Live from Music Row Tuesday 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 public affairs strategist Clint Brewer in the studio.
During the third hour, Brewer weighed in on Trump’s intentions to ban the Chinese app TikTok and agreed that he has found himself making a great policy message. He later discussed whether Joe Biden would debate President Trump and concluded that it would be de-energizing to his campaign and supporters if he didn’t talk about the issues.
(Rep. Greg Stuebe clip plays)
Leahy: That was Representative Greg Steube from Florida, a Republican and he’s weighing in on TikTok. What’s your take on that?
Brewer: I think its again as we said in the last segment that it’s exactly spot on. The president we’ve talked on this show has strayed a little bit on his message.
Leahy: He’s been all over the place, hasn’t he?
Brewer: All over the place.
Leahy: Are you going to go and put that Twitter account on a temporary lockdown for him?
Brewer: I would like to take the phone away. (Leahy laughs) To help him out. But I mean I think this is exactly right. This is not a rash, the president is guilty of many impulsive things but this is not one of them. This is a very serious policy decision. We don’t consider the ramifications of these social media platforms that can stretch all across the globe.
We have one that is gathering information from American phones and from U.S. citizens on their smartphones. It is a Chinese-owned company. We have obviously got some differences with China and we need to be aware of these things. And I think its absolutely right for him to force this kind of oversight.
Leahy: I completely agree. I don’t think selling to Microsoft will necessarily solve the problem. Is Microsoft really an American company these days?
Brewer: That’s a fair question. I think it does through the regulatory system here give us some purview into what’s going on. I think it would create a level of congressional oversight. I think it gets into the same ballpark as the other consumer internet platforms that are based here in the U.S. It gives us some reach into their company. And into their activities. Makes them answerable.
Leahy: Yeah, but how did we even let TikTok get in?
Brewer: Well, we didn’t let anything happen. It is an open system.
Leahy: It’s an open system. Right.
Brewer: That’s the thing. Anybody from around the world can put an app in the app store of Android and iPhone devices.
Leahy: It strikes me that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a full array of activities to undermine our society. The TikTok penetration is one example. But you follow this story about these seeds from China that are appearing?
Brewer: That was odd. I don’t think that what I’ve read about it anyway is that it’s more a word for it. I can’t remember. Essentially it’s sending people products and then treating those people as if they were paying customers and writing fake reviews online.
Leahy: So you just think that’s silly.
Brewer: It seems like commerce to me. I think that this is part of the same theme that we saw when the pandemic hit. Our antibiotics were made in China. Our protective gear is made in China. Our microchips are made in China. We have allowed too many of the crucial things that we rely on in this country from a goods and services standpoint to be made overseas.
This is the same concept that we addressed when we started talking about energy independence 10 years ago. We were too reliant on the Middle East for our oil supply. There was an effort and it was a fairly bi-partisan effort to open up America’s own oil reserves. We need to be thinking about in the same vein of energy independence we need to be considering as a country how we get back to making the things we need. Or at a minimum getting them from rock-solid allies in Europe.
Leahy: China would not be on the list of rock-solid allies.
Brewer: Not at the moment no.
Leahy: Or ever perhaps. They want domination. They want to dominate us.
Brewer: They do. And they are doing a pretty good job of it.
Leahy: It seems to me that the acquiescence to Chinese encouragements in every level. There is a clear choice between President Trump and Joe Biden. Joe Biden seems very friendly to China in every regard. And his son has been involved and still is involved in managing a fund where the money comes basically from the Chinese Communist Party. That’s a huge issue it seems to me.
Brewer: I think China is going to be a huge issue in this campaign much of the way the Soviet Union was during the Cold War. I think that Joe Biden needs to clearly define what his policies will be on China.
Leahy: To me it looks like, open the door, whatever you want the Chinese Communist Party.
Brewer: That’s my point.
Leahy: That’s what it looks like.
Brewer: In the absence of anything real people are going to fill up that void with what they see. And what we see right now it looks like fairly permissive policy. It looks like the same policy that existed for 40 years under both Republican and Democratic presidents until President Trump got here. And again, the president has many faults and he’s made a lot of mistakes but China is not one of them.
Leahy: No. He’s totally on point with China. I saw a former Obama press secretary Joe Lockwood. I saw him write in an op-ed letter to Joe Biden telling him not to debate with Donald Trump. What do you make of that?
Brewer: I think that’s probably good advice.
Leahy: From a political point of view. Why is that good advice politically?
Brewer: Their styles are so different. Joe Biden tends to gaffe more when he speaks in public than he does to speak clearly and simply to people’s concerns and fears and needs. He has been in the past a really decent public speaker. He is not now.
Leahy: No, he’s not.
Brewer: And the president, people who dislike him would also disagree with this but he is an effective public speaker when he chooses to be.
Leahy: When he chooses to be. He can ramble.
Brewer: He can ramble. But let me tell you, he connects.
Leahy: Yes he does.
Brewer: With his audience, he connects. They teach you in journalism school to write to a fourth-grade level to really connect with people you have to speak simply. And Donald Trump speaks very simply. He says things in a very declarative way and people get what he says. And they understand it. And with Biden, I just don’t think that’s the case.
Leahy: Well, what would you predict? There are three presidential debates scheduled. The very last one I think October 19 is scheduled here at Belmont University in Nashville. Will any of these debates be held?
Brewer: I think they will. I think Biden has to do them. I mean how do you not? How do you break with that tradition? How do you run a campaign that says we need to get back to the way things were done before Donald Trump and then not get back to the way things were before Donald Trump. He needs to debate Donald Trump.
Leahy: It is a bit of a brave new world out there.
Brewer: It is.
Leahy: Let’s say for the sake of speculation. What do you think in today’s world the consequences would be if Joe Biden came up with some kind of an excuse not to participate in any of the debates? What would be the political consequences of that?
Brewer: Well he is running from the confines of a bunker right now. (Leahy chuckles) Not really but he’s been scarce on the campaign trail and he’s still up. I would think that it would obviously give the Trump campaign and the Republican Party a lot of fodder for ads. That’s he’s hiding, he’s running and won’t debate the president. Typical campaign stuff.
Leahy: Typical.
Brewer: Does that resonate? Do people care right now? I don’t know. I think there is a part of Joe Biden’s base that would very much like to see him debate the president. I think he runs the risk of de-energizing his own base as the Democratic nominee if he doesn’t’ take on the president. What does that say to the people he’s trying to get energized and out to the polls if he doesn’t have the energy or the vitality or the interest to go debate the sitting president on the issues that matter.
Leahy: A very good point.
Listen to the third hour here:
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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.Â
