Ohio journalist and entrepreneur Jack Windsor joined host Michael Patrick Leahy on Monday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report to discuss the connections and divides behind the shocking decision by Governor Mike DeWine to veto measure that would prohibit genital mutilation of children and transgender males competing in girls’ sports.
Windsor unveils the deep ties between the Buckeye State governor and the “medical industrial complex,” and how this particular veto – perhaps unbeknownst to DeWine – could influence the 2024 elections in Ohio.
The Ohio Press Network journalist then breaks down the hotly contested republican nomination race for U.S. Senate to see who will face long time incumbent Sherrod Brown.
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Patrick Leahy: 12:33 p.m., broadcasting live from our studios in downtown Nashville on Monday, January 1st, 2024.
We are broadcasting live.
We’re the only talk station talk show in Nashville broadcasting live today.
Another hard worker is our very good friend formerly with The Ohio Star now with the Ohio Press Network and the host of his own program in Columbus Ohio, our good friend, Mr. Jack Windsor. Jack, thanks for joining us.
Jack Windsor: Michael, it’s great to be with you. Happy New Year. And thanks for allowing me to spend some time with you today.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, thank you for joining the hardest working radio program in America today. I think the only one live today, not just in Nashville, but anywhere.
So Jack, when you were with us at the star and now at the press network you have reported extensively on shall we say the democrat authoritarian policies of the Republican governor there Mike DeWine. In fact, I think you were his least favorite reporter. Would you say that’s a fair characterization, Jack?
Jack Windsor: I would say if they handed out awards to the press, I would, I would, I would win that award, award hands down. I was definitely his least favorite. In fact, he barred me from press conferences at one point.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Yeah, that’s what I was recalling. I mean, basically, because you’d ask him questions that he couldn’t answer about the COVID lockdowns and all the phony elements of the COVID reports that they had in Ohio.
There was a time that you were barred – no Jack Windsor allowed in press conferences for Mike DeWine!
Jack Windsor: Yeah, it was, it was interesting. And you know, I would get it if we were spewing true conspiracy theories, but we were just talking about the data, right? Yeah. If masks work, why aren’t they working? And, you know, what are, are we looking at the long term impact of these types of COVID policies?
And you know, at one point, like you said, he was out of answers because there was no correlation between what he was doing and what was really going on with the virus. And so instead of saying, ‘You know what we may have gotten this wrong,’ they just kick people out who ask those hard questions.
Michael Patrick Leahy: So now at The Star News Network, we have state-based news sites in about 13 states right now, and each state is different.
And we focus on what the state legislature is doing, what the attorney general in the state’s doing; what the governor’s doing.
Tennessee, of course, is our flagship, and we have a part-time legislature here, and we have a governor. Who is constitutionally weak in the sense that a veto by the governor can be overridden with a majority in each house.
Now, Ohio is very different. It’s a larger state, many, many markets – Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Akron, Dayton – you know, all very different.
But here we have a bill that was passed by the Ohio State legislature, which would have, in essence, prohibited genital mutilation of children. And then I think there was another element to it about not allowing men to compete in girls sports.
Do I have that right?
Jack Windsor: You’re absolutely right. It would have outlawed puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and what we call gender mutilation surgeries. It would also have made it illegal for males to compete in girls sports, and also invade their privacy in places like locker rooms.
Too many people on the Republican side of the aisle, and I would even dare say one of DeWine’s former advisors contacted me a day before he vetoed the bill and said, ‘What’s going on? This is a layup. What’s taking so long?’ And we had been investigating it and I unpacked some of the information that we had gathered and I said, ‘Look, he’s, he’s going to veto this and, and here’s why I think he’s going to do it.’
And then it’s going to be incumbent upon the legislature – and there is a super-majority here in the state house, the Republicans in the Senate and in the House, it’s going to be incumbent upon them to take this bill up again and override his veto.
Michael Patrick Leahy: So explain the reasons – it’s incomprehensible to me.
We had a similar bill here in Tennessee and the governor, Governor Bill Lee, you know, was happy to sign it.
Why, why did DeWine veto this bill?
Jack Windsor: Well, so there’s the crux of it. His former advisor said in her opinion, she said, ‘Look: He’s old. He’s out of touch. He really just doesn’t understand that this is an issue. He thinks it’s really not an issue.’
I don’t buy that. He came out. His reasoning was he listened to youth and parents, parents who have told him if it wasn’t for these treatments, their child would be dead.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Oh, give me a break. Give me a break.
Jack Windsor: And here’s the other thing, Michael, big drug companies are driving this activism. That’s been proven. And so when you look at the curve, when drug companies and the medical industrial complex started investing in this movement, all of a sudden, social contagion takes off, which is, ‘Well, I think, yeah, maybe – maybe I have that too.’
And so all of a sudden, we’re issuing drugs and putting kids under the knife. And it’s not because that is the catch-all. But that’s how this is being pitched, this snake oil.
But here’s why he did it: because he’s beholden to the medical industrial complex.
A couple of days later a report came out from Kate Anderson there at Daily Caller News Foundation.
And, you know, their cursory, cursory review is that, you know, DeWine received $40,000 from children’s hospitals supporting sex change procedures. And you go, ‘Well, that’s not a lot of money.’
Well, it’s some, and we’re gonna dig in because oftentimes what’ll happen, these institutions will give money to, like the Republican Governors Association, for example.
And then they’ll filter it back in. But it’s, you know, his ties to the medical community, to pharma. Those are reported, those are known, and so here, what’s happening is there’s a $5 billion industry nationwide, and what Mike DeWine is doing is saying, well, we want to keep those revenue streams open for our clinics and for our hospitals, and that’s really what it’s all about.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Yeah, selling kids out for money, that’s what it looks like to me.
Now, let me ask you this question. Ohio is different from Tennessee in the sense that we have really a part-time legislature. You have, in essence, a full-time legislature, and in addition they get paid a lot more than our legislators get paid which is probably not a good thing, but that’s how it works up there in Ohio.
You also have – to override a veto, you need 60 percent, I believe that that’s right, 60 percent of the members of the state senate and state house have to vote to override it. Are there the votes to override this veto?
Jack Windsor: There’s the $5 billion dollar question. Lawmakers who say right out of the gate as soon as DeWine delivered his presser, ‘We’ve got the votes. Let’s do this.’
My understanding as of yesterday – we were able to receive some information from state house leaders that said, ‘Look, when we come back into session’ – this is the House by the way – ‘On January 10th, we’re going to put this to vote.’
I’ve talked with Representatives of the senate president. They seem to have the votes. They seem to be 100 percent willing and able to consider this and provide enough votes for a veto override.
The issue, without getting into the weeds, Mike, the issue with the Ohio House is that you have a House Speaker who is in that Speakership because he partnered with Democrats this time last year.
Michael Patrick Leahy: You kind of have the Texas House Speaker disease, right?
Jack Windsor: That’s exactly right. And so the issue is, you’ve got to really sort through. Is this political theater, and does he have the votes, and is he intentionally going to move it forward without the votes and go, ‘Oh, see, I tried,’ and keep Democrats happy – because remember, it was a minority of Republicans and all Democrats who put this guy in the Speaker’s chair. And many people think he’s co-opted in doing the work of Democrats under you know, the guise of being a Republican.
But I’m assured by a couple of sources that they do have the votes, and this will go January 10th is when they’re back in session. And so we expect a vote on it then, and I expect that the Senate will take it right up if the House passes it, and then it will be a done deal.
Michael Patrick Leahy: And what does this, what does this mean for John Husted, the lieutenant governor there, who, you know, was elected as part of the ticket with Mike DeWine? Is he gonna run for governor in ’26. Is he tagged with his vote by DeWine? Does he favor it? What’s his position on it?
Jack Windsor: Yeah, so the final nail in the coffin for me – knowing that DeWine was going to veto this bill – was the night before Lieutenant Governor John Husted on Twitter said, not verbatim, but essentially, ‘Hey, I believe this should be law. I hope that it goes into law.’
So you could see him unhitching his wagon then.
John Husted has a problem. He did not unhitch his wagon from DeWine during COVID. DeWine was really lucky, and so was Husted, that the primary was far enough after the midst of how they handled COVID that he didn’t lose. If they would have had the primary in the middle of that crisis, DeWine would have lost the primary.
So he’s got that; and now he’s got this.
And so people will look at that and go, ‘Well, yeah, see, he was saying that he wanted this,’ but this is going to be incumbent upon the press to do their homework. John Husted has the same ties as Mike DeWine. He’s heavily tied to Children’s Hospital Network and Big Pharma.
And so, a lot of people go, ‘Well, that tweet was political theater,’ that was John Husted trying to say, ‘Hey, I’m not part of this,’ but when you really dig into the innards of it, he is. He’s Mike DeWine 2. 0.
And I think that that’s going to be a tough thing for him to escape, but really it’s going to come down to who’s going to run against him in the primary.
A lot of people are suspecting that if Vivek Ramaswamy doesn’t win the nomination for president – and I don’t think he will – that he might run for governor in ’26, if that happens, John Husted might have a huge problem.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, I saw Vivek say something nice about John Husted’s statement. Saying, well, this bill ought not to pass.
So that would indicate that he’s more aligned with Husted than people might think.
Jack Windsor: Well, I would, I would then perhaps, but I would say, look where the vague is getting his information from.
One of the big primary advisors was one of DeWine’s former advisors.
Michael Patrick Leahy: I gotcha. I got you on that. Good point there, Jack. All right. Last question.
2024: there’s a Senate race.
Now, Sherrod Brown is the Democrat Democrat there. Sherrod Brown is a very politically adept animal and keeps winning elections there, even though Ohio is a Trump state who will win the GOP nomination to challenge him and will they beat him in 2024?
You have a minute and a half to do that one, Jack.
Jack Windsor: Okay. I’ll make it simple. Bernie Moreno got the Trump endorsement here in Ohio. That’s going to carry a lot of weight. It will be interesting to see if Frank LaRose, the current Secretary of State, or Matt Dolan, current state senator, whether they stay in or drop out.
I believe Dolan will stay because he’s more like Portman and he thinks he’s going to get the independent vote and moderate Republican vote.
I suspect that we will hear some big endorsement announcements tomorrow for Bernie Moreno. Some congressmen will come out and support him in addition to Trump.
That might be too much for Matt Dolan or Frank LaRose to overcome. So I think that Bernie Moreno wins the nomination.
So finally, the next question is, and I’ll make it quick.
Can he beat Sherrod Brown?
That’s a tough one. Sherrod Brown has a durable brand like Mike DeWine. He received more votes than anybody in Ohio in 2018.
But I’m saying this is not 2018. This is 2023-2024.
And Americans are done with Joe Biden’s policies. And if Moreno can point to it and go, ‘Look, he acts like he’s Joe Manchin, but he’s really Joe Biden,’ I think he can do it.
But he’s going to have to run a sustainable race. Sherrod Brown will out race him 5-to-1. I think Bernie Moreno can get it done, but it’s going to be a toss up.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Another bar fight, right? Jack Winter, thanks so much for joining us today, really appreciate it.
Jack Windsor: Thank you, Michael, appreciate you.
Michael Patrick Leahy: We’ll have more when we get back.
Oh, it’ll be time for News Potpourri.
This is The Tennessee Star Report; I’m Michael Patrick Leahy.
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Listen to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy from 11am to 1pm weekdays on WENO AM760 The Flame.
