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 Tennessee Star National Correspondent Neil W. McCabe to the newsmakers line.
During the third hour, McCabe weighed in on whether or not there will be a new stimulus bill before Christmas, the likelihood that the Supreme Court will take up Pennsylvania and Texas’s election lawsuits, and Eric Swalwell’s ties to a Chi-com spy.
Carmichael: Well, we’re back and we’ve got Neil McCabe on the line with us. Neil, are you there?
McCabe: Hey Crom, good morning sir.
Carmichael: How are you doing?
McCabe: I’m getting better every day.
Carmichael: Well, tell me what is going on in Washington. I’ve got two questions really. One is there going to be a bill passed to help the people who need help? I guess you’d call it a stimulus plan for a lack of a better term or a COVID plan. But is there going to be something passed or not?
McCabe: Let me tell you, first of all, the stimulus checks will go out. That deal has been cut. The Republicans are going to roll with it. The Democrats have significantly cut back their demands and you’re going to see something happen very quickly.
Carmichael: And give me kind of the contours of that deal. When you say they’ve been cut back, will there be a second round of PPE or PPP?
McCabe: Well, there will be some of that. There will be some loan forgiveness that needs to be accounted for. The big deal is that the bailout of the states that Pelosi was pushing for is going to less severe. They’ll be some honey in the pot but it’s not going to be anywhere close to what Pelosi was demanding before the election.
And Democrats have actually said in some interviews that the only reason they were asking for that crazy package, you know was to keep the president from getting the win. I think right now Crom though what people in Washington are talking about are two things right now. One is the Supreme Court challenge which everyone is reporting is dead for the Trump campaign when actually that lawsuit and Pennsylvania is absolutely alive and well.
And I just want to tell people if they want to know why the Trump campaign is pushing this is because there is a Supreme Court case from 1997 that was decided nine zero written by David Souter called Foster versus Love which dealt with the changes that Louisiana was making and how congressmen were elected.
And they were sort of tampering and experimenting and basically changing their Federal Election Day. And the Supreme Court said nine zero that you’re not supposed to tamper with election day. And that is the basis of that lawsuit and it’s being led by Texas. And I believe there are now ten states that have joined Texas in that lawsuit. And the other thing Crom is the affair or the supposed affair between Congressman Eric Swalwell and Fang Fang or Christine Fang who is the Chi-com spy.
And Swalwell, for people who aren’t following this, he’s the California congressman on the Senate Intel Committee who was savage to the president and the people on his campaign administration accusing the president and other people of being Russian agents and working with the Russians through the hoaxes the whole time. He never mentioned that in 2015 when the FBI visited him and told him to stop seeing a Chi-com spy who he was at least very close to if not intimate with.
Carmichael: Well Tucker Carlson last night just reported flat out that he had a sexual relationship with her and that she apparently had a sexual relationship with a number of other people. Because that’s what you know, her job was to seduce people in Washington and pry information from them. So the Swalwell deal I guess is now only beginning to grow and it’ll get worse for him. I’ve heard a report that the Pennsylvania lawsuit itself just that one, that the Supreme Court had said it was not going to hear that. Am I wrong?
McCabe: No. The Trump campaign asked for an emergency injunction. And that emergency injunction was denied but the case is still alive.
Carmichael: Oh. Then that’s interesting. So there’s the Pennsylvania case and the Texas case. Those are two separate but they’re related. And the Supreme Court is still in the process of deciding if they want to hear either of them, is that correct?
McCabe: That’s correct. And the Foster versus Love case says that of the factors, in that case, is that Souter writing for the majority said that states are not allowed to tamper with federal elections because it is unfair to other states.
Carmichael: Oh wow.
McCabe: And so other states have an interest or standing as to what Pennsylvania does. Now, remember the reason why we have a national election day is because of the telegraph. Because of the telegraph, people were able to back in the day say 150 ago or 160 years ago you could have states have their federal elections anytime between November and December which is up to the state.
But what happened is if somebody won Massachusetts then you could telegraph somebody in South Carolina and let them know what Massachusetts just did. And so Congress said we don’t want states having to play sort of a gamer or to have this sort of horse blanket like with New York having their election today and in California having their election tomorrow. So everybody is going to vote on the same day. And if you are voting, it has to be completed that night, which is not really enforced. But that’s actually what the law says.
Carmichael: And I guess in various states, in New York, didn’t their legislature pass a law that allows for ballots that are postmarked election day or prior to still be counted? And that’s part of the problem that they have is they don’t know how to manage that without a whole bunch of fraud?
McCabe: Well, of course. And you know in states where it’s a foregone conclusion or you know, they’re not really contested, things have been allowed to slide. And things slide all the time because you know, it doesn’t really matter. Well, now it matters. And so people decided to look up the law. And the law says that this thing has to be complete.
Plus you have the fact that the Constitution says it’s up to the Pennsylvania legislature to decide what’s going on with presidential elections and not the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has no role in deciding voting rules. And so you can’t just take a Pennsylvania law and change it because you want to in just a few months before an election, even if there is a pandemic Crom.
Carmichael: And that’s and that’s what happened in Wisconsin. Because the law in Wisconsin is very very clear about absentee ballots. And there’s a very precise process which the Secretary of State in Wisconsin just completely changed how how how mail-out and mail-in balloting will be handled. And the same thing is true in Michigan and Georgia.
In Pennsylvania, my understanding is that that the constitution of the state of Pennsylvania requires any election law changes to be done by a Constitutional Amendment. So the legislature in Pennsylvania all by itself cannot pass a single law. They can’t pass one law that changes it. They have to go through a constitutional process that requires them passing the change twice. And then having the voters of Pennsylvania vote on it.
McCabe: So what we’re seeing with this pandemic has been like the magic wand for the left. And all of a sudden every Sunday morning I can’t go to mass unless I’ve gone online and reserved a seat because my church is only allowed to have 100 people at mass. There is nowhere in the Constitution that it says that. It’s like the Constitution has a process. People say that Trump is being unconstitutional or challenging the Constitution. The Constitution has a process and he’s trying to follow it. And people are saying hey, just be a good guy and ignore the process. Just go along to get along because the process isn’t cool right now. And that’s crazy talk.
Carmichael: So the three things you’re telling me is that there will be a relief package that’ll pass this week? What do you think?
McCabe: It will be before Christmas?
Carmichael: Okay, and so Swalwell is in trouble. That’s a good thing. I can’t stand the guy. And then these two lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Texas are alive and probably we will know what the Supreme Court’s going to do within the next five five business days I would guess?
McCabe: Yes, sir.
Carmichael: All right, Neil. Thanks so much.
Listen to the 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.Â
