On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with special guest and his former Breitbart colleague, Iraq war veteran and current Army Reserve Sergeant Neil McCabe of One America News Network.
Back from the border, Washington-based reporter for One America News Network, McCabe spoke to the team about the We Build the Wall team in Sunland Park New Mexico, Brian Kolfage’s plan to install his purple heart into the wall which was just completed, and how to get Mexico to stop letting people through to the United States by upping the Trump trade game and stop pretending the Mexican government has anything to do with running Mexico.
Leahy: Speaking of Mexico, we are joined on the line here now by our good friend Neil McCabe with OANN. And Neil was on the ground in Sunland Park, New Mexico where the We Build the Wall team was building that wall. Neil welcome!
McCabe: Hey guys. Good to be with you.
Leahy: So, bring us up to speed on the latest of that wall. I guess they finished that 2,300 ft. section of wall and yet they’re doing a lot of cleaning up stuff is that right?
McCabe: It’s going to need some cleanup. They’ve got to put the finishing touches on the paved road that goes up along that wall which is really part of the project because before the border patrol agents had to hike it on foot. And so if they got a car and some people were going through you can imagine you’re climbing up a side of a mountain with a 30-degree slope. Now they just drive straight up the mountain. And that’s a big difference. There’s going to be a lot of sort of accouterments like cameras, and sensors, and other things.
But the wall is complete. It goes from the Rio Grande into that mountainside and it’s kind of interesting is the right word. It’s intriguing and it’s emotional when you think that Brian Kolfage, the founder of We Build the Wall, before he left to go back to his family in Florida he gave foreman Mike the guy sort of overseeing everything his purple heart from Iraq. And that’s going to be encased in glass in that final segment of the wall which is in the ground. The wall itself is complete but they’re sealing it with Brian’s purple heart.
Leahy: So, Tommy Fisher of Fisher Construction is the guy that got the contract from the We Build the Wall guys to build this 1,800 ft. high bollard steel wall that extends 2,300 ft from the New Mexico, Texas, Mexico border up to where this mountain is really pretty steep. And now part of his team is this guy Foreman Mike. Now we’ve seen foreman Mike become a bit of a YouTube Star all of the videos that have come out the past couple days. Very compelling video. He’s a pretty interesting character, isn’t he?
McCabe: Yeah, he’s a (Chuckles) more down to earth than a lot of spokesmen I’ve had to deal with. He’s got a helmet. He’s got a vest. He points it out. He sort of walks the grounds and he knows all the details in the YouTube videos. He talks about all the different specifications and things like that. He’s becoming very hot on the internet as the kids say.
Gill: And there are another three miles of border wall that will apparently be built in the Rio Grande Valley sector according to Breitbart this morning. They rewarded a contract on May 28 by a US Customs Border Protection to take place in a currently unsecured portion of Star County near Rio Grande City. . .
McCabe: Well you know I’ve been to McAllen Texas that Rio Grande Valley sector. I think part of the problem is getting them to that grave where you’re actually going into the mountains. But the steel bollards cost about three million dollars. . .
Gill: And now the Mexicans are now threatening that they have two hundred and fifty illegal immigrants that they are holding back that they’ll release basically to rush the border if the Trump tariffs move ahead. If they want to ratchet this thing up I think America could secure the border and completely break the back of the Mexican economy in about 24 hours if they follow through on that threat. I don’t think they want to push this President.
McCabe: Well I think what we have to do is stop pretending that the Mexican government has anything to do with running Mexico. It’s absurd. The cartels run that country. It’s a narco-state. There are different segments of the border that are controlled by really, what you’re really dealing with is warlords. And yeah there’s a President of Mexico and he’s got his sash and he says all these things but he really has nothing to do with running his country.
Leahy: Hey, Steve and Neil I just saw another report on Kiewit Infrastructure winning this contract… $43.7 million contract for three miles. . . If you work that out then Neil it’s about a little less than fifteen million a mile for that three-mile contract.
McCabe: Right. They would basically add six to eight million to this piece and I think a lot of that had to do with the difficulty that they weren’t dealing with.
Gill: Yeah, a 30-degree slope going up.
McCabe: Yeah. And so, it’s good that that number is a lot less than when the President put in his demands during government shutdown there was basically 20-24 million.
Leahy: Yeah.
Gill: And when they got competition from other people it’s amazing how the price goes down.
If you don’t already have One America News Network, call your local cable provider and watch One America News here in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Listen to the segment here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
