Station:  KHOW, 630 AM

Show:     Ross Kaminsky Show   

Guests:   Gardner, Cory  

Link:      https://khow.iheart.com/featured/ross-kaminsky/

Date:      October 29, 2020      

Topics:   

CLIP-CGardnerKAMINSKY102820.m4a

[00:00:00] Roskam is can show you’re a great American. He’s a great guy. Now, Ross Kominski on Denver’s talk station, 630 K. 

[00:00:11] All right. Good morning. Happy Tuesday. I’m Ross. Thanks for being here. 

[00:00:14] I’ve set a few things a lot of times here on the show and in recent weeks. Number one is Colorado is obviously a bluer state than it used to be and sure showed that in 2018. The other thing that I’ve said is that Cory Gardner is the most talented politician in the state of Colorado when if anybody can swim against such a tide and it would be Cory, not least because he’s always smiling. Cory Gardner, senator, joins us right now. Hey, Cory, good morning. 

[00:00:47] Thanks for being here this morning, Rob. How are you? 

[00:00:51] I can tell you’re smiling even though you’re on the radio with me right now. So thank you. So. So let’s get so many things I want to cover with you. 

[00:01:00] Let’s start with this sort of macro overview. What do you view as the the political situation in Colorado right now? Not necessarily specifically about your race. 

[00:01:15] Yeah, look, I think Colorado is always a tough state. It’s been tough for for decades. I remember really the first Senate race that I was ever interested and involved in back in the early 2000s. It was the number one most competitive race in the nation. And Colorado has gotten trickier, not easier for both sides of the aisle since then. And so this is a state that has know 44 to 45 percent of the people are going to vote for one candidate on the left. Forty four. Forty five percent are gonna vote for one candidate on the right. And ten to twelve percent are going to make up their minds between now and, you know, the time they started getting their ballots filled out October 10th and November 3rd. So that’s that’s the part of Colorado. Now, if you’ve seen it well, if you’ve seen the ads on TV, it’s hard to look at the ads on TV. You know what the campaign is about? It’s about one side trying to nationalize the race, making it about Donald Trump and me talking about the work that I’ve done for Colorado, fighting for all Four Corners and being somebody who’s actually gotten things done for our state that people like John F. Kennedy promised 60 years ago. But it took until now for us to get it back. 

[00:02:20] Yeah, and that’s that’s a really interesting point. And I think in a little bit about the North Carolina Senate race, which has that other factor of the Democrats sexting scandal. But what’s interesting there, Tom, Thom Tillis, incumbent, who I’m sure you know quite well in in that race, the Republican is the one who is trying to nationalize the race and the Democrat is the one who is making it local. And and I think in a swing state, making it local is the smarter strategy. 

[00:02:51] You know, I think that’s that’s what the people of Colorado have always been interested in, is how you have represented the state. And if you look at the work we’ve done to bring the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Colorado to bring the U.S. Space Command to Colorado to pass the biggest, most successful conservation bill in over 50 years, that will create thousands of jobs in Colorado. I think people are paying attention to that. And they want more than somebody who is just going to go to Washington to be on CNN and talk politics. 

[00:03:19] I know that a huge percentage of campaign commercials and this is in the macro, again, not just about you don’t come from a candidate’s campaign. They’ll be from they’ll be from PACs, they’ll be from an RNC or, you know, groups like that. So you’re not really in control of probably even a majority of the advertising in your race. But I do wonder why we haven’t seen more commercials about John Hickenlooper saying I don’t want to be a senator and I wouldn’t be very good at it. 

[00:03:53] Yeah, you know, we’ve actually put a couple of those clips in our ads and others have, I think, really what has resonated with the people of Colorado? Isn’t that so much? And we see this in polling and conversations we have with voters. It’s the corruption issue that has really resonated with voters because they don’t like the fact that he’s the first governor in Colorado history to violate the state constitution. And there’s 91 other charges that were brought that he wasn’t found innocent on as they weren’t even considered because they were outside the statute of limitations. That that is the issue that most voters see and are concerned with. 

[00:04:31] One quick policy thing that I want to make sure to mention, you talked about some of your accomplishments, and I want to just bring up another. It’s not Colorado centric. It’s national. But can you tell us about nine, eight, eight? 

[00:04:44] Yeah, they needed a bill is something that is when you look and think about the things that make the biggest impact. Nine, eight, eight Bill is probably one of those issues. You know, right now in Colorado, we lose somebody every seven hours to death by suicide. Unfortunately, we are a state that leads the country in deaths, especially of our youngest Coloradans. And we can do better. And right now, if you have a need to call somebody, reach out for help. You’ve got to remember one of a couple different ten digit numbers. It’s called The Hotline. And, you know, if you’re in that moment, you may not be able to do that very easily. And so nine, eight, eight. This will be set up running July 20, 22. So it’s still got a while to run before it’s established. But it will be established is a three digit number, like nine one one you’d call for a fire or to report a crime. You’ll call nine, eight eight to talk to somebody to save a life. This is going to help veterans because it’s going to be a press one if you’re a veteran, to go to specialized help for veterans. It was the first bill and that bill was the first bill in the history of our country with LGBTQ inclusive language to pass unanimously out of the House and the Senate. And it’s going to save lives. And I just it’s really one of those things that should have been done a long time ago. I’m just honored that my bill was the one that made it happen today. 

[00:06:07] Yeah, well, congratulations on that. That’s a very important thing. I want to ask you a super nerdy question about that, if you don’t mind. 

[00:06:16] If it involves math, you may have to ask somebody else. 

[00:06:19] How did you choose the number nine eight eight? I mean, I get why you’d start with a nine because people think nine one one. How do you choose 980? 

[00:06:28] Yeah, no, we actually were looking at that through a study that the FCC had determined. They were looking at different you know, what what number combination made the most sense. We didn’t just pull out of thin air. That was the FCC actually saying, based on their research and studies, nine, eight, eight is the number that will be most easily remembered and used. 

[00:06:47] All right. That makes. Why? Why? 

[00:06:48] I don’t know. But it was the FCC. I mean, we obviously read the study, but the FCC made that determination based on those numbers. 

[00:06:56] So in 2018 in Colorado, as you well know, even though you weren’t on the ballot in 2018, it was kind of a blue wave and a lot of very respected Republicans got swept out of office. I’ve talked a lot about Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who was widely regarded as one of the best may be the best secretary of state in the nation, lost to somebody with no qualifications for the job. And there were other similar elections. So when it comes to 2020, if if the mood in Colorado is at least similar, what you probably have to do is find a way to get some people who are not going to vote for President Trump to split their ticket and vote for you. How are you trying to do that? 

[00:07:46] Well, it’s just simply by reaching out and talking about our record of accomplishment, and we know there are voters who are not voting for President Trump and who are voting for me. And I’ve talked to them. They’ve called the campaign. They’ve got their yard sign in my yard sign in their yard. And, you know, so we know those voters are out there. But also, I think in 2018, there are about one hundred and sixty. Hundred and eighty thousand voters who did not vote in 2018. That did vote in 2016. And so we know that we know the highest percentage of them are in El Paso County. And so we focused a lot of our efforts in getting those people back to the ballot box. 

[00:08:21] Interesting. What do you make of John Hickenlooper, his refusal to answer the question about whether he’d support packing the Supreme Court? 

[00:08:31] Why, it’s a simple yes or no answer. If he was opposed to packing the court, then he says he says, no, I will not pack the court because he won’t say that you you know, that he is in favor of it and would consider it. And, you know, packing the court doesn’t mean just filling a nomination. You know, that doesn’t mean that when there’s a vacancy, you put somebody on the court and that’s not packing the court. That’s following the Constitution. Packing the court means adding a 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th justice to the Supreme Court. Adding numbers on the appellate court until you get enough judges to rule the way that you want them to. You heard Joe Biden say that he’s thinking about rotating justices, all the pluck them off the Supreme Court, put them down at the district court level, let him run some bench trials for a while then and then go back on. I mean, they are really trying to decimate an equally a coequal power of government because they haven’t been able to achieve their ultimate means and goal in it is through through the legislative process. So that’s what they’re going to try to do. John Hickenlooper is a conspirator in that. And I think the people of Colorado should know he told The Denver Post that he would be more forthcoming once the confirmation occurs. Well, the confirmation has occurred and he’s back in the basement. 

[00:09:50] Yeah. You know, it’s funny. He’s he’s absolutely copying Joe Biden. Joe Biden said, well, I’ll tell you after the confirmation and then after the confirmation, Joe Biden said, well, I’d support a commission to go study it. I mean, like you. That’s right. Where do these people leave their backbones and just believe in something? I don’t even care whether I disagree with you. Just frickin believe in something. 

[00:10:11] Yeah, give the answer. Let the people call. I don’t know, and maybe he’s waiting for four more years of George Lopez’s administration. I don’t know. 

[00:10:19] I might rather have George Lopez. I’m curious also. I’m sure you are well aware because there’s a national thing as well as an item on our ballot here in Colorado. The National Popular Vote Compact. And I don’t know if Hickenlooper has been asked about that, but given that it’s both a state issue and a federal issue, I wanted your take not just on the ballot measure here, but broadly speaking, on the Electoral College. 

[00:10:49] They absolutely will, Hickenlooper supports the elimination of the Electoral College. You know, I just think it’s such a wrong thing to do. Look at our founders are trying to figure out how to, at the time, not let one big populous state like New York have all of the all of the votes, all of the power in selecting our Democratic Republic, the president of the United States. And so our federal system, that is a you know, a Democrat republic. And so so he he he has said that he would support limiting the letter calls, which just means that if Colorado votes for, you know, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump wins the national vote, then our votes go for Donald Trump or vice versa. And I just it means that Colorado’s voice doesn’t matter. It means that anybody can just fly to from New York to California and pingpong around the four corners of Illinois, Texas, California, New York, maybe stop in Florida once in a while and fly over everywhere else. And we lose our voice. The Electoral College prevents that from happening. And I just don’t understand why we would forfeit our voice. 

[00:11:53] Yeah, I mean, I understand why they did it. And Democrats selling out to Californians hoping to get big campaign contributions from deep pocketed Californians whenever they run for whatever they’re going to run for next. And I’m sorry if that sounds cynical, but I actually think it’s probably not cynical enough. I mean, I’ve never been as angry with the Colorado state legislature as I am about them passing them, having us, you know, trying to get us into the national popular vote compact. It’s it’s just it’s infuriating. 

[00:12:25] Under the area, the people of Colorado will vote against a national popular vote. Yes. 

[00:12:29] I’m curious at this point, sort of a two part question, how you think Corona virus is playing into the election. And the other part of the question is whether you think the way Corona virus case number increases are being reported by the media is designed to impact the election. 

[00:12:48] Well, look, here’s what I’m concerned about. I think that and even the W8 show has said this now, these uninspiring economic lockdowns are catastrophic. Millions of people are out of work. Millions more will be out of work if they haven’t already been. They will be again if we continue this shutdown. It’s absurd to think that we can maintain a strong country with no economy, and it would be smart. Follow the signs. Wear a mask socially. Distance yourself. Wash your hands if you have an underlying condition. Be careful. Watch what you do. But to simply say shut your doors. Closed the gym. Get out of the restaurants. Empty the hotels. It is dire consequence for our country. We can’t have a national security policy if we don’t have the funds to keep our our fighters in the air and our men and women on the lines. This has ripple effects that I don’t think this country has fully grasped yet. I do think that, you know, to your specific question, obviously this is weighing on the minds of voters. But I also think, you know, shutting down this country again is is psychologically going to devastate this country. 

[00:13:56] It is interesting when you look at some polls how huge the partizan gaps are on this question. Republicans much more interested in keeping the economy open and frankly, not that afraid of the virus where Democrats are living in far more fear of the virus. And I actually think most of that has to do with different sources of information. Right. What news stations conservatives watch or listen to versus what news stations liberals watch or listen to a man, a few. I don’t know if you’ve ever put yourself through this, Corey, but if you watched CNN for an evening, you would think Corona virus is going to kill us all. And the world is coming to an end. And Donald Trump is a mass murderer. 

[00:14:37] And e the media these days is just. Out of control. 

[00:14:44] Yeah, you know, and I am concerned that, you know, both sides of media, whether you’re looking at Fox News or MSNBC, is using this to a political advantage when the bottom line is this. Look, real people are hurting both because of the virus itself, because they got sick, because they no one loved them, loved one who was lost or because their business that they fought 60 years to build has been wiped out and decimated. So was her country. This is a country that gave the world the light bulb, the Internet, the airplane and beyond. We’ve got to figure out that we can walk and chew gum at the same time, save people. Be smart, follow the science and not destroy ourselves from within. 

[00:15:26] Yeah. It’s also the country that gave the world the Cardassian. So I’m not sure how optimistic when we should be on on that score. Let me ask you one question where I think you and I might might disagree. 

[00:15:39] What would you like to see, if anything, when it comes to the next Corona virus relief slash bailout bill? 

[00:15:50] Look, I if you look at the bill that we put on the floor of a week ago and it was defeated by Chuck Schumer because, look, if people put down their partizan lenses that the media would actually do an honest look at this, they would recognize that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have no desire to get a Corona virus relief package until after the election because they believe it will empower them to victory on November 3rd. So that’s the sheer reality of their politics. Now, the bill that we had last week on the floor provided more dollars for the paycheck protection program. That’s the money to help businesses that were shut by the government. It provided dollars for vaccinations, distributions and research. It provided dollars for additional stockpiling of personal protective equipment. It provided dollars for schools even more than the house. And it provided some other dollars room for other needs, like child care. That bill is very targeted and it was opposed by the Democrats and including my opponent, John Hickenlooper. You know, if you talk about what we need that I think is in line with what we need. Are states going to need additional help? Yeah. We can help them, but we can do more. There is no Alpha and Omega let piece of legislation that is going to solve everything we need. So let’s start where we know there’s a need and come together for the rest of it. 

[00:17:12] If if Steve Manoogian and Donald Trump agreed with Nancy Pelosi on a two point two trillion dollar bill, would you be a yes or a no vote on that? 

[00:17:24] Well, look, if it had it was targeted to Croner virus relief, I’d be a yes. If it was targeted to their true need of this country, then I think that’s a yes vote. But if it includes things like Nancy Pelosi wants to do, like, you know, health care benefits for for undocumented. It wasn’t health care was healthcare benefits or payments. If it included things like taking over our elections, if it included things that were absolutely extraneous to the corona virus. That’s a nonstarter. 

[00:17:53] And I’ll tell you what. We’re less than a week to the election now. I want to give you the last 30 seconds here to make your case to look, I don’t think there’s a large number of undecided voters remaining, but there might be some. And there also might be some people who just need a little kick in the pants to go turn their ballot in. Somebody give you a last 30 seconds for your closing message to my listeners. 

[00:18:17] Well, thanks, Ross. Over the last six years, I’ve worked hard to become the third most bipartisan member of the Senate, passing more legislation than the entire Colorado congressional delegation combined. The fighting hard for solutions to every part of our state and the only statewide elected official who lives more than 30 miles away from Denver or Boulder. And I believe in this state, I believe in the people of this state are getting government out of the way, letting America work. And, you know, things like the Great American Outdoors Act, moving the Bureau of Land Management headquarters, getting the Arkansas Valley conduits built for southeastern Colorado, that it’s more than just I 25 i 70 doesn’t end at Vail. I 70 doesn’t end it. Strausberg It continues. 

[00:18:56] And we need somebody who’s going to fight for all parts of this state. And that’s exactly what I’ll do. And I’d be honored to earn your vote. 

[00:19:02] Well, you’ve earned mine. And since I came from Chicago, I’ll be voting early and often. And I have said many times that many times on this show that I truly believe Cory Gardner is an excellent senator for the state of Colorado, absolutely deserves your vote. 

[00:19:20] No matter what you think of President Trump, you should vote for Cory Gardner. Corey, I wish lots of luck. And thank you so much for your time this morning. 

[00:19:31] Ross, thanks for coming on. Thank you. Thank you. 

[00:19:32] Glad to do it. But to do it. All right, folks. I mean it. Vote for Cory Gardner, his aunt. He has earned your vote. John Hickenlooper has not. John Hickenlooper will not answer a question. John Hickenlooper has said many times that he does not want to be a senator and they would not be good at it. Let’s take him at his word. And finally, you know, the polls do suggest that Joe Biden is more likely than President Trump to run a lot. Nothing is a lot but more likely than President Trump to win this election. If you want to do anything to protect this country from a true left wing rampage through this country, we’ve got to have Republicans keep the Senate. One more reason to vote for Cory Gardner. We’ll be right back.