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 former mayor of Maury County Tennessee and GOP nominee for Congress in the 5th Congressional District Andy Ogles in-studio to discuss the race between himself and Democrat Heidi Campbell.
Leahy: In-studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael, and the GOP candidate for the 5th Congressional District here in Tennessee, Andy Ogles. So Andy, if I can kind of describe for our listeners what this race is between you and the Democrat State Senator Heidi Campbell, who is, face it – in my words – she’s part of the left-wing lunacy of the Democratic Party right now.
She’s kind of akin to the folks in the squad, it seems to me, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all that crowd. But you are a constitutional conservative Republican. Have I framed that properly?
Ogles: Yeah, absolutely right. And I think at the end of the day, that’s what resonated. We’ve been talking about one of those issues that matter to Americans right now, and this is across the country, whether it’s in a moderate district or conservative district or even a liberal district, it’s the economy, it’s inflation, it’s crime, and it’s immigration and fentanyl over and over again. Those are the top five issues across the country, regardless of where you’re at.
Leahy: So if you’re elected, you will support legislation and actions that require the Department of Homeland Security, I’m assuming, to enforce our immigration laws.
Ogles: Yes, I think this, and we were talking off-air briefly, this oversight committee, you have 2 million – and it is going to be very active, the oversight committee – when you have 2 million people in these last 12 months come across the border illegally – we know that …
Leahy: We know that they came across illegally, they were arrested, and then because they’re not following the law, the Biden administration is letting these two million people roam about the country.
Ogles: You know what, I was just reading an article, I guess it was the day before yesterday, is Border Patrol is so overwhelmed, that now what they’re doing is they’re simply getting your information the best they can give it to you, and then they give you a cellphone with a tracker on it.
Leahy: I saw that! The Biden maladministration is giving – if you want a free cellphone and you’re living in El Salvador, just come to the United States and you’ll get one.
Carmichael: I think they pay for the monthly charge, too.
Ogles: Yes, absolutely. Costing taxpayers millions and millions of dollars. But think about that for a minute. Two million people over the course of the Biden administration.
If you look at the numbers and where we’re tracking month over month, you’ll have had five million people come in to this country illegally.
Leahy: Illegally, but not just coming illegally. It’s not like they send them back. They give them cellphones, you pay for it, taxpayers, and then they roam about the country.
Ogles: But let’s go back to just that 2 million figure. That 2 million number, that’s twice the population of Delaware. Twice the population of Delaware. You have roughly 16 states that don’t have a population of 2 million people. So you’ve had an entire state’s worth and in some cases twice the number …
Leahy: In 12 months.
Ogles: … right, move into the United States. We are being invaded, and the Department of Homeland Security is asleep at the wheel.
Leahy: And your opponent will continue to support those policies. I mean, it seems to me, right?
Ogles: I won’t put words in her mouth. But what I will tell you is we have to shut down the border. We have to enforce the border.
And those 87,000 IRS agents, we just need to reassign them to the border, and they can stand shoulder to shoulder, make sure nobody comes in this country illegally.
Leahy: So you would support, instead of hiring 87,0000 new IRS agents to go after middle-class and lower-income Americans, and try to find a way to squeeze more money out of them, you would say, let’s put those folks, instead of IRS agents, let’s put them on the border.
Ogles: Well, one, we don’t need 87,000, but yes, absolutely. If there’s a department or agency that needs to be right-sized it is our Border Patrol. Now, the rest of the agencies most likely need to be downsized.
Leahy: Crom, your thoughts.
Carmichael: Well, the 87,000 IRS agents, there are so many things that are being done now where if Republicans want to get rid of the 87,000 IRS agents, they ought to offer a bill that does only that, and then have a very appropriate name for it.
Leahy: What would you call it?
Carmichael: I don’t know. You want to spend a little time to come up with a name that Democrats would not want to vote against, but it needs to be like a two-sentence bill, and then passes the House, now it goes to the Senate.
And now you have Democrats like Joe Manchin, who is in the Senate, and will be up for re-election in 2024. He’ll have a bill that’s two sentences long with a very nice name on it, and it’s to do one thing: eliminate the 87,0000 IRS agents and just do that one thing.
Not move the money around, just eliminate that one thing and then force them to do it. Then you can put in a bill, a two or three-sentence bill, to increase the number of Border Patrol agents.
So, it’s really so much of politics now to me is strategy. And it’s strategy in order to accomplish something, and that accomplish-something is either getting a bill passed and signed by the president or setting it up for the next election so that the voters can see clear differences between the parties.
Ogles: If you go back to the days of Newt Gingrich, and one of the things that he did so well was he was a great communicator, as being a professor.
And I think that’s one of the things that Republicans have to do going forward, to your point, is to articulate and communicate to the American people, whether Republican or Democrat or somewhere in the middle, here’s the problem, here’s the solution, and here’s how we’re going to get there.
Leahy: Now, the other thing I want to bring out here is that, although the district here has been reconfigured to cover the southern part of Davidson County, all of Maury County, Marshall County, and Lewis County, the eastern half of Williamson County, and half of Wilson County, it’s R-plus eight or nine or something like that. This is a turnout election, isn’t it, Andy?
Ogles: Yes, absolutely. We’re taking nothing for granted. That’s why we’re out there knocking doors, hosting town halls and grassroots events, and it’s why I’m missing so many things with my family, because we’re making sure people, we’re reminding people that, hey, you have to go vote. There is an election coming up.
Leahy: And if you want to turn back the tide, go out and vote.
Carmichael: When does early voting start?
Leahy: It starts a week from today.
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.
