Senator Daines visits with the KMON morning show

The 560 KMON morning show is fortunate to be able to host several high ranking political figures. Here is the  transcript of our latest visit with Senator Steve Daines:

Pat: Very pleased to be joined by our republican senator from the great state of Montana, Senator Steve Daines. Senator, we're getting rid of the smoke. It's cooling off here. Good news for Montana.

Senator Daines: Boy. I think we're ready for a break in these temperatures and hopefully a little moisture. It's been a brutal August.

Pat: Yeah, it sure has. Senator want to ask you about Joe Biden. The President of the United States made some rather strong, stern comments about Republicans. Going to play a little piece and then we'll get your thoughts on it.

Audio of President Biden: MAGA Republicans do not respect the constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they're working right now as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies.

Pat: Your thoughts?

Senator Daines: It's disgraceful. It really is. This is a president when elected said he's going to unify the country. I think there are a lot of Americans who were misled in voting for him, thinking that he was somehow going to be this moderate, even tempered, quiet guy that was going to lead the country in a unifying direction. And he's been everything but that. He's taken our country as far left as I've seen in my lifetime. Besides being ideologically in a terrible place of being a liberal, he's incompetent. And for him to say those things are disgraceful. I think it's insulting to so many Montanans to somehow believe because what he called these MAGA republicans that we don't believe in the constitution, the rule of law, that's outrageous. That's a lie. It's just disgraceful. I can't say anything else about it. It speaks for itself. And frankly, it's a sad moment for the oval office for your president threw out rhetoric like that.

Randy: on the phone with us this morning. Senator Steve Daines back in Washington DC. and senator Choteau right now is being overrun by grizzlies. I know you have had several conversations with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, what can we do? It's not working. We need to do something different. It is not working.

Senator Danies: It is not working, by every measure that we have, whether we look at the greater Yellowstone ecosystem grizzly populations or the rocky mountain front grizzly populations, they are well over the recovery targets that were set by the endangered species act. We should celebrate the fact that bears have recovered and then delist them and move them back to the management of the state of Montana like we did with wolves. This is a political issue more than anything else. And with Biden in office and his cronies running a lot of these important bureaucracies, they're fighting us on this issue. So, I'm standing firm with Governor Gianforte as we are working to delist the bear and return back to the states. But I can tell you right now it's politics. And ideology. They're driving this discussion and not the science. The science is 100% clear, and my heart goes out for those families living in along Rocky Mountain front when they see those bears. My great great grandma's as mentioned before, homesteaded outside of Conrad. I see those bears all over those wheat fields and running through our communities. Literally. When you've got schools that have-to-have high fences to protect students from grizzly bears, it's out of control. Not to mention the predation losses that we're seeing. It's the top predation loss we have for agriculture for our ranchers. So, it's an ongoing battle. I can tell you we've got to change things up here with future elections to get the right people elected here in Washington that believe in science and not in the ideology of protecting these bears at any cost.

Pat: That was really profound right there, Senator. I agree with you, and I know Randy does, too. We are both shaking our heads. I know you're in a tight window, Senator, but I wanted to ask you, Senator, about the student loan issue and forgiving student loans. I know you had a student loan that you paid off when you were in college. I had one. I paid off. How do you feel about that? And what have you heard from people that are saying, this is ridiculous. I've been paying on mine for years and all of a sudden they're forgiving some of these people?

Senator Daines: It's ridiculous. It's unfair. And I think there's two parts to this, and you mentioned the first part. Those who went to college. I went to Montana State, by the way. Great Gold Rush game there on Saturday. My wife and I and our daughter and our new grandson were there, and our son in law couldn't make the game because he was on the combine. But we had a wonderful day there. So, we have students that got student loans and then paid them off. And I was one of those. I got a degree in engineering at Montana State. I worked construction during the summer to pay for most of my college, but I still get a little student loan. There wasn't a big one, and I got that paid off within a couple of years after graduating. So, there are students who have paid off their loans, which is unfair to, but it's also unfair to so many people in the trades that never got a student loan because they didn't need one, because they got a training in the trades. And consequently, they came out with that training with a good job, no debt. And now they're having to assume the debt, Biden is transferring that debt from these students by canceling it back on the backs of hardworking Montana's. That is fundamentally unfair. It's irresponsible. And keep in mind, some of these student loans, these are funding mostly graduate students. 60% of the student loans out there are for graduate students, primarily some of these lawyers out there. So here you have hardworking Montana's basically bearing the brunt of a bunch of lawyers that graduate from law school, from highbrowed universities. It's outrageous. And I'll tell you what, we've had an earful from Montanan's and rightfully so, saying this is wrong and we're hoping we can fight this in court. That's the next battle we're going to take. But it's a sad moment in this sad administration's history.

Pat: Senator Steve Daines, republican, great state of Montana. I know you're in a tight window and you got to run. Senator, thanks so much for joining us here on the morning show from the great state of Montana.

Senator Daines: Always glad to join you guys. Thanks much.