Dan Caplis Show, Tom Tancredo, May 16, 2014
Station: KNUS, 710 AM
Show: Dan Caplis Show
Guests: Tancredo
Link: http://dancaplis.podbean.com/?source=pb
Date: May 16, 2014
Topics:
[The following represents notes taken during this interview. All portions, except where identified as transcribed sections, are paraphrased from the questions and responses between the host and the guest.]
GUEST CO-HOST PETER BOYLES: Let me tell you something, if I had that money in the bank, I’d be heading for the elevator with mistletoe tied right here in the back of my pants.
HOST DAN CAPLIS: You would not! You would not! You would not! You would buy the station and you’d do two shows a day, right?
BOYLES: Good idea! No.
CAPLIS: That’s what you would do!
BOYLES: No, actually, — isn’t that a great question? What would you do if you had enough money not to do anything?
CAPLIS: Mm-hmm.
BOYLES: I’d still go to work.
CAPLIS: Of course you would. Of course you would!
TANCREDO: What else would you do? I mean, it’s crazy. I’m sure I would run for office. [laughs]
BOYLES: That’s right.
CAPLIS: Exactly. But you’d be able to buy the office.
TANCREDO: Well, that’s it, we’d have a much easier time of it than, you know, than begging every day. [inaudible] like I do
BOYLES: People like Jared Polis, unlimited funds. But seriously, Danny, that’s a great question.
CAPLIS: Oh, you know, I’m not sure I’d change – […] but we all want to have the most impact we can for good, right, and have some fun along the way.
BOYLES: Sure.
CAPLIS: And uh, and that’s what we all want to do. So, I’d do the same thing I’m doing now, but just try to use that money to have a bigger, better impact. And have some fun. What’s wrong with some fun?
[…]
BOYLES: Malcolm Forbes bought a bunch of Harley’s for his friends and they rode China. I’m working on helping out my grandson with a college fund. Not much would change.
CAPLIS: What car would you buy
o I’d be Elvis Presley
o Multiple cars – car museum like my friend
BOYLES: gun collection
CAPLIS: I’d play golf everyday – until I got sick of it
CAPLIS: everyone wants to make an impact.
TANCREDO:
o I’d counter every George Soros contribution to the other side
o Rich progressives – I’d match every dollar to the other side.
BOYLES: skiing is a passion, but would it be less fun if I didn’t have to work so hard for the privilege.
CAPLIS: You could buy 10 governors – unfortunately that’s the way our system works
BOYLES: we’ve seen wealthy parents ruin the next generation of kids. Buffet wouldn’t give his kids money and they turned out successful
TANCREDO:
o What would you do with your kids.
o Give each the same amount
§ I guarantee you that would start something, and it wouldn’t be good.
§ Fairness isn’t objective…
o Being rich would be a pain in the butt
BOYLES: Ford destroyed his kid, Edsel. Rockefeller ruined his kid after Ludlow
CAPLIS: undercurrent in CO, generous philanthropists, who have given gazillions away.
o Our community has been cool that way
o There’s no doubt you guys would be that way.
§ It wouldn’t be the “Boyles Yacht
§ And the Tancredo Estates:
TANCREDO: Yeah, but I would get a garage full of cool cars and a place where my wife lets me smoke cigars.
CAPLIS: I bet you would buy radio stations
TANCREDO: That’s the only way I’ll ever get my [own] show
[…]
[The following section is transcribed from Tancredo’s interview with Caplis and Boyles.]
CAPLIS: Hey, speaking of getting your show, can I ask you one serious political question – which we don’t have to do it. It’s a Friday.
TOM TANCREDO: Sure! Sure! No, I don’t mind.
CAPLIS: We don’t have to do that. But, it’s interesting because I’ve been waiting for the circular firing squad stuff to start in the GOP primary.
TANCREDO: Yeah!
CAPLIS: I’ve been really happy that it hasn’t really geared up, because I think Hickenlooper is going to be tough to beat.
TANCREDO: He is.
CAPLIS: He should be beaten. Any of you guys would be a much better governor than Hickenlooper. But I think that circular firing squad makes it tougher.
TANCREDO: Yeah.
CAPLIS: Now, it looks like the first punch was just thrown.
TANCREDO: Hmm.
CAPLIS: But if Scott [Gessler]– sorry, I read something yesterday – put something out basically saying that you and Bob Beauprez have both lost –.
TANCREDO: Losers!
CAPLIS: Well, he didn’t say it that – well, I guess he did
TANCREDO: [laughs] Yes, he did!
BOYLES: yeah, he did!
CAPLIS: — both lost state races, and he’s won a state-wide race and he elaborated on both of your state-wide failures. Any response to that?
TANCREDO: Well, I’ll tell you, the – if you really want to look at that last race –the one he refers to, for me anyway that I quote ‘lost’–um, I’ve never been more proud of a race I’ve ever run, to tell you the truth. Because we started out, we had eleven weeks – eleven weeks!—to run a race, which, by the way, my wife still thinks it’s the best campaign we’ve ever had.
CAPLIS: [laughs]
TANCREDO: And we, um, we ran as a third party candidate.
CAPLIS: Yeah.
TANCREDO: I get 37% of the vote. The Republican gets 11% of the vote.
CAPLIS: Mm-hmm
TANCREDO: Um, we raised a million and a half dollars in that amount of time. I must tell you, I was as proud of that as anything I’ve ever done. Yeah, it was a loss. But I’ll tell you, um, the effort was worth it from my point of view, and I’m so proud of all of the people that–. I’ll tell you what I love about our campaigns. I have over ten thousand individual donors. Now, I will challenge Scott, I will challenge or anybody to come anywhere near that. Now, now Bob will have more money. He will have more money than we have, but–and Hickenlooper will have more money. But none of them come close. Maybe a thousand contributors, two thousand at the end of the day. Ten thousand! Now ours are sixty-seven bucks a piece. That’s the average. And I’ll tell you, Danny, I am so damn proud of these people and of this kind of a campaign. And you know, winning and losing – it’s a – it’s part of –It’s one coin and it’s got two sides to it and you’ve got to be ready and willing to accept the possibility that it’ll come up tails.
CAPLIS: I thought Scott’s shot on you – and I like Scott–but I thought his shot on you was very unfair. And I thought his shot on Bob was very unfair. And here’s why. I agree with you, I think it was the best race you ever ran—that race for governor. I think you did something very noble in trying to bail out, you know, out a terrible situation, you know, created by the Scott McGinnis / Dan Maes mess.
TANCREDO: Yeah. Yeah.
CAPLIS: And it’s so interesting. People forget. I mean, you ran a very good race, and –full disclosure, I think I contributed to your campaign. If I didn’t, I meant to. But I know that I publicly supported you.
TANCREDO: There’s going to be another chance. You’ve got another chance.
CAPLIS: [laughs] but —that’s good! I like that! But here’s my point. You jumped into this, this–this mess.
TANCREDO: Yeah.
CAPLIS: And I remember, there were national political experts on Election Day predicting you were going to win that race!
TANCREDO: Yes! I remember it too! We were over at, um – what restaurant over here–it was actually out in Aurora again, for the event, and the TV was on, and I think it was Rasmussen on CNN. They said, “What going to be the big—across the nation, what’s going to be the big upset tonight?” And he goes, “Well, our polls show that Tancredo is going to win this.” And I’m thinking, “What?” [laughs] I mean, because that’s the first time that ever got to–. But at Election Day, we were actually tied or ahead of Hickenlooper.
CAPLIS: Yeah.
TANCREDO: The thing–what happened was, it didn’t count the votes that were already in the bank: early votes, people that had already voted. And even when they asked them, they thought they were voting for the Republican but they were voting for me, they thought.
CAPLIS: And honestly, Tom, I think in that race, if it had been under normal circumstances, and you had just been the nominee of the GOP, and you’d have had the infrastructure in tact from day one, etc., I think there’s a real good chance you win that race.
TANCREDO: I do too! And What a wild time that would have been. Oh, my goodness.
CAPLIS: Yeah. Yeah. I just–.
TANCREDO: So, It was a lot of fun and I enjoy it and I do not regret a single minute of it. So, you know, Scott— I’ll tell you, this is what happens. This is what we’ve tried to avoid. It’s why I don’t – I tell them all the time, “Let’s not debate.” And I’ll tell you another thing. Scott, listen to me carefully, here, because I told this to [CO State Senator Greg] Brophy, too. And this is the truest thing I can tell you about politics. Um, in a multi-candidate race, when one person attacks another, goes negative on another, both those candidates go down in polls. And – because the votes go to another one of the people that are out there.
CAPLIS: Hmm. Hmm. Interesting. Because there’s that other option.
TANCREDO: That’s right, another option. You get mad at the people who are attacking, and then you think–. But you also get mad at the guy that is being attacked, and so it goes to number three or four.
CAPLIS: [laughs] You know, you –.
TANCREDO: You’ve got to remember, this will not help you, Scott! I guarantee you!
BOYLES: In our lives, we’ve all seen this, where there is a husband or a wife who is cheating in a relationship. The third person goes to one or the other and tells, “Joe, Mary’s cheating,” [or] “Mary, Joe’s cheating.” At the end of the day, both of them hate the guy [inaudible]. And that’s what this is about.
TANCREDO: Yes.
CAPLIS: And what is so interesting to me, is Scott has so many positives things to talk about.
TANCREDO: Sure. That’s right.
CAPLIS: He’s won a state-wide election. And I think he’s run a darn good office. So he’s got a lot of positive things to talk about.
TANCREDO: You bet!
CAPLIS: I just thought it was unfortunate – and I think, like you, probably counter-productive for Scott to throw that punch. And the Bob Beauprez situation, in all fairness, I mean, he jumped into the toughest cycle for Republicans in my lifetime—that 2006–or maybe right after Watergate, but also 2006. And then the Holtzman thing just left him crippled. And he made a mistake or two. But I still think Bob brings a lot to the table.
TANCREDO: He does.
CAPLIS: But I just hated to see this negative stuff start.
