Category: Tennessee

Tennessee U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty Urged Trump to Nominate Kash Patel for FBI Because ‘Entire Agency Needs to be Cleaned Out’

Tom Pappert
Sen. Bill Hagerty of Meet the Press

U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) on Sunday revealed he urged President-elect Donald Trump to nominate Kash Patel to serve as the next FBI Director out of a desire to see the agency “cleaned out” by the next administration.

During his appearance on “Meet the Press,” Hagerty confirmed he will vote to confirm Patel to lead the FBI after the former Trump administration official was nominated on Saturday to lead the agency. The senator also revealed he urged Trump to include Patel in his administration.

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Kash Patel Argued FBI Director Should Release Full Covenant Killer Manifesto, Epstein Client List

Tom Pappert
Glenn Beck interviews Kash Patel

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, said in a recently resurfaced interview that the FBI Director has the power to release major classified documents, including the manifesto left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale and the client list once kept by disgraced financier-turned-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and urged Trump to promise full declassification upon entering office.

Patel made the remarks in a December 2023 appearance on “Glenn TV,” when he told host Glenn Beck that the FBI Director has the authority to declassify both the “black book” used by Epstein and the ten or more notebooks full of writings left by Hale, the biological female who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.

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Tennessee Tax Preparers Allegedly Defrauded $65 Million in COVID-19 Relief Funds for Clients, Kept Commissions

Tom Pappert
Renata Walton

Two Mississippi women were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after they allegedly helped their clients obtain $65 million in pandemic relief funding, collecting commissions in the process, through their West Tennessee tax preparation business.

The DOJ announced on Wednesday that a Memphis grand jury returned a 53-count indictment charging Renata Walton and Nicole Jones, who both live in Olive Branch, Mississippi, with falsifying business and personal tax returns to obtain significant payments of relief funds designed for individuals and employers during the COVID-19 pandemic through their company, R&B Tax Express, in Moscow, Tennessee.

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Trump Taps Kash Patel to Lead FBI, Vows to Tackle Crime and Border Security

Christina Botteri
Kash Patel

President-elect Donald Trump announced that Kashyap “Kash” Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Patel, a seasoned lawyer, investigator, and staunch advocate for an “America First” agenda, has built a career around exposing corruption and defending the principles of justice.

“Kash did an incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council,” Trump noted in his Saturday statement.

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Medical Professionals Organize Rally to Support Tennessee as SCOTUS Considers Law Blocking Kids from Transgender Surgery

Tom Pappert
Supreme Court

A nonprofit run by medical professionals who oppose transgender treatments and surgeries for minors is holding a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on December 4 to support Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti as he argues in favor of legislation that blocks such treatments in the Volunteer State.

Activist Chloe Cole, who previously identified as transgender before detransitioning to her biological female gender, confirmed the nonprofit Do No Harm will hold its rally on the steps of the Supreme Court in a post to the social media post X.

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Bonnie Brezina: Marsy’s Law on Track to be Presented to Voters in 2026

Kaitlin Housler
Bonnie Brezina

Bonnie Brezina, who serves as the state director of Marsy’s Law for Tennessee, said the proposed constitutional amendment that would expand the rights of crime victims is still on track to be presented to voters on the 2026 general election ballot.

Marsy’s Law, which passed the Tennessee House unanimously and the State Senate by a 27-3 vote earlier this year, must again pass both chambers by a two-thirds majority this upcoming legislative session in order to be presented to voters in 2026.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Sued in Lawsuit Accusing Transit Spending Referendum of Violating Tennessee Law

Tom Pappert
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, the Metro Nashville government, and the Davidson County Election Commission were sued on Wednesday by the Committee to Stop an UnFair Tax and its leader, Emily Evans, who asked a court to declare the mayor’s successful Choose How You Move transit referendum illegal under the 2017 IMPROVE Act.

The lawsuit notes the IMPROVE ACT, as passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2017, specifically allows local governments to fund transit systems by imposing a sales tax of up to 0.5 percent.

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Tennessee State Rep. Cepicky Files Bill to Ban Cell Phones from Classrooms

Tom Pappert
Students on Cell Phones

Tennessee State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) introduced legislation for the upcoming session of the General Assembly that would require all Tennessee school systems, including private institutions, to develop a policy to limit student cellphone use outside specific circumstances.

Filed with the General Assembly on November 19, a summary of Cepicky’s HB 13 reveals it would require schools, “adopt a policy to prohibit students from using wireless communication devices during instructional time except in certain circumstances.”

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Nashville Mayor Admits Metro Police Is ‘Aware’ of Venezuelan Gang Presence, Refuses to Provide Answers on Arrests

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said his office and the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) are aware of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua’s “presence” within the city; however,  he refused to provide specific information regarding arrests or activity related to the gang.

On Tuesday, O’Connell was pressed by Fox 17 reporter Kylie Walker on his knowledge of the Venezuelan gang’s presence in Nashville after a member of the same gang was arrested in Hamilton County on human trafficking charges the day prior.

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‘I Just Have to Remind You’: Kamala Harris Appears Disheveled in Bizarre First Appearance Since Election Loss

Daily Caller News Foundation
Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday addressed her supporters for the first time since her defeat to President-elect Donald Trump.

The Democrats released footage where Harris appears somewhat disheveled. The video was from a call with donors and volunteers where Harris thanked her supporters for their work on her campaign.

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President-Elect Trump Nominates Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to Lead National Institutes of Health

Christina Botteri
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

In a major move to address America’s health challenges, President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to serve as the next Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Bhattacharya, Trump said, is poised to lead the nation’s medical research efforts in collaboration with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., aiming to make groundbreaking discoveries that will improve public health and save lives.

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President-Elect Trump Nominates Jamieson Greer as U.S. Trade Representative

Christina Botteri
Jamison Greer, Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump announced late Tuesday he will nominate Jamieson Greer to serve as the next United States Trade Representative (USTR). In a statement published to his TruthSocial account, Trump expressed strong support for Greer, citing his instrumental role in shaping trade policy during the first term of the administration.

“I am very pleased to nominate Jamieson Greer to serve as the United States Trade Representative,” the incoming president wrote. “Jamieson played a key role during my First Term in imposing tariffs on China and others to combat unfair trade practices, and replacing the failed NAFTA deal with the USMCA, making it much better for American workers.”

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Gov. Bill Lee Introduces ‘TN Education Freedom’ Website Promoting School Choice Plan Featuring 20,000 Scholarships

Tom Pappert
Governor Bill Lee

Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday shared details about the new school choice legislation filed in the Tennessee General Assembly, suggesting the path universal school choice begins by making 20,000 scholarships available to Tennessee students, including 10,000 reserved for families who could not typically afford a private or parochial school.

Lee shared a website for the Tennessee Education Freedom Act in a post to the social media platform X, where he also included a clip from his recent Fox News appearance, when he explained the Tennessee Education Freedom plan would eventually lead to universal school choice.

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Legal Expert Lays Out Why Trump’s Legal Cases Will Not Return After He Leave Office in Four Years

Daily Caller News Foundation
Elie Honig, CNN clip

by Nicole Silverio   CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Tuesday that the dismissed legal cases against President-elect Donald Trump will not return once he leaves office in January 2029. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request Monday to dismiss the election subversion case he brought against President-elect Donald Trump to align with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) precedent of not prosecuting a sitting president. Honig said while the case was dismissed without prejudice, there are many strategies the Trump administration can adopt in order to ensure the case is never revived. “Yes, technically the cases were dismissed without prejudice, which means technically someone could come back in 4 years and reinstitute these charges. But that’s correct in the same sense that the New York Jets could technically make it to the Super Bowl this year,” Honig said. “It’s not mathematically eliminated. That’s not gonna happen for a lot of reasons. First of all, four years from now is an eternity. Whoever the next president is in 2029, the next attorney general is gonna have no appetite in bringing this case back and you’re right, Jim [Acosta], there are moves Donald Trump’s DOJ could make. They can go back…

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Seeks Further Transit Expansion Through Capital Spending Plan

Tom Pappert
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell

Despite Nashville voters passing the $6.9 billion Choose How You Move transit referendum proposed by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, the mayor now seeks additional transit spending through the metro’s annual Capital Spending Plan (CSP).

O’Connell first proposed his $527 million CSP last Wednesday, with the mayor stating his proposed spending will “prepare us for the work to come from Choose How You Move.”

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Tennesseans Expected to Travel in Record Numbers This Thanksgiving: Report

Kaitlin Housler
Thanksgiving dinner

A record number of Tennesseans are expected to travel for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

AAA forecasts that more than 1.9 million Tennesseans will travel 50 miles or more for the holiday over the period of seven days (November 26-December 2) which would set an all-time high for Thanksgiving travel in the state.

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Walmart Ends DEI, ‘Woke’ Programs in Response to Questions from Tennessee Filmmaker Robby Starbuck

Tom Pappert
Robby Starbuck

Tennessee political commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck on Monday announced that Walmart Inc. confirmed it would drop its “woke” corporate policies, including its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program, in response to questions about its practices.

“Walmart is ending their woke policies. I can now exclusively tell you what’s changing and how it happened,” wrote Starbuck in a post to the social media platform X, revealing he contacted the company’s executives to inform them he was preparing to release a story about the corporate “wokeness” at Walmart.

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Todd Bensman: President-Elect Trump’s Migrant Deterrence Rhetoric Already Producing Results

Kaitlin Housler
CBP arrests

Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said President-elect Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico immigration program, if implemented on day one of the Trump-Vance administration, is expected to immediately reduce the number of illegal border crossings.

Implemented in 2019 during Trump’s first presidential term, Remain in Mexico allowed Border Patrol to expel certain asylum-seeking migrants back to Mexico while their cases moved through the U.S. immigration court system.

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Sen. Bill Hagerty: Cabinet Nominees to Focus on ‘Executing’ Trump Agenda to Fulfill Voter Mandate, Face Consequences for Failures

Tom Pappert
Sen. Bill Hagerty on 'This Week'

Tennessee U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) predicted on Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees will be tasked with “executing” the Trump administration’s policies to fulfill his electoral mandate, and those who are unwilling or incapable of enacting Trump’s agenda will face consequences or be fired.

Hagerty offered his prediction for the Trump administration after he was questioned about the ideological differences between the president-elect and some of those asked to serve in his government, including Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

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Tennessee U.S. Senators to Confirm Pam Bondi as Attorney General

Tom Pappert
TN Senators and Pam Bondi

Both Tennessee U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty have signaled they intend to vote to confirm former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as the next U.S. Attorney General.

Bondi was nominated on Thursday by President-elect Donald Trump only hours after former Representative Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination, citing the distraction his confirmation could pose to the Trump-Vance administration.

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Mike Benz Explains Why He Is ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About President-Elect Trump’s Nomination of Pam Bondi as Attorney General

Kaitlin Housler
Pam Bondi and Donald Trump

Mike Benz, a former Trump State Department official and current executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as U.S. Attorney General, given Bondi’s shortcomings while she served as Florida’s chief legal officer.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump announced his nomination of Bondi as attorney general just hours after the president-elect’s initial choice, former Florida U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, withdrew his nomination.

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Virtue Signaling Nashville Banner Leaves Elon Musk’s X, Joins Democrat Exodus to Bluesky

Tom Pappert
Nashville Banner

The Nashville Banner announced in a series of posts to the social media platform X on Thursday that it is leaving the platform, citing the direction of the social media service since it was purchased by Elon Musk, who changed the company’s name from Twitter to X the next year.

In an announcement posted to the social media platform X, the news outlet wrote, “As of today, the Nashville Banner will stop posting on X.”

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Reporter Tom Pappert: DOJ in Panic Mode to Destroy Documents Before Trump Administration Is Sworn In

Kaitlin Housler
MPL and Pappert

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said employees at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) appear to be in a panic mode to destroy evidence that could become problematic under the incoming Trump administration in an effort to save themselves from being terminated or possibly from facing prosecution.

On Tuesday, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project found a document and product destruction truck outside of the DOJ’s headquarters in Washington D.C. – just days after the Justice Department reported a “division-wide system outage” that prevented its access to certain network files.

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James Erwin Details How Tennessee is Leading the Way in Administering Funding for Broadband Internet

Kaitlin Housler
James Erwin, Michael Patrick Leahy

James Erwin, federal affairs manager for telecommunications at Americans for Tax Reform, said Tennessee is leading the nation in awarding funding for broadband internet provided by the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program by ensuring funds do not go exclusively towards government-owned networks (GONs).

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More Republican Women Now Own Firearms Than Democrat Men, Poll Finds

Daily Caller News Foundation
Gun Range

More Republican women on average now own firearms than Democratic men, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

From 2019 to 2024, an estimated 33 percent of Republican women owned a firearm compared to only 29 percent of Democratic men, according to Gallup’s six-year groupings of ownership data. Compared to years 2013 to 2018, Republican women saw a 14-point spike in ownership.

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Tren de Aragua Moves Throughout Tennessee Cities in Human Trafficking Operations, TBI Director Warns

Tom Pappert
Bluff City Blues joint operation

After two Tennessee law enforcement agencies that serve Knoxville contradicted the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI), which last week warned the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is present in all major Tennessee cities, the agency pointed The Tennessee Star to a media advisory explaining local law enforcement may not be aware of the gang’s human trafficking operations.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office stated last Saturday that Tren de Aragua members are the subjects of any investigations, and no associates of the gang are in its correctional facilities. Two days later, the Knoxville Police Department Chief Paul Noel said the department is aware of the gang, but is “not aware of any active members of Tren de Aragua in Knoxville.”

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Trump Will Nominate Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as U.S. Attorney General

Christina Botteri
Donald Trump and Pam Bondi

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as the next Attorney General of the United States. The decision, hailed as a significant move toward restoring integrity to the Department of Justice, was made in the wake of former Representative and fellow Floridian Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration.

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Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton Supports TFA, GOA Lawsuit over Memphis Gun Ordinance

Tom Pappert
Cameron Sexton

A spokesman for Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday that Sexton supports the lawsuit brought against the City of Memphis by the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA) over its new gun ordinance that restrict Second Amendment within city limits.

The lawsuit was filed last week after Memphis voters passed legislation to require pistol licenses, impose red flag laws, and ban weapons deemed assault rifles, and Sexton’s spokesman confirmed his support for the lawsuit after the speaker previously promised the Tennessee House of Representatives would withhold Memphis’ share of state sales tax revenue if it imposed the ordinance.

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