June 3, 2024 • 20 mins
DEBORAH FLORA ON TODAY As her race for the 4th Congressional District is heating up. At Saturday's Republican Women of Weld Rumble, which Lauren Boebert couldn't be bothered to attend, Deborah caught all the sharp questions from her opponents. She handled the questions well but it was clear she was viewed as the frontrunner there by her opponents. She won the straw poll at the event. She joins me at 1 to talk about why she deserves your vote. Find out more and give her money if you're so inclined by clicking here.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Saturday, I had the great privilegeof m seeing the Republican Women of weld
rumble and it was a debate forthe first the eighth Congressional District between Gabe
Evans and Janik Joshi, and thenthe fourth Congressional District, where all of
the candidates save one Lauren Bobert,showed up to have what I thought was
(00:20):
a very interesting policy debate. Ithought the moderators did a great job with
the questions. I thought that allthe panelists did a great job. And
I thought Deborah demonstrated her front runnerstatus because when the candidates were given the
opportunity to ask a pointed question atanother candidate, most of them chose you,
And so must be nice to knowthat you know when you're catching fire,
(00:45):
you know you're over the right target. I was honored by all of
the attention. That was actually verygood, because first of all, that
gave me an opportunity to answer questionsand just begin to even more persuade those
that were there of why I amthe candidate to coalesce around. And that's
why we were honored at the endof the evening to have won the straw
pole. And Mandy, you knowit's one of these things. There have
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been nine straw pols so far forthe candidates of CD four. I've won
six out of nine. And what'sinteresting about that is the way, if
you don't know what a straw poleis, for anybody who's ever been to
a political event, you sit throughthe event, you hear everybody speak,
you watch everybody talk, then youcast a ballot, and you cast a
ballot for the person you thought performedthe best in that scene, in that
situation. So these are people thathave listened to you present policy positions,
(01:32):
and we're going to get into someof those. Yes, have seen how
you present yourself, have heard yourargument to be the candidate for CD four
and said, yes, she's mygirl. That's exactly right. And it's
interesting because while it's not scientific,it kind of gives you a sense of
what's going on the ground. Andthat's what a lot of the big media
is overlooking. I mean, theyall just get caught up in the headlines
(01:53):
and the drama and all of thatstuff that's going on for one particular candidate,
and they miss what's really happening onthe ground. For instance, on
Saturday, we really only had twopeople there and still won by a really
good margin. I think when youdidn't stack the deck with the audience.
Yeah, No, did not dothat. Did not have the party buses
that we used to see last elendpeople. No, we didn't bring anyone
(02:16):
extra on Saturday. And I thinkanother interesting one because when you look at
Douglas County being half of the electorate, there was a very big Douglas County
form nearly two hundred people that happenedearlier this year, and out of two
hundred votes, I ended up winningmy double digit margins, and some of
the people that were thought to bethe front runners got like five votes,
(02:37):
six votes. I think it reallydoes show what's going on the ground.
And that's why I love every timeI get to get in front of people
and talk about substantive policy issues.That's what it's about. And we had
a long week of that. Wehad four debates this week to television.
I was so endeavor. I watchedthe nine News debate this morning. I
put it on the blog so youcan go back and watch it. It's
(02:58):
an hour and I know that KyleClark and Marshall Zellinger are not our favorite
people, but I have to say, Kyle Press the crap out of Lauren
Bobert on not just the theater issue. We all know what happened in the
theater, right, Like I couldhave lived without. And I will say
this. I know she went onan apology tour. I think her response
on Friday night was very She missedan opportunity, in my view, to
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just say, you know what,I screwed up. I'm human. It
was so embarrassing. I'm embarrassed.Can we move on? I think if
she had just done that, wecould have all been like, Okay,
we're embarrassed, let's move on.But she didn't. She argued with Kyle,
which, you're not going to win. He's the guy right in the
story, right, I mean,you're not going to win that. But
one of the things that popped upthat I thought was super interesting and I
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think is really important in this particularrace is electability. Indeed, because she
left the third Congressional District, whichhad been a republic Republican district for a
very long time, when it becameapparent she was going to lose to Democrat
Adam Frisch. So this is oneof the things that is stuck in my
craw about Lauren. She loves totalk about how she's a fighter, but
(04:03):
when things got tough in the districtshe was already in, she just hauled
ass right and was like, oh, I'll go find an easier district.
Well, now we've seen polling thatmccorkel, a Democrat, is beating her
by double digits, and so doyou think electability in that rep I mean,
it is thought to be a safeRepublican district is an issue. I
think it's a very important point tobring up, and I was glad that
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came up in the Channel nine debate. I mean it was people are not
talking about it enough and one ofthe things when I was asked about that,
and it was really one of theinterchanges that got shared on media everywhere,
and we're very happy with the coveragewe received afterwards. You know,
the day of that will never happenin Colorado is long gone. And CD
four, yes, it is aRepublican district. It's not by the margin
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that some people are saying. It'smore like R plus twelve, R plus
fourteen. Lauren fled CD three,which was R plus seven or eight,
so it's not a huge difference,and that district was sixty five percent rural,
her home district, she was goingto lose it to a Democrat,
and when she won it the lasttime, it was only by five hundred
votes. So when you look atCD four now, it is seventy three
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percent subourbon, it is forty ninepercent unaffiliated. So I'm not surprised by
that poll showing a Democrat challenger beatingLauren Bobert by double digit margins because when
you look at that forty nine percentunaffiliated can vote in this primary, seventy
three percent suburban, they are usuallythe folks that are not really wanting the
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stridency, the drama, the dysfunction. They want serious, principled representatives that
are focusing on delivering the results,delivering answers and real solutions to what's going
on in our district. And soI really do believe that this seat could
be lost if Lauren Bobert was thenominee. I do know. I know
that if she gets the nomination,whoever the Democratic opponent is will be flooded
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with money. That is imanly rightblooded with money. It may be the
best fundraising day since Trump was youknow, was convicted. You know,
let's talk about policy issues. Yes, because this is what I want to
talk about. They are the biggestissues in the polling data that I have
seen of late number one immigration.Yes. I was talking to a friend
of mine who is not a politicalperson, and she said, Mandy,
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why can't we fix this? AndI said, because politicians don't gain anything
by fixing this problem. Right.So here's what I want from my representative
that I am in the fourth congressionaldistrict. I want someone who is going
to go up and say this iswhat I want to have happen. I
want to put the brightest minds ina room and say, come up with
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complete immigration reform, not political.I want the brightest minds that are not
politicians in a room. Fix theimmigration system and we'll pass that law that
will go into effect as soon aswe secure the southern border. We have
physical barriers with you know, withmore border patrol agents. We give them
what they need, but nothing happens. We've got, we got it done,
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but nothing kicks it in until thatsouthern border is secure. Well,
I think the reason why it's notgetting done in DC are a couple of
reasons. I think on one side, there is no benefit to it.
I really do think that you don'tsee the Democrats pushing this at all.
And then on the Republican side,there is so much division going on right
now. One of the number onethings I will do, Mandy is the
Congressman from the fourth voter willing andGod willing. I will first of all
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begin to build a conservative coalition.You can't go to DC and be a
grand standard and expe to work withanyone. One of the reasons why I
wrote out the Roadmap to Restoring America, which we released in January, is
because the next time we have thepresidency, the Senate, and the House
of Representatives, we cannot squander that. We have got to do some serious
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work. And then we have towork and build a coalition of those who
actually want to deliver for the people. I mean, when we talk about
securing the border, that shouldn't bea partisan is it really isn't. Posing
data shows it isn't. Even peoplewho say, look, I love immigrants
to this country, and I do. I mean, I think immigrants who
come here to have a better lifeand work their butts off and give their
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family a better life, I thinkthey should be welcome here. But my
God, shouldn't we know who theyare? Well? And on top of
it, what is happening the humanitariandisaster is. So let's go back to
the great points you made. Weneed representatives who will listen to the experts,
not only pretend like they are ordrop a little very simplistic mic drop
line like one of my opponents,Lauren, who says build the wall to
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port them all. Well, thereality this is a serious, complex issue
that requires serious complex answers. Welast week we put out an even more
in depth border plan that people canfind at Deborah Flora dot com. But
where did I come up with?You put out in November? When I
put out in November is the fullone? And then we went even deeper.
But yeah, what I put outin November, by the way,
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was a compilation of everything I've beenhearing over many years studying these issues,
and from going and listening to theexperts. Last year going to the border,
I went down and I talked toBorder Patrol, Ice DEA, those
on the humanitarian side that are dealingwith the nonprofits that are and missions that
are dealing with the devastating effects,and I ask them what would fix this?
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Not just my thoughts not just throwingout they're not just a little bumper
sticker line. And it's very,very thorough, and it starts with securing
the border. It starts with finishingthe wall that allows the border troll to
put up more drones, more sensors, use ATVs. They can then know
where people are coming across. Andby the way, for those desperate people
who are fleeing and trying to comehere, the worst thing we can do
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is have the open border, becausethat puts them I lially and also completely
at the mercy of the merciless drugcartels. They actually call people they're trafficking
here chickens. That's how much theydemean them. And their coyotes aren't even
coyotes anymore, their chicken herders.But so I've done a very in depth
plan. And then on top ofit, we have to stop the sanctuary
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incentives that are luring desperate people herebecause the drug cartels use those big Are
you could speaking of our newcomer program, Yes, yeah, I would not
call it the newcomer program. Iwould call it the let's exploit the desperate
people and lure them here to overwhelmour system for the citizens that are here
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and give them false promises. Wewould talk to people from uh from Venezuela
down there who were promised they gaveeverything to flee the horrors of socialism come
up. I talked to them atthe El Pasa Rescue Mission through an interpreter,
and they basically said, oh,I was promised a job, a
house of phone, I could repaymy debt to the drug cartels. And
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they're being lied to. So thesesanctuary policies are false incentives. We need
to defund that. If you aregoing to not allow federal law enforcement to
do its job, you do notget federal tax dollars. That's actually a
humane thing to do. And thereare many other things we need to do
well. We need reform our asylumpolicy. What people don't understand is it
used to be. It should beasylum when you were fleeing a place where
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you're being persecuted. The first safecountry you step foot into, that's where
you seek asylum. Right. Itis not to be bussed up or put
on a plane or walk countries exactlyto come up here. It's overwhelming our
own system as well. I meanI go out to the rural counties across
these twenty one districts and CD fournumerous times they can barely sustain their own
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rural hospitals if they do have busesdropped off, and they are afraid of
that, that that's what's going tocome from Denver. They're going to bust
them out further. There's already storiesof it happening in Amscanny. I've not
verified that, but I've heard storiesof it. They will have to close
those I spoke to someone in Arizona. There was a rural hospital in Arizona
that was so overwhelmed it's shut down, and someone that lived there had to
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drive instead an hour and a halfto hospital and died along the way of
a heart attack. This is seriouson every way that we look at it,
and it takes serious solutions. Soinvite listeners to go to Debrah Flora
dot com. I've taken the timeto listen to the experts and to begin
to really line out what we cando, and there are real solutions we
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could do. The second thing thatvoters are worried about is the economy and
inflation. Those two things go together, and I think you and I are
on the same page and that webelieve government spending is the biggest part of
the problem, that combined with shuttingdown our energy sector, because when you
shut down the energy sector, oilprices go up, and oil prices are
involved in everything from shipping goods fromone place to another. That drives up
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the price. It drives up theprice of fertilizer when you're out in Bacca
County or you know, Cheyenne County. It drives up the price of everything,
you know, from diapers to qtips. Everything gets driven up when
we do not release our energy sector. So we have to do that.
That'll drive down inflation and stop theoverspending of government is it's really not only
unsustainable, it's immoral. It's obscenewhat's happening right now. And the biggest
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growth I saw this graph the otherday. The largest growth sector in the
US federal government is the debt service. Yes, so we are reaching a
point where debt service is more thanwe're spending on defense, on education,
and every other department just paying ourdebt one hundred percent. And right now
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we're basically at thirty five trillion dollarsof debt. It's growing one trillion dollars
every one hundred days. We haveto have single subject appropriation bills so nobody
can hide pork in the big omnibusspending bills. And as I always say,
Republican stuff as much pork in thosebills as Democrats do. There are
some things that are just not partisan. They are just common sense and the
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right thing to do. We've gotto balance the budget, we have to
stop the overspending. There are somany things we can do, and that's
what I've been so encouraged by Mandy. You know, I've been endorsed by
the Get Gazette. I've been endorsedby everyone from John Hildera with the Independence
Institute to the Douglas County sheriff,mayors in Centennial, Loan Tree, Parker
City councils because they understand I'm focusednot on personal attacks, not on antics,
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not on drama and dysfunction, buton solutions. What is the path
forward for the voters, for thepeople, for the things that keep them
up at night. Well, wouldyou be in favor, because you know,
the Republicans for years have talked talkedabout doing away with the Department of
Education and stuff like that. Ithink that that would be a legitimate.
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I think that should be a legitimateoption, especially with the Department of Education,
because all of the stuff that's necessaryin the Department of Education could be
moved to other existing agencies with verylittle trouble. It's a great point when
we meet our documentary Whose Children AreThey that premiered in theaters nationwide. We
did two years of research listening tothe experts once again, teachers, parents,
educational experts. The Department of Educationis a recent development nineteen seventy nine
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backroom deal between Jimmy Carter and theteachers' unions because that's what they wanted.
All that would happen and I didn'tget a chance to answer this further on
with Kyle Clark because you've got oneminute to answer it. But all that
would happen is the money would followthe student, not the system. It
would go back to the taxpayers,the parents who understand what is best for
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their individual children. And by theway, when that happens, who that
benefits most are children that are trappedin failing schools, usually in the inner
cities. There's a school in Denverthat right now the ability to read at
grade level is less than eight percent. The ability to math at grade level
is less and I think it's aroundfive percent. No child should be stuck
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in a failing school because of theirzip code. And what would happen if
we basically eradicate the Department Education?It would go back to the local level,
state level, then down to thelevel of the own district. And
if the money falls the student,not the system, then every parent,
rich parents, Every parent gets tomake sure that their child gets the best
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education. And by the way,what's happened, says the Department of Education
has was founded great level or pandemicshave plummeted. We went from being the
best in the world on many markersto trailing. Many industrialized commutry scorers are
now at like seventeen or eighteen exactly. I mean, it's it's not good,
it's inexcusable. Okay, last questionfor Deborah Flora. She is a
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candidate for the CD four race.Well, tell me about foreign policy.
One of the issues that Lauren wasdefinitely not in lockstep with is continued funding
for Ukraine and Israel and let's throwin Taiwan. Give me a quick little
thumbnail sketch of your viewpoint on foreignpolicy. I'm so glad you bring this
up, because I think one ofthe things that is not talked about enough
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is the situation with Israel. Andat the CBS debate last week on Wednesday,
you know, we had an interchangeabout this because Lauren said, oh,
I support Israel, and I hadto bring up the fact that since
the October seventh atrocities, she's votednot just once, but twice against funding
to Israel. And the Republican JewishCoalition actually came out and said, every
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Republican who voted against this last aidfor Israel, which, by the way,
Mandy, not a perfect bill.No bill is perfect until we can
have a bigger majority. But theRJC said that every single Republican who voted
against it, and they named LaurenBobert by name, could no longer call
themselves pro Israel. It was thelast opportunity to get what was needed to
our key ally and by the way, it wasn't money, it was actually
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giving them equipment and armorant that wascreated here that we would send over.
So I will always stand with Israel. I've seen the unedited Moss bodycam footage.
I know the atrocities and the barbarismthat our key ally is fighting and
if we do not support them,by the way, that is a signal
to Iran that America no longer hastheir back. So I have to make
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sure that people are clear on policy. I want to attack on personal,
but that's something where I'm very differentthan Lauren Bobert on policy. What about
you Ukraine, here's a situation inthe crane. I'm never a fan of
sending money. We can both prosperour economy and make sure there's accountability by
if we do send anything additional,it has to be in the form of
you know, weapons and that sortof situation, but there does need to
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be accountability. We don't know wherethat money has been being spent, and
then when it comes to Taiwan,we have to and I don't have enough
information. I'm not getting the theyou know, the clearances, yes,
what I hope to have. ButI would say overall, the bigger issue
about Taiwan is we have been absolutelyabsent in standing up to China. We
still have a situation where China's weatherballoon, shall we call it, just
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trapes its way across across our missilesilo sites in Montana, all the way
across and was not stopped. Well, it's it's amazing what ten percent for
the big Guy can do for yourpositions on China. We'll find out about
that too. When I ask youthere questions, we're running out of time
here. These are like speed round. She's got great points, but how
is she going to battle the leadershipin DC? They drive everything? Great
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question. The reality is, firstof all, where there's a will,
there's a way. And I thinkalso we don't have enough people that understand
the principles of what we're fighting for. But I'll tell you how I won't
do it. I won't do itby going there and throwing bombs at everybody
and calling everybody vilifying names. Noone will ever come together and work.
You can actually build a conservative coalitionwithout compromising the things we're talking about with
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the budget, with the overspending,with the border. I do believe enough
people understand how just threatening that isto our country and hard working families.
We can bring them together. Butwhat's happened in the Republican caucus for my
unertaining that last time they got behindclosed doors, it became a shouting match.
Blows were almost thrown, and peopleleft that's because the toxicity there right
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now is huge. It's time fornew principles leadership that can build a coalition
and then get done the work ofthe actual people. Debraah Flora is running
for the fourth congressional district. Youlike what you heard or do you want
to read more about her? Shehas some of the most detailed policy positions
available on her website. I've linkedto that on the blog today. I
will check in with you after theprimary. Because you know I'm going on
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vacation. I envy that you.Well, you either get a vacation or
not very very soon. So thereyou go. You can find all the
free information. Thanks for coming intoday, Dear, thank you so much.
Mandy, so great to talk toyou and to all your listeners.
Saturday, I had the great privilegeof m seeing the Republican Women of weld
rumble and it was a debate forthe first the eighth Congressional District between Gabe
Evans and Janik Joshi, and thenthe fourth Congressional District, where all of
the candidates save one Lauren Bobert,showed up to have what I thought was
(00:20):
a very interesting policy debate. Ithought the moderators did a great job with
the questions. I thought that allthe panelists did a great job. And
I thought Deborah demonstrated her front runnerstatus because when the candidates were given the
opportunity to ask a pointed question atanother candidate, most of them chose you,
And so must be nice to knowthat you know when you're catching fire,
(00:45):
you know you're over the right target. I was honored by all of
the attention. That was actually verygood, because first of all, that
gave me an opportunity to answer questionsand just begin to even more persuade those
that were there of why I amthe candidate to coalesce around. And that's
why we were honored at the endof the evening to have won the straw
pole. And Mandy, you knowit's one of these things. There have
(01:07):
been nine straw pols so far forthe candidates of CD four. I've won
six out of nine. And what'sinteresting about that is the way, if
you don't know what a straw poleis, for anybody who's ever been to
a political event, you sit throughthe event, you hear everybody speak,
you watch everybody talk, then youcast a ballot, and you cast a
ballot for the person you thought performedthe best in that scene, in that
situation. So these are people thathave listened to you present policy positions,
(01:32):
and we're going to get into someof those. Yes, have seen how
you present yourself, have heard yourargument to be the candidate for CD four
and said, yes, she's mygirl. That's exactly right. And it's
interesting because while it's not scientific,it kind of gives you a sense of
what's going on the ground. Andthat's what a lot of the big media
is overlooking. I mean, theyall just get caught up in the headlines
(01:53):
and the drama and all of thatstuff that's going on for one particular candidate,
and they miss what's really happening onthe ground. For instance, on
Saturday, we really only had twopeople there and still won by a really
good margin. I think when youdidn't stack the deck with the audience.
Yeah, No, did not dothat. Did not have the party buses
that we used to see last elendpeople. No, we didn't bring anyone
(02:16):
extra on Saturday. And I thinkanother interesting one because when you look at
Douglas County being half of the electorate, there was a very big Douglas County
form nearly two hundred people that happenedearlier this year, and out of two
hundred votes, I ended up winningmy double digit margins, and some of
the people that were thought to bethe front runners got like five votes,
(02:37):
six votes. I think it reallydoes show what's going on the ground.
And that's why I love every timeI get to get in front of people
and talk about substantive policy issues.That's what it's about. And we had
a long week of that. Wehad four debates this week to television.
I was so endeavor. I watchedthe nine News debate this morning. I
put it on the blog so youcan go back and watch it. It's
(02:58):
an hour and I know that KyleClark and Marshall Zellinger are not our favorite
people, but I have to say, Kyle Press the crap out of Lauren
Bobert on not just the theater issue. We all know what happened in the
theater, right, Like I couldhave lived without. And I will say
this. I know she went onan apology tour. I think her response
on Friday night was very She missedan opportunity, in my view, to
(03:22):
just say, you know what,I screwed up. I'm human. It
was so embarrassing. I'm embarrassed.Can we move on? I think if
she had just done that, wecould have all been like, Okay,
we're embarrassed, let's move on.But she didn't. She argued with Kyle,
which, you're not going to win. He's the guy right in the
story, right, I mean,you're not going to win that. But
one of the things that popped upthat I thought was super interesting and I
(03:42):
think is really important in this particularrace is electability. Indeed, because she
left the third Congressional District, whichhad been a republic Republican district for a
very long time, when it becameapparent she was going to lose to Democrat
Adam Frisch. So this is oneof the things that is stuck in my
craw about Lauren. She loves totalk about how she's a fighter, but
(04:03):
when things got tough in the districtshe was already in, she just hauled
ass right and was like, oh, I'll go find an easier district.
Well, now we've seen polling thatmccorkel, a Democrat, is beating her
by double digits, and so doyou think electability in that rep I mean,
it is thought to be a safeRepublican district is an issue. I
think it's a very important point tobring up, and I was glad that
(04:25):
came up in the Channel nine debate. I mean it was people are not
talking about it enough and one ofthe things when I was asked about that,
and it was really one of theinterchanges that got shared on media everywhere,
and we're very happy with the coveragewe received afterwards. You know,
the day of that will never happenin Colorado is long gone. And CD
four, yes, it is aRepublican district. It's not by the margin
(04:47):
that some people are saying. It'smore like R plus twelve, R plus
fourteen. Lauren fled CD three,which was R plus seven or eight,
so it's not a huge difference,and that district was sixty five percent rural,
her home district, she was goingto lose it to a Democrat,
and when she won it the lasttime, it was only by five hundred
votes. So when you look atCD four now, it is seventy three
(05:10):
percent subourbon, it is forty ninepercent unaffiliated. So I'm not surprised by
that poll showing a Democrat challenger beatingLauren Bobert by double digit margins because when
you look at that forty nine percentunaffiliated can vote in this primary, seventy
three percent suburban, they are usuallythe folks that are not really wanting the
(05:30):
stridency, the drama, the dysfunction. They want serious, principled representatives that
are focusing on delivering the results,delivering answers and real solutions to what's going
on in our district. And soI really do believe that this seat could
be lost if Lauren Bobert was thenominee. I do know. I know
that if she gets the nomination,whoever the Democratic opponent is will be flooded
(05:57):
with money. That is imanly rightblooded with money. It may be the
best fundraising day since Trump was youknow, was convicted. You know,
let's talk about policy issues. Yes, because this is what I want to
talk about. They are the biggestissues in the polling data that I have
seen of late number one immigration.Yes. I was talking to a friend
of mine who is not a politicalperson, and she said, Mandy,
(06:19):
why can't we fix this? AndI said, because politicians don't gain anything
by fixing this problem. Right.So here's what I want from my representative
that I am in the fourth congressionaldistrict. I want someone who is going
to go up and say this iswhat I want to have happen. I
want to put the brightest minds ina room and say, come up with
(06:40):
complete immigration reform, not political.I want the brightest minds that are not
politicians in a room. Fix theimmigration system and we'll pass that law that
will go into effect as soon aswe secure the southern border. We have
physical barriers with you know, withmore border patrol agents. We give them
what they need, but nothing happens. We've got, we got it done,
(07:00):
but nothing kicks it in until thatsouthern border is secure. Well,
I think the reason why it's notgetting done in DC are a couple of
reasons. I think on one side, there is no benefit to it.
I really do think that you don'tsee the Democrats pushing this at all.
And then on the Republican side,there is so much division going on right
now. One of the number onethings I will do, Mandy is the
Congressman from the fourth voter willing andGod willing. I will first of all
(07:25):
begin to build a conservative coalition.You can't go to DC and be a
grand standard and expe to work withanyone. One of the reasons why I
wrote out the Roadmap to Restoring America, which we released in January, is
because the next time we have thepresidency, the Senate, and the House
of Representatives, we cannot squander that. We have got to do some serious
(07:45):
work. And then we have towork and build a coalition of those who
actually want to deliver for the people. I mean, when we talk about
securing the border, that shouldn't bea partisan is it really isn't. Posing
data shows it isn't. Even peoplewho say, look, I love immigrants
to this country, and I do. I mean, I think immigrants who
come here to have a better lifeand work their butts off and give their
(08:07):
family a better life, I thinkthey should be welcome here. But my
God, shouldn't we know who theyare? Well? And on top of
it, what is happening the humanitariandisaster is. So let's go back to
the great points you made. Weneed representatives who will listen to the experts,
not only pretend like they are ordrop a little very simplistic mic drop
line like one of my opponents,Lauren, who says build the wall to
(08:31):
port them all. Well, thereality this is a serious, complex issue
that requires serious complex answers. Welast week we put out an even more
in depth border plan that people canfind at Deborah Flora dot com. But
where did I come up with?You put out in November? When I
put out in November is the fullone? And then we went even deeper.
But yeah, what I put outin November, by the way,
(08:52):
was a compilation of everything I've beenhearing over many years studying these issues,
and from going and listening to theexperts. Last year going to the border,
I went down and I talked toBorder Patrol, Ice DEA, those
on the humanitarian side that are dealingwith the nonprofits that are and missions that
are dealing with the devastating effects,and I ask them what would fix this?
(09:16):
Not just my thoughts not just throwingout they're not just a little bumper
sticker line. And it's very,very thorough, and it starts with securing
the border. It starts with finishingthe wall that allows the border troll to
put up more drones, more sensors, use ATVs. They can then know
where people are coming across. Andby the way, for those desperate people
who are fleeing and trying to comehere, the worst thing we can do
(09:39):
is have the open border, becausethat puts them I lially and also completely
at the mercy of the merciless drugcartels. They actually call people they're trafficking
here chickens. That's how much theydemean them. And their coyotes aren't even
coyotes anymore, their chicken herders.But so I've done a very in depth
plan. And then on top ofit, we have to stop the sanctuary
(10:01):
incentives that are luring desperate people herebecause the drug cartels use those big Are
you could speaking of our newcomer program, Yes, yeah, I would not
call it the newcomer program. Iwould call it the let's exploit the desperate
people and lure them here to overwhelmour system for the citizens that are here
(10:22):
and give them false promises. Wewould talk to people from uh from Venezuela
down there who were promised they gaveeverything to flee the horrors of socialism come
up. I talked to them atthe El Pasa Rescue Mission through an interpreter,
and they basically said, oh,I was promised a job, a
house of phone, I could repaymy debt to the drug cartels. And
(10:43):
they're being lied to. So thesesanctuary policies are false incentives. We need
to defund that. If you aregoing to not allow federal law enforcement to
do its job, you do notget federal tax dollars. That's actually a
humane thing to do. And thereare many other things we need to do
well. We need reform our asylumpolicy. What people don't understand is it
used to be. It should beasylum when you were fleeing a place where
(11:07):
you're being persecuted. The first safecountry you step foot into, that's where
you seek asylum. Right. Itis not to be bussed up or put
on a plane or walk countries exactlyto come up here. It's overwhelming our
own system as well. I meanI go out to the rural counties across
these twenty one districts and CD fournumerous times they can barely sustain their own
(11:33):
rural hospitals if they do have busesdropped off, and they are afraid of
that, that that's what's going tocome from Denver. They're going to bust
them out further. There's already storiesof it happening in Amscanny. I've not
verified that, but I've heard storiesof it. They will have to close
those I spoke to someone in Arizona. There was a rural hospital in Arizona
that was so overwhelmed it's shut down, and someone that lived there had to
(11:58):
drive instead an hour and a halfto hospital and died along the way of
a heart attack. This is seriouson every way that we look at it,
and it takes serious solutions. Soinvite listeners to go to Debrah Flora
dot com. I've taken the timeto listen to the experts and to begin
to really line out what we cando, and there are real solutions we
(12:18):
could do. The second thing thatvoters are worried about is the economy and
inflation. Those two things go together, and I think you and I are
on the same page and that webelieve government spending is the biggest part of
the problem, that combined with shuttingdown our energy sector, because when you
shut down the energy sector, oilprices go up, and oil prices are
involved in everything from shipping goods fromone place to another. That drives up
(12:41):
the price. It drives up theprice of fertilizer when you're out in Bacca
County or you know, Cheyenne County. It drives up the price of everything,
you know, from diapers to qtips. Everything gets driven up when
we do not release our energy sector. So we have to do that.
That'll drive down inflation and stop theoverspending of government is it's really not only
unsustainable, it's immoral. It's obscenewhat's happening right now. And the biggest
(13:05):
growth I saw this graph the otherday. The largest growth sector in the
US federal government is the debt service. Yes, so we are reaching a
point where debt service is more thanwe're spending on defense, on education,
and every other department just paying ourdebt one hundred percent. And right now
(13:26):
we're basically at thirty five trillion dollarsof debt. It's growing one trillion dollars
every one hundred days. We haveto have single subject appropriation bills so nobody
can hide pork in the big omnibusspending bills. And as I always say,
Republican stuff as much pork in thosebills as Democrats do. There are
some things that are just not partisan. They are just common sense and the
(13:46):
right thing to do. We've gotto balance the budget, we have to
stop the overspending. There are somany things we can do, and that's
what I've been so encouraged by Mandy. You know, I've been endorsed by
the Get Gazette. I've been endorsedby everyone from John Hildera with the Independence
Institute to the Douglas County sheriff,mayors in Centennial, Loan Tree, Parker
City councils because they understand I'm focusednot on personal attacks, not on antics,
(14:13):
not on drama and dysfunction, buton solutions. What is the path
forward for the voters, for thepeople, for the things that keep them
up at night. Well, wouldyou be in favor, because you know,
the Republicans for years have talked talkedabout doing away with the Department of
Education and stuff like that. Ithink that that would be a legitimate.
(14:35):
I think that should be a legitimateoption, especially with the Department of Education,
because all of the stuff that's necessaryin the Department of Education could be
moved to other existing agencies with verylittle trouble. It's a great point when
we meet our documentary Whose Children AreThey that premiered in theaters nationwide. We
did two years of research listening tothe experts once again, teachers, parents,
educational experts. The Department of Educationis a recent development nineteen seventy nine
(15:00):
backroom deal between Jimmy Carter and theteachers' unions because that's what they wanted.
All that would happen and I didn'tget a chance to answer this further on
with Kyle Clark because you've got oneminute to answer it. But all that
would happen is the money would followthe student, not the system. It
would go back to the taxpayers,the parents who understand what is best for
(15:20):
their individual children. And by theway, when that happens, who that
benefits most are children that are trappedin failing schools, usually in the inner
cities. There's a school in Denverthat right now the ability to read at
grade level is less than eight percent. The ability to math at grade level
is less and I think it's aroundfive percent. No child should be stuck
(15:43):
in a failing school because of theirzip code. And what would happen if
we basically eradicate the Department Education?It would go back to the local level,
state level, then down to thelevel of the own district. And
if the money falls the student,not the system, then every parent,
rich parents, Every parent gets tomake sure that their child gets the best
(16:04):
education. And by the way,what's happened, says the Department of Education
has was founded great level or pandemicshave plummeted. We went from being the
best in the world on many markersto trailing. Many industrialized commutry scorers are
now at like seventeen or eighteen exactly. I mean, it's it's not good,
it's inexcusable. Okay, last questionfor Deborah Flora. She is a
(16:25):
candidate for the CD four race.Well, tell me about foreign policy.
One of the issues that Lauren wasdefinitely not in lockstep with is continued funding
for Ukraine and Israel and let's throwin Taiwan. Give me a quick little
thumbnail sketch of your viewpoint on foreignpolicy. I'm so glad you bring this
up, because I think one ofthe things that is not talked about enough
(16:45):
is the situation with Israel. Andat the CBS debate last week on Wednesday,
you know, we had an interchangeabout this because Lauren said, oh,
I support Israel, and I hadto bring up the fact that since
the October seventh atrocities, she's votednot just once, but twice against funding
to Israel. And the Republican JewishCoalition actually came out and said, every
(17:07):
Republican who voted against this last aidfor Israel, which, by the way,
Mandy, not a perfect bill.No bill is perfect until we can
have a bigger majority. But theRJC said that every single Republican who voted
against it, and they named LaurenBobert by name, could no longer call
themselves pro Israel. It was thelast opportunity to get what was needed to
our key ally and by the way, it wasn't money, it was actually
(17:30):
giving them equipment and armorant that wascreated here that we would send over.
So I will always stand with Israel. I've seen the unedited Moss bodycam footage.
I know the atrocities and the barbarismthat our key ally is fighting and
if we do not support them,by the way, that is a signal
to Iran that America no longer hastheir back. So I have to make
(17:52):
sure that people are clear on policy. I want to attack on personal,
but that's something where I'm very differentthan Lauren Bobert on policy. What about
you Ukraine, here's a situation inthe crane. I'm never a fan of
sending money. We can both prosperour economy and make sure there's accountability by
if we do send anything additional,it has to be in the form of
you know, weapons and that sortof situation, but there does need to
(18:14):
be accountability. We don't know wherethat money has been being spent, and
then when it comes to Taiwan,we have to and I don't have enough
information. I'm not getting the theyou know, the clearances, yes,
what I hope to have. ButI would say overall, the bigger issue
about Taiwan is we have been absolutelyabsent in standing up to China. We
still have a situation where China's weatherballoon, shall we call it, just
(18:37):
trapes its way across across our missilesilo sites in Montana, all the way
across and was not stopped. Well, it's it's amazing what ten percent for
the big Guy can do for yourpositions on China. We'll find out about
that too. When I ask youthere questions, we're running out of time
here. These are like speed round. She's got great points, but how
is she going to battle the leadershipin DC? They drive everything? Great
(19:00):
question. The reality is, firstof all, where there's a will,
there's a way. And I thinkalso we don't have enough people that understand
the principles of what we're fighting for. But I'll tell you how I won't
do it. I won't do itby going there and throwing bombs at everybody
and calling everybody vilifying names. Noone will ever come together and work.
You can actually build a conservative coalitionwithout compromising the things we're talking about with
(19:25):
the budget, with the overspending,with the border. I do believe enough
people understand how just threatening that isto our country and hard working families.
We can bring them together. Butwhat's happened in the Republican caucus for my
unertaining that last time they got behindclosed doors, it became a shouting match.
Blows were almost thrown, and peopleleft that's because the toxicity there right
(19:48):
now is huge. It's time fornew principles leadership that can build a coalition
and then get done the work ofthe actual people. Debraah Flora is running
for the fourth congressional district. Youlike what you heard or do you want
to read more about her? Shehas some of the most detailed policy positions
available on her website. I've linkedto that on the blog today. I
will check in with you after theprimary. Because you know I'm going on
(20:11):
vacation. I envy that you.Well, you either get a vacation or
not very very soon. So thereyou go. You can find all the
free information. Thanks for coming intoday, Dear, thank you so much.
Mandy, so great to talk toyou and to all your listeners.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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