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 describe The Epoch Times‘ upcoming debate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District candidates July 12th at the Masonic Lodge in downtown Nashville.
Leahy: We are joined in-studio by the official guest host of The Tennessee Star Report and the lead political reporter of The Tennessee Star, Mr. Aaron Gulbransen. Good morning, Aaron.
Gulbransen: Good morning. I am freshly napped over the long weekend.
Leahy: There you go. Up bright and early. So much to talk about. Let’s talk about some of the breaking news that you have about The Epoch Times debate, which will be held a week from today – what is it, 6:00 or 7:00? – on Tuesday, July 12th at the old Masonic Lodge in downtown Nashville.
Who has been invited? Who has accepted? And I think you talked directly with Roger Simon of The Epoch Times about this. Who will be the subject matter experts, who will be there?
Gulbransen: Of course, you’ve got Gordon Chang as the China subject matter expert, which will be wonderful. It will be interesting to see which of these candidates – so you’ve got five that have been invited: Tre Wittum, the Senate aide, has accepted. You have Andy Ogles, Maury County Mayor, has accepted.
You have retired Brigadier General Kurt Winstead has accepted. Jeff Beierlein has accepted. And I think they’re just waiting on seeing whether or not Beth Harwell commits to doing it.
Leahy: Beth Harwell, the former Speaker of the House of Tennessee, is not yet committed.
Gulbransen: My understanding is there may be an event conflict.
Leahy: This is a big debate.
Gulbransen: It is.
Leahy: And it’s less than a month before the election. Why would the former Speaker of the House Beth Harwell not be present at this national visibility debate from The Epoch Times?
Gulbransen: I have no inside information. But there’s only one reason I would skip a debate like this if I were a candidate in the race. Significant amounts of money would be at stake, so, that would be the question.
Leahy: You mean for fundraising.
Gulbransen: Yes.
Leahy: Well, there’s another reason. If you think you’re the frontrunner, you might dodge the debate in order not to be asked questions that might take you down. That would be the other possibility.
Gulbransen: True. I mean, if I was her, though, I wouldn’t actually, now I’m divining people’s brains here, but I wouldn’t be terribly worried about questions, given her long history and politics. She should be up to the challenge.
Leahy: Yeah, I would think so. I would think so. I think so. Okay, well, Speaker Harwell, I hope you come and participate in the one week from today, a big event, big debate.
Gulbransen: I’m going to be there hanging out and covering it.
Leahy: Roger Simon will be there, and as will the subject matter experts. Hans von Spakovsy, our good friend, will be the election integrity expert.
He’s a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an expert on election integrity. They’ve got some science guys there too, and so it’s going to be really good.
Gulbransen: And they’ve been pretty open that this could be a model going forward for future races, or potentially bringing in candidates or people of note to have these kinds of conversations in the future.
Leahy: I think it’d be great. These joint press conferences and joint press appearances are interesting, but not necessarily all that enlightening. You kind of get to know what a candidate stands for, but you don’t get a lot of back-and-forth.
Gulbransen: Let’s be really blunt on forums; they are wonderful opportunities to watch candidates give really canned answers because they’re pretty sure they know what the questions are going to be in advance.
The entertaining and unique side of this Epoch Times debate is they’re not going to have that opportunity. They’re going to have to think on their feet.
Leahy: July 12th, one week from today. If you want to get tickets there are free tickets available, just go to Eventbrite and plug in Epoch Times Nashville debate.
Listen to the discussion:
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