Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Eric Swalwell On Switching Parties, Biden's Decline, The Future Of The Party + More

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INTERVIEW: Eric Swalwell On Switching Parties, Biden's Decline, The Future Of The Party + More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
0:04
Speaker 2: Everybody is the DJ Envy just hilarious. Charlemagne the guy.
0:08
Speaker 2: We are the breakfast Club. We got a special guest
0:10
Speaker 2: in the building, Congressman Eric Swawell.
0:13
Speaker 1: Welcome, Hey, thanks for having me on. How I'm good,
0:16
Speaker 1: I'm good.
0:17
Speaker 3: You got such an interesting story because you're a Democrat
0:20
Speaker 3: out of California. Yeah, but you were raised your parents
0:23
Speaker 3: were Republican. Yeah, so you were a Republican. At what
0:25
Speaker 3: made you? You know, so to speak?
0:28
Speaker 1: They would tell you. They would blame college. I was
0:30
Speaker 1: the first to go to college, and so they're like, oh,
0:32
Speaker 1: he got brainwashed by those college liberal professors. But no,
0:36
Speaker 1: the truth is my my dad was a cop. My
0:38
Speaker 1: mom worked a number of odd jobs, made wedding cakes,
0:41
Speaker 1: did ceramics, ran like a very large, probably unlicensed daycare
0:45
Speaker 1: facility with me and my little brothers. And I was
0:48
Speaker 1: the first one to be able to kind of get out.
0:51
Speaker 1: And when I left the town, I grew up and
0:54
Speaker 1: was called Dublin and everyone around us called it scrubling.
0:58
Speaker 1: I started to realize that, and I think very much
1:01
Speaker 1: resented that. It felt like there were like two pathsive
1:05
Speaker 1: opportunity in America, like certainly in my community, which was
1:09
Speaker 1: like if your parents knew someone, or they had like means,
1:12
Speaker 1: or they had connections, like, you could go and try
1:16
Speaker 1: and be anything. And if they didn't, then you had
1:18
Speaker 1: to like work your ass off, probably twice as hard
1:20
Speaker 1: as anyone else. And so I started looking at like
1:24
Speaker 1: different political parties, and I thought, well, Democrats believe in
1:30
Speaker 1: kind of a free market approach, which is like when
1:33
Speaker 1: we're at our best, I think that if you work hard,
1:35
Speaker 1: no matter who you are, you should do better and
1:37
Speaker 1: be in dream bigger and Republicans I saw it was
1:41
Speaker 1: like a free for all approach. The truth is I
1:43
Speaker 1: went to college on a soccer scholarship, so I never
1:45
Speaker 1: really thought beyond the next game. It was only when
1:49
Speaker 1: I got injured that I had a high school mentor
1:51
Speaker 1: a teacher. He said, why don't you go to DC
1:54
Speaker 1: rehab the injury in turn for your member of Congress
1:57
Speaker 1: and see if you liked it. And I happened to
1:59
Speaker 1: be there some of two thousand and one. I loved it,
2:02
Speaker 1: and I was working for a very moderate Democratic Member
2:06
Speaker 1: of congress'r name was Allen Tusher, and saw that place
2:10
Speaker 1: as a center of gravity, a place that could get
2:11
Speaker 1: things done, and I knew I didn't, especially after September eleven,
2:15
Speaker 1: being there on September eleven, that I didn't want to
2:17
Speaker 1: go back to sports anymore. It's kind of seemed trivial
2:20
Speaker 1: compared to what was going on in the world. But yeah,
2:23
Speaker 1: my parents are still Republicans today. I have three little brothers.
2:26
Speaker 1: They don't talk about it that much, but I'm pretty
2:28
Speaker 1: sure I know who they voted for. And I married
2:31
Speaker 1: a girl from southern Indiana who grew up in the
2:34
Speaker 1: same town as the Pences. Her mom was the Pence
2:37
Speaker 1: family dentist until she retired last year. So I have
2:39
Speaker 1: to go on Fox News if anyone in my family's
2:42
Speaker 1: going to see me on TV.
2:43
Speaker 3: Was it a particular moment or situation that made you
2:46
Speaker 3: be like, I don't lean towards conservative anymore.
2:50
Speaker 1: It was in the Bush presidency, you know, seeing a
2:54
Speaker 1: lot of people that I grew up with go off,
2:58
Speaker 1: you know, to a rock and feeling like it was bullshit,
3:04
Speaker 1: like what they were being told, and that it was
3:07
Speaker 1: really more just a power grab and an oil grab
3:10
Speaker 1: and it wasn't about the reasons that they were being told.
3:13
Speaker 1: I think that was kind of that completed for me,
3:16
Speaker 1: the transformation. But it was really more about opportunity because,
3:18
Speaker 1: as I said, like I grew up in a very
3:21
Speaker 1: like working class home, and the towns that were around
3:24
Speaker 1: us were very wealthy. And so because I played competitive soccer,
3:29
Speaker 1: I got to see in our town didn't have a
3:31
Speaker 1: competitive soccer team. So I played in like the wealthier
3:34
Speaker 1: towns teams, and I got to see like what the
3:37
Speaker 1: richer kids thought of the poorer kids by playing on
3:40
Speaker 1: their teams, And honestly, it was a little bit of
3:43
Speaker 1: just like resenting that they were able to take shortcuts
3:47
Speaker 1: and people who worked hard, like they just they had
3:51
Speaker 1: to do it twice as hard. And I thought, well,
3:53
Speaker 1: one party actually thinks if we all have about the
3:56
Speaker 1: same opportunity, and then you're defined by how hard you work,
3:59
Speaker 1: not by who you know. And I thought the Democratic
4:02
Speaker 1: Party embodied that more than the Republican Party.
4:04
Speaker 3: You think we'll ever get back to centrist politics ever again?
4:08
Speaker 3: I hope.
4:08
Speaker 1: So I mean I was also you know, I came
4:10
Speaker 1: of age when Bill Clinton was president, and I thought,
4:13
Speaker 1: you know, he was very good at trying to find
4:15
Speaker 1: like what's possible, and I see myself as wanting to
4:18
Speaker 1: do this job, you know, to solve problems and be
4:20
Speaker 1: in the solution's business. And today it feels very like
4:25
Speaker 1: just zero sum, like whoever wins the other side says
4:30
Speaker 1: that this is it, and that actually goes back. You know,
4:32
Speaker 1: you had the search and destroy under Bill Clinton when
4:36
Speaker 1: they wanted to do anything over a sex scandal to
4:39
Speaker 1: destroy the guy. And then George Bush comes in, and
4:41
Speaker 1: I would say Democrats are probably guilty of saying like
4:44
Speaker 1: this is, you know, the most existential threat to our country.
4:47
Speaker 1: You know, we're going to lose our country if George
4:49
Speaker 1: Bush is reelected. And then Obama comes in and you
4:52
Speaker 1: get like this birtherism bullshit. And then when the real
4:55
Speaker 1: threat came and Donald Trump, I think most Americans are like, Okay,
4:58
Speaker 1: that's just what you guys say every time. That's just
5:00
Speaker 1: what you say. So when the real threat was there,
5:03
Speaker 1: we probably didn't appreciate it.
5:04
Speaker 2: I want to ask, what do you think the biggest
5:07
Speaker 2: thing the Democrats got wrong.
5:08
Speaker 1: In the last election? Immigration and public safety? Break it down,
5:13
Speaker 1: So forty percent of my constituents were born outside the
5:16
Speaker 1: United States. That's probably one of the largest groups of
5:20
Speaker 1: immigrant communities you'll find in America, and we also happen
5:24
Speaker 1: to be today because we've embraced immigration, one of the
5:29
Speaker 1: wealthiest districts now in America. So there's a straight line
5:32
Speaker 1: between having people who left everything showed resilience created something,
5:38
Speaker 1: and like the wealth they can create in their community. Right,
5:40
Speaker 1: So when you have like legal immigration channels, there's no end.
5:44
Speaker 1: But the American people they're not going to let you
5:47
Speaker 1: solve the workforce crisis in agriculture, in hospitality, in restaurants,
5:52
Speaker 1: food and beverage. They're not going to let you attack
5:55
Speaker 1: that until they see security at the border. And the
5:58
Speaker 1: perception that the order was out of control and the
6:01
Speaker 1: reality that the border was out of control was a problem.
6:04
Speaker 1: So I think if we had just doubled down and said, yeah,
6:06
Speaker 1: we want border security, we want if people are going
6:08
Speaker 1: to make asylum claims, we're gonna you know, put resources
6:11
Speaker 1: there to adjudicate those claims as quickly as possible. But
6:14
Speaker 1: if it's seeing that all you have to do is
6:16
Speaker 1: just come to the United States or like cross an
6:19
Speaker 1: insecure border and then you can have access to resources.
6:24
Speaker 1: People aren't going to want to hear your plan to
6:27
Speaker 1: have a million people come here and work on the
6:30
Speaker 1: jobs that really need to be filled. And so I
6:33
Speaker 1: think we just weren't seen strong enough on that issue.
6:35
Speaker 1: And then on law and order, I think we rightfully
6:40
Speaker 1: fought for criminal justice reform rightfully, but we were too
6:45
Speaker 1: too much identified as like a defund the police party.
6:48
Speaker 1: And I think you can.
6:49
Speaker 2: Have both because again I'll let you finish, but I
6:52
Speaker 2: want to ask you something about that.
6:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, people want people want safety in their community. They
6:56
Speaker 1: also don't want like the wrong person going to jail
6:59
Speaker 1: or people going to shell for petty shit, but they
7:01
Speaker 1: want to feel safe in the community. And we weren't
7:03
Speaker 1: perceived as a party that was going to keep you sicke.
7:06
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you.
7:06
Speaker 3: So.
7:07
Speaker 2: My father's a retired police officer as well. One of
7:10
Speaker 2: my dad's biggest things and even some of the police
7:13
Speaker 2: officers that I speak with, is that when people criminals
7:16
Speaker 2: get arrested, it feels like they are a kid for
7:19
Speaker 2: more than a victim. A lot of times they go in,
7:21
Speaker 2: there's no bail, they come right back out, they do
7:23
Speaker 2: the crime over and over again, there's no harsh anything.
7:28
Speaker 2: When it comes to it, they don't get arrested. If
7:29
Speaker 2: they do jail times, usually community services have to spend
7:32
Speaker 2: a week and in jail, and it feels like there's
7:34
Speaker 2: career criminals doing the same thing over and over again,
7:36
Speaker 2: and a lot of people in the public feel like
7:38
Speaker 2: it's not safe for them. What are your thoughts on that.
7:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that perception. And I was a prosecutor
7:42
Speaker 1: in Oakland for seven years and it was very frustrating
7:46
Speaker 1: that many times it felt like the victims had none
7:49
Speaker 1: of the rights and the bad guys had all of
7:52
Speaker 1: the rights. And so for me, it's really focus on
7:56
Speaker 1: like serious violent sexual those three if you like, throw
8:02
Speaker 1: the book at those three, right, and throw the resources
8:04
Speaker 1: at those three, and then you show compassion and redemption
8:08
Speaker 1: for non serious, non sexual, non violent, and believe that
8:11
Speaker 1: those folks you know, have a pathway into our community.
8:15
Speaker 1: I think you can get it right. But right now,
8:17
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example in California, So we had
8:21
Speaker 1: a prosecutor in my county who would not charge gun crime.
8:25
Speaker 1: So if someone committed like a homicide or an attempt
8:29
Speaker 1: at homicide, she would not charge the gun crime. That
8:32
Speaker 1: could add like twenty five years to life and put
8:35
Speaker 1: away the worst in the community. In Oakland's crime weight, soared,
8:41
Speaker 1: and so I led a recall effort against her because
8:45
Speaker 1: people just weren't feeling safe. She also refused to prosecute
8:48
Speaker 1: any misdemeanors at all, and we recalled her with sixty
8:51
Speaker 1: two percent in Oakland and Berkeley. And so that I
8:55
Speaker 1: think shows that even liberal communities want public safety compassion.
9:00
Speaker 1: They don't believe that. You know, people are irredeemable. But
9:04
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, if people don't feel safe,
9:07
Speaker 1: no one's gonna invest in your community. You're not going
9:09
Speaker 1: to have great schools and your home values. If you're
9:12
Speaker 1: able to buy a house, it's just going to tank.
9:15
Speaker 1: And so you have to focus on public city.
9:17
Speaker 3: You mentioned two things. You mentioned border, and you mission
9:19
Speaker 3: law and order, which I agree with because you always
9:21
Speaker 3: say I don't care what your race is, what your
9:23
Speaker 3: sexuality is, what your gender is. If you're an American
9:26
Speaker 3: and you want two things. You want to have some
9:27
Speaker 3: money in your pocket, and you want to feel safe.
9:29
Speaker 3: I think what people missed about the border issue was
9:31
Speaker 3: it wasn't just a matter of security. It was a
9:34
Speaker 3: matter of people felt like these individuals were coming into
9:37
Speaker 3: America and getting more resources than people who had been
9:40
Speaker 3: here for years. And I think one of the most
9:42
Speaker 3: brilliant things that Republicans did was start shipping those migrants
9:48
Speaker 3: to the Chicagos, into the New York Cities and to
9:50
Speaker 3: the Mars pavilions. Because then it became a problem for
9:53
Speaker 3: those major cities because it's easy to say, hey, we're
9:55
Speaker 3: sanctuary cities if you're all the way up here. So
9:57
Speaker 3: if you're really sanctuary cities, didn't take care of them,
10:00
Speaker 3: and that's when people in those communities started complaining about, oh,
10:03
Speaker 3: how are they coming here and they're getting you know,
10:05
Speaker 3: room and board, how are they getting money in their pocket?
10:08
Speaker 3: But we've been here suffering all of those years. So
10:10
Speaker 3: my question is why have Democrats lost the economy war?
10:15
Speaker 3: Because since World War Two, whenever it is a Democrat
10:19
Speaker 3: in the White House, the economy does better. Why don't
10:21
Speaker 3: you lead what a message that?
10:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to your point, if you're a family in
10:25
Speaker 1: Long Island and you see folks staying at hotels that
10:29
Speaker 1: you would not be able to afford to to put
10:31
Speaker 1: your family in, yeah, I can see why that, you know,
10:34
Speaker 1: creates resentment. It was a cheap shot what those governors did,
10:37
Speaker 1: but I mean the they won the messaging war. On that,
10:40
Speaker 1: and we're still on defense. Look on the economy, where
10:45
Speaker 1: we're at right now is we're in this Trump slump
10:48
Speaker 1: where four oh one case have become two to one case.
10:52
Speaker 1: The Trump tariffs are jacking up the costs of everything
10:55
Speaker 1: at home, depot, Walmart, Target, and so people are starting
10:59
Speaker 1: to pay. But I think the way we win. But
11:01
Speaker 1: things weren't much better on the Biden either. Under Biden,
11:03
Speaker 1: you know, and it was insulting for people to scream
11:07
Speaker 1: Bidenomics and talk about how good the economy is doing
11:10
Speaker 1: and the GDP is up and the stock market is
11:12
Speaker 1: up to people don't talking about ain't got no stocks?
11:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So how can you lie to people about
11:17
Speaker 3: what they're actually putting in their pocket?
11:19
Speaker 1: So to me, it should be if you're willing to
11:23
Speaker 1: bet on yourself and work hard, you should have a
11:26
Speaker 1: country that's going to bet on you, right, And so
11:28
Speaker 1: home ownership should be within reach for anyone who works
11:32
Speaker 1: full time. And so I have legislation that gives twenty
11:35
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars down payment to any teacher, for example,
11:38
Speaker 1: who's going to teach within their community, and I would
11:41
Speaker 1: bump it up for the higher cost areas. Also, I
11:46
Speaker 1: think for small businesses, regulations do get in the way.
11:49
Speaker 1: You know, small small and medium sized businesses are competing
11:53
Speaker 1: against giants, and the giants have like in house legal
11:56
Speaker 1: teams that can cut through all the regulations that can
11:59
Speaker 1: hire a lot obvious to find a work around, and
12:02
Speaker 1: small and medium sized businesses see these regulations as some
12:05
Speaker 1: of the biggest hurdles. And so I would look at,
12:07
Speaker 1: for example, for a small business, if you start a
12:11
Speaker 1: small business in a community, I would let you defer
12:15
Speaker 1: your taxes for the first three years you got to
12:17
Speaker 1: pay them. But once you hit three years, which is
12:19
Speaker 1: about how long it takes to you know, get not
12:22
Speaker 1: post revenue but post profit, then you can start paying
12:25
Speaker 1: your taxes. But I would do more to give people
12:28
Speaker 1: incentives to invest early on and allow them to ride
12:32
Speaker 1: out those early years so that we are an entrepreneur
12:36
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial society. And I think that's what where democrats are
12:40
Speaker 1: at our best is when we bet on people who
12:42
Speaker 1: are willing to bet on themselves.
12:43
Speaker 3: I think democrats miss people though, because when you talk
12:45
Speaker 3: about home ownership, yeah, and small businesses, that's literally like
12:50
Speaker 3: a middle class thing, like like you know, you know
12:52
Speaker 3: how hard it is to be able to afford a home.
12:55
Speaker 3: Like some people I'm talking about are just folks who
12:58
Speaker 3: want to find an apartment that's not three thousand thousand
13:01
Speaker 3: and one. You know, they just wanted to have a
13:02
Speaker 3: couple of meals on the table, you know, throughout the day.
13:05
Speaker 3: For they ideas like this that like we never speak
13:08
Speaker 3: to that. It feels like we always talked to the
13:10
Speaker 3: middle class, yeah and above that, but we never talked
13:13
Speaker 3: to who's lord.
13:13
Speaker 1: And I want us to be aspirational. And I think
13:16
Speaker 1: a weakness of the Democratic Party is my parents would
13:19
Speaker 1: tell you when people told them that as Republicans they
13:22
Speaker 1: were voting against their interests because we lived in thirteen
13:25
Speaker 1: different houses, I went to eleven different schools before I
13:27
Speaker 1: graduated high school, and people would say, well, you're Republican
13:31
Speaker 1: and you're voting for Republicans. The Democrats are the ones
13:34
Speaker 1: that are going to protect people in your economic class.
13:37
Speaker 1: And my parents, my mom would say, my interest is
13:40
Speaker 1: not being poor, and so she saw the Republican Party
13:44
Speaker 1: is talking to her, as we are aspirational for you,
13:47
Speaker 1: and I think Democrats at our best, Yes, I want
13:51
Speaker 1: us to have more inventory in housing so that the
13:53
Speaker 1: cost of housing comes down. And in California, frankly, a
13:57
Speaker 1: lot of the laws in California getting the way of
14:00
Speaker 1: builders and developers bringing more inventory, you know, on stock,
14:04
Speaker 1: so that you can have more affordable housing. Yes, I
14:06
Speaker 1: want that for people, just basic housing, Yes, that is
14:09
Speaker 1: a need. But I want people to aspire for ownership
14:14
Speaker 1: because I think when you own like a piece of
14:16
Speaker 1: America like that fulfills the American promise that if you
14:19
Speaker 1: work hard, like you can own something. And for most Americans,
14:23
Speaker 1: the greatest source of wealth is their home. But more
14:26
Speaker 1: and more Americans, especially my generation, home ownership is out
14:29
Speaker 1: of reach. I believe I'm still paying off student loan debt.
14:32
Speaker 1: I've got about eighty thousand dollars in student loan debt today.
14:34
Speaker 1: And many people like me who chase that dream of
14:37
Speaker 1: being the first to go to college, they're just in
14:39
Speaker 1: the quicksand of student loan debt and they think that
14:43
Speaker 1: the American promise is bullshit because they don't own a
14:45
Speaker 1: piece of it. So I want us to be more
14:47
Speaker 1: aspirational put more housing in America so that you increase
14:52
Speaker 1: the inventory and you increase the ability of people, you know,
14:54
Speaker 1: as I said, to have skin in the ownership game.
14:57
Speaker 3: Well, how do you get those poor and disenfranchise people
14:59
Speaker 3: to even and get to a mindset of aspirational because
15:03
Speaker 3: right now they're just trying to survive.
15:04
Speaker 1: Yes, it starts in school and it's gonna get worse
15:06
Speaker 1: with AI. So what we're seeing right now with AI
15:10
Speaker 1: is that you're gonna have people who learn the skills
15:13
Speaker 1: of AI and they will do better for themselves because
15:17
Speaker 1: they know it. And then you're gonna have a whole
15:18
Speaker 1: generation of people who never even had it in their classroom.
15:21
Speaker 2: But I think what you said as well is is
15:23
Speaker 2: if you can give people that down payment, right, help
15:25
Speaker 2: them with their first down payment, also what they do
15:28
Speaker 2: with teachers and police officers in certain areas, help them
15:30
Speaker 2: with their taxes if they live in certain areas. If
15:32
Speaker 2: you do that, it gives people three to five years
15:35
Speaker 2: to at least get on their feet and to start off,
15:37
Speaker 2: and that gives them the foundation to at least help
15:39
Speaker 2: them out.
15:40
Speaker 3: If that people are able to do it.
15:41
Speaker 2: But if you help them out with their first down
15:43
Speaker 2: payment and they and their taxes is still high, and
15:45
Speaker 2: their state taxes are still high, and then aid prices
15:48
Speaker 2: through the roof and orange juices through the roof, it's
15:51
Speaker 2: gonna be they're gonna lose their home.
15:52
Speaker 1: Yeah. And when you're taxing wages and the wealth, you know,
15:57
Speaker 1: their income is not and you know, wages salary and
16:01
Speaker 1: their taxes are much lower because it's it's in you know,
16:04
Speaker 1: either stocks or funds, investments. Yeah, and so you have
16:09
Speaker 1: unfairly set up the equation where wage workers are actually
16:12
Speaker 1: proportionally pay more correct of what they make. And that's wrong.
16:15
Speaker 1: And I would I would flip that.
16:17
Speaker 2: I want to ask you, is the Republican Party a
16:19
Speaker 2: bigger threat to democracy than foreign adversaries?
16:23
Speaker 1: Right now? Yes?
16:24
Speaker 3: Why is it?
16:25
Speaker 1: They're the accomplices in the Republican Party to Donald Trump
16:29
Speaker 1: because they are so afraid of this guy, and it's
16:32
Speaker 1: it's it is like a cult, like they are terrified. Well, one,
16:36
Speaker 1: they believe, many of them see in him someone who's
16:40
Speaker 1: willing to do what they've always wanted to do but
16:42
Speaker 1: were never able to do. And then the others who
16:45
Speaker 1: could pump the brakes and stop it, and the margins
16:47
Speaker 1: are close enough in Congress that it just takes a
16:49
Speaker 1: few to stop it. Those who know better are terrified.
16:53
Speaker 1: So I I hear this in the so that there's
16:56
Speaker 1: a couple of places I go where I get the
16:58
Speaker 1: real from these guys, Right, I hear like, what is
17:01
Speaker 1: really going on? It's the house gym. So there's this
17:04
Speaker 1: members gym where only members can work out. The fitness staff.
17:07
Speaker 2: They don't look like da shape at all, but go ahead.
17:09
Speaker 1: That's right. They spend more time there, but only members
17:14
Speaker 1: are allowed, so you can have and there's no cameras,
17:16
Speaker 1: you know, no phones allowed, Thank you, Anthony Wiener. Those
17:21
Speaker 1: photos came from the members chairs. And that's where I
17:26
Speaker 1: hear like, what's really going on? You know, at like
17:28
Speaker 1: the workout stations or being on the treadmill next to
17:31
Speaker 1: someone's elliptical. And I used to think it was that
17:34
Speaker 1: they were afraid of losing their jobs, and it's not
17:37
Speaker 1: that they're afraid of losing their jobs. They're afraid of
17:39
Speaker 1: their personal security. And one member recently told me, he said, look,
17:43
Speaker 1: my wife told me like, don't The phrase was, don't
17:45
Speaker 1: be the tallest poppy in the field, Like if you
17:47
Speaker 1: speak out, life's going to be hell for your kids.
17:51
Speaker 1: I'm going I'm not gonna enjoy going to church. We're
17:54
Speaker 1: not going to be welcome at the country club. We're
17:56
Speaker 1: gonna get all these death threats. So they look at
17:58
Speaker 1: like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Chaine and they're like, that
18:00
Speaker 1: is hell. Why would I want that? Sad? True to me,
18:06
Speaker 1: it's like find another job, right, Like, there's a lot
18:09
Speaker 1: of other job. I hope I work with people who
18:10
Speaker 1: are otherwise employable, Like this isn't the only job you
18:13
Speaker 1: could get if you're in Congress. But for a lot
18:15
Speaker 1: of them, it's just personal security because it's just one
18:19
Speaker 1: like Trump or Musk tweet. And now because I live
18:23
Speaker 1: it every day. Now your life's turned upside down and
18:26
Speaker 1: you have the death threats, and you probably don't have
18:29
Speaker 1: the resources to protect yourself, and so that's a big
18:33
Speaker 1: chunk of it. Then for the others, who I call accomplices,
18:38
Speaker 1: you've got this professional wrestling environment, so I will bump
18:42
Speaker 1: into people in the gym. Give you an example after
18:46
Speaker 1: during the second impeachment, I was one of the prosecutors
18:49
Speaker 1: for Donald Trump, and on a break from that trial,
18:54
Speaker 1: I was in the restroom right off the Senate floor
18:56
Speaker 1: and Ted Cruz is at the sink next to me,
19:00
Speaker 1: and as we're both washing our hands, he puts his
19:02
Speaker 1: fist out and he goes, Hey, we never met. I'm Ted,
19:07
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what the fuck? And I'm like, hey, Ted.
19:12
Speaker 1: And the night before he was on Fox News just
19:14
Speaker 1: roasting me by name, and he could tell I was confused,
19:18
Speaker 1: and he goes, I want you to know you're doing
19:21
Speaker 1: a really good job out there. And I'm like, what
19:24
Speaker 1: are you talking about? And then it occurred to me, Oh, like,
19:26
Speaker 1: we're in the bathroom, there's no camera, we're not in
19:29
Speaker 1: a hearing. He's not on Fox News. It's just professional wrestling.
19:33
Speaker 1: Like when we're in the hearing room or we're on
19:36
Speaker 1: the floor, he's going to hit me over the head
19:38
Speaker 1: with a steel chair, because that's what he thinks the
19:41
Speaker 1: fans want. I call the fans constituents. He thinks of
19:45
Speaker 1: these folks as fans. But when no one's around, it's
19:47
Speaker 1: just two guys growing out because to him, it's just entertainment.
19:52
Speaker 1: And so there's so many of my colleagues who I
19:55
Speaker 1: don't even know what the hell they believe, because they
19:58
Speaker 1: act one way on camp camera and then a completely
20:01
Speaker 1: different way when the camera's off. And the way that
20:03
Speaker 1: they're acting on camera is to completely enable and be accomplish.
20:07
Speaker 1: As to Donald Trump.
20:08
Speaker 3: Isn't that all of y'allo?
20:12
Speaker 1: I hope not.
20:12
Speaker 3: I just finished reading the original sin. So when I
20:15
Speaker 3: hate you talking, I'm like, well, what was the Democrats
20:17
Speaker 3: excuse when they chose to be accomplices in the cover
20:19
Speaker 3: up of bideness, physical and mental decline. It's the same
20:22
Speaker 3: thing y'all did to say, y'all got on television and
20:24
Speaker 3: pretended to act like everything was fine, knowing behind the
20:27
Speaker 3: scenes he was not the one.
20:29
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think many of us were behind the
20:30
Speaker 1: scenes to believe. I mean, I didn't spend much time
20:34
Speaker 1: with President Biden behind the scenes. I wasn't.
20:35
Speaker 3: I didn't spend no time with him at all.
20:37
Speaker 1: And you saw immediately you had your two eyes. I
20:41
Speaker 1: got it. I got it. But what we're the difference,
20:45
Speaker 1: I would argue, is that what Donald Trump is doing
20:49
Speaker 1: right now, you know, to our democracy, you know, completely
20:55
Speaker 1: completely taking a wrecking ball to the rule of law.
20:58
Speaker 3: But he's doing it because Democrats saw what was happening
21:01
Speaker 3: with President Biden. We knew that he should have been
21:04
Speaker 3: a transitional president and didn't push for him to say, hey,
21:07
Speaker 3: mister Biden, good job you won twenty twenty, but we
21:10
Speaker 3: need something to do with twenty twenty four.
21:12
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember I was the pastor
21:13
Speaker 1: torch guy like I was in the first presidential debate.
21:16
Speaker 1: My campaign lasted probably as long as this interview, but
21:21
Speaker 1: during the debate I said past the torch for that reason.
21:24
Speaker 1: I wanted a generational change then. And yes, would it
21:27
Speaker 1: have been better if he had done that once he
21:30
Speaker 1: had all of those successes, you know, going into the midterms, absolutely,
21:35
Speaker 1: And I do think going forward we would be best
21:39
Speaker 1: served if the DNC put in place a rule that
21:42
Speaker 1: said we will not nominate a president who is collecting
21:48
Speaker 1: Social Security. So if you're old enough to collect Social Security,
21:52
Speaker 1: you probably should not be president. I think we have
21:54
Speaker 1: to be the party of the future going forward, So
21:57
Speaker 1: make the cutoff sixty seven.
22:00
Speaker 3: Age of cognitive decline though, because I mean, Joe, I
22:02
Speaker 3: mean it's perception.
22:03
Speaker 1: Though, it's perception.
22:04
Speaker 3: Donal Trump's only a few years, a few years younger
22:06
Speaker 3: than by somebody like Bernie any right.
22:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's crazy. He's fucking crazy. Like you listen
22:11
Speaker 1: to the guy. He spoke to West Point Cadets the
22:13
Speaker 1: other day and he was talking about trophy wives, right,
22:15
Speaker 1: and everyone there's like, wait, we this is the guy
22:18
Speaker 1: that's sending us off, you know, into battle. No, he's
22:21
Speaker 1: he's losing it too. And what about Bernie Finn. I
22:25
Speaker 1: think we need to pass the torch. Like we have
22:30
Speaker 1: plenty of you know, great leaders. We have a deep
22:33
Speaker 1: bench that could lead us, you know that are not
22:36
Speaker 1: in their eighties. And so if we want to be
22:38
Speaker 1: the party of the future, if we want to have
22:40
Speaker 1: ideas of the future, if we want to take on
22:42
Speaker 1: ai right, if we want to understand these issues that
22:46
Speaker 1: our kids are going to have to inherit, I think
22:49
Speaker 1: you need to look like the future. So I believe
22:52
Speaker 1: what I said back in twenty nineteen at that debate,
22:54
Speaker 1: and I believe it now. And I hope we get
22:56
Speaker 1: that message when we start to think about twenty twenty eight.
22:59
Speaker 1: But we can't even have free and fair elections in
23:01
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight if we don't win the midterms. If
23:05
Speaker 1: we lose the midterms, forget it. There will not be
23:07
Speaker 1: free and fair elections in this country. I agree, I
23:10
Speaker 1: agree with you. I do have a question.
23:12
Speaker 2: You know, we look at Donald Trump, and Donald Trump
23:15
Speaker 2: has been signing executive orders, pardoning his people, his core
23:19
Speaker 2: to the people in the public looks like he looks
23:21
Speaker 2: out for his own.
23:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Democrats don't look look like they look out
23:24
Speaker 1: for their own.
23:25
Speaker 2: Talk about that a little bit because somebody who sees
23:27
Speaker 2: that says, well, why am I messing with Biden? Where
23:30
Speaker 2: Biden wouldn't pardon his best friend, he partner the son,
23:32
Speaker 2: wouldn't partner his best friend with Donald Trump or pardon
23:35
Speaker 2: anybody that rides.
23:36
Speaker 1: From We definitely pardoned a lot of his best friend. Yeah,
23:37
Speaker 1: he wouldn't Maryland. I think the issue is Democrats are
23:42
Speaker 1: weak with power. Say it again, Democrats are weak when
23:44
Speaker 1: we have power. So we had the White House, the House,
23:48
Speaker 1: in the Senate, and not a mom in America would
23:52
Speaker 1: say that her kid was safer at school. All right, Right,
23:55
Speaker 1: So I have three little kids. My two oldest, they
23:58
Speaker 1: do mass shooter drills. They're eight, and they're and so
24:01
Speaker 1: they would look at Democrats and say, wait, we gave
24:03
Speaker 1: you that Holy Trinity, White House, Senate House, and y'all
24:07
Speaker 1: couldn't pass background checks or an assault weapons ban and
24:11
Speaker 1: you let what like the filibuster get in the way
24:14
Speaker 1: of it. So if Democrats in Republicans, by the way,
24:17
Speaker 1: they they will lean in with thin power and pass
24:23
Speaker 1: unpopular positions. So if we were as strong with power
24:27
Speaker 1: to pass popular positions, imagine how people would perceive us.
24:31
Speaker 1: Almost eighty percent of gun owning Republicans believe in background checks,
24:36
Speaker 1: and we couldn't even get that done. So I think
24:38
Speaker 1: the next president and the next Democratic majority has to
24:42
Speaker 1: flex when we have power. I think we have to
24:44
Speaker 1: also we have to have an anti corruption agenda as well.
24:47
Speaker 1: I think we have to clean up and clear out
24:49
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court, frankly, because I think Donald Trump is
24:52
Speaker 1: now just saying it out loud that he corruptly appointed
24:56
Speaker 1: judges to the Supreme Court. He's in this little fight
24:58
Speaker 1: with Leonard Leo and he said, I was told these
25:01
Speaker 1: judges and these justices on the courts, you know, we're
25:04
Speaker 1: going to go my way. And he's upset that some
25:06
Speaker 1: of them mar I mean, he's saying out loud that
25:08
Speaker 1: he has corrupted the courts. So we need to put
25:10
Speaker 1: in place. I think term limits on the court. I
25:12
Speaker 1: think we need to have a code of ethics for
25:15
Speaker 1: these justices. I don't think members of Congress should be
25:17
Speaker 1: trading stocks. I don't trade individual stocks. Apparently that's why
25:21
Speaker 1: I'm still in staking on debt. Yeah, but I do
25:26
Speaker 1: see the opportunity for us, you know, to win the midterms,
25:28
Speaker 1: win the presidency, and flex with power and get rid
25:31
Speaker 1: of the filibuster and show people that when we have power,
25:34
Speaker 1: we know what to do with it.
25:35
Speaker 3: They should have been got rid of Phil. I want
25:37
Speaker 3: to ask you this about Donald Trump. Why do a
25:39
Speaker 3: lot of Democrats still talk like Donald Trump is campaigning?
25:45
Speaker 3: Like when I hear y'all speak, it's like everything is
25:47
Speaker 3: anti Trump, anti Trump, anti Trump, which I understand because
25:50
Speaker 3: you know, he is doing a lot of things that
25:51
Speaker 3: I would consider corrupting, unconstitutional. But he's in the white House,
25:55
Speaker 3: all right, Yeah, Like you're not running against him any more.
25:58
Speaker 3: You still talk like you're campaigning against him, like you're
26:00
Speaker 3: trying to convince America he's bad. He's bad, he's bad.
26:03
Speaker 3: He's in the white House, he's the president. There has
26:05
Speaker 3: to be another scritity.
26:06
Speaker 1: Well, the strategy should be to tie him to the
26:09
Speaker 1: Republican accomplices, because because those are the folks who you
26:12
Speaker 1: can hold accountable in two years. Right, You're not going
26:15
Speaker 1: to be able to vote for Donald Trump next November,
26:17
Speaker 1: but you can vote for the Republicans that allow these tariffs,
26:22
Speaker 1: you know, to happen. You can vote, you know, for
26:24
Speaker 1: the Republicans who have taken away, you know, your access
26:29
Speaker 1: to healthcare. You can vote for the Republicans who have
26:31
Speaker 1: enabled the doctors who do cancer research at the UNIH
26:35
Speaker 1: you know, to be fired. By the way, there's a
26:38
Speaker 1: brain drain happening right now where European and Canadian leaders
26:43
Speaker 1: are calling our best cancer researchers, our best cybersecurity experts,
26:48
Speaker 1: our best engineers and saying I'll give you a visa,
26:52
Speaker 1: I'll fund your research, come here. And so we are
26:55
Speaker 1: losing the best. So we have to tie Trump's actions
27:01
Speaker 1: to those who are also complicit, because you can actually
27:03
Speaker 1: hold them account and you can vote them out.
27:05
Speaker 3: So what about when you see people like Elon Musk
27:08
Speaker 3: speaking out against the GOPS, you know, Mega Bill, saying
27:11
Speaker 3: that it's going to add money into the deficit. All
27:13
Speaker 3: you I respect that, Yeah, I respect. I've been seeing
27:16
Speaker 3: a lot of people in the GOP do that. To me,
27:19
Speaker 3: that's something that I never even used to see Democrats
27:21
Speaker 3: do in regards to Biden. So to your point, what
27:25
Speaker 3: I think is going to happen is people are just
27:27
Speaker 3: going to lean back towards more just a traditional conservative
27:31
Speaker 3: because they still seem like they're being honest and the
27:34
Speaker 3: Democrats still feel like they full of shit.
27:36
Speaker 1: We have that trust deficit because of what happened in
27:39
Speaker 1: the last election. And then that's why I think the
27:40
Speaker 1: best way to address it is to promise that you're
27:43
Speaker 1: going to look like the party of the future and say,
27:45
Speaker 1: you know what, like we're going to nominate someone who
27:48
Speaker 1: looks like the future. I think that acknowledges the issue
27:51
Speaker 1: in the last election. Contrast yourself with who the current
27:54
Speaker 1: president is. And by the way, it's going to be
27:56
Speaker 1: a shit show for them to sort out who their
27:59
Speaker 1: nominee is twenty eight because you have the question of
28:01
Speaker 1: whether Trump would run again, whether it would be a
28:03
Speaker 1: se I can't.
28:04
Speaker 3: Even be discussing it.
28:05
Speaker 1: No, no, because if we lose the midterms, by the way,
28:07
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. So the midterms is my focus in
28:10
Speaker 1: time Trump's actions to those who are voting on all
28:14
Speaker 1: of this in the midterms, that's the way to win.
28:16
Speaker 1: But our message has to be, as I said, aspirational
28:20
Speaker 1: that if you bet on yourself, you will have a
28:23
Speaker 1: government that'll bet on you. That's how I'm approaching this.
28:26
Speaker 1: I'm doing town halls in Republican districts twice a month
28:29
Speaker 1: where they won't hold town halls, and I'm seeing not
28:31
Speaker 1: just the Democratic base show up, but Republicans, Independence, and
28:35
Speaker 1: a lot of veterans, a lot of service member hats
28:37
Speaker 1: at these town halls because no one has fired more
28:39
Speaker 1: veterans and no one's enabled it more than Republicans in Congress.
28:44
Speaker 1: And so we have a real opportunity in the midterms.
28:47
Speaker 1: We need just three seats and we can cut our
28:49
Speaker 1: time in hell in half by winning the midterms.
28:51
Speaker 3: I was reading a Wall Street Journal yesterday and they
28:53
Speaker 3: asked the question about David Hall. We had David hallgill
28:56
Speaker 3: Be a couple weeks ago, and the question was that
28:58
Speaker 3: David Hog Democrats were nightmare or their savior.
29:01
Speaker 1: I'm on David's board, and i was on his board
29:04
Speaker 1: when he founded it. I've known him since Parkland because
29:06
Speaker 1: that's the issue I care the most about. Look, David's
29:10
Speaker 1: not wrong that the question is not are you far
29:13
Speaker 1: left or center left? It's will you bring old tactics
29:17
Speaker 1: or new tag agree? And if you're not up to
29:20
Speaker 1: bring new tactics to take on what's happening, then these
29:24
Speaker 1: times are revealing who should lead and who should leave.
29:28
Speaker 3: I agree. So, I mean, I think that anybody who
29:31
Speaker 3: is not putting up the proper fight, they should be primary.
29:35
Speaker 3: But I think it's going to take Democrats. When you
29:37
Speaker 3: talk about the future of the Democratic Party, the future
29:39
Speaker 3: of the Democratic Party is going to be you know,
29:42
Speaker 3: it's going to take some of those people, now that's
29:44
Speaker 3: the future, to throw the old regime under the bus well.
29:47
Speaker 1: And it's going to take like this Avengers, like model
29:51
Speaker 1: of Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost, Robert Garcia, people that you'd
29:55
Speaker 1: not seen before just step up. And then we're going
29:58
Speaker 1: to get to the end of this year and we're
30:01
Speaker 1: gonna win in Virginia and New Jersey in those governor's races.
30:04
Speaker 1: It's gonna give us momentum, and then the leader becomes
30:07
Speaker 1: I think the the leader is today, but the publicly
30:10
Speaker 1: perceived leader is Hakim Jeffers, right, because he's got to
30:14
Speaker 1: make the case. He's that we're winning the House. He's terrible,
30:16
Speaker 1: but that he's the leader of the party. And he's
30:18
Speaker 1: got in my position only yeah, but he's he's got
30:22
Speaker 1: he's the if we win, he's the speaker, right, So
30:24
Speaker 1: he's got to make the case in the fall that
30:27
Speaker 1: this is the agenda, these are the seats win there,
30:31
Speaker 1: and now we have the majority of the House.
30:33
Speaker 3: The reason I Donald trust guy like Hakim is because
30:35
Speaker 3: he's so willing to still bend a knee to the
30:38
Speaker 3: old regime. He's not going to ever speak out against
30:41
Speaker 3: Chuck Schumer. He's never going to do that.
30:43
Speaker 1: But I can.
30:45
Speaker 3: But you're not the leader.
30:46
Speaker 1: I want the leader.
30:47
Speaker 3: I want hakm Jeffries to speak out against jucku Wan.
30:50
Speaker 3: When chuckx Human says, hey, we got to support this
30:52
Speaker 3: bill that Donald Trump is doing, you got to say no,
30:54
Speaker 3: we gotta hold the line. You have to be willing
30:57
Speaker 3: to speak out against people in your own party. That's
30:59
Speaker 3: the only way to gain trust from people.
31:01
Speaker 1: And you've seen, at least on the House side that
31:03
Speaker 1: we've held the line. Right. Not a single one of
31:05
Speaker 1: us voted for reconciliation. No one voted to keep you know,
31:09
Speaker 1: the the Doge government open when that vote came in March.
31:13
Speaker 1: And as I said, I have seen colleagues who no
31:17
Speaker 1: one knew their name until a couple months ago emerge
31:20
Speaker 1: and that's encouraging to me. It just shows that there
31:22
Speaker 1: is a deep bench. And that's why I think being
31:25
Speaker 1: the party of the future has to be our priority
31:28
Speaker 1: because the past was rejected last November.
31:30
Speaker 3: Why should we have a trust the Democratic Party after
31:32
Speaker 3: they lied to us so long about bread and Biden.
31:34
Speaker 3: And I'm big on this because I just read the
31:36
Speaker 3: original sin and I'm just like, I don't see I
31:38
Speaker 3: think that Democrats have tried every strategy except for two things.
31:42
Speaker 3: Honesty encourage.
31:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's a lot of people who are courageous
31:46
Speaker 1: right now in the Democratic Party. Our bread and butter
31:50
Speaker 1: issue are danced with. The one that brought you is healthcare.
31:53
Speaker 1: People have always trusted us on healthcare. That's our issue,
31:56
Speaker 1: from President Johnson to President Obama to when Donald Trump
32:00
Speaker 1: to take it away. That's how we won the House
32:01
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen. And now this Reconciliation bill is going
32:04
Speaker 1: to take fourteen million people off their health care. We're
32:06
Speaker 1: not only going to protect healthcare because I think protecting
32:09
Speaker 1: health care is not enough. We need to invest in cures.
32:13
Speaker 1: And these motherfuckers are firing cancer doctors. So we have
32:16
Speaker 1: a real clean contrast. We're for cures, they're for cancer,
32:22
Speaker 1: right like that, So like, that's why you should trust us.
32:24
Speaker 1: Because forty percent of Americans are going to get a
32:27
Speaker 1: phone call from a doctor to say I'm sorry you
32:30
Speaker 1: have cancer, And so you're gonna if it doesn't come
32:33
Speaker 1: to you, it's gonna come to someone you know. And
32:35
Speaker 1: so you want the party that believes in your health
32:39
Speaker 1: care and that you have a right to fight it
32:42
Speaker 1: and not go broke. And I think we have a
32:43
Speaker 1: chance to do that.
32:44
Speaker 3: Do you think, well, I know Democrats do have a
32:47
Speaker 3: messaging problem, because it's almost like Democrats love faxing figures,
32:51
Speaker 3: but Republicans talk to people's gut, their emotion. When will
32:54
Speaker 3: we all learn to hit back emotionally?
32:57
Speaker 1: We think messaging is winning a Harvard Law School moot
33:01
Speaker 1: court competition, and I think messaging is winning a gut
33:07
Speaker 1: check at the bar or the bus stop. And so
33:11
Speaker 1: it means just speaking plainly. And when you see the
33:15
Speaker 1: other side elect a thirty four count felon, you should
33:20
Speaker 1: probably see yourself as liberated to just say what you
33:22
Speaker 1: believe and not be so polished and scripted and try
33:26
Speaker 1: and project what you think a politician should sound like.
33:29
Speaker 1: Because people can call bullshit, and they're calling bullshit, and
33:32
Speaker 1: so I hope what you're seeing now is more and
33:35
Speaker 1: more of my colleagues liberated. Can it produce some cringe moments, yes,
33:41
Speaker 1: But the other part of this is to always be on,
33:45
Speaker 1: like always beyond. And I'll give you an example. If
33:47
Speaker 1: you look at the twenty the last election, many people
33:50
Speaker 1: would say the biggest mistake Kamala Harris made was when
33:53
Speaker 1: she went on the view and said that she wasn't
33:55
Speaker 1: doing any different frien than Joe Biden. I think the
33:58
Speaker 1: biggest mistake was that it would be I think four
34:02
Speaker 1: or five days from when she said that to when
34:04
Speaker 1: she did another interview. Donald Trump makes five mistakes an hour,
34:09
Speaker 1: but he's always on and so it just washes it out.
34:12
Speaker 1: And so when you allow that amount of time to
34:14
Speaker 1: go by, you're going to be defined by the other side.
34:17
Speaker 1: And so I think the lesson is one be yourself,
34:20
Speaker 1: but always be on. Go to as many places as possible.
34:22
Speaker 1: After the election, I saw that sixty eight percent of
34:26
Speaker 1: the people who voted identifying some form or another as Christian.
34:30
Speaker 1: So I told my staff, I said, put us on
34:33
Speaker 1: the top twenty Christian podcast. So for the last four months,
34:37
Speaker 1: about once every other week, I'm going on a Christian
34:39
Speaker 1: podcast just to try and go to more spaces. You
34:42
Speaker 1: get it in places, and most people don't. I think
34:44
Speaker 1: more and more are though.
34:45
Speaker 3: That's hilarus. That's like going the opposite of the birls.
34:49
Speaker 3: Y'all go to Andrew and Dio and Drogan.
34:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to the Christians, right, But like, I'm a
34:54
Speaker 1: Christian and I don't want to be defined by what
34:55
Speaker 1: Republicans think of me, Like I don't wear it on
34:57
Speaker 1: my sleeve in my politics like they do. But I
35:00
Speaker 1: also don't want sixty eight percent of the electorate to
35:03
Speaker 1: think that I don't respect or understand who they are.
35:08
Speaker 1: And so to me, be yourself always beyond, because if
35:12
Speaker 1: you're not always on, you're gonna get defined. And this
35:15
Speaker 1: happened to us in the last election on issues that
35:17
Speaker 1: we weren't talking about that much, but they would define
35:20
Speaker 1: and exaggerate, and then we found ourselves on defense because
35:23
Speaker 1: we were too scripted and we were too cautious.
35:25
Speaker 3: But you also know, you know, Vice President of Kamala has.
35:27
Speaker 3: The reason she did that on the view is because
35:29
Speaker 3: nobody wanted to pis Biden off. Biden wanted his legacy
35:33
Speaker 3: to be intact. You could read the original Sin and
35:36
Speaker 3: see that he cares more about his legacy and his
35:40
Speaker 3: ego and how the Biden name.
35:41
Speaker 1: Is perceived than anything.
35:43
Speaker 3: So he put himself over the party and the future
35:47
Speaker 3: of America. So she didn't want to break away from that.
35:49
Speaker 3: I bet you she had stunts, marching orders, do not
35:52
Speaker 3: break away from Biden, don't make his legacy look crazy.
35:56
Speaker 1: And this is a leadership test, right, Like you have
35:59
Speaker 1: to show like whether you're going to be your own
36:02
Speaker 1: person or not. And that's that's what people were looking for.
36:05
Speaker 3: You came up during Obama's rise, right, I came in
36:08
Speaker 3: twenty twelve. So what do you what do you think
36:10
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party lost after Obama?
36:13
Speaker 1: Exodent? I think we are perceived as protecting the status quo.
36:21
Speaker 1: And when we like here's a perfect example, we will say,
36:25
Speaker 1: you know, we need to protect democracy, and people are like,
36:29
Speaker 1: protect democracy. Democracy isn't working for me, Like, why would
36:32
Speaker 1: I want to protect a corrupt system when we probably
36:37
Speaker 1: should be approaching it as like we need to fix democracy.
36:41
Speaker 1: It's too hard for most people to vote in a democracy.
36:44
Speaker 1: You have a legal system where the wealthiest can find
36:48
Speaker 1: their way out of it, while everyone else you know,
36:50
Speaker 1: is subjected, you know to it. Money buys you access.
36:56
Speaker 1: In this democracy, you can go to Trump's meme coin
36:59
Speaker 1: dinner or spend a million dollars and then get the
37:02
Speaker 1: bill you want passed or the pardon you need for
37:05
Speaker 1: your family members. So people don't look at democratsy something
37:07
Speaker 1: that needs to be protected. They look at it as
37:09
Speaker 1: something that needs to be completely fixed. And I think
37:12
Speaker 1: we have been seen as defenders of the status quo
37:16
Speaker 1: and not willing to be bold enough to break and
37:19
Speaker 1: smash things to help regular people.
37:22
Speaker 3: And that's what I'm saying. I really feel that the
37:24
Speaker 3: future of the Democratic Party, in order to be the future,
37:27
Speaker 3: you have to throw those old regimes under the bus.
37:31
Speaker 3: Thank you for your service, but that don't work anymore,
37:34
Speaker 3: especially after what just happened over the last four years.
37:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, no message received. And if you don't get that message,
37:40
Speaker 1: I don't think your voters are going to keep you
37:42
Speaker 1: in right.
37:43
Speaker 3: I had a couple more questions, Yeah, that did the
37:45
Speaker 3: Chinese spy scandal hurt your credibility? Are the Republicans just
37:48
Speaker 3: weaponized like a nothing burgus so to speak?
37:51
Speaker 1: You know the fact that the FBI and the House
37:53
Speaker 1: Ethics Committee said it was bullshit, Like I I would
37:58
Speaker 1: hope that would be enough. But like in a disinformation society,
38:02
Speaker 1: like I recognize that it's everyone on the rights favorite
38:06
Speaker 1: meme my wife tells me all the time, you know what,
38:09
Speaker 1: the second they're not going after you, you're not affected.
38:13
Speaker 1: And so I wear it as a badge of honor
38:15
Speaker 1: that these guys would want to lie about me all
38:18
Speaker 1: the time, because I think it means that I'm landing
38:24
Speaker 1: punches politically on them. That sting, and frankly, I think
38:30
Speaker 1: a lot of Republicans look at me as like, oh,
38:32
Speaker 1: that's a straight, white Christian male son of a cop,
38:37
Speaker 1: like everyone else like him looks like me, So when
38:40
Speaker 1: he comes at me, it's more betrayal to them. Like
38:44
Speaker 1: I've heard that from them on their side. That's that's
38:46
Speaker 1: why they take it so personally. So I'm not going
38:50
Speaker 1: away and they can say what they want and the
38:53
Speaker 1: death threats will come. But if they think I'm going
38:56
Speaker 1: to drop my lawsuit from January sixth against the president,
39:00
Speaker 1: if I regret being an impeachment manager, or if I'm
39:02
Speaker 1: not going to like go out and work my ass
39:04
Speaker 1: off to help us win the midterms, like they're wrong,
39:07
Speaker 1: I'm not going away with I came from nothing. I
39:09
Speaker 1: was raised by a cop who did the right thing.
39:11
Speaker 1: Like to me, I'm playing with the House's money, so
39:14
Speaker 1: to speak, and so this is just a right or
39:17
Speaker 1: wrong mission for me.
39:18
Speaker 2: You get a lot of pushback from your party because
39:21
Speaker 2: of you talk so real. You really don't give a
39:24
Speaker 2: fuck about what you say. You speak from the heart.
39:27
Speaker 1: No, no, I don't think so. Actually, a lot of
39:29
Speaker 1: the newer members will come to me before they do,
39:33
Speaker 1: like bigger interviews can ask you how to be here. Yeah,
39:35
Speaker 1: And as I try and I try and be the
39:39
Speaker 1: mentor to newer, younger members that I didn't have when
39:43
Speaker 1: I came in, I will say the best mentor I
39:45
Speaker 1: had was Nancy Pelosi, not necessarily on messaging, but just
39:49
Speaker 1: on like wielding power. She put me on the Intelligence
39:53
Speaker 1: Committee in my sophomore term. She put me at the
39:56
Speaker 1: seat next to her on the Leadership Committee as the
39:59
Speaker 1: chair of the steering and part I'll see on my
40:01
Speaker 1: third term. And so I learned like up front and
40:05
Speaker 1: center with her, you know, how to like work the
40:07
Speaker 1: caucus and wield power. I mean, because she knew how
40:10
Speaker 1: to flex. That woman knew how to flex. She's one
40:13
Speaker 1: of the greatest leaders I think we'll have had in
40:14
Speaker 1: our country in one hundred years, made a lot of
40:16
Speaker 1: money too. As trade we should not trade stocks period
40:22
Speaker 1: that we should not trade stocks. But I try and
40:26
Speaker 1: mentor the younger members, and what I tell them is,
40:28
Speaker 1: I said, is give me your zero draft when you're
40:31
Speaker 1: asked a question, don't give me yours, like when you're
40:34
Speaker 1: doing an interview. Don't give your first draft or your
40:36
Speaker 1: second draft. Just give what's in here, because that's probably
40:40
Speaker 1: what got you here. In the second you start trying to,
40:44
Speaker 1: as I said, make it appropriate for everyone, then you
40:48
Speaker 1: lose everyone. Yeah, so no, I haven't. If there is pushback,
40:52
Speaker 1: they're not saying it to my face.
40:53
Speaker 3: You know. When it comes to social media, you know
40:55
Speaker 3: they are. They do try to kill your credibility all
40:58
Speaker 3: the time with the fang fang memes. So do you
41:00
Speaker 3: think people.
41:01
Speaker 1: Will laugh at them? My best buddies will just send
41:04
Speaker 1: them to me, And I'm like, God, damn it.
41:06
Speaker 3: What do you think you think people trust politicians who
41:09
Speaker 3: speak out against foreign interference when they themselves has been
41:13
Speaker 3: caught up in it, even if they were cleared, even
41:14
Speaker 3: though you were clear.
41:16
Speaker 1: I hope they would see that, like the reason by
41:20
Speaker 1: the way, when this volunteer came to our campaign in
41:24
Speaker 1: Barack Obama's first term, so that's how long ago it was.
41:28
Speaker 1: And I see it as because the FBI said, we
41:32
Speaker 1: don't know who this person is, so we want you
41:36
Speaker 1: to help us understand it. And then the FBI said
41:39
Speaker 1: all I did was help. I see it as I
41:42
Speaker 1: have more credibility because when I had someone who we
41:46
Speaker 1: didn't understand who they were trying to help my campaign.
41:49
Speaker 1: I didn't say, hey, can you raise a lot of
41:51
Speaker 1: money for me? Can I build you know, a real
41:53
Speaker 1: estate deal in your country's capital. Can you help get
41:57
Speaker 1: me votes for my election? No, I said, I'm going
41:58
Speaker 1: to work with law enforcement. When Donald Trump did the opposite,
42:01
Speaker 1: right when he had Russians come to him, he was like, Russia,
42:05
Speaker 1: if you're listening, still trying to do a Trump tower
42:08
Speaker 1: deal in Moscow. So I would say I actually did
42:11
Speaker 1: what you would hope any elected official would do. But
42:13
Speaker 1: I get it like this is, as I said in
42:17
Speaker 1: the beginning, it's all existential. Now it's it's as Bill
42:20
Speaker 1: Clinton called it, the politics of personal destruction, Like they
42:23
Speaker 1: have to destroy me because I'm a threat, and look
42:25
Speaker 1: at look at what Jasmine's going through right, she's real
42:29
Speaker 1: she lands on them and so they they are all
42:33
Speaker 1: over her. And I've told her, I said, they're going
42:35
Speaker 1: to do this to you until you go away, and
42:38
Speaker 1: you can't hide under the bed. And she's not hiding
42:40
Speaker 1: under the bed, and she's not going to she's not
42:42
Speaker 1: going away, but that that's what they want you to do.
42:46
Speaker 1: And they're they're very effective at finding the threats and
42:50
Speaker 1: our party and trying to make them go away. And
42:53
Speaker 1: as I said, I you can't intimidate me like I
42:56
Speaker 1: I live with, like the power going out when I
42:58
Speaker 1: was a kid and we all SCRAMed to figure out
43:00
Speaker 1: how we're going to turn the power back on, like
43:02
Speaker 1: I've lived through the worst. Like some Chinese meme that
43:05
Speaker 1: you're gonna make about me, like that doesn't bother me.
43:09
Speaker 3: My last question, is there anything Democrats can do to
43:11
Speaker 3: stop the GOP megabill.
43:13
Speaker 1: Yes, continue to go to Republican districts and put pressure
43:17
Speaker 1: on I'm getting seven hundred to one thousand people in
43:19
Speaker 1: these districts when I go and do town halls, and
43:22
Speaker 1: that downward pressure that is we only need to flip
43:26
Speaker 1: three of them in the house, when if it comes
43:29
Speaker 1: back again, same thing in the Senate, and we have
43:31
Speaker 1: Senate seats that we did not think were in play
43:33
Speaker 1: that are going to be in play, not just North Carolina,
43:36
Speaker 1: but also Florida, Iowa. I mean, look at the Senator
43:39
Speaker 1: of Iowa. Two weeks ago. You would not have said
43:41
Speaker 1: that Iowa was going to be a threat. And then
43:43
Speaker 1: the Senator of Iowa went out and said, well, who
43:46
Speaker 1: cares if we're cutting medicaid. We're all going to die anyway.
43:48
Speaker 1: So like going to those states, doing these town halls,
43:52
Speaker 1: bringing out not just Republicans but also independence, not just Democrats,
43:57
Speaker 1: but Republicans and independence. That works, And it's also an
44:00
Speaker 1: organizing tool, a muscle for us, you know, to exercise,
44:04
Speaker 1: so that we're ready to flex it at the mid terms.
44:05
Speaker 3: Nextime is your Democrats who support this bill be shamed.
44:09
Speaker 1: No, Democrats, you shupport this bill?
44:10
Speaker 3: Yeah?
44:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we do not support this bill.
44:14
Speaker 3: Is this this is the same bility that Chuck Schumer
44:16
Speaker 3: said he wanted to support, right, No, no, the spending
44:18
Speaker 3: bill that was a spending bill.
44:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's going to come back up in September.
44:21
Speaker 1: And I hope we learned our lesson from what happened
44:23
Speaker 1: in March. We should not be helping these guys get
44:26
Speaker 1: well because, as I said, they're firing cancer doctors. That's
44:29
Speaker 1: what when you fund their government, you're funding the government
44:32
Speaker 1: that is firing cancer doctor.
44:33
Speaker 3: Are they really cutting Medicaid? Yes, but they said they're not.
44:37
Speaker 1: I mean they say a lot of shit that they're
44:38
Speaker 1: actually doing.
44:39
Speaker 3: I mean we don't read the bills, don't.
44:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, they're really cutting.
44:41
Speaker 3: It's really in it. And they want to cut Medicaid.
44:43
Speaker 1: Yes, it It will kick fourteen million people off Medican Wow.
44:46
Speaker 1: Fourteen million people. Wow.
44:48
Speaker 2: Congressman Eric Swollwell, thank you so much for doing my
44:51
Speaker 2: pleasure this morning, and don't be a stranger.
44:53
Speaker 1: I'll be back all right. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning.
44:55
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club