Live from Music Row Wednesday 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 in the studio.
In a continued discussion, Leahy and Carmichael discussed Jon Meacham’s recent appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and his dishonest and failed acknowledgment of the Insurrection Act of 1807.
Leahy: Speaking of orchestration. We have orchestration at the local level then we have orchestration at the national level of course. And by the way, our friend whom we’ve never met, Jon Meacham from Nashville here. By the way Mr. Meacham you have an open invitation to come in here. We’ll be polite. We’ll talk to you.
Carmichael: He will never come in here.
Leahy: Why is that Crom?
Carmichael: He would be scared to. He will only talk to people who won’t question him. Who agree with him. So play the quote but then let’s also give the setup. Because I saw the screen. Go ahead.
Leahy: This is what John Meacham said yesterday on television. Here is Jon Meacham our friend that we’ve never met from Nashville.
(Jon Meacham clip plays)
It’s an incredibly serious American moment. Over the last three or four years we’ve said that a lot. And even before that it’s in the natural human tendency to see problems and moments as uniquely oppressive. Which is a phrase that Arthur Schlesinger the late historian used to use. This is as real as it gets it seems to me. The president is using the vernacular of authoritarianism. He is verging ever closer to violating in a permanent and deleterious way the separation of powers and the fundamental idea of divided sovereignty in America.
Carmichael: Now let’s give the set up here. This was Mika Brzezinski the wife of Joe Scarborough.
Leahy: On MSNBC.
Carmichael: Who was having an affair with Mika before he ditched his wife.
Leahy: Yes. That guy.
Carmichael: And that guy who had a staff member who died.
Leahy: Under mysterious circumstances.
Carmichael: Under mysterious circumstances. And that guy and Mika who had perpetuated the Russia hoax. Then they had four other people besides Meacham. So Meacham did his blather. That’s all it is.
Leahy: Attorney General Bill Barr.
Carmichael: When Bill Barr was asked a question and Chuck Todd cut the sentence short. When he was asked how will history report this moment? And Bill Barr laughed and chuckled and he said the winners write the history. Then he went on immediately to finish the sentence by saying, but I would hope that the historians would say that we followed the rule of law. Now Meacham purports to be a historian. He purports to be one.
Leahy: He’s written a number of interesting best sellers.
Carmichael: But here’s what he didn’t say last night. The Insurrection Act of 1807 sounds like “Oh My God” that’s an old Act nobody’s eve used that. It’s been used many many times including by some of Meacham’s favorite presidents.
Leahy: Really?
Carmichael: Yes. FDR used the Insurrection Act to send in national troops or federal troops.
Leahy: Meacham loves FDR.
Carmichael: Woodrow Wilson did it before him. Ulysses S. Grant did it twice. Dwight Eisenhower did it. FDR did it twice. Lyndon Johnson did it.
Leahy: Oh, he loves Lyndon Johnson.
Carmichael: He did it four times. He used the Insurrection Act four times. So when Meacham says this is a unique point in history, that’s false.
Leahy: Totally false.
Carmichael: And by the way, Meacham is not stupid. Meacham is not ignorant. But what he is is dishonest. You just have to say that. Because he had to know this. I’m sorry. There is nobody who has his pedigree. You know he does have white privilege.
Leahy: White privilege.
Carmichael: He has white privilege.
Leahy: He went to Sewanee.
Carmichael: And he went to a hoity-toity school in Chattanooga.
Leahy: Oh yeah.
Carmichael: Then he went up to New York among the wine and brie crowd and helped them destroy their own city with his thinking and now he’s moved to Nashville.
Leahy: And look at what’s happened here.
Carmichael: Look what’s happened here. The guy is here for two years and we have a council that inhibits free speech. In Nashville, this is a unique point in history. It’s the first time that the citizens have not been allowed to speak at a council meeting. And it’s been orchestrated. Who knows, Meacham might have been part of the orchestration.
Leahy: Who knows? Who knows? I was going to say, let’s elaborate on what the Insurrection Act allows the president to do. The Insurrection Act of 1807.
Carmichael: There are two points in here that don’t matter quite as much. But the third point is this. This is what the Act says.
“To address an insurrection of domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy in any state which results in the deprivation of constitutionally secured rights and where the state is unable, fails, or refuses to protect said rights.”
Leahy: Well, that’s the situation right now.
Carmichael: That’s exactly the situation. And by the way, that’s the law, Mr. Meacham. That’s the law.
Leahy: He’s well aware of that.
Carmichael: But all four of those pinheads.
Leahy: You are being kind. (Leahy laughs)
Carmichael: Yeah. I’m having to watch my language. (Leahy laughs) All four of those pinheads not one of them chimed in to say that Jon Meacham was not being honest. He was being dishonest as a matter of fact. Not one of them did that. They all just sat there like little …
Leahy: But you know why? It’s your point.
Carmichael: They are paid to do that.
Leahy: Exactly! They are not that bright and are paid to basically tow the left-wing party line.
Carmichael: Yeah well, Mika is not that bright. She doesn’t want to know stuff. So that’s all kind of part of it. But then the history of the police. This is kind of interesting. I’ve been doing some digging. It doesn’t take much by the way. You can just dig around and find these things. Do you know how many arrests there are in this country a year? There are about 10 million.
Leahy: 10 million?
Carmichael: 10 million arrests in this country.
Leahy: If I was going to guess I would guess one million.
Carmichael: 10 million arrests in this country. Last year there were 28 unarmed people who died at the hands of the police.
Leahy: 28?
Carmichael: 28. 19 were white. Nine were black. OK?
Leahy: OK.
Carmichael: 89 police officers were killed last year.
Leahy: Wow.
Carmichael: There are a whole lot more white and black people than there are police officers. There are 330 million people and there are 800,000 police officers. Your chances as a police officer being killed while you are in the line of duty are multiple multiple times higher than your chances of being killed as a citizen whether you are black or white. But to listen to the media for a black person to walk outside is a risk. Now I’m not denying and I’ve said this before, that this police officer in Minneapolis no business and what he did was absolutely apprehensible.
Leahy: Knee on the neck for nine minutes.
Carmichael: But he was defended by the police union many times which is why he was on the police force. So if we are going to get rid of the few rogue cops that we have, and there are relatively few. If we are going to do that then we need to get rid of the police unions because they are the ones who protect just as with teachers, they protect the bad teachers. And the unions protect the bad police officers.
Listen to the second 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.
Photo “Jon Meachem” by Larry D. Moore. CC BY-SA 4.0.
