Rod Arquette Show - Case Lawrence. Utah's 3rd Dist. Congressional Canidate; Debate Dust Up w/ Trent Staggs

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown – Tuesday, June 11, 2024

4:20 pm: Craig Shirley, author and historian, joins Rod to discuss his piece for Fox News about the reasons New York, a traditionally Democratic stronghold, could be ripe for the picking by Donald Trump in the upcoming election.

4:38 pm: We will continue this week’s conversations with GOP candidates for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District seat with Case Lawrence

5:05 pm: Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, a current candidate for United States Senate, accused current Congressman and fellow senate candidate John Curtis of insider trading at the tail-end of a debate last night and he joins Rod to discuss his reasons for making the accusation.

6:05 pm: Kim Russell, former Women’s Lacrosse Coach at Oberlin College and now an ambassador with the Independent Women’s Forum, joins the show to discuss the group’s “Take Back Title IX Bus Tour” which made a stop in Salt Lake City today.

6:20 pm: Mona Zhang, States Cannabis Reporter for Politico Pro joins Rod to discuss her recent piece about the failing weed market in Colorado.

6:38 pm: Senator Mike Lee joins Rod for their weekly conversation about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. politics, and today they’ll discuss Hunter Biden being found guilty in his federal gun trial, as well as the Rolling Stone piece about Justice Samuel Alito.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It is the Rod Urcentchow right hereon Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine
can arrests if you want to bea part of the program today eight eight
eight five seven eight zero one zero, or on your cell phone to al
pound two fifty and simply say hey, Rod and oh did the sparks fly
last night? Right at the tailend of the Utah Debate Commission debate on

(00:22):
the candidates in the senatorial race,that's the race to replace Mitt Romney,
Trent Staggs, mayor of Riverton,and his closing remarks talked about some inside
trading that may be going on involvingJohn Curtis. John Curtis very offended by
that, and he grabbed as muchtime as he could right at the end

(00:45):
of the debate. This came duringclosing remarks, and the time is tied
down those debates. I know Imoderated one yesterday, but that really created
a quite a dust up between JohnCurtis and Trends Stags. Trend Stags will
join us coming up at five ohfive to explain why he did that,
and we'll get the story behind that. So that's just many things. We

(01:06):
have. Mike Lee joining us andyes, by the way, a little
bit later on, we've got ticketsto see Tucker Carlson, who will be
joined by Glenn Beck in his nationwidetour. He'll be a Delta Center on
September seventh. We've got a pairof tickets to give away for that.
We've also got four tickets to giveaway for Lagoon, so you can take
the Big Guy to Lagoon this Sundayif you want. So. We've got

(01:29):
a lot to get to today,but I want to start off today and
I want to bring e Ray onthe show with me. As Abbi mentioned
in her newscats just a moment ago, Steve Kloukey, long time play by
play broadcaster for the Salt Lake Beads, died this morning from injury suffered in
a auto pedestrian accident that happened lastnight. Apparently he was in a crosswalk.

(01:51):
Someone took her right hand turn,from what I understand, and hit
Steve, and Steve was immediately rushedto emergency. He was there and alive
through this morning and he passed awaythis morning. And you know, in
the broadcast family, well we compete, and we compete fiercely at times.
We also respect each other and thetalents they bring to the broadcast industry,

(02:13):
and Steve certainly did that. Iwanted to bring on E Ray for a
few minutes. I Ray, Iknow you were a longtime friend of Clockkey's
your thoughts on Steve Cloke and thetype of guy he was, You know,
Steve. I worked with Steve fromthe time I graduated college, through
my first six years in broadcasting,through my first couple of internships, and

(02:36):
then lucky enough to get a jobas a producer on the show that he
was on at the time with DaveBlackwell and Ron Boone way back in the
day at Sports Radio five seventy andI produced that show there for about a
year before we all moved on toanother network, another radio station when the
Jazz moved their broadcast contract, andI worked with him there for another five

(02:59):
or six years. Just just saltof the earth. And he's probably one
of the nicest people that anyone wouldever want to meet, you know,
excuse me, you know as wellas I do Rod. In this business,
it's full of egos and and sometimesthose can be challenging. But Steve
was not that he was everything,but that everything that you know, you

(03:21):
would think that, you know,a great family man, you know,
just a super nice guy. Waswilling to share his knowledge, willing to
help whenever someone needed it, youknow, whether it be jumping on the
air to talk about the Bees onthe on the very last second, or
the jazz at that point he wasdoing the jazz pregame shows, and and
uh, you know, never hada bad word to say about anybody.

(03:44):
Was always very quick with a punand just always had a smile for everyone.
And now even after I quit workingin sports radio, you know,
I would go to games and givehim a send him a text message or
a phone call and say, hey, I'm at the ballpark and he would
always say, you we got tocome up to the booth. So I
know I would venture up there andsit in with him for a couple of
innings and just we would talk betweeninnings and just you know, I'm going

(04:04):
to miss him. He's a supernice man. I know, major league
or minor league baseball, and Stevecalled the Bees and that's minor league baseball.
You see, these young players wereall coming up hoping to make it
someday to the big the major leagues. Did he enjoy reporting and broadcasting those
young players as they tried to maketheir way up to the major leagues.

(04:25):
Oh, he absolutely did, andhe loved he loved telling the stories about
them on the air. You know, once they had moved on from the
Bees and either went to the tothe big leagues or to other teams,
you know, he would talk abouthis experiences with them. He would also
talk about his experiences with big leagueplayers who would come through and on rehab
assignments or what have you, withthe Bees or with other teams in the

(04:46):
Pacific Coast League. And then,I mean baseball was a passion for him.
I mean you walked into his booth, it looked completely disorganized in like
a train wreck, because he hadI think media guides going back five or
ten years for every major league team, every minor league team, every team
you could think of. But heseemed to know where everything was in that

(05:06):
booth because if you needed if youneeded a piece of information, he knew
exactly where to go to find itin that booth. But but yeah,
he and he loved telling those stories. And and you know, I get
the feeling that the players liked himtoo, because there's a lot of times
when when guys would come through,whether they had alumni knights or anything like

(05:27):
that, and they would always makea point to come say hi to Steve.
So you know, clearly he madean impact on them as well.
See, let me ask you,I Ray, a lot of the broadcast
teams have color commentators with them,someone to bounce things off. Did Steve
always have that or did he dosome of the broadcasts by himself? Not
think of a challenge? Was thatwe actually he actually never had that minor
league brails. Well, I meanoccasionally, you know, he would have

(05:48):
guests come in student you know,guests come into the booth with him,
you know. Well, like Isaid, when when X major leaguers were
in town, or if someone wasthere to promote something, they would come
on. But now for the mostpart, uh, he was there in
the booth by himself, I cantell you. And that always was always
fun because you know, I hada chance to when I first started to

(06:09):
produce as some of those games andwe would you know, those PCL games
back in the day were long games. It would be four four and a
half hour broadcast sometimes and you knowwhen we would start West Coast games,
they'd start at eight o'clock, Sowe're looking at midnight or twelve thirty sometimes
before we would go off the air, and uh, you know, calling
games every day for six months,you get a little punch drunk sometimes,

(06:31):
and especially on those those late nightgames and and those I mean, I
won't I won't share some of thosestories, but we had some really funny
conversations off the air some of thoseevenings in commercial breaks, and I always
got I always tried to when we'dcome back from break. I would crack
a joke or say something funny asI brought his mic on, and you
could always tell he was chuckling andtrying not to as he as he came

(06:55):
back onto the air. So,yeah, those those would be the memories
I have of of working with Steve. Was he a walking encyclopedia? Does
he have statistics just right off thetop of his head? Yeah, I
mean he was one of those guysthat certainly loved the stats, and he
would he would come up with thosethings. But you know what he loved
Morton's stats was puns. He wouldcome up with, Oh my gosh,
you could say something and he wouldcome up with and not just the cliche

(07:19):
ones. He would come up withnew ones off the top of his head,
and you would just look at himand shake your head, like,
I where did you come up with? That's just that's just the person he
was. But uh, you know, like I said, great family man.
I really feel for his wife,Sue, and his son. Adam
has been the the equipment manager forthe Jazz now for all I want to

(07:39):
say, five or six years running, and uh, you know, I
know he was real proud of whatwhat Adam was able to accomplish through school
and becoming that equipment manager there,and and you know his other his daughters
has had some success and successes aswell going through college. So I know
he was very proud of him.And I think he was really looking forward
to spending a lot of time withhis wife in retirement because, I you

(08:01):
know, being doing the job hewas doing, especially in minor league baseball,
he was not home for a goodchunk of the year every year,
So I know that's one thing hewas looking forward to, was was being
home and spending more time with hisfamily. So you know that's what makes
this whole thing even that just morethat much more tragic. Yeah, Well,
e Rays, thanks for sharing yourthoughts and we feel your loss today.

(08:24):
Steve Cloutkey, long time broadcaster Saltlike Bees, well known in the
broadcast industry here in this area,died to day of injury suffered in an
auto pedestrian accident. All right,more coming up right here on the rod
Arcuatchow in Utah's Talk Radio one ohfive nine K and R. As Donald
Trump, I don't, I'm not. I'm not sure if Donald Trump has

(08:45):
any fear to be real honest becauseDonald Trump, during his trial in New
York on the hush money trial,the falsification of business records, took some
time to talk to people in Manhattanand blacks in New York City, and
it was very similar to Ronald Reagan'sNew York strategy. And joining us on

(09:07):
our Newsmaker line to talk about thatis my next guest. Always great to
have this gentleman on the show.His name is Craig Shirley. He's an
author and historian. I think he'swritten about six or seven books on the
Ronald Reagan. Greg. Always greatto have you on the back on the
show. Thanks for joining us tonight, Greg, Thank you, ron thank
you, thank you. I'm well, Thank you. Thank you. How
are you? I'm well, whatdo you think of Donald Trump's strategy when

(09:31):
it comes to trying to take onManhattan. He's very smart, very smart.
There's no downside to it, becausehe is he's embarrassing Biden. He's
on offense, he's on you know, Reagan's old campaign manager, John Sears
once told me he says politics ismotion, and nobody is a study in
motion better than Donald Trump. He'sconstantly giving speeches to crowds, he's constantly

(09:56):
making proclamations, he's constantly making statements, and of course Biden is you know,
frozen in time. And so thisis very very good for Donald Trump.
It's not only good for New YorkState, but it's good for suburban
moderate voters to say, Okay,this is an interesting guy. This is
a guy I could vote for,because this is the guy who's reaching out
to non traditional Republican constituencies trying toget their vote, so I can I'll

(10:22):
take a second look at him.It's all, it's all, there's all
upside, there's no downside him doingit. Ronald Reagan wanted to expand,
as you were right about, hewanted to expand the mat to achieve really
a mandate for the American people.Is Donald Trump doing the same thing.
He's trying to do the same thing. You know, Reagan and eighty carried

(10:43):
forty three, forty four states againstJimmy Carter and then, of course we
know all know in forty nine statesand probably would have carried Minnesota too if
they hadn't voted graveyards there. Buthe wanted to you know, he was
reaching out to non traditional Republicans.He was reaching out to blue collar and

(11:03):
ethnic Democrats, just the way DonaldTrump is doing now. Uh So,
it's it's a very smart strategy,a very offensive strategy. And as I
said recently I was on doing aFox interview, I said that it's not
only causing Biden a lot of sleeplessnights, it's causing him a lot of
Napolis afternoons too. That's a goodline. I may steal that one,

(11:24):
by the way, Craig very muchmuch. You bet have this appeal that
Reagan really reached across party lines isvery similar to what Donald Trump is doing
right now, isn't it, Craig? Yeah, yeah, Well both were
both of the most Democrats. Now, Reagan was a different kind of Democrat.
He grew up in the Great Depression, but he you know, he

(11:46):
grew up in a parish perspective.His father had been Catholic, and although
he chose his mother's religion, theDisciples of Christ, he still had a
Catholic orientation. So he grew grewup and as an adult he did didn't
use the Protestant pronouns I, meor my. He instead used we,
us and ours. And he actuallytalked like a Democrat, like John Kennedy.

(12:09):
In fact, uh he got oncegot a letter from JFK Jr.
Saying, well, they say you'retalking, you talk like my father,
but so please go on doing it. So Reagan was a different kind of
Republican, just as Trump is alsoa different type of Republican. He's he's
reaching out to you know. It'sit's interesting because the elites despised Ronald Reagan,

(12:31):
the rich, the country club,East Coast elites, and they were
cliches. I mean, they exist, and those are the same people who
also despised Donald Trump. Is thatthe elites and the Lincoln Club and all
that they despised, and they despisedDonald Trump. But he's appealing to the
vast swath of Middle America, justas Ronald Reagan did. They're two different

(12:54):
men. They're two different men,There's no doubt about it. They have
two different they have different characters,they have different personalities. I'm not making
any comparison like that whatsoever. ButI am saying is that strategically, as
far as the running their campaigns andas far as the issue clusters, you
know, strong national defense, taxcuts, you know, more power for
the individual, federalism, pro life, all those issues, the issues that

(13:18):
Reagan brought to the Republican Party innineteen eighty Donald Trump is now running on
in twenty twenty four. Craig,before I let you go, I am
going to ask you make a comparisonbetween Biden's speech and Normandy last week and
the famous speech Ronald Reagan gave fouryears ago. Is there you're laughing?
Is there any comparison, Craig,I would say, I would say this

(13:43):
is that Ronald Reagan's speech was onefor the ages. Joe Biden's speech was
one for the minutes. That bad. Huh. It was kind of Look,
it was petty, it was partisan, and he got into domestic politics.
He was pandering Reagan you know,you look at Reagan's speech today forty

(14:03):
years later, and it was majestic. It was soaring, it was melodic,
it was it was uplifting, itwas you can't watch it without you
know, getting emotional, getting youknow, getting choked up, getting a
cheer in your eye or something.Even today, forty years later, Joe
Biden will never elicit those emotions whatsoever, because Joe Biden is not is not

(14:24):
the politician run and Reagan, well, I wan't say that he was,
he's not the leader. You know, I'll say this one before I go,
is that in nineteen eighty there wasa saying going around around politics that
if you asked Jimmy Carter what timeit was, he'd tell you how to
build a watch. And if youask Ronald Reagan what time it was,
he'd tell you it's time because thiscountry moving again. And that's the difference

(14:46):
between a politician and a leader.A leader talks about big important issues and
not about scheduling, you know,time on the White House tennis court the
way Jimmy Carter used to, Yeah, envision, that's what it's all about.
Craig is always great chatting with you. Thank you very much for joining
us. Always great to have youon the show. Thanks Rereg. I

(15:07):
know we'll be talking again. Thanks, Thank you, Take care. All
right on our newsmaker line, that'sCraig Shirley and author, a commentator.
Always great to have him on theshow. He has written six or seven
books. I think about Ronald Reagan, they knows them very well and comparing
what Trump is trying to do inreaching across all party lines to get Americans

(15:28):
behind his message that we can makeAmerica great again. All right, We're
going to continue with our live broadcastfrom Minky Cotur right here on Utah's Talk
Radio one oh five to nine.Knrs Well, fireworks kind of erupted last
night during the debate involving the candidatesfor the Utah Senate, Trent Staggs and
John Curtis kind of went at eachother a little bit. We'll talk with

(15:50):
Trent Staggs coming up in five ohfive. But over the past couple of
weeks and again today, we aregiving you a chance to hear from the
candidates in various races around the state. The state wide races, the governor's
race, the race for the Senate, the congressional races as well, and
the attorney General's race. And rightnow we're focusing on Utah's third congressional district.

(16:10):
A lot of candidates vying for thatpost and that primary coming up on
June twenty fifth. And joining usnow is Kate Lawrence. Kse is a
candidate in the third Congressional district onour Newsmaker line right now, Kate,
how are you welcome to the rodArqueco. Thanks for joining us today,
Rod Thanks for having me. Kate. Let's talk about who you are a
lot of people may not have heardthe name Kate Lawrence. I know you're

(16:33):
a very successful businessman. Tell ourlisteners who you are and why you decided
to get into this race. Yeah, thank you. I'm a political outsider
for sure. This is my firstrun at political office. I'm an entrepreneur
who built a global business with overfive thousand employees here in Utah, actually
right here in Provo, Utah,and I have taught and mentored thousands of

(16:59):
students and young entrepreneurs at BYU BusinessSchool where I teach. And now I
am getting off the sidelines to runfor Congress because I'm concerned for our country.
Kate, what enticed you to getinto a politics. What was it
about it? Is that, youknow, I think I need to get
into this race. I believe thatmy particular experience is the right fit for

(17:26):
what we need at this time inthis particular role. Look, I don't
believe in politics as a career.I don't think that's what our founding fathers
intended. I think they wanted peopleto go out and gain wisdom, gain
experience, and then indue season tocome back and give back through elected office.
And that's the spirit of my candidacy. I have found myself throughout my

(17:48):
career on the front lines of everymajor economic crisis of our generation, both
the Great Recession and even the COVIDlockdowns. And in both cases I've been
able to solve problems and come throughstanding up. And that's the kind of
experience that I bring to the tableand I think I can offer at this
unique time in our country and inCongress. I know how to work with

(18:12):
other people to get things done,and that's the most important thing case.
A lot of people have described thisas a anti incumbent campaign this year.
A lot of people are upset withWashington trying to get things done you have
got a lot of opponents in thisprimary. Of course, this is probably
the most crowded of the fields rightnow. What are you doing to try

(18:33):
and separate yourself from the other candidatesin this race? Yeah, that's a
great question. And let me startby saying, there are a lot of
good, good people, good candidatesin this race that I have great respect
for. I've enjoyed getting to knowthrough this process. I think the thing
that separates us really is biography andsome of the points that I just made,
I think we need in Congress currently. We need some leadership in our

(18:56):
own Republican caucus. We've seen toomuch drama, too much grandstanding efforts to
ex communicate our own speaker back there. We need to send serious people there
who've actually accomplished things in the realworld one so that they'll have credibility in
that caucus. And that's what I'vedone. I've been a leader out in
the real world, and I havereal life experience that I can take back

(19:19):
there and some fresh thinking because Ihaven't been in political office. I'm an
outsider coming in with disruptive ideas forwhat we can do to make a difference
back in Washington. DC case beingan outsider, They're going to people who
are there. There are going tobe people who say, you really nanda
understand how things work back here inWashington for you to get anything done?

(19:41):
How important is that? Or isdo you do you like the idea of
just coming in with a fresh look, never having to experience that and bring
some different ideas to the discussion.Look, I think everyone who goes back
to Congress is in for quite aninitiation and probably quite a a learning curve.

(20:02):
I don't doubt that. But myexperience in business and in just about
everything that people are successful at atthe real world is that disruptive fresh thinking
is usually a good thing for justabout any institution and any role, And
I think that's true here. I'mgoing to bring that fresh thinking. I'm
going to bring a track record inmy life of working my guts out to

(20:26):
serve the people of Utah. I'mgonna I've got a work ethic, I've
got a determination to be successful backthere for Utah, and That's what I'm
gonna do. OK. A litmustest for a lot of Republicans, of
course, now, is support forDonald Trump. Where do you stand on
supporting President Trump. What do youlike about him? Maybe? What don't
you like about him? Yeah?No, that's a great question, and

(20:48):
you're right. I get it alot here on the trail, and I
take a very pragmatic approach to it. Rod. Look, I don't support
or endorse Donald Trump's personal behavior,nor frankly, many of his antics or
leadership traits. But he's our Republicannominee, and as such, I think
we now need to unite and supporthim. I could have easily supported DeSantis

(21:12):
or Haley if they had prevailed asthe nominee, but they didn't. It's
Trump, and so the time hascome for us to unite. Look,
I'm an independent and strong enough leaderthat I will call him out when his
behavior is inappropriate or he does thingsI don't agree with. But that also
doesn't mean I can't work with himin lockstep for ninety percent of the things

(21:32):
that we totally agree on, especiallymostly policy. You know, Rod,
for the first time since eighteen ninetytwo, both presidential candidates have a track
record of an administration behind them.Both of them have four years, and
so we can hold those both upand compare and contrast, and I don't
think there's any question that the fouryears under Trump were better for this country

(21:56):
and that we cannot afford another fouryears of Joe Biden, and frankly,
to be honest, it's probably anothersix months of Joe Biden in three and
a half years of Kamala Harris.We have got to unite as Republicans and
win. Let me ask you,Kate. For people who want to find
out about who you are and moreon your stands and where you stand in
various policies, where should they go? Case best place would be my website,

(22:18):
Case Lawrence dot com, and Ihope they do. Kate's great to
have you on the show. Goodluck with the campaign and the primary coming
up two weeks from today. Asa matter of fact, good luck to
you, Rod, Thanks for havingme, all right, Kate Lawrence.
He is one of the candidates forUtah's third congressional district seat, replacing John
Curtis, who has moved up andtrying to get a seat in the US

(22:41):
Center. All Right, more comingup here on the Rodarcutcho and Utah's Talk
Radio one oh five nine kN arrestsquicklue story. We got time. Yeah,
We've got a few minutes before weneed to break. I wanted to
bring this story up. If Ican find this, I love this story.
I can't. A popular ice creamchain is facing a lawsuit, apparently
over deceptive advertising, after a womanin Long Island discovered that Stone Cold Creamery

(23:10):
and their pistachio ice cream does notcontain any pistachios, so she's suing them.
It makes it's like hot coffee ofMcDonald's, remember remember that story.
Years ago? Jenna Marie Duncan ofFarmington, New York, filed a suit
against Cold Stone Creamery, saying shepurchased pistachio ice cream from a location in

(23:32):
Levittown, New York, back inJuly of twenty twenty two, and reasonally
believed that the pistachio ice cream shepurchased from the defendant actually contained pistachios.
However, Duncan later learned on thecompany's website that there were no pistachios in
pistachio ice cream, but rather pistachioflavoring that consisted of water, ethanol,

(23:57):
and all kinds of other products.At document of ice cream ingredients found on
Goldstone's website shows that pistachio ice creamcontains pistachio flavoring. Obviously, she didn't
read it and felt that there shouldhave been some pistachios in pistachio ice cream.
Therefore she's filing suit against the company. They will do anything, and

(24:21):
this is a brilliant idea. You'reready for this one. Only in San
Francisco. That's right, in SanFrancisco. Crime written in San Francisco is
now setting up a food empowerment market. What that means is you can go
to the store and get free taxpayerfunded groceries and no cost to you.

(24:41):
Makes a lot of sense to me. Tuesday press release announced that the grand
opening of the Community Market. Itis a four thousand square foot store.
It's part of a pilot program providingfree, multicultural, healthy groceries to residents
of that area. So if you'rein that area experiencing food insecurity, you'll

(25:06):
be able to go to that communitystore and get your groceries absolutely free.
Not a bad idea. Now,as we've been mentioning, the race for
the Republican nomination in the US Senaterace here in the state of Utah is
underway, of course, is toreplace Romney. Now, during a debate

(25:26):
with the Utah Debate Commission last night. There were some sparks starting to fly
when Republican Trends Staggs, who isthe mayor of Riverton, said this in
his closing remarks. See ray.I think I've got that audio there.
Let's play the last couple of minutesof that debate last night, and then
we'll talk with Trends Stags. Here'smister Saggs. You have the final minute.

(25:48):
Mister Saggs, you have the finalminute. You know. On March
fourth of twenty twenty, Abbott Laboratorieswas awarded a federal grant. On that
same day, John Curtis purchased stockin that com This is the problem in
Congress. At a time when somebodyshould be looking out for their constituents,
they end up looking out for theirown profit. That's why I've signed a

(26:10):
contract with Utah. I want toban the trading of individual stocks for members
of Congress and their families. Iwant to also stop members of Congress from
retiring and becoming lobbyists and enriching themselvesfurther. This is the problem that we
have. And you know what,I've stood up to the establishment time and
time again. I've done it throughoutmy entire career, as I challenged Mitt

(26:30):
Romney, willing to primary him inthis election. I've now received the endorsements
of so many national Conservatives, toinclude Senator Ran Paul and also President Trump.
I have that coalition of people Ican go back and work with day
one that will go ahead and representUtah and further its interest more than anybody

(26:51):
else here on their stage. Youwill have to wrap it up on that
note. I'm sorry you're out oftime. Respond to the real quick as
fast as possible. That is sucha little shot. You wait till I
have no response. You throw somethingout I can't respond to. You've accused
me of a felony here tonight.You better have very good evidence, and
I'd like to challenge you to producethat evidence that somehow I've committed a felony.
And if that's how you're going towork in Senate, the people Utah

(27:12):
would be very disappointed. Gentlemen,we are out of time. Yeah,
that's how that debate ended last night. Well, joining us on our Newsmaker
line to fill us in on whathappened last night is Trent Stagged, mayor
of Wirverton and a candidate for theUS Senate, Trent, how are you?
And welcome back to the rod Arcutcho. Thanks for joining us, Trent,
Rod, good to be with you. All right. A lot of

(27:33):
people are saying it was a cheapshot, it was a dirty act on
your part to wait till the lastminute to do this. What is your
response to that, Trent? Now, look, that's we have four people
in that debate, Rod, andit was highly structured. I didn't really
care for it, honestly. Therewas a lot of opportunity for back and
forth, and so it really wasthe only opportunity that I had to call

(27:56):
out an issue that I thought reallydifferentiated myself from you know, John Curtis
in this race. It's nothing new. I've been out there since October of
twenty three of my contract at UTAHseven points. The number one point is
I've been saying I want to banthe trading of individual stocks for members of
Congress. What I sated was factualthat happened, and I wasn't accusing him

(28:19):
of a felony. It's interesting tome that John Curtis would have straight away
gone to that and tried to putwords in my mouth. And you know,
if he thinks what he did,which actually happened, that Abbot Laboratories
was given an FDA grant to comeout with the fastest dreamline process for COVID
nineteen tests on that same day hebuys stock. If he thinks that's a

(28:41):
flonious act, then you know,I think he's got a little bit of
soul searching to do. Right.He said, you show me evidence that
this has happened. Do you havethat evidence to show that it is that
it did in fact happen. Well, yes, I mean it's and I've
cited that evidence to many media sources. And that's the frustrating part. I
mean, I've had I've had otheroutlets that have accused me of taking a

(29:07):
cheap shot, of committing or accusinghim of committing a felony, none of
which I did. I mean,if you listen to that statement, I
just stated the factual record on thisday this happened, and he also bought
stock in the same company that Ithink has a really poor appearance. That's
why I want to go ahead andban the trading of stocks for members of

(29:30):
Congress. I don't think they shouldbe profiteering on any any information, whether
it's publicly available. Is something thatis debatable, but I don't think that
that's a good idea. It's nota good practice. And you have Congressman
Curtis. There's all kinds of informationthat people can search and find evidence to
the fact that he has outperformed theS and P five hundred and his own

(29:52):
trading stock portfolio year after year.I think every year he's been a member
of Congress, he's in the toptwenty five trader. Many years he's in
the top few. And you know, if he's such a great trader,
then I think he had to stickto trading. And that was the point
that I was trying to call out. That information is there and it's available,
and I think if the media theycould easily fact check that information.

(30:18):
There have been a numerous numerous storieswritten on it. One from the Salt
Lake Tribune, one from the DailyCaller, many other sources that I've been
able to divide the media. Soit is most definitely something that happened,
and he's even admitted to the fact, and in that interview with the Tribune,
Well, I want to bring thatup with the Tribune because there is
a Daily Caller story out about thisout there today, showing a number of

(30:41):
examples where John Curtis allegedly benefited fromthe inside your training. And he told
the Salt Lake Tribune in early twentytwenty that the stocks purchased in Abbott Laboratories
and Blackrock were done without his priorknowledge by a mutual fund manager. How
would you respond to that trend,Well, it's like saying, I'm the

(31:02):
CEO of a company and I didn'tknow that things were happening. At the
end of the day, this ishis is his stock portfolio. He's got
a record of trading consistently stocks wherehe's outperformed the S and P five hundred
and I mean even out performing WarrenBuffett, I think in some years.
And so that to me is againproblematic. I don't think that members of

(31:26):
Congress should be able to trade individualstocks. I mean, I know that
there are members of Congress that havelegislation put forward. They want to have
this, they want to have thisband I mean Congress from Matt Gates when
he's out here campaigning for me,has something as well. And he used
a great analogy. He says,Look, we don't allow referees to bet
on the ballgame. Why do weallow members of Congress to trade individual stocks.

(31:49):
You know, they may it maybe deemed even as public information,
but these folks have access to thingsreally that most of us in the general
public, we're going to find outmuch much later, even though it might
be deemed public information. With whatJohn Curtis has done in regard to this,

(32:12):
if you go back to twenty twelveTrent, the Stock Act prohibits members
of Congress from using non public informationderived from their official positions for personal benefit
or for other purposes. Do youthink he violated the Stock Act of twenty
twelve with what he did with Abbotlaboratories. Look, I the twenty twelve

(32:36):
Act is you have to just disclosetrades. And you know, either way
this in this event, I mean, he's profiting from the COVID nineteen.
There's information, there's things that hehad access to, and he was trading
stocks at a time when constituents whereall of us were going through COVID nineteen.

(32:59):
So rather than folks seen on hisconstituents, he was focusing on profiteering
from trading stops. And I justthink that that's not the focus, that's
not the point the intent of publicservice, that we should just be focused
on working on on that and andnot and and and just that that is

(33:23):
the point that we need to beable to have people of that are going
to represent their constituents first and foremostand not not trading. What a question
for you, Trent. You mentioned, of course you've brought this up during
the campaign. Why haven't the othercandidates brought this up, because obviously you

(33:45):
feel this is an important issue toyour constituents and the voters here in the
state of Utah. Why hasn't thiscome up by the other candidates. Well,
I've been on the campaign trail fora year, and you know,
I've heard I've heard other candidates speakabout this issue. It's a pretty prevalent
issue. There's been a lot ofconversations about it. As I stated,

(34:06):
Congressman Matt Gates is legislation he's putforth that doesn't want to allow people to
trade individual stocks. Senator Howley onthe Senate side is done the same.
So it's been a subject of conversationthat's been out there, you know,
And that's that's the point. I'mnot accusing anybody of insider trading. I
mean insider trading is illegal, whetheryou do it as a congress person or

(34:28):
as an individual. You know,the point here is that we need to
be able to have our members ofCongress focus on on representing their constituents.
And that is that is the goalthe intent of you know this uh and
and why I passed or I pledgedthis contract with Utah that I want to

(34:49):
ban the training of individual stocks frommembers of Congress and our family. Trent,
we appreciate a few minutes of yourtime. Thank you. I know
you've got a couple of weeks togo before the campaign. Good luck on
the rest of the way. ThanksTrent, Thank you so much. All
right, that is trend Stags.He is the mayor of Erverton, also
a candidate for the US Senate.And when we come back, I want
to open up the phones to youand get your reaction to what happened last

(35:13):
night and the concern that trends Stagsraised about Congressman having some information on stocks
and on companies that could be benefitingfrom either a government contract or a new
discovery that could be approved by thefederal government. And if he is making
a point here eight eight eight fiveseven eight zero one zero triple eight five
seven eight zero one zero, oron your cell phone dial pound two fifty

(35:36):
and say hey Rod. Trends Tagscaused quite a bit of a dust up,
we could say, during the debatelast night between the four candidates for
the US Senate seat here in thestate of Utah that has been vacated by
Mitt Romney. In his closing remarks, trends Tags raised some questions about John
Curtis. Basically said that back inMarch of twenty twenty, Abbott Lebert Tories

(36:00):
was a awarded a federal grant.On that same day, Trendstag says John
Curtis purchased stock in the company,and he said, this is a problem
in Congress at the time when somebodyshould be looking out for their constituents,
I'm courting stags here. They endup looking out for their own profit.
Now, a lot of people areraising questions about why Trendstags waited till the

(36:22):
last minute to bring that up,but also that issue now. Curtis responded
quickly and said, you're accusing meof a felony. Show me proof.
Well, there's a story today inthe Daily Caller outline. Some of John
Curtis's training activities. Was trendstags rightin bringing this up? And are you
concerned about it? Let's go tothe phones and talk with Don and Draper

(36:45):
tonight here on the Rod arquetcho Don, how are you? Thanks for joining
us? This is fine, ThanksRod, thanks for taking my call.
First of all, on the debate. The debate that was not a debate,
that's all I heard. There's fourpeople up there given a morning until
the skag's come up with the thingabout us. Curtis, he was one

(37:07):
hundred percent right in bringing that up. Curtis was wrong by making a cheap
shot by Colin Skeggs that he wasa felony. That is wrong. Curtis
was wrong by that debate. Iam definitely going to vote for for Shaggs
because he pointed up that he's notscared to go back to Washington and point

(37:28):
things out to other senators when they'redoing the wrong thing. I'm all for
him. I wasn't boringim before,but I am now all right. All
right, Don, thank you,We appreciate your comments. Let's go to
uh let's see Payson and we wantedto talk to Richard E. Ray.
I need to get my mouse onthat line. My mouse is acting enough.
Let's go to Richard in Payson.Richard, how are you thanks for

(37:50):
joining us tonight? Yes, siras far as but uh but missus Kags
said, I'm not surprised that,uh John Curtis uh is pulling that kind
of nonsense and ballooney, you know, behind our bets. Uh. When
he was when John Curtis was mayorof of Provo, he uh had a

(38:14):
resolution to expand and uh the utA bus system and it was on the
ballot and we all voted it down, all these towns that were involved.
Well that was not good enough,Oh Johnny boy he uh he rigged up
another some kind of a uh whateveruh system and uh and this time Provo

(38:37):
went for it, and Orn wentfor it, but everybody else still voted
no and dumped it down. Souh, Johnny boy is you know,
once he was a democrat, he'snow you know, once a democrat,
always a democrat. The guy isa snake and a rat and does not
deserve being in public office. Uhhe should become a UTA bus driver and

(39:00):
see what you know, what histhings, what his problem his what he
did? All right? All right, all right, Richard, thank you,
all right. The question is,and this is what trends to Eggs
and saying, I think members ofCongress are not elected to go back to
Washington and become rich on information theymay be receiving about stocks and transactions and

(39:22):
trading. They should not be allowedto go back to Congress. If they
leave Congress then become a lobbyist andmake a whole lot more money. And
he says that's what he feels.And I'm just this my read into what
he's saying here is that what hefeels is wrong with people going to Congress
nowadays. He feels, and Ithink there are some of you out there

(39:44):
who may feel the same way,that you are not elected to Congress to
become a rich man. But ifyou look at the track records of past
congressmen and people who serve in Washington, many of them, I don't want
to say many of them, butsome of them do. And that's where
Trent Staggs is saying, we've hadenough. Now do you agree with what

(40:04):
he is saying? Is that anissue for you in this campaign was Trent
stags You know, Trent is beingaccused of taking a cheap shot at John
Curtis right at the end of thedebate last night, but as Trent brought
up, he didn't have any othertime to bring it up, and he
wanted to bring it up in hisclosing statement. Your reaction to all of
this eight eight eight five seven eightzero one zero triple eight five seven eight

(40:30):
zero one zero, are on yourcell phone dial pound two to fifteen and
say hey, Rod. We'll getto your calls. Great to be with
you on this Wednesday or Tuesday afternoon, broadcasting live from Minky Cotour here in
Layton. We're here because Father's Dayis coming up on Sunday. And if
you think you know your dad oryour husband has just about everything, ask

(40:51):
yourself if they have a designer blanketfrom Minky Cotur. And yes, I
believe the guys would love one.And they've got a great offer today fifty
five percent off. Just say Rodfifty five when you go into purchase your
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have an Everywhere blanket. These arewonderful blankets. If you're outside watching a

(41:12):
ballgame against lou Chili, these aregreat blankets to have as well, and
they're also wind and water resistant.Great blanket to have, and they're on
sale today for just seventy nine dollars. That is one heck of a deal,
So check it out today at minkycotur All right, if you're just
joining us now. Some sparks flewlast night during the final few minutes of

(41:35):
the debate involving the candidates for theUS Senate here in the state of Utah
between Riverton mayor Trendstags and John Curtis. During his closing remarks, Trendstags raised
some questions about John Curtis's purchase ofsome stock in Abbott Laboratories after the company
was awarded a big federal contract.John Curtis said he was being accused of

(41:59):
committed felony and he asked trends Stagsto show some information on that, and
we had trend on this show explainingwhy. He said that. What is
your reaction to that, What isyour reaction to this concern that Americans have
that members of Congress go back toWashington and become millionaires because of their stock
knowledge. Let's get more reaction towhat was said last night and this issue

(42:22):
of a concern. We go toKyle, who is on fifteen tonight.
Kyle, thanks for joining us.What are your thoughts on this? Kyle
hey Rod, thanks for having me. I think the big issue here,
the big, big story is notwhat Trent stagg said, but John Curtis's
reaction to it, because the factthat you know congress members or those in

(42:45):
the Senate wherever they trade stocks thatis not up for debate, and the
fact that he threw out that saidthat it was a felony. I mean,
Nancy Pelosi has made millions of dollarson trading stocks. All Trent s
Daggs was doing was bringing it upand saying this is not appropriate. And

(43:07):
so I think that the reaction byJohn Curtis was it kind of tipped his
hand a little bit. There's alittle bit of guilt there. He knows
he did something wrong. He wascalled out for it. It's not a
question of whether or not he didit, because he definitely did it.
Trent Staggs does have the receipts onthis, and I'm glad that Trent was

(43:27):
able to bring it up. Idon't think it was unfair at all.
I think the voters need to knowabout these kinds of things. So,
Kyle, a lot of people arecritical critical of Trent today because he waited
till the last minute. Does thatbother you at all? Trent said he
never had time to bring it up, and he thought he'd do it during
the closing statements. Are you criticalof him for doing that? No,

(43:49):
I'm not. And I'm not surprisedthat John Curtis would try to change the
narrative and say, oh, itwas a cheap saw in the last And
I understand his point in a way. But but the fact of the matter
is what Trent said was true,so you know, and and he didn't
need to get so so defensive aboutit because clearly it's something he feels about

(44:13):
about. All right, Kyle,thank you. Let's all right, Thank
you, Kyle. Let's go toanother caller. Let's see if we can
get Let's try for Patty. Imay need your help Mark in dialing up
Patty because my mouse is acting uphere. There we go, Patty,
Welcome to the Rodercutcho. Thank youfor joining us. Patty. Yeah,
thank you. So basically, Imean, hi, I'm Patty, I'm

(44:37):
an independent and I think it wasgreat. He brought that up, and
in fact, I think we shouldcall these people on the carpet more often.
I don't care what story of theaisles are on. They should not
go back there and come back wealthy. And we need term limits. I
wish the people would respond with termlimits anyway. That's all I got to

(45:00):
say. All right, Patty,thank you. Term limits is an issue
that is going to be coming upas well for the next several years.
I am not a big fan ofterm limits. I think you know we
have term limits already. It's calledthe vote. If you don't like the
candidate, just go to the pollsand do what you can to vote him
out. All right, back tothe phones we go. Let's go to
Bowen, who is in Harriman tonighthere on the rod ARCATCHO Bowen, how

(45:22):
are you? Thanks for joining ustonight? Good you hear me? I
sure can go ahead, Bowen.Yeah. I was just going to add
that I don't think I know whatTransac says and saying that he didn't have
time to bring up during debate.But I don't think it was really fair
to bring it up at the lastsecond like that and not get a lot
of response time. For John Curtis. However, it is a serious issue,

(45:46):
Republican or Democrat, where you havethese politicians that come in and just
make milling the dollars off these typeof investments that they somehow know about.
And I think it's funny you havesomeone out there like Nancy Pelosi and her
and her husband make new means andmillions of dollars doing stuff like this,
and nothing really gets caught. Theyget called out, but nothing gets investigated

(46:06):
because apparently there's not enough evidence tosupport it. But you look at what
they're investing in, and it's literallycompanies that the government decides the fund that
you know with then, so it'sI think it's I think it's funny.
And like I said, I don'tthink it's a Democrat or Republican issue.
I think it's kind of the mixtureof both. But if there is a
problem of it, it should becalled out investigated for sure. So I
do think that was a fair thingfor him to do, just wrong time.

(46:28):
I guess all right, all right, Bowen, thank you. I
think there are quite a few peopleout there who who feel that way.
Is an issue that I think Americanvoters should be concerned about Let's see if
we can. Uh. All right, we've got Jeremy in Brigham City tonight
here on the roder Ketcho. Jeremy, how are you? Thanks for joining
us. Thank you. I'm sohappy Trance stag Dag brought this up.

(46:52):
It's a big deal, people care. We are tired of politicians doing insider
trading and making millions. Remember BlakeMores right there with them on unusual wells.
You can see how well these peopleperformed, these congressmen and senators.
They're twenty to forty percent better thanthe S and P five hundred. That's
impossible without insider trading. All right, all right, Jeremy, thank you.

(47:15):
We appreciate your phone call on thatas well. Now, if you're
just joining us tonight, we're takingsome of your phone calls on this dispute
that erupted late last night on thedebate involving the candidates for the Senate here
in the state of Utah to replaceMitt Romney. In his closing remarks,
Trent Staggs, Riverton mayor, raisedsome questions about John Curtis and his trading,

(47:42):
basically bringing up some points about somestock that mister Curtis had purchased with
Abbott Laboratories after Abbott had gained afederal contract. Curtis of course denied it,
said he did not like being accusedof committing a felony and asked for
some information on that. The DailyColor Today has some information out on that.
But the bigger question is the concernthat voters have about members of Congress

(48:05):
going back to Washington and coming backas a little bit Richard, Richard,
let's go to the phones and hearwhat Delayne has to say on that tonight.
Delayne, how are you welcome tothe rod Arcads show. I am
so well, Rot, thank youso much. I just want to say
I love your callers. You havesome great callers. John Curtis has a
little bit of an issue with time. He spent a lot of time telling

(48:30):
us how we didn't have time totell us why he did what he did,
and that's kind of the same thing. When I asked him why he
voted against an amendment that would stopfederal funds from paying for transgender surgery and
therapy in the military, he said, well, I only had two minutes
to decide, and I'm just thinking, you know, it only takes two

(48:51):
seconds to decide that. So Ithink if he wanted to say explain why,
or wanted to defend himself, hehad plenty of time to do it.
So I thought what Trent did wasfantastic. Kudos to him, thanks
so much. Well, Delane,let me let me before you hang up
there, Delaane, Trent said hedidn't have time. It never came up
during the debate, and that's whyTrent used his closing statement to bring this

(49:14):
up. How do you think JohnCurtis should now approach this issue if it
is an issue for voters here inthe in the Senate campaign. Well,
I hope it's an issue for voters, and I do think that John had
time to respond if he were innocent. So I think John, at best,
I think that he should commit tocease and assists that he will stop

(49:36):
doing it because I, in myopinion, he basically admitted that he was
doing it. That's that was mytake. He didn't make clear that he
wasn't guilty, or that he wasn'tdoing it, or that he didn't benefit.
And I you know, I didactually talk to Trent since and he
says he does have the evidence sothrough texting, So I do think the

(49:58):
evidence is there, and I Ithink that John needs to apologize to all
of us, and I think sheneeds to stop doing it all right,
all right, delight, thank you, all right, Delayne, thank you,
thank you. We appreciate your inputon all of this. You know,
the latest poll shows that John Curtishas a comfortable lead over Trends Stags,

(50:22):
who comes in second, Brad Wilsonand Jason Walton. Matter of fact,
the latest poll should I think,indicates that John Curtis has thirty four
percent approval or support, Trends Stagsabout sixteen percent, Brad Wilson fourteen percent,
and then Jason Walton five percent.Who by the way, and I

(50:42):
think we have them all scheduled tobe on the show next week as we
get closer to the primary. Ithought Jason Walton last night was very impressive.
I have not had a chance totalk to him. I don't know
Jason Walton, but I thought duringthe debate last night, all the candidates
performed very very well. I thoughtJason Walton, you know it, just
performed I think very very well.I think his answers were good, his

(51:06):
response, his just demeanor last nightduring the debate I thought was impressive.
I thought they all did a verygood job. But I would maybe give
Jason Walton a little bit of morekudos because I think he came across very
strong last night on some of hisissues. But like I said, we'll
be talking to all of the candidates, Brad Wilson, Jason Walton, Trendstaggs,

(51:31):
and John Curtis. All right.It is called the Take Back Title
nine Coast to Coast Bus Tour.It was in Salt Lake City today and
the purpose of this tour is toremind people that men have no place in
women's sports. There are a numberof very well known coaches touring with them,
including my next guest, coach KimRussell. Coach Russell as former head

(51:53):
women's lacrosse coach at Oberlin College andan independent Women's Forum ambassador. Now she
stood up for women in sports andthen faced public shaming from her own college,
and she joins us on our Newsmakerline right now. Coach Russell,
how are you welcome to the rodArkischow. Thank you so much, so
great to be here, Coach Russell. I've seen you do so many interviews

(52:16):
over there, and since this happened, and you know, you look at
this, this this story that youexperienced and what's going on around the country.
Why are you participating in this tour? Why is it so important to
you? Well, I had thegreat opportunity because of Title nine to play

(52:42):
two sports at the D one levelat the College of William and Mary on
athletic scholarship, and those that's playingthat sports is what led me to get
my first job out of college andthen also led me to my love,
which is coaching, and what I'vebeen doing for twenty eight years. I
am so passionate about keeping sports singlesex, both for men and for women,

(53:09):
because it's so important that we havethose single sex spaces. And I've
been able to start sports for girlsand women at every single level from youth
through international, and there is,as everyone knows, a difference between boys
and girls, between men and women. It is simple truth. It is

(53:31):
simple fact, there are two sexes, male and female. Kim. For
people who don't know your story,when did you speak up? What did
you see happening at Oberlin College andwhy did you speak up? Kim?
So I spoke up. I keptseeing Leah Thomas at the top of the

(53:55):
podium, in swimming and kept seeingstories in the winter and spring of twenty
twenty two and thought, what isgoing on here? Why is no one
saying anything? And then one Leahactually won. Leah, who was formerly
Will Thomas, a six foot four, fully intact mail won the five hundred

(54:17):
meter freestyle in the women's division intwenty twenty two. I reposted an Instagram
post on my personal Instagram story thatsaid congratulations to Ema Way and the real
woman winner of the five hundred freestyle, and in my own words at the
top, I said, what doyou believe? I can't be quiet anymore.

(54:39):
I've spent my entire life playing,coaching, and starting sports programs for
girls and women. And what thenensued was a text from my athletic director
early the next morning saying I neededto come in for a meeting. That
was followed by being told by herthat I was now being associated with a

(55:00):
hate group, and the associate athleticdirector saying, you are allowed to have
your own opinion, but when thatopinion is not the same as the colleges,
it's a problem for your employment.And after that, bunch of disciplinary
meetings ensued, including what would beconsidered a Maoist struggle session with my whole

(55:23):
team present, and it was ait was a crazy time. Well,
by the sounds of it, Kim, you weren't allowed to have your own
opinion, right, I mean,that's what it basically came down to,
correct exactly. And I had foundthat out, you know, from being
there. You know you you lookat this, Kim, and every survey

(55:47):
that I've seen on this issue overthe years, especially in the last couple
of years, so show that mostAmericans agree with what you had to say,
that there are sports for men,there are sports for women, and
that's the way it should stay.Yet you have these organizations who continue to
push this transagenda. Why do youthink that's taking place, Kim Oh?

(56:12):
I believe it's very dark and thatthat agenda has been pushed very systematically,
and it's having been at an academicinstitution for the last eleven years at the
college level, it was done insuch a way that it was very easy

(56:35):
for what I would call brainwashing ofthe students. When you spoke out at
Oberlin, did you have any ofyour players come up to you and say
they supported your effort? I did, And you know one of them who
did, was automatically silenced by asenior who didn't feel the same way.

(56:58):
And the one who had the courageto speak out initially and then spoke out
again and wrote four pages of allof the positive things and reasons that I
was a good coach. She hadso much courage. She still does to
this day. But it was themob mentality. Everybody was afraid to speak

(57:20):
out because they didn't want to bekicked out of the group. Of course,
we have heard from the players themselves, the women who are participating in
these college sports. We don't hearmuch from the coaches. For the coaches,
how difficult is it to deal withthis situation? Kim? In your
opinion, Well, what I'm seeingis that most coaches, administrators, teachers,

(57:46):
even parents are afraid to speak up, and of course the student athletes
and students themselves because they've already beensilenced. And my message to everyone is
step out of the fear, stepinto your courage, speak up, speak
up, and speak out. Yougive others the courage to do the same.

(58:07):
And the more people who are willingto speak up, that is what
is going to make change happen.And that is what we are seeing you
know, the people who are againstthis are hoping to keep everyone silent,
and people are also staying silent becausethey're afraid of being seen as unkind.

(58:30):
It is not unkind, to tellthe truth. It is actually the most
loving thing you can do. Whatkind of reaction are you getting from the
tour? I know you're in SaltLake City today. What kind of reactions
are you getting to it? Kim? We are getting such amazing responses.
Salt Lake City was incredible today.We had an amazing audience of people,

(58:54):
some representatives, some senators, someyoung kids. Girls who are athletes,
boys who are athletes were there.There were grandmothers there, There were mothers
there, there were sisters, therewere brothers, and so many came out
enjoyed the luncheon, and then wehad a chance to have everybody come and

(59:16):
sign the bus and see us offbefore we left for our next destination,
which is Las Vegas. Well,Kim, we appreciate your time, congratulations
on the success of this tour busand your courage for standing up for the
for women in sports today. Thankyou, Kim, and safe travels to
you as you go around the country. Thank you so much. All right

(59:38):
on our Newsmaker line. That isKim Russell, former lacrosse coach at Oberlin
College that's a very progressive school bythe way, lost her job when she
spoke out. She's now part ofthe Take Back Title nine tour, a
coast to coast bus tour to raiseawareness. All right, let's talk about
marijuana. There is a really interestingstory that I came across the other day

(01:00:00):
about Colorado's quote booming weed market andhow it went bust and how other states
are taking notice. The reporter onthat story was a woman by the name
of Mona Jang, and she isjoining us on our Newsmaker line to talk
about what is going on with apot business, not only in Colorado but
around the country. Mona, thankyou very much for joining us tonight on

(01:00:21):
the Radar Kids Show. Thanks forhaving me. Rod I Mona talk about
what you found out about what's goingon in Colorado and why other states are
now looking at it. What hashappened, Well, you know, in
Colorado you really saw a confluence offactors that led to sort of like a
boom and bust of the state's legalcannabis market. I mean, you have

(01:00:42):
the natural rise and fall of themarket, which was exacerbated by the pandemic.
But the other thing is that,you know, so many states have
now legalized cannabis that fewer people aregoing to Colorado to buy legal weed.
And you also have the growth ofthe intoxicating some cannabinoid market, which is
you know, really big in stateslike Texas, and so that's also drawing

(01:01:04):
a market share from a state likeColorado. How much money was going into
Colorado when all of this first started, because as I recall on it,
weren't they the first state in thecountry to legalize recreational use of marijuana?
That's right, they were the first. Date. Colorado and Washington State were
the first two states to legalize intwenty twelve, and Colorado was the first

(01:01:24):
state to launch adult youth sales intwenty fourteen. And the market just grew
and grew every year. It wassort of just like rising and all of
the operators in the market thought,you know, like the good times are
never going to end. And themarket kind of reached its peak in twenty
twenty. It was worth like twopoint two billion dollars, But you know,

(01:01:46):
it has been fallen since then,and now it's about one point five
billion. There were a lot ofvery local entrepreneurs trying this game. How
are they doing when it comes toweed? Sales in Colorado fallen off as
well? Yeah, I mean really, entrepreneurs from across the sort of business

(01:02:07):
spectrum, your small mom and pops, and even your like big multi state
operators they call these big cannabis companieshave left the Colorado market. The small
dispensary owners, particularly along the state'ssouthern border, have seen their business suffer
a lot. You see a lotof dispensary closures in the southern part of
the states. But there are businessowners, even small business owners, that

(01:02:30):
have managed to survive the sort ofthe trials and tribulations of the industry.
Are they victims of their own success? Do you think, Mona, I
think in a certain sense yes,you know, because Colorado really started this
trend of state level legalization. Nowyou have twenty four states across the country.

(01:02:52):
Most of the US population now livesin a state that has access to
legal, regulated cannabis. So ina way, yes, I think they
are a victim of their own success. Did they just kind of pardon the
punt weed them out? So tospeak? I mean you've got some businesses
my guess that are were in firstand are still sending others who came late

(01:03:14):
to the game didn't make it.Is that the case in Colorado? I
don't think that is necessarily the case. I think, you know, getting
in early what could have been,you know, good for a lot of
business owners. It was certainly goodfor a lot of companies that then ended
up expanding across the country. Butat the end of the day, it's

(01:03:34):
about how you run your business.I mean, back in the day,
prices were high, margins were high, so if you weren't really great at
running your business, it didn't reallymatter that much because the price of lead
was just so high. Now thatyou've had this sort of like drop and
wholesale prices margins are down. Youreally have to run a tight ship to
be a successful entrepreneur. And soI think a lot of people even from

(01:03:59):
the early day that weren't you know, you know, they were just like
raking in the cash because wead wasexpensive and now that it's cheap, you
know, you really have to bean efficient business to make it work.
Amona, You're right that other statesare taking a look at this and seeing
what's going on in Colorado. Whatare the concerns of other states as they
see Colorado deal with this right now? I think a big part of it

(01:04:24):
is how a state approaches licensing cannabisbusinesses. I mean, Colorado has sort
of unlimited cannabis licenses, which meansa lot of people got in, a
lot of cultivators got in, soit kind of oversupplied the market, leading
prices to crash and leading to thesort of like downturn in the market.
So other states are looking at thisand being careful in terms of how many

(01:04:46):
licenses they give out to sort ofavoid this sort of oversupply and price compression
you see in a lot of cannabismarkets. And also, you know,
over regulations and taxes are also anissue you Cannabis in general is a very
heavily regulated industry and a very highlytaxed industry, and I think states are

(01:05:08):
now taking a second look at thosethings. Final question for you. I
know a lot of concern was raisedabout the societal impact that the legalization of
marijuana would have for any community orstate that would would pass it. I've
seen stories in the past about thesocietal impact, the cost of this did
you look at that at all.Where does Colorado stand on this right now?

(01:05:30):
Do people say they're happy they didthis, sad they did this?
What do you hear? Yeah?I think Colorado voters are by and large
happy with this. There's no sortof push to try to roll back this
industry or this policy. I thinkwhen it comes to the public health concerns,
you know, you have pro legalizationadvocates pointing to legitimate scientific research saying

(01:05:56):
youth youth has state study or gonedown in places like Colorado. You have
anti legalization advocates pointing to legitimate researchthat showed youth youth have gone up as
a result of recreational legalization. Andthere are plenty of studies that show that
youth use has kind of helped study. So I think at the end of
the day, you know, thisguy hasn't fallen in Colorado. The research

(01:06:19):
on the public health farms, youknow, they're mixed, really, so
you don't see a really definitive sortof example that it has been like on
the whole. Bad Wanna thank youvery much for your Simon You're reporting.
We appreciate it. Thank you,Thanks for having me all right joining us
on our news micro line. That'sMona Jang Mona a reporter taking a look

(01:06:44):
at what's going on with the weedbusiness in the nearby state of Colorado.
All right, when we come backour conversation that we conducted earlier today with
Utah Center to Mike Lee talking abouta lot of issues. All right,
coming out for our conversation with UtahCenter Mike Lee. I spoke with the
Utah Republican earlier today about a varietyof issues. But right off the bat,
I wanted to get his reaction tothe announcement today that a federal jury

(01:07:08):
had convicted Hunter Biden of federal guncharges and his reaction to the verdict being
handed down against Hunter Biden. Oh, yeah, he committed some firearm felonies
and a lot more, as weall know, who's held accountable only after
a massive public outrage that the Bidenfamily got to break the law without consequences.

(01:07:29):
Americans are also outraged at the doublelegal standard involved in the cases against
Donald Trump, with Democrats trying theirdarnists to imprison him. To imprison Donald
Trump on fake charges charge that nobodyelse would ever be charged with, and
remember the deep state, the actualmembers of the CIA NSA intelligence community knowingly

(01:07:53):
lied to the American people by callingHunter Biden's laptop, which is the fount
of a lot of this stuff,they called it Russian disinformation. Some of
these folks even came to Capitol Hilland met with members of the US Senate
and called it Russian disinformation to ourfases. Newspapers were banned from social media

(01:08:15):
for reporting on that laptop. Andthis is all just to get Joe Biden
elected and all to keep Americans forvoting for Donald Trump. So we shouldn't
we shouldn't be surprised when that they'retrying to do it again, even though
it is shocking what they're trying todo to Donald Trump this time around.

(01:08:39):
Mike, would you be surprised ifyou see the Biden administration somehow use this
in the campaign saying, Look,even the president's son was prosecuted and found
guilty under the legal system, sothe system is fair and equitable, despite
what Donald Trump says that he faceda rig a rig judge, and a
rigged trial. Do you think they'lltry and use this to continue attacks on

(01:08:59):
Donald Trum. I'm not only thinkingthey will use that, I'm certain that
they will just a few days ago, during a Senate Judor Shary Committee hearing,
I made a statement at the beginningof a hearing of commenting on the
lawfair against Donald Trump, and oneof my colleagues, Senator Durbin from Illinois,
the chairman of the Jerry Shary Committee, responded by saying, no,

(01:09:20):
it's not lawfair, and using asan argument to defeat that characterization by me.
They said, look, Hunter Biden, the President's son is being prosecuted
right now, and somehow that intheir minds is an antidote to the lawfair
accuisition. Of course it isn't.For all sorts of reasons it isn't.

(01:09:45):
And a lot of the most seriouscharges that would have caused a lot more
legal jeopardy and resulted in more prisontime weren't even brought. Let's talk about
what's going on with the Supreme Court. The Rolling Stone out with the story
a new attack on Justice Alito,and I think most people would agree this
attack is absolutely pathetic. Mike.They will there's nothing that will stop them

(01:10:10):
from trying to sink the credibility ofJustice Alito, Justice Thomas, even Justice
Roberts. I mean, they willgo as low as you possibly can,
right as low as you possibly canwrite down to going after their spouses.
I mean, look what the leftis doing to Just Alito right now,
to solto my former boss is afantastic human being and perhaps arguably the greatest

(01:10:36):
tourist ever to serve on the USSupreme Court. It reminds me a little
bit. It's an extreme version ofwhat they did to Chief Justice Roberts.
Shortly before the Supreme Court decided nfibVersus Sibilius in twenty twelve, the Obamacare
case had not gone well for theObama administration in court, and so they

(01:10:59):
saw as a chance to intimidate ChiefJustice Roberts. And there are many who
believe that what the left did thenworked then and resulted in Chief Justice Roberts
switching what might have been what iswidely believed by many to have been his
original position. But look, it'snot going to work now. But make
no mistake, this is a similarmaneuver. The Left has a couple of

(01:11:25):
cases currently pending before the Supreme Court. They are understandably concerned that Justice Alito
is going to reject some of theirbad arguments in those cases. And it's
not going to work here. Look, Alito's belief in God infuriates the left.
Justice Alito is absolutely right not torefuse himself, and there's nothing that

(01:11:47):
could warrant refusal here. To concludeotherwise would be to reward this bullying by
unscrupulous leftist partisans or improperly trying toinfluence the outcome matters pending before the Supreme
Court. That's wrong. They knowwhat's wrong. They should be ashamed.
And Mike, what is wrong withJustice Alito saying, Hey, there are
some very difficult decisions out there.We may not be able to find common

(01:12:11):
ground, and we may not beable to agree on some of these decisions.
He's been very candid, yet he'sbeen criticized for being candid. Yeah,
that is that statement that you justrepeated that he made. That is
exactly the truth. In fact,that that is a that is a very
civil way of stating the truth,which is they're not everything can be resolved

(01:12:32):
just by everybody deciding let's get along. There are some decisions on which the
left and right disagree, and thoseare not easily resolved. And I think
there's absolutely nothing wrong with him acknowledgingthat, Mike, give us an update
on your uh, your efforts totry and work with more Republican senators.
Come on and tell the administration.Look, you aren't getting anything because of

(01:12:56):
this Trump trial for a while.I mean, where do you stand on
this plan, Mike, and whatis an date on it? Look,
we've got I believe fourteen or fifteensignatures from Republican senators. Now we expect
to pick up a few more thisweek. My hope has been that we
can pick up most or all RepublicanSenators Ultimately, Republicans in Congress can't ignore

(01:13:17):
the fact that Democrats are trying tolock up Biden's last standing obstacle to Biden's
second term, his sole remaining politicalopponent, and anyone paying attention really must
be profoundly disturbed by what Joe Bidenand the Democrats are doing to our country,

(01:13:41):
into our system of government. Anyonewho's not willing to fight right now,
not necessarily somebody who could be trustedto fight later when Trump's re elected
and a new fight for America's futurebegins. We can't proceed as if were
just in business as usual in theSenate. When Joe Biden, Chuck Schumern,

(01:14:04):
the Democrats conspired in prison. Trumpagain is Biden's principal, last standing
political opponent and the current presidential frontrunner. We've got to restore, you
know, a sense of integrity inour government after Democrats clear obvious weaponization and

(01:14:26):
politicization of our judicial system and ourcriminal justice system. This is wrong,
it is wrong. Utah Senator MikeLey joining us on our Newsmaker line,
had a chance to talk with theUtah Republican earlier today about a number of
issues that he is very passionate aboutright now. Now. A reminder coming
up tomorrow, of course, itis Wednesday. That means it's time for

(01:14:47):
Wingman. Wednesday, we'll be talkingwith Greg about everything's going on and give
you a kind of a rundown,a breakdown of the various debates that were
held this week. I had theopportunity to host the debate between the second
District congressional candidates so Les molloy andColby Jenkins. I was a fun debate
yesterday. Other debates are going on. I think the debate with the governor

(01:15:11):
candidates Phil Lyman and Spencer Cox isjust wrapping up now and tomorrow they'll take
a look at that very crowded fieldin the third congressional district that is coming
up tomorrow, and you'll want tostay tuned for that. Of course,
primary day is coming up on Junetwenty fifth. You should have your mail
in ballots. Don't mail them innow. I would just urge you think

(01:15:34):
about the candidates, wait until youhave a good decision on that, and
then make your decision when it comesto that. I know there are a
lot of people who say mail inearly. You may want to do that
for the presidential election. I'm nota big fan of mail in ballots.
A matter of fact, we're alltalk about that, I think with Greg
tomorrow, because there's a really interestingstory out about what has happened in Europe.

(01:15:55):
I think you're aware that a numberof countries went through elections in Europe
this past week and guess what,all those countries use paper ballots. What
a unique idea. So we'll talkabout that as well tomorrow with Greg.
A couple of things I wanted toshare with you. The medium and the
wokesters in the far left lgbt PLGBTQ community have been hyper ventilating now for

(01:16:25):
roughly two weeks over the story involvingseveral teenagers who were arrested and charged with
felonies for the apparent crime of allegedlyleaving scooter tire skid marks on a Spokane
Pride street mural. They're charged withfelonies, folks. That's right. As
reported at the time of the incident, police were on the scene and arrested

(01:16:49):
the suspect in record time, somethirty minutes after the nine to one one
call was made, adding insult toinjury for the perpetually outraged, more teenagers
were seen on scooters leaving marks onthe street mural as a local news report
was in progress. The reporter belownoted that they also left marks on a

(01:17:11):
nearby sidewalk, that he was notsure it was targeted at the mural or
just general vandalism. They're leading skidmark folks, and they're being charged with
a felony. Pretty amazing, right. In a related story, a federal
appeals court judge in Middleborough, Massachusetts, a middle school there is backing the

(01:17:35):
school's decision to restrict one of hisstudents from wearing a T shirt. What
did the T shirt say? Thereare only two genders, as all the
T shirts said, but the studentcan no longer wear it to the middle
school. They're in Middleborough, Massachusetts. The First First Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that officials did not act unreasonablywhen they concluded that Nichols Middle School student

(01:18:01):
Leam Morrison's shirt may be understood todemean the identity of transgender and gender non
conforming students. The lawsuit, filedlast year by the Alliance Defending Freedom and
the Massachusetts Family Institute, argued thatofficials violated his First Amendment rights when they
said his shirt was prohibited by theschool's dress code, but a federal appeals

(01:18:25):
court is ruling in favor of theschool that has banned all of that.
And Rob Schneider funny guy Rob Schneiderwas reportedly removed from the stage of a
fundraising event for a charity after hemade jokes about vaccines and transgender children.
Apparently he offended audience members. Schneiderwas allegedly asked to end his set early

(01:18:51):
during an event for the Hospitals ofRegina Foundation in Canada at a Four Seasons
hotel. The comics, jokes andcommentary apparently offended several audience members, with
one person in attendance, claiming thatSchneider's words even made some people in the
audience cry. Just sharing with youthe facts, folks. All right,

(01:19:15):
just another reminder tomorrow citizen Hughes,Great Hughes will join us for Wigman Wednesday.
It all starts tomorrow at four