Radio talk show host Steve McKinney has fired back at DNA leader Bran McCartney after the latter told the Bahamian public that McKinney was dropped by the party for making unreasonable demands.
A few days ago, radio talk show host Steve McKinney decided to drop his affiliation with the Democratic National Alliance (DNA). He cited his dissatisfaction with the party’s leader, Bran McCartney, as the reason for his deciding not to run under the DNA banner.
Mr McKinney is not the first DNA candidate to bow out. Prospective South Beach candidate, entertainer Sammi “Starr” Poitier also dropped his candidacy a few weeks.
At that time, Starr gave few details about the reasons he decided not to run.
Starr said the statement announcing his resignation as a candidate was left intentionally vague, “in an effort to remain diplomatic and refrain from any type of possible negativity”.
But that attempt at diplomacy was lost on the DNA, with Mr McCartney publicly saying that Starr simply didn’t measure up to the DNA’s high standards for candidates. The DNA publicity machine made it appear as if Mr Poitier was dropped by the party due to his unsuitability.
Poitier did not appreciate the slur to his reputation and said so publicly as he responded to biting comments by the DNA that he was dismissed because he and his team did not perform to party standards, represent the constituency well, and did not possess the skills necessary to fulfill the duties of an MP as outlined by the party.
“In short, I was Thrown Under the Bus and Rolled Over… Twice”, the former candidate said, “with no regard for how this would affect my credibility, my reputation, and of course my family. I was one of the first named candidates for the party and was 100% loyal to the success of the party and endured an enormous amount of scrutiny for doing so. So as one would expect, this was indeed very disappointing, disheartening and of course NOT TRUE,” he wrote in a statement that appeared on Facebook.
Now, it is radio talk show host, Steve McKinney who is taking issue with comments from the DNA regarding reasons for his deciding not to run in Fort Charlotte under the DNA banner.
And this time, Mr McCartney may have bitten off more than he could chew.
In an audio tape, uploaded to Youtube by the Bahamas Press blog, Mr McKinney, who is never bashful, fired back calling Mr McCartney a liar, fraud and novice politician.
EXCERPTS FROM STATEMENT ISSUED BY STEVE MCKINNEY: [complete audio below]
I read with great interest this morning and heard the radio on ZNS and Mr. McCartney, running on with all manner of sayings, as any scared, frightened leader who is a pathological liar and a psychopath of sorts, politically speaking, would do.
The fact of the matter is that Mr. McCartney is a fake and a fraud. He is running scared because he knows he is about to be exposed in his plan that he has hatched with those philanthropists who are funding a particular political party, and his own, that they wanted to bring the two together. He knows that to be a fact. He also knows that he was a major player in negotiating a part of the pie in the next general elections for him and six others who I call the Elite 7.
Mr. McCartney is a liar. He knows what he is doing. He knows that he has created mass fraud to the Bahamian people in perpetrating this fraud that he wants to bring change to the nation and that he wants to look out for the best interests of the Bahamian people.
That is not the case. I found out that was not the case, and so I quietly withdrew myself from them and thus announced it on my radio show, with nothing to hide, with a full line wide open, with an audience that listened, with them able to call in and defend what I was saying — they could not and cannot. They can only wait until I closed down my show to go to any other radio stations and perpetrate their more lies.
Well, Mr. McCartney is being found out by his own words spoken from his own lips. Every time he speaks he seemingly cannot help lying and so I call him a pathological liar.
The party is not prepared to fund one single dime to one single candidate. All of the candidates have the concern that I have. They may not be in a position to enunciate, pronounce and broadcast the thing like I am, because I believe in my strength of courage and so I will tell you that Mr. McCartney does not plan to give them a dime, they know it, they can testify to it, they all know it, and they’ve all been hustling with hat in hand everywhere around Nassau, trying to do things as simple as open a headquarters, find the monies for paraphrenalia, to make up their t-shirts and the rest of it.
Every single thing in the DNA must be paid for by the candidates, and they are not getting a single dime or seed money to help them with their campaign.
It’s ridiculous, it is foolish, and it cannot work.
But the plan is that Branville simply wants to go along the line of pretending – again, fraudulent – pretending that he is caring about the nation and he wants to field a team of 38. Well, he may very well want to field a team of 38 and may very well do so, but I will tell you this Mr. McCartney knows the truth to be that he has cut out a little niche for 7, the 7 elite that I talk about.
And they cut this deal not for Hubert Ingraham, not for the hierarchy of the FNM players in the House of Assembly, or in the governance of this country — but for the people behind the scenes, the philanthropists who fund these parties and want to continue to hold their power base.
And because they want to continue to hold their power base they are going by all means necessary to hold on to the government of The Bahamas, at all costs.
And Mr. McCartney knows full well that he was in full negotiations with them, and whateever he has decided has yet to be seen.
Because I don’t suppose that he is going to go out and tell anyone at this point in time before an election what he is doing, but I suppose that he will do this:
After the elections, and if they are able to hold on to the deal of getting the seven seats that they have cut out for themselves, in this whole shebang then he plans to do what the rules are as applied by the philanthropists.
He is their pet! They are the philanthropists, they call the shots, and he has to sing and dance to their tune.
Steve McKinney will not be a part of such a fraud on the Bahamian people.
I repeat: I will not be a part of such a fraud.
Once I did my journalistic investigations and found out what Mr. McCartney was going on with, I decided, by myself, to withdraw myself from such a group, because they are not about the truth. They are not about real change, and they are not about the best interests of the down-trodden Bahamian people who need real change and real help.
Unfortunately, Mr. McCartney does not have those skills, and based upon his nonsensical things that he is doing in the media right now, it tells me that he is really the novice of the first order in politics.
He knows not what he is doing.
He is a novice, and it’s very dangerous to put this country in the hands of a novice who knows not what he does, cares not what he does, cares only about himself, cares not for the Bahamian people, and only cares about self-aggrandizement.
Mr. McCartney, it is not about you. It is not about you and your looks, it is about the Bahamian people’s welfare.
And until you decide to come and tell the truth to the Bahamian people, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God, you will go nowhere, because this election is about truth and that is inspired from God through me.
It is not going to happen, Mr. McCartney, and as a result of it, you can say correctly: Game ended.
Game ended for you, Branville McCartney and those who are perpetrating this fraud at the DNA.
But unfortunately they appear to be lambs headed to the slaughter under this false pretense perpetrated by Mr. Branville McCartney, the leader, that he is trying to win the government.
I believe it is wrong. I will not be a part of it. And I do wish them the best of luck because it is true the country may need change, but not that kind of change.
Why jump from out of the frying pan into the fire, with somebody who is not skilled, who is ambitious but don’t have the ability, who wants to do but don’t want to work, who wants to have things happen but can’t spend no money, can’t raise no money apparently, and who has this big ambition, grandiose ambition but no plan to get there?
It is a mistake. It is a stillborn baby. And it will not see the day of light in the governance of this country, in my view.
And it should not. I cannot say it will not. It should not. Because people have their own minds
But as for me and mine, my mind has been made up, and there’s no way that I can hitch my ride with the DNA.
It’s just – it can’t happen, because I’m a man who believes in truth, honesty, integrity and fair play. And Mr. McCartney does not believe in those things because he acts opposite to what is true and righteous, he acts opposite to it, he has the Dictatorial tendency of doing it his way, and he seems to also want to be an impersonator of the Right Honourable Prime Minister which he does a poor job of.
Mr. Ingraham knows what he is saying when he is saying it. The thing about Mr. Ingraham is that you know what you’re going to get because he’s going to tell you.
I can deal with that as a Bahamian. I can deal with that as a man.
But I cannot deal with someone who’s telling me something, trying to sell me a bill of goods when I know in that bag is something that will kill the rest of us.
I cannot be quiet.
And I shall not go silent into that night on such an issue.
So yes, prepare yourselves, because if he wants to rumble, I’ve got the facts. And I believe in facts and not fiction: facts facts facts.
And those of you who are listening to this on Facebook or wherever — understand – I am reading the social websites, I hear what you’re saying – in due time, in due course, I will lay it out and you will get it plain as day, and you can make up your own mind if Mr. McCartney is genuine or if he is a fake and a fraud.
