Stockard on the Stump: Lee stays on Trump bandwagon despite legal battles

Former President Donald Trump dances during his speech June 17, 2022 at the Faith and Freedom "Road to Majority" conference at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Convention Center. (Photo: John Partipilo)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to reflect claims by Gov. Bill Lee’s office that he never supported Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary for the presidential race even though media outlets reported he attended a DeSantis event for donors and backers in February 2023.

Big-name Trump supporters are falling like dead cicadas, but count Gov. Bill Lee among those riding the Trump train even as the former president deals with a hush-money trial and a host of criminal allegations.

That would put Lee in the same camp as Republican Congressman Andy Ogles, of Tennessee’s remade 5th Congressional District, looking surly while attending the New York City trial this week in support of Donald Trump.

Asked Thursday if he believes the former president should be the Republican nominee for the presidency, even as he faces prosecutions on a litany of criminal charges, Lee said, “I fully believe that this country would be better off under President Trump’s leadership, and I am hopeful that he’s the next president.”

Maybe his moral compass stops where politics begin.

Lee supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis early on before his candidacy crashed. He didn’t exactly answer the question, either, Thursday after speaking shortly at a LEAD charter school signing event at Belmont University. 

Apparently, he had no choice but to dump DeSantis, then gave short shrift to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, leaving Trump as the clear favorite. 

The Governor’s Office denied Friday that Lee supported DeSantis at any point in the Republican primary and noted the governor said he could not endorse any candidate because of his role as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Yet Lee reportedly attended a three-day event at Four Seasons Hotel for top donors and supporters of DeSantis in Palm Beach, Florida in early 2023.

After Super Tuesday, Lee gave all of his backing to Trump, who could win the presidency because, oddly, his support seems to grow stronger as he faces more legal charges.

On a trip to Cherokee, North Carolina last year, we stopped for pictures at a local store’s Bigfoot billboard. (I have a crazy neighbor who’s big on Sasquatch, so every time we see Bigfoot I send him photos). 

Inside and outside, the store also was littered with Trump paraphernalia. Asked about the merch, the store’s operator said, “That’s what people want.” 

It makes sense. Sell what they’re buying. 

On a bigger scale, it comes down to this: People like the former reality show guy so much they’re willing to overlook allegations of porn star payoffs, New York business law violations, classified document breaches, strong arming to overturn the 2020 election and, oh yes, direction of that little conflagration at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. (Most of us saw it on TV, but did it really happen?)

For the sake of argument, however, let’s say he didn’t cheat on his wife and have sex with Stormy Daniels or try to shut her up with $130,000 as the 2016 election neared; that he didn’t refuse to return classified information to the feds instead of keeping them at Mar-A-Lago; and that he was simply trying to fire up a crowd of supporters before they stormed the Capitol in search of VP Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and any lawmaker they could lynch. 

After all, vote manipulation is nothing but a conspiracy by Democrats to keep him from reclaiming the White House. “What they’re doing to that man is wrong,” people say.

Gov. Lee and Tennessee’s political leaders, many of whom claim to be the law-and-order type, are quick to dismiss the criminal charges — paying off a porn star and violations of New York business law, to say nothing of trying to overturn an election — against the former president.

All that forgiven, it remains exceedingly difficult to get around the Trump phone call to Georgia’s Republican secretary of state urging him to find 11,780 votes, which would allow him to reverse the state’s election, win 16 electoral votes and capture the 2020 presidential election. 

The phone call is easily accessible online, and no one has ever disputed it was Donald Trump on the phone to Brad Raffensperger, who made the right call and refused the request.

But instead of disputing the allegations at the heart of the matter, Trump’s people dug up dirt on Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis, who is accused of having a relationship with a special prosecutor hired to handle the Trump case. Georgia judges have found the case can move forward, even as Trump’s legal team is pressing an appeal, an effort to litigate until eternity.

Gaming the system is within everyone’s right. But outside the legal halls, apparently it’s OK for the former president to try to cover up affairs – after all, boys will be boys – while a woman who has an illicit affair is persecuted til the bitter end.

Thus, it’s a tad disappointing that Gov. Lee and Tennessee’s political leaders, many of whom claim to be the law-and-order type, are quick to dismiss the criminal charges against the former president in their zeal to rid the country of Democratic President Joe Biden. Then again, Bill Clinton had his own low points in the Oval Office. 

While they accuse Biden-flation of destroying the economy, it must be noted the president sent Tennessee billions of dollars the state used to prop up its budget during the COVID-19 pandemic and now hand out millions of dollars for broadband expansion (Gov. Lee is bragging about this). Those were accompanied by a nice sales tax break for companies buying cable and other materials to make sure Tennessee is the latest gig-state, though not quite on the heels of Chattanooga, the gig-city.

Meanwhile, Internet reception in the House chamber is about like the food in the Cordell Hull cafeteria: they call it the grab and go, but it’s more like the hit or miss.

Thank you, Mr. Gerry Mander

Since winning the 5th District Congressional seat courtesy of a Republican-controlled gerrymandering committee (sorry, I meant to say redistricting), U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles has brought all sorts of meaningful federal legislation. Just ask him.

His latest act of idiocy is introducing the “Let Trump Speak Act,” which would stop judges from issuing gag orders against defendants to keep them from upsetting criminal and civil proceedings.

“We have watched for years as a politically weaponized Department of Justice and Democrat activist judges have gone after President Donald J. Trump,” Ogles told Fox News Digital. “There is no right more sacred to Americans than the right to speak freely, as guaranteed in the First Amendment.”

Yes, the First Amendment is important, and jurists also have the right to do their duty within the legal system without facing threats and outlandish statements from a former president.

It could be possible Ogles has never heard of the separation of powers, or maybe he wants to throw out the entire judicial system, though I’m pretty sure the judge’s gag order is designed to keep Mr. Trump from poisoning the hush-money trial.

Simultaneously, Ogles is sponsoring the so-called “Study Abroad Act” that would revoke the visas of students participating in pro-Hamas protests on American college campuses and force them to study elsewhere, possibly in Iran, Qatar or Gaza.

Without getting into the entire mess of the Israel-Hamas war, it is becoming clear that Ogles would like to outlaw any speech he doesn’t like that’s critical of U.S. policy while allowing Trump to spew any sort of vitriol he can muster.

Wait a second, doesn’t Ogle spend a lot of energy criticizing the Biden Administration? Maybe he should go to Russia where, no doubt, Putin will welcome him to finish building Trump’s tower.

“It don’t matter to me”

Tennessee Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds continues to run afoul of Democrats, namely Rep. Caleb Hemmer of Nashville who filed an ethics complaint against her for attending ExcelinEd events on a lobbyist’s dime, in violation of state rules. She worked for the pro-choice education group before Gov. Lee brought her in last year to push his private-school voucher bill, which failed to pass the Legislature.

Reported initially by The Tennessean, Hemmer’s ethics complaint points out Reynolds attended out-of-state conferences in October and November 2023 paid for by ExcelinEd, an employer of a Tennessee lobbyists, even though no lobbyist or lobbyist’s employer is allowed to provide gifts, directly or indirectly to a candidate, legislative branch official, executive branch official or family members.

Commissioner Reynolds is doing an excellent job. She’s proven to be qualified for this job, and I’m very proud of the work we’re doing together and look forward to continuing that work.

– Gov. Bill Lee, addressing ethics complaints about Education Commissioner Lizette Reynolds

The first question is: If Tennessee has $144 million for a voucher program that couldn’t make it into law this year, doesn’t it have enough petty cash to pay for Reynolds’ trips to Atlanta and Indianapolis? 

The second question is a combo: Where did they find this woman who is less qualified to be education commissioner than a handful of dead cicadas? And, why is Gov. Lee defending this liability no matter what?

She never met the official qualifications to become commissioner and half a year into her tenure still had voter registration in Texas.

Asked Thursday about her less-than-stellar performance and the ethics complaint, Gov. Lee said, “Commissioner Reynolds is doing an excellent job. She’s proven to be qualified for this job, and I’m very proud of the work we’re doing together and look forward to continuing that work.”

Which begs the question: What planet has he been on the last five months? 

Since when is it OK to commit perjury on a tuition waiver form (it was excused as an administrative error), take travel money from a lobbyist and – this is based on powers of observation – run from reporters who want to ask about such indiscretions? All the time, if you work for Tennessee’s governor.

“She took all my money, wrecks my new car. Now she’s with one of my good time buddies, they’re drinking in some cross-town bar.” *

*”Whipping Post,” The Allman Brothers

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