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Fred Simon 0:00
Hey George,
George Forbush 0:00
how's it going?
Fred Simon 0:01
Good. How was your weekend?
George Forbush 0:02
It was good. I went out and did a few things. What did you
Fred Simon 0:06
do? Oh, what did I do?
George Forbush 0:08
Yeah,
Fred Simon 0:09
I went shopping for you.
George Forbush 0:12
What you here? It
Fred Simon 0:12
is chosen foods, 100% pure avocado oil. You were using Pam. Hey, mrs. Forbush, I know you're listening. I'm taking care of George now. He's got 100% pure avocado oil spray that he can put in the pan. There you go, buddy.
George Forbush 0:32
Well, thank you very much. I can't wait to give you my Christmas list.
Fred Simon 0:37
Yeah. Well, this is about the most you're going to get out of me. We're sitting here today. We have a very special guest with us, and for me, it's always a privilege to talk to this man. He had one of the greatest fathers of all time. Kindly
Danny Tarkanian 0:55
agree a lot.
Fred Simon 0:56
Yeah, Danny Tarkanian, and you know the interesting thing about being a trauma surgeon, especially in a big city, and I've done it across the country. You sometimes take care of people that you recognize. I operated on Jerry Tarkanian over a decade ago, and it's very. I hope
Danny Tarkanian 1:20
was more than a decade ago. He's been dead for 11 years, so yeah.
Fred Simon 1:26
And thank God he got in the Hall of Fame in 2013 ahead of his death. Great guy, and I, you know, the interesting thing is Jerry Tarkanian had a lot of injuries, and he was in the intensive care unit. And fortunately for me, I was the medical director of the trauma-intensive care unit, so I could kind of like do what I wanted to do. And every morning when I would round on Jerry, I would close the glass doors, sit down in a chair, and I'd get a half hour of one-on-one with Jerry Tarkanian. It was all about his life. It was about his family. It was about his problems at Long Beach State. His son born in Redlands, and not far from there, I went to college, Loma Linda University. Yep, and for years I was a big supporter of the Indiana University basketball team, and for eight years, every summer I'd go to Bloomington, and I would play golf with former players Isaiah Thomas, George Mcguinness, who was in the ABA, and I knew Coach Robert Knight, and so it is really interesting for me, a comparison of two Hall of Fame coaches. I had breakfast with Bob Knight once, and the total time in eight years that I probably talked to Bob Knight was probably hour and a half. Jerry Tarkanian probably 10 hours.
Danny Tarkanian 3:00
And let me tell you two differences between my dad and Knight. And Knight, my dad thought Knight was the best coach in the country. Did he really during the time that he was coaching? That was, you know, he made those comments before Duke had started winning, like they did. But so we loved Bobby Knight. We thought he was a great coach. But there's a couple things. What my dad loved talking to people, as you just mentioned, and when they would go to the Final Four, which is when they had the coaches' convention, all the high school coaches and AU coaches all come around, and they want to talk to these big college coaches. Well, my dad would go in the lobby, and he'd spend all day there talking. He loved talking to him. Bobby Knight would never go through the lobby. He'd go through the back door. He never wanted to talk to those people. That just wasn't his personality. And the second thing is Bobby had great success, but he won by yelling and intimidating his players. I think that's well known. I said at my dad's funeral, and I was told by a couple of their assistants it was 100% accurate. My dad won by motivating them by sarcasm and wit. He would say things that would be funny, but at the same time, it was you knew he was serious and and it got you motivated. For example, if we weren't playing hard in practice afterwards, he'd call the team together and he'd say, “You guys are all a bunch of bandits. Next time you pick up your scholarship chuck, wear a mask and gun because you're robbing the university. And everybody wanted to laugh, but we were too scared to laugh, so you didn't. So just a difference in philosophy, but they both worked.
Fred Simon 4:20
And you played for your dad?
Danny Tarkanian 4:21
Yes, I did.
Fred Simon 4:22
Yep. Interesting. I I was one day I was sitting there and I said, “Okay, Jerry, it's time for you and me. He goes, “Oh, a couple of the players are coming. And I go, “Who? And this is in San Diego. He says, “Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony are going to show up. I said, “When? He said, “I just talked to him. They're in the hospital. They're rolling in here, so here I am, Jerry Tarkanian, Greg Anthony, Larry Johnson, 1990 team national champions, maybe one of the greatest teams of all time, and kicked Duke's butt by 30 points. Yeah, that was at McNichols Arena.
Danny Tarkanian 5:02
Yep, largest win in the history of the NC2A championship game.
Fred Simon 5:05
Yep,
Danny Tarkanian 5:05
by a team from the Big West Conference over the ACC.
Fred Simon 5:09
Yeah, that was a huge, huge game. I remember it very well. So, well, we're in here. Jerry Tarkanian was, I can tell you, an incredible man. And when I first met Danny, I sat there and I could see this calm, peaceful voice in you, Danny. Very similar to your father. And it was it was a little eerie. And I'm sitting there going, “Wow, you know. Let me
Danny Tarkanian 5:41
tell you. I wish I had a lot of my dad's personality. I don't know about the calm voice, but he knew how to deal with people. People that saw him, they just liked him. I'm more of a like my mother of a competitor. My dad always said my mom was the toughest competitor we ever met, and when I would get competitive, you don't look friendly, and you know you're on the court, you know, doing stuffs, or trying to campaign, you're looking competitive. You got your furrow brow, you talk a little rough. My dad was great with people, and I really admired that about him. And he was great with people from all walks of life. He dealt with boosters that had a lot of money, and he dealt with the inner city kids that were playing sports. And he can deal with everybody. Love to go to talk with a bar people who always were drunk and tell them what to do. He'd go to bard. These people would say, “Ah, you should get the ball to Larry Johnson more. And my dad would say, “Is that right? You don't say. No kidding. The guy left thinking he told my dad what to do, and and my dad never listened to him.
Fred Simon 6:36
Well, if you were in that room with me when Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony were there, you know. You probably know these guys, and I asked them directly right in front of your dad. Your dad was a transformational leader, and he was a transformational basketball coach. He's the one that really started pressing teams, big time, and then running press and pressing
Danny Tarkanian 6:58
exactly. Some teams pressed before, and some teams ran before, nobody did both at the same time. UNLV was the first one, and he was transformational in that there were other coaches that took some all-black players, but very few of them. But my dad took the ones that nobody else wanted. My dad had a basketball philosophy. He wanted to win and win big and be able to compete against the UCLAs and Duke's world, and he said he could never get the great athletes that were from great families. They were going to go to Duke or North Carolina, SC, but he can get the great athletes that weren't such great students or great kids off the court. And he felt that he could relate with them and mold them to compete against the other kids. And I think that the UNOV team showed that that was true.
Fred Simon 7:40
Well, you know, he had really great players. You know, in that 1990, Anderson Hunt, he had Larry Johnson, Stacy Ogman.
Speaker 1 7:48
The interesting thing,
Fred Simon 7:49
yep, Greg Anthony. When you when you and you know
Danny Tarkanian 7:51
you forget about the guy that my dad's best big man in the entire career was David Butler. David Butler was a starter.
Fred Simon 7:57
Yep, but you know when you look at it, when we're talking about a coach who gets the most out of the players, everybody but Larry Johnson just didn't do that well in the pros, and that's because you don't get good coaching.
Danny Tarkanian 8:13
That and they weren't they weren't as good all around players as other ones. Where like you know the year Duke beat us, they had Grant Hill, they had Leitner, they had the Hurley. Those players had much better careers. So my before the '90 team, my dad never had the a number of great players. Used to get one or two that would come, and then he built a team around a bunch of role players that knew what to do. Like we had Sidney Green the year I played, we were now born in the country, but he was the only guy that got drafted and made the pros. The year they went to the Final Four, they had Reggie Theus was great, but everybody else was really good players. He didn't have bad players; he had good players, but not the great ones like UCLA and Ducat. Until that the last three years, he had some great, great players.
Fred Simon 8:59
Yeah, but when you look at his career. I mean, Long Beach State.
Danny Tarkanian 9:03
He had better players in Long Beach than he did at UNLV. At least they did better in the pros,
Fred Simon 9:08
right? Riverside City College, where I went and did some summer school a couple years. He won three championships.
Danny Tarkanian 9:16
Yeah, you got your history down three. You know, first time in the history of California junior college basketball,
Fred Simon 9:21
yeah. When he talked, it was it was amazing. We just connected. I mean, go oh yeah. We went from the very beginning to yeah. He played at Fresno State, as you know, and and coached. And you you you were an assistant coach with him
Danny Tarkanian 9:34
at Fresno. Yes, his last seven years. It was a great thrill.
Fred Simon 9:38
Yeah. So we go from a transformational leader like Jerry Tarkanian, and then we get into the Republican Party, where I don't think in this state there's any transformational leaders. They're all transactional. They do stuff, like they did last Monday.
Danny Tarkanian 9:55
They do stuff.
Fred Simon 9:56
Yeah, they do. Anybody
Danny Tarkanian 9:58
can do stuff. Yes, that's what I. Say are they doing positive things or negative things? Look, and I've been involved with the Republican Party for 22 years now, and I've seen this when the the state was basically a Republican state up until 2009 or 10. We held the governor's position for most of that time. We held majority in the Senate and the Assembly for a lot of that time, and then everything changed. Mike McDonald took over as the state chair, and he has people that are 100% loyalist to him. Like the I forget the guy's name up here in Washoe County. He's forgettable, but chairman there, he's you know he they they what they do is they they they divide the party to maintain power, and they kick people out of the party that are great loyal people that help a lot. I had a lady who volunteered on my campaign in 2016. I lost to Jackie Rosen by 1% in the closest race in Nevada that year, and the lady who ran my grassroots was a lady named Lois Chote, one of McDonald's guys that was the chairman of the Clark County party, they kicked her out and a number of other people back in 2020. Now, why in the world would you ever want to kick out somebody like this? Is an elderly lady who's on the phone, calling and traveling around the state, has a list of people, and the same thing happens. That's his name is Parks. That Parks guy up here, he thinks he got he thinks that it's better to kick people out that don't agree with them than to build a a large tent and be successful with it.
Fred Simon 11:27
Yeah, Bruce Parks. He's a divider. Yeah, he's kicked out over 200 people. And you
Danny Tarkanian 11:33
ask yourself, where what does that gets the party? You know what it gets Parks? It gets them to maintain the power, which I mean, I guess that's the most important thing to him. But all it does is diminish the power of the Republican Party here in Northern Nevada. Now look at the Republican Party. Washoe County was Republican up until Parks took over, very Republican. In fact, Dean Heller carried Washoe County every year he ran until 2018. He lost and lost too big, and from that point on, the party hasn't really done very well here. Now they does want some local races, but not in the big races statewide. You need Washington to be Republican if you're going to win in this state, because Clark's going to be Democrat.
Fred Simon 12:12
Well, they lose a lot of the local races, the majority of them. I mean, you can't take Amity's race. Amade was an incumbent, 95% chance they can't take credit for that.
Danny Tarkanian 12:21
Well, plus he's he's in a district that's what's 30% more Republicans. It's almost impossible to lose that seat,
Fred Simon 12:26
right? And and so they have nothing to do with the Senate. And if you look at it from a standpoint, what is the Washoe County Central Committee doing in regards to the local political races, and what are they winning? They haven't won much.
Danny Tarkanian 12:43
I don't know a whole lot about the local races, so I didn't mention it. I do know that statewide, it hasn't done; it hasn't carried its weight in the state. It's cost us. If it would only make sense, it would do poorly locally too.
George Forbush 12:55
Well, last week you got some news from the. Well, how did you find out? You found out that something happened at the Washoe County Central Committee.
Danny Tarkanian 13:02
I got a call to be on this radio show, and Dr. Simon had told me that I was kicked out of the Washoe Republican Party, and I said I'm not sure how that can be. I, I've never been a member of it, nor would I want to be a member of it. But anyways, I guess you could tell what happened. I'll go from there.
George Forbush 13:20
Because you live in Douglas County, correct? Yeah, I
Danny Tarkanian 13:22
live in Douglas County, and I don't have any respect for Parks. I think he's a bully that lies all the time. And even if I lived in Washoe County, I wouldn't be a member of this party. In fact, I'll tell you a quick story. Park was doing his bully stuff. You know, he's a big guy, and he used to be, I guess, in the army or marines or something. And he he likes to bully people and intimidate them. So in the state party convention, he started up on this lady from Washoe, I mean from Douglas County, who I know, great lady Terry Huffman, who's done so much for the people running in in Douglas County, and he wanted a banner from some committee, and he started saying all these bad things about him. So I got up and I said, “Hey, she's wonderful, but you're bad. And then he gets up and he and he wants to pick a fight with me. Just comes comes at me like he's going to fight me. Then he calls security when I won't back down. And afterwards, I walk back to my table and I had three people come up to me and say, “I wasn't going to vote for you before. We're from Washoe County. I wasn't going to vote for you before, but we've never seen anybody stand up to Parks before, and he's such a bully and so bad for our party that we're going to vote for you. That's the kind of influence he has in the Republican Party.
George Forbush 14:28
Now, before we came on air, you made mention about endorsements because you ran for Attorney General this last go around, and what was your dealings with the Washoe County Republican Party just recently?
Danny Tarkanian 14:40
Well, they had I called up Parks because I don't like them and I don't trust them. So I said, “I hear you have an endorsements. How does it work? Do you have a committee that you go in front of? He says, “Nope, we do everything in the public. You get three minutes to speak, and if you can sell them, you sell them. So I went to the meeting. I gave them one of the best speeches I've ever given. They took the ballot. It looked like I was going to win. In fact, I'm almost sure I would have. And he goes into closed door meeting and he tells the members, “You can't vote. We can't even count these votes because Danny Tarkanian one endorsed a Democrat in the Secretary of State race in 2020, and I'll get into that. And two, he said he hated Donald Trump. Now that's you know the the hate Donald Trump is is a lie that my opponent in the Republican primary started. It was a tweet that somebody wrote after Trump Trump won in 2024, and the tweet said, “I hate Trump, and I'm so glad he won. And the whole article is about you may not like Trump's personality, but you have to love his policies. So I liked it. So my opponent, because she's got this real nasty consultant named Sleazy Slanker, and they like to take things to make people look bad, even though it's it's dishonest. So they they circle the I hate Trump in a TV ad and they block out. But I'm glad he won, and and they ran 1,000,002 $5 in ads with that, and and Park decided he's going to use that same lie with the central committee there. So he told them that, and that pissed people off. And then he told them that I voted, I supported Zach Conan as a as a Secretary of State, and that's misleading too, because you use the word endorsement. I never endorsed Zach Conan. I was asked on the radio station, “Are you going to support Michelle Fiore for secret? No, no, no. It was treasurer. I'm sorry, treasure. I'm at it wrong for treasurer, and I said, “No, I can't support Michelle Fiore. She's on a federal investigation for stealing money from a charity. She actually got convicted of it and was about to be sentenced for jail until Trump pardoned her. Who in your right mind would say you're going to support somebody who's on a federal investigation for stealing and actually gets convicted of stealing? And I showed good judgment not to anybody who who knew that information, which we people in the inside knew, and voted for her. You got to question their judgment. I'm sure Parks knew about that.
George Forbush 17:03
So what you were basically saying on that radio show is that you were not going to endorse Conine, but you weren't going to support. I
Danny Tarkanian 17:08
was never asked to endorse Conan. I was asked, “Do you support Michelle Fiore for treasurer? Okay. And I said no. I said you can't support somebody who very well could be convicted of stealing money when you want to put him in charge of the treasury in the state. And so I mean, what stupid person would say, “Hey, that's a smart thing to do.
George Forbush 17:24
So when you said that, they just assumed that you were going to support Conine, is what? Yeah, of course. Well, I mean,
Danny Tarkanian 17:28
yeah, sure, but again, they don't take the truth; they take they take what they semblance of facts and they twist it around and make it look worse. Like I ran for re-election for county commissioner. When I did, I ran against the Douglas County Republican chair. His name was McCallop, Jim McCallop, and he said the same. He got me kicked out of the Democrat Republican Party for that exact same thing. And he said, “Well, you endorsed Conan. I said, “Well, first of all, they do it when you're not there, like this thing where the park just kicked me out of
George Forbush 18:00
the. So you weren't there to represent yourself or have any no
Danny Tarkanian 18:03
no so can't even explain to them they just give you their side of the story look at I don't have a problem you know what happened not being a part of the Republican Party in Douglas County man I didn't have to go to all those boring meetings and go to the fundraisers they had never want to see parks or support at parks so God it's a thrill that I'm not and so I'm not upset about it the point I think you want to make on this show is, it's bad for the Republican Party. You're continually going to lose because of the lack of leadership we have within the state and within the Washoe County Party. Now, Doug Clark County had somebody in there that was really really bad too, and he got voted out. And the new person's in there is doing a really good job and turning around the Clark County Party. Same thing with the Douglas Party. They they got a new group of people in there doing a great job. So you know I see some places in the state is is going well, but you still got people like, hey, look at Bruce Parks is the Pinocchio politics. He lies, lies, lies to stay in power, and that's all he is. And if you think that's good for the party, then we have a big difference.
George Forbush 19:04
Yeah. Well, I can tell you, I was there. I just happened to be there because I went to talk to Jim Marchant to get him on the show the next day, which is exactly what happened. And so I was there as a member. I did sign up to join the central committee, and so hopefully that nomination goes through at the end of this month, and we'll see what happens. But I didn't know any of this stuff was going to happen, so I was just sitting there listening, listening to everything. And I will say that there were a number of Republicans they opposed the resolution, and to be clear, my understanding is is that they're not technically kicking you out of the party. It's basically saying that they will no longer support. That's what I got out of the meeting. But there were a lot of people there that did say, well, they went against it. They opposed it. It came down to a vote, and the reason why they did. Was the timing, the fact that you aren't part of the Washoe County Republican Party, you were down there in Douglas County, and there was a member there that actually said, you know, they didn't think it was wise to keep kicking people out of the party as well. So you did have some support and opposition.
Danny Tarkanian 20:20
Look at
George Forbush 20:20
just so you know, because you weren't there, so I just want you know. Yeah, you know,
Danny Tarkanian 20:23
look at if all that's good and well, and I don't know what percentages or not, but the key fact is, Bruce Parks gets up and lies, and says, “I endorsed a Democrat when I didn't, and he doesn't say why I wouldn't support the Republican who, again, was under federal investigation. This was her second time she was under federal investigation for stealing money from a charity and actually was convicted from it. I would have got up and said, “How many of you think that was a good one to vote for for the Republican Party? How many of you wanted her as the Republican representative as a treasure for the state of Nevada, when she just got convicted of stealing money, and if anybody rose raised their hand and said yes, I said, “Hey, kick me out of your your your central committee because I disagree. But of course, they're not going to bring me up to say my side of the story. It when I we're going to talk about my dad. My dad was really amazing person in that most people thought all I knew about was basketball, but he was so sharp in other areas. And he said to me when I he heard I was going to run for politics, he said, “Why would you want to do that? The people that are most successful lie the best and have the most money that lie most often. And I laughed. I thought he was funny, but as always, he was 100% accurate. You have people like Bruce Parks running a party, a Washoe County party. He just lies all the time so that he can get his way and get his candidates in there and and do it. And God bless bless all you people that want to support that. That's why you're going to continue to have people in office that you're disappointed in, that don't tell you the truth, that commit unethical violations. I mean, when you lie about a television that tweet on a television ad. Now think about this: the Republican nominee for attorney general ran an entire campaign on an on a tweet that was completely false. It wasn't even halfway true. It's not like you know. Sometimes you take a semblance of truth and you can twist it around. This was completely false. I liked the tweet because it said all the great things Trump did. Not that I hate Trump, and I said that in my my notes. The leading attorney in the state of Nevada and the Republican Party won the primary based upon that type of a lie. Now, do you expect that person to be honest and not ethical if they get elected. If they are, you know, that's wonderful for her. Maybe it's her consultants that's talked her into it. I don't know, but it's a, it's not the way I want. I'd want to be elected.
George Forbush 22:53
Well, going into your race, with that being said, is there anything else that you would have done differently that would made maybe got you a different outcome.
Danny Tarkanian 23:01
That's no, I couldn't do anything. I ran a great race. I raised a lot of money for someone who had lost as many times in previous races as I had. I raised more than twice the amount that she raised, and she had the governor calling on her behalf. She had the governor calling people to stop them from giving me money. I ran. I spoke great at all the different events. She, her, her, her main theme when she spoke was: we should sue California because of their high gas prices and what they charge. How do you sue California because of their emission standards? You're an attorney. How can you sue a state because they have different emission standards than you want in Nevada? You can't. In fact, she was called out on that in the Incline Village. So, but I'll tell you what she she's she's well spoken. She has a good handle on not getting frustrated in debates and stuff because I called her out on the lies about the the the tweet there. She did a good job. She's got the governor's support. She had Trump support. She may very well do well, and I like her as a person. She seems like a nice person, but I could not have done anything better on my side in my race. And I didn't lose. I got my butt kicked. I mean, it was I lost Douglas County by 20% and I have people in Douglas County, hundreds of people that tell me they think I'm the best kind of commission they've ever had, and for me to lose that, it just shows the power of Trump, and when people think that you don't like Trump, no matter what you do, you can't win. And there's nothing I could have done about it. We we didn't have the money to run the amount of ads that she ran up here in in Washoe and and the rurals, so that was a part of it. But we did in Clark County. We ran just as much TV time as she did to rebut that ad, and it didn't carry the weight. Her ads carried more weight, and it didn't help when Trump came out and endorsed her at the end either. That took away our argument that I supported Trump. Looking, I had Trump on TV saying what a great guy I was. I was the most loyal guy to him, and I supported him. And that didn't carry the weight. What more could we have done?
George Forbush 25:03
Well, and this is obviously a state race, and I don't know what happened down in Clark County. So you're saying she ran a lot of TV down in Clark County, and so did you.
Danny Tarkanian 25:11
Both of us did, but she she had so she didn't raise the money to run TV ads. She had a super PAC out of Washington D.C. that put a half million in. Okay. Then she had then I was going to still beat her at that point. There was about four weeks left in the election. They went dark for five days, and I thought they were done. They took down the ads. Then Governor Lombardo has a pack that put 750,000 more dollars in that ran those ads, and that's what killed me. We once those ads started, nine days later we were down 20 points in a poll that we were up eight before, and we just don't have the money. I mean, I was on the phone call and get raising a good sum of money, but when you can get a governor to to put a super PAC in for almost a million dollars, with just snapping his fingers, what more can you do? And that's why I have a good I have a good final resolution of of my my efforts in politics, gave a great effort, did a great job. I've not been a good public speaker before. I've sometimes been too aggressive when I speak in in meetings. I was not that this time. I I ran as good a campaign as I could, but when you could raise that kind of money to offset individual donations that I was getting, there's no sense in in continuing that regards.
George Forbush 26:25
Yeah, the money makes a difference.
Danny Tarkanian 26:26
What I'm just stunned by is I'm stunned the governor would spend $750,000 that he could have used for his race on an attorney general race, or more importantly, he could have used on an assembly or state senate race to get a majority of people to back back his policies. Why did he care so much about the attorney general's race?
George Forbush 26:46
That's a good question because we have some folks that are running for assembly now, and I they're going to be coming on the show, and I have questions for them as to what support are they getting
Danny Tarkanian 26:57
if they if they don't get if they don't get you know
George Forbush 27:00
because they they they might get a majority here, super majority here, and then he loses his veto power.
Danny Tarkanian 27:05
And why was it more important? The attorney general's race. It's really funny when when I I I I talked with him when he endorsed her, and I said why why are you endorsing her? And he goes, well, she's Hispanic and a woman, and you're not. And then he went into, and that's not the only reason. She's also practicing attorney. But then he spoke to a big donor of mine, and my the big donor who's a big donor of his, and a guy who's a good friend of mine, and he asked her, and he said, “Why would you do that to Danny Tarkanian? He's a good guy. And Lombardo said, “Yeah, I like Danny, but he's not Hispanic. He's not a woman. Now I didn't know we had a DEI governor in the Republican Party, but you know, and that's his purpose. And I don't think it's really him. I think it's consultants. It's again, it's the consultants that run these races, and they felt having Hispanic woman on the ticket was going to help him in in getting that voting block during the general elections. We'll see if that works for him.
Fred Simon 27:54
I like everything you've said, Danny, except that don't give him an excuse. He's the one that did it, I think Lombardo has no respect for the Nevada voters. He didn't. He did the same thing in the mayoral race. He did it in your race. He puts his fingers all over
Danny Tarkanian 28:14
it. I would. I would tell you the district attorney race. Who the guy won it? What's his name?
George Forbush 28:21
Wes Duncan.
Danny Tarkanian 28:21
Wes Duncan. Wes Duncan, and he had those consultants. His name is Sleazy Slanker. He had that consultant, and Lombardo he told him he will not come out against him, and then he came out and he and and went for his opponent afterwards. So that's one of the few races Lombardo and Doris had lost. But when you're dishonest to somebody like that, who's always been supportive of you, doesn't that hurt you down the line?
Fred Simon 28:45
Well, I think this Republican Party messes around in all of the races and they lose, and I can tell you there's a whole lot of people up here in the North who are still pissed at Lombardo for the way he manipulated the mayoral race, and he just needs to stay out of it. But you know what? If you look at his traffic stop, and he was stopped by one of his own officers, and his attitude on that is just amazing to me. Yeah, I'm Joe Lombardo, and that's his attitude. I'm Joe Lombardo, and all the rest of you. Oh, come on, man! And all the rest of you people are are trash, and that's how he's treating everybody, and that's how he treats people, you know, in in in the races, and just stay out of it, Joe. But you think you're the big man on campus, and you are. You were the elected governor. Let's see what ends up happening. I can tell you, I'm not supportive of him for that one reason. And if he's going to disrespect the Republican Nevada voter, as Bruce Parks is doing the same thing with these endorsements, the Republican Party, in my opinion, is in trouble. I went to a coffee with the Democrats, which they have every day, every Wednesday in Areno. They approach things differently now. They're all stuck with the Democratic Socialists of America, and they have that problem, which we'll talk about at some point in time. But they're not throwing out their members all the time like Bruce Parks is, and and talk about corruption. Thank you, Bruce, for your service. But as far as a civilian, you have no honor. On the Saturday before the endorsements, he went before a group of people and endorsed Flippo. And then you don't think he's going to manipulate the votes on that Monday night? Of course he did, and there's people who have said he did. He's a bully, and so the Republican Party's just gone into the toilet, and we haven't won a Senate race. We may lose this second congressional district if we do. That's going to say a whole lot about this party. But down south, it's all Democrats. I think this state is slowly going blue more because of the Republican Party than the people who are moving here.
Danny Tarkanian 31:06
There's no doubt about that. There's more Republicans registered in the state now than Democrats, and they're gonna they're still losing. It's because of the way the parties are being run, and and quite frankly, the Democrats have have have ran up until while Harry Reid was alive. They ran great. They had a great party unity. It's splitting up a little bit now. There's some infighting, but the Republican Party has imploded all the way across the board. You know, in my I've lost eight different races, and well seven races. One was for the same seat. Not one Republican has won any of those seats in any election, except in 2014, when the Republican Party swept the state with everything. Every single Republican has lost every one of those races. So I don't believe it's just because I lost. They've lost two, and it's not because Nevada is not at least a middle state. It's because the Republican Party has been so bad over the past 10 to 12 years, 14 years.
George Forbush 32:11
How do you blame everything though on Bruce Park? So when everything comes down to a vote,
Fred Simon 32:16
because he manipulates the votes, he intimidates people.
George Forbush 32:18
There was no manipulation though in Danny's case, it was all transparent and out. No, it wasn't. No, it
Danny Tarkanian 32:24
wasn't. He he lied about it.
George Forbush 32:27
No, it was somebody. It was a committee that put up the resolution. From what I saw, I'm just telling you what I saw.
Danny Tarkanian 32:33
And the resolution said I endorsed the Democrat, right? It
George Forbush 32:35
did say that.
Danny Tarkanian 32:36
Okay, so they're lying.
George Forbush 32:37
Okay, but I'm talking about Bruce Parks. Well, he was not saying anything. Bruce Parks, Bruce Parks,
Danny Tarkanian 32:42
Bruce Parks. I was just trying to, Bruce. No, no, no. Listen, I appreciate, but you're completely wrong. Bruce Parks, in that same, you said the committee put it up there. This is the committee that Bruce Parks went to when they were going to endorse in the Attorney General's race. I didn't even know this happened. I was told this at the debate that we had. You were there. I was told this happened. Bruce Parks went to that committee before they voted in a private session, and he put up on the whiteboard Danny Turkey endorsed a Democrat, and he said he hates Trump. You can't. We can't count his votes. So he's already told the committee this. So now you're saying because the committee follows up now, that's a different.
George Forbush 33:17
I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. It's the same
Danny Tarkanian 33:19
committee with the same statement that Bruce Parks put up.
George Forbush 33:22
Okay, I see what you're saying. But when on on that day, he seemed like he was just moderating the vote, is what I'm saying. Because he had
Danny Tarkanian 33:31
already had manipulated. Well, at least he had the committee manipulation. So you're saying things
George Forbush 33:35
happen before behind the scenes type of a thing. I just
Danny Tarkanian 33:38
explained to you it happened. Okay, the endorsement was at the very end of May. We're in end of July, probably when this happened, right? So you talk about two months later, after he's gone to the same committee, gave him the same information, and they voted not to vote, even vote, take read the votes because of those statements. Now that same committee uses that statement. He's not behind it. That's the most naive thing I've ever heard.
George Forbush 34:01
Well, I'm just trying to play a little devil's advocate here. Well, I'd love for
Danny Tarkanian 34:04
Bruce to come on your show once and and try to explain it, but he won't. You know, he's a bully. All he does is yell and talk and scream at you and try to intimidate you. But I'd love to have him on the show, and we can discuss this back and forth.
George Forbush 34:16
Well, I'll certainly give him a call. I mean, I know that's a discussion that me and Fred have talked about was to ask him to come on. He won't
Fred Simon 34:23
come on. He's a coward.
George Forbush 34:25
Well, we got to ask. Yeah, I really. I think you should be up to him. Say Danny
Danny Tarkanian 34:29
Tarkanian. It asks you to come on. He'll be on the same time. You guys can handle this, so each side can get get the. He doesn't like it because he doesn't like it if somebody else has their other side on it. That's why he does it behind closed door meetings. But and he doesn't invite me to be there when he's going to take these actions. But if he does, it'd be wonderful. All your listeners can hear both sides of the story, and you can decide who you think is true or not.
George Forbush 34:50
Yeah. Well, I'm just trying to throw out another point of view here without without him being here, and well, he's getting more information. Did somebody
Danny Tarkanian 35:02
get up at that meeting and give my point of view that he didn't endorse the Democrat? He just said he wouldn't vote for somebody who would be for treasurer that was being investigated for stealing. Anybody get up and say that? That did
George Forbush 35:12
not not. I didn't have my point
Danny Tarkanian 35:13
of view there either.
George Forbush 35:14
Right. Well, and I will agree with you that any time you're going to do something against another person in such an incident, you would think that you would give that person a call and say, “Hey, we're going to have this meeting. These are actions we're going to take. You're invited to come in and defend yourself. You never got a phone call saying you can do that, correct?
Danny Tarkanian 35:37
I didn't even know that it happened until I talked to Dr. Simon, yesterday or the day before, two days ago. Yeah, that's what I'm
George Forbush 35:43
saying. In any incident, you would think
Danny Tarkanian 35:47
more. More importantly, how about when the endorsement vote was being taken? I'm at the meeting and I speak. I'm there, and then he takes them into closed doors and says these things without me even knowing it. I didn't even know that happened. Is a Connor Conray Conray another Connor. Conrad, Bill Conrad. He's the one who called me up and said, “Did you know what happened? The day I don't even call him up. He told me that the day the debate. I'm thinking, no, I didn't know what happened. I just figured I didn't, I didn't get the votes. So I mean, when you don't even know what's happening, they're doing these things.
Fred Simon 36:16
If you're the chairman of the central committee, you can make a determination what comes to the floor and what doesn't come to the floor. So if he didn't want that to come to the floor last Monday night, it doesn't come to the floor. So he's totally responsible for it.
Danny Tarkanian 36:33
Of course he is. It was it was his idea, and he got the committee to do it. That's all. It doesn't matter. Again, I'm I'm thankful that he is. I don't want I don't want any endorsement from a guy like him. First of all, I have no plans to run for office again, so I don't know how that's going to hurt me. And I certainly never applied to be a member of the Washoe County Central Committee, so I don't know how they can ban me from it. So I don't see how this one even has any effect. It's it's just I think it's more for show to maybe Parks feels he can look like the tough guy by getting something done, but you know it's not at my expense. I don't care.
Fred Simon 37:07
Yeah, but I think this just shows the epitome of how the Republican Party's operating. Everybody wants to be a central committee chairman. Okay, so then they get elected. They should stay neutral, and I'm not going to name any other names, but not all the central committee chairmen stay neutral during the campaigns. And I think that just the candidates know it, and they feel it, and then you go to their events and you can see the bias, and you can feel the bias, and you know that, George. And and the bottom line that I I get to is, I'm going to say this over and over and over till they fix this. Anybody out there who's thinking about running as a Republican, especially in Washoe County, don't do it. Don't put your time forward. Don't put your money forward, because they're going to, in the end, pick who they want to endorse, and most of the time, it's going to hurt you, and you've wasted your time and your money. It is just corrupt.
George Forbush 38:22
Well, part of me wants to disagree with you because we need better people in government. So I understand the point you're making and what you're trying to say as far as the route you need to go to get into office when you go through the Republican Central Committee, or even if you are a Democrat and you go through the Democratic Central Committee, I have spoke to a few Democrats that ran, and they had some problems with the Democratic Party as well. So I think it happens on both sides. But I think if you have
Danny Tarkanian 38:54
to lie to get the support of your party to win the nomination, don't you expect that person to lie and be unethical when they're in office? I'm
George Forbush 39:03
not telling anybody lie. I'm just saying that. But he
Danny Tarkanian 39:06
just said that you have to do whatever Parks wants and says and and and abide by his feelings, which, like lying about. Well, if you don't do
George Forbush 39:17
that, you're never going to win. I guess is what your point is, right? It's going to
Danny Tarkanian 39:20
be extremely difficult to win. I, you know, some people pulled off miracles, and God bless them. I couldn't do it, so you know, but some people might be able to put the money. I'm just saying the local races
George Forbush 39:32
for sure. Well,
Danny Tarkanian 39:33
even the local races, it's a money deal, or or it's a ground game that the party has a a big hand in. And if you're gonna and and and and if you're gonna have somebody who runs the party, who is a habitual liar and bully, and you're gonna have to deal with that person and get that person to support you, what do you think that when you do that, you sell your soul, don't you?
George Forbush 39:56
I don't know if I would be asking that person necessarily for that. Mitch
Danny Tarkanian 40:00
Park is, Parks is. If you want the Republican Central Committee here in Washoe County to support you,
George Forbush 40:05
I would rather. I'm not going to bow down to anybody if you're asking me for how many. I
Danny Tarkanian 40:09
don't even know this answer. Do you know how many people the Washoe County Party endorsed that did not win?
George Forbush 40:17
That did not win. I don't know the answer to that. Well, I mean, it'd
Danny Tarkanian 40:24
be it'd be nice if if you knew that. I mean, it'd be nice if we knew that because then you know. Well, what kind of influence do they really have? I mean, they endorse a lot of people that were. Eddie's
George Forbush 40:34
the first one that comes to mind. Who's that? Eddie Lorton. He got their endorsement. Yeah, but he got.
Fred Simon 40:39
But then Lombardo got involved in that race, and Lombardo has a tremendous amount of power and money, and he utilized his money and power. The whole thing just should stop. This is corrupt, and and it has no respect for people who want to run for office. It's totally disrespectful. I didn't care that Lombardo endorsed Settlemeyer. I know Settlemeyer. You know Settlemeyer. He's a good guy. I don't take it personally, but I think it sucks.
George Forbush 41:10
Well, I'm just answering his question. Then the the only other person I can think of that happened or that happened to was Ed Lawson. You know,
Fred Simon 41:19
but Ed Lawson has a lot of problems in the party.
George Forbush 41:23
Okay.
Danny Tarkanian 41:23
Well, that's good. So there's two of them. So it shows. Two of them. But I'm two of the people. Two of the people won. It can happen. That's what I'm saying. It's just it's extremely difficult when your local party isn't behind you. Like when I ran for county commissioner, in fact, the chairman of the local party ran against me, and they were against me, and I won. So you can do it. It's just not easy, and it's very difficult. I think it's more difficult when you're in a bigger county.
George Forbush 41:45
Sure.
Fred Simon 41:45
You know, we were talking the other day, Danny. We only had what 30% of Republicans vote in this past primary. My point of view is, if you have to manipulate people people's votes by these endorsements and throwing your weight into it as the governor, and put these slates out, and and people aren't going to do their due diligence in looking at the candidates. I don't care if those people vote. Then I want people who go get and self-informed know the candidates. Then we're going to get quality candidates. I I'm not we're not getting quality candidates because people are going doing people's ballots for them.
Danny Tarkanian 42:26
It's funny you said that because that's like taboo. You're not supposed to say that in politics. And I've been saying this for the same thing for a long time. They talked about, oh gosh, we got to get more people to vote. I said you don't need more people to vote. You need more educated. I'm talking about politically educated people to vote, people that care about looking into the candidates and making informed decision. I do not vote for any office that I don't know the candidates for. If I do, then I'm making an uneducated vote that hurts that race. But too many people go out there and they they vote based upon a commercial they watched or a radio ad they saw while they listened to why they're driving, and and I think it's that's a disservice to our political process.
Fred Simon 43:07
I agree. We're in the ultra minority too. Okay, if you don't want somebody who knows a lot about healthcare, knows a lot about education, knows geopolitics, you don't want to vote for candidates that have decades of experience. Then you sit there and say, “Oh my gosh, you've only been in Nevada for 10 to 12 years. We want somebody, you know, we want native Nevadans. That's you, George. And then they take a guy from Las Vegas who hasn't even been in. And his statement is, “I've lived everywhere. He's not even accounting himself to being in in Nevada, and then they bring him up, and he's been here for three months, and that's their candidate. They are so paradoxical in what they do and what they say.
Danny Tarkanian 43:52
I I like Dave Flippel, so I'm going to say that to start off with. But I cannot believe that's the biggest shock I've ever seen in Nevada politics, is a guy coming from Southern Nevada to win a Northern seat in the only federal seat the North has. He called me before he got in the race, and I said, “You're crazy. You can't win this seat. They all vote. They're going to vote for Northerner. How that happened, I can't figure that out. And I know Trump's deal made a big difference, but the other deal is a lot of money. But even with that, I didn't think there was enough money you could spend to change the opinion of the Northerners to vote for somebody from Las Vegas. It was really a shocker to me.
Fred Simon 44:32
Well, my only point is, what is it? Do you have to be a Nevadan and have lived here for 1520, years, or not? And basically, that race just demarcates one thing. They lie about that too, because there's no way if that was the truth, that we want a northerner, but we want somebody who's been in Nevada for a couple of decades. Then he would have never gotten the primary vote. It was you talk you
Danny Tarkanian 45:06
talk about the Washoe County Party because they endorsed him. But so when I ran for when I ran for county commissioner the first time, I ran against a guy that was from Douglas County, was on the chair board, great roots there, and I had moved there and I was only living there I think six months, and this shows I was crazy. I don't know why I did. And then it was COVID. I figured, you know, if it wasn't, I was going to go door to door and meet people. I'll do it. Anyways, I when I was in Las Vegas, I ran for office. They spent $22 million running ads, calling me Dirty Danny. I'm out in the desert digging up my dirty laundry and all these horrible things. I stole from my mother, from charities. I I did all kinds of horrible things that I I wouldn't vote for myself watching those ads. I come up here, you know, the one thing they ran against me. They called me Vegas Danny. That was it. They didn't say anything else about me, but called me Vegas Danny. And I thought, and I almost lost. Actually, I should have lost. I won by 17 votes after those those cured ballots got in. I was behind before then, and it's because I was not from Northern Nevada. I was Vegas Danny, and for for this guy Flippo to to come out. And again, I'm telling you, I like Flippo. He's been been very nice to me, and I like him. So I'm not saying it because that, but to come from Las Vegas and sell yourself and get a majority, not only a majority. Didn't he win by 10 percent or something? It was a pretty good number. It was
George Forbush 46:23
a good number. It was no, I think it was over 10,000 by the final.
Danny Tarkanian 46:29
It's an absolute shock to me. But then you know you look at it, and he had the Washoe County party behind it, which you know they had they do their own things differently, you know. And then Trump, Trump's deal makes a big difference. Maybe that was the only part of it that did it up because Trump came out two weeks in advance for him. I don't know. It was that shocked me.
Fred Simon 46:48
All I know is they say one thing and they do a different thing, and they're picking the candidates and the people who vote, who go to the voting booth. We need educated voters, and those are the people that should vote. We should stop coming out and and taking people's ballots and and writing what the party wants on the ballot. It's it's just it's just corrupt, but it's going to continue to be that way. And you know what? I I'm not bitter either. I could care less, but I'm going to put it out on the air and sit there and go. The Republicans in Nevada need to start thinking about how their parties run, and do you want your party running to the point that your vote does not mean anything, and it doesn't?
George Forbush 47:40
When are we bringing James Settlemeyer in? Because I want to hear what his perspective is on this.
Fred Simon 47:45
Well, unfortunately, I talked to James three days ago, and he was out working in his ranch and pulled his hamstring, and he had a very substantial injury, and that takes a while. It's hard to walk. He goes, “Look, I got to work my ranch. I told you I agreed to come on the program. Maybe in a few weeks, we'll see. So I don't know when he's better.
George Forbush 48:09
Okay. Well, I thought he was the person to beat in this race. To be honest with you, when we was talking about the CD two race, I thought that for the longest time that he was going to be the person beat. So he's a
Danny Tarkanian 48:22
he's a he's a what fourth generation of Adam. He's been in the state legislature. He's extremely well liked. I can't believe did he lose Douglas County too? I think he did. No no no. Did no no no? Maybe he didn't.
Fred Simon 48:37
I don't think he lost Douglas.
Danny Tarkanian 48:38
First of all, I he's a he's a star. What do you call the word? He's a star up in Douglas County. They love him there, and all I know is I lost Douglas County worse than Flippo did. So so that says something. And Flippo stayed closer to him, and he's he's a much better candidate than I think than in Douglas County at least than Adriana Frolikuzman was. So
Fred Simon 49:00
well, Flippo's the nominee. Great, I didn't really appreciate some of the ads that he had against Settlemeyer. I thought that was lowball at the at the most. I mean, I you just don't accuse someone who gave Undocumented people, driver's licenses, and when they do something, accuse that legislator of being complicit with murder. That was about as low of any ad I've heard. Stop
Danny Tarkanian 49:35
that! That's taking a that's taking a a a small part of a fact and twisting around and making look horrible. They do that in politics a lot. That's a real bad one, but they do it a lot. What's worse, and don't even don't even compare it, is to say I hate Trump when I actually tweeted retweeted a pro-Trump article. That's not a small sentence of truth. That's 1,000% lie. Mine was much worse than his. Now was. Calling me murder, but for some people, hating Trump's worse than murder. So, my ad was a lot worse than that
Fred Simon 50:05
one. Yeah, and the Republicans all claim about the Democrats, and the Republicans do it to the Republicans. Oh, so get over those folks. Absent, accept them honor.
Danny Tarkanian 50:13
Absolutely do. But those consultants are the ones that prepare those ads, and they're the ones that create them.
Fred Simon 50:18
Yeah, but you you have the right to say no. I don't want that type of ad.
Danny Tarkanian 50:22
Absolutely.
Fred Simon 50:23
Okay, you can you control your consultants. I mean, Rory McShane. I I dealt with him before this thing got started. I I didn't want to put a million dollars into my campaign and let them just suck it out with all that stuff. It was all about money. Flippo came up with the big bucks. So you know what Settlemyer didn't, I didn't, George didn't, Flippo put it in there. Rory McShane has a connection with the White House. You know that's the game. But I'm going to tell you, I don't think people's votes should be manipulated with.
George Forbush 51:00
Well, what's next for Danny?
Danny Tarkanian 51:02
I'm I'm gonna take care of my son who's still in high school. That's all I'm thinking about. That and and I put a lot of my own money into this race. I got to go back and and earn some money, which I can do. It's I've been fortunate in that regard. So I'm gonna get myself back with solid footage and then try to move on.
George Forbush 51:19
Now you still have a couple years left to go on the county commission. I have
Danny Tarkanian 51:24
two and a half more years on the county commission. Yes, but I'm not going to run for re-election there. I have I have a problem with my with my family situation. My son's in Las Vegas, and I need to spend some time with him while he's in high school. So I've been spending time there and still in the county commission here, and that's been very difficult.
George Forbush 51:40
Do you think you're going to be moving back to Vegas, or
Danny Tarkanian 51:42
I I haven't
George Forbush 51:44
decided yet.
Danny Tarkanian 51:44
I haven't decided anything yet. I mean, I have a lot of as we talked off the air, a lot of stuff going on, and I just got I just got you know look I I pride myself on bouncing back from adversity. You do that when you play sports and you learn how to how to go and and I I've faced some adversity, not just the selections, but some other things. I'll bounce back, and when I do, I'll figure out what I'm going to do.
Fred Simon 52:05
Danny, I want to tell you, I've known you. You're a good man. You're an honorable person. I've never heard you lie. You work hard. I've gone to the county commissioners' meetings in in Douglas County. You work really, really hard to try and do the right thing,
Danny Tarkanian 52:21
I appreciate that. Thank you, and I do try that. That's the only reason to be in public service.
Fred Simon 52:25
Yeah, and and the problem is, I just don't understand why you haven't gotten elected in other things because the the party's working against. I've been
Danny Tarkanian 52:32
outspent in every single race more than two to one, like I was here, and they make up lies, and people believe it. Yeah, and you know that. Listen, all I all I can do is control my effort, and in every race I've been in, I've worked extremely hard. I've raised good amount of money, and I wouldn't do anything differently.
George Forbush 52:50
Well, you can be the master of your own destiny, you know, and do the best you possibly can. And it's hard to run a race without money and not have those endorsements, which you know, obviously Fred doesn't like to have, but you need that support. You need to have name recognition. There's a lot of things that go into a race to win. You need
Fred Simon 53:11
honor.
George Forbush 53:11
You do need that too. But Danny, thank you very much for coming on. We appreciate you coming onto the show, and we'll see everyone tomorrow with our next guest.
