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Interview Only w/ Congressman Troy Carter - What Should Democrats Do With The Majority? · The Chuck ToddCast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode of the Chuck Todd cast is brought to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you by Chapter. Now, almost everything you hear about Medicare
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is somebody quietly trying to steer you somewhere. And you're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: skeptical of that, as you should be. I get it.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a federal lawsuit going on right now
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: over exactly this. Companies that branded themselves as unbiased while
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: allegedly pointing people toward whatever would pay them the most
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: as some sort of broker. So if your default is
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to distrust everyone in this space, honestly, I get it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm a bit distrustful these days myself. That's the whole
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: reason I want to tell you about Chapter. They're independent
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Medicare advisors whose entire model is that their advisors are
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: not paid to push any one plan. They're just trying
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to help. Yes, there's compensation that goes with it. but
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it's across the board is what they're trying to do.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, they're advocating for you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: They're not the insurance companies themselves. They're an actual person
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: who actually goes through your doctors, your prescriptions, your needs,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and then compares them to every single plan available to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: find the best one that will work for you and
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  Speaker 1: hopefully save you a couple dollars too. And here's the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: part that sets chapter apart. They don't disappear once you've
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: been in They will keep advocating for you. They're kind
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of like almost like a concierge service. You're just there.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I need help. You're like customer service. You know, the plan,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you know, help me navigate this again. So you ever
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: get hit with a wrongful medical bill, they'll help you
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: fight it. They want to stay an advocate for you
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: even after you've done this. So look, I get it.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I think there's all sorts of space. You see a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people are throwing themselves in this healthcare space.
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  Speaker 1: What I like about these chapter folks, I've spent time
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  Speaker 1: with them. This is a very transparent organization. It is
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Medicare and all of its affiliated stuff can be very confusing.
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  Speaker 1: The whole point of this is to make this easier
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  Speaker 1: and less confusing. OK, so look, take the skepticism you
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: already have in all of this, point it at your
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  Speaker 1: own plan for 20 minutes. It's free. There's no pressure.
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  Speaker 1: And then call chapter today at 980-734-4200. three, nine, eight, five. Well,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: joining me now is the first vice chair of the
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  Speaker 1: Congressional Black Caucus and also a Democratic member of Congress
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  Speaker 1: representing Pretty much the best place to get a bite
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  Speaker 1: to eat on this planet. It is Troy Carter of Louisiana,
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  Speaker 1: of New Orleans, Louisiana. Congressman Carter, it's good to see you.
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  Speaker 2: Good to be with you always. Thank you. And you're right.
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  Speaker 2: Come on down and have a bite with us.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, there's just I mean, let's just be honest.
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  Speaker 1: Plenty of good places to get food all over the
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  Speaker 1: country these days. But it's, you know, you know, my
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  Speaker 1: favorite cities that aren't New Orleans to eat are places
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  Speaker 1: like Charleston or Savannah. And I always say it's almost
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  Speaker 1: like New Orleans. But it ain't New Orleans.
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  Speaker 2: Almost like New Orleans, but not New Orleans.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And you kind of get, you get something else in
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  Speaker 2: New Orleans. You get a spirit. You get a spirit
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  Speaker 2: that you can't find in most places.
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  Speaker 1: No, it's just unique. And let me start there, actually,
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  Speaker 1: just on this sort of, you know, we're pretty polarized.
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  Speaker 1: You live, we were just talking about, you know, yes,
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  Speaker 1: Louisiana is considered a very red state. But it's really
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  Speaker 1: just a very polarized state. It's not red per se
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  Speaker 1: on economic ideology. It's a pretty left-leaning populism. Whether you're
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  Speaker 1: on the right or the left, I think that there
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  Speaker 1: certainly isn't ideology. This isn't a Paul Ryan conservative Republican
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: state type of thing. And New Orleans is one of
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  Speaker 1: the few places where I feel like everybody understands there's
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  Speaker 1: divisive politics, but politics can be set aside for a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes. I don't sense that in a lot of
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  Speaker 1: other political communities, but Louisiana has always been a little
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  Speaker 1: bit different. Is it still that way, or do you
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  Speaker 1: feel the tension nationally has even broken up? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I think of friendships that I know happen a lot
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  Speaker 1: more in Louisiana across the aisle than in other places.
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  Speaker 2: Well, listen, the Trump era... has challenged most relationships across
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  Speaker 2: the country. But Louisiana, as you mentioned, is very unique.
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  Speaker 2: We're a bit of an anomaly in that our cultures,
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  Speaker 2: our food, our music, our sports intertwine so much that
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  Speaker 2: even in those heated political discussions, there remain relationships that
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  Speaker 2: transcend that. So Louisiana, while I'd be the first to
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  Speaker 2: tell you, has experienced some strain because of the divisiveness
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  Speaker 2: of this administration that seems to punish people who want
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  Speaker 2: to be bipartisan, seems to ridicule those who want to
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  Speaker 2: work together. You know, in Louisiana, we've always worked together.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I before coming to Congress, I served in
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  Speaker 2: the House of Representatives and the state Senate. I served
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  Speaker 2: in New Orleans City Council when I was in the legislature.
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  Speaker 2: I worked under Edwin Edwards when he was governor. I
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  Speaker 2: worked under under John Bell. when he was governor, but
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  Speaker 2: both houses were ruled by Republicans. And we were still
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  Speaker 2: able to get things done. I was the minority leader
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  Speaker 2: in the state Senate, and we were 12 members strong
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  Speaker 2: of a 39-member body, but we still got things done.
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  Speaker 2: Because we're able to build relationships, we'll be able to
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  Speaker 2: put issues ahead of politics. That's that's a challenge under
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  Speaker 2: this administration, because President Trump has made it very clear
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't want to work with Democrats. And in Louisiana,
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  Speaker 2: what different place?
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  Speaker 1: Well, and, you know, just just the fact I was surprised.
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  Speaker 1: I guess I shouldn't. I wasn't shocked, but I was
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  Speaker 1: surprised that the legislature went out of its way to
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  Speaker 1: target Bill Cassidy the way he was targeted, meaning it
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: was sort of like, OK. The only way we're going
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  Speaker 1: to be able to beat this guy is force him
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  Speaker 1: into a Republican primary, because if he does the traditional
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: all party primary, you know, Cassidy might be able to
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: appeal to different constituencies and he might have been able
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to survive that Senate seat. And it was really important
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to the White House that, you know, it was proved
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  Speaker 1: that if you vote again, if you voted to convict
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  Speaker 1: the president or impeach the president, you need to be
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  Speaker 1: kicked out of the party in some form or another.
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  Speaker 1: And they changed the election rules for one election, right?
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  Speaker 1: It's just once. I mean, When that happened, it told me, wow,
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  Speaker 1: because what was interesting, your career very much mirrors sort
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of how in Louisiana these relationships have always been able
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  Speaker 1: to stick, right? I think Cedric Richmond and Scalise served
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  Speaker 1: locally together before they served nationally together, right? I think
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  Speaker 1: they had some interaction.
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  Speaker 2: Mike Johnson and I served locally together before we served
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  Speaker 2: nationally together. I was in the Senate when Mike was
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  Speaker 2: in the State House.
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  Speaker 1: And what was that relationship like back then?
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  Speaker 2: Just fine. And the same with Steve. Listen, Steve and
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  Speaker 2: I have worked together for many, many years. Mike and
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  Speaker 2: I have worked together for many, many years. And Conversationally, personally,
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  Speaker 2: we're still perfectly fine. Politically, policy-wise, could not be further apart.
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  Speaker 2: But it doesn't interfere with the personal relationship, but it
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  Speaker 2: certainly does on the policy side. Because we are worlds
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  Speaker 2: apart when it comes to Medicaid, Medicare. hospitals, healthcare for individuals, jobs,
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  Speaker 2: economic opportunity for the poor, SNAP benefits. We're in different worlds.
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  Speaker 2: Environmental justice, making sure that EPA enforces the rules so
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  Speaker 2: people can breathe clean air, drink clean water. Different worlds.
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  Speaker 1: You brought up Medicaid. Let me ask a cynical question
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  Speaker 1: on the expansion of Medicaid. If it weren't connected to
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  Speaker 1: something called Obamacare, um, Would Medicaid would there be Medicaid
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  Speaker 1: expansion in Louisiana?
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  Speaker 2: Chuck, I think it's very clear that if it were
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  Speaker 2: not Obamacare, Bobby Jindal would have expanded Medicaid before John
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  Speaker 2: Bel Edwards did. The reality is. President Trump has a
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  Speaker 2: real problem with this piece of legislation, not necessarily what
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  Speaker 2: it does, but who brought it to bear and has
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  Speaker 2: made it very clear all the way to that very
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  Speaker 2: infamous time when John McCain went to the well of
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  Speaker 2: the Senate and voted against getting rid of it. And
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  Speaker 2: this president has been trying ever since to find.
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  Speaker 1: A symbol for him. He does it like the irony
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  Speaker 1: is that he get rid of it. It's sort of
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  Speaker 1: like NAFTA. Yes. I mean, I think somebody even proposed this.
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  Speaker 1: Just call it TrumpCare. Fine. If you want to call
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  Speaker 1: it TrumpCare and expand Medicaid and you call it TrumpCare,
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  Speaker 1: would you support it then?
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  Speaker 2: He may be watching this at some point, and that
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  Speaker 2: may be the next move, Chuck. It'll be your fault.
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  Speaker 2: But that may be not your fault. It may be
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  Speaker 2: your credit.
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  Speaker 1: Well, but it's like these Trump accounts. I actually think
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  Speaker 1: these are good ideas, unfortunately, because the name Trump is
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  Speaker 1: so polarizing. Some people see it and immediately don't want
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  Speaker 1: anything to do with it. And you're like, Look, I
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  Speaker 1: know they put his name on it, but this is
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  Speaker 1: actually a pretty good idea for your kid if you've
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  Speaker 1: got a young grandchild or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: The irony of the Obamacare issue and the Medicaid issue
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  Speaker 2: is this big, ugly law, which threatens to remove some
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  Speaker 2: 17 million people from the voter polls, from the opportunities
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  Speaker 2: to be served. If you go and look at members
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  Speaker 2: of Congress, start with the speaker himself. In Louisiana, and
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  Speaker 2: look at the nearly 50% of the people, I think
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  Speaker 2: 39 or 40 some odd percent of the people in
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  Speaker 2: the Speaker's district are Medicaid dependent.
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  Speaker 1: Right. You've got one of the biggest ones.
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  Speaker 2: One of the biggest ones. You've got Valadao up in California.
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  Speaker 2: He's got 70% of his district that's Medicaid dependent. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know. Forget party. Forget all of that. How do
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  Speaker 2: you look at the constituents that you represent and tell
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  Speaker 2: them this isn't going to impact them? There was a
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  Speaker 2: story that just came out in our local newspaper just
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  Speaker 2: last week on SNAP benefits and the people that are
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  Speaker 2: falling off. And in those statistics from LDH and from
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  Speaker 2: the federal government, it was determined that those people that
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: were coming off the roads were procedural, not waste, fraud,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: or abuse. It's people falling through the cracks for... owner's
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: paperwork for every six, this new policy that you've got
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  Speaker 2: to reapply every six months. Chuck, if you had to
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: apply for your driver's license every six months, I dare
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  Speaker 2: say you'd be driving without.
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  Speaker 1: A driver's license. No, that is designed, you know, it's
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: sort of like, you know, the way parking ticket late
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  Speaker 1: fees just kick in like within three days or whatever, right?
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  Speaker 1: It's like some systems are designed to have you not
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  Speaker 1: use them.
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  Speaker 2: It's like the old call in for this rebate. It's
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  Speaker 2: going to be a $ 10 rebate. And you get to
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  Speaker 2: say that, but no one ever calls in.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Because remember, when you get the rebate, you got to
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: cut out this proof of purchase and then you got
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: to find the receipt. You got to go through this
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: whole rigmarole for $ 30. And then you say to yourself,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. My time is worth more than that.
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  Speaker 2: And most people don't do it. So they get the
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: benefit of offering it, but never paying it. And it's
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: the same situation where you hide the ball. Listen, working
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  Speaker 2: people are busy trying to live. They're trying to take
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: care of their families. They're trying to educate and feed
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: their kids. They're in the grocery store trying to afford
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: These these exorbitant prices in the grocery store, in the
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  Speaker 2: gas line. And now you tell me I got to
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  Speaker 2: I got to keep reapplying. And each time it's almost
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: as if we'll get you next time. You're going to
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: forget to cross a T or dot. I going to
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: put a comma in the wrong place and we're going
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: to reject you. And then you've got to redo it. And,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: you know, for working moms, dads, grandmas out there, that's
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  Speaker 2: that we as government. should always seek to root out
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: ways fraud abuse.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing, when you're living on the edge- But
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: we also make.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: It a point to get people services that they need.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: That's what government does.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: When you're living on the edge, when you're paycheck to paycheck,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: you don't, you're exhausted all the time. And it's like,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: you just, you're, anyway, like we're on the, and it's
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: strange because the Trump brand is he wants to look
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: out for working people.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And this is the working class that is trying desperately.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody likes to be on welfare. I've never met anybody
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: who says, oh, I love being. And this is like
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: one of the you know, I mean, the irony is,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: what do you make of this new welfare policy that
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the Trump administration is pushing for stay at home moms?
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  Speaker 2: Well, listen, it's all smoke and mirror. You know, this
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: whole notion of. that Trump cares about or wants to
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: help working class people, I think those of us who
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: know better know that Trump has no use for poor people.
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  Speaker 2: He has no use for people that are living on
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  Speaker 2: the edge. He's got no use for people. Here's a
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: man who says he loves inflation. Here's a man who
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: says that he was going to keep us out of war.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And then when he got us in war, he said
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: we'd be out of war in six weeks. Now it's
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: six months. Here's a guy who says in day one,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: The price of eggs, the price of rice, the price
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: of bread, milk, and household goods will go down. Chuck,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: they've gone up. He said the prices for gas will
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: go down. It's gone up. You know, so to suggest
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: in any way that Trump cares about poor people, be
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: they white, black, poor, Democrat, East Bank, West Bank, whatever
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  Speaker 2: part of the world, East, North, South, he doesn't. And
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: it's words are one thing. But look at the facts.
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  Speaker 2: Just like, for example, all of a sudden Trump has
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: gotten off on this new task of calling Democrats communists. Well,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: he's the only one that publicly shares his admiration for despots,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: not Democrats. He's the one who says Putin's a really
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: smart guy. He's the one that says all these other
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: guys are great leaders. Well, no, they're not. They're despots
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: and they don't care about America or Americans.
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  Speaker 1: All right. But let's talk about one of the elephants
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: in the room on this issue, which is white working
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: people trust Trump more than Democrats. Why?
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  Speaker 2: I think because Trump says things that others think. Trump
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: pulls the scab off of the challenges that people feel,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: and he does a real good job of pitting one
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: group against the other. So If he goes to a
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: poor white community and he says the reason you're poor
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: is because of affluent black people, because they had X
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: and Y to get to where they are, and he
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: paints a picture that somehow your plight is this way
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: because their plight isn't, or because they are getting SNAP benefits. Well,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: go and look at the statistics, Chuck. There are more
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: white people getting SNAP benefits across the board than there
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: are black people. But the average person doesn't see that
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: or doesn't believe that when, in fact, the reality is
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: there are more people in the white community on SNAP
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: benefits than there are black community across the country. That's
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: just a reality. But Trump likes to poke the bear
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: and to cause people to be against each other while
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: he sits back and pilfers the country. So we have
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: this notion of whites, poor whites believing him is because
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: he's saying things that they say back home that he's
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: he's giving them license to hate again. But when you
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: go up the ratchet a little and you find the
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: more affluent, educated people, they don't buy into it at
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: the same rate.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about a few examples of of. of
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: white male Democrats who seem to bridge this divide better.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Bill Clinton, Edwin Edward, you brought, you talked about Edwin Edwards. Look,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: there's no doubt in my mind, Edwin Edwards was a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: good talker because you don't get away with half the
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: stuff he got away with if he couldn't be a
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: good talker. John Bell Edwards, Edwin Edwards, Bill Clinton was
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: able to break that racial polarization on working people and
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: would get white working class people and black working class
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: people to sort of sing from the same songbook. What
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: do they do right that you think today's Democratic Party
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: is struggling with?
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Talking directly to the people. Kitchen table conversation. Edwin Edwards,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Bill Clinton, talk right to the people. You felt like
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: you were the only one in the room. They both
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: had a certain amount of charisma that disarmed you. You
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: felt like they really got where you were. You are
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: and understand your plight.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: It probably helped that Bill Clinton was, he grew up poor.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: He grew up in a poor white community.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: And so did Edwin Edwards. And when you're thinking of
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Edwin Edwards growing up in rural Louisiana, Cajun boy with
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: a strong accent, Bill Clinton with a country accent, just
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: one of the guys. And I think the problem that
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Democrats and or others have, and one of the ones
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: that I will criticize our party with is sometimes we're
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: guilty of trying to make the simple complex instead of
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: making the complex simple. Talking to people in a language
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: that they understand that they- Yeah.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I always call it, I say, don't, I always say,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: speak American to me. Don't speak English. Speak American.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Just speak real. Just talk to me about what... Listen,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: it's expensive to feed your children. We don't need to
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: talk about, say, affordability. Just say, shit, man, I can't
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: afford to pay for these groceries.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: We don't need to use these fancy words.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: You want to make it one word? No, make it ten.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I can't afford to pay for my groceries. I need help.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: And when you talk to people to say somebody's got
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: to care about the rest of us, right? Somebody's got
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: to be fighting for the rest of us. Who are
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: the rest of us? The rest of us are all
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: those people who feel like no one cares. The rest
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: of us are the ones that's working two jobs, trying
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: to take care of the kids. The rest of us
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: are the ones that are challenged with mental health issues,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: and they get up every day and they're still struggling.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: The rest of us are those who are not. The
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: rich is rich, the poor is poor, but somewhere in
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: the middle, somewhere to up the middle bottom, and no
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: one's talking about them. Those guys and gals that every
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: day are struggling to survive. And you know what, quite frankly,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: like Katrina Waters, they don't give a shit who pulls
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: them out of the drowning, out of the, the, the waters.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: They don't care if it's a white head, a black head,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a Republican, a Democrat, or other. They need help. That's
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: where I think we missed the boat speaking plain American
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: to the people, letting them know we get it. We
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: would not, we would not, you don't get elected to
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Congress or to the presidency and automatically get a box
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: of wisdom or a magic wand. We still have to
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: communicate with the people. And when we lose touch with that,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: we lose the whole process.
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  Speaker 1: of 2026. You know, if Democrats don't win control of
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  Speaker 1: the House in this midterm, what does that say about
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: your party?
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: It says, it would say, first of all, I'm not
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: in any way conceding that. I think we're going to absolutely.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't either. I mean, I think it's about a,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: you know, but look. But if we did, to answer
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: your question. I don't think LSU is going to lose
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: more than two games all year. But if they lost four, right,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: we'd be shocked.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: It's possible. But I will tell you, if we did,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: it would mean that we dropped four. an incredible pass.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: We blew an incredible play. We blew an incredible opportunity.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: We totally lost the messaging.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Do you see any seeds here that concern you? It's
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: sort of like, this feels like a given. It's hard
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to imagine it's not. But, you know, there's always the counterfactual.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: You're like, you know, am I ignoring something I shouldn't
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: be ignoring? Is there something over here that I'm missing?
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Like what's what's going through your head on on this?
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Like everything seems like it's going in the right direction
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: for your party. But, you know, you just you know,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: is there some some storm I didn't know was on
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the radar?
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: You know, we're always concerned about that, that that possible unknown,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: that one church visit you missed. that one group you
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: thought you had solidified. There's always that nagging part in
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: the back of your mind of what could we have
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: done more of at 801 when the elections are now done?
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: I think we're in a very good place. I think
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: we're at this point, I'm less concerned about the ones
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: we may drop or concerned about these ones that no
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: one's counting us on that we may actually catch. There
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: are some red to blues out there that can really
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: shock some folk on election night. I also think if
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: I'm reading my tea leaves correct, Chuck, when I talk
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: to Republicans and Democrats alike, and I talk to my
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Republican friends who share with me their disdain for what's
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: happening with not necessarily their party, but where Trump is
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: taking their party, there are a lot of Republicans who
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: are going to vote. blue. There are a lot of
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Republicans that are not going to vote at all. So
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I think there lies where I think pundits should be
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: watching election night for the upset. And the upset is
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: going to be in areas where Republicans are going to
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: send a message that they do not agree with what
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump is doing. And to go back to Bill
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Cassidy for a maintained his position on the impeachment, explained
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: why he did it, and did not roll over and
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: confirm RFK. I think it would have been next to
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: impossible to beat him if he'd run as independent.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, I, so I was a huge advocate of that idea.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: It's my understanding they looked into it. And it's my
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: understanding they didn't see a path to victory. And I
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: don't know if Louisiana makes it a little bit harder
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: for ballot access. I'm not quite sure. But either that
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: that's mine. But I'm with you. I to me. But
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think it was the Kennedy
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: confirmation alienated a whole bunch of voters that might have
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: been with him. It wasn't for that. Right.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: The the people that would have come to his rescue.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: And listen, you hit it on the head. This changing
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: from a jungle primary to a closed primary, that was
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: about as intentional a hit as you can.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: It is literally a hit.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, a political assassination.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: He fell for the okey-doke. Had he switched and become independent,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: I think he would have inoculated himself even from that hit. But,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: you know, listen, I didn't look at the numbers. I
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: suspect they looked clearly different.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: But the Kennedy thing didn't work.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Because, I mean, he finished third in a three man
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: race or whatever. But he was odd man out, even
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: with all the money. I think he had 11 to
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: 12 million dollars in the bank.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: So let's assume you're right about what we're going to
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: see with Republican turnout. I have a suspicion that it's
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: that it's that there's something to it. And look, this is,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I think, what this MAGA convention is about.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure it's a good way to talk to
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: independent voters, but they're not talking to independent voters, right?
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: They're trying to get their base out because they know
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: they got a problem. But let's assume you get this
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: majority and you get it with a governing majority. I'm like,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: we could make fun of Mike Johnson all we want.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I'd be like, you try being speaker with a three
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: seat majority, right? I think it's a near impossibility. So
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: let's assume you have a governing majority and you just
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: said there's a message being sent here And I'm guessing
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you think it's an accountability message. Is that what you assume? Yes.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: That's the message that's being sent. All right. So what
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: does that look like? Right. We've heard the I word
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: being thrown around and oversight. And look, I think the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: weakness of Congress is the most damaging thing that's happened
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: this century. I think as just as a chamber.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: We've had too many speakers capitulate to their own party's
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: president on executive branch powers. And I think this is
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: why I think a lot of people feel as if
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Congress has neutered itself with tariff authority and all of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: this business. What's the focus? What should be the focus?
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: And how do you not sort of get drawn into
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: the Trump swamp where sometimes you think you're doing something
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: that works, but suddenly you're just bogged down in it
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: And voters think, hey, you're not paying attention to what
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: we asked you to pay attention to.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: And we should be able to walk into bubble gum
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: at the same time. And we can't. And so part
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: of what we have to do, we have to advance
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: good policy for the American people at the same time, simultaneously.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: And hope that Donald Trump signs it? Well, no.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Well, he's not going to sign it.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't mean we don't continue to advance. Listen,
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: we've been in the minority for the last two years,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: and we have not conceded our policy efforts. We have
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: used discharge petitions to advance policy. bills to the floor
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: when the leadership didn't want it to get there, knowing
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: the president will probably not sign it. But that doesn't
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: mean we can sit back and just not do anything
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: because we have a president that won't sign it. So
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: hence my comment, walking and chewing bubble gum. We've got
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: to continue to advance good policy, even if he doesn't
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: sign it, because the public's still watching and the public's
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: seeing good policy that can change the price of rice,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: that can come up with cures with National Institute of
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Health Research dollars that this president doesn't want to have,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: while on the other hand, holding them accountable. There has
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: to be a restoration of the checks and balances, the
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: guardrails of our government. The rule of law has to matter.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: The Constitution has to matter. So we have to continue
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: to exercise oversight. We have to demonstrate to the American
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: people that we will not give in to a country
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: of lawlessness or a president and his minions who think
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: they're above the law. We have to do these things simultaneously.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: And Chuck, guess what? Republicans and Democrats alike want to
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: see this. I'm not talking about MAGA. I'm not talking
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: about those zealots who will... support Trump even if he
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: killed someone on Main Street as he he once said.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: But I'm talking about the reasonable people who happen to
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: be of a different philosophical view, Republican or Democrat, but
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: are not anti-American, who are not anti-constitution, who are not
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: anti-rule of law. That's a pocket of people that may
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: be Republican, but they're very reachable if you bring them
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: the way I suggest, and that is keep it pure.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about the Constitution. Let's talk about the rule
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: of law.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Is it, look, you can make a strong case that
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: he's done impeachable offenses. And we know a third impeachment
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: might feel like the parents on Charlie Brown, you know, wah, wah, wah, wah, right?
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Like the public might not hear it, despite, you know,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: on one hand, you're like, well, if you're not going
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: to hold him accountable, what's the point of having the
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: provision in the Constitution? And yet I'm not sure it's
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: worth the time to do it. Would you focus your
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: energy on the impeachment of a Kennedy or a Hegseth first?
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Is that where you'd go? Or is it not impeachment
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: at all? Is it instead, we got to figure out
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: how to prevent this sort of selling of regulation capture, right?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Like the tech industry clearly has attempted to do with AI.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: In the accountability space, prioritize it for me. Is it
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: individuals and the damage being done to these individual agencies,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: HHS and the Pentagon, to me seem on fire at
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: the moment? Or is it more of what's happening with
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the private sector and the buying off of the administration?
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Chuck, I think it's simultaneous. I think all of those
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: things are meritorious to review. I think the notion that
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: the country, that some think we should hang our hat
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: on singularly impeachment. Listen, we've impeached him twice. You have
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: to also have a Senate that will convict. So you
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: need those components together.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: If you don't have the vote in that sense, if
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: you don't have the votes, it's not worth doing.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Then what you're doing is you're offering people false hope.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: You're all sizzling no steak. The American people deserve steak.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: They might have the votes for Kennedy. You might have
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the votes for Hegseth. And frankly, my guess is they'd
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: resign before they ever went through it.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: And listen, and that's that's my hope is that they
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: will recognize or even the president himself will recognize like
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: he did with with Kristi Noem, that these people are
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: toxic and that they are doing things and that that's
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: just beyond the pale. But all of the oversight, it's
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: so much more than just the I word. There's every level.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: You've got Holman, who was under investigation for taking $ 50, 000
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: in cash. No one's talking about that anymore. Now he's
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: head of Border Patrol. How is that possible that you
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: can just let this be swept under the rug? I
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: would tell you, Chuck, if that were Democrat, I think
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: the press would be talking every single day.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Yes. I'm aware of a Democrat from Louisiana who had
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: cash in a freezer that we had that became a
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: running gag for for plenty of political comics. I mean,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to belabor that. But yes,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I can't believe this lunch bag of brown bag of cash,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: which is like right out of like a bad movie script.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: It's like the old what was the that? ab scam.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: You remember where the FBI wore the dummy mustaches and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: made these congressmen fall for bribes? That's what it felt
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: like Homan fell for. It was like the simplest of scams.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: You're like, I'm sorry, if you're that dumb to fall
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: for it, you shouldn't be in government, let alone crooked.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: And then not only are you not brought to justice
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: for it, you're brought back in and promoted to a
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: high profile position. My God, what are we doing? So
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: All of those things and so many others. When you
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: look at the Bitcoin and the relationships between who owns
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: what when they get who's buying this stock, who owns
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: stock in this business is doing work with with the
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: White House. The president's made an estimated reportedly two point
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: five billion dollars since taking office again. There's a lot
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: of work to be done, and the American people want answers.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: And you have the feel-good conversation of let's do an impeachment,
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: but if you don't have a conviction on the Senate side,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: you're just offering false hope. What I think the American
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: people want to see more than anything else is an
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: accountability factor where there's real oversight. One of the most
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: substantial powers of the United States Congress is the power
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: of oversight, the foundation of checks and balances. Three separate
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: but co-equal branches of government. This president brags.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Congressman, they're not co-equal.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Hang on, Congressman. These are not co-equal branches. There's a reason.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but when I make a list,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: when I make a list, one, two, three, I don't
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: put the most important branch two or I don't put
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the most important thing on my grocery list at two
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: or three, right? The number one thing on my list
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: is the number one thing I care about getting from
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: that grocery store. All right, the founders put it number
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: one for a reason. This co-equal branch business is nonsense.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: If it were co-equal branches, they'd all be able to
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: fund agencies and they'd all be able to do things.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Article one, you guys are not the co-equal branch. You
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: are the supreme branch of government. And it bugs the
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: bejesus out of me that we have gone, it's really
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: since 9-11. I mean, we're at an anniversary and that
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: is where this accelerated. This where Congress went and became
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: parliamentary and treated the president as if they were a
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: prime minister.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And listen.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I don't mean to go on a rant, but
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I think the co-equal branch business is hogwash.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Listen, I totally appreciate your commentary, but I will tell
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: you this. even if we assume for the sake of
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: discussion that we were and are supposed to be a
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: co-equal branch, this president has totally blown that to smithereens
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: when he stands next to Mike Johnson and says that
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, and says, I am
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: the President of the United States and the Speaker of
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: the House. You're standing next to The third and there's
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: some truthiness to that, you know, I understand, but it hurts,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: you know, because what it is, it is a, a,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: a admission that you're running everything. Yeah. When he says
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: that I control the house, the Senate, and what was always,
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: even at worst of times, Chuck, the backstop was the courts.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I saw a, a, an interview and I'll digress for
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: half a second. If you allow me, um, Andy Young,
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: the former mayor of Atlanta, New Orleans native, former U.N.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: ambassador to the U.N., former member of Congress, say when
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: he was being interviewed that these times are worse now
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: than they've ever been. And I thought, how could that be?
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: I'm listening to this.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: By the way, when Andy Young is saying that, this
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: is the most optimistic member of that generation. More optimistic
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: at times than John Lewis, right? Like, just always saw, no, no, no,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I can work with anybody, right? That's amazing that he's
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: saying that.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Who was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel when Dr.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: King was killed. Who was on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, who...
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: was spat at, beat on, dogs biting and hoses. And
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: I said, how could that possibly be? And as I'm
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: saying this to the television, because I was looking at it,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: I wasn't with him. He answered it. He said, because
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: we always had the courts. We had the federal marshals.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: We had the federal government to come in and to
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: make sure that Those young girls going into the segregated
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: schools as they desegregated them, they had federal marshals. As
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: they marched Edwin Pettus Bridge, they had federal marshals that
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: kept the sheriffs and the dogs. We don't have that anymore.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: We don't have the federal government anymore. Trump has usurped
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: the authority of the Supreme Court, of the entire federal government,
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: of the FBI, the CIA, and all of his agencies
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: that are supposed to be nonpolitical. and have made them
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: political machines.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Let me move into a few more, a little bit
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: of CBC politics.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: The flirtation with socialism, whether it's the socialist adjacent or
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: fully DSA membership, we have seen with the large exception
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: of the state of Florida, these candidates struggle in African-American communities, right?
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: You know, we saw it with Abdul El-Sayed. We saw
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: it with the, the French Francesca Hong who lost to
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: David Crawley, uh, in Wisconsin. And really the outlier, uh,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: was Angie Nixon though, knowing the way I know the
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: state of Florida and her activism, you know, her defining
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: characteristic wasn't DSA. She was a, a well-known activist in
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the Jacksonville community in particular in Tallahassee. Um, And so
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: I think the fact that she was already well known
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: in the African-American community allowed that not to be an issue.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: But what is that divide? And do you sense that
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: this is going to be a growing potential wedge inside
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: the CBC itself?
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: No, I don't. I think that as our numbers increase,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: you know, we started with a small number, 12, 13. Now
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: we're 60 plus. There'll be growing pains. And we're looking
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: at a country where, you know, Democrats are not a monolith.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: Congressional Black Caucus members, Black folk are not a monolith.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: And the notion that we have to be is a
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: trick that someone else is trying to promote. The reality is, rather,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: it's progressive, moderate, liberal, DSA, whatever you want to call us,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: we're Democrats. And I will tell you, I will reject
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: and fight against this notion that that there's trouble in paradise,
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: if you will, with some who say, oh, what is
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: it going to mean for the National Black Caucus? We
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: have DSA members. Listen, we have Democrats and we have
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: different ideas and different philosophies. It doesn't mean that we
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: are going to be against each other. Doesn't mean we're
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: going to be tethered. It just means that we're going
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: to broaden our thinking. We're going to bring more people
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: into the tent. We're going to find better, stronger solutions
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: to our issues. And yes, some of them may be different.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Some of them may be provocative. Some of them may
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: be very bold. But I see it as a strength,
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: not a weakness.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: So is there any litmus test to be a member
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: of the CBC?
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. The policy, your ability to to to align
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: with the philosophical views of, you know, fairness, equality, working for.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: People that have been historically left out. The conscience of
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: the Congress is not something that we've adopted a happenstance.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: It's over years and years and years of fighting for
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: those people that have been left behind. And that means
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: not just African-Americans. That means Americans that have found themselves
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: on the short end of the stick as well. So
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: the Congressional Black Caucus has a very firm mission of
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: showing up, showing out and fighting for those people that
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: have been marginalized, those people that have been on the
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: other side of equality. And so that means fighting for
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: health care, fighting for education, fighting for environmental justice, fighting
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: for economic parity. So people have an opportunity to really
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: live their American dream, not a handout, a hand up.
• 41:43
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  Speaker 1: That's GetSoul.com, promo code TODCAST for 30% off. And yes,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I too am a customer. If you're an African-American Republican
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: that gets elected to Congress, but you share that philosophy,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: you're welcome.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, we've had African-American Republicans a part of the
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: caucus before. And they had to demonstrate that they share
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: those views and they share those views. They're welcome to
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: to to offer themselves as a member. But then they've
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: got to demonstrate you don't just get automatic membership because
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: it's more than just the color of your skin and
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: it's more than just what you say you will do.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: You've got to demonstrate that you share the views, that
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: you share the ideological views, that you share the passion
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: and the mission for fighting for the issues that I
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: just mentioned. If you don't, then you don't get a
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: chance to be a part of this organization, much like
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: any other caucus. You've got to demonstrate that there's some like-mindedness.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about the there was a
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: little dust up last week. Jared Golden, Marie Glusenkamp Perez
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: essentially sided with Republican leadership to get a bill on
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the floor that Jared Golden cared a lot about.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: And every every member of Congress has that bill.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: That is a that is. Hey, this really matters to
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: my district and I care about it. And there were
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: some Democrats really upset with him on this. What's your
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: line on this? I mean, I'll be honest. I had
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of empathy there for Golden and, you know, Glusenkamp-Perez,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: especially a guy like Golden who's retiring. And he knows
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: this might be the last shot he has at a
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: bill that he cares about. And then this idea, you know,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: it is... is this what makes Congress feel broken that
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: this rules committee operates the way it does and that
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: members should be able to just bring a bill to
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: the floor once a year that they care about? Or
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: what's the right way to do this? And should they
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: be punished? Should parties enforce this type of strict procedural voting?
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: Listen, I came from the state Senate where Regardless of
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: who was the president, senator, who the governor was, my
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: bill got to the floor. I got here. I got
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: a hearing on the floor. I got a hearing in committee.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: And how did you do that?
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: It was just automatic. You didn't have we didn't have
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: a rules committee. So if you've got a bill, you
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: author your bill, you throw it in the hopper. It's
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: read into the record and then it's assigned to committee.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: And then why doesn't Congress work that way?
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: And listen, one of the most frustrating things I got
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: to when I got to Congress is what the hell?
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: You mean I got to just sit here and wait?
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I was with a group of member of Congress who
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: said to me, do you realize that I can't even
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: bring one bill to the floor without it going through
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: a process? He's like, shouldn't every member of Congress every
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: two years get at least one free bill onto the
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: floor that they want to get passed? And I thought,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: how is that not a rule already?
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: Listen, it was one of the most frustrating things. I
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: came from the state Senate where I was minority leader.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: I was chair of a committee. I was at every
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: discussion on the budget. But we were not in charge,
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: but no one, my bill still got at least introduced
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: in its first hearing in a committee. Now you can
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: kill it in committee, then it's over. But at least
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: you had an opportunity to advance it. I get to
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Congress five years ago, five and a half years ago,
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: and it's like, hurry up and wait. You're a freshman member.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: If you're not on a committee in jurisdiction, you don't
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: get a whole opportunity to really weigh in. Thank God
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: I am now on one of the most powerful committees,
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: Energy and Commerce, so you can really start to move
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: and affect legislation.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: The most important committee on Capitol Hill. I say this
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: about on both sides of the House and the Senate,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you know, because Fritz Hollings used to say this, you
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: know what the purview of the Commerce Committee is?
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Right. And when Chairman Dingell was chairman, he has
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: a globe in the anteroom of energy and commerce. And
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: he'd take people back there and they asked, what's the jurisdiction?
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: He said, what do you see in that globe? So everything,
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: energy and commerce, everything.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Anyway, sorry.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: Go ahead. I just I'll go to go back to
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: your comment about gold and.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: Those two votes.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: They everyone has a right to vote how they want to.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: And they have a right to vote the conscience of
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: the people back home. But you also have to be strategic.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: That bill is not going to pass. It's not going
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: to pass when it gets to the Senate. It's just not.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a Susan Collins problem, by the way.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: But it's not going to pass against the Senate. But
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: he had one part. one part in that bill that
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: was important to him. But we see that all the time, Chuck,
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: where they have these great names for a piece of legislation,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: but they're not really demonstrative of what the bill does.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: And people say, well, why did you vote against that?
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: Because what you didn't see were all the poison pills
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: that are embedded in the bill. You might like one component.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: As thoughtful legislators, as thoughtful policymakers, We have a responsibility
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: to not just look for that one piece that's important
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: to us, but to look at it globally of how
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: it affects the American people and the overall mission of
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party. Therein lies where I think my two
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: colleagues missed the boat. But it is not for me
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: to chastise them for voting what they think was right.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I have my own barometer, my own battery of tests
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: I run through to make sure that I'm voting not
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: just for this one component, But to look at all
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: the others, because you may think you're winning, but all
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: these other components mean you're really losing. I think that's
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: what happened last week. They may have thought they were winning,
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: but we ultimately lost.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Well, but here's the thing that I learned about house rules.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: On January 3rd, you have a blank piece of paper.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: On January 3rd, 2027, you guys got a blank piece
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: of paper and you can make the rules anything you
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: want when it comes to how bills get to the floor,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: how they don't get to the floor. You could set
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: up new committees. You could do all sorts of things.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: So I say this. If you had a wish list
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: to a potential Speaker Jeffries on a rules change, given
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: your experience in other legislatures, give me one rules change
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: that you would think off the bat Would help the
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: reputation of Congress.
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: Being able to move and have substantive discussion on the
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: House floor, being able to offer amendments. If you're not
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: on a committee of jurisdiction, you will not get a
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: chance to weigh in other than your final vote. I
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: think we should have more debate. I come from a
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: former body where I can go to the floor anytime
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: there's something going up and I can opine and I
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: can make a compelling argument. You can't do this if
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: you're not on the committee. One of the rule changes
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: I would want is to have more of a true
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: legislative process where people can see, feel, and have input
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Members of Congress will have the opportunity, even if you're
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: not a part of a committee of jurisdiction, will have
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: an opportunity to be heard on the floor.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: I think you actually, we're talking on September 9th here.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: Is today the day that the Rules Committee has like
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: open rules? Isn't that, I think we're this week, right?
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Where if you want to make some suggestions for rules
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: changes for the next rules package, I think it's like
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: the open houses this week.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: Well, I look forward to see if we can make
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: some changes here. Let me get you out of here
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: on something that we both love, I think, but at
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the same time is falling as a congressional issue. And
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: that is the role Congress now feels it needs to
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: play in college sports. What is it that you think
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Congress should be doing in the college sports space? I mean, look,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: we're getting bombarded with these ads everywhere. Nick Saban and
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Deion Sanders are the face of these ad campaigns to
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: try to get this Frankenstein of a college sports bill passed.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: And I call it that because I can't believe this
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: bill is about to go through Congress without anybody from
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: the labor side of things having a seat at the table.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: But why is Congress involved in this?
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Because it's gotten unwieldy, because the the the. The SEC
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: and all these guys have become so big. And because
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: now we're looking at the gravity of what these athletes
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: bring and you're changing the dynamics of what used to
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: be pure college sports to now name, image and likeness
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: being paid. And the whole issue with LSU and SEC,
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: can you take someone that was even on a practice
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: squad with NFL and now take them back for an
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: extra year of eligibility within the college reign? It's all
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: become big, big, big, big, big business. And so now
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: it's commerce. And it's before energy and commerce. The sanctity
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: of college sports, I think, is at risk. And it
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: needs to be.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: What does that mean? I don't mean to pick on
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: a word here. I hear this. Look, there's been money
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: in college sports. Instead of under the table, it's now
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: above the table.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: And I'm not opposed to a kid having name, image,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: and likeness opportunities.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not opposed at all.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: In fact, I support it. What I don't want to
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: see is a melding between the NCAA and the NFL.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: They're separate entities. And when I say the sanctity, tell
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: me the purity of watching a good college game versus
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: an NFL game where the rules are different. Watching these
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: kids still have in their foreground, the reason they're in
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: college is to, yes, play ball, but to get an education.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: That's being lost where you're just taking kids in and
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: all they're doing is playing football and their academics are
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: thrown to the side. I think that's a huge mistake.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: The academics of an athlete should still be important. They
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: should play college ball. If they want to leave college
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: ball prematurely, go to the NFL, but don't blend the two.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: And as it relates to Congress being a part of
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: the whole image, name, image, and likeness, or the SCORE Act,
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: is one of making sure that we, in my estimation,
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: that we're protecting HBCUs. They were protecting smaller universities, not
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: just the SEC, but MEAC and some of the others,
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: making sure that these kids are being protected in some
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: cases from those who want to maximize their profits on them,
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: even in the notion of them giving them an opportunity to.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Let me play labor lawyer here.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: You got to protect.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: How do you how do you impose this bill would
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: essentially impose a salary cap? I don't know of any
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: instance where a salary cap essentially was imposed without some
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: form of collective bargaining. And right now there is no,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and I, and honestly, I have no idea whether this
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: is going to be done by conference or by division.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: You know, but it seems to me that there needs
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: to be a players association here. You need to be
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: labor this entire bill. This is what I, and I
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: think this is why the NCAA loses every single court case.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Because there's never sort of it is about limiting the,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: you know, sort of limiting what the player can do
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: or say. And that's usually why they lose these court cases.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: This legislation feels like it's going to get thrown out
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: in the courts because it does not have any provision
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: here where players get to say at all.
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: Chuck, the SCORE Act is flawed, and that's why it
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: hasn't moved. That's why I've been opposed to it. You are, okay.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: CBCA is opposed, right?
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: The CBCA is opposed to it, as it's written. And
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: most of the Democrats, if not all of the Democrats
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: on Energy and Commerce, are opposed to it, as written.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: And we're not of the mind that some are, that
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: we just want to not ever have any regulation. We
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: just want to be done right. We want to make
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: sure that labor's at the table. We want to make
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: sure these young athletes are protected and not prostituted, if
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: you will, to make sure that we're creating a fair system.
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: And a fair system is not often done fast.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: No.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: This notion that they were trying to rush this through.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: We got to get this done.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: That's the Trump era. I was like, hey, man, pump
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: the brakes. Pump the brakes.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: This is far too deep, far too great for the
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: overall system. We've got to be very thoughtful, very deliberate,
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: and we need more people at the table, not fewer.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: So this bill is not passing. There's no way that
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: passes the House, does it?
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: I don't see it passing. I don't see it passing
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: the House. If it passed the House, I don't see
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: it passing the Senate. In its current form, every form
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: that I've seen thus far is significantly flawed.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Why does your governor seem to care more about LSU
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: football than this? I can't believe how much he's gotten himself.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: embedded into the LSU football program. And I say this,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: the last time I saw a sitting governor get involved
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: in a football program, that football program got the death penalty.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: That's what happened to SMU back in the 80s. And
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: it was the sitting governor who was sort of involved
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: with basically embedding himself too much in it. And in
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: some ways it really harmed SMU because it politicized the
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: whole thing and it made them even a bigger target.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: You know what? You must know this, Governor. Why is
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: he so embedded into this program and why do LSU
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: leaders think that's a good idea?
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: I don't think they think it's a good idea. I
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: think the governor is ruling with an iron fist and
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: to the chagrin of. many of the leaders within the
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: LSU structure who can't say this out loud.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: Didn't he negotiate these contracts at the governor's mansion? It
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: was just crazy.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: But even all of the fans, and this is where
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: the real danger is going to come in, because LSU
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: is a cultish following. We love our LSU. And when
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: you start to see The fan base, the donors from
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: the Alumni Association who are starting to rumble about this
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: political overreach into what is going back to my word
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: before purist sanctity of college sports. It's a real slippery slope.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: And I think it's a dangerous place for the governor
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: to be. And I think it has the potential to
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: be very upsetting, not only for him as governor, but
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: for the entire LSU family, if you will, who are
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: very protective, very protective of the image and the rights
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: and the love and the passion of LSU. And we
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: don't like politics in our football. We don't like politics
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: in the face of this great team, this great state, Louisiana.
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: This governor hadn't figured that out yet. I think he will.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: I look, I mean, I think it's high risk. I mean,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: you know that, you know, people will pick football over
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: a politician any day of the week.
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: And we saw Bobby Jindal when he was running for president.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: Bobby Jindal tried to to corral, if you will, the
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: power of LSU sports and it backfired on him. And
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: I suspect this will. probably backfire, too, because Republicans, Democrats, independents,
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: we all love LSU, and we don't want to see
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: it politicized.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Well, that ship may have sailed. This is a crazy
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: way for me to leave you with a question like this,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: but Are you scared of AI or are you excited
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: about AI?
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: I'm a little bit of both. I have dealt very deeply,
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: and that's an area that energy and commerce that I'm
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: intimately involved with and recently met with Anthropic and met
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: with all of the various players to start talking about
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: how we get our arms around AI. AI has the
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: potential to be an incredibly powerful tool. But like anything
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: along these lines, it has the potential to be very,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: very dangerous. We, policymakers, have to learn from what we
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: missed with Facebook and Instagram and social media. It happened
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: so fast, and now all of a sudden, it's a
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: monster with 27 heads. We have to, from a policy standpoint,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: get our arms around AI to extract the best and
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: and create guardrails for the potential worse. Just like we
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: see drones are very powerful and popular, we also know
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: that they can be very negative and dangerous. We have
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: to look at AI, artificial intelligence, and recognize I'm working
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: on currently legislation that would create, for lack of a
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: better term, a watermark. A watermark. So when you go
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: on social media and you see Chuck Todd playing a
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: violin and singing operetta, you say, I don't remember Chuck
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: being able to sing operetta. Maybe you can. But I
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: use that as an example. There should be something that
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: denotes this is satire.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Well, have you seen this AI TV ad business that
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: we're seeing? I mean, it's everywhere.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: Crazy.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: It's pharmaceutical ads. It's not even just politics, right? I
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: think the world is going to suddenly not believe anything
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: they see in about six months if we're not careful.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: Remember that joke? I don't know if it was Richard
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: Pryor or Eddie Murphy who said, you're going to believe
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: me or your lying eyes.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: And that's what we're getting to.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's an Eddie Murphy. I know where you're referring to.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: One B.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: One B, baby. One B, baby. But when we were
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: growing up, If it was on a commercial, it had
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: to be true because FCC wouldn't let you put a
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: lie on. If it was in a magazine, if it
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: was in a periodical, if it was in a newspaper,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: it was true.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: That's why we have the FTC.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: Now you don't have any of that anymore because Trump
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: has made them political. And when they come before our committee,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: they have, and they essentially say, This is not an
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: independent agency. We report to the president. No, that's not
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: what it was designed to do. When Chuck Todd can
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: be threatened to have your license taken away because you
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: said something that the president didn't like, man, that is
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: a blow to our democracy. 100%. We must have a
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: free independent press. We must have a fully functioning government
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: with guardrails. And Chuck, the 120th Congress will be the
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: beginning of bringing back some semblance of true governance for
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: all the people, not for Democrats, not for Republicans, but
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: for all Americans.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Hey, just make Congress great again. Let's do it.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: Let's do it. Let's do it together.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: Congressman Carter, it's good to talk with you.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: Likewise. Look forward to doing it again soon.