Station:    KNUS, 710 am

Show:       Steffan Tubbs Show

Guests:    Gardner, Cory

Link:        https://omny.fm/shows/steffan-tubbs-show/the-steffan-tubbs-show-february-28-20202-hr-1

Date:        February 28, 2020

Topics:     Colorado Springs

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HOST STEFFAN TUBBS [00:00:00] […] and we’ll get to your calls a bit later on. And I want to hear from you. But it is my pleasure — here at CPAC, live from Washington, D.C. — to welcome in Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, my longtime friend. And I just want to say right off the bat, welcome. I don’t know if you would want to be here. You’d be mobbed, my friend.

U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO, CORY GARDNER [00:00:22] [laughs] Well, I’ll tell you what, it is a gorgeous day in Colorado. So I’m pretty lucky to be here.

TUBBS [00:00:27] Well, we are lucky to have you. I just want to say, first and foremost, congratulations on eight days ago. I thought — still, I think your Western Conservative Summit speech was your best that I’ve ever seen you give — but your remarks brought the house down. How did you feel last Thursday, with President Trump in town and you brought up right in the middle of his speech?

GARDNER [00:00:49] You know, it was a pretty incredible moment to share with Colorado, what we’ve done for the state, what the president has done for the state. But more than anything — man, to see that many people from all over the state. You know, nearly 73,000 people requested tickets! It’s incredible! And they came from all over the place. They camped out. And it was just — I lost my voice speaking for three minutes, and I don’t know how he did it for two hours.

TUBBS [00:01:13] No, he’s like the Energizer Bunny. And then he goes on. And, you know, I’m sure you — by chance — by now have heard that, you know, one of our friends of the program — and they’re just incredible people, John and Maria Castillo — and the president had later found out aboard Air Force One — in fact, I was just talking with Jenna Ellis about that earlier today, the senior legal adviser for the Trump campaign to get reelected — and she said when the president found out that John and Maria were there and they were there to hear him — and of course, they lost their son, Kendrick in the STEM school shooting — the president got on the phone, Senator, and called them from Air Force One. I mean, I think that says a lot.

GARDNER [00:01:54] No, that does. That’s a very great — a great touch. And I think, you know, the fact that you had so many people there from all experiences and backgrounds, including the Castillos, [is] pretty incredible.

TUBBS [00:02:05] Yeah. We are at CPAC. Have you done one of these before?

GARDNER [00:02:09] I have. I have. And what a great experience it was. And I — like I said — I kind of wish I was there. But, man, you can’t replace Colorado on a day like this.

TUBBS [00:02:18] Yeah, I told — I don’t know if you heard in my intro, there are more people in front of me right now than live in Yuma.

GARDNER [00:02:24] That’s right. That arena in Colorado Springs is about three times more than Yuma! So that’s a pretty intimidating!

TUBBS [00:02:29] Senator Cory Gardner, [is] joining us live. As I’m in D.C., he’s back in beautiful Colorado, here on 710 KNUS. We heard the vice president yesterday. And as you know, just a couple of days ago, Senator, he was named as kind of the czar of coronavirus. What are your thoughts? And I believe all 100 senators were briefed on the coronavirus, either yesterday or sometime this week.

GARDNER [00:02:50] Well, that’s right. In fact, it was in the middle of impeachment — you know, over a month ago now — where — I believe it’s over a month ago now — where I was demanding a hearing at the very front end of what we were finding out about coronavirus. And it actually happened. So we got HHS and CDC and others on the Hill weeks and weeks ago, at the beginning, to find out what they were doing and how they were doing and progressing. But, you know, this is a time where the American people need all the information they can get, complete transparency, making sure that our health officials are sharing everything they know with the community and making that as transparent as possible. It’s important.

TUBBS [00:03:26] Can you tell me and maybe help me, because I even put out a call on the show yesterday, I said, “Somebody, please send me an e-mail!  One of our friends on the left, send me an e-mail and tell me specifically with facts how this administration, the White House, and President Trump have failed already with coronavirus.” I don’t know where that talk is coming from. To me, it seems like –and I’d love your take — it seems like we just heard this week how this administration is trying to tackle this pandemic.

GARDNER [00:03:56] Well, it is unfortunate that someone would take this into a partisan sphere. I mean, I don’t think the Corona virus is looking to attack Republicans or Democrats. I think it’s just a horrible new virus that we have to figure out a way to save people from, and keep people healthy. And so, you know, this is a time where the administration did take the unprecedented actions early on of flight bans and quarantines. I don’t think we’d seen those kind of quarantines since the 1960s in much more isolated incidents dealing with smallpox, actually. And, you know, they’ll take the appropriate steps again, if that is an issue coming out of South Korea or Italy. They need further screenings at airports, I believe, and Congress will appropriately a responsible amount of funding. But for anybody who’s trying to make this a political football, I don’t think the American people would be very happy with that.

TUBBS [00:04:46] I agree. Senator Cory Gardner [is] on the line with us. You do so much with foreign policy and you’re involved with — obviously — so many different countries in what you do. Do you think we’re getting — with coronavirus specifically — are we getting the full picture from China?

GARDNER [00:05:01] No, absolutely not. I mean, you can’t trust the Chinese Communist Party.  The people of China have now experienced that firsthand, unfortunately. That’s why we have to press them. That’s why we need to be allowed into China to see for ourselves in these areas and get a firsthand look of what’s going on. But, you know, I’m highly skeptical of what China is saying. Now, we have coronavirus in Singapore and Vietnam and other places where we do have much better relationships and a much more transparent relationship. And so we can learn from them. But as far as trusting the trusting the Chinese Communist Party, count me in the very skeptical crowd.

TUBBS [00:05:40] Let’s go back to the Trump rally in Colorado Springs. What would — in your estimation and I don’t know, you know, feel free, obviously, just to share what you can if you can share about the Space Force. So many people were hoping that the president was going to announce that Colorado Springs was going to be the headquarters for the Space Force. Is that a really high probability? Is — do we have just as good a shot as anybody? What do you — where do you fall on that?

GARDNER [00:06:04] Oh, I think it’s a very high probability. I think it’s something that will happen because we’re already operating it out of Colorado.

TUBBS [00:06:11] Right.

GARDNER [00:06:11] And so, not only do we have all the infrastructure there. The Air Force Academy will be graduating 62 space operators and they will be directly commissioning them into Space Force this May — this spring — for the graduation at the Air Force Academy. And that’s going to be done by the vice president of the United States. So, you know, I think that the odds are very high that this will be — that they’ll just keep it there. The announcement will be made. I think they are having some integration — some Space Force integration into Space Command challenges that they didn’t anticipate, and that’s kind of what’s dragging it out. But I talked to Secretary Esper, our Secretary of Defense, just a couple of days ago. I visited many times with Barbara Barrett, our Secretary of the Air Force. And I know that if they do a basing-process — analysis — like they always do and always will, Colorado will win that.

TUBBS [00:07:03] Senator, you — earlier this week, your folks sent out a  — in fact, I don’t know if it was yesterday, my days get mixed up here, but this week certainly — you came out with a press release on how by bipartisan you are. Your thoughts on that?

GARDNER [00:07:18] Well, look, I think the facts speak for itself. It was a nonpartisan group that tracks these kinds of analytics. It’s on our Web site — GovTrack, I believe is the name. And they just looked at the number of bills that we’ve introduced, the number of bills that I’ve passed out of committee, and the effectiveness that we’ve had over the last Congress. And it shows that, you know, we rank toward the top of every metric that they have. And I think that speaks well for the power of Colorado to get things done. That’s why we have Space Command operating in Colorado. It’s why we got the money for the Arkansas Valley conduit to be constructed, the water pipeline for 50,000 people.  It’s why we have the Bureau of Land Management headquartered in Grand Junction, now. It’s why we’re going to continue our work on a solid conservation public land issues. It’s all because, you know, we just work hard. And we work with both sides of the aisle. And I’ll continue to do that.

TUBBS [00:08:07] Have you been watching any of the — [feigning clearing his throat] ahem, pardon me — the Democratic debates?

GARDNER [00:08:13] Oh, my gosh! I was not able to watch this last one, but I did see snippets and followed it on Twitter. And, you know, when the press — when the press describes the moderate, whose plan is only $40 trillion to take over health care, that’s a frightening thing.

TUBBS [00:08:31] When I say Bernie Sanders, you say–?

GARDNER [00:08:36] [laughs] Danger. And I mean that because he fundamentally wants to have a different country than we have today. And that’s a dangerous–. Socialism is dangerous!  Look at Venezuela!  Look at eastern Europe! We know the dangers of socialism. And, you know, the warning light is there. It’s just for us to pay attention to it.

TUBBS [00:08:56] Are you following the — here it goes. I covered a lot of stuff, but are you following the Hickenlooper ethics investigation?

GARDNER [00:09:03] Yeah. Yeah, I believe his corruption trial is next month. And I know that there was a report out this week that said that the post 9/11 Recovery Fund has paid $80,000 for his corruption trial efforts, and a $525 an hour private sector attorney is also his campaign donor. So, yeah, I think I’m pretty up to speed on it.

TUBBS [00:09:26] I would hope so. What do you do — what do you do between now and November to convince — and to get that energy that you saw [in Colorado Springs]? I mean, listen, they loved you! I mean, I was down there and reported on it. We did our show live from down there. If there was ever any doubt — and I know I’ve been peppering you for two-plus years on, “Are you close with the president? Do you hate the president? Do you like the president?”   What they saw there, how do you capitalize on that and what do you do in the months leading up to November?

GARDNER [00:09:53] Yeah, we’re just all over the state. I mean, we’ll be in every nook and cranny. We will be, you know, on TV, we will be on digital media.

TUBBS [00:10:00] Radio!

GARDNER [00:10:00] We will be on radio. That’s exactly right!

TUBBS [00:10:03] There you go.

GARDNER [00:10:03] We’ll be all over the place and sharing that message. And, you know, I think when it comes to my opponents, we’ll be talking about how, you know, John Hickenlooper stood next to Bernie Sanders and said, “I’m just as liberal as he is.” And, you know, we have that on on video!  And we will make sure that, if it’s Andrew Romanoff, people understand that he wants to end our jobs, end our economy,  and end what we know has been successful over the last several years.

TUBBS [00:10:30] You’ve been too kind with your time, as always. I want to end on a really positive note that I know choked a lot of people up. In fact, one of your great press people said, “I’m not crying! I’m not crying.” I think it was something like that on Twitter yesterday. You had the opportunity — not only where we all blessed at the President Trump’s speech in Colorado Springs to have, I guess, from the stage if you’re looking out, up to your left you had Mr. Jim Blaine, Iwo Jima survivor. You had Don Whipple, Iwo Jima survivor. And you had Mr. Jack Thurman, who is in the Joe Rosenthal photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. And you, here in D.C., that was just yesterday, right? You were with Mr. Thurman?

GARDNER [00:11:12] Yes, I was with him yesterday. And I will never forget what he said. He was describing what it was like to try to catch some sleep during the middle of war and battle on Iwo Jima. And he said, “As the Japanese were bombarding us and they were exploding. , and the rocket –,” you know, their bombs were exploding, he said, “I’d open my eyes and during the explosions and the flash of light, I would see the American flag still flying.” And then he said, “And I knew when I saw that flag that this boy was going to be okay.”.

TUBBS [00:11:47] Oh!

GARDNER [00:11:47] Oh, I mean, that’s just — and it’s there on video. You can see it on my website and social media.

TUBBS [00:11:50] Yeah, I retweeted it yesterday.

GARDNER [00:11:53] Incredible!  It’s incredible.

TUBBS [00:11:54] That is really cool that you got to do that. Isn’t it amazing, too? You look at that old photo, and here he is on the on the left hand side of the photo, raising and giving a big hoot and raising his helmet.

GARDNER [00:12:04] Yeah.

TUBBS [00:12:05] I mean, that’s United States history, and here’s — this gentleman is, A) still with us; and B) he’s Longmont, Colorado.

GARDNER [00:12:11] So — so, I told the commandant of the Marine Corps — I was trying to describe — and he was there at the 75th anniversary of Iwo Jima. And I was trying to explain to him how I felt. And I could just say, it was like being in the presence of, like, the greatest Hollywood legend.

TUBBS [00:12:26] Yeah.

GARDNER [00:12:26] But knowing it’s not Hollywood. It’s absolutely real. He’s not an actor. He’s the real deal, the real person. And it’s the stuff of legends that are still walking amongst us, at least for a few more years, that we’re blessed to have them.

TUBBS [00:12:41] Listen, you know how much I love that generation and all of our veterans. And I just give my tip of the cap to you. You’re in a campaign. You’re getting back to Colorado yesterday or today, and you still made the time. And I mean, you know, I’m a fan of you. I’m going to keep fighting on this show for you to be reelected. But I think it says a lot about Cory Gardner’s character that you take the time out and you meet veterans at the Iwo Jima Memorial. I hope that doesn’t go unnoticed because friends, I’m telling you, [those who are] listening, that if he didn’t mean it, he’d find something else to do and send somebody else. But, Senator, you were there. And that means a lot.

GARDNER [00:13:21] Well, thanks, Steffan. And most importantly, those men and women were there. And because of them, we’re here talking about our freedom today. And that’s why this — this is so important, the work that we do, each and every moment.

TUBBS [00:13:32] Amen. thank you so much. [My] best [wishes] to you and the family. Enjoy Yuma. And maybe next CPAC, after reelection, you can exhale and then you can come and be our guest here.

GARDNER [00:13:41] Well, thanks, Steffan. Have fun out in Washington. I’ll send you pictures of the sunny Colorado.

TUBBS [00:13:46] It’s not too sunny here. Thank you, sir!  [That is] Senator Cory Gardner. [There is]  nobody better. He’s been a friend for a long time. And, you know, sometimes I just — I have this news hat on, still. I can say, because it’s  — Crowley, it’s a talk show. Do you really want — and no offense, because he’s a nice guy — Andrew Romanoff?!  Do you want John Hickenlooper? And I’m specifically talking to — not you, most of you, friends. Remember a year ago at this time! Remember eleven months ago at this time, 10 months ago, 9, 8? I don’t know, 6? 4? We got calls on this show that Cory Gardner is disgusting, is a bad politician, he’s not a Republican, he hates Trump. So, [facetiously] I guess John Hickenlooper’s a better alternative. I like Hick, but remember the last time John Hickenlooper was live on this program, little did Crowley and I know that in Groton, Connecticut the governor of the state of Colorado flew on Larry Mizel’s private jet to get there. So, while he’s not telling me to say this — I don’t have private text conversation: “Hey, Cory, what do you want me to tell you?  What do you want to tell the audience.”  Cory Gardner needs to be reelected. He needs to be reelected. 303 -696-1971. Our thanks to the campaign and the press office for setting Cory up with us. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? We’re in D.C. now, and he’s back in sunny Colorado. Hope you’ve had a great Friday.