Speaker 1: Martin O'Malley, the former administrator of the Social Security Administration,
Speaker 1: former Maryland governor, is making a run for share of
Speaker 1: the DNC and it's.
Speaker 2: Great to see you. Thanks great to be to break
Speaker 2: your message to us here.
Speaker 1: You're trying to strike a tone of optimism and what
Speaker 1: a lot of Democrats see is a dark time.
Speaker 2: How do you do it well?
Speaker 3: I have been talking to so many people all across
Speaker 3: the country, and everyone's trying to figure out what can
Speaker 3: we learn from this, Where are the places where we
Speaker 3: actually got it right, and how can we change so
Speaker 3: that we can win elections, because when we lose, everybody loses.
Speaker 3: So these are the conversations I've been having. And we
Speaker 3: have to do two things at the same time. We
Speaker 3: have to rebuild our party and we have to reconnect
Speaker 3: with the working people across America who are experiencing a
Speaker 3: higher cost of living. That's what we need to do.
Speaker 3: That's always been the core of our party since FDR.
Speaker 3: It's really acknowledging that the most important place in America
Speaker 3: is a family's kitchen table, and became a little bit
Speaker 3: untethered from that at the national level. But our politics
Speaker 3: is not the politics of fear. Our politics is the
Speaker 3: politics of hope, of making sure that working people can
Speaker 3: can feed their kids, can send them to good schools,
Speaker 3: can retire with dignity and grace. So those are the
Speaker 3: issues that we have to get back to when we
Speaker 3: do we win. Let me give you a few examples.
Speaker 3: Since we're doing and thank you for calling it. What
Speaker 3: did you call it? The This is not a post mortem.
Speaker 3: We are not dead.
Speaker 4: We are going to call estion analysis post election analysis,
Speaker 4: the after action.
Speaker 3: Our candidates left it all out on the field, and
Speaker 3: in some places we were successful. You know, I was
Speaker 3: talking to Sharif Street in Pennsylvania. I know they just
Speaker 3: called Senator Casey's election or he conceded. And at the
Speaker 3: federal level Pennsylvania, we were you know, we were disappointed.
Speaker 3: We lost that state by two points. But at the
Speaker 3: state level, they kept all of their gains from these
Speaker 3: years past, so they didn't suffer any reversal in their
Speaker 3: state house. I was talking in the chair of Alaska.
Speaker 3: They flipped both of their legislative chambers in Alaska, and
Speaker 3: if the Hakim Jeffreys and his caucus were able to
Speaker 3: gain six seats in the House. So when we talk
Speaker 3: about jobs and opportunity and connect the dots in clear
Speaker 3: ways so that people can see we are making choices
Speaker 3: that make their families future a thing to prefer rather
Speaker 3: than a thing to dread. Then we win elections, and
Speaker 3: that's what we need to do.
Speaker 4: So it sounds like what you're talking about might just
Speaker 4: be populism, if I could generalize. It's something that Donald
Speaker 4: Trump has really tried to seize on it, and I
Speaker 4: wonder if that means populism is really the only thing
Speaker 4: that is going to win elections in this modern era.
Speaker 3: You know what I would call it. I would call
Speaker 3: it an economy that works for all of us.
Speaker 4: And what's the difference between those descriptions?
Speaker 3: And when we have an economy that works for all
Speaker 3: of us, the democracy supports it. It's very popular, So
Speaker 3: I guess the difference is this. As a Democrat and
Speaker 3: a lifelong democrat, I believe that our economy is not money,
Speaker 3: it's people. It's all of our people, And the greatness
Speaker 3: of our country comes from investing in our people and
Speaker 3: the hope that we see in the eyes of our children,
Speaker 3: and making college more affordable instead of making income more inequitable.
Speaker 3: When our country worked very very well and was the
Speaker 3: envy of the globe. It was because we were investing
Speaker 3: in a stronger and growing middle class.
Speaker 2: But we came away from that over.
Speaker 3: The last forty years, and now I hear the incoming
Speaker 3: president talking about money and bitcoin when instead what the
Speaker 3: American people want us to talk about is them the
Speaker 3: reality around their kitchen table. I am a kitchen table progressive.
Speaker 3: If we don't deliver the goods of the republic that
Speaker 3: make a republic worth having, then our party has lost
Speaker 3: its way.
Speaker 1: We heard from so many voters during the campaign who
Speaker 1: told us that it was the kitchen table they wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about them.
Speaker 2: So Democrats had veered.
Speaker 1: Into identity politics and at least they knew Donald Trump
Speaker 1: had a good economy in No New Wars. Those are
Speaker 1: the two lines that we kept hearing.
Speaker 2: How do you respond to that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the I think people across our country
Speaker 3: actually have a lot more curiosity and interest in talking
Speaker 3: about our economy and how it works and how it
Speaker 3: can be made to work better for their home and
Speaker 3: their kitchen table than a lot of the pundits or
Speaker 3: the media consultants give them credit for. For example, when
Speaker 3: I was running for reelection in Maryland as governor. My
Speaker 3: own consultants told us, people don't want it. They're still
Speaker 3: feeling bad. We're not all the way out of the recession.
Speaker 3: Don't talk about the economy because they're not feeling great.
Speaker 3: Just run scary negative ads about.
Speaker 2: The other guy. And I said, hell, no, we're not
Speaker 2: going to do that.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about the things that people care about.
Speaker 3: And I made the We made the economic argument about
Speaker 3: the things we're doing to make our schools number one
Speaker 3: in America, about making college more affordable, all the kitchen
Speaker 3: table issues, stopping foreclosures, and so you know, when we
Speaker 3: engage in an economic debate, people are actually with us.
Speaker 3: And interestingly, you know, in a state like Missouri, get
Speaker 3: this Missouri up and down their ticket. They have elected
Speaker 3: officials who are Republicans, and we're elected. And yet at
Speaker 3: the referenda on election day, their people march the polls
Speaker 3: and they voted for reproductive freedom, they voted for an
Speaker 3: increase in the minimum wage, and they.
Speaker 2: Voted for paid family leave.
Speaker 3: So we have to be the party that makes life
Speaker 3: more affordable for hard working people who have been worked
Speaker 3: over for these last forty years by this false economics
Speaker 3: of concentrating power, concentrated monopolies, concentrating money in the hands
Speaker 3: of the few. Our economy is not money, it is people.
Speaker 3: And that's what we need to speak to.
Speaker 4: A party well, and the party is comprised of all
Speaker 4: sorts of people. We've obviously spent so much time in
Speaker 4: the last decade talking about the way in which the
Speaker 4: Republican Party has morphed in the Donald Trump era, and
Speaker 4: how there are divisions within that party of those who
Speaker 4: do follow him, and maybe more defined is on the
Speaker 4: hard right. But we're seeing some of that in the
Speaker 4: Democratic Party as well, especially as everybody does this post
Speaker 4: election analysis, if you will, and so I wonder, as
Speaker 4: you're making a bid here to lead the party forward,
Speaker 4: how you fit those pieces back together again so that
Speaker 4: there's enough cohesion to be able to stick together as
Speaker 4: a unit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, our party is a party that has an enormous
Speaker 3: amount of diversity, and in fact, our diversity is our strength.
Speaker 3: But our strength when it comes to winning elections again
Speaker 3: is to speak to the national interests that we share.
Speaker 3: And there's nothing more important to the national interest than
Speaker 3: allowing families to be able to make a better tomorrow
Speaker 3: for their kids. So that's the thing that unites all
Speaker 3: of us. You know, all of us have to all
Speaker 3: of us, all of us have to eat, all of
Speaker 3: us have to work, all of us want to give
Speaker 3: our children a better future than the one that we've had.
Speaker 3: I mean, how sad is it? And what does it
Speaker 3: say about our country that, you know, when unemployments at
Speaker 3: an all time low, that white male suicides are at
Speaker 3: an all time high. There's an enormous fear of change
Speaker 3: and fear of the future that's gripping our country. And
Speaker 3: in moments of fear, you know, as Donald Trump said
Speaker 3: in the past, they once asked after the last selection,
Speaker 3: how did you win? He said, I looked into the
Speaker 3: eyes of those blue collar people and all across you know,
Speaker 3: Pennsylvania and Michigan. I saw their fear and I tapped
Speaker 3: into it. So we should not be the party of fear?
Speaker 3: Are the leader of our party in modern times said,
Speaker 3: we have nothing to fear but fear itself. This is
Speaker 3: a time of enormous economic opportunity in the world, the
Speaker 3: beginnings of a third Industrial Revolution, the dawn of a
Speaker 3: third American century. We need to stop fearing the future,
Speaker 3: race it. But we need a strong government that actually works,
Speaker 3: that delivers, and that has our back. What you're going
Speaker 3: to see, mark my words, is this administration is going
Speaker 3: to break a lot of things that Americans that Americans.
Speaker 4: Thought, arguably what people voted for is.
Speaker 3: Well, we will see. I don't believe that's true. I
Speaker 3: believe that Americans when they heard the message defend democracy,
Speaker 3: that they heard status quo. And I believe that when
Speaker 3: they see I mean, if this administration starts breaking institutions
Speaker 3: that they had come to rely on and thought could
Speaker 3: never be broken, whether it's Medicare, whether it's social security,
Speaker 3: whether it's the infrastructure of our nation, they are going
Speaker 3: to cry out for a government that actually works and
Speaker 3: has their back. And the Democratic Party is going to
Speaker 3: have the backs of the working people of this country
Speaker 3: when they come out of when we come out and
Speaker 3: emerge out of these next two years. But in the meantime,
Speaker 3: as a party, look, we need collaborative leadership. We need
Speaker 3: leadership that has experience in bringing people together, but also
Speaker 3: in orchestrating change, managing our way out of this as
Speaker 3: a better and more professional party, but also also focusing
Speaker 3: on the next battle front. Jakim Jeffries is the general
Speaker 3: in that battle of the midterms, but in state offices,
Speaker 3: you know, state legislators all across America, county offices. We
Speaker 3: have to reconnect our national party with those men and
Speaker 3: women who are experiencing tremendous success in a lot of
Speaker 3: state houses all across America.
Speaker 1: Voters who are not experiencing tremendous success. You talk about
Speaker 1: those scary ads, A lot of them works, especially those
Speaker 1: that highlighted transphobia. And there's a Democrat from Massachusett's who
Speaker 1: we talked to you pretty often here named Seth Multen.
Speaker 1: He made big headlines saying that Democrats went wrong by
Speaker 1: leaning too far into identity politics. You may agree with
Speaker 1: him or not, but what does your DNC, if you
Speaker 1: get this job, look like when it comes to protecting
Speaker 1: or looking out for marginalized communities like trans.
Speaker 3: You know, we will make no compromise when it comes
Speaker 3: to our principles, and those core principles are our belief
Speaker 3: in the dignity of every person and our belief in
Speaker 3: the common good that we share as Americans. As I
Speaker 3: looked at the ads that were being run, it seemed
Speaker 3: that it was actually the other party that was obsessed
Speaker 3: with trying to divide us and trying to belittle transgendered people.
Speaker 3: It's the other party who came back to Congress and
Speaker 3: their very first act was about bathroom bills and an
Speaker 3: arrow when most when so many places have unisex you know, restrooms.
Speaker 3: What are unisex restrooms or not have to do with
Speaker 3: putting food on your table, or educating your kids or
Speaker 3: keeping a roof.
Speaker 2: Over their head.
Speaker 3: We have to not allow ourselves to become juked, distracted
Speaker 3: by the politics of division and fear. Our politics is
Speaker 3: the part as the politics that says we are one,
Speaker 3: our cause is one. We have to help each other
Speaker 3: if we are to succeed, and we need to build
Speaker 3: an economy and a country that works for all of us,
Speaker 3: not just for some of us.
Speaker 4: Well, obviously, right now the US economy and everything that
Speaker 4: has been built in large part has been underpinned by
Speaker 4: a growing deficit and debt problem, which it felt like
Speaker 4: in a lot of ways neither candidate was really willing
Speaker 4: to outwardly talk about on the campaign trail, and part
Speaker 4: because there's just things you can't touch politically, like Social Security,
Speaker 4: which obviously are intimately familiar with, and Medicare, defense is
Speaker 4: hard to touch as well. And I just wonder, no
Speaker 4: matter what party is in charge in the years to come,
Speaker 4: if you see a way in which the country can
Speaker 4: find itself on a more sustainable path.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 3: I mean, one of the things that's happened in our
Speaker 3: country for the last I mean thirty years or more,
Speaker 3: has been a great reduction in the amount of income
Speaker 3: tax that our highest earners pay, or to merely return.
Speaker 2: To a level that was.
Speaker 3: What we had as a nation during the first term
Speaker 3: of Ronald Reagan. I mean, a lot of those things
Speaker 3: would start to be addressed, and would be addressed over time.
Speaker 3: Let me say, as before I talk about Social Security,
Speaker 3: that I am here in my personal capacity. I am
Speaker 3: not here in my capacity as Commissioner of Social Security. However,
Speaker 3: I do know enough about that math to be able
Speaker 3: to tell you social Security does not contribute to the
Speaker 3: national debt. It is a pay as you go system,
Speaker 3: which means that as Americans pay into Social Security, those
Speaker 3: of us that are still working age, we pay out
Speaker 3: the benefits like an insurance company.
Speaker 2: So last year one point.
Speaker 3: Three to five trillion came in from people working one
Speaker 3: point three to seven trillion went out to people who
Speaker 3: were retired and beneficiaries, and the difference came from the
Speaker 3: surplus reserve that was built up to cover this era
Speaker 3: of the baby boomers. That reserve is running out sooner.
Speaker 3: That surplus reserve is running out sooner than anticipated. And
Speaker 3: the reason is of income inequality. In other words, in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty two, they thought they were setting a level
Speaker 3: of Social Security cap that would pat capture ninety percent
Speaker 3: of earnings in America. Instead with all of the things
Speaker 3: that drove income out of most American homes and into
Speaker 3: the hands of the top six percent.
Speaker 2: That also reduced the bracket, if you will.
Speaker 3: So they on it only applied to eighty percent of
Speaker 3: income in America. So a simple solution to that is
Speaker 3: to ask people who make more to start contributing. Again,
Speaker 3: there's no cap on what people contribute to Medicare, and
Speaker 3: social Security is off. I mean, it doesn't contribute a
Speaker 3: dime to the national debt. It is a self sustaining program.
Speaker 3: That doesn't mean that this new crab can't break it.
Speaker 3: If they want to break it, they can break. But
Speaker 3: that's not what eighty percent of Americans want. They want
Speaker 3: social Security expanded and strengthened so that it's there not
Speaker 3: only in their lifetimes, for their kids and their grandkids,
Speaker 3: which is also the same hopes and dreams they have
Speaker 3: for their nation.
Speaker 4: All right, sir, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4: Martin Andmalley of course no Social Security very well, but
Speaker 4: he is also running to be the next chair of
Speaker 4: the DNC. Appreciate you joining us here in our Washington,
Speaker 4: d C studio