Station:    KNUS, 710 am

Show:       Steffan Tubbs Show

Guests:    Gardner, Cory

Link:        https://omny.fm/shows/steffan-tubbs-show/the-steffan-tubbs-show-july-15th-2019-hour-1

Date:       July 15, 2019

Topics:     BLM Headquarters, Bureau of Land Management, Mesa County, Obama Administration, David Bernhardt, Secretary of the Interior, Office of Just Transition, President Trump’s Controversial Tweet, Racism, Rep. Omar, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Go Back to Where You Came From, Western Conservative Summit, Normalization of Socialism, Aurora ICE facility, Mexican flag, Desecration of the American Flag,

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HOST STEFFAN TUBBS [00:00:00] If you listen very closely to this tune spun by DJ Kirk Woodlund, on this Music Monday, you can hear Senator Cory Gardner doing background vocals as he celebrates the BLM coming to Grand Junction, Colorado. And I love when a good plan comes together. The senator joins us on 710 KNUS. Good afternoon, friend.

U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO, CORY GARDNER [00:00:28] [chuckling] Hey!  Good afternoon, Steffan. Thanks for having me on.

TUBBS [00:00:29] Hey, thanks for joining us on such short notice. [It has been a] big day for Colorado, Kind of talk about the process leading up to this and then your announcement via social media earlier today.

GARDNER [00:00:39] Yeah, absolutely. This is really a signature moment for Colorado, Colorado Leadership, and our public lands. About three years ago, a little bit more than that — well, yeah, right around three years ago — under the Obama administration, I had gotten and grown so frustrated with some of the directions the Bureau of Land Management was taking, and I said, “Heyl why don’t we just move this whole agency where all the land is out to the west.” And that moment really sparked a year’s worth of fight to bring the Bureau of Land Management –which, 99 percent of the acres they manage are west of the Mississippi River anyway. You know, we’ve been pushing for, and now we are able to announce that Grand Junction is the headquarters — going to be the headquarters, going forward — to the Bureau of Land Management.

TUBBS [00:01:20] That is awesome. What needs to happen between now and, say, the [grand opening] when you hold a gigantic pair of scissors to cut the ribbon?

GARDNER [00:01:29] [laughs] You know, I think this announcement has been made. Obviously notification has been — you know, it will need to be sent to Congress. That most likely happens tomorrow. And this is — I think this moves forward, at this point. I look forward to October — September/October timeframe — finding that big pair of scissors and opening this up and making sure Colorado is once again at the forefront.

TUBBS [00:01:53] What do you think this does? And obviously, if if that is true — and I take you at your word — that 99 percent of the land they manage is west of the Mississippi, clearly, there was a need for that government agency to be based out West. And I fully agree with that. But what does it mean, do you think, for the west slope and specifically Grand Junction’s economy?

GARDNER [00:02:13] Well, absolutely. I mean, if you’re looking at western Colorado — when you’re looking at you know 5 jobs, 10 jobs, 15 jobs — that’s a huge deal!  And I think it’ll be more than that. But you know, it’s not just the jobs but it’s also the people who will be coming into Grand Junction to meet with the director of the Bureau of Land Management. It’s the the people that will be coming in for training or other purposes, the people who will be eating at restaurants, filling up hotels. I mean, this is an economic boost for the area. But it’s stability, as well. These are, you know, jobs that aren’t going to ebb and flow with the oil and gas economy. These are jobs that aren’t going to ebb and flow with the tourism economy. These are jobs that are going to be a mainstay of our public land management.  And you know, the 99% number that I gave you, that’s 99% of 245 million acres of land, of which Mesa County Colorado has about 70% public lands.  And so the fact that you have a public land County — now headquarters of our largest public land management agency — I think it says a lot about Colorado’s leadership. And it certainly is a signature accomplishment for Colorado.

TUBBS [00:03:17] Senator Cory Gardner [is] joining us on the news line. Here’s a quote from Jared Polis in a press release earlier today: “We are thrilled to welcome the Bureau of Land Management and their employees to the great state of Colorado. As I stated to Secretary Barnhart many times, Grand Junction is the perfect location for the BLM because of community support, location closer to the land BLM manages, and the positive impact it will have on our western Colorado economy. [It is] hard to think of a better place to house the department responsible for overseeing our beloved public lands. You’re a Republican. and he’s a Democrat, and it’s nice to see that there can be some agreement.

GARDNER [00:03:52] Yeah, there’s no red trees or blue trees. I mean, this is about green trees. And this is an opportunity for us to highlight that leadership in western Colorado. And you know, the community was so supportive. I mean, you know, they were hosting events, they were sending letters, they were sending videos about why they would make the best location for the headquarters.  But at the end of the day, you know, it goes back to something that Thomas Jefferson had said years ago where he said that, you know, the government closest to the people serves the people the best. And with these public lands, to have people in Colorado being that close to the people making decisions — the decision makers that impact their community — we’re going to have better decisions being made going forward.

TUBBS [00:04:34] It has not been quite 72 hours since you delivered what I called your best speech that I’ve ever heard you give at the Western Conservative Summit Friday night. What did you think about the reception, and have you graded yourself yet?

GARDNER [00:04:52] [laughs] Well, I’m afraid to grade myself. I think I’ll never do that. But I think the fact is that it’s a great opportunity with a number of conservatives from across the western United States to talk about issues that really do matter to all of us. And that’s this growing sense of socialism on the left that I don’t even think most Democrats agree with. I think this is just the fringe candidates that you see in the state of Colorado and at the national level who have gone so much further than the majority of Democrats are. You know, I’ve never heard a Democrat come up to me and say, “You know, I’d really like to pack the court. I think that’s a great idea!”  I’ve heard candidates say that, but I don’t hear my dad, who is a Democrat. My dad has never said that. I mean, these are ideas that I think are just too far [left] even for their own party.

TUBBS [00:05:36] I gave you an A. I think you need to take that to the campaign.

GARDNER [00:05:38] Well, thank you!

TUBBS [00:05:38] Well, and I’m not just kidding. I mean, I have a chance to say ‘hi’ to you briefly, but I even e-mailed — not emailed, but Facebooked — your wife saying — I sent her the picture that you and I took. And she was very kind to me when that whole white supremacist crap came out a couple of weeks ago. And I said, “I think he gave the speech, and let’s get this on the campaign trail!”  And I’m sure you’re — I hope you listen to me. I hope you listen to my advice.

GARDNER [00:06:04] Well, no, it’s something–. Yeah, no, that’s right, Steffan. I think it’s something that we have started a conversation about last year at the Western Conservative Summit, talking about the normalization of socialism by Bernie Sanders. Last year, that was the most dangerous thing to come out of the 2016 presidential election. And, you know, I’ve talked about it across the country — and will continue to, because it used to be something you could mock. It used to be something you could talk about and joke about, almost. But it’s serious. You’ve got Bernie Sanders now espousing these ideas. You’ve got AOC espousing these ideas. What happens when they start to pass these ideas? Then it becomes too late to just step back and say, “Wait a minute! Where did our freedom go? Where did our capitalism, our free market systems go?” I joked about this Office of Transitions the state of Colorado was creating, but I just look at that as a key sign of things to come.

TUBBS [00:06:53] Yeah, explain that real quick, because that really — God, I think there was a lot of jaws that kind of went to the floor when you mentioned that Friday night.

GARDNER [00:07:02] Well, if you look at what the anti-oil and gas stands the state legislature took.  They voted for a bill that could cost thousands of jobs across Colorado because the government has deemed their jobs unworthy. And so they — in response —  there was a legislator who proposed the Office of Just Transition to help people transition through the government determining that their job was unnecessary or unworthy or unfit. And to me — I mean, my gosh! You talk about, you know, something that the comrade might be a good idea, this is a scary thing, when government is going to say, “Look, we just determined your job is unnecessary or unworthy, but come and receive your government educated job and we’ll give you the pitchfork, and here we go!”.

TUBBS [00:07:46] Crazy. Did you follow –? You know, I thought it was interesting — as we talk with Senator Cory Gardner — when we were down there at the Colorado Convention Center, there was this big rally against the detention centers in Aurora and there are reasons the police gave that they didn’t interfere — intervene, I should say. But there was a Mexican flag that was raised above that facility, here in Aurora. And the U.S. flag was defaced and hung upside down. Did you follow that?  And how have you followed things over the weekend, with this so-called ‘squad.’ It is– it’s quite unbelievable, what’s been going on.

GARDNER [00:08:19] Well, certainly, after the speech was over, I was made aware of this and watched what was happening and unfolding. And I talked during my comments about how far things have gone when law enforcement — the people who are defending our country from those who would do us harm — are accused of being Nazis running  Concentration Camps. That’s what they they have been accused of. And then you look at what happened at this detention facility where the American flag was desecrated, where foul things were a spray painted on them about our police officers, men and women in uniform, our immigration officials who were trying to do their best to protect this country. And that’s just how far things have gone. And I think it’s unacceptable. And I condemn it in the strongest sense of everything I can, because we need immigration reform. But this is an unacceptable –unacceptable — thing that they did.

TUBBS [00:09:14] Yeah. Yeah. Real quick, and you’ve been kind with your time. Congratulations with your efforts on getting the BLM coming to Grand Junction, Colorado. Were you able to follow anything today with the Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, et cetera, et cetera, this press conference. And did you see the tweet over the weekend that’s caused all of this, from the president?

GARDNER [00:09:33] We have been working on the BLM move and that’s basically everything that we’ve been trying to get done.

TUBBS [00:09:40] Short and succinct. I translate that into: “I don’t want to talk about it.” [hearty laughter].

GARDNER [00:09:45] Well, look, I think — you know, the fact that we have this announcement today, I mean, we’ve been –. This is something that we spent years on. Then, of course, as we approached the day, we weren’t — we weren’t expecting to announce this today. We thought we were going to be able to announce it tomorrow.  And then word started leaking out. I think there was a reporter at E&E or something like that that started announcing it. So we decided we better announce this today because we want to get out ahead and get the actual information out about what’s happening. So, tomorrow there’ll be more details. But yeah, this weekend was pretty packed with trying to figure out exactly how we could move forward on BLM.

TUBBS [00:10:14] Well, I thought you hit it out of the park on Friday night. And I always appreciate talking with you, and we will certainly chat again down the road.

GARDNER [00:10:21] Hey, thanks, Steffan!  Thanks for having me. Take care.

TUBBS [00:10:23] You bet. Senator Cory Gardner, there. I want to get to our phone calls because everybody’s been patient, but we just — at the last minute — were able to get Senator Cory Gardner on.