Speaker 1: He was a beer maker, a restaurant tour, a mayor,
Speaker 1: a governor, and now he is the senator from Colorado,
Speaker 1: at least one of the two.
Speaker 2: John Hickenlooper, Welcome.
Speaker 1: To the program.
Speaker 2: Glad to be with you. We just had a.
Speaker 1: Wonderful conversation that I wish had been on the radio
Speaker 1: about about conventions and what is expected to be happening here.
Speaker 1: And you've spoken at a convention before. How many conventions
Speaker 1: have you been to?
Speaker 2: So I never went to a convention until I had
Speaker 2: that reckless idea I was going to run for mayor
Speaker 2: of Denver in two thousand and three, so I did.
Speaker 2: I obviously went two thousand and four to Boston, and
Speaker 2: then two thousand and eight when we hosted the Obama
Speaker 2: convention in Denver, which I mean, this convention has got
Speaker 2: a lot of excitement. It might even be as much
Speaker 2: excitement as Obama had. But that was a wild time
Speaker 2: for the city of Dever.
Speaker 1: Well, this election is a wild time for Democrats. I
Speaker 1: mean it's been I've said multiple times on the show recently.
Speaker 1: I used to say anything can happen in politics, and
Speaker 1: then this last.
Speaker 2: Summer has happened.
Speaker 1: So now it really means anything can happen. Quoted as
Speaker 1: as talking about the former or the current president, excuse
Speaker 1: me for more, candidate Joe Biden making a decision. Were
Speaker 1: you part of that process or were you around that process?
Speaker 2: And how what do you know about that? So I
Speaker 2: wasn't involved in the process. I did make comments that
Speaker 2: I had known Joe Biden from when I first ran
Speaker 2: for mayor. He was in the Senate and I met
Speaker 2: him a couple of times. He gave me some advice
Speaker 2: when I was thinking about running for governor. He said,
Speaker 2: I'll come out, I'll help you. I'll come out and
Speaker 2: campaign for you if that's best. I'll campaign against you
Speaker 2: if that helps you more. Right. He was his true
Speaker 2: Joe Biden's self. My point was when I when I
Speaker 2: made comments that Joe Biden has always done what he
Speaker 2: thought was best for the country. Who was never one
Speaker 2: of these people that talked about me, me me I,
Speaker 2: I he always put his his country before his ambition,
Speaker 2: and that we should I kept saying, we should trust him,
Speaker 2: we should give him time, we should let him make
Speaker 2: this decision because he will do what's right. And he
Speaker 2: you know, if you look at what we got done
Speaker 2: in twenty one and twenty twenty two with Infrastructure Bill,
Speaker 2: the Chips plus Science Act, I mean, all those things,
Speaker 2: the Inflation Reduction Act. We got more investment into the
Speaker 2: building blocks for a strong economy than we've done in
Speaker 2: the previous thirty years. And Joe Biden gets a lot
Speaker 2: of credit for that. So he was going to go
Speaker 2: down as a great president. But he was you know,
Speaker 2: there were so many people, so many of you know,
Speaker 2: we were getting three thousand calls in those previous three
Speaker 2: weeks at our call centers and emails around Denver and
Speaker 2: around all of Colorado, and they were ninety two percent
Speaker 2: saying that he shouldn't run.
Speaker 1: Well, the switch to Kamala Harris as the candidate has
Speaker 1: certainly energized Democrats. I mean the energy here at the
Speaker 1: DNC is palpable. I mean, people are excited. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to be honest the speed with which the party
Speaker 1: has immediately not just to support Kamala Harris, but enthusiastically
Speaker 1: support Kamala Harris. So let's be clear about that. This
Speaker 1: isn't like, oh, this is our candidate.
Speaker 2: Now. People are stoked. Yeah, were you surprised by that
Speaker 2: at all? I was surprised a little bit. But I
Speaker 2: you know, in my brief campaign for president back in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, as I tell my wife Robin, I did
Speaker 2: get to two percent in the polls.
Speaker 1: That's two percent more than I have.
Speaker 2: You go, well, you're just getting started. You're just getting started.
Speaker 2: But I you know, Kamala Harris has a an energy.
Speaker 2: She's she's just really electric when she's on her game.
Speaker 2: And you know, when she's one of twenty two candidates
Speaker 2: running for president twenty twenty, that was not her element, right,
Speaker 2: It didn't really show her off to her strength.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that because that
Speaker 1: was a big field and she didn't have any support.
Speaker 2: So what do you think.
Speaker 1: Is it just because people are aware that she's part
Speaker 1: of the Biden administration and are more aware of her
Speaker 1: now than they were back then.
Speaker 2: That's part of it, for sure. She's the vice president
Speaker 2: United States and so they're paying more attention. But she's
Speaker 2: also grown in these last four years. She's traveled all
Speaker 2: over the world. She's met with the smartest scientists, she's
Speaker 2: met with the top government leaders from around the world,
Speaker 2: and she's been in substantive negotiations around all manner of issues.
Speaker 2: So she's grown, I think, dramatically as a person, but
Speaker 2: that energy is still there and hearing her stories of
Speaker 2: her childhood, I mean, she didn't get any breaks from
Speaker 2: her family. Her mother was a determined to make sure
Speaker 2: her kids got an education right. That was the building
Speaker 2: block of their lives. And obviously Kamal Harris has taken
Speaker 2: advantage of that in a way that you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: she's got a really good chance of being the next
Speaker 2: president of the United States.
Speaker 1: I've been asking as many people as I can. I
Speaker 1: wish I had more policy positions officially to ask about,
Speaker 1: but she unrolled some economic policy positions last Friday. What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on what she's already said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I support this notion that we've got to build
Speaker 2: the economy for the middle class, where working people for
Speaker 2: decades have been slipping behind. When you put it in inflation,
Speaker 2: going back all the way to nineteen eighty, the percentage
Speaker 2: of this country that is in the middle class has shrunk.
Speaker 2: And there are a lot of arguments about why that
Speaker 2: is and how to improve that. But I think what
Speaker 2: she's talking about, where we're trying to get people back
Speaker 2: to work in places where you know, manufacturing like the
Speaker 2: auto industry places. But you know, Joe Biden made that
Speaker 2: a commitment that he was going to address manufacturing in America,
Speaker 2: and we passed those bills. So all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: we're building infrastructure, We're building bridges and roads, we're building factories,
Speaker 2: we're back in the chip business. These are the kinds
Speaker 2: of changes that help the middle class. These are middle
Speaker 2: class jobs when you have to build stuff, when you're
Speaker 2: building infrastructure.
Speaker 1: That message, I think is one that's going to resonate
Speaker 1: because people I have noticed a shift in messaging from
Speaker 1: the Biden campaigns saying look at the numbers, the economies
Speaker 1: are great, the economy is great. That obviously didn't resonate
Speaker 1: with the people that you're talking about, people who are
Speaker 1: paying higher prices at the grocery store. So there definitely
Speaker 1: has been a shift at this convention in that messaging.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and change is slow, but the bottom of everything
Speaker 2: is And this is when I ran for mayor and
Speaker 2: Ryan ran for governor. I was the first thing I
Speaker 2: always talked about was the economy. How do you how
Speaker 2: can you build an economy that's going to grow and
Speaker 2: as it grows more people do better. And I think
Speaker 2: that's the challenge for any state. I mean, even Colorado.
Speaker 2: We've done great. I mean, I think Governor Poles has
Speaker 2: done a great job of keeping that tech growth and
Speaker 2: yet the same time encouraging advanced manufacturing. We have a
Speaker 2: lot of aerospace. All that stuff has to kind of
Speaker 2: reinforce each other. But you got to make sure the
Speaker 2: working people are participating in that success. And as Colorado
Speaker 2: has done that, it hasn't happened everywhere in the country.
Speaker 2: And I think that's something that Kamala Harris. I mean,
Speaker 2: when you look at her and hear what she's saying,
Speaker 2: that's what she's talking about this whole when she talked
Speaker 2: to the autoworkers and talked about the importance of freedom.
Speaker 2: Freedom to be able to love who you want, freedom
Speaker 2: to be able to afford, not to have if you
Speaker 2: lose your job for three months, you lose your housing,
Speaker 2: not to be you know, freedom for fear of losing
Speaker 2: your housing. All those freedoms are things that come from
Speaker 2: a more financially secure household or a more financially secure person.
Speaker 1: Well, Senator, I am a deficit hawk. I have been
Speaker 1: a deficit hawk for the last twenty years as a
Speaker 1: Radio unaware. I've been very disappointed in the Republican Party
Speaker 1: and the Democratic Party when it comes to spending. Yesterday
Speaker 1: Governor Jared Polis said, look, we've got to do something
Speaker 1: about the deficit. I would love it if anyone got
Speaker 1: serious about deficit spending in DC. Is that even a
Speaker 1: conversation that's happening in DC right now or people like
Speaker 1: me just going to sit out here in panic and
Speaker 1: wait for the sky to fall.
Speaker 2: No. I I had a meeting right before lunch on
Speaker 2: exactly that and looking at some of the big issues
Speaker 2: that are affecting that deficit. But you know, taking a
Speaker 2: hard look at no one side, not the Republican side,
Speaker 2: not the Democrats side, is going to have the answer.
Speaker 2: So it's going to be a compromise. No one's going
Speaker 2: to be happy with the solution. But the first step
Speaker 2: is to recognize, as you say, we've got a deathit
Speaker 2: problem is you look at the percentage of GDP. We're
Speaker 2: over one hundred percent of GDP.
Speaker 1: Now, no nation thrives with that kind of skewed GDP
Speaker 1: to debt ration, and.
Speaker 2: It makes us weaker. And it's not just weaker in
Speaker 2: terms of our money for education or for healthcare, but
Speaker 2: for the economy, for reinvesting economy, and for our defense.
Speaker 2: I mean, we need to be investing in infrastructure, and
Speaker 2: we can't just be borrowing it and say we're going
Speaker 2: to pay down the road. We need to make those investments,
Speaker 2: but we have to all chip in together to make
Speaker 2: sure that happens in a way that we can afford it.
Speaker 1: Well, if you want me to come to one of
Speaker 1: these meetings and do a whole presentation on the fall
Speaker 1: of the Roman Empire because of hyper inflation, because of overspending,
Speaker 1: I'd be happy and just put me in coach.
Speaker 2: I'm ready, I can do it.
Speaker 1: What are you looking forward to tonight from the speakers?
Speaker 1: We've got Pete Bodhaje Edge, We've got Bill Clinton. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Tim Walls is going to accept the nomination for Vice
Speaker 1: president tonight. What are you looking for out of tonight's speeches.
Speaker 2: Well, so I haven't gotten a chance to spend time
Speaker 2: with Tim Walls yet because I wasn't in the house
Speaker 2: when he was in the House office ever been in
Speaker 2: the House. And I'm looking forward to seeing firsthand on
Speaker 2: a real you know, national landscape on a big screen,
Speaker 2: see what he's about I also, I mean Pete Bodhajedge.
Speaker 2: You know, one of the reasons I only got to
Speaker 2: two percent when I was right for president was he
Speaker 2: came in and he is so adept at explaining complex issues,
Speaker 2: especially economic issues, in a way that's you're at the
Speaker 2: kitchen table accessible accessible, which you know Bill Clinton was
Speaker 2: very good with that as well. And I can't wait
Speaker 2: to see Buddha Jedge talking and then here Clinton talking.
Speaker 2: And obviously Bill Clinton's not, you know, forty five years
Speaker 2: old or fifty years old anymore, He's not going to
Speaker 2: be maybe quite as sharp as he was. But I
Speaker 2: talked to Clinton a few months ago and he was
Speaker 2: as sharp as attack. So i'd like to I can't
Speaker 2: wait to see the two of them, see how they
Speaker 2: frame the moment.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good way to look at it. Senator Johnhickenloper,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. I know you got other stuff
Speaker 1: to do, but thank you so much for stopping by
Speaker 1: today and talking to my listeners.
Speaker 2: No, always pleasure.