Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: This is the first time in history that we've been
Speaker 2: in this situation. There has never been a party that
Speaker 2: shut down the entire government, or a party that shut
Speaker 2: down over a clean cr for nothing but political partisan purposes.
Speaker 2: Their rally illustrated exactly what we've been saying for the
Speaker 2: last twenty days. It's about politics and it's disgusting.
Speaker 3: And that was House Speaker Mike Johnson on the twentieth
Speaker 3: day of the government shutdown, now the third longest in
Speaker 3: US history. Johnson's comments came forty eight hours after one
Speaker 3: of the largest demonstrations in recent memory, with the so
Speaker 3: called No King's protest happening in cities and towns coast
Speaker 3: to coast as demonstrators made their voices heard protesting against
Speaker 3: the president and his supporters in Congress. One voice that
Speaker 3: was there joins us now callin All Red, former Democratic
Speaker 3: Congressman from Texas and now US Senate candidate. Congressman, thanks
Speaker 3: so much for being with us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Millions of people were in these dubbed No King's protests
Speaker 3: this weekend. You were one of them in Houston. You
Speaker 3: saw the images, the pictures just the large crowds. The question, now,
Speaker 3: Congressman all Read, is how do you turn that into votes?
Speaker 1: Well, first, let me just say that I was really
Speaker 1: proud of the folks who came out to protest the
Speaker 1: protests that I was at, and Houston had a lot
Speaker 1: of families there. I took pictures with, you know, moms
Speaker 1: and dads with their kids. There were some pretty clever signs,
Speaker 1: as you can imagine, and I thought it was about
Speaker 1: as American as apple pie. To be honest with you,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a believer that you know, sometimes protests
Speaker 1: is necessary in this country. Certainly as a civil rights
Speaker 1: lawyer in an African American I know that history. But
Speaker 1: you're right, we have to take that not just in
Speaker 1: terms of protests, but then make it into action in
Speaker 1: terms of voting, and then try and get policy to
Speaker 1: try and respond to whether I think folks are going
Speaker 1: through and what they're worried about, and what I saw
Speaker 1: you at the things protesting Houston was a bunch of
Speaker 1: folks peacefully protesting, but also with an idea in mind
Speaker 1: that they weren't just going to stop there. They're going
Speaker 1: to take that into the next election.
Speaker 4: We just talked to Senator Ted Cruz about this, and
Speaker 4: he said, unquestionably, we should take political peril seriously. President
Speaker 4: Trump said, nobody showed up, and those who did looked
Speaker 4: whacked out. And I don't know if you saw folks
Speaker 4: wearing t Rex costumes or if they were dressed like
Speaker 4: hot dogs where you were, Congressman, but we did see
Speaker 4: quite a bit of character and color out there. The
Speaker 4: idea though, that as the President suggested that they did
Speaker 4: not represent America, says, what's you Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's pretty hot in Houston still, so
Speaker 1: you know, we might not have as many of the
Speaker 1: full on costumes as you would in other places at
Speaker 1: this time of year. But there were definitely some colorful
Speaker 1: folks out there. But like I said, I saw folks
Speaker 1: also breaking their kids in little red wagons, So I
Speaker 1: thought it was a very organic and folks I think
Speaker 1: came and they were thanking me for coming, quite honestly,
Speaker 1: because they were just looking to have some way to
Speaker 1: express themselves outside of just I think dooms strolling on
Speaker 1: their phones. And I think they felt a sense of community.
Speaker 1: I think they felt a sense that they were not
Speaker 1: alone and that their concerns were shared. By others, and
Speaker 1: I think it was something that there are some things
Speaker 1: that you don't plan for that are much more organic
Speaker 1: and just happen. You can try and have a rally
Speaker 1: or response to something, but what really happens is when
Speaker 1: folks are fed up, then they show up with they
Speaker 1: vote with their feet. And to spend part of your
Speaker 1: weekend walking around the heat in Texas for thousands of
Speaker 1: folks to do that, and to do it peacefully, I
Speaker 1: think says a lot interesting.
Speaker 4: Senator Cruz, I think referred to it as astro turf
Speaker 4: in this case. So, Congressman, we've got a government shutdown
Speaker 4: that's now on day twenty, and we'd love to ask
Speaker 4: you about your campaign for Senate in this case, would
Speaker 4: you be one of those Democrats who broke ranks to
Speaker 4: vote to reopen the government if you were in the Senate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, listen, I hate downs as a rule. When
Speaker 1: I was in Congress, my first I was sworn in
Speaker 1: during a shutdown. We introduced a bill pretty quickly thereafter
Speaker 1: called the Seas Act. It was called the Shutdown to
Speaker 1: End All Shutdowns Act, and we were trying to make
Speaker 1: sure that if this did ever happen again, the members
Speaker 1: of Congress and senators would feel the same pain as
Speaker 1: working people out there who are not getting paid. But
Speaker 1: in this case, Republicans have the power, and the Speaker
Speaker 1: of the House has spent a month not calling the
Speaker 1: House back into session. They have the power to negotiate
Speaker 1: this and say, listen, we know that we need your votes,
Speaker 1: and we want to make sure that we are in
Speaker 1: consultation and negotiation the way things have always been done.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry they have not used the power that
Speaker 1: they have to try and protect folks' healthcare, which is
Speaker 1: what I think Democrats are standing up for. We have
Speaker 1: four million Texans, four million here who are in the
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act exchanges. I just got an email from
Speaker 1: some of the associations that I'm a part of saying
Speaker 1: that with open enrollment is going to be starting next
Speaker 1: month and saying to expect dramatic increases in your costs
Speaker 1: in your premiums. In some cases, we may see those double.
Speaker 1: And if you see costs go up that much for
Speaker 1: your premium, that's basically the same thing as not having
Speaker 1: health care at all. And so I think this is
Speaker 1: very clear and very straightforward. I hope Republicans will come
Speaker 1: to the table and negotiate and try to make sure
Speaker 1: we get in this shutdown as soon as possible.
Speaker 3: Congressman, Before we let you go, we do want to
Speaker 3: talk about your race. You know the statistic as well
Speaker 3: as anyone. No Democrat has won statewide in the state
Speaker 3: of Texas since the early nineties. You ran, you did
Speaker 3: not win last time, and you raised a lot of money.
Speaker 3: So what makes you think this time around it's different.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, what I've been trying to do is make
Speaker 1: sure that we reorient ourselves around what I think working
Speaker 1: folks are going through. And I think there were a
Speaker 1: lot of promises made to working people in the last
Speaker 1: selection about their costs were going to go down, that
Speaker 1: inflation was going to go away on day one, and
Speaker 1: we've seen the opposite. And I've been going around the state.
Speaker 1: I'm not just going around. I'm trying to find areas
Speaker 1: where I can go directly to working folks because I'm
Speaker 1: constantly thinking about my mom, who was working two jobs
Speaker 1: and was watching me in the evening and she couldn't
Speaker 1: come to one of our town halls that we have,
Speaker 1: or to a political rally. But if I go to
Speaker 1: them on the job, then we can have those conversations.
Speaker 1: And so I was in grocery stores and construction.
Speaker 4: Sites, and I talked to us. More time to talk
Speaker 4: about your race. Congressman, it's good to have Colin Hall
Speaker 4: read with us. This is gloomy.