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 to the studio to discuss an article addressing election integrity in past elections and the authority of Mike Pence in the 2020 presidential election.
Leahy: Crom, who knew Jimmy Carter is helping Donald Trump? Who knew? Explain.
Carmichael: Yes, an article in July – now, he didn’t mean to, and he wrote a column along with James A. Baker, which has to be, when two people of that age write a joint column, there are close to 200 years of life experiences between those two guys. Not quite that …
Leahy: Former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan and secretary-treasurer.
Carmichael: Ronald Reagan; that’s how far back he goes. But anyway, they wrote a joint column in The Wall Street Journal, and the title of it is “Reform the Electoral Count Act.”
And what they point out in the article is that under the current law, it would have only taken one representative and one senator to create what they consider to be havoc in the January 6th counting of the electoral votes. And they also say …
Leahy: Basically, if you have one senator and one representative object to the electoral count from a certain state, then both chambers have to vote on it. There’s actually only one state that came up for a vote. And this happens occasionally. They are never rejected.
Carmichael: But here’s what’s interesting. They point out, they say, weaknesses in the law – I’m quoting here: “Weaknesses in the law started to become apparent after the 2000 election, as well as the 2005 and 2017.”
So they said in 2001, 2005, and 2017. Well, the first was George Bush. The second was George Bush, and the third was Donald Trump.
So the media didn’t have any problem with there being concerns about the electoral results on January 6th in those three elections. But when the lead-up to January 6 of 2021 came up, the press said, oh, this is terrible. We can’t possibly question the election. It’s over and done. But also, this article points out that Mike Pence had a choice …
Leahy: He did have a choice.
Carmichael: … on what he should do, and he made the right choice.
Leahy: That’s what they claim. I think exactly the opposite. He made the wrong choice. He made the choice, in my view, of a coward.
Carmichael: Yeah, well, the way they say it is this: that would codify Mike Pence’s correct interpretation that he didn’t have the legal authority to throw out a state’s electoral slate. So what I’m saying is they’re acknowledging that the law is not clear.
Leahy: Let me add this one part of this. They’ve improperly characterized what he was asked to do. He was not asked to throw out a state’s electoral slate. What he was asked to do, and which he had the authority to do and could have done – they’re basically conceding this, Jimmy Carter and James Baker, in this article, because it wasn’t codified – he had the authority to send the slates back to the state legislators, who, under the Constitution, have the authority to determine what the electoral slate was, as was requested by Ted Cruz and several others, and say, take 10 days, look at this, re-examine it, and then come back to us, and then we’ll reconvene.
That’s what he was asked to do. He could have done it. He had the authority to do it. Mike Pence, you were a coward when you didn’t do that. You’re welcome to come in and I’ll tell that to your face.
Carmichael: What’s also interesting about it is the way you characterize it. He was asked to do it.
Leahy: Yes.
Carmichael: And that’s all it was.
Leahy: He was asked. That’s a good point.
Carmichael: And then you had a convenient “riot.” And I put “riot” in quotes because I’m not sure who is in charge of creating the riot.
Leahy: A convenient riot.
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.
I do not trust Pence. Simple as that.