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 a call from Markell to the newsmakers line to talk about the state of the union and Black Lives Matter.
Leahy: We are delighted to have on our phones a caller named Markell from Nashville. And Markell is a supporter of Joe Biden. Welcome back, Markell. Thanks for sticking around through the break.
Caller Markell: No problem. I’m happy to be here.
Leahy: First, let me just add how is it that a supporter of Joe Biden at six o’clock in the morning is listening to The Tennessee Star Report on Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC in the morning. Because if you’ve listened you’d know that we come from a conservative pro-Trump perspective but you are listening to us. Tell me why.
Markell: Believe it or not I just left the gym and I got into the car and my Bluetooth kind of puts of when I get out of the car, so when I got back into the care you all were on the radio. And I listened to the show for a while and you are a really good host.
Leahy: By the way, the check is in the mail, Markell. The check is in the mail. (Laughs) Leave Katie your address.
Markell: I just tuned in going down Gallatin Road and I was I had to call in. And I really fear for our country right now. So when you were talking about that it was laying on my heart to call.
Leahy: So you get up early and work out? What time do you get up typically?
Markell: About 4:00 a.m.
Leahy: Now Katie and I have admiration for this. Because I get up at 3:30. Katie, what time do you get up? Three o’clock? Yes. She gets up before 3:30. This is the early-bird crowd. But you go and work out. Do you do Orange Theory? What do you do?
Markell: I go to Planet Fitness. That’s my favorite gym. I usually start off on the treadmill to lifting weights and then I’m out of there.
Leahy: Way ahead of me. That’s great. I do like a couple of workouts a week but you know, it’s just to keep the decline from getting worse. (Markell laughs) What kind of work are you in Markell?
Markell: I’m in healthcare right now and I also own my own business. Healthcare is actually on the side level. I’m happy to announce that. I have my own business. I have a brand Majestic Manifest. You can look us up at majesticmanifest.com.
Leahy: See now, already we like you. Already we like you because here’s this opportunity and now you’re promoting your own business.
Markell: Yes.
Leahy: Are you sure you are a Democrat?
Markell: (Laughter) Now I thought about that and I considered it at one point. Seriously I’m really not that big into politics but I really am all about the world being at peace. And I want everyone to be happy. And it’s just so much chaos right now and it really hurts my heart.
Leahy: It’s all going in the wrong direction, isn’t it?
Markell: It really is. I’m not saying that Biden necessarily can fix it all. I really feel like God has to fix it all.
Leahy: I think a lot of our listeners would probably agree with you on that. So it sounds like that you are more driven by your faith than you are by a political ideology.
Markell: Oh yeah. And I would add in there that I am a minister.
Leahy: You are a minister?
Markell: Yes. A young minister at that.
Leahy: It’s alright. Let me ask you this question. Are you ready for a little controversy?
Markell: I’m ready.
Leahy: You ready? OK. So when you look at the Black Live Matter movement do you consider them a legitimate movement or a violent organization that threatens to undermine our constitutional republic? What’s your view on Black Lives Matter?
Markell: My view on Black Lives Matter, I do believe in that movement. But here’s the thing. I think people misunderstand. I don’t think Black Lives Matter is a movement to say that we need to be recognized in a sense. I think in theory it means that All Lives Matter.
Leahy: Be careful! If you just said All Lives Matter you know you are not going to be able to go to any of those Black Lives Matter meetings because they’ll kick you out, right? (Laughter)
Markell: See, I’m such a leader saying, it’s like, OK. I’ll put it like this in theory. It’s kind of like saying OK, we can go to a breast cancer rally and yell all breast cancer matters. Nobody does that. Do you know what I mean? Because it’s specifically at a breast cancer rally. All Cancer Does Matter. But we’re at a breast cancer rally right now. We are recognizing breast cancer right now.
Leahy: So let me ask you this. This is controversial. Are you ready for it?
Markell: I’m ready.
Leahy: Are you ready? (Markell chuckles) Up there in Kenosha, Wisconsin this guy Jacob Blake who is 29 years old with a history of past convictions on sexual assault. The circumstances are where he goes knocking on a former victim’s door.
They issue a warrant for his arrest. He resists arrest. They tase him. He resists that. Apparently reaches for a knife and they shoot him. So they capture him after the shooting and he’s in the hospital. That night there are riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And ostensibly under the name of Black Lives Matter.
Markell: Right.
Leahy: How do you react to that?
Markell: Let me just tell you, here in Nashville a couple of weeks ago I was coming out of my friend’s condo downtown and the group of protesters was walking by, and not one of them was Black. It was a group of about 15 White people. It made me smile but they had also shown me that Black people aren’t the only ones that are supportive of this movement of Black Lives Matter.
And as far as the Kenosha, I’m really big into law enforcement and I’ve been through law enforcement training. And the thing I feel about that after watching that video those officers could have handled that differently. When you start off at gunpoint with someone you have a pretty good mindset of shooting them. But I feel that at least one of those officers could have holstered up and manhandled him as opposed shooting.
Leahy: After the tasers didn’t work and as he was reaching for a knife.
Markell: Right.
Leahy: OK.
Markell: Right. I always wait to hear from a district attorney before I get the final say-so of what is actually going on because so many stories accumulate once everything hits the fan. I’ve been waiting to hear the final story and they are saying that there is a knife that was involved.
Leahy: That’s the report. Again Markell, how do we know? We just see a video and we see reports. One of the things that have always bothered me about this stuff is we try not to hold a trial in five minutes on the radio.
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 Reportwith Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.Â
