Live from Music Row, Friday 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 Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) to the newsmaker line to weigh in on the trade of American NBA player Brittney Griner for the Merchant of Death Russian arms trader and the pork-filled National Defense Authorization Act.
Leahy: On the newspaper line, our very good friend Congressman Tim Burchett from up in God’s country in East Tennessee, Knox County area. Good morning, Congressman Burchett.
Burchett: Good morning. And I hope you have a very politically incorrect Merry Christmas.
Leahy: (Chuckles) I’m looking at your Twitter feed Congressman Burchett. It was fascinating. From 23 hours ago. 1st tweet. Brittany Griner was freed. She’s a WNBA player who was in a Russian prison for 10 months. There was a one-for-one trade, the Merchant of Death. President Biden thought it was a good idea to have a one-for-one trade, the Merchant of Death.
Very powerful, dangerous guy for this WNBA player who apparently confessed to violating the cannabis laws when she entered Russia 10 months ago. Now, your first tweet was “Brittany Griner was freed.” Your next tweet is interesting.
I’ll read it to you, and then tell me what you were thinking and tell me what the reaction has been. This is so Congressman Tim Burchett. I love it. “I hope Brittany Griner stands for the National Anthem now.” Tell us what your thinking was on that and what kind of reaction have you gotten?
Burchett: It was just exactly that. She needs to realize where she just came from and where she lives, and the sacrifices. It’s not perfect, but dadgummit is the best place in the world. Those fences that we’re trying to put up aren’t keeping people in. They’re trying to keep them out. The response has been overwhelming. It’s @TimBurchett.
I got an official one, but that’s no fun. But my @TimBurchett Twitter account, I’m looking at it right now, and I’ve got 2,271 likes and 501 comments. And about half of those are the trolls and the people over there in Nashville who don’t like me or who don’t live here. And you got your bots and all that.
But I’ll take those numbers any day of the week. I think overwhelmingly, America is, yes, and I understand veterans. My dad fought for this country. My dad killed people in this country. It was in the Pacific.
My mama lost a brother fighting the Nazis. I look at his 48-star flag every day that was on his casket. But the vast majority of the people think you ought to stand for the National Anthem, regardless. That kneeling to the National Anthem, these pro athletes are a bunch of spoiled brats, and they’re not role models for anything.
Most of them are busted and broke a couple of years after they’re out of the pros. And I just think they have a lot more to be thankful for. And I would just hope Ms. Griner would realize the sacrifices that were made. I mean, we made a terrible trade.
A terrible trade. This guy, the Angel of Death, or whatever you want to call him, let’s be honest, the guy’s an arms trader. He specifically traded with our enemies for people that had killed Americans. You see an AK-47, you see these dirtbag terrorists running around, and that gunman, they’re the ones. And that’s how they get their arms through this clown.
Probably the only bigger arms trader in the world is the President of the United States because this guy was a huge player in international affairs, and we just got had. This shows you this president is incompetent. He has no clue as to what’s going on.
He’s got a bunch of one-world government people that are running his show ultra-liberal, and they do not have the best interest of what we would consider traditional American values at heart.
Leahy: You’re up there, Congressman Burchett, in this lame-duck Congress. What kind of trouble is the lame duck going to create because it’s still, at least for the next month, controlled by the Democrats? Are they going to do this stupid omnibus spending bill for a year or a smaller continuing resolution? What do you see happening there?
Burchett: I hope we have enough people on the far-left that includes the squad and people like us that think like you and I do. But I’ll give you an example. We just passed the NDAA. The National Defense Authorization Act. Oh, that sounds great. American flag, honor, our military. It authorized $847.3 billion, which is a heck of a lot of money.
This is $45 billion more than the president even requested. It’s $8 billion more than the House-passed version. Somehow between the House, the Senate, and it coming back to the House, and Speaker Pelosi suspended the rules, this bill would not go before the Rules Committee, where it could have some things added or amended.
Then it goes to the floor. It is not allowed to be amended. If a Democrat tells you they’re against war and a Republican in Congress tells you they’re a fiscal Conservative, you might start asking some questions.
Leahy: Is it filled with a bunch of green energy pork? That’s what I’m told.
Burchett: Yes, it is. Can you imagine our tanks running around with a solar panel on the roof? (Leahy laughs) I’m not really sure. And their goal is zero. Honestly, people voted for it. They had to vote for it because of its strong military. It has some pay raises in there for our military, which we incredibly need.
But the thing I didn’t like about it is it didn’t reinstate service members who refused to get the COVID vaccine. The ones that are in there that decided they didn’t want to can stay. It didn’t prohibit the purchase of things like Chinese-made drones.
Do you know what they’re doing to us? We’re so dependent on the Communist Chinese if we ever get into a conflict deal with them, do you not think they have enough foresight to put a chip in there that they could make dysfunctional?
Our major jets say if our jets are closing in on an enemy that they’re friendly to, do you not think that they’re smart enough to put something in there that they could short circuit, literally, some of our incredible firepower?
This is the kind of thing that people have got to start waking up to, man. They’ve got to start waking up. They’ve got to start looking into this bill. I’m going to post later on my @TimBurchett a picture of last year’s NDAA. And this year’s NDAA backed up. Remember, it’s printed double-sided because the government is trying to save money.
The version last year was about two inches high. This year’s version is almost a foot high. That’s paper stacked double tight and double printed on both sides but stacked up on top of each other. And you will see the size and the enormity of this bill.
And we were given just a few hours to read the dadgum thing. So it’s a nightmare. And we’ve got to get control now. And the omnibus, I hope we get to that point where they just pass something to get us through to the next year, and then we can start addressing it.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this 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.
Photo “Tim Burchett” by reptimburchett.
Burchett is a pitiful excuse for a human being.