Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Senator Pete Ricketts in-studio

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Senator Pete Ricketts in-studio · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jean Stothert. Peyton Highlock, my producer, is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: also here. Good morning, Peyton. Good morning, Gene.
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  Speaker 2: Happy Monday.
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  Speaker 1: Happy Monday to you. And we are guaranteed human, right?
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  Speaker 3: Always.
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  Speaker 1: Every day.
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  Speaker 2: We are not AI.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you all for being with us today. We want
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  Speaker 1: to hear from you. We want to get your feedback,
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  Speaker 1: hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints, really. Anything goes. We
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  Speaker 1: won't back away from anything, city, state, national, or the world.
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  Speaker 1: And we always have great guests. We have a full
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  Speaker 1: week of guests this week, Peyton, every single day. But,
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  Speaker 1: of course, you're going to hear plenty of opinion from me, too.
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  Speaker 1: It is your chance to speak up and sound off.
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  Speaker 1: If you have something to say, we want to hear it.
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  Speaker 1: Send your emails to comment at kfab.com. You can call
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  Speaker 1: us at 402-558-1110, or you can leave us a recorded
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  Speaker 1: message on the talkback mic, and we will play it
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  Speaker 1: on the air. We are very happy that you are
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  Speaker 1: with us this Monday morning, and I am very happy
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  Speaker 1: that Senator Pete Ricketts is in the studio with us.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Senator Ricketts.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Gene. Thanks for having me on.
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  Speaker 1: You bet. Thanks for being here. Let me tell you,
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  Speaker 1: I know how this is. The last week of the campaign,
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  Speaker 1: you're busy from morning till night, and you keep on thinking,
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  Speaker 1: what else can I do? What should I do? Where
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  Speaker 1: should I be? Who should I talk to? But tell
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  Speaker 1: us about your last week.
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  Speaker 2: So it is going to be, we're going to be
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  Speaker 2: doing fly-arounds going all over to all different parts of
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  Speaker 2: the state. So we're just getting ready to get geared
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  Speaker 2: up for that.
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  Speaker 1: Probably many, many cities, many, many people you're going to
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  Speaker 1: see trying to get your message out. And trying to.
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  Speaker 2: Get people out to vote, especially our Republicans. Yes. We
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  Speaker 2: want to get people out to vote.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, Senator, this is one thing I have
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  Speaker 1: been talking about since the conversations about the elections have
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  Speaker 1: really started. is so important to get out to vote.
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  Speaker 1: In your primary in Douglas County, 26% voter turnout. My
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  Speaker 1: last rate, it was 27% voter turnout in the general election.
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  Speaker 1: This is why when people say, I want my voice heard,
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  Speaker 1: your voice is not being heard if you don't go
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  Speaker 1: out and vote. And the Republicans have been typically pretty
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  Speaker 1: apathetic in the last couple rounds of elections.
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  Speaker 2: Well, right now, Democrats are turning their early ballots in February.
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  Speaker 2: at a rate 11% faster than Republicans. So if you
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  Speaker 2: are a Republican with an early ballot, get it in, right?
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  Speaker 2: That's what we're trying to tell people. And I know
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  Speaker 2: I've talked to a lot of Republicans who say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: I like to vote on election day. And I get that.
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  Speaker 2: I typically do too. But think about this. What if
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  Speaker 2: the kids are sick or what if the car breaks
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  Speaker 2: down or something like that?
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  Speaker 1: You never know.
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  Speaker 2: You never know. I mean, go back decades, right? K.O.
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  Speaker 2: lost to Ben Nelson because there was a snowstorm in
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  Speaker 2: western Nebraska.
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  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 2: So things can happen that prevent you from getting to
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  Speaker 2: the polling place if you wait until the last minute
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  Speaker 2: on election day. So get out there and get your
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  Speaker 2: vote in so you can make sure. If you go
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  Speaker 2: to the Douglas County Election Commission, they'll give you a sticker. Say,
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  Speaker 2: I voted today. So if you want the sticker, they
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  Speaker 2: got them. So you can get them.
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  Speaker 1: But you got to go there and you got to vote.
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  Speaker 1: That's why I typically vote. Well, I always vote early
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  Speaker 1: now because, number one, I want to study the candidates
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  Speaker 1: because I have been preaching on this show. It is
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  Speaker 1: so important to be a well-informed voter and know what
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  Speaker 1: these candidates are, know what the initiatives are, know what
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  Speaker 1: the bond issues are. But the other thing is to
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  Speaker 1: get out and vote. And you are so right. Something
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  Speaker 1: could happen that election day. If you have a mail-in ballot,
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  Speaker 1: get it in this week. Or you can go and
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  Speaker 1: vote in person this week, too, at the election office.
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  Speaker 1: But please get out there and vote. We don't want
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  Speaker 1: to see a 26%, 27% voter turnout. So important right now.
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  Speaker 1: So important with the Senate and with Congress now, too.
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  Speaker 1: When I look at what's going on all over the
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  Speaker 1: country and some of these socialist, even communist candidates that
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  Speaker 1: have gotten through the primary just baffles me that potentially
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  Speaker 1: they could get elected on Tuesday if Republicans don't come
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  Speaker 1: out and vote.
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  Speaker 2: That is a great point. And I think a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people say, oh, my vote doesn't count. It does.
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  Speaker 2: There's been so many races that have been decided by
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  Speaker 2: just a few votes. And Jean, I know you know
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  Speaker 2: this from personal experience.
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  Speaker 1: I lost by 14 votes in 2006. Yeah, 14 votes.
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  Speaker 2: So every vote counts.
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  Speaker 1: Does count. And typically in these midterm elections, the voter
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  Speaker 1: turnout is a little bit less. And so your vote
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  Speaker 1: counts more than ever now because your vote really does matter.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, I lost a legislative race by 14 votes.
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  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, every vote does really matter.
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  Speaker 2: Every vote matters. And to your point about the Democrat Socialists,
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  Speaker 2: they are taking over the Democrat Party. The Democrat Socialist
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  Speaker 2: candidate is running for Senate in Florida and Oklahoma and Obviously,
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  Speaker 2: we see already with Mamdani in New York, you've got
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  Speaker 2: a Democrat Socialist candidate there. Graham Plattner, the failed candidate
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  Speaker 2: in Maine, was a Democrat Socialist. My opponent was recruited
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  Speaker 2: by a Democrat Socialist. I mean, they are taking over
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  Speaker 2: the Democrat Party. And so this is, again, the way
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  Speaker 2: you combat that is by getting out to vote and saying, hey,
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  Speaker 2: that's not who we want to have take over the party.
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  Speaker 2: And that would then, like, especially if the Democrats see
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  Speaker 2: that's not going to be a successful candidate, They'll start
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  Speaker 2: coming back toward more normal Democrats like what we used
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  Speaker 2: to have.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And there are– there were some– what I would consider
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  Speaker 1: some pretty good successful Democrat incumbents in this country. That
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  Speaker 1: are being beat by the socialists right now. And, you know,
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  Speaker 1: when you look at that socialist agenda, everything from defund
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  Speaker 1: to disassemble police to open borders to get away, do
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  Speaker 1: away with your prisons to, I mean, the agenda.
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  Speaker 2: Defund the military, close military bases. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Get rid of Congress. Get rid of the.
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  Speaker 2: Get rid of the Senate. Get rid of the presidency.
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  Speaker 2: Get rid of the Supreme Court. Have it all report
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  Speaker 2: to the House. They want the executive and the judiciary
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  Speaker 2: to report to the House. It truly is remaking the country. Yes.
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  Speaker 2: In a socialist country. government image.
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  Speaker 1: And I've said this before. I don't think that there
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  Speaker 1: is any country that you could show me where socialism works.
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  Speaker 2: Right. Look at Cuba. 90% of the people are poor.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I say, look what's happening right now
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  Speaker 1: in France. For example, riots, all sorts of violence. Now,
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  Speaker 1: they are not just socialists. They're socialists in, I would say,
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  Speaker 1: capitalist country too. But think about what they have, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the healthcare, free healthcare, free education. I'm not sure about housing,
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  Speaker 1: but they have the highest taxes in the entire world.
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  Speaker 1: Keep that all in mind. before you think that this
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  Speaker 1: might be the way to go. Let's talk about some of.
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  Speaker 2: The issues here too. Well, and to the point, one
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  Speaker 2: of the reasons that all the people are protesting is
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  Speaker 2: because they've run out of money.
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  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Right? So even with the highest taxes, they've run out
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  Speaker 2: of money and they can't spend money on some of
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  Speaker 2: the services that people want or education. And that's what
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  Speaker 2: people are complaining about. It's like, hey, you're not spending
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  Speaker 2: enough on this or that. And so they think the
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  Speaker 2: solution is to tax and spend more. It's like, no,
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  Speaker 2: you got in this position because you taxed too much
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  Speaker 2: and you drove all your entrepreneurs away you need to
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  Speaker 2: reverse course and go to a more free enterprise form
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  Speaker 2: of government, which is what we have here in our country.
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  Speaker 2: And you go back and look over the last, say, 30,
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  Speaker 2: 40 years. It used to be like the standard of living,
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  Speaker 2: the medium income for Europe and America were about the same.
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  Speaker 2: And Europe has gone down this path of really doubling
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  Speaker 2: down on socialism. And so their standard of living has
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  Speaker 2: really flatlined. It's been stagnant. And ours continues to go up.
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  Speaker 2: And it's really remarkable to see how different you know,
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  Speaker 2: our standard of living is now from the Europeans.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, I looked at some figures the other day,
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  Speaker 1: I think they were in the Wall Street Journal, that
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  Speaker 1: talked about what the mayor of New York City wants
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  Speaker 1: to do with free groceries, free housing, free health care.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, if it was free groceries, you have
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  Speaker 2: to have an ID.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, really.
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  Speaker 4: Right?
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  Speaker 2: Like I said, you can't have an ID to vote,
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  Speaker 2: but you have to have an ID to be able
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  Speaker 2: to get your free groceries.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, you have to have that in New York City.
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  Speaker 1: But they said an estimate, if that was to happen,
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  Speaker 1: it would cost the country about $ 350 trillion.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: And where's that going to come from? So there you go, folks.
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  Speaker 1: But let's talk about some of the issues that I
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  Speaker 1: think are so important to people. The pardons, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I have to bring that up because people are still
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  Speaker 1: talking about it. Dark Money Group has spent millions now
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  Speaker 1: against you talking about pardons. I had Jessica Flanagan, that
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  Speaker 1: is a consultant on your race, come in a couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and she talked about the context of
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  Speaker 1: of the issue, which I thought was very, very helpful,
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  Speaker 1: but it's still on TV. And I think this is
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  Speaker 1: an interesting conversation between me and you, because as mayor,
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  Speaker 1: I had the ability to pardon only to misdemeanors, but
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  Speaker 1: any misdemeanor in the city code. I kind of changed
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  Speaker 1: the criteria several times because I wanted to make sure
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  Speaker 1: people didn't– it used to be people couldn't reoffend for
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  Speaker 1: three years, and I changed it to five years. I
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  Speaker 1: looked at them with very careful scrutiny, and the application
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  Speaker 1: went through the city prosecutor, and then it went to
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  Speaker 1: my chief of staff, and then it went to me.
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  Speaker 1: So I had three eyes on it. So I had criteria.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that a little bit and hopefully put
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  Speaker 1: it to bed about what happened with this pardon and
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  Speaker 1: now they are trying to use this so much against you.
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  Speaker 2: So to your point, at the state level, there's a
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  Speaker 2: process as well. So if you are going to apply
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  Speaker 2: for a pardon, you have to go make the application.
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  Speaker 2: And for us, some of the things were similar to
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  Speaker 2: what you said. If you have a misdemeanor, you had
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  Speaker 2: to wait three years and you had to have a
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  Speaker 2: clean record. And in When we say clean record, like
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  Speaker 2: if you had too many speeding tickets, we would bounce
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  Speaker 2: you for that. We'd say, no, you're speeding too much.
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  Speaker 2: You clearly don't have respect for law.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't have to be the same crime. You just
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  Speaker 1: can't reoffend.
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  Speaker 2: You had to be clean. Like no offenses. And then
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  Speaker 2: for felonies, it was 10 years. And so that was
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  Speaker 2: kind of the baseline before we'd even consider an application.
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  Speaker 2: And then typically what we were looking for is people
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  Speaker 2: who had acknowledged their responsibility, who had been doing something
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  Speaker 2: to– do something back, give back to the community and
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  Speaker 2: who were sorry for what they had done. And by
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  Speaker 2: the way, it's a pardons board. So there was three
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  Speaker 2: of us, right? Secretary of State, Attorney General, and me.
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  Speaker 1: And they always portray you as the deciding vote, but
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  Speaker 1: there were two yes and one no on this pardon.
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  Speaker 1: So it passed. The majority rules on this. But I
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  Speaker 1: think the important thing is, once again, that I'll bring
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  Speaker 1: up is that rape is a crime. It's a felony.
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  Speaker 1: He pled guilty to it. He spent 14 years in prison,
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  Speaker 1: and it had been almost 14 or at least 14
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  Speaker 1: since he was released. He was punished for his crime,
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  Speaker 1: and he was released. The important thing is a pardon
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  Speaker 1: is just a formal act of forgiveness. It doesn't excuse
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  Speaker 1: the crime. And if the police look up a criminal record,
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  Speaker 1: that crime is still on there. It doesn't erase your record,
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  Speaker 1: but it does let you get back some of your crimes.
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  Speaker 1: your rights that were taken away from you. And so
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  Speaker 1: I don't even know if he– it says on the
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  Speaker 1: commercial that he can carry a gun. A lot of
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  Speaker 1: times if you are a felon and you can never
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  Speaker 1: carry a gun again or it is a felony, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know about that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, if you're a felon, you can't have gun– you
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  Speaker 2: don't have gun rights. And so that's part of– many
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  Speaker 2: folks who came in front of us, they were hunters
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  Speaker 2: and they wanted to get their gun rights back, which
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  Speaker 2: is one of the reasons why they were asking for
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  Speaker 2: a pardon if they had a felony. But you had
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  Speaker 2: to ask. You had to ask. If you didn't ask,
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  Speaker 2: then we didn't necessarily grant the gun rights. Right. And
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  Speaker 2: in this particular case, I believe that they were asked
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  Speaker 2: for as part of the overall pardons. And to your point, though,
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  Speaker 2: the person in this case had been working with our veterans.
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  Speaker 2: He had PTSD when he came back from the Gulf War.
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  Speaker 2: He was a Marine. And he worked with our veterans
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  Speaker 2: in our veterans courts for over a decade helping other
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  Speaker 2: veterans with PTSD.
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  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 2: And in fact, one of the veterans judges said, veterans
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  Speaker 2: court judges said that this was an example of somebody
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  Speaker 2: who had truly turned their life around.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what's so important, I think, is that there
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  Speaker 1: was this long period of time he did not re-offend
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  Speaker 1: at all. He was doing, you know, good things in
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  Speaker 1: the community. But the thing that I found disturbing is
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  Speaker 1: although it was a crime and rape is a horrible thing,
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  Speaker 1: the commercial, in my opinion, was quite misleading too, though,
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  Speaker 1: because it was This man, and she said his name,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: broke into my house. And at the time, it was
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: her husband and it was their house. And so, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the scenario is a little bit different. Now, the crime
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  Speaker 1: that was committed, he said he was guilty. He went
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  Speaker 1: and he was punished for it. But I think the
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  Speaker 1: important thing for people to understand is that the governor
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  Speaker 1: has a right to pardon. The mayor of the cities
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  Speaker 1: has the right, you know, the authority to pardon people.
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  Speaker 1: But there is a process that we stick to, and
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  Speaker 1: it's important to say that it is not erasing the
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  Speaker 1: crime from the record. He still has that on the record.
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  Speaker 1: It's a formal act of forgiveness. You know, Senator Ricketts,
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  Speaker 1: I pardoned Jasmine Harris when I was mayor, and she
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  Speaker 1: turned around and ran against me for mayor. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you know, but I felt like she had not reoffended.
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  Speaker 1: She wanted to make her life different, and boy, she did.
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  Speaker 1: And so you've got to put these things into perspective.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm glad that you were able to address it.
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  Speaker 1: One of the commercials that I heard says they're really
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  Speaker 1: going after you on it, saying Senator Pete Ricketts pardons criminals. Well,
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  Speaker 1: who else are you going to pardon? I mean, I
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: couldn't believe when I heard that. I think you're not
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  Speaker 1: going to pardon your next door neighbor that has never
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: committed a crime. You pardon people that have had past
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: criminal behavior. They're not criminals now.
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  Speaker 2: And when it comes to these commercials too, think about this.
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  Speaker 2: These are all these dark money groups that are propping
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: up Democrat Dan Osborne's campaign. And you don't know who's
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: spending the money there versus my record, which is out
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: there in public for everybody to see. So for example,
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  Speaker 2: I signed the Sexual Assault Victims Bill of Rights to
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: strengthen the penalties against sex offenders. I was the one
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  Speaker 2: who led the charge to restore the death penalty When
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the legislature overrode my veto to abolish the death penalty
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: in Nebraska, and of course that passed overwhelmingly, the voters
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: in Nebraska wanted to keep the death penalty here. I've
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: introduced the Carly Rae Wood Act in the U.S. Senate
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: to be able to make sure that we have a
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: national registry for violent offenders. When I was governor, we
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: made record investments in things like the Grand Island Law
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  Speaker 2: Enforcement Training Center, our state crime lab. We passed laws
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  Speaker 2: to be able to help police detectives. offer retention bonuses
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: and traction bonuses, benefits for law enforcement officers, again, trying,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: you know, with regard to education so that we could
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: attract and retain the talent that we need to be
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: able to have law enforcement officers to keep our community safe. So.
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  Speaker 2: My top priority is always keeping people safe and certainly
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  Speaker 2: I would never grant a pardon if I thought the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: person was going to be a risk to society.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. And I've always known you as a law and
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: order type of leader. You did this as governor. You
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: did it in the Senate and you have made– taken
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: many actions to make sure that we have law and
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: order and that we're a safe community. I mean, you've
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: gone out of your way to do it and you
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: have proof to show that you have done it. So
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: let's move on with that. But Senator Pete Ricketts is
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: with us today. If you have any questions for Senator Ricketts,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: please call in. Please send your emails in. But before
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: we continue with election questions, I want to talk to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: you about a couple of pieces of legislation that you've
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: been involved with. First of all, housing. As mayor, we
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: constantly heard and worked on the housing challenge and what
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: solutions are. Tell me and tell our listeners about the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: housing bill that you got passed last year.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, housing is a big issue. If you go back
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: 10 years ago, the average first-time homeowner was 31 years old. Today,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: that person is 40. And This was an issue that
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: I worked on as governor as well when we passed
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: the middle-income housing bill and the Rural Workforce Housing Task
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Force to create grant programs to be able to help
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: create more affordable housing. And in the Senate, worked with
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Mike Flood, who is our first district congressman, on the
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Road to 21st Century Housing Act to be able to
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: pass the first housing bill in 36 years to be
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: able to help get at some of the root causes
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: for why housing is so expensive. And a lot of
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: that has to do with regulation and red tape. You know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: the cost of a new home now, 25 percent of
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: that is regulation and red tape. If you're talking about
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: an apartment building, it's 40 percent of the cost of
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: that apartment building is regulation and red tape. So our
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Road to 21st Century Housing bill works to cut that. So,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: for example, I'm sure this is, again, since you're mayor,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: you know that there's infill sites, right? There's places where
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: you used to have a home and it's been torn down.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: It's an empty lot. You want to rebuild on it. Well,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: you'd have to go back and get the environmental review
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: on that, right? Well, that's just foolish because you've already
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: got the utilities that are already there. You don't have
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: to go back and do an environmental review. One of
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: the things we did is eliminate that need to be
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: able to make this process less expensive and quicker to
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: get that in full spot rebuilt. That's just one example
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: of how we're working to cut the red tape in
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: the Road to 21st Century Housing Act to try and
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: get at this issue of regulation and red tape making
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: housing so expensive and then therefore create more housing stock,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: bring that cost of housing down.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: And, you know, you're so true because every little bit
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: of regulation and criteria that comes out, it just adds
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to the cost of housing. And, you know, it can be,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I know on a local level, anything from zoning to
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: how much parking that you need for everything you build
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to the pipes that the plumbers use and the conduits
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: that the electricians use. And, you know, a lot of
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: times the union gets involved then and they'll say, well,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: this is all about safety. But they're safe. I mean
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: we're building safe buildings and safe houses. But you could
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: just go on and on and on to say, but
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: this is going to make it safer and that's going
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: to make it safer. Good Lord. I mean you could
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: have concrete brick houses and say they're much safer. But
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the cost just makes it astronomical and people can't afford
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: it anymore.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Right, and that's where we've got to cut the regulation
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: and run tape, make it easier to build homes, and
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: therefore when you can build more homes– the cost of
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: housing will come down. And we really need to be
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: shooting to get back down to where the average first-time
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: homebuyer is in that 30, 31 years old again.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Let's talk about stock trading because that's been brought
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: up a lot. We're hearing a lot about congressional trading,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of false attacks on you and just about
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: everybody else. But you've taken a leadership role in addressing
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the concerns for Americans. And I You were the Senate
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: sponsor of the stock trading ban. So even though, of course,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: you're being attacked now, tell us about that legislation and
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: what you hope to accomplish with that.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually introduced the Stop Insider Trading Bill in
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the Senate. It's got a House companion as well, so
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: we're working together to be able to get that passed.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: And the idea is here that Congress's approval rating is
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: like 15%. And 80% of Americans think that we do
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: a poor job in Washington of separating out our financial
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: interests from the inside information we get as members of
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: the Senate or the House. And so we have disclosure rules,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: but people like, I don't know, Nancy Pelosi, people like
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: follow her trading strategy and have made money on it
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: because she disclosed what she trades and they're like making
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: money off of what she's trading. So the way to
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: end that is just say, well, you can't buy stocks anymore.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: And that's what my Stop Insider Trading Act does. It
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: says if you get elected to the House or the Senate,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: you cannot buy any more stocks. And if you own
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: stocks and you're going to sell them, you have to
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: give the marketplace seven to 14 days notice you're going
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: to sell them so that you can't take advantage of
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: any insider information you may have about why you want
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: to sell. And there's real penalties with this. It's a
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: minimum $ 2, 000 fine, but 10% of the cost. So say,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: for example, you sold a million dollars on a stock
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and you didn't notify the public. Well, that's going to
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: be a $ 100, 000 fine. So plus giving up all the profits.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: So it has real teeth in it to make sure
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: that people are paying attention to it. And you really
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: can't take it off the table to say, hey, if
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: you can't buy individual stocks anymore, you can't do insider
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: trading because you just won't be able to take advantage
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: of anything that you get to know about through your position.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: And you are the Senate sponsor for this stock trading.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: I introduced it in the Senate, right. Okay.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: You know, one thing that.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: By the way, I might point out that my opponent
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: was campaigning with a Democrat congressman, a super liberal one,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: by the way, just this weekend, whose family trust made 5,400
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: stock trades. Super liberal. And he's coming against my stock
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: insider trading. Yeah.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, super, super liberal. And you know, what I
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: was going to bring up your opponent, too, is trying to...
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Portray himself as the everyday blue-collar guy, which obviously he is,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: and that you are this wealthy person up on a pedestal. And,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I bring it up many, many times. Number one,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: you can't pick your parents. But number two, look at
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: what your father– I wouldn't change if I could.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: No, no, but look.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Look at what your father did. I mean he started
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: out with humble beginnings. He had the vision and the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: foresight to create Ameritrade, which wasn't at the first online
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: trading in the world, and made and was very successful.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Isn't that the American dream?
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: That is. That's what we want. We want people to
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: be able to establish companies. And part of the things
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: that goes along the way with this is when my
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: dad created Ameritrade, He created the opportunity for so many
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: people to have great jobs, right? To be able to
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: take care of their kids, send them to school, buy
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: a house, go on family vacation. Yeah, and created a
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: couple thousand jobs right here in Omaha where, I mean, frankly,
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: we had people who were computer operators, you know, just
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: running the computer room, retire as millionaires because we had
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: a profit sharing plan where they got company stock. I mean,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: that's what you want is you want These companies creating
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the jobs that help people take care of their families.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: And I'll just say, I know Joe Ricketts, and what
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: an amazing person he is. Like I said, he had
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the vision to create this company and do what he's doing,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: but gave the opportunity to so many people to have jobs,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: good-paying jobs, kept the headquarters right here in Omaha, could
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: have gone anywhere. I mean, I admire him of what
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: he's done, and you work for him.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my dad's my hero.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. So I would just take that off the table.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Good for him for being successful and doing what he
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: did and doing what he's doing for our community. One
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: other thing I want to bring up, we're going to
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: have to take a break, and then would you stay
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: on maybe for 10 more minutes and take a few
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: questions that we have? But let's just talk about, go
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: back to what we were talking about in the beginning,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of all these socialists that are getting through the primary,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: of what we have on the table next Tuesday, November 3rd,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: What would Democrat control look like? National pundits are saying
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that this could be a blue wave for the Dems,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and that would mean they could win the House and
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the Senate. They could. Let's talk about, in your opinion,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: what would that look like?
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Well, if– I'm not going to address the House. That's
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: kind of somebody else's.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I have Mike Flood tomorrow.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: OK.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: You can talk– you can let Mike Flood. He's in
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: the House. You can talk about it.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about that tomorrow.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: That's kind of like a Mike Johnson issue.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: But in the Senate, if the Democrats were to take
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: that over, Chuck Schumer– would be the leader of the Senate.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: And what you would see is you'd see no more
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: judges get appointed. You'd see no more cabinet members take
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: their position. What Chuck Schumer would do is try to
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: throw a monkey wrench into the works for the Trump
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: administration and all the work that President Trump has been
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: doing to try and get this country back on track.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: And so you would see day after day after day
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: of impeachment trial. That's all he would do on the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: floor of the Senate.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I think they would try to cripple the president in
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the last two years.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: All they would do is just create this obstruction. Day
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: after day after day of impeachment trial. That's what you'd see.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And if Dan Osborne wins, he has already said that
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: he will caucus with the Democrats. When he was on
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: this show, I asked him on this show and he
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: said he wouldn't caucus with anyone. But he's already said
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: he would caucus with the Democrats.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the whole thing. I mean he has been
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: telling anybody whatever they want to hear, right? You can't
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: believe anything that comes out of that man's mouth. But
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: the fact of the matter is you have to pick
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: a side to get committees. So that's how it works.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: And every independent for the last 50 years or whatever
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: has always sided with the Democrats. They've always caucused with
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Democrats to get their committee assignments. You have to pick
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: one side or the other. And the fact that, you know,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: he was recruited by Democrat socialists, Democrats run his campaign,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Democrats fund his campaign. He's actually advertised to donors in
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: California that he would be the 51st seat to flip
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: the Senate election. for the Democrats. And he's already said
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: at one of his town halls, well, I'm not going
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: to caucus with Pete Ricketts' party. Well, there's only one
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: other party left to caucus with, right? Yes.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: And, you know, the Senate right now, there are 53 Republicans,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: 45 Democrats, two independents, and those independents caucus with the Dems. So,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's not going to get anything done if
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: he doesn't caucus with one side or another. And he's
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: certainly not going to caucus with Pete Ricketts' Republican Party. But,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: you know, specifically, what would that do to our defense budget?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: What would that do to off a tier? What would
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: that do to the border situation? That's what we have
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: to think about. Well, you go back and look at
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the Biden administration and Joe Biden opened up the borders.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Ten million people tried to get into the country illegally.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: And he defunded the military, frankly.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: He wouldn't even invest in things like hypersonic missiles, which
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: we can see how important those– we can see the
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: hypersonic missiles being used in the Russia-Ukraine war and how
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: devastating those are. And Joe Biden cut the program. I
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: mean like– It would be terrible to go back to
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Democrat leadership for our national events.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Senator Pete Ricketts is with us. He's going to come
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: back after our commercial. We're going to talk a little
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: bit about data centers, too, and take some calls. And
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: we are back with Senator Pete Ricketts. And I do
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: believe we have a few emails and phone calls. Senator
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Ricketts agreed to stay on for a few more minutes.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: Peyton, what do we got? Yes, this is the KFAB
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: comment line. After all, let's get to the phones. Bill,
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: thanks for holding on for me. You are live with
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: Jean Stothert and Senator Pete Ricketts here on 1110 KFAB.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Good morning.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Dr. Cliff Clark. Thank you very much for
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: taking my call. Since the Democrats in the Senate, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: the House for that matter, vote as a lump, is
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: there an issue or two that the Democrats, or some
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: of them may break off and vote with the Republicans
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: to pass something?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Well, they're actually, one of the things you'll see in
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: the national media is they always want to play up
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: all the differences because that's what drives the ratings, right?
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: But there's actually a lot of things where we actually
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: do agree on getting things done. So, for example, we
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: just passed the college sports bill. That was done overwhelmingly.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: If you look at, sadly, the Rate Payer Protection Act
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: passed the House 417 to 3, and Schumer would not
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: let that pass in the Senate because he wouldn't give
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: President Trump a win before the election. But that's one
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: that we can bring back. That rate payer protection is
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: about making sure that– Americans don't foot the bill for
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: data center expansion. But we can bring that one back,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: and I think the Democrats will probably and the Senate
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: will probably try and vote for that. I've got the
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: MATCH Act. This is to make sure that we're not
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: selling the high-end semiconductor manufacturing machines or doing the service
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: or the software to communist China because that's just arming
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: our adversary there. And that's a bipartisan bill with Andy
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Kim from New Jersey. I've also got a bill– I'm
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: working with all the people, Adam Schiff from California– on
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: the EPA's rules about Endangered Species Act. Because if you
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: go back and look over again, since the Endangered Species
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Act has been passed, only about 3% of the animals
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: on that have come off. And we both kind of go,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: maybe for different reasons, but we both go, that's a failure.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: So there are lots of things where Democrats and Republicans agree.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: The press always want to play up the differences. But frankly,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: in the Senate, you can't pass just about anything without
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: having a bipartisan bill. Thank you very much.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: And that's how it works too. And then I got
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: one more question here. This came in the email inbox,
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: comment at kfab.com. This one's from Luke. Senator Ricketts, what
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: are your thoughts on data centers? And I'll allow you
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: to branch off how you see fit there.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, great. Thanks. So this is obviously a very important
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: topic for our country and for our states. The first
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: thing I think that any community should be thinking about
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: if they're looking at a data center coming to their
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: community is making sure they negotiate up front what they want.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Data centers are looking to find places to put their
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: data centers, and these are the things that fund things
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: like our social media, whether you're on Facebook, Google, whatever.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: But it's also AI, and it's vitally important we stay
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: in front of Communist China on AI. But communities are
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: in charge. They're in the driver's seat. So they should say, hey,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: we want to make sure, for example, kind of the
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: table stakes are you're going to conserve our water, that
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: you're going to have closed loop systems to be able
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: to make sure you're not using up too much water,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: that you're going to pay for your own infrastructure with
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: regard to electricity so that local rate payers aren't footing
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: the bill. And again, this was what the Ratepayer Protection
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Act was about I just mentioned. So make sure that, again,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: negotiate up front to say, hey, you're not going to
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: jack up my utility rates. But then you can ask
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: for more, right? So there's communities in Georgia that have
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: gotten Data centers to pay their property taxes. Well, that's
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: a big issue in Nebraska, right? Property taxes. Richardson Parish
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: in Louisiana, when the data center came in there, their
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: teachers were making $ 30, 000 a year and the superintendent had
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: trouble hiring people. Well, because of the way the taxes,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: the data centers coming in, now all those teachers are
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: getting $ 50, 000 bonuses. And that has gone from the hardest
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: place to hire teachers to one of the easiest places.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Everybody in Louisiana wants to go work in Richardson, Paris.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: So I think, again, it's about making sure you put
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: down the rules first and decide as a community, if
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: you want to have a data center, here's where you
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: do it. Put the zoning in place to make sure
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: that Because they're probably going to have to provide their
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: own power. You don't want that in a neighborhood, right?
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: You don't want that in a residential neighborhood. So you
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: don't want that away from people. So I think that's
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: part of what communities need to think about is let's
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: put the zoning rules in place. Let's make sure we
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: negotiate up front for what the data center delivered. Do
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: you want them to build a road? Do you want
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: to build a hospital? Do you want to build them school?
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Those are all things you can ask. And that's because
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: the communities are in charge.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: And, you know, like in Omaha, the data centers, OPPD
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: has said many times that our need for energy, for
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: electricity is going to double in the next 10 years.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: And so they right now currently with data centers, they,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: it's OPPD, not the city that negotiates what the cost
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: of their power will be. But you're talking about basically
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: creating their own power. power or their own electricity.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Right. So I'm saying that, you know, for example, if
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: you're a community and a data center wants to come
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: into your community, what you need to do is, you know, again,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: pass the zoning rules or whatever you want to make
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: sure that it's not going to be signed in a neighborhood.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: But then before you give them the permit to move forward,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: because OPPD can't give them permits, it's going to still
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: be the local people, right?
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: So make sure that you're working with, whether it's OPPD, NPPD,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: whatever your local utility is that you're not going to
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: be seeing rates go up. So for example, Southern Utility
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: District here in Nebraska has put in four data centers
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: and they haven't raised their utility rates in 13 years.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: That's what you want to see when data centers are
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: coming to your local community.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: And do you think data centers, the companies can self-regulate themselves?
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that you can't. No, no. I mean, again,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: this is why you want to have all these negotiated
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: up front to make sure that the data centers are
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: following the rules that you laid down for them as
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: far as Conserving water and utility rates not going up
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: and anything else that you want.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: And the data centers has become a big issue in
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: this campaign for many. But I think it's important so
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: many people don't know the benefits also. I mean, we
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: continue to talk about we want to make sure that
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: we are competitive with China, that we don't want to
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: give them the upper edge. You know, when we had
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the data center over in the Iowa side, we have
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: one in Sarpy. And with the new one that is
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: being built up in northwest Omaha, we will have the
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: largest presence of the cloud right here in the entire world.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I mean so in the entire world, and people don't
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: realize that. So there's a lot of benefits to what
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: they can provide, and there's no doubt that you don't
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: want another foreign country like China to take the upper
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: edge on us on this.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Right. Absolutely not. We cannot let communist China get the
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: edge in AI. I mean just go look at what
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: happened when Anthropic had their Mythos software that was able
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: to hack into all these systems. I mean thank goodness
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: that they were an American company, but can you imagine
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: if that was a Chinese company that had just released
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: it on us? So we've got to maintain the edge
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: on that. And then the other thing, too, is just
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: remember this is also not just about AI. But it's
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: like if you're using your phone, you're using a data center.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Again, just if you're on Facebook. Like I said, the cloud. Yeah, exactly.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: All that stuff is powered by data centers. You're using it. Right.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: So if you don't have data centers, you don't have
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: any of that on your phone. Right.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: And one other thing before we have to break here.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: You have always stood up for agriculture. You are really
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: a proponent of year-round E15. Talk about that a little bit.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, year-round E15. E15 is on the farm bill. This
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: is something Deb Fisher has been fighting for for a decade.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: This would– again, the last time I filled up at Hy-Vee,
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: I saved $ 0. 55 a gallon by using E10. So with–
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: that's a 10 percent blend of ethanol. So if you
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: go to E15 all year round and give marketers the
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: opportunity to offer that, you have the potential to save
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: even more. And again, it's not forcing anybody to use ethanol.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: It's just allowing petroleum marketers to be able to blend
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: 15 percent blends of ethanol through the summer months. We've
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: had emergency waivers for this for the last eight years, right?
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: So we've already been doing it. We just need to
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: make it permanent to give those marketers a certainty so
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: that they can invest in it. Okay.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Senator Pete Ricketts is with us today. Tell us again,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: what does this week look like for you? You said
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: you're going to be out on the road. And what
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: do you want our listeners and our voters to know
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: about the choice in this U.S. Senate race, Pete Ricketts
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: or Dan Osborne?
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: This race is between somebody like me who's been delivering
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: for Nebraskans for 12 years, whether it's been putting more
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: money in your pocket. As governor, we passed at the
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: time some of the largest tax breaks in our state's history.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: We were able to pass $ 12. 7 billion in tax relief.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Most of that property tax relief through things like your
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: property tax credit relief fund or your refundable income tax credit.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: But we also got rid of the taxes on Social
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Security at the state level for our seniors. We got
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: rid of the taxes for our military retirement for our
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: veterans so we could be more competitive keeping them here.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: And we lowered everybody's income tax. And now as your U.S. center,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: doing the same sort of things with regard to the
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: working families tax cut that avoided a $ 2, 400 tax increase
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: on Nebraskans, but also we had no tax on tips,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: no tax on overtime. 88% of seniors, over 300,000 seniors
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: will not have federal income tax. So now I've done
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: it twice, both at the state level and at the
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: federal level to help out our seniors with that. So
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: we're putting more money back in your pocket. We talked
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: about the Road to 21st Century Housing Act as well
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: to be able to put it back in your pocket.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: And then just keeping people safe. Senate Republicans have Worked
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: with the president to close the border for 17 months.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Not one single illegal immigrant has been released in this country.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Border crossings are down over 90 percent. And we talked
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: about some of the things I did as governor for
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: public safety as well. So those– that's– You've got a record.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: I've got a record. And experience matters. My opponent is
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: just the opposite. He'll say anything to anybody to get elected, right?
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: He says, oh, well, Trump wants a wall. I'm pretty handy.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: And then he goes to.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: The– I'll go build that wall.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I'll go build the wall. And then he
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: goes to the black and Latino Democrat caucus and says, oh,
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: the wall is racist and doesn't do anything. It's a joke.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: And that's just campaign talk. That's not what I'm going
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: to do when I'm actually there, right? So that's kind
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: of– It's an issue of trust. It's an issue of trust.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: The guy just– and there was this article in the
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Dispatch where he was talking about– the reporter asked him
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: about the Quality Act. The Quality Act is what would
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: allow boys to play girls' sports, right? And Dan Osborne– 2024,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Reddit Town Hall said, I support the Equality Act. And
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: then when the reporter asked him about the Equality Act,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: he said, what's that? He just totally tried to lie
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: to the reporter. Like, it's like, oh, I don't know
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: what that is. Like, well, that's kind of a strange
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: response considering you said you supported it. So, I mean,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: that's the problem. He's just going to say anything to
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: anybody to try and get elected. You can't trust anything
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: that comes out of that guy's mouth.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: And I told him, I said, here's my advice to you,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: whether he wants it or not. Always assume if you're
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: talking to two people or 2,000, you are being recorded.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: So watch your potty mouth.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Well, look at how he's bad-mouthed the Nebraskans here. Rural
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Nebraskans said their lives must effing suck. But, I mean,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: he said that about minorities. I mean, yes. We find
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: out what he really believes. when he says things that
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: he thinks nobody hears because he's behind closed doors. But
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: now we've seen from all these recordings what he really thinks.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely. And I think those things are really telling
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: about the type of person that he really is. And
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Senator Ricketts, you really have some great endorsements, too. I
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: know you're endorsed by Nebraska Right to Life, by Omaha
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Police Officers Association, the Nebraska Farm Bureau, the FOP, the
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Nebraska Cattlemen, Lincoln Police Union. I mean, you've got the NRA.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: You've got endorsements all over the place. So congratulations. I
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: think these endorsements really mean a lot too because they
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: know what you've done and you have a history, you
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: have a voting record, and they know what you have
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: done for our state and for our country. And frankly,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I'll say this about you. I've known you
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: for a long, long time. You are very humble in
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: person and it's written all over your face. You love Nebraska.
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: Oh, I love it.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: We've got the best place in the world.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: And I know I could tell that with you because,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, you could go and do whatever you want
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: and retire and go to Margaritaville or whatever. And instead,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: you are doing whatever you can do to make our
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: state and our country better. And I want to tell
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: you I appreciate everything that you've done. I appreciate knowing
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: you for as long as I have. I admire you
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: and the things that you've done.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much. And you were a great mayor,
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: and we worked together very closely.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: That was a great working relationship.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: And I've moved on to Margaritaville.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: So there we go.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Senator Pete Ricketts. It sounds like you're still working here. Well,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: I work an hour a day. What could be better?
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: What a good part-time job. Thank you so much, Senator,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: for being with us today. I know you're going to
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: be very, very busy for the next week. Good luck
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday, November 3rd.
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: Great.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being here. And we are back. Thank you
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: so much to Senator Pete Ricketts for being on the
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: air with us today. I got Peyton a text message
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: from Tom Becca, who is actually going to be on
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the show on Wednesday. I think we're going to have
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: a good debate, Tom Becca and I.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, Tom Becca on the show.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: This is going to be fun, Tom. Becca, I can't wait.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: But his question to me was, he said he, meaning
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Senator Ricketts, blames the media for pitting Republicans versus Democrats. Yeah,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: they do do that. But he says, has he seen
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: his ads where he demonizes every Democrat? Well, I don't
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: think that's the case, Tom, because, you know, people... Ricketts'
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: wife is a Democrat. I don't think he demonizes every Democrat.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: But I think, Tom, right now, both sides are slinging
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: mud alike crazy at each other. I tried to look
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: at the Facebooks of all the candidates, not my own,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: but the Facebooks, and the things that people are saying
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: against one party as opposed to the other, I mean,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: it's obscene anymore, the mud that's being slung against Democrats
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: and then against Republicans. I'm a Republican from the word go,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: but I have always felt like I could work with Democrats,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and that is— I have Democrats that are friends. I mean,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: isn't that the way it should be? The mayor of Lincoln,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Mayor Larian, is going to be up here in the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: studio on Friday, if I remind her. And, you know,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: we have been friends since she became mayor. She is
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: a Democrat. I'm a Republican. But we like each other,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: and we felt like we were the two mayors of
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: the two biggest cities in the state of Nebraska. If
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: we could join together on legislative issues, hopefully we could
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: get something done not unlike a lot of the issues
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: that nobody is getting done. And so I don't think
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: that there's any reason that Democrats and Republicans can't work together.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: But I will say this, that if you watch the news,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: if you go between CNN and Fox and watch both sides, yeah,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: they're slinging it. I mean, they're blaming one party is
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: blaming another all the time. And that's just what you're seeing.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: So yeah, that's and that's why I like the question
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: Bill asked when he called into the show earlier today,
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: asking about, you know, is there some things that Senator
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: De Pete Ricketts feels like he can work with the
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: Democrats in the Senate on. Because in the campaign, like
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: you said, Jean, it can be kind of ugly.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, it can be. You're playing mean. I was looking
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: at Brinker Harding and Denise Powell's Facebook this weekend, and
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: somebody just made the ridiculous statement that said Brinker Harding
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: will 100% be voting only with the Republicans. And I'm like,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: how can you say that when Brinker Harding has been
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: on the city council for eight years and has probably
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: cast thousands of votes? that he agreed with the Democrats
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: on the city council. The city council is four Democrats,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: three Republicans. Things are getting done. Budgets are being passed.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Buildings are being erected. These are the things that he
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: has historically done and proven he could do, and he's
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: going to do the same thing if he's in Congress.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: Brinker Harding was on the Chris Baker show on Friday,
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: and he made a really good point. He's vice president
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: of the Omaha City Council, which means– One Democrat on
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: the city council had to vote for him to be there.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: But he was also endorsed by former Democrat mayors for
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: that position.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: And that's clear to me that he's.
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: And for somebody just to come out and say, oh,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: he will only vote with the Democrat. Well, whoever said that,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: I don't even know who it was on his Facebook.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: It's like, man, I wish I had your crystal ball.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: But let me tell you, something's wrong with it, because
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: that is not what is going to happen. He has
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: a record. What record does Denise Powell have to show
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: that she is going to work hard? with Republicans. She
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: won't even respond to our multiple requests to be on
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: this show. When Lynn Waltz was on this show, who's
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: running for governor, when Dan Osborne was in this show,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: in the studio, who's running against Ricketts, and yet Denise
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: Powell won't even be on the show and talk. And
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: like I said, any candidate knows free media is golden.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Take it whenever you can to try to get your
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: message across. Tomorrow morning, Guess who's going to be here?
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Mike Flood will be here, Congressman Mike Flood. And we
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: have a lot to talk about with him, too. Thank
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: you for spending this hour with us today and for
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: spending the hour with Pete Ricketts. Any other questions towards
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Senator Ricketts, please keep on sending them in. We'd love
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: for you to be with us again tomorrow. I'm Jean Stothert,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: and this is 1110 KFAB.