You've gotten any criticisms about it? Like have people in politics, pundits, anything like that come back at you and said that is not the government's job? So

it had a mandate from the voters.

It passed fairly overwhelmingly.

Sarah probably remembers.

It was in the 60s, wasn't it? Like 60 percent.

It was very popular.

It wasn't like 51, 49.

Can you walk us through that decision and what should the state do to protect kids online?

Why are you prioritizing early childhood education, and how are you paying for it?

So it's not all about funding.

I, I certainly wanna-- you know, we, funding is a legitimate issue.

Um, we, uh, Colorado is now the number one state in education, ranked by US News & World Report.

We're very proud of that.

Uh, and we did a number of things to get there in intervention.

Some cost money.

What do you see in Colorado that has made you take this position?

Tell me what you think got Colorado to the top of the list.

You know, when I became governor, we were number 17.

Now, number one, I want to briefly describe kind of what we're doing that gets us there.

It's not, you know, it's not some secret sauce.

It's hard work.

It's not a silver bullet.

But there's really six things that we're doing that together help propel us there.

Why do you think your party has been so resistant to school choice movements in recent years? And do you think that tide might turn?

Why, from a policy perspective, did you believe that focusing so much on education was so important? And were there folks who disagreed with you on that as a policy priority? Sure.

I would say there's definitely folks who disagree politically.

I've always like run on education and work on education.

It's not something that most members of Congress run on or even most governors run on.

I didn't see it discussed in a recent governor's race.

You know, correct me if I'm wrong.

I just didn't, you know, I'm sure in response to questions, but it certainly wasn't emphasized by any of the candidates.

And so as you look forward, I mean, what are some of the unfinished projects? And, you know, as you think about whomever takes the governor's office next, what do you hope they will focus on as things to do next? There's

Mm.

I, I, I just believe that the teacher is the most important part of that entire education system.

You've seen it.

You all know this.

I mean, our kids in high school, um, we all knew who the good teachers were, who the bad teachers were.

The kids knew it.

The teachers knew it.

And Governor Cox, I'd love for you to weigh in as well.

I don't think you've posted that yet, so I wonder if we might get a preview as to what you have learned and what you have taken from the reaction.

Yeah, I haven't had a chance to fully get that done yet.

I mean, first of all, I don't think it's any surprise.

The very fact that there seems to be a somewhat partisan reaction to this shows the underpinnings for why it needed to be done.

Obviously, as you know, Tina Peters committed a crime and deserves to do the time consistent with what she did.

Had she gotten a year or two years in prison or even four years in prison, which is what we commuted it to, I don't think anybody would have batted an eye.

But when they gave her nine years...

Could you share just a few words about why you believe that's the case?

Are you worried that the DSA is going to hijack the Democratic Party?

Well, look, when I ran in Democratic primaries, I was proud of my business success.

I talk about how it created jobs, met payroll.

That's seen as a plus by Democrats, somebody who's had experience in the real world.

I'm concerned by some of the socialism I see, some of the socialism with voices in President Trump's year where they're literally buying government shares of Intel.

The military, the Defense Department, actually, the War Department, actually owns 15 percent of a company called MP Materials, Rare Earth Materials.

So government ownership of companies, whether it's coming from Democrats or Republicans, is wrong.

At what point do you say that these are anti-American positions that these candidates are embracing and reject them from your party?

Um, explain to me and our audience, what is the danger you see in these DS- DSA candidates that you think voters who support them might be missing?

Well, I, look, I'd ra- wanna evaluate each, uh, c- candidate separately, but I can certainly talk about how socialism is a ticket to nowhere.

Frankly, socialism is a lot of what President Trump has been doing.

I mean, quite literally, buying 15% of Intel, having Department of Defense buy 10% of a company called MP Materials Government ownership of the economy.

Here's what's wrong with that, Laura, two things.

Number one, it sets the government up as a player and referee.

How can the government regulate the private sector to ensure competition, to prevent monopolies if they're actually an owner of companies in the private sector and have a vested interest? Number two, I'm a Democrat.

What do you say to people who think that based on your actions of granting that clemency, you may not be the best messenger on election integrity in this issue?

Uh, and second, um, I guess your decision to grant her clemency didn't rely on any sort of repentance as sometimes is required.

Well, uh, look, first of all, what she said is, is silly.

I would call it a lie, but I think she actually believes it, so I don't think lie is the right word.

It's just wildly inaccurate.

Uh, obviously, uh, our...

G- Colorado's a gold standard for elections.

We have all paper ballots that can be counted and recounted.

What's your reaction?

Why did you decide to commute her sentence?"

I, I have to start, Kaitlan, by correcting just one thing in the lead-in.

Uh, she did not commit any crimes regarding the 2020 election.

She certified President Biden won.

This was after the 2021.

It was a small municipal election in the town.

Uh, the results were counted, no ballots were compromised.

What message do you think it sends?

Do you think that's an advisable strategy?

I think first, Canada should listen to what the American negotiators offer because the American negotiating strategy is completely incoherent.

there could very well be some some good things in there that reduce barriers or tariffs I just don't know and I don't think anybody knows exactly what America is seeking so let's hear out what America offers it just may be that there's good things in there I think a consistent pushback from and I hope Canada is also talking to Mexico about how we can reduce hemispheric tariffs I mean let's start with the premise here we are more competitive as a western hemisphere competitive system right we're more competitive against china we're more competitive against europe if we have a free trade zone between u.s mexico and canada and that's the goal here so we get people to agree on that goal how do we then build that by reducing tariffs and encouraging trade between our three countries in the americas

They're not saying that explicitly.

I think it's a great question to call them on, saying, what are your goals here? Let's talk about our values and our goals, and then we'll negotiate terms.

I do not know what they are.

I think absolutely the president and this administration are feeling pressure to reduce prices and reduce costs.

The best way they can do that is reduce tariffs.

Um, do you believe that's the reason that the president has an issue with you coming to the White House?

You know, at times he's said he hates our mail-in ballots and holds me responsible for that.

Obviously, as you know, governors don't incarcerate people.

They're, people are prosecuted.

In this case, uh, you know, this, this particular, uh, person got a particularly long sentence that we're examining, and it's probably a too long a sentence.

Uh, but she did commit a crime, uh, that had nothing to do with, uh, ballots or elections.

It was after a municipal election and had to do with illegal access to a room and, uh, and, and obviously we wanna make sure her sentence is consistent with others.

Is that something you're worried about when, uh, whether it comes to that or them trying to get access to, to voter rolls?

Thank goodness

... get passed regularly.

We don't have these shutdowns.

I, I- we...

Colorado's never had a shutdown.

I mean, it's very rare that a state would ever have a shutdown.

Uh, we- many bills signed by Republican sponsors in our legislature, they're the minority party, become law.

This is what he's not gonna do." Um, what's been your approach, and what do you think the result has, has been for you?

So this goes beyond just protocols and recommendations?

It's not just about, I think in the lead-in you mentioned pandemic.

We certainly hope there's not another one in our lifetime.

It's about everyday infectious vectors.

It's about new and novel treatments.

It's about prevention.

It's about science first.

Is any of that affecting the way governors relate to each other, either with their governors' associations or just your own personal dealings?

Tell us about the passage of the Affordable Care Act, because I got to watch my dad as governor implement it, and then I got to defend it along with Javier Becerra as the two frontline named defendants.

Yeah, so it was really interesting.

Of course, you never want to know the sausage making, right? That's what they say about lawmaking.

But I was there.

It was my freshman term.

We met as an entire caucus, went through every part of the bill.

We all had things at the time we were fighting for and prioritizing.

Your thoughts.

I, I, I know your, your texts are, are personal between you and the Governor of Utah, but given this initiative, given that you both had shootings on the same day, um, in your home states, I, I'm just curious, w- you know, what type of information, what type of messages are you exchanging with one another?

Yeah.

We shared real strong sentiments with one another, uh, m- you know, me, uh, y- about what he was going through in, in Utah, and of course, him with, uh, you know, within hours, the, the, uh, the attack on, on our high school.

Uh, I think we, we share the value as the overwhelming majority of Americans do, left, right, and center, that this has to stop.

There's a better way for our country.

We need to love one another, respect, uh, and hope.

Uh, it's not about blame and hatred.

After a week like this, do you believe still that it's possible to work on closing that perception gap? How do you work on that?

Governor, uh, why did you make the decision to essentially, you know, withdraw from the CDC's guidelines here?

This was quite a big shock on Friday when it went down, just, as you know, we were gearing up as a state.

Lots of folks were getting ready to do clinics with flu and COVID vaccines.

Uh, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we got this order that you would need a doctor's prescription, if you weren't over 65, to get the COVID vaccine.

Now, that's a huge barrier, Chris, right? I mean, uh, you know, the, this is something you get when you're shopping for groceries or you're picking up your prescription for something else, takes five, 10 minutes.

If you have to go to a doctor first, you know, you have to pass, go collect $200, all that stuff first, that's probably gonna reduce the vaccination rate by like half.

So we were shocked by this on Friday.

Do you still feel excited?

Yeah.

... is, uh, really three-fold.

Obviously everywhere in the country people are being, will be thrown off of Medicaid.

Um, Colorado won't have the same percentages as some of the, uh, higher poverty states which tend to be red states, they'll have the highest percentage of people that'll be thrown off of Medicaid, but like every state, uh, will be several hundred thousand Coloradans that'll lose their coverage.

The loss of the tax credits under the Affordable Care Act means that in the exchange for everybody who buys their own healthcare, doesn't get it from an employer, uh, rates will go up about 28% next year in January.

I don't know where that stacks nationally, David, but probably we could be in the middle.

A lot of states will be more, uh, it, it just sort of depends, but obviously the loss of those tax credits is devastating.

What's your philosophy on fixing housing?

How do you deal with this moving forward?

You know, I liked one of your readers, by the way, just said, and we'll move on from tariffs in a moment.

He said there were aggressive taxes.

That's very important to point out because like the amount of income you spend on clothing is a perfect example.

If you make $200,000, you're spending a lower percentage of your income on clothing.

If you make $40,000, it hurts everybody.

But absolutely, it hurts people that are earning $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a year more because a higher percentage of their income is going to buy the goods they need for everyday life, which go up because of tariffs.

Why did you do this? Is this something that, I mean, is this something that governors and local elected leaders need to do is just kind of get smarter to spur housing construction, to get this, I mean, because it's a massive problem that it just doesn't get talked about at all.