Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / 'We're going to win' House Dem touts 'new generation' ready to end Trump's 'circus'

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'We're going to win' House Dem touts 'new generation' ready to end Trump's 'circus' · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: But let's begin, though, with the desperation of President Trump's
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  Speaker 1: Republican Party on full display as the mad dash for
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  Speaker 1: the midterms heats up this Labor Day weekend. The president
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  Speaker 1: is urging Republicans to run on his record and says
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  Speaker 1: he's going to hit the road for candidates despite his
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  Speaker 1: sagging popularity. And if he can't win over those skeptical Americans,
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  Speaker 1: he seems determined to block some of them from casting
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  Speaker 1: their ballots. But so far, the courts are standing in
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  Speaker 1: his way. Last night, a federal judge extended her block
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  Speaker 1: on President Trump's efforts to restrict mail-in voting through the U.S.
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  Speaker 1: Postal Service. The administration responded by appealing this latest decision
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  Speaker 1: to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The Trump administration
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  Speaker 1: had previously appealed the judge's temporary block to the Supreme Court,
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  Speaker 1: which could still have the ultimate say, even as the
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  Speaker 1: first midterm ballots are already being sent.
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  Speaker 2: Out to voters.
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  Speaker 1: And despite MSNOW's reporting that Trump's hunt for non-citizens on
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  Speaker 1: voter rolls is only finding a handful of possible cases,
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  Speaker 1: Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen is keeping open the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of ICE at the polls.
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  Speaker 3: ICE isn't there to patrol the polling places. We're there
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  Speaker 3: to enforce specific threats. The only reason why we would
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  Speaker 3: be at polling places if there is a threat to
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  Speaker 3: that polling place or we're serving a warrant on someone
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  Speaker 3: that we have been actively tracking down. If we're serving
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  Speaker 3: a warrant, we will be where we need to be.
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  Speaker 1: And joining us now is Democratic Congressman of Colorado Joe Neguse.
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  Speaker 1: He's also the House Assistant Minority Leader. Leader, thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much for joining us this morning. I do want
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  Speaker 1: to right off the bat get your reaction to the
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  Speaker 1: judge's ruling last night and whether you think it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be enough to stop this president's attacks on mail-in
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  Speaker 1: voting or if you're concerned about this escalating all the
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  Speaker 1: way to the Supreme Court, which has an interesting.
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  Speaker 4: track.
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  Speaker 1: Record or jurisprudence when it comes to executive authority?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's great to be with you. I first would
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  Speaker 4: say I agree with both premises of your question. I
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  Speaker 4: think yesterday's ruling was an important vindication of our Constitution
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  Speaker 4: and again establishes that the president's executive order and the
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  Speaker 4: steps that the USPS have tried to take to comply
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  Speaker 4: with that order are plainly unconstitutional. We, of course, know
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  Speaker 4: that to be true. Simultaneously, I am concerned and share
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  Speaker 4: the concern of you and your co-hosts that this will
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  Speaker 4: land at the Supreme Court. But I would also say
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  Speaker 4: that I'm cautiously optimistic that at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 4: we are going to win this battle in the same
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  Speaker 4: way that we've won so many legal battles that have
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  Speaker 4: developed over the course of this last year and a half.
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  Speaker 4: Just by way of background, I chair the litigation task
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  Speaker 4: force in the House, and we've been deeply engaged in
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  Speaker 4: a number of these legal battles. We challenged the unconstitutional
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  Speaker 4: executive order on birthright citizenship, and we succeeded. We challenged
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  Speaker 4: in the legal challenge against his reckless, Trump's reckless and
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  Speaker 4: unconstitutional tariffs, and we succeeded there as well. The fact
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  Speaker 4: that he has not been able to federalize the National
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  Speaker 4: Guard in a variety of different states because we succeeded
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  Speaker 4: in federal court in stopping him. I believe the same
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  Speaker 4: will be true of this pernicious and insidious effort to
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  Speaker 4: try to disenfranchise millions of Americans. The reality is, and
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  Speaker 4: you noted this, people are already voting by mail. Literally,
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  Speaker 4: ballots have gone out, including a uniformed personnel who are
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  Speaker 4: bravely serving us overseas. So if the Supreme Court were
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  Speaker 4: to take this unprecedented step, it would be, in my view,
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  Speaker 4: a debasement of our constitutional order in the highest degree.
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  Speaker 2: So, Congressman, we just had on the show Dan Coe,
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  Speaker 2: who just won a race, a blue a blue seat
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  Speaker 2: in Massachusetts. He was pretty had some critical things to
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  Speaker 2: say about Democratic messaging. And so that's what I want
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  Speaker 2: to talk to you about. It looks like the Democratic
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  Speaker 2: caucus has decided to not. use a phrase like contract
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  Speaker 2: with America, like we saw in 1994, that you're not
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  Speaker 2: decided not to go with a bumper sticker type of slogan.
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  Speaker 2: I personally think that's a good thing because it gives
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  Speaker 2: Democratic members across the country to define the race themselves.
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  Speaker 2: But what do you say to folks who feel like
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  Speaker 2: Democrats are not aggressive enough in your messaging? And then
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  Speaker 2: more specifically, what is your message to as a caucus
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  Speaker 2: to voters about why they should make Democrats the majority
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  Speaker 2: in the House.
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  Speaker 4: Well, all great questions. First and foremost, congratulations to my colleague,
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  Speaker 4: future colleague Dan, and we're excited to welcome him to
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  Speaker 4: the House Democratic Caucus family. With regard to the Contract
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  Speaker 4: for America reference, I mean, look, I was 10 years
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  Speaker 4: old when the Contract for America was released, I guess,
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  Speaker 4: in 1994. We have a new generation of Democrats on
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  Speaker 4: Capitol Hill who ultimately are ready to make the case
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  Speaker 4: to the American people that the corruption and the chaos
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  Speaker 4: and the dysfunction, the circus that President Trump has perpetuated has,
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  Speaker 4: in my view, done deep disservice and harm to the
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  Speaker 4: hardworking Americans across the country, including in Western and Northern
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  Speaker 4: Colorado that I represent. And I think you see a
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  Speaker 4: new generation of candidates. across the country who are articulating
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  Speaker 4: an affirmative vision for the country that I think is resonating.
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  Speaker 4: And that affirmative vision is fairly straightforward. It's an end
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  Speaker 4: to the corruption. It's banning members of Congress from trading
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  Speaker 4: stocks and banning the president of the United States from
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  Speaker 4: making hundreds of millions of dollars off crypto entanglements. It's
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  Speaker 4: ultimately advancing policies that make life easier and more affordable
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  Speaker 4: for everyday Americans. Universal health care, ultimately doing what we
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  Speaker 4: can to lower costs of groceries and everyday costs. None
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  Speaker 4: of this is complicated. It's all fairly straightforward. I just
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  Speaker 4: think you now have a new generation of messengers, as
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  Speaker 4: I said, candidates in Iowa and Nebraska and in Texas
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  Speaker 4: and again, every corner of the country, including here in Colorado,
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  Speaker 4: who I think are going to take that message each
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  Speaker 4: and every day over the course of the next 60
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  Speaker 4: days and will be successful. And I believe that we're
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  Speaker 4: going to win the midterms elections, midterm elections decisively for
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  Speaker 4: that reason.
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  Speaker 5: I'm a congressman. Just keep focusing in on when we
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  Speaker 5: talk about mail-in voting and just voting in general and
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  Speaker 5: what the administration is trying to do to it. I'm
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  Speaker 5: focused on the chaos that it will probably cause on
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  Speaker 5: Election Day. But the chaos it's causing in the minds
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  Speaker 5: of voters now who might be thinking, well, can I vote?
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  Speaker 5: Am I allowed to vote? I'm too afraid to vote
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  Speaker 5: because I'm ICE is going to be around. And I
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  Speaker 5: made a sort of a flippant remark earlier about, you know,
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  Speaker 5: unless they cheat, you know, Republicans not holding on to
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  Speaker 5: their majorities in the House and the Senate. But why
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  Speaker 5: why shouldn't I and. A lot of folks watching think
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  Speaker 5: that all of this chaos that's being generated is for
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  Speaker 5: the sole purpose of laying the groundwork for Republicans to
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  Speaker 5: cheat in the November elections and maintain their majorities, because
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  Speaker 5: what we've seen with this president is that he'll do anything,
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  Speaker 5: absolutely anything to hang on to power.
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  Speaker 4: Jonathan, that is it's such a salient observation. What I
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  Speaker 4: would say is with regard to the potential for the
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  Speaker 4: Trump administration to subvert a free and fair election or,
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  Speaker 4: for example, to try to take nefarious steps to stop
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  Speaker 4: the certification process and things of that accord, we. of course,
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  Speaker 4: have to have every expectation that those events may happen.
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  Speaker 4: And there are a group of House Democrats, Representative Raskin,
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  Speaker 4: ranking member on judiciary, ranking member Morelli, myself and others
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  Speaker 4: who are deeply engaged, I will just tell you, in
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  Speaker 4: scenario planning and doing the work that needs to be
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  Speaker 4: done to ensure that we're prepared. All that being said,
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  Speaker 4: I don't believe that I can disabuse you of the notion,
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  Speaker 4: I don't think I should, that this is largely an
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  Speaker 4: effort on the Trump administration's part to to try to
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  Speaker 4: create fear amongst the voting public so that ultimately less
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  Speaker 4: Americans vote because they know they've seen the polls. They
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  Speaker 4: understand they'll lose decisively if that is not the case.
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  Speaker 4: So we have an obligation. Fear is contagious. In my view,
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  Speaker 4: so is hope. And we have an obligation, I think,
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  Speaker 4: to amplify and spread that hope. I think that's what
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  Speaker 4: our candidates are doing, servant leaders who've stepped forward across
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  Speaker 4: the country at this tumultuous moment for our republic.
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  Speaker 1: To defend it.
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  Speaker 4: I think that that's what folks on the ground are doing,
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  Speaker 4: who are defending our immigrants and people who are engaged.
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  Speaker 4: I'm going off right after this interview to launch a
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  Speaker 4: canvas in northern Colorado, Loveland, Colorado, with Eileen Laubacher, a
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  Speaker 4: candidate who's running against Lauren Boebert in northern Colorado, a
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  Speaker 4: former rear admiral who served our country, who I believe
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  Speaker 4: is going to win come November. The canvassers this morning
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  Speaker 4: give me hope. So that would be my view, Jonathan.
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  Speaker 4: Let's find a way to stay hopeful. Let's not be
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  Speaker 4: naive and let's not be Pollyannish about it. Let's be
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  Speaker 4: prepared for every eventuality. But I think that we're going
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  Speaker 4: to pull this off come November 3rd.
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  Speaker 5: You mentioned his name, but I should say, Congressman Joe Morelli,
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  Speaker 5: he's going to be on the program tomorrow morning. Great.
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  Speaker 1: Just to get back to this idea of Dems shoring
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  Speaker 1: up their messaging, let's listen to you and a conversation
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  Speaker 1: that you had with Congressman Brian Stile this week about socialism.
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  Speaker 6: Do you believe that the government should own grocery stores?
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  Speaker 5: No.
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  Speaker 6: That would be socialist to you?
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  Speaker 5: I think that would be a type of overreach of
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  Speaker 5: the federal government.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 6: And if Donald Trump announces tomorrow that he's going to
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  Speaker 6: take a 20 percent equity stake in Kroger— Would that
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  Speaker 6: be socialism to you?
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  Speaker 1: I'd want to see the details.
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  Speaker 6: You said if government owns grocery stores, that would be socialist.
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  Speaker 6: But if, of course, Donald Trump were to announce an
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  Speaker 6: equity stake in a grocery store. Well, I'd have to really.
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  Speaker 6: see the details because we all know the play, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Stile. Why aren't we hearing more of that from Democrats
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  Speaker 1: accusing Republicans of. promoting and propagating what are essentially socialist
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  Speaker 1: policies when it comes to ideas that Trump is putting
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  Speaker 1: forth about grocery stores and the rising prices of consumer
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  Speaker 1: goods to our role in Venezuela.
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  Speaker 4: You said it well. I mean, look, first and foremost,
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  Speaker 4: that exchange revealed a number of different things. But MAGA sycophants,
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  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, will defend anything and
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  Speaker 4: everything that Donald Trump does. So it doesn't matter if
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  Speaker 4: he were to announce that the United States government was
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  Speaker 4: taking a 50 percent stake in all grocery stores. They
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  Speaker 4: would defend it tooth and nail. So, look, from my perspective,
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  Speaker 4: most of the voters and my constituents that I represent
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  Speaker 4: in northern and western Colorado are not particularly interested in
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  Speaker 4: kind of the definitions of political ideologies. And as you saw, Mr.
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  Speaker 4: Stile could not offer a cogent definition of any political ideology.
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  Speaker 4: People want to know whether or not you're fighting for
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  Speaker 4: them and whether you're going to advance policies that make
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  Speaker 4: life easier for their family. And that's what House Democrats
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  Speaker 4: stand for and what we will continue to stand for.
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  Speaker 4: And I agree with you. I think we need to
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  Speaker 4: be more muscular in terms of talking about the various
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  Speaker 4: ways in which the Trump administration is enriching corporate billionaires
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  Speaker 4: and titans and him and his own family. And I
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  Speaker 4: think you're going to hear more of that over the
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  Speaker 4: course of the next 60 days.