11-05-25 - *FULL SHOW* Election results; Leland Vittert; Charlie G; Heritage schism

When you experienced the PFL live, the hits are harder. The crowd is louder. The action unmatched. There ain't no more stopping these teens and cleans for well when you cry. July 25th in Washington, D.C., undefeated that the silverbacked gene fights to cement his place atop the division against the silent assassin Shemil Musayev with PFL gold on the line. The tension is building. Be there. Saturday, July 25th, live from Care First Arena. For tickets, visit pfell. info slash DC. Entertain clients, reward employees, or enjoy a first-class race weekend with VIR's premium MSA hospitality experiences. August 21st through 23rd, enjoy exclusive viewing areas, premium amenities, food and beverage options, and access that puts you close to the action. Whether for business or pleasure, elevate your weekend at Virginia International Raceway. Explore and upgrade your tickets at VIRVIP.net. Vital doesn't always mean visible. Across America, advanced technology is working behind the scenes, strengthening our nation. It protects our warfighters, advances life-saving healthcare, combat cyber threats, and defends the critical infrastructure that keeps our country moving. At GDIT, we power the systems that help America operate, connect, and stay secure. Every hour, every mission, every day. GDIT, behind America's invisible advantage. If you're someone who's tracking your sleep, your steps, and your macros, then you already know that what you eat is kind of everything. You should also know that Sprouts Farmer's Market can help make eating for longevity easier. Sprouts has all the high-quality, nutrient-dense, organic foods and cutting-edge supplements you need. So whether you're focused on protein, gut health, or optimizing how you feel day-to-day, it's all there. And here's what no other grocery store can offer. An in-store wellness expert to help you find exactly what you need. So whether you're after longevity or on any other health journey, it's easier at Sprout's Farmer's Market. Clay Travis, I'm sure you know him. You see him on Fox News frequently. He's founder of the hugely successful sports website Outkick. And he is co-host of the Clay and Buck Show, which is one of the very top nationally syndicated shows in the entire country. And he's got a new book out, just came out yesterday called, and I love the title, Balls. And there's a basketball or two basketballs actually on the cover of the book. The subtitle, How Trump Young Men and Sports Saved America. Clay Travis, welcome to K-O-A. It's good to have you. Hey, great for you all having me. Appreciate it. So before we jump into the book, I just would love to get your take on what happened yesterday in elections around the country. I imagine it'll be almost everything that you're going to talk about on your show today. But what's on your mind? Yeah, look, I'm in New York City right now. So let's put a pen in that. I'll come back to it because I think there's two different stories really being told in New Jersey and in Virginia.

The same voters who showed up for President Trump in 2024 did not show up for either candidate in 2025. Trump got more votes in New Jersey than the winning Democrat candidate did by 200,000 votes. Trump got more votes in Virginia than the winning Democrat candidate did in the election last night. There were around 600,000 less Trump voters that showed up in 2020. then showed up in 2024. So the story here, and it's not a new one, but I do think it's something that is ominous somewhat for Republicans going forward next year, is when Trump's on the ballot, tons of low propensity voters show up to support Donald Trump. When he is not on the ballot, those same voters are very, very difficult to motivate to turn up. And I think that's the question going forward for a year from now as we prepare for the midterms and for three years from now as we think about what America will look like without Trump on the ballot. I think you're exactly right. And I want to just follow up with you on the very last thing you said there. I suspect, but obviously I don't know, that whoever the next Republican presidential candidate is, even if it's a candidate that is perceived as very MAGA, even if it's JD Vance, I suspect that that candidate will have a very hard time getting... you know, getting all, let's say, or close to all of President Trump's voters, because there's something unique about Trump and there's something unique about Trump's appeal to his voters that I have a feeling will not fully translate to anybody else. Well, that's the concern. And I don't think that's a crazy, I don't think that's a crazy take at all. Now, the question is, to what extent is Trump's motivation of Democrat Party voters also an outlier? Because let's say we had a Gavin Newsom versus JD Vance's 2028 presidential election. That would be what the betting markets would tell you is the most likely matchup that we would see. To what extent does Trump's connection to JD Vance as his vice president translate to votes and also to what extent does Trump's connection to JD Vance motivate Democrat voters because Democrats, the analogy I would make is Democrats in many ways are the most diehard of the political universe supporters. And I was using this because I come out of the world as sports as an analogy. college campus, people show up in big numbers for football games. Football games kind of like a presidential election. You know, 100,000 people, 80,000, whatever it is. That fan base for that school can still be substantial, but maybe only 10,000 people show up for a basketball game. And then by the time you get to women's softball or baseball, it might be 1,000 or even less. People care, they're fans, but as the significance of the event,

declines, the number of people who are willing to show up for it declines as well. The Democrats are the diehards. And so that is why I think Democrats should be a favorite in the 2026 midterm elections because they hate Trump so much that even when Trump is not on the ballot, they're willing to show up. People who love Trump. are not as willing to show up and support other people when Trump's name itself is not on the ballot. So I think that's one of the big challenges going forward. I agree with that as well. I'll say one last thing and then I want to talk about your book. I think that President Trump is perceived as not just not succeeding, but also to a certain extent not trying hard enough when it comes to cost of living issues. And cost of living is not down. And that's what he ran on in addition to the border, but people care about cost of living a lot more. And I think for Republicans to have a decent chance in the midterms next year, in the presidential election two years after that, Trump and Republicans generally are going to have to do more and appear that they're doing more when it comes to that most important issue. Do you want to say anything real quick on that? So we at least get several minutes to talk about your book? I think the biggest challenge that Trump has when it comes to cost of goods is Biden was so bad on inflation that everything costs more than we think we should. Oh, that's exactly right. So if the slow rate of growth or the rate of growth has declined on cost of goods, which it has. Every time I go to Chick-fil-A, I still think I can't believe I'm paying $50 to feed my family at a fast food place. And most people in America, I think, feel the same way, no matter who the president is. We're talking with Clay Travis. His new book is Balls, How Trump, Young Men, and Sports Saved America. So you start the book talking about Leah Thomas, formerly Will Thomas. And I think everybody knows the story about the, you know, male swimmer dominating female collegiate swimming. My question for you on that one was, were you surprised at just how big an issue that became in the presidential election? No, because I think presidential elections are complicated and sometimes issues need to be crystallized. And when you tell me that a man is now a woman because he has told me that, that's a bridge too far. for me and for most people. Look, if you want to dress up in women's clothing or men's clothing and you want to change your name and that makes you happier and even you want to have surgery to try to reflect that in some way, I think adults should have the ability to pursue happiness as they see fit. But it is different, me saying that, then, hey, well, certainly we don't even need to get into kids. That shouldn't happen for kids, but I'm just talking about adults here. But it's different than, hey,

Not only am I a woman, but I should be able to become a women's sports champion. Most men and women out there, even a huge majority of Democrats, see this as just being wrong. And so it also requires me to be a liar because you have a gender and you then are saying that I have to accede to your gender to such an extent that you can become a women's champion. Having a dude in a women's bathing suit. winning a women's sports championship. is patently absurd to most people. And Trump saw it because he's got an intuitive sense for sanity and ran the ads, which we write about in the book. Kamala Harris is for they, them, Trump's for you. Yeah, one of the great ads. One of the most effective political ads, right? One of the most effective political ads I've seen in years and years and years. All right, I got about two minutes left. Let me try to get through a couple other things with you. And for those just joining, we're talking with Clay Travis. His new book just released yesterday. is balls, how Trump, young men, and sports saved America. So you, along with your co-host, Buck Sexton, are among the very few people who talk a lot about Trump and actually know him. A lot of people talk a lot about Trump who never met him. What's something that you think most people don't understand or misunderstand about him? Trump is just a grandfather and a really nice guy. There's a little anecdote in the book where we interview Trump at Mar-a-Lago and he won't let us leave because he's insistent that we get the Mar-a-Lago milkshake because they make the best milkshakes anywhere in America in typical Trump hyperbole. And I remember saying, boy, you know, I bet Hitler didn't do interviews and then insist that people take a strudel with him, you know, right after they were finished because where he was made the best strudels anywhere in America. And I think that is probably what would stand out the most. My wife has met Trump several different times. How gracious, accommodating, and... willing to share credit he is. They get cut out a lot of times in his speeches, but go look at the number of times that he will name 20 or 25 different guys and gals that are there at his rallies. I think the idea that he is domineering and a jerk is maybe the biggest lost element of Trump. He's actually just an incredibly likable guy in a one-on-one setting. Okay, last thing, and this is one we can talk for an hour about, but I need you to keep it to less than a minute. There's a lot in this particular sentence in your book that I want you to just elaborate on a little. And I'm quoting you now. To me, the collapse of sports as a unifying source across race, sex preference, gender, and political divides is inextricably intertwined with the rise of social media. So there's two big things there. The collapse of sports is a unifying thing and the social media part. But say anything you want that you can get out pretty quick.

Well, look, Kaepernick, the protest of Kaepernick and the rise of Michael, Sam, and everything else, identity politics is inextricably intertwined in my mind with the rise of social media because it led to people saying, as a black woman, as a trans, Asian midget, whatever you want to say, look at how often people preface their opinions by describing themselves. I always say it's like we've gone back in time to the divine right of kings, which is ironic because they say no kings, but your argument is premised on your identity, not the quality of the argument. To me, The quality of the argument is all that matters. Look at Corrine Jean-Pierre. Every time she gets questioned on anything, she says, well, I'm a black lesbian. Well, what the heck do I care about that? What I care about is can you or can you not do the job? When you use your race and identity, your gender preference as both sword and shield, it dilutes and distorts overall American conversation and debate. And I think that's why overall we're seeing so much anger emanating. And I think social media has certainly accelerated that. Clay Travis is founder of the hugely successful sports website Outkick. He is co-host with Buck Sexton of the incredibly successful as well. Clay and Buck Show, one of the top radio shows in the country in his new book, just out yesterday, is Balls, How Trump, Young Men and Sports Saved America. Clay, great to talk to you for the first time, Clay. Thanks for doing this. Okay, great. Appreciate y'all. All right. We're going to take quick break. We'll be right back on K-OA. Over the course of the show, I am going to have a lot to say about what happened. in yesterday's elections. And I'm going to start on that now. I'm going to do a few minutes on it now. In the next segment of the show, I'm going to have Leland Vitterd from News Nation. We're going to talk about the elections more as well. But over the course of the show, I really have a lot to say. I also... I want to encourage you or ask you to go to rosskaminski.substack.com. Check out my note this morning, which is the first time I've ever done a video for a substack. It also gets posted to my YouTube, but it's a video where I talk about many thoughts about the elections last night. And of course, if you go to rosskaminski.com and you check up my blog note today, my Wednesday blogcast, I have a ton of thoughts and analysis in there as well. Let me talk right now. about just a brief big picture thing and then spend maybe a minute and a half or two minutes on Colorado. And then later in the show, we'll do more of the national stuff. The macro overarching point to make about yesterday's elections, not just in Colorado, but in so many places, is that... There was a massive reaction against Donald Trump. There was a massive reaction by Democrats and many unaffiliated voters against Donald Trump. And on the Republican side, as Clay Travis noted, a lot of Republicans simply didn't turn out. And we can, you know, debate about whether that's because they're only motivated to vote for Trump or they were demotivated because they're not very happy with.

the job Trump is doing. But in any case, across the country, it's not just the Democrats did well. It's that they did exceptionally well. Now, here in Colorado, every place I looked, and I have not looked at every election, but all the ballot measures I looked at. With all the ballot measures I looked at, including propositions LL and NM and the Denver vibrant bonds and the Denver ban on flavored tobacco and vaping. Well, it was a measure to overturn the ban. So the ban overturned failed. So the ban remains in place. There were lots of proposed tax hikes, mill levy hikes. Every one that I looked at. Past everything that I saw so far in Colorado that involved raising taxes, raising spending, borrowing money. Everyone I have seen so far passed and passed by wide margins. And then on the candidate side, again, I have not looked at every election, okay? And I know that there's some stuff in some more rural parts of Colorado. A listener sent me a note about Montrose where I guess a Republican won an election there, but it was much closer than you would have thought. But around here, in the Denver metro area. It looked to me like an absolute wipeout of whatever remaining Republicans and conservatives were. If you were a Republican or a conservative up for election in the Denver metro area, you probably lost. And everyone that I looked at lost. So, for example, school board races. And in Denver, there's no Republican, right? But in Denver, all of the union-backed candidates for school board appear to have won. Same in Cherry Creek. Same in Douglas County. All right? And I assume Jefferson County. I didn't go look, but Jefferson County is pretty liberal county these days. But Douglas County, all the candidates who appear to have won were the union-backed candidates. Really, really something. And in Aurora, it appears that Daniel Gerinsky has lost her seat. And it appears that all of the ones that I, from my political bias, from my political perspective, the members of the city council who I prefer, who are incumbents, it appears at the moment that they have all lost and that there has been essentially a, like I said, a wipeout of remaining Republicans and conservatives in the elections that were held yesterday. As for what that means going forward for next year's midterms for 2026, if I were a Republican, I would be very, very scared right now and wondering.

what I could do to try to make things better. We're going to talk about that more later in the show. When we come back, Leland Vitter joins us. I mentioned that every tax increase I had looked at so far in the state of Colorado past, but there was one that I talked about on the show a few weeks ago where I encouraged people to vote no, and it does look like it failed, and that was Manitou Springs wanting to raise their excise tax, basically tax on tourists and tickets and all kinds of things. It looks like that one failed. Okay. Last night, I watched election. coverage entirely on one network. And that was News Nation, which is my cable news home these days, not least because of my friend and frequent guest, Leland Vittert, who joins us now, despite having stayed up late with election coverage. Leland, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it as always. Always good, Ross. I should mention, I should have mentioned this before. Leland's show is called On Balance, and it airs on News Nation at 7 p.m. Mountain Time weekdays, and you can sign up for his daily email, which is really his show prep at warnotes.com, and you can buy his book at Bornlucky.com. All right. Leeland, I think neither one of us is surprised that the Democrats did well last night. Were you surprised at how well? No, not particularly. I was surprised a little bit in New Jersey, I think, is the place that I would pick out, is the place that, you know, if there was going to be an expansion of the MAGA coalition and if somehow the shift of working class voters to Republicans was going to get sticky, that was where it was going to happen, and it did not. Indeed. And Jack Ciattarelli did five points worse than he did the last time. And here in Colorado, by the way, and for those who don't know, Leland used to be here. He used to be on Fox 31 right here in Denver. So he... He likes this place a lot and he knows a little about it. Here it was just an absolute wipeout of, you know, whatever conservative or Republican candidates were on the ballot in a race that had any chance of being close to Democrats, the Democrats won. So it seemed like there was just outperformance everywhere. And I wonder how much of this do you think is a negative reaction to Trump? How much do you think is MAGA voters who historically don't turn out for anyone except Trump doing that, but even more? What else do you think were the key factors in what we saw? Well, the economy, the economy, the economy, that there's not a lot for Republicans to be excited about right now. There's an awful lot for Democrats to be angry about right now.

There was a desire by Democrats to turn this into a referendum on Trump, but a desire for Republicans to try to make it about something different, which disincentivizes Trump Republican voters or, you know, MAGA voters. So I think you put all of it together. It makes sense. You know, I think the lesson to me from this is that things change, you know, and I spent a lot of time listening to you know, people, Republicans be so upset today. In the same way I listen to Democrats be so upset a year ago. You know, there's a lot of Republicans today feeling about the country and everything else the same way Democrats did a year ago. And the lesson is things change in America. I think what is also noteworthy is how the extremes in America. are becoming far more powerful. You know, that Donald Trump, and especially Trump 2.0, represents an extreme of the Republican Party in how he's doing things. And Zohran Mamdani represents an extreme of the Democratic Party. And those who would say Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill are moderates just don't know who they are. Right. Okay. So I agree with all that. But I would add that... Cheryl and Abigail Spanberger positioned themselves as moderates. And for people who don't know... Not really. Well, not really. Okay. You want to elaborate on that? Abigail Spanberger couldn't say Abigail Spanberger was asked multiple times. Can you say no boys and girls sports? And she couldn't even say that. That's not a moderate position in any way, shape, or form. To me, actually, one thing that surprised me at least a little was that... Jay Jones won the VA, the Virginia Attorney General's race. And you talked about this a lot on News Nation last night with you and Steyerwalt and that and that whole crew that I was watching all night long. That one, I have to say, surprised me a little bit, and I think shows how much people think of politics these days as war, and the other guy is the enemy, and you will not say anything bad. Like, Republicans have no enemies on the right, and Democrats have no enemies on the left. And I got to tell you, as an American, I hate it. Yeah. Well, so you're talking about Jay Jones, who won in Virginia as the Attorney General, the definition of sort of an empty suit just with a party affiliation next to him, who openly fantasized in text messages about killing members of the other party, about the Speaker of the House, and actually was texting members of the Virginia State Legislature about... how he would like to see the Republican Speaker of the House's children die in their mother's arms. And...

The text message just came out, and it made a difference, but not that much of a difference. You know, 20 years ago, this kind of stuff was disqualifying. And I think what you're getting to, Ross, is the point that really now in America, nothing is disqualifying. You're voting for a party, one way or the other, and that's just the way it is, especially in an election like this, especially in sort of what you'd call an off-year election that's very much just about the base. This isn't this isn't about getting out, you know, sort of voters on the margins. I feel, and I think I felt this way for a long time since the rise of Trump, that Republicans can't win with Trump and they can't win without Trump. Trump can win. But other Republicans, even going back to the last congressional election, yeah, Republicans have the majority, but there was a lot of thinking going into the 2024 elections, as you well know, that they might have a 20-seat majority or something like that, and they've got a three- or four-seat majority. And I don't know how Republicans are going to manage a situation where in order to win a primary, some Republican probably needs to move way towards MAGA, but if that sticks with them in the general election, they're going to lose. This is a problem for both parties, that at the extremes of both parties have gotten more and more powerful. And, you know, in certain places, it doesn't matter because of gerrymandering and everything else, especially for Congress. But we're at a weird place politically in America. And we have gotten there through. entirely of our own fault as a people. And I think the market for politics will self-correct. That's the George Will axi, that there is this desire for a transformational candidate in the center. And when that happens, that will move America back to the center. Right. If such a person can get through the primary and actually end up in a general election. Well, true. And well-pointed. What I would say, and I have my own personal feelings about Zohran Mamdani that he's, you know, terrorist adjacent and, you know, embraces sort of the tenets of radical political Islam and on and on and on. Those are my own personal views. But if you watch him as a politician. He is a generational talent. He is a extraordinarily talented politician, and people are not giving him that credit. I think the lesson is, Ross, that Americans are hungry for someone who inspires them, even if the way that that person inspires them is not necessarily what their own views would be. I mean, you think about the idea that Zohran Mamdani, who, you know, embraces Gaza and Hamas, and we know what Gaza and Hamas does to women.

or what Hamas does to women in Gaza and what the Islamists, you know, the hardcore Islamists do to women. And yet 80% of millennial women voted for Zohran Mamdani. You know, there's a cognitive disconnect that goes on in some of these situations. And it can be explained by people who are just desperate for someone. who inspires them. Now, the dot, dot, dot is someone who also tells them it's not their fault. They don't have to work that hard. They're the victim on and on. But that's kind of part of being inspired. It's no different than what Donald Trump did. Also, I do think Zohran Mamdani could have been beaten if there were a decent alternative. It's hard to think of a more flawed alternative than... than Andrew Cuomo. And I know his brother works with you and is a friend of yours and all, and I like him too. But man, I mean, if Andrew Cuomo was your savior, you're in trouble. Well, that is part of the reckoning that the Democrats are going to have to go through. And I would argue that what we saw tonight is not dissimilar to what we saw in 2009. with the Tea Party and the rise of this movement in the Republican Party that ended up becoming MAGA. And that was the beginning of John, you know, the end of John McCain Republican politics. This is the end of Andrew Cuomo, Chuck Schumer, Democratic politics. We're talking with Leland Vitterd. His brilliant show is called On Balance. It's on News Nation at 7 p.m. Mountain Time replays at 10 p.m. hour time. And if you go to warnotes.com, you can sign up for his free daily email. All right. I have two last questions for you. Are you really having ginger shots at breakfast? Well. I was really having ginger shots at breakfast. This is when my wife and I were in California. And she, when we got there on the first day, at breakfast, ordered a ginger shot. And I didn't know what it was. So I ordered one and then filmed myself taking it. Because what came, I thought would be a shot. Instead, this was like a... Diet Coke can size portion of ginger, I guess. And I took that, and then I subsequently took four more days of it. I can't tell. I feel better now that I'm not taking them, but I'm trying to figure out if that's because I... Took them before and now it's just the effects. I'm still confused as to what the real effects were. Okay. I mean, I think ginger tastes kind of gross. Do you like it? Was it something you enjoyed or was it more like a medicinal thing? No, no. And the videos of me like almost gagging was not AI. That was real. Mm-hmm.

Okay, last question for you, and it's the question I always make my last question with you. So other than elections, what's going to be an interesting and important topic on your show tonight? My favorite topic tonight, I think, is going to be talking to a realtor from the suburbs of New York because of what interests they're now seen. And whether that really is actually happening or not. Andrew Cuomo has O'Reilly tonight, which I think is going to be a really interesting interview and one that I'd like to, I want to watch. But I think that's going to be the most interesting thing. The other thing is I think that the stuff that is going on right now legally with the Supreme Court and Trump and tariffs is going to define the next year in a way that, We don't quite appreciate right now when we can talk about the shiny, shiny objects. And you know how much of a nerd I am. I spent most of much of this morning with my earbuds in listening to the Supreme Court oral arguments on the, on the tariffs case, because it is incredibly important. Leeland Vitter's show, on balance, 7 p.m. weeknights on News Nation, best show on cable news. Thanks for making time for us in the middle of your travels. Leeland, appreciate it. Always fun, Ross. Thank you. All right. So, all right, I'm going to keep talking here. And yeah, his show is the best. It really is the best. And I'll say second best, although close second, close second, would be... Brett Baer's special report on Fox News. Or maybe they're even tied. But for anyone to be even tied with Brett Baer is a pretty remarkable thing. Leeland Show is really fantastic. Let me talk about tariffs for a minute because I did spend time this morning listening to the oral arguments at the Supreme Court. At the time that I happened to be listening, all of the questioning was of the Solicitor General of the United States. Last name is John Sauer, I think. S-A-U-E-R, if I remember correctly. Anyway, all the questioning was of him. was making the argument in favor of why a particular law called IEPA, the International Emergency, International Economic Emergency Protection Act or something like that, IEEPA, why that law, which does not use the word tariffs anywhere, he's arguing that that law nevertheless allows the President of the United States to impose tariffs. I think it doesn't, but I think that... It's not a slam dunk at the Supreme Court. Trump should lose just as a matter of law. I'm not saying because I don't like the tariffs, even though I don't. But I'm saying as a matter of reading the law, I think Trump should lose the case. I think it's clear that the three liberals will vote against him. I think it's reasonably likely that Samuel Alito and maybe Thomas will probably vote for. Trump having this power and I just have no idea where the other ones go because it's a very interesting case in the sense that on one hand there are

Conservative members of the Supreme Court who don't mind increasing executive power more than I would prefer, but they do what they're going to do. But on the other hand, some of these same conservatives generally object to reading a law beyond the clear meaning of its letters in a way that expands the authority of... of government to do something. It's sort of the Major Questions Act, right? So that generally the Supreme Court is saying if it's unclear whether a law allows the government to do something that's really big. And clearly tariffs are really big, right? We're talking about tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars of taxes taken from Americans and brought into the United States Treasury. That's huge. The major questions doctrine from the Supreme Court would suggest that when the government is looking to do something that big, you cannot assume that the authority is there for the government to do it unless it's clearly spelled out in law. And this isn't. So there's really attention there for some of these conservative justices. And we're going to have to see how that all plays out. And oral arguments are today. But I don't think, let's see, I don't think we would expect to get a result until spring, probably until March or April. And in the meantime, these tariffs are going to stay in place. By the way, one really interesting question about this. And I don't know if this will play into how the justices decide the case. But a really interesting question would be if the Supreme Court rules against Trump. Will they also rule that the government needs to refund all of the illegally collected tariffs? That would really be something. And it would be interesting to see what that does to financial markets and to bond markets, which are, you know, thinking a little bit about this tariff revenue being there somewhat offsetting the deficit and national debt. So anyway, very, very interesting case, incredibly important case when it comes to executive power. And we'll see. how it all plays out. All right, I still have a lot more to say about the elections in Colorado and elsewhere, and also some more about the ongoing government shutdown. And what I think is some pretty outrageous hypocrisy, even though. You know, that's kind of a normal thing among politicians, but some pretty silly hypocrisy from Democratic members of Congress here in Colorado. We'll talk about it next here on K-O-A. I do want to invite you to text into me right now at 56690, and I have a very broad kind of question for you, and that is what is your reaction to what happened in the elections yesterday? What's your reaction? I have a lot to say about the elections yesterday. I spent some time earlier on the show talking about...

what happened here in Colorado, and basically here in Colorado, and especially in the Denver metro area, and you hear some of the details just, you heard some of the details just now from Intrepid Chad Bauer in the news broadcast there with some names of candidates and so on. But as far as I can tell, around the Denver metro area. All or close to all of the furthest left candidates and the union-backed candidates in school boards, for example, they all won. And conservatives and Republicans all lost in every race that I saw. Now, I'm not saying I saw every race. I'm sure some Republican or some conservative somewhere in the Denver metro area won something. All right. But with the things I've seen, right, the Denver School Board, now there's no conservatives there, but the further left people won the Denver School Board. The union-backed people beat the conservatives in the Douglas County School Board in all four seats as far as I can tell. Cherry Creek School District, the two conservative women both lost. You get the idea. I mean, think about Douglas County, right? Douglas County, all four of those candidates who were, you know, let's say on a policy basis, the candidates who I would prefer, they all lost in the union-back candidates won. And I did not get very involved in that. Ben Albright had a couple of those candidates from the Douglas County School Board on the show on Monday when I was out. Mandy was at an event with all of them, with the conservatives and the union-backed ones, and Mandy told me off the air that she thought that separate from policy, just how good are you as a candidate, regardless of what you support or what you believe, Mandy thought the union-backed candidates were just better, and the conservative candidates weren't really ready for prime time. And they didn't lose by a lot, you know, I lose by 5 points, 6, 7 points. You know, but in Douglas County, for conservatives to lose by it like that seems like a lot. But I do think there's something to be said about candidate quality. A few people have mentioned something to me about the dysfunction of the Colorado Republican Party. That is certainly true. The Colorado Republican Party has been a mess for a long time. Britta Horn is trying to make it better, but I don't know. I'm not paying close enough attention to the ins and out to that to know whether she's doing a good job. There does seem to still be some controversy around that. And then you have these. ass hats who go by rhino watch and people like that who are from the dave williams part of the party and their gadflies and trolls and they lie a lot and they have very strange ideas but they make it their mission to keep dividing the party because that's how they make a living So in any case, I still, I don't think that a more functional Colorado Republican Party would have made much difference. This is a blue state that's getting bluer. And yes, it's possible the pendulum might swing back toward the middle at some point. But that point is not now. And that point is not soon. And when the pendulum does swing back, what will that even look like?

Right. Maybe that'll look like a Republican winning the state attorney general's office one day or the secretary or or treasurer, right? Maybe it'll look like that. But it's not going to look like a Republican majority in either chamber of the state legislature for quite some time. This is a blue state getting bluer. Now, to be clear about one thing. Many, many people in this state who might be kind of moderate really hate Donald Trump. And that might make the state seem a little bluer than it actually is. But even if you adjust for that, it's hard to see Republicans doing well in Colorado. Every tax hike that I could see that involved raising property taxes and, you know, raising Tabor, debrucing and stuff like that, they all seem to pass. Now, I did note, a listener said, that the tax on, essentially on tourism items, on tickets in... Manitou Springs failed, and that's great. That's great, because they didn't want to kill the tourism business there. But, you know, it's interesting, that's a very different kind of tax. That's a tax that would have hurt business and employment in that town. It wasn't income tax or a normal sales tax or whatever, almost all of which, all of which that I saw passed. So now let's talk about big picture for a second. What happened yesterday? Lots and lots of Republicans simply did not turn out. And we've known this for a long time now. Many, many Trump supporters, whether or not they're Republicans, but mostly they are, only turn out in elections when Trump is on the ballot. And they don't turn out in other elections. This is a huge problem for Republicans, including in the next presidential election where Trump won't be on the ballot. And sure, maybe his vice president will be on the ballot. Maybe JD Vance will be the Republican nominee. I have to say, I hope not. I don't like him. But maybe he will. But even so, what percentage of Trump's MAGA voters are going to turn out for JD Vance, who simply does not have Trump's force of personality? I'm not trying to, you know, insult JD Vance with that particular thing, although I'm happy to insult JD Vance on other things. Like I said, I don't like him. But it's more of an observation rather than a criticism to say JD Vance doesn't have Trump's charisma. In fact, I don't know any Republican potential candidate right now who has Trump's charisma. And Trump's voters, his base voters, love him. And I don't know that that's going to be transferable even to somebody who Trump endorses. And when you're talking about elections that have been as close as our last three, at least, presidential elections, it's entirely possible that you have someone whose policy positions are identical to Trump's, just as a hypothetical. Let's say JD Vance adopted every single Trump policy position.

But he's still not Trump. And let's say Trump gave his most aggressive possible endorsement of JD Vance in the general election, in the primary and the general election. going into 2028, and let's say JD Vance is the nominee. What percent of Trump's voters from 2024 do you think will turn out to vote for JD Vance in 2028? I don't mean some of them are going to vote for the Democrat. I'm not saying they're going to switch and vote Dem. I'm saying, will they bother to take the time to vote? And if there's a drop off there of even just a few percent, the Democrats going to win. I have a lot more to say about this. This is one of those days. I like to work in lots and lots of other stories. I don't want to be very political for the vast majority of a show, but this is a day when we need to be. So I have more to say on this, although I do also need to tell you when we come back about some cool movie stuff up for sale. We'll be right back on K-O-A. I want you to text me with anything you want to say about your... your reaction of the elections last night. I should note, I did not look at results in El Paso County. And El Paso County has been pretty good lately on school board elections. One listener said that there was one. election there and d38 where where somebody beat a union candidate so i hope that's true and also apparently vicky tonkins lost her election for el paso county commissioner which is great because she's insane and she represents everything that's wrong with the republican party so there's that in any case text me at five six six nine zero and tell me your thoughts how you're feeling today after yesterday's elections and i will read some of your some of the listener texts and respond to them in the next segment of the show also please do me a favor and go to ross kaminsky dot substack.com and if you want more of my thoughts on elections my my piece today which kind of says it all in the title i guess is called wipeout and the subtitle is it's hard to imagine how republicans could have had a worse night And so that's up at rosskaminski.substack.com. Please do subscribe. It's absolutely free. I try to write once or twice a week and hopefully you will find it worthwhile. I mentioned some movie stuff to you. Let me just interject something a little lighter before we get back to politics and the Supreme Court and all this stuff. So one of many people's favorite Christmas movies is elf. with Will Ferrell. And I'm sure you're well acquainted with it and well acquainted with his his green suit and his little pointy hat and all that stuff. So I wanted you to know that.

That suit is going to be up for auction next month in London, a group called the Prop Store. Well, the auction is called the Prop Store Winter Entertainment Memorabilia Auction. And they are going to start the auction for that Will Ferrell suit at $65,000. But it's estimated that it might go like a quarter million dollars or something like that. And if you buy this suit. You will see that Mr. Farrell, right, for the actor, has been written on the belt and the top and the stockings. And then there's a handwritten hero three on the inside of the tunic, according to CBS News. What else is going to be up for sale? The foam hoverboard from the Back to the Future sequels, Marty McFly's foam hoverboard, that's expected to get at least $150,000 or so, despite it, you know, having a little wear and tear. And then this thing's pretty cool for Star Wars fans. And I'm quoting from newser.com, the original Boba Fett rifle from the Empire Strikes Back. What do you think, Rayrod? You got to guess? What's your guess as to the auction estimate for the amount that that particular item will get at auction? The original Boba Fett rifle from the Empire Strikes Back. What do you think they're guessing that'll get? I'm going to be more upset if I lowball it. So I'm going to go $74,000. Okay, let me word it a different way. I lowballed it big time, didn't I? If you had any amount of money, how much would you pay for that? Any amount of money? Like limitless? I mean, maybe not Elon Musk money, but if you had $100 million, how much would you pay for that? Because you're a big Star Wars guy. I am, but I probably would only pay like $30,000. But I bet it's probably... The way you looked at me, I'm going to guess it's $270,000. So the estimate, and of course it could come in lower. It could come in higher. The estimate is $915,000. Oh, man. Yeah. But, you know, that's legendary. And it's the Empire Strikes Back, right? So it's one of those first original movies. It's not the sort of bogus later stuff. Oh, okay. You know? I feel like that would be for like the one of the lightsabers, though. I don't even know who Boba Fed is. And I've seen those movies. Which one is Boba Fett? The Mandalorian. Oh. Well, he's not really a Mandalorian. I mean, did they use his name in the first movies if I never saw the Mandalorian? And I never saw that stuff. If I only had seen the first few movies, meaning the really good ones, would I know his name? Did they ever say? I don't remember ever hearing his name until much more recently. And now I see a picture of him. I know who he is. Yeah. A genetic clone of his father. Only one time did they say it in the original films. Boba Fett was one of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy. A genetic clone of his father, bounty hunter, Django Fet. Hmm. Yes. Okay. Both look like Mandalorians, not actually Mandalians. They just have the armor. What's a Mandalorian? It's a race of people. It's, this is the way.

So it would be like the space version of the Spartans or something like that. Yeah. A culture of people. Is it a race or is it a culture? Uh, I think it's kind of both. Is Mandalorian a race or culture? It's definitely a culture, but is it also the race? You tell me. Is a culture not a race? Okay. All right. Yeah, so be like the planets or something. Mandalor. Yeah, essentially. Huh. Yeah. All right. Not to be confused with Mandy listeners, Mandy Lorians. Maybe we'll start a little go-fund me so that A-Rod can try to buy this rifle. You did hear about what your listeners are called, right? There's like the dirty leggers. I don't like it. I need a better name for my new listeners when we move the show to 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. next Monday. All right. When we come back, I'm going to read more of your texts about yesterday's elections. And I also have, and I got a lot to do still. This show has just jam-packed. So keep it here on K-O-A. Thanks for spending some more time with me today. And I want to take a little time before I get back to some of my own thoughts about the elections. Actually, I'll tell you what, I change my mind. I'm going to do one quick thought of my own. And then I'm going to go through and read a lot of listener text. on the air and talk about them. One quick macro point, and I want to do this now just to make sure I get it in at some point during the show. President Trump campaigned on a bunch of issues, but the two biggest were probably immigration and the cost of living. He's done a very good job with immigration as far as controlling the border.

When you watch some of the scenes on television with ICE enforcement against people who have not committed crimes while in the United States of America, right? Guys looking for work in front of Home Depot or hotel workers or restaurant workers or that kind of thing. And of course, the so-called mainstream media who doesn't like Trump, they will amplify that, but that's the world we live in. It might not be fair, but it's reality. I think a lot of these scenes... are things that have many Americans uncomfortable, including many Americans who want the administration to be very aggressive getting illegal alien gang members and illegal alien criminals out of the country. And I know that among show listeners, there are plenty of people who say any illegal alien is an illegal alien. And if they get caught, they got to go. I get it. I'm not going to debate that point with you. We can debate that another day. My point is a purely political one, and that is there are a lot of people out there who feel really uncomfortable with some of the aggressiveness that they are seeing from ICE. And as I've talked about on the show in recent months, part of what happened, remember, Trump campaigned on getting the criminals out. And the criminals doesn't mean an illegal alien, okay? That means someone... who committed a crime while in the country, not just committing a crime or a civil offense by being in the country illegally. So those are different things. I think this has become... So what happened was Stephen Miller, who is kind of one of Trump's main henchmen, pushed the government... pushed ICE to meet a quota of around 3,000 a day illegal aliens get them out of the country. Now, they're not close to meeting that. Last I read, somewhere just under 2,000. But the point there is, if you're trying to meet a purely numerical quota, you're going to go where you can find the most people, the most illegal aliens. And where you're going to find the most illegal aliens is where people have jobs doing agricultural stuff or hotel stuff or construction stuff. And of course, you start going after those people. Now you start interfering with the ability of those businesses to get done the things they want to get done, picking food, cleaning the hotel rooms, and so on.

I'm not making an argument here that it's right or wrong to deport whatever illegal aliens you can find. What I am saying is many Americans don't like it. And so Trump has turned what would be very much a winning issue for him into sort of a break-even issue for him. Right? By having ice in the minds of some go too far and be too aggressive. Again, a purely political point. I'm not debating the policy with you. Now, in exit polling yesterday, they asked voters, what's the most important issue to you? And the most important issue for a plurality of people in the 40s was the economy and cost of living. Right. And I don't remember what was second after that, maybe crime and immigration was, I think, third, but by a long, long, by a wide, wide margin is way, way behind. Okay. So if the economy or cost of living was, let's say, the main issue for 40-something percent of people, immigration was the main issue for like 11 percent of people. So now let's talk about the big issue, cost of living. Trump ran against the Biden inflation, and of course he should have. Joe Biden caused massive inflation with terrible economic policy. Terrible. And Trump ran against it as well he should have. And he campaigned on getting the cost of living down, which, to be fair to Trump, is something that would be exceedingly difficult for a president to do. But nevertheless, he promised he would do it. And not only has the cost of living not come down, it keeps going up at a faster rate than the Fed wants, right? The Fed's target rate for inflation is 2%, and it's still pretty sticky around 3%, in part because there's still so much money in the system due to the Biden inflation and the expansion of money and all that during that time, but also in part because... of Trump's tariffs, which increase prices on lots and lots and lots of things. Beyond the tariffs, when you think about what President Trump has been busy doing over the last, well, over 10 months of his presidency, and I'm trying to be really just analyst here. I'm not trying to be unfairly either praising or critical of Trump. Just look at and think about what do you think he's been busy with? Well, he's definitely been busy with immigration.

He's definitely been busy getting the DOJ to go after his political opponents, which he said he was going to do and then he said he wouldn't do, but we all knew he was going to do it to some degree. He's been very, very busy with foreign policy. And gosh, what an amazing achievement with the ceasefire that could not have been achieved between Israel and Gaza without him. And I have no idea whether it will persist. But even where we are now with all the live hostages out of Gaza could not have been achieved without. Donald Trump, and he deserves incredible credit for that, but he is spending an immense amount of time on foreign policy, which his base definitely did not vote for. His base, America first, they don't care much about a ceasefire here or there. They don't care much about the Ukraine war. And yet President Trump is spending an immense amount of time on foreign policy, traveling around the world. So what has he, and again, that's not criticism, okay? I'm just kind of talking about what do people, how do people picture what Trump has been doing? He's been doing immigration. He's been going after political enemies. He's been doing a ton of foreign policy. And I don't know, you know, and the big beautiful bill passed. What else can you think of that isn't kind of grasping? What else can you think of that you could honestly say the average voter would think Trump has been busy doing this? Here's one thing I feel very confident saying. The average voter does not believe that Donald Trump has been spending much time. Much less having any real success at getting the cost of living down. And I think that's part of the reason that the election results were not just bad for Republicans and conservatives yesterday, but worse than any polling, right? The Democrat won in New Jersey by more than any poll in the past month had her ahead. And the average of polls wasn't even close. She massively outperformed that. And then the same thing in Virginia. The Democrat won there by much more than the real clear politics average of polls. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Trump campaigned on economics and cost of living and has not delivered. And this, my friends, is going to be a huge problem going forward for Republicans in next year's elections. A huge problem. Republicans have been perceived. as better on the economy than Democrats. And surely Joe Biden was the worst president for the economy in a long, long time. And Trump is better. But I think he's not better enough because people in their minds think anybody other than Biden.

Would have been better. Maybe even Harris would have been better. So Trump is better, but not better enough. And if people feel poor... they're going to either Republicans are going to stay home and Democrats are going to be highly motivated and 2026 a year from now is going to be a repeat of what we just saw, but on a national scale with Republicans getting clobbered in the House of Representatives. And that will be the end of Trump's ability to do anything that requires the approval of Congress. And if you think he's doing a lot of foreign policy now, wait till you see what he does when he can't get anything through Congress. Because that's all that will be left, which is why so many second term presidents actually turn to foreign policy. So I think Republicans are in a lot of trouble. I think they can't win with Trump, and I think they can't win without Trump. Now, the upside for Republicans, actually, I'm going to save that. There is a way to think about the overall macro situation that isn't a complete disaster for Republicans, even though yesterday was. But I promised you I wanted to spend some time. I'm going through some listener texts, so I want to do that right now. Ross, I'm not surprised blue places voted blue. I'm not either, but that's not the point I was just making. The surprise is not that New Jersey elected a Democrat. The surprise is not that Virginia elected a Democrat as governor. The surprise is that the Democrats won by so wide a margin, wider than polling suggested, and even to the extent that the... Really disgusting human being who was the Democratic candidate for Attorney General in Virginia won that election. Won that election. What else? The state is in a tailspin, and what happened to New York is astonishing. Colorado is in a tailspin, although it's not showing up in economic data yet. I do think it will at some point. I'm not rooting for that, but we have bad policy and high taxes, and we have politicians who seem determined to impose laws and policies that are not business friendly, and Colorado is dropping rapidly in the rankings of business friendliness. What happened in New York is astonishing, the listener says, is it? Is it really? Yes, New York City, which by the way, check this out. I want to make sure I say this very clearly. New York City has more Jews than any country in the world except for Israel. I didn't say that wrong.

New York City has more Jews than any country in the world, except for Israel. Some of those Jews voted for Zohran Mamdani, who is a communist anti-Semite. And that is not hyperbole. He is a communist anti-Semite. But is it astonishing that he won. Maybe not as much as you think. He is young, very well-spoken, good-looking, has a great smile, and spent the election talking about things that people care about. Now, his policy ideas are nonsense. You know, he says, I'm going to freeze everybody's rent, and your rent will never go up. He's not going to be able to get that done, right? He talked about things that people care about. He talked to young adults. He talked to millennials saying, your rent is too high. Remember that guy who ran on the rent is too damn high party? That was the actual party. The rent is too damn high party. That's a real thing in New York. It's been a real thing for quite some time. Part of the problem I note is rent control because you have all of these apartments where people are locked into their old rents. They never give up the apartment. So the actual supply of rentable apartments is much lower than it should be, which drives up the cost of rent for people who don't have an apartment already. And he wants to do this on an even bigger scale. But look, he's young, he's good looking, he's extremely well spoken. He talked about things that people care about. And who was the alternative? Andrew Cuomo, are you kidding me? An ancient, disgraced establishment dude who killed a bunch of senior citizens by requiring nursing homes to take in senior citizens with COVID. That was not a legitimate alternative. Zohran Mamdani won with 50% of the vote. Now I will say that, or just over 50%. So Andrew Cuomo and the Republican Curtis Sliwa together had something like 47%, some number like that, and a few percent went to some other candidates. So you can't even say that in the absence of the Republican, Andrew Cuomo would have won. If you were going to beat Zohran Mamdani, you needed a much more appealing candidate. So I don't think that what happened in New York and also is absolutely astonishing, as the listener says. And keep in mind, that's a city where an enormous percentage of the electorate and voters now, right? I'm talking about citizens. An enormous percent there are foreign-born. and very left wing, and it doesn't mean much about the Democratic Party outside of New York. It means a little. It means a little. I won't say it means nothing, but anyway. A listener text, any repudiation of Donald Trump brings me joy. I'm a lifelong Republican, and I'm very happy this morning. I get that. I get, I fully get that, and I share some of it.

The problem is that the pain that is going to be caused by this repudiation of Trump might be really significant. And, you know, there's a good chance that it's going to hurt a lot of people. On the other hand, my son's middle name is Rand. That's for the author Einrand. And Ein Rand's most famous book is called Atlas Shrugged. And the theme of Atlas Shrugged is that government slowly steadily evolves or devolves to this point where the people running it are these kind of soft socialists, not as socialist even as Zohran Mamdani, but in that direction. And they start raising taxes on the rich, the so-called rich. And this is what's happening here in Colorado with the passage of Proposition LL and M, which raises taxes on people making $300,000 a year or more in order to fund, quote unquote, free school lunch for middle class kids and rich kids. It's a really stupid policy. And it passed easily. It passed the first time Prop FF. They ran out of money. So now they're coming back to raise taxes even more. And this passed easily because Colorado. is full of leftists. It's full of former Californians. Anyway, the theme of Atlas shrugged is that the government just becomes so punishing of success that the talented entrepreneurial inventive people, the people who are really the engine of economic growth. In the book, you write today's equivalent. Today's equivalent of the character John Galt in the book Atlas Shrugged is probably Elon Musk. Now imagine if Elon Musk and everybody even vaguely in the direction of Elon Musk in terms of creativity and willingness to take risk and ability to create new products that people want and transform people's lives, imagine that everybody like that said, you know what? I'm done just letting you tax me and I'm done with you looking at me the way a leech looks at the vein on your ankle. I'm done. I'm leaving. Try to do it without me. Try to do it without us. That's the theme of Atlas shrugged. That the productive people, the brilliant people, the entrepreneurial people, the risk takers say, if I can. Paraphrase Cartman, screw you guys, I'm going home. And they disappear. And I feel like we're moving in that direction. I feel like we're moving in that direction. And to me, if you live in that world, the lesson of that is things do not get better until they get much, much worse. Things do not get better until the average person, the person who voted to raise taxes on the rich, until they start suffering. And when we have people voting to raise taxes on not on themselves, but on other people who they perceive as rich.

So they can force those other people to pay for school lunch for their kids, right? Even though they as a family make $175,000, they want to punish the person who makes $300 or $400,000 to make them pay for your kid's school lunch. There's no other way to put it. I'm just going to say this very directly. I hope, I hope that the people who are voting in. Proposition LL and M.M. I hope they suffer financially. I hope that productive people start leaving these states, including Colorado. I hope that Colorado has a very, very difficult time and brain drain, much the way New York has, much the way Illinois has. And the reason I hope that Colorado suffers that way is it's the only way to recover Colorado to what it was and to what it should be. I note that in Atlas shrugged when these productive people, the Elon Musk's of that fictional world. The Elon Musk's and the people who run oil companies and the best judges in the nation and all kinds of people like that, the people who run the most important metals companies. When they vanish, they vanish to Colorado. That's what people used to think of Colorado. Colorado was the place that had a Western self-reliance. And now Colorado is just turning into the worst of a leftist daydream. I had the opportunity to attend a really wonderful event. Jewish Colorado's annual fundraiser. They had a fantastic speaker. And I saw a bunch of folks there, saw a bunch of friends there. And one of the folks slash friends who I saw was State Senator Barb Kirkmeyer. It's great to see Barb at an event supporting the Jewish community. And then Barb said, hey, I'd love to be on your show. I'm like, all right, let's do it. I'd love to have you on the show. So Barb is a state senator from Weld County. She's also seeking the Republican nomination for governor, in my opinion at this moment, based on who's in the race. I think Barb is by far the best Republican candidate for governor of the people who are in now. And so with that long introduction, good morning, Barb. Thanks for being here. Good morning. Thanks for having me on. Hey, good, two things I want to talk to you about. First, Senator Michael Bennett, who has a decent chance of being the Democratic nominee for governor, made some comments about affordability in Colorado. And I'm not going to play the audio, partly in the interest of time, and partly because he swears in the middle of it. And I didn't want to have to deal with bleeping that out. But I'm kind of what I'm wondering your thoughts as you have a Democrat. in a state that is run by Democrats criticizing affordability in that state.

I just think that it was amazing. And I'm like, what is he doing and what kind of polling is he looking at? And why is he cussing at everybody? But, you know, basically what he said was is that what's been going on here? Affordability is the issue. I think we all know that. I've been talking about it a lot as well. But he talked about how, you know, we're one of the most unaffordable states in the nation, both for housing and for child care. I did find it kind of odd that he didn't talk about that we're the second most dangerous state. as well in the nation, that type of thing, and the most regulated, one of the most regulated states in the nation. He didn't mention those, but he talked about this other stuff. And then he just said that, I mean, essentially he condemned the Democrats and the Polish administration for what they've been doing, you know, our one-party control here over the course of the last seven years. I mean, one-party control has led us to this, and he basically said that they were a disgrace, that they were a disgrace. And he was... You could tell I was very upset over it, and I'm thinking to myself, well, I went through and read what he put out on his webpage and what he put out as far as his housing plan. And it sounds a heck of them a lot like what this administration, the police administration, and the one party controlled Democrats in the Senate and the House have been doing for the last seven years. So it's his plan a disgrace because that's what it sounds like to me. I do think that the sort of inside baseball political point that you started that. answer with is really fascinating. I get everything you're saying. I mean, I think it's obvious to everybody, right? If you don't like what's happening in a particular state, to whatever extent that you think it's being caused by politicians, here in Colorado, there's nobody to blame except... Except Democrats. Now, some of this stuff is out of their control, but still, to have a Democrat complain about a Democrat-run state is a bit of an odd thing. And you said, I wonder what polling he's looking at. I wonder why he's doing it. Maybe he's trying to make an argument that he would do something different. I don't know. But, I mean, do you want to just touch on that sort of in the weeds political point a little bit more? Yeah, I mean, again. You've got a U.S. Senator who's sat there for 17 years, and nobody can really point to what he's accomplished. Come in, and I think he's trying to set himself apart from the rest of his party, it looked like to me, and complaining about all of them, that they haven't done anything. And he didn't even just say that they hadn't done anything. What he said they had done is just disgraceful. Like, you've gotten us to this place of unaffordability. And you're right. He wants to try and make himself look like he's being different or doing something different. But I heard his housing plan. And it's already all been done in this state. And that's what got us to the fifth most unaffordable state in the nation, as he was ranting and raving about. So he's complaining about trying to set himself apart, but he's just like them. So where's his, you know, I don't see where he's going to make any changes. I mean, if we were to elect Michael Bennett to governor, for example, I think we would just have.

four more years of what we just had. And that's what he's complaining about. It is kind of amazing that he's going after this administration as hard as he did. And he went after him really hard. This administration and the one party controlled Democrats that we have in the House and the Senate, he went after them all. Very interesting. All right. I've got about two minutes left with you and I want to switch gears for a minute. Yesterday, at least in the Denver metro area and even a little beyond that. There was an absolute wipeout of Republicans and conservative candidates. And then also on the ballot measure side, the vast, vast majority of ballot measures that increased taxes and spending and borrowing all past. Like this was as bad a day as Republicans could have had. Some of it, I think, was a rebuke against Donald Trump, which is not new in Colorado. This is not a Trumpy state by any stretch. But as you who are seeking to win an election as a Republican next year, look at what happened yesterday in Colorado. What lessons do you take from that that might impact how you think about your own campaign? Sure. And first of all, you know, I obviously am looking at what happened yesterday, but I was not surprised about healthy meals, either of LL or M.M. I mean, people have essentially voted now twice for healthy meals for kids. And all they've been hearing about, and I think what we saw some yesterday was just frustration with the inactivity, frustration with what's going on. But who would vote against? It's like they're not getting taxed. These people aren't getting additional tax. It's a tax on the wealthy to feed kids. I get that. I get that. When they've already voted for it twice. No, for sure. That's the top of the ticket. For sure. But also then you look at things like, All of the, you know, conservatives, well, I'll call them loosely, losing in the Douglas County School Board race, all of them, right? And Danielle Gerinsky losing her seat in the Aurora City Council. There's a bloodbath for Republicans. So what lessons are you taking from this? I'm taking the lesson that unaffiliates have spoken. They've said, and we've seen it in the polling even as recently as just a few weeks ago, that they're tired of the social issues. They're tired. I think they are tired of the ranting and raving by both sides. And when they, in the polling, when they're saying that, they're not just talking about Democrats. They're talking about Republicans. They're talking about everybody. When they say the legislature is going the wrong way because it's focused too much on social issues, they're saying the legislature. They didn't say the Democrats in the legislature or the Republicans in the legislature. I think they mean everybody. So that's why for me, and I have continued to do this, I'm focusing on the affordability issue.

Because that's what is the most concern. I think it doesn't matter if you're unaffiliated, Republican or Democrat, everybody's like, it costs too much to live in Colorado. We're concerned that our kids aren't going to be able to afford to buy a house. Heck, maybe we're concerned that we can't afford to buy a house, right? And it's the affordability issue. So, you know, yesterday was local governments. I don't know what's going on in those local governments. It was about school boards. I think they're just saying, look, we're, you know, I think the voters were saying we're tired of the ranting and rabies. Okay. Get off from being too far right, too far left. And bring it right back home and be reasonable and be thoughtful. And I think that's the kind of person that I am. And able to bring people together, I've been able to get a lot done, even being in the minority as far as, you know, the affordability question about cutting taxes. you know, and proving that up. I mean, so I think there's a lot there for me to work on, but I think I'm still in a pretty good position. So I will just say, I hope you're right that that's what the voters were saying, but I think in this state. There's still, as long as Donald Trump is in office, I think there is a huge bias against Republicans that is going to be difficult to overcome. All that said, a lot of people in Colorado really feel like this state is going in the wrong direction. And there's nobody to blame for it, except the Democrats who run absolutely everything. So I do think it's possible that a Republican could have a chance, but it's not going to be easy because at this point, Donald Trump is a headwind and not a tailwind for you and other Republican candidates. Senator Barb Kirkmeyer is, I think, the likely Republican nominee for governor will see who she ends up running against currently a state senator from Weld County. Thanks for your time, as always, Barb. Thank you. Appreciate it. Have a great day. You too. We'll be right back on K-O-A. I want to just spend a few more minutes talking about some listener texts regarding the election yesterday, because I feel like if you're going to spend time texting me, the least I can do is spend some time, especially when I ask you to text me, is to spend a little time. You know, sharing some of your texts, some of the best ones on the air and responding to them and that sort of thing. So. I'm just going to go through some of these and we'll respond. And I'm reading them for the first time, right? So we'll just see how they go. Ross, it's New Jersey and Virginia. Republicans never do well there. That's kind of true. But I will note that the Republican candidate in New Jersey did five points worse than he did last time. And I would note that in New Jersey and Virginia, Democrats won the governor's races in both of those by much more.

than the polling had shown much more. And so this isn't just about Democrats winning in blue states. This is Republicans getting blown out. I'll give you another example, actually, Virginia, Virginia, in their House of Delegates, which is, you know, the state legislature there. In the lower chamber, I guess, and I think they have two chambers in that there's at least one state that has a unicameral legislature. Anyway, Democrats as of today have a 51 to 48 lead in that chamber, 51 to 48. Right? So really, in that situation, you would only need to flip two Democratic votes to a Republican position in order for the Republican position to win. It's really, really close. After yesterday's election, when the new session comes in of the House of Delegates in Virginia, at this point, based on what I'm reading online, Democrats will have at least, you ready for this now? 64 seats. At least 64 seats, it'll be almost, almost a two to one Democratic majority. Whereas today, it's almost tied. That's incredible. That is absolutely incredible. What is one thing Trump could have done to significantly lower inflation? All right. So again, I want to be really fair to Trump here. Presidents don't have a lot of ability to do this, especially when they come in to a situation where the previous president has done so much damage. But what could Trump have done to lower inflation? One, not impose tariffs. That's one thing. And another thing maybe be a little more aggressive on cutting government spending. Although the big beautiful bill was somewhat better than Trump was in his first term. But those are really the main things. Reduce government spending and then don't impose tariffs. So. Trump, in a sense, he's a victim of his own success, right? He campaigned against, he campaigned against Bidenomics, Biden inflation, all this stuff, which is what you should have campaigned against, because that was the worst stuff that Biden did. But it did put him in a position of having to make stuff better that is somewhat out of his control. But when you see inflation stuck around 3%, when the Fed wants it at 2%, I do think a legit part of that is tariffs. I do think it is tariffs. Another listener text, I won't vote next year. Colorado's so blue, even an independent like me won't make a difference. Look, you definitely won't make a difference when it comes to the governor's race.

when it comes to the big statewide races. But I want to encourage you to vote anyway for a couple of reasons. First, just to participate. I feel like it's important to vote if you want to then complain about it later. And I know that's not entirely logical. You're perfectly free to complain about it even if you didn't vote. But still, I feel better about it that way. And then the other thing is, you never know with some of these smaller elections, the municipal elections, the city council elections, things like that. where it really is possible for an election to be decided by a small number of votes. It's probably not going to happen in a congressional race, maybe CD8. But I remember years ago in CD7 with Bob Beaupre, he won his election. I forget the exact number of votes, but I think it was a two-digit number, not a three-digit number. So I would say vote anyway, vote anyway, right? Please. I just think we should vote. I think we should vote. Ross, you're on point about the ICE situation and the backlash is hurting not only Trump but the whole party. Yes, I think that's true. Ross, I was wondering when you would blame the election results on Californians. What I mean by that is we've had hundreds of thousands of people move here from California and bring those voting patterns and is absolutely true. It's not some conspiracy theory on my part that the importation of people from California and from some other blue states and from... Democrats in conservative states, right? Like Democrats moving out of Texas and coming here. And we're seeing it not just in Colorado, but many, many places in the country, what you're seeing is a certain kind of political sorting where the blue states are getting bluer and the red states are getting redder. And I don't think that's very good either. All right. We're going to take a break here. When we come back, I am so excited to have Charlie Gasparino on the show. He is one of my favorite writers, one of my favorite people on TV, and he wrote a brilliant piece about sports gambling in which he talks about his dad, old school Italian mafia adjacent dad. It's going to be a fun conversation. I don't know if Intrepid Chad Bauer is listening out there in the newsroom right now. But if you are, Chad, I have a listener text. And it says, Ross, can you ask Chad if you wants to join me and my friends for Queens Reich and accept this Friday? So there you go, Chad. Let me know if you want to go to Queens, Queens Reich with some listeners and you can respond to them. You know what? I want to do a political thing here for a minute, but not the elections. I might come back to the elections. We'll see. But I want to, I want to do this other, this other thing is a little bit, it's a little bit in the weeds. But I think it's important. And this has been going on kind of within, within Republican or conservative circles in recent days. And, and I think it's, I think it's very interesting. So first, let me kind of set the stage. A little while back, maybe a week ago or something like that, Tucker Carlson, who has not turned into a full Nazi, but an enabler of Nazis. He hasn't become a full Nazi the way Candace Owens has become an actual Nazi. But Tucker Carlson keeps putting people on his show who...

are defending Hitler. You know, he had this so-called historian on who said Hitler really wasn't the bad guy in World War II. It was really Churchill, who was the bad guy. And Tucker Carlson has just been getting kind of worse and worse and worse and more aggressively anti-Semitic, and it's a little bit hard to understand, but I guess that's where the grift is right now. And so about a week ago, Tucker Carlson had this guy, Nick Fuentes, on the show. So Nick Fuentes is an overt Nazi, right? I mean, I don't mean he has a swastika on, but he is overtly anti-Semitic, hates Jews. Oh, look, it looks like we got Charlie. So I'm going to do this, and then I'll come back to the political thing here if I have time. So let's do that and that and that. All right. And then we'll hit this little button here. Okay. All right. It's time. We got him. We got the man. We got the man who once fought Evander Holyfield to a split decision. I have to say. Charlie lost the split decision, but still to go 15 rounds with Evander Holofield, standing up at the end and lose on a split decision says a lot about this man's toughness. Charlie Esperino is senior correspondent for the Fox Business Network and a columnist for the New York Post. And I just love his work on TV and in writing. And he wrote a wonderful article that I'll tell you about in a second. But Charlie, thanks for being here. It's good to see you. Good to see you. What's new? What's not? Yeah, yeah, no, a lot is new, and I'm not going to drag you into politics today. What I want to talk about is your really, really interesting article entitled how woke NBA executives got mixed up with the mob in an epic gambling scandal. So part of what fascinated me about this is, you know, getting into... the management of the leagues and how they might be dealing with this situation. But what really got me was you're talking about your dad. And I wonder if you can kind of start with that part of the story. Well, my dad gambled a lot. And like he grew up in a neighborhood in the Bronx. It's different now. It was an old Italian neighborhood. on Gun Hill Road and White Plains. He actually grew up on 213 Street, which is Gun Hill Road's 210. So it's right in that area where White Plains Road is, and it's called Williams Bridge. If you go on Metro North, that's kind of where it is. And it's an old-fashioned Italian neighborhood. It was rife with gambling. And there was the mob. One of the interesting sort of side notes is that in that neighborhood was the famous Louise Italian-American restaurant from the Godfather. That was a real place. I actually ate there when I was a kid. So it's...

You know, it's that type of place. And, you know, he gambled a lot. And, you know, he used to take me to the gambling joints. I mean, I went to all these places. And I will say that, you know, gambling, I don't understand why, like, college-educated rich people are trying to get so many working-class people hooked on this disgusting vice. From a lot of reasons. The college educated rich people are the heads of the NBA and the NFL. I mean, this is a bad vice. I mean, this bankrupts people. It causes family dysfunction, which it did to mine. And it's like, I mean, there's no difference between having a bad gambling habit and being addicted to drugs or alcohol. It often leads to the same sort of places. They often feed off each other. My dad wasn't into drugs and alcohol, but we had some rough times because of this gambling addiction of his. So now it's being mainstreamed. And what I find fascinating is that sports figures, and this is something else that's interesting. There were always sports figures around those gambling dens in the Bronx. Back then, it was like Italian-American boxers, like the various Rockies, so to speak, and others. They were involved in this. They liked to gamble. It's part of their MO. And the same sort of risk-taking personalities that brings them that they use in the courts or on the football field, on the baseball field, kind of... transfers over to their recreational activities. And, you know, why Roger Goodell and Adam Silver don't understand this is beyond me other than they're just like hooked on the money. And it's sort of a disgusting money play. And so you got the combination of the mob's always in gambling. You're hooking people on a horrible vice. And on top of that, you know, sports stars are, they like to gamble. I mean, you know this. And we've read all the stories, so not just the illegal type, but the legal type. Why they want to force of that is, you know, make it easy on people's beyond me other than they're just so addicted to money. And their whole woke bullshit that they throw out all the time about. how they want to make the world a better place, DEI, equity, you name it, is just a cover for their greed. And I made a good case that that's, that that is, that's what's happening here. Yeah. One quick thing on broadcast radio, just watch your language a little bit, because it's not cable, so we got to be careful. One of the things that really got me so much about your story, and your dad is a big part of this, and you touched on it just now. But, you know, what?

You usually write about things that you know a lot about, you know a lot of people. There's lots of great information. But it's rare that I've read a piece from you that felt as personal as this. And even the way you talk about, some of the language you use, you know, like this disgusting vice and hooking people and all this stuff. And you can feel it when I'm reading you, when I'm reading this, like you're not just mad. You're disgusted. Yeah, because it's a disgusting habit. I don't gamble, by the way. One of the reason why I don't gamble is because, you know, my dad's gambling ruined a lot of dinners and, you know, ruined a lot of my childhood. And it's, and, you know, he would even admit it, the house always wins, almost always wins, right? So, you know, you're not going to, it's, it's a business that makes a lot of money. Vegas makes a lot of money because the house usually wins. So why would they entice people to get involved in something like that? That they know that their fans are going to lose money on. Think about that. You have a clientele, your fans. Yet you tell them to engage in an activity that's going to cost them money. And, you know, and by the way, a lot of money. It's not just fun. I mean, it might be fun for some people, but for a lot of people, it's an addiction because this is an addictive thing. It's like saying, it's like, you know, legalizing cocaine. Why don't you just, why don't we just go all out and legalize drugs? And because this is kind of a drug. And maybe we should do that. But don't tell me, you know, I've seen the rationalizations they've used for legalizing the stuff. Oh, it gets it out of the shadows. What's the difference from whether it's in the shadows or not? By the way, it's never going to leave the shadows. Right. And I think it's never going to leave the knot shadows. I don't think we're going to put this genie back in the bottle, but to directly answer your question, and of course you know the answer. It's not like you're actually asking me or anybody else. Why are they doing this? They're doing this because on the margin, they will get people who like gambling. more than they like sports probably and now that they have the opportunity to gamble on the sport it will cause them to tune in and watch the game so they'll have more viewers so they can sell advertising for more money and in the league and the teams and the players and all of them can can make more money right it's it's always about the money am i missing something

And yes, and it's fan engagement, as you're pointing out, but also, as I pointed out, they make a lot of money through advertising and deals and sponsorships with these sports books, right? So, I mean, there's a whole ecosystem here. And when I say a lot of money, the whole business itself is sports gambling worldwide, and this is across the globe, is something like $100 billion. The U.S. sports leagues, Major League Baseball. basketball, football, they take about a $13, $14 billion cut out of that, which is not insignificant. And by the way, you can't measure the fan engagement part that, you know, that's, you know, you don't know whether someone's showing up to the game or tuning in because of gambling or whatever, right? It's just, it is. And it permeates the entire game. I mean, have you noticed? I have noticed. And by the way, just. I'm on TV. I mean, it's just pretty remarkable. Right. Well, these days, you know, you'll watch some sports coverage. And in the, in the Kiron at the bottom, it'll show that the lines on the game, not just, you know, the information you used to have. And it'll have, you know, the Patriots, you know, minus four and a half. And it's, and it's everywhere. And then you also even have the people who are talking on the screen. advertising just the way they might advertise for anything else, I guess, but advertising for usually one of these large gambling companies, I won't use any names, but it's clear that there's an immense amount, an immense amount of money involved there. And just so you know, Charlie, I... I really, really like betting on football, but I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that my average bet on a weekend is somewhere around 40 cents. And I might make 10 bets and I might lose a dollar or $2 on a weekend. So while I'm not falling into that kind of addiction and very damaging thing that you talk about, you hear these stories and now I hear the stories about your dad. And it paints a very different picture, and it makes you think about it differently. Yeah, I mean, listen, not everybody. Most people can, a lot of people can. It sort of control their habit. My dad, I mean, we didn't go without food, thank God, you know, it wasn't that bad. But, you know, this stuff builds on each other. It builds on itself. You know what I'm saying? It's not a harmless vice, you know what I'm saying? You know, it's, you know, it's scary stuff. And, you know, I'm just wondering, okay, they make some money out of this. They get some fan engagement, but isn't really worth it in the end. And I think, you know, these guys, you know, they're making a financial decision that it is because they only give a shit about it, excuse the language, all they care about is the money. but and they're greedy and you know but they are like also hypocrites and their hypocrisy is

If you're going to tell me that I live in a country, the United States of America, that's been systemically racist, horrible plays for years treated, people horribly, that, you know, we should sing multiple national anthems because the place is such a horrible place. And then on top of that, you feed a vice like gambling. That's, in my view, hypocrisy. And that's what you know. You know they do that. Yeah. Charlie Gasparino's piece in The New York Post, how woke NBA executives got mixed up with the mob in an epic gambling scandal. It's a very fascinating piece because it goes way beyond just reporting about the scandals themselves and really gets you to think about, as Charlie just described in this conversation. the harm that it seems like sports leagues and the people who are running sports leagues, the harm that they are willing to submit their fans to in order to make some extra money advertising. And it really is a piece that made me think a lot, Charlie, and I appreciate that. Thanks so much for your time, as always. Is that most guilty soon? Yeah, you got it. All right, that's a great Charlie Gasparino from Fox Business and the New York Post. Let me do one thing real quick and then I want to bring Mandy in. I didn't get to get significantly through this topic that I had started because I thought Charlie maybe had forgotten about our conversation. So I started it and then jumped in with Charlie. I'm just going to do like a minute here and maybe I'll come back to the details of it tomorrow. But Tucker Carlson had this Nazi on his show. And then. The head of the Heritage Foundation came out and said, you know what, A, Rod, can you put my audio up? I just want to play this bit. The head of the Heritage Foundation came out and said this. Always defend truth. We will always defend America. And we will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else's agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson. Now, let me just pause there for a second. When he said, we will always defend our friends against people who slander, whatever, in the service of someone else's agenda, and then he said Tucker Carlson. I thought what he was saying was that Tucker Carlson is the one serving someone else's agenda. But he wasn't saying that. Who remains, and as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation. Talk about Tucker Carlson. The venomous coalition attacking him or sewing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail. Okay, so that should get Kevin Roberts fired as head of the Heritage Foundation. And for this jackass to come out and say, after Tucker Carlson has a Nazi on his show, that the people who are sowing division are the ones who are... criticizing Tucker Carlson and not even can't trying to cancel him, just saying you shouldn't do that, saying that the people saying Tucker Carlson shouldn't do that are the ones sewing division. This guy is letting his personal friendship with Tucker Carlson and maybe his fear that offending Tucker Carlson's fans will reduce donations to the Heritage Foundation or something like that. It was...

Absolutely brain dead. It was immoral. It was disgusting. There was a lot of pushback against him. And I'll just read one other thing to you. And then we'll bring Mandy in. But Young Americans for Freedom, quite a good organization, posted this on Twitter. YAA works with and fights on behalf of conservative students across the country who face obstacles from campus leftists every day. We work with students to spread America's founding ideals, including the belief that all people are created equal and endowed by our creator. certain unalienable rights we have not and will not give a platform to those who believe some people are less than equal due to their race or sex, nor do we give a platform to those who seek to propagate vile anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial. Supporting and vigorously defending free speech, something YAA has done countless times from the Supreme Court to the Court of Public opinion for more than six decades, does not mean endorsing or platforming every viewpoint, especially the... those that contradict core conservative values. The times may change, but our values do not. And that, there was a lot of that pushback against the guy at Heritage. And I've been kind of waiting to talk about this, seeing if it would go away. It's not going away. And I'm glad it's not going away. There's a lot of turmoil within the heritage now because a lot of people there don't want to be associated with this stuff. And I do wonder how long Kevin Roberts can maintain his position there. Hi, Mandy. What Kevin Roberts has done to the Heritage Foundation is almost criminal. He has taken an organization that worked for decades to establish itself as the thought leader of the conservative movement. I have interviewed scholars from Heritage over the years that were absolutely brilliant people making arguments for conservative solutions to big problems. Yeah, yeah. Kevin Roberts has turned it into a political hack organization arm of the Trump presidency. And this is, for me, the final straw. And I put out a sternly worded post on X. He's got to go. He's got to go. Heritage is destroyed in my view right now. Completely destroyed. And they used to be a brilliant organization. They're just... Couldn't agree more. And just so, you know, there's a little inside baseball, but at Heritage, they have a policy that you, if you work there, you're not allowed to disagree with the institution's stated position. And so that's causing a lot of turmoil there. What? Yep. You're not allowed to disagree. Pretty crazy. What you got coming up, Mandy? Obviously, we're going to talk about last night's election. We've got weather Wednesday coming up. I have something else on the schedule that, oh, the people from Kofa, it's time for the annual turkey shoot for the kids. So it's going to be politics, nonsense, and possibly fufura. Wait, what was that last one? Fufraa. Can you use that in a sentence? I just did. It'll be positively nonsense and fufraaw. Can you spell it? F-O-O-F-F-F-A-R-A-Y. R-A-W, F-F-F-A-R-A-R-A-W.

Wow. No, it's an H at the end. Fufra. All right. No, it's a W at the end, now that I'm thinking about it. Well, crap. You do have a great word, but you don't win the spelling bee. Go to commercial. Wait a minute. Wait, now she's going to type it in. Yeah, I spelled it correctly. F-O-O-F-A-W-S. Foo-F-R-A-W-S, F-F-R-A-W-S. So you didn't make that word up? No, it's a real word. Wow. You've never heard this? No. It means a great deal of fuss or attention given to a minor matter. Show me frills. Add it unnecessarily. That's the thing you know now. Everybody stick around for Mandy's foofura. When you experienced the PFL live, it's a harder. Oh! The crowd is louder. The action unmatched. There's no one stopping these queens and queens for willing you crying. July 25th in Washington, D.C., undefeated that the silverbacked gene fights to cement his place atop the division against the silent assassin Shemil Musayev with PFL gold on the line. The tension is building. Be there. Saturday, July 25th, live from Care First Arena. For tickets, visit pfell. info slash DC. Trade screen time for race time at Virginia International Raceway. August 21st through 23rd, IMSA's Michelin GT Challenge brings some of the coolest cars to VIR for an unforgettable family weekend. Explore, meet drivers, see race cars up close, and experience the thrill of racing from every corner of the track. It's more than a race. It's a memory waiting to be made. Kids 12 and under get in free. Get your tickets at VIRFam.com. That's VIRFAM.com. Vital doesn't always mean visible. Across America, advanced technology is working behind the scenes, strengthening our nation. It protects our war fighters, delivers mission-ready intelligence, advances life-saving healthcare, and defends the critical infrastructure that keeps our country moving. At GDIT, we power the systems that help America operate, connect, and stay secure. Every hour, every mission, every day. GDIT, behind America's invisible advantage. If you're someone who's tracking your sleep, your steps, and your macros, then you already know that what you eat is kind of everything. You should also know that Sprouts Farmer's Market can help make eating for longevity easier. Sprouts has all the high-quality, nutrient-dense, organic foods and cutting-edge supplements you need. So whether you're focused on protein, gut health, or optimizing how you feel day-to-day, it's all there. And here's what no other grocery store can offer. An in-store wellness expert to help you find exactly what you need. So whether you're after longevity or on any other health journey, it's easier at Sprout's Farmer's Market.