Latest / Pod Save America / 2020: Seth Moulton On Patriotism And Beating Trump On National Security

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2020: Seth Moulton On Patriotism And Beating Trump On National Security · Pod Save America

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. This is Tommy Vitor. Thank
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you guys for downloading this special episode. It's a conversation
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: with Congressman Seth Moulton from Massachusetts who jumped into the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: race for for president just this week. And he came
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to Crooked Media HQ and sat down with me to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: talk about it. So Congressman Moulton is running a national
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: security-focused campaign. He thinks that is the best way to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: beat Trump. He thinks that's where Trump is weakest. So
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: he started there. Congressman Moulton served in Iraq. He was
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in the Marine Corps. He did four tours. We talked
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: about his time in Iraq. We also talked about North
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Korea and whether he'd continue those talks. We talked about
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the defense budget. And on domestic issues, we talked about
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: what he'd do on day one. We talked about his
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: critiques of the single-payer VA healthcare system. We spent some
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: time talking about his efforts to unseat Speaker Pelosi and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: whether he thinks that was a good or bad idea
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: in hindsight. Did a little process talk. We talked strategy,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: how he plans to win Iowa, New Hampshire, and the nomination.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: And then we did impeachment. So really appreciate the conversation.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: It's especially fun for me to dig into a national
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: security argument against President Trump. And without further ado, here's
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the interview. I am honored to have in the studio
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Congressman Seth Moulton from the 6th District.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Tommy, I'm honored to be here.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: In the interest of transparency, I should say you're running
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: for president, and you invited me to go for a
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: run this morning at 0600, which I declined because I'm
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: soft and lazy, but you did it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: That's impressive? Not really. Okay. It's just a run.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: There's a generation of people who work in New York
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: who think I'm an asshole right now. Okay. All right.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Let's start at the top. So it's April 26th, right?
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: You're the 19th candidate to jump in. Biden's the 20th.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: What did you see in the other candidates in the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: field running for 2020 president, the Democratic nomination that didn't
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: do it for you? What made you make this tough decision?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: We have got to be willing to take on Donald Trump,
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: not just as president, but as commander in chief. And
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I think this is actually where he's weakest. I mean,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: he has let us down across the globe.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: He has.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: bastardize the, the meaning of patriotism. Um, his vision of
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: making our country strong and safe is the exact opposite
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: of what we need to do to achieve that. And
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: so I'm going to take him on on those issues
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: and I'm going to add that to the debate. And
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: I think ultimately taking him on where he is weakest
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: is what we need to do to beat him.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So I find this very interesting because I'm a former
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: national security geek. Um, So let's definitely start there. So
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you have this background where you enlisted in the Marine
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Corps after graduating from Harvard, but shortly before the 9-11 attacks.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: You served four tours in Iraq. I was wondering if
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: you could tell us a little bit about what you
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: did in Iraq, like where you served, the kinds of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: missions you were working on, and if there are big
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: take-homes from that time. Yeah, sure.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, you should know that I
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: just wouldn't be here at all if not for that experience.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: I didn't grow up interested in politics. Maybe I should have,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: but I wasn't. You know, I don't come from a
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: political family. As I point out, the first congressman that
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: my parents met was me. I'm still paying my loans,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: my college loans, as a member of Congress, so there's
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: certainly no family money here. But I decided in college
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: that I wanted to serve. And I was really influenced
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: by the greatest mentor I've ever had in my life,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: who was the minister in my college church. But more
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: than that, he was this larger-than-life moral guidepost pastor. at
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: the university, and he talked a lot about the importance
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: of service, about how it's not enough just to believe
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: in service or support others who go serve. You've got
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: to find a way to give back yourself. And sitting
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: in this church in Harvard Yard with the names of
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: the people who had lost their lives in wars that
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: the church was dedicated to, it made me really think
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: about serving in that way.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I had so much respect for these 18-year-old kids who
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: put their lives on the line for the country. So
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I wanted to sign up.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: I knew I wanted to be in the infantry to
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: be on the ground. And little did I know that
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: nine 11 would happen.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: I'd go through a year of training thinking that we
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: all thought we had just missed the war because Afghanistan
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: would be over a few months and then that would
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: be it in 2002. And then, and then, um, Came
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: home for Christmas in December 2002. And on Christmas Eve,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: my future battalion executive officer called me and said, when
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: are you coming out to California? I said, well, I've
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: got a month of leave. I'm hanging out in Massachusetts
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: for a month, probably going to do a little skiing.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: He's like, nope, you're coming out next week. Pack your bags,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: get a will.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Get a will? Yep. Okay.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: And we're getting on a ship to Kuwait. Jesus. And
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: so we did. And we got to Kuwait.
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  Speaker 3: The lieutenants in my battalion took bets on whether we'd
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: actually invade. I was on the side of, no, there's
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: no way Bush is actually.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Going to do this.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: But we did, and so my first job over there
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  Speaker 3: was as a platoon commander in the invasion just fighting
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: our way to Baghdad.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: And so you fought your way to Baghdad. You probably
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: went home for a little bit. You signed up to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: go back. I mean, 2003, 2004, Nazaria, Najaf, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: that was... some of the more intense fighting of the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: whole war, right? It was.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: And we had no idea how much worse it had
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: gotten since 2003. I mean, the summer of 2003 was
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: actually great. I mean, the Iraqis were thrilled that they'd
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: been liberated from Saddam, but we clearly had no plan
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: for after the invasion. That's why I got this crazy
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: job of working with the Iraqi media and have my
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: own TV show.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Bolton and Muhammad. You want to talk about that
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: at all?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I met an Iraqi literally a few hours
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: ago today who was a translator, worked for the press,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: and had come over to the United States. And I
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: walked in, and he looked at me, and his eyes brightened.
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  Speaker 2: He's like, I know you.
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  Speaker 3: Really?
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I know you.
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  Speaker 1: I've met.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I said, it probably was a TV show. He's like, yes,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: that's it. That's it.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: That's so crazy.
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  Speaker 2: It was like a super popular TV show.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: It was crazy. And you guys were doing investigative journalism?
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sort of like a mini version of 60 Minutes.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: We were really just trying to teach the Iraqis how
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: to have a free press. And we found one of
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: the best ways to do it was just to have
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: our own show that they could watch us put together, produce,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: report on, and everything.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's crazy.
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  Speaker 3: I used to have to sign autographs in the street.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, nobody asked for my autograph in the street
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  Speaker 2: as a U.S.
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  Speaker 1: Congressman. It's an incredibly important thing, the free press. It's
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: a very cool role. It doesn't feel like something that
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: you should ask a Marine infantryman to do. Exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Where's the State Department? And that's the point. And that's
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: the point.
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  Speaker 3: No plan whatsoever for what happened after the invasion. Not
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: nearly enough resources for the State Department or anyone else.
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  Speaker 3: And so one of the stories of Iraq was a
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: bunch of young men and women in the military, just
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: stepping up and doing a whole bunch of jobs that
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  Speaker 3: we weren't trained to do, that we weren't prepared to do,
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  Speaker 3: but we needed to do to try to get the
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: country on track. But at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 3: we left Iraq at the fall of 2003, hoping that
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: things would stick together.
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  Speaker 2: And we came back about six months.
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  Speaker 3: Later, maybe eight months later, and it was a mess.
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  Speaker 3: And we saw far worse fighting in Najaf in 2004
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  Speaker 3: than we'd seen in the whole of Asia.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus. So for your, for your service in Iraq, you
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: won the bronze star, which for those listening, don't know
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  Speaker 1: is the nation's fourth highest award for heroism under fire. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: you won the Marine Corps accommodation medal for valor, but
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: you went through this whole primary campaign where you didn't
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  Speaker 1: tell anybody about this. I believe the Boston globe was
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: going through your military record. They figured this out. They
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: called your office and you finally agreed to talk about it.
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  Speaker 1: Your parents didn't even know. I mean, I would read
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: from the citation, but I think you would probably punch me. Um,
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  Speaker 1: I'm just curious, like, why didn't you want to talk
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  Speaker 1: about that time or that citation?
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  Speaker 3: Because it's not about the awards. You know, we were
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: just doing our job serving the country, and that's what matters.
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  Speaker 3: And I think there's sort of a healthy disrespect among
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: veterans for people who.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Just come back and tell war stories.
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  Speaker 3: And frankly, I'd seen a lot of Marines do incredibly
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: heroic things that they were never recognized for. So I
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: think it's just, it was just the right thing to do.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think there's a middle ground between, I respect
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  Speaker 1: the hell out of that answer and appreciate it, but
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  Speaker 1: I also think that people in America don't know what
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: happens overseas. I don't think they know a real war story.
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  Speaker 1: They don't know what our soldiers and sailors and Marines
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  Speaker 1: are doing day to day. And I'm wondering if there's
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a way that you think we all as a body
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  Speaker 1: politic should better educate people on the reality of war
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  Speaker 1: because it's not the movies. It's not the bullshit you
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: see on coming out of Hollywood.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's a good point, Tommy, and I have
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: tried to talk a little bit more about some of
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  Speaker 3: the stuff that we went through as a platoon and
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  Speaker 3: some of the things I saw other guys do, and
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  Speaker 3: I'm incredibly proud of it. Even in the midst of
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: this war I disagreed with, I was proud to go there,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: and I was proud to go there four different times
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: so no one had to go in my place.
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  Speaker 2: And I did see incredibly heroic things. People just....
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  Speaker 3: There's nothing more powerful in your life than when you
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: see a fellow young American, someone who might have not
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: too much in common with you, come from a very
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: different background, different experiences growing up, just be willing to
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: literally put his or her life on the line for you.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: And I saw that all the time over there. I
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: felt I saw the best of America in the worst
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: of circumstances. And there was a day in 2004 when
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: a young Marine in my platoon looked up at me
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: and he said, you know, sir, you ought to run
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: for Congress someday so that this shit doesn't happen again. Now,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: he didn't convince me right then and there to run
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: because I went back, I used the GI Bill, went
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: to business school, and the first job I took was
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: in Texas. So obviously you don't move to Texas if
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: you're planning to run for office in Massachusetts. But When
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: this opportunity to run came up and I was approached
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: by this group that's trying to get veterans to run
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: for office, I thought back to that conversation. And I
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: decided that, you know, if no one is willing to
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: step up and challenge the system and make some change,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: then we're going to keep making mistakes like the ones
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: that got us into Iraq.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So let me ask about that vote and that mistake.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, Vice President Biden announced his candidacy yesterday. He
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: voted for the Iraq war. He's one of many people
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: who did. I mean, do you think a vote like
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: that is disqualifying at this point?
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think there's, I don't have a litmus
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: test like that, but I do think it's time in
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: our politics for the generation that went to Iraq and
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: Afghanistan to take over for the generation that sent us there.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's time for generational change in our politics.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: And it's something I've been fighting for ever since I
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: got elected. It's something I talked about in my first campaign.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: And I think it's time that we really lay out
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: how we as Democrats are going to lead this country forward,
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: both here at home to meet the challenge of the
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: new economy, to make a better healthcare system, but also abroad.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: You know, how are we going to lead in the world?
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of people right now talking about going
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: back to the way things were before Donald Trump, like
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: putting NATO back together because he's worked so hard to
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: tear it apart. And that's okay. I mean, I don't disagree.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think NATO is really important. But NATO
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: was founded with a 1949 rationale. It's not 1949 anymore.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: We do need to put NATO back together, but we've
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: got to give it a 2020 rationale. We've got to
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: make sure NATO is relevant to the fact that Russia's
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: conducting cyber attacks on our allies, not rolling tanks through
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: the fold of gap. So we've got to modernize all
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: these institutions and really take a totally fresh look towards
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: foreign policy and our national security.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: And a lot of these issues, these issues about being.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Strong abroad and being a moral leader for the world,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: they have a lot of effect on what we're doing
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: back home, too. I mean, just look at our foreign
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: policy in Central America. That can affect whether or not
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: we have an immigration problem at the southern border.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, Trump's doing the exact opposite of what we
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: should be doing. He's pulling aid out of Central America.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: We should be doing what we did in Colombia, which
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: turned a narco state into a tourist destination for Americans
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: in about 15 years.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: That's the approach we should take to central America. Is
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: there a problem with migrants coming in and unprecedented numbers
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: to the southern border?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: And Democrats need to be willing to admit that. But
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: let's also have a plan to fix it. And we have,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: we have experience with this.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: You have a roadmap in Columbia.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: We got a roadmap. It's hard, but it's doable.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: And that's exactly what we should do to strengthen our
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: national security and to strengthen our security back here at home.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Totally agree with you. So this is an interesting race.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: There are a couple other veterans in the race. Mayor
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Pete was a naval intelligence expert. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard served
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: in the Army. How do you feel like your experience
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: in the Marines is different from theirs? Or is that
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: something you think about?
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I really respect their service.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: I respect anybody who's willing to stand up and serve
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: the country, whether it's in the military and the Peace
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Corps here at home and AmeriCorps, a program like City Year.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: We need more people to do that. And that's actually
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: going to be a big part of my platform. I've
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: been talking about national service for years. I've been promoting
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: it in Congress and And I'm going to talk about
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: how we can get more people to serve our country,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: especially in civilian service programs back home. But the experience
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I had was actually leading Americans in combat.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: And fundamentally, the job I had was getting.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: An incredibly diverse group of Americans, people from all over
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: this country, different states, different backgrounds, different religious beliefs, different
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: political beliefs, all united behind a common mission to serve
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: our country. And in a lot of ways, I think
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: that's exactly what we need from the next president of
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: the United States. These are terribly divisive times, the most
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: divisive certainly in my lifetime. And we need to have
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: a president who understands how to bring people together in
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: very divided times and get them to believe in our country,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: get them to believe in America so much that they
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: want to work every single day to make it better.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I've heard you talk in the past about how You know,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: we went into Iraq and ultimately left too quickly and
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: then had to go back in because ISIS came back.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I think you've expressed some concern about leaving Syria too
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: quickly for the same reason. Can you help me and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: help us understand how President Moulton would define success in
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: someplace like Iraq, in Syria, so we can understand from
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: that analysis like when it would be appropriate to bring
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: our men and women home?
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I spent three years on the ground
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: in the Middle East. There's no one who wants to
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: bring the troops home sooner than I do. But the
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: worst thing is to bring them home so quickly that
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: then a year later you have to turn around and
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: send them back. And more Americans die because we're going
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: over ground that we fought over once before. And that's
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: the mistake that we made in Iraq. And we've got
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: to confront that reality in Syria today. Now, I think
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Syria is a mess. I think that the troops don't
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: know what they're doing. We're not clear about the mission.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: We've got to clarify that. We've got to make it
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: clear what they need to achieve to come home. But
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: then we've got to do that. We've got to make
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: sure they actually achieve what needs to be achieved so
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: that they can come home for good. Same thing in Afghanistan.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: I think our mission has just gotten too expansive in Afghanistan.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: I would love to see a democratic Afghanistan, but I
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: don't think many people think that we're really willing to
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: make that commitment, that it's just a little bit too far,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: too much for the United States to do. We do
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: have a real counterterror mission there. And it's still, I mean,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: the Sri Lankan bombings show that that is still an
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: issue in.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: The world today.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: And we cannot let Afghanistan become a terror training ground
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: as it was in 9-11. So let's have a narrowly
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: focused counterterror mission in Afghanistan, reduce our footprint dramatically, support
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: the Afghan government through the State Department, but not be
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: dependent on their success, not be dependent on talks with
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: the Taliban or anything else. Just be clear why we're
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: there to protect our national security and bring everybody else home.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: One of President Trump's signature diplomatic efforts is these negotiations
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: with North Korea that are ongoing.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Quite the diplomat.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, quite the diplomat. He's a very diplomatic individual. Do
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you think those talks have been successful?
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, they've been an abject failure.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: You think they've been a failure? Would you continue them
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: as president? Or how do you view that process?
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: You need to have talks with North Korea, but you
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: do it from a position of strength. You don't do
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: it by going over there, giving up our exercises with
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: one of the most important allies we have. South Korea
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: is under daily threat of annihilation. I mean, name another
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: ally like that in the world today. And we, under
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump, just gave up exercises with them that are
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: critical for their national security and for our ability to
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: work with them and support them. And what do we
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: get in return?
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Nothing.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, absolutely nothing other than just embarrassing ourselves.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: In the face of a brutal dictator.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: So I'm just trying to think, I mean, I agree
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: with you. And then I look at what Obama did
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: in terms of the sanctions and there was a pressure
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: campaign that was effective. I think there was important diplomacy
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: through the six party talks, but the outcomes are, the
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: outputs are the same, right? I know you're like a
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: data driven guy and we all look at outputs and
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, They still have a bunch of nukes
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and a bunch of ICBMs. So I'm just wondering, how
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: do we shake up the system?
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, just to be clear, the outputs
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: are not the same because we didn't give up exercises
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: under Obama.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: True, we didn't give up exercises.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: They were not as far along then as they are
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: now in their nuclear weapons and their rocket development. But
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: this is one of the reasons why I'm calling for
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: really rethinking how we're approaching things in the Pacific. I
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: think it's time for a Pacific version of NATO. to
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: actually get our allies, which don't all agree on every issue,
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: but to get them united in a formal arrangement to
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: help contain China and North Korea. And in the same
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: way that NATO has been so successful in Western Europe,
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: in uniting us not just from a national security perspective,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: but from an economic, from a cultural perspective, really as
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: a bulwark against the expansion of Russia into Europe. We
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: need to do the same thing in the Pacific. That
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: means some tough talks between allies like South Korea and
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Japan that don't always get along. But, hey, we did
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: that between Germany and France.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: True. I mean, it can't be harder than that, right?
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they were not entirely friendly after World War II.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: And there's a lot that we can do there to
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: really strengthen our alliances. You know, my division motto in
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: the 1st Marine Division under then-General Mattis was no better friend,
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: no worse enemy than a United States Marine. That should
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: be our motto for the United States of America. No
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: better friend, no worse enemy than the United States. That
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: means if you're an ally, we truly stand with you.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: That means if you're an enemy, we don't cozy up
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: to you and go have a nice little chit-chat and
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: then give up exercises with an important ally. We stand
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: up to you. We get together with our allies and
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: We're firm. It doesn't mean we're not willing to talk.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, even Reagan talked to Russia and got some
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: significant arms control agreements out of it. But we have
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: to be willing to stand up strongly against North Korea.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: The one thing that has worked with them is sanctions.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: The other thing that's worked with them is pressure from
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: the Chinese. These are all things that we can do,
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: and it's not what Trump has been doing at all.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You mentioned General Mattis. I mean, I think you
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: worked with Petraeus, uh, Mattis, General McMaster in Iraq. I
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: assume maybe, maybe with is the wrong word for all
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: of them, right? Like they were leading combatant commanders, um,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: or they were leading parts of Iraq. I mean, did
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it surprise you to see some of them go into
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the Trump administration to disappoint you?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: No, because I know why they did it. They did
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: it to try to keep this, this ship afloat.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: And there are others.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: I think that General Kelly was more of a disappointment.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: He seemed to be towing the party line. But McMaster
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: stood up to it, I know, as best as he
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: thought he could. Mattis certainly did. These are people who
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: were trying to do the right thing for the country. Now,
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: I know other military leaders who were asked to go
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: into the administration and thought it was not the right
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: thing to do and did not go in. And I
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: respect that decision as well. But I know why.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Mattis and McMaster.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: And, um, you know, and Petraeus was not part of
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: the administration, but I know why, uh, why they, why
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: they did this. And, uh, and I respect them for
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: that because they certainly took a lot of personal hits,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: but it was amazing when Mattis, um, resigned, uh, the
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: sense of dismay in Congress on both sides of the aisle,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: because we were losing one of the last people that
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: we thought was there to do the right.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Thing at the end of the day. Um, it was palpable.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: And it, uh, And it's frightening.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: We don't like to talk about this much, but I
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: think one of the points here is that the stakes
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: of having Donald Trump as our president are much higher
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: than people realize. And the most frightening day that I've
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: ever had as a member of Congress was the afternoon
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: that a few members of the Armed Services Committee went
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: up and rode around the Doomsday Plane.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Can you explain what that is?
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: So it's literally like from the 1950s. It's this big
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: plane that flies around in the event of nuclear exchange.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: And gives the commander-in-chief and the U.S. Air Force the
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: ability to fight back, to shoot nuclear weapons at, you know,
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Russians or whoever else in the event that we're attacked.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: And it's a frightening experience, but you do walk into
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: this plane and you think, okay, this is like the
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: 1950s because it looks like the 1950s. I mean, we're
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: still using 8-inch floppy disks to... to manage our nukes,
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: which is pretty pathetic, although it does make it difficult
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: to have.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, yeah.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: That is the one advantage.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Side benefit, I guess.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: And so you're in this thing, and you're kind of
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: expecting when they say, okay, we're going to walk you
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: through an exercise, you're expecting like, okay, the Soviets are
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: sending 200 missiles our way. Instead, we put on the
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: headsets and sat down for this exercise, and it was classified,
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: so I can't say exactly what it was, but it
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: was frighteningly real. I was like, wow, this could happen tomorrow,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: and it could quickly escalate into a nuclear war. And
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: there was one point when an Air Force colonel was
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: talking about how you can't hack the system, because obviously
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: that would be the worst thing imaginable. Someone could hack
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: the system and fire off a missile by mistake. He said, yeah,
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: it's basically foolproof. And I thought to myself, unless the
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: guy at the top is a fool.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Which, yeah. which he is.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Um, and so the stakes here are really high and
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: that's why, that's why I'm in this race. Cause we've
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: got to confront Trump where he's weakest. We've got to
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: confront Trump on these issues. We can't just seed leadership,
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: foreign policy, national security, making the country safe and strong
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: and fundamentally defining what it means to be a patriot.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: We cannot see that to Donald Trump for too long.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Democrats have kind of let Republicans run with these issues
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: and we shouldn't, we have the most reckless commander in
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: chief in American history. So let, let's confront him where
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: he's weakest. Um, that's what I'm going to do. And
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: I think at the end of the day, um, if
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: there's one thing I hear from democratic voters across this
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: country is they want to beat Donald Trump.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: And so sure, this might not be the top issue
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: on people's radar right now. And, and look, I'll talk
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: to you about healthcare and I'll talk to you about
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: how I.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Promise I'll get there.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: I just, I just like to get there too. But, um,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: but we've got to be willing to lead on this
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: issue as well.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Um, I promise only two more foreign policy questions. So like, look,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: my put on the headphones and be scared by the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: exercise is when he starts talking about Iran, because it
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: does feel like the administration is trying to lay the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: groundwork for war with Iran. Secretary Pompeo refused to confirm
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: that the 2001 AUMF, the authorization for the use of
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: military force, didn't give him the authority to go to
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: war with Iran. This was a vote taken in response
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: to 9-11. So when you see that and hear this,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: this tortured rationale, you know, years and years later, do
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: you think we should repeal that AUMF?
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, Bolden said that we were on the ground
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: in Syria to counter Iran.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was the one who called this out
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: on the Armed.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Services Committee and made them admit that, yeah, they are
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: legally in violation of the AUMF from 2001 just by
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: what they said their rationale is for staying in Syria. So, yes,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: we should repeal the AUMF and we should put in
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: place another one that's tailored to the world today. Now,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: the truth of the matter, and this is something that
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: that some people don't want to hear, is that terrorism
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: remains a threat. But the other reality is that our
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: war on terror since 2001.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Has been an abject failure.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, there are more terrorists in the world today,
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: I think by a factor of four or five, than
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: there were on 9-11. So how can you look at
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: ourselves and say, okay, this war on terror has been great?
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I agree. I agree.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: But that doesn't mean you don't have a war on terror.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: It means you've got to totally rethink it. We can't
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: have another terrorist attack at home. Um, we've got to
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: have a foreign policy. It doesn't mean that we become
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: isolationists and just withdraw from the world, but we've got
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: to have a smarter next generation foreign policy that will
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: actually keep us safe.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Well, so, and I, I agree with you and, but
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the, the 2020 budget request from
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Trump includes, I think 750 billion with a B dollars
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: for national defense. Um, when you hear the, the, the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: track record you just talked about, right? Four times more
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Sunni extremists in the world than pre nine 11. And
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: you hear those numbers. It sounds obscene to me. I mean,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: we're creating a fucking space force while we're zeroing out
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the Special Olympics, right? Like, what are we doing?
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I know you dug into these budgets.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, to give Trump credit, I mean, we all
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: know that he got five deferments from the Vietnam War,
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: but maybe if he could have been a space cadet.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: That's right. That's right. I mean, so you, as part
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: of your job in the armed services, you dig into
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: these budgets. Do you think they're too big, and would
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: you try to cut the defense budget as president?
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I do think they're too big, but most importantly, they're
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: just investing in the wrong things.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Like what?
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: Like, why are we still building as many aircraft carriers
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: as we're building when the Chinese, for the price of
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: one aircraft carrier, can build about 2,000 anti-aircraft carrier missiles?
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: Don't tell me that one of those 2,000 couldn't take
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: out an aircraft carrier. So there are a lot of
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: tough decisions we need to make about our defense budget.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: that not only involve investing in new technologies, like actually
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: building a cyber wall to protect us from China and Russia,
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: like making the commitment to being the world leader in
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: AI and artificial intelligence that China has already made and
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: we refuse to make. Every time I ask Trump administration
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: officials about it, they won't make that commitment that we're
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: going to be the world leader. We've got to invest
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: in these new technologies, but we also have to cut
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: the old legacy systems that are just too expensive, too
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: much money. I think there's this interesting paradox where because
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: China and Russia have lower defense budgets, they're not going
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: to compete with us by just building as many aircraft
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: carriers as we have. They're just trying to figure out
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: ways to defeat these systems that we have now and
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: build the next generation of, of weapons.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: We need a new, a new generation of arms. We
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: need a new generation of arms control.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: And like I was discussing with the Pacific NATO, we
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: need a new generation of alliances.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Um, One of my big lessons from government is that
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: prioritization is key. Odds are you get one big thing done,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: especially if you do it via reconciliation. So Obama chose
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act. Trump chose a tax cut for billionaires.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: What's your day one plan? What's your big thing you
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: want to get done?
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Well, we have a lot of work to do in
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: this country.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: And the first thing we have to do is just
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: restore moral integrity to the office, is to actually show
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: that we can bring Americans together. So I'll get to
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: like a big idea, but I think this is the
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: most important thing. When you sign up for the military,
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: when I went to Marine training, one of the first
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: things I learned was that I could fail a test.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: And they'd let me retake the test.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: I could drop out of a run and I'd probably
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: get to do it again the next day. But if
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: I lied about anything, I'd be gone that afternoon. We
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: need a commander in chief. We need a president of
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: the United States who we can trust. It doesn't mean
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: it's going to be someone that we always agree with.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: But the most fundamental failure of Donald Trump is that
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: you cannot trust him. You cannot trust anything he says
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: as Commander-in-Chief of the United States. So we have got
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: to restore moral integrity and credibility to the office.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: But you want a moonshot?
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Please.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I think we should develop fusion energy.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: And this is something that... Well, I do.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: You have a physics degree. Physics degree.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: You know, I didn't get the best grades in physics, but.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Got out of there with a degree.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I couldn't open your textbook, so... There is.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Nothing that will do more for climate change than carbon-free energy.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: And nuclear fusion, which is much safer than fission, is
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: something that's actually within reach. If we put, you know,
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: the tens of billions, not hundreds of billions, but just
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: tens of billions of dollars into it, we can probably
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: get there within the decade. And that's the kind of
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: investment that we need to make in the future of
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: our country and in the future of our world.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: But we.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: also need to be putting a lot of money into healthcare.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: We need to make sure that everybody in America has
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: access to quality, affordable healthcare. And I don't think we
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: do that by forcing everyone onto a government one-size-fits-all program
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: designed in 1963.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Medicare is great. Medicare can be better.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: And it should be an option that Americans have, but
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: it shouldn't be the only way to go.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: So let me ask you about that. You get your
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: healthcare from the VA, uh, which is a single payer system.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: You said, you know, sort of the day you announced
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: that it leaves a lot to be desired. What, what
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: is the problem day to day in terms of that
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: single payer care that you receive? Well, maybe it's best
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: illustrated by a story. Sure.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: So I, uh, um, was lifting and got a hernia, uh, right. Um,
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: right before I was sworn in as a member of Congress.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: And so I was like, okay, well, I made this commitment.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Got to put it to the test. And so I
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: was moving down to D.C. I went to the Washington, D.C. VA,
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: which is, you know, I usually go to the VA
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: up in Boston.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: But I went to the D.C. VA, gave them my,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: you know, name, social security number to check in.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: And they said that after 20 minutes, they said, well,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: we don't have any record of you. We can't prove
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: that you're a veteran. So we'll consider taking you as
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: a humanitarian case.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: What?
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, I wanted to say, well, I mean, I
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: just won this election. Like, maybe you can Google me.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: But I was not playing the congressman's card. That's not
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: why I was there. So I just sat down in
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: the waiting room next to a fellow veteran. He served
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: in Vietnam, who said, I've been waiting here for five
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: hours just to see someone. Now, fast forward a day
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: or two later, I got my surgery.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Great surgeon.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Was working there because she believed in vets, wanted to
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: help them.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: She was.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: normally worked at GW, but she did time at the
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: VA hospital. She did a great job, but, um, but
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: as she was there putting me under anesthesia, um, she said, yeah,
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: I don't, I don't, I don't trust half the people
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: who work here.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: And I was like, whoa, time out. Maybe we just
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: time here, right?
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: You know, but before I knew it, I was out, um, and, uh,
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: woke up that afternoon. Why am I, yeah, my left
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: arm's attached to my right now. That's, that's a horrible
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: thing to say.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Uh, yeah.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Didn't exactly give me a lot of confidence.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: So, okay.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: But here's the best part. I woke up, um, and
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: went back to Capitol Hill with my little baggie of medicines.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: And they said, you know, when the anesthesia works out off,
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: wears off, this is going to hurt a lot. So
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: they gave me some powerful painkillers. They said, you can
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: try taking one. You probably need two. I didn't take
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: any when I got back to Capitol Hill because we
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: had votes that afternoon. So I wanted to, you know,
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: remember how I voted. But then, um, but then it
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: was really starting to hurt. And so I took a pill.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: Like a half hour later, I'm in this meeting. I'm like, geez,
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: this is killing me. So I went back to take
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: a second pill and I looked more carefully at the
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: bottle and they sent me home with the wrong medication.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: They sent me home with Advil.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: So that story is insane and everyone who treated you
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: should be fired except for the surgeon. Do you think
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: that that's, I mean, unfortunately, infuriatingly, despite many pledges to
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: fix it, the VA is historically fucked up and Obama
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: committed to doing it. We weren't able to achieve it.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of, extenuating circumstances. I'm not making excuses,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: but like it's a, it's a notoriously mismanaged organization. Do
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: you think that your challenge is unique to the VA
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: or do you think that it's a real parable for
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: a broader single payer system?
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm afraid it might be a parable for a
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: broader single payer system because it's the only single payer
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: system that we, that we really have in America. And
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: despite constant pledges to fix it, it hasn't been fixed.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: And that's why I think that actually tapping into the,
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: age-old American system of a little bit of free market
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: competition would be good for health care. Not to the
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: extent that it is now, where insurance companies run rampant
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: and a lot of people are priced out of health care,
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: but healthy competition between a public option, between a single-payer
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: option and private-payer systems or private-payer options. And that means
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: you're not going to kick people off their private health
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: care if they like it, but it also means that
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: those private health care plans are going to have to
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: compete with the public option. And that makes everybody better.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: Competition makes everybody better. There are also some things the
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: VA does really well, and I think it's important to
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: acknowledge that too. Not just that surgeon, but they negotiate
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: drug prices. Medicare doesn't do that. That's actually one of
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: the big problems with Medicare. They do not negotiate drug prices.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: The VA does. It's a great prescription system. You know,
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: if I had a medicine and I needed a refill,
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: I could just go online, you know, check the box.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: It shows up in the mail two days later.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's brilliant.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: There's no reason why we shouldn't do that throughout our
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: entire health care system. But the point is that if
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: you just force everybody onto Medicare, I don't think everybody's
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: going to be too thrilled.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: A lot of your message is about generational change and
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the new generation of leaders you talked about stepping up
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and serving. I think a lot of people probably hear
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: that and they think about the effort you were a
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: part of to unseat Pelosi as speaker.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't just Pelosi. It was the top three.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Well, that's fair. The top three. In hindsight, do you
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: still think that was the right decision, going after the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: folks at the top who maybe you thought had been
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: there too long?
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: Well, look, at the end of the day, you can't
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: just talk about generational change. You've got to be willing
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: to fight for it. And the compromise that we got
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: as a result of that debate, of having an actual
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Democratic debate in the Democratic Party about who our leaders
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: should be, which should be what we all expect, is
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: we got the Voting Rights Subcommittee, we got the Climate
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: Change Subcommittee, and we got an agreement on term limits
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: that did two things. First of all, it gave Pelosi
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: the vote she needed to become Speaker. without forcing all
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: the freshmen, who only got elected because they promised to
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: vote against her, to change their promise, to break their promise.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: So that was a big win, both for her and
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: for those freshmen. And it got us an agreement on
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: term limits that means that this new generation, the historically
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: diverse class that just got elected to take back the House,
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: will actually have a chance to lead in the future.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: And in some ways, if we had just succeeded in
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: that fight by getting three new leaders at the top,
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: but then they were there for 18 or 20 years,
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: then I don't think that would have been a win.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: So I think we actually came out pretty well. And
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: where does that put me in this presidential primary? Well, frankly,
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: we're not going to be able to beat Donald Trump
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: if we don't have a nominee who's willing to take
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: on the Washington establishment, who's willing to fight for change,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: who's willing to talk about how our party is going
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: to lead the country forward, not just how we're going
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: to stand up to Trump. Speaker Pelosi, by the way,
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: is doing a fantastic job of standing up to Trump,
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: and she deserves a lot of credit for that. But
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: we also need leaders that people look to and say,
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: that's the future of the Democratic Party. That's the future
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: of our country.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was wondering if we can tease out
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: what the younger generation's leadership looks like, right? Because I
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: look at the recent battles against Trump and the shutdown,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, if I'm President Moulton, I want Nancy
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Pelosi breaking arms and getting me all the votes I
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: need because she's pretty fucking good at it, you know?
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: I don't think she's the only one who can do this.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: I think there's some amazingly talented leaders in our party,
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: and you see some of them rising up today. Sherry
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: Bustos is doing an amazing job with the DCCC. And
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: she actually understands what it means to fight for the
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: districts we need to win because she comes from a
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: district that voted for Trump. Hakeem Jeffries is a rising
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: hotshot in the House. He has the potential to be
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: the first African-American Speaker of the House.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: And he's doing a great job as a chairman of
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: our caucus.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: There are a lot of very, very talented people in
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: the Democratic caucus. And I think it's important that we
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: give them a chance to lead as well. they're going
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: to take us forward into the future. And that makes
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: for a stronger party.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Okay. Let me talk process for a minute.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Process.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Everyone loves process.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: No one wants to talk about process. Come on.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: I want to know how you're going to win, right?
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of folks in the race. I
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: think there's some, I'm not saying you that are in
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: to highlight an issue or to sort of build a
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: personal profile. I want to know, like, are you planning
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: to compete in Iowa? Are you going to go to
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: neighboring New Hampshire? Do you have paid staff on the ground?
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Was there a fundraising goal? Like what's like, what kind of,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: things you guys working on to, to win this thing.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: So obviously on day four, we have this all figured out.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: Literally day four. Um, but it's going well so far.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: First of all, we're starting on the ground. This is
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: a grassroots campaign. Um, a lot of people have actually
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: pointed to the John McCain model of literally just going to,
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: you know, VFWs and sometimes you meet with small groups,
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: but you build up a steady base of support.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: John Kerry in 04 too.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: John Kerry in 04 did the same thing.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: Um, some people point to the Gary Hart campaign too, but, uh,
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: but the point is that you start by just building
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: trust in the ground. And we literally started by doing
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: service events because I'm applying for a job of national service.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: So tell me, so you're day one, you go to
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire and you're pouring mulch for two hours.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Well, we're not, it's not just mulch.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: We'd be terrible mulchers if it took us two hours
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: to do that.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: What else are you guys doing? It's a service project. Yeah.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: So we were stocking a food pantry. We were organizing
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: clothes for the veterans. And it's at this amazing place
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: called Liberty House in Manchester, New Hampshire. that helps get
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: veterans back on their feet after they've had some hard times.
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: They served the country but came back. Many of them
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: had post-traumatic stress, got addicted to opioids. Some of them
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: had been in prison. But they're such inspiring stories because
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: they're getting back on their feet.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: They've got jobs. They're sobering up. They're doing really well.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: And the point is that I want people to know
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: that this is a mission-driven campaign, and we are about service.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: That's fundamentally what we're all about.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: It's what I did in my first campaign for Congress
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: back in 2014, too. And people would say, wait, why
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: are you just going to a food pantry? I want
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: people to know and remember what this is about, why
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: we're doing this. We're doing this to serve.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: The country.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: And that should be evident in everything we do. So
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: we cleaned up a beach in South Carolina, going tomorrow
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: to meet with some veterans in Nevada, met with junior
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: ROTC cadets in Iowa. And it's been an incredibly energizing experience.
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: So Um, we're going to compete on the ground. Uh,
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: of course I'll spend a lot of time in New Hampshire. Um,
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: in fact, there's actually no state I've spent more time
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: on in time in my entire life other than Massachusetts,
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: the New Hampshire. And so, um, so I'll spend a
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: lot of time on the ground there, but we're going
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: to start with veterans and students and we're going to
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: work up from there and we're just going to build
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: the grassroots support for this campaign. And if there's one
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: thing that I hear from voters everywhere I go, it's,
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: we need to beat Donald Trump. We need a nominee
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: who can stand up to Trump and win. And that's
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: why I think it's so important to be willing to
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: confront him on these issues, all these issues I'm talking
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: about that amazingly no one else in the field is
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: really hitting him on. We've got to take him on
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: on his job as commander in chief. It's shocking to
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: me that the Mueller report just came out. You've got
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: a Kushner out there saying, oh, it's not a big deal.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. And fundamentally, this is a story. of dereliction
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: of duty by the Commander-in-Chief of the United States. Because
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: his number one job is to keep us safe. His
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: number one job is to keep us safe. And he
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: refuses to do that because it might harm his reputation.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: So after Pearl Harbor, they had a Pearl Harbor Commission.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: And it was actually quite critical of the Roosevelt administration.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: After 9-11, there was a 9-11 Commission. It was actually
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: quite critical of the Bush administration. But you never saw
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: Roosevelt or Bush out there saying, oh, no, no, no,
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: we shouldn't look into this. We shouldn't investigate this because
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: it might look bad on me. But that's exactly what
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: our president today is doing. And we're not calling him
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: out about it. We're not calling him out on it.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: And we need to as a party if we're going
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: to win.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Agreed. The big debate coming out of the Mueller report
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: has been about whether we should impeach Donald Trump. We've
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: been fighting about it here at Pate America.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: But, Tommy, I mean, yeah, and so I'll answer your question.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: I know where you're going. But it shouldn't be the debate.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: The debate should be how do we as Americans... not
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: as Trump.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: Supporters or Trump haters, not as Democrats or Republicans, but
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: as Americans, protect ourselves when we were attacked by the
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: only power on earth that could literally wipe out all
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: life in America in about 20 minutes.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Look, I agree. I mean, look, the New York Times
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: story about how the former head of Homeland Security being
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: unable to even raise the issue of efforts to protect
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: us from another hacking by the Russians, it made me
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: break out into a cold sweat and feel nervous about
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: about 2020 all over again for a.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: Whole set of reasons. Well, just to be clear, they
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: absolutely are going to hack the 2020 elections.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, of course, yeah.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, they're probably listening to this podcast right now.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: With any luck, we need the downloads. But I agree
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: that that's the more important issue, but I think it's
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: a distinct one. I mean, there's a question of whether
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: when you read what you read in the Mueller report
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: and you see these efforts to obstruct justice, whether there's
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: a moral obligation from Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. And
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: then I think there's a question of whether it's smart politics.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I'm curious if you have a take on that. Yeah.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: So I think that, um, those are both good questions,
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: but the one that matters for the oath that we
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: all swore as members of Congress is to uphold the
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: constitution and that's to do the right thing on principle,
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: which is to have this discussion. I mean, you can't
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: look at, uh, the situation we're in right now where
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: Trump and his associates very clearly committed, committed crimes and
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: not be willing to have this debate. That's why I
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: actually voted last year to start this debate. I mean,
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: I think that the majority of our party was wrong
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: to wait until now to even bring this up for
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: a question. Uh, we had a vote in the house
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: last year about whether to go forward with impeachment debate and,
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: and I voted and I voted in the minority to
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: do so. And I think now we realize maybe we
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: backed ourselves into a corner by waiting for the Mueller report.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: Now that's separate. Having that debate is separate from voting.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: Congress does two things. We debate issues and we vote
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: on them. It's not the time yet to vote on impeachment.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: We don't have all the facts. We don't even have
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: the full unredacted Mueller report. But we absolutely should be
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: having this debate. And frankly, we should have been having
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: it for a while.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Biden in his announcement video called President Trump an aberration.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Your colleague, Elizabeth Warren, has a very different take. She
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: doesn't believe he's an aberration. She thinks he's the sort
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: of part of a natural disconcerting progression of a system
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: that's rigged in a Republican party that's gone crazy. Do
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: you have an opinion on the subject? I do.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: It's basically whether you think Trump is a symptom or
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: a cause. And it'd be great if he were a
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: cause because then that's an aberration because we just get
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: rid of Trump and this all goes away. And sadly,
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: I don't think that's the case. I think he's a
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: symptom of a very divided America. America where a lot
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: of people feel left behind. Where the economy is changing
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: so fast that jobs are being taken not by immigrants
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: but by robots.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: They're literally being automated out of existence.
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: And a lot of people who used to have a
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: good paying job, who used to be able to support
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: their family and maybe even go on vacation once or
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: twice a year, they can't make ends meet.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: What do you do when you can't make ends meet?
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: Your kids are addicted to opioids.
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: You know that their chances of success in life are
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: worse than your own, the first time in American history
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: that that's happened, when the next generation's chances are worse
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: than ours. And you just don't see any hope. And
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: then you look to Washington, and they're doing nothing to help.
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's a real sense of betrayal. It really
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: reminds me, when I go to these districts, like I
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: did to support all these Serve America candidates that endorsed
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: and supported in the midterms, The 40 seats that we flipped,
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: 21 of them were endorsed and supported by my Serve
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: America organization, including a lot of really inspiring veterans. And
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: they all won tough, moderate districts. And they won them
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: by putting country before party and saying that they were
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: going to go to Washington to actually get something done.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: Because when you talk to people in these districts, they're like,
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: Washington didn't do anything. They're not doing anything to help.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: And it actually reminds me of the feeling I felt
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: in Iraq. I just felt totally left behind by the
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: people in Washington who were playing politics and had no
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: idea what my experience was like as a Marine infantryman
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: on the ground.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You think Paul Bremer wasn't dialed into the reality?
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: Hard to believe, but he and his combat boots. Probably
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: a lot of your listeners don't even know who he is.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: No clue.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Absolutely no clue. But they should all read that.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: The worst of the Bush administration.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Fiasco by Tom Ricks.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: But here's the thing. I also saw in the midst
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: of that war the best of America. The best of
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: America shows up in the worst of circumstances. And that's
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: exactly what we need now. We need Americans to start
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: believing in this country again and believe in it so
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: much so that they're willing to go out and serve it,
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: that they're going to make it better. Because I understand
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: that we've got a lot of problems. I mean, you know,
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: 50 years ago, poor middle class people in America couldn't
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: afford health care. Well, today, in 2019, a lot of
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: poor middle class Americans can't afford health care. 80 years ago,
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: schools were segregated throughout much of the country, segregated by race.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Well, today.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: Schools are still segregated by race. It's just driven by
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: economic inequality. You know, we haven't gotten voting rights right.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: No.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: You know, 60 years ago, people, black people weren't given
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: the right to vote. They were scared from the polls.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: And look, that's happening again today. So on so many issues,
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: we still haven't gotten it right. But at our best,
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: we're a country that doesn't think we've figured it all out.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: We're a country that thinks that we might. And we're
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: a country where people stand up to serve the country
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: every day to make it better. My sister goes to
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: school every day, not because she thinks the education system
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: is perfect, but because she knows she can make it better.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: I went back to Iraq three times after my first deployment,
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: not because I thought it was a perfect war, but
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: because I thought I could help make it a little
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: bit better. And that's exactly what we should be looking
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: for in our leaders in Washington. People who go there
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: not to advance their own careers, not to support themselves,
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: as Trump is doing in the office now, but just
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: to make the country a little bit better.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: That's a great place to leave it. Congressman Seth Moulton,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming in. Best of luck. Thanks.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: I hope people will go to my website, sethmoulton.com, S-E-T-H-M-O-U-L-T-O-N.com.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: Check out the video. Check out the video that explains
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: a little bit about why we're running. And then if
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: there's anything that you've heard today that you think should
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: be a part of the Democratic debate in June, then
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: just put in $ 5, $ 10, even $ 1 to help.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Get me to that debate stage at the end of June.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: 65,000 donations.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: 65,000 donations. It's a steep hill to climb. I mean,
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: I got a six-month-old at home, so I couldn't get
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: any earlier than this. So it's a short period of
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: time to make it there. But I hope you'll be
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: a part of this mission, and I'd be proud to
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: have your support.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: All right. Thank you again.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you.