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The Tennessee Conservative with Brandon Lewis covers the stories that mainstream media ignores. Join us for interviews you won't hear on the nightly news, and for the Big 7 Weekly Digest!
Opinion driven. Matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own words and discuss my own ideas. Good morning. The Chris Hand Show. Super talk 99 7 WTN.
Chris Hand:906 on Super Talk 99 7 WTN. My name is Chris Hand. Good morning. Happy Super Tuesday. Before we get into all the festivities that will happen today, I'm joined on the line by Brandon Lewis, the founder of Tennessee conservative, tennesseeconservative news dot com.
Chris Hand:A lot of times we wonder what can we do about what's happening at the border here in Tennessee. How how can we make our voices heard with what we're experiencing because of the border crisis here in Tennessee? Well, Brandon Lewis of Tennessee Conservative News has organized a rally on Wednesday, March 20th at the state capitol. It's gonna be pretty wild. Janice Bolling will be speaking.
Chris Hand:Jody Barrett is gonna be speaking, senator Mark Pote, rep Gino Bolso, our our friend from the Mill Creek View podcast, Steve Abramowitz, and our friend Chris Spencer, who's running for state senate in district 18. And joining me on the line now is Brandon Lewis from Tennessee Conservative News. And, Brandon, I I just gotta ask, where did this idea come up for this rally, and why do you think it's so important to do?
Brandon Lewis:Well, thanks for having me on, buddy. I appreciate your work. There are so few doing the, conservative yeoman's work at the state level. We need more like you. So there's a few things, mister Hand.
Brandon Lewis:Number 1 is when we do policy surveys to thousands and thousands of Tennessee GOP primary voters, we'll ask them to pick out of a long list of issues what's the number one thing of all other things they think GOP leadership should be working on in Tennessee, and stopping illegal immigration is, like, number 1. It's, like, 60% of people selected. Everything else is a is a way distant second, 3rd, 4th, or 10th. The other issue that has brought this to my attention aside from the fact that there's this huge influx and it's in the national news and everyone can see it is that the Tennessee GOP has a long history of not only failing to stop illegal immigration in our state, but actually making it worse. And if you'd like me to run through a little of that with your listeners and let them draw their own conclusions, I'd be happy to.
Chris Hand:Yeah. Give me give me a little backstory on what you've been seeing and kind of what led you to this point.
Brandon Lewis:So I'm gonna briefly, I mean, very quickly quickly run through this. Number 1, when we founded our organization because we couldn't get the truth out of mainstream media about COVID in 2020, and we had the medical freedom sessions, that would roll back all the nonsense. We discovered that there was, like, a clandestine covert covered in black illegal immigration center where kids were being kept in Tennessee that was all hush-hush. Well, our reporting got national news, and that that center was was shut down, but not before kids were molested and lost. And Bill Lee is the one that put it in our community without any discussion and authorized it.
Brandon Lewis:And and people didn't want it, but he did it anyway. We they have killed every bill that has been brought by people like Griffey to strengthen E Verify. They've killed bills that would stop the taxpayer funding of illegal immigration, which cost Tennessee taxpayers $577,000,000 a year. There was a bill to stop mass transportation that actually had teeth for enforcement. It was killed.
Brandon Lewis:Checking the illegal immigration status to vote in Tennessee, you think that'd be kinda easy to do? Nope. Got killed. And, but what they have done is they gave them professional licenses. The legislature gave illegal aliens professional licenses.
Brandon Lewis:They signed the bill. They also, William Lambert, brought a bill that would make illegal aliens, cops. Our reporting, made him withdraw that bill. Dale Carr, introduced a bill that would even weaken our already weak E Verify standards for employment. And so as you can see I mean, I don't know.
Brandon Lewis:Your your your, listeners are smarter than the average listeners. If this is the the history of of GOP leadership stance on legal immigration, can they possibly really care about stopping it?
Chris Hand:So why were those bills getting killed? You know, you kinda rattled off a bunch there. What is what is the main reason why you think that none of this stuff is kinda getting pushed through?
Brandon Lewis:I think we've got 2. The first is, as I mentioned to you when we talked last, we did a huge, very expensive report that took 100 of hours. And what we discovered is with GOP leadership at the state level in Tennessee, 90 plus percent of their funding comes from special interest, mainly left leaning corporations outside of their districts. So somebody's got a $100 in their bank account, 90 of it came from corporate special interest, 10 of it came from back home. But when all your money comes from special interest and you get lazy and you don't have to depend on your your districts to raise your money, and then there's a fight between the well organized corporate money and the huge, lobbyists that they bankrolled that are there 247 living under the legislator's desks in Cordell Hall.
Brandon Lewis:And then you have uninformed and low information Republican primary voters who think because Bill Lee posts some pictures of him, visiting the border for the cameras or because Bill Lee is gonna send a 100 or 200 or whoever, however many Tennessee guardsmen that things are actually happening. So it's a combination of the fact that many of these people, they're in republican leadership are honestly just old southern democrats that run as republicans because that's how their district is drawn. They get corrupted by this corporate money, and then they fail to do the will of the people.
Chris Hand:So, I mean, you sound pretty fed up with everything that's going on. I am
Brandon Lewis:just a tuning I am just a tuning fork, for the GOP base in Tennessee. I advocate for what they, on average, want want to to be passed. I really don't put my personal opinion into in things other than my personal commentary. And, for example, like on school choice, there's some people that are for it, some people that are against it. Our our base is split on that, and so I tell the truth about it.
Brandon Lewis:Right? And so but our base is not split on legal immigration at all. Like, I mean, I believe when I send out an email to, like, 20 something 1,000 people, I got 2 people that replied back and said, I can't believe we're doing this protect Tennessee borders event, and everybody else is not. Thank god somebody in the state's actually making noise about this.
Chris Hand:So you're doing this rally on Wednesday, March 20th at 1 o'clock. What do you expect to like, what are what are your goals for this rally to protect Tennessee's borders?
Brandon Lewis:So we have, really I guess, the the purpose of the event is to make sure that Republican lawmakers know as they go into the Republican primaries, that if they won't do something about it, we're gonna find other people who will. The real conservatives, not the people that just run because that's how their district is drawn. But we've got 4 main things, right, of what would stop illegal immigration here. Number 1, we've gotta make it harder for legal immigrants to get employment and and drive down wages for blue collar workers in Tennessee that are native. We've gotta do that.
Brandon Lewis:Number 2, we have to stop the biggest benefit magnet coming to Tennessee, and that is the funding of a legal immigration, education. Think about it. Somebody comes here with 3 kids, and it's immediately a $36,000 a year burden to Tennessee taxpayers. Immediately. Now that's it.
Brandon Lewis:That's even if they go productively, try to do something else. Number 3, we need to not only ban the mass transportation, we need to make it legal, and and put people out of business who do this in our state, these charter bus companies, these, airlines that fly them in. If you're an NGO, and you you bring people mass transport, and we need to take the licenses away. So we're not gonna tolerate that here in our state. And then finally, we need to cut off the benefits.
Brandon Lewis:There's no reason someone should come here to break her laws, be in Tennessee, and get housing, food stamps, or any other type of benefit. They need to to to stand on their own 2 feet. But if we make Tennessee in hospice when people have choices of where to go, just like in Florida, they will pick other places.
Chris Hand:So you're just looking to demagnetize the state by any means necessary?
Brandon Lewis:Well, we have to. Right? Like, we can't shut the border down. And so state lawmakers, you always give 1 of 2 arguments. Here that here they are, and they're both false.
Brandon Lewis:And it's just really meant to to make people shut up and go away. Number 1 is, oh, well, this is a federal issue. The hell it is. If it's not enumerated in the constitution to the federal government, it's left for the states. And this is very much left for the states.
Brandon Lewis:And the second thing they say is, well, we'll get sued. I'm like, we all get sued every day, like, 5 times. Okay? Every time you pass a law, somebody doesn't like to get sued. That's just par for the course.
Brandon Lewis:That's the minimum ante. And so what it really is is the Chamber of Commerce, the NFIB, all these huge, corporate companies, Ford Motor Company, the Amazons, all those people that that interject themselves into our state politics. They they fund the apparatus up there, and they don't want that. They see illegal immigration as another client because they serve so many people. It's just another head count.
Brandon Lewis:They see it as cheap labor. And then our government school systems see it as, hey, we're gonna get this. If we just get somebody in here, any human any human, it doesn't matter the academic progress, it doesn't matter how bad it negatively impacts our native children, hey. That's 12 more grand. And so we've got these these forces that are pushing this in our state, and they want it.
Brandon Lewis:And so the primary voters don't, and we've got to rise up and send a clear message.
Chris Hand:And you're gonna be saying this is Brandon Lewis on the line with us from Tennessee conservative news, and you plan to send that message on March 20th, in at the state capitol. How many people are you expecting currently to get down there? How many people do you want down there?
Brandon Lewis:I don't know, man. This is a touchy subject. Right? Everybody wants this problem fixed. Nobody wants to be identified as somebody advocating for it.
Brandon Lewis:I mean, that's just that's the truth about this. A very touchy subject. It shouldn't be, but it is. But what we'll have a few 100. I don't know how many.
Brandon Lewis:I'm sure some leftist organization, is already paying people to dress up and, finally press brand new KKK outfits and come down there and hold signs with masks on. As I did, I guess, saw that whole parade in Nashville, and it's just comical. I'm like, if these if there are any of these people in Tennessee, they're in their mother's basement. They don't have the money nor the the, brainpower to come color coordinated and perfectly pressed. Thanks.
Chris Hand:With with creases in their flags.
Brandon Lewis:Yes. I mean, I'm like, come on, people. But, you know, whatever. I mean, but I I assume, you know, I can already write the leftist headlines, mister Hand. GOP holds Nazi rally.
Brandon Lewis:White supremacists gathering of it's, you know, you can they already they've already written the article. Right? They'll come report on it. That's what that's what the mainstream press primarily is gonna do. And 10 seconds that a lot of the you get your corporate funding, man.
Brandon Lewis:It really changes your ability to be truthful with folks.
Chris Hand:Well and I will say this, you know, you've you've said, you know, you're you're kind of disenfranchised with a lot of the state government, but you do have a lot of reps and senators from Tennessee joining you at this rally as speakers. Tell me about who's going to be there and, you know, what what they think about the cause.
Brandon Lewis:So the people that are coming to our event, the Janice Bowings, the Mark Potey, the Jodi Baritz, the Gino Balsos, the folks folks like that, are are are in this marginalized conservative minority. I'll give you a perfect example. Janice Bowling brought a bill that would have stopped transgender surgeries 2 years ago, and GOP leadership killed it. Right? And then all of a sudden, Matt Walsh comes into town, gives them a national black eye, and then Jack Johnson and the rest of the leadership runs out there, grabs the spotlight as if it's their idea, and they pass the bill.
Brandon Lewis:And it's not they won't do things when they're right, but they'll go take the credit if the heat gets hot enough. Right? And so my hope is is that we can get the heat hot enough for these people, to come in. And we've got, you know, moms for liberty move their legislative day so they could come up there and and be helpful. I thank god for those ladies.
Brandon Lewis:We've gotten some, I've got a phone call from Tory Venable at at AFP who's gonna try to help us build a crowd for this. And and so we're we're really we're building this grassroots coalition all across the state. We got little grassroots groups and then tour buses, full of people to come help, which I'm just I never call in favors. I do this for free. I don't make any money doing it.
Brandon Lewis:I make my money doing something else. But it just you know, when you're when you're out there on the tip of the spear, it's good to see conservatives get off the couch. Don't worry about being called names. They don't have any power if you don't let them have power, and to talk about these policies. Because if we don't do something, mister Hand, we're gonna turn around, and we will have a Tennessee that we don't recognize.
Brandon Lewis:It will not take long. You can already drive through parts of Tennessee and wonder, am I in the United States of America anymore? It has gotten so bad. And so there there's just as people do not live with their doors wide open, and if somebody wants to come in and sleep on your couch that you don't know and start living with you, we need to have sensible, immigration policies in our state. And if our federal government doesn't have them, we need to develop and implement them at the state level.
Chris Hand:Hey. I'm with you, and I'm I'm looking forward to see how this goes for you guys. The rally is March 20th. It's going to be at the state capitol. Brandon Lewis from Tennessee Conservative News.
Chris Hand:If you want more information on the rally, where can we go to get it, Brandon? Alright.
Brandon Lewis:Here we go, guys. Protect, p r o t e c t, protect t n, that's for Tennessee, borders, plural, dot com. So protect tnborders, dot com. If you think you're gonna come, if you're not a 100% committed, just sign up for the rally anyway, and we will send you information. If for whatever reason you can't make it, at least you'll be informed, maybe you can support us by getting the word out.
Brandon Lewis:But that's protect TN borders dotcom, and you've been very, very kind. And guys, I'll say this in closing. The fact that mister Han will have me on his radio show to talk about this shows you he's a true conservative. There are so many conservative talk show host in this in Tennessee that would not touch this topic with a 10 foot poll. Mister Hand, I appreciate you, and your your listeners should appreciate you as well.
Chris Hand:Well, thanks, man. You'd have to say all that. But, I I think that this is important, and and I think that what you're doing is good work. And, you know, if if nobody's gonna hold our officials accountable, who will?
Brandon Lewis:Exactly, sir. I appreciate your work very much.
Chris Hand:Hey. Thanks, Brandon. Brandon Lewis from Tennessee Conservative News. Protect TN borders.com. If you want more info on the rally that's happening on March 20th, protect tnborders.com.