I think it’s wonderful.
Leahy: Now, if I go up there on Tuesday…
Jacobs: You’re going to have a good time if you go up there. Yeah, but I am tempted. I would like to. Tell you what, if it were on a weekend, I would definitely go up. But am I going to have to wear a mask? (Chuckles)
Jacobs: Only a Halloween mask.
Leahy: (Chuckles) That is a lot of fun. In addition to having fun, there are other things going on in Knox County. What are the major issues that you’re facing right now as Mayor of Knox County?
Jacobs: Well, just like everyone else we’re dealing with all the code stuff and the tension between local governments and control at a local level and the edicts coming down from the federal government, of course.
Not only have I spoken out against President Biden’s vaccine mandate, which is having an impact on workers here. We already have folks that are being threatened to be fired, have already been let go and all those sort of things because they feel it’s their choice.
Leahy: Yeah, folks that have been let go from corporations there over their vaccine mandate policies.
Jacobs: Yes. And also being threatened to be let go. At Oak Ridge, which is very close to Knox County, we have the big DOE complex with the Oakes National Lab and some other Department of Energy facilities and the employees there, as well as the federal contractors, this impacts them. We can’t do anything about that.
Leahy: Federal workers are currently under this vaccine mandate, I guess. Is that right?
Jacobs: Right. Yes. And it’s coming down onto the contractors as well.
Leahy: So that’s already having an impact there.
Jacobs: It is. We already have people that have been placed on unpaid leave. There’s a class-action lawsuit going on. People are fighting back against it. But we have that.
We also had a federal judge impose a universal mask mandate on Knox County schools, despite the fact that schools have twice voted down on mask mandates. And there is no end in sight. He did not say the metrics or the numbers under which that mandate would end.
Leahy: Can I just ask you about that one? The status of that?
Jacobs: Sure.
Leahy: This is the lawsuit, the same kind of argument that was brought in two other counties. It was brought in federal district court in Shelby County, in Williamson County, and in Knox County. It turns out the plaintiffs were local parents with kids with some disabilities of some sort.
And the argument was made that not requiring every student to have a mask on violated the Americans with Disability Act. I’ve never figured that out yet. But did you see the group that was representing them? The lawyers you saw the connection there.
Jacobs: Yes. I actually asked some folks to look into this case as far as who is really behind it. And it turns out, as you said, the plaintiffs are local folks. But some of the lawyers in the case, as well as the organization supporting the case, is a group called Democracy Forward.
And they are a Hillary Clinton-backed group. John Podesta is on their board. Of course, John Podesta was Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, and he was Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign chair.
Mark Elias, who was 2016 general counsel to the Hillary Clinton campaign. So literally, Hillary Clinton’s people are in Knox County influencing policy.
Leahy: This is basically political colonization through litigation. That’s what it looks like to me.
Jacobs: Well, it absolutely is. And I got to hand it to them, they’re really smart strategically because the left has realized that the way you subvert America is through local government.
Not only are they working at the federal level. But they’re also working diligently at the local level. And that should be a click on for all of us should be going off in heads.
Leahy: That is a very important point, Mayor Glenn Jacobs, that you just made and you’ve seen it for decades. With George Soros funding prosecutors and other local elected officials that aren’t enforcing the law. Will you come back and give us a report after the fun of your big fall festival up there on Tuesday?
Jacobs: Sure. Michael, it is going to be a lot of fun that begins on Tuesday, October 26th at Oakes Farm and that’s in Corrington, Tennessee. If it were a little closer, I would be there. But I’m going to come up there and let’s have lunch sometime and we’ll do an exclusive interview with you. That would be great! Maybe one of these years when we do the fall festival, you can do a remote from there.
Leahy: We’ll shoot for that next year. Glenn Jacobs, mayor of Knox County. Thanks so much for joining us. What a great interesting guy to talk to.
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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 “Glenn Jacobs” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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. – guest host Ben Cunningham welcomed GOP chair for Davidson County Jim Garrett to the newsmaker line to discuss why they are pushing back now on Metro Nashville Public Schools’ attempt to mask mandate students again and how 2022 will be an interesting election year for the Fifth Congressional District of Davidson County.
Cunningham: Jim Garrett is the chair of the Davidson County Republican Party. Jim is on the line with us this morning. Jim, good morning.
Garrett: Good morning. Good morning, Ben. Good morning, Andy, and good morning, Grant. How are you?
Cunningham: We are doing great. Thanks so much for calling in this early. I’m telling you, it puts a new perspective on the world when you get up at 4:00 am in the morning. Actually, I got up at 3:15, so that really was a new perspective.
But thanks so much for calling in this morning, Jim. You guys have just sent a letter to the Metropolitan Nashville School system as the Republican Party of Davidson County. What did you say?
Garrett: We felt it was time that we stand up against this rhetoric that we hear coming from the left. Basically, we outlined that we were against masks and we would encourage the school system not to enforce a mask mandate. And we gave them five or six factual reasons to support our argument there.
I think the left that uses emotion, we like to use fact. And we use factual reasons and studies. And there are so many conflicting studies, you don’t know who to believe. And I think that’s by design on their part to keep us all confused so that their rhetoric seems to be dominant. And it should not be.
Cunningham: Why now? Why at the end of July, first of August – of course, school is about to start. But what motivated you to do this?
Garrett: We had heard several of our members had seen a petition that went out by a group. And I won’t say a left party. But it went out by a group associated with them calling for the schools to reinstitute the mask mandates.
And because of that petition, and they’re advertising in The Tennessean, and they had 1,800 signatures. Because of that, we felt it was important for us to say something.
Henry: Jim, Grant, Henry, here with Americans for Prosperity. Have ya’ll received any kind of response yet? Good, bad, or otherwise to this letter you sent out?
Garrett: I am not aware of any response yet. The people who are monitoring this with us, our communications people told me that there’s not been any feedback. And I personally have not received any. Although I did, again, a call last week from a lady who was a school teacher.
And she kept talking about the Republican Party was so vile in her school by her students and how she didn’t introduce politics to the school. But yet she only let them listen and watch PBS and CNN television shows.
Cunningham: (Laughs) Oh, boy, that’s objectivity. Isn’t it? I’m telling you, it’s crazy. Well, thank you so much for stepping out. And even in a blue county like Davidson County, the Republican votes represent 40 percent plus of the electorate. So they should listen and they should respond, and they should give you some kind of feedback back on this thing.
Garrett: I think the Republicans, our members feel like if we don’t stay in that often, we probably don’t. Conservatives tend to be individualists. We let the individual make the decision like we think parents should be making the decision about masking in schools and not the school board. But they think we don’t say enough. And our executive committee felt it was time on this subject to stand up and shout out our opposition to it.
Henry: Jim, let me ask here as well. Yesterday, Speaker Cameron Sexton was quoted saying the following: “And I sure hope that a school system in this state after this data is released does not shut their schools. If they do, I’m going to ask the governor for legislation to allow these parents in those school districts to take their money through school choice and go to wherever they deem they need to go.”
Is that kind of message resonating with any of the state Republicans in Davidson County?
Garrett: I believe it is. Yes. We believe in the voucher system. It’s been battered back and forth in the General Assembly. I hear it from our members who – some who would like that and some who wouldn’t.
But I do hear it. And so I think we’re supporting that stance. I heard that yesterday and was surprised that he came out with a statement about what he did.
Cunningham: Jim, on another topic, just politics that we’re interested in and I’m sure the audience is interested in is you’re keeping up very closely with the redistricting process. Every 10 years when they do a new census, they have to come out and redraw the political districts.
And, of course, a lot of people are very interested in Davidson County, in the Fifth Congressional District, and what’s going to happen there and how the districts might be drawn. Give us just a quick timeline of how one of the major decision points in the future for that. And when will we know what the new districts will look like?
Garrett: We have talked with Senator Jack Johnson. We’ve talked with Representative Lambert. Members of our group have talked with them about that same question. They tell us now is the time to get involved.
We have a meeting next week with Speaker Sexton to discuss redistricting specifically. And there’ll be another subject in their meeting with Speaker Sexton. But primarily the meeting is about redistricting. We are working on a map of where the Republican voters are in Davidson County, and we’ll have some ideas about what we would like to see.
We don’t need a major change. We just like to have some districts tweaked a little bit to pick up five or six points. And if we get a fair chance, I think we can pick up seats. But we don’t need a slam dunk in say a half a dozen districts or so. But we need some help here in Davidson County.
Cunningham: It is the enclave of Democrats that stay there year after year. I don’t know how long Jim Cooper has been there. Of course, Jim’s got a challenger from the left also this time, a pretty strong challenge. I think AOC has endorsed his challenger. So lots of things going on.
He’s got to worry about the challenger from the left first. But hopefully, we can have a competitive district where Republicans can have a shot. At least running a good, solid campaign and presenting a great alternative.
Garrett: I think Cooper’s been there – I’ve heard – 32 years, and he’s run basically unopposed for most of those, unfortunately. But yes, this year he seems to have a good shot at it. I would actually like to see Kelly win the primary for Starbuck because I think she would be a better opponent to run against than Cooper is.
She is so socialist and so much to the left, I think she would make a good opposite candidate. 2022 is going to be an interesting year. We have got two or three candidates right now that have announced running for that seat. There are going to be more that show up.
I’m sure that there’s one or two more. I’ve talked with them and they’re still in the decision process. So I think 2022 is going to be an interesting year for the U.S. Congress seat here in Davidson County.
Cunningham: And how do people get in touch with the Davidson County Republican Party?
Garrett: They can always get us through the gopnashville.org website. And there are buttons here for volunteering for contributing. But if you go to the volunteer button and put your name in, there is a place where you can ask questions. We get questions through there all the time.
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 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 backfiring of vaccine mandates on federal employees and the looming implosion of the Democrat Party.
Leahy: In studio with us, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. Crom, good morning.
Carmichael: Good morning, Michael.
Leahy: I see you have the Happy Camper coffee that we just brewed for you. Are we doing okay with the coffee today?
Carmichael: It’s delicious.
Leahy: It’s delicious. Happy Camper Coffee is from BROASTTN, out of Cookeville. They sent us that care package. We thank them for it.
Carmichael: What’s their website?
Leahy: Broasttn.com.
Carmichael: There you go.
Leahy: Crom, you know what’s interesting? You came in and I said, well, Crom, what’s on your mind today? And when you told me what’s on your mind, I said, great minds think alike. Share with our listening audience what you want to discuss this morning.
Carmichael: I’m kind of looking at what I now believe is the impending implosion of the Biden administration. And frankly, maybe even of the left, at least for a period of time. And let me see if I can answer that. How many federal employees are there?
Leahy: Two million.
Carmichael: Two or three million. Something like that. And how many contractors? Another million or 2 million maybe? At least.
Leahy: Maybe more.
Carmichael: So he is forcing – and that’s the right word – he is forcing those four or five million people to all be vaccinated, regardless of their condition and regardless of their, I guess, their religious views or anything. Here’s my question. We know from the data that some people who take the vaccine, unfortunately, some people die from the vaccine. Is a person who forces somebody to take the vaccine accountable for a death or an extremely negative health outcome?
I don’t know the answer to that. But if a policeman is responsible for the results of his actions, it would seem to me that when a person uses force, and there’s no other way to describe it. The head of the teachers’ union, they’ve been supporting the mandates. But now that the mandate applies to the teachers’ unions, the head of the teachers’ unions are against the mandate.
Leahy: When did that come out?
Carmichael: It’s right here. (Leahy laughs) It’s right here in the Free Beacon. I’ll read the headline, Top Teachers Union Refuse Vaccination Requirement.
Leahy: Which one was it – was it?
Carmichael: No, it was the National Education Association. I’ll read the paragraph: The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are pushing against mandatory teacher vaccination. (Leahy laughs) So what you now see is that this was really all about politics because now that the force can affect the constituency of the Democrat Party, (i.e. government employees) all of a sudden they are going, whoa, whoa.
That doesn’t work that way. We’re the privileged. We’re part of your group. Now, who isn’t part of that group? Everyone else. And so everyone else is affected by what? Immigration. And where is most of the COVID coming from today? In terms of the percentage of the population, it’s coming from south of our border. And then Biden is bringing them in. He’s not requiring them to be vaccinated. You don’t even require them to do much of anything. He loads them on buses and planes and sends them out hither thither all across the country.
Leahy: It’s almost as if it’s a deliberate intention to spread COVID.
Carmichael: Why do you throw the word almost in? He knows what the facts are, and yet he continues to do it anyway. So when I look at the amount of force now, I look at the inflation that’s coming. That’s not coming, it’s actually here. Our prices are rising now at about one percent a month, which is an unsustainable rate if it continues.
And Biden still thinks that he’s going to throw in his three-point-five, which I’ve now heard is actually closer to $5 trillion, not counting the infrastructure of the actual stuff because it’s entitlement stuff. It’s not a budget where we’re going to spend $100 million on this bridge.
Leahy: To build something.
Carmichael: It’s an entitlement. Let’s go back. Medicare. When Medicare was passed, it was projected that by 1988, Medicare would be an $8 billion a year program. By 1988, it was an $80 million program. So he missed by a factor of 10 because it went to everybody who fit by definition.
If you give an entitlement that is significant enough, more and more people will make sure that they fit the definition. And so it’s just the same thing with the states that expanded Medicaid. The budgets and the cost of the expansion of Medicaid are much greater than what the so-called experts said.
Leahy: It always is, though, isn’t it?
Carmichael: But the point is, it’s because it is an entitlement based on definition, there is no ceiling. Because I’m over 65 and paid into Social Security, my entitlement is a fixed amount. In other words, every year it’s a fixed amount, and when I die, it goes away. But in the case of Medicaid, it’s not a fixed amount, even for the beneficiaries.
You can’t properly project the number of even people who will fit the definition. And so that’s what this so-called human infrastructure is. Now they’re throwing the word infrastructure at everything. I actually heard somebody talk about voting infrastructure.
Leahy: Oh please.
Carmichael: The word infrastructure now has no meaning.
Leahy: It means nothing.
Carmichael: It’s just destroying the language when you take the current pop word and stick it on top of everything. But when I look at what’s going on, do you think that these mandates of federal employees and federal contractors are going to rile those people up who previously might have been – not have cared that much?
But now they’re being forced to do something, many of whom if you are in your twenties, you don’t need it. The data shows that your risks are greater. If you don’t have a pre-existing condition, your risks are greater. And you’ve already had COVID and your antibodies are high, other data is showing that the vaccine might not be advisable.
Leahy: Here’s the phrase that comes to mind, Crom. Rules for thee, but not for me. And federal employees and contractors think that should apply to them. Well, now they’re saying, oh, no, you don’t get away.
Carmichael: And now they’re on the side. What I’m saying is that there’s going to be very, very interesting to see if the empire strikes back on itself.
Leahy: Here’s where I think it’s going to be even more significant. It’s with the teachers’ unions. The teachers’ unions will be more significant because they consider themselves more independent from the federal government. Because their school – public schools – are paid for mostly by state and local.
Carmichael: Government-run schools.
Leahy: Government-run schools. Thank you for that correction. But it’s interesting. Usually, the Democrats and the establishment media and the unions coordinate their messaging. So what this tells me immediately after President Biden, the legal but not legitimate president, my words not yours –
After he comes out and says that, well, we’re going to mandate these vaccines for all federal employees and contractors, like within hours, the heads of the teachers’ unions say not for us. This is a mistake.
And by the way, if you saw what’s happened with Jen “circle back” Psaki, the press secretary, she’s been absent from the podium for about three days. I think what they’re realizing is their messaging is a mess. And this latest kerfuffle with the teachers union, their core constituency.
Carmichael: Government employees are the core constituency of the Democrat Party. And here’s what’s interesting. Here’s the question that Biden was asked. Well, if you think corporations should require their employees to take the vaccine, are you requiring federal employees to take the vaccine – because he’s supposedly their boss? And lo and behold, he fell for it.
Leahy: He probably wasn’t thinking that one through.
Carmichael: Well he doesn’t think anything through.
Leahy: You’re not being mean. You’re just observing the fact.
Carmichael: I’m observing 40 years. And when he does think something through, it’s meanness. And he’ll think through how to be mean. But in this case, he was simply reacting to a logical question. And that is if you’re going to urge businesses to mandate that their employees take the vaccine, are you going to do the same thing?
How else can you answer that question unless you go, that’s a great question. And I’m going to take back asking CEOs to mandate the vaccine. That would be the other answer. That’s a great question. But he didn’t. (Laughs) He didn’t give that answer.
He said, okay, well, I’m going to force everybody to do it, too. What he didn’t realize is that a lot of his constituents don’t want to take the vaccine because they have their own personal reasons for not wanting to.
Leahy: Another Democratic leader who seems to have kind of gotten off-message maybe, depending, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House. There was a report that she had ordered the capitol police to arrest anybody in the capitol who wasn’t wearing a mask. You saw that report?
Carmichael: Yeah, but it doesn’t apply to her. And it doesn’t apply to – who’s the guy?
Leahy: Jerrold Nadler.
Carmichael: Jerrold Nadler. He got caught. And AOC. The Democrats had been caught walking through the capitol without wearing masks, and they’re not being arrested. And by the way, this is exactly what we’ve been saying now since I’ve been coming on your show. And that is that we have a two-tiered system of justice. And now it’s out there for everybody to see.
Leahy: Everybody to see.
Carmichael: It’s like the January sixth, the so-called rioters, they’re being held without even being charged. And they’ve been held in solitary confinement, some of them for months without even being charged.
Leahy: Yes. That’s unconstitutional.
Carmichael: It goes so much further than the Constitution because it gets into this question of equal treatment under the law. And you have in the case of – I think it was St. Louis. It was the black chief of police who was standing up there saying, this is absolutely ridiculous.
Murderers that we catch and that we bring in are being released by the district attorney. Murderers are being released back on the street. How are we supposed to do our jobs?
Leahy: You can’t do that job in that case.
Carmichael: You can’t. And this chief of police is – man, I just feel so sorry for him and the police officers under him.
Leahy: There’s a lot of people that feel sorry for this country today, Crom.
Carmichael: Yes. And that’s what I’m saying. That’s the implosion, once it starts.
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 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 Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs to the newsmaker line to discuss COVID-19 data, mask mandates, and county health board powers.
Leahy: On the newsmaker line right now, our good friend, the mayor of Knox County, Glenn Jacobs. Good morning, Mayor Jacobs.
Jacobs: Good morning. How are you?
Leahy: Did you get your wake-up call with your directions from Dr. Anthony Fauci today?
Jacobs: I think a lot of us have gotten a wake-up call from Dr. Fauci recently with directions. Unfortunately, with everything going on with Rand Paul and the debates that he’s had with Dr. Fauci, the wake-up call isn’t great anymore.
Leahy: No, not at all. First, let me just ask the obvious question. Have you seen any definitive studies that show the wearing of these cloth masks have any impact on limiting the spread of COVID-19?
Jacobs: It depends on what study you look at, what result you’ll see, and there are some that point one way. I think the governor of Iowa put it best months ago when she said it really depends on what study you look at.
There are studies and they’re peer-reviewed and incredible that show that the cloth masks don’t do anything. Other people have studies showing that they do. I think when we look at the overall spread of COVID-19 and compare places with strict mask mandates, no mask mandates, those sort of things, it looks like the virus just does what it’s going to do.
Leahy: Regardless.
Jacobs: Regardless of what interventions people do.
Leahy: Yes. That’s my take as well. I’ve seen some of these studies that don’t necessarily watch the science of transmission, but, in fact, do the broader comparison between this area had a mandate and that area didn’t. And the area that had the mandate did better. But it never seems to make sense that it’s necessarily causal to me. That’s sort of my take on it.
Jacobs: And I agree with that. I think it’s important to point out, too, that COVID-19 is real. It’s dangerous, especially for some people. But it’s also become incredibly politicized at this point.
Leahy: You think? (Laughs)
Jacobs: And for me, you know, we’re a country that’s based on individual liberty and the freedom to make choices for ourselves. And we need to keep that. And it doesn’t matter if it’s the President of the United States or an infectious disease expert.
I don’t have a problem with masks and people doing whatever they want to protect themselves. My problem is when the government says you must, you will or else. That becomes very problematic for me.
Leahy: Let’s talk about your role as mayor of Knox County. Pretty big county. The population was 450,000 or so.
Jacobs: We’re probably closing on a 500,000.
Leahy: Growing like crazy, aren’t you?
Jacobs: Yes, we are actually.
Leahy: Now in the state of Tennessee, there are 95 counties. In six of those counties the decision about handling health regulations is in the hands of county officials. And in 89, those decisions still remain in the hands of the governor. Is Knox County one of those six counties where each county can determine rules and regulations?
Jacobs: Yes, we are. We have our own health department. And there were a lot of controversies last year throughout the pandemic. But we have a board of health that was empowered to issue health orders.
The real issue is when you look at state law, we realized that this board of health’s power is literally unlimited. There were no constraints. When you look at the statute, we think, oh, they’re going to do this during the healthcare emergency or public health emergency.
And that wasn’t the case. There was no specified time limit. And there were no restrictions. All it said was they can issue orders to protect public health and safety. So when you think about things that have happened to other places, like banning sugary drinks, saying that guns are a public health crisis, gun violence, they were empowered under state law to issue regulations concerning those things, and regulations that they issued preempted anything coming out of the county commission.
They were the most powerful lawmaking body in Knox County. The commission eventually took that power away from them and made them an advisory board. But we’re still looking at state law and all this has changed.
And it’s rather confusing as to who actually has the authority to issue public health orders in Knox County. And that’s something I think the other counties are struggling with too.
Leahy: Mayor Jacobs, people would think that the mayor of the county is the chief executive officer of that body and basically sets the – administers the law as determined by the county commission and the state law. Is the county public health commission elected or appointed? How do you get on that?
Jacobs: Yes. They’re appointed. They’re recommended by their various trade associations. The Doctors Association and the pharmacists’ people. And then they go to the commission. They are confirmed by the commission.
Leahy: So the commissioner confirms them. How many members are on the county health board in Knox County?
Jacobs: There are nine. And I do sit on the board of health, which is ironic because the board of health is supposed to advise the mayor. So I sit on an advisory board that advises me, which makes very little sense.
Leahy: Interesting. So they’re appointed.
Jacobs: And now let me point out, though, I’m sorry to interrupt. Generally, it’s one of those things they come to County Commission – County Commission has no expertise in this area.
So unless there’s something blatantly wrong or bad or questionable about a candidate, since they’re recommended by their professional association, they are probably going to be confirmed.
Leahy: Well yes. What are the dynamics been with that board of health during this period of time you are elected? When were you elected? 2018?
Jacobs: Yes, sir.
Leahy: So during that period of time, at the beginning of it, the board of health had these unfettered powers, and now those powers have been limited. What have been the dynamics of that board with you?
Jacobs: When they had policy-making powers, there were a lot of eight to one votes – me being the one vote against mandates – we had a mask mandate. I voted against that. Shutting down businesses, learning capacity, restaurants.
A curfew of restaurants. I voted against all those things. The only time I voted with the board of health is if they had something in place and they were replacing it with something less restrictive.
Leahy: Mayor Jacobs, could you stay through the break?
Jacobs: Sure.
Leahy: I want to go into the dynamics of these board meetings that are eight to one with you being the one. That would be interesting.
Listen to the first hour here:
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