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. – guest host Christina Botteri welcomed Fox Nation contributor and host of “No Interruption,” Tomi Lahren to the newsmakers line live from Santa Monica, California to discuss mask freedom, Gavin Newsom recall efforts, and the growing homelessness in the Golden State.
Botteri: And on the line with us right now is the one and only Tomi Lahren. Tomi, thank you so much for joining us this morning. How are you?
Lahren: I’m happy to be here. And I got to tell you guys, I’m not Nashville, Tennessee, this morning. I am in Santa Monica, California – and I got to tell you, I’m really missing some Tennessee.
Botteri: (Laughs) Oh, no! So what you’re saying is you are wearing a mask? (Laughter)
Lahren: I refuse to do that. I don’t know if anybody follows me on Twitter or on Instagram, but I think that they are well aware that I am unmasked and at full capacity at one of those things.
And you know what? I’m actually proud to say that a lot of Californians, even though they don’t officially lift their little mask mandate until June 15, a lot of Californians aren’t playing ball anymore.
So I have to say, maybe a little bit of Tennessee is rubbing off on the Golden State. I love to see it.
Botteri: Oh, that is great news. I’m serious, all jokes aside, that is great news, Tomi. Thank you for sharing that. That kind of makes me glad, because it is a beautiful place, Santa Monica and all of California, for that matter, it really is.
And to just be all hold up. Can we just talk about it for one little second, what a weird sensation it is to wear these dumb masks? Because when you’re at the airport, that’s like a whole other thing.
When you’re on an airplane, but your vision is cut off, your breathing is off. Just everything about it is the worst. I mean, I suppose there are worse things in the world, but not many.
Lahren: (Chuckles) I’ve been calling it a face diaper for about a year-and-a-half-now. But here’s the thing. And this is what I tell people, and I understand it. And this has long been my approach to it.
If a private business or an employer wants to require masks, as we know, I’m all about that. They have the right to do that, and we have the right, not to patronize those establishments. So I fully understand that their right to do it.
But when the government and as we had, as you guys know, in Nashville, when we have the government putting a mask mandate in place, that’s where I draw the line. And I for a long time said this, even when we were in Nashville under that mask mandate and when I would travel outside of the airport, I would say, listen, I’m not going to wear a mask.
If someone wants to approach me and tell me to wear a mask will have a little discussion. But it’s funny when you go unmasked, it’s like people look at you and now they finally feel like they cannot wear a mask because they were just waiting for that one person to be the first one to say, I choose freedom.
And they’ll look at you in relief. And they’ll say, oh, thank goodness. I’m taking my mask off, too. And that’s, my friends, is how we start changing things.
Botteri: I love it, Tomi. You’re totally right.
Carmichael: Tomi, this is Crom. Do you have any thoughts since you’re out there in the middle of California, what’s your sense being on the ground out there, the recall of Gavin Newsom?
Lahren: I have been somebody who’s gone after Gavin Newsom for several years. I used to live here in LA. I lived here for three years, and I became very invested in California politics. And I’ll tell you, the recall is going to happen.
I believe that it will be successful. And Gavin Newsom, for those that aren’t familiar with California and California politics, all the bad policies that have been adopted by the Biden administration, those policies were tested and failed here in California.
And that’s what becoming nationalized, even in Nashville with our Mayor, who I call John ‘Chicken’ Cooper. A lot of the failed policies that he would implement and the taxations that he would use to get out of his own problems.
Those are all ideas that started here. And Californians on the left and the right, because this recall is not just a Republican recall. There are not enough Republicans in California to accomplish what they accomplished with those recall signatures.
These are Californians standing up and saying, you know what? We’re tired of the tyranny, we’re tired of the infringements, you shut us down needlessly. Other states stayed open. Tennessee being one of them, that kind of was able to stay somewhat open.
Florida, obviously my home state of South Dakota. So Californians are looking at their leaders, saying, no more, buddy. And I believe it’s going to be successful. They will get rid of Gavin Newsom.
Carmichael: If they get rid of Gavin Newsom, that’ll be an earthquake in the political world. And I hope you’re right for the sake of Californians. I was looking at an article for the amount of shoplifting in California since California changed the law that you have to shoplift $950 or more each time in order for it to be a felony.
The businesses like Walgreens are shutting locations left and right because their store shells are just being destroyed by vagrants. And actually, now organized crime that goes in and you’ll have a flash mob, and they’ll each steal $500, $800 bucks apiece and walk out.
Lahren: Oh, that’s 100 percent true. And for those in Tennessee that are listening, I know that this seems like a California problem. But be warned, when you start having what they call realignment laws and reclassification where they take what used to be felonies, and they re-classify them as misdemeanors.
This is exactly what happens. And I’ll tell you, this. I’m staying in Santa Monica. And we’re going out to Venice later. I was in Venice yesterday. It’s absolute filth. It’s tents lining the streets, and these people here have become so emboldened that they believe they can do whatever it is that they want.
And it’s those felon-friendly laws that give them that courage to be able to do that. That is happening in California. It’s been happening in California for years. And you’ve already got police department’s here that have been defunded.
And now they’re struggling to refund because they realize what a bad idea it was. But it all comes from those policies. And Tennessee beware because a lot of Californians are fleeing to Tennessee, but they’re bringing their voting records and their voting tendencies with them.
So we got to keep our ears perked up and pay attention to those things as they come in because we do not want to California our Tennessee.
Carmichael: Tomi, what we’ll have to do here in Tennessee is set up re-education camps. (Laughter) Now I have a question for you because you’re on the ground out there and you’ve lived there for three years.
Why do the people of Venice, for example, because I’ve seen the videos and it is absolutely just the only word I can think of that even comes close to it is just absolutely just disgusting. What has gone on there?
Why do the local people vote, the mayor and the city council back into office? Why do they do that?
Lahren: You know, it’s a culture in Venice when they look at homelessness. But just being out there and we’re going to go out there later today and talk about it and talk to some individuals. But people are upset with it.
They don’t like it. I’m looking at these businesses that are finally being able to reopen in Venice and these restaurants. And I was saying yesterday, I can’t imagine going to eat at one of those restaurants because there’s homeless everywhere.
I’m not kidding you. When you step out of the car in Santa Monica or Venice, the smell of pee is so overwhelming that it’s disgusting. I couldn’t even eat outside. And walking outside, it’s disgusting. And it’s a culture that they’ve fostered here.
But not only that, it’s gotten so bad and the lawlessness has gotten so bad that they are homeless people who are actually dealing drugs out of their tents and lighting other homeless people’s tents on fire because they’re having turf wars within their encampments on the boardwalk.
And that’s what average, everyday law-abiding California they’re supposed to walk and run through? I’m telling you, it’s like a third-world country here.
Botteri: I’ve been there and it was there many, many years ago now and walked the boardwalk that you alluded to. And for everybody who’s not been there, you basically have the street and then a row of beach houses and other types of residences and businesses and stuff.
So buildings, basically. And then a broad sidewalk. A big cement sort of sidewalk path that follows the beach line. And then on the other side is the sand. You’ll some workout areas and other sorts of pop-up types of vendors and stuff.
And then you get to the beach proper and then the ocean. And that’s kind of how it goes. And so this is a relatively small area when I was there, Tomi and this was, like 20 something years ago. This was a long time ago because I’m an old lady. (Chuckles)
There were all kinds of panhandling, all kinds of vendors. And they were all mixed up together. And it was back then just kind of an aggressive and very obviously a cultural choice of that area to allow this to tolerate this behavior.
And so I can only imagine what you’re describing now and what these tents are they like on the other side. Basically, you’ve got the buildings and then the sidewalk, and then they’re on the other side of the sidewalk. So people are kind of pinned in into this gore point?
Lahren: Oh no, they line everything. They’re in the middle of the beach. They are next to the sidewalk there next to all different sidewalks. They are next to the boardwalk there on the boardwalk, there is no area where you will not find tents and trash, and makeshift living areas.
I was walking through there yesterday, and I tell you, I was walking through at 8:30 in the morning. Had it been later in the evening, there’s no way I would have gone down there. But looking in these tents there are people in there.
And, of course, they’re passed out. But the number of things that they have accumulated in these tents, these are tent cities. And for people to understand this is not just Venice. This is not just Santa Monica. This is California!
This is everywhere here. It’s in San Diego. It’s for sure. In San Francisco, it is everywhere in this state. It is a culture of homelessness. And I know that other states have dealt with this as well. I know in Austin, Texas, they shot down people’s ability to really reside in their tents like it was a dwelling.
And they did the same thing in Colorado, in Denver. But if that ever comes to Tennessee, I’m telling you, we’ve got a homeless population that’s certainly growing. And it’s not a culture we want to foster.
Of course, we want to make sure that these people are taking care of. But I’ll tell you this that people don’t understand going back to your point on crime, I’ve done a lot of research on this.
A lot of these individuals that are here at homeless, of course, some are down on their luck. Some have mental illness addiction and some are veterans. And of course, we put those people in a different classification.
There’s also a lot of individuals that come to California from other states because they’re either just transients, vagrants or they are sex offenders and felons from other states that come to California because they do not have to re-register sex offenders here, and they want to live their life on beachfront property in the lawlessness.
Botteri: Wow.
Lahren: That has Californians terrified.
Botteri: It’s a terrible situation, and it’s got to be better. There is a great commentary at The Tennessee Star. It’s a deep dive into the homelessness industrial complex. I highly recommend that you read that. It’s fascinating.
Tomi Lahren, thank you so much for joining us. I hope you come back soon. Stay safe; stay well, there, while you’re in California. We’ll talk to you again soon.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Tomi Lahren” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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 Fox Nation contributor and host of No Interruption, Tomi Lahren to the newsmakers line to talk about facing adversity from BLM and college socialists in her recent visit to Clemson University, Arizona Border, and how the joke is on the woke corporations.
Leahy: We are joined on the newsmaker line by our good friend Tomi Lahren, Fox Nation host. And Tomi you went to Clemson and they didn’t want you to speak. Why are you so dangerous, Tomi?
Lahren: (Laughs) You know, sometimes the truth is a dangerous thing, especially on college campuses nowadays, which is really unfortunate, because historically, college campuses are the places that used to really foster free speech and it was a marketplace of ideas. But now college kids have become so conditioned to only hear the things that they want to hear and anytime that that’s threatened or anytime that they’re challenged to expand outside of that echo chamber of the liberal indoctrination, it’s scary to them. It’s like a hole in their safe space and I think I was a threat to that safe space. But the show went on anyway.
Leahy: Well, set the scene for us in Clemson. When did it take place? Who invited you? How many people were there? How many were protesting? Again, why are you so dangerous? I still don’t get that. (Laughs)
Lahren: We’ve been working on this event for a couple of months and it took place this past Thursday night at Clemson. But we’ve been working on it for a couple of months. I was invited by the Clemson Turning Point USA chapter. They have a huge Turning Point chapter. And for those who aren’t familiar with Turning Point, it’s a conservative college campus organization on most campuses across the country.
Thank goodness they really provide that safe space for Conservatives that Conservatives don’t really have on college campuses. But they invited me. And originally we knew that doing an event Backing the Blue was the steam of the event and we knew that was going to probably be controversial just because, unfortunately, in the times in which we live supporting law enforcement and Backing the Blue is not a popular concept, especially amongst young people.
But we planned the event and of course, there was an outcry, the college Democrats, the young college socialists, the BLM-affiliated groups on campus tried to cancel the event. They tried to petition the University. They had a petition on Change.org that was about 4,000 signatures. And they really wanted the University to be pressured to just cancel the event altogether. Well, that didn’t work.
The University held strong, but when that didn’t work, just all-out canceling the event, they turned to tactics that these groups use not only on college campuses but elsewhere when they have Conservative events. They tried to sign up with fake ticket sales to try to really take up all the tickets from kids that wanted to be there. And then take up those tickets themselves and then not show up.
That’s a popular tactic that the left is used with Trump rallies and other events. And when that didn’t work because Turning Point found a way around that one, too then they thought by making threats or running up the security costs that they would make the event too expensive for Turning Point to afford or for the University to afford.
(Scoffs) And then when that didn’t work, we decided, hey, listen, let’s have the event in a smaller room. We were going to have it in more of like a student union room, ballroom type area but we felt that that couldn’t be secured. And with the number of people that were coming, we needed a bigger venue. So we moved the event over to the Littlejohn Coliseum which is the basketball arena and they were unable to cancel it. And it just gave us a larger capacity and the show went on.
Leahy: You put a tweet out with a picture. It looks like there are, like, I don’t know a couple of hundred lefties with BLM masks with their hands raised. How big was the opposition to you there?
Lahren: It was hard because they were scattered, but there was 300, 400 protesters out there. Black Lives Matter Group, BLM showed up, college Democrats, the New Black Panthers showed up, but I wasn’t outside thank goodness. We were escorted in through the back. But the funny thing is that my Fox Nation team was there and they captured the whole thing.
And it will be debuting later this month on Fox Nation. And my producers were actually there interviewing the protesters and asking questions. But we found out that these protesters didn’t really have consistent messaging. They didn’t want me to be there. They said I’m a white supremacist. They didn’t want the University to hold an event for a white supremacist, and they didn’t want to Back to Blue.
But they also would deny that when you asked them a second time. So their message was very inconsistent. But because their messaging was inconsistent, they turned to then heckling and harassing those that were coming in. It was rather disgusting. They were yelling things at the ladies that were going in, telling them that they were ugly and telling that their clothes were ugly and telling them that they were racist, this and that, and screaming at the top of their lungs. And it was quite disgusting. From what I saw, just things that you would never say to anybody, but especially to your fellow peers and classmates.
Leahy: Who knew Tomi that a kid from Rapid City, South Dakota, was so dangerous. (Laughter)
Lahren: I have to remind myself of that often.
(Commercial break)
Leahy: Tomi, a question for you. When you go to Clemson and all of the snowflakes decide that you’re just too dangerous to talk and want to keep you from talking, what do your parents out in Rapid City, South Dakota, who are average, hard-working, middle-class Americans, what do they think?
Lahren: My parents have been around this for quite some time now, so I think that the strangeness has worn off a little bit. And they’ve been with me when I’ve had the protesters. Unfortunately, they’ve been there with me when I’ve had water thrown on me and they were right next to me and had water thrown on them as well.
So, unfortunately, they’ve had to deal with a lot more than a lot of parents have to deal with. But for me, it’s always just the safety that they’re concerned about. And luckily, we had a lot of great security at Clemson. It’s kind of interesting that we’re doing a back to Blue event and we had to have so many cops there to protect me and also to protect all the protesters and all the people that wanted to be there. So it’s one of those things. We always just got to be safe, but it’s become a natural part of my life at this point.
Leahy: Where do you intend to speak next so that there will be some sort of conflagration from the crazies on the left against you for some unknown reason?
Lahren: There are actually a lot of Turning Point chapters now. They’ve been very inspired by the event, and I want to take it on. We’re actually talking to one of the Turning Point chapters that’s closer down to the border because I just got home from the border. And I did a two-part episode there. They want me to come on back down and speak to their college campus about some border issues and maybe more in that kind of a theme. So we’ll see.
I love to get out and speak to college kids. It’s really difficult right now because of all those COVID protocols and the social distancing and just how interesting our college system has become now. But every chance I get, I think we really need to take our message and bring it to the college campuses. That’s how we start fighting in the culture war that Conservatives have largely been out of way too long.
Leahy: Tomi, when you went down to the border, what did you discover?
Lahren: Oh, boy. So there’s been a lot of emphasis placed on these processing centers and these detention centers. That’s what you’re going to see on the news. And that’s what’s causing the outrage really on both sides, which is understandable. But the American people are just seeing that and they are not really seeing the real issue that’s going on, which is all the people that are getting across the border, not just the unaccompanied kids that are coming across, but the adults that are coming across while the border patrol agents are so occupied taking care of these unaccompanied minors, that’s when the worst of the worst is really coming through.
You’ve got a border wall that’s been halted. You’ve got agents that are being taken away and having to be taken to the processing centers to essentially babysit. And that’s when you’ve got these gaps and you’ve got these issues coming through that are worse than people can imagine. That’s when the drugs are coming through, that’s when human trafficking is coming through, that’s when the individuals that are coming into this country, not to make it great again, but to fulfill their own needs.
They work for a criminal organization. That’s what’s coming through. In Arizona, where I was but there’s a lot of emphasis placed on Texas right now, but Arizona year to date, they’ve had an estimated 50,000 ‘got aways’, which is exactly what it sounds like. People that have never been fingerprinted, process, detained, arrested nothing, people that are simply getting through. And that’s just an estimate. And that’s just Arizona alone.
Leahy: Which was more dangerous for you? Your speech at Clemson on Thursday or your time at the border in Arizona?
Lahren: (Chuckles) They’re very different. Every border trip I’ve gone and this is my border trip. I’ve been with Border Patrol. So during the Trump administration, it was very secure and safe because we were with Border Patrol themselves, shadowing them. And of course, there’s always danger there because we shadowed them in their real-life responding to calls as they would.
But it’s always been a safety element because we were with Border Patrol. Well, this time, Border Patrol there is that implied and not so much implied, but it is a gag order on Border Patrol. So I had to go out and spend time with landowners, with the Sheriff’s Department, with people that are just out there to share their stories. So it’s always a little dangerous anytime you go to the border. But it’s one of those things that you just don’t even think about. You just go out there and do it.
Leahy: Last question for you, Tomi. So this is interesting. There’s a report, on Saturday, 100 corporate executives met in a virtual meeting organized by a Yale Business School Professor to determine what they could do to stop election reform bills, bills designed to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. Apparently, Fortune 500 executives don’t like that.
The attendees there were Arthur Blank, owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, James Murdoch and his wife, the son of Rupert Murdoch, the head of AMC Theaters that have a big law firm. They had the CEO of Walmart, the CEO of United are Airlines, American Airlines, Chip Bergh from Levi Strauss, and of course, Reid Hoffman a far lefty if ever was one, the CEO of LinkedIn. And the President of and CEO of Viacom CBS. What do you make of this effort by Fortune 500 company executives to overturn the legal processes of state legislatures in America today.
Lahren: We’ve been conditioned to have to deal with this. We know what happened in November 2020, and we know when our President Donald Trump spoke about voter fraud and election integrity, we know that that was very much a sit-down and shut up message. And then they really used the events of January sixth and the insurrection to really quiet people and to keep people from talking about voter fraud.
And then when you’ve got states like Georgia that’s taken it into their own hands and say, hey, listen, whatever squirrely business happen, we’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen again. As you mentioned, we’re going to make it hard to cheat, easy to vote. Now you see corporations stepping up and saying, how can we add to the conversation? How can we be a part of cancel culture?
How can we be a part of the mob that can go and silence this and change this to give power to Democrats for generations to come? It’s really quite disgusting. But the only way we as average citizens who care about election integrity the only way we can stop any of this is to let these corporations know that it won’t be tolerated. As Conservatives, we don’t like the term boycott. We don’t want to boycott Major League Baseball. We don’t want to boycott the airlines.
We don’t want to boycott any of these companies that are participating in this. But at some point, we are going to have to make our voices heard because they don’t know how strong our numbers are. They don’t know the silent majority is a real thing because we are far too silent. So now is the time that we need to stand up and say, hey, listen, you companies want to be woke? You want to participate in this cancel culture? You want to mess with our elections? Well, hey, guess what? Money talks. and the silent majority, we have a lot of it.
Leahy: You mentioned Major League Baseball. They made a very stupid and controversial decision to move the Major League All-Star Game scheduled for July in Atlanta in Cobb County with the new stadium up there which is 50 percent black, by the way, because they didn’t like the election reform law passed by the Georgia state Legislature. Rob Manfred, who think has played baseball a day in his life. He’s a Harvard Law School grad with no common sense.
The Commissioner decided on his own to move it to nine percent Black Denver, Colorado, which apparently has it’s a better place for Major League Baseball these guys think. This conference call was attended by the head of CBS Viacom. They broadcast The Masters from Georgia. That was okay, apparently. What do you make of all this? Hypocrisy, Tomi
Lahren: Yeah. I think that this is a classic example of them getting in way over their head trying to be woke and it backfiring in a major way. But we saw this a few years ago with the NFL and then cow-towing to the protesters and kneelers, and we saw where their fans went. So I think it’s going to be, unfortunately, much the same for Major League Baseball or golf or any sport that decides to go the woke route.
But again, I think it’s interesting because they look so ridiculous because they didn’t really think it out because they didn’t think that they would be questioned. They thought that they were going to be able to do this. They were going to move the All-Star Game, and everyone was going to applaud them for how woke they are and how wonderful they are, and what social justice warriors they are with their almighty virtue signal.
And it backfired in a major way. And it’s actually kind of funny. I think that this is going to happen more and more to companies when people start poking holes in their stupid decisions that they have not thought through. And it’s up to us to keep applying the pressure and pointing it out every chance we can.
Leahy: Tomi, I saw a very funny tweet from Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas. He said, have any of these executives actually read the Georgia law? I’ve read it. It’s common sense. It makes it easier to vote, harder to cheat.
Lahren: Oh, absolutely. And that’s the thing people need to understand, having to show an ID to vote to prove you are who you say you are. That is in no way racist. In fact, the more racist element of that is those that are criticizing it, thinking that somehow minority and Black communities are unable to show and obtain a valid driver’s license or a form of identification.
Just assuming that is somehow voter suppression to me is the most racist, condescending element of this whole argument. And that’s why we need to keep pointing that out. You should vote and be able to vote easily. But you have to be who you say you are, and you can’t vote illegally. You can’t vote twice, and you can’t vote dead. Not too much to ask.
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.
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 Fox Nation contributor and host of No Interruption, Tomi Lahren to the newsmakers line to discuss her move to Nashville and how the migration of liberals from failed left-wing cities could compromise it.
Leahy: We are joined our newsmaker line now by one of the newest Nashvillians. But one that we are very pleased to welcome to Nashville, Tomi Lahren, Fox Nation contributor. Thanks for joining us.
Lahren: It’s great to be here! And I got to tell you, I’m almost at my one-year anniversary of leaving California for Nashville. So I got to say, this has been a long time coming. And I’m so happy to be in Nashville and happy to be on with you.
Leahy: You moved here in April. A very smart move. We’re delighted to have you here. We’ll talk about that move in a minute. You burst onto the conservative media scene like a supernova. I mean, just terrific commentary out there. You started with One American News Network. I didn’t know this. You’re from Rapid City, South Dakota. And you were an intern, for now, Governor Kristi Noem at one time. Isn’t that right?
Lahren: Yes. And you know, our governor is finally getting the recognition she deserves. And it’s all because she decided to keep our great state of South Dakota open. They give a lot of credit to Texas and Mississippi for lifting their mask mandates and for having full capacity. But never forget South Dakota. We never played that game. I hope we can say the same in Tennessee coming up pretty soon.
Leahy: I’m with you on that one, Tomi. So tell us a little bit about why you decided early last year to move from Los Angeles to Nashville.
Lahren: You know, the writing was on the wall. California was not the place to be. And I knew that moving there. I moved from Texas to LA, and I thought, I just want to be in the middle of where all this pop culture and all this liberalism is based and centered in that of the course in Los Angeles. But after a while, hemorrhaging my hard-earned tax dollars to that state, which is clearly a failed state, and a failure all together with a horrible governor that I’m very delighted to see they’re likely going to recall, I decided you know what?
It’s time to pick up and go to the South. And I looked at Nashville and I said, Nashville is a great city. But you know what? Liberalism. It’s affecting Nashville, too. So maybe this is a place that I can come and sound the alarm. A warning, if you will about what happens when you start implementing liberal policies. It’s not too long before you California your Tennessee.
Leahy: That’s a very good point. Craig Huey, who also is a refugee from California and a direct marketing expert, has come in and talked to us about that as well. So you do live in the city of Nashville now, what is your experience been with Tennesseeans?
Lahren: Well, Tennesseeans are great. I don’t have a lot of love for this mayor. And I’ve been pretty vocal about that, especially moving from California. Like I said, the writings on the wall of what’s going to happen to Nashville if we keep electing people like Mayor John Chicken Cooper, as I so affectionately have titled him. (Leahy chuckles)
Leahy: You call him John Chicken Cooper. I love that name. I call him a tin pot dictator. I think your name is a little bit better.
Lahren: (Chuckles) You know, I think whatever fits. I think there are so many names that can fit this mayor and what he’s done to the city over the last year. And it doesn’t really look like there’s going to be an end in sight. We’re still keeping up with some of these restrictions and mandates that are crushing our bars, crushing our economy.
You know, no bail out for that. We got to reopen. We open fully. And I hope Mayor John Chicken Cooper (Leahy chuckles) is listening because I know that he does take a look at my Instagram stories and my tweets from time to time. So Chicken Cooper, if you’re listening in, it’s time to reopen Nashville.
Leahy: By the way, did you see our story at The Tennessee Star that the community oversight board they named a member to the community oversight board, who was a convicted felon and not a registered voter. Ovid Timothy Hughes. He resigned suddenly, a couple of weeks ago. Nobody knew why. Our reporter Corrine Murdock looked into it. He was convicted of a felony back in 2008 and he’s not a registered voter which is required by law. How about that?
Lahren: (Chuckles) I wish I could say I was shocked and surprised, but I’m really not. Watching this mayor and much of the city council placate too BLM and other extreme leftist movements. None of that really shocks and surprises me. Like I said, the California virus is moving in faster, far faster than coronavirus. And if people don’t wake up, it’s only a matter of time before Los Angeles comes to Nashville, Tennessee. And there’s no going back once that happens. Nothing surprises me anymore.
Leahy: Tomi, we’re going to have a big party, probably next month or the month after to welcome all of the new conservatives who’ve come to Nashville. Including the Daily Wire folks and Candace Owens. You’re more than welcome to come to that party. We’re probably going to have to host it a little bit outside of Nashville, Davidson County because of restrictions. But we’ll let you know. And we’d be delighted to have you come to that party.
Lahren: Hey, let’s do it. I think that there’s a lot of great conservative voices moving here. And we’re going to make sure that the mayor is kept in check. And we’re going to make sure that the governor is feeling the heat and the pressure because it’s time for him to step up too. And there’s a lot of good folks here ready to do that.
Leahy: Tell us about your talk show on Fox Nation, No interruption.
Lahren: So no interruption is my long-form show on Fox Nation, which is our digital streaming platform. And I actually just returned this weekend from my home state of South Dakota doing a story on the pipeline and all of the people that have been affected by the Biden administration’s executive order on that.
So what I really do on that show is I take a deeper dive into the issues facing our country. Whether it be the border or the pipeline or the mental health issues that we’re facing because of via Democrats, infringements, and mandates that came along with coronavirus. That’s what I explore in-depth on No Interruption. And then of course, I have my Daily Final Thoughts which is what people are used to hearing from me. Not a controversial segment at all.
Leahy: Not controversial at all. Tomi, I love watching that, by the way. I mean, you pull no punches. You just smack them right in the face. It’s fantastic.
Lahren: Well, thank you. It’s about time conservative start doing that. I talk a lot about cancel culture, too. And the reason that we’re in the midst of cancel culture is partly our own fault because for too long, conservatives have caved. We’ve bowed, we’ve deal to the mob, and I think we’re realizing the impact and effects of that.
So we only have ourselves to blame. It’s time to stop being the silent majority and to start being the louder majority and taking the country back because that’s the only way we’re going to save it. Sleepy Joe, 50 days and we haven’t heard from him, but he’s sure done a lot to hurt our country. And so we’ve got to be a little louder and more vocal about it.
Leahy: Now your program. You’re with Fox Nation. Do you record it here in Nashville? Do you go up to New York? How does the logistics work of that?
Lahren: I have a studio based right here in Nashville, Tennessee. In fact, I just got off of Fox and Friends. It’s nice because I don’t always have to put on pants to do TV, so it works out. But yes, I am here in Nashville. Thank goodness, because New York sounds absolutely horrible right now.
Leahy: It is absolutely horrible. All of the people that we know in New York City are trying to move and they’re all looking to move to Nashville. Likewise, in California. If you are a realtor in Middle Tennessee, the best place to market is California, Illinois, and New York.
Lahren: Oh, absolutely. But you know, I do have a fear with that because with the Californians coming in, we know that they’re not all great conservatives. We know that a lot of them are liberals fleeing a liberal failed state and bringing their policies with them. But not only are they bringing their policies with them, but they’re also bringing a whole lot of money in their pockets from selling their real estate in California.
But they’re coming here. They’re buying up the houses site unseen. They’re pricing out the locals and then they’re voting in horrible policies and horrible people. I mean, we can’t sustain another 34 percent property tax increase. So hey, Californians, you’re welcome. But leave your politics at the door, please.
Leahy: That’s a good idea. By the way, Glenn Reynolds, who is Instapundit at instapundit.com is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Tennessee, has a great idea. And maybe we ought to do something with this. We ought to have a welcome wagon for people that come in from California and just say as they cross the border say, welcome. We are a no-income-tax state. We are going to keep it that way because it’s in our constitution. Take your liberal ideas and leave them in California. You think that would be a good idea, Tomi?
Lahren: I think we should definitely be putting up signs, billboards, Instagram, and whatever we can do. And I would also recommend that we screen some of the scenes from downtown Los Angeles and what they left and what they fled from and all the liberal policies that have destroyed their home city and state. And just let that be a little friendly reminder of what happens when you vote in liberals. Because, as I always say, liberalism is a mental disorder. Get well soon.
Leahy: (Chuckles) Yeah, that is funny. Hey, what has been the biggest thing that surprised you about Tennessee and Nashville since you moved here in April?
Lahren: You know, I’ll tell you this. Nashville is obviously a little bit more of a Democrat city. And once you get outside, it’s certainly far more conservative. But I’ll tell you this, even the Democrats here, even the liberals, they’re kind. We might not always agree, but I’ll tell you, in LA, I have been kicked. I have been tripped.
I have had things thrown at me. I have been heckled. But even the liberals here, are far more respectful in the South. So I got to give them that. And I got to give them some credit. I think that they know that there are a lot of conservatives here, so they’re not going to pull that crap. I got to say, people here are just in general nicer than a lot of places.
Leahy: I will confirm that. I moved here back in 1991 and I lived in California. I went to business school out there. But we moved here in 1991. I’m delighted that I made the move. And we are equally delighted Tomi Lahren that you’ve made the move here. Thank you so much for joining us today. Will you come to the studio sometime?
Lahren: Let’s do it. I’m just down the road, so. We’ll have a lot of fun and really bring the punches to the mayor.
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 “Tomi Lahren” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
