Full Interview:
Full transcript:
Guy Benson: Joining us now is former longtime NFL sideline reporter and now the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, our friend Michele Tafoya. Michele, welcome back. Good to talk to you. I want to just start since you’re such a football fan, I have to mention that it’s a pretty good time to be a football fans in your state, if I’m not mistaken. I think the Vikings are what 6-0 now and the Gophers just upset ranked Iowa. On the college side this weekend so I think you got a lot of very happy campers in your state.
Michele Tafoya: This should tell you all you need to know. I was at church yesterday morning at the end of mass, the priest said, how about those golden gophers? How about that defense? And it was very funny and everyone was amazed. So yes, these are happy times for sports fans in Minnesota.
Guy Benson: I will confess that several weeks from now I’m going to have to root very hard against the gophers. But you know why. We’ll get to that in due time. You get it. Michele, let’s talk about your race. So there was this viral moment at your debate with Ms. Flanagan, who is the sitting lieutenant governor who wants to be the U.S. Senator for Minnesota, a very, very hard left Democrat, more to the left even than Tim Walz, the governor, the failed governor there. And she was trying some sort of spin razzle dazzle deflection and you just called it out in this kind of went everywhere on social media cut forty one.
Michele Tafoya: Listen, it is rich to hear my opponent talk about lost access to programs when under her watch while she was second in command of this state, Minnesota saw billions, and billions, and billions of fraud dollars walk out the door to fraudsters while Medicaid was gutted, while Feeding Our Future was gutted, while these programs for autistic kids were gutted. And she’s talking about access? All of that money left the state of Minnesota. This historic fraud happened under her watch, and suddenly she’s looking out for Medicaid and SNAP? Sell it to someone else, Peggy. We are gonna get.
Guy Benson: Sell it to someone else, Peggy, like put that on a t-shirt, Michele, and here’s the thing, it’s obvious why she was not terribly eager to debate you, first of all. And then secondly, on a more serious note, I think a lot of people watching your race will say we really like Michele Tafoya, she’s sharp, this Peggy Flanagan seems pretty extreme even for Minnesota, but my gosh, it’s such a blue state and the environment for Republicans nationally seems so, so tough. Is something like this fraud issue really going to break through enough to give Michele Tafoya a chance to actually win in that really tough state for Republicans? How do you make that sale to voters?
Michele Tafoya: Well, look, her record as 20 years as a politician, eight years as Lieutenant Governor in lockstep with Tim Walz, and as you said, even further to the left. If that’s not enough, look this is not theoretical what she does when she’s in charge. We lose money to historic fraud. We have Somali gang violence that she will not identify. We have a peak in violent crime. We have lows in test scores, and they oversaw a massive budget surplus turn into a deficit. This is not an experiment worth retrying. This is abysmal. This is just an abject failure to this administration. Tim Walz knew it was the end for him. He was in the middle of running for governor for a third term when he stepped away and said, eh, nevermind. Meanwhile, she wants a promotion? Hey, you know, in your career, in my career, in any normal job, you don’t get a promotion with that record. You get a pink slip and I think Minnesotans are fed up and they’re exhausted and we’re a state that is unique and independent and this really pisses people off.
Guy Benson: Is the, because I know you’ve made fraud a huge, huge element of your campaign for obvious reasons. I mean, it’s been one of the, one of focal points in Minnesota politically now for a number of years, a huge black eye for the state over and over again, that the headlines have been so embarrassing. Is it, I know in theory, it should work and should resonate. On the ground, is that issue really penetrating?
Michele Tafoya: Well, that’s what we’re hearing. And look, you know, you can talk about other issues, but I have been backed by the Minnesota Farm Bureau. So the farmers are on my side. I’ve been backed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, along with a number of other major, you know, public safety organizations. So they are in my corner. Small businesses are in my corner, been endorsed by them. So I like our chances. If the DSA is in her corner, I’ll take everyone else in our corner. And that’s really the platform she’s running on. Medicare for all, a blow up ICE, as she calls it. And she was part of the defund movement. She participated in illegal riots. I don’t think Minnesota, we might be a blue to purple state, but we’re not an extreme state. And Hasan Piker has endorsed her. So that should tell you pretty much all you need to know. Mm-hmm.
Guy Benson: Who believes America deserved 9/11 of course. Falsely, you just sort of briefly touched on it but I want to come back to it, Somali gang violence. We talked about on the show, we had Tom Emmer here on the show, the congressman as well. This was a homecoming football game that was cut short and then the homecoming dance canceled because of like foreign third-world gang violence in a tony Minneapolis suburb. I mean, if that doesn’t cut through some of the noise here. Especially when this has been allowed to fester. This is not a xenophobic thing. This is criminal violence on a large scale. And your opponent and a lot of the people running your state from one party seem to just have their head in the sand because they want all of those votes and they don’t want to call what’s happening by what it is, by its own name.
Michele Tafoya: We have a deputy sheriff in Ramsey County, which is where St. Paul is, who is Somalian, who said, we have to own this. This is Somali gang violence. We have a number of law enforcement people coming forward and saying that. But she will not say it for the reasons you just articulated. She claims to have a lot of friends in that community, best friends, dear friends in the community. That’s fine, we’re not painting the entire community with one broad brush. But we are identifying the problem when we put out a five point plan to deal with it from the federal level. So yeah, it’s not only that homecoming game guy, we had a Catholic school. They found 55 shell casings on the basketball courts at a Catholic School. So they had to take down the baskets and the rims so no gangs could show up and play basketball anymore because of the threat of gun violence there. That was in another neighborhood, not far from where the homecoming was. So there was a park nearby in between those two points where there was another shooting. So yes, I’m hearing from parents. We’re having a roundtable tomorrow with moms from the area to talk about this.
Guy Benson: It’s the violence and then coupled with the fraud and the dysfunctional failed governance from these people. And she, your opponent, is the lieutenant governor. When is enough, enough? Even in a blue state like Minnesota, Michele Tafoya on the ballot in eight days in Minnesota for the U.S. Senate. Michele, good luck.
