Tennessee Grassroots And Republican Establishment At Odds
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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Earlier this month, two conservative media outlets in Tennessee leveled accusations at the director of local grassroots organization Tennessee Stands, Gary Humble.
In an interview The Tennessee Star did on September 14th, the publication’s owner Michael Patrick Leahy and political consultant and one time member of former Governor Bill Haslam’s administration Clint Brewer, used approximately the first 10 minutes of a 26 minute segment to characterize Humble as a newcomer who is “sketchy” and “bizarre”.
Based on the commentary in the segment, this seems to be because Humble has been critical of the republicans in the state of Tennessee regarding their effectiveness (or in Humble’s view, lack of effectiveness) to create and implement what Humble and those who follow his organization Tennessee Stands, would consider truly conservative policies.
However, this isn’t the only conservative media organization that seems to have a beef with Humble, WTN’s Matt Murphy has made Humble the focus of his ire on more than one occasion, with seemingly the same issues as Leahy and Brewer.
Murphy alleges that Humble is unfairly judgmental of Republican leadership in the state, and that his observations about such matters should be disregarded because Humble is a “fringe lobbyist” who is according to Murphy’s X feed, a “garbage human”, a “POS” and a “CS”.
Additionally, on Murphy’s show around the same time, Tennessee Stands and Gary Humble were discussed by Murphy and Aaron Gulbransen who until recently was employed by The Tennessee Star as their political commentator, and now holds a position with The Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, as their Executive Director, an offshoot of the national org founded in Georgia by former Bush politico, Ralph Reed.
The segment’s primary focus is the outrage that Murphy and Gulbransen express over the afore mentioned X feed post by Humble that make inferences about 9/11. Murphy and Gulbransen felt Humble’s post should make him “a pariah in Tennessee politics” because they shed a sinister shadow on possibly what our government knew, and what they may or may not have done in relationship to the events of 9/11.
In the segment, Murphy and Gulbransen lament Humble’s frequent and harsh criticism of Republican Tennessee lawmakers, while he (Humble) makes “20-minute videos” “wearing eyeliner”.
Gulbransen also speculates, that Humble only created Tennessee Stands so he could run for office, that Humble supported legislation from ultra-progressive Tennessee law maker Justin Jones of Tennessee Three fame, opposed the right to work amendment, opposed ending slavery in the Tennessee constitution, and that “he doesn’t like Donald Trump”. All assertions were made without adding any context or further explanation that would validate Gulbransen’s claims.
Gulbransen makes more mention of the organization that he himself manages, the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, and his organizations chairman of the board, Aaron Spradlin – both of which have also been the subject of criticism from mainstream press outlets in Middle Tennessee.
Phil Williams of Channel 5 featured a story about TTFFC’s chairman of the board, Aaron Spradlin, who was being sued by a company called PRB Supply in Las Vegas over claims that Spradlin under the name of his security company in middle Tennessee Pale Horse Security, neglected to fulfill its obligation to PBS when PBS agreed to finance Pale Horse for the deals it made with the state of Tennessee to procure PPE in return for a portion of the profits.
Pale Horse Security was a substantial player in Governor Lee’s 80-million dollar no-bid search for personal protective equipment (masks) and other Covid related supplies. According to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, Pale Horse has been paid $6.8 million so far.
A 1.3 million dollar judgement was recently recorded in Williamson County against Spradlin.
Humble responded to all of the character attacks in a video, and addressed the possible reasons why they would be so focused on disparaging his character, and the character of his organization.
In the video, Humble defends the critical focus on state-level Republicans that Leahy, Murphy and Gulbransen seem to find distasteful even “un-American,” Humble explains that the reason he doesn’t focus on Democrats or the Biden administration in his work is because in the state of Tennessee, “The Left ,” has no power to affect change in any substantive way. However, Republicans, do.
Yet, we still see efforts to establish legislation for issues many Tennesseans would say matter most to them, such as medical freedom or voter integrity, left unchanged and vulnerable to another power grab created by a future “emergency “event.
It appears that Humble’s cardinal sin, according to Tennessee Stands detractors, is that he isn’t kind enough to the party in the state that literally holds all the power, and that power is being wielded to the benefit of special interest donors instead of the people of Tennessee.
We will continue to follow this story as it develops.
The 3 moments that confirmed TN star is controlled opposition for me:
1. Listened to Leahy for many months on the 2nd Amendment, the failure of the TNGOP supermajority to act for 13 years, the Glockstore as a show sponsor…and then he admits he never even shot a gun before (about the time the shoot-270 thing came about). That was like John Quaintance on wfhg personally recommending Freiberg’s for years, then admitting he’d never been to Pal’s and “didn’t go out to eat much”.
2. The total lack of coverage of Randy McNally and his sodomite social media activity.
3. The name-dropping, prove-my-conservative-cred TN Star article by Gulbransen and the claim that the general assembly is full of constitutional Republicans, along with the sudden interest in “child trafficking” from the same people who roadblocked Janice Bowling’s bill for two years from shutting down the child mutilators at Vanderbilt.
Neither Gary Humble nor Tennessee Stands told me to notice those things. Frankly, it’s an insult from the Ford/NFL/FedEx/Google/Amazon/Facebook corporate welfare class in Nashville to have their lapdog insinuate I can’t think for myself.
I have called onto the show to discuss more of the sodomy of McNally and the host agreed that he needed to go.
You probably have a different experience than me. I listen before the sun comes up, 5AM-6AM. Nobody calls in. Just the former Belmont professor soliloquy. And I don’t listen consistently. I get censored on TNStar occasionally. Often in an indirect fashion, holding comment approvals for 24-48 hours, while pushing the articles off the main page so you have to search terms in the story to get back to them. They are not really interested in reader interaction. Others have commented the same on occasion. They totally censored my comment about their attack on Gary. It was not directed at them. I just questioned if all those legislators they quoted in the article that parroted the 9-11 official lie could even tell you anything about WTC 7 and the “irregularities” surrounding its alleged collapse. Their story moved off the main page same day, my comment never appeared. It informed me that they are possibly getting ratioed in the submitted comments, therefore not showing the comments at all and needed it to go away.
But there are still a lot of sheep out there….waiting to be shorn. They believe you can form a multi-state media network in TN, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, etc. with little to no advertising in just a few months.
I also got a chuckle out of the then local tri-cities show on a fox news affiliate, supposedly conservative talk, hosted by a member of the Kingsport Times News/Johnson City Press (first red flag). Maybe circa 2020, during Lee’s Lockdowns. He had discovered some coverage of a story by TNStar but “didn’t know who they were, never heard of them”. LOL. Talk about uninformed, the blind leading the blind, but he’s another carpetbagger from Ohio (instead of New York like the Belmont Professor), who was propped up to tell us hillbillies what conservative is.
The RINO Caucus have their panties in a wad because we the people are holding their feet to the fire. My representative thinks all the members in the state legislature are good people. If you disagree with him you are a bad person….especially if you bring facts to the conversation. I will not vote for anyone that does not have a conservative record ever again. Voting for Republicans that act like Democrats is an exercise in futility. If TN goes to hell then so be it. It is time for conservatives to consider a third party.
Gary, your on the same page as I am. We are surounded by RINOs and know that with your podcast Tennessee Stands most Tennesseeins would know what our state government is doing to destroy Tennessee. I will keep you in my prayers so that we the people can get the truth instead of the lies we get on social media. Thank you so much for fighting for us.
Our State Republicans are constitutional Republicans? Really? Perhaps these “conservative” media outlets can explain to me why a simple patients rights bill allowing family patient advocates access cannot pass? Perhaps they can explain why we can’t pass TRUE constitutional carry? What are these supposed constitutional Republicans afraid of? Gary Humble nor Tennessee Stands didn’t tell me to look at those things. I personally go through each and every bill that is introduced, been doing it since 2020. I watch committee meetings, especially the one where Bryan Richey couldn’t get a second on a bill that I supported. Gary Humble nor Tennessee Stands didn’t give me that information, nor did they tell me to look at this or that. Michael Patrick Leahy, Matt Murphy, and Clint Brewer can go fly a kite. I will not waste my time listening to their podcasts or news stories. We’ve got work to do, replace the RINOs, find candidates, and put common sense back into Tennessee government.
Unfortunately we have tribalism in Tennessee Republican Politics as I like both Michael Patrick Leahy and Gary Humble and I have called into the Tennessee Star Report NUMEROUS TIMES. This is a huge mistake on both sides nitpicking EVERYTHING. Humble needs to go onto both radio shows to defend his claims, and Michael Patrick Leahy and Matt Murphy need to go onto his Tennessee Stands podcast. Also I want Dan Meredith of Heartland Liberty media, who is on good terms with both factions of conservatism, to invite both of them onto his Heartland Liberty show to get this discussion taken care of. Stop attacking behind cameras and microphones and talk in person to each other. I’m sick and tired of these things going on. PERIOD. END OF STORY.
Alex, you seem to be an earnest person based on your comments, so I’ll respond accordingly.
I would ask you to look at the behavior of publications like the Tennessee Star and WTN’s Matt Murphy as it concerns Gary Humble and Tennessee Stands. They fired the first shots against the organization for trying to hold the general assembly (something the TN Star and WTN should be doing) accountable. When that didn’t work, they began attacking Gary Humble personally.
I remember when WTN and it’s hosts were at the center of the conservative movement in TN. Now it seems like the promise of access to the powerful has become too enticing as organizations like the Tennessee Star (one of the publications in the Star Network that are allegedly focused on local matters but the national news takes up more and more page space) and WTN have fallen into the same patterns that the national media have taken.
I’m afraid the grift will not allow the unity that you, rightly, desire.