Station:    KNUS, 710 am

Show:       Wake Up! with Randy Corporon

Guests:    Gardner, Cory

Link:        https://omny.fm/shows/wake-up-with-randy-corporon/wake-up-with-randy-corporon-july-27-2019-hr-2

Date:       July 27, 2019

Topics:     Yuma, Colorado, Donald Trump Rally, Bureau of Land Management Headquarters, BLM, Grand Junction, USGS, United States Geological Service, Golden, Tax Cuts, Neil Gorsuch, Consummate American, Commute to DIA, Betsy Markey, Ken Buck, “Draining the Swamp,” Taiwan, East Asia Subcommittee, China PLA, Peterson Air Force Base, Buckley Air Force Base, NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Trump Victory Colorado, Space Command, Space Force, Venezuela, Socialism, Eastern Plains, Western Slope, Listening Tour, Jared Polis, Recalls, Red Flag, Western Conservative Summit Speech, Trump Rally, Red Flag Law, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Medicare for All, Green New Deal, Anvil Points, Air Force Graduation Ceremony,

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HOST RANDY CORPORON [00:00:05] And back for the second hour of Denver’s only live local conservative Saturday morning show. I’m Randy Corporon, [it is] so good to have you along and [I am] very pleased to be joined by the junior senator from the state of Colorado, Cory Gardner. Welcome!

U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO, CORY GARDNER [00:00:21] Good morning!

CORPORON [00:00:23] I am glad to have you here, of course, and grateful that it’s not a five minute hit. We’ve got about 10 or 15 minutes we can spend with you. And, you know, given that it’s July of this year — rather than July of next year, and I expect that we’ll be talking again — rather than you going rapid fire through issue after issue after issue, I would really love to spend a little bit of time kind of getting people reacquainted with Cory Gardner. I mean, you are really — you’re the consummate American — Irish, German, Austrian, English descent. What is it — four generations of family history in Yuma, Colorado?

GARDNER [00:01:05] It’s a long time, that’s right. Our daughter is the fourth generation alone to go through the Yuma school system. Poor kid!

CORPORON [00:01:12] Yeah. You served in the state legislature, went to the House of Representatives — replaced Betsy Markey. Now you’re a United States senator at forty four years old, one of only a hundred holding that position. Were you always committed — I know you’ve got a J.D., that your undergraduate [degree] was in political science — but was politics always on your mind? Or what put you in mind to devote your life to public service?

GARDNER [00:01:39] You know, when I was going through law school, I actually wanted to go back to my hometown. Believe it or not, it was a town that didn’t really even have a full-time attorney. And I wanted to go back and practice law, eventually take over the family business selling farm equipment. And that’s what I thought I would do. And looking back at it though, I mean, I was always engaged in kind of weird things for a kid–you know, getting the governor of Colorado out to eastern Colorado to talk about rural education issues. [I was] really interested in my dad’s service on city council. You know, they met once a month in this little tiny town. And I got engaged in some issues, there.  And so, looking back, you can see it probably wasn’t a normal thing for a high schooler to be doing that kind of stuff. But I really thought that I would end up taking over the implement dealership. And I think my dad is still wondering where the heck I am!

CORPORON [00:02:23] [laughs] I bet!  “Son! Son! What are you doing there in Washington D.C.?” Was it — was the transition from Yuma, you know, obviously, to the big city, Denver — a bigger city now, a bigger mess now — but then all of a sudden being out in Washington D.C.–. Your colleague and our mutual friend, Ken Buck — now chairman of the Colorado state GOP — wrote the book “Draining the Swamp.” Was there anything that was particularly shocking, when you first got to Washington D.C.?

GARDNER [00:02:53] Well, you know, I think one of the things about growing up in rural America in general — and rural Colorado in particular — you find yourself in bigger cities, because we always had to go up to Greeley for our sports, whether it was football or basketball. You had to go to Denver to find an orthodontist, or something like that. You know, and so — you know, people from rural Colorado wind up finding themselves in the city for different things. And I think that gives them a perspective of both. But certainly, I mean, the way cities work, the lack of knowledge sometimes in your community, in your neighbors is something I hope that we can address. I hope that every city is able to build a community — no matter how big or small it is — because that helps us all. And so, I think that communities really can empower individuals. And you know, you don’t want people lost in that anonymity.

CORPORON [00:03:39] You know the old saying: if you’re young and not a Democrat or a liberal, you’ve got no heart; as you get older, if you’re not a Republican or a conservative, you’ve got no brain.  And you actually made the switch from Democrat to Republican in college. What caused that change?

GARDNER [00:03:56] Well, you know, growing up in Yuma, my dad was a Democrat and my granddad was a Democrat. And so, to rebel — in Yuma, when you’re 18 years old, you become a Democrat — I realized pretty quickly going to college, with the things going around, that, boy! —  that’s just not who I am or what I believe and what I stand for! And what do I mean by that?  I mean that I think people should be empowered with their own two hands, their own two feet, and their mind to be able to accomplish what no government ought to [accomplish] — or should [accomplish] for anyone. It’s about getting the government out of the way and letting America work. And that’s really what I have fought for these years in public service.

CORPORON [00:04:30] That — and that was back in the day when the Democrat Party — you know, you had the Blue Dog Democrats, people who were focused on labor and other things. One of the one of the powerful moments, or really the theme of your address to the Western Conservative Summit a couple of weeks ago — and it sounds like it’s going to be a campaign focus of yours — is to draw the bright line distinction between our side of the aisle — whether you’re a moderate Republican right up through, you know, Tea Party Patriot — draw the distinctions between that and the absolute out-of-control radicalism on the left.

GARDNER [00:05:07] Well, in that speech, I said the most dangerous thing to come out of the 2016 presidential election was the normalization of socialism by Bernie Sanders. And I think it’s important to point out that this mass of people running for president, who’ve all embraced elements of socialism — you know, Medicare For All, you know, the Green New Deal, an end to energy jobs because they don’t like them, repeal the tax cuts and try to distribute the wealth like that — you know, so I think that’s not who America really is. And I — but I also believe that that’s not what the majority of even Democrats believe. I think they’ve gone too far for even the majority of Democrats. I can tell you what: you know, my dad who remains a Democrat to this day is not going to be supporting an effort like that. I mean — so, these are things that I think we have to highlight that will appeal to people across Colorado, whether it’s a suburban voter or a urban voter — and on a larger scale, nationally — talking about this overreach of government, this sort of overextension of power, and that socialism –it’s just not who we are!

CORPORON [00:06:15] As I said at the start, if it was July of next year it would be a different interview than the one we’re doing now. I hope that we get to have you back sometime real soon. And there are some great things that are–.

GARDNER [00:06:22] We’ll look forward to it.

CORPORON [00:06:24] Yeah! There are some great things that are coming to Colorado that I want to make sure we get into before we run out of time with you, here, in about 8 minutes or so. But I think it’s really important for people to understand what life is like for a U.S. Senator, especially one who can’t just hop on an Uber, you know, 15 minutes to his suburban home outside of DIA. You’re — what? — two hours from Denver, two hours from DIA to get home?  People have this vision:  you know, you now have a salary for life, and you have benefits, full retirement, you know, from being in the– and you work six or seven months out of the year.  Let’s shed a little light on the role of a U.S. Senator.

GARDNER [00:07:03] Well, you know, it’s funny. It’s about a 2-hour drive, depending on how strictly you adhere to the speed limit to the airport. But the good news is it’s only about 2 stoplights from DIA to my home. So, it’s a it’s a good, relaxing drive out into the heartland of Colorado. And, uh — but yeah, I mean, we leave usually on Monday mornings — early in the morning — and try to get a meeting, perhaps, somewhere on the way, either in Denver or elsewhere, and then head out to Washington D.C.. And it’s a week =– gosh! we’ve had as many as 35 [to] 40 meetings in a single day with constituents that starting really doggone early and going pretty late in the evening, and with votes in between and committee hearings in between.  And just like this week, I am in Grand Junction today. I’m actually looking out the window of our hotel room at the Bureau of Land Management’s new view here in Washington — [correcting himself] I mean, from Washington [to] here in Grand Junction. And so, I think today we’re doing a couple of meetings and rallies and roundtables, going to be talking about the National Popular Vote here today, and some other things. So, that’s this weekend. We’ll be elsewhere in Colorado today as well, and then back home to see the family briefly –unfortunately, briefly — and then back to work.

CORPORON [00:08:16] Yeah, it’s not just being away from home so much and your three kids. I mean, as a senator with the with the left as violent and aggressive as it is, with getting flak from Republicans and folks on your own side of the aisle quite a bit, you’ve had to deal with things as disgusting as graphic texts of beheadings — and that sort of thing — sent to your family, sent to your wife.

GARDNER [00:08:41] Yeah, and that’s unfortunate, you know? I mean, this is a country that is divided but that doesn’t mean that you send people pictures of beheadings, and that you send threats or break people’s Christmas lights in their front yard. That’s just not who we are as a country.

CORPORON [00:08:59] People — you know, looking ahead, seeing what happened, the debacle in Colorado, what Democrat control has led to as far as local legislation — are really wondering, how do Republicans come together.  What’s the perspective they need to take on the re-election of Donald Trump? What’s your relationship with Donald Trump? Let’s spend a couple of minutes on that. And I know they’re going to try dragging your away, here, in about 4 or 5 minutes.  I also want to talk about things like the new Space Force, and the BLM coming to Colorado. But let’s just talk about the election. We’ve got plenty of time in future interviews to get down and dirty on details. But, what’s the strategy going forward? How can we pull Colorado back — reelect you and bring Donald Trump home for Coloradoans?

GARDNER [00:09:48] Well, I think one of the things that don’t the people don’t talk about very much is the fact that John McCain lost Colorado by about 8points. Mitt Romney lost Colorado by about 6 points. Donald Trump lost Colorado by about 4 points. So, he did better than McCain or Romney did. And you know, a lot of people talk about how this is going to happen in Colorado. Well, look at the state legislature! Look what they did, and the overreach that they pursued! People are upset. People are angry about what happened. And you know, they see now that things like tax increases are on the menu, and things like gutting — the limits on taxes are at risk.  And they don’t like what’s happening. They see what’s happening at the federal level, where, you know, Medicare For All is just another name for socialized medicine that could cut 160 million people off their insurance. So, we have to get that message out there. We have to share with people that there is no Neil Gorsuch without a Republican in the White House, without a Republican in the Senate majority. There is no tax cut package without that. There is no ability to reform regulations that are hurting American businesses and our economy. And if you look at what we’ve done — billions of dollars in regulatory reductions, we’ve cut taxes, we’ve actually allowed economic growth, nearly a trillion dollars have come back from overseas into that it states for investment into our economy, business confidence is high. So, those are things that have happened because we have taken an approach that Americans know best, not the government. And that’s why we have to get that message out to share with everyone, what’s at risk if we don’t continue this.

CORPORON [00:11:19] People ask — I hear commentary on radio all the time that the Republican Party in Colorado, that the Gardner campaign want nothing to do with Trump Victory Colorado, or you know, tying yourselves to the President. What’s your perspective on the President? What’s your relationship with the President?

GARDNER [00:11:37] Well, look, I hope the President will come to Colorado. I hope he’ll come and see all the great things that we’ve been able to do. I’ve talked to him just as recently as I think Thursday — just a couple of days ago — about the Bureau of Land Management move to Colorado. It wouldn’t have happened without an administration committed to that, without President Trump being committed to moving the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, with the work that we were able to do with it. You know, you look at what we can do with Space Command in Colorado. You look at what was done with tax cuts. Anvil Points — I know that’s not something that is on people’s mind a lot — but Anvil Points was about $20 million that was owed to the people of western Colorado, and it was not paid for a very long time. In fact, a decade’s-worth of senators and even a Secretary of Interior from Colorado couldn’t get it paid. And so, we were able to get that paid back, thanks to the work of the relationship that we have. So, you know, there are times when we’re going to disagree, but I hope he will come to Colorado and we’ll show him all the good things we can, that we’re doing in Colorado.

CORPORON [00:12:35] Will you stand with him at a rally in Colorado?

GARDNER [00:12:39] You bet!  And I think that — I hope everybody will!

CORPORON [00:12:41] Yeah!

GARDNER [00:12:41] Look, this is not — this country has to rise above this sort of revenge politics and get into doing good work for this country. And I hope that my colleagues will do the same. I invite all of them to do the same, because if we’re — we ought to be showing all the things that we’re proud of here in this great state!

CORPORON [00:13:00] Your folks will pull you out when you need to go, and you just need to let me know. But, you know, one of the — one of the constant memes around here has been, you know, “Where was Gardner for the Air Force graduation ceremony with President Trump?” I happen to know the answer to that question, but I don’t think people understand some of the things you’re involved with on the world stage? What’s going on with China, Taiwan, and your family situation?

GARDNER [00:13:24] Yeah, we had to actually made a promise to our daughter — that if she got good grades, did well in school — that we would take her on a family trip.  And we did that. And that led into a visit with the president of Taiwan and a number of other ministers of defense in a security dialogue, because I’m chairman of the East Asia Subcommittee.  And the President signed in to law my Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, which is the most significant Asia strategy that Congress has passed in decades. And I was talking about that at this security conference, which happened to be at the same time. And I was on a panel with the — gosh! –one of the deputy chiefs of the Russian military, one of the deputy generals of the China PLA. We had the NATO staff there. We had EU staff there. It was a significant panel and an opportunity to talk about U.S. leadership and what we are doing to engage in the Pacific. And so that’s why I missed it. It was sad. I heard it was a great time. But [it was] unfortunate that I couldn’t be there, but I look forward to it again.

CORPORON [00:14:22] Where does Colorado stand in competition for the Space Command? I truly believe Space Force is coming our way.

GARDNER [00:14:30] So, that was another thing that I talked to the President about last week on Thursday.  And look, we’re down to six cities, I believe. And we have several of them in Colorado.  Several — of the six states, several of them are in Colorado.  I mean, it’s Peterson [Air Force base], it’s Buckley [Air Force base], it’s Colorado Springs, it’s Aurora, it’s Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD.  So these are things that we can, we can — you know, I think we’ve got 4 of the 6 [sites contending for the final selection] in Colorado. So we’re in good shape, but we’ve got to fight for it. We’ve got to — you know, one of the other ones is in Alabama which is home to the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The other one is in California. So we’ve got to make sure that we fight. But I think Colorado’s mission set — what we do here — is right in line with what Space Command will be doing. And I know the President is very fond of Colorado. And so I hope that that bodes well for the location. And you know — because, look, we have already moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado. We’ve moved significant portions of the USGS over to Golden.  And I think this is another opportunity.

CORPORON [00:15:28] Yeah, and I know you need to go, but if you’ve got 30 seconds, elaborate on what that means, to have the BLM in Grand Junction and bringing some general services functions to Golden.

GARDNER [00:15:40] Yeah, I just think that we’re going to have better administration when that administration is local. And if you look at the Bureau of Land Management, they have 245 million acres of land that they manage. Ninety-nine percent of those acres are west of the Mississippi River. And when I’m in Grand Junction, meeting with county commissioners or farmers or ranchers or energy interests or environmentalists, they always talk about how their local office seems to get it right. But then somehow when it gets back into the Potomac and the Beltway, things go wrong. And so why don’t we have those decision makers in their backyards, instead of all the way out in Washington, where local decisions can be made, where they’re making decisions within the community that they’re impacting the most? I think we’ll have better decisions, better protections, better common sense, as a result. This puts a little bit more common sense in Colorado — [correcting himself] you know, Colorado common sense in Washington. And I think we need that.

CORPORON [00:16:30] Well, it’s terrific that there is talk about Donald Trump being here in Colorado. I have heard that Trump Victory Colorado is very focused on flipping this state. And I’m glad you brought up that he came much closer than the two previous Republican candidates. I think it’s great that you’re talking to him a lot, that these big issues like BLM and Space Force have potential to be — well, we already know that BLM is here, but Space Force in Colorado is massive!  I know there are a lot issues — a lot of other things I’m sure you’d like to talk about — but I don’t want to overstay the welcome, given the fact that we’re already past the time I know you needed to go.

GARDNER [00:17:09] Well, thank you, Randy. [I] look forward to doing it again. And [I] just wish you the best of a weekend.  And if you’re  — we’re in Grand Junction for meetings today, but they’ve got one heck of an air show going on Saturday and Sunday.  So, if you haven’t made plans yet, you know, they’ve got some incredible shows!  They’ve even got the Blue Angels over here, and the Golden Knights. It is going to be incredible!  So Saturday and Sunday it’s going pn, so that’s — I guess — a free advertising for the people of Grand Junction.

CORPORON [00:17:30] Sure! And when you’re here, it’s not like six weeks of out-of-session, you’re not working, right?. I mean, what are you going to be doing to try and win Colorado during this off-session.

GARDNER [00:17:41] Yeah, we’ll be going all over the state, corner to corner. Traditionally, we’ve done a big Eastern Plains/Western Slope tour during August, where we meet with local communities — leaders, roundtables, businesses — find out what’s on people’s minds, what’s working, what’s not working, how Congress can do a better job. And I’ll repeat it:  we need more Colorado in Washington, less Washington in Colorado.  And I think that’s exactly what I’ve tried to do every step of the way. And that’s how we’ll use August, is to figure out a better way to do just that.

CORPORON [00:18:11] I had a text I had hoped to read, but I’ve lost it. But the lady had basically said — it was waiting for me when I got here this morning — that [she] really wants Cory Gardner to win. He needs to be the candidate that earns the vote of conservatives, Republicans, and independents, and makes us all want to win. Are you going to be out trying to earn our votes for the next 17 months?

GARDNER [00:18:31] Look, I have to. This country is too important to let it go a direction of Venezuela. You know, the President — when he went and spoke to the United Nations, here, a year or two ago — said that Venezuela is an example. It’s not an example of failed socialis.  It’s socialism at work. And I’m not going to — I’m going to — I’m not gonna let that future be what our children inherit. I’m going to fight like hell every day — [apologizing for swearing] sorry about that! — every day for what we  can do for this country.

CORPORON [00:18:58] Listen, man, the kind of passion I saw in the speech at the Western Conservative Summit and that level of emotion to fight for the America we love is what’s going to win Colorado in 2020!  [I] hope to have you back soon. I know we ran you a little late. Sorry about that. God bless you, and safe travels!

GARDNER [00:19:14] [laughing] No problem! Thank you, Randy. God Bless you! Thank you. Take care!

CORPORON [00:19:16] All right. U.S. Senator Cory Gardner  — and man! the texts are rolling in. “Well, ask him about Polis! Ask him about Red Flag! Ask him–!”   We will. We will. I think it’s important to get to know folks again, especially if we feel like we’ve been out of touch. I really liked this closing statement from Senator Gardner at the Western Conservative Summit:

[00:19:36] [playing audio recording of Gardner’s speech] “Too many people have sacrificed too much for us to give up. Because America, we’re going to be bigger and stronger than ever. We’re moving forward. And to the world I have one simple message:  when it comes to America, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”