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 original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss the White House’s admission to partnering with Facebook and the un-punished COVID insurrection of Texas Democrats.
Leahy: Crom, that interview with Os Guinness, that was something.
Carmichael: It was fascinating. And the interview that you had before I got here was fascinating. And the part that I’m really generally concerned about is there were places for people to learn to think.
I’m a great believer that we have God-given rights. But one of those God-given rights is we have the right to learn, but we don’t have the right to know.
You have to learn and you have to think in order to know. Part of his life experiences and the difficulties that he had created the environment and the people around him and his parents and what they said to him and the values that they shared with him that he then came to embrace.
Carmichael: That is – that’s why I asked him: where would somebody go to learn today? And he says a great question. And then he didn’t have a particularly enthusiastic answer.
Leahy: For young kids, I have the answer.
Carmichael: There you go. The National Constitution Bee.
Leahy: And Thales Academy.
Carmichael: There you go.
Leahy: Two places.
Carmichael: That’s interesting. Well, I have a few little tidbits here, Michael, all around COVID. And what force COVID has become with the Biden administration and this to me, it ties so many interesting things together and a lot of what Os was talking about.
But what you have is you now have the White House, Jen Psaki, who has actually now admitted that the White House is colluding with Facebook on what information is posted on Facebook.
Let’s be sure that we’re clear about something. When the White House people and the Democrats refer to misinformation, they’re not talking about disinformation.
They’re just merely talking about information that they don’t agree with exactly. They want to stifle dissent. And here’s what was written.
We are in regular touch with social media platforms by COVID-19 and related information, says the press secretary. We’re flagging problematic posts.
So, for example, my guess is that if somebody posted that the Democrats from Texas are actually the ones who are creating the insurrection, that that post would be taken down.
But let’s consider this. Let’s consider what the Democrats from the House of Representatives did. They wanted to bypass commercial airlines, and they did.
They chartered a flight. They had people on that flight who had COVID. They did not wear masks. They wanted to spread COVID as much as they could among themselves on the flight.
Then they landed. And what did they do? They went to the Capitol. They surged into the capitol. They were carrying the weapon of COVID with them, but nobody knew.
The guards let them through. They got all the way to the vice president of the United States, who then later learned that she had been exposed to COVID. How did she react?
She says: I will not be quarantined. Nancy Pelosi’s own staff came down with COVID. We know that President Biden has called publicly COVID a killer. What is he doing with the Democrats from Texas?
Leahy: He’s elevating them and celebrating them.
Carmichael: He’s elevating them. He’s not putting them in solitary confinement for their efforts. Their clear efforts to avoid the authorities and to spread COVID throughout the capitol. He’s not doing anything about that.
Leahy: I have a theory about that. Would you like to hear my theory?
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: These are Texas Democrats? Many of them are on or near districts in the big cities where the illegal aliens that haven’t been tested for COVID have been brought.
Carmichael: And that is another point. It has been brought to Biden’s attention many, many times that this surge of illegal immigrants coming across the border are carrying COVID and are untested. And what does he do?
Leahy: Nothing. He spreads it throughout America.
Carmichael: He spreads it throughout America. He takes these people untested, carrying COVID to military bases, and then has them put on private, government-owned planes and flown throughout the country to spread his COVID insurrection. And then he complains that there’s COVID.
Leahy: My theory is that untested illegal aliens who have COVID came into contact with these Texas Democrats and transmitted it to them.
This is a theory. And although they’d all been vaccinated they came down with it, which would suggest perhaps this is a Delta variant. But six of them and rising have it now.
Carmichael: And let’s be clear about this. What has Biden been saying about the vaccine? What has Fauci been saying about the vaccine? If you’ve had the vaccine, you will not get COVID.
Leahy: Except if you’re a member of the Texas legislation.
Carmichael: We now know that that’s a lie. Fauci is now a verb. To tell a Fauci means to make something up on the spot.
Leahy: But to do it adamantly and brazenly.
Carmichael: Yes. Because it’s politically convenient. Here’s something that’s very interesting. This is a doctor – from Dr. Joel Khan.
He’s a holistic cardiologist, but he’s gone in, and he’s done the studying. By the way, these federal health agencies have over 20,000 employees.
And they don’t check any of the data on things that they don’t want to know about. But he’s checked the data. Of 9,048 deaths reported as of July 2, 22 percent occurred within 48 hours of taking the vaccine.
15 percent occurred within 24 hours, and 37 percent occurred in people who became ill within 48 hours of being vaccinated.
Leahy: These are how many deaths are associated with the vaccine?
Carmichael: Of 9,048 deaths.
Leahy: That’s not been reported.
Carmichael: That’s reported as of July 2.
Leahy: But not broadly.
Carmichael: What I’m saying has not been reported broadly because they spike it.
Leahy: What is the source on that, Crom?
Carmichael: Dr. Joel Khan.
Leahy: What outlet?
Carmichael: Sciencebasedmedicine.org.
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 former Tennessee Speaker Beth Harwell in studio to talk about her background and weighs in on the Texas Democrats that fled their legislative duties.
Leahy: We are delighted to welcome to our microphones the former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Beth Harwell. Good morning, Beth.
Harwell: Good morning! Good to be with you this morning.
Leahy: Well, it’s great to be with you as well. And, you know, we were talking a little bit off-air about this. One of the things that we’ve tried to do with this program is to bring state legislators in and to kind of talk to them, get to know them, and learn kind of what their motivations are.
One of the things that are interesting is when we started this, we have a particular ideology that we promote. And there were a couple of contentious issues.
And we know that some of them were moderate members of the House and the state Senate. We kind of took exception to some of our reporting.
But what we found is many of those people we’ve had in studio here, and we’ve got to know them and talk to them about it, and it’s very interesting because once you get to know somebody well – you probably know this from your long record in public service – you just sort of understand their motivations and you don’t get focused so much on the ideological differences. And so we found it very interesting to talk to these legislators.
Harwell: And I just wanted to thank you for that. I reached out to you just to say thank you for covering state government so well and including state legislators.
At the bottom of the day, state and local government impact your life within the federal government. We may not realize that, but it’s certainly true.
And I’m just pleased to see that we have a strong state legislature that’s doing its job and commend you for covering them.
Leahy: The greatest state in the United States of America, beyond a doubt, is Tennessee.
Harwell: You got it.
Leahy: It really is.
Harwell: It is. You understand that. You see all these people moving here, there’s a reason.
Leahy: Who wouldn’t want to live in Tennessee?
Harwell: That’s right.
Leahy: I mean really, no state income taxes, nice people, a good business environment, and a state legislature that is not full-time.
Harwell: That’s correct. I think that’s really refreshing. You hear so much from people in Washington who come and say to you that they’re visiting in their district. (Leahy chuckles)
Well, my legislators don’t visit in their districts, they live in their districts. They go to church with their fellow citizens. They are members of exchange clubs and Rotary Clubs, so they’re involved in their community.
And I think that makes a tremendous difference. And the other vital thing to realize is that they live under the laws that they pass for everyone else. And that’s a great thing.
Leahy: Just as an aside as a former speaker of the Tennessee House, what’s your reaction to this, this is my term, not yours, the flea baggers, 67 Democrat members of the Texas House of Representatives, who when the governor called a special session to address election integrity bills, instead of participating in that, these 67 Democratic state legislators got in two chartered private planes not wearing their masks – a violation of numerous FAA rules and regulations, I believe.
And then they flew off to Washington, D.C. so that the Texas House of Representatives now does not have a quorum and can’t conduct business.
As a former speaker of the House of Representatives in Tennessee, how do you react to that?
Harwell: Well, it angers me. It truly angers me. And I absolutely agree that when they return home, they should be arrested.
They have a responsibility. If they don’t want to live up to that responsibility, you don’t run for office. But at the state legislative level, you have to be in attendance for the legislature to conduct its business.
And that’s totally unacceptable for them to have walked off. And it was just a publicity stunt. What was the point in going to Washington, D.C.?
Leahy: To have lunch with Kamala Harris apparently.
Harwell: Yes, apparently so.
Leahy: As I say, the legal but not legitimate vice president of the United States. My words, not yours. Beth, it’s interesting about this.
I saw that Governor Abbott, who is a pretty clever guy, said if we do these special sessions, I call them in 30 days, and if they’re not here and the 30 days is over,
I’m going to call another special session until the election of 2022. Apparently, these Texas Democrats may be outside the state for some time.
Harwell: For some time, yes. And, you know, it’s kind of a shame because they’re not even living up to their responsibility as the minority party.
As the minority party, you have a responsibility to try to make legislation better, to give your input. And they’re not doing that.
And now I’m a big believer in strong elections and strong controls on elections. And I think anyone that believes in fair democracy will believe that’s a good idea.
So I’m supportive of what the Tennessee legislature is wanting to do. But even if I wasn’t, I feel like I’d have a responsibility to sit at the table and try to help.
Leahy: During your time in the Tennessee House of Representatives, do you recall ever any members of the House of Representatives while you were a regular member or while you were a speaker, running away from their duty?
Harwell: I don’t. Now they came close during the agonizing state income tax.
Leahy: The agonizing state income tax back in 1999 to 2002. (Laughs)
Harwell: But we stayed and we worked it out. But there were some threats during that time. But during my tenure, I don’t recall any of that.
And by the way, I have to say on that note, you mentioned it earlier, we can be very proud that we don’t have state income taxes.
And one of my major goals when I became speaker was to eliminate the haul income tax. Because until we did that, we still technically had a state income tax.
Leahy: And tell our listeners what the haul income tax is – and I’m gonna say this – what it was.
Harwell: Yes. What it was. Which is a beautiful word.
Leahy: That’s a beautiful phrase.
Harwell: Yes. What it was. Well, it was a tax on dividends. And it really hurt working people because they save their money all these years.
And then when they came to retire, they had to pay this tremendous haul income tax – was a real incentive for people to move their assets to Florida. And we knew that we were losing people because of that.
Leahy: Of course. People are logical and rational.
Harwell: Right. But what I respected was we figured out a way to phase it out over a number of years so that the state budget was not harmed at the time.
We were not flooded with money the way they are now. So we did it in a very fiscally responsible way. But to eliminate a tax when you have the ability, that’s a wonderful thing.
Leahy: I should know this, Beth, but I’ll just ask you here on air, where are you from originally?
Harwell: Originally, I’m from Pennsylvania. I grew up there. But I came to Tennessee in 1974 to attend David Lipscomb University.
Leahy: David Lipscomb. Did you go to Lipscomb?
Harwell: Yeah. Went there for four years. Loved it.
Leahy: No kidding? Are you Church of Christ?
Harwell: Yes. I was raised Church of Christ. And in Pennsylvania, there are not many of them.
Leahy: No, they’re not. Well, we have something in common. I’m also a Church of Christ.
Harwell: I didn’t realize that.
Leahy: Converted just before I married my lovely wife, who’s from Texas. And, of course, as you know, the Church of Christ is centered in Tennessee and Texas.
Harwell: And Texas. Right. I had a sister who went to Abilene Christian.
Leahy: My lovely wife went to Abilene Christian. My daughter went to wait for it … Pepperdine.
Harwell: Pepperdine! Okay.
Leahy: Which is technically Church of Christ.
Harwell: It’s Church of Christ.
Leahy: But it’s in Malibu.
Harwell: My other sister went to Harding. So we’ve got all the Church of Christ covered this morning.
Leahy: Absolutely. In Searcy, Arkansas. Lots of people in Nashville went to Harding.
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.
Photo “Texas Democrats” by Dan Patrick.
