August 25, 2023 • 25 mins
Kentucky Republican candidate for governor Daniel Cameron spoke to Terry Meiners about the Trump arrest and a potential new mask mandate. He also speaks about the new Louisville police chief and installing a Kentucky State Police post in Louisville. Cameron also spoke about education in the state and his other plans for the Commonwealth.
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First, we've got a guest rightoff the jump. His name is Daniel
Cameron. He's Attorney General for theCommonwealth of Kentucky. It's great to see
you again, Terry's always good tosee you and good to be on the
program. And you also brought RyanStraw with he He is the vice president
for the Kentucky Fop High Ryan,good to see you, Terry Gould see
you. Well, we're going totalk a little bit about those matters in
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just a couple of minutes. Butif you don't mind, the biggest story
in America is Donald Trump and reportingin to the Fulton County jail yesterday.
You've seen the mug shot, You'veheard all the rollback he has endorsed you,
So I need to get your takeon all that happened yesterday. Well,
look, President Trump is a fighterand he's going to continue to fight
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for the American people and the hardworking folks here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
And what I often tell folks is, you know, I know that's
going on down in Georgia, butreally I'm focused on the next several months
and making sure that I'm the nextgovernor here of the Commonwealth. Of Kentucky,
and I'll tell you you know,just recently, there was a report
in the news about the Basheer shakedownof the Baron County Development Board, and
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I think more reporters, more newsfolks here in Kentucky need to be focused
on that story because that's something that'shappening right here in Kentucky. Look,
I'm running to be the next governorof our commonwealth. I'm running to make
sure that our law enforcement community knowsthat they have someone in this office that's
going to support them, not onlyin word, but also indeed, because
we know, if we improve themorale of our law enforcement community, at
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the end of the day, we'regoing to make sure that our streets are
safe from crime and drugs. Andthat's a message that I think resonates really
well here in Louisville, where we'veseen some issues with violent crime over the
course of these last several years,and we haven't had a governor that has
been willing to do anything to confrontIt's one of the reasons I think we
need to have a Kentucky State Policepost here in Louisville. It baffles my
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mind that we're this far down theroad and there's not a Kentucky State Police
post here. What does Governor Basher'sobjection of putting a state police unit in
the city Louisville. Well, youknow, I think he him at Hawes
about all the you know, differentthings, but at the end of the
day, you know, he triedto say that, you know, I
didn't have faith or confidence in theLouisville Metro Police Department, which is completely
absurd. You know, I grewup in Etown and there was a Kentucky
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State Police post. If you drivedown sixty five South, you'd see the
Kentucky State Police Post right there offthe interstate. But no one in my
hometown, no one walked him tomy parents coffee shop and said, well,
you know, we don't have confidencein the Elizabethtown Police Department, so
we had to have the Kentucky StatePolice here. That's just beyond you know,
ridiculous that the governor would even suggestsomething like this. In fact,
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I got the Kentucky State Fraternal Orderof Police's endorsement because they know that I'm
going to stand for them. Theidea of bringing a Kentucky State Police post
here to Louisville is about augmenting ourlocal resources. If we are serious about
the issue of violent crime, andlet's make sure the state has some skin
in the game and that through theKentucky State Police, we can help our
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local LMPD officers fight violent crime,get that under control so that people will
want to come to our downtown.People want to spend money here. Our
downtown Louisville in particular, has tobe the center for arts, for commerce,
for entertainment. I want people tocome back to this area so it
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is thriving, so that we don'thave areas that are unoccupied, or buildings
or offices that are unoccupied. We'vegot to get that violent crime under control,
and I've got a plan to doit well. LMPD is understaffed as
well. They need three hundred moreofficers. They'll tell you I saw you
at the Police Foundation fundraiser a fewweeks ago, and they, you know,
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openly say in that messaging we've gotto get more people. How are
we going to bring And Ryan wantto ask you this question as well,
how are we going to get morepeople men and women interested in law enforcements
so we can get the ranks backup to where any city of any size
is safe. Yeah. Look,we unveiled the Cameron Pok Safety Plan a
couple of weeks ago, and oneof the key components of that plan is
to make sure that we improve themorale of our law enforcement community. One
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way in which we can do thatis through recruitment and retention bonuses to the
tune of five thousand dollars for ourofficers, so that we can get people
interested in the profession of law enforcementalso retain those that are in it currently.
I also think it's important to havea governor that is going to be
a part and in many ways acheerleader for our law enforcement community and talk
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about the fact that it is anoble profession and we need folks to join
it. I also think that it'simportant that if we talk about the responsibility
to look after our law enforcement community, we've got to fight for their pensions.
That's something as the next governor ofKentucky I'm going to do. I'm
going to be adamant about making surethat our men and women of law enforcement
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know again that we're not just talking, but we're leading with action that helps
them, that improves and ultimately makesure that our streets are safe from crime
and drugs. Ryan Straws in thestudio whether us from the Kentucky FOP of
Vice President go ahead, you two, how do we get more men and
women into the ranks of law enforcement? We have somebody like Daniel Cameron to
be our next governor. I thinkone of the big things amongst our membership
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is that support from elected officials,even here in Louisville. Being a member
of a local Louisville FOP lodge myself, on top of being in my role
with the state, you know,we go around, we speak to officers
from everywhere, not just LMPD,and under the previous mayor it was horrible
for them. That morale was horrible. Under the current mayor, we still
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have a lot of faith that MayorGreenberg is going to do everything he said
he's gonna do when we met withhim and he was running. But I
can tell you that, you know, it's not just an issue in Louisville.
But since we're on a Louisville specificshow, I will tell you that
there are a lot of people thatwant to stay here that are from Louisville
or when to come to Louisville andbe the police and right now, pay
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down retirement's not great in this state, and it's easier to go right across
the bridge and make about fifteen grandmore and have a much better retirement.
Well, there are other police departmentsJeffersontown, Saint Matthew's, others, Shyvely
that pay better absolutely, which again, all those guys and gals are great,
and they have great departments. ButI think our biggest police department in
the state outside of the State Police, should be able to have the highest
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payer round and we should be ableto recruit the best law enforcement possible.
General Cameron, you know that LMPDnow has said they will do the investigation
process for questions to come up withLMPD practices as opposed to the State Police,
which wasn't. Are you good withthat what the new chief has said.
I have confidence in the new chief, and I'm excited about her tenure,
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and I'm glad that she got thenew role, and I look forward
as the next governor working with locallaw enforcement. I think it's important to
continue to have a very strong relationshipbetween the Kentucky State Police and our local
departments, in particular LMPD, andsupport the measures that she's undertaken sich she's
taken on the role officially, howdo we make people feel safer? I
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know you're talking about the arts andentertainment district and the business I mean there
are a lot of office buildings aroundus right now that are unoccupied, are
close to it. So how dowe make people more eager to have dinner
downtown to come to the office insteadof seeing I'm only going to work remotely?
I mean, what do we doin terms of law enforcement and overall
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public safety? Well, Terry peoplehave to have confidence that they come downtown
and they're not going to be harmed. And the way that we address that,
and the way that it should beaddressed, is through our leadership in
Frankfort, working with our mayor herealongside our chief and our local law enforcement
community and other stakeholders as well.But we haven't had that leadership from Andy
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Bazer. He is in many waysdrop the ball on this issue. I
mean, he has failed us asit relates to the issue of law enforcement.
In fact, he made the issueworse. I mean I remind people
that while he was locking the schoolsdown in twenty twenty, he was unlocking
the jails, and he let outroughly two thousand criminals, and a third
of those recommitted felony offenses. Andso you think about a governor who,
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when they had the chance to standup for our law enforcement community and protect
our communities, failed us. Hemade law enforcement's job harder, and he
made our neighborhoods and our downtown areasless safe again. That's why I think
the Kentucky State Fop endorsed this campaign. I mean, this is a big
deal. I know the governor certainlytries to downplay it, but the fact
of the matter is is they endorsedhim in twenty nineteen. They have endorsed
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this campaign, my campaign for governorthis year because they recognize that it's important
to have somebody not only in word, but indeed support them fight for them
with the express understanding that at theend of the day, this is all
about making sure that folks want tocome back to downtown Louisville that want to
be a part of commerce and makingsure that this area continues to be a
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beacon for entertainment and the arts.We have to have our folks feel confident
that they can come downtown and feelsafe and I've got a plan to make
sure that happens. They always tellus Louisville's the economic engine of Kentucky.
It's also about bringing businesses, notonly retaining the ones we have, but
bringing new businesses here and again,all that plays into it, in addition
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to many other factors that dissuade companiesfrom choosing Kentucky. How would a Governor
Cameron overrun the obstacles that you thinkare in place now? Well, Look,
I think it's important that we rebuildKentucky's foundation. And what I mean
by that is for any society tothrive, to flourish, if you will,
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you got to have strong education system. You got to make sure that
your streets are safe safe, andyou've got to make sure that you have
somebody in leadership that's protecting the familyunit. And Andy Basher has failed us
all three of those. In manyways, our foundation is eroding underneath us
because of his failures. We've talkedabout crime, the fact that he let
out seventeen hundred criminals, third ofthose recommitted offenses, making law enforcements job
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harder. We've talked about that.The other thing that I think is important
to note that during the time thathe was letting criminals out. Rather than
help and deploy law enforcement into ourcommunities to help with that, he deployed
law enforcement to our churches to recordlicense plates, which just to this day
I think is still a shocking,just shocking in many ways to the conscience
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as it relates to, you know, the constitutional destruction of our amendments,
our our our ability to worship freely. And then when you take on top
of that the fact that we've hadan education system that he's felt us on
as well. Think of the factthat for nearly two years he shut our
schools down and we have learning lossbecause of it. Our children, our
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grandkids have learning loss, and weknow from the studies that are out there
that the kids right now because ofthat learning loss may lose out on tens
of thousands of dollars of earning potential. We've got to catch our kids up,
and that's why I unveiled the Cameroncatchup plan here recently. It's a
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plan to help catch our kids upin areas that they've fallen behind him because
of Andy Bashir's disastrous policies. Andso at the end of the day,
we want to make sure we catchour kids up and reading, writing,
math, science. We've got asixteen week program that will help our kids
catch up. Part of it willbe in the summer, the other part
will be after school. This isagain to make sure we catch our kids
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up. I unveiled this plan acouple of weeks ago. In addition to
catching our kids up, it's aboutmaking sure that our teachers have all the
resources that they need to do thejob effectively. That means increasing the starting
pay for our teachers, knowing thatthat will have a ripple effect upwards for
all of our teachers to get salaryraises. It's also about restoring discipline to
the classroom to make sure that ourkids are able to learn in a disruption
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free environment. It's also about movingsome of the bureaucracy that exists and within
our schools. Right now, youhave a Kentucky Department of Education commissioner who's
gotten very focused on trying to makeour hard working teachers embrace in many ways
far left ideas in our classrooms.And we certainly and when Jason Glass said
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that teachers should either embrace these farleft values or get a different job,
this struck a chord in my housebecause my wife McKenzie spent nearly seven years
in the Oldham County school system teachingfifth and third grade, and so the
idea that she or any other teacherwould have to give up their values embrace
the far less values in order tostay in the classroom is an absurd notion.
And as I've often said on thecampaign trail, hard working teachers don't
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need to find another job. Andmy judgment at Andy Basher needs to find
another and I'm going to help himdo that in November. But again,
this program that we put forth,the Cameron Catchup Plan, is about supporting
our teachers, catching our kids up, and making sure that our teachers know
that the Republican Party under my leadershipis going to support them. I know
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that perhaps there's some misgivings about aRepublican nominee for governor because of past things
that have been said. Well,you used the phrase the other day,
Hey, teachers are not the enemy. That's exactly right. Teachers are what
drive our communities. I mean,if you look across a lot of this
Commonwealth, teachers are sometimes and theschool systems are the largest employers, and
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they have daily the ability to impactfor the better our kids, and I
am so grateful for them. Andagain I want them to know. Any
teacher that is listening right now,I want you to know that the Republican
Party under my leadership is going tostand with you, going to support you,
and know that you are valued.And I say that as someone who
is married to a teacher. Mysister in law is a teacher right now
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in the JCPS school system. Mymom retired as a public educator. So
these experiences that they have lived andI have seen firsthand inform my decision making
and my thoughts about public education.Again, the Republican Party's going to stand
firm for public schools and public education. We're gonna make it, in many
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ways, a world class system,one that can be a shining city on
a hill and a model example tothe rest of the nation. You heard
Senator Ran Paul yesterday make some jokesat the hand Breakfast about JCPS. But
as JCPS too big, is ittoo unwieldy on this land mass, should
it be broken into subset districts?Well, look, I think that it
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was unfortunate and sad what we sawwith the first week of school and the
Bush problems that occurred, and Ithink it's important for any governor to be
in gage in a productive conversation abouthow we can get our buses moving on
time and how we can get ourkids to school. And the idea that
parents didn't know where their child wasor their children were until ten o'clock at
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night just breaks my heart. AndI know that there's so many bus drivers
that were doing their best and theywere just put in a very difficult situation.
And I think the school board needsto own some of that. I
mean the fact that the school boardspent roughly two meetings figuring out how they
were gonna not follow or comply withSenate Bill one fifty. I think they
should have been focused on making surethat they put our bus drivers in the
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best position to do their job.But again, I think as governor,
to be productive, I want towork with JCPS. I want to make
sure that we do everything we possiblycan from the actual classroom to make sure
our classrooms are about reading, writing, and math, to make sure that
our teachers know that they are supported. To make sure that our bus drivers
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recognize that you're going to have leadershipin Frankfort that's going to be watchful and
mindful about their needs as well.Is important as it relates to your specific
question. I think it, youknow, would be important for me to
enter any to any conversations about,you know, what JCPS looks like going
forward. I think it's important forme to have that conversation with the superintendent
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along with other stakeholders, parents aswell, because you know, before any
judgment is made on that front,I think it's important to have everyone gathered
around the table. One of thegreat things that a governor has the ability
to do, and we haven't seenthis a lot with Andy Basher, is
the governor has the ability to bea convening authority, Meaning you can get
parents in the room, you canget superintendents in the room, you can
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get teachers in the room to havea frank and open and honest conversation about
what we need to do going forward. But my priority is to make sure
that JCPS JCPS is the best versionof itself it can be. If you're
governor next year, what should thepriorities of the supermajority in the state legislature
focus upon? First, Well,they the number one priority is making sure
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we get the Cameron Ketchup Plan passed, and making sure that we're fighting hard
for the pensions of our law enforcementofficers. You know, one of the
things that I think is particularly importantto note on this front is that,
you know, Andy Basher has kindof been following my lead on the public
or the Cameron Ketchup Plan, onour education plan. On the public safety
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plan, I introduce mine and thenhe introduces his afterwards. But the difference
and the distinction between my plan ishis plan is that he has no plausible
way of getting it done. Andas a leader of the important and responsible
thing is is before you put outa proposal, it's important to have conversations
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with the leadership of the General Assemblyon the public safety plan and on the
Cameron Ketchup Plan our education plan.I've had conversations with the leadership of our
state Senate and our State House toget both of those things passed. They're
both ambitious agendas that need the buyin of the General Assembly. So when
I tell you today that the CameronKetchup Plan is going to be implemented and
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go into effect next year, it'sbecause I've had the conversations with our General
Assembly, with Andy Basher, whenhe unveiled his education plan, he got
up at his press conference and talkedabout it, but one thing he did
not talk about was communicating with thelegislature and the Education Committee chairman for the
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House and the Senates that they hadno communication with the governor before he unveiled
his plan. Again, it isa prime example of it is an election
year. Andy Basher just makes thingsup in order to try to get reelected,
but has no plausible way in whichto actually help our teachers. What
I'm committing to our teachers here inKentucky is that the Cameron Ketchup Plan will
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be passed, the Cameron Ketchup Planwill be implemented, and the Cameron Ketchup
Plan is going to make sure thatKentucky has a world class education system and
again is going to support our teachersand to make sure that they have the
resources they need and make sure thatwe get rid of the bureaucracy that gets
in the way of our teachers beingable to build connections with our students so
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that they can be the best versionof themselves. You were in an odd
position yesterday because you were in theaudience and your opponent was able to speak
he's a sitting governor. Did youhear anything in that speech you thought was
disingenuous? Were you taking notes?Well, how did you take that in?
And did you notice that as soonas he finished speaking he left the
room before Mitch mcconnellin ran Paul spoke. Yeah, the governor has a habit
of leaving, you know, atFancy Farm he finished speaking, and then
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soon thereafter he left, he evenleft part of his ticket. They had
not even finished at Fancy Farm,and he left half of his ticket before
you know, they were even throughall their speeches. And so he's got
a habit of doing that. Butwhat I'll say is that I could feel
the energy in the room for ourcampaign. You got a louder applause than
here. I did get a louderapplause. I think it's because, you
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know, Andy Basher often comes tothe hand breakfasts and lectures the farmers and
the Kentucky Farm Bureau about their valuesand what I've said when I went to
their form that they had a coupleof months ago, when we were both
invited, Andy Basher decided that hewasn't going to show up, but I
went and I told them that I'mgoing to stand with them, I'm going
to stand with their values, andI'm going to fight for them against an
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EPA in Washington, DC that's tryingto destroy their way of life. And
as it relates to what Andy Basheryesterday, he didn't really say anything that
was related to the farmers themselves.I don't even think he thank them for
the service that they provide to ourcommunity and feeding us. But in addition
to that, what I've often saidis, you know, data that he
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shares related to future promises is nosubstitute for the present pain that our people
are feeling. And what I meanby that is, right now, because
of the inflationary pressures that are beingpressed upon our people, because of things
that are happening through the Biden administration, it is harder to buy groceries,
it is harder to fill our vehiclesup with gas, it's harder to find
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childcare that doesn't cost too terribly much. And when Andy Basher had an opportunity
to alleviate that pressure and work withour General Assembly to reduce and lower the
taxes of our hard working men andwomen, he did the exact opposite,
and he vetoed that and again AndyBasher does not understand and is indifferent to
the plight and concerns of the hardworking folks here in Kentucky. The fact
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of the matter is is that sincehe's been governor, there are twenty seven
thousand fewer Kentuckians working in the commonwealth, and we have the forty seventh lowest
workforce participation rate in the nation.That's just not something that is sustainable,
especially as we think about some ofthese projects coming online. How are we
going to have people in the plantsand the facilities to work. How are
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people going to continue to be ableto sustain themselves. I'm going to be
a governor that is going to worktirelessly to make sure that we get to
zero percent income tax rate as quicklyas we can, because I know while
the Biden administration again has caused skyhigh inflation near a thirty year high,
if you will on inflation, ourpeople need relief here in Kentucky. The
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best way that we can do thatis through getting our income tax rate down
to zero as fast as we can. The last thing for your comedians are
online mocking of course, Oh yougot you got the vax and then you
got another vax that you got abooster or another booster it or booster over
here. And now there's talk thatmask mandates may return. What do you
think of that phrase, mask mandatesand the concept of that returning again when
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we've seen all that everybody says,trust the science, and we've gone through
the whole prism of well the sciencereally wasn't correct here. Yeah, I
think that's a phrase you'll never hearGovernor Daniel Cameron say, because we will
not have mass mandates when I'm governorof the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And on
that note, one of the thingsI think was highly ironic about what Andy
did you know? While when heeventually decided it was okay to open up
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schools, he mandated mask for theteachers, and Mackenzie would come home from
school and talk about the irony ofbeing six feet away from her students having
to wear a mask and knowing,if you talk to any speech pathologists,
the importance of not only a student, particularly a young child, hearing you,
but also seeing your mouth, andhow that was taken away from our
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kids for roughly two years. Butat the same time he was telling our
teachers that they had to wear amask and couldn't fully communicate with their students.
Every day at four o'clock he wouldwalk up to the podium with his
mask on and then take it offso that he could communicate and folks could
see his mouth. And I justthink it was completely just the sheer irony
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of those two side by sides ofa teacher having to wear a mask and
the governor feeling like he was moreimportant than everyone else and being able to
take his mask off to communicate hisideas. And then on top of it,
when you pair that with the learningloss and the fact that at some
point he told you if you leftthe state and came back, you had
to quarantine for a period of fourteendays, and other rules in which big
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businesses were allowed to stay open andsmall businesses had to shut down, including
our churches. A lot of therules that the governor implement it just did
not make sense and it destroyed alot of small businesses. Often tell the
story there's a restaurant in Lexington calledPortofino that because of the decisions that the
governors were making, ultimately decided theyneed to they had to close. And
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there are a lot of small businessesacross our state that can share that story,
and it is unfortunate. But whenI'm governor, you're gonna have a
governor that's going to stand up foryour constitutional rights, that's not going to
pick winners and losers like we sawAndy bisherdo, and is going to fight
daily for our kids and our grandkidsand our teachers to make sure that we
have a wonderful and world class education, said Daniel Cameron. Appreciate the time
you two, Ryan Straw, Thanksso much, sir. We'll talk about
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it down the road, all right. Thanks. That's Daniel Cameron, Canada
for governor here in Kentucky. Backin a few on news radio weight forty
w h as
First, we've got a guest rightoff the jump. His name is Daniel
Cameron. He's Attorney General for theCommonwealth of Kentucky. It's great to see
you again, Terry's always good tosee you and good to be on the
program. And you also brought RyanStraw with he He is the vice president
for the Kentucky Fop High Ryan,good to see you, Terry Gould see
you. Well, we're going totalk a little bit about those matters in
(00:20):
just a couple of minutes. Butif you don't mind, the biggest story
in America is Donald Trump and reportingin to the Fulton County jail yesterday.
You've seen the mug shot, You'veheard all the rollback he has endorsed you,
So I need to get your takeon all that happened yesterday. Well,
look, President Trump is a fighterand he's going to continue to fight
(00:41):
for the American people and the hardworking folks here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
And what I often tell folks is, you know, I know that's
going on down in Georgia, butreally I'm focused on the next several months
and making sure that I'm the nextgovernor here of the Commonwealth. Of Kentucky,
and I'll tell you you know,just recently, there was a report
in the news about the Basheer shakedownof the Baron County Development Board, and
(01:07):
I think more reporters, more newsfolks here in Kentucky need to be focused
on that story because that's something that'shappening right here in Kentucky. Look,
I'm running to be the next governorof our commonwealth. I'm running to make
sure that our law enforcement community knowsthat they have someone in this office that's
going to support them, not onlyin word, but also indeed, because
we know, if we improve themorale of our law enforcement community, at
(01:30):
the end of the day, we'regoing to make sure that our streets are
safe from crime and drugs. Andthat's a message that I think resonates really
well here in Louisville, where we'veseen some issues with violent crime over the
course of these last several years,and we haven't had a governor that has
been willing to do anything to confrontIt's one of the reasons I think we
need to have a Kentucky State Policepost here in Louisville. It baffles my
(01:52):
mind that we're this far down theroad and there's not a Kentucky State Police
post here. What does Governor Basher'sobjection of putting a state police unit in
the city Louisville. Well, youknow, I think he him at Hawes
about all the you know, differentthings, but at the end of the
day, you know, he triedto say that, you know, I
didn't have faith or confidence in theLouisville Metro Police Department, which is completely
absurd. You know, I grewup in Etown and there was a Kentucky
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State Police post. If you drivedown sixty five South, you'd see the
Kentucky State Police Post right there offthe interstate. But no one in my
hometown, no one walked him tomy parents coffee shop and said, well,
you know, we don't have confidencein the Elizabethtown Police Department, so
we had to have the Kentucky StatePolice here. That's just beyond you know,
ridiculous that the governor would even suggestsomething like this. In fact,
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I got the Kentucky State Fraternal Orderof Police's endorsement because they know that I'm
going to stand for them. Theidea of bringing a Kentucky State Police post
here to Louisville is about augmenting ourlocal resources. If we are serious about
the issue of violent crime, andlet's make sure the state has some skin
in the game and that through theKentucky State Police, we can help our
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local LMPD officers fight violent crime,get that under control so that people will
want to come to our downtown.People want to spend money here. Our
downtown Louisville in particular, has tobe the center for arts, for commerce,
for entertainment. I want people tocome back to this area so it
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is thriving, so that we don'thave areas that are unoccupied, or buildings
or offices that are unoccupied. We'vegot to get that violent crime under control,
and I've got a plan to doit well. LMPD is understaffed as
well. They need three hundred moreofficers. They'll tell you I saw you
at the Police Foundation fundraiser a fewweeks ago, and they, you know,
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openly say in that messaging we've gotto get more people. How are
we going to bring And Ryan wantto ask you this question as well,
how are we going to get morepeople men and women interested in law enforcements
so we can get the ranks backup to where any city of any size
is safe. Yeah. Look,we unveiled the Cameron Pok Safety Plan a
couple of weeks ago, and oneof the key components of that plan is
to make sure that we improve themorale of our law enforcement community. One
(04:08):
way in which we can do thatis through recruitment and retention bonuses to the
tune of five thousand dollars for ourofficers, so that we can get people
interested in the profession of law enforcementalso retain those that are in it currently.
I also think it's important to havea governor that is going to be
a part and in many ways acheerleader for our law enforcement community and talk
(04:31):
about the fact that it is anoble profession and we need folks to join
it. I also think that it'simportant that if we talk about the responsibility
to look after our law enforcement community, we've got to fight for their pensions.
That's something as the next governor ofKentucky I'm going to do. I'm
going to be adamant about making surethat our men and women of law enforcement
(04:53):
know again that we're not just talking, but we're leading with action that helps
them, that improves and ultimately makesure that our streets are safe from crime
and drugs. Ryan Straws in thestudio whether us from the Kentucky FOP of
Vice President go ahead, you two, how do we get more men and
women into the ranks of law enforcement? We have somebody like Daniel Cameron to
be our next governor. I thinkone of the big things amongst our membership
(05:16):
is that support from elected officials,even here in Louisville. Being a member
of a local Louisville FOP lodge myself, on top of being in my role
with the state, you know,we go around, we speak to officers
from everywhere, not just LMPD,and under the previous mayor it was horrible
for them. That morale was horrible. Under the current mayor, we still
(05:39):
have a lot of faith that MayorGreenberg is going to do everything he said
he's gonna do when we met withhim and he was running. But I
can tell you that, you know, it's not just an issue in Louisville.
But since we're on a Louisville specificshow, I will tell you that
there are a lot of people thatwant to stay here that are from Louisville
or when to come to Louisville andbe the police and right now, pay
(06:00):
down retirement's not great in this state, and it's easier to go right across
the bridge and make about fifteen grandmore and have a much better retirement.
Well, there are other police departmentsJeffersontown, Saint Matthew's, others, Shyvely
that pay better absolutely, which again, all those guys and gals are great,
and they have great departments. ButI think our biggest police department in
the state outside of the State Police, should be able to have the highest
(06:24):
payer round and we should be ableto recruit the best law enforcement possible.
General Cameron, you know that LMPDnow has said they will do the investigation
process for questions to come up withLMPD practices as opposed to the State Police,
which wasn't. Are you good withthat what the new chief has said.
I have confidence in the new chief, and I'm excited about her tenure,
(06:46):
and I'm glad that she got thenew role, and I look forward
as the next governor working with locallaw enforcement. I think it's important to
continue to have a very strong relationshipbetween the Kentucky State Police and our local
departments, in particular LMPD, andsupport the measures that she's undertaken sich she's
taken on the role officially, howdo we make people feel safer? I
(07:10):
know you're talking about the arts andentertainment district and the business I mean there
are a lot of office buildings aroundus right now that are unoccupied, are
close to it. So how dowe make people more eager to have dinner
downtown to come to the office insteadof seeing I'm only going to work remotely?
I mean, what do we doin terms of law enforcement and overall
(07:30):
public safety? Well, Terry peoplehave to have confidence that they come downtown
and they're not going to be harmed. And the way that we address that,
and the way that it should beaddressed, is through our leadership in
Frankfort, working with our mayor herealongside our chief and our local law enforcement
community and other stakeholders as well.But we haven't had that leadership from Andy
(07:54):
Bazer. He is in many waysdrop the ball on this issue. I
mean, he has failed us asit relates to the issue of law enforcement.
In fact, he made the issueworse. I mean I remind people
that while he was locking the schoolsdown in twenty twenty, he was unlocking
the jails, and he let outroughly two thousand criminals, and a third
of those recommitted felony offenses. Andso you think about a governor who,
(08:15):
when they had the chance to standup for our law enforcement community and protect
our communities, failed us. Hemade law enforcement's job harder, and he
made our neighborhoods and our downtown areasless safe again. That's why I think
the Kentucky State Fop endorsed this campaign. I mean, this is a big
deal. I know the governor certainlytries to downplay it, but the fact
of the matter is is they endorsedhim in twenty nineteen. They have endorsed
(08:37):
this campaign, my campaign for governorthis year because they recognize that it's important
to have somebody not only in word, but indeed support them fight for them
with the express understanding that at theend of the day, this is all
about making sure that folks want tocome back to downtown Louisville that want to
be a part of commerce and makingsure that this area continues to be a
(09:03):
beacon for entertainment and the arts.We have to have our folks feel confident
that they can come downtown and feelsafe and I've got a plan to make
sure that happens. They always tellus Louisville's the economic engine of Kentucky.
It's also about bringing businesses, notonly retaining the ones we have, but
bringing new businesses here and again,all that plays into it, in addition
(09:24):
to many other factors that dissuade companiesfrom choosing Kentucky. How would a Governor
Cameron overrun the obstacles that you thinkare in place now? Well, Look,
I think it's important that we rebuildKentucky's foundation. And what I mean
by that is for any society tothrive, to flourish, if you will,
(09:48):
you got to have strong education system. You got to make sure that
your streets are safe safe, andyou've got to make sure that you have
somebody in leadership that's protecting the familyunit. And Andy Basher has failed us
all three of those. In manyways, our foundation is eroding underneath us
because of his failures. We've talkedabout crime, the fact that he let
out seventeen hundred criminals, third ofthose recommitted offenses, making law enforcements job
(10:13):
harder. We've talked about that.The other thing that I think is important
to note that during the time thathe was letting criminals out. Rather than
help and deploy law enforcement into ourcommunities to help with that, he deployed
law enforcement to our churches to recordlicense plates, which just to this day
I think is still a shocking,just shocking in many ways to the conscience
(10:35):
as it relates to, you know, the constitutional destruction of our amendments,
our our our ability to worship freely. And then when you take on top
of that the fact that we've hadan education system that he's felt us on
as well. Think of the factthat for nearly two years he shut our
schools down and we have learning lossbecause of it. Our children, our
(10:58):
grandkids have learning loss, and weknow from the studies that are out there
that the kids right now because ofthat learning loss may lose out on tens
of thousands of dollars of earning potential. We've got to catch our kids up,
and that's why I unveiled the Cameroncatchup plan here recently. It's a
(11:18):
plan to help catch our kids upin areas that they've fallen behind him because
of Andy Bashir's disastrous policies. Andso at the end of the day,
we want to make sure we catchour kids up and reading, writing,
math, science. We've got asixteen week program that will help our kids
catch up. Part of it willbe in the summer, the other part
will be after school. This isagain to make sure we catch our kids
(11:41):
up. I unveiled this plan acouple of weeks ago. In addition to
catching our kids up, it's aboutmaking sure that our teachers have all the
resources that they need to do thejob effectively. That means increasing the starting
pay for our teachers, knowing thatthat will have a ripple effect upwards for
all of our teachers to get salaryraises. It's also about restoring discipline to
the classroom to make sure that ourkids are able to learn in a disruption
(12:07):
free environment. It's also about movingsome of the bureaucracy that exists and within
our schools. Right now, youhave a Kentucky Department of Education commissioner who's
gotten very focused on trying to makeour hard working teachers embrace in many ways
far left ideas in our classrooms.And we certainly and when Jason Glass said
(12:33):
that teachers should either embrace these farleft values or get a different job,
this struck a chord in my housebecause my wife McKenzie spent nearly seven years
in the Oldham County school system teachingfifth and third grade, and so the
idea that she or any other teacherwould have to give up their values embrace
the far less values in order tostay in the classroom is an absurd notion.
And as I've often said on thecampaign trail, hard working teachers don't
(12:56):
need to find another job. Andmy judgment at Andy Basher needs to find
another and I'm going to help himdo that in November. But again,
this program that we put forth,the Cameron Catchup Plan, is about supporting
our teachers, catching our kids up, and making sure that our teachers know
that the Republican Party under my leadershipis going to support them. I know
(13:18):
that perhaps there's some misgivings about aRepublican nominee for governor because of past things
that have been said. Well,you used the phrase the other day,
Hey, teachers are not the enemy. That's exactly right. Teachers are what
drive our communities. I mean,if you look across a lot of this
Commonwealth, teachers are sometimes and theschool systems are the largest employers, and
(13:43):
they have daily the ability to impactfor the better our kids, and I
am so grateful for them. Andagain I want them to know. Any
teacher that is listening right now,I want you to know that the Republican
Party under my leadership is going tostand with you, going to support you,
and know that you are valued.And I say that as someone who
is married to a teacher. Mysister in law is a teacher right now
(14:05):
in the JCPS school system. Mymom retired as a public educator. So
these experiences that they have lived andI have seen firsthand inform my decision making
and my thoughts about public education.Again, the Republican Party's going to stand
firm for public schools and public education. We're gonna make it, in many
(14:26):
ways, a world class system,one that can be a shining city on
a hill and a model example tothe rest of the nation. You heard
Senator Ran Paul yesterday make some jokesat the hand Breakfast about JCPS. But
as JCPS too big, is ittoo unwieldy on this land mass, should
it be broken into subset districts?Well, look, I think that it
(14:48):
was unfortunate and sad what we sawwith the first week of school and the
Bush problems that occurred, and Ithink it's important for any governor to be
in gage in a productive conversation abouthow we can get our buses moving on
time and how we can get ourkids to school. And the idea that
parents didn't know where their child wasor their children were until ten o'clock at
(15:11):
night just breaks my heart. AndI know that there's so many bus drivers
that were doing their best and theywere just put in a very difficult situation.
And I think the school board needsto own some of that. I
mean the fact that the school boardspent roughly two meetings figuring out how they
were gonna not follow or comply withSenate Bill one fifty. I think they
should have been focused on making surethat they put our bus drivers in the
(15:33):
best position to do their job.But again, I think as governor,
to be productive, I want towork with JCPS. I want to make
sure that we do everything we possiblycan from the actual classroom to make sure
our classrooms are about reading, writing, and math, to make sure that
our teachers know that they are supported. To make sure that our bus drivers
(15:56):
recognize that you're going to have leadershipin Frankfort that's going to be watchful and
mindful about their needs as well.Is important as it relates to your specific
question. I think it, youknow, would be important for me to
enter any to any conversations about,you know, what JCPS looks like going
forward. I think it's important forme to have that conversation with the superintendent
(16:18):
along with other stakeholders, parents aswell, because you know, before any
judgment is made on that front,I think it's important to have everyone gathered
around the table. One of thegreat things that a governor has the ability
to do, and we haven't seenthis a lot with Andy Basher, is
the governor has the ability to bea convening authority, Meaning you can get
parents in the room, you canget superintendents in the room, you can
(16:40):
get teachers in the room to havea frank and open and honest conversation about
what we need to do going forward. But my priority is to make sure
that JCPS JCPS is the best versionof itself it can be. If you're
governor next year, what should thepriorities of the supermajority in the state legislature
focus upon? First, Well,they the number one priority is making sure
(17:03):
we get the Cameron Ketchup Plan passed, and making sure that we're fighting hard
for the pensions of our law enforcementofficers. You know, one of the
things that I think is particularly importantto note on this front is that,
you know, Andy Basher has kindof been following my lead on the public
or the Cameron Ketchup Plan, onour education plan. On the public safety
(17:26):
plan, I introduce mine and thenhe introduces his afterwards. But the difference
and the distinction between my plan ishis plan is that he has no plausible
way of getting it done. Andas a leader of the important and responsible
thing is is before you put outa proposal, it's important to have conversations
(17:47):
with the leadership of the General Assemblyon the public safety plan and on the
Cameron Ketchup Plan our education plan.I've had conversations with the leadership of our
state Senate and our State House toget both of those things passed. They're
both ambitious agendas that need the buyin of the General Assembly. So when
I tell you today that the CameronKetchup Plan is going to be implemented and
(18:10):
go into effect next year, it'sbecause I've had the conversations with our General
Assembly, with Andy Basher, whenhe unveiled his education plan, he got
up at his press conference and talkedabout it, but one thing he did
not talk about was communicating with thelegislature and the Education Committee chairman for the
(18:30):
House and the Senates that they hadno communication with the governor before he unveiled
his plan. Again, it isa prime example of it is an election
year. Andy Basher just makes thingsup in order to try to get reelected,
but has no plausible way in whichto actually help our teachers. What
I'm committing to our teachers here inKentucky is that the Cameron Ketchup Plan will
(18:52):
be passed, the Cameron Ketchup Planwill be implemented, and the Cameron Ketchup
Plan is going to make sure thatKentucky has a world class education system and
again is going to support our teachersand to make sure that they have the
resources they need and make sure thatwe get rid of the bureaucracy that gets
in the way of our teachers beingable to build connections with our students so
(19:14):
that they can be the best versionof themselves. You were in an odd
position yesterday because you were in theaudience and your opponent was able to speak
he's a sitting governor. Did youhear anything in that speech you thought was
disingenuous? Were you taking notes?Well, how did you take that in?
And did you notice that as soonas he finished speaking he left the
room before Mitch mcconnellin ran Paul spoke. Yeah, the governor has a habit
of leaving, you know, atFancy Farm he finished speaking, and then
(19:38):
soon thereafter he left, he evenleft part of his ticket. They had
not even finished at Fancy Farm,and he left half of his ticket before
you know, they were even throughall their speeches. And so he's got
a habit of doing that. Butwhat I'll say is that I could feel
the energy in the room for ourcampaign. You got a louder applause than
here. I did get a louderapplause. I think it's because, you
(20:00):
know, Andy Basher often comes tothe hand breakfasts and lectures the farmers and
the Kentucky Farm Bureau about their valuesand what I've said when I went to
their form that they had a coupleof months ago, when we were both
invited, Andy Basher decided that hewasn't going to show up, but I
went and I told them that I'mgoing to stand with them, I'm going
to stand with their values, andI'm going to fight for them against an
(20:21):
EPA in Washington, DC that's tryingto destroy their way of life. And
as it relates to what Andy Basheryesterday, he didn't really say anything that
was related to the farmers themselves.I don't even think he thank them for
the service that they provide to ourcommunity and feeding us. But in addition
to that, what I've often saidis, you know, data that he
(20:42):
shares related to future promises is nosubstitute for the present pain that our people
are feeling. And what I meanby that is, right now, because
of the inflationary pressures that are beingpressed upon our people, because of things
that are happening through the Biden administration, it is harder to buy groceries,
it is harder to fill our vehiclesup with gas, it's harder to find
(21:07):
childcare that doesn't cost too terribly much. And when Andy Basher had an opportunity
to alleviate that pressure and work withour General Assembly to reduce and lower the
taxes of our hard working men andwomen, he did the exact opposite,
and he vetoed that and again AndyBasher does not understand and is indifferent to
the plight and concerns of the hardworking folks here in Kentucky. The fact
(21:30):
of the matter is is that sincehe's been governor, there are twenty seven
thousand fewer Kentuckians working in the commonwealth, and we have the forty seventh lowest
workforce participation rate in the nation.That's just not something that is sustainable,
especially as we think about some ofthese projects coming online. How are we
going to have people in the plantsand the facilities to work. How are
(21:52):
people going to continue to be ableto sustain themselves. I'm going to be
a governor that is going to worktirelessly to make sure that we get to
zero percent income tax rate as quicklyas we can, because I know while
the Biden administration again has caused skyhigh inflation near a thirty year high,
if you will on inflation, ourpeople need relief here in Kentucky. The
(22:15):
best way that we can do thatis through getting our income tax rate down
to zero as fast as we can. The last thing for your comedians are
online mocking of course, Oh yougot you got the vax and then you
got another vax that you got abooster or another booster it or booster over
here. And now there's talk thatmask mandates may return. What do you
think of that phrase, mask mandatesand the concept of that returning again when
(22:40):
we've seen all that everybody says,trust the science, and we've gone through
the whole prism of well the sciencereally wasn't correct here. Yeah, I
think that's a phrase you'll never hearGovernor Daniel Cameron say, because we will
not have mass mandates when I'm governorof the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And on
that note, one of the thingsI think was highly ironic about what Andy
did you know? While when heeventually decided it was okay to open up
(23:03):
schools, he mandated mask for theteachers, and Mackenzie would come home from
school and talk about the irony ofbeing six feet away from her students having
to wear a mask and knowing,if you talk to any speech pathologists,
the importance of not only a student, particularly a young child, hearing you,
but also seeing your mouth, andhow that was taken away from our
(23:26):
kids for roughly two years. Butat the same time he was telling our
teachers that they had to wear amask and couldn't fully communicate with their students.
Every day at four o'clock he wouldwalk up to the podium with his
mask on and then take it offso that he could communicate and folks could
see his mouth. And I justthink it was completely just the sheer irony
(23:49):
of those two side by sides ofa teacher having to wear a mask and
the governor feeling like he was moreimportant than everyone else and being able to
take his mask off to communicate hisideas. And then on top of it,
when you pair that with the learningloss and the fact that at some
point he told you if you leftthe state and came back, you had
to quarantine for a period of fourteendays, and other rules in which big
(24:11):
businesses were allowed to stay open andsmall businesses had to shut down, including
our churches. A lot of therules that the governor implement it just did
not make sense and it destroyed alot of small businesses. Often tell the
story there's a restaurant in Lexington calledPortofino that because of the decisions that the
governors were making, ultimately decided theyneed to they had to close. And
(24:33):
there are a lot of small businessesacross our state that can share that story,
and it is unfortunate. But whenI'm governor, you're gonna have a
governor that's going to stand up foryour constitutional rights, that's not going to
pick winners and losers like we sawAndy bisherdo, and is going to fight
daily for our kids and our grandkidsand our teachers to make sure that we
have a wonderful and world class education, said Daniel Cameron. Appreciate the time
you two, Ryan Straw, Thanksso much, sir. We'll talk about
(24:56):
it down the road, all right. Thanks. That's Daniel Cameron, Canada
for governor here in Kentucky. Backin a few on news radio weight forty
w h as
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