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In a heated discussion, we explore how the media landscape is changing and the impact of social media platforms like X, now owned by Elon Musk, has on political discourse. Our host John Rush and guests unfurl the complex relationship between media, politics, and public perception, giving listeners a front-row seat to the intriguing changes affecting America’s political fabric.
SPEAKER 08 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it.
SPEAKER 08 :
There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 05 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job, sir.
SPEAKER 09 :
You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 13 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 06 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind? It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, hour number two, Rush to Reason. Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself, Andy Pate, Charlie Grimes. Hour number two is upon us. Bradley Devlin joining us now, Daily Signal. Politics editor, Bradley, welcome. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it very much. And we were talking even in the last hour about some of the cabinet picks and things that will be coming up in the Trump administration. And what are your thoughts on how smoothly some of these things will go? Or do you think Trump will have some hiccups?
SPEAKER 09 :
I think Trump will probably have some hiccups inevitably. I mean, the advise and consent role of The Senate is something that the Senate really is protective of, and for good reason, right? We have a system of checks and balances for that reason exactly, so that the executive doesn’t just get a bully of the legislature into doing what he or she wants. But that said, one of the biggest problems that we face right now in this country is the giant mess of federal bureaucracy that we have. And the reason that that bureaucracy exists in the first place is because Congress has been unwilling to wield its legislative powers correctly. We can blame executive officers for creating administrations or agencies or whatever, but at the end of the day, the reason that many of those departments were necessitated is because Congress wasn’t paying attention to the devil in the details. Now, president from the gearing up for a war with the bureaucracy with the deep state with whatever you want to call it and if the legislature has been completed in that process well then of course the president going to stand up for his people and his guys to get the folks in there who he thinks can actually uh… take a chainsaw to the federal government and radically reduce the size of government for the american people so that’s why you see that this current fight with uh… the president’s nominees and you know the floating of recess appointment potentially etc
SPEAKER 04 :
Bradley, why hasn’t Congress ever dealt with this before? I mean, obviously, we’ve had both liberal and conservative Congresses. Is it because they are all so beholden to various donors who are connected to a lot of these projects and groups that are benefiting from government largesse? Or is it just weakness?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I think it’s a malaise that it kind of permeates Washington, D.C. I mean, I said not only not a few hundred yards from the u.s capital unit interview with you guys and i mean this is just how government run in the modern day america in the twenty first century is expected that the progressive view of how our government ought to operate uh… just be accepted wholesale and now you’re seeing a populist resurgence, I think, within the Republican Party that really originated with the Tea Party movement and kind of transformed into MAGA. And you could say climaxed with the win in 2024 with President Trump winning the popular vote for the first time in 20 years for a Republican presidential candidate. I think that now that’s legitimately being challenged by not necessarily the representatives themselves, but by the American people.
SPEAKER 03 :
The voters.
SPEAKER 09 :
The representatives are acting by the voters. That’s right, by the voters.
SPEAKER 03 :
I said that in the first hour, where I think Big Pharma, by the way, is going to fight against the RFK Jr. appointment, by the way. Those are going to be things Big Pharma fights against. And these senators, I mean, word came to me today that, you know, Big Pharma is reminding these senators of the money, the donations that have gone to each one of them to get them elected. Although, Bradley, I think these senators are also looking at, you know, loud and clear, these voters also have a lot of power. Big Pharma, you think you do. And by the way, you may not have as much power going down the road as you think you do. So the reality is, hmm, Maybe I should put my eggs in the side of the voter in that basket versus yours.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I think that’s right. And I think something interesting about the 2024 postmortem that everyone’s going through right now, right, looking at the exit polling, looking at the coalition that the right was managed to build. I mean, it’s a multiracial, working-class movement on the right right now, and that has involved – a complete turnover of not only what the Republicans consider their base back at home, but also of the donor class. It is not the donor class of neoconservative financiers pushing free trade everywhere and always. It is now the donor class made up of Elon Musk and David Sachs and Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley dissidents. uh… looking to protect free speech right pulled into the movement by constitutional issues not necessarily uh… issues of globalization in trade uh… and so with that turnover i think i think a lot of Republicans in Congress feel emboldened that they will be protected. At the end of the day, you know, we say that these people are legislators, but they’re actually fundraisers.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, good point.
SPEAKER 09 :
When they’re protected from those types of things, they feel emboldened to make the radical changes that the American people want to see made. And to be fair, obviously the system has been corrupted. It has devolved from aristocracy to oligarchy. But there is a natural place for the aristocracy movement and their interests to be protected by the government as well. It’s just finding the right balance. And when the aristocracy and the demos, the people, are united in a cause for liberty and a cause for a return to constitutional norms, You know, who the heck’s going to say no? And I think Republicans are feeling that pressure for the first time. They need to deliver on President Trump’s agenda or everything will be for naught.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, Bradley, discuss the Elon Musk factor. And here’s what I mean. Before he took over X. If the Republicans were to sweep into office and try to do these deep radical cuts and changes, they would have been brutalized on all, you know, formats. Right. From all across the all across the media with stories of all the hardships that they’re causing through doing that for the first time. They basically own everything.
SPEAKER 09 :
platform they basically have a platform access for everyone but now they have an open platform where Elon Musk can openly advertise this is why we’re doing this this is why we’re doing that does that make a difference oh I think it totally makes a difference and you said you know on the outset that it’s because people are jumping down the right throats on social media etc I mean all the right was asking for was a fair public square where they could actually respond to and not be silenced and when responding to the types of criticisms uh… ilan musk simply just opening up channels of communications right opening up the digital public square uh… i think really did play a massive impact i thought i thought a graphic uh… on twitter today from x showing that the user base of X has shifted from two-thirds Democrat to one-third conservative or Republican to about 50-50 now, and exactly where the electorate is. That’s how it ought to be, right? We should try to tailor our policies and our lifestyles and our media consumption to be reflective of the American people, of the people that we share this country with. And I don’t think it’s a mistake whatsoever that… Elon Musk spies Twitter, gives conservatives a fair shake, and you see a massive amount of people in the quote-unquote digitally native generations gravitate towards Republican and conservative causes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. No, I said this before, and Andy and I both have, Bradley, that would we be in the same situation right now had Elon Musk not bought Twitter?
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, it’s a hard counterfactual to… to weigh in on, I would say that the road would be much more difficult to hoe.
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 09 :
Especially when we enter this first 100 days. I think that’s when you’re really going to see the benefit. You saw the benefit of it on the campaign cycle. Sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think, frankly… And really quickly, before we continue on, what I want to throw back into that as well is, because here’s what I think as far as X goes. Not only… Did the platform open up so more information could be openly shared election-wise and so on? But I think it put a check and balance, not necessarily in Google because they were still hindering searches and things like that, but the meta side, I really feel like what X did made sure that Zuckerberg played more by the rules this time around.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and I think you saw Zuckerberg, I mean, I think in a landscape without Elon Musk, it’s unthinkable for Zuckerberg to openly admit that the FBI and the Obama administration, or I’m sorry, agents of the deep state basically coordinated with Facebook to suppress damaging information of President Joe Biden during the 2020 election campaign cycle, in direct contravention to the American president at the time, Donald Trump, and his wishes. So I think that’s an interesting piece. I will say, though, that so much has been exposed over the last four years of how the federal law enforcement agencies interact with the private sector and how they coordinate and collude to suppress what would be damaging information to their chosen loves, their Joe Bidens, their Barack Obamas, their Nancy Pelosi’s, etc., But I think if they would have tried something similar, it would have had a massive public backlash, and you could still be looking at a similar electoral result that we saw in 2024, even without Elon buying X. But when we enter this first 100 days, the amount of, I think, media coverage… uh… on these initial executive orders etc are going to have to turn to act they’re going to have to turn to what social media is paying in the fact that it’s now a fair public square means that the media is going to have to going to have to rethink how they cover various policy proposals from the Trump administration. I mean, the corporate media, aside from Kamala Harris being the biggest loser of the 2024 election cycle, it was the corporate media. The corporate media was basically flexing its muscles, saying, let’s see how much of an empty suit we can get elected president of the United States. Do we have that type of power still? And President Trump rebuffed the corporate media and went for an alternative media strategy that focused on X spaces and podcasts And long-form conversations that really made him likable to the American people, let him express his ideas to an audience that probably haven’t heard them directly from Trump’s mouth before. And the alternative media, for the first time in my lifetime, seemed like a legitimate contender to the power of the corporate media. I don’t think that they have a monopoly anymore.
SPEAKER 04 :
But Bradley, Kamala went on The View.
SPEAKER 09 :
yeah exactly right i mean the only time that she tried to do the the alternative media strategy was going on to the sex podcast call her daddy that’s right and i was very disappointed that she didn’t talk at all about willie brown i mean i thought it was a letdown good one yeah i mean i thought i was finally going to be vindicated for talking about her years as willie brown’s public mistress getting paid out by the former mayor of san francisco for all of her um Let’s just say services.
SPEAKER 03 :
You got it.
SPEAKER 09 :
But I didn’t hear a single thing about that. And, of course, that episode flopped majorly for the vice president.
SPEAKER 03 :
Bradley, I appreciate it very much. Bradley Devon, again, Daily Signal politics editor. Keep up the great work. You guys are fabulous. We interview folks from you guys on a regular basis. Bradley, thank you guys very much. Cheers. You bet. Have a great night. And again, Daily Signal, if you are not a subscriber or you don’t get news from them on a daily basis, I would highly recommend that you do because you get to hear from folks like that on a routine basis that, as you can tell, think very much the same way we do.
SPEAKER 04 :
He is a brilliant young man.
SPEAKER 03 :
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Bye. Bye.
SPEAKER 04 :
putting reason into your afternoon drive this is john rush and welcome back to rush reason denver’s afternoon rush klz 560 hey john i want to talk about matt gates here for just a moment and more importantly talk about us the republican party okay i know that overwhelmingly we support donald trump’s choices for all the cabinet positions i really do i think he’s done a phenomenal job i think it’s an a team matt gates is going to be a tough climb and here’s what i want to ask
SPEAKER 03 :
Wouldn’t have been my pick.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I know that. But so many Republicans are coming out and trying to say, yes, we’re all in for Matt Gaetz because they want to show absolute loyalty to Donald Trump. Is that a good strategy?
SPEAKER 03 :
Not with Matt. And the other thing I keep hearing from people is, oh, he’s just a bulldog. He’s going to do this. He’s going to do that. And, you know, maybe he will. The problem with Matt is, and this is my problem with him all along, The poor guy has no strategy. That’s my issue with Matt. Right. He cost us three health seats. Maybe as AG, he could be reined in some, and you could direct some of that, and you could give him the strategy that he needs to have. And I talked about this even, I believe, last Monday. Andy wasn’t here, but I think I did this last Monday, kind of talking a little bit about that to where maybe – Some of this would be more reined in and maybe this is Donald Trump’s thought process and all of this. The problem is with some of what’s going on with the investigation itself. I think that’s again, I personally and I love Donald Trump. I’m not questioning what he’s doing here. I wish I knew his his mind and what his whole thought process is with Matt. But that wouldn’t have been my choice.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, I think it was a bad choice. And, I mean, look, I put out, here are three names that, you want a bulldog to make a big difference to, you know, slash into those totally corrupt departments and FBI and so forth? What about these three names? James Comer, Daryl Issa, Pam Bondi. Any one of those three is going to do the exact same thing and not be the firebrand and not have the problems of Matt Gaetz. Here’s what really gets me. Matt Gaetz resigned from the House right ahead of the ethics report being released on him, so it couldn’t be released. Now, there are other people in the House whom Trump chose. They didn’t resign from the House. Why? They don’t have to. Right. He resigned for one reason and one reason only, and that is to prevent that thing from becoming public. Now, here is what I have to say, and I said this online. I put a post out. I said, sorry, but if Matt Gaetz were a Democrat, I would demand the Senate see his ethics report before confirmation, wouldn’t you? Don’t we have to be even-handed? When we do these things. I agree. You know, one reason when people would say, well, what about Trump’s dalliances in the past? You know, he had an affair way back when. And, you know, and these kinds of things. And they say, how can you defend a man of that character? And I say, well…
SPEAKER 18 :
I’m not.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, three big reasons. Number one, for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re not defending it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Number two, I’m not defending the character, but it was a long time ago. But here’s number three, because I treat everybody the same. When Bill Clinton did this, I didn’t care because it didn’t affect my life and it didn’t affect how he governed. I care about how a leader governs. OK. And I treat both sides the same. I don’t believe we are. I think that we are acting as Democrats when we say Matt Gaetz should be able to go through confirmation. Or some kind of a recess appointment. And he should be able to do it without that report coming out. We would not say that if he were a Democrat, would we?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, we’d be screaming.
SPEAKER 04 :
We would be screaming to the hills. Hey, how can you let him go through without us being able to see all the information? In fact, our side is basically saying we want this decision to be made with less information.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, we want this to be a slam dunk. And I don’t agree. And that’s where I don’t agree.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we’re not being anti-Gates here.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, well, I am because I don’t like the guy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, I hate what he did with the house. He cost us three house seats. I’ll never forgive him for that. I think it was horrible. It was unbelievably bad judgment. However, when he is up on the Hill doing cross-examination, he’s brilliant.
SPEAKER 03 :
But so are the other three I mentioned. I won’t disagree with that. Personally, and I don’t know Matt on a personal basis, and I understand part of where this appointment and things are coming from. He did a lot on the campaign trail. He was out with, you know, Charlie Kirk and doing some things along those lines. And I get all of that. And he’s very much a Trump loyalist, which I’m very thankful for. I mean, the guy’s out there working hard trying to get Trump elected. I’ll give him credit where credit’s due. On the same token, just this is me personally. I’ve never met the man. But you get a good idea of people just from things they do, things they say, the appearances they have, and so on. There’s just, personally with me, something about Matt Gaetz that rubs me the wrong way, and I don’t know that I can put my finger on it, but there’s just something about him I don’t trust. I’ve been open about that from day one with Matt Gaetz, and I’m not changing my mind now because Donald Trump picked him. He radiates sleaze. He does to me. He does.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I mean, does that mean he is? No, I don’t know the guy. Okay. I’m just saying he does come off that way. He did. You know, he did resign from the House specifically to stop the report on him from coming out. Why? That doesn’t look good, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, why would you? Right. So, again, for those of you that are listening that maybe are Gates’ fans, more power to you. I’m just being very openly and honest with you guys because I always am. I’m not.
SPEAKER 04 :
In terms of him being a wrecking ball. To the system. And his ability to cross-examine, I am a Matt Gaetz fan in terms of those things. I really am.
SPEAKER 03 :
But there’s others that can do the same thing.
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s others who can do the same thing. They don’t have this baggage. And I look at Matt Gaetz and I’m just like, forget about Gaetz for a moment, but look back at us. John, if we try to look the other way and we demand that our guys sail through… and set aside these things, aren’t we becoming hypocrites?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, we are.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because we wouldn’t do that the other way. So if we do that, how can we complain about the other side doing it? We cannot.
SPEAKER 03 :
Same thing, and we’re going to talk about this in a moment, same reason why I’ve called out our own Dave Williams on things in our own party here in Colorado, because you have to call it both ways. And me personally, in the seat that I sit in here, I have to, guys. I can’t play favorites, and nor do I. You guys have heard me for a decade now. I don’t pick favorites. I’ll call it like it is and tell you exactly what I think.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. After the break, I’m going to reel off just a couple simple numbers that show that Dave Williams and the Colorado GOP have done a terrible job this election season. And I mean terrible. And I would say that if it was KBB. I would say that if it was Steve House or anyone else.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
Now, back to Rush to Reason. Presented by Hi-5 Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. We are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself, Andy Pate, Charlie Grimes. OK, there is a mini feud, I guess you could say, because it’s been happening online. Colorado politics in their website even talked about it last week with some candidates that won in Colorado calling out GOP leadership for really a lack of help. And then the Colorado leadership coming back out and. basically trying to slam those particular candidates, and I’m not going to read directly from— It was incredibly petty. It was so petty, and I’m not going to get into what was in Colorado politics, but it was reported. It was real. This was all done public. I think some things social media-wise have been taken down since then, but the fact of the matter remains that there’s a conflict going on inside of the GOP right now in Colorado for the very things that Andy and I have been talking about now for the past 18 months.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And basically, in response, the Colorado GOP is claiming credit because we gained a few seats here in Colorado, you know, like one in the Senate, two in the House, something like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
It was in spite of them, not because of them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and I’m about to prove that. Let me read just the beginning of a post I put out, okay? It goes like this. To see how Colorado Republicans, the leadership did, look at the numbers. Nationally… Donald Trump improved in 2024 against the Democrat by 6.2% versus his 2020 margin. Okay. That’s called a red wave. It’s national. It happens everywhere. No state party leadership can claim credit for it. Am I making sense?
SPEAKER 03 :
It just happens, in other words.
SPEAKER 04 :
A 6.2% swing from how he did in 2020.
SPEAKER 1 :
6.2%.
SPEAKER 03 :
Gotcha. Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
In Colorado, Trump only improved by 2.5% in 2024. That means Colorado lost a staggering 3.7% from Trump’s national red wave surge, thus losing almost 60% of his red wave gains.
SPEAKER 03 :
So nationally, Trump gained 6.2. Since 2020. Got it. Locally, 2.5.
SPEAKER 1 :
2.5.
SPEAKER 03 :
Gotcha. So less than half of what he did nationally.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s like a 59.5%. So almost 60% drop from the national improvement that he had. In other words, most of the red wave did not hit here. Right. Okay. Now… Take it a step further. Look at the U.S. House races. There were four races where the state party endorsed in contested primaries, right? Now, thankfully, the voters chose against three of the state party choices, and all three of the ones that the voters chose won in the general. That was CD3, CD5, and CD8. Okay? Jeff Crank, Jeff Hurd, and CD8. I’m suddenly spacing his name, but he’s terrific. Okay, so we won three. Now, on average, all three of those candidates, by the way, who the primary voters chose, had to spend a couple months literally campaigning against their own party leadership.
SPEAKER 03 :
It was Gabe Evans. Sorry, I was typing at the same time.
SPEAKER 04 :
Gabe Evans, thank you. This Colorado State Party campaigned actively against them with mailers, newspapers, emails, attacks on social media. In every way, our own state party campaigned viciously against those three candidates despite that those three candidates increased our margins from 2022 by an average of 1.2 percent so they did on average 1.2 percent in each of their races versus 2022 they improved us okay okay There was one race where the state party’s candidate was chosen, and that was CD4. That was Lauren Boebert.
SPEAKER 03 :
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Back up. That’s not true.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
They didn’t choose her. They were mad that she went from three to four initially, so they didn’t choose her at all, Andy. But they endorsed her. Well, they endorsed her, but my point is early on there was some infighting even between Lauren and Dave because she moved from three to four. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think Dave wanted to go to four.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think so, too. So he was mad she went to four.
SPEAKER 04 :
Four was easy to win. Everybody wanted to go to four because it was easy to win.
SPEAKER 03 :
In the end, they had to endorse her just because it is what it is. But that was not their choice.
SPEAKER 04 :
Guaranteed. It was not their initial choice because that would have been Dave who lost by 30 points in another race.
SPEAKER 03 :
I want to make sure we set the record clear on that one.
SPEAKER 04 :
But by the way, Dave would have done even worse than her. Okay. I agree. But in the one race where they won. Now, keep in mind, there are four races. In three of them, they lost in the primary. Right. And we wound up by choosing against the state party. We did better.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
We did 1.2% better on average. Okay. In the one where we went with the state party, Lauren Boebert. lost 12 and a half percent from 2020 or 2022 margin and cd for and she did this in a red wave. So 2022 was a blue wave. And in a red wave year, she still did an unbelievable 12 and a half percent worse in cd for than Ken Buck did. Okay, Put these things together. The state party, they’re bragging that we picked up a couple seats. Folks, it’s a national red wave. There’s no way you cannot pick up a couple seats. Right. It’s impossible.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you didn’t have a state party at all, you’d pick that up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
If the state party— If it was nonexistent, you’d pick it up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I was telling a friend that the state party, they all could have sat in a corner banging cymbals like that little chimp.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we would have done better because they wouldn’t be doing any damage.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s a whole different conversation.
SPEAKER 04 :
We would have gotten more seats.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 04 :
So the question is, John, what did they do wrong that hurt us so badly? And the answer is very simple. Division. They divided us by endorsing primaries, by attacking Republican candidates with the state party.
SPEAKER 03 :
By attacking the old guard.
SPEAKER 04 :
By attacking the old guard. Yeah, attacking their predecessors. Who cares if you like or dislike them? Move on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Do your job. Don’t worry about it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, here’s what basically happened. Republicans across the state, every Republican who liked a certain candidate in a contested race, maybe it’s a friend, maybe it’s somebody you’ve supported a few years, and then the state party endorsed against them, that Republican was alienated and angry, okay? They angered and alienated Republicans across the state. On top of that, they angered unaffiliated voters by telling them, you guys are the reason we have bad candidates.
SPEAKER 03 :
Get off my lawn.
SPEAKER 04 :
And get off my lawn. Right. So they alienated unaffiliated and they alienated fellow Republicans. Is it any wonder that we dropped almost 60% of the red wave here in Colorado?
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s not a shock.
SPEAKER 04 :
And drove it away.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is not a shock. No, it is not a shock at all.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, they did a terrible job. Terrible. And I know, folks, you hear me and John beat up on Dave Williams all the time. Look, guys, we love the part.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s just the reality of where it is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s nothing personal. I know it’s become personal for you because you’re really mad at him. Oh, I am.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because of what he’s doing to the state. Yeah, but ultimately, John, it’s just numbers. To your point a moment ago. Had we had good leadership in a red wave year, what else could we have accomplished?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, my gosh. We would have advanced.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s my beef.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. Look, Rhino Watch comes out and talks about how Dave, because we advanced, we picked up a couple seats.
SPEAKER 03 :
Shut up, Chuck.
SPEAKER 04 :
About how Dave Williams turned it around from the failures of KBB and all these people before him. And it’s just like, yeah, listen, Chuck, Julie, Newsflash. It’s a national red wave. The entire country is looking. We’ve got a full country of people with young people doing dances for Donald Trump. Right. That means more Republicans got more votes. By the way, Republican registration is up dramatically nationwide over the last year.
SPEAKER 03 :
When I went through those numbers, I believe it was last Tuesday. Yeah. You know, going against some social media posts and so on that I’ve heard nothing from since because I think we shot all of that down because the numbers that were put out in a particular post were completely inaccurate.
SPEAKER 04 :
By one of the top Dave supporters, he put out a post, and you and some others tore it apart with the numbers, so did I, and he basically went back into silence. He lied! Right. Okay, guys… Don’t lie, folks. Look… We’re not being mean, we’re being honest.
SPEAKER 03 :
The numbers say… The data says it all, Andy.
SPEAKER 04 :
The numbers say that dividing the party, endorsing in primaries, attacking fellow Republicans with the party apparatus, that insulting unaffiliated voters and telling them they’re the problem, and gauging your entire machinery to attacking open primaries when a majority want them. And by the way, I don’t like open primaries, but I mean putting an all-out war against them. Guys, it hurt us, and the numbers show it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, what I’ve said about open primaries all along, too, you guys have heard me say this many, many times. They’re there. And I guess this is how I do things in business, Andy. You don’t always choose what comes your way. Sometimes things just happen. So what you do in business is you figure out, okay, what’s the best way for me to handle this and maybe take something that might be an adversity, how do I turn that into a positive when it’s all said and done?
SPEAKER 04 :
Beautiful. Let me give you a perfect example. Voting early. Okay, what did the Republicans finally do this time? Now, look, I don’t like the idea of voting early. I don’t either. I’m against it. I like mail-in voting. I like same day, you know, no mail-in voting and the whole thing. That’s what I like. Okay, but what did Republicans do? They said, okay, we’re going to win within the market we have, not the market we wish we had. And so Republicans nationwide said, okay, what we’re going to do is play the game by the rules given.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 04 :
What’d they do?
SPEAKER 03 :
We turned it out.
SPEAKER 04 :
We whipped them. Yeah. Okay, so look at open primaries. Here you have open primaries. Look.
SPEAKER 03 :
Use that to your advantage.
SPEAKER 04 :
Use it to your advantage. Why not go to unaffiliated voters and say, okay, hey, do you want personal liberty? Do you want to control your own life and not other people’s lives? Vote in our primary, okay? Do you believe that a child’s success should be the only agenda in public schools? Vote in our primary. Do you want the right to defend yourself? right, to defend yourself and your property. Vote in our primaries. In other words, make it a liberty issue. If you want to advance your personal liberty, okay, and just put out so many different ways, do you want to secure, do you believe in having, do you love legal immigration, but do you oppose illegal immigration? Vote in our primary. Don’t tell them to get out. Tell them to come over. Use it as an advertisement. What do you think?
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, so somebody’s asking us to explain this. This is a supporter of Dave’s, I’m sure. Okay. Why 41 out of 64 counties in Colorado voted for Trump. We just explained that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
By the way, most counties are rural. That’s pretty much the given most every election we would have. So that has nothing to do with Dave, by the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
No.
SPEAKER 03 :
Zilch. Zero. Nada.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, not at all. Actually, we would have had a higher number. Look, you’ve got to keep in mind, John, and you know the certain counties where you have a huge concentration of numbers. Right. Boulder, Denver, so forth. That’s those are the blue ones. But most counties are red. And that’s true every year.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I’m not trying to be mean here, but do you guys at times forget that I’m a native and I’ve watched this for the past? I’ve been watching politics. I know this sounds weird, but. Really been watching politics since I was probably 13, 14 years of age. Do you guys forget that I’ve been watching this for like 45 years now in Colorado?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Longer than probably those of you that are texting have even been here.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ve been speaking to Republican groups for close to two decades. We’re not new at this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. This particular… You’ve watched this for many years. And I appreciate these questions that come in, but… Are you really sitting back? And this is what I want you guys to do. Are you really sitting back before you send that text message in and really thinking, OK, wait a minute. OK, yeah, we won 41 out of 64. But what else could we have done with real solid leadership? And what did we miss out on in Colorado that had we been more unified, we could have potentially accomplished? Right. That’s what you really should be asking the question of.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I mean, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
Why did we win 41 out of 64 counties?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, the fact is, winning 41 out of 64 doesn’t mean you won most of the votes. Trump lost here by 11.2. Correct. Okay, that just happens to be 2.5% better than he did last time. You know, we also have to keep in mind this. Wouldn’t you win more of those counties just because of a national red wave? This is the thing that the Dave supporters want us not to look at. They want us to ignore context. It’s a national red wave. Okay. Everywhere. You’re going to have more Republicans registered and greater voting on the right. Okay. The simple fact is the hard numbers say unequivocally that We did much worse here than the national average.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you just showed it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, there’s no way around that.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m going back to you that sent in, how do we explain 41 out of 64 counties? I’m going to go back to you the same thing Andy just said a moment ago. How do you explain that nationally Trump was up 6.5% and in Colorado we were only up 6.2% and in Colorado only 2.5%? How do you answer that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and you know what’s the only answer I’ve been getting online from the Dave supporters? Crickets? Well, mainly crickets. They generally run, okay? But they say it’s because the Secretary of State here was cheating with the passwords.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, we’re going to take a break and come back to that one. I’m not kidding. Okay, hang tight. We’re going to come back and talk about that one. Geno’s Auto Service is next. Make sure your vehicle’s all dialed in for Thanksgiving in case you’re traveling for, and you never know, you may be traveling even if you didn’t think you were going to. Geno’sautoservice.com is a place to go, and Geno starts with a J.
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SPEAKER 08 :
Listen online, klzradio.com. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. And I did get a thank you on the text line for explaining the county thing and how that worked and so on. Somebody else also really quick said, you know, why can’t we have a state electoral college? I’ve thrown that out many times. I would love if we did because you’d see a much more even representation from all the counties and so on if you did so. But that’s never going to happen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
It would be great. I love it. Oh, I would, too. It’d be awesome.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Not going to happen, though.
SPEAKER 04 :
One thing really quick also, getting back to the failure of the state party. Once again, they didn’t just lose almost 60% of the red wave, okay? They endorsed in four of the House races. We went against them on three and improved. Improved. on our 2022 margins we went with them on one and fell off a cliff and one last thing in at least two of those that were they endorsed had we gone their way in cd3 and cd8 and i broke i won’t go through it but i’ve broken down the numbers with dave supporters and not one of them can disagree in both of those there is zero chance we would have won if we had gone with ron hanks or the other candidate in CD8, 100% chance we would have lost those races. So had we gone with what the state party recommended, endorsed, we would now have at least two fewer U.S. House seats. This is how poorly they did.
SPEAKER 03 :
Before you guys, anybody out there, blames the Secretary of State, which, by the way, I don’t like. I’ve said this many, many times. I don’t like her even as a business owner and what she’s done with the website and how hard it is to do things and so on. That’s a whole other conversation. So, yeah, she’s an awful Secretary of State. So I’m not giving her a pass on any level. But do I think she cheated in this last election regarding the outcome? No, I do not. No, I do not.
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s no evidence of it.
SPEAKER 03 :
And here’s why I can say that. We had very close races in some districts that we still won in.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. That wouldn’t have happened.
SPEAKER 03 :
That wouldn’t have happened if she had control over it. Gabe Evans wouldn’t be the winner today. No, he would not. She would have made sure that he was not the winner. So 131 ranked choice voting, she would have made sure that passed. Yep. Because that assures more Democrats end up in office than what Republicans would be or conservatives would be. So she would have made sure that. And one last one, by the way, because this is a big Marxist movement end of things, and she definitely is a Marxist. Trust me when I say that. She would have made sure that the big cat thing passed. Yes. That one would not have been defeated like it was.
SPEAKER 04 :
OK, but John.
SPEAKER 03 :
So there’s several examples as to where I can tell you she didn’t cheat.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I absolutely agree. By the way, those people who say it was because of the dishonesty with the passwords, that’s why we did so much more poorly in 2024 here in Colorado. They’re trying to let Dave off the hook, but here’s what I want to ask. Here’s what I asked them, really. So do you believe that in 2020 it was all on the up and up then? You believe there was less cheating in 2020 than 2024 in Colorado? And all of them go silent. None of them believe that. In fact, all of them believe there was more cheating in 2020 than 2024. And while I totally disagree with her breach with the passwords, she should be fired.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m not giving her a pass. She should resign. Right. Yeah, I fully agree. The fact is that’s not that’s not the reason for the outcome.
SPEAKER 04 :
But there’s no evidence that that was used to affect the outcome.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, because you can take some of these what I would call anomalies, and I said this even in 2020, because I predicted our governor race in 2020 within one point when it was all said and done. I actually won a bet with Andy back in the day over that because I was that close, meaning that if she was even cheating that badly then, I wouldn’t have been correct. Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, you would have had to buy me a cake.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct. It would have been the other way around.
SPEAKER 04 :
Which would have been horrible for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
But reality is, folks, as much as I don’t like her, do I feel like she’s cheating? You know, and here’s the other thing, by the way. Is there cheating in every election everywhere? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, on both sides, by the way. There there’s somebody filling out somebody else’s ballot and turning it in. They shouldn’t have. I mean, are those things happening all across the country at different times? Absolutely. Because men are human and they’re going to cheat and do things they should. Well, and Democrats cheat. And yeah. And what I’m saying is, is there ever a fair and honest election? No. I mean, the reality is you have to outvote the other side significantly, which is what just happened, which is what I’ve been saying now since 2020. If you want to win, you have to outvote the other side. It’s got to be too big to rig. Correct. I agree. Which we just did.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, well, let me sum it up in a simple statement, John. We had nearly 60% of the red wave not happen here.
SPEAKER 03 :
No.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we are the only state in the country… where the state party literally campaigned aggressively against its own candidates for months. Are you trying to tell me there’s no connection?
SPEAKER 03 :
There has to be, Andy. There’s no other explanation for it. Right. I mean, common sense would tell you that that’s the answer. Now, I’m going to throw something else out there that some may or may not like. I talked last hour about mentally ill individuals, that when you don’t recognize reality, you have a mental illness problem. That’s happening on our side of the aisle as well, because I just and Andy just gave you reality and the way things actually are. And yet there’s some of you listening that will deny everything I just said, meaning I hate to say this, but on the spectrum of what I just talked about with Democrats last hour, you’re there also. Because you’re denying reality.
SPEAKER 04 :
And when they try to, you know, when they try to debate it, they can’t back it up and they all run away.
SPEAKER 03 :
Meaning you’ve got a mental problem also that you really need to look at getting fixed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re denying. No, it is true. You’re denying reality.
SPEAKER 04 :
These people who support the current leadership of the Colorado GOP are crazy.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, absolutely. I’m sorry. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning coming up next, folks. Make sure you’re dialed in when it comes to your furnace. They’ve got a great special right now. And as I keep saying, $500 or more, they’ll help you finance that. Also, give them a call today. Find them at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 08 :
This isn’t rage radio. This is real, relatable radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, really quick on the mental illness end of things, by the way. One other example are flat earthers. Yeah. If you believe in a flat earth, you have a screw loose. you’re mentally unstable, you have a problem, you need to really understand what reality is all about. But if you believe in a flat earth, when it can be proven over and over and over and over again, that we live on a sphere, then you have a real mental problem. And lastly, what I do want to also say along those lines, Andy, because I’ve known legitimately people that have, you know, really solid mental problem. And I love them. I mean, we got to I love these people. They’ve got problems. We need to get them taken care of and so on. So, I mean, I love all of you that have some of these issues going on. But the reality is you need to understand what reality is and start looking at the facts openly and get rid of some of these pre-notions that you’ve got about things and look at things in a factual manner.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. Flat earthers. I got news for you. The earth is round. Folks, nobody lives in the wrong body. You all live in your own. I’m sorry, but the trans community, I’m sorry. That’s a mental illness.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s a mental illness. I’ve talked about that many, many times here. I’ve been criticized for saying that, but it is what it is. I’m not going to back off of that.
SPEAKER 04 :
You believe you’re in the wrong body.
SPEAKER 03 :
You have a screw loose. You have a screw loose. Well, and one other thing that I would add to that is the other thing that you’re doing when you say that you’re rejecting Christ, you’re rejecting God, because you’re basically saying, you messed up, God. You made a mistake, God. You put me in the wrong body. You’re now wrong, and I’m mad at you for doing so. That’s a mental illness. Agreed. We’ll be right back. Hour number three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
The Rich Guy.
Tariffs, Truckers, and Tragedy: Politics Meets the Road