Mike Lee should really read things first

it's this week in Utah politics for Friday July 26 2024 Joe Biden steps down kamla Harris steps up Utah Republicans are upset about how this all went down we'll hear from a Utah Democrat who's been a longtime Ally of President Biden about what happened and what's next Salt Lake County district attorney Sim Gil a Democrat is facing backlash from legislative Republicans after a social media post criticizing Donald Trump whoops Senator Mike Lee Falls for a hoax about former President Jimmy Carter and Governor Spencer Cox says he endorsed Donald Trump because he was committed to lowering the temperature of our political rhetoric a week later that's not going so well I'm Brian shot political correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune and welcome to this week in Utah politics in just a moment we'll talk with my colleague Emily Anderson Stern about the important Utah political news stories from the past week a little bit later on the show I'll be joined by former Senate minority leader Scott Howell a longtime Ally of President Joe Biden and we'll talk about his reaction to the news that President Biden has withdrawn from the presidential race how has also gotten to know vice president kamla Harris who is the presumptive Democratic nominee that started when she came to Salt Lake City for the vice presidential debate at the University of Utah in 2020 we'll hear some stories about that but before we get to all of that remember to like And subscribe to the show also leave us a rating and revieww which helps new people find the podcast and if you have a question or a comment for the program you can just leave it on our voicemail give us a call at 385 236 3205 that number again is 385 236 3205 and I might just use your message in a future episode of the show okay now that that's all out of the way let's dig into the news of the week joining me now on the show is my colleague from the Salt Lake Tribune politics team Emily Anderson Stern Emily great to see you how have you been this this great you know just trying to keep up with the roller coaster that is American and Utah politics nowadays uh that there's that misattributed there's that misattributed quote to Lenin that uh some decades nothing happens and some weeks decades happen or something along those lines anyway um this has been one of those weeks as we are barreling towards the 2024 election and um the big news happened on Sunday that uh President Joe Biden announced he was not going to run for another term in office uh kamla Harris is now the presumptive Democratic n nominee uh this seems to have caught Donald Trump and his supporters especially here in the Beehive State off guard uh they were pushing for Biden to drop out of the race but it feels like they weren't exactly expecting that to happen um what what has been the reaction that you've gauged from uh from from the Republicans here in the state I know that Mike Lee has been yelling about how the Democrats are subverting democracy by going against the wishes of the primary voters but you know there's no law that says Joe Biden has to run for another term right and you know you've seen a lot of that I think a lot among the um further right folks in the Republican party here in the state a lot of saying like essentially that this move is cheating from the Republican party and that you know even Mike Lee has floated essentially conspiracies that this was the plan all along that um you know KLA Harris just wanted to circumvent a primary election um without proof uh of course and uh you know that's something that a lot of the people who likely are uh his supporters in the Republican Party have echoed but then you see other folks in the Republican Party who maybe are considered some of the more um moderate elected officials in the party here in the state like Governor Spencer Cox and his um predecessor Governor Gary Herbert who M mainly focused their message on um thinking President Biden for his years of Public Service yeah and uh speaking of Senator mikeey he's also been talking about how they need to invoke the 25th Amendment uh if Biden can't run for another term he can't remain in office which is not how this works um it's not how any of this works and a lot of this just really feels like bad faith arguments done for the sake of politics which is pretty much the the world that we live in right now you noted that representative Burgess Owens who's one of four black republicans in Congress uh he came out and this was right before uh Congressional leaders told members of their caucus Republican caucus in the house to stop calling de uh calling C KLA Harris a Dei hire uh he came out and said that she was the greatest example of Dei which is kind of an interesting take especially coming from representative Owens who is like I said is just one of four black Republicans in the house of rap resentatives right and he told uh punchable news that and um you know I will say KLA Harris it's it's a pretty interesting argument to make and it seems like you know if you're following some of these space on social media that more and more people have echoed those kinds of quotes after he and other members of Congress set that uh but you know Comm Harris has been a a public servant for a long time before this she before being vice president she was a US senator she was the Attorney General of California um she was a district attorney it go she goes a long way back um and it's uh you know honestly she has a longer resume than a lot of people who've been elected to um positions in the nation's capital yeah I think that that's a really good point especially Burgess Owens who um I mean if you look at his res resume and putting them up together uh he was a foot football player uh and then uh a failed businessman with a number of businesses that went bankrupt he ran a charity and We've ran uh a number of Stories on this about we're not really sure what this Char charity does or where the money's been going and then he uh uh without any real connections to the state got elected to congress so um you know it's it's it's an interesting contrast and we'll have to watch as this goes along and we're going to be talking a little bit uh about the decision by Biden to step down and uh kamla Harris to step up with former State uh my former state senator Scott Howell who's been a longtime Ally of uh President Biden and also has gotten to know uh vice president pres Harris that that'll be a little bit later on the podcast so stay tuned for that um and and you also talked about uh you you wrote a story early this week about the process that Utah Democrats will have to go through to get a new candidate on the ballot which you know they have until the end of August in order to get someone new on the ballot or well there's really no one on the ballot yet so uh they haven't told the end of August to name their their presidential and vice presidential Nom Nom nominees right and the process is really quite simple in Utah and it's it's interesting um you know so essentially the process is just that the National Party offices have to submit a nominee that they sign off on to um the lieutenant governor's office before August before 5: p.m. on August 31st and you know they will have long finished their convention by then in Chicago in which Utah will have um 34 delegates from the Utah Democratic party voting for uh the presidential ticket um it you know it's interesting the the process really is so simple because you have seen some folks here spreading misinformation around whether or not or how difficult it might be for Democrats to get someone on the ballet including you know elected officials State lawmakers um and a lot of them had to go back and correct themselves yeah and and and just a thumbnail process you know everyone is saying well you know there were 14 million people who voted in the Democratic primary for Joe bid kind of Joe Biden was on the on the ballot but what they were voting for and this is the same thing that happened in the Republican caucuses people were voting for delegates to represent them at the National Convention because remember we are a constitutional republic not a a de democracy uh but they were voting for delegates to represent them at the National Convention if they voted for Joe Biden they were voting for delegates who were committed to supporting Joe Biden but now the Joe Biden's out they didn't have anywhere to go so you know there it's it's really a bad faith or a misunderstanding of the process for people to say that okay we had a lot of stuff happening uh speaking of Elections we had the election results finalized this week the Statewide canvas um and really all the results are holding although Phil Lyman is going to contest the results on what grounds I don't know late last week he struck out in court in his effort to gain access to the Signature Pack that Spencer Cox submitted in order to get on the ballot um I had reports that he was at a Pioneer Day his supporters were at a Pioneer Day parade this week passing out um uh material uh basically casting doubt on these signatures we'll see how that plays out but he's got a number of days uh Co Kobe Jenkins sued to get ballots with late postmarks counted that was thrown out of court that also is not going to happen and um you know so it's it's it's f fascinating that the primary election is mostly behind us but we have someone with you know fairly legitimate concerns about the postmarks uh who really can't do anything about it and then another person who's making bad faith arguments about how their candidate how their opponent qualified for the ballot uh and they aren't able to to let it go you know just when I thought that we could move on to looking at at the the Gen gen general election we're still here kind of right and I mean if you know you're one of the people who follows Phil lman on social media that's all he's posted about for months right is about the election and questioning the Integrity of it um and I'm interested to see you know when we get financial disclosures how much money he spent um after the primary election trying to contest these results well one of the things that he has done is he has formed a 501c4 nonprofit uh and I heard him on a a zoom call with a far-right group uh Utah citizens for the Constitution where he said that that's going to be able to uh hide who's giving money to him um which is not correct thanks Phil thanks for for give give giving away the game there right and um but and it's also not entirely correct right he still has to file 527s with the IRS yeah it's just when we find out we'll be delayed down down the road um let's talk a little bit about Salt Lake County district attorney Sim Gil he had you know probably an ill-advised post criticizing Trump uh on social media where he said that even a dead body would do a better job or do less harm to America than Don Donald Trump and this came right after the assassination attempt on the former former president probably not the best timing for that kind of language and and and when I talked to sim Gill he said you know he probably could have chosen other words but he stood by his point this has en raged re Republicans who have had a Target on his back for a long time and now they're making noise about using a bill they just passed in this last session Senate Bill 2773 which allows the governor to ask the Utah Supreme Court to report a replacement they've been T saying that you know it's two different issues uh and this Bill said that if uh the Salt Lake County district attorney and this bill only targets him is not Prosecuting crime enough within the governor can recommend to the Supreme Court and they're saying this is just the latest incident that shows why he needs to be replaced and you have a number of Republicans on the hill on the war path against him yeah and this is an ongoing feud between the legislature and Sim Gill right I mean they have often publicly disagreed on different things um whether that's legislative policy where he has challenged some of the laws they've passed or even you know where he's commented on their actions individual lawmakers actions potentially being unlawful um um and so you know there's a lot more to this story than just that one post and I think you know also that post um people need to look at it in context of when he made it it was before uh President Biden stepped down and a lot of people were questioning his competency um so I mean there's more to the story than just reading that tweet and what happened to president Trump last week when there was the attempted ass the assassination attempt and you'll know the lawmakers who are making the most noise about getting getting rid of sim Gill live outside of salt salt Salt Lake County and represent people outside of the state's largest county but uh uh do not be S surprised if this continues to pick up steam as lawmakers are trying to figure out a way to get rid of him uh but that would be up to the Su supreme court because the governor can only make a Rec recommendation in that um another big story that has sort of gone uh uh by uh sort of flown onto the radar with all the other craziness that has happened this week is uh the state is asking a court to dismiss the lawsuit from the Utah Education Association over the vouchers Pro program that the Utah fits all scholarship but it's really a vouchers program that that's going to spend $82 of $82 million of money that could go to public education uh to allow people to send their kids to private schools or homeschool them or whatever uh it's about $88,000 per student and the state is asking the court to throw out this this lawsuit um no matter what happens this has really opened up a rift between lawmakers and the Utah Education assoc Association and it's going to be fascinating to see how this plays out right and even this last session we saw some bills essentially in retaliation for things the UA has said about the voucher program um where you know uh the UA has a lot of members among Educators in the state um and the legislative leaders gave themselves essentially the same ability to contact teachers as the UEA so we'll see what kind of messaging comes out around some of these actions from legislative leaders um but you know I'm not entirely surprised that this is the first move the state makes this is usually what they do in most lawsuits you know there's other ongoing lawsuits against the state that in which the state has um moved to have them dismissed that's an important Point thank thank you for for bringing that up that the first thing you do is you ask dism that it has no merit and we'll see how that play plays out right and you know a lot of times it's not successful and if it is then it's challenged up to a higher Court um so you know you saw that even just a portion of the redistricting lawsuit was dismissed and the Supreme Court said that shouldn't have been dismissed so we'll we'll see what happens this is probably going to go on for a long time Utah was named the host for the 2034 winner games um uh that's 10 years from now uh everybody was cell celebrating but we were the only city who wanted it um there's no other City B bidding for it so it was sort of a fatea comple it wasn't as big as when they were awarded the 2002 games uh you know what a quarter of a century ago or more um so it wasn't that big of a deal everyone knew that this was coming but it's still generated a lot of excitement it'll be fascinating to see uh uh now now the state we've got a lot of the infrastructure in place that we did not have prior to 2002 but there's still a lot of things that the state is going to have to do and it'll be interesting to see how the legislature addresses that going forward but we've got 10 10 years to go and this is this is a feather in the cap for the state saying you know we had a really successful games and the world is coming back assuming that we still have snow you know I mean we obviously have the climate change and it's been we' had what the two hottest days on record for the entire Globe just this last week so you know still a a touchy situation there well I think it's interesting you know where you have Salt Lake City is the one that was named the host um not just the state of Utah although you have lawmakers arguing it should have been the state of Utah because you know some of the events will take place in other counties but Salt Lake City is often characterized as one of the mo most Progressive cities in the country um whereas you know Utah is a a very red State and so I think you know it'll be interesting to see how as we're planning around this and as um the state likely has to fund a lot of this what kinds of conversations might be had there um especially when it comes to public transportation when it comes to um you know some of the things that the ioc is looking for in host cities as far as um preventing climate change and um and there's also there's also the issue of the state's ban on you know the state's transgender bath bath bathroom ban that could cause some backlash there are some so some social issues that surround the games that are that may come into play as as uh we get ready to to bring the world back to the state and you know I mean obviously people argued that uh uh it it should have been that that that Utah is the host but they're holding the surfing competition for these Olympics coming up in Tahiti which is on the other side of the world from France so I don't really think that that's that that's uh uh as big of a deal as people are making it um last thing and this is it's unfortunate but it's also kind of funny Senator Mike Lee gets pulled in by a hoax uh that Jim Jimmy Carter had died and if he had just taken three seconds to read this letter on faked letterhead announcing the death uh uh of the president who is still alive as we are re recording this um he would have known BEC he would have known that it was a hoax when uh they were T when when they had a quote from the president from the funeral of his wife Ro rosn last last year he called her a baddy no no if you I mean this is this is incredible it was immediately taken down but really an embarrassment for Mike Lee who is constantly posting on Twitter and also has a part-time job in in the US sen Senate and just the irony there is that he's like lately he's used his ex account just to criticize local media and the way they do their jobs endlessly um and you know it shows really kind of a lack of media literacy there from the senator and you know he's also been advocating and seemingly looking for someone or finding someone to help start a conservative media Outlet here and so uh you know what we would see from that really comes into question when you have him um posting things like this and there's the point that you brought up about media L literacy he's he's harping on the local media being inaccurate being biased while posting things from Jack PC and uh and um the Gateway well it's in not not so much the Gateway pund but the postm millennial a lot of really questionable news sites uh and you know I've been tracking this for a while uh just in the past two weeks Mike Lee has posted more than 2500 times on Twitter x uh which is an average of 84 times a day I know 11year olds who are social media uh uh they love they love being on social media and they don't post 84 times a day so this is really uh uh it's it's interesting to watch the evolution of constitutional scholar Mike Lee into full-time content creator now right and honestly um it's almost like he does it to both raise his popularity outside of Utah but also um to make it hard to keep up with his messaging he can he spews all sorts of things in all sorts of directions on the platform and a lot of times um it borders on conspiracy theory like what he said about vice president Harris and essentially uh that it has been a long term plan for her to be on the ballot as the Presidential nominee yeah um it's it's it's it it's working I mean he's got quite a few followers he's a very po popular follow so with him almost weekly yeah it it's it's it's work working for him and um you know I I guess more power to him but uh uh I just wonder how much he looks at his colleague Ted Cruz and how much popularity he's getting from his podcast uh and he just sees that this is an outlet where he can get his Mees message out but it's just not a good look for him to fall for this hoax and he's done that a number of times if you go back and look at the uh at at a number of stories we've read written about that okay well that's um that's not everything that's happened but those are the important things that happened in the last week uh you have anything on the horizon that you're working on uh digging into looks the okay I I'm writing about ways that the legislature is looking at changing sexual assault laws here um and how there are disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on how to do that um and what we might see from Republicans there and also looking at mail and voting in the state you know we've seen a lot of uh State elected officials here question whether we should keep mail and voting or whe whether we should make it opt in and looking at just how many people are using mail and voting and who might be disenfranchised if we take that away uh there's a number of things but those are the the most immediate things that I'm looking at looking forward to that reporting Emily Anderson Stern find her online read her stuff she does a tremendous job coming up next on the podcast we're going to talk with former state senator Scott how about his longtime friendship with Joe Biden stay tuned for that this is this week in Utah politics joining me now on this week in Utah politics is former Utah state senator Utah Senate minority leader Scott Howell he also ran for governor he's run for US Senate a couple of times um and I wanted to talk to him about uh the news that President Joe Biden is not running for another term he made the decision to step aside you have known President Biden for a long time you've worked with him uh you've worked with his sister Scott thanks for joining the program and and and and let's get your thoughts or let's let's get your thoughts of of this decision and tell us what you can about what you know about how this situation came about or this decision came came about well first of all thank you Brian and I'm uh thrilled that you're back on podcast we missed you and uh what a these last two weekends have been harrowing for me I owe these bags underneath my eyes to uh the situation of what been has been happening uh essentially I think everyone knew that President Biden had some serious uh decisions to make with regards to the campaign and actually a week before that uh the president was back at his beach home in uh Delaware and he his family was all coming in on Saturday and they were supposed to have this very heart-to-heart conversation and then he got the call about the assassination attempt did a h staged White House scene and came out and talked to the country and jumped on Air Force One Flew back to DC met with his cabinet where they they tried to figure out what was going on how big a threat was this you heard about the Iranian thing and all those things that were going on went to bed late that night next morning the campaign had a meeting with him they said we don't know what to think we don't know if we're going to lose on empathy and sympathy vote to that very important seven states undecided voters and then he came out Sunday night with a statement went out to Vegas was doing the ROP line got Co and he got really sick I mean he was he was sick it it wasn't uh anything that he could go go on national television and talk about uh what was going on so uh the following Saturday um Mike donalan and some of his closest dividers got together and they had a heart-to-heart crucial conversation the president did just exactly what he always does he puts the country first and he made a decision to give up all that power now he didn't make it until he slept on it sat Saturday night Sunday morning he called called his campaign staff his closest advisors his very closest advisor and said I made this decision and then he called uh the VP um and he released a letter and people have made such conspiracy theories about this letter the reason he didn't come out on National broadcast is because his voice and I heard him on Monday afternoon when he was talking to General Mali she's been his closest adviser for a long long time she's running the campaign and he his voice was quivering I mean I've I've had Co to that point where you get that sick and so that's why he wrote a letter and he said it's time uh that I hang it up and I'm going to finish out my last turn I mean my last few months uh strong and I can dedicate all my energy and all my time the thing that was most interesting to me was to how people reacted a lot of them said oh this is the worst day for Joe Biden no no no know the worst day for Joe Biden was when his wife and daughter were killed tragically and then when his son bo uh died of a brain tumor and that's how centered he is he knows what's important in life and I I got to tell you Brian I really respect him uh I've known Valerie Biden Owens for H for a long time we've gotten to know Jill and this is a family who genuinely puts the country first and so uh to give up that much power that just shows the courage and the dedication of the president to do the right things and by the way what was your initial reaction when you heard the news that the president was not going to be running for another term I'm take take me through that moment and what it was like for you to uh to hear that and and start Pro processing that news so I was sitting in church and all of a sudden I started getting these texts and I try and turn it off uh uh so I can have a little reprievement but they just kept mounting and then uh I got a call and uh then it was was out there in the news my first reaction was was gratitude gratitude that the president made that decision to give up that power and he deserved it there were so many times I saw him walking up Air Force One steps and I wanted to go up put my arms around him say Joe let me help you let me help you up those stairs Joe you don't have to go out and do these rope lines and it really was of gratitude and people asked me I was interviewed more times about should he resign or should he not and my answer was always the same that is the decision of the president of the United States of America only he can answer this I put this caveat on it and said Joe if you can truly beat Donald J Trump then run but if you can't face the face the reality and he did he faced the reality I think those polls started to go down and he continued to make some major gaps in my opinion and I hated the I hated the way that the Republican Party treated him I hated the way that they mocked him and they diminished and and ridiculed um but you know that's that's pretty much the djt way of of doing things but it was still hurtful to me it's like having a family member and you don't want them to get picked on yeah they made gaffs and they made mistakes they didn't speak right and and I get that uh but I think deep inside uh Brian I wanted him to do the right thing for he and his family now he can go finish out a strong term a really strong term he can give it all he he he can and will and he and Jill can have the reprievement that they deserve they deserve to go out if a great legacy the other thing that I kept thinking about is I don't want Joe to go out with all the service he's given to our country for the last 50 years by losing to um the former president what do you make of these arguments and mostly coming from RE Republicans and I consider them mostly bad faith arguments um that if the president is not can cannot run again cannot run for pre run for another term then he should not remain as the the president and there's no law that says the president has to run for reelection um you know there's there's the two are not mutually exclusive so I'm curious what you make of these arguments because I mean I I take them for what they are and they to me just seem like bad faith concern trolling well I I think you phrased it just perfect Brian bad faith trolling um in U comments that gain they're they're part of the red meat Pro program to get people to think about that but I will tell you that I'm absolutely disappointed in our senior senator when he calls to invoke the 25th amendment it makes me question whether he really understands the Constitution to invoke the 25th Amendment it has to start with the vice president and then it goes to all the cabinet members and the way they phrase that it's like oh we in the Congress we and the Senate can just go and vote that and so it questions really how much our senior senat are really understands Constitution well yeah and and and I look at those arguments and I have to say is he played a major role in trying to keep the Pres president Trump in power after he won election an extra Le legal attempt and only bailed out at the last second so you know he can miss me with those kind of arguments because they're because they're not they're not Ser serious arguments and he knows be better I couldn't have he does know better and and I wish he would step up to the plate and do the right things because it's just so much red meat out there it it just gets worse it invokes this whole conspiracy things that well he can't govern the the the country he can't and he'll do a better job than having to go out and hit rope lines flying clear across the country and you know that's demanding on someone now he can concentrate every day go down to his office and figure out the uh Palestinian the Gaza initiative he can take really bold stat on climate and he can make a lot of progress with what what the things that he's talked about I would it would surprise me if he comes out with another big border inue initiative excuse me and makes that an issue of trying to get people to come to reasonable thought on what we could do together so I'm I'm thrilled that he can go be the president of the United States he doesn't have those strings attached and that U he can be our president now you've had a number of interactions with vice president kamla Harris um who is now the presumptive Democratic Nom nominee she secured enough support from delegates to uh to win that tell me about and and and you've told me this story before and I think it's absolutely fascinating tell me about uh when she was here prior to the vice presidential debate in 2020 when she was getting prepared for that she arrived in Salt Lake City you took her around um just just tell that story because I think it is absolutely fascinating and it's and and and it's sort of an interesting Peak into uh your your interactions with well thanks Brian it it was a fascinating experience because I really didn't know her we were living in California at the time she was the AG so I got to know her through the policies and initiatives that was she was uh putting into place and contrary to popular uh misconceptions out there she was very tough on on crime in fact she had some very left wiing uh groups in California that didn't like her because she was Prosecuting pretty hard on drugs so I didn't know her I got a call they said hey can you help us find a place for the VP excuse me for uh the VP candidate to uh stay and that in and of itself was an experience working with the Secret Service going out to these different houses I asked some of my closest friends if you can believe this it's very gutty I call I said look could you vacate your house for a week and make it available but I can't tell you for what I can't tell you when but can you do that and I'll tell you people have a pretty good idea if you're asking them about that I mean you can't say it but you know right I uh it was really fascinating because these people opened up their hearts they open up their house some of them even cleaned out their closets before and this is the protocol the Secret Service comes and I'll never forget at one house we went to I thought it was perfect it was up on the side of the mountain it was on the on the north side of Salt Lake uh Northeast and I thought it was great and I'll never forget the Secret Service says to me and this is the irony of what's happened today he said oh the line of sight from that house next door makes it too vulnerable and I thought what do you mean the line of sight and he said well we'd have to take over that house that house and all of this so um we kept looking and we find finally found a place down at um City Creek at the very top a penous and uh we got that all settled and you know she stayed there and then they set up a stage over at the Marriott uh just to the marot right there across from uh South Temple and uh they set up a stage and she every day she took the elevator down walked underneath City Creek and went to the marot and and practice so um when we kind of got to know each other I met her and it was just kind of small talk I got a call and they said Scott where would you think would be a good place to take the vice president I said look there's so many places Great Salt Lake I mean there's just so many places you can go and they said well what about This Is The Place Monument and I said yeah that's a great choice and lo and behold she had read about this place where Brigham Young and the Pioneers had come down into the valley and so I said that's great and they said okay um meet us up there at this time and um so Linda and I drove up and we were waiting for her she jumped out of the car we had some small talk and then she said I just want to talk to you and she said tell me about this place and so I told her the the stories and all the things that happened and then she said let's go we went to every monument up there every single monument and she stopped and she read those monuments she read the plaques and about the third one she said have you ever read these plaques and I said well I've kind of glazed over them I really haven't read them should well you should read them because this is a fascinating history of the state of Utah and the thing that impressed me so much is that she took the time and there were there's one up there about a a midwife woman who delivered oh I can't remember hundreds of babies on the track and she was mesmerized with that and this this woman and the care that she'd given and um when we got done I think this was just really shows how how sincere and how wonderful of a person she is she turned to me and she said well all of you here in this Valley really are kind of immigrants you got grown out of a place and you had to move and she said you know my parents were immigrants here and I said we have a lot in common on the challenges of uh religious freedom and we talked about other things and Brian I'm not kidding you she is a still trap for data facts and figures and I think she has a historical perspective and we talked about that for another 15 or 20 minutes and really she was just she was fascinated at at this monument and what had happened in the valley so that that really in and of itself made us very close and it was great I saw about two it's been three weeks now up at Park City yeah we talked about that and she said I will never forget that experience Scott and thank you so much for taking that taking the time to go on that and you told me that you had to waiver off of a visit to to Temp temp Temple Square as well right she wanted to go to the famous uh conference center of the LDS church so bad and that weekend just happened to be conference weekend so I made a call over to uh my contacts of the church and they really do have this so uh planned out that they have meetings almost every the timeline is incredible what they do and they said Scott we just can't fit it in and I remember she was just a candidate at that time so um I went back to her and I said KLA um we have church meetings beginning Saturday morning Saturday afternoon Saturday evening and then we have one on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon and she turned to me and she said wow you guys go to church a lot and I said no time out we do this twice a year this is where we bring in uh we have a worldwide conference and she said oh good because I thought maybe you guys were going to church all weekend and uh she was she kind of made a joke but this is how her her determination and her character I got a call and they said look the uh commo wants to go over to Temple Square what do you think and I said it would be great just don't say anything to anybody just take the service and she had about I don't know three or four people with her and then the Secret Service they went over they went to The Beehive house they went to the whole thing they walked through and they did it early in the morning I think they thought that that way they would avoid any of the you know the all the people that were attending conference then she did something remarkable she walked up State Street and went to uh to the capital and she again read all The Monuments she stopped and she read each and of them each one of them and there was one of there that really she appreciated and it was Chief I think it's Chief Joseph and talking about um the historical of the Native Americans here and how they work together and that really caught her attention and she was very appreciative of it she walked around the capital um and then they walked back they walked back to the back to where she was stat resident so that's she knows Utah very well um she she likes it out here and um you think that she's going to come back before the uh before the election in November uh now obviously you you can't definitively say but do you think that that's a POS possibility because you usually when you get a Democratic candidate coming through here it's most office just for a fundraiser you know like in Park City I think the last one we had who really did a campaign stop was B Bernie Sanders uh in 20166 and that was a remarkable event uh up at this is the play State Park um but but do you think that that's a possib possibility well Brian that's a great question what I think and what I'm hoping is yesterday former president Trump made a statement that I hope he's going to commit to he said I will debate I'll do many debates I'll debate any time with the vice president anywhere in my mind since the commission on presidential debates were planning on a debate September 10th up at the University of Utah and now they've been Flushed Away I mean they yeah they're they're no longer in the picture I can't see why some influencers and individuals in our state I.E the governor and uh Jason Perry and others why we can't get together and say look we have a venue we have the security we've started on the infrastructure will you come to Utah and debate on September 10th have a president that's interesting idea we'll have to see if that comes together last thing I want to ask you uh we are recording this on Wednesday morning um the uh State Salt Lake City has just been awarded as the host City for the 2034 Winter Olympics you were in the legislature the last time that that Salt Lake City was name the host and you were there for all the planning and the ramp up and the games itself uh give me your re action on the world coming back to Salt Lake City for the winter games uh what is it in 10 years time now my reaction is first of all I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve on the Olympic Committee I know that thrill of when the ioc president stands up and says and and this is back uh many years ago when we won the bid he said we give the bid to the city of Salt Lake City and we all were paing that moment when he said to the city of we're thinking oh we lost Mike levit jumped up uh out of his chair up on the uh on the table it was that feeling of euphoria I can appreciate that with the governor and all the people that are back there with him the mayor and it was overwhelming and in I remember we all took a moment to think about things and we wrote on a blanket and this blanket is an Olympic blanket that's out at the uh Market Street Grill in Holiday Utah and I wrote these words in 1837 the Mormon pioneers came to Utah in 2002 the world will come to Utah and what I meant by that is we opened up the kimona to show the world that we have the skills we have the talent we have the language skills to welcome the world and for me participating in all of those events was spectacular that year I passed a bill uh a year two years earlier three years earlier and that Bill said that whoever bought a license plate uh for the Olympics because we had an Olympic license plate percentage of that went to the under uh served students and we built a fund of gosh I can't remember I think it was a couple million dollars and we were passing out passes for kids Elementary to high school mostly in Title One schools to attend the events and I had someone bring that to my attention the other day I'd forgotten about it and they said our whole school got to go see a hockey game and they would have never been able to do it so when my service in the in the legislature came full circle when I was able to help citizens here and I'm AA I I knew they were going to win I mean i' I know Fraser Bulls well enough that he wouldn't be taking the whole group over there so I think for us to host the world again it um it really is a wonderful thing for the citizens the state of Utah Scott Howell thank you so much for your time appreciate it and I'm sure we will be talking as the campaign rolls into the final what are like 15 weeks now until election day I mean we're just about 100 days to go and it's going to be here before we know it Scott H thank you so much for your time thanks for your time Brian I'm glad we're back doing podcast we've always enjoyed listening to you so thank you well reserve your Kudos until we get through a few episodes and see if this one's going to work so and let's end today's episode with this just one week ago Utah Governor Spencer Cox flip-flopped and endorsed former president Donald Trump in his re-election campaign because he said he believed Trump was a changed man following the attempted assassination at one of his political rallies my commitment to him was that I would help him try to lower the temperature in this country and I I I sincerely hope that from from what I've heard from people around him that that he is committed to this that again this is something that uh that that hasn't been high on his list in the past I think that's probably an understatement and uh and so uh so I I'll I'll work closely with him to help do this it didn't take long for Trump to return to the gutter here he was on Fox News just one week after Cox's endorsement well he uh K Harris has given two speeches uh now that she's the candidate and she's going they're almost identical speeches this is what she's doing she's going after you this way watch before I was elected vice president before I was elected United States Senator I was elected Attorney General of the State of California and I was a courtroom prosecutor before them I took on perpetrators of all kinds Predators who Abused women frauders who ripped off consumers cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain so hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type and in this campaign I promise you I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week There's the attack what's the retort well I think it's it's disgusting and I get a kick out of one thing they say sir be nice you just got hit with a bullet maybe he's changed be nice and I'd love to be nice but I'm dealing against Real garbage she's bad news she's a radical left not very smart person she failed her bar exam she couldn't even pass her bar exam that's probably not what Cox had in mind when he launched his disagree better campaign thank you so much for listening to this edition of of this week in Utah politics if you haven't yet smash that like And subscribe button also remember to leave us a rating and review that really helps new people find the show this week in Utah politics is written and produced by me Brian shot in cooperation with the Salt Lake Tribune thank you so much for joining us we'll be back next week [Music]