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 all-star panelist and The Epoch Times’ Editor at Large Roger Simon in-studio to comment upon the recent letter to the Biden administration from Senators Blackburn, Hagerty, and Cruz.
Leahy: We are joined in the studio by the all-star panelist, my former boss at PJTV, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, also the author of the upcoming book The Southbound Train, and, of course, the senior editor at large for The Epoch Times, Roger Simon. Good morning, Roger.
Simon: Good morning. I’m actually fairly awake this morning.
Leahy: You look chipper.
Simon: Yes, my foot aches from tennis, but that’s okay.
Leahy: But you got to stay on top of your game. You look pretty fit, though, although your foot is … you’ll get better. You’ll get better. I have a question for you.
We have a story, and I think you’ll have some insight on this at The Tennessee Star on the web Tennesseestar.com. Headline: “Tennessee Senators Blackburn and Hagerty Join Texas Senator Ted Cruz in Sending Letter to President Biden Regarding Iran Nuclear Deal.” Do you have some insights into this?
Simon: Inside and outside, because this was signed I think by, according to the article, I think it’s 34 Republican senators. The talk is that the administration and Biden’s group are negotiating with the Iranians and the other is the French and the Russians.
Leahy: You got the verb wrong. It’s not negotiating. The correct verb is “caving in.” (Laughs)
Simon: It’s the two words but I’ll give it to you. The final cave-in is about to occur. And the senators are insisting on what is law, really, that the administration then run this deal through the Senate for approval.
And it’s correctly pointed out in the letter that if it’s such a good deal, what are they afraid of? Well, we know. The other interesting thing, though, is that only 34 Republican senators signed it. Why not 50? Missing on there, among others, are Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham.
Leahy: Lindsey Grahamnesty.
Simon: Riddle me this, as we used to say. Do you think the citizens of Kentucky and South Carolina would approve this Iran deal if they knew about it?
Leahy: I don’t see John Thune … no, John Thune is on it. He is one of the signatures on it. How about, I don’t know, Murkowski from Alaska? Collins from Maine, don’t see her either.
Simon: Yes. This is theocratic fascism that, given the bomb, actually might use it. I don’t think the Chinese and I don’t think the Russians are in a big hurry to use their bombs, frankly.
Leahy: But the Iranians?
Simon: Who knows? There’s a famous quote from Elie Wiesel about the Holocaust. I don’t want to wake people up with this depressing thought this morning, but when asked what he learned more than anything else, in one sentence, he said, when someone says they want to kill you, believe them.
The Iranians parade up and down yelling, death to Israel, death to America, death to America! Do you think they really mean it? Everybody likes to think, oh, that’s just a way of doing propaganda. But do you want the bomb in the hands of [such] people?
Leahy: Roger, you told me during the break that you have experienced broadcasting (unintelligible) Tell us about that.
Simon: I got involved when I was doing PJTV and PJ Media way back in the Paleolithic age (Leahy laughs) I guess 15 years ago, we were using a lot of Iranian dissidents both in print and on TV, and they induced me to go down to the studio they had, because I got to learn a lot about Iran, or I thought I did.
Anyway, we went down to the studio in the San Fernando Valley, which via uplink I was on some kind of pirate Iranian TV once a week, blabbing about Iranian politics about which I knew more than probably most people listening to this show today.
(Leahy laughs) I can brag that much, but not quite qualified. But on the other hand, I was on the right side. And they desperately needed information coming in.
Leahy:Â And what kind of feedback did you get on that?
Simon: None. I got the feedback that X number of people – which I now forget, this is quite a while ago – would listen to that station secretly in Iran.
Leahy: Interesting.
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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 “Ted Cruz” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
