Speaker 1: This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
Speaker 1: edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
Speaker 1: give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
Speaker 1: and to subscribe, download, and listen to the show every
Speaker 1: single day on your favorite podcast platform. Beautiful Bay, to
Speaker 1: fight that fight. Glad you're here, man. Spring is in
Speaker 1: the air. And I thought it was going to be
Speaker 1: snow again, probably four or five times. But this time
Speaker 1: of year, Yeah, it's just gorgeous. The snow mellets, it
Speaker 1: goes away, and then we get days like this. This
Speaker 1: is what it's all about. Glad you are here. A
Speaker 1: lot of interesting stuff to kick around today, a lot
Speaker 1: of it local as well. I do, though, I do
Speaker 1: want to start national, and because I think this is
Speaker 1: such a fascinating issue in one of the many really
Speaker 1: really good things that Trump is doing right now. And hey,
Speaker 1: I get it, I get that there is a lot
Speaker 1: of upset nationally right now about the economy. I don't
Speaker 1: think you're surprised. I'm surprised anybody's surprised to see the
Speaker 1: president upside down in the polls right now on the economy.
Speaker 1: Everybody's hurting, right, I mean, everybody's hirement fund et cetera.
Speaker 1: Has taken a hit in the last week or so.
Speaker 1: But it's one of the reasons I respect Trump so
Speaker 1: much because, and this is a great thing to throw
Speaker 1: out there to you, how many politicians, either party and
Speaker 1: in our lives have been willing to go through this,
Speaker 1: this pain and this unpopularity while while the people are
Speaker 1: hurting in order to get the long term gain. When's
Speaker 1: the last time we had that? I'd love to get
Speaker 1: your take on that. You can text Dam five seven
Speaker 1: seven three nine. Dan five seven seven three nine. But
Speaker 1: when in our lifetime is the last time we had that?
Speaker 1: And the fact Trump's willing to do it right now
Speaker 1: to me super impressive. And because he is. He he's
Speaker 1: suffering in the polls right now on this not necessarily overall,
Speaker 1: though that's going to follow right. I mean, economy is
Speaker 1: one or two on pretty much everybody's list. He's going
Speaker 1: to be very popular now, as he should be for
Speaker 1: you know, enforcing the border way it should be enforced,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But he's willing to take that hit for
Speaker 1: the long term, and I really respect that. Would have
Speaker 1: been so easy, as we talked about yesterday, right just
Speaker 1: to do the sugar high thing, just to command and again,
Speaker 1: you know, to just spend our grandchildren's money. Make this
Speaker 1: an easy term for him. But I respect what he's
Speaker 1: trying to do. I don't know enough about tariffs to
Speaker 1: say that it's going to work, but I trust him.
Speaker 1: I trust him. I trust him on the economy three
Speaker 1: or three someone three eight two five five, the number
Speaker 1: techs d A N five seven seven three nine. But
Speaker 1: this is another reason I trust him. I just love
Speaker 1: what he's doing on this front. I love what Marco
Speaker 1: Ruby is doing and Marco Rubio, this is going to
Speaker 1: be so much fun to watch right as we hit
Speaker 1: twenty six and had to the presidential in twenty eight
Speaker 1: because you have all these all this young conservative talent
Speaker 1: and so much of it now Trump has on his
Speaker 1: team that's just getting better all the time with this experience,
Speaker 1: Like Rubio, I think it's been really good for a while,
Speaker 1: just growing. I think before our eyes. In this Secretary
Speaker 1: of State role here he's talking about this Hamas supporter
Speaker 1: who wants to stay on a student visa and a
Speaker 1: green car.
Speaker 2: When you come to the United States as a visitor,
Speaker 2: which is what a visa is, which is how this
Speaker 2: individual entered this country as on a visitor's visa. Okay,
Speaker 2: you are here as a visitor. We can deny you
Speaker 2: that visa. We can deny you that if you tell
Speaker 2: us when you apply, Hi, I'm trying to get into
Speaker 2: the United States on a student visa. I am a
Speaker 2: big supporter of Hamas, a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children,
Speaker 2: that rapes the teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows
Speaker 2: them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies.
Speaker 1: Than live hostages.
Speaker 2: If you tell us that you are in favor of
Speaker 2: a group like this, and if you tell us when
Speaker 2: you apply for your visa, and by the way, I
Speaker 2: intend to come to your country as a student and
Speaker 2: rile up all kinds of anti Jewish student anti Semitic activities.
Speaker 2: I intend to shut down your universities. If you told
Speaker 2: us all these things when you apply for a visa,
Speaker 2: we would.
Speaker 1: Deny your visa. I hope we would.
Speaker 2: If you actually end up doing that once you're in
Speaker 2: this country on such a visa, we will revoke it.
Speaker 2: And if you end up having a green card, not citizenship,
Speaker 2: but a green card as a result of that visa,
Speaker 2: while you're here in those activities, we're going to kick
Speaker 2: you out.
Speaker 1: Or beautifully said, right, hey, why is this even an issue?
Speaker 1: But this is the beauty of it, right, is part
Speaker 1: of Trump's magic, Scott Jenny said, it is that you
Speaker 1: got the left now, the Democratic Party right, just glombing
Speaker 1: onto the twenty side of all these eighty twenty issues.
Speaker 1: So this humas what do we call them here, hamas holes,
Speaker 1: this amass hole is going to be the new poster
Speaker 1: boy for the left, which is a beautiful thing, right
Speaker 1: because eighty percent of the population is going to say,
Speaker 1: you guys are nuts. It's going to be right up
Speaker 1: there with men in women's sports. Right. That's now I
Speaker 1: think it is. It's an eighty one to nineteen issue.
Speaker 1: We like to say eighty twenty that that's an eighty
Speaker 1: one nineteen. So you got that going for you? Three
Speaker 1: or three someone three eight two five five the number
Speaker 1: text d A N five seven seven three nine. Ryan
Speaker 1: Schuling does a great show in the Denver market two
Speaker 1: to four each day, and when I come in and
Speaker 1: do it from the Denver studio, I see his text.
Speaker 1: So Ryan, what is the backstory on this? Ryan? Add
Speaker 1: Danielle Jerinsky to the list of conservative women. Kyle goes
Speaker 1: after that from Alexa is Zach Kyle, what was the
Speaker 1: name of that Bronco quarterback Tim t Boyd to sit
Speaker 1: behind him for four games? Kyle Orton? Orton, Yeah, are
Speaker 1: we doing another Kyle Orton show?
Speaker 3: That was Kelly Coucheri's perdue Boilermaker Kyle Orton, by the way, No,
Speaker 3: it was Kyle Clark who had Darcy Shaning.
Speaker 1: On his program.
Speaker 4: I believe nine next he's interviewing.
Speaker 3: All the candidates for Colorado gop share and I think,
Speaker 3: much to his glee, that there's a lot of kind
Speaker 3: of infighting going on and there seems to be a
Speaker 3: disturbing trend.
Speaker 1: I observed that.
Speaker 3: Whether it's Heidie Ganall or Representative Lauren Bobert or Danielle
Speaker 3: Jerinsky or we'll see what happens with Darcy, that Kyle
Speaker 3: Clark has an affinity or a propensity to really target
Speaker 3: conservative women.
Speaker 1: Doesn't he target all conservatives? No?
Speaker 3: No, no, no, that's a little bit different on the women front.
Speaker 1: Polist, I think is a very obvious problem a Polis.
Speaker 3: It's more of an animosity for Kyle. It's more like
Speaker 3: an obsession or compulsion it's just weird. And I'll just
Speaker 3: say this once again that he's been very, let's say,
Speaker 3: eager to get a sit down one on one interview
Speaker 3: with Lauren Bolbert and she was resistant.
Speaker 4: To that, didn't want to do it.
Speaker 3: And then he moderated a debate for the fourth Congressional
Speaker 3: district in which he really just won in like a
Speaker 3: bulldog after and he ended up getting highlighted and featured
Speaker 3: on Jimmy Kimme Alive and getting some national notoriety out
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it just seems to me he does that
Speaker 1: to all conservatives, right, I mean, he's got his stick
Speaker 1: for the left in this.
Speaker 3: Dan, why don't you ask Hidig and all that, or
Speaker 3: Lauren Bobert that or Danielle Jerensky that absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm not doubting their experience, but what conservative
Speaker 1: man could could we get on air who would say
Speaker 1: I was treated fairly by Kyle Clark.
Speaker 3: Well, when you put it that way, true, I'm saying
Speaker 3: that his pursuit of these conservative women is much nastier,
Speaker 3: It has a harder edge to it, it's much more rabid.
Speaker 3: And I don't think I'm alone in saying that or
Speaker 3: observing that at all.
Speaker 1: Well, no doubt it's in the eyes of the Boulder.
Speaker 1: But now Polis, on the other hand, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that's just clear to anybody watching. And that was
Speaker 1: one of the beautiful things about the last gubernatorial campaign, right.
Speaker 1: I wish the results had been the opposite. But Heidi
Speaker 1: just schooled him, just took him, you know, to the woodshed,
Speaker 1: and every one of those debates she really did, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and exposed him. And yeah, I don't think I don't
Speaker 1: think Heidi just beating up on Polis in those debates
Speaker 1: had any impact on Polis's inability to gain traction nationally.
Speaker 1: But I think she exposed a weakness of his right.
Speaker 1: And wow, three or three someone three two five five
Speaker 1: the number speaking of local and not planned out this way,
Speaker 1: but we in fact, and I'll do this after the breaks,
Speaker 1: I can play it in full. I want to play
Speaker 1: this ironically Kyle Clark's story about the Sixteenth Street Mall.
Speaker 1: And I understand you may well be listening to the
Speaker 1: show somewhere outside of the Denver metro area. But as
Speaker 1: we talk about the abject failure, kind of the death
Speaker 1: spiral of the Sixteenth Street Mall in Denver, no matter
Speaker 1: how much taxpayer money and other money, private money they
Speaker 1: pour into it, there are I think really important lessons
Speaker 1: there for all of us, everywhere in the state and
Speaker 1: beyond Colorado. And so I think it's very very useful
Speaker 1: to study this because how many years now You've been
Speaker 1: here five or six years now, right, Ryan?
Speaker 5: Six?
Speaker 1: Yep, Yeah, and I've been here I think going on
Speaker 1: close to fifty. But the point is, it's just this
Speaker 1: never ending battle, this money pit to somehow turn the
Speaker 1: sixteen Street mall around. In the sixteenth you know, that
Speaker 1: whole area was a whole lot better at one point.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is, and what we'll get into
Speaker 1: more detail, the bottom line is that once they decided
Speaker 1: to make Denver that literally the drug capital of the world,
Speaker 1: that the fate of the sixteenth Street wall was sealed.
Speaker 1: And there is no way you are ever going to
Speaker 1: turn that around unless Colorado reversus legalized marijuana just does
Speaker 1: a one to eighty on this whole glorification of recreational
Speaker 1: drug thing. It is just going to be the magnet,
Speaker 1: the hangout, the backyard, the gathering place for young homeless,
Speaker 1: for attics for for a lot of sad, sad stories,
Speaker 1: from around the country and a lot of homegrown ones
Speaker 1: who would have had good, healthy, successful lives if not
Speaker 1: for the drugs. But hey, as long as the left
Speaker 1: is getting what it wants, not illlegalized drugs and adults
Speaker 1: are making a lot of money, what do they care
Speaker 1: about the kids? Right, you're on the dan Kapla Show.
Speaker 4: And now back to the dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 6: Pressure on.
Speaker 7: It complicates Putin's position a little bit. I don't think, frankly,
Speaker 7: a ceasefires in Ukraine's interest. I think if you freeze
Speaker 7: the conflict along the existing front lines and start negotiations
Speaker 7: in Geneva or Vienna or some neutral capital that drag
Speaker 7: on and on, the ceasefire line could become a new
Speaker 7: de facto Ukraine Russian border, which.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait a second, John Bolton, and listen. I respect
Speaker 1: John Bolton, and John Bolton sat three feet from me
Speaker 1: in the studio when he was US Ambassador to the
Speaker 1: United Nations. But I think what's happened to John Bolton,
Speaker 1: and it's happened to some other conservatives I really respect,
Speaker 1: is they get into a pissot pardon me, they get
Speaker 1: into a urinating match with Trump and then it becomes
Speaker 1: personal and then all the principle goes out the window.
Speaker 1: So what is your alternative here, John Bolton? The people
Speaker 1: of Ukraine have been raped and pillaged by Putin. Europe
Speaker 1: refused to step up and save them. I know, John's
Speaker 1: not suggesting that there'll be American boots on the ground
Speaker 1: in Ukraine. The only way evil Putin was ever going
Speaker 1: to be defeated is if Europe put boots on the
Speaker 1: ground in Ukraine. This is not complicated and Europe would
Speaker 1: not save Ukraine. So at that point, how do you
Speaker 1: move these lines now? John? How do you do that?
Speaker 1: This isn't etra sketch, No, I mean, this is Trump
Speaker 1: coming in to stop the bloodshed. Don't blame Trump. Nobody
Speaker 1: invaded Ukraine when Trump was president. Yeah, I hate to
Speaker 1: see Putin get one inch of territory, But don't blame Trump.
Speaker 1: Blame Europe for not stepping off. Three h three someone
Speaker 1: three eight two five five the number real quick on
Speaker 1: that topic, Dan, how do you think Russia is going
Speaker 1: to respond now that the ball is in their court?
Speaker 1: So to speak? It's wired. This thing's totally wired. There
Speaker 1: is no way Russia. I mean, there may be a
Speaker 1: little whaling nation of teeth, pretending, But there is no
Speaker 1: way the Trump administration would have asked Ukraine to agree
Speaker 1: to that unless it was certain was going to get
Speaker 1: Russia's agreement. And again, it may take a few days,
Speaker 1: it may look like it was a fight, but I
Speaker 1: think the fights already happened. I think Trump's already won
Speaker 1: that fight, both Lensky and I mean with Russia. I
Speaker 1: think he's already won it with Putin. And so whether
Speaker 1: whether Russia pretends to be debating this whatever, and they
Speaker 1: probably will pretend they're going to agree to it right
Speaker 1: first show they're going to agree to it.
Speaker 3: Interesting that then what happens if the ceasefires agreed to
Speaker 3: by Russia is that, for all intents and purposes, the
Speaker 3: end of the war, at the beginning of.
Speaker 1: The end of the war. I think. So that's amazing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think that's why this has been so tough
Speaker 1: right now. And I'm really interested in the reports they
Speaker 1: there appears to be credibility to him that you had
Speaker 1: a number of big operators from the Obama administration trying
Speaker 1: to get Selensky to reject the Trump deal, the mineral
Speaker 1: rights deal. So but but I think what's happened here
Speaker 1: is that Trump has succeeded in getting what he wanted
Speaker 1: from Ukraine, which wasn't agree into these lines. And who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe baked in the cake is Russia gives up something
Speaker 1: on that territory. But you've got to believe, don't you
Speaker 1: sit here right now? The final deal is going to
Speaker 1: look something like that. Maybe Russia gives up here and there,
Speaker 1: and again I hate to see Putin get anything, but
Speaker 1: that's not Trump's fault. That's that's Europe's fault. And if
Speaker 1: you think I'm wrong on that, as Prime says, I
Speaker 1: ain't hard to find three out three someone three eight
Speaker 1: two five five text d An five seven seven three
Speaker 1: nine Dan just joined the show. You may have already
Speaker 1: mentioned it, but there's an interesting article on the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal this morning about how cannabis industry is failing
Speaker 1: in Pueblo and it suggests a lot of its homeless
Speaker 1: problems due to young people who came to Colorado in
Speaker 1: fourteen for marijuana from DK and Brumfield. Yeah, tremendous piece
Speaker 1: in the Wall Street Journal. But here's what you want
Speaker 1: to notice. You want to notice you see these pieces
Speaker 1: now consistently popping up where on the right, on the left,
Speaker 1: whether it's New York Times, Wall Street Journal, et cetera,
Speaker 1: you see these pieces popping up that are starting to
Speaker 1: tell the truth about the hell being wrought by legalized marijuana.
Speaker 1: And so you know why, you know why those pieces
Speaker 1: are popping off because normally most of these outlets and
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal editorial pages, real good but news pages,
Speaker 1: they've gone left the Yeah, I think the reason you're
Speaker 1: seeing these on the left isn't politics, right, because legalization
Speaker 1: of marijuana is a really important saying to the Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: because the more stoners you have, the more people you
Speaker 1: have dependent on government, the more people voting for the left.
Speaker 1: But here's what I always banked on because you know
Speaker 1: it's true, and I know it's true, and that is
Speaker 1: that people love their children more than they love their
Speaker 1: political party. And marijuana is wrecking so many kids across
Speaker 1: party lines. It's an equal opportunity destroyer. And if someone's
Speaker 1: lucky enough that their kids haven't been wrecked by dope,
Speaker 1: like I thank god every day our kids have avoided that.
Speaker 1: So many great kids, kids of great character, kids of
Speaker 1: great strengths, kids with great parents. So many kids have
Speaker 1: fallen into it. And of course what the left does,
Speaker 1: right with Polus's full blessing and everybody in the lefts
Speaker 1: full blessing, is they crank the potency up so high
Speaker 1: that you can't even call it marijuana anymore. It's krakawana.
Speaker 1: And you know, the old stuff that did so much damage,
Speaker 1: you know, up two to four percent THHC in the leaf,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Not now the left's cranking this stuff over
Speaker 1: eighty ninety percent. And of course that's the stuff the
Speaker 1: kids want and get most right, because you can smuggle that,
Speaker 1: you can hide that from your parents, you can do
Speaker 1: it in class, whatever. So what the left wants to
Speaker 1: do is they want to hook them young, hook them forever.
Speaker 1: And I think what's happening now, and the reason you
Speaker 1: see this coming up even through the New York Times
Speaker 1: and elsewhere, is that people love their kids. And these reporters,
Speaker 1: these editors, these managers, these newspaper owners, if it hasn't
Speaker 1: happened to their kid, it's happened to someone close to them.
Speaker 1: And everybody listening has had that experience. And it's right
Speaker 1: if you have kids. And again, we've been very blessed.
Speaker 1: Our kids have been spared all that and avoided all that,
Speaker 1: but some of their friends absolutely heartbreaking stuff. And everybody
Speaker 1: listening to the show can tell those stories. So I
Speaker 1: think we're going to see more and more stories like that.
Speaker 1: The big question is where's the tipping point. What's it
Speaker 1: going to take, say, to reverse AMENDMUS sixty four in Colorado?
Speaker 1: How and when does that happen? I'd love your thoughts
Speaker 1: on that. Three oh three someone three eight two five
Speaker 1: five text d An five seven seven three nine, because
Speaker 1: I do think it's going to happen someday. I mean,
Speaker 1: the only place Ryan ever stupid enough to do this
Speaker 1: before Colorado did was Alaska. And then what they do
Speaker 1: up in Alaska, Well, the dead bodies mounted because you
Speaker 1: get so many dead bodies from this stuff, and they say, oh,
Speaker 1: no overdoses. How yeah, but they're no less dead, like
Speaker 1: right out there on two twenty five, they're no less
Speaker 1: dead from these marijuana crashes. They're sure as hell, no
Speaker 1: less dead from what what's the latest person? I have
Speaker 1: read so many hundreds, I think hundreds, but so many
Speaker 1: autopsies of teenagers and children, you know, studying the role
Speaker 1: of marijuana in those suicides, because We've had this big
Speaker 1: spike in teen suicide in Colorado since legalization of marijuana,
Speaker 1: and right now, I think the most recent numbers are
Speaker 1: out double check, somewhere near half of all the kids
Speaker 1: who commit suicide have marijuana in their system. And by
Speaker 1: the way, those numbers are understated because think about this, Ryan,
Speaker 1: Think about what I found out when I was doing
Speaker 1: that research and I was talking to coroners, and that
Speaker 1: was you've got some counties in Colorado they're not even
Speaker 1: reporting it. You can have these kids who commit suicide
Speaker 1: with really significant levels of THHC. It's not even making
Speaker 1: it into the autopsy, so it's not making it into
Speaker 1: the public stats until it gets over a really high level.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it is a scourage. It is just
Speaker 1: causing so much devastation across the country. That's why you're
Speaker 1: seeing these stories percolate up now. But let's throw it
Speaker 1: out there. What would it take and we'll get to
Speaker 1: the story about the Sixteenth Street All. The reason we
Speaker 1: got off today on all the harm caused by legalized
Speaker 1: dope is because we're about to talk about the Sixteenth
Speaker 1: Street mall and what a money pit it is and
Speaker 1: the only way it can ever really be saved is
Speaker 1: to reverse legalization of drugs. We'll play that story after
Speaker 1: the break. Also quick drop with Richard Haltorf. Really respected guy.
Speaker 1: He's now entering the race for GOP chair here on
Speaker 1: the Dan Kaplas Show.
Speaker 4: You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast Spring Afternoon.
Speaker 4: Let's go to the VIP line.
Speaker 1: Welcome Richard Holtorf, Colorado State Rep. To the show. Now
Speaker 1: running for Colorado GOP chair. Richard, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 8: Well, thank you Dan for the invitation. Greatly appreciate this opportunity.
Speaker 1: Well, it is our pleasure. I think everybody understands how
Speaker 1: important a healthy and thriving COLORADOGP is, especially in this
Speaker 1: kind of election year. But so tell us what why'd
Speaker 1: you decide to get in and why are you the man, sir.
Speaker 8: That I just announced. I just announced on Saturday. I've
Speaker 8: been watching the field and really haven't seen the right
Speaker 8: kind of leadership that we need to move this party forward.
Speaker 8: So I just decided to saddle up and make a
Speaker 8: difference because of the leadership experience I have. So the
Speaker 8: main reason I'm running is because I know that Colorado
Speaker 8: needs a strategic projectory that is very different than the
Speaker 8: one we have now. And I have a vision and
Speaker 8: a plan to move Colorado Republicans forward.
Speaker 1: And what is that vision, my friend?
Speaker 8: Well, I can't share all of it with you today,
Speaker 8: but I will give you some teasers, because if I
Speaker 8: tell you my vision, there's about five other people that
Speaker 8: are running for this race that I guarantee you will
Speaker 8: beg borrow and steal from me and it will immediately
Speaker 8: be put into their platform.
Speaker 6: As they run for this office.
Speaker 8: But I think I'm going to.
Speaker 1: Say, pardon that would be a compliment.
Speaker 8: Oh absolutely, they say. My mother used to say that
Speaker 8: imitation is the highest form of flattery, and I saw
Speaker 8: a lot of that on in my race for CD
Speaker 8: four as I presented my platform over the six months
Speaker 8: I was running in that race. But what I want
Speaker 8: to tell Colorado One I want to tell Colorado Republicans
Speaker 8: is we have to unify our party. We absolutely cannot
Speaker 8: continue down this fractured highway where we're broken into three
Speaker 8: or four different factions and we forget that the radical
Speaker 8: progressive left, so socialist, woke minded Democrats are what is
Speaker 8: taking Colorado in a very bad direction. And we need
Speaker 8: to turn our ship around. And take it in a
Speaker 8: direction that Colorado and the Colorado Electric will embrace. Because
Speaker 8: we have we are now going to be the party
Speaker 8: of the people. Now. The Colorado GOP has been a
Speaker 8: top deed organization for the last two years under its
Speaker 8: current leadership, and I got the reins of this GOP.
Speaker 8: That's going to change to the bottom up process. We're
Speaker 8: also going to work strategically.
Speaker 6: To re define the.
Speaker 8: Message and redefine our brand so it resonates for Colorado
Speaker 8: and that's all of Colorado.
Speaker 1: Well, you're right about to do it. How do you
Speaker 1: do it?
Speaker 8: Oh boy, you're starting to get into the secret s
Speaker 8: in the war. I will, but I will give you
Speaker 8: a few more teasers because I know that it's important.
Speaker 8: People knows that I mean business when I talk. You know,
Speaker 8: for far too long, Republicans have said other Republicans, you're
Speaker 8: the enemy because you're not far enough right, and so
Speaker 8: we're gonna stap you. We're going to go after you
Speaker 8: because you're not with us. Well, now, under my leadership,
Speaker 8: we are going to do some very deep dive analysis
Speaker 8: in what Colorado wants. What are the fifty four percent
Speaker 8: of the electorate that are probably six hundred to seven
Speaker 8: hundred thousand voters or more in this state that are
Speaker 8: now affiliated because they're sick and tower to the Republican
Speaker 8: Party or they're sick and tied to the Democrat party
Speaker 8: because each party has gone too far right or too
Speaker 8: far left and they've lost their way. And the Democrats
Speaker 8: have a similar problem. So what does Colorado want? What
Speaker 8: do the Colorado voters want? I've got five daughters, they're millennials,
Speaker 8: Generation X, Generation Y. What do people like my daughters
Speaker 8: want who are starting their families, starting their careers, beginning
Speaker 8: to work after their education in high school and college
Speaker 8: and trying to make a living in Colorado and have
Speaker 8: their families and raise their families and live the American dream. Well, Richie,
Speaker 8: they even bothered past.
Speaker 1: And well you are asking, Richard Holt of our guests
Speaker 1: running for Colorado Cherries of state rep. Now, now you're
Speaker 1: asking all the right questions, Archer, but let's say the
Speaker 1: answer from a majority of the unaffiliated is we want
Speaker 1: legalized abortion on demand. What do you do with that?
Speaker 8: Well, you have to satisfy the electorate, and we know
Speaker 8: that that's one of the big things that divides us
Speaker 8: as a pro life conservative. I don't want that pro
Speaker 8: choice position, and many of us do not. But we
Speaker 8: have to understand something very important, and this is going
Speaker 8: to be really hard for some of the far right Republicans,
Speaker 8: that if you do not sit in the majority or
Speaker 8: near majority in the state General Assembly, and you do
Speaker 8: not have any state wide office is held governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer,
Speaker 8: secretary of state, attorney general, if you are not even
Speaker 8: in a near parody position, then the majority will do
Speaker 8: what they want and we will never be able to
Speaker 8: change that. But even still, we can still promote pro life.
Speaker 8: But understand that if Colorado and Colorado would say they
Speaker 8: want this choice and it's the Dobbs decision now that
Speaker 8: defines that under federal law, and they get to decide,
Speaker 8: the only way Colorado Republicans and you pro life, hardcore
Speaker 8: pro life, passionate pro life Republicans, the only way you
Speaker 8: get to change that is to become the majority. And
Speaker 8: your pathway to the majority is not to continue to
Speaker 8: ignore well, the majority of the electorate can't do that.
Speaker 1: Let me explore that a little more, Richard, because I'm
Speaker 1: probably among the most passionate pro lifers in the state
Speaker 1: as a former Democrat, I'm not sure anybody says I'm
Speaker 1: the hardest core, farthest right person. But let me ask
Speaker 1: you this. Are you saying then that the Colorado GOP
Speaker 1: should give up its pro life position because no.
Speaker 8: No, absolutely not, Dan, let me stop you right there.
Speaker 8: I'm not saying any about giving up our position and
Speaker 8: changing our values. What I'm saying is we need to
Speaker 8: understand the electric We can promote our values, we can persuade,
Speaker 8: and we can continue to try to champion those things
Speaker 8: we believe in, but we can't say to the voter
Speaker 8: if you don't do it our way, you can't be
Speaker 8: a part of our team, and we're not going to
Speaker 8: support you. In fact, we're going to fight you as
Speaker 8: a minority and a super minority all the way to insignificance.
Speaker 1: What would that look like? How would it be different
Speaker 1: than the current approach of the Colorado GOP on say
Speaker 1: the life.
Speaker 8: Issue, Well, first of all, the people that promote.
Speaker 6: And this is where the current regime gets it wrong.
Speaker 8: The Colorado GOP and Dan, I want your listeners to.
Speaker 6: Pay very close attention.
Speaker 8: The Colorado GOP should be like a computer operating system.
Speaker 6: I'm your computer.
Speaker 8: They are in the background, they are making everything work
Speaker 8: and everything on the screen. It's none of that. Is
Speaker 8: the co GOP standing in front of the bully pulpit,
Speaker 8: standing on the steps of the Capitol, are releasing press
Speaker 8: releases to Colorado media. What should be happening. If we
Speaker 8: should push our candidates forward, our elected officials forward, we
Speaker 8: should empower them, and we should help them so they
Speaker 8: can say the message to their voters and their constituents
Speaker 8: in their districts, be it federal congressional district, state senatorial district,
Speaker 8: state house district, or statewide. If we have an elected
Speaker 8: official that's the state wide elected official, and we allow
Speaker 8: them to resonate.
Speaker 6: And promote those things, then we empower.
Speaker 8: Them to persuade. We put them in front. They're what
Speaker 8: should be on the screen, not the Colorado's GOP. Now,
Speaker 8: the Colorado's GOP strategically should be working hand in hand.
Speaker 8: And that's the problem we're not right now. We are
Speaker 8: so dysfunctional.
Speaker 6: I don't think Dave even talks to the minority, the leader.
Speaker 1: In the House, Richard, forgive me for interrupting. We we're
Speaker 1: one minute over our heartbreak, so we'll have to hit
Speaker 1: this now. But how can people learn more about you.
Speaker 8: Well, I've got a Facebook and we're setting up our
Speaker 8: ex site holteur for COGP chair. I just announced on
Speaker 8: Saturday because of my passion for trying to make Colorado
Speaker 8: relevant again, make Colorado Republicans relevant again, and our journey
Speaker 8: has to be to elect more Republicans to offices at
Speaker 8: the state wide level. That's the primary mission of the
Speaker 8: state party.
Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously, while holding true to the value. So Richard,
Speaker 1: thank you for your time. Always, welcome back here and
Speaker 1: best of luck.
Speaker 8: Well, thank you very much, And if you want to
Speaker 8: get a little deeper into the strategy and the plan forward,
Speaker 8: I'd like to begin sharing that. So let me know
Speaker 8: if I can come next week or the week after
Speaker 8: and talk a little bit more.
Speaker 1: You bet always always my friend, open door here. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the time today. Hey, when we come back,
Speaker 1: the latest plan to save the sixteenth Street Mall? Will
Speaker 1: it works? Spoiler alert, nothing's going to work as long
Speaker 1: as you have legalized drugs in Colorado. You're on the
Speaker 1: Dankapla Show.
Speaker 4: And now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast.
Speaker 1: Kind of venue. Yeah, yeah, no understood. And his memories
Speaker 1: I've read about those, Yeah, yeah, I just remember Seeger
Speaker 1: at folsom Field. I mean, what what a great show. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the Sixteenth Street Mall. So here's a
Speaker 1: KUSA story. And then you got to listen to a
Speaker 1: couple of things in this, right, I mean that at
Speaker 1: least it's funny. Right as you hear, KUSA now put
Speaker 1: its its left spin on it. So when they cite
Speaker 1: all the reasons the mall's failing, how in the man,
Speaker 1: how in the world would you imagine that they would
Speaker 1: find a way to blame this on conservatives. So listen
Speaker 1: carefully to this. Okay, because last I checked, Ryan, I
Speaker 1: don't think the MERI Denver's a Republican, right, I don't
Speaker 1: think the last one was a Republican. I don't think
Speaker 1: the one before that was a Republican. I don't think
Speaker 1: the one before that was a Republican. But somehow KUSA
Speaker 1: blaming the blight on the mall on conservatives. Listen carefully, Denver.
Speaker 9: Sixteenth Street Mall has some real problems. First off, Americans
Speaker 9: general disinterest in spaces like that, they used to be
Speaker 9: far more popular. Then you layer on vacant storefronts, long
Speaker 9: term construction, some high profile crimes, and a political narrative
Speaker 9: that cities are to be feared as construction finally wraps up.
Speaker 9: Our Mark Salinger looks at Denver's next challenge, convincing people
Speaker 9: to come back to the Sixteenth Street mall.
Speaker 1: Can I comment on that for a second political narrative
Speaker 1: that cities are to be feared? Think about the assumption
Speaker 1: in that. Think about the worldview in that. The worldview
Speaker 1: in that is that you're an idiot. The worldview in
Speaker 1: that is that everybody's an idiot, truly, the worldview. To
Speaker 1: be able to make that statement on a prominent news
Speaker 1: station that people aren't going to the mall because of
Speaker 1: a quote political narrative that cities are unsafe, that the
Speaker 1: operating assumption there for anybody you'd put that on air
Speaker 1: is that people are stupid sheep who can't think for themselves,
Speaker 1: can't analyze news and facts and data for themselves and
Speaker 1: make intelligent, informed decisions about what areas are safe or not.
Speaker 1: So they're just blindly following some political leader who says
Speaker 1: cities are unsafe. So think about how you are viewed
Speaker 1: at least that entity.
Speaker 5: After spending one hundred and seventy five million dollars on
Speaker 5: construction on the sixteenth Street Mall. The concern now is
Speaker 5: making sure people actually come back to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: The experience today is not the ultimate experience that we
Speaker 1: want on sixteenth, and we need to do a lot
Speaker 1: to change that perception.
Speaker 5: The price tag for new art activities and marketing was
Speaker 5: set at one point nine million dollars today in Denver
Speaker 5: City Council money. The Johnson Administration and the Downtown Denver
Speaker 5: Partnership argue is vital to making sure people return to
Speaker 5: a street that's been filled with Wait a.
Speaker 1: Second, So the idea here is one point nine million
Speaker 1: in arts and plants, Art and plants going to bring
Speaker 1: people back to the mall. Well, that brings us back
Speaker 1: to this whole idea that there's a quote political narrative
Speaker 1: that has misled people into thinking the city's unsafe. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a political narrative. When a visiting flight
Speaker 1: attendant has her throat slit in broad daylight on the
Speaker 1: sixteenth Street mall, where's the politics in that? Where's the
Speaker 1: narrative in that? No, you have a flight attendant shopping
Speaker 1: on the mall, Middle of the day on a Saturday,
Speaker 1: gets her throat slit and she dies in the street. So,
Speaker 1: how is another piece of public art, particularly if it's
Speaker 1: like old meth out at the airport or the venus
Speaker 1: down by I twenty five, how's another piece of public
Speaker 1: art supposed to overcome that is in hard hats for years?
Speaker 1: How do we bring color to the space things that
Speaker 1: just feel like someone's taking care of it.
Speaker 5: The nearly two million dollars would go towards trying to
Speaker 5: get people to visit downtown again. It would fund events
Speaker 5: like live music and street markets. It would pay for
Speaker 5: security to make people feel safe in an area that's
Speaker 5: seen several high profile crimes recently. And it would allocate
Speaker 5: money for art to cover up empty storefronts where businesses
Speaker 5: have moved out.
Speaker 1: This is part of a broader strategy for downtown.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 1: Second, your strategy is not to get businesses in. Your
Speaker 1: strategy is to have some art in front of the
Speaker 1: businesses that have closed and left because you're pro drug policies.
Speaker 1: Your pro criminal policies have made a zombie land, have
Speaker 1: made it. Look at the letter from the fourteen really
Speaker 1: prominent restaurant owners who poured their heart and soul into downtown,
Speaker 1: and they are not coming at you from the right. No,
Speaker 1: all these lefty policies, these pro drug these pro criminal policies,
Speaker 1: have made it a place people don't want to go.
Speaker 1: But Ryan, that's the key. We just didn't think creatively enough.
Speaker 1: Just put art over the storefronts, the stores that have left,
Speaker 1: and nobody will notice a.
Speaker 3: Band aid on a wound requiring a tourniquet. It's a
Speaker 3: facelift and a terminal cancer patient. I mean, this is
Speaker 3: not addressing the root causes of what the problem is
Speaker 3: down there and back then and the story in Kyle
Speaker 3: Clark's characterization, it's total gaslighting. We're, like you said, the
Speaker 3: idiots for thinking there's even a problem down there. Woman
Speaker 3: gets your throat slit. You see people shooting up with
Speaker 3: drugs all the time. You see fecal matter on the streets.
Speaker 1: Well I'm not just on this street, right, you see
Speaker 1: people producing it? Oh god?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And uh do you see the one the other day
Speaker 1: the guy just running around naked up and down the mall.
Speaker 1: But no, But the point being here, the links the
Speaker 1: left will go to to deny the real truth