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 The Tennessee Star Washington Correspondent Neil McCabe to the newsmaker line to weigh in on the $3.5 trillion spending bill, Milley’s treasonous behavior, and offers advice to Trump in 2024 if re-elected.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line by the best Washington correspondent in the country representing The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network, Neil McCabe. Good morning, Neil.
McCabe: Good morning, Michael. Good to be with you.
Leahy: The craziness in Washington continues. Are they going to jam through this $3.5 trillion spending with all sorts of unconstitutional changes? What’s going to happen with that?
McCabe: The prognosis is getting worse and worse. Or for the American people better and better. This is kind of the second half of the calendar, and it’s very difficult to get things done between now and Christmas.
You have a series of holidays and different breaks coming up. You have Columbus Day, you have Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then, of course, we have the annual budget crisis.
And also there’s a debt ceiling that has to be raised. And so Republicans have leverage. It looks like they’re holding tough, at least on the Senate side.
Kevin McCarthy is still not really laying the wood to the Democrats, as he could. Remember if McCarthy flipped five seats, he would become the speaker today.
Leahy: Crom, your eyebrows were arching.
Carmichael: I understand what the Republicans on the Senate side, what leverage they have, but I don’t understand and I agree that Kevin McCarthy is not as tough as he should be.
He doesn’t discipline Republicans the way he should. But what can he do? He has a shortage. If Pelosi has all of her votes lined up, what can Kevin McCarthy do to stop her?
McCabe: It’s a very easy conversation. You go to five to seven to ten guys and you say you will be selling used cars in a year. So you can keep your job in Congress and join the Republican Party, or you can return to private life.
Carmichael: Neil, let me say what Nancy Pelosi’s response to that is to those very same people. If you vote the way I tell you to and you lose your next election, there’s a $500,000. job at a think tank available for you.
If, on the other hand, you vote against what I’m telling you to do, or you switch parties the next chance we have to ruin your life, we will do it. And I mean ruin your life.
And the Democrats do things like that. Republicans simply don’t. If you’re that Democrat, who knows you’re going to lose the next race anyway, can either switch parties and maybe keep your seat. But if you lose it, then you are selling used cars.
McCabe: A lot of these guys are rich. A lot of these guys are big deals in their hometown and being in Congress is sort of like the next challenge. No, congressman doesn’t want to be a congressman anymore.
Carmichael: Okay.
McCabe: No, Senator doesn’t want to be a senator anymore. You know? They want to stay in Washington. Once you’re there, nobody wants to leave.
Carmichael: And you’re saying that Kevin McCarthy could go to these Democrats. Are any other Republicans going to these very same Democrats if Kevin McCarthy is not?
McCabe: I don’t see it. I don’t know about it. I know that when Paul Ryan killed Obamacare repeal the first time Mark Meadows got together with Tom McCarthur from New Jersey.
And so the Conservatives and the moderates did an end-run and basically got the bill passed behind Paul Ryan’s back. I don’t know of any efforts going on right now.
But it should be McCarthy. And this is the reason why McCarthy is not going to be the next speaker because he has so many opportunities. Things are going the wrong way for Democrats, despite the results in California.
Joe Biden has not been doing well. His two strongest poll numbers against Trump were COVID and foreign policy. So those two things are out the window. And plus, we have a chairman of the Joint Chiefs who’s basically cutting deals with the Chicoms.
Leahy: Well, let me follow up on that. That comes from the report in a book by Bob Woodward and Bob Costa. Their methodology, Neil, is something you would never use because they interviewed 200 people on the condition of anonymity. So they didn’t cite their sources.
But the claim from this book is that Milley tried to tell the Chicoms, if we’re going to attack you, I’ll let you know. That’s probably treasonous. Then after the riot on the Capitol, he said to his subordinates, do not follow any orders from the president. Follow orders from me.
I’m unelected. And he talked to a speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, about that. She was in league with that. And I think that to me seems very, very odd. Crom, what do you think about Speaker Pelosi if true, talking to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?
Carmichael: Well, it’s also deep stateish. And so to be quite honest with you, if both of those things are true, I’m not surprised.
And the commentary by people who were commenting on these accusations and the assumption was let’s assume they’re true. The commentary was, what a hero of this guy.
Leahy: Yeah, exactly. Neil McCabe, what’s your take on the speaker talking to the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff? That seems like I don’t know, his action seemed treasonous. What about her encouraging those actions if true?
McCabe: When Milley was the chief of staff of the army, he gave a speech to his generals saying that they had a problem with the Obama administration should turn in the resignation letter and quit because Obama was the President and they needed to follow him.
As soon as Trump became president and Milley was made chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Milley told everybody you are not loyal to the president, you are loyal to the Constitution. And of course, that means that who interprets the Constitution?
Well, I guess he does. I absolutely believe Milley said these things. I believe that Milley leaked this stuff himself. Milley volunteered these stories because in his bubble he thought he was a hero.
He completely misread how the American people would respond to his bragging about going around President Trump.
Carmichael: I will say this. I’m going to disagree with you there in that the people that he cares about in terms of whether or not he cares about their opinions.
They’re the people on the left, and they’re lifting him up and carrying them around like he’s just won the Super Bowl.
McCabe: Ah, Milley is severely wounded right now and they’re going to go after him hard on Capitol Hill.
Leahy: Now, let me ask you this. This is the guy that Trump moved up to the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. Why did he do that? Why did he put this guy who wasn’t loyal to the Constitution or him according to this report?
Why did he bring that guy? Isn’t there somebody else he could have made chairman of Joints Chiefs of Staff?
McCabe: Let me just say this is somebody who’s from Boston although I’ve lost my accent. New Yorkers come down to Washington and they think that they can cut deals, they can shake hands, they can steamroll because all of the things that made them a success in New York, they think are going to make them a success in Washington.
And people in Washington are different animals. And Trump was wrong in the way he handled things. Look at the way he thought he could seduce Comey, taking him to private dinners, telling him how handsome he is, and sending him text messages.
Meanwhile, Comey is arranging for him to get a special prosecutor. It’s unfortunate, but people come to D.C., and especially if they’re outsiders, they’re not ready for the duplicitousness of the Washington swamp.
Leahy: So let’s kind of go-fast forward. In the event Trump was to be re-elected or elected in 2024, a long time from now, what advice would you have him to do to clean out the deep state, particularly in the military?
McCabe: I would tell him to clean house and I would tell him to reach down into the ranks because you’re basically looking at 16 years of admirals and generals nurtured and promoted by Obama and Biden. There are guys who are colonels.
Leahy: And yeah, I think Neil is right on that Crom. You got to reach down. You got to get rid of these people.
Carmichael: I’m not even sure that you reach down. I think you go and maybe you get people who are former Navy Seals who have left the military.
Leahy: You go back and you take the old guys in.
Carmichael: And you bring them in. They are not old.
Leahy: 50s or so.
Carmichael: You bring people who are not part of the swamp. and bring.
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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.
