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Speaker 2: You can't simply secure your way out of the challenges
Speaker 2: that we face right now. It's not simply security. We
Speaker 2: do need security, we need to make sure that we're
Speaker 2: providing that to members, to staff, into the general public.
Speaker 2: But there's something deeper going on in our society as
Speaker 2: well that we have to address.
Speaker 3: This is Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 3: I'm Joe Matthew part of my conversation there with Republican
Speaker 3: Congressman Brian Style of Wisconsin on yesterday's Balance of Power
Speaker 3: discussing what's being done to ensure lawmaker safety on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 3: He's chair of the House Administration Committee, so this falls
Speaker 3: in his portfolio of the panel that oversees funding for
Speaker 3: member security. And of course it comes after reports of
Speaker 3: political activists and lawmakers from both parties canceling public events
Speaker 3: after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a college
Speaker 3: campus in Utah on Wednesday. Joining us Now with more
Speaker 3: on this and some of the other stories we're following.
Speaker 3: Democratic Congresswoman Debut Osserman Chelsea Florida. It's always great to
Speaker 3: have you, a congresswoman. Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 3: I'd like to start with that matter of security. I'd
Speaker 3: love your greater thoughts on the political violence that this
Speaker 3: country is I fear growing used to. The fact of
Speaker 3: the matter is, most lawmakers I have talked to this
Speaker 3: week have been very modest about their own security. When
Speaker 3: I've asked them if they feel safe, if they think
Speaker 3: they should have a security detail. No one has demanded that,
Speaker 3: but reports suggest that there is an outcry on Capitol
Speaker 3: Hill for more to be done. And I wonder what
Speaker 3: you think when you walk out the door in the morning,
Speaker 3: if you think you should have a security detail.
Speaker 4: Well, Joe, and it's good to be back with you.
Speaker 4: And I'm glad to have the opportunity to talk about
Speaker 4: this because I even my own opinion has shifted over
Speaker 4: the last number of years. My answer, my first answer
Speaker 4: to this question is always that you know, I serve
Speaker 4: in the most representative body in the entire world, the
Speaker 4: one that is the closest to the people, and access
Speaker 4: to their representatives is something that we absolutely have to maintain.
Speaker 4: And you know, when security is around you tightly, people
Speaker 4: get intimidated and they feel less comfortable approaching their own
Speaker 4: representative at the same time, though, I mean I had
Speaker 4: a pipe bomb delivered to my office along with fifteen
Speaker 4: other politicians around the country, where my return address was
Speaker 4: the UH and my name was on the return address
Speaker 4: of every package. The bomb had to be detonated in
Speaker 4: the stairwell of my district office building. There are Paul Pelosi,
Speaker 4: Nancy Pelosi's husband attacked with a hammer. I've gotten countless
Speaker 4: death threats. I have on and off police outside my house.
Speaker 4: And then it's it's to the point where making sure
Speaker 4: that my constituents are protected when I am somewhere, especially
Speaker 4: if there's been public notice and myself, protecting myself and
Speaker 4: my family is essential. So an increased security presence needs
Speaker 4: to occur. How we deal with that is something that
Speaker 4: we need to discuss to maintain that balance between accessibility
Speaker 4: and security.
Speaker 3: Well, it's chilling hearing you describe all of that. That
Speaker 3: pipe bomb was not a fake, I think is part
Speaker 3: of your point. How does it make you feel when
Speaker 3: the president says that this is the fault of the
Speaker 3: radical left.
Speaker 4: It is incomprehensible to me. We have a president who
Speaker 4: is not able to meet this moment. I mean every
Speaker 4: major elected official that I know democratic elected official that
Speaker 4: I know, including myself, put out a statement of sorrow
Speaker 4: for me, initially wishing mister Kirk hopefully a quick recovery
Speaker 4: and then expressing sorrow about his killing, and also that
Speaker 4: we need to make sure that political violence is never,
Speaker 4: never the answer, and whether we disagree vehemently or not,
Speaker 4: we all have to make sure we tamp things down
Speaker 4: and the president is rapte doing things up. George W.
Speaker 4: Bush after nine to eleven when the World Trade Center
Speaker 4: was attacked, the Pentagon, I mean the plane crash in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 4: he met the moment. He brought us together. He tamped
Speaker 4: down Islamophobia and anti Semitism. And President Obama after the
Speaker 4: Mother Emmanuel killings, did the same and brought this to
Speaker 4: the country together. Blaming one side or the other is
Speaker 4: not going to enable us to be able to cool
Speaker 4: things down and make sure that we work together. I
Speaker 4: do thank Governor Cox, who is really taking the right
Speaker 4: tone here from Utah, and that's really the example we
Speaker 4: need to follow.
Speaker 3: Of course, noteworthy that Governor Cox, as a Republican who
Speaker 3: you're complimenting here, who said our adversaries want violence, our
Speaker 3: adversaries want violence. We have bots from Russia, China all
Speaker 3: over the world trying to instill disinformation. I would encourage
Speaker 3: you to ignore those. This is a big part of
Speaker 3: this And by the way, a noteworthy I remember very
Speaker 3: well when President George W. Bush visited a mosque. It
Speaker 3: was on the seventeenth of September two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: Is there an equivalent move that this president could make
Speaker 3: at this time now?
Speaker 4: You know, I hope he uses the moment to address
Speaker 4: the country and set emanate healing words and ask us
Speaker 4: all to you know, find our better angels and come
Speaker 4: together and try to be less vitriolic. People feel very
Speaker 4: strongly about you know, a lot of issues right now
Speaker 4: on both sides, and I think you know, to quote
Speaker 4: or to paraphrase mister Kirk, you know we should put
Speaker 4: our phones down, tell our kids to put our phones down,
Speaker 4: stop drowning and social media and outrage, and really try
Speaker 4: to come together as human beings, human contact, human communication,
Speaker 4: making sure that we get to know each other better
Speaker 4: as people. When I have an opportunity, Joe to talk
Speaker 4: to another colleague on the other side of the aisle
Speaker 4: and I'm trying to win them over on an issue
Speaker 4: they disagree with, me on. It is always so much
Speaker 4: easier when we're looking at each other in the eye
Speaker 4: and we're sitting down next to each other. I have
Speaker 4: always found that people like to do, like to help
Speaker 4: people that they like and that they think are nice.
Speaker 4: And you don't get to know somebody and know whether
Speaker 4: they're nice or if they have any good qualities unless
Speaker 4: we really try to speak to them directly. We all
Speaker 4: need to work on that.
Speaker 3: I've only got about a minute left, congress Woman. What's
Speaker 3: going to happen when everybody comes back? There was already
Speaker 3: no trust between Democrats and Republicans, which is why we
Speaker 3: keep talking about a government shutdown. I'm guessing we're not
Speaker 3: going to have a post nine to eleven kind of
Speaker 3: unity here. Will Democrats and Republicans work together to fund
Speaker 3: the guy?
Speaker 4: Well, speaking as a senior appropriator, there is certainly the
Speaker 4: opportunity to do that, and the ball is in Republicans court.
Speaker 4: I mean, we can work together on a bipartisan funding bill,
Speaker 4: make sure that we don't terminate the Obamacare tax credits,
Speaker 4: and bring the cost of healthcare down, make life more affordable.
Speaker 4: I'm going to go shopping tomorrow for my family's tailgate
Speaker 4: tailgate supplies, and there's a Trump tailgate tax that we
Speaker 4: all pay, whether it's ground b for produce or cheese,
Speaker 4: and the Trump tailgate tax has to be addressed. We
Speaker 4: have to make sure that we come together, and we
Speaker 4: have an opportunity to do that. But if Republicans take
Speaker 4: this go along strategy and ignore the affordability crisis that
Speaker 4: Americans are facing, then they will be the ones that
Speaker 4: shot the government down.
Speaker 3: I think we just got a little preview of the
Speaker 3: Democratic messaging the tailgate tax. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman, Chelsea, Florida,
Speaker 3: thank you, as always for talking with au Some on
Speaker 3: Bloomberg and we'll see you when you get back in town.