Heidi Ganahl in for Dan, she and Ryan recap their trips to DC for Inauguration Day 2025

This is Dan capless and welcome to today's online podcast edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind, and to subscribe, download, and listen to the show every single day on your favorite podcast platform.

Happy Friday, Colorado.

It's Heidi Ganal filling in for the great Dan Caplis and joining Ryan. Ryan, We've got so much to banter about your legions of topic. I've started making a listen. I ran out of room on my three pages of paper. I don't know, but I wanted to start with inauguration because we were both there. We kept texting and trying to connect, but it was crazy town. What was your favorite moment while you were there?

Oh? Wow, great question.

I think it was the anticipation of waiting in line. I was pot committed to that endeavor when they changed everything up, Hidi, you and I both made travel plans and advance lodging plans in advance to attend this thing, thinking it would be on the mall at the Capitol, between there and the Washington Monument, plenty of rooms from up to one hundred thousand people.

And then they changed the game.

They moved it to just dignitaries, VIPs, member of Congress, members of Congress in the rotunda.

I wasn't getting in there. I'm not one of those me either, and.

I just figured I didn't have time really to apply for a media credential, and I thought, you know what, I'm going to just go as the average Trump supporter, stand in line, meet some people.

And that experience, in of itself, Heidi, was fascinating to me.

Four hours worth of fascinating in twenty degree weather, although it was colder here, I know that, but just you know, the feeling of unity and excitement and enthusiasm and optimism for the future. It just permeated throughout Washington, d C. It was a takeover by those who support Donald Trump make America great again, people who love America, love this country.

Wow, that is a long day.

Yes.

Was the food good or no?

It was awful.

It was stadium food, but think like you know, the State Fair, but only some items are available. And then they ran out and I was left with like just chicken tenders and fries, which was the least bad option of what I had available to me.

They weren't selling alcohol, probably a good thing, but yeah it was.

It was a little treacherous, especially going in, but once you got in you had a little restless go use to the restroom, you get some bad.

Concessions, you know.

But had a great time watching all the speakers come in, including President Trump Elon Musk. Of course all the controversy went with that, and I got to say, just one thing, being there live watching in a real time, I didn't notice anything resembling a Nazi salute.

It was reduced.

And that's such ridiculous banter about that. Give me a break.

I think they were scraping at the bottom of the barrel to find things to complain about. Ye And what I love about this week is it's been shock and awe, Like they are throwing so much at the Democrats and the liberal media.

They don't even know what to do with it. Their heads are spinning.

Even our beloved Kyle Clark Eric Colorado doesn't know what the.

Heck to do, He doesn't know how to respond. No, I love it.

And as I sat preparing for the show, I'm like, what are some of my favorite things he's done this week?

And I'm thinking, it's only been four days, It's.

Literally been four days. And how many eos have they passed? Executive orders? An incredible number. So this is the first Friday after inauguration, so I'm gonna call TGIF. Thank god it's the friday after the inauguration we don't ever have to hear about Joe Biden or Kamala Harris again. Although I did see the pictures of her grocery shopping with her husband, do you think she actually realized how expensive everything was finally as she's standing there in the.

Grocery store aisles.

Perhaps?

I mean, that's what at the end of the day, I honestly think that's what beat them was the terrible economy and seeing what's happening to people's pocketbooks. I just saw stat on X that said twenty twenty four US existing home sales are the lowest since nineteen ninety five.

That's bad, and.

That's a symptom of this terrible economy that we're inheriting. And I truly believe Trump will turn things around. I loved when they asked him about interest rates. You know what's gonna happen in this raies I'm gonna fix it or what do you think they're going to say about Well, I don't really care, Like he literally doesn't care anymore. I love that part of it too.

Yeah, And like you said, they've kind of used the rules for radicals by saw Lensky against the Democrats themselves. And that's the term that Steve Bannon uses, which is fled the zone. He fled the zone. Their heads are spinning. They don't know what to respond to. They latch onto the Elon Musk Nazi salute story idiotically, I might add.

It just makes me hungry for more.

I agree. I agree we're getting spoiled very quickly. I guess there's only so much he can do through executive order. I think we've at least got a couple months left of lovely fun days of watching headlines, and you know, I think there's some very very important things happening with the dynamics around the world and in this country.

He's getting off the plane right now.

How about this Gavin Newsom meeting him on the tarmac. Yeah, air Force one. I think that's a very interesting optic and visual there.

I love it. I'm watching it on Fox and CNN and the different headlines. I can't wait for Trump to like roll off the tongue some zappor at him, and Gavin's not going to know what to do with himself.

But I think even Trump, despite his instincts, might hold back a little bit with Gavin on the tiremac with him, at least.

For the moment.

Maybe maybe Milania looks amazing today as.

Look at that thought.

She's just wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap and a tan jacket.

She looks amazing, Like you.

Said, that's what somebody said.

She made black stretch pants, army boots and black hats and sunglasses. Faint like that's popular again. I should have showed up in that outfit today.

You should have. I mean I kind of didn't you.

I didn't have time to go shopping, but I will. I will. That's my kind of outfit, anything comfortable.

After spending all those nights in ball gowns this week and high.

Heels, I was like, this is so not me. Oh my goodness. I love I mean, I love dressing up.

But well, take us through your experience then, Heidi, what were you able to gain access to? I know I struck out, but that's fine, that's okay. I did my own thing. But where did you end up going? I had a hit and miss experience.

I mean I tried to attend as much as I could. I got to go to the America First Institute balls.

When was that night? That was incredible?

It was at the Waldorf as STORYA was beautiful, very well done. All the cabinet, like most of the cabinet members were there. Speaker Johnson was there. Got to talk to Governor Sarah Sanders, who have gotten to know she's a dog. He she is one of the sweetest people. And that was a blast. And then you go to the Turning Point Ball the next night, which was crazy, like thousands of people bands, Kid Rock played. Of course the Village people were there. It was awesome in a

I done.

I me at the age. I don't know that that's a great idea.

It's a coin flip for you and me, Heidi, we're at that age.

That pushed me to actually stay nice and cozy and comfy in the hotel to watch the inauguration on the TV. And then I tried to go to the Liberty Ball. I had this golden ticket. I got one ticket, so my husband and daughter and her boyfriend couldn't.

Couldn't go with me.

I get all dressed up in my ball down, I put the big puffy jacket on.

They say to show up at five o'clock.

Stood in line for two and a half hours in the freezing cold, Oh my goodness, and finally I bailed at eight o'clock. I was like, I can't do it anymore. I can't feel my feet, my fingers. They kept shifting the line around. That was a big disappointment. The entrance and the whole getting in the liberty ball thing, right. But I was so spoiled I got to go the other two. So I went and had a nice steak dinner and watched it on TV.

Nice and then I.

Got to be on UK TV as a commentator Channel four UK, which is like the BBC. They had me come into their studio on was that Tuesday and or no?

Was it Monday?

Monday afternoon, I guess, right after inauguration and they put me on with this very very liberal commentator.

It was hilarious. You'll have to watch the clip.

It's on Twitter and some of my social media. They're like, what do you think about all the poor children across the country that are now under.

The rule of Donald Trump?

They're terrified, and I'm like, oh, come on, you guys. And then you know, the list went on and on, all the favorite liberal talking points.

I always loved the cartoonish way that so many Brits view us through this lens. And even Pierce Morgan, who's gotten a lot better, I will say you still, you know, very vehemently disagree with him on the gun issue and Second Amendment rights.

However, they just they don't get it.

They don't understand really our culture, I don't think and really what's going on here and how much by and large, Heidie, I would say a majority, not everybody, but even people that don't are not predisposed to like Donald Trump, might not have voted for him. His approval ratings are higher than they've ever been. They're like in the mid fifties right now, and that's saying something compared to where he's

By and large, I agree.

And after the break, I want to talk to you about Colorado and how Colorado feels.

About that, and specifically.

About a certain meltdown that our secretary of State had yesterday and how that plays into this whole conversation about twenty twenty six and the school board elections this year. So let's take a break. This is Heidi Ganal filling in for dan Ca Applas. Will be right back to talk more about this exciting week.

And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.

It is extraordinary that the outgating president had to partner all those members of his own family and other people and you know, the head of the you know, the c d C, Anthony Fauci, was trying to deal with COVID. I mean, that does tell you something about what they're afraid of Donald Trump will do to them.

Well, to us, it tells us that somebody is guilty.

So when you when you have to partner someone, that means that.

The administration with Roger Stone, Paul Manifort and everyone, I mean every every administration has their pardons.

And every party.

Criticizes that as oh well that's an administration and Gila and it is his.

Own family going out of office last time, and boy were they under attack at the same time.

But I'm really hopeful.

I think the speech was filled with lots of inspiring information about how we're going to turn things around. Those of us that are parents are really worried about our next generation and making sure that, you know, our kids have a secure and safe future and a prosperous one. One of my favorite moments of the event was when h Usha and Jady's little daughter had the band aids on her fingers.

And was messed.

I was like, you know, this is just a really neat family that's coming in and going to set the stage for.

And that didn't look rather touching. But if you're the parent of a transgender child, and he has said very clearly from now in America will not to recognize anything more than two agendas, I mean you're going to be very worried on here.

This is a real blow to you.

I don't think they have to be worried. I don't think they have to be worried.

I think fairness means fairness for everyone. Gosh right, it just goes on and on and on. It was like I was just trying to get in there to throw a few punches here and there.

But it was fun.

I like the.

Woman with you standing next to you there.

Her name's Lauren. She's like a Democrat lobbyist that they have.

On every once in a while, and I'm their token Conservative that they can't figure out.

They try and bring me on to dissect.

Me, and like, who is this crazy American girl who's conservative?

I don't understand her.

I love it.

And on every level, everybody that works in this field like we do, has had that moment where you're the token conservative. You know, you're the fascination, You're kind of you know, this strange alien object to them, and they want to They're curious, they want to find out more.

If they're at least curious.

At all, they are, they keep inviting me back.

That's good, that's good.

I was on election night. Guess who I was on the panel with on election night?

Hmmm on that same station.

Yes, the great Stormy Daniels.

No way, Yes, it was. Why did you have any interactions with Oh?

Yes, lots of interaction and then.

Make you sandbagging, just burying the lead Heidi, it was fun. Did anything stand I'll try to find that on the internet somewhere, But did anything standa about your interactions with her?

The most entertaining part was when she was talking about women's rights and how Trump was going to destroy women's rights, and I just I just shook my head, like, oh my, where do we go from here?

Well, you could have just said, oh, I'm a woman and I have rights, and I'm going to have the same rights that I In fact, based on what the question you were just asked in this particular segment, I feel as a woman, I will have more rights to my own sports and spaces.

Bingo.

All right.

I wish I could have had you there.

In my ear.

I would have been a good coach, you know, like Mick in the corner for Rocky and you be like, cut me right.

I'm like, here you go. You can go get Stormy, go get her.

No, like a little earbuddy in my ear like Kamala had on the debate.

All the earring.

Yeah, okay, we'll set that up. Yeah, okay.

We have a caller, Dean from Oravada, who wants to talk about the Newsome Trump meeting.

Hi, Dean, Welcome to the show. This is Heidi Canal.

Hey, Heidi, how you doing tothing?

Pretty good? How are you?

I'm good. Hey, I'm glad to hear you on the pair of Ryan Ryan, Love you too.

Thanks.

I think Trump's gonna be quiet up the air with Newsome as far as like a little bit pac But behind closed doors, I think he's gonna chew him a new one. He's like, you let this state fall apart, you expect me to bail you out when you wanted to get rid of me. I mean he had like a fifty million dollar out thing going on to get rid of Trump.

Yeah, wasn't that right in the middle of fires, Right in the middle of the fires.

We're negotiating that too.

I'm not gonna forget that. And guess what sanctuary state stuff do. You either comply or your funding's gonna.

Be really cut back.

That's all I can I guarantee behind closed doors. It's like, you comply to sanctuary status, you moved to me, you start let this before, we'll help you out. If not, you're gonna get pretty much nothing.

Well, Thankstin for calling in.

I'm not sure if all the listeners heard today, but basically Trump said, if you want a lot of money to help California, you got to do two things.

You got to let the water flow.

You got to just let the water flow and stop with all this craziness about this little fish that you're keeping all the water from the fires and the ability to fight the fires.

Second thing was I want voter.

ID in California, and I'm going to talk a little bit about some things that I think we can do to address the elections here in Colorado. After seeing this crazy melt down with Jenna Griswold, Ryan, can you play that clip by Colorado State Center Byron Pelton asking her some questions about the password leaks.

I believe it's number five.

Well, Secretary of State Griswold wants to continue to say that misinformation and disinformation is harmful to the election process, and it is. But the problem is is that when she needs she eroded the public's trust by publicly saying she was not going to tell the county clerks about the password breach because she was in fear of a media storm.

That is uncalled for.

You can't start talking about misinformation and disinformation and talk about that aspect in one hand and then say that her elections are completely and totally unaffected from the breach. That is uncalled for. Our county clerks are the trusted, most trusted elected officials in all of our counties. They do an excellent job. This is just a really bad thing to put our county clerks a really such a bad situation to put our county clerks in, and it's just unfortunate that she.

Has done that.

Any kind of blame should rest solely on her on eroding the public trusts.

Yeah, I agree with Center Pelton there, but I want to make a point. Last September, before this Bios password thing was even happening, I did a press conference about a deep dive I did on Douglas County elections from my race in twenty two. We spent two years working on it, and the county clerk, the Republican county clerk at the time, right after the election, blocked us from doing a recount, me and Kurt Huffman, who is running for state representatives.

So we kept moving along.

We kept going, and then the current county clerk was somewhat helpful and got us in to do the audit that we wanted to do after a lot of attorney fees and about a year of wrangling, and then afterwards would not meet with me and instead sparked this whole fur among other county clerks Republicans included calling me reckless for bringing up three things that I found in the audit. One was that our drop boxes weren't secure. It's kind of a joke. The four hundred drop boxes aren't monitored. Well,

They didn't help me.

In fact, I was really disappointed. But we can do better, and I'm going to tell you how we can do better and ask our county clerks to do better after the break, after I have my guests on Amanda Harden to talk about a really important gun bill coming up next week.

Heidigan all here for Dan Kaplas. We'll see you after the break.

You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.

Happy first Friday after Inauguration five days. I was saying four earlier, I wasn't county Monday, but you're right, he got a lot done Monday.

Ryan.

So I'm kid right in front of me a capital want arena. Do you think I should sign this? Okay, We're gonna do it.

You're good at that, not as good as Sean Ferish, I always have to say that qualify.

How many did you sign that day?

Do you know it was like ten in each location? If not more so?

He did ten kind of on site right after the inaugural address, then he signed ten more at Capital One Arena about I think, and then he went to the Oval Office.

Where he signed even more.

Wow.

So I think it was in the thirties right on the first day.

Well, whatever it was, it's better than all the things that Joe Biden did during his presidency.

So there you go.

Okay, We've got a friend of mine, Amanda Harden, who helps us at Rocky Mountain Voice down at the Capitol and keeps track of all the craziness going on there.

Welcome to the show, Amanda, Thanks Heidi.

Glad to be here, and just to let y'all know, I actually stepped out from helping run a machine gun shoot y'all. May hear a little bit of firing in the background.

Oh that sounds exciting, definitely, Amanda.

There's a lot of shooting mausof down at the Capitol going on, and I would love to hear your take on the state of the state on gun bills or second amendment bills, especially one specifically SB twenty five three that's coming up next week. So what's going on down there around these issues.

Well, I got rallity pretty fast right out of the gate. The bill dropped immediately, and is anyone that follows legislation, you know that lots of times they'll test a bill for a few years to find different ways that they can get it passed through. So this is very similar to a bill we saw come out last year. So it's already gotten dubbed the nickname the Assault Weapons Band Bill. That's not actually the title of it, Senate Bill three.

It's going to.

Spill over into your hunting community. So this bill is very very concerning for a host of reasons. It's going to limit people's right to self defense. It's going to impact our hunting community. If Colorado parks and Wildlife are not collecting the funds they need. We know that that's going to impact their ability to have land conservation and take care of the animals and have healthy herds and have healthy lands for us. It's a very tragic bill. It's going to put a lot of shops out of business,

So, Amanda, what is this actually like? It means that you.

Can't own one, or you can't buy one, or do you have to give it back if you or sell it off if you have one.

Right now, they're saying they're going to grandfather in. So if you already own a firearm that is going to become illegal, you can have it and keep it. You may not moving forward if this bill were to pass, purchase, manufacture or in any way bring in a new one, can even bring it in from out of state. So

Well, we know they don't do anything without thinking through a long term plan. And of course their goal, I believe, is to just annihilate the Second Amendment here in Colorado and our gun rights and the hunting industry which is, you know, a very very important industry to Colorado.

Amanda, I hear there's a hearing next.

Tuesday at two o'clock the Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, and that there's a rally before at eleven o'clock. Can you tell us a little bit more about that or how people can help push back against this.

Absolutely, signing up for testimony is very, very important. I know it's those intimidating, but that is what they need to see. I spent a lot of time downe at the Capitol last session talking to legislators, talking to lobbyists and asking them, you know, why why are we not getting as much tracks as we should on the Second Amendment? For three percent of Colorado adults are firearm owners. We have a tremendous amount of firearm ownership in the state

Well, Amanda, you're doing a great job of that.

At Rocky Mountain Voice, we are covering all kinds of important issues like this. Amanda is covering our two way coverage. And you go to the website Rockymountin Voice dot com sign up for the Mountain Minute newsletter. It's all free. And thank you for all you're doing and for being a voice for all of us. Amanda, and this is Heidi Ganal for Dan Kaples. We're going to take a break and come back lots more to cover.

And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.

Happy Friday, Colorado.

It's Heidi Ganal filling in for Dan caplis. Very blessed and honored to be with you today, Ryan. After a fun week at the inauguration for both of us in DC, are.

You recovered yet?

You know that was a whirlwind trip for me.

I left on Sunday and I had just enough time to kind of get settled in. But the weather was so bad on that day, and I was hearing about it from those that had gathered on that day. I didn't I got into an uber and I stayed up in Germantown, Maryland. There was freezing rain, pellets coming downs, cars spun out, accidents, cops all over the highway. So I decided, once I got into my hotel, I'm going to pack it in. I'm going to gear up for

Who do you go to? How do you get the tickets? I don't want to pay a thousand dollars, so no thanks.

You know, all these things are coming up ended up, just meeting at the bottom line bar, kind of a hole in the wall, dive bar.

Hard to find a DC, but they've got one.

With John fabricatry who watched the college football National Championship game that night Monday night.

Oh that's right. I can't believe that.

Was the same night as An and Kelly went off on this top And she's right. What were the NCAA higher ups thinking putting the college football National title game on the same night as Inauguration Day?

Ridiculous?

They probably weren't thinking don't do that again. I know that was rude because I would like to have watched bulls, but it was hard to go back and forth. So Ryan, before the break, before we had a man on, I was mentioning about the county clerks and the difficulty I had with them getting any support in the issues I

Jenna Griswold and her.

Team, and they think everything's great, everything's wonderful, and it's not wonderful on our elections in Colorado, as evidenced by what happened yesterday with Jenna melting down and running out of the room with her private security. I guess because she didn't want to answer questions. She wants to run for governor. That's crazy that she thinks she doesn't have to answer questions about this heiighty.

She's a twelve year old. I don't know how old she is actually, but how she acts. Remember, we were making fun of the interviews she did with Comrade Kyle on nine.

News, and she kept silent.

Kyle cod not even fair like Napoleon dynamiters, Oh my god, why would you ask that?

That's literally how she comes across.

So this behavior that we witnessed here that you're describing surprises me zero percent.

That she had to run and hide and get her binky or lanky.

Do you think she has a shot at winning the Dummer that nomination?

Absolutely not. And maybe that's reassuring to Phil Wiser, who's in the race. But no, she has no chance of winning the nomination.

I don't think. I don't think Phil Wiser does either.

I don't no.

I think Joan of Goose is going to come in and sweep the slight clean.

I do think Mike Johnson may still be a player.

We'll run want to.

Do it, But my gosh, he's made a mess out of Denver. I mean, I know that they've got plenty of money to shine him up and make him look all pretty and good like things are great. So maybe he's a player. But you know, Jonah Goose was a regent to you. I know him a little bit. He's always been very kind to me, and he does a good job from his perspective like from the Democrat perspective. So, you know, I think he's the guy to watch.

I've been uniformly impressed with him, and you set down a side policy and all the things that we obviously disagree with him on. But whenever I see I don't think he's interviewed enough. I think the Democrats would do themselves a favor by having him be more the face of the party than say, my representative. And I say that, but he is Jason Crowe, who's not. I know, he's not an impressive guy.

That's all I can say.

He has turned out to be such a weenie. It's just the only word I can think of.

A vast disappointment, because I appreciate his service and he's an Army ranger, and you know I want to honor that service.

But you're right, he is.

He's such affeckless, just wimp in office.

Whereas Joe Goose, like Jason Crow.

I think, for one of the impeachments, was one of the presenters, one of the managers, and I thought that No Goose, even though it was a totally you know, it was a fallacy, the whole thing, but he presented his case well, he tried to rely on facts and stick to the script. When it came to that, he

Going to have a lot of support and funding too, because he's pretty high up in Congress on the Democrat side, well thought of. He's their golden boy. So but back to the commissioners. If you guys care out there about election integrity, here's what I want you to know.

What I learned the county commissioners.

And I keep saying commissioners. I was talking about the clerks, But this is connected. So the county clerks are doing their best. They're going along day to day. They interact a lot with the county attorney. The county attorney guides them in a lot of ways. The county attorney is hired and fired by the county commissioners. Now, I don't know if you knew this, Ryan, and I'm pretty sure this statu is still correct.

It was a couple of years ago.

Over fifty percent, almost sixty percent of the county commissioners in Colorado are Republican. So we actually have a majority of commissioners in Colorado that are Republican. And if they control the county attorney and they're elected by us, if the clerks won't do the right things, then let's ask the commissioners to ask them to do the right things and ask the county attorney do the right thing.

What do I mean by the right things?

I mean clean up our voter rolls, track the US Post Office in those undeliverable ballots, and make sure there aren't thirty thousand laying around that are wrought with the disaster, which somebody finds them in fraud. Make sure that the drop boxes, the cameras are put in the right direction, that they're live streamed. I got to give it to Douglas County. They live stream, you still can't see anything because they're too far away. And then remove all remote