The Great America Show - DEMOCRATS & TEACHERS UNIONS ARE LOWERING SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS, PROFICIENCY LEVELS AT AN ALL TIME LOW

00:00:00.000 Hello everybody, I'm Lou Dobbs. Welcome to the Great America Show and great to have you with us

00:00:05.160 as the most important midterm elections in our lifetimes wind down. Three days till election

00:00:12.320 day and it looks like it's going our way, the way of truth and justice and of course the American

00:00:18.200 way. We've been highlighting some of the great Republican candidates out there this year and

00:00:23.680 today we're talking with a great American, Kelly Cooper. Kelly is a family man, Marine veteran,

00:00:29.440 a terrific entrepreneur who worked his way up from dishwasher to owning three restaurants and

00:00:35.840 he's now running for the U.S. Congress from the 4th District in Arizona. Here with us now is Kelly

00:00:41.700 Cooper. Welcome to the Great America Show, Kelly. Congratulations on your campaign. You're in a

00:00:47.740 battle but you've pulled ahead now. Give us a sense of where your campaign is and your outlook in these

00:00:53.540 final days leading up to election day. Man, everything, first of all, thanks for having me.

00:01:00.900 It's such a great day. It's such a great week. America has such a bright future if we continue

00:01:05.360 to do the things that we're doing in this election cycle. You know, for me, the campaign is looking

00:01:10.920 amazing. It's been a long, hard, uphill battle. I was told from day one that I couldn't do any of this,

00:01:18.100 but I think the people here in my district recognize the need for change. They see a

00:01:24.400 businessman with military background that wants to come in here and fix the issues that we're facing,

00:01:29.380 and so we're tied right now. And I think when the voting is all said and done that we're going to be

00:01:34.920 up convincingly and we're going to move into a position here where we get to make some real

00:01:41.000 positive change for not only just Arizona but for America as well. The numbers look amazing right

00:01:48.000 now nationwide in Arizona. Every contest, including several that the Republicans weren't supposed to

00:01:57.020 have a chance at all, are, as the saying used to go, tighter than a tick. I love what's happening in

00:02:05.340 the country. It's looking now. Real clear politics looks like we're going to see as many as 50 seats

00:02:11.680 in the House if these projections are right by real clear politics. 50 seats gained in the House

00:02:18.080 and as many as four seats in the Senate. And of course, I would love to see that number doubled,

00:02:25.800 but we'll see what happens and we'll all obviously take what comes our way. Give us, I mean, you're in one

00:02:32.300 of the toughest places in Arizona that you could be, Maricopa County. It is a very complicated

00:02:41.580 little county because you've got a Republican establishment and you've got leftist Dems

00:02:48.520 driving politics there. Give us an idea of how you are navigating that extraordinarily tricky channel.

00:02:57.040 Well, that's a great question. I think a couple of things. My opponent's helping out a lot. You know,

00:03:05.140 Greg Stanton is so out of touch. He literally has on his campaign website that his singular focus in

00:03:12.020 Congress is to make your life better and the results speak for themselves. Now, that's a quote

00:03:17.680 from his campaign website. And so what I do is I talk to people. I said, really,

00:03:24.100 is your life better than it was two years ago? Is your life better than it was four years ago?

00:03:29.420 And frankly, if that was my speech on my business pages, anybody that I was responsible to would

00:03:36.420 expect me to quit. They would expect me to step down from my position. And frankly, I expect the

00:03:42.580 same thing from Greg Stanton. With the results speaking for themselves, 13% inflation and unemployment

00:03:49.540 going through the roof. Security is a massive problem, a wide open southern border. It's time

00:03:54.560 for him to step down. It's time for him to drop out of this race. But navigating it, you know, I'm 1.00

00:04:00.640 talking to the people in the district. I talk to people that are struggling and they see the problems.

00:04:05.560 We're not talking about division. We're not talking about the issues that people want to divide us on.

00:04:11.320 We're talking about the issues that 80 to 90% of us all see as the same as the major problems that need

00:04:16.860 to be addressed. I mean, I run into people that are seeing 30% of their 401k going away that want

00:04:22.940 to retire and can't. I'm seeing people that are on Social Security that can't pay their bills. I'm

00:04:27.640 seeing people at the lower end of the income bracket that can't make it to the end of the month without

00:04:31.420 having to borrow or take out payday loans or taking out any savings they might have. This environment

00:04:39.720 is awful for the people in my district. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican or establishment,

00:04:44.500 it doesn't matter. The issues facing all of us are the same and we have to come together now. We've got to

00:04:49.760 stop calling each other names, come together for the common good and move our country forward.

00:04:54.980 I like your spirit and I like your perspective. I run into, however, a rather harsh reality.

00:05:03.860 I listen to a president talk about Republicans as extremists. I hear him talk about a threat

00:05:10.660 to the nation. In fact, I heard the president of the United States yesterday accuse Republicans of

00:05:18.660 everything that the Marxist Dems have become.

00:05:21.860 No, you're, you're, listen, you're, you're absolutely right. And at the same time, while that's

00:05:26.080 going on with Joe Biden and the mega mega new branding, because they do evolve, but it's only

00:05:31.780 evolving and calling people names, that at the same time here in Arizona yesterday, you had a former

00:05:39.200 President Obama talking about cutting down the rhetoric, talking about coming together.

00:05:44.400 You know, here's what I would say. It's what I said before, and I think it's true here as well.

00:05:49.700 We don't have to bring the division or the divisiveness of Joe Biden because the people that

00:05:56.060 voted for him see what his policies have brought. They see where we're at today. So the majority or a good

00:06:04.200 portion of the Democrat party and the establishment Republicans and the mainstream conservatives,

00:06:09.240 we all see the same issues. So there's, there's this group of far leftist communists with the

00:06:15.560 megaphone that are trying to scream and call everybody else names and divide us. But the fact

00:06:22.240 is, is that the majority of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, see the issues. And if we speak

00:06:28.420 to them, we can come together. We don't have to fall for the rhetoric on the left. We don't have to fall

00:06:33.560 for, we aren't really all together because we are, at least the majority of us are. Now there, there are

00:06:40.320 some to your exact point that continue to persecute former presidents that continue to try to divide us

00:06:46.740 as if we all hate each other. But I think that most of us, most of us are facing the real world and

00:06:53.620 the real world. And I don't mean that as if it's not happening. I mean that as the people on the far

00:06:59.940 left, the divisive left is talking in their own bubble. The rest of us out here, see what's really

00:07:06.400 happening. We can't pay our bills. We can't buy gas. We're about to run out of diesel fuel. The

00:07:12.700 supply chain is about to collapse if the, if the rail workers strike. I mean, these are real problems.

00:07:18.600 And I think Democrats are seeing them. I think independents are seeing them. I think

00:07:22.780 establishment Republicans are seeing them. And my campaign and my candidacy has really been about

00:07:28.080 stitching all of that together moving forward and not falling for the shiny object over here,

00:07:34.200 calling us all bigots and racists, because frankly, my opponent's done that. I'm, I'm dangerous.

00:07:40.320 I'm too extreme. I mean, he puts it out on kids YouTube. I have to wake up to my third grade

00:07:44.440 daughter coming in and asking me why I'm a, I'm a mega mega extremist and why I'm too dangerous for

00:07:50.080 Arizona. We want to talk about not having division. How about we follow that through on the left and

00:07:55.780 not be divisive? Let's talk about moving things forward. Let's talk about what we can do in

00:08:01.960 lowering gas prices, in reigning and reckless spending. Okay, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.

00:08:07.920 Kelly, what are you going to do about lowering gas prices? Lowering gas prices is really all about

00:08:14.220 lowering regulations. It takes five to seven years just to permit for a new refinery. So we have to go

00:08:22.760 back to drilling and exploration and becoming energy independents in this nation. Absolutely,

00:08:28.260 brother. And, and I look over here at the Democrats and I don't see any dinos. Do you know what that is? 0.92

00:08:34.560 Democrats in name only? They're, they're locked solid together marching. And I mean, they're in

00:08:40.000 goose step on the left. These people are authoritarian, totalitarian. And you watched the

00:08:45.940 president of the United States last night talk like a fascist in 1935. Pick Italy, pick Germany,

00:08:54.060 you name it. That's who he was. And he was calling, I, I mean, it was the most, I shuddered. I thought

00:09:01.540 his previous speech was one of the worst I'd ever heard a president utter. This was the granddaddy

00:09:07.960 of them all. And he has, I think, just added to the margin of victory for the Republicans in 22

00:09:15.260 in these midterm elections. So, I mean, I understand what you're saying, but this is all stuff that can

00:09:21.580 be done. And if the Democrats want to follow that kind of leader, if radical dim Marxists are putting

00:09:28.940 people like, I mean, my Lord, you're talking about Barack Obama coming to Phoenix. Here you have

00:09:37.760 next up Kamala Harris lining up with Hillary Clinton to go to New York to campaign with Kathy 1.00

00:09:46.620 Hochul. I mean, she hasn't even been in office, you know, time to really get the paint dry on the 0.79

00:09:55.060 door to the governor's office. And she's one of the most corrupt ever. It's just amazing to me that 0.97

00:10:03.280 you're able to, well, I just, I admire your spirit of cooperation and bipartisan. I don't think it's

00:10:11.820 going to be reciprocated. Well, I totally agree with you. I don't think that it is, but I'm not

00:10:17.580 talking about the legislature. I'm talking about voters. And we see this on a grand scale right now.

00:10:23.780 People are abandoning the Democrat Party. People are going from independent to Republican,

00:10:28.760 and they're all voting conservative. They're voting for the movement that we are pushing forward.

00:10:34.740 And so no matter what Joe Biden wants to say, and I'm happy that he's doing it because frankly,

00:10:39.620 he's dividing his own party. He's sending voters our way. He's sending people to us because of the

00:10:46.260 way that he's doing this. And I think that you would be a magnet for these folks because you've

00:10:54.320 got a, you are embracing voters and citizens who really want the best for themselves, their

00:11:02.120 families, and this country. The latter. You're absolutely right. The latter aspiration seems to

00:11:07.880 be absent on the left part of the Democratic Party. But that is of no, to your point, it's of no matter

00:11:15.180 if there are Democrats who will come to the center and think intelligently and passionately about

00:11:23.580 this great nation and our interest as a nation and as a people. I'd like to talk to you about some

00:11:30.800 of your issues here that you've been talking about, including the real issue of education,

00:11:41.720 the very real issue of turning this economy around and get your thinking from your perspective there

00:11:49.340 in the fourth district. Well, yeah, absolutely. So educational freedom is a massive, massive issue.

00:11:56.160 issue. It's the longer term issue that has to be addressed right now. It's not talked about as

00:12:02.740 frequently as it should be. But the fact that we have children coming out of K-12 that can't tell

00:12:10.460 you who the president is, they can't tell you how many Supreme Court justices there are, that's a failure

00:12:16.780 on our K-12 system. Not on the individual teachers, but the system. And it's why here in Arizona we have

00:12:23.040 the most progressive, I know that's a dirty word in most circles, but we have the most forward-thinking

00:12:28.760 educational system where the money follows the kid. They can go to a public charter school like

00:12:36.820 mine. They can go to a private school. They can go to homeschooling. They can go to a religious-based

00:12:42.060 education system. And they come out of those schools with the knowledge and the information

00:12:48.020 to be good citizens in this country. Right now, you don't see that coming out of K-12

00:12:53.960 in many cases. And that's being demonstrated in the reports that just came out. Most of our

00:13:00.040 proficiency levels are in the 25 to 30 percent range. That's unacceptable. And instead of addressing

00:13:06.400 that and making our education system stronger and better, most of the time we're lowering score

00:13:11.540 requirements. So it looks like our students are doing better. But point of fact is they're failing on a

00:13:17.140 global scale compared to other educations in other nations. And if we don't fix that,

00:13:23.080 all of the rest of it is going to fall by the wayside because we're being overtaken

00:13:26.900 by stronger education systems in other nations. And we will become a relic if we don't address that

00:13:35.060 issue right now. From my standpoint, I don't care about the competition with other countries

00:13:40.120 because without an informed citizenry, an educated citizenry, we don't have an economy and we don't

00:13:49.240 have a great republic that can sustain it. Absolutely. And that's precisely why the left

00:13:55.160 and these two leading teachers unions are trying to destroy this great public education system. And I

00:14:01.380 love the fact that you're supporting school choice. I love the fact that you are wired in

00:14:07.720 to the community and what is necessary for the folks. Well, my kids are second and third grade

00:14:14.460 in charter school. I mean, my daughter, starting in second grade, is reciting the preamble of the

00:14:20.360 Constitution at different campaign events. I mean, that's the way that our education system should

00:14:24.820 be. You should have your children coming home from school and knowing, reading, writing, math,

00:14:29.600 and how our country was built and the founding documents of our nation. In most cases,

00:14:35.800 though, that's just not where we are. And to your point, the teachers' unions, if you will,

00:14:43.220 not the teachers, but the unions have a completely opposite view, an opposing view, where they want

00:14:48.500 to be able to be in control. And it's a long-term, been going on for a long period of time, but we're

00:14:56.040 faced with the cliff today. And if we don't address it now, I fear that we're going to have a longer,

00:15:02.800 more challenging struggle to come out of it. But that leads us into the economic struggle that

00:15:08.000 we're having, too. Sure. And this economic struggle is created by none other than Joe Biden.

00:15:14.620 It's the compliments of Joe Biden, his Marxist, dim, destructive, devastating economic policies,

00:15:22.820 and also leaving that border wide open. He has turned over the southern border of the United States.

00:15:28.900 On both sides of that border, he has ceded control to the Mexican drug cartels.

00:15:34.360 Your thoughts on that?

00:15:37.000 Well, as a Marine Corps veteran that's been all over the world,

00:15:41.020 I was an infantry Marine that's been all over South and Central America, Cuba, South Korea, Okinawa.

00:15:47.060 I'm also a businessman. I own three restaurants here in Arizona, two of them in my district.

00:15:51.300 It's why people see my campaign as the one to get behind. Because when we talk about the economic

00:15:58.080 issues, when we talk about reckless spending, inflation, overregulation, those are the issues

00:16:03.560 that I recognize and will address. The southern border being wide open. Oh, my God. As a Marine

00:16:10.460 Corps veteran, I've seen it. I've stood on lines. I've had to protect walls, if you will.

00:16:19.140 Now, what we have at our southern border right now is a complete dereliction of duty.

00:16:24.020 The reckless abandon of what they've done at our southern border is out of control. We have

00:16:31.900 fentanyl pouring across the southern border at rates unheard of. We have unchecked migration,

00:16:37.540 illegal migration coming across our southern border at rates unheard of. They are very unhelpful. 0.99

00:16:44.580 And they are costing our social infrastructure massively. Our education system here in Arizona

00:16:52.360 is struggling and really around the country. Healthcare systems are being wrecked as a result.

00:17:00.720 And really, the migrants, the illegal immigrants that are coming are being put in a humanitarian 1.00

00:17:06.620 crisis themselves. They're being trafficked by the Mexican drug lords, if you will, the cartels.

00:17:14.060 And all we're doing is enriching them and China. We really have to be responsible to the citizenry 0.90

00:17:19.800 in this country. And that's why I'm looking forward to some real changes in our representation

00:17:25.100 and our leadership. Because if we don't close this border, the rest of it isn't going to matter.

00:17:32.160 We are poisoning our citizenry with the irresponsibility at our southern border.

00:17:37.660 Absolutely. And that switch on that border is obviously under the control of Joe Biden.

00:17:48.220 You know, I just love talking with you, Kelly Cooper. I like your approach. I like your

00:17:56.400 program. And I like your perspective. I wish you the very best. We always give our guests the last word

00:18:03.640 on this podcast. And with that, if you would, Kelly, your concluding thoughts.

00:18:10.060 Yeah, absolutely, Lou. Thank you for having me on. There's a couple of things. One, we are in

00:18:15.780 what is a true toss-up seat. It is a fight all the way to the finish. So if you go to my website,

00:18:23.440 KellyCooperArizona.com, you can contribute. You can volunteer. We are trying to get our last little

00:18:28.740 bit of commercials up to make sure our messaging gets out there. And then I would say, you know,

00:18:33.860 it's time for the Democrats and the independents and the establishment to see the true path forward

00:18:40.520 in America and come on board and help support these races. Because there's one side talking

00:18:45.400 about solutions, and then there's one side talking about division. And it's pretty clear which one's

00:18:50.100 which. So it's time to move forward, America. Semper Fi, and God bless.

00:18:53.680 Thanks, everybody. Tomorrow, we'll be talking with a candidate for attorney general in Michigan.

00:19:00.480 Our guest will be Matt DiPerno, who's running against the incumbent Democrat for attorney general.

00:19:06.560 That's here tomorrow. Please be with us. Till then, God bless you, and may God bless America.

The Great America Show - November 05, 2022

DEMOCRATS & TEACHERS UNIONS ARE LOWERING SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS, PROFICIENCY LEVELS AT AN ALL TIME LOW

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