Iowa Gov Kim Reynolds at the RNC

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Governor Reynolds is always a very goodpleasure to speak with you this afternoon.
Oh Amory, it's great to bewith you too. Thank you so much
for the opportunity. We need tostart, probably with the horrific event in
Pennsylvania with Donald Trump catching a bulletin the ear, a Trump supporter killed
by gunfire. We all know thestory and as many details as we know

(00:23):
at this point, we've been talkingabout it all week. But you're an
important person. You put yourself invery public situations all the time around iowand's
what's going through your mind as youhear this news. Well, first of
all, just totally disbelief. Imean, I was at the andycar Race
in Newton and having a great dayand I had a chief. The chief

(00:44):
handed be the phone and said,you know, I said, the President's
been shaw Trump, President Trump's beentrod. And it just was you.
You, it was your shock anddisbelief and just you know, how could
something like that happen in this country? And uh, and then we just
started calling and seeing what else wecould, you know, find out figure
out and understand what was actually happening. But just dark day and in our

(01:07):
history that you know, a formerpresident, the Republican nominee, uh for
for for our party, just youknow that they would try to assassinate him
as stark day. So but Ithink again too, uh, it was
just uh for for President Trump toget back up and to show, first

(01:32):
of all, just to have theinstinct, the strengths and the courage,
uh to uh you know, showthe world and the country that he was
not going to be deterred. Hewasn't going to stop that. He was
going to you know, if hepumped that fist in the air, He's
going to continue to fight and fightback and fight for this country. I
think, uh that was inspiring forall of this. It showed the American

(01:56):
people that he was okay, thathe was continuing to fight again, he
wouldn't be to matured. That heshowed his strength and love of country.
And I think, you know,that's something that we need right now.
And that is same. You know, it has been a I think you
saw the party already unifying really behindPresident Trump. We were already moving in
that direction. I think we wereseeing some great momentum. But this is

(02:19):
certainly you see a very very unitedRepublican Party here at the convention that is
ready to go to the map todo everything they can to elect President Trump
and really just stop the decline thatwe're seeing in this country, to restore
the values and principles that this countrywas founded on. And he's done it

(02:42):
before. He has an amazing record, and I think we're going to make
sure that it happens this time.Kind of just a commitment of result,
a clarity that, boy, ittakes to take all of us, and
we need to make it happen.Speaking with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on our
phone line today, Governor, Isee you at the Iowa say Fair,
You're at the IndyCar Race. I'veseen you at hockey games and you're just

(03:04):
hanging out. You know, you'rereally a true island. You're one of
us personally. Do you ever havefears that there might be somebody or you
find yourself in a situation like this? Do you see any part of this
that can reflect personally in your situationsthat you find yourself in? And do
you feel safe as a public politicianin the state of Hyoway and beyond when

(03:29):
you are you know, out thereand people know that you're out there.
You know, I do. ButI mean, the rhetoric has to stop.
And we've seen the media that's reallydriven this. President Biden has been
a driver of this. He doesn'tonly just abject the peace the president President
tromp, but he attacks the peoplethat support him. And it's such a
divisive time in our country. Idon't really think about it. Like you

(03:52):
said, I'm everywhere. I'm veryvisible. I'm out in the state.
I we attend all ninety nine counties. We hit as many of answer as
we can. You know, Ihave There's no place I'd rather be than
right here in Milwaukee supporting President Trumpand again just being a part of the
process to let you know, toelect the team and then to get them

(04:15):
across the finish line in November.You know, he he It was inspiring
to all of us. If he'sgoing to fight, we're ready to fight.
We're not going to be deterred either. And so you think about it
maybe a little bit more and you'rea little bit more aware of your surroundings
and what's going on. But youknow, I, you know I otherwise

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it's not I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to cower. I'm
not gonna I'm not going to changewhat I do because that's what they want.
So we're not going to cower.We're not going to stand down.
I'm going to continue to be outthere and doing what I've done. And
we just need to we need tocut down the rhetoric, and we need
to get above the just the Ithink negativity that we see uh happening across

(05:00):
this country and just and really talkabout the policies, talk about the issues,
and talk about how we're going toget this country back on track.
We have heard from the President,from former President Obama, Kamala Harris,
obviously Governor Josh Shapiro and in Pennsylvaniahad his hands full with all this as
it was happening. And I'm sureyou, as a governor could probably see

(05:20):
that, and you know, you'vekind of been in certain situations like that
where that's a tough job for thelead politician in the state. But they've
been very clear about, you know, the way that they want to approach
this moving forward. And they've allbeen I mean, even Alexandria Costio Cortez
and people more far to the fartherleft talking about grateful for the safety of

(05:42):
Donald Trump, which I'm sure issurprising to some, but you're in Milwaukee,
You're at the Republican National Convention,and people are kind of awaiting what
that rhetoric looks like on the Republicanside, knowing that their guy was the
victim of this kind of videry allin hate. What are the vibes on
that rhetoric from the right as itstands right now. Well, so I'm
not sure saying, but I thinkreally what President Trump has been advocating for,

(06:03):
I think when you hear him speakon Thursday, I mean, I
have no idea that he's rewriting hisspeech, but just the gravity and the
weight of all of this, andjust in reflection, I think, you
know, it's going to be avery uniting speech. I think it's going
to be a very positive speech.He's going to talk about the greatness of
this country. It will be Ithink it'll be hopeful. I think it'll

(06:25):
be uplifting. I think it'll,you know, talk about how he believes
that we can bring people together.So one of the things that he started
to do and we started to seehappened and is not only do we have
a United United Party, but we'rebuilding on it. So in Iowa they
we gained members again in the RepublicanParty. And a lot of that has

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to do, I think with youknow, the policies that we follow through
with what we say we're going todo. We continue to you know,
respect the people we serve, orwe empower people, not the government.
We really are protect our very freedomand liberties that we know, our constitutional
rights, and so I think peopleappreciate that. So his message, you

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know, I think it's going tobe to really just rise above the division
and the hate and just think aboutwhat we can do collectively to help this
team get elected. And then theother thing that we talk a lot about,
or I've heard a lot of conversationaround, is just not only do
we need to elect President Trump andvice President elect our dance, but we

(07:32):
need to also make sure that weset him up a team, that he
has a team so you can actuallyget things done. And so you know,
we need to continue to take advantageof this momentum, do everything we
can to turn out the vote sothat we can take back the Senate and
increase our margins in the House.And then if we get the trifecta in

(07:55):
Washington, D C. I hopethey'll do what we've done in Iowa,
and that is think bold, big, look for transformational opportunities to really make
a difference and make the processes better. And that means like not only closing
the border and restoring energy independence andrestoring the economy and you know, restoring

(08:16):
law and order, but also Ithink we need to look at just the
bureaucracy and just we need to addressthat, and we need to The Chevron
case is going to help us,but we need Congress to take advantage of
that and really think about the unelectedpeople that are driving this government and how

(08:37):
we can simplify that and reduce thenumbers and agencies. I mean, that's
what I did in Iowa. It'swhat the federal government needs to do too.
So they've got a long list ofthings that they can work on,
but that's something that has to bedone. We've seen really great outcomes from
really streamlining government, cutting twenty oneagencies. We're better, we're mean,
we're more efficient, we're really killingit by getting things done quicker. So

(09:03):
I've been really proud of the outcomesthat we've seen from that decision of really
cutting not only the size of government, but red tape and regulations. We've
done that kind of holistically. We'respeaking with I with Governor Kim Reynolds.
A couple of quick questions for you, JD. Vance. The Vice president
decision, the you know, selectionby Donald Trump and his team. I

(09:26):
would have been very surprised. Ithink most Republicans would be surprised if you
go back four years. I thinkit's still kind of an upset if you
go back a couple of months.But his name kept coming up and it
wasn't super surprising by the time Mondayrolled around. What do you think of
that pick? Yeah, I thinkit's I think it's great. The more
I learned about him, I reallydidn't know that much about him, relatively
newcomer. But when you look athis bio and you hear his story,

(09:50):
and I love the fact that hesaid with my husband and father first,
I think that it's good grounding rightthere. But you know, grew up
a poor kid, single mom wasthe addictive that grandmother raised him. Fathers
one. I mean, so heunderstands what that entails, and you know,
that's that's something that he can bringto the table to just understand what

(10:11):
that working class looks like what thoseadversities are. And you know, he
serves the country this country is abusiness owner, a smart man, very
articulate, well informed, and Ithink it's kind of reflective as the whole
narrative that former President Trump is talkingabout when he lays out, you know,
this country hasn't decline, and it'shappened at a rapid pace, much

(10:33):
faster than I ever thought was possible. To erose the values and the principles
that you know, ours founding ofthis country and to see that happen as
quickly as it did is it's scaryand concerning, and just the chaos of
the crisis, and then you puton top of that the weakness on the
world stage and the implications for that. Uh. He he is the American

(10:56):
dream and so not only are we'regoing to store restore America, but we're
going to make sure that everybody hasthe opportunity again to achieve the American dream.
And his life story reflects that.I also think Emory, it's really
good for young people, our millennials, to see a thirty nine year old
that accomplished all of this was toughwith a lot of adversity in his life
and he was still able to overcomethat and achieve great things. And I

(11:20):
think it's nice to see a youngergeneration as part of the ticket. Is
there an advantage to him being anever Trumper before and having come around on
the former president? Well, Ithink, you know, we saw a
lot of that last night. SoBrandenberg did a great job. But we
saw Nikki there, we saw RonDeSantis there, we had a bank spoke,
so we had a lot of youknow, it was a healthy primary

(11:43):
and president and the people selected PresidentTrump and you saw everybody eventually, you
know, get behind him, andthat we saw that coalescing of the party.
So I mean, he can justhe kind of said, you know,
I fell into the narrative. Ididn't really mirror my bought in to
it. And then the more thatI got to know him and I understood

(12:03):
what he really you know, whathis record, President Trump's record was and
what he was able to accomplish,I changed my opinion on himself. I
bet he talks about that somewhat tonight. That's something he seemed, you know,
He's been asked in some of theinterviews that I've seen him address,
But you know, I think it'sit's okay, you know what I mean,
It's okay to change your mind.So okay, take a second look.
It's okay to you know, justreally knew a deep guy to find

(12:26):
out what the man is all about, and he was he changed his mind.
So I think that's that's not abad story for a bad testament.
Speaking with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds,last thing for you, Governor, and
I wish I could talk to youfor an hour, but I know you're
very busy up there in Milwaukee.The latest weaponization of attacks in the campaign
from the left is all about theHeritage Foundation's Project twenty twenty five, which

(12:50):
has been around for months, ina couple of years even and instilling a
lot of fear into potential independent votersthat if the Republicans win, this is
what they're trying to implement. Whatare your thoughts on that? And even
President or former President Trump's kind ofdistancing from that specifically, But what are

(13:11):
your thoughts on the way that isbeing told in what your interpretation of Project
twenty twenty five is? It isIt's ridiculous. That's all they have is
fear. I mean this that's whateverybody. You can't. You know,
that's the problem. We talked aboutthis convention. We've talked about this with
delegates and alternates. I mean,it's just like that's the that's their tactic.
It's fear and intimidation. Where you'rea friend to you know, you
can't put a red baseball cap onbecause you're a you're a mega, you're

(13:35):
a you know, just the rhetoricand the hate and the division, and
this is more of that very samething because they have a horrendous, horrendous
record to run on. They havea candidate that they don't even want to
run. But you know what,they didn't go through a healthy primary process.
They decided to bail on the firstthe nation caucus. They could have

(13:58):
vetted that candidate way back in January, and you know, they they wanted
to protect somebody that was weak atthat time, that had not done well
in Iowa, and so they bailedon the process. And now they're paying
a price for that. And sothey realized that they have their candidate is
you know, incapacitated. These whetherit's dementia or whatever it is, it's

(14:20):
very you know, you can seeit. You can see the continued decline,
and so all they have is togo after a think tank that's put
together some ideas, which they havethink tanks on their side too, only
their ideas are grew crazy, butthat do the very same thing. So

(14:41):
it's just ridiculous. And you know, Trump didn't know anything about it.
You know, E didn't asked himto do it, and he's made that
clear. But again, it's feared, it's intimidation, it's trying to scare
people with misinformation. And like MadelineBram said last night, her eyes have
been open to the Democratic Party andthey've not been there for her. They

(15:03):
weren't there for her son that waskilled by a violent criminal in New York.
And as Alvin Bragg refused to prosecute, that was a compelling story that
she told. And so anyway,I think more and more people are seeing
the reality of the lies and theintimidation and the fear mongering that seems to
be the only thing they have torun on II With Governor Kim Renolds,

(15:24):
like I said, I could talkto you for hours here about things that
are going on, not just ani little bit around this country. But
we are very appreciative of the timeyou've given us today and I can't wait
to talk to you again very soon. Sounds great. Thank you so much
for the time. All Right,we will come back wrap up this hour.
News Radio eleven ten KFAB