June 22, 2026 • 18 mins
Governor Kelly Armstrong, 4th of July Plans & Ethics Committee Appointments.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I am your host, Michael Bell.
We are joined on the phone by Governor Kelly Armstrong. Kelly,
good morning, Thank you for joining.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Us this morning on Dacota Mornings.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Hey, Michael, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I am well, I've got some great news that I
want to kick off talking about here. President Trump is
visiting July first, coming to North Dakota. This is I
think his third or fourth visit to North Dakota. He
clearly loves producers.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, and I think it's just a perfect thing to
do with America two fifty. You know, we're the grand
opening of the libraries on July fourth. We will do
some events on July first, second, and third. Obviously the
President is going to be in DC on the fourth,
but we are celebrating one of probably the five most
(00:49):
consequential people in the history of our country. And it's
great to have the President here to do that well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And I appreciate you talking about you referencing one of
the five most consequential people. This is you know, the
highlighting Theodore Roosevelt and his contributions not only to North
Dakota but to the country and how we evolved as
a burgeoning democracy. This is really really great stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, and it's also a little unique, right, I mean
they're I mean that most presidential libraries One they're a
fairly new phenomenon. And two, the president is usually engaged
towards the end or right after his term, and it's
more of a legacy type of thing. This is different
than that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
We have one hundred and some odd years of Roosevelt's
legacy and the good, the bad, and all of the
different things involved in it. And it's just a real
celebration of a great man, a great president, and his
relationship to western North Dakota and you know, the birthplace
of modern conservationism, and having president from here to celebrate
(02:01):
that should be an honor for everybody, whether you're a Republican,
Democrat or anywhere in between.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I think it's And you talked about the consequential nature
of this. This is the and I mischaracterize it previously.
This is the eighteenth presidential library.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
But this one.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And I get asked all the time, why North Dakota.
Why did the Roosevelt family select North Dakota. Perhaps you
can shed some light on that.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Sure, twenty four years old, his mom and his wife
die at the same time. He moved out to North
Dakota for essentially two years. This is where he comes
to more and this is where he comes to rebuild
his life. He goes back to Washington after his two
years here and becomes who he is. And if not
for North Dakota, he has said he would have never
(02:53):
been the President of the United States. And I mean,
it's the only national park with anybody named after it
alone a president. The Elkhorn Ranch is the birthplace of
modern conservationism. That's where he That's where the genesis of
the National Parks System, and Moon and Crocket Club, a
lot of different things that I think are very important
(03:13):
to the country as a whole, and specifically important in
North Dakota and our and our view of wildlife and
stewardship and working lands also being part of the conservation ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I can't help but note the passion and the enjoyment
in your voice when you get to when you get
to talk about why they chose North Dakota and and
the and how proud you are of North Dakota. If
you could give us a little more insight into you know,
what the what the battle was years ago between say,
for example, the state of New York and North Dakota
(03:51):
in getting this really critical uh presidential library.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I don't you know. I mean, obviously he's from New York.
The road belts are you know, the Roosevelts and all
of that. But I don't know if it was so
much a battle. I mean, we went out and did
what I mean, And by we, I mean I wasn't
even involved in politics yet. This started. I mean, this
originally started as a project in Dickinson. It got moved
(04:16):
to Medora. I mean Dickinson State University has has a
great partnership with the Teddy Roosevelt family and the Teddy
Roosevelt legacy and that they do a ton of digitization.
He's the most prolific writer we've ever had as president.
And we went we went out and people who really
really were passionate about this, and I think that I mean,
(04:37):
if you know anything about Roosevelt, you know one thing,
he had passion for everything. Yeah, Like he lived a
life fully And I think probably the best selling point
to all of this is we were the ones who
really wanted it, and the people involved in it at
the beginning and all the way through from Governor Burgam
to I mean, I can go all the way back
and dealing with this stuff. And we went out and
(05:00):
sold it to everybody who was involved and really wanted
to make sure that they knew we cared about his legacy,
we cared about his time here. You know, I always
joke if you spend more than a weekend in North Dakota,
we claim you yep. Well, Roosevelt spent two years here,
and he spent two years here at a very very,
very important and despondent time in his life. And we're
(05:23):
very proud of that. We're very proud of our relationship
to him, and we're proud of the building we're building,
and we're proud of the community that we can. We're
really excited to showcase Medora and the Teddy Roosevelt Library
in the National Park in western North Dakota and North
Dakota as a whole state to people who maybe have
never even thought about North Dakota before. And we get
to do that on July first.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And well that begs the question, are you going to
get any sleep? You know, from from June thirtieth to July.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Fifth, Probably not but that's great. I'm excited. I mean,
I'm really excited. I'm excited to see old friends. I'm
excited to introduce our state to people who have never
seen it before. You know, this will be broadcast. It's
a presidential speech in the Burning Hills Anthithy Theater. I've
always said, you know, you said, there's a team presidential libraries.
(06:14):
Everybody will have their own specific case and probably political
ideologies that causes them to wait them differently. And I
can't guarantee you that this will be everybody's favorite library,
but I can guarantee you it has the most beautiful backyard. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, the aesthetic is it cannot be overstated here. The
way that it is set into the bad lands is
just stunningly beautiful. I want to move on to sort
of the nuts and bolts of governing. Sheriff Kelly Leeban
was just appointed to the Ethics Commission. We did an
(06:50):
entire segment on the Ethics Commission last week, and I
just wanted to talk about give a little bit of
background from you on how we're really excited about this disappointment,
as well as the chairmanship. The new Commission chairman being
Pam sharp if you could give us a little bit
of insight into Sheriff Leeban being appointed to the commission.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, I mean he's I think there's two things for
these kind of commissions that you got to make sure
that you always take into mind. One, you have to
have a geographic or well diversity, which is geographic diversity,
life skilled diversity, background diversity, all of that. Like you
can't have a commission full of five lawyers, you can't
have a commission full of the I mean five teachers
(07:36):
or any of that. But they also have to have
the time to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So having somebody with an investigative background obviously has dealt
with ethics in the law his entire career doing all
of that, but also coming to the end of his
term as sheriff, which I mean the first question I
asked anybody is do you have the time to put
into this? Okay, And so we're really excited and I
think will be great at it. And I mean that
(08:03):
we're at the stage now where the Ethics Commission, I mean,
it has to work. We all want it to work,
but it's also got to define what it is and
what is and where it's going to be. I mean,
it's in the constitution, it is it is, it is
its own entity. But I mean, we want really smart
people who are on there for the right reasons that
can put the work into it so it can succeed
(08:24):
for the North Dakota people. And Kelly is going to
be great.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You know, Pam Sharp being elevated to chair of the
Ethics Commission, this is another the forward facing appointment that
has the net effect of being better communications with the
people of North Dakota on what it is that they do.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, I mean, and you know Pam, I worked with
them a little bit when I was in the state Senate,
but she worked in omb forever. She has, She has
relationships in the Capitol. She understands elected office, she understands
the agency side. The Ethics Commission picks their own chair,
so that was their decision to make. But I think
(09:06):
one I think one of the things that is going
to be important is communicating with both the people they
oversee and the general public at large. I think there's
there's there's there's always friction when there is an organization
and an agency that's only constrained by its own constraints.
(09:27):
If that if that makes sense. I've been very clear.
I was clear in the hearings. I've been clear this
whole time. The only people who can define what fence
to put around the Ethics Commission is the Ethics Commission.
But they have to define. I mean, I don't think
they're immune from anything else in government, and I've told
them this, so I don't think it's it's a surprise.
(09:48):
I feel like they need to do less and they
need to do what they do better. And that's also
the mantra I tell to all of my agencies as well.
I think we I think we have. There's always mission creep,
there's always scope expansion and everything in government. The difference
with the Ethics Commission is only they can to find
how to prame in their universe.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
We need to go to a commercial break. This is
Dakota Morning.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Is zim Your host Michael Bell kfy R five fifty am,
not a nine point seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia
production and we are joined on the phone by Governor
Kelly Armstrong and we will be back after this short
commercial break. Welcome back to you Dakota Morning. The zimier
host Michael Bell. We are joined on the phone by Governor,
Kelly Armstrong and Kelly, this is the portion.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
This is the part of the segment where.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I get to ask you, what's the coolest thing you
did in the last week, Recognizing you've stacked a lot
of wins for the people of North Dakota, what is.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
The coolest thing you've done in last week?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, I think this is probably an answer you never
thought you'd hear from me. I went to the soccer match.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Oh but you did.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
My wife is from offline or I took her to
the World Cup game in Boston. I got to see
the Norwegian fan base and the Tartan army and a
city completely embrace all the best things that are sports America.
(11:16):
It's really interesting. You know, a lot of these countries
were issuing travel advisories for their fans. They were doing
all of this. Boston is an incredibly cynical media town.
They didn't really want the World Cup. I think it's
really really fantastic that we get to showcase all the
best things about America to a whole bunch of people
(11:36):
who've never been here before. And if you didn't fall
in love with the Scottish fan base, I mean I
was in it. I was immersed in it for two
days straight and it was really honestly one of the
one of the probably top five events I've ever been
to anywhere at any point in time in my life,
(11:57):
and it was wild. I think I think our best
selling point for our country is when people come here
and visit, and I think I think people needed. People
who only read about North Dakota, on about the US
on European news got a very different picture of what
our country is, and quite frankly, I think our country
(12:19):
needed it as well. We take a lot of things
for granted, and it's been one hell of it. And
it's not just in Boston. It's in Texas, it's in Mexico,
it's in Toronto. And I think when you take out
the cynical nature of our national political debate right now,
turns out it's a lot of fun to hang out
with people who have completely different world views and life
(12:40):
expectancies than you for a cool event and the fact
that they drank Boston on a beer and it didn't
cause any problems other than putting cones on statues and
flagged on ducks and the Norwegians doing synchronized rowing coming
up escalators It's just like, I still don't think I'm
(13:00):
going to become a lifelong soccer fan, but I am
definitely a World Cup in the United States fan, and.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I appreciate that to you part of the entire stadium.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
With the Norwegians rowing in the stands.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yeah, okay, so yes. And from a personal level, you know,
my wife doesn't get to see her friends all that
often because they're halfway around the world, and so her
best friend and her best friend's son came over. She
was the maid of honor in our wedding, and so
from just from a very personal level, we got to
see some people we don't get to see very often,
(13:38):
and I just think overall it was it was a
phenomenal experience people experiencing everything from you know, Irish pubs
to bass pro shops to BUCkies to air conditioning in
every house or every apartment. These are things we take
for granted every single day, and it is really fun
(14:01):
to spend a lot of time with people when you
take all the politics and all the negativity out of it,
you know, and just celebrate the things that make our
country great and be except I just gotta tell you,
the city of Boston was an exceptional host for this thing,
and it was the cops are having fun, the firefighters
(14:23):
are having fun, the people cleaning, I mean, the street
maintenance people, the every cynical jerky radio hosts in Boston,
Massachusetts have to go on and admit they're wrong. Everybody's
kind of become a soccer fan for you know, the
last week or so, and it's been really really cool.
This is what I'm here for social media. I'm not interested.
(14:44):
And by the way, it's hilarious when somebody tries to
drag anything about the World Cup and make it political,
the comments to drag that person off, like it's like, hey,
stop it, let us have some let's just have one
thing that's fun.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And I.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Bost It is now a sister city with Glasgow, Scotland.
They're already talking about bringing back the Scots changed the
drinking laws in Boston. But also here's the thing. Nothing
like like I was talking, we were walking to a
restaurant in the morning who had talking to a guy
and it was like, how is it. He's like, Oh,
these guys are insane and they're so nice and we've
(15:20):
had no problems like it. Just generally, it's what it's
it's the best thing about sports. Yeah, I mean, you
got a guy from North Dakota who's an old baseball
coach talking to you about soccer.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, and we can't underestimate the impact of ranch dressing
on on the Europeans.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, well it's it's it's just hilarious. It's I mean,
things that we don't even pay attention to anymore. It's
just like we needed. I think we needed this as
much as the fans that came here needed to actually
experience experience, uh, our great country. I think we need
to be reminded of how great we actually are. We
have problems. I have problems across my desk every single day.
(16:02):
That's not the point. The point is we should celebrate
good things more often.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I couldn't agree with you more And that's one of
the things that that I love about this. You know,
the year highlighting during this segment here is you know,
getting away from Manhattan, getting away from you know, some
of the bigger cities, Miami, Chicago, what have you, getting
out into the countryside. Boston is such a delightful surprise.
Houston is a delightful surprise.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, I mean, and it's not just US. Right, it's
Mexico and it's Toronto. And but you have a Seattle
Times article that says, to some Seattle fans are are
hesitant about rooting for the World Cup team because of
Donald Trump, and juxtapose that with I don't know, twenty
five thousand people in the streets of Seattle, Channing, USA. Yeah,
(16:50):
it's like, like, like, who are the people writing this stuff?
And have they actually went and walked into I mean,
people who don't care about soccer care about the World
Cup right now. And I don't know, I don't know
who the Seattle Times headline was talking about. But I
saw the display of patriotism in downtown Seattle and it
was pretty damn cool.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Well, and that's one of the things that I've noted
about the World Cup. We've got We've got Madora being
the front porch to America's fIF and fiftieth birthday, we
have the Olympics coming in in a couple of years.
The optimism and the joy seems to be taking place
and taking over from cynicism and negativity.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, And it's just so big, and it's so big
to the rest of the world. And I think I
think FIFA and I got to talk to some of
thear I mean, it's just not as big here, but
now it is.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Governor Kelly Armstrong, thank you so much for taking the
time to join us this morning on dacote of Mornings.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
This is Dakota Mornings. I am your host, Michael Bell
k y R. Five fifty am, not a nine point
seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia production and next up
going to talk about We're going to wrap up and
roll up some of the Boccan barbecue
Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I am your host, Michael Bell.
We are joined on the phone by Governor Kelly Armstrong. Kelly,
good morning, Thank you for joining.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Us this morning on Dacota Mornings.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Hey, Michael, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I am well, I've got some great news that I
want to kick off talking about here. President Trump is
visiting July first, coming to North Dakota. This is I
think his third or fourth visit to North Dakota. He
clearly loves producers.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, and I think it's just a perfect thing to
do with America two fifty. You know, we're the grand
opening of the libraries on July fourth. We will do
some events on July first, second, and third. Obviously the
President is going to be in DC on the fourth,
but we are celebrating one of probably the five most
(00:49):
consequential people in the history of our country. And it's
great to have the President here to do that well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And I appreciate you talking about you referencing one of
the five most consequential people. This is you know, the
highlighting Theodore Roosevelt and his contributions not only to North
Dakota but to the country and how we evolved as
a burgeoning democracy. This is really really great stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yeah, and it's also a little unique, right, I mean
they're I mean that most presidential libraries One they're a
fairly new phenomenon. And two, the president is usually engaged
towards the end or right after his term, and it's
more of a legacy type of thing. This is different
than that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
We have one hundred and some odd years of Roosevelt's
legacy and the good, the bad, and all of the
different things involved in it. And it's just a real
celebration of a great man, a great president, and his
relationship to western North Dakota and you know, the birthplace
of modern conservationism, and having president from here to celebrate
(02:01):
that should be an honor for everybody, whether you're a Republican,
Democrat or anywhere in between.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I think it's And you talked about the consequential nature
of this. This is the and I mischaracterize it previously.
This is the eighteenth presidential library.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
But this one.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And I get asked all the time, why North Dakota.
Why did the Roosevelt family select North Dakota. Perhaps you
can shed some light on that.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Sure, twenty four years old, his mom and his wife
die at the same time. He moved out to North
Dakota for essentially two years. This is where he comes
to more and this is where he comes to rebuild
his life. He goes back to Washington after his two
years here and becomes who he is. And if not
for North Dakota, he has said he would have never
(02:53):
been the President of the United States. And I mean,
it's the only national park with anybody named after it
alone a president. The Elkhorn Ranch is the birthplace of
modern conservationism. That's where he That's where the genesis of
the National Parks System, and Moon and Crocket Club, a
lot of different things that I think are very important
(03:13):
to the country as a whole, and specifically important in
North Dakota and our and our view of wildlife and
stewardship and working lands also being part of the conservation ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I can't help but note the passion and the enjoyment
in your voice when you get to when you get
to talk about why they chose North Dakota and and
the and how proud you are of North Dakota. If
you could give us a little more insight into you know,
what the what the battle was years ago between say,
for example, the state of New York and North Dakota
(03:51):
in getting this really critical uh presidential library.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I don't you know. I mean, obviously he's from New York.
The road belts are you know, the Roosevelts and all
of that. But I don't know if it was so
much a battle. I mean, we went out and did
what I mean, And by we, I mean I wasn't
even involved in politics yet. This started. I mean, this
originally started as a project in Dickinson. It got moved
(04:16):
to Medora. I mean Dickinson State University has has a
great partnership with the Teddy Roosevelt family and the Teddy
Roosevelt legacy and that they do a ton of digitization.
He's the most prolific writer we've ever had as president.
And we went we went out and people who really
really were passionate about this, and I think that I mean,
(04:37):
if you know anything about Roosevelt, you know one thing,
he had passion for everything. Yeah, Like he lived a
life fully And I think probably the best selling point
to all of this is we were the ones who
really wanted it, and the people involved in it at
the beginning and all the way through from Governor Burgam
to I mean, I can go all the way back
and dealing with this stuff. And we went out and
(05:00):
sold it to everybody who was involved and really wanted
to make sure that they knew we cared about his legacy,
we cared about his time here. You know, I always
joke if you spend more than a weekend in North Dakota,
we claim you yep. Well, Roosevelt spent two years here,
and he spent two years here at a very very,
very important and despondent time in his life. And we're
(05:23):
very proud of that. We're very proud of our relationship
to him, and we're proud of the building we're building,
and we're proud of the community that we can. We're
really excited to showcase Medora and the Teddy Roosevelt Library
in the National Park in western North Dakota and North
Dakota as a whole state to people who maybe have
never even thought about North Dakota before. And we get
to do that on July first.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And well that begs the question, are you going to
get any sleep? You know, from from June thirtieth to July.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Fifth, Probably not but that's great. I'm excited. I mean,
I'm really excited. I'm excited to see old friends. I'm
excited to introduce our state to people who have never
seen it before. You know, this will be broadcast. It's
a presidential speech in the Burning Hills Anthithy Theater. I've
always said, you know, you said, there's a team presidential libraries.
(06:14):
Everybody will have their own specific case and probably political
ideologies that causes them to wait them differently. And I
can't guarantee you that this will be everybody's favorite library,
but I can guarantee you it has the most beautiful backyard. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, the aesthetic is it cannot be overstated here. The
way that it is set into the bad lands is
just stunningly beautiful. I want to move on to sort
of the nuts and bolts of governing. Sheriff Kelly Leeban
was just appointed to the Ethics Commission. We did an
(06:50):
entire segment on the Ethics Commission last week, and I
just wanted to talk about give a little bit of
background from you on how we're really excited about this disappointment,
as well as the chairmanship. The new Commission chairman being
Pam sharp if you could give us a little bit
of insight into Sheriff Leeban being appointed to the commission.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, I mean he's I think there's two things for
these kind of commissions that you got to make sure
that you always take into mind. One, you have to
have a geographic or well diversity, which is geographic diversity,
life skilled diversity, background diversity, all of that. Like you
can't have a commission full of five lawyers, you can't
have a commission full of the I mean five teachers
(07:36):
or any of that. But they also have to have
the time to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So having somebody with an investigative background obviously has dealt
with ethics in the law his entire career doing all
of that, but also coming to the end of his
term as sheriff, which I mean the first question I
asked anybody is do you have the time to put
into this? Okay, And so we're really excited and I
think will be great at it. And I mean that
(08:03):
we're at the stage now where the Ethics Commission, I mean,
it has to work. We all want it to work,
but it's also got to define what it is and
what is and where it's going to be. I mean,
it's in the constitution, it is it is, it is
its own entity. But I mean, we want really smart
people who are on there for the right reasons that
can put the work into it so it can succeed
(08:24):
for the North Dakota people. And Kelly is going to
be great.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
You know, Pam Sharp being elevated to chair of the
Ethics Commission, this is another the forward facing appointment that
has the net effect of being better communications with the
people of North Dakota on what it is that they do.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, I mean, and you know Pam, I worked with
them a little bit when I was in the state Senate,
but she worked in omb forever. She has, She has
relationships in the Capitol. She understands elected office, she understands
the agency side. The Ethics Commission picks their own chair,
so that was their decision to make. But I think
(09:06):
one I think one of the things that is going
to be important is communicating with both the people they
oversee and the general public at large. I think there's
there's there's there's always friction when there is an organization
and an agency that's only constrained by its own constraints.
(09:27):
If that if that makes sense. I've been very clear.
I was clear in the hearings. I've been clear this
whole time. The only people who can define what fence
to put around the Ethics Commission is the Ethics Commission.
But they have to define. I mean, I don't think
they're immune from anything else in government, and I've told
them this, so I don't think it's it's a surprise.
(09:48):
I feel like they need to do less and they
need to do what they do better. And that's also
the mantra I tell to all of my agencies as well.
I think we I think we have. There's always mission creep,
there's always scope expansion and everything in government. The difference
with the Ethics Commission is only they can to find
how to prame in their universe.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
We need to go to a commercial break. This is
Dakota Morning.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Is zim Your host Michael Bell kfy R five fifty am,
not a nine point seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia
production and we are joined on the phone by Governor
Kelly Armstrong and we will be back after this short
commercial break. Welcome back to you Dakota Morning. The zimier
host Michael Bell. We are joined on the phone by Governor,
Kelly Armstrong and Kelly, this is the portion.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
This is the part of the segment where.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I get to ask you, what's the coolest thing you
did in the last week, Recognizing you've stacked a lot
of wins for the people of North Dakota, what is.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
The coolest thing you've done in last week?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, I think this is probably an answer you never
thought you'd hear from me. I went to the soccer match.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Oh but you did.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
My wife is from offline or I took her to
the World Cup game in Boston. I got to see
the Norwegian fan base and the Tartan army and a
city completely embrace all the best things that are sports America.
(11:16):
It's really interesting. You know, a lot of these countries
were issuing travel advisories for their fans. They were doing
all of this. Boston is an incredibly cynical media town.
They didn't really want the World Cup. I think it's
really really fantastic that we get to showcase all the
best things about America to a whole bunch of people
(11:36):
who've never been here before. And if you didn't fall
in love with the Scottish fan base, I mean I
was in it. I was immersed in it for two
days straight and it was really honestly one of the
one of the probably top five events I've ever been
to anywhere at any point in time in my life,
(11:57):
and it was wild. I think I think our best
selling point for our country is when people come here
and visit, and I think I think people needed. People
who only read about North Dakota, on about the US
on European news got a very different picture of what
our country is, and quite frankly, I think our country
(12:19):
needed it as well. We take a lot of things
for granted, and it's been one hell of it. And
it's not just in Boston. It's in Texas, it's in Mexico,
it's in Toronto. And I think when you take out
the cynical nature of our national political debate right now,
turns out it's a lot of fun to hang out
with people who have completely different world views and life
(12:40):
expectancies than you for a cool event and the fact
that they drank Boston on a beer and it didn't
cause any problems other than putting cones on statues and
flagged on ducks and the Norwegians doing synchronized rowing coming
up escalators It's just like, I still don't think I'm
(13:00):
going to become a lifelong soccer fan, but I am
definitely a World Cup in the United States fan, and.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I appreciate that to you part of the entire stadium.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
With the Norwegians rowing in the stands.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yeah, okay, so yes. And from a personal level, you know,
my wife doesn't get to see her friends all that
often because they're halfway around the world, and so her
best friend and her best friend's son came over. She
was the maid of honor in our wedding, and so
from just from a very personal level, we got to
see some people we don't get to see very often,
(13:38):
and I just think overall it was it was a
phenomenal experience people experiencing everything from you know, Irish pubs
to bass pro shops to BUCkies to air conditioning in
every house or every apartment. These are things we take
for granted every single day, and it is really fun
(14:01):
to spend a lot of time with people when you
take all the politics and all the negativity out of it,
you know, and just celebrate the things that make our
country great and be except I just gotta tell you,
the city of Boston was an exceptional host for this thing,
and it was the cops are having fun, the firefighters
(14:23):
are having fun, the people cleaning, I mean, the street
maintenance people, the every cynical jerky radio hosts in Boston,
Massachusetts have to go on and admit they're wrong. Everybody's
kind of become a soccer fan for you know, the
last week or so, and it's been really really cool.
This is what I'm here for social media. I'm not interested.
(14:44):
And by the way, it's hilarious when somebody tries to
drag anything about the World Cup and make it political,
the comments to drag that person off, like it's like, hey,
stop it, let us have some let's just have one
thing that's fun.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And I.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Bost It is now a sister city with Glasgow, Scotland.
They're already talking about bringing back the Scots changed the
drinking laws in Boston. But also here's the thing. Nothing
like like I was talking, we were walking to a
restaurant in the morning who had talking to a guy
and it was like, how is it. He's like, Oh,
these guys are insane and they're so nice and we've
(15:20):
had no problems like it. Just generally, it's what it's
it's the best thing about sports. Yeah, I mean, you
got a guy from North Dakota who's an old baseball
coach talking to you about soccer.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, and we can't underestimate the impact of ranch dressing
on on the Europeans.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, well it's it's it's just hilarious. It's I mean,
things that we don't even pay attention to anymore. It's
just like we needed. I think we needed this as
much as the fans that came here needed to actually
experience experience, uh, our great country. I think we need
to be reminded of how great we actually are. We
have problems. I have problems across my desk every single day.
(16:02):
That's not the point. The point is we should celebrate
good things more often.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I couldn't agree with you more And that's one of
the things that that I love about this. You know,
the year highlighting during this segment here is you know,
getting away from Manhattan, getting away from you know, some
of the bigger cities, Miami, Chicago, what have you, getting
out into the countryside. Boston is such a delightful surprise.
Houston is a delightful surprise.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, I mean, and it's not just US. Right, it's
Mexico and it's Toronto. And but you have a Seattle
Times article that says, to some Seattle fans are are
hesitant about rooting for the World Cup team because of
Donald Trump, and juxtapose that with I don't know, twenty
five thousand people in the streets of Seattle, Channing, USA. Yeah,
(16:50):
it's like, like, like, who are the people writing this stuff?
And have they actually went and walked into I mean,
people who don't care about soccer care about the World
Cup right now. And I don't know, I don't know
who the Seattle Times headline was talking about. But I
saw the display of patriotism in downtown Seattle and it
was pretty damn cool.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Well, and that's one of the things that I've noted
about the World Cup. We've got We've got Madora being
the front porch to America's fIF and fiftieth birthday, we
have the Olympics coming in in a couple of years.
The optimism and the joy seems to be taking place
and taking over from cynicism and negativity.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, And it's just so big, and it's so big
to the rest of the world. And I think I
think FIFA and I got to talk to some of
thear I mean, it's just not as big here, but
now it is.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Governor Kelly Armstrong, thank you so much for taking the
time to join us this morning on dacote of Mornings.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
This is Dakota Mornings. I am your host, Michael Bell
k y R. Five fifty am, not a nine point
seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia production and next up
going to talk about We're going to wrap up and
roll up some of the Boccan barbecue
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