Live from Music Row Wednesday 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 The Tennessee Star’s national political editor Neil McCabe to the newsmaker line live from Union Square in Washington, D.C. to report on the busing of migrants from the southern border and the Senate race in Pennsylvania.
Leahy: We’re joined on our newsmaker line right now by the very best Washington correspondent in the country, national political editor for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network, Neil W. McCabe.
Neil, you are at Union Station in Washington, D.C. You are the welcoming committee for all those illegal aliens (McCabe laughs) that are coming up on the bus from Texas. Tell us about what’s going on there right now.
McCabe: Michael, it’s a carnival atmosphere here at Union Station, as a number of news people like myself participate.
Buses were sent by Governor Greg Abbott and from the great state of Texas – this is sort of Abbott’s way of saying if Biden and the Biden administration, those officials, they won’t come down to the border, I will send the border to them.
Of course, it kind of takes the punch out when these migrants are met by Catholic Charities rather than other sorts of charities that give them a ticket wherever they want to go.
Another reporter was telling me a few minutes ago, most of the migrants are asking for tickets to Miami, so they’re not really sticking around Washington, D.C., which is a shame because there are still some cherry blossoms here as I take a gaze upon Capitol Hill, Mike.
Leahy: What a great story, and how many media outlets are there right now as the welcoming committee for these illegal aliens and buses come up from Texas?
McCabe: There’s about 10. I got a tip probably about an hour ago that this was going to happen. And I was walking around and I was trying to figure out, where is this bus going to land? And then I saw the tripods.
There’s an old rule in Washington that the sticks know where the story is. So when you see the tripod, just walk to the tripod, and there it is.
So we’re standing by here. The bus was supposed to land around 7:30. I hope these guys aren’t caught up in traffic, because I know that can be such a bear.
Carmichael: Neil, let me ask you a question. If these illegal immigrants that are coming to Washington from Texas are then just, the Catholic Charities are then just giving them a ticket wherever they want to go – and let’s just assume for purposes discussion that it is as you say, Miami – what if Ron DeSantis says that’s not going to work for Florida.
We’re going to send them right back to Washington or send them to Baltimore? What happens? These people are becoming political footballs, and that’s a shame.
But it all starts with Biden not having a border policy that protects our southern border. But what say does Ron DeSantis have as to whether or not Catholic Charities can send illegal immigrants into Florida?
McCabe: Ron DeSantis has $100 million in his campaign fund. He’s a man of tremendous charisma, but I don’t think he has the power to stop a bus from entering his state.
And these guys are protected by the federal government, and there’s only so much he can do. The federal government has primacy over these immigration issues. And so DeSantis is just stuck like the rest of us.
Leahy: But couldn’t he greet them and give them tickets to, I don’t know, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and have them just land outside of Joe Biden’s mansion?
McCabe: There are relatives of mine that I want them to visit in Brookline, Massachusetts. Like, are you kidding? I’d send them to Martha’s Vineyard.
Remember, it was the great Rudy Giuliani as the mayor of New York who helped clean up Times Square by just loading all the homeless onto buses and sending them to New Jersey.
Leahy: Now, here’s an interesting little twist. I think DeSantis has some funding to send those illegal aliens out of Florida once they arrive. But you know what? Here in Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee, when he had the chance to say we don’t want any more refugees, said, no, we want refugees to come in, or illegal aliens.
If they were sent here to Tennessee, my guess is Bill Lee would put out the welcome mat and say, here you go. I got a question for you, Neil.
McCabe: Sure, go ahead.
Leahy: Now, with the judge’s ruling yesterday in Florida, getting rid of the mask mandate for airplanes, does it apply to buses, and are the illegal aliens on the buses coming up from Texas wearing masks?
McCabe: There’s tremendous social pressure, but I don’t think the law can force you to wear masks. I would say on the Metro coming into D.C. this morning, it was probably 50/50. There are still some diehards.
People sort of look around and they say, hey, buddy, why aren’t you wearing a mask? They say it with their eyes, Mike. They say it with their eyes. Where’s your mask, buddy?
Leahy: Now, is the Department of Justice going to appeal this ruling by the federal district court judge in Florida, that masks no longer apply on airplane flights?
McCabe: As you know, Mike, the land and the king are one. And the Justice Department is just as confused as the president walking around the south lawn of the White House. It seems like the Justice Department wants to do it, and now they’re sort of asking the Centers for Disease Control what to do.
Remember the TSA? Their whole mask mandate was based on guidance from the CDC. And so we’ll see what actually happens.
These poll numbers for the president are so tragic that I got to believe there are some political people and certainly people on Capitol Hill that are telling Biden, let this one go.
Carmichael: Here’s the problem that the Justice Department would have. Neil, I’m interested in your comment on this. I think that the problem that they have is that if they were to sue to overturn the 59-page judge’s decision, within those 59 pages are facts about the fact that there is no evidence that people are catching COVID on airplane flights.
There isn’t any evidence to support the need for masks. And they would have to then, if they went to court, they would have to argue the science, which they have none to argue. Your comment?
McCabe: Well, it’s not so much the science. I mean, the science is compelling. And obviously, we love science. Like science in high school.
The two things that were a problem with the mask mandate is one, the administration or the executive branch was never granted the authority to do such a thing by Congress.
And the second thing is that when you push out a regulation, the Administrative Procedures Act says there has to be a comments period. There have to be hearings, it has to be in the Federal Register.
There’s all these things, all these loopholes, and hoops you have to jump through, and the Biden administration ignored all of these procedures because they were just acting on an emergency fiat. There is no emergency fiat for masks. And this is the problem that they have.
Leahy: It sounds also like you’ve been very busy. You’re traveling around. You’re at the Union Station today getting all these great scoops. Tomorrow a little birdie is telling me that you’re going to be up in Pennsylvania at a town hall featuring Dr. Oz, who’s just been endorsed by Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, along with our radio broadcast partner in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia, the great John Fredericks.
McCabe: Yeah, it’s going to be amazing. And this Dr. Oz endorsement by Trump rankled some people. I was a little confused about it first. Now it makes complete sense.
Leahy: Tell us why it makes sense, in your view.
McCabe: If McCormick wins, he’s the leading guy. If McCormick wins, he was already ahead in the polls. And if Trump endorsed him, Trump would get no credit.
And everyone knows that as soon as McCormick gets into the Senate, he’s just going to be Mitt Romney. He’s not a Trump guy. Senator Oz is going to be a MAGA guy. And if he wins, Trump gets the credit, which helps his brand.
Leahy: That’s a good explanation for why Donald Trump endorsed a guy who has been notoriously sort of not a pro-life guy, not a pro-Second Amendment guy, and has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Turkey.
People were scratching their heads. Your analysis provides an understandable explanation for former President Trump’s endorsement. Crom has a question for you.
Carmichael: Doctor Oz – I’ve heard him being interviewed on the issues and policies. He’s very much a Trump person in his answers on issues and policies. Would you agree with that?
McCabe: He is now! A lot of people five or six years ago were pro-immigration, pro-China. It was like no big deal. Post-Trump, things changed. A lot of us changed.
I was a free-trade guy when I was a kid as a Reagan youth. Now I get it. And so I think Oz is going to be all-in on the MAGA program; McCormick, not so much.
Listen to the interview:
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