Live from Music Row Thursday 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 recovering journalist Clint Brewer in studio for the first edition of Clint Brewer’s Winners and Losers of the Week.
Leahy: In studio, all-star panelist and good friend Clint Brewer. Clint, we are launching a new segment of the program here.
Brewer: That we cooked up seconds ago. (Laughs)
Leahy: Yes. It’s called Clint Brewer’s Winners and Losers of the Week. And next time, we’ll have a little bit of fun music to go along with that.
Brewer: I’m going to get some input on that.
Leahy: Our intrepid producer, Patrick, I can see him thinking, oh, this would be a great segment to get some new music on. Clint, you and Patrick can talk about it.
Brewer: We’re gonna huddle up on that.
Leahy: We’ll huddle up.
Brewer: Huddle up on that.
Leahy: So, ladies and gentlemen, the inaugural edition of Clint Brewers, winners and losers of the week. Who’s a winner this week?
Brewer: As much as it pains me to say it, I think Donald Trump’s a winner of the week.
Leahy: People are like driving off the road right now as they’re driving in to hear Clint Brewer say something good about Donald Trump.
Brewer: And it doesn’t pain me because I’ve disagreed with his policy’s necessary. I just can’t stand political ineptness. And his tendency to fumble the ball at the worst moments. But I think that he’s come back, and with some of his speeches, he seems to have a little more message. Discipline.
Leahy: He’s more on point?
Brewer: More on point. Not doing that rambling thing. He stopped talking about the 2020 election. Looking forward in his speeches, he seems to have listened to somebody close to him who said, if you keep doing this, it’s going to be a repeat of 2020.
Leahy: So what does that make Ron DeSantis the loser of the week?
Brewer: I don’t think DeSantis is stepping up to the moment. He’s not gaining the ground on Trump that he would need to make this competitive. He just he’s starting to look not ready for prime time. All this mess with Disney that his state legislature doesn’t want to be involved in.
He’s either got to get in or get out. He’s either got to meet the moment or not. He’s got to match force with force. If he’s going to mix it up with the former president of the United States, he needs to do that.
Leahy: He missed the moment.
Brewer: He let the pitch go by.
Leahy: Wasn’t the moment the end of November, the beginning of December?
Brewer: Yes. Step on the gas.
Leahy: 18 points.
Brewer: The victory is waning. The varnish is dulling. What’s next? And he’s trying to campaign from Florida. Book tours. It’s old school. He’s not really resonating in a modern digital environment. And that’s troubling for his chances.
Leahy: I think you’re right. And the other part about this is it’s the moment when he was on the upswing when he wins in stunning fashion, in unprecedented fashion, re-election as governor of Florida by 18 points over Charlie Crist. Trump stumbles. He stumbles badly in who he’s endorsed.
Brewer: In national politics, when your opponent stumbles, you got to put your foot on their neck. It didn’t happen.
Leahy: Yes. I thought you were kinder and gentler, but you’re actually on point when you say, when your opponent stumbles, put their, put your foot on their neck. He didn’t do it. Now he was a little bit constrained because there was this law that said you can’t run for president.
Brewer: Yeah. Yeah, I know now, but conservatives want a movement. They’re not just gonna get on board with whoever looks like they can win. They’ve got to feel it.
Leahy: They’re not feeling it now. They were with Ron DeSantis, but they’re not right now.
Brewer: Look at the candidates. You got Biden. You got Hillary Clinton. They’ll go along with whatever the establishment tells them to. Conservatives won’t do that.
Leahy: In the missteps, you talk about the Disney fight. Now they’re suing him, and it’s getting into a tangled mess.
Brewer: The juice was not worth the squeeze. And the other thing is, which is bizarre, is he goes on this trade mission as governor of Florida.
Brewer: Yes, that’s bad.
Leahy: Somebody should have said, Governor DeSantis, now either you’re going to announce and be a presidential candidate on an international tour or your going to stay home because nobody wants the governor of Florida to be on a trade mission to Japan and talk foreign policy as if they were a presidential candidate.
Brewer: Flying on undisclosed private charters. We don’t know who paid for them or what the circumstances are. Does the state of Florida not have a plane? It’s a big state. The state of Tennessee has a plane and we have more than one. Do they not have a state plane he can get on?
Leahy: It was very bizarre.
Brewer: Do they not have a business class airline that they have access to?
Leahy: And if Governor DeSantis had a real stirring speech in any of these places and been hailed as a national-level figure, perhaps all of that might have paid off. But he was panned. Everything he said internationally was nothing good.
Brewer: He’s presently not looking ready for prime time. That’s what I’m going to say.
Leahy: He’s kind of a boring guy.
Brewer: And you got Tim Scott waiting in the wings.
Leahy: He’s going to announce.
Brewer: It’s going to change the whole race.
Leahy: You think? We’ll find out. I don’t agree with you. We’ll see. Perhaps you are right.
Brewer: I’m very curious to see what former President Trump’s line of attack will be on Tim Scott in South Carolina.
Leahy: Trump wants Tim Scott in. He wants Vivek in. He wants Asa Hutchinson. He wants DeSantis. He wants them all in because they’re going to split the vote against him.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this 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.
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Voting for President Trump in 2016 was very easy, Hillary was overtly despised and known for her numerous lies. I felt President Trump made many positive changes but one point I cannot align is his need to verbally attack those with whom he disagrees. He lost veteran votes when attacking John McCain even though many did not want McCain to win. There was no need for the name calling. Likewise, he does not need to call Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis disparaging names. It isn’t too much to want my president to act presidential. I hope someone can get in his ear and tell him to stop it! He can win without the negativity. He must drop the almost Pavlovian reaction of attacking, or even responding to, the preposterous allegations thrown at him by the likes of Pelosi, Clinton, Biden’s teleprompter programmer, Schumer, Booker, Warren and the dishonest Obama. The democrat party will collapse in on itself as it continues to alter rules to limit party participation.