In a weekly interview on The Tennessee Star Report Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast live Thursday morning on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Kellett welcomed One America News Networks own investigative reporter, Neil McCabe to the show to discuss his recent conversation with Rudy Guiliani and the President’s mood in the wake of impeachment proceedings.
Towards the end of the second segment, the men discussed the possibility of Adam Schiff having to step down because of his mishandling of the whistleblower testimony and whether or not the vote for impeachment will actually move to the Senate floor.
Kellett: And also joining us now Neil McCabe of One America News Network. Neil is a familiar guest on this program and also many programs I do. Neil good to have you back on this morning. I understand you had a conversation with Rudy Guiliani?
McCabe: That’s right. We’re going to produce that as an extended interview on One America News. And the Mayor was fascinating. I think the big takeaways from that interview were first of all that people might think that the President is angry or in poor humor. Guiliani told me it’s not really the case.
He does enjoy badgering reporters. He told me the President is in absolute good humor. And on the Ukraine thing, he said the President seems to feel now that the press is so committed against him that the only way to get his message out is to convince the press that it hurts Trump. And so he told me that there’s going to be more things coming out about the Biden family and their business relationships.
Not just on Ukraine or China but there’s going to be other things coming out. And he said that he’s absolutely convinced the President will be vindicated once everything does come out.
Kellett: Neil, Crom brought up an interesting comment a little bit earlier about the members of the Democrat party that are running for President in the Senate. And they could eventually have a vote on whether the President is removed from office or not. Do you see this coming up as part of the Democratic debate later this month? Will there be questions about this?
McCabe: Well, this is the problem. In Iowa, in late 2015, I spoke to one of Bernie Sander’s top advisors about the Hillary Clinton email scandal and he said the Sanders campaign would ignore the email scandal because what he said to me was, ‘Either we have an FBI or we don’t.’ So the Sanders campaign was content to let the FBI figure out what happened and they would be the ones who would be holding Clinton accountable.
Of course, they ended up being part of the cover-up. And so you have a guy named Biden who’s leading the polls or is in the top three of the polls and the question is, do you just sit there and watch and see what happens? Nobody is rushing to defend Joe Biden in the Biden family. I don’t think there’s anyone on earth rushing to the defense of Hunter whose political and personal lives completely off the rails.
And so Elizabeth Warren who’s been criticizing Joe Biden, really her whole public career, for his crony capitalism. What does she do? Does she just ignore it? What if Democratic primary voters rally to go Biden and he becomes the nominee because people are sticking with a guy who’s under attack?
Kellett: It certainly could happen. You’re right. So far, there hasn’t been any push back among the Democrat candidates for president against Joe Biden. They really haven’t said much about it at all. What do you make about yesterday’s two news conferences there with the president? Did anything get accomplish there in your opinion?
McCabe: Well, I’ll be back covering the White House Saturday for One America News. And I’ve covered it mostly on weekends but I have been there during the week and I know a lot of those guys. And I’m actually friends with all of those guys. But let’s be honest. They’re all left-wing operatives. They’re not really reporters.
So when he went after that guy Jeff from Reuters because he didn’t have a question for the Finish President. (Kellett chuckles). They behave like jerks. And they’re jerks all the time. And a very good friend of mine, Neil Monroe, who I was at Breitbart with. During the Obama administration, he covered the White House for the Daily Caller.
He asked President Obama a question. Obama starting winding down the tobacco road with one of his 40-minute answers. Monroe interrupted him to sort of redirect him to answer the question and for that Monroe lost his press pass. And almost got fired.
Now, when was the last time, and think back to those eight years of the Obama years. Where any of these reporters badgering the president? Interrupting him? Accusing him of lying?
Kellett: No. I thought most of the time they were asking for his autograph. (Laughs) It was usually pretty non-contentious really in these news conferences for sure. Crom, what do you think? Wouldn’t you have hated to be the Finland President sitting there (Chuckles), “Anybody got a question for me?”
Carmichael: Well, Trump tried to get some questions directed to the Finish President. To be honest with you, do any of us know why was the Finish President meeting with President Trump?
Kellett: Well, I think the answer to the question that Neil’s talking about that reporter from Reuters. He did say something that he went to some nice museums, Neil. We did get that out of there I think. (Laughter) But that was about it.
McCabe: What is interesting, is that Finland, I’m not sure what their status is now. But at one point Finland was actually the go-between between the White House and the regime there in Iran. And so I was actually at the White House the last time the Finish President visited and it was all about trying to settle things with Iran.
And try and sort of tone down the animosity between the two countries. I’ve been traveling. I was in New York and I was in Tallahassee. Peter Schweizer who wrote the book about the Biden’s and other crony capitalism called Secret Empires. So I’ve been on the road so I wasn’t really tracking what Finland was up to. But it could have been important.
Kellett: I’m sure it was with all regards to Finland. Crom, what do you think? You’ve got a question here for Neil? I guess we’re going to be on impeachment from now until the end of the year. It will be the standard thing until the end of the year.
Carmichael: I think Neil hit the nail right on the head. I do think that this problem, Adam Schiff broke the rules. He literally broke the committee rules when classified information was brought to him and he did not share it with Republicans on the committee.
That’s a rule. And he broke the rule. In the parlance that we have now in Washington, I suppose Schiff committed an impeachable offense (McCabe scoffs) and should step down from being head of the committee at least. And this will now be a big talking point.
And let me say this, if I’m Trump, I want Adam Schiff out there representing the Democrats as much as Adam Schiff can possibly be out there.
Kellett: Yeah, listen, Crom, you might now want to get him removed. We’ve got to see who the number two guy is because he might be worse? Be careful what you wish for right? (Laughs)
Carmicheal: Well now that’s true. But Schiff is one of the least believable people in Washington.
Kellett: So that’s what I’m saying. From the standpoint of Trump, it’s better to have Schiff in there the way he’s been behaving. With the Russian thing and some of the comments, he’s made on television and now what’s going on here?
Carmichael: If he does step down then it throws the whistleblower’s complaints completely, now we’ll need to know who the whistleblower is. In fact, we should know who the whistleblower is. Imagine just for a moment where’d you’d have a trial where you’d have a witness who nobody knows who the witness is giving hearsay testimony.
Kellett: Well I can understand that. It does seem to go against the usual standard that we’re talking about. But with the whistleblower, it seems to me, of course, there are laws. And we’re going to get into this later Crom with exactly how the whistleblower issue is handled.
You know you think about the inspector general and you take that information from the whistleblower than you go to the other people they’re talking about. So you’re getting some firsthand information that way. May might not really like the process. It’s kind of muddy.
But when it gets to the trial in the Senate which I doubt it will ever get to. By then we’ll know who the whistleblower is. Do you think there will be a trial Neil?
McCabe: Oh, there will be a trial.
Kellett: It might be just a straight-up vote like we saw with the Clinton impeachment?
Carmicheal: No.
McCabe: A lot of conservatives are hoping that the Senate republicans do vote to oust the president because it will once and for all rid us of the Republican party and you can actually have a conservative party. (Kellett chuckles)
Kellett: I know you said that yesterday. (McCabe laughs) Always good to talk to you.
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Listen to the full second hour:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
