Live from Music Row Monday 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 the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.
At the end of the second hour, Leahy and Carmichael discussed Hillary Clinton and John Kerry’s inability to create peace in the Middle East, lack of accomplishments, and Trump’s Supreme Court nominees Barrett and Lagoa.
(Hillary Clinton clip plays)
Leahy: Well, Crom, that’s Hillary Clinton. She just keeps coming back up like a bad penny. (Laughs)
Carmichael: I’ll tell you what. She is the gift that keeps on giving. (Leahy chuckles) I don’t know who makes more outrageously stupid statements. Hillary Clinton or John Kerry.
Leahy: They are both pretty bad.
Carmichael: Both of them are so wrong so often it’s almost funny. The only one who is wrong more often is Joe Biden. (Leahy laughs) And I’m not joking here. For 50 years.
Leahy: He’s been wrong for 50 years.
Carmichael: For 50 years you can’t find a single decision or position that he’s taken that could be supported either by history or by logic.
Leahy: Wrong as rain for 50 years. Let’s give him five more.
Carmichael: But I saw quotes of Kerry saying, (Uses deep Kerry-like voice) let me make this very clear. There will be no peace in the Middle East that does not include the Palestinians. I will repeat that. There will be no peace that does not include the Palestinians. They will be at the table. Well if you believe that the Palestinians must be satisfied in order for there to be peace, there will be no peace in the Middle East because there is no way to satisfy them.
Leahy: They will totally never be satisfied.
Carmichael: They won’t be satisfied. So what Trump has done in the Middle East, and this is in the context of what Hillary Clinton is talking about here. What Trump said was there is another way to have peace in the Middle East, and that is that you ignore the Palestinians. You marginalize them.
You marginalize Iran and you get peace with everybody else, and eventually, the Palestinians are required to come to the table if they want to negotiate in good faith. And that is the key here. Hillary Clinton never negotiated in good faith, which is why she didn’t accomplish anything. Now Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s accomplished a lot. Hillary Clinton hasn’t accomplished squat. I mean she really hasn’t. Look at her time as Secretary of State. What did she accomplish?
Leahy: Debacle after debacle.
Carmichael: One thing after another.
Leahy: They sold our uranium to a Russian company after her husband got a half a million dollar speaking fee in Moscow.
Carmichael: And the Clinton Foundation got tens of millions of dollars in contributions from the parties that benefited. So, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, she’s been truly hysterical over this thing.
Leahy: Historically hysterical. (Laughs)Â
Carmichael: Pelosi just kind of talking about the two great powerful women in Washington. Hillary Clinton makes her statement in which she takes a single precedent, which wasn’t even a precedent. Mitch McConnell was following 170 years of precedent.
Leahy: Yes. Totally following precedent.
Carmichael: Saying we are not going to take up this nominee because the president is in one party and they are in another party. If they were in the same party, we would take it up because historically, the Senate has taken up nominees if the president is of the same party. That is a true statement and anybody can go look it up.
Now Pelosi, for her part, she’s actually threatening to impeach the president. Now let me say this, please, please, please, Nancy, impeach the president before the election. (Leahy laughs) Please impeach the president. And then for the Democrats, when Trump is going to pick one of two women, because he’s made it clear that he’s going to pick a woman. It’s going to be either Barrett who is on the Federal Court of Appeals.
Leahy: Seventh District out of Chicago. She’s a fabulous jurist and legal scholar. And a great story.
Carmichael: Here life story. Then the other one that has come up is the judge who is from Florida. What court is she on?
Leahy: I think she’s a federal district Judge I think.
Carmichael: What does that mean?
Leahy: A federal district judge is the lowest level of federal. Then you have the Court of Appeals. And then you have the Supreme Court. I’ll double-check that.
Carmichael: But she did have a position, I think on the state supreme court in Florida. But at any rate, her life story is very, very compelling. Her parents fled from Cuba. And she regularly talks about the constitution and the rule of law and checks and balances. I mean she really understands.
Leahy: I stand corrected. It is Barbara Lagoa, 52, of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court. So she is a circuit court judge.
Carmichael: So that’s right under the supreme court?
Leahy: Yes.
Carmichael: OK. Those are the two whose names have come up over and over again. First of all, I only know what I read about them and what I hear about them, and they both have great life stories. They both have a wonderful history on their judicial rulings. The judge whose parents fled Cuba she, therefore, is I think the term is Latina as opposed to Hispanic? Is that correct?
Leahy: I guess so.
Carmichael: I think that’s correct. So from a political standpoint, that would be a good choice. So all other things being equal, they are both about the same age. What day of the week do you think Trump will make his announcement?
Leahy: Probably Thursday or Friday.
Carmichael: Do you think it will be that late?
Leahy: Yes. During a 2019 news conference in Miami announcing her appointment to the Florida supreme court, she told the crowd that her father had to give up his dream of becoming a lawyer because of Castro. She served on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals for less than a year after being appointed by Trump, and confirmed by the Senate on an 18-15 vote. I’ll come back. She’s been on the Florida supreme court.
Carmichael: She’s right under the supreme court, which also means that she’s been vetted.
Leahy: Exactly.
Listen to the full second hour:
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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 “Supreme Court” by Scott CC2.0
