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"Our lawless, wall-less president." · Pod Save America

0:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Lovett.
0:22
Speaker 2: And I'm Alyssa Mastromonaco.
0:23
Speaker 1: Alyssa, this is very exciting.
0:25
Speaker 2: Lovett, I just wish we were closer.
0:28
Speaker 1: I know. I think that if we were together, we
0:30
Speaker 1: might be able to match the natural chemistry I had
0:32
Speaker 1: with Dan, which is white hot. I know.
0:36
Speaker 3: I listen.
0:38
Speaker 1: We can do our best. Today, we're talking about Trump
0:41
Speaker 1: encouraging his aides to break the law to build the
0:43
Speaker 1: border wall, a new Senate race in Georgia, the winnowing
0:45
Speaker 1: of the Democratic field. And we're joined by Massachusetts Congresswoman
0:49
Speaker 1: Ayanna Pressley to talk about the prospects of gun control,
0:52
Speaker 1: the squad, the latest on impeachment and the attacks she's
0:54
Speaker 1: faced in recent weeks. Two quick notes. In the new
0:57
Speaker 1: episode of Ponce of the World that dropped this week,
0:59
Speaker 1: Tommy and Ben answer questions from listeners and share stories
1:02
Speaker 1: from their time in the White House. Ben also talks
1:04
Speaker 1: with Congressman Ro Khanna, so check that out. And Love
1:07
Speaker 1: It or Leave It will be at Radio City Music
1:09
Speaker 1: Hall on Friday, September 13th. There are just a few
1:12
Speaker 1: seats left, and I'll have more confidence if it sells out.
1:14
Speaker 1: Head to crooked.com slash events to get tickets. I'm very
1:18
Speaker 1: excited about that show. Alyssa, you'll be there?
1:20
Speaker 2: I will be there front row so I can tell
1:22
Speaker 2: you you look like a model.
1:23
Speaker 1: That's all I need. That's all I need in this world.
1:27
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the news about our lawless,
1:30
Speaker 1: wall-less president. Here is what the Washington Post reported on
1:33
Speaker 1: Tuesday night. President Trump is so eager to complete hundreds
1:35
Speaker 1: of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential
1:38
Speaker 1: election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of
1:41
Speaker 1: dollars worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land, and
1:45
Speaker 1: disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved
1:49
Speaker 1: with the project. When aides have suggested that some orders
1:52
Speaker 1: are illegal or unworkable, Trump has suggested he would pardon
1:55
Speaker 1: the officials if they would just go ahead, aides said.
1:58
Speaker 1: He has waved off worries about contracting procedures and the
2:00
Speaker 1: use of eminent domain, saying, take the land, according to
2:03
Speaker 1: officials who attended the meetings. The piece goes on. Don't worry,
2:07
Speaker 1: I'll pardon you, he has told officials in meetings about
2:10
Speaker 1: the wall. He said people expected him to build a
2:12
Speaker 1: wall and it had to be done by the election,
2:14
Speaker 1: one former official said. Trump denied this immediately, claiming that
2:19
Speaker 1: the Washington Post is out to get him. But even
2:21
Speaker 1: inside of this story, aides refused to deny that Trump
2:23
Speaker 1: discussed pardons outright, claiming Trump was joking. Trump also, not
2:28
Speaker 1: one for subtlety, apparently also is insisting that the wall
2:31
Speaker 1: be spiked and painted black, even though painting the wall
2:34
Speaker 1: black will cost so much money that the wall will
2:36
Speaker 1: end up being four to seven miles shorter. Alyssa, there
2:39
Speaker 1: is a lot to unpack here. So I want to
2:41
Speaker 1: start with the political pressure Trump is feeling. then talk
2:44
Speaker 1: about how he's paying for all this, and finally dive
2:46
Speaker 1: into the corrupt and criminal elements. So Trump has promised
2:51
Speaker 1: to build 500 miles of his wall before the election,
2:53
Speaker 1: but as of now, he has built no new fencing
2:56
Speaker 1: along the southern border, none. They've replaced some fencing. They've
3:00
Speaker 1: managed to do some construction to replace some fencing, but
3:02
Speaker 1: that's it. He seems to be panicking about this. A
3:05
Speaker 1: new Quinnipiac, Quinnipiac, doesn't matter, found that Trump's approval rating
3:11
Speaker 1: on immigration, his signature issue, is at 38%. with 59% disapproval.
3:15
Speaker 1: So Trump views this as essential to his reelection. We
3:17
Speaker 1: just went through a midterm fight in which Democrats produced
3:19
Speaker 1: a huge majority in the House despite immigration fear-mongering. Alyssa,
3:23
Speaker 1: what did you take away from this story in terms
3:25
Speaker 1: of Trump's immigration politics?
3:28
Speaker 2: Someone's scared. Someone made one promise in 2016. I think
3:33
Speaker 2: the chant was build that wall. And he has the
3:38
Speaker 2: one thing, the one thing people wanted from him. He
3:40
Speaker 2: can't do. He hasn't done. And, you know, he he's.
3:45
Speaker 3: Like, that's it.
3:46
Speaker 1: Love it.
3:47
Speaker 2: It comes down to this fucking wall. It comes down
3:49
Speaker 2: to a wall. He knows it. We know it. And
3:50
Speaker 2: there's no wall.
3:52
Speaker 1: So you were in a job in the Obama administration
3:56
Speaker 1: that was very much about tracking people. projects like this.
4:00
Speaker 1: Of course, the Obama administration would not pursue a project
4:03
Speaker 1: like this, but you were in a job, you know,
4:07
Speaker 1: one of the jobs of president and the people that
4:08
Speaker 1: work for president is setting priorities for an administration and
4:12
Speaker 1: keeping things moving forward. One detail in the article I
4:15
Speaker 1: found striking is that Trump has been having regular meetings
4:18
Speaker 1: to assess the progress and the construction of the wall,
4:20
Speaker 1: which seemed like almost ordinary politics from Trump. How much
4:24
Speaker 1: of a failing is it for a White House administration
4:27
Speaker 1: to be so flat-footed on a signature issue like this.
4:34
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, Levitt, can you imagine if after as
4:37
Speaker 2: many years as we were in the White House back
4:40
Speaker 2: in 2009, 2010, if we had done nothing on health care,
4:44
Speaker 2: if there were no discussions, if there was no progress,
4:46
Speaker 2: if there was no gang of eight, whatever the group
4:49
Speaker 2: was called? And here he is now, being getting whooped,
4:54
Speaker 2: you know, last fall in the midterms. And now he's
4:57
Speaker 2: cruising into, you know, his reelection. And he he hasn't
5:01
Speaker 2: done anything to deliver on the fear mongering race baiting
5:08
Speaker 2: that he did. And, you know, his core constituency, his
5:12
Speaker 2: core supporters, they want to see this fucking wall. They
5:15
Speaker 2: want to know he scared the shit out of everyone.
5:17
Speaker 2: He said a caravan was coming. He said everyone was
5:20
Speaker 2: climbing over things, breaking through the country. He built this
5:24
Speaker 2: all up. And unlike with tariffs and everything else he
5:27
Speaker 2: does this with, he can't really walk it back because
5:30
Speaker 2: he created such mania. And so now he needs to literally,
5:35
Speaker 2: by hook or by crook, get something on this wall. But, Levitt,
5:38
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw. I had to look
5:40
Speaker 2: at this a couple times, as I do with many
5:42
Speaker 2: Trump tweets. He put a video, it's his pinned tweet
5:45
Speaker 2: right now, that has what looks like video of this
5:50
Speaker 2: completed black wall. And he says things like the wall
5:53
Speaker 2: is going up as fast as it can. But it's
5:56
Speaker 2: a lie. But he'll do anything to try to tell
5:58
Speaker 2: people he's actually making progress when there is absolutely no progress.
6:04
Speaker 1: No, it's interesting. It does seem like he has caught
6:07
Speaker 1: between his two instincts. One is... his understanding that he
6:13
Speaker 1: made a promise, and even though politics is barely functioning,
6:16
Speaker 1: even though he can say whatever he wants to his base,
6:19
Speaker 1: even though he'll be backed by a propaganda network, even
6:21
Speaker 1: though people are shouting, finish the wall at his rallies,
6:24
Speaker 1: despite the fact that he has not really begun the wall,
6:26
Speaker 1: at least not built any new wall, that he understands
6:29
Speaker 1: he actually has to do something, while at the same
6:31
Speaker 1: time recognizing that if he can't do anything, he still
6:34
Speaker 1: is free to lie about it, that he can just
6:36
Speaker 1: simply claim the wall is being built and have footage
6:39
Speaker 1: of construction and call it a victory just so that
6:42
Speaker 1: he has something to campaign on.
6:44
Speaker 2: It's a real choose your own adventure inside his head.
6:48
Speaker 1: All right. So one other facet of this is how
6:52
Speaker 1: he's paying for the wall. In July, the conservative majority
6:55
Speaker 1: in the Supreme Court affirmed Trump's ability to take $ 2. 5
6:58
Speaker 1: billion from the Pentagon and put it towards wall construction
7:01
Speaker 1: despite Congress's explicit refusal to devote money to this project
7:05
Speaker 1: after Trump repeatedly walked away from immigration deals with Democrats
7:07
Speaker 1: and Republicans that would have funded the wall. Now we
7:10
Speaker 1: learn that for the second time in a year, Trump
7:12
Speaker 1: has taken funding from FEMA to pay for his immigration policies.
7:15
Speaker 1: Last September, the administration took almost $ 10 million from FEMA
7:17
Speaker 1: and sent it to ICE. This week, the administration announced
7:19
Speaker 1: it was taking $ 271 million from FEMA, including $ 155 million
7:23
Speaker 1: from the agency's disaster relief fund, and directing those funds
7:26
Speaker 1: toward the border, including towards detention beds. This came in
7:29
Speaker 1: the midst of hurricane season. Hurricane Dorian was striking the U.S.
7:32
Speaker 1: Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and it's a storm that's
7:35
Speaker 1: currently intensifying as it heads toward Florida. Even as Puerto
7:39
Speaker 1: Rico was bracing for the storm, Trump was attacking Puerto
7:41
Speaker 1: Rico on Twitter. Puerto Rico was largely spared from the
7:44
Speaker 1: brunt of Dorian, but still not great. You know, we
7:48
Speaker 1: now have Trump. He claimed Mexico was going to pay
7:50
Speaker 1: for it. That's become a joke in and of itself.
7:52
Speaker 1: But he's taking money from FEMA. He's taking money from
7:54
Speaker 1: the Pentagon. We have Trump telling aides to take the
7:57
Speaker 1: land from American citizens through eminent domain, all to give
8:00
Speaker 1: his reelection a boost. Alyssa, how would you be telling
8:03
Speaker 1: Democratic candidates to talk about this, the way that he
8:06
Speaker 1: has decided to fund this pet project?
8:10
Speaker 2: So this is very personal to me because as White
8:17
Speaker 2: House Deputy Chief of Staff, I oversaw disasters. And one
8:22
Speaker 2: thing that I think candidates, I think that you need
8:24
Speaker 2: to make it vivid and I think you have to
8:26
Speaker 2: drive it home. And one of the things as it
8:28
Speaker 2: relates specifically to him taking the money from FEMA and
8:32
Speaker 2: Homeland Security is is that the costliest hurricanes that have
8:36
Speaker 2: hit the U.S. all happened in late August, September, or October, right? Katrina, Harvey, Maria, Sandy, Irma, Ike,
8:49
Speaker 2: and Wilma, right? Since 1980, the United States government has
8:55
Speaker 2: paid over $ 862 billion to hurricane recovery and The average cost,
9:01
Speaker 2: about $ 21. 6 billion per hurricane. So the question for everyone is,
9:07
Speaker 2: if most hurricanes hit the U.S., the costliest, the deadliest,
9:11
Speaker 2: hit the U.S. between September and early November, what Why
9:16
Speaker 2: is he moving money now? Like, this is the worst time.
9:20
Speaker 2: This is like when your parents give you $ 1, 000 for
9:23
Speaker 2: food and books your first semester of college and you,
9:26
Speaker 2: I don't know, decide to go to an Indigo Girls
9:28
Speaker 2: concert in Amherst, Massachusetts and use half that money. Like,
9:32
Speaker 2: you still got to pay for the food for the
9:34
Speaker 2: rest of the semester, which only means calling your parents
9:37
Speaker 2: or getting another job. But you got to find the money.
9:40
Speaker 2: And in this case, the money, the parents are Congress.
9:43
Speaker 1: Are you worried that that analogy was too specific or
9:46
Speaker 1: maybe not specific enough?
9:48
Speaker 2: I mean, it's something that I was thinking about when
9:51
Speaker 2: the Indigo Girls came on the radio on my way here.
9:54
Speaker 2: And I was like, it's just like that. I mean,
9:57
Speaker 2: it's obviously not just like that, but you get my point.
10:00
Speaker 2: This is nothing but robbing from Peter to pay Paul.
10:03
Speaker 2: And if there are things Dorian right now is is
10:06
Speaker 2: on track to make landfall in the U.S. as a
10:09
Speaker 2: category for many of the hurricanes that have been that
10:13
Speaker 2: have had the damage they've had were less than a
10:15
Speaker 2: category for. So he's just it's it's all such fucking garbage.
10:21
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the other. This story to me
10:25
Speaker 1: was like, there was something about this Washington Post story
10:28
Speaker 1: that captured sort of every element of the threat Trump poses.
10:31
Speaker 1: It is focused on a cruel and inhumane immigration policy
10:36
Speaker 1: rooted in the animus that he has stoked in millions
10:39
Speaker 1: of people against immigrants. He is taking from other government
10:42
Speaker 1: priorities because he has no care for the functioning of
10:44
Speaker 1: the government whatsoever and has been sort of abetted by
10:48
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court abetted by Republicans in Congress who don't
10:52
Speaker 1: seem to care to hold him accountable. But there was
10:54
Speaker 1: also this final piece of it, which is what the
10:58
Speaker 1: Washington Post reported on pardons that CNN has confirmed, others
11:01
Speaker 1: have confirmed, that basically says if aides have to break
11:05
Speaker 1: a few federal laws to get the wall done more quickly,
11:08
Speaker 1: it's not a big deal because you can just issue
11:10
Speaker 1: a pardon. Alyssa, what was your reaction when you saw
11:14
Speaker 1: this sort of pardon offer as part of his race
11:20
Speaker 1: to get the wall done?
11:22
Speaker 2: I mean, on the one hand, not really surprised. I mean,
11:25
Speaker 2: I guess I would have thought he was offering this
11:28
Speaker 2: out sooner, like he did with all the other people
11:32
Speaker 2: who have gone to jail because of him. But for me,
11:36
Speaker 2: I guess I just remembered my very first day in
11:39
Speaker 2: the White House when Barack Obama made it clear, literally
11:44
Speaker 2: said verbatim, you report you serve the people of the
11:49
Speaker 2: United States. And I think what's so clear in this
11:52
Speaker 2: West Wing specifically is that they serve one person who
11:56
Speaker 2: is mercurial, to be kind, and it is not at
12:00
Speaker 2: all about the people or doing what's right or doing
12:04
Speaker 2: things the right way or adhering to anything.
12:07
Speaker 1: I don't know.
12:07
Speaker 2: It's just like.
12:09
Speaker 2: I mean, Lovett, what did you think? Were you surprised?
12:12
Speaker 1: You know, when I saw it come over the... the
12:15
Speaker 1: wires as it were, I read it and for a
12:19
Speaker 1: moment it just felt like another Trump story. And then
12:22
Speaker 1: I thought about it again and I read it again
12:25
Speaker 1: and I thought, wait a second, I know we're inured
12:30
Speaker 1: to a lot of Trump's worst abuses and I know
12:32
Speaker 1: the immediate reaction political is, well, even if Democrats impeach Trump,
12:39
Speaker 1: the Senate won't do anything, nobody will care. The immediate
12:42
Speaker 1: reaction there's a kind of learned helplessness that when you
12:45
Speaker 1: see something like this, you already jump to the fact
12:48
Speaker 1: that you're aware that everyone's going to move on. But
12:50
Speaker 1: when I saw it, I didn't want to move on
12:53
Speaker 1: because it does to me feel like a real escalation.
12:55
Speaker 1: You know, Trump has dangled pardons for Paul Manafort, for
12:59
Speaker 1: Michael Flynn, for Michael Cohen. Mueller documents Trump's abuse of
13:02
Speaker 1: the pardon power in the report. Dozens of references to
13:05
Speaker 1: how he has tried to use the pardon to cover
13:07
Speaker 1: up crime. Trump's also pardoned people like Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D'Souza,
13:12
Speaker 1: right-wing hardliners, and his lackeys who he just wanted to
13:17
Speaker 1: give a favor to, no deeper principle, no sense of
13:20
Speaker 1: kind of what the pardon power is meant to do,
13:22
Speaker 1: which is to bestow mercy for those who deserve it.
13:27
Speaker 1: But this to me is new. This is saying, break
13:31
Speaker 1: the law to help me win reelection and I will
13:33
Speaker 1: pardon you, which is not far from saying federal laws
13:37
Speaker 1: do not apply if you are helping Donald Trump hold
13:40
Speaker 1: on to power. That if you are going, whether it's
13:43
Speaker 1: campaign finance laws, whether it's laws governing how you can
13:47
Speaker 1: build a wall along the southern border, whether it's laws
13:50
Speaker 1: around electioneering, whether it's laws about what Kellyanne Conway is
13:53
Speaker 1: allowed to say on the White House lawn, violating the
13:55
Speaker 1: Hatch Act by basically treating the White House as a
13:59
Speaker 1: campaign platform for her boss, that Donald Trump doesn't care
14:02
Speaker 1: about any of it. He doesn't care about any of it.
14:04
Speaker 1: The law does not matter. All that matters is his
14:07
Speaker 1: ego and his not being wounded by negative attacks or
14:11
Speaker 1: by or being defeated in reelection. So to me, this
14:14
Speaker 1: was a kind of dangerous escalation.
14:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard to it's actually hard to imagine like
14:21
Speaker 2: he's done so much, like you say, to make us
14:24
Speaker 2: numb to this. But I just for a minute think
14:27
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, the other day was the anniversary
14:29
Speaker 2: of Barack Obama's scandal of wearing a tan suit. And
14:33
Speaker 2: I think about if any other president, if we had
14:36
Speaker 2: heard that Bill Clinton was offering out pardons for people
14:41
Speaker 2: to lie, to do something, to lie to Ken Starr, like,
14:45
Speaker 2: I'll take care of you, perjure yourself. I just think
14:48
Speaker 2: that the world would have been on fire. Tom Brokaw
14:52
Speaker 2: would have been having break-in special news at five o'clock
14:56
Speaker 2: instead of six. And now we're just like, Like, we
15:00
Speaker 2: know it's terrible, but there's so much other bad shit
15:02
Speaker 2: he does that you're like, OK, you know, I guess
15:05
Speaker 2: here's another thing.
15:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is.
15:08
Speaker 1: It is. It is this sort of catch 22 in
15:12
Speaker 1: that despite the fact that we know that Trump's impeachable offenses,
15:17
Speaker 1: that Trump's misconduct, his abuse of office is unprecedented viciousness
15:20
Speaker 1: and all of it has become in many ways sort
15:24
Speaker 1: of the status quo ante of politics. that we can't
15:29
Speaker 1: treat it that way in the moment, despite the fact
15:31
Speaker 1: that in the back of our minds, we fear that
15:33
Speaker 1: that's what will ultimately happen anyway. So it is the strategy, right?
15:39
Speaker 1: We are exhausted by the many different abuses of Donald Trump.
15:43
Speaker 1: But I do think this one, we have now seen
15:46
Speaker 1: a steady trickle of Democrats coming out for impeachment. But
15:51
Speaker 1: it is worth noting that right now, there is a
15:53
Speaker 1: kind of brazenness to what Donald Trump is doing. He
15:56
Speaker 1: is floating, having the G7 take place at Doral. He
16:02
Speaker 1: is telling aides to break the law, to proactively inform
16:06
Speaker 1: them that he will pardon them if they break the law.
16:08
Speaker 1: An abuse of the pardon power that has been warned
16:13
Speaker 1: about since the founders were giving the president the pardon power,
16:17
Speaker 1: this unlimited power that everyone has recognized was ripe for abuse.
16:22
Speaker 1: So You know, we come back to this question, is
16:25
Speaker 1: it worth impeaching Donald Trump or do we just simply
16:27
Speaker 1: have to repudiate him at the ballot box? But I
16:29
Speaker 1: do think it's also worth just pausing and saying, this
16:31
Speaker 1: is new. This is dangerous. This is an unprecedented move
16:37
Speaker 1: by Trump in a very tough category of abuses. And
16:41
Speaker 1: beyond that, it's about pressuring Democrats to take it as
16:43
Speaker 1: seriously as they should to not buy into the kind
16:46
Speaker 1: of learned helplessness that we see in the media, that
16:49
Speaker 1: we see in the sort of political coverage. Right.
16:51
Speaker 2: It's kind of like if impeachment isn't for this, then
16:54
Speaker 2: what is it for?
16:56
Speaker 1: Right. Right. I mean, you know, that it and that
17:01
Speaker 1: has been true. We could have said that. It's interesting.
17:04
Speaker 1: That sentence has been true for a long time. That
17:06
Speaker 1: was true of the abuses outlined by Mueller. But this
17:10
Speaker 1: to me is an even new level. The president is
17:13
Speaker 1: telling people that they can break the law with impunity
17:17
Speaker 1: to help him retain his office. That is an abuse
17:21
Speaker 1: of power at the core of checks and balances. That
17:24
Speaker 1: is why we have an impeachment power. We can't declare
17:27
Speaker 1: a vote of no confidence. We can't go up to
17:29
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth II and say, can you put the parliament
17:34
Speaker 1: in the fridge? This is what we have. And it
17:38
Speaker 1: may not lead to removal in the Senate, but it's
17:41
Speaker 1: still the power that we have. He is so brazen
17:44
Speaker 1: at this moment because he doesn't believe there will be
17:47
Speaker 1: any mechanism to hold him accountable.
17:49
Speaker 2: And we know that he is not nuanced, right? He's
17:53
Speaker 2: not slick. So what I think about is, what has
17:59
Speaker 2: he done and said in this vein that we don't
18:04
Speaker 2: know about? What's he saying to people at the State
18:06
Speaker 2: Department about what we're doing in Syria or Yemen or
18:09
Speaker 2: Africa or You know, it's just it's this is just
18:12
Speaker 2: the tip of the iceberg. You know, that's what I
18:15
Speaker 2: think about when I hear this. It's like if this
18:17
Speaker 2: is what we are hearing, then this is just the beginning.
18:20
Speaker 2: This is just the beginning of the like cockeyed shit
18:23
Speaker 2: that he's doing from his very empty desk.
18:28
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic interviewed Mattis,
18:33
Speaker 1: the former secretary of defense. And it was it's it's
18:37
Speaker 1: worth reading the interview because what you feel is. first
18:40
Speaker 1: of all, you feel the imbalance between those who don't
18:43
Speaker 1: give a shit about decorum, about civility, about mutual respect,
18:51
Speaker 1: about treating people fairly, who want to defend Trump, and
18:54
Speaker 1: people like Mattis, who is a complicated figure who does
18:57
Speaker 1: not deserve unalloyed praise, let's say, but who nonetheless, you
19:04
Speaker 1: feel kind of bristling against his desire to remain quiet
19:09
Speaker 1: out of respect for the office of the presidency, who
19:13
Speaker 1: nonetheless does seem to want to speak out about what
19:17
Speaker 1: he saw behind the scenes. And there's a moment in
19:19
Speaker 1: this interview where Mattis basically says, I feel as though
19:23
Speaker 1: I have a moral obligation to provide silence, but it
19:26
Speaker 1: won't last forever. And you do see that there are
19:30
Speaker 1: people inside who have not yet told us enough about
19:34
Speaker 1: the truth of what they saw when they were working
19:36
Speaker 1: with this president.
19:37
Speaker 2: And something that I think is interesting that I always
19:40
Speaker 2: think is worth sort of shining a light on, Susan
19:43
Speaker 2: Rice and I a couple months ago did an event together.
19:46
Speaker 2: It was this big event. And one of the things
19:48
Speaker 2: that I asked her was, you know, people like John
19:52
Speaker 2: Brennan and Jim Clapper, you know, have they done they
19:55
Speaker 2: are apolitical. These are not members of the security of
20:01
Speaker 2: this country who wanted to come out and and make
20:04
Speaker 2: statements that make them appear political. But because they know
20:08
Speaker 2: what a menace, what a threat this president is to
20:11
Speaker 2: national security, they have felt the need to speak out.
20:15
Speaker 2: And I always think it's worth just saying this was
20:18
Speaker 2: not in their DNA. This wasn't something that they ever
20:20
Speaker 2: wanted to do. They served multiple presidents of different parties.
20:24
Speaker 2: But this is where we are. Everybody feels the need,
20:28
Speaker 2: like see something, say something.
20:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, these are heavy topics. But before we move on,
20:36
Speaker 1: I did want to read one tweet from Trump about
20:42
Speaker 1: this question as to whether or not the G7 should
20:45
Speaker 1: meet at Trump Doral. Here it is. Quote, no bedbugs
20:52
Speaker 1: at Doral. The radical left Democrats, upon hearing that the
20:55
Speaker 1: perfectly located for the next G7, Doral National Miami, was
20:59
Speaker 1: under consideration for the next G7, spread the false and
21:02
Speaker 1: nasty rumor. Not nice. There has never been anything that
21:07
Speaker 1: has convinced me of the opposite of what it is
21:10
Speaker 1: claiming more than this tweet. Beginning a tweet, no bedbugs
21:15
Speaker 1: at Doral, is such an admission of bedbugs at Doral.
21:22
Speaker 2: Like, do you think that Angela Merkel and President Macron just, like,
21:26
Speaker 2: tweet links to each other of his tweets? Like, not
21:29
Speaker 2: sure if they should use the wide-eye emoji, the LOL emoji,
21:33
Speaker 2: or the crying emoji, but, like, this is the person
21:36
Speaker 2: they have to deal with. And you know what? There
21:38
Speaker 2: are a lot of reasons that it shouldn't be at Doral. One,
21:41
Speaker 2: it'll be during hurricane season. But also, it's a funny
21:45
Speaker 2: thing because as, again, part of my job, I oversaw
21:48
Speaker 2: things like the G7 summit and where we would host
21:51
Speaker 2: things and hosting foreign summits and everything. And you know
21:54
Speaker 2: that in our administration and several others, it never would
21:56
Speaker 2: have passed VET because of all the leans that it
21:58
Speaker 2: had against it.
22:00
Speaker 1: Too many controversies around Doral. And I also do think
22:04
Speaker 1: bedbugs is an issue. Disgusting. Worth exploring. I want everyone
22:07
Speaker 1: to know that I attempted a French accent of Macron
22:13
Speaker 1: and Merkel making fun of Trump Doral having bedbugs, but
22:16
Speaker 1: for your benefit, I did cut it. Alyssa, you speak French.
22:19
Speaker 1: Is there anything you'd like to add?
22:22
Speaker 2: Merde.
22:34
Speaker 1: Let's move on to 2020. We're headed to one debate
22:37
Speaker 1: night in September, Thursday, September 12th. Ten candidates will take
22:41
Speaker 1: the stage. They are Biden, Warren, Bernie, Booker, Mayor Pete, Castro, Kamala, Klobuchar, Beto,
22:49
Speaker 1: and Yang. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York dropped out
22:52
Speaker 1: of the race yesterday following recent departures of other candidates,
22:55
Speaker 1: including John Hickenlooper and Seth Moulton. The field is narrowing. Alyssa,
22:58
Speaker 1: how do you feel about that?
23:00
Speaker 2: You know, I just feel... You know, I love Kirsten
23:04
Speaker 2: and I think that she went out in a really
23:06
Speaker 2: elegant way and went out on top. And, you know,
23:10
Speaker 2: her voice will still be very present in the election
23:13
Speaker 2: as we go forward. And she's going to be out there.
23:15
Speaker 2: You know, she's she for me is someone who has
23:18
Speaker 2: always had the backs of women and made sure that
23:21
Speaker 2: they were believed and heard. And, you know, she stuck
23:24
Speaker 2: her neck out for her. She said what she felt
23:29
Speaker 2: when it came to Al Franken and she never backed
23:32
Speaker 2: down despite the pressure. And, you know, many of her
23:35
Speaker 2: colleagues now say, oh, you know, I regret it. I
23:38
Speaker 2: didn't do it. And so I just, you know, I
23:40
Speaker 2: dig her. She stood up and good for her and
23:43
Speaker 2: we love her and we hope to hear more from her.
23:46
Speaker 2: You know, for the debate, for the, you know, for
23:48
Speaker 2: the bigger picture, I think it's really good that we're
23:51
Speaker 2: down to one debate stage. I don't know why, but
23:54
Speaker 2: I feel like if there had been two somehow... that
23:57
Speaker 2: Warren and Biden wouldn't have ended up on the same
24:00
Speaker 2: stage again. And I just don't know how much more
24:04
Speaker 2: we can endure. And also, just watching them, you see
24:08
Speaker 2: the people who are sort of in the lower tier,
24:10
Speaker 2: who are really just sort of like doing the breaststroke,
24:13
Speaker 2: trying to get, you know, a moment so that they
24:16
Speaker 2: can get more money so they can make it to
24:18
Speaker 2: the next debate. And so I feel like the group
24:21
Speaker 2: that we'll be hearing from is pretty steady and it
24:24
Speaker 2: will be substantive, I hope. Do you think it'll be substantive?
24:29
Speaker 1: I hope so. I do think we may also be
24:33
Speaker 1: headed back to a double debate next time because a
24:37
Speaker 1: few people are so close. Steyer was close. Tulsi Gabbard
24:42
Speaker 1: was close. So we may be back to a two-night debate.
24:46
Speaker 1: I ultimately think it is good that they're all in
24:48
Speaker 1: one stage. But at the same time, given how many
24:51
Speaker 1: people have been on each debate stage already. I also
24:55
Speaker 1: wasn't averse to there being kind of six and five,
24:57
Speaker 1: just have two more substantive debates just to mix it up.
25:00
Speaker 1: But I also think that, you know, a lot of
25:03
Speaker 1: people are kind of pointing criticism at the DNC at
25:06
Speaker 1: this point that really isn't earned given basically how, like
25:10
Speaker 1: these thresholds, they were there for everybody to see. And
25:14
Speaker 1: we've seen candidates be able to surmount, be able to
25:18
Speaker 1: surmount these thresholds from, you know, people like Julian Castro,
25:22
Speaker 1: Mayor Pete, others who have managed to kind of fight
25:25
Speaker 1: their way into this into this category. So I don't know.
25:30
Speaker 1: I think it's ultimately good that we are guaranteed a
25:33
Speaker 1: debate with Biden and Warren on one stage. But I
25:35
Speaker 1: also think it would have been fine if we had
25:36
Speaker 1: a bunch more people. The only reason I the only
25:38
Speaker 1: reason I was so for one debate night is because
25:41
Speaker 1: I didn't want to conflict with love it or leave it. Yeah.
25:45
Speaker 1: So speaking of Biden and Warren being on the debate
25:48
Speaker 1: stage together, Biden released a health care ad that I
25:50
Speaker 1: wanted to play because I thought it captured something essential
25:54
Speaker 1: about his campaign and the debate we're having right now
25:58
Speaker 1: over health care.
26:00
Speaker 4: I was sworn into the United States Senate next to
26:02
Speaker 4: a hospital bed. My wife and daughter had been killed
26:06
Speaker 4: in a car crash. Lying in that bedroom, my two
26:10
Speaker 4: surviving little boys died. I couldn't imagine what it would
26:14
Speaker 4: have been like if we didn't have the health care
26:16
Speaker 4: they needed immediately. Forty years later, one of those little boys,
26:21
Speaker 4: my son Bo, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given
26:26
Speaker 4: only months to live. I can't fathom what would have
26:30
Speaker 4: happened if the insurance companies had said for the last
26:33
Speaker 4: six months of his life, you're on your own. The
26:36
Speaker 4: fact of the matter is, health care is personal to me.
26:40
Speaker 4: Obamacare is personal to me. When I see the president
26:44
Speaker 4: try to tear it down and others propose to replace
26:47
Speaker 4: it and start over, that's personal to me, too. We've
26:51
Speaker 4: got to build on what we did because every American
26:54
Speaker 4: deserves affordable health care. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve
26:58
Speaker 4: this message.
26:59
Speaker 1: Alyssa, what did you think of that ad?
27:01
Speaker 2: So I thought it was really powerful. You know, I
27:04
Speaker 2: saw it before I even had my coffee the other day.
27:06
Speaker 2: I thought it might have been more powerful without sort
27:12
Speaker 2: of like the veiled swipe. At the end, at sort
27:16
Speaker 2: of Medicare for All, you know, I just it's because
27:22
Speaker 2: the ad is so personal because he he talks about
27:26
Speaker 2: his family and his struggles. But he he's really never
27:31
Speaker 2: used them sort of in this type of ad before.
27:34
Speaker 2: And but no, it was really powerful. I just think that,
27:38
Speaker 2: you know, I just probably wouldn't have I wouldn't have
27:41
Speaker 2: done that at the end.
27:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, the reason I wanted to play it
27:46
Speaker 1: is because to me, I was incredibly moved by his
27:50
Speaker 1: willingness to tell the story. And it's emotional to listen to.
27:55
Speaker 1: And you're reminded that this is somebody who has been
27:57
Speaker 1: sort of steeped in grief throughout his career, that the
28:03
Speaker 1: pain that he has had in his life has been,
28:05
Speaker 1: I think, part of why he has been able to
28:10
Speaker 1: retain a kind of ordinariness and ability to relate to
28:14
Speaker 1: people because he has been through something so wrenching. His
28:18
Speaker 1: life in politics is bookended by these tragedies. And you're
28:24
Speaker 1: reminded too in that, that that's part of his strength
28:27
Speaker 1: as a candidate that goes beyond just name recognition, that
28:30
Speaker 1: goes beyond electability, that goes to the affection people have
28:34
Speaker 1: for Joe Biden. And then it turns and it becomes
28:38
Speaker 1: about healthcare and the critique of Trump is valid and good.
28:42
Speaker 1: The defense of Obamacare is good. And then it is
28:46
Speaker 1: used to issue a kind of very small minded attack
28:50
Speaker 1: on other Democrats' healthcare proposals that isn't very fair. And
28:54
Speaker 1: I thought it really did capture the kind of the
28:58
Speaker 1: promise of a Biden campaign and also the weaknesses of
29:01
Speaker 1: a Biden campaign in one ad that he would share
29:04
Speaker 1: this incredibly personal story in a way that was incredibly effective.
29:07
Speaker 1: And then have the message of the ad ultimately be
29:11
Speaker 1: an attack on a kind of healthcare plan that isn't
29:15
Speaker 1: particularly accurate. So that's why I wanted to share it,
29:19
Speaker 1: just because I do think of that, there is that
29:22
Speaker 1: duality inside of it.
29:23
Speaker 2: Well, and I think that for me too, part of
29:26
Speaker 2: my initial takeaway, it's like, look, we've all been through
29:28
Speaker 2: campaigns before. We've all watched them unfold on television. We've
29:32
Speaker 2: lived them in real life. And To me, he almost
29:38
Speaker 2: missed the... point that he missed is that the thing
29:42
Speaker 2: that the other campaigns are saying is they fundamentally believe
29:47
Speaker 2: that health care is a human right, right? Like that's
29:50
Speaker 2: the underlying– that's the through line. And I feel like
29:53
Speaker 2: he– that that's where he jumped the shark at the
29:57
Speaker 2: end because– You know, I don't know. I just I
30:00
Speaker 2: thought that that was that when I hear Sanders or
30:03
Speaker 2: Warren or anyone else talk about Medicare for all and
30:05
Speaker 2: how it's that it's that we all deserve to be
30:08
Speaker 2: able to go to the hospital. And like the story
30:10
Speaker 2: that Kamala tells, you know, not sit in the car
30:13
Speaker 2: with your kid in front of the emergency room, knowing
30:15
Speaker 2: that when you walk in, it's going to cost you
30:17
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars because of your deductible. So, yeah, I
30:20
Speaker 2: just I thought it was really powerful and moving. And
30:22
Speaker 2: I just really didn't like the last like 45 seconds.
30:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it was it also to be pointed out.
30:28
Speaker 1: I thought, well, what I thought the ad was going
30:29
Speaker 1: to be, I mean, it's this incredibly personal story, and
30:32
Speaker 1: it really could be about a larger argument about pain
30:35
Speaker 1: people are feeling, about what he wants to do as president,
30:37
Speaker 1: about the stakes of what's facing the country, and it
30:41
Speaker 1: doesn't do that. Two other races I wanted to touch on. One,
30:46
Speaker 1: Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia announced he will be
30:48
Speaker 1: retiring for health reasons. Republican Senator David Perdue of Georgia
30:52
Speaker 1: was already up for reelection. Now both of Georgia's Senate
30:55
Speaker 1: seats will be on the ballot. Stacey Abrams is against it.
30:58
Speaker 1: She will not run for the Senate. Nonetheless, these are
31:01
Speaker 1: two pickup opportunities now for Democrats. The path to taking
31:06
Speaker 1: the Senate has widened a bit and has also now
31:10
Speaker 1: focused on Georgia a bit more. Alyssa, what do you
31:12
Speaker 1: think this means for Democrats in the fight for the Senate?
31:15
Speaker 2: I think it means we have to have our act together.
31:19
Speaker 2: I mean, look, we have a we have an opportunity. Um,
31:24
Speaker 2: we have a state that's getting, that's creeping bluer, right?
31:28
Speaker 2: Stacey Abrams showed us that, you know, in the last election,
31:32
Speaker 2: you know, Abrams got something like, I think it was 48.8%.
31:36
Speaker 2: And John Barrow, who is a white man got 40,
31:39
Speaker 2: who was running for secretary of state got 48.7%. So
31:43
Speaker 2: it's showing the Democrats are bringing out people to all kinds, uh,
31:47
Speaker 2: for all kinds of candidates. And, um, I just think
31:53
Speaker 2: that there's a lot to be done. They have to
31:56
Speaker 2: find some good candidates who can keep sort of paving
32:01
Speaker 2: the path that Stacey Abrams specifically sort of blazed in
32:05
Speaker 2: the last cycle.
32:07
Speaker 1: One other aspect of this, too, is the fact that
32:09
Speaker 1: both of these seats are up for the same time.
32:10
Speaker 1: And apparently the last time two Senate seats were up
32:14
Speaker 1: in a state at the same time and split as
32:17
Speaker 1: in didn't both go to the same party, was apparently 1966,
32:20
Speaker 1: so more than 50 years ago. So it also does
32:22
Speaker 1: seem that the odds suggest that these seats will move together.
32:26
Speaker 1: The other facet is this is a special election in
32:32
Speaker 1: which if no candidate gets 50%, then it could go
32:36
Speaker 1: to a runoff. And so many have been noting that
32:40
Speaker 1: this introduces the possibility that the Senate could be determined
32:44
Speaker 1: in January— by a runoff in Georgia. It is a
32:48
Speaker 1: terrifying possibility that gives me a knot in my stomach,
32:52
Speaker 1: and I wanted to share that with all of you.
32:54
Speaker 2: Thanks for bringing us into your anxiety.
32:59
Speaker 1: Before we go, one other race. This is about the
33:01
Speaker 1: North Carolina 9th. During the 2018 election, Democrats came extremely
33:05
Speaker 1: close to flipping North Carolina's 9th congressional district. It initially
33:08
Speaker 1: looked like Republican Mark Harris had beaten Democrat Dan McCready
33:11
Speaker 1: by 900 votes. It then came to light that Harris
33:14
Speaker 1: had hired a shady political operative who stole ballots. State
33:17
Speaker 1: officials called a new election, which will take place on
33:19
Speaker 1: September 10th. McCready and his new challenger, a Trump-loving state
33:22
Speaker 1: senator named Dan Bishop, are neck and neck in the polls.
33:24
Speaker 1: Trump will be going to North Carolina to hold a
33:27
Speaker 1: rally right before the election night. So that gives you
33:29
Speaker 1: a sense of how important the Republicans view this race.
33:32
Speaker 1: To learn more about how the Republicans stole the original election,
33:34
Speaker 1: check out this month's Crooked Mini, Rigging North Carolina, led
33:38
Speaker 1: by Shaniqua McClendon, our political director who did an incredible job.
33:42
Speaker 1: And if you want to help To win this seat,
33:44
Speaker 1: go to votesaveamerica.com slash states, and you can find out
33:48
Speaker 1: how to get involved in North Carolina. Alyssa. Yeah. Thank
33:53
Speaker 1: you for joining today.
33:55
Speaker 2: Love it. Thank you so much. I can't wait to
33:57
Speaker 2: be your biggest cheerleader at Radio City on the 13th.
34:03
Speaker 1: Do you think it's– are we superstitious that this show
34:06
Speaker 1: is taking place on Friday the 13th?
34:07
Speaker 2: Oh, I think it's nothing but good. New York City
34:11
Speaker 2: on Friday the 13th?
34:12
Speaker 1: Please. It'll be spooky good.
34:16
Speaker 2: Spooky good.
34:16
Speaker 1: Talk to you later, Alyssa. Bye. When we come back,
34:20
Speaker 1: we'll be joined by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. She is the
34:32
Speaker 1: representative of Massachusetts' 7th Congressional District. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, welcome
34:36
Speaker 1: to Pod Save America.
34:37
Speaker 3: It's good to be here. I've been wanting to do
34:39
Speaker 3: this for a long while, so... I'm glad it's working out,
34:42
Speaker 3: and it feels like a bit of a reunion as well,
34:44
Speaker 3: given the various Carrie connections here.
34:47
Speaker 1: So, yeah, I understand that you have an association with
34:50
Speaker 1: Jon Favreau, who was an intern, Alyssa Mastromonaco, who was
34:55
Speaker 1: a staff assistant. Any notes you have for them? Any
35:00
Speaker 1: ways that they could improve?
35:02
Speaker 2: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
35:04
Speaker 3: They're pretty awesome. But I do want to say that,
35:08
Speaker 3: you know, as an only child, I think one of
35:10
Speaker 3: the reasons why I took to the work of movement
35:14
Speaker 3: building and coalition building and public service is the chosen
35:18
Speaker 3: family that you create and you find along the way. And,
35:21
Speaker 3: you know, certainly John and Alyssa and, you know, David
35:25
Speaker 3: Wade and Heather Higginbottom. I mean, you know, those are
35:27
Speaker 3: my fam. And, uh, Secretary Kerry also and I are
35:32
Speaker 3: still in touch with one another. And so since my
35:36
Speaker 3: seven month tenure in Congress, it's been really surreal the
35:40
Speaker 3: times that our paths have crossed.
35:41
Speaker 1: So it seems like you were surrounded by good people.
35:44
Speaker 3: Absolutely. You know, I have to tell you one funny story, though,
35:46
Speaker 3: about NPR. He texted me and he said, I just
35:49
Speaker 3: heard you on NPR. You know, great job, kid, he said. But,
35:53
Speaker 3: you know, you went a little long and I was like, well, pot, meat, kettle.
35:56
Speaker 3: Where do you think I got that from? So anyway,
36:00
Speaker 3: it's been good.
36:01
Speaker 1: Did you say that to him or did you think that? No,
36:04
Speaker 1: I said that. So let's talk about another work family,
36:12
Speaker 1: the squad. You know, Donald Trump has been saying for
36:14
Speaker 1: some time now that he wants the squad to be
36:17
Speaker 1: the face of the Democratic Party when he's up for
36:19
Speaker 1: reelection next year. If he's going to give you and
36:21
Speaker 1: your colleagues all this attention, how are you planning to
36:25
Speaker 1: use it?
36:26
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think he's a little fixated and
36:28
Speaker 3: obsessed on us. And it's not about the four of us.
36:32
Speaker 3: It's about what we represent. And that disruption in the
36:40
Speaker 3: power of the voices that we have engaged and brought
36:45
Speaker 3: to the process is threatening. how have we used, how
36:49
Speaker 3: have I aimed to use this platform, having this sort
36:54
Speaker 3: of bigger spotlight, if you will, to use it to legislate,
36:58
Speaker 3: to use it to inform and elevate consciousness on issues
37:03
Speaker 3: that are often overlooked, to continue to fight for those
37:07
Speaker 3: that are.
37:07
Speaker 2: Ignored, left out, and left behind.
37:10
Speaker 3: And, you know, I am very grateful for the solidarity
37:15
Speaker 3: of concern and support and that myself and my colleagues
37:20
Speaker 3: received in the wake of sort of the height of
37:24
Speaker 3: the vitriol from the occupant of this White House. But
37:27
Speaker 3: I have to concede that even in that moment, I
37:30
Speaker 3: felt that I was operating from a place of privilege,
37:33
Speaker 3: that we were garnering this level of attention and support
37:38
Speaker 3: on the same day that Eric Garner's family was denied
37:41
Speaker 3: justice from the DOJ. And so I'm just centered on
37:48
Speaker 3: the people that are experiencing injustice every day. And then
37:54
Speaker 3: I think it's also important to note that I don't
37:57
Speaker 3: think that the occupant of this White House is, you know, again,
38:00
Speaker 3: just threatened by four members of Congress. He's threatened by
38:04
Speaker 3: who we've brought along. He's threatened by the fact that
38:07
Speaker 3: the squad is more than four people. The squad is
38:10
Speaker 3: anyone doing the work of building a more equitable and
38:13
Speaker 3: just world, period.
38:16
Speaker 1: So, you know, I want to move off of this,
38:19
Speaker 1: but there was one aspect of it that I think
38:22
Speaker 1: came up again. You know, Trump from the G7 decided
38:26
Speaker 1: to call the chairman of the Federal Reserve an enemy,
38:31
Speaker 1: comparing him to the leader of China. And, you know,
38:34
Speaker 1: these sort of broadsides from Trump, they're vicious and they're unprecedented,
38:38
Speaker 1: and they tend to be put in a political lens.
38:42
Speaker 1: You know, did he go too far? Is he facing backlash?
38:45
Speaker 1: Why is he attacking China? for women of color. But
38:49
Speaker 1: I think sometimes we move off of the actual danger
38:53
Speaker 1: it poses to people when the president targets an individual.
38:57
Speaker 1: You know, he does this repeatedly. How did it feel
39:04
Speaker 1: when you woke up and you saw that the president
39:07
Speaker 1: of the United States was telling you, an American citizen,
39:10
Speaker 1: that you should go back to where you came from
39:12
Speaker 1: because you're a person of color? What What does it
39:15
Speaker 1: feel like to face that kind of a personal threat
39:18
Speaker 1: from a person who's supposed to represent the entire country?
39:21
Speaker 3: Coming from him, certainly not surprising. This is, you know,
39:25
Speaker 3: I can't really offer inflated outrage or feigned surprise. The
39:30
Speaker 3: occupant of this White House and his administration reach new
39:34
Speaker 3: lows every day. And I don't want to give short
39:37
Speaker 3: shrift to hateful rhetoric. It is hurtful. And I think
39:41
Speaker 3: it does endanger people's lives. I do believe it contributed
39:46
Speaker 3: to and is at the root of what happened in
39:49
Speaker 3: El Paso. But at the end of the day, I
39:52
Speaker 3: think he does this to offer a distraction from the
39:56
Speaker 3: chaos of his administration, the callousness of his administration, the
40:01
Speaker 3: corruption that is rampant in his administration. And I just
40:06
Speaker 3: work really hard to not take the bait. You know,
40:09
Speaker 3: I can't, you know, the media has always asked me
40:11
Speaker 3: about the latest thing that he's tweeted. You know, I
40:14
Speaker 3: don't follow him. I'm not trying to keep up with
40:18
Speaker 3: his tweets. I'm trying to keep up with his policies.
40:21
Speaker 3: These hateful, racist, xenophobic policies, these draconian, oppressive, life-threatening, family-separating
40:32
Speaker 3: policies that are being rolled out by the hour. And so,
40:38
Speaker 3: you know, I don't allow myself to be fearful or
40:42
Speaker 3: self-pitying or distracted. I mean— Again, my God, what people
40:47
Speaker 3: are dealing with in community every single day because of
40:50
Speaker 3: the hardships and the inequities that are being exacerbated under
40:54
Speaker 3: this administration. I was listening to an analyst earlier today
40:57
Speaker 3: who said that, you know, usually presidents operate with, the
41:03
Speaker 3: presidents that have been the most transformational operate from a
41:08
Speaker 3: place of empathy. And The occupant of this White House
41:14
Speaker 3: is void of that. He is spiritually and morally bankrupt
41:18
Speaker 3: and operating from a deficit of empathy. And we see
41:22
Speaker 3: that in the policies that are rolled out across the board.
41:27
Speaker 3: But especially when it comes to this coordinated and unrelenting
41:32
Speaker 3: attack against our immigrant neighbors.
41:36
Speaker 1: So let's talk about some of those policies. You've been
41:39
Speaker 1: an outspoken advocate for gun control policies that address the
41:41
Speaker 1: long-term impacts of gun violence on communities. What will the
41:45
Speaker 1: House be doing to address gun violence when it comes
41:48
Speaker 1: back into session? And what are you and other members
41:51
Speaker 1: going to do or going to have to do to
41:53
Speaker 1: press the Senate to take up gun control?
41:57
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing I want to say is that
41:59
Speaker 3: when I ran for Congress, I made it very clear
42:01
Speaker 3: that I could not single-handedly stand in effective, sustainable affront
42:09
Speaker 3: to what was coming out of this White House every day,
42:13
Speaker 3: that that was not something that I could do alone,
42:15
Speaker 3: that I'm prepared to do it. My mother, may she
42:18
Speaker 3: rest in power, blessed me with, you know, broad shoulders
42:21
Speaker 3: and a strong back. And I want to stand on
42:23
Speaker 3: the front lines and lead in that way. But I
42:25
Speaker 3: want to be in coalition, beating this administration and ultimately
42:31
Speaker 3: evicting the occupant of this White House from is all
42:34
Speaker 3: about movement building. So it's not just about organizing and mobilizing.
42:39
Speaker 3: There's so much analysis about, and rightfully so, the unprecedented
42:43
Speaker 3: nature of this 116th Congress, unprecedented in size, unprecedented in
42:48
Speaker 3: representation and diversity. unprecedented in that it's the first Democratic
42:54
Speaker 3: Majority Congress, unprecedented in that it's the first freshman class
42:57
Speaker 3: on boarded or congressional class in the midst of a
43:00
Speaker 3: federal government shutdown. I think these times also demand unprecedented
43:05
Speaker 3: activism and unprecedented legislating. And that's not work we do alone.
43:10
Speaker 3: We have already reported out of the House a universal
43:14
Speaker 3: background check bill. We need to also... move on a
43:18
Speaker 3: federal assault weapons ban. We need to pass red flag legislation,
43:23
Speaker 3: which would, you know, keep guns out of the hands
43:29
Speaker 3: of those that are dangerous to themselves and to others.
43:35
Speaker 3: But that's not enough. You know, I know we talk
43:38
Speaker 3: about the fact that we're doing the work in this
43:41
Speaker 3: Democratic Majority Congress on these issues of care and concern
43:44
Speaker 3: and consequence to the American people. And these issues continue
43:47
Speaker 3: to sit The bills that we're reporting out are sitting
43:51
Speaker 3: at the door of the Senate, but that does not
43:54
Speaker 3: mean that we shouldn't continue to lead and to legislate
43:57
Speaker 3: on those issues. And when the Senate, when our democracy
44:01
Speaker 3: is working again on behalf of the American people, and
44:04
Speaker 3: that happens from the pressure on the outside that activists
44:08
Speaker 3: and agitators continue to exert, we will have established a
44:16
Speaker 3: new floor on these issues. The other issue that I've
44:19
Speaker 3: been working on, you know, other than gun violence prevention
44:22
Speaker 3: is just the issue of trauma. You know, for every
44:27
Speaker 3: life that we are robbed of due to gun violence,
44:29
Speaker 3: a minimum of 20 people are impacted. And so in
44:33
Speaker 3: communities that are disproportionately impacted by community-based violence, and it's
44:37
Speaker 3: important that we're holding to narratives. I think if there's
44:40
Speaker 3: any urgency felt, it is often about the most dominant
44:44
Speaker 3: narrative in our public square, and that is mass shootings.
44:47
Speaker 3: And they are tragic. And domestic terrorism and the lives
44:51
Speaker 3: that we are robbed of in our faith houses, our churches,
44:55
Speaker 3: our mosques, our synagogues, at schools, at concerts is important,
45:00
Speaker 3: as is the community-based violence that is happening on our
45:03
Speaker 3: city blocks and in community every day. And We have
45:07
Speaker 3: to address the residual trauma that gun violence is leaving
45:10
Speaker 3: in its wake. I'm so proud that I was able
45:12
Speaker 3: to convene the first hearing in the history of Congress
45:16
Speaker 3: in the Oversight and Reform Committee on the issue of
45:19
Speaker 3: childhood trauma. I'm really focused on the federal government making
45:24
Speaker 3: an investment to support those survivors of gun violence. in
45:29
Speaker 3: not just in treating their trauma. We need to have
45:33
Speaker 3: an equity when it comes to community-based gun violence and
45:36
Speaker 3: mass shootings. We need to have an equity in outrage,
45:39
Speaker 3: an equity in justice, and an equity in healing.
45:43
Speaker 1: So in May, I want to talk about housing because
45:46
Speaker 1: in May, you know, you're questioning of Secretary of Housing
45:48
Speaker 1: and Urban Development. Ben Carson went viral in the clip.
45:51
Speaker 1: Carson tried to reclaim his time, seemingly unaware that that
45:56
Speaker 1: was not something he was allowed to do. Uh, it
45:59
Speaker 1: was great to watch you grill him on this issue
46:02
Speaker 1: and you've made housing policy an important focus of your work.
46:06
Speaker 1: What does the housing crisis look like in your district? And, uh,
46:10
Speaker 1: what do you think that HUD needs to do that
46:13
Speaker 1: we need to do in, in, in, as a, as
46:15
Speaker 1: a country to, in, in Congress to, to address the issue?
46:19
Speaker 3: Well, secretary Carson, um, said that he will not be
46:22
Speaker 3: participating in a second, um, Trump administration. Um, you know, that's, uh,
46:28
Speaker 3: His departure is not soon enough, not only for me,
46:32
Speaker 3: but for the various people, the millions of people for
46:36
Speaker 3: whom he is charged with the most critical infrastructure in
46:40
Speaker 3: this country, and that is our housing. Housing is a
46:45
Speaker 3: human right. It is a critical determinant of health. It
46:51
Speaker 3: has everything to do with social and economic mobility. One
46:56
Speaker 3: of the examples I lift up a lot is, you know,
46:59
Speaker 3: because I've done so much work in the space of
47:02
Speaker 3: decarceration and prison reform and reentry, is, you know, 30%
47:08
Speaker 3: of those in my district that have been released from
47:11
Speaker 3: correctional facilities or private prisons are being released to shelters.
47:16
Speaker 3: And we're saying, you know, make a positive contribution, legitimately
47:19
Speaker 3: get back on the grid, and they're being released to shelter.
47:23
Speaker 3: And so if you know that the primary driver of
47:25
Speaker 3: recidivism is unemployment, are you really serious? It seems disingenuous.
47:31
Speaker 3: And then we have housing policies that deny returning citizens,
47:36
Speaker 3: formerly incarcerated men and women often, from reuniting with their
47:40
Speaker 3: families within public housing. So how I've been getting at
47:43
Speaker 3: the issue of housing, which is the number one constituent concern, call, grievance,
47:51
Speaker 3: that was true when I was a city councilor And
47:53
Speaker 3: it continues to be true now that I'm in Congress.
47:57
Speaker 3: It's the only other issue that rivals it in terms
48:00
Speaker 3: of calls would be immigration cases. Is that I've been
48:04
Speaker 3: convening since well before I took an oath of office
48:07
Speaker 3: or was even elected these equity agenda roundtable discussions where
48:11
Speaker 3: we engage community. And they're not they're not the traditional
48:15
Speaker 3: town hall. We have breakout sessions. It's a two way dialogue.
48:20
Speaker 3: You know, I've always maintained that people closest to the
48:22
Speaker 3: pain should be closest to the power, driving and informing
48:25
Speaker 3: the policymaking. And so I take my cues from community.
48:28
Speaker 3: And I'm so proud that, you know, out of the
48:30
Speaker 3: 20 pieces of legislation in the housing space specifically that
48:34
Speaker 3: I've introduced or co-sponsored, They were all directly informed by
48:38
Speaker 3: what I was learning from the people I represent in
48:41
Speaker 3: the Massachusetts Seventh who I'm cooperatively governing with. You know,
48:45
Speaker 3: some of the things that I've been supporting legislatively are,
48:47
Speaker 3: you know, within the Mass Seventh, 60 percent of my
48:50
Speaker 3: constituents are renters and they need rent relief. And Senator
48:54
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris introduced the Rent Relief Act. I'm a co-sponsor
48:57
Speaker 3: of that, which means that for those families making less
49:01
Speaker 3: than $ 100, 000, which is true for most, And paying more
49:05
Speaker 3: than 30 percent of their income towards rent and utility
49:09
Speaker 3: that they get a tax break. I'm also, you know,
49:12
Speaker 3: considering and ruminating on introducing legislation that would allow for
49:17
Speaker 3: rent for those who pay their rent on time. for
49:20
Speaker 3: that reporting on their paying their rent on time to
49:23
Speaker 3: count towards their building up their credit. Because within the
49:26
Speaker 3: Massachusetts 7th, we have deep income inequality and a racial
49:31
Speaker 3: wealth gap. The Aryan wealth for a black family in
49:36
Speaker 3: the Massachusetts 7th is $ 8. 00. and for a white family
49:41
Speaker 3: is $ 247, 000. Within the Massachusetts 7th in a three-mile radius
49:47
Speaker 3: from Cambridge to Roxbury, median household income drops by $ 50, 000
49:52
Speaker 3: and life expectancy by 30 years. So there are great
49:59
Speaker 3: inequities and systemic embedded and entrenched disparities in the Massachusetts 7th,
50:04
Speaker 3: one of the most diverse and unequal districts you know,
50:08
Speaker 3: in our country. And another way that I'm looking to
50:11
Speaker 3: get at this is having co-sponsored Senator Warren's housing and
50:15
Speaker 3: economic mobility legislation, which is specifically targeted on federal investment
50:22
Speaker 3: in those communities that have been impacted by redlining and
50:26
Speaker 3: also provides financial support for low-income families for a down
50:32
Speaker 3: payment for a mortgage. So those are just some of
50:35
Speaker 3: the things, you know, that I'm looking at. I'm developing
50:37
Speaker 3: federal legislation around tenant protections and preventing eviction, again, which
50:44
Speaker 3: is also growing. Ultimately, I see housing as a human
50:48
Speaker 3: right and as a critical determinant of health. And so
50:51
Speaker 3: this is a public health crisis. And the last thing
50:56
Speaker 3: that I would share is in the Financial Services Committee,
50:59
Speaker 3: which I serve, housing is under that. And the first
51:02
Speaker 3: full committee hearing that we held was on the issue
51:04
Speaker 3: of homelessness. And we were able to report out of
51:07
Speaker 3: that committee the End Homelessness Act bill, which includes, you know,
51:11
Speaker 3: more Section 8 and project-based vouchers, supports CDBG funding, a
51:17
Speaker 3: host of things to end homelessness by prioritizing housing first.
51:22
Speaker 3: That bill is $ 13 billion to end homelessness. And that
51:27
Speaker 3: is the equivalency of the cost of one military aircraft carrier.
51:32
Speaker 3: So ultimately, this is just about what do we really value?
51:35
Speaker 3: And it's about political courage and will.
51:40
Speaker 1: We also spent a trillion dollars on a tax cut
51:42
Speaker 1: for corporations. So you voted against a border bill in
51:46
Speaker 1: June that would have provided aid for detained families and
51:48
Speaker 1: give additional funding to ICE. How do we balance the
51:52
Speaker 1: need to aid people being detained by an inhumane administration
51:56
Speaker 1: with the need to rein in CBP and ICE if
51:59
Speaker 1: the two continue to come up in the same pieces
52:01
Speaker 1: of legislation?
52:03
Speaker 3: Well, I voted no because, one, I didn't buy for
52:06
Speaker 3: a second that the humanitarian crisis at the border had
52:10
Speaker 3: anything to do with the deficit of funding. When I
52:12
Speaker 3: went to the border to bear witness to this humanitarian crisis,
52:16
Speaker 3: we saw plenty of, you know, toothbrushes and toothpaste and
52:19
Speaker 3: the like. So, again, the cruelty is the point. It's
52:22
Speaker 3: simply about how you choose to dedicate and allocate those funds.
52:26
Speaker 3: And within days of that bill passing, that package passing,
52:34
Speaker 3: this so-called humanitarian aid bill, I think something like three
52:39
Speaker 3: new ICE facilities were opened and then they were putting
52:42
Speaker 3: into play ICE raids throughout the country. And that is why,
52:47
Speaker 3: you know, throughout my campaign, I called for the defunding
52:50
Speaker 3: and the abolishing of ICE. And let's be clear. You know,
52:53
Speaker 3: I was an aide on the federal level 16 years,
52:55
Speaker 3: a city council for eight years. I am not cavalier
52:58
Speaker 3: about the abolishing of any agency. There are plenty of
53:01
Speaker 3: agencies that I think are in dire need of reform.
53:04
Speaker 3: And I do that work with my team every day
53:06
Speaker 3: to hold them accountable. But an agency that is using
53:12
Speaker 3: what throughout history has been proven as one of the
53:15
Speaker 3: most effective tools of oppression, which is to separate families.
53:19
Speaker 3: You know, we're all shocked by what we see. But
53:22
Speaker 3: we've been here before on reservations with indigenous and native
53:26
Speaker 3: people at the auction block during slavery. And so I
53:32
Speaker 3: will not further fund and embolden a racist and rogue agency.
53:38
Speaker 3: And before I took that vote, as I do with
53:40
Speaker 3: all things, I confer with those closest to the pain.
53:44
Speaker 3: You know, activists, advocates, families. And I also spoke with
53:49
Speaker 3: leadership in the district, mayors. our district attorney, our attorney general,
53:55
Speaker 3: and they supported my decision. We talk about what's happening
53:58
Speaker 3: in border communities, but the Massachusetts 7th is 40% immigrant.
54:03
Speaker 3: So I had seen up close and personal the abuses
54:07
Speaker 3: of ICE. And so, you know, where do we need
54:10
Speaker 3: to go? For me, we're going to continue to hold
54:12
Speaker 3: them accountable using the checks and balances and the reach
54:16
Speaker 3: of the Oversight and Reform Committee. We're going to continue
54:18
Speaker 3: to go to the border, continue to bear witness to
54:21
Speaker 3: the trauma there and to tell people about. And as
54:23
Speaker 3: I said at the border, we will lift up these
54:25
Speaker 3: stories in the hopes that people will have an epiphany
54:30
Speaker 3: in some level of enlightenment and humanity. And if they don't,
54:33
Speaker 3: we will bring the fire. That's it. But, you know,
54:37
Speaker 3: we have got to get to a place where we
54:39
Speaker 3: are prioritizing the preservation of family, allowing asylum seekers, which
54:44
Speaker 3: is a legal human right to settle in community while
54:47
Speaker 3: awaiting review of their cases. I mean, you talk about
54:51
Speaker 3: Ben Carson. I mean, here's someone who is a neurosurgeon,
54:55
Speaker 3: for God's sakes, and I can't even get him to affirm.
54:58
Speaker 3: I know that that video went viral, but I didn't
55:00
Speaker 3: do that for something to go viral. I wasn't browbeating
55:03
Speaker 3: the secretary. I wanted him to just acknowledge that this
55:06
Speaker 3: is a critical determinant of health and that no one,
55:09
Speaker 3: that being poor is not a character flaw. And simply
55:12
Speaker 3: because you can't afford more doesn't mean you don't deserve better.
55:15
Speaker 3: And people living in homes with raw sewage, rampant with
55:19
Speaker 3: rodents and mold. And when I asked him, would you
55:21
Speaker 3: let your grandmother live there? He couldn't even answer that.
55:25
Speaker 3: And then they roll out this mixed immigration status rule
55:30
Speaker 3: every month. immigrant family I know is mixed immigration status.
55:33
Speaker 3: They have TPS holders, DACA recipients, asylum seekers. And to
55:38
Speaker 3: say that they cannot remain in public housing and now
55:41
Speaker 3: we are deporting people with.
55:44
Speaker 2: Children with terminal illnesses?
55:48
Speaker 3: The cruelty is the point. Void of empathy. And so
55:52
Speaker 3: we have to continue to organize and mobilize. And I
55:55
Speaker 3: know that people are fatigued. They are weary. I am
55:58
Speaker 3: asked every day if I have if I am growing
56:02
Speaker 3: cynical or apathetic about what is possible, given this inflection
56:06
Speaker 3: point we find ourselves at, given this crossroads, given the
56:10
Speaker 3: gravity of everything, given this fire hose we're drinking from,
56:14
Speaker 3: and my response is always the same. I don't have
56:16
Speaker 3: the luxury. We don't have the luxury to be weary.
56:21
Speaker 3: We have got to stand in the gap for the
56:24
Speaker 3: millions of families that are living in fear. I was
56:29
Speaker 3: speaking earlier about the census. Thanks to the good work
56:33
Speaker 3: of the Oversight and Reform Committee that I serve on,
56:36
Speaker 3: where it's our charge to maintain the integrity of the census,
56:40
Speaker 3: and our questioning of Secretary Ross to say he testified
56:43
Speaker 3: would be generous. He was there. And the advocates that
56:48
Speaker 3: we worked with in community, we were able to beat
56:50
Speaker 3: back that immigration status question off of the census. But
56:54
Speaker 3: the residual fear and trauma is still out there. My
56:57
Speaker 3: district is one of the hardest to count in the country,
57:00
Speaker 3: and I'm worried we're going to continue to be under-resourced.
57:04
Speaker 1: So, you know, these questions about how to fight back
57:08
Speaker 1: and not being exhausted and, you know, when to compromise versus,
57:12
Speaker 1: you know, when to hold the line, you know, these
57:13
Speaker 1: are playing out in the Democratic primary for president. They're
57:18
Speaker 1: playing out in Congress in this fight over impeachment. They're
57:20
Speaker 1: also beginning to play out in Massachusetts. You know, you
57:23
Speaker 1: won your seat by primarying a Democratic incumbent. When you
57:27
Speaker 1: look at the situation that's developing now with Joe Kennedy
57:29
Speaker 1: contemplating a run against Senator Ed Markey, what do you
57:34
Speaker 1: see in that potential fight?
57:36
Speaker 3: Well, I'm awaiting developments just like everyone else. I don't
57:41
Speaker 3: know that there is a fight. What I would say
57:46
Speaker 3: is that when I think about 2020 and I think
57:49
Speaker 3: about our party right now, I have some concerns. In 2016,
57:57
Speaker 3: we had these, you know, sobering defeats, and we did
58:03
Speaker 3: a lot of analysis about why this happened, this postmortem analysis.
58:10
Speaker 3: And in 2018, I'm very fortunate to be walking into
58:12
Speaker 3: a Democratic-majority Congress, but I'm not sure that we've done
58:16
Speaker 3: the audit and the inventory, you know, of the practices
58:19
Speaker 3: and the strategies that ensured that we could walk into
58:23
Speaker 3: that Democratic-majority Congress in our race. Didn't accept corporate PAC money.
58:28
Speaker 3: We raised and spent $ 1. 6 million. My opponent, the incumbent,
58:32
Speaker 3: raised and spent $ 6. 6 million. 70% of his money was D.C.
58:37
Speaker 3: corporate PAC-based money. And 27% of our primary voters, it
58:42
Speaker 3: was the first time they ever voted in a primary.
58:45
Speaker 3: We did not use mainstream media. Now, Massachusetts media market
58:49
Speaker 3: is very expensive, even if I had the money, you know. However,
58:53
Speaker 3: but even if I'd had the money, I would not
58:55
Speaker 3: have done that. We decided to invest in ethnic and
58:57
Speaker 3: specialty media. And the Latino community in the Mass Seventh
59:00
Speaker 3: is about 7%. So, you know, I had consultants at
59:03
Speaker 3: the table that said, hey, we'll walk away. This is
59:05
Speaker 3: going to be the death knell of your campaign. You're
59:07
Speaker 3: going to go on Telemundo and Univision in a primary?
59:11
Speaker 3: And that's what we did. And we grew the Latino
59:13
Speaker 3: vote by 71%. We grew the student vote by 400%.
59:17
Speaker 3: 250 incarcerated men behind the wall of MCI Norfolk, who
59:21
Speaker 3: I'll be going back to visit in a couple of days,
59:24
Speaker 3: held a debate watching party, endorsed our campaign, and organized
59:27
Speaker 3: a minimum of three family members on the outside to
59:30
Speaker 3: go to the polls. We have got to stop making
59:33
Speaker 3: assumptions about who desires and deserves a seat at the
59:35
Speaker 3: table of democracy. And we've got to engage in a
59:38
Speaker 3: politics of transformation and not transaction. Before we ask for
59:41
Speaker 3: a vote, we've got to understand what people's lived experiences are,
59:45
Speaker 3: what their struggles are. And I'm concerned we have not
59:48
Speaker 3: taken stock of those lessons to apply them heading into 2020.
59:55
Speaker 3: But also right now, as we seek to legislate our
59:59
Speaker 3: actualized values in the face of this draconian administration, think
1:00:03
Speaker 3: of the ACA. You know, that wasn't preserved because of
1:00:09
Speaker 3: the conviction or the courage of lawmakers. It was saved
1:00:12
Speaker 3: because of the courage and convictions of everyday people. who
1:00:14
Speaker 3: stood in the gap, who laid their bodies on the line,
1:00:17
Speaker 3: who demanded that lawmakers, you know, see that quite literally
1:00:21
Speaker 3: lives would be hanging in the balance. You know, one person,
1:00:26
Speaker 3: four members of Congress cannot beat back the hate coming
1:00:29
Speaker 3: out of this White House. Only a movement can. And
1:00:32
Speaker 3: if there's one silver lining in this, it's that I
1:00:34
Speaker 3: see our silos breaking down and we're being intentional and
1:00:37
Speaker 3: inclusive in our organizing and our coalition building with the
1:00:41
Speaker 3: understanding that our destinies and our freedoms are tied. And
1:00:43
Speaker 3: on that note, I want to just also say from
1:00:45
Speaker 3: a messaging standpoint, my fellow beloved Democrats, stop presenting these
1:00:51
Speaker 3: false binary choices in our messaging. This is a bunch
1:00:55
Speaker 3: of bunk. This is not about it for the party
1:00:57
Speaker 3: of working class white folks and everybody else. By the way,
1:01:02
Speaker 3: Working class folks are not just white folks. And I
1:01:05
Speaker 3: will not choose between whether or not we're the party
1:01:08
Speaker 3: of working class anybody and criminal justice reform. These issues
1:01:12
Speaker 3: are conflated. And our destinies and our freedoms are tied.
1:01:17
Speaker 3: Several months ago, I had the honor of introducing our
1:01:19
Speaker 3: former governor, Deval Patrick, at a Democratic retreat. And he said,
1:01:22
Speaker 3: what do you do when Democrats start to believe Republican
1:01:26
Speaker 3: talking points about who we are? And that is where
1:01:29
Speaker 3: we find ourselves. So we haven't taken stock. And it
1:01:35
Speaker 3: will cost us if we don't do it quickly. Because
1:01:39
Speaker 3: we weren't successful in 2018 because we just had some
1:01:42
Speaker 3: photogenic candidates who could string a sentence together and had
1:01:46
Speaker 3: some compelling stories. We were successful because they led with
1:01:49
Speaker 3: their values. They stood in their convictions and because they
1:01:55
Speaker 3: engaged innovative strategies. So I'm hopeful that that we will
1:02:02
Speaker 3: take stock of those lessons learned in 2018 because we
1:02:06
Speaker 3: can't afford, forget four more years, we can't afford four
1:02:09
Speaker 3: more minutes, which is why I did support Representative Greene
1:02:14
Speaker 3: and Tlaib's resolution to initiate impeachment proceedings and was an
1:02:18
Speaker 3: early co-sponsor because the occupant of this White House lost
1:02:22
Speaker 3: a moral authority and ground a long time ago. But
1:02:26
Speaker 3: the Mueller report also proves obstruction of justice. And then
1:02:30
Speaker 3: every day again, they hit an all-time low. So when
1:02:34
Speaker 3: people say we can wait or try to couch this
1:02:36
Speaker 3: in political expediency, I think what the American people want
1:02:39
Speaker 3: to see us doing is leading. And sometimes that means
1:02:43
Speaker 3: the fight and that the victories in the fight, even
1:02:47
Speaker 3: if you won't be successful, that they want to know
1:02:49
Speaker 3: that you recognize the fear that they are experiencing, the
1:02:53
Speaker 3: hurt that they are experiencing every day. And that's what
1:02:57
Speaker 3: I'm led by. You know, the best advice I've received
1:03:00
Speaker 3: as a new member is to not forget the plot,
1:03:02
Speaker 3: and the plot is the people. And that's what I
1:03:04
Speaker 3: intend on doing.
1:03:05
Speaker 1: The plot is the people. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, thank you
1:03:08
Speaker 1: for joining us.
1:03:10
Speaker 3: Thank you.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: Alyssa, it's always good to talk to you.
1:03:18
Speaker 2: You too, love it.
1:03:20
Speaker 1: That's it? That's the end of our, that's what we
1:03:22
Speaker 1: got for each other after all this?
1:03:23
Speaker 2: No, I didn't know there was an outro.
1:03:24
Speaker 1: You caught me off guard. I didn't either. I caught
1:03:26
Speaker 1: myself off guard. I caught myself off guard. I'm doing
1:03:29
Speaker 1: a lot of pods this week, all right? John and
1:03:31
Speaker 1: Tommy are both in Europe on a bicycle built for two,
1:03:34
Speaker 1: and I'm just here.
1:03:34
Speaker 2: You think I don't know this?
1:03:35
Speaker 1: I'm recording everything. Yeah, I know.
1:03:37
Speaker 2: I drove an hour. I drove an hour to be
1:03:39
Speaker 2: here with you, okay, on the Thursday before Labor Day.
1:03:42
Speaker 2: My love for you is real.
1:03:44
Speaker 1: Wow. Thank you for doing that.
1:03:46
Speaker 3: Obviously.
1:03:47
Speaker 1: And yet no parade.
1:03:48
Speaker 2: No parade.
1:03:49
Speaker 1: Bye, Elizabeth.
1:03:51
Speaker 2: Bye.
1:03:58
Speaker 3: Bye.