Rod Arquette Show: Senate Candidates Trent Staggs and Jason Walton; Ed Ring on Uniting America's Political Spectrum

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown – Thursday, June 20, 2024

4:38 pm: Rod begins his series of interviews with the four candidates vying for Utah’s soon to be vacated (by Mitt Romney) U.S. Senate seat with current Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs (at 5:05 pm) with Jason Walton.

6:05 pm: David Harsanyi, Senior Editor at The Federalist, joins the show for a conversation about how the media is still trying to convince people that Joe Biden isn’t mentally and physically fragile.

6:20 pm: Edward Ring, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Greatness, joins the show for a conversation about his recent piece about how to unite America’s political spectrum.

6:38 pm: Auguste Meyrat, an English Teacher and Senior Editor of The Everyman blog joins Rod to discuss his piece for The Federalist about how a Dallas school district is offering classes to parents for how to solve issues of misbehavior in children.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Over the past three or four weeks, we have tried to let you listen
to the candidates for the various statewide offices here in the state of Utah.
We've talked with candidates with the attorneygeneral's race, we've talked in the
fourth well three of the four congressionalraces. Burgess Owners is not facing an
opponent in this year's election. Andthen the big race for a lot of

(00:21):
people here in the state, notonly the governor's race, but of course
the US Senate race, that isthe race to replace Mitt Romney. Joining
us on our Newsmaker line right nowto talk about that race is the mayor
of Riverton, Trent Staggs, whowe've had on the show throughout the campaign
to talk about what's going on inthe race with him. Trent, how
are you welcome back to the rodAr Kent Show. Thanks for joining us.

(00:44):
Rod, I'm doing great, goodto be with you and glad you
had a little bit of a breakthere. Thank you, Trent. Trent,
you're in the final few days.What lines ahead for the Trent Staggs
campaign as you try to get tothe finish line? Now, well,
Rod, we're just going to continuedelivering our message. We have a very
clear distinction between what pulling is indicatedof the top two candidates, myself and

(01:06):
John Curtis. And you know whatkind of Republican do Utahs want? What
kind of Republican do they think willgo back and drain the swamp. Will
it be someone like myself who's committedto an America First agenda, who supports
President Trump, who's been endorsed byPresident Trump and Ran Paul and seven thousand
grassroots conservatives, or would it beJohn Curtis, somebody who supported the impeachment

(01:26):
inquiry and censored Trump won't commit toendorse him, as he said on the
debate stage, and he's backed bymega millionaire climate change activists and packs.
They're spending millions of dollars right nowin this race, and a large portion
of that attacking me. I hearda political consultant today, Trent, talk
about the twenty twenty four presidential campaignand all the campaigns in general, and

(01:49):
he made an interesting point in whichhe said, what the media doesn't understand
is there are angry voters out there. They're just sick and tired of what
they see not going on in Washington. The issues that the Biden administration is
foisting upon them. Do you representthe angry voter? Trent Well, I
think I just I represent the everydayvoter, the everyday Utahon. I'm in

(02:14):
everyday uton. I'm not a multimillionaire like listen this race. I'm not
backed by a bunch of out ofstate mega millionaire donors that are out attacking.
And I'm somebody who has pledged toban the trading of individual stocks from
members of Congress and their families.And you know, John Curtis is one
of the best traders in Congress who'sgot a pattern of making timely stock trades.
And that's what I think the publicis angry about, to use your

(02:36):
word, They're sick and tired ofputting people in office that go back to
DC only to profit themselves. Whatdo you hear from people? Is you
go around campaigning, doing town halls, Grippin and Grinnin, talking to people
each and every day. What isa common theme or themes you hear from
voters who are talking to you aboutyour candidacy. You know, voters want

(02:58):
just that they want somebody that's goingto go back in. I present them
the border, the budget, theregulatory mess that we have in this country
that impacts so many of our businessesand our individual liberties. They want somebody
who's going to go back there andfight for them. They're not seeing that
happen. They're just seeing far toooften, and they want somebody who is

(03:19):
going to stand up and fight.Not be Mitt Romney, not be another
Mitt Romney like I believe Curtis is. They want somebody who's going to go
back there and really really stand upfor them and advance in America First agenda.
That's what I've committed to do.I've committed to join great people in
the Freedom Caucus on the Senate side, like Mike Lee and Senator Tommy Tummerville
and Ran Paul who have endorsed me, so we're ready to take that fight

(03:42):
on and work with President Trump dayone, who's also given me his complete
and total endorsement. Over the lastfew days, Ran, I know you're
aware of this. We have heardsome just tragic, horrific stories involving illegal
immigrants in this country and the crimesthat they are committing. This Biden administration.
You know, they come out withexecutive orders, apparently nothing is being
done. Tens of thousands of peopleare still coming across the border each and

(04:04):
every week. Why aren't the Americanpeople more up in arms about this trend?
Well they are. I just themore important question is why haven't our
elected officials done anything about it?I mean, the Biden administration, as
you said, is completely incompetent orintentionally doing so much damage to this country,

(04:28):
and we need to have that stop. I mean what President Trump implemented
worked. We need the border wall, we need to remain in Mexico,
we need everify, we need tocut off benefits to I legal immigrants.
Those things fix it. We don'tneed to call the border wall pent up
racism, as John Curtis did.We don't need to be in Congress for
seven eight years now we see he'sbeen and add trillions of dollars to the

(04:48):
deficit and do nothing on this issue. We've got to have people that are
going to go back there, takethe bowl by the horns, and take
on the establishment swamp and actually getsomething done for American And that's what I
want to do. That's why Iannounced my candidcy over a year ago.
I was the only one to challengeMitt Rodney when he hadn't yet made the
decision that he wasn't going to seekre election. I said, doesn't matter.

(05:09):
We need to challenge the status quo. And that's why I've done time
and time again. And unfortunately,you know, you've seen my opponent spend
all kinds of money trying to attackme and put out all kinds of wives
about my record as a small townmayor here in Riverton. But we're not
going to be deterred. The samething happened to me at the convention.
We won that with seventy percent ofthe delegates and got the endorsement of the

(05:31):
state Party. So we're going tokeep fighting. Run final question for you,
trying to poll released yesterday shows upforty six percent of Americans, almost
half of the American people right now, are struggling to remain where they are
financially. What do you recommend needsto be done about the economy and Bidenomics?
Oh boy, biden Nomics is justkilling us. And unfortunately John Curtis's

(05:53):
added to the problem by adding trillionsof dollars to the deficit. Two things,
rod one, stop printing money,stop digging. And I've committed in
my pledge not just ban trading ofindividual stocks my members of Congress, but
to not even vote for an oundabusspending bill at stop printing money number one.
Number two. We need energy dominancenow. I'm endorsed by the Oil

(06:14):
and Gas Workers Association of America.I believe in energy dominance, not climate
change, which John Curtis does.We need somebody's going to go back there
and get energy costs down to subtwo dollars down gas like we had under
President Trump. We do those twothings and we will see we will see
this economy turn around, and we'lltake the pressure off of everyday Utah's and

(06:34):
hardworking families. What are the nextfinal few days before the vote on Tuesday
looked like for the Trends Stags campaign, Well, we have several events that
were crisscrossing the state and going tobe attending. We're going to keep up,
keep up the hard work, andget the message out there communicating to

(06:55):
folks that there is a real choicein this election. Do we want to
have a Mit Romney two point zeroor do we want somebody who's going to
be an America First champion, who'sbeen endorsed by President Trump, who will
work with him and the Freedom CaucusDay one. That's the choice that you
Toms have in front of them.I hope that we can all make the
decision that we want to move forwardwith an America First agenda. All right,

(07:15):
Trent, good luck to you therest of the campaign. Thanks for
joining us this afternoon. Thank youvery much. All right, all right,
that's Trent Staggs. He is currentlythe mayor in Riverton. He's one
of the four Republican candidates running forthe US Senate to replacement Romney, who
will not decided not to seek reelection. Of course, the vote is coming
up on Tuesday. Make sure youvote, folks. I mean, we

(07:36):
have not had a primary like thisin my recent memory. We haven't had
one like this for quite some time. So you've got a lot of very
important races involved in this campaign.The Senate raids, the governor's raise,
the congressional races, the attorney general'srace. You've got a lot of very
important races. I know many ofyou I do we all have our mail

(07:57):
in ballast. I don't do that, but you can see the candidates on
your mail in ballad if you wantto check it out, and don't forget
to vote. On Tuesday. Abig, big week coming up next Tuesday.
Of course, we'll have the primaryelection on Tuesday and then the first
presidential debate on Thursdays. Gonna bea whale of a week coming up.
All right, more coming up righthere on the Rod ar Ken Show and
Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine. Canteris, Hello, Utah, Welcome

(08:20):
to the rod ar Ketcho on thisThursday afternoon. Great to be back with
you. Had a bit of abreak. Hope you enjoyed listening into the
Jesse Kelly Show. Well, wetook a couple of days off, but
we'll be here today and tomorrow andall of next week. Big big week
next week of course, with theprimary on Tuesday and then the presidential debate
on Thursday, and it's going tobe a fun, exciting week, and

(08:41):
we invite you to be with useach it every afternoon as you work your
way home. Now, we stillhave a lot to get to in the
show today because we didn't start offthe way we normally would, so we'll
get into that. As I mentioned, we just before the break, in
the last half hour of the show, we had a good conversation with Brent
is the Riverton mayor. He's oneof four candidates running for the US Senate

(09:03):
seat. Tomorrow, we'll be talkingwith John Curtis and with Brad Wilson,
but now let's talk with Jason Walton. Jason is another Republican candidate for the
US Senate race, a name notfamiliar to many in the political circles,
but a very successful businessman. Jasonis joining us on our Newsmaker line right
now to talk about this race.Jason, thanks for joining us. Jade's

(09:24):
successful businessman. You get into politics? Why? Honestly, I was just
kind of frustrated, Like I thinka lot of utahon's are watching thinking to
electing one thing and getting something else. And I looked at all the people
who are running and I thought,you know, I'm tired of political current
politicians thing and they get in theoffice into another and I know how I'll

(09:50):
vote, and I know that asa business person, I'm not trying to
go up a political ladder. I'mnot trying to advance myself politically. No
one has their hooks in me.And that might seem silly to some people,
but the truth is, the moreI've been running for this office,
the more I realized that the establishmentin DC, the Senate leadership especially,

(10:13):
really tries to put pressure on senatorsto vote how they want them to vote,
and that usually translates to more spending. James, you vote on these
bills we want you to vote for. So there's never been a time in
the history of US I don't thinklike now when we need to We're thirty
five trillion in debt and we needto stop spending. Yeah, your approach
to this campaign is that you trulyare an outsider. You've never run for

(10:33):
political office. Your other opponents have, and they have a record of being
involved in politics sometime. Why doyou think that's attractive to U? Tell
voters Jason, Well, I thinkUtah voters again, they're tired of thinking
they're electing one thing and getting another. Look. Every problem we have in
America was given to us, giftedto us by career politicians. It's just

(10:56):
the way the political machine works,and uton's are tired of it. And
I've noticed that as I've gone aroundand shared my message saying hey, I
wasn't planning to run. I'm nottrying to advance myself politically. I'm just
trying to save the Constitution and savethe United States of America, reduce spending,
and return to conservative constitutional governance.And it's like the cold glass of

(11:18):
water to people who are dying ofthirst in the desert. It's really resonating
with the average uton. Jason Listen. I saw a political consultant in an
interview today and he talked about thisrace on the presidential level, but I
think he meant for the election ingeneral coming up in November. He said,
what the media doesn't realize is thereis voters out there are angry,
they want to get something done,They don't like the way the country is

(11:41):
going. Is it fair to say, Jason, that you represent the anger
voter out there. Yeah, wellthat's why I think. I think that
that's what why my message resonates.It's also I think people can tell that
I'm genuine and that it's not I'mnot sharing some sort of a political SoundBite.
I'm literally someone that is a business. This person knows a thing or
two about the economy, how itworks. I started a business in my

(12:03):
garage and with no outside investors,no family money. My wife and I
just balanced complex budgets and then buildit into one of the largest best control
companies in the country, and Iwatch how the country's being run. I
did not want to have to runfor the Senate, but I literally am
saying, if not me, thenwho? And I think that for the

(12:24):
average Utah who's just been waiting fora normal person to run to the United
States Senate and show some sort offiscal responsibility. Yeah, I think the
Utah's relate to I know they do. Everywhere I go, people relate with
that message very very strongly. Howdo you take your business success, Jason
and turn it into either legislative successor political success? How do you do

(12:46):
that? Well? The first thingis is I'm hardheaded in the sense that
the only way you could build youcan go from zero employees to thousands,
is you have to have some sortof a plan, and then you have
to be able to communicate that planand build coalitions and stay true to what
your values are. And that isthe principal centered living a lot of hard

(13:09):
work and having faith in what youknow to be right and then taking action
and working out working the person nextto you has been the secret to our
success. And that translates exactly topolitics. Because I have an ideological core
and I know most people think thatthe person you're voting for has an ideological

(13:30):
core, but that's just not beenmy experience. It's the main reason I'm
running, and I think that Ican go to the United States Senate.
I'm uniquely qualified to go build acoalition and go build a team around a
common goal. That's how you builda brand in a company. The other
thing I think that'll help is Ithink that conservatives are really bad at branding
and marketing. So you know,the left's done great. They have the

(13:52):
Affordable Healthcare Act that's not affordable.They have the Inflation Reduction Act that's great
marketing, but it's actually an activehow to increase inflation. And they have
a Green New Deal that's not newor green or a deal, and then
if you speak out against it onthe right, they've done a good job
of branding conservatives as bigots or insurrectionists. And we need some business leaders in
there who know what, know athing or two about branding to help push

(14:15):
our agendas and our bills forward ina way that it's going to be more
productive. And I'm the most qualifiedto do that. I think by far,
Jason, we've seen you know,tragic stories coming out of the crisis
on the border. Recently, we'vehad some illegal immigrants who shouldn't have been
in this country committing horrific crimes.And yet, yeah, we have an
administration who's doing absolutely nothing about it, as seems. How do we get

(14:37):
control of the border, Jason,I mean, what needs to be done,
in your opinion, You elect DonaldTrump as the next president and elect
me to the United States Senate.But the left is doing something about it.
They're actually the authors of it,and they're directly causing it, and
they know it. Joe Biden andthe Biden Syndicate are business partners with the
and I say that metaphorically, businesspartners with the Mexican drug cartels. And

(15:01):
I'm not saying they have a writtencontract, but I'm saying that they both
benefit. The Bidens and the Democratsknow they think that they're going to benefit
from the three point three million legalimmigants they're going to translate into votes for
the Biden family and the Democrats.And the drug cartels have a more than
twenty fold increase in human traffing andmore than a twenty fold increase in drug

(15:22):
traffing, to the point where nowfentanyl overdoses is the leading cause of death
for Americans age eighteen to forty five. The problems look the first day in
office, Donald Trump will go andcatch and release. He'll implement the stay
in Mexico policy for people who wantto asylum. And he's going to those
two things alone will will solve eightyfive percent of the problem. Jason Walton

(15:46):
a successful businessman here in Utah.Now once we represent to Utah in the
US Senate, a seat being vacatedby Romney facing of course, John Curtis,
Trendstaggs, Brad Wilson in a fourway race for the Republican nomination for
the US Senate. Now earlier wespoke with trend Staggs. Of course,
we just completed our conversation with JasonWalton. Tomorrow, Brad Wilson and John

(16:07):
Curtis will be joining us on theshow as we wrap up our three week
long series of interviews with the variouscandidates running for political office. Again,
the primary coming up on Tuesday.Do not forget to vote. You have
your mail in Ballance. I liketo go to the polls and vote myself,
but please vote. This is avery important election, and hopefully you'll
be able to find some time todo that. And it is a great

(16:30):
honor that we have in this countryto be able to vote freely and make
sure you do it. It's thatimportant as we head into a busy election
season, which is certainly well underway. All Right, more coming up on
this Thursday afternoon edition of the rodArk Kent Show right here on Utah's Talk
Radio one oh five nine KNRS.I want to talk to you about this

(16:51):
because I, you know, Ifind this story fascinating and in a way,
I'm proud of what Utah lawmakers havebeen willing to do to stick there
neck out. Now. I bringthat up because the lawmakers were called into
a special session yesterday and both theUtah House and the Utah Senate debated then

(17:12):
voted overwhelmingly in favor of two resolutionsthat authorized educators to enforce state law over
new Title nine regulations. The billswere overwhelmingly approved by both the House and
the Senate and votes cast largely alongpartisan lines. Sur Prize surprise, and

(17:34):
basically what the Utah legislature They passeda Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act during their last
legislative session and what this act didbasically was tell the federal government, if
you're going to do something that wedo not like, you can shove it.
I mean, I don't know ofany other way to put it,

(17:56):
because they said, no, weare going to ignore law that you impose
on Utah residents if in fact thoselaws go against the wishes of voters here
in the state of Utah. Andthat's what they called the Utah Constitutional Sovereignty
Act. And now the bill thatwas in question was a bill passed and

(18:18):
sponsored by step Representative Kire of Berklynas House Built TOO fifty seven. It
requires K through twelve students to usepublic school restrooms that match their sects designated
at birth, restricting transgender access toprivacy spaces in public schools and other publicly

(18:40):
owned buildings. They also passed companionlegislation that's h JR. Three to OH
one, sponsored by Representative Neil Walter. He's a Republican out of Saint George
that declares Utah has the sovereign authoritywith rights and responsibility to safeguard Utah's men,
women, and children. The resolutionalso stated the new Title nine regulations

(19:07):
constitute an overreach of federal administrative authoritythat violates Utah's rights and interest to provide
for the health, safety, welfareof and to promote the prosperity of Utah
residents. Now, remember, comeAugust first, the Federal Department of Education's
new Title nine rules changed the definitionof sex discrimination to include gender identity and

(19:36):
sexual orientation. So the representatives tothe Utah Legislature who represent you, the
Utah voter, have basically said tothe Department of Education, we are not
going to allow that to happen inthis state. Now, we are not
alone in this effort. I thinkthere are six to eight other states,

(19:57):
I believe, who have now filedsuit against the Department of Education and the
Biden administration for this expansion of theTitle nine rules. And I have to
tell you what I have. I'mproud of Utah lawmakers to stand up and
say, no, we are goingto play this game with you. We

(20:18):
know the difference between a boy anda girl. Apparently you don't, but
we do. And we are notgoing to allow a boy who thinks he's
a girl to use a public restroomin this state, or a girl who
thinks she's a boy to use aboy's restroom in this state or any other
public facility. Now, the newrule, by the way, from the

(20:45):
Department of Education broadens the definition ofsexual harassment and stipulates that colleges and universities
are no longer required to hold livehearings to allow students to cross examine each
other. That is a minor issuein my opinion. Why did Utah lawmakers

(21:07):
do this? Because the State Boardof Education and K through twelve Utah educators
have been asking for compliance or guidanceI should say on how to comply with
the federal guidelines. Given conflicts betweenregulations and state law, the Board urged
lawmakers to invoke the Utah Constitutional SovereigntyAct, which prohibits enforcement of federal directive

(21:30):
by government officers. Hooray, hooray, hooray. This is where and you
are starting to see this, thereis such a disconnect between a federal government
that does what it wants to doand people in various states around the country,

(21:52):
not all states. California does whateverWashington tells it to, or New
York does, or Illinois does orWashington, and they all yeah, yeah,
it was do this, okay.But in states like Utah, where
we have some common sense, andwe were fair minded. We're looking at
the issues and say no, it'snot gonna happen here. We're not going

(22:15):
to follow that federal directive. Youknow, this is headed for court action,
It's headed that way. But Iwant to see from you tonight if
in fact you support what Utah lawmakerswho are doing when it comes to the
federal government telling us what to do. I was thinking about this, well,

(22:37):
I had a few days off,and I don't know about you,
but I you know, I wastalking earlier with trends stags and with Jason
Walton about the angry voter in Americatoday, and I think this is these
are issues transgenderism, pride month,letting criminals out of jail when they should

(23:03):
be held for some heinous crimes.These are social issues being pushed by the
Democrats to divide the country. AndI think for a number of years conservatives
have basically let it happen. Ohokay, you know, instead of standing
up and saying no. Well,finally, states like Utah and six seven

(23:25):
eight other states here in the countryhave said we are not going to enforce
the rules anymore. I mean,think about I would love and this question
won't come up in the debate nextweek between Biden and Trump. For someone
to ask Joe Biden, what right, Joe Biden, do you have to

(23:48):
tell me, as a parent thatI have to share my child, my
daughter has to share a bathroom witha young man who is struggling with his
gender identity and therefore wants to beconsidered a girl. What right, Joe
Biden do you have to tell meI have to accept that? What right,

(24:11):
Joe Biden do you tell me thatI have to drive an electric vehicle?
What right? I mean? Youcould go down the list. The
list is, you know, countrymile long, if not longer than that.
But what right do you and thefederal government have to tell me how
to live my life? Because thiswhere the American people are saying no more,

(24:34):
and Utah lawmakers, I think heardUtah voters there is frustrated as well.
I remember the first interview that citizenHughes myself did with Mike Schultz when
he was elected Speaker of the House. Was it last year? I think
it was last year where I askedMike the number one issue and he said,

(24:56):
right out of the gate, federaloverreach and everywhere you look. Nowadays,
the federal government is attempting to tellyou how to live your life,
and I am so. I'm veryhappy. I'm proud of Utah lawmakers for
willing to take a stand, andthey aren't alone. Other lawmakers around the

(25:18):
country are doing the same thing.Now this is going to leave to a
lawsuit. This could lead to federalfunding being cut off from the state of
Utah when it comes to education,even though I think Mike Schultz is indicated
we have more than enough to coverthe cost. Do you support what the
Utah legislature is doing in telling thefederal government we are not going to live

(25:38):
by every rule you send out ofWashington. We can decide for ourselves what
is right for the people of Utah. I agree with It may cost us
some money, may cost us somemoney in a lawsuit, but I think
it is time the states around thecountry say enough is enough. Eight eight

(25:59):
eight seven eight zero one zero tripleeight five seven eight zero one zero on
your cell phone dial pound two fiftyand say, hey, Rod, we
invite you to join the conversation comingup next right here on the Rod arcut
Show. A little bit later on, there is a program I can't believe
they're trying to do this in Dallas. And what they're doing is an idea

(26:21):
is being processed right now in whichif a student acts up misbehaves in school,
that the parents of the student willbe required to take a parental responsibility
class. Yeah, I'm laughing.I'm laughing to I mean, we'll get
into that. So we've got alot to get to. But if you're

(26:41):
just joining us now, phone linesare open to you tonight eight eight eight
five seven eight zero one zero,triple eight five seven eight zero one zero,
or on your cell phone dial poundtwo fifty and say hey Rod.
Utah lawmakers met yesterday. They passtwo resolutions basically telling the Department of Education

(27:03):
that they are not going to followthe new guidelines when it comes to the
enforcement of Title nine. Title ninewas created what in the early nineteen eighties
to protect women and protect you know, a lot of issues. The most
you known issue is the issue ofsports that women in this country, girls

(27:26):
in this country should be given anequal opportunity to compete. And what it
did was force many schools around thecountry to come up with programs in which
young women can participate in sports activities. You know, you had the creation
of It was a booming business increating sports that girls could participate in because

(27:51):
in many schools they didn't have theymay not even have. Well, some
schools did, but there were somesports in some schools that didn't even have
girls. Basketball, girl's volleyball,softball, you name it. And that's
what Title nine did well. Now, in the last what five to seven
years, here comes this socially divisiveissue called transgenderism, and there has there

(28:12):
is an ongoing battle going on inthis country today between supporters of transgender people.
Oh, by the way, I'mgoing to deviate just a second.
Did you see our Vice president whatshe did the other day at the White
House welcoming transgender people to the WhiteHouse. And this one individual, long

(28:38):
hair and a beard shows up wearinga evening gown, shows up with the
White House, and here's Kamala Harrasgiving him or her or whatever it is,
a big old hug like, oh, welcome to the White House,
we love you. I mean,this is this is where her head is.

(29:00):
Okay, back to what I wastalking about. Now, we have
Title nine and Joe Biden's very progressiveagenda led by his Education secretary who probably
hasn't been in a classroom for decades, making changes to Title nine. Not

(29:21):
only is it your biological sex,but now your gender identity. So you
may not be a girl and nothave the equipment of a girl, but
you think you're a girl. Andtherefore, if you want to use a

(29:44):
public facility, you are certainly allowedto do so, and the state has
got to protect you and allow thatto happen. Well, you tall.
Allmakers saw this coming in a numberof fronts, rules from the and now
rules from the Department of Energy,and Utah lawmakers have said, you know

(30:06):
what, we have this thing calledthe Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act. This was
an act passed by lawmakers in thejust completed twenty twenty four session. And
what it says is if the federalgovernment issues a directive that we do not
like or we do not agree with, we are not going to enforce it.

(30:30):
Educators around the state, the Boardof Education went to lawmakers and have
said, we need some guidance withthis new rule that takes effect on August
first. What do you want usto do? And Utah lawmakers voted overwhelmingly
yesterday told them to ignore it.Do not enforce it because we do not

(30:52):
agree with it. Now, there'sa possibility as a result of doing this
that Utah could load some federal funding, and certainly there'll be a lawsuit.
There'll be you know, five peoplein the state who don't like it,
and they are going to file suitagainst it, and a friendly judge will
go okay, and we'll stop it, and we'll force you to do this.

(31:18):
Now, I want to know tonightif you agree with what Utah lawmakers
are doing, because I do this, you know, if we cannot have
a voice in the federal government tobe able to stop this, then we
as states have to tell them tostop it or we are going to ignore
it. And that's why I thinkit is very important. Like I said,
it may cost you some federal funding. It probably is going to lead

(31:41):
to a lawsuit if there isn't alreadyone cooking somewhere. But I think it
is the right thing to do.It is common sense, and that's what
we talk about on this show eachand every day. Eight eight eight five
seven oh eight zero one zero tripleeight five seven eight zero one zero on
your cell phone dial pound two fiftyand say hey, Rod, your calls

(32:04):
your comments coming up right here onthe Rod Arcuat Show. Let's talk a
little bit more about politics. There'sa lot going on with Joe Biden.
Of course, stories out there aboutpeople being very concerned if Joe Biden is
taking enough time to care for hisdebate with former President Donald Trump, which
comes up, by the way,one week from tonight, and the strategy

(32:28):
that the Biden administration may use duringthe debate. They apparently are going to
talk about Donald Trump and what happenedon January sixth, and his record as
president of the United States, andthen, of course, you know,
and what happened with the twenty twentyelection and Donald Trump denying the results,
and that's how they're going to attackDonald Trump. Well, it's easy for

(32:49):
Trump to respond. He says,well, what was the country like in
twenty twenty? We're in pretty goodshape, as I recall, that's what
he needs to do. Well.Of course, we've seen this gas lighting
by the media about the challenges thatJoe Biden faced when it comes to his
age, and it plays out almostdaily, and the media is doing whatever

(33:12):
they can to convince you and therest of the American people that Joe Biden
is not a confused old man.Pretty hard to convince this isn't it that
he's not, Because what we seenowadays is Joe Biden is, in fact
a confused old man. He hasa senior moment throughout the day, senior

(33:36):
moments we should say, well,what about this gas lighting? Is it
working? Joining us on our newspakerline right now is David Harzani, author
senior editor of the Federal Let's alwaysgreat to have David on the show.
David, what about this? Isthis gas lighting by the media on the
American people? Is it working?Uh? Not? Anyone who cares to
pay attention. I don't think.I mean, I guess I would stress

(33:59):
that there's no thing unique or wrongor unexpected about an eighty one year old,
you know going through this wee Isuspect I will be going through it
too, maybe long before, maybeone. But the effort to hide it
is just kind of embarrassing because wesee it all the time, almost on
a daily basis on video. Howdo they you know, the people,

(34:21):
the media, the party, theDemocratic Party, we're constantly telling us that
we're all wrong. We you know, don't believe what we're seeing. I
mean, they've got to look atit themselves and go, something's just not
right here, David. Do theyrefuse to see it? Sometimes? I
wonder if people have convinced themselves thatthings aren't happening, you know, through

(34:42):
some kind of emotional need or copingmechanism maybe, but or whether they're just
lying. So I think maybe it'sboth for certain people. When it comes
to the media, I mean,you know the way that they you know,
quote unquote fact check videos that arecompletely reasonab edited or cut because you
can't play a full hour of anevent, you have to show some you

(35:06):
know, small segment of a video. I mean, I just have to
know that. I just think they'relying as far as others, maybe some
very credulous partisans or whatever, likemaybe they believe it. But I think
most normal people, independents, cantell that Joe Biden's slipping. David,
you call this a coverage of thisdecidedly abnormal. What is so abnormal about

(35:27):
the coverage you're seeing when it comesto this issue of Joe Biden's age.
Well, I think it was inthe context of you know, you know,
other stories where they can gaslight youor mislead you or distract you,
or or cover it up with layersand layers and layers of context, or
throw in red herrings for instance,or rely on some experts we are going

(35:51):
to mislead you. For instance,the Hunter Biden laptop story, where you
know, some officials, some corruptofficials, said that it was probably Russian
disinformation. You can't really do thathere. I mean, you know,
we have evidence, and even sometimesso a lot of times the media will
say, look, you know,that's a lie. Here's the other video,

(36:13):
And then you watch the other videoand it shows you the same thing.
So it's just abnormal in its youknow how embarrassing it is for the
media to do it. It's justsuch obvious propaganda. And basically, you
know, there's no real pseudo orquasi journalistic cover for it. It's just
outright lying, you know. SoI think that that is abnormal. I

(36:36):
love how the White House responded tothe events last weekend when Biden had to
be let off stage by Joe byBarack Obama, or at least it appeared
that way at the time, David. And then the White House comes out
and says, well, fake news, and then cheap news. I've never
heard the phrase cheap news. That'sthe new one on me, David?
Is it you? I think didshe say cheap theres are cheap fake?

(37:04):
Or well? Yeah, well eitheror it's uh, it's kind of laughable.
Now. I get that White HousePress Secretary's job is to say stuff
like that, but the media's jobis supposed to be to follow up.
So when she says that's a cheapfake er, that's cheap news, or
that is disinformation, so much toask how what part of it was untrue?
What? What? What are yousaying is fake? Or what are

(37:25):
you saying is cheap? But butthat doesn't happen? And that that that
that right? There is another hugeproblem with the media, or in the
old days when the media at timestried to play things straight down the line.
How how should they handle this issue? David? What is the right
way to handle this issue of JoeBiden's cognitive decline? I mean, listen,

(37:47):
I I think I note this inthe collar, wrote about this.
I would vote for a zombie ifthey did what I wanted. I don't
really care about you know, butI mean for most people, uh,
you know, competence see is matters, and it's it's just a completely fair
topic. Now I'm not even sayingwe should be out there mocking him or

(38:07):
anything like that. It's not hisfault, but it's obvious to anyone is
paying attention. So I think themedia should treat it as a serious topic
that that voters should be aware of, that we should debate, and if
it's true as the White House saysthat he's at the height of his mental
physical powers, there should be peoplethere explaining how that's true. Because we

(38:28):
can see Barack Obama lead him offstage. It's not a normal thing that
two you know men do. Imean, you whisper in his ear,
you give him a tap. Buthe let him off the stage because he
needed to be let off the stage, because Barack Obama knows that Joe Biden
is not always all there. Andyou know again, when the White House
sent out a video disapproving it,all they did was literally send the same

(38:52):
video. You can watch their videoand it shows you. So that's the
kind of gaslighting I'm talking about.With these debates coming up, do you
think the American people are going tobe paying more attention to how Joe Biden
behaves than what he says? Aboutthe issues some extent, and I think
that in a way that might hurtRepublicans. I mean, you know,

(39:12):
the expectations that are so low forJoe Biden to even be coherent that you
know, he may well do betterthan people expect because we all know anyone
who's dealt with someone who's elderly andgoing through this that you know, people
have good moments and bad and ifJoe Biden has a good moment, well
then everyone's going to be like,look, he's fine. But that's not
really how it works, right,But I do think that during these debates,

(39:37):
you're going to see people just payingattention to to you know, how
sharp he is. And I don'tknow that can go either way. I
get David Harzani with a Federalist,a senior editor of the Federalist, talking
about Joe Biden and what is goingon there. In just a second,
just hang on, we've got somethingfor you to do. But right now,
before we do that, I mentioneda couple of times some of the

(39:59):
comments being made of over the weekendabout the upcoming debate, and uh,
you know the fact that the debate, which takes place one week from tonight,
is very pro Biden. Seeing anformer CNN analyst, Chrys Salism,
outlined four points that he made aboutthe debate and why he thinks they favored

(40:19):
Joe Biden. Four big rules mutedMIC's pro Biden, two commercial breaks pro
Biden, no studio audience pro Biden, and then no pret notes pro Trump.
So I do think the rules ofthe game that both candidates and campaigns
have agreed to all note do favorBiden a little bit here, Yeah,
they do favor Biden a little bit. I mean, you know, I

(40:42):
haven't seen an update on if he'sgoing to be standing or sitting. I
think they're going to be standing forninety minutes. That's something Joe Biden does
not want to do, but we'llhave to see that. The other thing
I want to play for you isis come in by Frank Lunz. Now,
many of you know Frank Lunz,well known polster, used to be
on Fox News all the time.He's now gone to the dark side and
we're for CNN. But he broughtup an interesting point about angry voters.

(41:05):
Had to say, I don't thinkthe media understands exactly what's going on right
now. Yes, Trump dropped afew points after being found guilty on thirty
four felony accounts. But remember this, that would have destroyed any candidate as
recently as ten years ago. Andthe fact that Donald Trump is still even

(41:25):
with or in some cases leading,Joe Biden after being found guilty of thirty
four felonies, Oh my god,that is so significant. And one more
point, I'm watching the independent vote. I don't believe that they're swinging back
and forth between Trump and Biden.I think that they decided that they hate

(41:46):
both candidates, they hate both parties, and they're voting out of anger,
out of desperation, out of resentment. That this is where our political system
has gotten. So be very carefulhow you analyze what goes on from now
to the debates to the election,because I think there could be a hidden

(42:08):
anger vote that surprises everyone on electionday. If there is in fact a
hidden anger vote, where will thatvote go? Will it be for Joe
Biden or will it be for DonaldTrump. My guess is it would be
for Donald Trump. We'll just haveto wait and see. For still five
months away from the election, allright, More coming up here on the

(42:29):
Rodar canchow In Utah's Talk Radio oneoh five nine. Cannter s is there
a way to unite America? Youknow, we talk about this all the
time. The country is so dividedon social issues, on immigration issues,
on economic issues, but is therea way to unite the country? Joining
us on our Newsmaker line to talkmore about that is our good friend Ed

(42:51):
ring Edison, Senior fellow at theCenter for American Greatness. Ed. Always
great to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us tonight. We
talk about how divided the country istoday. How did this all get started?
In your opinion, A well,a lot of it is being engineer.
If you get out in the realworld and walk around, you're not

(43:12):
going to see the kind of tensionthat is represented on television and of course
amplified by social media. But youdo have to wonder what's the motivation behind
every institution in the country, youknow, throwing its weight behind things like
transgenderism. I mean, this isan issue that no one had ever heard

(43:35):
of, or well, had notbeen a central issue up until a couple
of years ago, and all ofa sudden, it's something that everybody's worried
about. And in the meantime,there are things happening economically that are you
know, extremely profound, that aregoing to change our way of life forever.
And we're not talking about that.We're talking about these social issues instead.

(44:00):
If we took away the social issuesand you know, I know I'm
living in la la land on thatone, but if those went away or
became less important, how do youthink it would change things? Then?
Well, you know, you haveto look at what happened with the Occupy
movement and the Tea Party, youknow, ten fifteen years ago, because
what they were criticizing, which isthe relentless centralization of wealth in the country,

(44:24):
were basically the same thing. Theywere both worried about the same thing.
One of them was coming from theleft, the so called left,
and the other one was coming fromthe right. And in both cases,
you know, whether it's socialism ormonopoly capitalism, you're looking at a centralization

(44:44):
of wealth and power and political poweras well as economic power. And that's
the kind of thing that generally speaking, Americans are you know, victimized by
and universally opposed to. You can'thave a middle class anymore if you centralize
all of the wealth and power inthe hands of a small percentage of the
population. But that's the direction we'reheaded in, and people on the left

(45:07):
and right are beginning to recognize thatthey have something in common there. What
about this. The headline in yourarticle, ed the way to unite America's
political spectrum is economic. Talk aboutthat for a few minutes, if you
would. Well, the idea thatAmericans are being, for example, priced

(45:29):
out of their own country. Youknow, they're priced out of owning homes,
they're priced out of having a middleclass lifestyle is something that ought to
be a unifying thing, and it'ssomething that victimizes everybody, whether they're you
know, regardless of their ethnicity andfrankly, regardless of their ideology. It's
still possible to make it in thiscountry, especially in some of the less

(45:51):
regulated states. But there's a growingrecognition on the right. Well, there's
always been a recognition on the rightthat regulation is a problem, I should
say, there's a growing recognition onthe left that if you have excessive regulations,
you actually benefit the big monopolies.And there's a recognition growing on the
right that you know, you reallycan't just let there's versions of capitalism.

(46:15):
There's casino capitalism, there's monopoly capitalism. These are immoral forms of capitalism.
All capitalism is and could so youhave to have the right amount of government
involvement. But what's happening and soyou're seeing sort of a emerging a center
forming between the economic left and theeconomic right. You can't have a nation

(46:37):
where the government and the corporations areworking together to centralize political power and centralize
economic power. That that's you know, that's a form of you might call
it corporate communism. It's something thatis going to be opposed by right and
left if they can work together onthat and not be distracted by some of
these other issues. And in youropinion, how much trouble is the American

(46:58):
dollar in right now? You know, it's easy to panic over something like
that. Yeah, we looked atthe amount of the bricks in terms of
economic power. Their GDP is aboutthe same as that of the United States.
But if you look at it interms of population, they have ten
times as many people in the tenBricks nations that there are so far.

(47:21):
So, you know, in termsof purchasing power as opposed to nominal GDP,
if you take into account the costof the lower cost of living in
all these nations, they're actually collectivelyeconomically bigger than the United States, but
they don't, on the other hand, have as much discretionary money to invest.
And you also have to take intoaccount the rest of the Western world,

(47:43):
and you have to take into accountthe basic reluctance of the people in
the world when they're choosing, youknow, which foreign nation to accept as
a superpower. America is still abetter choice. So yeah, I wouldn't
panic over this whole thing. Thething that's scary though, is the United
States. You know, you cancall it a coincidence. Let's just call

(48:04):
it a coincidence. But when SaddamSaying was selling oil and euros, all
of a sudden, even though wehad them all bottled up from the first
golf for we went ahead and tookIraq down and they occupied Iraq. And
when when Muhamar Kadafi was going toform an African currency Union, all of
a sudden, muam market Adafi,who had been playing ball with the West

(48:28):
for many years. He had someyou know, atrocious things he did earlier
in the eighties, but he wasyou know, really trying to I guess,
integrate o Libya with the Western worldand stay kind of non aligned or
maybe pro West if anything. Andall of a sudden, because he committed
this heresy of threatening the dollar,he's gone. So you look at the

(48:51):
bricks in that context, that's abigger threat than Saddam Hussein was to American
currency. It's a bigger threat thanMuhamar Kadafi was. So I worry what
some of these people that are runningour country are going to do about this.
It's not something that has to besolved through violence. It's something that
can be solved with economic reforms inour own country that make us even more
powerful. From the Center for AmericanGreatness, I said to Ring joining us

(49:15):
on our newsmaker line talking about unitingAmerica's political spectrum. Could the answer be
economically more Coming up here on therod ar Kinchow on this Thursday afternoon here
on Utah's Talk Radio one oh fivenine KNRS, let's talk about student behavior.
You talk to teachers today and oneof their greatest frustrations is their inability

(49:38):
to to discipline unruling students in theclassroom. Kids can get away with basically
anything anymore, and there's not awhole lot that teachers can do about it
is a huge frustration. Well,I bring this up because of this idea

(49:58):
coming out of the Dallas Dependent SchoolDistrict down there in Texas. And what
basically they are trying to do isthat they this an idea not implemented as
of yet, but it is percolatingdown there. They want parents sent to
the principal's office. I love thatwhen kids misbehavior, but it's three out

(50:22):
the principal's office. They want themto take a special class on parental responsibility.
Joining us on our newsmaker line totalk about this any idea is August
Mayra. He is an English teachera senior editor at The Everyman a Ghost.
Thank you very much for joining usto talk about this idea tonight.

(50:43):
All right, any idea? Aguust where this approach came from. It's
a good question because when I wasresearching this whole thing, it seems to
be school officials. So there's someboard of trustees involved, and I think
there's some district administrators involved, andit's all about revising the code of conduct

(51:07):
protocols for the district. And sothere's many layers of edge crafts and administrative
stuff so there's not a lot oftransparency about where it comes from. It's
just been proposed. All right,you's a passive voide. Yeah, there
you go, it goes all right, let's talk about, you know,
the idea or how this would work. How would this work exactly? So

(51:30):
I tried to figure out I thinkif so for certain punishments, if they're
very severe, you get sent toDAEP. And I think that's non negotiable
if it's like a state law,so like vaping, vaping. They've been
cracking down on vaping in Texas,and so that's immediate at least automatic ten

(51:50):
days and DAP. I think it'sfor anything where the judgment of the campus
comes into play. So if akid says they're using hate language, or
they're bullying another kid, or there'ssome dispute going on, and the administrators
want to use some kind of punishmentthat's less conventional, you know, like

(52:15):
giving the parents parenting classes is ofa piece with restorative justice, meaning like
you use either storative discipline techniques whereit's like instead of punishing the kid,
you call the kid in and theytalk it out with whoever they're bullying or
victimizing or even with the teacher,and it's meant to be more therapeutic and

(52:37):
fair and not result in actual punishment. So the parenting classes of that piece
and parents would probably be recommended touse the same technique. Even though none
of this works out, none ofthis helps with behavior, and a lot
of it's just an excuse not towrite suspensions and give ten kids at the

(52:57):
AP. So is the thinking behindthis. If a student is misbehaving,
their parents must be misbehaving, andwe're gonna call them on the carpet for
misbehaving. Yeah, I mean thisis kind of what's done with tuancy.
If a kid is not coming toschool because they're skipping or doing whatever editching
class, the parents are called inand they have to fill out paperwork and

(53:22):
they have to go to these meetings, and you know, usually that's all
adjudicated in an actual court truancy court. So i'd imagine that a parenting classes.
If you're being assigned parenting classes,it's being proposed as like an alternative.
You say, like, well,your kid could go to DAP for
a month, or you can agreeto do parenting classes for four sessions.

(53:45):
So I think that's how they workit I'm not sure how you know how
much this would actually happen, orif it's more theoretical. Whatever happened to
the good old days where if Imisbehave in school I got called into the
principal's office and was really serious.I showed up and my parents were there
as well. What are happened tothose good old days? Or goost?

(54:07):
Well, apparently when you do stufflike that, I mean a lot of
this is a result of disparate outcomes, right, so that this is where
the DEI and the equity stuff comeinto play. It's like, Okay,
kids who would get into trouble,get called to the principle, get you
know, given suspension, or hadtheir parents come in. We're disproportionately from

(54:28):
you know, we're black or Hispanicor of color or some kind of minority.
And you know, therefore they said, okay, what is a way
we can discipline kids without you know, focusing, you know, without this
disparate outcome to happen. So theycome up with a very convoluted process that
you know, looks more equitable,looks fairer and more and again it just

(54:54):
comes off as therapeutic and kind ofineffect it. But that's kind of where
we're they're coming from. It's morelike, how can we discipline without disciplining?
How can we discipline in a waythat doesn't look like we're you know,
targeting one group and you know beinginjust or whatever. Good I mean,
you end your article where you talkabout this indicating that this demonstrates that

(55:16):
public school DiscT school districts, especiallythe urban districts, have really become unhinged
when it comes to student discipline.What are they so afraid of to discipline
a student nowadays? Why are theywell, like I was saying, I
mean that they start disciplining kids andbeing strict with enforcement, you're going to

(55:38):
have a lot more black and Hispanickids who are indaep and into school suspension,
and they're going to be accusations ofinequity. So they're more afraid of
giving this impression of being more equitableand just, and they want to necessitate

(55:58):
a lot more positions. I meanagain, and when you create so many
processes for administering discipline and enforcing disciplineand coming up with rules and revising these
codes, you know, these manuals, that's a lot more jobs. You
need specialists for all this kind ofstuff. So what are they afraid of,
like, you know, effective discipline. Well, they're just afraid of,

(56:19):
you know, cutting a lot ofjobs that would have been created had
you taken a lot more a roundaboutapproach that somehow aspires for this weird DEI
kind of ideal. Wow. Wow, is this still just in the idea
stage or is it moving forward togoost? It sounds like they're going to
try to vote on it. Iwant to be surprised if it passes,

(56:42):
because again, you have other kindsof policies and strategies like restorative discipline,
where it necessitates a lot of meetingsand committees and specialists, and you know,
it's a lot of roundabout ways oftrying to punish a kid without punishing
kid, and trying to look equitablewithout really being equitable. I mean,
really, all you're doing is justletting back kids back in the class.

(57:06):
They're terrorizing their classes and getting nowhere. Teachers feel you know, unsupported,
admins feel like their hands are tied, and the district just creates more of
these kind of positions and creates moreof these rules and then they you know,
go with the fads, which usuallyhave a new disciplinary fad like every
two years or three years. Soyeah, the Goose may Roth. Thank

(57:30):
you a Goose for joining us onour newsmaker line talking about this idea in
the Dallas Independent School District. Now, if you under this idea, and
like I said, it's just anidea, if your child acts up in
school and needs to be disciplined,not only will the child be disciplined,
but the parents will be called inand we'll have to take a special class

(57:55):
on parental discipline. How much doyou think that idea is going to fly
in America today? Not very far? All right? More coming up here
on the rod Ar catcho in Utah'sTalk Radio one oh five nine knrs