The Great Divide: The Battleground State Report Discusses Democratic Infighting, Amazon, and the Green New Deal

The Battleground State Report, airing weekends with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett – is a one hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of a national weekend syndication rollout. While Kellett was on vacation, Gill and Leahy talked about the infighting taking over the Democratic party in relation to recent developments in the Amazon pull out of New York City and the Green New Deal and how these could indirectly effect typical Democrat voters in the battleground state of Virginia and nationwide.

Towards the end of the segment, the men pondered about what could possibly happen next between now and the Presidential 2020 election as many things have already transcribed in such a short period of time.

Gill: There are so many other issues that will have impact on the Presidential campaign in the Battleground States in particular. Amazon’s decision this week to pull out of their planned deal that were getting two and a half billion, three billion dollars to put a headquarters in New York City, Queens area. The Democrats in New York pushed against it. Andrew Cuomo the governor of New York,  who frequently gets mentioned as a potential presidential candidate but has not jumped in this time. Is fighting against the three billion dollar budget shortfall his state is suffering because of their own tax and spend policies. They thought a relief would come by creating tens of thousands of jobs thanks to Amazon. They were going to give big bucks to get it. But the leftists in New York stopped it. And now you’ve got again this fight between Democrats over this policy. You have this continued battle within the Democratic party that has the green new deal and everything else causing them huge issues. Mitch McConnell is apparently going to bring up the green new deal for a vote. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are pitching a hissy fit over the Republican’s daring to bring up one of their pieces of legislation and allowing them to vote on it because they know it’s not a good political play for them. When was the last time you saw a politician complain that they were getting a chance to have their legislation brought to a vote? And yet that’s what the Democrats are doing.

Leahy: Yeah and it’s very interesting how all of this is going to play out in the battleground states. Couple of things, the Amazon story and then of course the green new deal. So let’s look at the Amazon story. Amazon announced back in November they were going to bring two new corporate headquarters to the east coast split up between New York and Virginia. And then have some additional facilities in Nashville, Tennessee. Twenty five thousand jobs supposedly going to New York City area. Twenty five thousand going to northern Virginia and about five thousand going to Nashville, Tennessee. Well the twenty five thousand jobs in New York City are not going to happen. Amazon has said that they’re willing to keep their expansion into Virginia and into Tennessee. In Virginia I think the state government negotiated, we’ll give you like a billion dollars to come.

Gill expressed that it was a political play aimed at Washington, D.C. and not Virginia.  The men discussed Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and owner of the NY Post who’s worth over one hundred billion dollars and his current sexting scandal that was leaked over to the National Inquirer. They chuckled that in the amidst of this, the Bezos owned NY Post is taking shots at President Trump who in the state of Tennessee is giving one hundred and two million dollars to Amazon (Bezos) to supposedly bring their jobs to the state. The men were confused that Tennessee would pay Bezos to bring his business to a state that overwhelmingly voted for Trump as a dark red state. Leahy added that leaning blue Virginia’s new recent revelations and scandals were broken by the Washington Post also owned by Jeff Bezos. “I mean you just can’t make this stuff up,” chuckled Leahy.

Gill: What’s that old Ray Stevens song about streaking? “Don’t look Ethel!,” cried Gill.

Leahy:  The question is, will voters in Virginia who have been leaning blue. Will they decide not to look? (Laughs)

Gill: Well we talked a lot about it last weekend. You’ve got, Virginia’s an off year election.

Leahy: Yeah.

Gill: So their state House, their state Senate races are this year. And this divide, again we’re talking about the divide in New York between those who  supported the Amazon deal and those who didn’t. The governor is attacking Ocasio-Cortez for leading the fight against it in New York. But it in Virginia where you have a battleground state the divide of black voters who are asking themselves and asking out loud “Wait a minute, how come the alleged rapist Lieutenant Governor is under fire and may be removed from office. But the two white guys who are racist at the governor and attorney general positions keep their jobs.” That question is not going to go away between now and November. And the question is whether or not, black voters, that are the key to the democratic base to victory in Virginia and other states…

Leahy: Yeah, Virginia in particular.

Gill: Whether they’ll turn out to help elect white Democrats when their guy is being thrown off the bus!

The men concluded the conversation commenting on how interesting it will be to see all this all play out. Leahy added that there is nine months between now and the off year elections for the state legislature.  He commented that he believes that Virginia is one to watch and can be been seen as a signal about how other states will go in subsequent elections. Leahy expressed his fascination for how rapidly the stories have developed in only a week and a half surrounding Virginia. Leahy pondered about the twenty one months until the Presidential election and what could possibly happen in that amount of time.

“The common element of a lot of what’s happening are self inflicted wounds,” concluded Gill.

Listen to the full show here:

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Tune in every Friday morning and listen to The Battleground State Report with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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