6-7-24 *INTERVIEW* Lauren Boebert is Seeking the Republican Nomination for the 4th District

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Lauren Bolbert, congresswoman representing Colorado's thirdcongressional district running for the Republican nomination in
the fourth congressional district, joins mein studio. And this is not the
most important thing, but I willjust say, the last couple of times
I've seen you, you must havebeen wearing taller shoes. Yeah, because
your Dana Perino size, which Idid not quite realize. Yes, so

(00:22):
I'm five zero, move a littlecloser than mine. Okay, I am
five zero, and I typically amin heels. In my own personal opinion,
when I wear flats, that meansI've given up on life. But
I am in flat tonight. ButI think it's kind of cute. So
just for the record, I'm notgiven up. Okay, right, very
good. We've got lots of stuffto talk about. We'll start with called

(00:42):
the intro music. Are you kiddingme? Well, my goodness, that's
producer Dragon. That's producer Dragon.Was that was that Beatles juice music?
It was all right, I'm notright, I'm not going there. I'll
let other people ask those those questions. So, but let's start. Let
me start with a couple of hardthings. So you may remember this when

(01:03):
you won your last race by anarrow margin that a lot of people expected,
and you were on the show withme and I asked you, does
the narrowness of your win make youthink you should you do anything differently going
forward? And you said no.Would you give that same answer now,
yes. So what we discussed wasI'm in the majority now, so things

(01:30):
will change because we have more legislativeauthority, we have the gabbles in the
committee, we have control of theHouse floor. I was able to participate
in changing the House rules to getsingle subject Legislation and individual Appropriations bill seventy
two hours to read a bill beforewe vote on it, so we don't
have to pass it to find outwhat's in it, and so much more,
even to open up the floor foramendments because I don't serve on every

(01:53):
committee in the House, and soI don't have jurisdiction over all of the
legislation that's passed through committee. Soonce it goes to the floor, that's
my opportunity to give a Colorado voiceto that legislation. And for more than
ten years in Congress that was notallowed. No floor amendments were allowed,
and so I fought to bring thatback. So it wasn't that I would

(02:13):
change who I am Russ. Iam radically me. I am authentically Lauren
Bobert, and there's no changing that. But in my first term, I
was in the minority, so Icertainly had to use the only thing that
Nancy Pelosi couldn't take away from me, and that was my voice. And
I was able to bring awareness tothe four hundred and fifty thousand dollars checks
the Biden administration was wanting to issueto illegal aliens who are separated from their

(02:37):
families at the southern border. Weshut that down. I got loud about
it, and that went away.Also the Disinformation Governance Board, I got
very loud about that. I gotleadership behind me legislation all of this,
but I knew the legislation wasn't goinganywhere, so I continued to speak out.
And Jane and Gina and what's hername, Nina Jankowitz, Praise the

(02:58):
Lord, she's so irrelevant. NowI've had it say the name of long
time Nina Dankowitz was fired, andyou know, the disinformation government sport is
gone. So I had to bevery loud because in Washington, DC,
nothing happens without force. However,in the majority, I get to legislate.
So I had bills in my firstterm that sat on Nancy Pelosi's desk
collecting dust, and now I'm actuallyable to move those through committee. And

(03:22):
just before I give it back toyou, I have passed more legislation out
of the House than any other memberin the Colorado delegation in this term.
And that's setting an amazing precedence.It's defined by being a sponsor of the
bill. Is that my legislation?Yes? So okay, so again,
and we're gonna weave kind of policyand politics throughout this whole conversation. So
at the time when I asked you, like, would you change anything given

(03:45):
how close that election was, itwasn't really about the policy stuff. It
was more like, you know,other stuff, right, does the personal
behavior or or just making people feellike you're a congresswoman. And I just
think about this a lot like yesterday, How do I want to word this
question to you? Because so alot of times when I think of famous

(04:06):
members of Congress who aren't Speaker ofthe House, and I think of people
like Rashida Talib and AOC and MarjorieTaylor Green, and they're famous for all
the wrong reasons and I can't standany of them. And you, I
like you. I've known you alittle bit for a long time. I

(04:29):
like you a lot as a person. I think you're genuine and funny.
But you're famous, and I don'tknow that it's good for a member of
Congress to be famous. And Idon't know that you're famous for reasons that
you want to be famous. Howdo you think about that? And do
you wish you were a little bitless in the spotlight? Well, okay,

(04:50):
there's a lot of questions there anda lot to unpack. So I
mean, do I wish I wasless than the spotlight? Yes? And
no? Right, I mean Idon't have personal moment. I wish I
was less on infrared camera. Thatwould be great, But you know,
so, I mean there are thoseaspects. I mean, I would like
to go to dinner in Fort Collinswith my boys and not have random people

(05:13):
come up and video us. Youknow, So I mean that that kind
of stuff bothers me. But alsoif I wasn't who I am and and
as as loud as I am andin this spotlight, then I don't believe
that I would be as effective becausein Congress, when I speak, I
mean people listen. And I'm notsaying this in like a self aggrandizing way,
you know, but I'm one ofthe few that are invited to those

(05:35):
closed door meetings with leadership, withthe Speaker of the House, whoever the
speaker is for that time being.You know, I was. I was
at the table with Kevin McCarthy inthese small roundtable discussions on policy and and
even now with Mike Johnson. Andnot that I always get what I want,
but we are having meaningful conversation tryingto get the conference to unite and

(05:57):
come together on an issue. Now. Also, I mean you mentioned these
other members that I work with.I mean, I'm still going to say
there's a Hamas Caucus. I'm stillgoing to call them the gi Hot Squad.
I mean, they're not America first. They are putting other foreign entities
before our own country, and they'reserving no argument from me. Rashida Talib
is an egregious anti Semite and astain on this country. I absolutely agree,

(06:18):
and so I'm not going to shyaway from that and be quiet about
the discussing things that they did.But also, for instance, okay,
so you saw the we'll call ita crap show in our oversight hearing when
we were going to hold Merrick Garlandin contempt. Now this was a late
night hearing and it was out ofcontrol from the beginning. Now the Democrats

(06:40):
started it, I thought it waskind of fun, you know, I
mean, it's late, like noneof us want to be there at this
time. They were, you know, kind of just going off and being
like bold in their statements, andsome of it was kind of funny.
Jared Moskowitz had like, uh,you know, a reading of something that
trumpets or a fundraising email. Andthen it is turned for the worse.

(07:00):
And my colleague on my side ofthe aisle, Marjorie Taylor Green, attacked
another member on the other side andabout her appearance, about her eyelashes,
her dang eyelashes, and I wasso frustrated, and of course, I
mean that just erupted and everyone starts. You know, so you were hearing

(07:21):
you were in that room. Yes, I absolutely was, okay, but
you didn't you didn't hear that Iwas in there? Digit I don't,
girl. I was frustrated because we'rethere trying to hold Merrick Garland in contempt
and get this path through committee.And this is this is not a light
issue. This is something that holdsa lot of weight, a lot of
gravity, and that we should betaking seriously. If the Democrats want to

(07:41):
make a mockery of it, fine, they don't want to vote for it
anyway. But I was taking itseriously. And I even so in our
parliamentary parliamentary procedures are rules when youcall to take down someone's words when they're
speaking in committee or the House floor. That means their remarks are strong from
the record and they are unable tospeak for that legislative period of time.

(08:07):
So in committee, if she ifthere was another opportunity she could speak,
she cannot. She's barred from speaking. And so AOC called to take down
her words when she impugned another member'scharacter, and those are the rules,
and it was just so out ofhand. I voted with the Democrats to
take down her words because I wantedthis to end. And now also I
will say, if we were ableto get the vote to take down AOC's

(08:28):
girl baby girl words and everything thatshe had said, I would have voted
to take down those words as well. That vote never came up. We're
talking with Lauren Boebert, currently representingthe third Congressional District much of almost half
of Colorado, seeking the Republican nominationin the fourth Congressional district. So why
did just answer a very basic question? Lots of folks who who have huge

(08:50):
numbers of listeners in CD four?Why the move? Yes? So I'm
family first, So that is mythat was my number one choice to move
away. My divorce has been verypublic Unfortunately. I tried to get through
it as as seamlessly and quietly aspossible. But and and also to to

(09:11):
really cover my my ex husband.I didn't want to expose him or his
faults. Uh. That's never beenthe way my marriage is operated. I
believe that partners should cover each other'sweaknesses with their strengths, not expose their
weakness with their strength. And soI mean I I still help hold true
to that. Unfortunately, he's revealeda lot of it on his own.

(09:33):
My children were not safe, That'sbeen very publicly documented, and we needed
to get out of there. Iwas seeing that my children were picking up
learned behavior that I thought wasn't goingto impact them. I thought that was
just something between my ex husband andI, uh, that was private enough
that it wouldn't affect them, andand it was. And so we did

(09:54):
decide to move. And and thensecondly, yes, I did think about
politically, what does this look like? Am I going to stay in the
third? What does this look likefor Colorado? I want to move to
the fourth. I want to befar away. And so I did decide
to run in the fourth district.And I think that this is a great
move for the Republican Party and forthe conservative movement. We have stopped the

(10:16):
millions of dollars that were coming infrom these dark money groups and the Hollywood
elites. There were over ten million. There was over ten million dollars raised
in a non election year. Andit wasn't on policy or position. It
was just against me. A lotof people just don't like you for whatever
reason. Part of it is,I mean the media they do a great
job of dehumanizing me, right,I mean, you just said you like

(10:37):
me as a person, I'm funny, Okay, Well, nobody sees that.
That's not that's not front page headlineon the Dipper Post. That's true.
And I but i'd also say youprobably don't always help yourself in that
way either, just being how youare. And I think you kind of
don't give a you know what,a very about what other people think of

(10:58):
you. I mean, you youwant to win votes, that's what you're
doing here, but I don't thinkyou're out there as a people pleaser generally.
But let me just finish on thelast thing. Is it reasonable to
say that one of the reasons youleft CD three is that given how close
it was last time, and howmuch money the Democrat raised in the interim,
and that it's likely to be thesame guy that you thought, there's

(11:20):
a pretty strong chance you would loseif you stayed in CD three. I
didn't feel that I would lose,but I also don't want to find out.
So I'm not done with what I'mdoing. I don't want to be
there forever. But I am oneof the tips of the spears in this
conservative movement, especially when it comesto America First policies. And my work
is not finished. But I mean, they're in the third district with my

(11:41):
close race, I mean, wehave to take into consideration a lot of
elements there. It was a midtermelection, there's not going to be as
much turnout. We had fifty thousandRepublicans not show up to vote, they
did not return their ballots, andyou know, I was hearing a lot
of it on the ground. Iput in the work cross. You know,
we've talked about the mileage that Iput on. You know, I
get criticized for it, and I'mcalled a liar. But all the Democrats

(12:05):
and you know, even opponents nowthat you're, oh, my goodness,
thirty thousand miles, what a womanof the people. You're amazing. So
me, I like this as impossible. You would drive around the world three
times and you can't do that.So anyhow, fifty thousand Republicans. I
was on the ground talking with people. A lot of people were felt disenfranchised
by the twenty twenty election. Theyfelt that their vote did not matter.

(12:26):
Others were apathetic. And it's aRepublican area, it's fine. And so
when you get fifty thousand people thinkingsimilarly, or you know, life happens
as well, you know, itmakes a big difference. So, yes,
it was a close race. Ido believe that we would have done
better in this next election. ButI also believe that a generic Republican will

(12:46):
do even better and when in abigger way than I could have, because
their only argument is I'm not LaurenBobert. Okay, So let's move forward
now. So the race you're innow, we've got five or six other
Republicans, five other Republicans, andas soon as you get into the race,
you have the highest name ID,in the most money. Then you've

(13:09):
got all these other folks that you'regonna split the not Lauren Bobert vote right,
So, and we don't have runoffsin this state. So some folks
are thinking you could win the primarywith thirty percent or whatever the number is.
And I don't care about internal pollingand all that, but you could
win the nomination with well under fiftypercent, given that six people are in

(13:31):
in total. How do you thinkabout that overall situation? And if you
do win with let's say thirty percentor whatever you think your number is,
how then do you think about winningthe general election? Because some people who
have their own motives for saying this, of course, are saying, well,

(13:52):
Lauren Bobert's the only Republican who couldlose the district. And I'm sure
you've heard it a lot. Sowhat's your response to these people. Yes,
so, I mean, if we'reif we're ignoring numbers, I do
believe it's going to be more thanthirty percent. But yes, the not
Lauren Bobert vote is split by fivepeople. But also I'm talking to the
same people that they are, andmany of them are voting for someone else

(14:15):
because they're a lifelong friend, andthey're like, man, you're my number
two. You know. I madethe calls to the delegates at the Assembly,
and over six hundred phone calls thatI had made, and you know,
there was a lot of folks thatare like, I want to vote
for you. I can't. Youknow, I've known this one forever.
We ranch together, you know,we're in Douglas County together, we fought
the school board together, anything likethat. And then they tell me or

(14:35):
like, gosh, I didn't thinkI would like you, and I really
do. And I'm really struggling withthis. So I do believe that those
people are going to come back overafter the primary, and I want them
to. I want to unify.I want to unify with my opponents.
Now now, of course, theyhave all abandoned their unity pledges. I've
heard them in person, I've seenthem in writing. Say. I will

(14:56):
not impune my opponents in this primary. But they're all attacking me now,
which which fine. I can handleit. That doesn't move me. It's
another day. But I'm not goingto do that to them. I will
debate policy. If you know,all of my opponents are Ukraine first.
They want more Ukraine funding. Allof them have expressed some form of amnesty.

(15:18):
All of them say that the twentytwenty election was just fine. They
would not have objected to the certificationof the electoral College result. We we
differ on issues. When it comesto spending. Many of my opponents would
have voted for the one hundred billiondollar deficit spending for the supplemental Aid.
We borrowed that money from China.It's not even paid for. And you

(15:39):
know, sending nine billion dollars tohamas so many other things. And so
I will debate the policy, butthe personal attacks I won't because the Republican
Party has to unify after this election. We need every Republican we can get
in Colorado to take our state backand to really to keep our momentum.
But I'm not afraid of the generalwhoever it may be. You know,

(16:00):
of course I'm going to campaign,I'm going to work, and I'm going
to continue to earn votes. Ihave a bipartisan legislative record without compromising my
principles. I'm still one hundred percentconservative rated, and I have bipartisan legislation.
So we have four or five minutesleft, and I actually want to
just take a little time following upon a couple of things you just said.
I think on policy, you andI are probably together about two thirds

(16:25):
of the time. There's some otherstuff where you're well to am I right
and I don't care, you know, like people are my right and people
are my left. Yeah. Ithink your position on Ukraine is an interesting
one, and I'm not with youon it. I support more aid to
Ukraine. Could you explain your positionsuccinctly just so we can get through a

(16:45):
few things. The most fundamental aspectof it is, it's been nearly two
hundred billion dollars maybe even more,that we have sent to Ukraine. Sixty
one billion dollars was just approved.This is not just lethal aid. It
is so much more than that.And there have been no audits. We
do not know where this money isactually going and they're already asking for more

(17:07):
money. More money is not theanswer. There's no game plan to actually
win, to actually stop Russia.Ukraine is not a NATO country. We
don't have an obligation here to help. And also, I would say,
just from serving on the Oversight Committeeand uncovering the corruption with Joe Biden and
his family and their business ties toUkraine's specifically. There's many other countries,

(17:30):
but to Ukraine specifically, I dobelieve that this is influencing our policy,
and that's Joe Biden's selling access toour federal government, which absolutely makes him
corrupt, and he should be impeachedfor the bribes that have been taken by
Ukraine. So I just think thatthis has gone too far. There's no
plan, and we need to secureour own southern border before we worry about

(17:51):
someone else's. I agree we needto secure our southern border. I think
we can do both things. Butagain I want to get to a couple
of other issues, but just onemore thing on this. Don't you think
it's in America's national interest to help, if not defeat Vladimir Putin, at
least stop him so he realizes hecan't then go into Moldova or Finland or

(18:14):
Estonia or something to me. Tome, it's a lot of money,
but actually seems kind of cheap ifwe end up stopping Vladimir Putin and sending
a lesson to China. Also thatwe're not going to cave in. I
disagree with you. It's not cheap. You know, every American right now
has over one hundred thousand dollars debtassigned to them at birth even, and
so this is not cheap. We'reat thirty five trillion dollars in debt.

(18:37):
They're negotiating the farm bill right now. That's one point two trillion dollars.
Like it's never stopping, it's neverending. And I believe how we stop
Putin is getting President Trump back inoffice, because he would have never invaded
Ukraine if president, if we hada strong commander in cheap he's there now.
So if Trump gets in, andI don't want to make this about

(18:59):
Trump, but if Trump gets in, what like, if Trump gets in
and says we need to help Ukraine, are you going to change and say
all right, let's help Ukraine?Now? I don't believe I will unless
there's a serious audit and a plan. If there's a plan. Sure,
Look, I was willing to considera skinny Ukraine AID where it was just
lethal aid, where we're only sendingbullets over there. And you know,
I was considering this in the supplementalAid, but then that was completely blown

(19:22):
out of the water, and youknow, sixty sixty one plus billion dollars
that went over there. But Ido believe having President Trump's strengthen his policies
does slow down Putin. Also,we need to unleash our energy sector.
Right now, we're funding both sidesof this world. We're purchasing energy from
Russia while sending billions of dollars,hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.
Or are we purchasing energy from Russia? We absolutely are buying buying their energy,

(19:45):
their oil and natural gas. Absolutelywe are, and from our other
adverissaries. Prove to me not rightnow. But I don't believe that,
oh donkey, but someone is eitherthe Indians are, and the Chinese.
Well. For if we unleashed hours, if we had the Jordan Cove pipeline,
if we were able to export ourclean liquefied natural gas, our energy,

(20:07):
we could be exporting freedom like JoeBiden's energy policy. And then going
back to something else you said aboutnational debt and deficit, these are these
are the worst government policies I've everseen, and our and our national debt
is a sin being perpetrated on ourchildren. And you know, to the
extent that you know, like whatI say, I think the Ukraine spending
is a relative bargain. If Iwere king, I would go cut that

(20:33):
amount of money and more from otherplaces in the budget to fund that.
But of course no one should dothat. Can we do that? We
did it. That's called to payfor and it is widely ignored in Congress.
Gosh, I wish we had allday to talk about this, but
we are trying to get the spendingactually paid for to cut those areas,
whether it's Green New Deal policies wherewe spent over three hundred and forty billion
dollars in just one piece of legislationfor wind and solar and other green energy

(20:56):
products. But also, you know, just to tie this back to our
southern border, where we have tentwelve thirteen million illegal aliens coming into our
country. These are military aged menfrom countries all over the world. People
are emptying out their jails, theirmental asylums, They're sending them here.
Their crime rates are going down,Our crime rates are going up. And
also China is buying our farm landthat is surrounding our military basis. I

(21:19):
mean, come on, we arebeing set up for such a gross attack,
and we're worried about Ukraine. Weneed to protect America or there may
not be an America to stand forour allies. So we're just about out
of time here. I want togive you the same opportunity I give every
candidate who comes on the show thelast thirty one seconds or something, because

(21:42):
I like prime numbers for talking tovoters who are in ced A four,
who've gotten their primary ballots in themail already and they're trying to decide.
Well, Lauren Bobert, I hearda lot about her. These other people
I don't know so much about them. Why should they choose you? Yes,
Well, I am the only Americafirst a Republican in primary. I
have a proven track record. Ihave a one hundred percent conservative voting record.

(22:04):
I do not compromise my principles,but I'm also able to work with
the other side, even our Senator'sBennett and Hickenlooper to get legislation over the
line to create one thousand jobs inPueblo, to have more water storage projects.
I've secured twenty million dollars in infrastructureand water storage in Colorado, another
fifty million dollars for the south Bridgein Glenwood Springs. I have creative ways

(22:26):
to get our policies and agendas acrossthe line and signed into law and make
sure that your tax dollars are comingback to your communities without raising our national
debt. I am fiscally responsible.I want a limited government that gets the
heck out of your way. Iam. I'm like I said radically me,
I'm not changing. I'm staying inthe fight. My voting record comes

(22:48):
with me, My fight comes withme and my perseverance. And again,
I want unity after this primary.We need the Republican Party to be strong
here in Colorado. Lauren Bobert isseeking the Republican nomination in the fourth congressional
district. If you live in thatdistrict and you open the ballot you got
in the mail, you will seeher and a few other choices. And

(23:10):
as an American, you get tomake your decision. Lauren, thanks so
much for coming to join me instudio. Thanks so much, and Ross,
Just so your voters know, Iam top line on their ballot,
every single ballot in the district,and I earned that by showing up to
every county in the district, meetingwith people and earning their votes, and
I hope to earn many more.Is there a website that people can look
at if they want to learn more, Laurenfocolorado dot com. And I also

(23:32):
have all of my accomplishments on there, the initiatives that have been signed into
law, because this is about deliveringfor Colorado. Thanks for joining me in
studio, Lauren. Good to seeyou again. Thanks Roth,