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 Clint Brewer in-studio to speculate on whether or not the 2022 Republican Convention will crown Nashville as the host city of choice as security concerns rise from Metro Council members.
Leahy: Right now we are delighted and privileged to have in the studio with us our good friend, all-star panelist and recovering journalist – I’m not going to say man about town.
I say that every now and then you laugh (Brewer laughs) and you make sure [to clarify] “man about town only during the day,” you don’t go out at night.
Brewer: It just makes it sound like I’m a …
Leahy: Like Fred Astaire.
Brewer: Right, like I’m out at the clubs, swanky bars, swilling cocktails at all hours.
Leahy: It’s a compliment, to talk about a man of influence. You like that, Clint Brewer?
Brewer: That’s perfect.
Leahy: Good morning, Clint.
Brewer: Good morning, Mike.
Leahy: So we’ve got a lot of interesting things to talk about this morning. I first want to talk about the first segment about all of the back and forth about whether or not Metro Council is going to invite the Republican National Convention to come to Nashville in 2024.
And then at 6:15, I want to talk about this, well, the Tennessee Supreme Court is a retention election for one of the justices. I might even tell you how I intend to vote on that. I’ve not done that, ever.
Brewer: Breaking news.
Leahy: But then there’s more on that has to do with the duties of the Supreme Court, and I think, a flaw in the Tennessee Constitution, having to do with how the attorney general is selected here. But we’ll save that for the 6:15 segment.
Apparently, the Republican National Convention has narrowed it down to two possibilities: Milwaukee and Nashville. And the buzz is, they want Nashville. Who wouldn’t, right?
And yet the Metro Council, an effort by Councilman Robert Swope to get the administrative process going to get that invite out, has been stymied by many members of the Metro Council who don’t want the Republicans to come here to Nashville.
They’ve been talking about security issues, et cetera, which of course, there are some. What do you think is going to happen? Will the Republican National Convention be invited by Metro Nashville to host its convention here in 2024?
Brewer: I don’t know. The sponsor, Councilman Swope, in my understanding from the news coverage, withdrew the measure.
Leahy: I think he withdrew it because he thought it would not pass.
Brewer: He thought it was going to fail. And certainly Governor Bill Lee’s administration has been pushing hard for this, no insult to Milwaukee, but I mean, if you say the choices are Milwaukee or Nashville …
Leahy: It’s pretty obvious.
Brewer: What you’re really kind of saying is, we want to be in Nashville. Right?
Leahy: Of course. And I’ve been to Milwaukee. It’s a nice city.
Brewer: It’s a very nice city …
Leahy: But it’s not Nashville.
Brewer: It’s not Nashville, and geographically, it’s more centrally located. Nashville, from a destination standpoint, has the hot hand right now. I don’t think this is so much about the Republican National Convention – I mean, it is; we’re at a time right now where it just seems like whenever we can’t get partisan politics ratcheted up any higher in this country, it just takes another step up, with tension.
The Roe v. Wade ruling certainly has gotten people upset. I think this string of mass shootings has people upset, obviously, for obvious reasons. I don’t know that Nashville is a city, and I’m going to take this off the Metro Council for right now.
Look, we’re talking about pursuing a Super Bowl here. Which I’m not sure there’s a bigger event in America …
Leahy:Â … than a Super Bowl, which would have huge security.
Brewer: We just ended a 10-year process to pursue World Cup games, and there’s no bigger event on the planet than a World Cup.
Leahy: We failed in that attempt.
Brewer: And we failed in that.
Leahy: But that would have been a big security issue.
Brewer: We were still chasing it.
Leahy: We were in the game a minute.
Brewer: We were still chasing it. So I think Nashville has to decide what it’s willing to do or not do. I mean, let’s say we had a convention here for either political party, and there was unrest, there was violence in the streets, and there were protests. I think that comes with most party’s conventions.
Leahy: And here’s the deal. What you have to do on that is you have to have overwhelming force, and that’s expensive. And so the reality is, I think Nashville could be very good but you have to have a huge investment and you have to have overwhelming force … (crosstalk)
Brewer: The Metro Council has to have a voice in that.
Leahy: Exactly.
Brewer: They are the funding body. I think it’s an appropriate conversation.
Leahy: Or the state, if you want to do it, would step in.
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.
