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. –  host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer to the studio to outline the differences between the rallies of Joe Biden and President Trump.
Leahy: Tuesday, October 27th. 27 days until the election in the studio with us our good friend All-Star panelists recovering journalist Clint Brewer. Clint put on your hat as The campaign manager for Joe Biden and the campaign manager for Donald Trump. How do you spend your time for the next seven days? And I bring that up because yesterday Donald Trump held rallies and I think four battleground states flying all around the country.
Today another four battleground states. Rallies rallies rallies. I think they look at the weather forecast and say where is it not raining in a Battleground state? I’m going there for an outside rally. Joe Biden yesterday called a lid on the campaign. A lid meaning we got nothing else going on today. They called a lid at like at nine o’clock yesterday. The president made fun of him and he got in his SUV and drove 60 miles to some non-event in Pennsylvania gave a speech and drove back home. Where is Joe Biden going today?
Brewer: He’s going to Warm Springs, Georgia.
Leahy: Okay.
Brewer: 72 miles outside of metropolitan Atlanta.
Leahy: So he’s going to Warm Springs, Georgia. And the president is doing like three or four rallies around the country apparently Biden is only going to one place today. Why Clint? Why is he going to Warm Springs, Georgia?
Brewers: Well, I think you know, if you look at the numbers George’s in play, I mean, it’s one of the southern states that’s in play for the Electoral.
Leahy: According to Real Clear Politics the average of polls show to be like even Steven there.
Brewer: It is.
Leahy: And so by the way, I don’t believe that but right but that’s what they think.
Brewer: Well and, you know Republicans there have been able to follow Trump’s 2016 model which is to run up the score in rural counties to win. And so, you know Warm Springs has two significant meanings. One, I think it’s in Meriwether County, which is a rural County that was pretty on the fence for Trump. But it’s just outside of Atlanta so some of Atlanta’s politics or to bleed into some of these rural counties or nearby counties. So I think, first of all, he’s vying for rural votes in Georgia. I think that’s what the visit about.
Leahy: But there’s more historical significance in Warm Springs.
Brewer: It is. It is FDR’s retreat. There are two hospitals there that are named after FDR. It was where he went to have as you know, the Warm Springs. It’s called Warm Springs because there are natural springs.
Leahy: He had polio. We think it was polio, but he was crippled.
Brewer: He would go there to ease the symptoms of his polio.
Leahy: And he died there in April 1945.
Brewer: He did and the presidential casket was taken on the highway from Warm Springs to D.C.
Leahy: There’s also a little bit of scandal there. He was there with his mistress at the time. He died and it was a well-known secret that he had a mistress.
Brewer: The press didn’t report on things like that back then.
Leahy: Not exactly the kind of thing that I think historical circumstance that Joe Biden would want to feature but he’s going down there.
Brewer: He’s going down there.
Leahy: What’s his message going to be there?
Brewer: I think his message is going to probably appeal to rural Democrats. Hopefully, he’s going to talk about jobs and bring the economy back and just a better management style. A more focused management style that he can offer then the president now debatable. (Leahy chuckles) But I mean, you know, I think he’s going to make that appeal probably along economic lines to roll Democrat or rural Republicans who were suffering right now is all people are in this country economically for the most part. Particularly in rural places. He might try to pick up on some of the resonance of FDR with people in his age group. Baby boomers.
Leahy: I think that’s what he’s going to do. I think he’s going to I think I think you’ll hear a lot of FDR. You’ll hear a lot of New Deal. You’ll hear a lot of Social Security, right? Because I think what they’re going after here and the polling seems to indicate this is the case. Tell me what you think. I’ve seen a lot of polling that shows for the first time, you know, Donald Trump did very well with voters 65 years old or older in 2016. Most polls say that’s flipped this year.
Brewer: It has and I’ve seen those polls too. Warm Springs is not you know a population center. I mean, it’s a very very very small town. So I think this is a symbolic place and of course, he’s got the national press covering him just like the president does everywhere it goes. So he’s got a press pool with them. So the message is going to get out whether it’s a town of four million or 400, right? So he’s going there as a symbolic gesture. He can also show rural Georgians that he’s out there campaigning for their votes. And you know, one of the biggest airports in the world is 72 miles away. So he gets in and gets out. So logistically it’s not as far-fetched.
Leahy: Will he take questions from the Press?
Brewer: He needs to.
Leahy: Will he?
Brewer: I don’t know. I mean he should.
Leahy: And if he does will anyone ask this question? Do you know Tony Bobulinski? And did you ever meet with them and talk about business?
Brewer: I can’t imagine they will know but isn’t that a legitimate question to ask?
Brewer: You know, I mean, I don’t see the press or the editors they report to getting bogged down in anything beyond the macro at this point. It’s going to be all horse race coverage from here on out.
Leahy: But isn’t that the center of the issue of whether or not Joe Biden is corrupt?
Brewer: Yeah, but I mean if I mean it can be but it’s not something the press is going to pursue at this point.
Leahy: See I would ask them that question.
Brewer: Well, I know you would.
Leahy: But they’re not inviting me by the way.
Brewer: Yes. I’m aware. The mainstream press and the legacy media that covers him. And so if I showed up you think they’d let me in?
Brewer: I don’t believe they would. They might escort you to the county line.
Leahy: With a police escort.
Brewer:Â Yeah, right. The local sheriff would escort you to the county line.
Leahy: Well speaking of Tony Bobulinski now the storyline is, you know, he was featured he is claimed he was the head of Sino Hawk. This was a venture between the Chinese communist government and various folks and the Biden family. That’s what he says and he was asked to be the CEO of that company by Hunter Biden. He says that he met in the Beverly Hills Hilton in May of 2017 for an hour with Joe Biden and went over the details of that business deal with the Chinese Communists and he says Joe Biden said, yeah, he was very well aware that it supported it. To you, is that a relevant campaign issue?
Brewer: I mean, it should be. Anything like that should be but it won’t be unless you know, the Trump campaign decides to make it one. And the fact that you’re not seeing the Trump campaign hammer at home is because of the gracious gift that the former vice president gave them during the debate.
Leahy: So they think the only oil is more significant in your view?
Brewer: They are not going to go with what is intellectually curious at this point. They’re going to go with what is tactically superior, which is you know, macro issues like jobs and you know. I mean, they’ve been hammering the Joe Biden China thing for a while and you know.
Leahy: It’s it is a gift that keeps on giving though it seems.
Brewer: It is. I mean, it’ll make headlines to a certain extent but the closer you get to election day, the more macro, you know, the more macro they’re going to get. And they’re just not going to not focus on things like that. I don’t want to say it’s down in the weeds. I mean, it’s certainly relevant. But I mean the smaller the issue you’re just not going to see the press take the time to tease that out and help people understand it. And you’re not going to see the campaign go with it unless they think it’s going to move votes in the state they need.
Leahy: Tonight on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Tony Bobulinski. The entire hour will be devoted to Tony Bobulinski’s statements and emails that he says show that Vice President Joe Biden knew about this China deal.
Brewer: Oh, it’s incredibly interesting. It is incredibly interesting, and Carlson’s probably one of the few people with the mic that big who’s going to pick it up. But yeah, I mean it I think that the Chinese connections are things that should the vice president win are going to follow him into his term.
Leahy: You know, it’s interesting to me, you know, who’s not really said a lot to defend him on these things? Kamala Harris.
Brewer: No.
Leahy: I wonder what her strategy might be. Mmm-hmm. (Brewer snickers)
Brewer: Senator Harris is an attorney and she probably knows better than to get bogged down into talking points on something that she has no first-hand knowledge of. I’m sure that and the fact that you know if Biden is going to stick to one term as he said should he get elected, you know, she’ll be the heir apparent.
Leahy: Should he get elected, what do you think the odds that he serves out his term?
Brewer: Oh, I think they’re pretty. I think really pretty good.
Leahy: Really?
Brewer: Yeah, barring some health issue.
Leahy: So when I played electoral college roulette this morning in the six o’clock hour my current take is Trump wins 274 to 264 over Biden. What do you think? Am I in the right ballpark?
Brewer: I think that’s it. If he’s going to win if the president’s going to win that’s going to be the kind of margin he’s going to win with. If it goes the other way Biden could win by a lot more. I think that’s I think it’s either Trump wins narrow Biden wins big. I don’t think there’s a lot of middle ground.
Leahy: I don’t think Biden wins big. But hey, what do I know? It’s 2020.
Brewer: That’s my point.
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.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
