Erin Lee joins Heidi Ganahl (in for Dan) to discuss her work with former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud) on ballot initiatives seeking to ban biological boys in girls' sports, require schools to notify parents over 'gender incongruence.'
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(00:00):
This is Dan capless and welcome totoday's online podcast edition of The Dan Caplis
Show. Please be sure to giveus a five star rating if you'd be
so kind, and to subscribe,download and listen to the show every single
day on your favorite podcast platform.You did bring up assault weapons here,
and many of you on this stagehave talked about executive orders. Senator Harris,
(00:20):
you have said that you would takeexecutive action on guns within your first
one hundred days, including banning importsof AR fifteen assault weapons. That's President
Obama after Sandy Hook, more thantwenty three executive actions, and yet here
we all are today. In recentdays, former Vice President Biden has said
about executive orders, some really talentedpeople are seeking the nomination. They said,
I'm going to issue an executive order, Biden saying there's no constitutional authority
(00:44):
to issue that executive order. Whenthey say I'm going to eliminate assault weapons,
saying you can't do it by executiveorder any more than Trump can do
things when he says he can doit by executive order. Does the Vice
president have a point there? Somethings you can, many things you can't.
Let's let the senator answer. Imean I would just say, hey,
Joe, it's said as saying thatwe can't. Let's say yes we
(01:04):
can. Let'st be controcasional. Yeswe can. Oh, Ryan that laugh
at cackle at some point before Isign off today, you've got to play
the cackle. Oh, I'll cueuethat back up listener discretion advice. Oh,
(01:25):
this is how you can know.I'm filling in for Dan kaplis So.
Kamala Harris says that freedom means banningour AR fifteens. Does she even
know what an AR fifteen is?Doubtful? Or when they go more general
like assault weapon, Okay, whatis that? Be very specific? And
then you get a little more scaredwhen they are specific, because isn't any
(01:45):
gun an assault weapon? If usedthat way? That's right? And she
also says that they are going tofinally pass red flag laws, universal background
checks, which we have pretty solidbackground checks right now. There's just going
to be a full on assault nupunand attended on our gun rights in our
second Amendment if she's elected. Andhere's some bad news. And I know
(02:07):
people are saying this is a honeymoonbump, but it still worries me a
bit. A new Fox News pollthis was just tweeted out, shows that
Harris is neck and neck with DonaldTrump. In Michigan, it's tied at
forty nine. Minnesota, she's upsix points. Pennsylvania, it's tied at
forty nine. In Wisconsin, she'sone point behind Trump. Do you think
(02:27):
these numbers are real? Should webe stressed out, staying up all night
fretting? Well, I think thegains that Trump was able to make with
Joe Biden on some of these statesthat you didn't necessarily put in the equation
that could be on the board.So we're talking about two that you just
mentioned, Minnesota, New Hampshire.Perhaps Virginia, you know, with picking
glenn ynkind have mattered. I'm notso sure that it would have. Maybe
(02:51):
it would have, but those statesI am worried have receded and we're back
down to, you know, therust belt, blue wall states of Wisconsin,
Michigan, Sylvania, But we kindof knew that going in. I
still think Trump is relatively solid AndHeidi, here's the question I think we
got to ask ourselves is how muchbetter is it going to get for Kamala
Harris Between now they're going to havetheir convention. So the Trump team has
(03:15):
told us basically to brace ourselves.There could be an ebb and flow here
a little bit, but I thinkpost convention, once you go stretch,
run there and she truly is vettedfor the American people. And this is
why I'm advocating for debates for DonaldTrump, because, especially if Fox News
is moderating one of those Brettbearer andMartha McCallum, she's going to have to
count for all these policy positions hestayed in the past, which are absolutely
(03:37):
radical and leftist. And you flauningthe Constitution with that laugh of hers,
just saying with a wave of herpen, she's just going to sign away
Second Amendment, right, she doesn'tcare what the Congress is going to do.
And Joe Biden give him credit.At least he was cautioning in that
debate four years ago, you can'tjust do that. So yeah, that's
what I'm concerned about, is thatshe would be absolutely horrible in a full
(03:59):
pri mary like she was fully exposedlike twenty twenty. If she had to
run again in twenty eight, noway she gets the nomination. This is
the one fast track chance that KamalaHarris has to sneak into the presidency,
and that's what scares me most ofall. So I know Dan has a
theory. I think it's that MichelleObama's going to get put in. Not
anymore. They just endorsed her today, the two Obamas. That's what I
(04:20):
was going to ask you about.Now that that has happened, does that
shut that theory down? I thinkthat was the only missing link in the
chain, wasn't it in terms ofbig time endorsements for her going into the
convention. And I haven't heard ofa single soul that's going to challenge her
on the party floor at the convention. So that's right. And what's your
take on the vice presidency? I'veheard that, Ben. I'm sorry,
(04:43):
Shapiro, that would be nice though, Oh for us, the wrong Shapiro,
Josh Shapiro, Yah, Yeah,the governor of Pennsylvania might be selected.
I don't see anyway that happens because, let's put a fine point on
it. He's Jewish. We sawwhat just happened outside of when and Yahoo
was giving the speech in Washington thatthe far left flank of that party they
(05:04):
got to appease those voters in DearbornMichigan in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I don't
think they can put them on theticket. I think the safe kind of
Casper milk toast bet that's going tomake people maybe feel a little bit more
at ease about Kamala and not reallyupset anybody. Is Mark Kelly, the
Senator from Arizona. Plus he's ina swing state. That seems to me
to be the safe pick that Iwould bet on. I did have a
(05:27):
conversation with a friend who is verydeep in the polling world, and he
felt pretty confident that Arizona was goingto be okay and that Carrie Lake was
actually going to get across the finishline. Yeah, which was surprising.
I mean, I think of Arizonais turning more and more blue. But
he was pretty confident was going tobe okay. He also thought we'd be
okay in Georgia and Nevada. Yep, he was not so sure. He
(05:48):
felt not confident in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And that's where I
think jettisoning Joe Biden gives them achance. A punch changed each of those
states. But I gotta tell you, Heidi, Pennsylvania is very problematic for
Kamala, especially if she doesn't pickShapiro, But again, I don't think
vice presidential picks matter that much.Her stance wanting to ban fracking is on
(06:14):
the record. That is a bigindustry in Pennsylvania for energy. I don't
see them getting behind her. Shemight do even worse in Pennsylvania than Joe
Biden would have. And that's aproblem because if she loses Pennsylvania, the
electoral map gets extremely narrow at thatpoint. Does she pick up Wisconsin and
Michigan if she is that the offit seems like they would vote the same
(06:36):
way as Pennsylvania. Does that usuallyhappen. I can't remember the one hat
I would kind of hold on toif I'm Donald Trump and try to I
would try to drive home right now. The Teamster's endorsement. I think that
would factor bigly in Wisconsin and Michigan, two very big union worker states.
(06:56):
And they just showed some polling thatyou were mentioning the Fox News polling that
but the union worker voting between Trumpand Kamala Harris his neck and neck.
It's a coin flip which is goingto reflect each of those two states.
So you would it would it wouldstand a reason then if Donald Trump somehow
was able to secure that union vote, get the endorsement of Sean O'Brien and
the Teamsters, that alone might beable to push him across the finish line
(07:18):
in each of those two states.So I did just see it on Twitter
before I got on the show thatTrump announced He's going back to Butler,
Pennsylvania to finish the rally that hedidn't get to finish. That's pretty badass.
That's pretty bad ass. That maypush Pennsylvania over the top. I
that was a question I was askingon my program Heidi, which airs here
in Denver locally before Dan Show,So our Fort Collins and a Publo listeners
(07:42):
if you want to tune in,you can catch that on the podcast just
subscribing download cheap plug there. Butwould you advocate, Heidi that Donald Trump
should do what you just said hemight do, which is go right back
to the outdoor rallies, even thoughwe know there are problems obviously with the
Secret Service, his level of protection, whether he can rely on it or
trust it. Is that just partof his campaign and he's got to do
(08:03):
it, or would you play thatsafely on the side of caution. Well,
this is the guy that stood upafter he got shot and yelled fight,
fight, fight, So I don'tthink he's going to be worried necessarily.
But he is a smart businessman,so he's probably going to beef up
his own private security. He's gota and not rely on the Secret Service.
And the one other factor I've beenhearing rumors swirling about, and perhaps
(08:24):
you have two, Heidi, isthe status of RFK Junior and whether the
calculus for him changes, because nowthat Biden's out of the race, RFK
Junior is not that youthful alternative,and he's not that young to begin with,
but compared to Trump and Biden,he was Kamala Harris changes the game
from that standpoint, and I knowDonald Trump's been working on him. Maybe
a problemise him an EPA director positionif he's willing to drop out and endorse
(08:48):
Trump. I don't know how manyvoters would follow RFK over to Trump,
but it could only help. AndI'm very curious to see where RFK goes
from here with his campaign. That'sa great point, and I think a
lot of these polls are just headto head. They're not including him in
the polling equation, and when theydo, it's a varying effect. In
Wisconsin and Michigan, it's our fcase seems to hurt Donald Trump a little
(09:11):
bit, and in some of theseother states Pennsylvania, Arizona, he helps
Donald Trump. So it's really toughto measure across the board. To wrap
up before our break, also,Donald Trump tweeted out about Christopher Ray,
the FBI director. I guess hekind of sort of apologized for insinuating that
it wasn't a bullet that hit himin his testimony yesterday. Oh really,
Oh yeah, it was disgusting.He tried to make it sound like it
(09:35):
could have been shrapnel, it mightnot have been a full bullet. And
so Trump's doctor and a couple otherpeople came out and said that's absolutely ridiculous.
And so he put out a tweetjust saying, you know, I
We're pretty sure it was fragments froma bullet or perhaps the whole bullet that
hit his ear. That's the worldwe live in, exactly. All right,
(09:56):
Well, this is Heidi Ganal fillingin for Dan Kaplis. We're going
to take a break and come backwith a discussion about some of the ballot
initiatives and a special guest Aaron Leeat the five thirty five break, And
now back to the Dan Kamplas Showpodcast. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
(10:33):
yeah yeah yeah. Like oh Ryan, I love that you have to
play that every Friday afternoon until theelection played people hate us. It's so
(10:54):
annoying. Like I told you're doingone of the breaks, that's a little
over thirty seconds, but I swearto god, it feels like minutes of
tortures. Yeah, it is torture. Can you imagine four or eight years
of that. Ah, you're notmaking this fund perfect. I having nightmares
about it. Heidi, I know, I know it's okay. Well,
when we will, I believe thatI do believe that she will not be
(11:16):
president. Oh man, all right, I want to take a few minutes
and talk with you about some ballotinitiatives that are coming this wall. There
are so many ballot initiatives they're probablygoing to require us to vote on.
But there's a couple of really importantones that aren't being talked a lot about,
like the ones we talked about onhunting and furbands. But there's one
(11:37):
that has to do with crime,and did you know that Colorado has the
fourth highest recidivism rate. I alwayshave a hard time saying this. Recidivism
meaning you do a crime again,Like you get out of jail and you
repeat, you know, you goout and commit a crime again. We
have the fourth highest rate in thenation because violent criminals today in Colorado only
(11:58):
serve an average of forty six percentof their sentences. That's less than half
their sentences. So on average,there's about four hundred and forty nine offenders
per year that are sentenced to prisonthat are basically sentenced to twelve to twenty
four years in prison, and theyspend less than half of that in prison,
(12:18):
and they come out and they doit again. So that's an issue.
So Proposition one twelve is all aboutrequiring that they have to serve eighty
five percent of the sentence imposed beforethey're eligible for parole. I say,
that's a pretty good idea. Whatdo you think, Ryan, Well,
I think if you put a finepoint on it, I don't know where
(12:41):
we go from here with that.Well, I think that if someone commits
murder, then they should stay injail for at least eighty five percent of
the sentence. There's no reason theyshould get out before that. Now,
there is a cost to that,but I think the cost is much less
than letting society pay the p whenthat person hurts somebody else. And what
(13:01):
I meant by that is hearing Coloradowith the recidivism rate that you talk about
in the Return to Crime, whenyou have this kind of thinking and policy,
and this starts in the schools,right we talk about prison or school
to prison pipeline type of philosophy thatthey don't even want to punish students.
This was something that Dan actually workedon himself in an op ed for the
(13:22):
Denver Post when it looked like ourpublic schools were going to become like Lord
of the Flies with lawless zones wherethere wouldn't be enforcement for things like sexual
assault and so forth. And itreally was nipped in the bud when Dan
wrote that op ed. But it'sa mindset, right, and I think
as long as there's democratic leadership herein Colorado, this is where I really
(13:43):
I kind of want dark and Ilost hope is when John Kellner lost that
Attorney General's race against Phil Wiser,when there was a clear choice I think
to be made when Phil Wiser wascaught on videos saying, well, you
know, by the third or fourthor fifth car that you steal, ah,
then maybe we might, you know, start doing something about, like,
hoot, the first car that yousteal. And it's just this tolerance
(14:05):
for crime that I don't know ifthe if the left has just become kind
of accustomed to it, like thisis this is how we're going to live
now, and this is how it'sgoing to be, and we got to
think about the rights of criminals beforethe rights of victims. I think it's
so baked in Heidi to how weoperate here. It really scares me in
Colorado that that the crime level doesn'treally phase people enough. Let's say a
(14:28):
race like Congressional one Diana to getValdemar arch lettim my good friend President log
Cabin Republicans, with what's going on, that should be a much closer race.
Maybe it will be. I don'tknow, but I think a lot
of what he's encountering, who he'stalking to, they'd be open to it,
but they've just been so set intheir ways and predisposed. I'm sure
you ran into a lot of thisin your race that they haven't even thought
(14:50):
about considering an alternative that maybe there'sa different way to do things here,
and maybe it'd be a heck ofa lot better. They're just so committed.
And the other thing that gets meis there are people out there,
one who I know personally and quitewell, that it's a one issue voter,
like a woman for instance, thatI got to have the right to
choose, and I need, youknow, abortions at what if the world's
(15:11):
crumbling around us. What if crimeis just you know, sprawling throughout Denver.
What if we are at war overseas? What if inflation's off the charts.
What if our taxes and our burdenand the cost of living and rent
and groceries, et cetera. No, as long as I get to kill
babies, I'm voting Democrat, andthey have that right. In Colorado,
it's literally up until a baby's born. And I believe that amendment or that
(15:35):
ballot initiative is making it on thisfall also where that puts it into the
constitution here in Colorado that you cankill a baby up till birth. Is
that correct, Ryan, that you'reunderstanding it is? And I think what
that's going to help do. Unfortunatelyfor those of us who would like to
see Republicans do better in this cycle? Is drive the type of voter I
just talked about that might not otherwiseshow up because they're discouraged about Biden or
(15:56):
maybe even Harris, And this mightbe something that drives into the polls because
they feel that strongly about this particularissue. Did you hear about this big
zoom call they had last night forwhite women for Kamala oh Man. I
guess there were one hundred and thirtythousand women on and they raised a lot
of money. I just I couldn'tbelieve my eyes when I saw that.
(16:17):
Can you imagine Donald Trump having acall a zoom call like white women for
Trump? Well? No, butI think this feeds into again people that
are concerned with others perceptions of them. If you're called a racist, or
a homophobe or a sexist misogynist,does that bother you? And I think
(16:38):
there are more people on our sidethat have gotten so accustomed to having this
kind of in a language thrown atus that it rolls right off and a
doesn't bother. I still think itbothers a lot of people on the left.
And I'll go ahead and say itparticularly white suburban women. Because there's
a movie coming out it's called AmI Racist? By Matt Walsh day Weier.
What is the woman? Same guy? Now, it's a question and
(17:00):
he highlights he may have seen thiswhere this woman literally makes her living going
around to suburban, wealthy white womenand telling them that they're racist, and
the white women believe it. Idon't understand the mindset of that. I
can't obviously I'm not a woman tobegin with. But maybe you can help
explain what the mindset of a womanwould be that, Oh no, please
(17:22):
tell me I'm racist. I'm bad, I'm a bad person. You're right.
I do think the ballot initiatives weregoing to talk with Aaron Lee about
who's a mom who is personally herfamily was personally torn apart over this issue
when her daughter was headed to anart class, and it turned out to
be an approach to transition right thelittle girl. That issue boys playing in
(17:45):
girls sports and them transitioning our kidswithout telling parents those two issues, those
two ballot initiatives might just drive alot of people on the other side that
wouldn't normally show up for the abortiontalk to vote. Also, so let's
get those on the ballot. Let'stalk to Aaron about how to do that.
They've been working very hard to makethat happen, and honestly, it's
(18:11):
an important issue that I think mostpeople Democrat, Independent and Republican can agree
on if they think about the consequencesto their girls if boys are playing in
girls sports. This isciety and allon Dan Kaplis. We'll be back after
the break with Aaron Lee. You'relistening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
(18:33):
So then, if you're for overhauling, where do you stand on defund the
police? Look, I'm right,So here's the thing. Defund the police.
The issue behind it is that weneed to reimagine how we are creating
safety. And when you have manycities that have one third of their entire
(18:55):
city budget focused on policing, weknow that is not the smart way and
the best way or the right wayto achieve safety this society canal. Filling
in for Dan Kaplis, that wasKamala Harris, the presumed candidate for president
on the Democrats side, talking abouthow she's going to reimagine safety for us.
(19:18):
What a weird thing to say.How about just put bad guys in
jail and let's follow law and order. That's not a novel concept, but
anyway, a novel concept. I'vegot a friend of mine, Aaron lee
On, who is leading the chargeto protect our kids in Colorado and keep
them safe erin. Welcome to theshow. Hi HEIIGHTI thanks for having me,
(19:40):
of course, and Aaron, Iknow you are extremely busy right now
doing the final push for signatures onthis petition drive. Two different petitions,
one sixty to protect girls from biologicalmales playing in sports, and one two,
which is requiring public schools to tellparents if their child is experiencing incongruence.
(20:02):
So tell us a little bit abouthow you got into this battle.
I know your story well, butthe listeners may not. Yes, both
very common sense issues to which balladshould not be necessary, but it's our
story. Started in twenty twenty one, my daughter was lured into a secret
gender and sexuality club where she wasconvinced that her normal twelve year old pubescent
(20:23):
discomfort means she's actually a transgender boy. And she was told to keep it
a secret from us. And whenwe started to dig into how this happened,
we realized this is a very pervasiveissue, especially here in the state
of Colorado, that children are beingtransitioned at increased rates and parents are being
completely left in the dark. I'vetalked to hundreds of families since we went
(20:47):
public who have had very similar experiences, whose children have been transitioning secretly,
whose kids have been ultimately harmed bythis secrecy and by this ideology in our
schools. And so I worked witha mighty group of believers, including Senator
Kevin Lundberg Greg Lopez. We've broughtProtect Kids Colorado to life to fight back
(21:10):
against these issues in the state.You know, we have no pull in
the legislature. Our legislators are offthe rails. We can't even play defense
on bad bills, and so wetook matters into our own hands, and
we're utilizing the We the People processof ballot initiatives to put these issues before
Colorado voters, and we worded themin such a middle ground, common sense
(21:33):
way. You know that we wanteveryone to compete, but we want females
to have their single sex category protected. And you know, we're not dictating
what happens in classrooms, but ifyou transition a child, you must tell
their parents it's harmful not to.And so it's been really cool to see
the broad coalition of people who havecome behind what we're doing from every walk
(21:56):
of life, cultural background, religiousor not. After right, politically doesn't
matter. We all agree men aren'twomen and parents shouldn't be lied to you
by public schools. Boy, that'sthe truth. And I think it's going
to be challenging to go up againstthe Democrats on these two ballot initiatives.
They're kind of living and dying bythese two themes that you're approaching. So
(22:19):
how are you going to a getthis onto the ballot? We're heading into
the final week of signature collections totell people where they can go to sign
those and b how do we winonce it is on the ballot. Yes,
Protect Kids Colorado dot org. Youcan go to our events page.
We have dozens events all over thestate with opportunities to sign from the eastern
(22:41):
plans of the Western slope. Andlike you said, we've got about a
week left. We need one hundredand twenty five thousand signatures. We are
in all grassroots volunteer efforts. Contraryto attacks by the CEA and the PTA,
we are not funded by billionaires,in corporations. We are grassroots pair.
It's grandparents, where your neighbors were, your teachers, and we're just
(23:03):
trying to make Colorado a better place. So it's going to take a big
push here at the end. Becausewe didn't have our full six months to
gather signatures, we came up againstwhat I believe were completely illegal, unconstitutional
stonewalling by the Title Board, theSecretary of State, and the Attorney General.
They even said the word parent wastoo confusing for Colorado voters. Therefore
(23:26):
our parent Bill of Rights was notsingle subject. Oh that was their excuse.
And then we were challenged to theSupreme Court by outside interest groups and
NGOs, and so they really stalledour timeline. But I am so encouraged
by the thousands of volunteers so havecome out to help us get signatures.
And you know, like I said, the broad coalition from Democrats, Gaze
(23:48):
against Groomers, Independent Women Forum,the Feminists, the Turks have really come
out in support of this, theCatholic Church and now the support Letter,
and so it's so inspiring to justsee Colorados coming together on this issue,
even though we disagree on a lotof other things. To protect kids,
and strength and families in the state. It's so necessary right now, and
(24:11):
so logistically aerin. I've led acouple valid initiatives and it's changed a little
bit since I did that with PropHH and the Electoral College initiative. But
we need to get a certain numberof valid signatures from each is it a
district of the state. So wedid statutory initiative. We tried to run
constitutional initiatives that would require a percentagefrom all thirty five Senate districts. We
(24:36):
were only able to get a statutoryinitiative through, So it doesn't matter where
signatures come from. They can beanywhere in the state. Got it.
How many signatures do you need thatare valid? I know you have to
get a lot more so that youknow the good ones come through. Right
Well, they've legislated the process todeath, so there's no longer a curing
period, meaning when we turn inour signature if that's final, and they
(24:57):
will invalidate a percentage of So we'reshooting for two hundred thousand, one twenty
five is what we need for itto pass, and we're well on our
track to get there as long aswe push really hard. In final ten
days, so you have to turnthose in on August first, August fifth,
that's a Monday, and Protect KidsColorado will have a press conference August
(25:19):
fifth at noon at the Capitol wherewe will announce our projected numbers and our
future plans for Protect Kids Colorado.Because win or lose on these two ballot
issues, we didn't get everything throughthat we wanted to, and we're not
going anywhere. Our opposition has raisedalmost five hundred thousand dollars to oppose us
if this gets to the ballot.A lot of that is money from outside
(25:42):
the state of Colorado, and thatjust goes to show that they're intimidated by
what grassroots parents, grandparents, andconcerned citizens can pull off despite their attempts
to stall us. Aaron, I'mso grateful for all the work you've done
on this issue. You've been awarrior and talk about a mom on a
mission. How do your kids feelabout this? We've got a couple of
(26:04):
minutes left. Tell us how yourfamily's doing in this battle. Yeah,
well, our issue happened three yearsago with our daughter. It took about
a year to get her out ofthe gender confusion, and you know when
we did, she was relieved,and we watched What Is a Woman?
Together? And she said, Mom, why didn't I understand this was happening
to me? And how do Iprevent this from happening to other little girls?
(26:26):
And that's when I said, wetell your story, We get loud
to inform others. And she's reallybeen encouraged and touched by the amount of
people she's had reached out to herpersonally who have been just blessed by her
bravery to let us tell her story. And she's our inspiration for everything for
being involved in protect kids. AndI'm happy to say she's thriving. We
(26:48):
just picked up her driver's permit yesterday. She's in a great school, she
came back from camp. I mean, she's thriving. And my kids know
this is what mom does. Now. I'm a full time activists on these
issues. And they get to goon fun trips and we see the inside
of the Capitol and it's fun tohave them involved and see them see me
(27:10):
engage in my civic duty and hopefullythat inspires them when they grow up to
take a similar path. But it'syou know, they're my inspiration, and
they're all the kids of Colorado.Are everyone's inspiration for these issues. It's
a thing that unifies all of usthat we should be protecting the innocence and
well being of our children. Icouldn't agree more. As a fellow mom
(27:32):
on a mission, I will continueto support you however I can. I
believe there's lots of people in Coloradowho are very, very proud of the
work you're doing. Thanks Erin forjoining us. This is Heidi Ganal hosting
for Dan Kaplis. We'll be backafter the break and now back to the
Dan Kaplis Show podcast. Ah right, lover Boy one of my favorite bands
growing up. I grew up inthe eighties and I was a monument Lewis
(27:56):
Palmer high school kid. I hadthe high five. Yeah, I was
a rocker chick lover boys like rocker. I was more like Van Halen.
But absolutely who was your favorite bandin high school? Well, kind of
same era. But ACDC is myall time favorite. But to your point
on Van Halen, I always thinkof the wedding singer where his ex girlfriend's
(28:18):
wearing the shirt and take my shirtoff before you break up the band,
and then they break up of course. Oh that's a great movie. We've
been showing our kids some of theolder movies that are classics, like Sixteen
Candles and Weird Science, and theydon't think they're as funny as we did.
It's kind of sad to me.Well, now have you seen it
(28:41):
was on Hulu, the Andrew McCarthydocumentary about the Brat Pack No I would
love you got to? Do?You have Hulu? Yes? Look it
up. It's very fascinating because likeJudd Nelson and Molly Ringwald wouldn't talk to
him, Emilio Astaves did but veryreluctib oh, and he was able to
(29:02):
have a sit down with Ali Sheety, who I've always loved. I always
thought she's just a dear person,and she was very much as you would
to expect in this one. JohnCryer's in it. It's just for somebody
like us, you know, JenAxers that grew up with those movies.
It's interesting because Andrew McCarthy went intoit with the notion that the brat Pack
(29:22):
label really harmed his career, butsome of them it didn't, you know,
and they moved on and they wereable to succeed with it. And
to me, Moore was one ofthose. Yeah, that said, Hey,
I just didn't let it get tome. Basically, he's like,
wow, why didn't I think ofthat? So what happened to Anthony Michael
Hall? He was an amazing actor. He was in a very big feature
(29:42):
like you know, the nerd RelatableKid, and a couple of those movies
Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Hewasn't in this, I don't think,
but they quoted him. He hadsome comments about the whole thing. But
I just found it interesting that theyreally rattled them to be labeled that the
brat pack. Well boy, goodtimes, good times. Rob Low's in
(30:06):
it too, so I forgot tobury the lead there, and I knew
all the gen X ladies are goingto want to watch it. Yes,
of course he still looks pretty darngood. Oh he looks amazing. Don't
tell my husband that he probably Idon't know if he's listening enough. I
don't think your husband would mind losinga Rob Low. I know I'd be
like, oh I lost a rabbLow, No big deal. Okay.
(30:26):
We got some great comments. Myfavorite is that the Kamala laugh soundtrack or
track sounds like a soundtrack at ahaunted house. I think we should use
it for that. I think thatshould be an every haunted house in America.
On October thirty first, right beforethe election. Oh wow, Yeah,
we don't need the White House tobe that haunted house with her in
(30:47):
it as president now. Steven Lyttleton, a retired law enforcement officer, says
the anti hunting push is just anotherelement of the anti Second Amendment movement,
which is something Chris and I talkedabout, and Kamala Harri this is really
scary and that issue saying as soonas she's sworn in this is from twenty
twenty from a debate, but shedoesn't care what Congress is going to do
or not do. She's going toenact executive orders to enforce all these things
(31:10):
that she wants to do to us. What's great guard to guns? And
on the crime front, we talkedabout recidivism. All listener texted in my
comment is regarding the comment about Coloradohaving one of the highest rates and incarcerated
individuals not filling more than half theirsentences. What people need to understand is
(31:30):
the primary reason why it's so high. The recidivism rate is so high is
due to the Colorado Department of Correctionsfailing to provide a sufficient number of programs
and work opportunities to help those individualsbe reformed and prepare them to successfully transition
back into society. The Department ofCorrections is very broken staffing and training for
(31:51):
correction officers and lack of programs forinmates that can certainly be part of it.
I don't agree that that's the wholething. I think that if somebody
hurts someone and gets a sentence,they should serve eighty five percent of that
sense. I don't think that's askingtoo much with this ballad in a ship
that's coming through. Finally, liberalssay they don't want parents to know if
(32:15):
their child is transitioning to keep thekids safe. So should parents not be
allowed to see their kids' grades forthe same reason. That's a good point,
very good point. And finally,on the Colorida Republican Party, I
haven't seen any updates on whether themeeting is on or off tomorrow, but
this listener says the liberal Cholera SupremeCourt will uphold the ruling by the lower
(32:38):
court to keep the turmoil alive inthe Republican Party here. I wouldn't rule
that out. That sounds like aconspiracy theory, but not so much.
I wanted to. One of thelast things I want to do is read
the quote by Lauren Bobert about what'shappening in the Colorado GP. She came
out pretty strong. She has She'sbeen kind of quiet about this, but
in her tweet she says, thisisn't about competing policies or ideologies. This
(33:01):
is about a failure from Chairman Williamsto lead after our primary election and simply
reach out to candidates and organizations throughoutColorado and beyond to offer support men bridges
and present a clear game plan ofhow we can win together in November.
And a change in leadership at theColorado GOP just one hundred days out from
election day is going to be disruptiveand damaging. But Chairman Williams has put
(33:24):
himself in this situation. What doyou think of that right now? Put
us all in this situation, rightyep? And I was surprised and actually
a little bit encouraged that Lauren cameout and said something. You know,
her voice is about as strong asa Republican voice as there is in Colorado
right now, and the party isin turmoil there's all kinds of this in
(33:45):
fighting. It's counterintuitive to winning.And I'm just glad you conducted all those
interviews on Tuesday, Hiday. I'vegotten a lot of reaction to those that
you know, Hope came on thisprogram. He had the opposing side as
well. Yeah, and it wasa little discouraging about where the party is
financially and where they are with helpingcandidates and races. So, you know,
I think candidates just have to keeptheir nose to the grindstone, do
(34:07):
the basic blocking and tackling, whichis reaching out to voters and getting your
message out there. We're trying tohelp with that with Rocky Mountain Voice.
Encourage everybody to go subscribe so theycan keep listening to my take on things.
But Ryan, thank you so muchfor having me this week. It
was great fun. Yeah, thankyou and grateful to Dan. He has
a wonderful audience and I'm one ofthose people that listens in to your show
(34:30):
and Dan's show. So everyone havea great Friday. I'm headed off to
my fifteen year old's twenty kid partyat my house tonight. Wish me luck
This is Dan capless and welcome totoday's online podcast edition of The Dan Caplis
Show. Please be sure to giveus a five star rating if you'd be
so kind, and to subscribe,download and listen to the show every single
day on your favorite podcast platform.You did bring up assault weapons here,
and many of you on this stagehave talked about executive orders. Senator Harris,
(00:20):
you have said that you would takeexecutive action on guns within your first
one hundred days, including banning importsof AR fifteen assault weapons. That's President
Obama after Sandy Hook, more thantwenty three executive actions, and yet here
we all are today. In recentdays, former Vice President Biden has said
about executive orders, some really talentedpeople are seeking the nomination. They said,
I'm going to issue an executive order, Biden saying there's no constitutional authority
(00:44):
to issue that executive order. Whenthey say I'm going to eliminate assault weapons,
saying you can't do it by executiveorder any more than Trump can do
things when he says he can doit by executive order. Does the Vice
president have a point there? Somethings you can, many things you can't.
Let's let the senator answer. Imean I would just say, hey,
Joe, it's said as saying thatwe can't. Let's say yes we
(01:04):
can. Let'st be controcasional. Yeswe can. Oh, Ryan that laugh
at cackle at some point before Isign off today, you've got to play
the cackle. Oh, I'll cueuethat back up listener discretion advice. Oh,
(01:25):
this is how you can know.I'm filling in for Dan kaplis So.
Kamala Harris says that freedom means banningour AR fifteens. Does she even
know what an AR fifteen is?Doubtful? Or when they go more general
like assault weapon, Okay, whatis that? Be very specific? And
then you get a little more scaredwhen they are specific, because isn't any
(01:45):
gun an assault weapon? If usedthat way? That's right? And she
also says that they are going tofinally pass red flag laws, universal background
checks, which we have pretty solidbackground checks right now. There's just going
to be a full on assault nupunand attended on our gun rights in our
second Amendment if she's elected. Andhere's some bad news. And I know
(02:07):
people are saying this is a honeymoonbump, but it still worries me a
bit. A new Fox News pollthis was just tweeted out, shows that
Harris is neck and neck with DonaldTrump. In Michigan, it's tied at
forty nine. Minnesota, she's upsix points. Pennsylvania, it's tied at
forty nine. In Wisconsin, she'sone point behind Trump. Do you think
(02:27):
these numbers are real? Should webe stressed out, staying up all night
fretting? Well, I think thegains that Trump was able to make with
Joe Biden on some of these statesthat you didn't necessarily put in the equation
that could be on the board.So we're talking about two that you just
mentioned, Minnesota, New Hampshire.Perhaps Virginia, you know, with picking
glenn ynkind have mattered. I'm notso sure that it would have. Maybe
(02:51):
it would have, but those statesI am worried have receded and we're back
down to, you know, therust belt, blue wall states of Wisconsin,
Michigan, Sylvania, But we kindof knew that going in. I
still think Trump is relatively solid AndHeidi, here's the question I think we
got to ask ourselves is how muchbetter is it going to get for Kamala
Harris Between now they're going to havetheir convention. So the Trump team has
(03:15):
told us basically to brace ourselves.There could be an ebb and flow here
a little bit, but I thinkpost convention, once you go stretch,
run there and she truly is vettedfor the American people. And this is
why I'm advocating for debates for DonaldTrump, because, especially if Fox News
is moderating one of those Brettbearer andMartha McCallum, she's going to have to
count for all these policy positions hestayed in the past, which are absolutely
(03:37):
radical and leftist. And you flauningthe Constitution with that laugh of hers,
just saying with a wave of herpen, she's just going to sign away
Second Amendment, right, she doesn'tcare what the Congress is going to do.
And Joe Biden give him credit.At least he was cautioning in that
debate four years ago, you can'tjust do that. So yeah, that's
what I'm concerned about, is thatshe would be absolutely horrible in a full
(03:59):
pri mary like she was fully exposedlike twenty twenty. If she had to
run again in twenty eight, noway she gets the nomination. This is
the one fast track chance that KamalaHarris has to sneak into the presidency,
and that's what scares me most ofall. So I know Dan has a
theory. I think it's that MichelleObama's going to get put in. Not
anymore. They just endorsed her today, the two Obamas. That's what I
(04:20):
was going to ask you about.Now that that has happened, does that
shut that theory down? I thinkthat was the only missing link in the
chain, wasn't it in terms ofbig time endorsements for her going into the
convention. And I haven't heard ofa single soul that's going to challenge her
on the party floor at the convention. So that's right. And what's your
take on the vice presidency? I'veheard that, Ben. I'm sorry,
(04:43):
Shapiro, that would be nice though, Oh for us, the wrong Shapiro,
Josh Shapiro, Yah, Yeah,the governor of Pennsylvania might be selected.
I don't see anyway that happens because, let's put a fine point on
it. He's Jewish. We sawwhat just happened outside of when and Yahoo
was giving the speech in Washington thatthe far left flank of that party they
(05:04):
got to appease those voters in DearbornMichigan in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I don't
think they can put them on theticket. I think the safe kind of
Casper milk toast bet that's going tomake people maybe feel a little bit more
at ease about Kamala and not reallyupset anybody. Is Mark Kelly, the
Senator from Arizona. Plus he's ina swing state. That seems to me
to be the safe pick that Iwould bet on. I did have a
(05:27):
conversation with a friend who is verydeep in the polling world, and he
felt pretty confident that Arizona was goingto be okay and that Carrie Lake was
actually going to get across the finishline. Yeah, which was surprising.
I mean, I think of Arizonais turning more and more blue. But
he was pretty confident was going tobe okay. He also thought we'd be
okay in Georgia and Nevada. Yep, he was not so sure. He
(05:48):
felt not confident in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And that's where I
think jettisoning Joe Biden gives them achance. A punch changed each of those
states. But I gotta tell you, Heidi, Pennsylvania is very problematic for
Kamala, especially if she doesn't pickShapiro, But again, I don't think
vice presidential picks matter that much.Her stance wanting to ban fracking is on
(06:14):
the record. That is a bigindustry in Pennsylvania for energy. I don't
see them getting behind her. Shemight do even worse in Pennsylvania than Joe
Biden would have. And that's aproblem because if she loses Pennsylvania, the
electoral map gets extremely narrow at thatpoint. Does she pick up Wisconsin and
Michigan if she is that the offit seems like they would vote the same
(06:36):
way as Pennsylvania. Does that usuallyhappen. I can't remember the one hat
I would kind of hold on toif I'm Donald Trump and try to I
would try to drive home right now. The Teamster's endorsement. I think that
would factor bigly in Wisconsin and Michigan, two very big union worker states.
(06:56):
And they just showed some polling thatyou were mentioning the Fox News polling that
but the union worker voting between Trumpand Kamala Harris his neck and neck.
It's a coin flip which is goingto reflect each of those two states.
So you would it would it wouldstand a reason then if Donald Trump somehow
was able to secure that union vote, get the endorsement of Sean O'Brien and
the Teamsters, that alone might beable to push him across the finish line
(07:18):
in each of those two states.So I did just see it on Twitter
before I got on the show thatTrump announced He's going back to Butler,
Pennsylvania to finish the rally that hedidn't get to finish. That's pretty badass.
That's pretty bad ass. That maypush Pennsylvania over the top. I
that was a question I was askingon my program Heidi, which airs here
in Denver locally before Dan Show,So our Fort Collins and a Publo listeners
(07:42):
if you want to tune in,you can catch that on the podcast just
subscribing download cheap plug there. Butwould you advocate, Heidi that Donald Trump
should do what you just said hemight do, which is go right back
to the outdoor rallies, even thoughwe know there are problems obviously with the
Secret Service, his level of protection, whether he can rely on it or
trust it. Is that just partof his campaign and he's got to do
(08:03):
it, or would you play thatsafely on the side of caution. Well,
this is the guy that stood upafter he got shot and yelled fight,
fight, fight, So I don'tthink he's going to be worried necessarily.
But he is a smart businessman,so he's probably going to beef up
his own private security. He's gota and not rely on the Secret Service.
And the one other factor I've beenhearing rumors swirling about, and perhaps
(08:24):
you have two, Heidi, isthe status of RFK Junior and whether the
calculus for him changes, because nowthat Biden's out of the race, RFK
Junior is not that youthful alternative,and he's not that young to begin with,
but compared to Trump and Biden,he was Kamala Harris changes the game
from that standpoint, and I knowDonald Trump's been working on him. Maybe
a problemise him an EPA director positionif he's willing to drop out and endorse
(08:48):
Trump. I don't know how manyvoters would follow RFK over to Trump,
but it could only help. AndI'm very curious to see where RFK goes
from here with his campaign. That'sa great point, and I think a
lot of these polls are just headto head. They're not including him in
the polling equation, and when theydo, it's a varying effect. In
Wisconsin and Michigan, it's our fcase seems to hurt Donald Trump a little
(09:11):
bit, and in some of theseother states Pennsylvania, Arizona, he helps
Donald Trump. So it's really toughto measure across the board. To wrap
up before our break, also,Donald Trump tweeted out about Christopher Ray,
the FBI director. I guess hekind of sort of apologized for insinuating that
it wasn't a bullet that hit himin his testimony yesterday. Oh really,
Oh yeah, it was disgusting.He tried to make it sound like it
(09:35):
could have been shrapnel, it mightnot have been a full bullet. And
so Trump's doctor and a couple otherpeople came out and said that's absolutely ridiculous.
And so he put out a tweetjust saying, you know, I
We're pretty sure it was fragments froma bullet or perhaps the whole bullet that
hit his ear. That's the worldwe live in, exactly. All right,
(09:56):
Well, this is Heidi Ganal fillingin for Dan Kaplis. We're going
to take a break and come backwith a discussion about some of the ballot
initiatives and a special guest Aaron Leeat the five thirty five break, And
now back to the Dan Kamplas Showpodcast. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
(10:33):
yeah yeah yeah. Like oh Ryan, I love that you have to
play that every Friday afternoon until theelection played people hate us. It's so
(10:54):
annoying. Like I told you're doingone of the breaks, that's a little
over thirty seconds, but I swearto god, it feels like minutes of
tortures. Yeah, it is torture. Can you imagine four or eight years
of that. Ah, you're notmaking this fund perfect. I having nightmares
about it. Heidi, I know, I know it's okay. Well,
when we will, I believe thatI do believe that she will not be
(11:16):
president. Oh man, all right, I want to take a few minutes
and talk with you about some ballotinitiatives that are coming this wall. There
are so many ballot initiatives they're probablygoing to require us to vote on.
But there's a couple of really importantones that aren't being talked a lot about,
like the ones we talked about onhunting and furbands. But there's one
(11:37):
that has to do with crime,and did you know that Colorado has the
fourth highest recidivism rate. I alwayshave a hard time saying this. Recidivism
meaning you do a crime again,Like you get out of jail and you
repeat, you know, you goout and commit a crime again. We
have the fourth highest rate in thenation because violent criminals today in Colorado only
(11:58):
serve an average of forty six percentof their sentences. That's less than half
their sentences. So on average,there's about four hundred and forty nine offenders
per year that are sentenced to prisonthat are basically sentenced to twelve to twenty
four years in prison, and theyspend less than half of that in prison,
(12:18):
and they come out and they doit again. So that's an issue.
So Proposition one twelve is all aboutrequiring that they have to serve eighty
five percent of the sentence imposed beforethey're eligible for parole. I say,
that's a pretty good idea. Whatdo you think, Ryan, Well,
I think if you put a finepoint on it, I don't know where
(12:41):
we go from here with that.Well, I think that if someone commits
murder, then they should stay injail for at least eighty five percent of
the sentence. There's no reason theyshould get out before that. Now,
there is a cost to that,but I think the cost is much less
than letting society pay the p whenthat person hurts somebody else. And what
(13:01):
I meant by that is hearing Coloradowith the recidivism rate that you talk about
in the Return to Crime, whenyou have this kind of thinking and policy,
and this starts in the schools,right we talk about prison or school
to prison pipeline type of philosophy thatthey don't even want to punish students.
This was something that Dan actually workedon himself in an op ed for the
(13:22):
Denver Post when it looked like ourpublic schools were going to become like Lord
of the Flies with lawless zones wherethere wouldn't be enforcement for things like sexual
assault and so forth. And itreally was nipped in the bud when Dan
wrote that op ed. But it'sa mindset, right, and I think
as long as there's democratic leadership herein Colorado, this is where I really
(13:43):
I kind of want dark and Ilost hope is when John Kellner lost that
Attorney General's race against Phil Wiser,when there was a clear choice I think
to be made when Phil Wiser wascaught on videos saying, well, you
know, by the third or fourthor fifth car that you steal, ah,
then maybe we might, you know, start doing something about, like,
hoot, the first car that yousteal. And it's just this tolerance
(14:05):
for crime that I don't know ifthe if the left has just become kind
of accustomed to it, like thisis this is how we're going to live
now, and this is how it'sgoing to be, and we got to
think about the rights of criminals beforethe rights of victims. I think it's
so baked in Heidi to how weoperate here. It really scares me in
Colorado that that the crime level doesn'treally phase people enough. Let's say a
(14:28):
race like Congressional one Diana to getValdemar arch lettim my good friend President log
Cabin Republicans, with what's going on, that should be a much closer race.
Maybe it will be. I don'tknow, but I think a lot
of what he's encountering, who he'stalking to, they'd be open to it,
but they've just been so set intheir ways and predisposed. I'm sure
you ran into a lot of thisin your race that they haven't even thought
(14:50):
about considering an alternative that maybe there'sa different way to do things here,
and maybe it'd be a heck ofa lot better. They're just so committed.
And the other thing that gets meis there are people out there,
one who I know personally and quitewell, that it's a one issue voter,
like a woman for instance, thatI got to have the right to
choose, and I need, youknow, abortions at what if the world's
(15:11):
crumbling around us. What if crimeis just you know, sprawling throughout Denver.
What if we are at war overseas? What if inflation's off the charts.
What if our taxes and our burdenand the cost of living and rent
and groceries, et cetera. No, as long as I get to kill
babies, I'm voting Democrat, andthey have that right. In Colorado,
it's literally up until a baby's born. And I believe that amendment or that
(15:35):
ballot initiative is making it on thisfall also where that puts it into the
constitution here in Colorado that you cankill a baby up till birth. Is
that correct, Ryan, that you'reunderstanding it is? And I think what
that's going to help do. Unfortunatelyfor those of us who would like to
see Republicans do better in this cycle? Is drive the type of voter I
just talked about that might not otherwiseshow up because they're discouraged about Biden or
(15:56):
maybe even Harris, And this mightbe something that drives into the polls because
they feel that strongly about this particularissue. Did you hear about this big
zoom call they had last night forwhite women for Kamala oh Man. I
guess there were one hundred and thirtythousand women on and they raised a lot
of money. I just I couldn'tbelieve my eyes when I saw that.
(16:17):
Can you imagine Donald Trump having acall a zoom call like white women for
Trump? Well? No, butI think this feeds into again people that
are concerned with others perceptions of them. If you're called a racist, or
a homophobe or a sexist misogynist,does that bother you? And I think
(16:38):
there are more people on our sidethat have gotten so accustomed to having this
kind of in a language thrown atus that it rolls right off and a
doesn't bother. I still think itbothers a lot of people on the left.
And I'll go ahead and say itparticularly white suburban women. Because there's
a movie coming out it's called AmI Racist? By Matt Walsh day Weier.
What is the woman? Same guy? Now, it's a question and
(17:00):
he highlights he may have seen thiswhere this woman literally makes her living going
around to suburban, wealthy white womenand telling them that they're racist, and
the white women believe it. Idon't understand the mindset of that. I
can't obviously I'm not a woman tobegin with. But maybe you can help
explain what the mindset of a womanwould be that, Oh no, please
(17:22):
tell me I'm racist. I'm bad, I'm a bad person. You're right.
I do think the ballot initiatives weregoing to talk with Aaron Lee about
who's a mom who is personally herfamily was personally torn apart over this issue
when her daughter was headed to anart class, and it turned out to
be an approach to transition right thelittle girl. That issue boys playing in
(17:45):
girls sports and them transitioning our kidswithout telling parents those two issues, those
two ballot initiatives might just drive alot of people on the other side that
wouldn't normally show up for the abortiontalk to vote. Also, so let's
get those on the ballot. Let'stalk to Aaron about how to do that.
They've been working very hard to makethat happen, and honestly, it's
(18:11):
an important issue that I think mostpeople Democrat, Independent and Republican can agree
on if they think about the consequencesto their girls if boys are playing in
girls sports. This isciety and allon Dan Kaplis. We'll be back after
the break with Aaron Lee. You'relistening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
(18:33):
So then, if you're for overhauling, where do you stand on defund the
police? Look, I'm right,So here's the thing. Defund the police.
The issue behind it is that weneed to reimagine how we are creating
safety. And when you have manycities that have one third of their entire
(18:55):
city budget focused on policing, weknow that is not the smart way and
the best way or the right wayto achieve safety this society canal. Filling
in for Dan Kaplis, that wasKamala Harris, the presumed candidate for president
on the Democrats side, talking abouthow she's going to reimagine safety for us.
(19:18):
What a weird thing to say.How about just put bad guys in
jail and let's follow law and order. That's not a novel concept, but
anyway, a novel concept. I'vegot a friend of mine, Aaron lee
On, who is leading the chargeto protect our kids in Colorado and keep
them safe erin. Welcome to theshow. Hi HEIIGHTI thanks for having me,
(19:40):
of course, and Aaron, Iknow you are extremely busy right now
doing the final push for signatures onthis petition drive. Two different petitions,
one sixty to protect girls from biologicalmales playing in sports, and one two,
which is requiring public schools to tellparents if their child is experiencing incongruence.
(20:02):
So tell us a little bit abouthow you got into this battle.
I know your story well, butthe listeners may not. Yes, both
very common sense issues to which balladshould not be necessary, but it's our
story. Started in twenty twenty one, my daughter was lured into a secret
gender and sexuality club where she wasconvinced that her normal twelve year old pubescent
(20:23):
discomfort means she's actually a transgender boy. And she was told to keep it
a secret from us. And whenwe started to dig into how this happened,
we realized this is a very pervasiveissue, especially here in the state
of Colorado, that children are beingtransitioned at increased rates and parents are being
completely left in the dark. I'vetalked to hundreds of families since we went
(20:47):
public who have had very similar experiences, whose children have been transitioning secretly,
whose kids have been ultimately harmed bythis secrecy and by this ideology in our
schools. And so I worked witha mighty group of believers, including Senator
Kevin Lundberg Greg Lopez. We've broughtProtect Kids Colorado to life to fight back
(21:10):
against these issues in the state.You know, we have no pull in
the legislature. Our legislators are offthe rails. We can't even play defense
on bad bills, and so wetook matters into our own hands, and
we're utilizing the We the People processof ballot initiatives to put these issues before
Colorado voters, and we worded themin such a middle ground, common sense
(21:33):
way. You know that we wanteveryone to compete, but we want females
to have their single sex category protected. And you know, we're not dictating
what happens in classrooms, but ifyou transition a child, you must tell
their parents it's harmful not to.And so it's been really cool to see
the broad coalition of people who havecome behind what we're doing from every walk
(21:56):
of life, cultural background, religiousor not. After right, politically doesn't
matter. We all agree men aren'twomen and parents shouldn't be lied to you
by public schools. Boy, that'sthe truth. And I think it's going
to be challenging to go up againstthe Democrats on these two ballot initiatives.
They're kind of living and dying bythese two themes that you're approaching. So
(22:19):
how are you going to a getthis onto the ballot? We're heading into
the final week of signature collections totell people where they can go to sign
those and b how do we winonce it is on the ballot. Yes,
Protect Kids Colorado dot org. Youcan go to our events page.
We have dozens events all over thestate with opportunities to sign from the eastern
(22:41):
plans of the Western slope. Andlike you said, we've got about a
week left. We need one hundredand twenty five thousand signatures. We are
in all grassroots volunteer efforts. Contraryto attacks by the CEA and the PTA,
we are not funded by billionaires,in corporations. We are grassroots pair.
It's grandparents, where your neighbors were, your teachers, and we're just
(23:03):
trying to make Colorado a better place. So it's going to take a big
push here at the end. Becausewe didn't have our full six months to
gather signatures, we came up againstwhat I believe were completely illegal, unconstitutional
stonewalling by the Title Board, theSecretary of State, and the Attorney General.
They even said the word parent wastoo confusing for Colorado voters. Therefore
(23:26):
our parent Bill of Rights was notsingle subject. Oh that was their excuse.
And then we were challenged to theSupreme Court by outside interest groups and
NGOs, and so they really stalledour timeline. But I am so encouraged
by the thousands of volunteers so havecome out to help us get signatures.
And you know, like I said, the broad coalition from Democrats, Gaze
(23:48):
against Groomers, Independent Women Forum,the Feminists, the Turks have really come
out in support of this, theCatholic Church and now the support Letter,
and so it's so inspiring to justsee Colorados coming together on this issue,
even though we disagree on a lotof other things. To protect kids,
and strength and families in the state. It's so necessary right now, and
(24:11):
so logistically aerin. I've led acouple valid initiatives and it's changed a little
bit since I did that with PropHH and the Electoral College initiative. But
we need to get a certain numberof valid signatures from each is it a
district of the state. So wedid statutory initiative. We tried to run
constitutional initiatives that would require a percentagefrom all thirty five Senate districts. We
(24:36):
were only able to get a statutoryinitiative through, So it doesn't matter where
signatures come from. They can beanywhere in the state. Got it.
How many signatures do you need thatare valid? I know you have to
get a lot more so that youknow the good ones come through. Right
Well, they've legislated the process todeath, so there's no longer a curing
period, meaning when we turn inour signature if that's final, and they
(24:57):
will invalidate a percentage of So we'reshooting for two hundred thousand, one twenty
five is what we need for itto pass, and we're well on our
track to get there as long aswe push really hard. In final ten
days, so you have to turnthose in on August first, August fifth,
that's a Monday, and Protect KidsColorado will have a press conference August
(25:19):
fifth at noon at the Capitol wherewe will announce our projected numbers and our
future plans for Protect Kids Colorado.Because win or lose on these two ballot
issues, we didn't get everything throughthat we wanted to, and we're not
going anywhere. Our opposition has raisedalmost five hundred thousand dollars to oppose us
if this gets to the ballot.A lot of that is money from outside
(25:42):
the state of Colorado, and thatjust goes to show that they're intimidated by
what grassroots parents, grandparents, andconcerned citizens can pull off despite their attempts
to stall us. Aaron, I'mso grateful for all the work you've done
on this issue. You've been awarrior and talk about a mom on a
mission. How do your kids feelabout this? We've got a couple of
(26:04):
minutes left. Tell us how yourfamily's doing in this battle. Yeah,
well, our issue happened three yearsago with our daughter. It took about
a year to get her out ofthe gender confusion, and you know when
we did, she was relieved,and we watched What Is a Woman?
Together? And she said, Mom, why didn't I understand this was happening
to me? And how do Iprevent this from happening to other little girls?
(26:26):
And that's when I said, wetell your story, We get loud
to inform others. And she's reallybeen encouraged and touched by the amount of
people she's had reached out to herpersonally who have been just blessed by her
bravery to let us tell her story. And she's our inspiration for everything for
being involved in protect kids. AndI'm happy to say she's thriving. We
(26:48):
just picked up her driver's permit yesterday. She's in a great school, she
came back from camp. I mean, she's thriving. And my kids know
this is what mom does. Now. I'm a full time activists on these
issues. And they get to goon fun trips and we see the inside
of the Capitol and it's fun tohave them involved and see them see me
(27:10):
engage in my civic duty and hopefullythat inspires them when they grow up to
take a similar path. But it'syou know, they're my inspiration, and
they're all the kids of Colorado.Are everyone's inspiration for these issues. It's
a thing that unifies all of usthat we should be protecting the innocence and
well being of our children. Icouldn't agree more. As a fellow mom
(27:32):
on a mission, I will continueto support you however I can. I
believe there's lots of people in Coloradowho are very, very proud of the
work you're doing. Thanks Erin forjoining us. This is Heidi Ganal hosting
for Dan Kaplis. We'll be backafter the break and now back to the
Dan Kaplis Show podcast. Ah right, lover Boy one of my favorite bands
growing up. I grew up inthe eighties and I was a monument Lewis
(27:56):
Palmer high school kid. I hadthe high five. Yeah, I was
a rocker chick lover boys like rocker. I was more like Van Halen.
But absolutely who was your favorite bandin high school? Well, kind of
same era. But ACDC is myall time favorite. But to your point
on Van Halen, I always thinkof the wedding singer where his ex girlfriend's
(28:18):
wearing the shirt and take my shirtoff before you break up the band,
and then they break up of course. Oh that's a great movie. We've
been showing our kids some of theolder movies that are classics, like Sixteen
Candles and Weird Science, and theydon't think they're as funny as we did.
It's kind of sad to me.Well, now have you seen it
(28:41):
was on Hulu, the Andrew McCarthydocumentary about the Brat Pack No I would
love you got to? Do?You have Hulu? Yes? Look it
up. It's very fascinating because likeJudd Nelson and Molly Ringwald wouldn't talk to
him, Emilio Astaves did but veryreluctib oh, and he was able to
(29:02):
have a sit down with Ali Sheety, who I've always loved. I always
thought she's just a dear person,and she was very much as you would
to expect in this one. JohnCryer's in it. It's just for somebody
like us, you know, JenAxers that grew up with those movies.
It's interesting because Andrew McCarthy went intoit with the notion that the brat Pack
(29:22):
label really harmed his career, butsome of them it didn't, you know,
and they moved on and they wereable to succeed with it. And
to me, Moore was one ofthose. Yeah, that said, Hey,
I just didn't let it get tome. Basically, he's like,
wow, why didn't I think ofthat? So what happened to Anthony Michael
Hall? He was an amazing actor. He was in a very big feature
(29:42):
like you know, the nerd RelatableKid, and a couple of those movies
Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Hewasn't in this, I don't think,
but they quoted him. He hadsome comments about the whole thing. But
I just found it interesting that theyreally rattled them to be labeled that the
brat pack. Well boy, goodtimes, good times. Rob Low's in
(30:06):
it too, so I forgot tobury the lead there, and I knew
all the gen X ladies are goingto want to watch it. Yes,
of course he still looks pretty darngood. Oh he looks amazing. Don't
tell my husband that he probably Idon't know if he's listening enough. I
don't think your husband would mind losinga Rob Low. I know I'd be
like, oh I lost a rabbLow, No big deal. Okay.
(30:26):
We got some great comments. Myfavorite is that the Kamala laugh soundtrack or
track sounds like a soundtrack at ahaunted house. I think we should use
it for that. I think thatshould be an every haunted house in America.
On October thirty first, right beforethe election. Oh wow, Yeah,
we don't need the White House tobe that haunted house with her in
(30:47):
it as president now. Steven Lyttleton, a retired law enforcement officer, says
the anti hunting push is just anotherelement of the anti Second Amendment movement,
which is something Chris and I talkedabout, and Kamala Harri this is really
scary and that issue saying as soonas she's sworn in this is from twenty
twenty from a debate, but shedoesn't care what Congress is going to do
or not do. She's going toenact executive orders to enforce all these things
(31:10):
that she wants to do to us. What's great guard to guns? And
on the crime front, we talkedabout recidivism. All listener texted in my
comment is regarding the comment about Coloradohaving one of the highest rates and incarcerated
individuals not filling more than half theirsentences. What people need to understand is
(31:30):
the primary reason why it's so high. The recidivism rate is so high is
due to the Colorado Department of Correctionsfailing to provide a sufficient number of programs
and work opportunities to help those individualsbe reformed and prepare them to successfully transition
back into society. The Department ofCorrections is very broken staffing and training for
(31:51):
correction officers and lack of programs forinmates that can certainly be part of it.
I don't agree that that's the wholething. I think that if somebody
hurts someone and gets a sentence,they should serve eighty five percent of that
sense. I don't think that's askingtoo much with this ballad in a ship
that's coming through. Finally, liberalssay they don't want parents to know if
(32:15):
their child is transitioning to keep thekids safe. So should parents not be
allowed to see their kids' grades forthe same reason. That's a good point,
very good point. And finally,on the Colorida Republican Party, I
haven't seen any updates on whether themeeting is on or off tomorrow, but
this listener says the liberal Cholera SupremeCourt will uphold the ruling by the lower
(32:38):
court to keep the turmoil alive inthe Republican Party here. I wouldn't rule
that out. That sounds like aconspiracy theory, but not so much.
I wanted to. One of thelast things I want to do is read
the quote by Lauren Bobert about what'shappening in the Colorado GP. She came
out pretty strong. She has She'sbeen kind of quiet about this, but
in her tweet she says, thisisn't about competing policies or ideologies. This
(33:01):
is about a failure from Chairman Williamsto lead after our primary election and simply
reach out to candidates and organizations throughoutColorado and beyond to offer support men bridges
and present a clear game plan ofhow we can win together in November.
And a change in leadership at theColorado GOP just one hundred days out from
election day is going to be disruptiveand damaging. But Chairman Williams has put
(33:24):
himself in this situation. What doyou think of that right now? Put
us all in this situation, rightyep? And I was surprised and actually
a little bit encouraged that Lauren cameout and said something. You know,
her voice is about as strong asa Republican voice as there is in Colorado
right now, and the party isin turmoil there's all kinds of this in
(33:45):
fighting. It's counterintuitive to winning.And I'm just glad you conducted all those
interviews on Tuesday, Hiday. I'vegotten a lot of reaction to those that
you know, Hope came on thisprogram. He had the opposing side as
well. Yeah, and it wasa little discouraging about where the party is
financially and where they are with helpingcandidates and races. So, you know,
I think candidates just have to keeptheir nose to the grindstone, do
(34:07):
the basic blocking and tackling, whichis reaching out to voters and getting your
message out there. We're trying tohelp with that with Rocky Mountain Voice.
Encourage everybody to go subscribe so theycan keep listening to my take on things.
But Ryan, thank you so muchfor having me this week. It
was great fun. Yeah, thankyou and grateful to Dan. He has
a wonderful audience and I'm one ofthose people that listens in to your show
(34:30):
and Dan's show. So everyone havea great Friday. I'm headed off to
my fifteen year old's twenty kid partyat my house tonight. Wish me luck
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