The Tennessee Star’s Lead Reporter Aaron Gulbransen Describes Newly Formed Union of Ortagus and Winstead

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 official guest host Aaron Gulbransen in-studio to recap the High Steaks TN-5 candidate event Monday night and analyzed the new alliance between Kurt Winstead and Morgan Ortagus.

Leahy: Aaron Gulbransen, we had quite an evening last night. You were there as well. We went to the Hermitage Steakhouse in Hermitage, which had a great big crowd. You were there.

Several of the TN-5 candidates were there. And also it was an event to promote the campaign of Kelli Phillips, who’s running for school board in Metro Nashville Public Schools, the 4th District. Were you able to talk to some of the candidates last night?

Gulbransen: I got to speak with Jeff Beierlein. Jeff actually floated an interesting proposal that we have a national and state gas tax holiday in order to ease the burden on the citizens of Tennessee in the 5th district with the highest gas prices in American history going on right now. I thought it was a very interesting proposal.

Leahy: That was interesting. And now who else was there? Kurt Winstead was there.

Gulbransen: Kurt Winstead was there, yes. He very affably continued to talk around the room when I spoke with him for a brief second.

Leahy: So you tried to get an interview with him.

Yes, Every Kid

Gulbransen: And he is clearly a very polished politician at this point in time. Was very friendly and made sure he didn’t do an interview. (Leahy laughs) That was Campaigning 101 right there.

Leahy: With a smile on his face. You had a couple of questions for him, right?

Gulbransen: Yeah. We wanted to ask him about something we’ll talk about in a second.

Leahy: And who else?

Gulbransen: Andy Ogles was there later on. I did not get to partake in the steak because I had to leave.

Leahy: Let me just say for a moment that was really unfair of me to mention the delicious filet mignon at Hermitage Steakhouse.

Gulbransen: No, especially since I haven’t eaten breakfast yet and I’m feeling a little foggy at the moment. My wife is a big filet mignon fan. I’m a ribeye guy.

Leahy: Ribeye was on the menu.

Gulbransen: I noticed. I shouldn’t have looked.

Leahy: Had you been able to stay for the full evening, you would have had ribeye as a choice.

Gulbransen: There we go. But yeah, of course, I spoke with Kelli Phillips, she’s running. It’s very important. School board is very important. I’ve run a number of school board races, and I think in 2022 it’s one of the most important offices that people can affect change in.

Leahy: So you had a question. Of course, we have a story at The Tennessee Star, Morgan Ortagus, who was endorsed by President Trump but was disqualified by the GOP here in the 5th Congressional District, you see her often now on Fox News. She’s doing Fox.

She’s formed her own political action committee – I suppose you could say that with an asterisk – called Polaris. And yesterday – this is, I think, what you were going to ask Kurt about – he named her to his National Security Advisory Committee. But there’s a little bit of, I don’t know, inquiry about her PAC. Tell us about who the first donor was, why that matters.

Gulbransen: Before I get to that, real quick, I do want to point out that for some reason they’re styling Ortagus as the founder of this Polaris National Security, and their Twitter account has been in existence since 2012 and Ortagus herself has retweeted them a number of times over the years, including in 2021.

So I don’t know how you can found something unless you were secretly involved in the past. I’m not saying that. I don’t know …

Leahy: But the political action committee was just formed in March.

Gulbransen: The first donation was in March. It was formed in January.

Leahy: Who made the first donation?

Gulbransen: So you have the U.S. Immigration Fund New York LLC, which is a subsidiary of the U.S. immigration fund, an EB-5 organization.

Leahy: Now let’s talk a minute. I spoke briefly about the EB-5 program which, it’s a legal program prone to all sorts of abuse, but I think this program should be abolished. Tell our listeners what the EB-5 program is, what it does.

Gulbransen: So what it does is it enables foreign investors to gain visas and entry into the United States with a path to citizenship.

Leahy: And what’s the price tag?

Gulbransen: On this particular fund, $800,000.

Leahy: It’s been $500,000. And a lot of these people that do this are Chinese nationals.

Gulbransen: Yes. And it’s interesting that the purpose of Polaris PAC, at least stated is, one of them is to hold China accountable. And their sole – as of March 31 – donation to the PAC was from this EB-5 organization that has China operations, and part of their specialty is to bring foreign investors from China here into the United States.

Leahy: Just as a policy issue, I have long said that the EB-5 program is a disaster, never should have been set up, and it has been prone to fraud.

Now, the group that’s made this donation to Morgan Ortagus’s PAC that she’s running, that’s now part of the Kurt Winstead National Security team, there’s been no allegation I’ve seen of fraud by them. But the program is a bad program. That’s the bottom line.

Listen to the interview:

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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.

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2 Thoughts to “The Tennessee Star’s Lead Reporter Aaron Gulbransen Describes Newly Formed Union of Ortagus and Winstead”

  1. 83ragtop50

    Just curious. Did Kurt Winstead wear overalls and carry a pitchfork to reinforce his claim just to be a good ole farm boy? The guy is a slick politician, but a fake.

  2. paulJ

    The Kushner’s are extremely involved in this organization and they aren’t Chinese. Yes, they represent a foreign government, but it ain’t China

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