Can a Republican candidate
who is not in Trump's
good graces win a Senate seat?
That is a big question.
In the purple state of Colorado,
where businessman Joe O'Dea,
a moderate Republican,
is seeking to unseat incumbent
Democratic Senator Michael Benne
O'Day first drew
Trump's ire after he said this
I don't think Donald Trump
should run again.
I'm going to actively
I'm going to actively campaign
against Donald Trump.
Adding more salt to Trump's woun
Florida Governor
Ron DeSantis
giving O'Day his full backing
despite his bashing of Trump.
This prompted the former preside
to issue
an all caps
response on his truth social pla
calling it a big mistake.
Joe O'Day joins me now to talk a
and much, much more.
Joe, good to see you.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Trump has directly attacked you.
He's called you stupid.
He's called you a RINO,
meaning Republican in name only.
I know it's all silliness,
but are you worried at all
that his attacks
could hurt your chances of winni
You need Trump supporters
to turn out to vote for you
through Election Day next week.
Jake, I said what?
I said, I'm not worried about it
I'm worried about the next seven
We've got one heck of a race
we're running here.
This race is going to be a refer
on Joe Biden
and what he's done to our econom
what he's done to crime,
what he's done to our border,
what he's done to the price of f
the price of groceries.
That's what people are talking
about here.
And Michael Bennet, he votes wit
98% of the time.
Heck,
I love my wife dearly,
but I don't agree with her
even 98% of the time.
There was a point that Senator B
made in last week's debate.
Take a listen.
He voted for Donald Trump twice
after the children
were separated from their parent
at the border.
After he said
Trump said that President Trump
that there were both sides.
There are good people on both si
of Charlottesville.
In that
same debate, you
ultimately said
you would vote for Trump again
if he were the nominee.
Did it bother you
when Trump said
very good
people on both sides in Charlott
did the family separation policy
of the Trump
administration, did that bother
Well, I believe
Obama started that policy,
to be quite frank with you.
But, you know, at the end of the
not really.
If you look back at we're our ec
if you look back
where our economy was here 22 mo
and some of the policies
that were in place, fuel was aff
We had a great economy.
I know my guys.
I'm a contractor
been working for 40 years,
and my guys wages were surging.
They were making more
than they'd ever made.
And, you know,
we had China kind of pushed away
So I liked what he was doing the
And I got to tell you, Joe
Biden has undone
every one of those policies.
We've got a border
that is leaking like a sea of ri
we got fentanyl coming
straight up by 25,
according to the
police here in town
that I've been backed by
the Denver Police Union.
And they're telling me that,
you know, this borders leaking
and you look at the policies
one after the other.
And I got to tell you,
we're not in good shape right no
and people are ready for change.
That's why I got in this race.
I was really worried about
where our United States was head
And I'm going to win on on next
I'm fired up.
So let's talk about immigration.
You've been hammering Democrats
and Senator Bennett
for not doing enough
to solve the border crisis.
It is a crisis.
Trump didn't solve it either.
It seems to many observers
that the solution would lie
in a comprehensive
bipartisan immigration reform bi
something that can pass the Hous
and the Senate,
get signed by President Biden,
and that would include
more border security
and also a way to deal
with the millions
of undocumented immigrants alrea
Now, I've been in Washington, D.
for a long time covering this st
every time it's been attempted.
House Republicans have sunk the
every time,
even if it was a Republican pres
like President
Bush pushing it,
Democratic president
gets through the Senate.
House Republicans sink it.
Don't Republicans share
some of the blame here?
Well, all I know is that
I'm going to run that bill.
We're going to make sure
we secure the border.
We're going to add Border Patrol
We're going to make sure the doc
are taken care of
and we're going to streamline
our immigration system.
It's pretty simple.
I'm going to put that bill in fr
the Senate
and make sure I get
60 signatures on that bill.
And then I'm going
to go over to the House
and I'm going to work
really, really hard
with House representatives
to make sure we can get somethin
This is a humanitarian
crisis of epic proportions.
I was just down in Brooks, Texas
here with the sheriffs down ther
and those guys are exhausted.
They found a hundred bodies
that have passed away
in the last year,
and they found that two years in
That's something that
we just can't ignore.
We've got to fix this border.
I have to ask you about somethin
you said on Meet the Press
last month to my friend Chuck To
Take a listen.
Do you comfortable
with the idea of using migrants
as a political tool?
Well, look,
I think I think Ron DeSantis and
Abbott were right to bring some
visibility to this issue.
Look, I don't
take any issue with wanting
to bring visibility to the issue
Of the border. Sure.
But I want to make sure
I understand what you're saying
Do you think it was right
for them to ship off migrants
under false pretenses
into other parts of the country?
That part of it,
not just bringing attention to i
but that part of it?
Was that the right thing to do?
Well, I know that President Bide
shipping them all over the count
right now on airplanes.
Nobody said a word.
Every state is a border state ri
We've got a humanitarian crisis
down there, an epic proportion.
And I believe
Senator or
Governor Abbott, Governor DeSant
you know,
they're trying
to bring some attention to this
because the failed policies of J
and Michael Bennet's right with
98% of the time, he has failed
because he's with his president.
Instead of stepping out
and getting something done.
And we need change.
And that's why I got in this rac
I want to turn to another issue,
particularly importance to Color
gun violence.
It's been ten years
since the Aurora massacre
23 since Columbine.
I could go on and on
with all the horrible gun acts o
acts of gun violence in your sta
It's federal law
that you have to be 21
to purchase a handgun.
You, unlike Senator Bennet,
you do not support raising the a
for purchasing a semi-automatic
However, the kind used in Uvalde
and another massacres.
Why should an 18 year
old be able to purchase
a semi-automatic weapon
before he's even mature
enough to buy a beer
Look, this is about crime.
We don't need any more gun laws.
What we need is more cops.
And this is about
Michael Bennet and Joe Biden.
Having the wrong priorities here
They passed this Inflation Reduc
87,000 new bureaucrats for the I
Instead of focusing that money
on getting our border under cont
focusing that money
on putting more cops on the grou
Colorado had one heck of a weeke
I got to tell you.
We had 12 shootings this weekend
and we lost some Coloradans.
Crimes at an all time high here.
Yeah, but why should a 19 year
old be able
to buy a semi-automatic weapon
when he can't even buy a beer
or a handgun?
That's my question.
Well,
he can sign up and go into our m
So I just believe
we don't need any more gun laws.
What we need is more cops.
I'm sure you know, of all
the training that enlistees
undergo when it comes to how
to use a firearm. Joe, thank you
Really appreciate it.
Enjoy your last week on the
on the campaign trail.
Oh, thanks for having me on JAG.
I really appreciate it.