Washington, DC – Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) called in and joined Andrew Rossi on KODI Radio this morning for the “Darian Dudrick Memorial Show,” a special episode to honor the life and legacy of “The Voice of Cody,” Darian Dudrick who passed away last week.
Listen to the full interview here and see the transcript below:
ANDREW ROSSI: Joining us now, our first call of the day for the Darian Dudrick Memorial Show from Washington D.C., the sole Congressperson in the U.S. Congress for the state of Wyoming, Representative Liz Cheney. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Sorry — having some technical difficulties. Give us a second, Congresswoman. Alright, can you hear us now?
REP. LIZ CHENEY: I can. Can you hear me?
ROSSI: Yes, just fine, thank you.
REP. CHENEY: Great.
ROSSI: I’ve never hosted a memorial show before, so I’m still grappling with the technical intricacies.
REP. CHENEY: Well, it’s such a tragic and sad thing, and, you know, I’m just honored to be able to be with you all this morning and talk about Darien and all he meant — just all the different discussions and conversations that we had over the years. He was such a great interviewer, because he always — he was obviously so up to speed on everything that was happening. He was fair. He asked, you know, great questions, and he listened, and he always gave us a chance to, you know, lay out our case, and, you know, you knew it was gonna be a tough interview. He was gonna ask the hard questions too, but again, always listened. Just such a tremendous loss, and we’ve been praying for him and the family, and such a loss for Cody, certainly.
ROSSI: Well, we’re honored that you were able to take the time to spend with us. We’re a community in grief at this point, but I was just saying, just a couple minutes ago, the fact that Darian was such an excellent listener — I mean I’ve seen a number of your interviews, especially recently, Congresswoman, it seems like a lot of media has a particular agenda, they’re trying to lead you to a specific place where they want you to say one thing or another, and that was never Darian. Like regardless of what his opinions were, he was always one to sit down and listen and treat people as people before anything else.
REP. CHENEY: Yeah, and, you know, it’s such a testament to him and his professionalism that I’m not even sure I know what Darian’s views were on a lot of these issues. Sometimes off the air, you know, you can sort of have an off the record discussion and kind of say, “Okay, you know, here’s what’s really going on, here’s what’s happening,” but, you know, he just was completely fair to all. And it is, you know, your point about, you do interviews where people have agendas — and, look, I think his only agenda was getting information to his listeners, and making sure that, you know, those of us who are in public life, but, you know, also maybe folks just in the community who aren’t in, you know, elected positions — just anybody who went on his show, knew he was going to give him a forum, and he was going to, you know, let them speak and let them get their message out. And, of course, being able to have calls from the community while you were there in the studio. Just really was great for us, you know, for the guests, because it was just one one more way to hear from people, one more way to hear the questions people have and to get advice. It takes a lot of skill to provide that kind of forum and Darian always made it look easy and he always made it look fun. That’s the real — that tells you how skilled he was at what he did.
ROSSI: Well, I imagine in your position, Congresswoman, when, you know, there is so much information, especially on social media, about what’s happening in the world and so many different perspectives, it must have been valuable for you to be able to come up to Cody and spend that much time with Darian, just telling people the facts and the truth as they were without worrying about having to get into the knit and grit or having your conversation steered in another direction.
REP. CHENEY: Yeah, exactly, and also the fact that we had time, you know, it wasn’t just a sort of a three minute or seven minute, you know, but you could be on for an hour, and the time on the air with Darian always went so fast. You’d sit down and then all of a sudden you think, “My gosh it’s over already,” because his questions were so interesting and insightful, and he always covered, you know, the whole landscape, whatever was happening. Whatever the issues of the day were, you know, he covered them. And just such a huge loss for all of us who care about Wyoming, who care about Cody, and who care about the country, because it’s just too rare to have somebody who provides that kind of a forum and who is as skilled at what he did as Darian was.
ROSSI: Absolutely, and I know one of the things that Darian truly enjoyed was the time off the microphone when there wasn’t an interview, and the thing that strikes me about that is he was the same person on air as he was off air. And I know for a fact he enjoyed the moments he got the chat with you when it wasn’t live and fielding questions from the community — just because he could relate to you one-on-one as the person you are.
REP. CHENEY: Yeah absolutely, and it was always, you know, just– He always had a smile, and he always would say, “Okay so now, you know, here’s what it looks like is happening, is that what’s really happening?” You could say, “Well sort of.” But just always, always such a real pleasure and, you know, such a — just an unusual opportunity to know you’re dealing with somebody who wasn’t going to play “gotcha,” who was going to ask all the questions that needed to be asked, get the information out for his listeners, and ask the questions in a way that was really probing and got to the heart of the matter. So, he’ll just be so missed as a person — I know as a father, and, you know, as somebody who just contributed so much to the community and to our state.
ROSSI: Well I know you’re extremely busy, Congresswoman. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I do have one more question before we let you go. Is there any message you would like to communicate to the Dudrick family, in particular, at this time?
REP. CHENEY: Well, just to know how much Darian was loved to know, you know, what they — and they all know and love that they have for him as a member of the family, but how much he was loved by the community and how much he was valued, and just what a what a tremendous contribution he made. When you live in a system like ours where, you know, people have the opportunity to engage on all of these issues, that kind of a system can’t function without people of the kind of skill and commitment and dedication to the truth and to honest reporting, and to be as unbiased as Darian had. And so, he will just be tremendously missed, but, you know he leaves a legacy and he leaves a model, an example, for all of us to look up to as we, you know, engage in our civic lives.
ROSSI: Congresswoman Cheney, thank you so much for this, for your time this morning. I know it means a lot to the family, means a lot to us, Darian’s coworkers at the Big Horn Radio Network, and I know for a fact it would have been a tremendous honor and meant the world to Darian himself. So, thank you so much for being with us.
REP. CHENEY: Well, it’s my honor, and all the best to you guys and to the family. He’ll be remembered very, very much.
ROSSI: Thank you for your extremely kind words. Have an excellent day.
REP. CHENEY: Thank you. You too.
Original source can be found here.
