JC Bowman, founder and president of Professional Educators of Tennessee, and Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, debated an audio recording slated to be released by News Channel 5’s Phil Williams supposedly addressing the “origin of school vouchers” in Tennessee.
Last week, Williams teased a portion of the audio recording of which a man in the recording says, “If we can prove that you don’t side with us, you’re apt to lose the election.”
Bowman, who appeared in Williams’ promo video of the tape, said he translated the statement as the person saying, “If you do not vote with us, we want you scared of us. When you quit doing our will, we’re going to dispose of you.”
On Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Bowman revealed the tape obtained by Williams is “older,” acknowledging how it may stem back several years. When Leahy said he believed the tape was recorded in 2016, Bowman said he did not know the exact provenance of the recording.
Noting how Williams called him two or three weeks ago to listen to the tape, Bowman said the overall messaging in the tape is that legislators are “owned.”
“The basic point is that they own legislators. We own you. We put you in there. We can take you out,” Bowman explained. “It’s the institution up there that I’m concerned about.”
After confirming the voice in the tape is that of Mark Gill, a school choice advocate appointed by Governor Lee in 2019 to the Tennessee Board of Regents, Leahy argued the tape is “just a pure, bald faced political hit by Phil Williams intending to try and stop Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice.”
“What he did is he took a tape of a private conversation talking about politics from 2016 that was surreptitiously recorded, somehow made it to him, and then it’s trying to turn that into something significant. It’s just a nothing burger, it seems to me,” Leahy added, noting how Williams is trying to “smear” Gill.
Leahy went on to argue that there’s nothing new regarding the concept of government involving people who “use their resources to advance their particular point of view.”
“To me, all of this means people with money and influence were using that influence to obtain the political objectives they want. That to me, that’s a nothing burger,” Leahy said. “So my view, Phil Williams, you’re listening, I’m sure, I will be delighted to watch your nothing burger at six o’clock tonight and then I’ll have a further analysis tomorrow on it.”
Bowman said that it didn’t necessarily “matter” who the person was on the tape, arguing how that specific method of persuading legislators is wrong.
“I think the average citizen in this state feels like they have nobody listening to them,” Bowman said.
In regards to his comment in the promo video how the founding fathers would be “rolling in their graves,” Bowman clarified to Leahy, “I think [the founding fathers] did not think that we would need a government of the wealthy for the wealthy. It’s for the people and of the people ”
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
