Tuesday morning on WarRoom: Pandemic, host Stephen K. Bannon talked to Maury County, Tennessee Mayor Andy Ogles, who announced his official candidacy for Tennessee’s hotly contested 5th Congressional District race. Ogles talked about why he’s running and how the country was at a tipping point in history.
Bannon: Andy, are you there?
Ogles: I am. How are you, sir?
Bannon: How are you doing, brother? So, walk us through. You’re a mayor out there in TN-5. You’re making an announcement today about what you intend to do. Walk us through that.
Ogles: Yes. I’m the county Mayor in Maury County, and it is the largest county in the 5th Congressional District, and I’m going to be running in the 5th.
Bannon: You’re running for Congress?
Ogles: Yes, sir.
Bannon: Andy, you’re a mayor. You’re highly respected. We’ve known you for years, back in the old days of Breitbart. Why are you going up to this next level? Why is it important for Andy Ogles to step away from being mayor and to run for Congress?
Ogles: Yes. When you look over the last two years, we’ve been under attack. Our freedoms, our liberties have been assaulted. In Maury County, I refused to go along with the shutdowns and the mandates. I kept my county, my community open.
And what I found through that process is that courage is contagious. And other county mayors, if you’re not from Tennessee, you may not understand. But as a county mayor, I serve as the CEO of the county.
And so I had a lot of latitude and authority to shut things down or keep them open. And we stayed open. Obviously, we encouraged people to be cautious. But the China virus had a huge economic toll on our country, and I refused to bow down to the federal government, which is way overreaching its authority.
We’ve got to stand up and send people to Congress that are willing to fight. I was getting death threats because I wouldn’t shut down my community.
We kept things open. We kept businesses, encouraged businesses to be open. And despite all of that, I never backed down. I was steadfast. And that’s what we need in Congress.
Bannon: “Courage is contagious.”
And what was the evidence that you looked at? Because a lot of people that did that said, oh these guys are a bunch of know-nothings, and they’re anti-science and they’re anti-modernity.
What evidence did you look at it during the huge part of this on the CCP virus that led you to the conclusion that you didn’t need to shut down?
Ogles: Well, if you think back to the beginning of the virus, January, February, March, we were all terrified. There were a lot of unknowns. But when you started to get into May and early June, there was a lot of good data coming out of South Korea, coming out of Germany and France.
And then if you looked into the data, it didn’t fit the narrative of the media. The media was complicit in really driving some of the hype. And again, the virus is real. I’ve had some very good friends who passed away because of it.
But that being said, I gave a speech when I was making the decisions to keep my community open, I said, look, if I’m going to err, if I’m going to make a mistake, I’m going to do it on the side of freedom and liberty.
I’m not going to kowtow to a federal government that is running wild. I’m going to keep my community open. I’m going to defend the Constitution of the state of Tennessee and the United States. And that data was there.
And so if you sat back and you looked at it, it was clear that what the media was telling us and what was really going on on the ground was entirely different. And with each passing month, there were more therapeutics.
The doctors and the nurses, our frontline workers, quite frankly, became more adept at treating it. So there were more and more options. So if you go back and look at media history, at the end of May, I was calling for the end to any mandate to not deem any businesses essential or nonessential, rather, because, look, if you’re a single mom, you have two kids, your job is essential.
If you’re a business owner and you’ve put your life savings into it, your business was essential. And for business to be shuttered, the economic toll has been immeasurable. And again, we got to keep our doors open. We’ve got to defend liberty and freedom.
And I’m sick and tired of the federal government. You look at the OSHA mandates, you look at the CMS mandates, that’s the authority that rests with Congress, they should hold that authority, and they should put the unregulated authority, the bodies, in check, quite frankly.
Bannon: Andy, I can’t tell you how important Tennessee is. Nashville and Chattanooga have become centers of the America First and the MAGA movement.
And what you guys did that the General Assembly did in overruling the governor and getting this redistricting correct. It’s had a massive impact in Missouri and it’s had an impact in Florida.
And so Tennessee has been leading the way. TN-5 is quite controversial right now because of what’s been going on there.
How can people find out more about your campaign? Are you starting today? Have you started the campaign since you announced it?
Ogles: We’re just literally gearing up. You mentioned the 5th Congressional District. The General Assembly has a piece of legislation that’s going to be looking at requiring a residency requirement for the primary.
Then the Republican Party of Tennessee has a bona fide qualification that some of the candidates may or may not make. That’s not my concern. That’s up to them to decide.
But as I look at the field of candidates, I’ve got a proven track record of fighting and standing firm on principles. When under attack, all you have to do is look at the last two years.
I mean, attack after attack after attack, even to the point of death threats. And I never wavered. I always defended freedom. I always defended our Constitution.
And that’s what we’re going to have to have as we move forward. We are under attack. And I think historically, we’re at a tipping point in this country.
And if we don’t start fighting back, pushing back against the Left, fighting against these foreign interests, they want to see us destroyed, we’ve got a problem and it’s our fault if we don’t fight.
But you can go to Facebook. You just type in Andy Ogles or go to andyogles.com. We’re gearing all that up and I look forward to speaking with you again.
Bannon: Andy, honored to have you on here and you’re absolutely correct: “Courage is contagious.”
Thank you very much, sir. Godspeed.
Ogles: Have a blessed day.
Watch the interview here:
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Mark Knofler, I agree. I love to watch Bannon but when he makes these kinds of blanket statements I just cringe. I cringe when Bannon talks about how “brave” the TN legislature acts. Now that’s funny. I will say though, he has commented on our weak knee’d Governor. At least he’s willing to admit that publicly.
I will never understand why TN has to fight for things like no corporate welfare, school choice, low taxes etc when there’s a super majority of GOP in the legislature. So many of the GOP stripe have no spines or true principles. And Beth Harwell? She was Speaker when the gas tax increase passed. Nothing happens without the Speaker pushing it. She deserves to fail bigly in her run for CD5. She’s the kind of Republican I despise. Unfortunately, all my state legislators voted for that increase.
I always find in funny that people not from Nashville or TN, think Nashville is some bastion of Conservatism. Nashville is liberal and Chattanooga is heavy dem. Neither are MAGA strongholds.
Finally!! You have my vote, mayor Ogles.