3.5.2025 -- NLS -- Trump’s Speech, Idaho Elections & Dark Money

On this episode with Neal and Julie, they discuss Trump's recent address to Congress and the broader implications for the Democratic Party, suggesting that it faces a crossroads between rationality and political decline. They highlight Trump's stance on election integrity, same-day voting, and absentee ballots, as well as the Democrats' reaction to his speech—many of whom were reportedly disengaged.

The conversation shifts to Idaho politics, including legislative efforts on school transfer rules, concerns over dark money influencing elections, and proposed changes to absentee voting laws. They also touch on the push for government efficiency at the state level and the debate over party representation in legislative decision-making.

Neal and Julie analyze the Democrats' current political strategy, questioning their ability to remain competitive against Trump’s messaging, especially on issues like taxation, social security, and gender policies in sports. They also discuss the growing frustrations over ranked-choice voting and campaign finance loopholes.

Wrapping up, they play key audio clips from legislative hearings and reflect on how both local and national politics are shaping up ahead of the 2028 election.

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Transcript

I believe my life was saved that day in Butler. Very, very good reason. I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that, and our message to every child in America is that you are perfect. Exactly the way God made you. The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation.

We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president. Good morning. It is 807. It is a great morning in America. Welcome to the Neil Show. So last night I feel like quite often when you have an event, the aftermath does not exceed the hype. The lead up to the tease.

I will say, when I saw the headline two days ago, Trump was going to deliver a joint, you know, an address to a joint session of Congress. I thought, oh, okay, it'll be another speech. This was not just another speech. This was a wide ranging, absolute decimation of the Democrat Party last night. And not only was it a wide ranging, broad swath, decimation of the Democrat Party.

It was an unapologetic championing of America. And Trump's given a lot of speeches. This will rank among the top, if not the best. Now there's a recency bias. But I will say this speech was a grand slam homerun for the country and for our president. Now I'm going to tell you, it's it's too far. It would be over the top for me to say I have PTSD for for what the Democrats have done to America and to the culture over the last, I would say, close to 15 ish years.

The last time I genuinely felt like Democrats are somewhat rational people that you can deal with. It's probably been about that long, about 2010 ish. And when I think back, and I want you to take a broader view beyond just the pendulum swing of one election cycle to the next. Think bigger, think generational. Think new chapter in American history.

Think. Think along those lines. We have had a Democrat party in place that has engaged in nonstop gaslighting, on policy, on science, on cultural issues, on different things that they made into an ideology that we didn't even know. You could turn into an ideology like testicles and uteri. They turned that. They turned gender into an ideology. They lied to us.

Well they lied. Is there a lie? You're able to conceal something, that you're lying. So a lie is not the right word, I guess. Gaslight. But that word's overused. Whatever word you want to plug in there about the cognitive capabilities of the president of the United States. We all saw what we saw, and it was glaringly obvious for most, if not all, of Joe Biden's four years.

Jake Tapper tried to tell you it was a stutter. No, it was dementia, Jake. But yet the Democrat Party, so hungry for political power, lied, cavalierly lied, and we all knew they were lying for longer than that. They lied to you about children and gender and bathrooms and sports. Now is the time. And I had this realization last night as I was watching the speech.

And here's our president speaking. Recognizing wonderful Americans whose loving family member has been killed by an illegal and illegal on the streets because of Joe Biden's horrifically bad immigration policy. We had another American young man who wants to be a police officer and made an honorary member of the Secret Service last night. It was it was heartwarming. It was beautiful.

You had the mother of Lincoln Riley. You had it. And you couldn't get this despicable bunch of people to stand in, respect and applaud the mother of a dead daughter killed by an illegal alien. Now I sound angry. I'm more passionate than angry. And I will tell you why. Now is the time to crush them. Not them as people, but to crush their ideals.

I'm a fairly white personality. I try to avoid conflict if I can. If we can find a civil way to an end and an agreement, then I'm all in favor of that. I love to resolve conflict in a way that is, we can at least respect each other at the end. But I want you to think about all of the lies that have been told to you.

All of the deception, all of it. For the last decade and a half by this horrifically bad political party. Some of the people in it are okay. I don't want them hurt. I don't want them to be miserable. I don't I don't have schadenfreude. I don't I don't want to gratuitously cause pain, but I never, ever, in the future of this country, want to go through what they have been putting us through.

The cancel culture, the ridicule, the belittling, the cultural bullying, bullying that they've engaged in. Last night was such a refreshing moment for me, and I hope for hundreds of millions of other Americans now that many probably didn't watch. But they'll they'll get it. They'll get the message that it stops now that the word Democrat right now is at a crossroads of either becoming a somewhat rational party again, or they are headed for the dustbin of history, that that that is their choice.

I was so I was so proud to be an American last night. I was proud of Donald Trump. I was proud of how bold he was in facing the people who have stopped at nothing to try to destroy him. They have manufactured hoaxes. They have weaponized government. They have raided his home. They have tried to impeach and convict him twice.

And he knows it. And he came out victorious because in the end, ultimately, the American people finally saw what was going on. And I believe that we don't ever want to go there ever, ever again. Now, I believe that the vast number, vast majority of the Democrats, they don't know how to get back home. They are lost there wandering.

They're disoriented. But they have been so conditioned and mentally, cognitively, emotionally, they are so reflexive. They are stuck in this whirlpool of identity politics and they can't get out. There's a number of them that will not get out. They will lose their elections. They'll resign. They'll leave because they don't have political power anymore. And I don't know from what corner because I'm not seeing it.

I don't know from what corner of the Democrat party. The rational message will come again. And part of me hopes it never does. Donald Trump is a crucible, and he is grinding them to dust right now. And it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I want to play a couple of clips that I thought were fantastic last night. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country.

Republicans shouting down the Democrats with chants of USA!

USA, USA.

And won counties in our country 2700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican. There was this clip two that I think may have been the biggest mic drop of the night. The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.

So true. The law is just fine. It just needs to be enforced. And the quick polling that they did afterward, depending on which liberal outlet this these are liberal outlets you look at. It's either high 60s or high 70s supportive of Donald Trump's, speech last night. Then there was this. He talked extensively about Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict, with no end in sight.

The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense with no security, with no aid.

Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah, yeah, USA Pocahontas says yes. Okay. Go there. Pocahontas. From the podium.

Up to 2000 people are being killed every single week. More than that? Yeah. Okay. And she kept clapping. Because you know how Democrats think. I will tell you how they think. Well, they don't think they feel. I will tell you how Democrats react. Donald Trump wants this. I want the opposite. Donald Trump wants to end the Ukraine Russian war.

Therefore, I want it to continue. That is how they if Donald Trump said, I hate cancer, some Democrats would say I love cancer. In fact, he almost said as much last night. Listen to this. I once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud.

Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded. And these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.

They won't do it no matter what. Five, five times I've been up here, it's very sad. And it just shouldn't be this way. Yes, that's true. It shouldn't. But it it is. He also talked very directly and candidly about the transgender issue and how that is coming to a stop, the grooming, the going after our children.

It's coming to an end. And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children, and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie.

And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect. Exactly the way God made you.

How is that not a winning message? And sentiment.

Because we're getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military. And it's already out, and it's out of our society. We don't want it. Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It's gone. It's gone. Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It's gone. It's gone. That's the you know, in poetry, there's the Am book pentameter. There's the Trumpian pentameter.

And we just heard it. It was. He has a certain cadence that is authentic to him. And you know what it sounded like to me? They're eating the cats. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the pets in Cleveland or wherever it was. A we have a president, and there are times and it's not I love Trump, but there are times when independent of Trump, it is just so refreshing to have a president who is lucid, to have a president who is not cognitively compromised.

And that's putting it mildly, and have a president who's not cognitively compromised that the media is insisting who's never been better. Joe Scarborough, last, clip here. Not Trump. This is Stephen Smith. He's on The view. And it you know, when you go on The view and if you speak counter to what they already believe, they do not like it.

But Stephen A Smith is not a a Trump Trumpian. He's an honest guy and he's candid. And he does speak his mind. Usually. And, he went into the lion's den. Listen to this. It's only been in office for six weeks. Seems like six years, doesn't it? And he's been going around with his cronies, touting his so-called landslide, landslide and blowout win.

But he won the popular vote by 1.5%, one of the smallest ever. And he won the general election by less than 50%. What kind of mandate is this, really? It is a mandate. And I'm going to explain why. And I don't mind the question, but let me be very clear. I'm no supporter of Trump. I'm a supporter of truth and the facts.

And here's the facts. The man won every swing state he increased in terms of his vote. Voter turnout in his favor from the standpoint of blacks, Latinos and young voters. He increased his numbers in that regard from 2020. 89% of the counties shifted to the right. That's a mandate. We can sit up there and play around all we want to in 2020.

They didn't it. Trump didn't win the popular vote. He didn't win the Electoral College vote. As a matter of fact, the Republicans had a one. The popular vote, if I remember 26, 2004. But they did this year. So 20 years after they last won the popular vote, they won the popular vote. They won the Electoral College vote. The man won every swing state.

And on top of that, 89% of the counties shifted. Yes. I don't understand how people can look at that and say there's no mandate. There's a mandate. What's a different definition of a mandate, I guess. But the problem is, is that if you're the Democratic Party, you lost 49.8% to 48.3%, and you're looking at that 1.5%. That's an excuse for you to say what we did.

Really wasn't that some people we should continue to do that. You know, don't continue to do this by the new strategy. Yeah. They're lost. And, Stephen Smith is exactly right, except they don't have the resources right now to find a new strategy. They are leaderless. They are rudderless. And it's a prime opportunity right now for conservatives and people who truly love America.

We're going to take a break. We'll come back and continue after this. On Newstalk 179. By the way, Representative Brant Crane will be joining us in just a few minutes.

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Some might say you can't grill in December and January. I could argue about that. But March, that's a consensus month that we can start grilling again. I would say I would agree completely with that. And what better time to get going on spring filling that. You know, that lighter that, just that warm feeling of spring, even if it's still 35 degrees outside?

Yeah. You can go and grill and grand Peak's Prime meats can offer everything you need for that and not just offer, but offer it at the highest quality. Jeep Prime meats.com. Check out their packages and specials. Tell them that Neil and Julie sent you. All right, quick break. We're going to get Representative Brant Crane set up for an interview.

And we'll do that just a few minutes away on Newstalk 179. Representative Crane, how are you? I'm doing well yourself. Doing doing really well. We're talking all about Trump's speech last night. Did you watch? I did not. My daughter decided to play high school golf this year, and so we were out shopping for golf clubs and golf attire, and a family thread was blown up, going, are you watching this?

And I'm like, no, I'm. I'm buying golf attire and golf clubs for my daughter and having a great time. I'm so well, good, good for you. But you should go back and watch it when you get a chance. Oh, I will just be down a little back. So good. Yeah, it was great. So, we are, we're about 3 or 4 minutes away still, so.

Okay, but quite the session we've had. It's been a very good session. Yes. Yeah. So getting a lot of have done. Yeah. So Julie we're going to talk about school choice a little bit. Would love your thoughts on that. Even though that's all done and signed and sure. Election integrity stuff. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Awesome. Anything else that you want us to hit on?

Those are the topics we had written down. Mask mandates passed and was signed into law. It was a, about a five year battle for us on that particular issue. So it was kind of fun to see that get done. But know whatever, whatever you guys want to talk about, we're here to, to inform your listeners about whatever you guys want.

Okay? Okay. Awesome. Yeah. We, I wanted to ask you really quick. I read a little bit about the absentee voting bill, which I support, by the way. I'm. And I think it plays well with, you know, Trump mentioned, you know, same day voting and paper ballots and all of that. And so I'll ask it process wise on that if, if that's likely to come back.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. On a more personal note, how is your family. How are you doing? Doing really? Well, busy time of year for us because I've got the business we're running, you know, and then both of our kids are in high school, so. And they're three sport athletes, so daughters playing club volleyball right now and golf.

And our son is doing, weightlifting for football, and he does, track. So, mom and dad are pretty busy right now. Yeah. That is that is that time of life. But, you know, we have chosen to just lean into it. And we are we're loving it. We absolutely loving it. Good. We've had a little bit of a controversy with, volleyball on this side of the state.

Idaho Falls High School let go of their their coach, Aaron Adams, who has been really active in the club volleyball the have you heard anything about this? Just a little bit. Representative Earhart had told me a little bit about it. We there was some legislation that came up that dealing with transfers. And so when we were we covered that, we brought that issue up.

So, that's all I know is that there was a coaching change over there. Now it's ruffled some serious volleyball parents feathers. Hey, you know what I told people during the pandemic? The one thing I learned is sports was more important to parents than education.

They didn't care. They didn't care if the classrooms were unlocked. What they cared is that the gyms were unlocked. Yeah, yeah. You know. Yeah. How did all that turn out? Is that still with Aaron Adams? I think with the transfer bill, the legislation just, Yeah, we can talk about it on the record if you want to or off.

But, we were able to stop the legislation and work. Barb and I have developed a good working relationship with the Idaho High School Athletic Association, and trying to get them to deal with this issue of transfer. So because now there's a state law that was passed for open enrollment, you know, your kid and go any school they want to, but if they transfer in they're not allowed to play sports.

And so trying to figure out how we can do that kind of what are some, some, mass was starting to build on? The issue is maybe allow a kid to have a free transfer, with limited conditions between his sophomore, junior and senior year. Okay, so that we get there, let's say, you know, Idaho Falls losing their volleyball coach.

A lot of parents bought into this gal. They like her. Whatever. She leaves and she goes to, Pocatello High School. The kids said if they wanted to transfer over there and follow their coach, they could. That's that's, you know, because there are things like that to parents that that mean a lot, you know, or they're not comfortable with a new coach coming in.

So, you know, putting some restrictions. We don't want to create a transfer portal situation where kids are transferring every year. You know, hey, in football and playing for Highland, you know, in basketball and playing for Hillcrest, you know, that type of stuff. So yeah. All right, representative, we're on in about 15 seconds here. Stand by. Okay. Sounds good.

Okay. So.

839 on Newstalk 179, Neil Larson along with Julie Mason on this Wednesday. And joining us from the state Capitol. His office in Boise is Representative Brant Crane. And representative, I see on our zoom call here you have Washington's prayer hanging on your wall. I love that painting, so I appreciate that. Well, thank you. That was hung in my father's office.

He was the state treasurer for 20 years. And when he retired, he's like, here, I'd like you to have this. And, so it means a lot. And it's a constant reminder of what we as policymakers needed that is to be on our knees seeking God for direction, for wisdom, in order to do our job here effectively in the Idaho capital.

That's great. Yeah, it's actually hanging on our living room wall. So I have a good. Yeah. And that area, Valley Forge, means it means a lot to me, too. So, at any rate, let's talk about some legislation. It has been quite a whirlwind legislative session this year. I just love you kind of your general take. You've been there for a number of sessions now and maybe compare and contrast.

Okay. Candidly, Neal, it started out very slow. We were probably usually the first two weeks or kind of like the first week of school. That's what I liken it to, to folks that is, you know, kind of. Oh, hey, it's good to see you again. You know, you get in your class, schedule down and get everything figured out.

That's kind of how the first two weeks of session go. It was like that way for the the first four weeks of session. And so we've had a slow start. Typically our budget process is a little bit further ahead than where they are right now. So that's been a little bit slow in coming. Some of the bigger issues, have not moved as quickly as we wanted them to move.

We finally got movement on the, tax relief measure yesterday in the Senate that's going to sit on the governor's desk. I think it'll be there today. So things started breaking loose a couple of weeks ago. But but it was a very slow start to our session this year. However, even though it's been a slow start, it's been a highly productive session, and there's been a number of big issues that we've been able to get accomplished.

One is the income tax, cut, you know, $250 million. The other one that probably, I've been here 19 years, and I think it's been here every year. And that school choice, Wendy, for me being able to get in. Lori Dan Hartog, school choice a signed into law. So those are two of the big issues, Medicaid expansion.

So putting some parameters around that, that's going to be dealt with. Like, I understand a new bill will be on the floor probably today or tomorrow. We'll take action on that. So we're starting to move on some of those big issues, illegal immigration. We've got a bill in the Senate right now in agreement with the Senate.

On on moving that bill. So, yeah, we we've we've really made good headway this year. I've been pleased, even though it started out kind of slow. Do you feel like this session is on pace to be one of the the most productive sessions that you've ever seen as far as the movement of big issues, yes, I do, we're going to be able to walk away and say, wow, we were able to accomplish some significant, changes in a positive way for the citizens of the state of Idaho.

Yeah. All right, all right. Well, let's talk about some of those positive movement you've been part of. What Neil and I felt was, does an extreme disservice to Idahoans, which is dark money coming in to fund campaigns or campaign issues like ranked choice voting. Can you give us an update on that campaign transparency and what we've been able to accomplish and at the Capitol to, just make it more, understandable where the money is coming from?

Sure. Julie. So we introduced those bills about a week and a half ago. And one of the things that I said is I would introduce them and then let them percolate, which is on a big issue like that is very beneficial because you start getting feedback even as late as yesterday afternoon, as I'm walking out of the Capitol, someone grabbed me and said, hey, I'm going to send you some issues that I've got with the bill.

The feedback has been very productive. So we are in the process of redrafting those bills, putting in some of the changes that whether it's been colleagues or interested citizens who have brought forward, putting those changes in and to try to make, more transparency around the issue of campaign finance. One of the things that I've observed, Representative Moyle and myself are the two most senior members in the entire capital.

One of the things that we both have observed is what I call the monetization of politics, that outside interest groups are coming in and they're they're grabbing lawmakers and saying, hey, we need you to do a or we need you to do B, and whether it moves, whether the bill moves or not, that's not their interest. Their interest is getting, clicks on Facebook or on Instagram for fundraising.

And it has it has fundamentally changed our process and not in a positive way. And so one of the things that we're attempting to do is to help the voters of Idaho understand, a is the money coming from out of state and then be who is this money coming from? One of the things I dislike about PACs is it's very easy to hide who your donors are inside of a PAC, so George Soros can set up, you know, Friends of Idaho Pac boy, that sounds really great.

And here it is George Soros doing things to undermine, you know, Idaho and Idaho voters. And so we saw that in the ranked choice voting proposition. The bulk of that money came from out of state, and it was people trying to push, you know, something on the Idaho voters because they don't like how conservative the Idaho Legislature has become.

So just a quick follow up on that, because obviously there are First Amendment implications with any campaign finance bill. How do you navigate that? Because that could get pretty thorny pretty quick. You know, Neil, you're very perceptive. There are it's it's interesting because one of the things that bothers me in the current campaign finance process, you as an individual, if you want to donate to candidate X, you can only give them $1,000 per election cycle.

However, that does not apply to PACs and PACs in in the Citizens United decision out of the Supreme Court, PACs have the ability to donate or spend. I should say spend unlimited amounts of money on a candidate. And so it in my opinion, and I was telling this to some folks at lunch yesterday, I said, what it does is PACs have a stronger, louder voice in the political process than the individual.

And I said, I do not believe our founders ever intended for it to be that way. So that spurred a very interesting conversation. Is does does the state of Idaho on state races have the ability to limit, PACs influence? In other words, could we say, hey, look, Pac X, you can only donate $1,000 or spend $1,000, on an individual's behalf.

They claim the lawsuit dealt with federal, campaigns and not state campaigns. I haven't had the chance. That was yesterday at lunch to do the research to find out that that's a correct or not. Another quick election issue. You worked on a bill? I think it's kind of stalled right now, but it has to do with absentee voting and really a desire to to limit it.

There's sort of a consensus that maybe in the well, maybe it's not a consensus, but there is a growing line of thought that our elections and voting has gotten a little bit loosey goosey, that we're the dates are too wide. Absentee voting has become a lot more popular. Give us a status update on that effort, because there is a lot of concern about that.

Yeah. So one of the things that that the county clerks came for this years, hey, we want to kind of true up some election dates and dates like filing dates and I'll give you an example, is your ability to, vote early. So maybe in Bonneville County, the Bonneville County clerk says, hey, you know what? I'm going to open up early voting six months in advance.

They could do that. And yet over in Bannock County, they might say, well, we're going to only do it two weeks in advance of the election. And so we said, no, let's pick a number. Everybody can have early voting. And it can happen three weeks in advance. And that's the number we picked. So one of the things that so that Bill's moving along everything's going great.

So Representative Alfieri said one of the things that has concerned him is how the absentee ballot process is, is being used in the state of Idaho. And again, there are interest groups that are coming in. They'll send you a direct mail piece with your absentee ballot request already filled out. Oh, just tear this off and send it to the Secretary of State.

We have seen a voter fraud happen. With respect to absentee ballots. So in in Oregon, Oregon is an all mail in ballot, process. There are documented cases of where if you want to get into the the party this weekend at the University of Oregon, what you've got to bring the at the admission for free beer and to the party is you got to bring your, absentee ballot.

And so the person hosting the party collects all the ballots, and then they have the ability to vote on behalf of all those people. Wow. You should see our faces right now. That is astonishing. Yeah. It's shocking. So there is. And if you look at some of those states, four years ago when Trump ran for president, the issue a lot of those issues surrounded the absentee process.

So Idaho used to have you had to have an excuse to obtain an absentee ballot. You had to be going on a church mission. You had to be serving in the military. And so there was a number of conditions that Representative Alfieri had in his bill. I think it's a good way to ensure that we still have the process for absentees.

But you have a reason for selecting the absentee and in place of the absentee process. We now have early voting that you can go three weeks early and you can vote, but it's in a secure location. The ballots remain secure. It's not going through the US mail system. So that's what that bill was intending to do. It didn't make it out of committee.

I was very disappointed. It's it's one that I would like to see move forward. So, I'll get with Representative Alfieri and see if he wants to bring it back this year or if there's changes that he wants to make over the interim and bring it back next year. All right, let's chat real quick before we run out of time about the governor's signing the mask mandate bill.

So it bans a mask mandate in Idaho. The governor signed it into law yesterday. Give us an update on that. Yeah. You know, Carrie Hanks actually is the one that brought this bill forward in the 2021 session. And, coming out of Covid, it was a concern that she brought forward and said, hey, look, this is something that we've got to solve.

You can't have people coming and mandating to people that they've got to wear a mask. Obviously she did not return to the legislature. It took us a number of years to finally get that bill through. It was represented by swinger, that carried it on the House side. And then my senator, Senator Lenny that carried it on the Senate side.

And, it was it's great to actually see that that was able to get signed into law. I'll never forget in Covid, I, I coached basketball and, I remember seeing a team coming over to, our gym, and these kids are all masked up, and I'm like, what are you guys doing? And they said, well, we're from Oregon.

And we have to wear masks in order to practice basketball. And I said, no, that's not the way it should work. You know, you don't have to do that. I said, you're in Idaho. Now. Take your mask off and and go go play practice basketball. And so we did put some provisions in the bill that if, you know, if it's a health care facility, if it's, a nursing home, anything like dental, hospital that they could have you wear a mask if you go into that type of a situation, but you're not going to see them requiring it in schools, you're not going to see them requiring government buildings or, or and and

businesses. You know, there's not going to be no statewide mandate. If there was another, God forbid, another pandemic that, hey, we're going to have a proclamation that we're going to wear masks, that's not going to happen again. Well, that's good news. Any quick thoughts? We do have a couple of minutes here on the education, choice bill.

Wendy Harmon's bill from the the House. That's been another multi-year effort that came out victorious this year. 19 years I've been here. It's been here every year. And, you know, it's it's been interesting to watch that issue evolve. Whether is it going to be a tax credit? Is it going to be vouchers, is it good. You know, there was a number of different ideas, but God bless her.

And Lori did hard talk for continuing to advocate for school choice. And it was great. We actually had a little celebration event the night that the governor signed it, and when some of us went out to dinner just to celebrate, her hard work on that issue, I think it's I, you know, there's a lot of folks that are.

Oh, man, I'll tell you what. This is going to destroy our public school system. I don't believe that that's the case, but I do believe it's going to help some parents that that possibly almost could afford private school, but not quite. This could be the help that they need if they want to put their kid in a private school, this could be the help they need to get that done.

All right, we'll leave it there. Representative Brant Crane joining us this morning. We sure appreciate your update. And, your your solid service in the legislature. Representative. Thank you. Thank you, Neal. Thank you, Julie, and, God bless you guys. Have a wonderful day. All right, so we'll take a break and be back after this will wrap up the hour.

Coming up. Representative. Thank you. Absolutely, Neal. Happy to do it and would be happy to do it anytime for you. I do want to ask you a really quick question. I didn't want to ask this on the air, but we were a little curious about what happened when the police officers were in the Capitol and they stood up.

And one of your colleagues was kind of concerned, but the voting had already started and was underway, and we couldn't really tell what happened from the video we were watching. But I'd love your take on it because you you were trying to resolve the issue. But it just seemed a little odd. Okay. So, typically around the house gallery, we will have Idaho State Patrol man that will stand.

Just watch to see if there's anything that that, you know, someone were to try to run and jump over the balcony or, you know, cause a disruption. And if I don't remember now what the bill was, I know, Representative Church was carrying it, but I don't remember the, the, the actual issue of the bill, but Vander water Representative Vander Water leans over to her and he goes, this is wrong.

And I go, what? What? And he goes, ISP is up there. And they're they're nodding their heads when, when representative Church says something that they like and when somebody else asks a question that they don't like, they're they're shaking their head, no. And I go, wow, that's crazy. When the, the, the speaker called, you know, the clerk will unlock the machine, members will record their vote.

Her representative said, oh, that's that's wrong. They pulled out the he said his claim was that Idaho State Police officer pulled out their phone and started recording it. And it's up to the purview of the speaker in the in the when we're in the chamber, it's his purview to determine whether recording will be allowed in the gallery or not.

In a committee. It's up to the chairman to decide that. And so, Representative Vander, what I got, I'm trying to stop it. And there was a mix up with the machine. And so I jumped up as well and tried to let the speaker know that we had a problem that he needed to, you know, say, hey, there's going to be no recording in the gallery.

Since then, Idaho State Police has spoke with me about it and assured me that will not happen again. So okay, I think we got the issue resolved. Okay. All right. Interesting backstory that I if I remember correctly, the bill was about, making sure that police officers were held to a higher standard, like, potentially, punishments would be higher for a police officer than others.

Is that correct? Does that ring of that? I honestly don't recall. We've had several bills, this year dealing with different law enforcement issues. I know there's one, for example, that, possibly allowing individuals that have been convicted of a felony, to serve as a police officer. There's a sheriff up in North Idaho that wants that bill.

So, I don't recall that the issue, but but Representative Earhart turned around and she said, you know, this is a problem that we experienced in Judiciary Committee all the time. These guys come in with their uniforms, not just Idaho State Police, but sheriffs and police. Captains will come in and it's very intimidating to them. So yeah, I'm like, oh, I'm not on judiciary.

So I had no idea what goes on in there. But yeah, there are some issues we're trying to address there. Okay. Well we appreciate it, representative. Thank you. And, we'll have you on again soon. Okay. Sounds good. Enjoyed it. Thanks, guys. Right. You know.

All right. 856 on Newstalk 107, I, Neil Larson and Julie Mason. Again, big thank you to Representative Brandt Crane for spending a few minutes with us this morning. So, Julie, you have an interesting ECS feed. Yeah, I was searching through some stuff while you were doing your monologue. I just wanted to share some of the points from this Doctor Who was sitting in the gallery above the Democrats at Trump's speech last night.

So in the gallery up on the balcony, this doctor's right on the edge and could see down an end to, what the Democrats were doing, pointing out that, it wasn't that they just in the plot, but during those times they were on their phones, most of them scrolling through social media, which I find hilarious because they loathe Elon Musk.

But here they are, scrolling through ads on their social media accounts. Another thing that was said, the only moment during the speech that generated enthusiastic collective applause was when Trump mentioned spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine. There are 5 or 6 Dems that immediately pulled out Ukrainian flags and started waving them. This was notable since their applause, was not meant to celebrate any result of the spending, but was in response to the mention of the spending themselves that it's oh, so it's just about spending the dollars.

Not that something good came from it. Then the most interesting part of this was behind the applause. There were a few other notable observations after Al Green started yelling and shaking. Shaking his cane, the first person security approached was not Al Green. They approached Nancy Pelosi almost like she was the pit boss for the Democrats side. I could tell she was not pleased since I didn't even see her turn her head towards the security guard.

This would have required Pelosi to look towards her right side, which was the direction where Greene was embarrassing himself in front of the country. Not really surprised by her reaction, since this would have compounded the collective sense of defeat on the Democrat side that permeated the chamber. So was the sense that she was not happy with Al Green.

She wasn't happy with Al Green. She wasn't happy that she was the one approached, even though she is the director. Okay, of all of this? Gotcha. She doesn't want to be in charge, and she just don't think she wants people recognizing that. Yeah, that's true. She did just break a hip too. So that might have added to the agitation.

All right. Our two coming up at 859.

Our two underway. It's 907 on Newstalk 1079 and the Stones Automotive Group Colin Text Line is open. If you'd like to join us. Maybe you have reaction from President Trump's address to Congress last night. We'd love to hear it. And, you know, Julie, I don't, I, I'm, I might be a little too gleeful at how rudderless the Democrats are right now.

Right. Well, maybe it's I you mentioned in your monologue that it was passion, not anger, not gleeful. I know there's a sense of euphoria that follows that passion because we're on the winning side. And so you're going to have a sense of euphoria. But I don't know if I would denigrate that. A I don't think the the person, the Olympian who trains and wins should apologize for winning.

I don't think the state football team who trains and wins should apologize for winning. I don't think the the soon to be crowned March Madness winner at the beginning of April should apologize. So I think that there was a clear winner and a queer, a clear loser. Wow, what a Freudian slip. Wow, Julie, that might be a Freudian slip back.

A clear loser last night in the room. I think that's okay to recognize. I'm going to grab that out of you.

Anyway, you know what? If you're going to be that kind of a sour loser, expect people to be a little euphoric about it. So what I realize, though last night, was the utter disdain I have for the left and what they've done, what they've engaged in, what they've tried to perpetrate on the American people. And it worked for a few years, and they created a such a toxic and unhealthy dynamic in our culture.

And I feel like that's breaking pretty pretty quickly. But it's very, very clear. As I watched the Democrats response last night, they still have that toxic grip on their own party membership. They don't have it on the whole country anymore. Trump is broken that. But it is very clear when you watch. I would hope that there are some members of the Democrat Party, if they had their own autonomy as a Democrat, would have stood and respectfully clapped for Lake and Riley's mother and sister.

Yeah, I would hope that there are people left in the Democrat Party, but the thing that stopped them was the backlash that's going to come from Nancy and Hakeem and whoever else, is is holding those races, whipping that they're going to get. Yes. And so, I mean, I, I want to think better of some of them. I would hate to think that all of them are as disrespectful and without without care at all.

But it is. It's such a bad look for them. It's a horrible look for them. Yeah. All right. Should we go to the phones? Yeah, let's do it. All right, caller, welcome to the show. Hello. Hi. Go ahead. Okay, so this is my reaction to what is now the longest state of the Union. Well, going to address the Congress in history.

Yeah. What was the most interesting thing to me was Al Green's outburst. How so? Well, just because that sort of thing happens in Great Britain a ton. Like, I, looked around this morning and there are at least three, three incidents I can find in the last ten years of British MPs being kicked out of the House of Commons for similar conduct.

Yeah. It just goes to show you that sometimes we're actually doing better. The fact that the sergeant at arms hasn't had to do his job in a while, I think shows that our system is in better shape than I thought. Okay. So let me ask you, I want to I want to dive into that just a little bit because, it's an I think that is an interesting observation.

That's a norm for, for Parliament. And we we have norms here, too, that people in Britain, they clutch their pearls over, you know, like it. It can go both directions here. But what is your assessment of the general reaction by the Democrat Party last night? The refusal to stand at times when everyone should have a consensus out of respect and and recognition for those who have struggled or suffered.

But but they didn't. They sat there. I don't think it was a good look for them that they didn't, clap when, Trump read the letter from Volodymyr Zelensky saying he was ready to get back to the bargaining table, I don't think that was a good look for them. Yeah, no, you're right. And that's just one example.

There's a dozen more, at least that that I could cite where they just had this utter refusal to participate in what should be a consensus, positive recognition of something. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Which shows you which just kind of goes to show you how with politics, I think we need to be more level headed, because sometimes I think we have this urge to get emotional about stuff to the point of irrationality.

Yeah, yeah. No, I think you're right. You're right. Thank you for the call. (208) 542-1079. Let's go to our next caller. You're on the program. Good morning. Yeah. All right. You're going to want to turn your car radio down because that's going to throw you off and just listen to your phone. So go ahead Carl. Taller than me. Yes.

Go ahead. Perfect. Thank you. So I just want to point out with but they barely got kicked out. You know that the mob mentality is great. And and it goes wonky and it's usually not even touched. But but if you noticed, as soon as they kicked him out, everybody sat down and shut their mouth. Yeah. Because it never happened.

It just never happened. Yeah, yeah. That's true. I mean, it had the desired effect. Thanks for the call. We're going to let you go because there's a lot of road noise there. But, you know, I thought that it was interesting to watch Speaker Johnson because he was waiting for a break in Trump's speech to gavel down and take care of this issue, because Al Green was the angry old get off my lawn man last night with a cane.

With a cane. It was what a look. What? This was just as bad as Chuck Schumer showing up with an avocado and a can of beer. Yes. All right. It was it was just like, this is so just a bad look overall. So yeah they have they have work to do. They don't understand marketing. Yeah. And they need to hire some young marketers to help them with what they're doing.

I mean, the fact that previous to the speech now we have video of 20 senators saying verbatim, verbatim. Yesterday we played it was, Booker Schumer and who was the female Booker Schumer and Warren Elizabeth Warren. Yeah. They were saying the same script in their social media posts. Well, later in the day there was 17 more added to it.

20 senators with the exact same script. Yeah. Listen, you can't hear any individual thing, but they're all reading the exact same script. Somebody's combined them all into one video.

I mean, okay, that's just creepy. It's creepy. Look, there are really, really funny, innovative TikTok cars out there. Quick thinking, you know, everything. Go find 1 or 2 of them and have them help you. Yeah. Go look. Go. You know what? Go hire Orrin Hatch. His previous social media dude. That person was fire with Orrin Hatch as, social.

Well, yes. Yes. Or the Wendy's social media person. Get out there and find some people. Because what you're doing, these little, paddles, these placards that you held up a bad idea last night because you became an instant meme. These social media, posts that you put out with the exact same script prior to Trump speech. Bad luck having Al Green be your mascot last night.

Bad luck? Yeah. You guys need some youth? Yeah, well, yeah, you're right, but. But the old codgers won't let go, I guess. So this is CNN, and here's what I think is happening. There are there's panic happening from some of the sane people on the fringes, on the left, knowing this is not a brand that is sellable right now.

And it's getting harder and harder every week that they continue to go down this road. But listen to CNN, look at look at what's happening. The Democrats are not even acknowledging a cabinet right now. I just don't remember that being standard. At least they would get up and shake their hands. You'll hear that they're not engaging. This is not a pathway for it to be part of, bipartisanship.

Okay. So they're just being sour. They're they're, they're mad, they're angry. They're out of power, they're unhappy. And, they can behave that way if they want to, but I don't think hardly any of them are thinking through the consequences of what that means for for the future of their of their brand and of their party. Yeah, they're clearly they're not.

They don't want to build a bench. No. They're so power hungry they can't share. Yeah. At I, I feel like I have to keep pointing this out because I'm so tired of people referring to Trump as a dictator. Dictators don't share. Yeah, that's what the left is currently doing. You have a handful of these very seasoned geriatric, politicians who refuse to share.

Trump is the exact opposite. He has brought on youth. He has brought on people and called it our administration. That was the exact phraseology he used last night in his speech. Our administration, not his our. And he pointed at his cabinet members. Yeah, that is not dictatorial. Yeah. That is a man who is smart enough to understand and he cannot be the leader forever.

And he wants America great. And he is going to mentor up these people. Yeah, well, well, he is that I just thought about this and I really when we were talking with Senator Crapo, my thought about the systemic influence that Trump will have on American politics. It is it isn't just the federal level. It's not just the makeup of Congress.

If you remember back and this was completely unintentional, but Barack Obama was elected in 2008, inaugurated 2009. But by the time you got to the midterms in 2010, that election turned out disastrous for him on a congressional level, and everybody was focused on that. But you had some analysts that said, let's see how each individual states, legislative districts are doing.

The Democrats lost over a thousand state House seats across the country. And so I'm keeping my eye on on this, because you know, that in 26 there might be a few races this year, but the even numbered years always have more. He's going to go out and campaign for governors. And the coattail effect of that is that individual state legislators are going to get elected that otherwise would not because they're showing up.

They love Trump. And and they'll, they'll naturally vote for candidates who are Trump friendly. And so it it and not just that the policies become more popular. Donald Trump is the most disruptive president I think we've ever had in our lifetimes, for sure. And the last six weeks have probably been the most disruptive six weeks that we have seen for our country.

From a policy standpoint. Then maybe we've ever seen in our lives. And yet his poll numbers stay high. Usually disruptors come along and they're spending political capital. And we see we see things drop. It's not that's not the case with Donald Trump. His stock is going up and he's a disruptor. It's it's like the best of all worlds right now.

It absolutely is. Last night on the Fox podcast, Brit Hume called, Donald Trump a colossal force. That is not overstating it. No, this man is the most powerful plus the most change. The the biggest change maker in the entire world. Yeah. That's colossal, I believe. There there was an interview with Caroline Leavitt earlier this week in five weeks, Donald Trump has brought in $1.7 trillion of corporate investment in America.

If manufacturing deals and announced deals, the entire four years of Joe Biden was about 1.1 trillion. If I remember right, in those few weeks, Donald Trump has already eclipsed Joe Biden. And that's, I mean, how how do you compete against that if you're a Democrat, how do you try to defend the Biden presidency? I you can't, you can't.

And I love that Trump brought that up last night. He he talked about the investment in America. He specifically looked at Democrats and said your Chips act was crap. Yeah, it was crap. I brought in the money from private investors. You took it from taxpayers and you did multiple victory laps with that Chips act. And in five weeks, I secured an investor that did more.

That is going to do more for the country than you robbing its citizens of taxpayer dollars. Yeah. Yeah. No. And it's I think that's emblematic of the just the fundamental difference in the way we see things. I think the left sees societal success. They credit government for that. And if you're a conservative you believe societal success comes from individuals and private innovation and government getting out of the way of that.

Yes. So, I want to play I played this CNN clip. Oh, this was a great moment. Before we take a break here, there was an off mic conversation between JD Vance and Mike Johnson. Try to catch what they had to say. By the way, I think the speech is going to be great, but I don't know how you do this tonight.

It says the hardest thing was doing it there. And Biden and the speech was a stupid campaign. Okay, so it's really hard to hear, but JD Vance said that, you know, imagine to speak like this for 90 minutes and it actually went like 94 minutes. It was longer than 90 minutes. And then then, Mike Johnson called Biden's speech a stupid campaign speech, and he realized that the microphone that was there on the like, the podium is upright and he tries to move it down.

It's still catches what he says. Yes, which I haven't always been a huge fan of Mike Johnson, but his stock just went up because it's just like it's a stupid campaign speech, which is a little bit of an insight to the conversations Neil and Julie had during the commercial break. We just mute our microphones. Yes, usually. Sometimes we forget we'll be back 924 on this Wednesday on Newstalk 107, the.

Okay. Don't move your cup okay. But turn and look at it okay. All Facebook can see is the X hyphen L a. And they're joking that it says ex-lax on it. I gotta go to the bathroom.

Okay. There. Is that better? Yeah. Now you can see the large, liquid ex-lax. That's. Yeah. So do you think that the legislature will be done by the end of March? I think so I, you know what's going to hold it up, Jack. Oh yeah. They've been moving slow and we've had probably three people who sit on J.

Fact tell us that Kevin Cook told us that when he, Harmon told us that it is it's moving a little bit slow. They're not getting through the budget as quickly. Yeah. Which always puts a hold on things. We'll touch base again with either. Anybody on J. Kevin Cook, Wendy Horman we'll touch base again with them in the next week or so, because I think that's going to be the thing that yeah, stops the signing day.

Yeah. I think you're I think do you know something that they didn't even talk about yet? I was thinking about this the other day and it just clicked again because I've kind of let it simmer back here. They all acted like the fact that we caucused instead of held a primary was the most destructive and earth shattering.

Have you seen anything about it this legislative session. No, they're not trying to fix it. That's true. I mean we are. They don't have to yet. Yeah, but that's true. If it was such a big deal, they'd be like, let's get this taken care of. That's a really good point. I think I as actually I had a shower.

I had an ill moment. I thought about it in the shower a couple of days ago. Our thoughts good. Okay, so let me ask this question because I think there is a tendency to kick hard problems down the road. And we see that with the ongoing CRS, you know, it is this going to be a last minute panic when 2028 comes around?

And possibly, my guess is that, yeah, possibly if I'm, if I'm Moyle or if I'm Anthon, I'm like, we're taking care of this this year. We don't want to have a fight the year before an election or the year of the election, because, yeah, that's true. We should ask, the, the key players in all of that.

And you know what? There's always stuff happening behind the scenes, too. Maybe they're working on it. Maybe they're working on it. We just I my problem is, is their behavior never matches. Yeah. The outcomes. And if you really thought it was that major, it should have been a huge deal to you. Yeah I, I cannot disagree. Yeah. Okay.

Going back in a Ron DeSantis clip, the funny one or should I play a Trump clip? Which Trump clip? Well, because the Ron Santos one. Really good. Do you have a funny Trump one? I think when he said we just needed a new president, that was good. Oh, yeah. Let's play that one. That is a good one.

Here we go.

The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.

I think that that was the mic drop line from last night. It was great. It was great. Which doesn't that underscore what we were saying? All along that here, in fact, that was the talking point. Jen Psaki made me mad. Karine Jean-Pierre made me mad that, oh, we would have a solution at the border if the Republicans wouldn't stand in the way, implying that we can't do anything about this until we have new legislation.

And we all said, no, you have all the tools in your toolbox you need to fix this problem. And here comes, you know what? Donald Trump was fixing the problem before he was inaugurated. Yep. Biden's work was a crafted invasion that was just, gaslight to the American public to pretend like he had no control over it. It was a crafted invasion.

He did it on purpose. Yeah. They provided government dollars for people to. Trump mentioned this last night. The hotels that these people what that these illegal immigrants were housed in. That was a phenomenal business move by those hotel owners. They got money from the government and they're going to get insurance money to repair the hotel. So money to operate, they get to keep their real estate and then they get insurance to renovate.

Yep. Okay. That's that's a dirty scheme. That is a dirty, dirty scheme. Yeah. And Trump mentioned it last night. I think he exactly referenced the Roosevelt hotel owner. I you know I don't know I loved that that was a comedic mic drop moment. There was also someone in the gallery had a mic drop moment. I believe it was one of the senators or representatives, Republicans, when Trump was listing the ages of the Social Security people.

Yeah, those receiving Social Security checks. And he said the oldest one is 300 and something years old. And somebody from the gallery yelled, That's Joe Biden. That is great. I, I heard somebody yell and then lots of laughter. I didn't catch what they had said. So yeah. So just there were it was a, a night of winning.

That's all it. You can't call anything else. It was a great speech. You have to basically be anti-American to not find something to love in that speech. Oh yeah. Like there certain things. How could you even disagree with it? I, I don't know I don't know how you disagree with the, the cutting of useless spending. I don't know how you disagree with the tightening of our borders.

I don't know how you disagree with no tax on on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Yeah I, I look at that. And that was a moment for me that I thought Donald Trump just checkmated the Democrat Party with, with this message that we aren't going to tax tips or overtime or Social Security. Those three groups, those three groups are the people the Democrats have said they are defending and looking out for the whole time.

That would be a godsend to people who work overtime to and make an hourly wage to people who work for less than minimum minimum wage and rely on tips for Donald Trump to come along and say, we're not going to tax those, that is immediate relief. That's immediate. More money in their paycheck. No tax on Social Security immediately.

It's more money for people on a fixed income. And yet the Democrats. Ha. All right. Will they be able to vote against it? I don't know that they I think we're going to get close. I wouldn't say unanimous. However, you know what? You had all the Democrats in the Senate voting to have boys play against girls. You know, maybe they will.

Maybe they maybe they won't be looking out for their political prospects. Maybe it is just this sheer anti-Trump rage that's driving them. It makes no sense that they they, each cast those votes just hours before this speech, as, campaign issue. That was clearly one of the most winning issues. It has been highly reported that the best ad that the Trump campaign ran all of last summer was the dry ad.

Yeah, it has been poll after poll after poll showing that Americans agree that we need to get rid of D-I and the girls should not be playing in boys sports by like 80%. Why do the Democrats cling to that? Why is that so important to them? I, I don't know. I, they don't know how to play the game very well because it's an easy one right now to give up on.

So you know what this reminds me of? I'll be careful here. Probably not that careful, but I'll try to be careful. You know, when you watch cult members like you're you're in big into true crime. I've watched a lot of Netflix documentaries about different cults. Even when reality, they're presented with reality. The cult has them locked into their previous belief, and their false beliefs.

They stick with it. Now, I'm not equating this is the part that I want to be really careful about, but when you had the the whole Lori Daybell Chad Daybell thing going down, that was a cult all right. There's no way absolutely around that. You when Lori read her statement at her sentencing, she was still clearly locked in, to what she had, like it.

It's locked in. I think they're locked in. I think they have propagandized themselves and programed themselves over the last several years. It does not matter that it is going to. It is not going to. It is destroying their political careers and their political prospects. I don't think they know how to think another way on anything now. No, I think yeah.

And I don't think it's just the politicians. We've seen businesses do this. We, in North Idaho, we had that cosmetologist who threw away her entire business because she wouldn't service anybody who voted for Trump when that kind of of worshiping at the hatred of Trump altar. Yeah. Leads you to destroy your entire business. Yeah. You're locked in when that kind of worshiping at the hatred of Trump Altar leads you to not understand who voted you into office.

Yeah, you deserve to lose your political seat. Yeah, yeah. For sure. All right. 935 (208) 542-1079 we'll come back. I want to we have a couple of legislative things, lots of Trump stuff. If you'd like to weigh in on that, you're more than welcome to do that. Again, the stones automotive group calling text line is (208) 542-1079. But I want to play some audio from a committee hearing where they're looking at implementing Doge on the state level.

It was interesting what some of the couple of the Democrats had to say back in.

All right. Can I give the bit away before we have it on here? I think Facebook's used to that. Okay. So the audio I'm going to play is I don't know what committee it's in, but it's Jaren Crain, introducing a bill to create a state Department of Government efficiency. And he explains it how it's structured. Three from the House, three from the Senate, and a couple more somehow.

And which, you know, sounds great, but you had one of the Democrats in this committee raising the issue that, well, we want everyone to be represented. And so I but there's no mention of having a Democrat. And Jaron Crane's response is, you're right. There's no mention of party affiliation like he does not he doesn't he doesn't argue with her and he doesn't agree with her.

Like he just states a fact. Like, you're right, it doesn't have. Yeah. And then Todd Achilles, chimes in a little bit later once they introduce an amendment and and he talks about how he talked for a half an hour to a veteran who was in the probationary state status, and he got let go because of federal Doge, Elon Doge.

And he's like, if we do this here, I just hope we're more responsible than what we've been saying. All right. So that was his kind of snarky point in all of this. So as I watched this, I thought it was interesting that you had that Representative Green, and we're going to pair up the clips of her and Todd Achilles, because if you go back to proposition one, the whole premise of proposition one was, let's get rid of the parties, let's get rid of party.

Let's let's make party affiliation a minor. Side note let's not have this official line of delineation between the parties because it it harms Democrats. So I thought it was interesting that you had one of the Democrats saying, well, we want to make sure that Democrats are representing, you know what, you know, how you armchair quarterback things aim at when she said, let's make sure everyone's represented here.

If I were Jaron Crane, I would have said, oh, we'll have both men and women on the on this task force or we'll have we'll have both, both senators and representatives on this task. We have Mormons and Protestants on this task force like.

It was great. And to his credit, Todd Achilles did not really respond to her, but he wants to get rid of this party thing. That was the whole reason they did this. Yeah. Sneaky. And, and as Julie pointed out in our off air conversation, it's just another example of him exploiting veterans for his own political ends.

Yep. Do you think they would get tired of that? You'd think good things. So now you know what our next segment is going to. I'm reading a headline. Yeah, there's a 40 day target boycott. Target is facing a 40 day consumer boycott starting Wednesday, where the companies shift away from diversity, equity and inclusion. Okay. You know what?

I will now go to target next. Okay. Look, people are so bizarre, all right? Look, I don't need to go. I can live without target. I don't need it. Do you need it? Well, no. Don't. We want to support target because they're getting away from dei. They're getting away from DC. But I don't want anything to do with the fact that it's become such a big deal.

Oh, yeah, that's. I like. But you could go shop there now, I. I wouldn't be surprised if they paid this pastor to make this problem. Oh, just for headlines. Yes. To get people to go shop. Yeah.

I'm,

941 on Newstalk 179. Looks like a state version of Doge may be coming. This is audio from a committee hearing. The first voice you'll hear is Representative Jared Crane. This morning, Mr. Chairman. And members of the committee for the record information representative Jared Crane, district 12, in Nampa. It is not lost on me that we would be introducing this on Idaho day.

What this is, is establishing the Department of Government efficiency. Efficiency? Excuse me? Legislative task force. This task force is going to have three members of the House of Representatives that will be appointed by the speaker. It's going to have three members of the Senate that'll be appointed by the pro tem. Then we'll have three members of the Joint Finance Appropriation Committee that will have one member from the House, one member from the Senate, and then an additional member from the House or the Senate.

This task force is going to go ahead and look at regulatory accountability, budget accountability and government operations and oversight. The terms will be for one year, and this does have a sunset date of four years. So they'll get to work pretty quickly and and make recommendations to the legislature on what we need to improve, as a government to make it more efficient.

Thank you. Representative Crain, are there questions for Representative Crain? Representative green, thank you, chairman and Representative Kreme. Looking through this really quick, and because I just want to ensure that we have representation from everyone, nowhere in here does it mention a Democrat needs to be on the legislative, task force representative Crain 12. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And, thank you, Representative Green. No, it does not specify any party affiliation. That is true. Okay. Doesn't even address her concern. Like there's no solution, but there's no argument either. You're like you are correct. There's no party affiliation. The only way it would have been better if he. If he would have gone ding ding ding. You are right.

Yes. Correct. Gold star for you. That was a perfect response. Yes. So good. So I do have a question before I play the rest of this because we're going to hear from one Todd Achilles in just a moment. Their side largely supportive of prop one. I don't know Representative Green's personal position, but I think I can guess was to destroy the party structure that we have in Idaho.

Get rid of it. You can say you're something on a ballot, but it would destroy the official standing that that parties have. They were trying to get rid of that. Now, it's important to her that we do identify and represent officially the different parties in the state that I found that fascinating. Here's how the rest of it went.

Follow up follow up. Just a comment. When we haven't done that in the past, there's been task force where we haven't had representation, so it'd be nice to see that amended. Any further questions? Seeing none. The rest is properly before the committee. Representative Scott, I move to introduce Rs 32587 Committee. We have a motion to introduce Rs 32587 is there discussion on that motion, Representative Quiles yeah.

Mr. chairman, just a comment on the motion here. I just spent, 30 minutes talking to, a 14 year manager at the VA, an Army vet who was fired because he took a promotion a year ago. He's 12 days from ending his probationary status. So if we take on a DOJ's task force in the state, let's do it a little more thoughtfully than what's happening at the federal level.

Thank you. Representative Achilles, is there further discussion on the motion? The motion is to introduce Rs 32587. All in favor signify by saying I opposed. Nay, the motion is carried. It will be done. The committee. Robert, did I hear one? Nay, one little? Nay, I think so. I wonder who said nay, I don't know no. We like inefficiency.

We want inefficiency in government. I've got, I've got fundamental issues with Todd Achilles. But he goes and does it again. He abandoned veterans during the middle. Well towards the end of ranked choice voting repeatedly turned out turned down requests to interview with us, but would offer up on, as as somebody who would come here and probably be destroyed a veteran.

So he didn't care enough for them. Then, except to offer them up to be beat up on conservative radio. He abandons them at the end of ranked choice voting. Still won't come on an interview with us, but they're useful idiots for him when he's making an argument in a committee meeting. I don't think Todd Achilles has ever met a veteran.

He won't use to leverage for his political side. Yeah, and when I say useful at it, I think veterans are awesome. Oh, absolutely. I think they're amazing. I call them that. It's why we're saying what we're saying. Yes. He's using and abusing me. He's using and abusing them. And I appreciate what they did for our country. And I'm not going to use them as a political weapon to get something that I want.

You know, here's the thing. Because that group, I know too much about this because I did the document, but it was called veterans for Idaho Voters that group was launched at the exact same time they started the prop. One thing, if Todd Achilles had been advocating for veterans for the last 5 or 10 years, and then this group just sort of organically got, I would have had respect for that.

I would have said, okay, that's fine. It was specifically created to try to leverage a favorable outcome on prop one. I have zero respect for that. That is that is the the worst and the most toxic of politics. And then to abandon them when you see that your ship is going down, you are the captain on the Titanic that got off, you got off the Titanic and put yourself in a lifeboat while there's people back there sinking into the icy waters.

Yeah, that's how much integrity you have. Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's it's true. It's gross in a gross. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. (208) 542-1079. If you'd like to be a part of the program, this summer, I'm trying to look and see. We played, lots of Trump clips, the creepy, simultaneous unison reading that the Democrats are doing, and, yeah.

Will you play the Stephen Smith clip? Yeah, I want to marinate in that one. Yeah, because I loved it. Let me play that again. Here it is. So, Stephen Smith on The View. It's only been in office for six weeks. Seems like six years doesn't it? And he's been going around with his cronies, touting his so-called landslide and landslide and blowout win.

But he won the popular vote by 1.5%, one of the smallest ever. And he won the general election by less than 50%. So what kind of mandate is this really? It is a mandate. And I'm going to explain why. And I don't mind the question, but let me be very clear. I'm no supporter of Trump. I'm a supporter of truth.

And the facts. And here's the facts. The man won every swing state he increased in terms of his vote, voter turnout in his favor from the standpoint of blacks, Latinos and young voters. He increased his numbers in that regard. From 2020, 89% of the counties shifted to the right. That's a mandate. We can sit up there and play around all we want to in 2020.

They didn't it. Trump didn't win the popular vote. He didn't win the Electoral College vote, a matter of fact, the Republicans had won the popular vote. If I remember 20,004. But they did this year. So 20 years after they last won the popular vote, they won the popular vote. They won the Electoral College vote. The man won every swing state.

And on top of it, 89% of the counties shifted. Yes. I don't understand how people can look at that and say there's no mandate. There's a mandate. What's a different definition of a mandate, I guess. But the problem is, is that if you're the Democratic Party who lost 49.8% to 48.3%, you're looking at that 1.5%. That's an excuse for you to say what we did really wasn't that that's something we should continue to do that you know, don't continue to do as part of this strategy.

He I love the point that he's making because he he's telling them, don't make the mistake of thinking you can just keep doing what you're doing. It was a seismic shift. Even though Trump only won by one and a half percentage points. You're cherry picking that and not looking at what is happening systemically throughout the country right now.

Yeah, this is the NBA finals. You have two teams that can play up to seven games. They're in the NBA finals. They lose by seven points or whatever in the first game. And the coach looks at the tape, looks at the game and goes, you know we we only lost by seven. We don't even need to watch tape.

We don't need to fix the darn thing. Yeah, we were close. We'll just go and play again. Yeah. You don't go in and look and see what you did wrong and why you lost by seven. Yeah, I yeah, that's that's the argument Joy Baker is making. She's making an argument that well it wasn't that close and we're fine.

We'll just double down on everything. No. Stephen Smith shows you how bad you lost. And maybe you should look at what you're doing and how ineffective it is. Yeah. Yeah, that because I think they're looking nobody tries to be complacent but they try to be comfortable. And I think they're they're trying to downplay the significance of Trump's win.

So they can keep doing what they've been doing. And I'm like feel free. Go right ahead. Because we we loved what what happened here. And so yeah. All right. 951 to Newstalk 1078. We just got this, text. Can I share it? Sure. We just passed an SUV with no plates and a flat tire headed north on I-15 just north of Fort Hall, followed by four cop cars.

Any idea if that's a pursuit? I think there's a good chance I. Where are they going? Fast. Were the lights on? I mean, maybe another couple of details might be helpful. There.

I on a serious note, this is a corridor. I 15 is a corridor. And, there's a lot of drug trafficking, so potentially it's that if there's no plates, I don't I don't know how unintelligent the drug traffickers are if they wouldn't put fake plates on their car, but yeah. No, that's a good point. So but yeah I mean we'll keep an eye on the news.

I you know what I wish the news business was Julie is how I wish it worked that when something bad happens out there or something crazy happens, we just instantly knew.

We like to have that appearance. Right. Do you know how much oxygen is taken up on these Facebook pages that belong to cities like Life in Idaho Falls? We love Rexburg, we love Rigby, or whatever the Facebook pages are of. There's three cop cars on Higby Road and does anyone know what's going on? Yeah, I really like like the ether.

Some people have access to the ether and they know, look, I'm not I'm not really killing the person. Oh, it could be a serious thing. Yeah, it absolutely could be a serious thing. But I because they, I, you know, they texted that in wondering if we had heard anything. But I think there are people who think that if something big happens, we just instantly know and can still be cool.

If we could. Yeah. With that was our superpower. Yeah, that would be us. Maybe there might be a double edged sword there, but it's like, because you might know things you don't want to know. Oh, somebody said no, it's 100% a pursuit. I passed the same SUV and they were throwing things out of the window at the cop cars.

Also, I have since passed two more cop cars headed their direction and their lights were flashing and they were in a chase. Okay, so so it's real ID a yes it word. We have no more information, but we're breaking this story here on the radio. There's a I don't know if it's a high speed chase, but there is a police pursuit on I-15, apparently.

So. Okay, let's break 953 on Newstalk 109. We'll be back and we'll wrap it up. Of course, we'll have Facebook Live. Can I just say, I loved that Matt Walsh and Riley Gaines and Ben Shapiro all sat together laughing. So fantastic. I believe they were guests of JD Vance. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, good for them.

We'll be back.

I only know this, but it's a question that we've had before I was working out, so I was watching the Fox coverage of the, speech last night, and it kind of started a little bit late, about ten minutes late. The speech started so they were just filling time on Fox, which means there's trying to find something to talk about.

Yeah. And they answered our question we've had last night the designated chain of command person was Doug Collins I saw this, yeah, yeah. So if the Capitol had been blown up or whatever, Doug Collins would have been our president. Yeah. That's wild. Should we take a phone call? Oh, Christine. You're right. It was Mike Johnson, not JD Vance, that they were guests of,

Let me see what time we have left. We have about two minutes. We'll have time. We'll take the call on on another a third listener saw this. I passed the same card, had junk hanging and dragging off the back, only one caught behind at the time. I'm guessing it's fairly serious since he didn't pull over for the first cop.

Okay, this is a serious story, but I do like the fact that we have a lot of listeners traveling along I-15. Yeah, seen this. Somebody sent us a picture from Driggs on a rundown house that's been turned into a, business. And they've put vinyl on the window that says Trump vans are destroying our country, demand their resignation.

They actually put vinyl on their windows. Yeah. Look, I'm just happy they they chose the right there to. They spelled it right. That's good. Hey. That's progress. It is progress. Yeah. Oh yeah.

And then it's an open sign. Yeah. So it's a business. Yeah. It's a, it's a business. And such an inviting looking business because I say this without zero reservation. It looks like a house a pedophile would live in. Okay. You're on your own with that. Sued for libel. I'm out.

All right. Turn 957 on Newstalk 1079. Let's go to the phones. Caller we have about a minute. Go ahead. Hello. Hi. You got about a minute. Caller hey, yes. The 89 exit. They're, coming in to Blackfoot, for your, the car chase with it looks like about 7 or 8, cop cars. They got him pulled over on the offramp.

Okay. Yep. So they did get it stopped, then? Yeah. Yeah, it's, I was okay. Oh. Did we lose him? Are you still there? Yeah. We may have lost him, but we got the gist. Yeah. Okay, so they've got him pulled over and the cops are taking care of it. Okay. Real life high speed chase unfolding today on the alert.

Yeah. We don't even need a helicopter. No, we don't. We have journalists on the ground you can get right. I don't know how did how did they do that? Oh, that kind of sounds right. Is that like a helicopter? Yeah, that that I in the sky. Whatever. Actually is people texting it. Oh, do we owe them now that we need to pay this guy?

I know. Don't bring that up. We'll get an invoice. All right. We appreciate all of our pro bono journalists out there. So all right, everyone, have a wonderful Wednesday, Julie and I. We will be back tomorrow. Also, if you'd like to join us on Facebook Live, just text live to 285421079. Also, Representative Britt Rae Bold is joining us tomorrow at 730, so join us for that as well.

A lot happening. Up next, Mark Van Camp and Robin's.