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 national political correspondent for One America News, Neil W. McCabe, to the newsmaker line to discuss the Trump, Kayne, and Nick Fuentes luncheon, Mitch McConnell’s response, and when Ron DeSantis will announce his candidacy for president in 2024.
Leahy: Mr. Neil W. McCabe, top gov tracker joins us now. Neil, what’s up with this dinner that Donald Trump had with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, who both purportedly made anti-Semitic statements all over the place? How did that happen?
McCabe: I think it is pretty clear that this was some kind of political op done on Trump, and the rumors are out there who’s behind it. But I think it’s pretty clear now that people just basically somebody wanted to really take him down.
And now you have a guy like Mitch McConnell, who, before the midterm election was saying, hey, I don’t like Trump, but if he’s the nominee, I’ll support him. And then the day before yesterday, they asked him about Trump, and he says, well, listen, if he’s having dinner with white supremacists and Holocaust deniers, I can’t support him for president.
And I think a lot of people, when they hear the story as it’s presented in the mainstream media, they’re really just shocked, hurt, and disappointed. The question is, you, of course, worked with Milo in your days at Breitbart, and you’re aware of his antics in those glorious days in 2016.
And so he’s not somebody who would pass up a chance to pull a prank. When I was a Project Veritas, he used to actually call us with his sort of prank ideas, and I was the guy who had to field those calls.
Carmichael: Neil, question: Trump has announced he’s running for president. He knows that Kanye West is radioactive. Why does he have dinner with him? It was a choice that Donald Trump made. Why did he do that?
McCabe: Donald Trump did it because he’s not the guy they told you he is. He’s a guy who has great empathy and concern for other human beings. And he’s still that kid in Queens who basically grew up relying on people’s word and relying on a handshake.
They told him right off the bat, you got to fire this guy, James Comey. He thought he could seduce Comey. He thought he could convince Comey to be a good guy. Kanye says, hey, I’m in some trouble. Can I talk to you?
Trump says, “Come on over, my friend. Have dinner with Melania and I, and we’ll work it out.” I’ve been told that the staffers who cleared this meeting, and basically we’re supposed to verify these guys, people have been fired. But Trump is this kind of guy. He thought Kanye was his friend.
Carmichael: Neil, I agree with everything you just said and both of the examples you gave, Comey and this example of Kanye West, indicate to me why Trump isn’t the right guy to be president. He makes bad decisions.
He made the decision to try to seduce Comey rather than fire him. He made the decision to try to seduce him. That turned out to be a terrible decision on Trump’s part, and now he agreed, oh, come on over, my friend as you say, and I think it probably is about like that. Come on over and I’ll talk to you without any thought about how that would play.
What he does is, he sets himself up for criticism needlessly, and we don’t need a president right now who does stuff like that because there are other issues that are more important, and the left will do everything they can to distract from the most important issues with junk like this. And Trump invites it. He invites it. That’s what is so frustrating.
McCabe: Meanwhile, he got duped into a lunch, and it got blown out of proportion by his political enemies in the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, yes. But also the gas was like $2 a gallon, and he recognized Jerusalem, and he also got out of the Paris Accord.
He also dumped the Iran nuclear deal, right? Look at everything he did as president by every measure. Look at the economy, look at society. Look at the support he was giving to parents and kids.
It’s like, yeah, he made a mistake. But when he was President of the United States, he was a phenomenal president of the United States. And there’s no man who governed as closely as how he campaigned as Donald J. Trump.
Leahy: And you’re quite right. Here’s my rejoinder to that. Are you ready?
McCabe: Sure.
Leahy: That’s 2019.
Carmichael: Yeah, that is 2016.
McCabe: So maybe there’s a guy who would never get tricked into having a lunch dinner like this. But I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that that guy is going to do a lot more to make the Chamber of Commerce happy than me.
Leahy: I guess we can find that out.
Carmichael: The trick, Neil, is for Trump to be effective as president again, he has to win. Listen, I’m not trying to sit here and attack Trump. I am so frustrated that he commits these unforced errors. There’s a total lack of discipline in his mind.
McCabe: Total lack of discipline. Total lack of discipline. He put three conservatives on the Supreme Court. That’s how you win. That’s a win, friend.
Carmichael: I’m not arguing with that’s a win. He’s got to win the next election. And having dinner with Kanye West and this other guy who I don’t know who he is. It’s gotten way overblown. But that’s the nature of anything he does.
McCabe: C’mon. We have no idea who anybody goes to dinner with.
Leahy: Obviously Biden had dinner with one of his Chinese business partners.
Carmichael: Right.
McCabe: Yes. But he never had dinner with Kanye West and Milo, so there you go.
Leahy: But let’s go back to the political operation side of this.
McCabe: Sure.
Leahy: I think you are absolutely right. Somebody looked at Trump and said, hey, I get this statement from Mitch McConnell. I could never vote for somebody who had dinner with a white nationalist. That was written like two weeks ago. Don’t you think?
McCabe: The whole thing felt like Wednesday morning, November 9th, when everybody said, oh, all the conservatives lost. Trump’s to blame.
Leahy: Yes. So what’s Top Gov doing these days? And Crom has a question about DeSantis. First, does he get in? And if he gets in, when does he do it? What are your thoughts on that?
McCabe: Well, obviously he was sworn in, in January 2025, right? (Leahy chuckles)
Leahy: Well, before that.
McCabe: I think there will be a big announcement of an announcement coming. It’ll be a big speech if he has to get sworn in for his next term as governor. Then they’ll have to change the law because, in Florida, it’s illegal to run for office while you’re in office.
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.
