Live from Music Row Friday 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 the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss how out of control Mayor Cooper has become and violating laws.
Leahy: Crom, we are talking about all of the revelations and how out of control the Napoleon dictator John Cooper is. Mini Cooper. And just egregiously violating laws rules and regulations. And Governor Lee doesn’t like it.
Carmichael: Well the mayor has applied to the state for yet more state money. And Governor Lee in a very (Chuckles)
Leahy: Pointed.
Carmichael: Well, he was nice about it. He could have been, (Leahy chuckles) Governor Lee is one of the nicest people.
Leahy: He’s a nice guy.
Carmichael: He has a very very good heart. And he could have absolutely have roasted John Cooper.
Leahy: Let me just say it was a letter that was a little less direct than perhaps I would have written.
Carmichael: Cooper has shut down Nashville. Now we know that he is wrecking a big part of the Nashville economy, hurting tens of thousands of people, and he does it for no reason. For no reason. He knows he’s using that power. And then he applies to the state. I think it was $82 million.
Leahy: We have the story here at the Tennessee Star. Our intrepid top reporter Laura Baigart has the story and covers Capital Hill better than anybody in the press here in Tennessee. Here is the story that Governor Bill responded in writing, denying Nashville mayor John Cooper’s request for an additional $82 million in coronavirus relief funding. In addition to the letter, Lee addressed the issue in a press conference on Thursday saying, “I have to believe the strategy that I’m investing in one is consistent with the state’s strategies and Nashville’s are not.”
Carmichael: And also somewhere along the line he pointed out that Davidson County has gotten more money than any other county in the state. John Cooper is acting like a typical Democrat in the sense that he just wants other people’s money. In this case, there is going to be a question of whether or not he’s got legal jeopardy. He makes a mess. Who is the gentleman we had on here who was in the event business?
Leahy: Dan Cook.
Carmichael: He said there were 20,000 people whose lives have been affected because of Cooper’s shutdown. At the time we were talking to Cook, we assumed that the shutdowns had some legitimacy and science. And now we know now that not only did it not have any legitimacy, Mayor Copper knew it was exactly the opposite.
Leahy: He lied! He lied!
Carmichael: He lied about it. He is forcing people within his administration. And now there is going to be this secret meeting. I’m glad somebody leaked the fact that there was going to be this meeting. Because they were trying to do it in secret.
Leahy: Secret meeting. the Metro legal department is bullying the Nashville election commission which has already verified the 20,000 signatures that were submitted so that there will be a referendum on the ballot December fifth to repeal this awful 34 percent property tax that John Cooper and his cohorts are trying to jam down the throats of Nashvillians.
Carmichael: And if the election commission tries to make something up out of whole cloth to keep it off the ballot, the question is whether or not they could be held personally liable.
Leahy: It’s a mess.
Carmichael: We have laws. We have a Nashville charter. The voters of Nashville are following the law. There have been 22,000 signatures collected. They only needed 11,000. The election commission rightly said there is plenty of valid ones on here. The law requires there to be a ballot initiative. Now you’ve got the Cooper administration which we know now that it is dishonest.
Leahy: Corrupt and dishonest.
Carmichael: And it hurts people.
Leahy: It wants to hurt some more people.
Carmichael: Now it wants to just abuse the charter. Well, John Cooper didn’t write the charter. Neither John Cooper wrote the charter. Live with the charter. Recognize that you are a public servant and not a dictator.
Leahy: He is a dictator, and he’s trying his hardest to make that happen. I don’t think that the courts or the taxpayers in Nashville like it very much.
Listen to the full third hour here:
– – –
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 “Nashville Skyline” by Spablab CC2.0
