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. – Leahy was joined in studio by Tennessee state Senator Kerry Roberts.
During the third hour, Leahy and Roberts talked about how Mayor Cooper made it difficult for the Republican National Convention to come to Nashville even though it would have helped many suffering businesses. Roberts added that in order to fix this world people need to know Jesus.
(Florida Rep Michael Waltz clip plays)
Leahy: That’s Michael Waltz talking about how North Carolina was not a very hospitable host. Democrat Governor. The Charlotte Mayor, Democrat. Wanted to thwart the convention the Republicans want to have therefore they were making up all these COVID-19 rules to keep them from the assembling. And as a result, the president said “Ah, I’m going to go elsewhere.” Now really if you look state Senator Kerry Roberts, all the other alternatives really the best facilities would have been here in Nashville, Tennessee.
Roberts: Yes. And you know what? It’s sometimes all it takes is a little bit for a decision to be made one way or the other. And to have a mayor speak the way he did basically saying we can’t afford it we don’t want it may have been what tilted the decision.
Leahy: Oh. No question in my mind. Because Nashville would be the logical place in terms of if you just look at facilities and having a good time. Nashville would be the place to do it. But Mayor John Cooper who encourages protests despite his phase two COVID-19 restrictions they are all violating. Those protests violate those restrictions.
Because he’s such a hypocrite and he doesn’t want to have the Nashville economy improve until after the election because he is entirely a partisan hack and he doesn’t want to bring in new business here to Nashville. He basically gave a signal. We’re going to obstruct every possibility of a Republican National Convention coming here to Nashville even though it would have been a huge economic benefit.
Roberts: It’s also kind of thumbing your nose at the Republican-controlled general assembly and executive branch. It’s really terribly unfortunate. It’s supposed to be a non-partisan position.
Leahy: The mayor of Nashville?
Roberts: Yes. It’s supposed to be a non-partisan position.
Leahy: The mayor of Nashville? Not true.
Roberts: Yes, the mayor of Nashville. What should have happened there is they should have explored every opportunity to make that happen.
Leahy: But he just revealed himself as a partisan hack.
Roberts: I’m not going to argue.
Leahy: He’s a partisan hack. Mayor Cooper, you’re a partisan hack. Call me if you’d like to dispute it. We’ll be polite but your actions speak louder than words. You’re allowing protests for the left-wing progressives that evolved into riots and all sorts of damage to the courthouse.
To businesses here. You’re upping property taxes by 32 percent and yet you’re trying to squelch businesses particularly those on Lower Broadway. And then you’re sending your little health police out to give citations and fines to these businesses just trying to make a living. And the science doesn’t support what you are doing.
And you know it doesn’t. And then we’ll see what happens. In terms of turning down all this economic benefit by letting the Republican National Convention and the Republicans and President Trump know that they are not wanted here in Nashville.
Obviously, you look at the politics of it, it was clear to me that a Republican mayor in Jacksonville, Florida, and a Republican governor would say come on down. We want our economy to benefit from this. And that’s what’s going to happen.
Roberts: They got a really warm welcome that they didn’t receive from the Metro Nashville Government. And Metro Nashville Government is kind of the progressive elite and I suspect their suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. (Chuckles)
Leahy: Oh absolutely. (Leahy welcomed Republicans that voted for John Cooper to call-in) Explain or apologize calls.
Roberts: I don’t think you’re going to get any calls here.
Leahy: You don’t think we’ll get any calls here?
Roberts: Not on that one.
Leahy: I know a couple who voted for John Cooper.
Roberts: There were a lot of so-called Republicans that jumped on the Cooper bandwagon. It was kind of like well, this is the lesser of the evils. When you look at who can and can’t win you know that this is where we need to go. At the end of the day, people vote for who they like and who they feel good about. We just need a stronger competitor.
Leahy: Carol Swain who ran and is, by the way, our all-star panelist here every Thursday. She was on Life, Liberty, and Levin Sunday night on FOX News. I don’t know if you saw that. She did a great job.
Roberts: No, I did not see it.
Roberts: She finished in third place in the first election. She didn’t make the runoff. Just narrowly missed. There is no question Carol Swain would have been a far better mayor than Mayor Cooper. And she would have been a mayor for all Nashvillians. John Cooper is not a mayor for anybody that is Conservative. It’s just clear.
Leahy: Well, it didn’t feel like that.
Roberts: It doesn’t feel that way.
Leahy: He doesn’t feel that way. If you want to talk about selective treatment. If you are a Conservative here and you are not getting the same kind of treatment that a left-wing marginally employed Millenial protester is getting. They’re not paying property taxes by the way.
How many of those protesters are paying property taxes in Nashville? Pretty close to zero. (Leahy asks protesters that pay property taxes for a business to call-in) No. They are not interested in paying property taxes at a 32 percent increase that the mayor is trying to push through the city’s Metro City Council.
I doubt that any of them actually own a business in Nashville. What are the odds that there is a single protester, the guys that are trying to storm the capitol last night? Or the thousands who walked on Saturday and sat down in the middle of Broadway. How many of those do you think own businesses and pay property taxes in Nashville?
Roberts: I want to know how many went to church on Sunday.
Leahy: I think the answer is going to be pretty close to zero in both cases.
Roberts: I’m not trying to make a silly comment. If we look at tolerance, acceptance, love, and being a productive citizen and all these other things, at some point in time have to wake up. It’s interesting that people who go to church, by and large, not all the time, but by and large are the people that you are referring to. The people who are generous, giving, and they take care of their fellow man.
Leahy: They are good citizens and they pay their taxes and follow the law.
Roberts: We can be cynical and point out the people who go to church and screw people over in business deals and do stuff like that. And that happens. We are not going fix this world. Sorry for saying this if this offends somebody, but we’re not going to fix this world until people come to know Jesus Christ. You love your neighbor. You don’t hate your neighbor. You don’t wish ill on them. You want good for other people.
Leahy: But you know what the left-wing is doing? They are appropriating the language of Christianity and integrating it into their social justice warrior message.
Roberts: Amen to that. (Leahy laughs) When we had the heartbeat bill hearings, it was amazing to me. Absolutely amazing to me how many times the name Jesus was evoked in support of abortion.
Leahy: I still don’t get that.
Roberts: I don’t either. I told the governor after he first got elected. I said look when liberals start quoting scripture you need to really beware. Because Matthew 25 is one that we get quoted all the time. I was hungry and you fed me. When I was thirsty you gave me something to drink.
Leahy: And by the way, that’s to individuals not to the…
Roberts: Let me just say, Jesus lived under two separate governments. He lived under the Jewish government and he lived under the Roman government and he didn’t direct that to either one of them did he?
Leahy: No. He directed it to individuals.
Roberts: And furthermore, if Jesus Christ was the son of God, which I believe he was, why did he not with the wave of a hand eliminate all hunger, all thirst, all poverty? Why did he not do that? I’d like a liberal to explain the theology of why Jesus apparently didn’t do what he said if that’s what they’re going to quote. If they are going to quote that scripture, they need to explain why Jesus didn’t do it in entirety.
Leahy: Well that was for people to have free choice.
Roberts: Why did he pick and choose.
Leahy: Now you’re getting into the whole why does God let bad things happen thing. We can’t address that in the next 30 minutes here in the program. You know that right? It’s a good topic though.
Roberts: As the song goes, this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. (Leahy chuckles)
Listen to the full third hour here:
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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.
That is the most truthful comment I’ve heard in a long time. 100% accurate.