Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics. Well,
Speaker 1: we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's
Speaker 1: best minds, and the January six Committee just subpoena Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: What an excellent show we have today. First, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be joined by Congressman Richie Torres, who represents New York's
Speaker 1: fifteenth congressional district, and he's going to talk to us
Speaker 1: about aid to Puerto Rico and a host of other issues.
Speaker 1: Then we have the pleasure of having on the second
Speaker 1: Lady of Pennsylvania, just Elboreto Fetterman, whose husband is of
Speaker 1: course running for Senate against Dr Oz in Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 1: she's gonna talk to us all about her husband's race.
Speaker 1: But first we have Tim Miller, who's of course a
Speaker 1: writer at The Bulwark, co host of The Next Level podcast,
Speaker 1: host of Not My Party on Snapchat and MSNBC analyst
Speaker 1: and the author of Why We Did It. Welcome, and
Speaker 1: it's the first time, but certainly not the last time.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to have you. Welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 1: Tim Miller Pod Molly, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: And we're a long time mutual admiration society. So it's
Speaker 1: gonna be good. Let's do it. Certainly true. I want
Speaker 1: to say, we'll really have the Bullwork connection, which is
Speaker 1: a strong connection. It's been so nice since the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Jesse'll probably cut this, but that's okay. Since the pandemic,
Speaker 1: we've been doing Bulwork events in public, and I have
Speaker 1: to tell you it's like crazy people people come out
Speaker 1: from the woodwork. It feels like such a nice community
Speaker 1: of folks. I've loved like seeing people up in the flesh.
Speaker 1: It's been so fun. Yeah, no, it's so fun. So
Speaker 1: we are doing an emergency session here to talk about
Speaker 1: the last January six committee hearing, which started with a
Speaker 1: bang and ended with the subpoena. Is that fair? It
Speaker 1: is fair. Finally, on the subpoena, I think that the
Speaker 1: committee has been doing so well and have almost nothing
Speaker 1: but overwhelming praise for them, So please think this is
Speaker 1: the smallest caveat. It was February one when I wrote
Speaker 1: for the Bullwork that they should subpoena Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: dare him to testify. This was before this committee even existed.
Speaker 1: It was when they're still negotiating a broader committee. That
Speaker 1: was very clear that whatever came out of it, they
Speaker 1: should subpoena him, and I also still unclear. It's unclear
Speaker 1: to me why they haven't subpoened Mike Pence. And I
Speaker 1: think that both cases are win win. I understand some
Speaker 1: of the concerns about whatever given him a platform to
Speaker 1: spread his lies, but I think on balance their win win.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy they did it today. Who knows. It's
Speaker 1: hard for me to get inside the lizard brain down
Speaker 1: there on the pool deck at Cougar Beach and mar Lago.
Speaker 1: But I don't know exactly what he'll do, but I
Speaker 1: think it's a lose lose for him. Right, it's either
Speaker 1: you're a coward and a whimp and scared for not
Speaker 1: doing it, or you do it and obviously that you
Speaker 1: are under oath, which is uniquely challenging for Donald Trump. No.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing that I'm so struck by is like,
Speaker 1: we're in this situation where no one is going to
Speaker 1: hold these people accountable if the January six Committee doesn't,
Speaker 1: I know, And that's depressingly true. I mean, eventually the
Speaker 1: d o J but like voters will not. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: where I was going to. That is depressingly true. So
Speaker 1: I was in Arizona last week. I was one of
Speaker 1: the guest hosts for the circus, so I went around
Speaker 1: and to a bunch of different events. I got to
Speaker 1: yell at Ted Cruz, which was pretty fun that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna watch. We had a spirited exchange actually rather than young,
Speaker 1: does Ted Cruz know who you are? He figured it
Speaker 1: out afterwards. It was kind of funny. Walks up to
Speaker 1: the gaggle and looks at me, and I think I
Speaker 1: was in a different context. I had met him five
Speaker 1: years ago. I was quasi supporting Ted Crutiz and he's
Speaker 1: the only guy who had stopped Donald Trump, and so
Speaker 1: he just sees me in this different context. He looks
Speaker 1: at me first and kind of I think it has
Speaker 1: this thought in his brain that maybe I'm friendly, and
Speaker 1: I was not friendly and asked him very directly, over
Speaker 1: and over again if Joe Biden actually won Arizona, and
Speaker 1: we had a spirited exchange back and forth. He did
Speaker 1: not answer. You'll be shocked to find out though. He
Speaker 1: was the one that challenged the Arizona account. So that
Speaker 1: was fun and it was scary to see carry Lake
Speaker 1: and then all close. But the most distressing part about
Speaker 1: it all is that this stuff just isn't landing for
Speaker 1: the important voters, the voters that matter. Right. It is
Speaker 1: important to democratic loyalists, right, and I'm sure people listen
Speaker 1: to this podcast, people read the bullwork. This is very
Speaker 1: important those of us who care about democracy. It's really
Speaker 1: important to the maga freaks who I still think that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump won and should be exalted leader forever. But
Speaker 1: it like not that important to the voters that matter.
Speaker 1: If you look at the polls as far as swing
Speaker 1: voters or marginal voters, whether or not they turn out,
Speaker 1: that is distressing. So really it is up to to
Speaker 1: Liz Cheney and Benny Thompson and crew. Yeah, so talk
Speaker 1: to me about I do want like one second. On Arizona,
Speaker 1: you saw Carry Lake do you a rally? Yeah? It
Speaker 1: was a Cruise had a rally, his packet rally with
Speaker 1: Lake and Masters. So I watched all three of them. Boy,
Speaker 1: Patrick Bateman. Masters couldn't be more low energy. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Masters is a disaster. I mean, also my favorite thing
Speaker 1: about him is he looks like he's nine years old. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he looks creepy poured. Jeb By comparison was
Speaker 1: like the speedy Gonzalez up there. Math like Masters has
Speaker 1: no energy. He looks like a serial killer. And then
Speaker 1: Carry Lake and Ted Cruz come on and you get
Speaker 1: out shown by Ted Cruz. That shows you how weak
Speaker 1: you are. So Masters are not great. Carry Lake, though, man,
Speaker 1: she is. She's really good. You know, she is unapologetic
Speaker 1: and both mass there's in Lake on this election fraud
Speaker 1: stuff and the January six material. They're not doing this
Speaker 1: game where only the media wants to talk about this
Speaker 1: and we're not going to talk about it. And I'm
Speaker 1: focused on playing that like a little two steps. We're
Speaker 1: sure I wanted to coup, but you know now that
Speaker 1: we're in general actually don't want to talk about it anymore.
Speaker 1: That's not Lake. I like, Lake keeps talking about this
Speaker 1: stuff and and does so in a way that you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, to any sane observer is like, you're a lunatic.
Speaker 1: But but you can understand how a low info voter,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody wasn't following this stuff day to day.
Speaker 1: And she's a good job of having the you know,
Speaker 1: TV anchors me in of making it seem reasonable, right,
Speaker 1: And so I'm deeply concerned about that about the Arizona government, people.
Speaker 1: I mean people think she's I mean not the people
Speaker 1: who listen to this podcast, but the MAGA people really
Speaker 1: like her. And she's and her entire um, her entire
Speaker 1: raison dtra. If we're going to go throw in pretentious
Speaker 1: French phrases, which I am happy to do because I
Speaker 1: grew up in Manhattan, Uh is is election fraud? I
Speaker 1: mean that's it, you know, election fraud and being an
Speaker 1: anchor who is able to make really good eye contact,
Speaker 1: really good eye contact. Yeah, it's it's it's really something. No,
Speaker 1: that is and I mean she she does this bit
Speaker 1: where she's like even Trump says to her that she
Speaker 1: cares about it more than anybody talks to you know what.
Speaker 1: Trump's like, Hey, how's the weather today, And Carry's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a little hot, you know, Arizona, but not as
Speaker 1: hot as that election fraud rumor that I just heard was.
Speaker 1: And she brings everything back to it. All right, Jesse
Speaker 1: is telling us we have to get back to January six.
Speaker 1: She's very bossy, Um tell me top lines in your mind.
Speaker 1: So some of this we knew, right, but I think
Speaker 1: just seeing the super cut of all of the people
Speaker 1: between December when the Electoral College certified the election in
Speaker 1: January six. Who said that they knew the election was over?
Speaker 1: Who told Trump the election was over? Who said that
Speaker 1: that they heard Trump kind of acknowledged that he lost
Speaker 1: in varying degrees. Um, you know, that includes Bill Barr,
Speaker 1: and includes Mike Pompeo, Hudges, Hutcheson, Sarah Matthews, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: random mid level calm staffers, the lawyers. Like it was
Speaker 1: just over and over and over again. It was people saying,
Speaker 1: you know, we knew it was over. We told him
Speaker 1: it was over. Now. There are a lot of implications
Speaker 1: to that, which is like, why didn't you guys do
Speaker 1: more to stop the carnage? But but I think that
Speaker 1: it was just very compelling. And then it showed that
Speaker 1: one of the interesting facts also that to sort of
Speaker 1: prove this point, which was that Trump at some level
Speaker 1: knew it was over, was that he had signed this
Speaker 1: order to pull out of Afghanistan and Somalia, pull the
Speaker 1: troops out of Afghanistan and Somalia, um three days I
Speaker 1: believe it was after the election. And so that was again,
Speaker 1: you know, that's not the type of thing that you
Speaker 1: do if you think that you're gonna have four years
Speaker 1: more to to do it at your own pace, right.
Speaker 1: So I just think that that evidence and um in
Speaker 1: the pump stuff. Susan Glasser to retweet, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know said this was in my book too, but you
Speaker 1: know it's like, okay, seeing it on video though the
Speaker 1: Secretary of State, like I knew it was over December
Speaker 1: December fourteen and and told Trump as much. That speaks
Speaker 1: to this premeditation element of it, that they that they
Speaker 1: knew what the truth was and they tried to they
Speaker 1: tried to game it anyway. The other one I think
Speaker 1: is this the violent element of it and the Roger
Speaker 1: Stone And you know, some of this had leaked out
Speaker 1: in the the last couple of weeks, but the videos of
Speaker 1: Roger Stone with the Proud Boys, the Secret Service, how
Speaker 1: they knew about the threats that were incoming, you know.
Speaker 1: And there are these two kind of strains here. One
Speaker 1: is the Roger Stone strain, where you know, we don't
Speaker 1: know exactly he is communicating with Trump, but it's very
Speaker 1: clear that Roger Stone knew that that violence was on
Speaker 1: the offing, um and that there were there were gonna
Speaker 1: be you know, people don't try to you know, physically
Speaker 1: and and and forcefully disrupt the result. And then there
Speaker 1: was you know, the threats that came into Secret Service,
Speaker 1: and Secret Service was briefed about this. I think that
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways that tearing, say, raised more
Speaker 1: questions about why Secret Service wasn't doing more and it
Speaker 1: was Trump holding them back, you know. And one of
Speaker 1: the examples of this was like Jason Miller, that chinless,
Speaker 1: gutless piece of trash like sent a tex like weird,
Speaker 1: facial really weird. He sent this text in to like
Speaker 1: Meadows and others, you know, saying, hey, look at how
Speaker 1: how de bait, how happy the base is with us,
Speaker 1: And it was like a link to the Donald dot
Speaker 1: Win and in this link where all these threats of
Speaker 1: violence and you know, all of these we're bringing guns
Speaker 1: to the capital, etcetera. And so it's like that is
Speaker 1: the other element that that not only did they know
Speaker 1: that he had lost, but they knew that violence was
Speaker 1: possible that day. Uh and and and yet you know
Speaker 1: not only did nothing but but egged it on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh no, I mean that is for true. And I
Speaker 1: think I also wonder, like Jason Miller does have facial
Speaker 1: hair because he thinks it makes him look like he
Speaker 1: has cheek bones, right. I think he's trying to create
Speaker 1: some kind of facial structure. Yeah. I don't exactly know.
Speaker 1: It's not working whatever it is, but that's an important
Speaker 1: thing to clare. He does have one of the weakest
Speaker 1: chance I've ever encountered. Yea, well, that's not the only
Speaker 1: weak thing about him, but yes, the thing I always
Speaker 1: am struck by with these hearings is like I was
Speaker 1: at a dinner last night talking to a bunch of
Speaker 1: political people. They were saying, like, you know, is anything
Speaker 1: going to happen? Is anyone going to be held accountable? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that anxiety that a lot of us have,
Speaker 1: like is American democracy gonna slide of a cliff? And
Speaker 1: then when you sit down and you hear these hearings,
Speaker 1: it's like, holy sh it. I do think they moved
Speaker 1: the needle. Yeah. I think that it's always good to
Speaker 1: just raise the salience of this and like refresh people's memory. Right.
Speaker 1: I just people have a lot of things happening in
Speaker 1: their lives, right, and it's like, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: how dramatic and how unprecedented it was, you move on right, right,
Speaker 1: like you have other concerns. You have more prudential concerns,
Speaker 1: and so I think that at minimum it is good
Speaker 1: to have this to just even me and nobody's in
Speaker 1: this as deep as I am, right, like watching all
Speaker 1: the details, reading all the articles, and even sometimes like
Speaker 1: those show some thing like they showed this picture of
Speaker 1: the meeting that Trump had of the staff on January
Speaker 1: five in the evening, when where the doors of the
Speaker 1: Oval office were open and you could hear the pro
Speaker 1: the protests were already gathering at this point, and you know,
Speaker 1: they talked about how you can hear them outside, and
Speaker 1: how Trump is talking to staff about how they're angry
Speaker 1: and they should be angry. Just that even remind that
Speaker 1: kind of gets my blood pressure boiling again, right, like
Speaker 1: to remember that these guys were there and that they
Speaker 1: knew what was happening. They could hear these you know,
Speaker 1: soon to be domestic terrorists outside, they knew the results,
Speaker 1: and yet they still went out the next day and
Speaker 1: spurred on the violence. You know, to me like that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, you know, getting people just more engaged
Speaker 1: and reminded about what is happening for those who them
Speaker 1: followed it as closely, I do think it's important to
Speaker 1: the political side of this. I also have to tell
Speaker 1: did you see that were you watching the Pelosi clip? Yes? Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean that was just nothing else. It's hard to
Speaker 1: make a little harder to demonize Nancy Pelosi, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: I mean, she is just a cool cucumber talking about
Speaker 1: the poop pooh that's being smeared on all over the
Speaker 1: building and then having to call Mike Pence and called
Speaker 1: the d O D and called the head of d
Speaker 1: O J and you know, asked for help. As I
Speaker 1: just I thought that that was really powerful behind the
Speaker 1: scenes video that that sort of showed who the who
Speaker 1: the responsible actors were. Yeah. I also think that what
Speaker 1: you're really seeing is like how much Trump did not
Speaker 1: you know, and he's sitting there watching TV, playing with
Speaker 1: his balls, you know, and like he's literally doing nothing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The other thing that this refreshed for me is just
Speaker 1: when closes on with the acting in a lot of
Speaker 1: these cases, cabinet members exactly because Dad and even put
Speaker 1: in real cabinet members the abdication duty of Trump. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and at least some of these guys we're trying to
Speaker 1: help plos were at least engaging that they couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything because it was that you know that you need
Speaker 1: the commander in chief to order, you know, some of
Speaker 1: these assets to come into play to protect the capital,
Speaker 1: and he wouldn't do it. So Pence ends up doing it,
Speaker 1: and goes back to this question of like who was
Speaker 1: even the president for a little while during these hours,
Speaker 1: who was issuing these orders? The one thing I was
Speaker 1: hoping from the committee and I think might still be
Speaker 1: it to come based on folks I talked to you
Speaker 1: over there, is like this twenty five amendment question right,
Speaker 1: like shouldn't from that moment all the cabinet been gathering
Speaker 1: and saying, okay, we need Pence, like like we need
Speaker 1: to move on from this guy. Like he is like
Speaker 1: the capital is under attack, under siege, and the Speaker
Speaker 1: of the House and the VP are having to call
Speaker 1: for help in the White House. They're not answering, you know,
Speaker 1: they had to go around him. The thing that I'm
Speaker 1: struck by two is like we remember when those Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter protests in d C. And you saw all
Speaker 1: the guys, all the guards wearing like black face masks,
Speaker 1: holding batons being do you you know what I'm talking?
Speaker 1: And then you see this where the Secret Service new
Speaker 1: ten days before anyone on the internet new, and there's nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously there's a racial element to some
Speaker 1: of this, but there's also just a direct element of
Speaker 1: the Trump didn't want there to be anything, right, and
Speaker 1: that I thought the most I'm forgetting whether it was
Speaker 1: Sarah Matthews or Cassy Hutcheson now, but one of them
Speaker 1: had testified right that this really jarring quote from the
Speaker 1: President where he said kind of let them in with
Speaker 1: the weapons. They shouldn't be stopping people who want who
Speaker 1: want to bring weapons, you know at the mag's at
Speaker 1: the magnometers right right. That was like, yeah, I remember that,
Speaker 1: and and that is ca Yeah, and that is so
Speaker 1: telling because it's like Trump knew that he wasn't in danger, right,
Speaker 1: like these people weren't coming for him, and he even
Speaker 1: said they're not here herd. So so sure, we can
Speaker 1: send out all the jack bododed thugs we can find
Speaker 1: for the Black Lives Matter protest, and you know, we
Speaker 1: can shoot, you know, tear gas grenades into a peaceful
Speaker 1: crowd at Lafayette Parks that he can walk through and
Speaker 1: like hold down an upside down Bible like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we can do it, but but for this, we don't
Speaker 1: need any of that, right because we being Trump at
Speaker 1: this point, Pence was a part of we are not
Speaker 1: in threat. The contrast is extremely, extremely alarming, And I
Speaker 1: think that the Secret Service text today are certainly the
Speaker 1: if not the headline, you know, one of the top
Speaker 1: two or three headlines on that front. Oh yeah, And
Speaker 1: I mean the other thing is the burner phones. I
Speaker 1: guess from what I've understand, they couldn't track down all
Speaker 1: the burner phones, but there certainly were burner phones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I do think that the convos like that the
Speaker 1: thing that is missing going back to the Roger Stone point, right,
Speaker 1: is all right, so we've tied Roger Stone directly to
Speaker 1: the Proud Boys, and we've now tied the Proud Boys
Speaker 1: directly to this premeditated violence, right that this was It
Speaker 1: wasn't just you know, they just all decided to get
Speaker 1: rowdy because they got caught up in the moment, right
Speaker 1: Like there was on the Proud Boys websites and the
Speaker 1: texts like they were planning bounce. And we know that,
Speaker 1: you know, Trump and Stone talk occasionally. I do think
Speaker 1: that like that the Burner phones speak to again like
Speaker 1: one of the very few left missing threads, which is
Speaker 1: we're there direct you know communications was Trump talk in
Speaker 1: the Stone? That was was meadows right? Where where other
Speaker 1: kind of people that were, you know, in the actual
Speaker 1: government talking to them? You know that that's something that
Speaker 1: I would love to have found out. But then you know,
Speaker 1: they showed the Roger Stone testimony today with the big
Speaker 1: tough guy talking about fighting and you know, talking about
Speaker 1: war in the lead up to the election. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a little mouse just played in the Fifth Amendment.
Speaker 1: Every question right, Well, these guys are all like Tom
Speaker 1: Cotton right with that in that hearing where Tom Cotton
Speaker 1: is making the fist to the protesters and then he's
Speaker 1: running Judge Hollie, Judge Holly, sorry that they are. They
Speaker 1: are mixed up able. So where do you think this goes? Now? Well,
Speaker 1: and I think obviously the big question now is Trump right,
Speaker 1: So it's well, how does he react to being subpoena
Speaker 1: at I'm just it's hard for me to predict that.
Speaker 1: I think that hopefully this gives a minimum Liz Cheney
Speaker 1: and and the rest kind of a platform and a
Speaker 1: cudgel with which to continue to pressure him and eat
Speaker 1: them over the head and do interviews and continue to
Speaker 1: talk about this and the coming weeks as interested. They
Speaker 1: showed some Pompeo video today. Yeah, something about that makes
Speaker 1: me think that maybe that there's some more there on
Speaker 1: the twenty fifth Amendment side of things, in particular. You know,
Speaker 1: we hadn't seen correct me if I'm wrong, Jesse, but
Speaker 1: I don't. We hadn't seen the Pompeo testimony video before today.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't believe so either. Yeah. So it
Speaker 1: was only like two clips today, you know, and they
Speaker 1: were just so, do we think they're gonna keep going?
Speaker 1: And they did. They certainly didn't make it seem like
Speaker 1: they were stopping today when by doing another subpoena. So
Speaker 1: my sense is, and I got to actually got to
Speaker 1: see I didn't ask you this question directly. I got
Speaker 1: to see Concion in Cheney in Arizona, just by coincidence.
Speaker 1: She was there giving a speech to the McCain Institute
Speaker 1: while we were, um, we're taping the circus, and um,
Speaker 1: the strong impression I got was that they're going to
Speaker 1: run out the clock on this, you know, in this
Speaker 1: this committee. Now you know self self destructs. Uh if
Speaker 1: if the Republicans take over, so they are down to
Speaker 1: what is that, you know, two and a half months basically,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I do think that they will
Speaker 1: continue to be pushing through for that period of time,
Speaker 1: you know, public hearings, you know, I think all that
Speaker 1: is TVD that. I think that's right. Tim Miller please
Speaker 1: come back and JF anytime Fast Politics. I like it.
Speaker 1: We keep it fast here and none of this bloviating
Speaker 1: on some of these other podcasts, like we get to
Speaker 1: the point. I like that. Congressman Richie Torres represents New
Speaker 1: York's fifteenth congressional district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Richie Torres.
Speaker 1: It's an honor to have you my friend. And I
Speaker 1: always feel like anyone who's my friend feels like they're
Speaker 1: a fill in. And I want to point out that
Speaker 1: we schedule this way in advance. Even if I were
Speaker 1: a filling it would be are that's very diplomatic of you.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk to you first about Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: Can you explain to us what's happening there and what
Speaker 1: you're working on, and you know what you've been doing there.
Speaker 1: So I went to Puerto Rico in immediate aftermath of Fiona.
Speaker 1: I think first it's important to just consider the magnitude
Speaker 1: of suffering that has taken hold of the island and
Speaker 1: the people or Puerto Rico have lived through a seven
Speaker 1: tulli dollar deck crisis, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria which led
Speaker 1: to the longest blackout in US history, a six point
Speaker 1: five magnitude earthquake, and now Hurricane Fiona. You know, during
Speaker 1: the worst of times, the people Puerto Rico have no
Speaker 1: electricity and even during the best of times, have no
Speaker 1: reliable or affordable electricity despite paying the highest electricity across
Speaker 1: in the country. So Puerto Ricans have seen not one,
Speaker 1: not to but seven electricity rate increases in the span
Speaker 1: of a year, which is unsustainable. So the island has
Speaker 1: been relegated to the status of a colony. And and
Speaker 1: that means the hart of the issues that Puerto Rico
Speaker 1: is neither a state nor an independent country. It's essentially
Speaker 1: a colony of the United States and has and to
Speaker 1: second class status. Why is Puerto Rico is electricity so expensive?
Speaker 1: Can you explain that to our listeners? Part of the
Speaker 1: problem is the Jones Act. It's no accident that the
Speaker 1: two places most affected by the Jones Act, Hawaii and
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico, have the highest electricity cost in the country.
Speaker 1: The Jones Act arguably restricts the supply of energy and
Speaker 1: raises the cost of living on the island. So the
Speaker 1: Jones Act requires that all cargo all goods shipped between
Speaker 1: US ports be shipped by a US vessel. But what
Speaker 1: happens when US vessels are no longer available? The Jones
Speaker 1: Act was passed when it's an early twentieth century relic
Speaker 1: of the past, and the issue is that it prevents
Speaker 1: the shipment of critically needed fuel to Puerto Rico join
Speaker 1: an emergency. That's the problem that we saw in the
Speaker 1: wake of both media and how can Congress get rid
Speaker 1: of the Jones Act. Well, the President has granted Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico a short term waiver, but is a real need
Speaker 1: for a long term way and that would have to
Speaker 1: happen by statute um. But the politics are are complicated.
Speaker 1: There are strong constituencies for the Jones Act. Why the
Speaker 1: employees of the U s vessels are the teamsters and
Speaker 1: check to repealing the Jones Act. But I feel there's
Speaker 1: room for compromise that we can grant an emergency exemption
Speaker 1: for Porto equal in particular, or we can grant an
Speaker 1: exemption for energy, or we can grant an exemption during emergencies.
Speaker 1: You know, there there is room for compromise, but the
Speaker 1: status quo is no longer bearable for the island. Jesus,
Speaker 1: the first thing that needs to happen for Puerto Rico
Speaker 1: is this repeal of the Jones Act. The worst of
Speaker 1: it is the lack of equity and federal funding. Imagine
Speaker 1: here in New York State, the federal government were to
Speaker 1: announce that New York would no longer receive SNAP benefits
Speaker 1: food stamps, it would no longer receive Social Security DESIGN,
Speaker 1: and it would receive only a fraction of the Medicare
Speaker 1: funding it presently receives. If that were to happened, even
Speaker 1: in a state as wealthy as New York, it would
Speaker 1: be a catastrophe. It would bankrupts. Described as the reality
Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico has no access to SNAP, no access
Speaker 1: to Social Security ss I, it receives only by statute
Speaker 1: one seventh of the Medicare funding that it eats, and
Speaker 1: it has no access to reliable and affordable electricity. So
Speaker 1: the island has been set up to fail because of
Speaker 1: discrimination on the part of the federal goverment. Are the
Speaker 1: other territories treated the same way that Puerto Rico is?
Speaker 1: And really Puerto Rico is the biggest and most consequential territory.
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico has more than three million Americans citizens, So
Speaker 1: it's by far, I mean Puerto Rico as a territory
Speaker 1: is larger than a number of states. Puerto Rico it
Speaker 1: would have four or five members of compress. It's bigger
Speaker 1: than the Dakotas by a large margin, Rhode Island, Wyoming
Speaker 1: name it. Yeah. So what are you working on right
Speaker 1: now with US? I have too concerns. One is we
Speaker 1: have to expedite the rebuilding of the grid and structure,
Speaker 1: Like there's a dire need not only to repair our
Speaker 1: infrastructure in the same form, but to rebuild the grid,
Speaker 1: to rebuild the infrastructure with an eye toward resiliency and
Speaker 1: renewable energy. A second parity of mine is something knows
Speaker 1: the Medicare cliff. So Puerto Rico is in danger of
Speaker 1: facing the Medicare cliff, which is going to be effect
Speaker 1: on December two, in which Puerto Rico's funding for Medicare
Speaker 1: will go from about three billion to two so more
Speaker 1: than the Medicare funding, which would be catastrophically so Puerto
Speaker 1: Ricans won't have Medicare, will have a fraction of the
Speaker 1: Medicaid funding it presently received. How how how is this possible?
Speaker 1: It seems insane. The situation is much worse than people think.
Speaker 1: Um like federal law actively discriminates against the people of
Speaker 1: the island. And for me, the second class standard of
Speaker 1: living and the second class grid of Puerto Rico is
Speaker 1: symptomatic of a deeper problem, which is the island's second
Speaker 1: class status goes neither state nor colony nor an independent country.
Speaker 1: It's essentially a colony. Right, if you're an American citizen
Speaker 1: who lives on the island of Puerto Rico, you cannot
Speaker 1: vote for the commander in chief who can send you
Speaker 1: to not so you can die for your country, but
Speaker 1: you cannot vote but not vote for it. Where is
Speaker 1: Puerto wec and wanting its own country or state status?
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems like not clear to me what
Speaker 1: the will of the people there is. There have been
Speaker 1: several referenda in which a majority of the Puerto Rican
Speaker 1: electorate has consistently voted for our statehood. So a majority
Speaker 1: of the island favor statehood. So they want statehood based
Speaker 1: on the referenda that have been held, Yes, but they
Speaker 1: can't get it because Republicans don't want another state that
Speaker 1: they worry might be democratic or is there something more
Speaker 1: complicated there, No, it's more complicated. So with DC statehood,
Speaker 1: the opposition comes exclusively from Republicans. Puerto Rican statehood the
Speaker 1: opposition comes not only from Republicans but also from Democrats.
Speaker 1: There are Democrats who prefer independence, who are independent the stats,
Speaker 1: or who prefer an alternative to statehood, like free association,
Speaker 1: which is a which is a form of independence. So
Speaker 1: that's that's part of the problem is that there's opposition
Speaker 1: to Querto Rican statehood within the within the Democratic court.
Speaker 1: What could Biden do if you had a magic bond
Speaker 1: right now to help them? Look, I think most of
Speaker 1: the inequalities can only be addressed by changes in federal law,
Speaker 1: by changes statute. What is in the control of the
Speaker 1: Biden administration is the need to rebuild the infrastructure. So
Speaker 1: here's why the recovery is struggling. Most of the funding
Speaker 1: that we've appropriated for the island flows through FEMA and
Speaker 1: FEMA funding partically takes the form of a reimbursement, but
Speaker 1: in order for reimbursement to work, a recipient like Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico needs to have the ability to pay the cost upfront,
Speaker 1: needs to have access to capital. Puerto Rico is essentially
Speaker 1: in a state of bankers ruggling to recover from a
Speaker 1: seventy two billion dollar debt crisis. It faces barriers to
Speaker 1: accessing capital, and that lack lack of access to capital
Speaker 1: has led to a delay in the recovery of the island.
Speaker 1: So Puerto Rico needs debt forgiveness, It needs advanced payments.
Speaker 1: These programs, these funding programs have to be restructured and
Speaker 1: may and may work for the island of is there
Speaker 1: a precedent for that. There are pilot programs that have
Speaker 1: offered advanced payments, but those programs have been poorly strong.
Speaker 1: So that's what needs to happen. That's where the Biden
Speaker 1: administration we have the greatest impact in improving life on
Speaker 1: the app. Talk to me a little bit about the
Speaker 1: mid terms right now. A few months ago, it felt
Speaker 1: like a near certainty that we would face a blood
Speaker 1: bath in November, and there have been a few seismic
Speaker 1: events that have given us a fighting chance of holding
Speaker 1: onto our majority. I think the Doob's decision of repersonal
Speaker 1: versus Way January six hearings. The central issue remains the economy,
Speaker 1: but when it comes to secondary tertiary issues, there's been
Speaker 1: a shift in the priorities of the electorate from issues
Speaker 1: like education and immigration and COVID, which were arguably winning
Speaker 1: issues for the Republicans two issues like democracy, guns and abortion,
Speaker 1: which are winning issues for the Democrats. And we have
Speaker 1: been much more united in our messaging on abortion, like
Speaker 1: we are united as a party in favor of codifying
Speaker 1: the right to choose in federal law, whereas the Republicans
Speaker 1: messaging on abortion has been modeled and incoherent and lacking
Speaker 1: in self confidence. And when Lindsey Graham introduced a national
Speaker 1: ban and abortion, he made a mockery of his own party.
Speaker 1: That was amazing. That was really just an incredible unforced
Speaker 1: error on the part of Lindsay Graham. I thought, he's
Speaker 1: the gift that keeps on giving. Congratulations Democrats. I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about marijuana because it seems again
Speaker 1: like an easy win for this administration. Is it No
Speaker 1: question about it. What the President did on marijuana represents
Speaker 1: a historic strike toward reversing the legacy of mass incarceration.
Speaker 1: You know, when you've had contact with the criminal justice system,
Speaker 1: even from minor crime, you know it produces collateral consequences
Speaker 1: that haunts you for the rest of your life, that
Speaker 1: limits your access to employment, housing, public accommodations, and higher education.
Speaker 1: I'll tell a quick story, and it's not related to marijuana,
Speaker 1: but I think it tells us the larger story about
Speaker 1: the need for criminal justice reform. When I was fourteen,
Speaker 1: I visited my two half brothers in prison, and I
Speaker 1: remember asking one of them, what are you gonna do
Speaker 1: when you're no longer in prison? And he said to
Speaker 1: me that if I can't find a job where I
Speaker 1: can't go to school, that I'm simply going to go
Speaker 1: back to the same life that I had before, the
Speaker 1: only life I've ever known. And so record to me that,
Speaker 1: you know, we have a system that sets up the
Speaker 1: formally incarcerated for failure, that we allow people to be
Speaker 1: haunted by their criminal records, and I feel like we
Speaker 1: have to create a much more redemptive society. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's right. Do you prescription drugs. We've seen Republicans
Speaker 1: vote against this thirty five dollar insulin cap. It seems
Speaker 1: like this would be a winner for Democrats. There is
Speaker 1: no policy that is more popular that empowerment government to
Speaker 1: negotiate more affordable drect first. It is by far the
Speaker 1: most popular policy of the Democratic Party. It's the great
Speaker 1: achievement of the Inflation Reduction Act. I'm excited that we
Speaker 1: pass legislation that caps the price of inculin at thirty
Speaker 1: five hours a month. We have among the highest insulin
Speaker 1: costs in the country. It's been reported that as bunch
Speaker 1: of twenty seven percent of Americans who cannot afford insulin
Speaker 1: often skip doses or ration insulin in their lives at risk.
Speaker 1: There been stories of Americans we have to travel to
Speaker 1: Canada to obtain affordable insulin, and they're about a hundred
Speaker 1: million Americans who are either diabetic or pre diabetic, but
Speaker 1: whom insulin is either a necessity in the present or
Speaker 1: could be a necessity in the future. And capping the
Speaker 1: cost of inculent at thirty five a month for senior
Speaker 1: citizens those on Medicare is a profound game changer and
Speaker 1: likes it. I have one last question for you, which is, so,
Speaker 1: what are you going to be in the Democratic leadership
Speaker 1: after the mid terms. I'm retiring from kidding. I had
Speaker 1: to ask. I thought I would trick you, and just
Speaker 1: telling me that you were running for the leadership, I
Speaker 1: thought that was good, right. I'm looking forward to a
Speaker 1: new generationally like for a long time, Congress has been
Speaker 1: a generatocracy. We should create space for a new generation
Speaker 1: of leaders. To Richie Torres, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. It's always a pleasure. Gazelle Boretto Fetterman is
Speaker 1: the second Lady of Pennsylvania. Welcome to Fast Politics. Gesu Fetterman,
Speaker 1: thank you for having me. I'm so thrilled to have you,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to talk to you. I always want
Speaker 1: to talk to you because you're my friend, but I
Speaker 1: also want to talk to you because you guys are
Speaker 1: in the race of a lifetime in Pennsylvania. I mean,
Speaker 1: what is happening? You know, you follow these races and
Speaker 1: I followed, of course mid terms. I've always been engaged,
Speaker 1: and then to be it is a whole different experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, just unbelievable. We had John on the podcast
Speaker 1: two weeks ago. He's had a stroke, he has closed caption.
Speaker 1: He's been very upfront about the close caption. He seems
Speaker 1: in my mind to be able, completely able once he
Speaker 1: has a closed caption. Is that right? Is that your
Speaker 1: take on it? Yeah? He I mean, first, he's like
Speaker 1: the bravest, most amazing man. I mean, like just incredible.
Speaker 1: Absolutely a very simple accommodation one that I love. I mean,
Speaker 1: I learned English reading close captioning, So a very tiny
Speaker 1: accommodation helps make the huge difference while he's still healing.
Speaker 1: You know, it is temporary, it's not a long storm thing,
Speaker 1: but right now it is the tool that helps him
Speaker 1: in so many Americans, you know, twenty six million of us,
Speaker 1: including myself with a h D. I need a small
Speaker 1: accommodation here and there. It's not that serious. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about what's happened now with It feels to me
Speaker 1: like this Republican campaign has they've sort of gone into overdrive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, I think desperation makes you
Speaker 1: do things. But also, you know, you have a candidate
Speaker 1: who is not a nice person, right and they're doing
Speaker 1: what they They're showing you who they are by doing this.
Speaker 1: And you know, a doctor of all people who I
Speaker 1: think should be, you know, in in his oath to
Speaker 1: do no harm, to be rooting for people, I think
Speaker 1: he's showing us exactly who we get. Kara Swisher interviewed
Speaker 1: him too, and Kara had a stroke as Wow, the
Speaker 1: recovery process, how has it seemed to you? I mean
Speaker 1: I never experienced something like this, so you know, I
Speaker 1: had to go through what millions of other Americans aren't
Speaker 1: going through. You know, every four seconds someone has a stroke,
Speaker 1: So this is a reality for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: It became our reality too. And I'd say with John
Speaker 1: it's like a like a locomotive, right, Like every day
Speaker 1: I see him better every day, he's getting closer to
Speaker 1: a hundred. But it is a process, and you know
Speaker 1: he's had to heal with the world watching like it's
Speaker 1: really difficult. But he's incredible, and I think it makes
Speaker 1: him that much more qualified to be a center that
Speaker 1: he has overcome so much, that he is extra empathetic
Speaker 1: on top of what he already was and has first
Speaker 1: hand experience. He does a lot of these rallies, I
Speaker 1: see humongous crowds. It feels like he's been very good
Speaker 1: at connecting with these rural, purple state voters that Democrats
Speaker 1: have had trouble connecting with. What do you think the
Speaker 1: sort of secret there is, Well, yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: rallies are huge no matter where we go, whether it's
Speaker 1: you know, blue Montgomery County or read parts of the states.
Speaker 1: I think it's that one John is authentic and I
Speaker 1: think people can see that, right, It's very easy to
Speaker 1: see this is a real person. It's the person who
Speaker 1: really cares. But also he shows up like he doesn't
Speaker 1: write people off. And I think that's something the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party has done for far too long, is like, oh,
Speaker 1: those folks are not going to vote for us, so
Speaker 1: we're not even gonna try. And we try. I mean
Speaker 1: we we meet them where they are, We have difficult conversations,
Speaker 1: we engage, and I think that's what's been missing for
Speaker 1: a very long time. So he's doing rallies now, is
Speaker 1: he back on a full schedule and what does that
Speaker 1: schedule look like? He's been back on a full schedule
Speaker 1: for a while now, I mean as as long as
Speaker 1: he's been doing rallies. I mean if I'm with him
Speaker 1: on the road, I see him otherwise, you know, doing
Speaker 1: a lot of things that I'm doing my own things.
Speaker 1: So yeah, definitely a full, full schedule every day. He
Speaker 1: had one evening off in all of October and November
Speaker 1: leading to you know, election night, which was last night,
Speaker 1: and we went to the pumpkin patch with the kids.
Speaker 1: Were the kids happy to see you guys? They were?
Speaker 1: They were, and they've been troopers, you know, they're they're
Speaker 1: really great kids. They know what's happening. They get it.
Speaker 1: They see the commercials. And my youngest even said, Mom,
Speaker 1: don't worry the pumpkin patcheck Fusco is fine this year.
Speaker 1: And I said, no, no, we're gonna do the real thing.
Speaker 1: Do you are the kids? I mean, do you guys
Speaker 1: feel like you're in danger? I mean, are you guys
Speaker 1: in physical danger or now physical Benjo? No, I think
Speaker 1: our country is in danger. Democracies in danger danger. No,
Speaker 1: we've had scary moments throughout, but I don't think so.
Speaker 1: But you know, I don't know. Yeah, again, exactly that's
Speaker 1: how I feel too. So let's talk about marijuana, because
Speaker 1: Pedoman had actually a win with marijuana, and the Biden
Speaker 1: administration explained that to us. Yeah, so we've been very
Speaker 1: vocal on legalization decrimination for a really long time. I
Speaker 1: myself am a medical marijuana cardholder, have always been very
Speaker 1: open about it. And we met with the President when
Speaker 1: he was in Pittsburgh ahead of his visit. We did
Speaker 1: call on him to to move towards these steps, and
Speaker 1: during that meeting he assured John that it was going
Speaker 1: that way and that he would reach out before and
Speaker 1: then we had a really big win this past week.
Speaker 1: Can you explain to our listeners a little bit about
Speaker 1: what this big win is. Sure, it included pardoning folks
Speaker 1: with existing non violent marijuana charges, but also moving towards
Speaker 1: um re labeling marijuana and a different schedule. So actual
Speaker 1: efforts towards that, and I think we're none of us
Speaker 1: are used to seeing government work, you know, for us
Speaker 1: that it was so exciting and and just you know,
Speaker 1: we can do these big things like we can do them.
Speaker 1: We can do the hard things. You have to have
Speaker 1: folks working together to do that. We're in these last
Speaker 1: twenties two days or twenty one days or whatever it
Speaker 1: feels like, twenty million days to the mid terms. I mean,
Speaker 1: what is this sort of game plan for Team fatter Man.
Speaker 1: It's you know, very busy. Our schedule at this point it's,
Speaker 1: you know, seventy two hours in advance, because it's just
Speaker 1: it's kind of NonStop. We're gonna keep doing what we've done.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep visit in all the places, talking to
Speaker 1: all the people, doing as much as we can. Leading
Speaker 1: to to November eight. Would that interview yesterday when the
Speaker 1: journalists sort of took some liberties with her sort of
Speaker 1: supposition of his house, how did you feel? I don't
Speaker 1: like saying rage, because I think that's a really unhealthy
Speaker 1: feeling and when you feel those things, that only harms yourself.
Speaker 1: But I just, you know, what of the service that
Speaker 1: she did, not only my husband, but to anyone facing
Speaker 1: a disability and working through it. And I don't know
Speaker 1: how they were not consequences, right, I mean, there are
Speaker 1: consequences for folks in these positions who are any of
Speaker 1: the isms. I mean, she was ablest and that's what
Speaker 1: she was in her interview. It was appalling to the
Speaker 1: entire disability community and I think to journalism. So I
Speaker 1: was shocked. I'm still really upset about it, and I
Speaker 1: think the positive is it's that it's brought a lot
Speaker 1: of conversations around accommodations, around eights around able is um right?
Speaker 1: I mean able is M was trending on Twitter. It
Speaker 1: just shows there's so much work to do, but these
Speaker 1: networks have to take accountability, right, like where is your training? Uh?
Speaker 1: It was appalling to see and you see that in schools,
Speaker 1: You see that with young children. You don't expect to
Speaker 1: see it at this level. And you know, I haven't
Speaker 1: heard an apology. It hasn't come. I am hopeful that
Speaker 1: you know, there will reflect and see that they did
Speaker 1: an incredible disservice to all Americans. What John's take, You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know that he watched it. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't think it's healthy to have to yell that. Obviously
Speaker 1: he knows that it happened, and to him, you know,
Speaker 1: it shows just what a challenge it is for for
Speaker 1: folks with disability to to want to pursue careers and
Speaker 1: you know, and and just the challenges that come with that.
Speaker 1: Our family is newer to the disability world. I was
Speaker 1: diagnosed a d h D as an adult and he's
Speaker 1: going through this now. So there are families that have
Speaker 1: been going through this their entire lives were newer to
Speaker 1: the space. But you know, it's very easy to see
Speaker 1: first hand the discrimination that still very actively exists. So
Speaker 1: Oz is not talking to the editorial boards, he's not
Speaker 1: participating in some of these you know, more traditional candidate things.
Speaker 1: What do you think of that? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think he is, you know, hiding. I think he he's
Speaker 1: hiding from his record or the things he's called saying.
Speaker 1: And you know, he talks about this debate, debate, debate.
Speaker 1: He has an opportunity to to talk to these folks
Speaker 1: and he refuses to. So I don't know what the
Speaker 1: thinking is in this campaign. But these are also folks
Speaker 1: who are you know, extremely disparaging towards someone who had
Speaker 1: a stroke, who make fun of it. There is no
Speaker 1: there is no soul in that campaign. So I really
Speaker 1: can't imagine, you know, what they're thinking is because it's
Speaker 1: just so foreign from from the way I see the
Speaker 1: world and see things. What do you guys need right
Speaker 1: now in your campaign? Volunteers? Of course, always you know,
Speaker 1: text banking, we're doing all the things connecting with the
Speaker 1: many folks as possible. Of course, we're continuing to raise
Speaker 1: money to compete with the millions of dollars that ODDS
Speaker 1: continues to pull from his own bank account as well
Speaker 1: as dark money venues to attack John. So it's continuing
Speaker 1: fighting back and and doing it with the decency right
Speaker 1: like against someone who has none. So you know, we'll
Speaker 1: always stay on the right side and we'll continue that,
Speaker 1: but it is difficult. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that we just got to catch up
Speaker 1: on this. I really appreciate you coming on too short notice.
Speaker 1: Absolutely always got to talk to you, Molly, John Fast,
Speaker 1: Jessie Cannon. You know, we hate the Supreme Court, but
Speaker 1: then some days I don't think we hate them. We
Speaker 1: just consider six of them to be partisan hacks. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's that's better assessment that I Yeah, I'll take it.
Speaker 1: That's why they pay you the big bucks. Three of
Speaker 1: them to be profoundly partisan. Yes, continue, what happened. What
Speaker 1: happened today is the thing about this Supreme Court is
Speaker 1: if they don't do something for Donald Trump, it's newsworthy. Right.
Speaker 1: So today you'll remember Justice Clarence Thomas did not save
Speaker 1: Donald Trump from the documents case that the d J
Speaker 1: has that is ultimately very likely the sort of most
Speaker 1: ace in the whole case against Trump. He went to
Speaker 1: his buddies at the Supreme Court, three of whom he
Speaker 1: put he stole the seats for, and they were like, sorry, buddy,
Speaker 1: you have to like face the music on the documents.
Speaker 1: So it turns out that the Supreme Court is slightly
Speaker 1: less corrupt than Judge Cannon of Palm Beach. Congratulations, guys.
Speaker 1: Well here's my thing though, Like this is like his
Speaker 1: lapdog rebuked Clarence Thomas, Like, how would you feel if
Speaker 1: Leonidas did this to you? Leonidas would never or do
Speaker 1: this to me. You have a real relationship. No, it's true.
Speaker 1: He really loves you. Yeah, exactly. That's it for this
Speaker 1: episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and
Speaker 1: Friday to your the best minds and politics makes sense
Speaker 1: of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard,
Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 1: And again, thanks for listening.