Audiotape of St. Tammany Parish Republican Pol Proves Perilous; Trump and Christians Attacked, P-rn Promoted, ALA Protected

In breaking news, here is a transcript of, and audio recording by, former St. Tammany Parish Library Board of Control member William (Bill) R. McHugh, III, speaking with St. Tammany Parish Council District 13 Councilman Jeff Corbin, pictured top right.  This recording was intended for use in a lawsuit Mr. McHugh just lost big as described here:

• "ALA Loses in Louisiana US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: Parr v Cougle," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 11 February 2025. 

The recording was discussed in local media here:

• "After Dustup Between Republicans, St. Tammany Council Elects Jeff Corbin as Vice Chair," by Willie Swett, NOLA.com, 7 December 2024.

And here is the telephone conversation and its politically-charged nature discussed by Citizens for a New Louisiana on 19 November 2024:

My personal favorite parts of the conversation are where they talk about a law defunding the American Library Association.  Love that!  And it's going to happen more and more now that the US Department of Education exposed the "book ban" hoax and DEI is dead.  And they tell themselves they aren't "gr[00]ming" children.  We all wish it were that simple.

Now, below is the transcript and here is the transcript and full recording synched together for your listening and re-listening pleasure: TRANSCRIPT AND RECORDING BY BILL McHUGH OF JEFF CORBIN HERE. 

It's very rare to see a politician, Republican, no less, and a library board member so interested in keeping kids exposed to inappropriate material that they feel people must serve on and stay on library boards to keep out the Christians and the Trump supporters who oppose harming children per American Library Association's 60 years of effort.  But there it is, res ipsa loquitur.  

It happens all the time, it's just rare that it got recorded, reported, and we get to see it.  Sad.  Were I residing there, I know for whom I wouldn't vote, nor for any of their supporters or supporting library "alliances," especially not the one ALA created.

TRANSCRIPT:

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

How are you?

Jeff Corbin:

Good. How are you doing today?

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

I'm okay.

Jeff Corbin:

Um, I'm returning your, your call from our text message. Um, wanted to give, wanted to give you a call. I have a few, I have a few minutes. Um, I'm actually running home to change clothes so I can to the council meeting tonight.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Okay. So, is the rumor true that you're not gonna vote for me?

Jeff Corbin:

Um, Bill, I, I haven't made up all my decisions yet. Um, but I'll tell you the, the challenge is, um, I really like you and I think that you've, you've done an incredible job on the Library Board of Control. At the same time, I wanna make sure that we don't have... I'm very concerned that there's gonna be six conservatives on the board, and, um, and I don't mean conservatives, I mean like alt-right, um, evangelicals, and I don't want our board to turn into Lafayette.

And, um, so I'll, you know, I'll talk to other council members. If there's a... If there is a, enough of a, of a sway that there's a... I think there's a chance that you could get, make it on the board, um, I'd love to support you. Um, I think you're a, like I said, you're a good, incredible and honest person. Um, at the same time, the challenge is, is to make sure that we don't have a board that swings. I, I agreed with the letter that you wrote, that you wrote to Jerry and I, and some of the concerns you raised and some of the questions you raised, but at the same time, I've also gotta accept the reality of where we are, um, situation-wise.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, why would appointing me result in a radically conservative board? I'm not radically conservative.

Jeff Corbin:

Oh, oh, Bill. It wouldn't, it wouldn't at all. But I don't think... My, my read is, I don't think you have the votes. And so I'm concerned about-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Is that any reason... Is that any reason not to nominate me, not to vote for me?

Jeff Corbin:

It is if I only have six, Bill, because I, I wanna make sure that we get some people on the board that, that... I, I wanna make sure that my vote is lined up with... Hopefully lined up with some people that think like I do and wanna make sure that we have a, we have a, a board that's reflective of our whole community-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, here-

Jeff Corbin:

... not just-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Here's the-

Jeff Corbin:

... one side of the community.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Here's the thing. I think it's very likely that this is gonna take multiple rounds of votes. And if you-

Jeff Corbin:

Right.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

And if you don't... If you don't even vote for me on the first round and I'm knocked out on the first round, that means I don't have a chance in hell. If you vote for me on the first round and other people are eliminated and I'm not, and I'm still in the running, then that improves my chances.

Jeff Corbin:

Yep. No, I understand that, Bill. That's the read I gotta make, um, from talking to my peers, and talking with my peers, I want to, you know, I gotta understand what, what, what support's out there. You've been on my... You've been on my consideration list. My ideal state, Bill, was to have all four of you guys stay, the current members that wanted to stay. And I fought that as far as I could, and wasn't successful at turning enough heads to align with what myself and some others wanted to do.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I don't... Have you, have you read the article that was posted, uh, on NOLA.com, the Gambit article about what happened in the legislature yesterday?

Jeff Corbin:

Um, I have not read that article, but people have kept me apprised that, that, um, stuff, the, the couple of two or three things that came up, I think there was two specific ones, and they both died in committee.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Right. One, one was to, uh, make it a criminal offense to either even ask for money to, to, to attend a, an ALA function or, or to spend money, anything having to do with the ALA. And the other one was Jay Gallé's bill to, uh, specifically say that, uh, the appointing body could remove a library board member without cause. But I wanna read you something from that article, because I wanna read you something that the woman who kinda led the tabling of it said, I'm gonna just read this to you. Um-

Jeff Corbin:

Okay.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

"Representative De- Denise Marcel, a Baton Rouge Democrat, particularly pushed back at Gallé, pointing out that the political... That the political leanings of one elected official could cause an entire board to be removed and replaced. The bill would also make it easier to install board members who want to ban books. It bothers me when one person's ideology can affect an entire parish," she said. That is an exact description of what has happened in St. Tammany Parish. Exact.

Jeff Corbin:

Bill, I, I don't disagree with that. And I, I, I hope that, you know, I, I hope you recognize that since I took the time to educate myself six months ago, seven months ago when, when I decided to run, and this was... I knew this was gonna obviously gonna be an issue I was gonna have to deal with. Um, I've driven, driven those, driven those similar messages and supported the current library board and worked with the current library board. And my ideal state, as I said, is would have been to go assign terms, let you guys continue, and then let stand on your own when you, when you came up for renomination.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, what this council is allowing to happen is they're allowing one council member who published a bogus position statement in January that has been refuted in writing by the District Attorney's office. Y'all have let him lead you by the nose to the situation we're in now.

Jeff Corbin:

Uh, Bill, you know, I, I, I appreciate, I appreciate your comment. I, I take a little bit of offense at being led by the nose. I've worked diligently, uh, on, in front of the scenes and behind the scenes to do as much as I think I possibly can to not make, to, to not allow that to happen.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I, I'm speaking about the council. I'm speaking as, about the council as a whole. There is absolutely no question that this one individual has somehow managed to put the council in the situation it's in now, singling out the library board to be treated unlike any board that has ever made an appointment to ever.

Jeff Corbin:

Yep. No, I, you know, like I said, I, I, I, again, I can't, I can't dispute... I can't dispute it. I'm not, I'm not happy about where we are.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

You all, you all are trying to-

Jeff Corbin:

[inaudible 00:06:34].

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

You all are trying to appoint people to seats that are already legally occupied. It would seem-

Jeff Corbin:

Bill, I-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

It would seem to me that you'd first have to remove us before you could appoint anybody to the seats that we are legally occupying.

Jeff Corbin:

Right. Bill, I, I said you, you're not making arguments to me that I have not already made, you know, it was not, it was not insignificant that Cheryl Tanner got all of that language that, that, that, that non- in my opinion, nonsensical argument down a path of legal opinions that, that came up with a conclusion that you were serving illegally. That was not an accident that, that Cheryl got that put in there.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I know. Okay. I know, but what-

Jeff Corbin:

[inaudible 00:07:18] changed out.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

But she left... She, she might have gotten rid of the language, but she left the objective, his objective in place. I mean, the language, the language of the re- resolution isn't what matters. The substance of the resolution is what matters. And the substance of the resolution didn't change.

Jeff Corbin:

Bill, it, it, it did... It, it did change in some subtle ways, and it may not be apparent. In subtle ways, they changed where... That we took Cougle's name off of there and we teed it up so that if we could find, if there was enough support for sticking with the four current members, we could have offered an amendment during the meeting and changed out the language, and there wasn't enough support. And at that point in time, we had to figure, okay, knowing that there's not that support, I mean, it took a lot of work to get the support to the lay of months. So we had the chance to get Cougle's resolution removed to begin with. But I, I, and I'm the one that drafted that thing that Cheryl put up. I'm the one that worked on it. And it, it, it was written specifically to support and allow an amendment to be made to that resolution that would've allowed us to stagger the terms of the current board members. And we didn't have enough support to do it. And I would've liked to have, but I've also gotta accept the reality-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well-

Jeff Corbin:

... of where we were.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

It's, I think it's-

Jeff Corbin:

And that-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

I think it's a very unfortunate state of affairs that it has gotten to that point.

Jeff Corbin:

Bill, I, I don't agree. I don't disagree with you, and I want you to know that. I, I mean, I specifically mentioned that's one [inaudible 00:09:05], I, I've been doing what I can, where I can. I specifically mentioned for example, in that Slidell Independent article, that you were the one that made motions and that you're the one that, that, that made it made the... Made the motion for the resolution and then made for the motion for the adoption to go address it. And I thought your points that you made during the meeting were spot on. When you said, "This board is going, going... This board is going above and beyond what's required." I've repeatedly said that to all audiences, whether favorable, unfavorable, including the Republican Women's Group in Covington.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, that was-

Jeff Corbin:

Which they didn't like that. They didn't like that one lick.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

That was pretty brave.

Jeff Corbin:

Well, you know, I did Bill, I mean, I, I, we were... I was invited to speak. There was four or five of us there. The Republican Professional Women's Association, Iris Gallatin is one of the members, if you know who she is.  [NOTE: Republican Professional Women of St. Tammany (RPWST).]

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah.

Jeff Corbin:

She, she particularly, specifically took me on in the meeting and I refused to bend. But when David Cougle started listing off all of his lies and fiction, when it came to me, I refuted all of it.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, you're, you're, you're just being lied about the same way that the rest have been, of us have been lied about for two years. We've been called gr[00]mers and you know-

Jeff Corbin:

I know.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

... all kinds of other stuff.

Jeff Corbin:

You're not. Yeah, you're not. And I fully understand that, Bill.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I, I, I, I just... My main request is that you vote for me tonight in at least the first round, because if you don't, if somebody doesn't vote for me in the first round and I'm knocked out of the running in the first round, there's no chance I can be appointed. If I'm, if I'm in the running on the first round and we go to multiple rounds, there's a chance that I could be reappointed.

Jeff Corbin:

Right. I understand that. And Bill I, you know, I've been talking to different people about that. I have a high degree of confidence that at least one person will, will vote for you. I'm not sure it'll be me, but I have a high degree of confidence at least one person will. And I'll find out if it... You know, if I, if I learn differently when I get to the council chambers that some of the people have changed their positions, that's why I want to get out there at a decent time so I can understand where, where the team is.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Okay.

Jeff Corbin:

I wanna get a sense of, of who's, who's where. But you know, if, if, if, if, at the end of the day, Bill, my best judgment, I don't vote for you in the first round for the reasons that I've outlined, is I've gotta make sure that people get in, and that, that we, that we don't let this board go to h[3]ll like Lafayette. I, I, I, I... Please just hope that you'll, you'll trust my judgment and know that you have my utmost respect and my support for what you've done and the battle you've taken on. It was unexpected. It's completely unnecessary. But part of our challenge tonight is with Jimmy Strickland not being there, he is not able to be there tonight.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

I know.

Jeff Corbin:

It, it, it, it, it significantly impacts because it takes what took a majority of eight down to just a majority of seven. And that makes it a lot... That just makes it a lot harder.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yep.

Jeff Corbin:

And that's what I'm... That's, that's the math that I'm trying to figure... That I'm trying to work around.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I know you'll do your best. And I just, I just thank you for my sup- for your, for your support and, and I, I just, uh, I hope I'm reappointed because I wanna stay on the board.

Jeff Corbin:

Well, Bill, I hope you are too. And, uh, I think that if you know, you know... I don't know who you've got, I don't know who you've talked to, and I don't really care to know. I've told people, uh, people, people have asked me who I support and what I'm supporting, and I said I got... I'm having a hard time trying to figure out exactly what to go do. But Bill, in all cases, I have talked to people. When I've talked to people, I've told them that you and Anthony Parr and Rebecca and Ann Shaw, um, and [inaudible 00:12:57], the other, the other woman, I can't... Her name escapes me right this moment.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Carmen.

Jeff Corbin:

But that all need... Should be rea- should have been reappointed. And I have defended you in a variety of forums when, at both in one-on-one and in more vocal forums because you've done nothing wrong. This is my opinion.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, it, not only have I not done anything wrong, I think I've done several things right.

Jeff Corbin:

Absolutely. No, I, I, you know, I, I, I think that goes without saying, but I will say it, Bill, you've been a leader and you, you, you have done, you've done what I would call balanced judgment on the, on the library board [inaudible 00:13:35].

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

And that's exactly, and that is exactly why they're trying to get rid of me, because they do not want balanced judgment.

Jeff Corbin:

Absolutely. They do not. They, they, they absolutely do not.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I hope you'll do-

Jeff Corbin:

I actually agree with that.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

I hope you'll do what you can to make sure that doesn't happen. Because if it does, it'll be a disaster for the library.

Jeff Corbin:

Oh, Bill, you and I know that.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

And for and for the community.

Jeff Corbin:

Yeah. You and I both know that. And these people, Bill, the, the, you know, I've been in many a forum going all the way back to my election where I spoke facts to fiction, and the fiction doesn't want to hear it. And their perception and belief is that if I tell a lie long enough, eventually they learned this from unfortunately, our, our man, Mr. Trump, that if I tell a lie long enough and big enough, eventually people will begin to, begin to, begin to believe it. And unfortunately, p[0]rn for kids is the easy talking points. 

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah. 

Jeff Corbin:

It's a lot harder to explain to people the realities of policies and procedures and how those are the fish of a bone and how they, how they drive, what actually gets done in a library or in any organization, not these kind of nonsensical comments.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah. And all the things that they're claiming about children has never, ever happened in our library system, ever.

Jeff Corbin:

No, I, and I, and I, you know, I'm sure you've talked to Kelly and you know that I've asked her those specific questions, and I've stated that. There's never been a time. I even had her collect some data, uh, specifically before one of the meetings or before her presentation, to say, how often do we even find kids in the adult section? I mean, the absurdity of this is ridiculous. I had a one-on-one with a minister. I said, if you're, if you got a kid that walks into the adult section, sneaks into the adult section, finds a book with s[3]x in it, takes it down, reads it, flips through it in the course of the, being in the library, and then, you know, but, but can't check it out, I said, if he goes and does that randomly, then there's one... He pulls a book down, it's one of two things. Either he knew what he was looking for, or you ought to go buy a damn lottery ticket.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

(laughs).

Jeff Corbin:

The minister, the minister was offended!

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah.

Jeff Corbin:

I said, you were talking about 0.05% percent of the, of the volumes that are in our libraries.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Right.

Jeff Corbin:

Said, "You need to go get a lot- you need to go get a lot a lottery ticket." He was furious. And so, uh, you know, I just... Bill, I just, I, I fought... I, I, I fought and I'm continuing to fight the best fight I can, uh, using the best tactics and strategies that I can. Um, some, some people may not be happy with 'em. I know a whole lot of people aren't happy with 'em. But I hope that the, the library board at the end of the day will respect what I've tried to do.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I respect what you've tried to do. I just, I just hope, you know, I hope that you've been successful in convincing other people of your point of view, because I think it's the right one.

Jeff Corbin:

Yeah, I was... I, I, I felt better when Jimmy was there.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah. Well-

Jeff Corbin:

I don't feel, I don't feel as good without Jimmy being there tonight.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah. That's, that's un- very unfortunate. But nothing can be done about it.

Jeff Corbin:

No. And Bill, I'll tell you, I mean, if it, if it falls by the wayside and things don't go the way we do, um, a year from now, we're gonna have to appoint, we're gonna appoint at least one new person.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah.

Jeff Corbin:

And I would welcome you as a candidate.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Okay. Well-

Jeff Corbin:

If you'd be interested by that point in time. But Bill, I, I, again, my, my respect for you is sincere, and I hope you realize that.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, I do and I appreciate it. Okay.

Jeff Corbin:

Any- anybody could have got caught where you got caught, that's... And few people would've had the credentials you had to be where you were and be as judicious. But this, this is a... This is a nasty, nasty group. I know what you guys have had written about you. Um, I'm not sure what you, you guys are fully aware of everything I've had written about me to my peers and my, and the, and the parish president.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

I know some of it.

Jeff Corbin:

But fortunately, um, my belief is they recognized who I am and know that, that, that it's not accurate.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Well, they need to be called out for the liars that they are. That's, you know, bottom line.

Jeff Corbin:

Yep.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Okay. Well-

Jeff Corbin:

Yep.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

... I appreciate the call back. I'll see you tonight.

Jeff Corbin:

I will see you tonight, Bill and I, I would not have not called you back. This was just my very first time. Um, I finally, I've been in a hospital for, God, seems like a, a month.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah.

Jeff Corbin:

It's only been three days-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

How's your wife?

Jeff Corbin:

... nonstop.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

How's your wife doing?

Jeff Corbin:

She's doing Bill, she's... I appreciate you asking. She's actually doing exceptionally.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Good.

Jeff Corbin:

She was taken out [NOTE: redacted for privacy].

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah.

Jeff Corbin:

Um, and she is in a position today on day two when [NOTE: redacted for privacy].

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

That's great.

Jeff Corbin:

And, and she's now just working on [NOTE: redacted for privacy]

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Corbin:

... is really tomorrow and the next day. And by, by, by Saturday, she ought to be starting a pre- um, a pretty solid uphill climb, you know, positive uphill climb.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah. Well, I, I appreciate your taking the time that you have taken with the council issues, you know, in view of what, you know, going on with your family. So I wish her the best. I hope her recovery goes as planned.

Jeff Corbin:

Well, thank you, Bill. I, I, you know, I, I, I worked with my wife where [NOTE: redacted for privacy]. But I worked with her up front. She knows how hard I've been working on the, on the library in particular. And she knows how, how, you know, the, the, some of the very, very derogatory negative comments I've received, you know, of everybody that... All the bitching and complaining that I heard about, Bill, and, and all the amazing noise that went up when we delayed a month, I did exactly what I said I was gonna do.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah.

Jeff Corbin:

And I followed through on every bit of it. And that's what those... That's what the team, those people refuse to acknowledge.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yes.

Jeff Corbin:

And what, what you and I... What, what you did the other night, the, the last two board meetings, both in making that, that first motion to, for support of the... To, to go develop a plan and then making the second one was... You did exactly what you said you did. We went beyove and beyond, above and beyond. And, and people that I've talked to since then that I've pointed that out about, I said, "That's community standards and actions. You guys need to stop it."

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Yeah. Right.

Jeff Corbin:

So-

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Okay.

Jeff Corbin:

All right, Bill.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

All thanks for the call. Good luck tonight. I'll see you there.

Jeff Corbin:

Alright. Thank you sir.

William (Bill) R. McHugh, III:

Okay. Alright. Bye.

Jeff Corbin:

Bye-bye.

—

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