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 Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) to the newsmaker line to comment upon Hunter Biden’s art dealings, Congress’s goals, and whether Kevin McCarthy will be elected Speaker of the House.
Leahy: We are joined right now by our very good friend Congressman John Rose, who represents the 6th Congressional District in Tennessee. Good morning, Congressman Rose.
Rose: Good morning, Michael Patrick. Thank you for having me on in The Tennessee Star Report this morning.
Leahy: We’re always delighted to have you. Are you here in town, or are you up in Washington, D.C?
Rose: I’m in DC. today, came up yesterday. And we’ve got a long week ahead and a lot of work that we’ve put off all year that we’ve now got to do here in the next week. Rumors that we’re going to be back here the week before Christmas because we’ve put off studying for the exam until the night before and can’t get it all done.
Leahy: So you gave a speech about the new majority accountability. Tell us about that. What prompted that speech?
Rose: It’s been embarrassing just seeing how Congress, under Nancy Pelosi’s rule, the House of Representatives has just given the president a walk in terms of holding him accountable and his administration accountable for their failure to uphold the Constitution and enforce the laws of this country. And my point in the speech was that this was last week and that in 27 days, there’s going to be a new sheriff in town, and we’re going to change the way we’re doing things in the House and start holding President Biden accountable.
Leahy: It’s kind of interesting because if you look at the behavior of President Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who’s going to be the subject of some hearings, Hunter Biden is walking around like he’s the king of the hill. It’s kind of a bizarre thing to watch, isn’t it?
Rose: It really is. And perhaps he should be, given that he’s been given a pass essentially by the law enforcement community. You think about how long they’ve had his laptop, which apparently contains pretty devastating incriminating information, and yet we’ve heard nothing in terms of actual prosecution or real concerted investigation.
And yet, of course, we know that the law enforcement community across the nation, and particularly here in Washington, our federal authorities seem to be enamored with pursuing the former president.
The attorney general thinks we need a special prosecutor for the former President, but he’s perfectly fine to oversee the investigation of his boss who appointed him to his job, which I would think would be kind of the classic definition of the conflict of interest that might give rise to a special prosecutor.
Leahy: Congressman Rose, this may not be exactly in your lane, but you are in Congress, and there are committees that you’re on, and there will be an oversight committee and hearings on Hunter Biden. I’m just going to throw this out. It seems to me beyond bizarre, but Hunter Biden, the only thing apparently he’s been able to do to make a living, has been to pedal the influence of foreign countries. This is me talking, not you.
But the other thing that he’s done now since he’s got a spotlight shined upon any influence peddling he does, and this is so bizarre. He’s decided he’s an artist. (Rose chuckles) And look, I’ve looked at some of his, “artwork.” This is like a kid in the third grade could do this, it seems to me.
Rose: Right.
Leahy: And yet he’s selling this stuff to anonymous parties. I saw one report; he saw one big third-grade canvas for, like, $225,000. Will Congress be looking into who’s buying his art for $225,000 and what they expect to get for it?
Rose: Sure, I certainly hope so, and I believe so. And we all know what that is. It’s not hard to figure that out. You and I could throw some paint on a canvas. I don’t know about you, but for me, that wouldn’t be very pretty.
Leahy: I think your art, Congressman Rose, would be superior to Hunter Biden’s art. (Chuckles)
Rose: I’ll just let everyone know; if anybody wants that $225,000 John Rose original, I’ll whip one up for you. And they’ll be very scarce, but there’ll be a regular supply of them as long as there’s money, right?
I think that’s what you see. I think that’s what the common denominator here is. And maybe, though, Hunter, he’s had a lot of problems. Maybe in therapy, he’s learned to paint. I don’t know.
Leahy: Let me ask you a big question. With this controversy about who’s going to be the next Speaker of the House, I think the numbers are 222 members of the incoming Congress are Republicans, and 213 are Democrats.
That’s a narrow majority for Republicans. I’ve seen reports said anywhere from four to seven members of the Republican House, the incoming House have said, I’m not going to vote for Kevin McCarthy. That throws the whole thing up into disarray. Will you be voting for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, and will he be elected Speaker of the House?
Rose: Yes, I will be voting for Kevin, and I think he will be the Speaker of the House. I think you’re going to see some members, and I believe some of them earnestly feel that there were some changes that are needed. And to that degree, I applaud them for working with Kevin and our conference to find the right set of rules that give members a say in how Congress will be run.
And that’s a laudable goal. At the end of the day, I think this is mainly a negotiation. There are probably some of those members who are determined and are not happy, it appears, with Kevin. But I’ve been here for four years, and I watched the politics before I came here, and I remember the changeover from Speaker Boehner back in the day, and when Kevin was believed to be next in line and that didn’t work out, and we ended up with Paul Ryan.
And I think maybe that’s an example of where we are in terms of what could go wrong. I don’t think, though, Kevin was quite ready at that time. I think he is now. I think he’s done a yeoman’s job of bringing the conference together over the last four years and working with both sides of the aisle, and he has strident supporters across the spectrum.
I think it’s no secret that Marjorie Taylor Greene is a big supporter of Kevin and speaks out very passionately about her support for Kevin in the conference. And that’s been widely reported. And there are some that have some issues that they want to advance, and you can’t blame them for that. I think the press is probably making this a bigger deal than it is. I believe Kevin will be elected as Speaker of the House on January 3rd.
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 “John Rose” by United States Congress. Background Photo “United States Capitol” by David Maiolo. CC BY-SA 3.0.
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