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 Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the studio and State Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) to the newsmaker line to talk about stopping Critical Race Theory training in the workplace and plans for the future.
Leahy: State Representative Bruce Griffey is on the line. He has a fix for this problem he says. Good morning, State Representative Griffey.
Griffey:Â Good morning. How are you all?
Leahy: We are delighted to have you on. So tell us, what is your plan here to fix this problem?
Griffey: Well, look, Dr. Carol Swain laid out the case that the CRT is just a bunch of garbage. It’s anti-American, it’s socialist, Marxist, and it’s racist.
My bill would say, look, if you shouldn’t be teaching CRT principles to our children, why should any employee in the state of Tennessee have to sit through that garbage or risk losing job opportunities or being fired or something like that?
So what my bill does, it says that no employee can be forced to sit through any CRT training. If an employer wants to put it on, and employees want to voluntarily sit through that then that’s up to them. But you wouldn’t be able to discriminate against me if they choose not to.
Leahy: Do you have a co-sponsor of that bill?
Griffey: Joey Hensley. I’m not sure when is that likely to happen. I think I’m going to put it on notice, probably for next week.
Leahy:Â And what are the odds of that passing?
Griffey: I’ve had a bit of a rough patch. I’m getting huge fiscal notes for all my legislation.
Leahy: What! (Ogles chuckles) You are a conservative up there. You’re not exactly the most popular guy with the leadership. Would that be an accurate description?
Griffey: Nobody likes a cop that shows up at the party of teenagers.
Leahy: I’m sure they’re delighted to be referred to as teenagers.
Griffey: It’s a euphemism. I wasn’t disparaging anybody. I just said when cops show over at the teenage parties, the party is over.
Leahy: All these fiscal note problems, a coinkydink or a coincidence? Or do you think it’s the Bruce Griffey special treatment program?
Griffey: Let me give you an example. I’ve got a bill to try to send illegals to other states that Biden and Pelosi and Schumer have done.
Leahy: You mean send the illegals to the doorstep of Joe Biden? Is that what your plan is?
Griffey: Exactly. (Leahy chuckles) So I’ve got a massive fiscal note on this thing. The Department of Safety is pushing me back. Oh, that’s not our responsibility.
We can’t do this and that. I said, show me some case law that says that we can’t. And so far, nothing yet. But we’ll see.
Leahy: You are showing how to win friends and influence people up there with these bills. (Griffey chuckles) Tell us briefly, your career, where are you going next?
Griffey:Â I’m going to run for circuit judge for the 24th Judicial District. I’ve been honored and privileged to serve everyone in the 75th House District. The judicial positions only come up once every eight years.
It’s a financial sacrifice if you run a small business to be up here and do state legislature stuff. I’ve done it for four years and I’m going to try to love, to serve the constituents in the 24th and be closer to home, do some more legal work, get back to the law practice. So we’ll see.
Leahy: Well, good luck to you. Thanks so much for joining us, State Representative Bruce Griffey. We appreciate your time and good luck today fighting through those fiscal notes up there on Capitol Hill.
Griffey: Thank you.
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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 “Andy Ogles” by Andy Ogles.Â
