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 all-star panelist Clint Brewer in-studio to discuss the changing culture of political endorsements as podcasters and businesspersons suggest their preferred candidates.
Leahy: [We’ve talked,] Clint, you and I, about how we don’t want time to move that fast as you get older. But now I’m going to talk about time moving fast. (Laughter) You know, it’s the whole presidential horse-race thing.
But it’s particularly of note right now and of interest, because we have a legal but not legitimate commander in chief, it appears, whose purpose is to destroy our constitutional republic.
That’s what it looks like to me. And everything’s wrong: Inflation, overspending, our standing in the world, et cetera. Meanwhile, we’ve got ongoing efforts to undermine former President Donald Trump’s standing in the world.
And you look at the J6 committee, it’s nothing but a PR attack, a third attempt to impeach him. So you got that going on. The country is in big trouble. And now, interestingly enough, I think if you went back to November, December of 2020, you would say, well, Donald Trump, absolutely huge support among Republican voters. But today, June 30, 2022 – well, let me just bring this story to your attention and get your reaction. Ever heard of this guy by the name of Joe Rogan?
Brewer: Yes, of course. I think I’ve read he’s the most listened-to podcaster out there. If there’s a chart for podcasters, he’s the number one.
Leahy: Yeah, I’ve seen a few clips of him. So obviously there are other people that are really interested in his podcast. What’s the compelling element of Joe Rogan?
Brewer: I think he’s sort of unpredictable, over the top, and says some things that are perhaps a little off-color. He’s got a lot of flash. It’s a lot of bombast and big stuff.
Leahy: What did he do for a living before he did this?
Brewer: I want to say he was at one point, maybe a comedian. And I think he had some involvement in MMA as a commentator. He called fights. He’s just been sort of an entertainer at large.
Leahy: A media entertainer at large, hanger-on type guy who’s now not a hanger-on, who’s like the lead act.
Brewer: No, he’s got a real audience. He cut a deal with Spotify, the streaming platform, to exclusively air his podcasts, and it was a big-money deal.
Leahy: And then he said something that the Woke crowd didn’t like, and they tried to get rid of them.
Brewer: Spotify did not kick him off the platform. They did not de-platform him. They said, we have to have all different views on here, and they just ignored it.
Leahy: His traffic is still good, he’s making money?
Brewer: My understanding is he’s still doing quite well.
Leahy: So yesterday he spoke with Gina Carano. Do you know who she is? She’s with The Daily Wire.
Brewer: Yes.
Leahy: She’s an actress. She was also an MMA [Mixed Martial Arts] person, I think, who became an actress, and then Disney fired her because she was not politically correct.
Brewer: Mike, I just think we should start telling people we were MMA people.
Leahy: You think?
Brewer: Just work that into our bios …
Leahy: And not anybody could look at me and say, you were never MMA.
Brewer: No, you were a commentator. (Leahy laughs) You were just involved loosely, just somewhere tangentially involved in MMA. It seems to be a new talking point on a lot of people’s bios.
Leahy: So Gina was fired by Disney. The Daily Wire picked her up …
Brewer: Gina Carano. She was on The Mandalorian.
Leahy: Yeah. She got fired by Disney. An actress and MMA fighter, who became an actress, is apparently pretty good.
Brewer: She was good.
Leahy: So Disney fires her and then now she’s starring in this Daily Wire movie called Terror on the Prairie. I looked at the clips and it doesn’t look awful. It’s a good first step by them. It looks fine.
And it may be even better than doesn’t-look-awful. I haven’t seen the whole thing. They apparently are MMA pals. And so she was on, it’s called The Joe Rogan Experience. And here’s what he said. I’ll just get the dialogue.
“So all this stuff is happening while we have a” … well, he said disparaging things about Joe Biden. I’m not even going to say what he said about it.
Brewer: Yeah, it was pretty off-color. This is a family show.
Leahy: It’s a family show, yeah. So Carano asked him, are you throwing out any support towards anyone? Are you going to hold off? Didn’t Elon Musk come out recently for DeSantis? This is what you might call a setup question.
Brewer: Yes.
Leahy: And so here’s what Rogan said. “I think Ron DeSantis would work as a good president. I mean, what he’s done for Florida has been admirable.”
      “I feel like I’m doing breaking news right now. That wasn’t even on purpose,” Carano said. (Chuckles) I think it was on purpose.
Brewer: You’re seeing a string of these sort of celebrity commentators and business people who are not serious political commentators, but they have a lot of influence on social media and alternative media structures like podcasting.
Elon Musk is talking about voting for Governor Ron DeSantis. Now you’ve got Joe Rogan. I mean, their collective audience is vast, right? So it’s not like Mitch McConnell has said, well, I think I’m supporting Ron DeSantis for the nomination, but you have people who have incredibly large audiences, and who are on the right to the fringes or the outside of mainstream party politics for either party. Culturally, that’s not a good indicator for former President Trump.
Leahy: No, it’s not. But of course, we have a long time. And, by the way, Governor DeSantis, there is jockeying, shall we say, between the DeSantis team and the Trump team. You know this is going on.
Brewer: Of course.
Leahy: And Roger Stone, who seems to show up everywhere, has publicly warned Donald Trump that DeSantis is angling for the nomination.
Brewer: I’m not sure that was breaking news for Donald Trump, but thanks, Roger.
Leahy: (Laughs) Yes, Roger.
Brewer: Roger coming in with Captain Obvious comments.
Leahy: The sartorially splendid Roger Stone, who was pardoned by former president Trump for …
Brewer: He is a snappy dresser. Maybe a little beat behind, often.
Leahy: A sartorially splendid dresser. But a character.
Brewer: But the DeSantis-Trump thing, it’s clear that Governor DeSantis has the hot hand. And is a rising brand. President Trump seems to be kind of stagnating.
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.
