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’ Senior Editor Roger Simon in-studio to discuss the FBI raid on former President’ Trump’s home, the lawlessness of the Department of Justice, and whether or not America is a Republic.
Leahy: In-studio, all-star panelist Roger Simon. Roger, I want to get back to your column about kind of what’s next with the divide in the country that is coming up over this ridiculous raid of Donald Trump’s residence on Monday, for which the Department of Justice had said nothing yet so far.
Simon: So far, there’s a lawsuit on the table from Judicial Watch and someone else.
Leahy: Albany [New York] Times Union. They’ve asked to see the warrant. It’s gone before the judge. Judge Bruce Reinhardt, the magistrate judge, basically did a couple of things.
Simon: Is that the guy who defended Epstein’s people?
Leahy: Yes.
Simon: Ohhhhh. (Chuckles)
Leahy: A magistrate judge, by the way, works in the federal district court but is not a federal district judge.
Simon: No.
Leahy: A federal district judge is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The magistrate does a lot of the admin-type work.
Simon: Way down the list.
Leahy: And this particular manager, they’re appointed by the federal district judges in the district in which they reside, which is the District of South Florida.
This guy was appointed to an eight-year term. A year before he was appointed. Roger, this guy put out a big anti-Trump statement on social media.
Simon: Yes.
Leahy: We saw that.
Simon: Yes, I did.
Leahy: Also, you may have seen that this particular judge, Bruce Reinhardt, said six weeks ago there was a case brought by Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton in federal court there.
He recused himself from being the judge on that case because he said he couldn’t be impartial. Now, let’s think about this. He couldn’t be impartial six weeks ago …
Simon: But suddenly became a great jurist now. It’s just ridiculous. But besides the fact, you know, the term “judge shopping,” this is kind of judge shopping squared. This is like looking way down the list. Is there someone that will do this? Ah, we found it!
Leahy: But I want to get back to your column about this, where it seems to me that this is an intentional effort by the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, and by the director of the FBI to be so blatant in their abuse of power that it will rile up and anger at least half of America. I think this is intentionally what they did.
Simon: Yes. It’s interesting carrying that a little bit further, the role of vengeance in our culture. Now we’ve become very primitive because if you look at Liz Cheney, the whole January 6 thing, which she justifies by being the ‘Republican’ on the committee with [Adam] Kinzinger, who we can dismiss because no one ever heard of him. But she does this thing out of vengeance.
Leahy: Hates his guts.
Simon: She hates Donald Trump, hates him because of what he said about her father.
Leahy: Right.
Simon: And now we have vengeance from Merrick Garland, who was passed over for the Supreme Court. And he’s acting like he’s going to get back at him.
Leahy: A personal revenge, a partisanship personal attack.
Simon: Destroying civilization. It’s crazy!
Leahy: This is intentional on their part, I think, Roger, and both Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray, intelligent people, intended for this consequence. They intended to further divide America.
Now, tell us about, in your column you talked about – you used the term Civil War. Quite possibly. Now I have a little different view on what might happen, but tell us what’s your response?
Simon: I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m no Nostradamus – by the way, neither was Nostradamus, (Leahy chuckles) if you look back – there are all kinds of horrible things that could happen, like an assassination of Trump could happen.
Leahy: Bernie Kerik said he was worried about that. And then our friend Stephen K. Bannon went on [the] Alex Jones [Show] and said the same thing.
Simon: Yes. It’s evident you don’t have to be as smart as those guys are. I mean, there’s so much overheated thinking going on out there – thinking? I’ll call it overheated emotions.
Leahy: It’s propaganda.
Simon: Yes, and that’s the result of the propaganda.
Leahy: But we do know that one unfortunate young man went on a mission to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh and had a list of other justices. He was captured, he didn’t succeed. But I think there is this desire on the far left for vengeance against these supposed evil people.
Simon: I don’t get, psychologically, Wray that much. There is something really peculiar about the guy. He seems to be playing along with a lot of stuff you didn’t think he would. Well, he would to an extent.
Leahy: Your friend Ric Grenell apparently said that when he was the acting director of national intelligence back in 2020, he advised President Trump to fire Christopher Wray from the FBI. And remember, Donald Trump picked Christopher Wray. Why, oh why, oh why?
Simon: Yes. The problem with Trump’s great weakness is he picks bad people in many situations.
Leahy: Many situations. One of his weaknesses. He’s got a number of them.
Simon: I think that’s his worst one, really. His policy decisions are generally pretty good.
Leahy: They’re outstanding. They’re pro-America.
Simon: Yes. And they’re actually economically smart for a lot of people, a lot of countries. So it’s a strange – I think it’s the television-star thing, judging people by their most superficial characteristics.
Leahy: I guess the question here is, where does this go? I’m just going to tell you, the Department of Justice and the FBI are acting arrogantly and acting like they don’t care. They’re acting like they don’t recognize that they have crossed the Rubicon.
The phrase “cross the Rubicon” came when Julius Caesar was a well-respected general, very effective general, and there’s a river in Northern Italy called the Rubicon.
And the tradition in the Roman republic was that a Roman general never crosses the Rubicon with an army. Well, he crossed the Rubicon. And the republic’s gone.
Simon: Yes, absolutely. My advice to everybody listening, if the FBI ever comes to your door, don’t open it, or open it a crack, and say, do you have a warrant? I’m not going to talk to you. I’m going to call my lawyer. If you don’t have a lawyer, find one.
Leahy: What they will do in that case is they will have a warrant.
Simon: Not necessarily.
Leahy: Well, no, they won’t let you see it, which is, I think, a violation of your liberties. And they violated the liberties of President Trump, because they wouldn’t show his attorneys that warrant.
Simon: They waved the warrant at them.
Leahy: So they couldn’t even really look at it. So obviously they’re not intending to follow the rule of law. This seems obvious.
Simon: How about picking up the representative’s cellphone and just snatching it out of his hands?
Leahy: Yes. When the FBI knocks on your door and they present a warrant, my advice is to cooperate with them and call your attorney immediately.
Simon: Yes.
Leahy: But the point is, this is where our country is now. Is this a constitutional republic anymore, Roger?
Listen to the interview:
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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.
