WEBVTT - Interview Only w/ Rep. Sean Casten - What’s Broken In Congress & How To Fix It 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:01.960 This episode of the Chuck Toodcast is brought to you 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:05.480 by Quints. A thoughtfully built wardrobe comes down to pieces 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:09.600 that mix well and last. That's where Quince shines. Premium fabrics, 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.879 considered design, and every day essentials that feel effortless to 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.680 wear and dependable even as the seasons change. Quince has 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.560 the everyday essentials I love with quality that lasts, lightweight 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.880 cashmere sweaters, not too expensive either by the way, short 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:28.639 sleeve Mongolian Kashmir polos, linen bottoms, and shorts. Quinch works 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.720 directly with top factories and cuts out the middlemen. That's 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.560 why it's more affordable. 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So right now, 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.200 go to quins dot com slash chuck for free shipping 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.320 and three hundred and sixty five day returns. It's a 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:12.760 full year to build your wardrobe and you'll love it. 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:15.600 Now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:20.119 that don't last. Go to qu I n ce dot 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.959 com slash chuck for free shipping, three hundred sixty five 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:33.000 day returns quins dot com slash chuck. Well joining me now, 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.760 is someone anybody elected after twenty sixteen I still call 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.679 a new member of Congress, but he's been there a 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.119 few terms now, so it's hard to call him a 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:42.760 new member. And we're going to get to that in 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.320 a minute. But it's Sean Caston. He is a republic 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:51.360 Democratic sees me from suburban Chicago, and we're going to 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.000 make him describe his district a little bit. He did 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.840 the original district he won. He flipped a Republican seat. 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.920 It has gotten after the normal redistricting. I have to 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.200 say normal redistricting now considering all the different ways iterations 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.399 that take place these days. But he got I think 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:15.080 a slightly less competitive district these days. But I booked 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.960 the Congressman because he did something that I've been dying 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.000 for somebody to do at one of these open committee hearings. 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:28.079 He asked detailed questions looking for a response, without being theatrical, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.840 without trying to dunk on a person. He was just 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.120 trying to get information, and it went viral because the 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.160 person that didn't answer the question. In this case, it 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.560 was the Treasury Secretary didn't have an answer to what 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:46.839 was a fairly simple question. Though it was fraught with 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.480 how he answered. It was fraught with some political peril there. 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.440 But it was a reminder that you don't have to yell, 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.600 you don't have to perform for something to go viral 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.600 if you just have a really good question and you 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.639 stump the cabinet members. So Congressman, is good to see you. 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.920 Thank you, and it's nice to it's nice to be 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:10.840 recognized for not doing this job just so that I 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:11.840 can become an influencer. 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.080 Well, I mean, look, that's it is. 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:16.160 You know. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.080 I used to joke and part of it is the 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.600 way leadership has sort of hijacked Congress. And I say 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:25.200 that I use that term intentionally because when I first 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.120 started doing this in the early nineties, committee chairs meant something, 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:34.040 subcommittee chairs meant something, and leadership would be deferential to 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.320 committees and to subcommittees and things like that. Now you know, 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:39.440 they're four hundred and thirty one excuse me, five hundred 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.040 and thirty one elected pundits and four people that make decisions. 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.840 And it's and when you do that, eventually you'll stop 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.480 having legislators and you'll start having more political pundits as 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:57.119 elected officials. You know. I I remember I interviewed Jake Laturner. 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:01.320 I don't know if you remember him. Yeah, he's left 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:02.119 no reason. 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.840 To leave about Bob's big Boy's body double by the. 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:11.000 Way, Yeah, he is a but he he essentially left 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.120 because he didn't want to be an influencer that seemed 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.400 to be what it is he was. Look, he's more 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.880 of a Paul Ryan conservative and that's out of vogue 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.880 these days in the Republican Party. But he saw that, 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.320 you know, if he did something that meant that was 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.800 good for his district on the Egg Committee, nobody was 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.560 going to cover it. And he figured that that Congress 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.919 was you know more Marjorie Taylor Green and Alexandria Cassio 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:41.440 Cortes than it is. You know, the grinders. Do you 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:42.800 feel that well? 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.960 So I have a more I have maybe a more 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.240 boy scouted you of Congress. I think hearings. Hearings have 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.680 always been really important. There are places to get information. 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.280 It's also not lost that in the age we're in, 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.440 for better or for worse, they're all on TV, and 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:01.400 so there's always going to be some theater too. 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:03.720 Now I blame TV for a lot of problems. I mean, 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.400 I think the minute the cameras got come came on. 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.200 I mean, this is why I'm not for cameras in 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.360 the courtroom generally. I'm for audio. I'm for live audio. 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.360 I think the transparency matters. But I think that there's 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.400 something that triggers human beings to behave differently. 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.600 When they care. There definitely is, And I guess the 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:21.960 only thing that I'd say in their defense is that, 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.440 particularly when you're in the minority and you can't control 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.200 the legislative calendar, the only tool you really have in 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.120 the minority is to move public opinion, and so there 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.560 is a value in the televised hearings the extent that 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:36.800 you can inject something in. I mean, look, as you said, 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:38.800 I'm on your show today because I injected something into 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.039 the public conversation about what was going on in Venezuela 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.799 and some of the legal authority that wouldn't have happened 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:46.640 if this was a closed door hearing. And so there's 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.760 there's a there's value within that, and you know, but. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.080 You also showed that you can you could do something 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.000 that may I don't believe you were trying to be performative. 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.440 Okay, no, well, I mean I'll tell you candidly because 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.719 there was a there was a political reporter who was 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:07.240 asking all this the day before, what are you going 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.880 to ask percent? And I said, what I know is 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:15.360 that he is going to be filled with talking points 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.000 from the Trump administration. He's going there's going to be 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.480 a lot of theatrics because that's his style. And therefore 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:22.680 I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.039 ask him because I'm working on on some things that 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.520 I don't want him to be prepared for, because I 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.320 want him to be engaged in this. And this reporter 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:32.880 came to me afterwards and he said, I understand why 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:34.960 you didn't tell me now, but what we were trying 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.880 to do was to say I had earlier written a 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.920 letter to the oil majors pointing out to them that 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.080 because the Trump White House has not outlined any legal 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.839 authority for seizing Venezuelan and oil, any investments they might 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:54.400 make to refine distribute that oil, they're going to be 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.159 exposed to Venezuela's creditors, the largest of which is China, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:01.400 because this is a fraudulent conveyance. And I had wanted 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.080 to go in with that, and we got the uh, 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.480 the good fortune, the bad fortune that a day or 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.400 two before, Marco Rubio had been before the Senate Foreign 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.960 Relations Committee and had made some suggestions about things that 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.440 we knew were legally not true. And so it was 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.200 just an opportunity to go and frame those conversations with 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:24.080 percent to say, Okay, you either have to either have 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.200 to agree with Rubio, in which case you're in a problem, 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.560 or clarify clarifying, which is going to put you in 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.000 a pickle. And I didn't want him to be prepared, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:32.680 and we had to and we had to keep our 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:34.680 tone down because if he got on the defensive of 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.160 starting to throw out all of the you know, the 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.320 Pam Bondi burn book stuff. Five minutes goes pretty quick 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:41.000 in that situation. 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.080 Well, what what I found interesting is that Besson didn't 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.640 react sort of as as a you know, the the 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.280 you know, he's you know, at first, he was sort 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.600 of tried to be an adult when he first took 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.400 the job, and now he you know, you see him, 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:59.880 I guess he's an adult behind the scenes now, But 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.880 you do, you know, because I think he look, I 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.600 think he does talk Trump off off of some ledges 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.760 that are even worse than the ledges that Trump that 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:13.040 we see Trump go out on. But I've noticed that 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:19.320 Besson is clearly trying to get on the President's good 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.480 side by by being performative in public against the quote 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.400 unquote owning the Libs or whatever it is that Scott 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.440 Besson thinks he has to do to keep his job. 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:31.720 But he didn't do that with you. Why do you 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.400 think that is? You think he was embarrassed that he 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:34.200 didn't know the answer. 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:39.760 I'm not sure he understood the question, to be honest. 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.400 I don't know if he did it either. Yea, Because and. 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.480 This was where we get into it, because Rubio had 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:48.079 said that Treasury was managing these funds under their authority, 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:49.760 and we knew the Treasury. 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.439 He didn't actually kept saying what authority, yeah and. 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.280 So and so. You know, at least framing the question 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:58.959 that way, you can't say, well, this is just because 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.240 you know you're some liberal. You either have to point 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:04.920 to the specific one of the you know, Congress has 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.840 given Treasury ninety one separate authorities to manage ninety one 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.480 different types of trust accounts. If if the Treasury Department 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.360 had done what Rubio said they it had done, the 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.040 Treasury Secretary would know which of those trust accounts applied. 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:18.679 And when you read those ninety one trust accounts, and 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.040 none of them actually fit the bill. So, I you know, 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.400 I think I think he was trying to well, let 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:26.640 me not expect them what I was trying to do. 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:28.520 I think there was no way for him to answer 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.120 that question in ways that just sort of made Trump 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.720 happy that he went viral and made a Democrat look bad. 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.400 I think, you know, I fear something worse. I fear 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:41.120 that they haven't thought about this yet. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:47.400 Well, look, and I don't want to. It's dangerous to 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:53.319 go down too many conspiracy rabbit holes if we If 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.800 you agree with my point that they have not, well, 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.160 this isn't just This isn't even something I'm agree with. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.200 Administration has not given any indication that they have any 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.640 legal authority to take title to Venezuelan oil or to 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:11.840 distribute Venezuelan oil. As a result of that, you now 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:16.520 have this account that we're taking. They've moved it to Cutter, 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.000 which is a whole other set of problems because there 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.480 are superios where Treasury takes custody to accounts, but we 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:24.640 keep them in US banks where we can monitor. This 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.000 is now in a place that's notorious for hiding money, right, 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.200 and then said that they have no wateritor in place 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.560 to monitor the inflows and the outflows. Well, if you 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:37.640 were doing all that, then you take Trump in his 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.400 face that there are a lot of bad people in 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.079 Venezuela who are using money to funnel drugs and run 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.560 these narco terrorism empires. How do you possibly know that 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.080 the money you're distributing back to Venezuela isn't going to 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.640 those bad actors. And as I was asking the questions, 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:53.600 what I was trying to get them to acknowledge is 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:59.959 I'll stipulate for the purpose of the hearing that Maduro 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:01.440 a bad guy. You didn't want the way to go 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.640 through there. Why wouldn't you have an audit regime in 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.040 place to monitor that? Rubio said they did have an 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.800 audit regime regime. Bessen said they didn't have one yet 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.520 but would set them up, which suggests that the two 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.680 of them didn't coordinate their story, right, And so now 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.440 this raises this is where the conspiracy starts. Is it 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.040 not being audited because it's going to shady characters in 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.880 Venezuela or is it not being audited because it's going 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:27.679 to shady characters in the United States? 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:30.920 Right, I don't know if they want to. 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:32.840 There's no time. Would you even know how to answer 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.080 that question? Right? 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:42.640 Well, it gets into this administration, and I think you know, 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:44.880 and I'm curious if you now see this trickling down 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.160 to the cabinet secretaries. Look, if the president doesn't believe 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.400 that some of these rules don't apply to him, separation 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.720 of powers doesn't apply, you know, all these little things 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.960 in it. And it takes the Supreme Court rebuke that 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.400 he got late last week on tariffs, and even then, 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:05.000 he's not really accepting the rebuke the way normal presidents would. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.760 A normal president would do one of two things, find 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.719 another you know, find another way, or ask Congress to 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.880 give him the authority whatever. You know, he's just attacking 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:22.400 the institution itself. Do you get the sense now that 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.160 many of these cabinet agencies that come before you guys 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.760 and these hearings, when they do these testimonies, they feel 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.120 as if they don't really have to abide by the 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.480 rules of Congress. They just have to do just enough 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:42.480 performance and they'll be protected by the majority. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.280 Sadly, that's true, and frankly that's probably been true for 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.960 a long time. I mean, remember, you know, Jim Jordan 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.640 denied a sub poena to come and testify before January sixth, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:52.520 and he was never really prosecuted for that. And so 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.640 I think there is a sense that, if you know, 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:58.760 a government based on the rule of law is predicated 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.640 on the idea that the people force in the rule 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.000 of law will comply with the rule of laws, that 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:05.240 falls apart pretty quickly. 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.440 A constitution becomes a piece of paper if you don't 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:08.760 use it. 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.800 Yeah, exactly, I think there's a I think there's a 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:15.920 separate issue in this Trump administration. And I certainly don't 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:20.600 want to, you know, be here praising Jeff Sessions but 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.679 in the first Trump administration, he was constrained because there 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:28.560 were a number of people in his administration, people like 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:33.360 John Bolton, people like Jeff Sessions who understood the independence 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.960 of what they had to do and and you know, 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.560 respected the president, were there to carry out his orders, 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:44.160 but took took their oath to the constitution. Seriously, the 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:49.960 people who Trump nominated for cabinet secretaries, virtually to a person, 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:54.640 where nominated because they'll take orders. Anybody who was going 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.040 to stand up has been has been merged from the party. 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.360 I mean, Adam Kinsinger and I did not agree on 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.360 very much. That Adam Kinzinger was dangerous because he challenged 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.480 the president. Right, I agree with Marjori Taylor Green on 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:10.120 virtually nothing. She's dangerous because she challenges the president. And 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.880 so the people who are left there. I mean, think 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.120 of all the criticisms Trump had of Marco Rubio back 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.080 in the presidential race. Those criticisms stung because Marco Rubio, 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.520 he's a beta dog, right, that's who is person. 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.760 Well, I joke, you know, Marco, Marco needs to know 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:33.880 and understand that when when Venezuela goes south, or Cuba 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.640 go south, or Iron Goo South. Whichever one of these 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:41.760 adventures that either we're about to embark on or have 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.880 embarked on and we haven't and it sort of had 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:50.480 some either becomes unpopular for some reason or whatever. It's 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.920 Rubio that's getting thrown under the bus. Yeah, and you know, 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.960 this is how he operates. He does not It is 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.000 never his fault, no matter what happens. But it is. 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.880 It also explains Congressman, you know what you've never heard 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.160 ever out of this White House. Donald Trump had a 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.000 meeting today with one of his business partners from thirty 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:11.920 years ago. Donald Trump had a meeting today with an 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.160 old college roommate. Donald Trump had a meeting today with 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:20.000 some he has no friends or colleagues or acquaintances that 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.400 will do business with him who did business with him 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.360 in the seventies, eighties or nineties, or the first. 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.560 Technoy at least not since I stained bad. 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:32.840 Right, I mean, but he went through. It's a pattern 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:34.640 about it. I mean you look at it from first 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.520 term to second term. You basically have Steven Miller. Yeah, 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.960 you know, I mean, it's basically it. And so because 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.600 when he loyalty is one way with him, and when 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.920 he throws somebody away and they you know, that's it, 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.920 and they won't come back. You know, most of them 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:55.640 don't come back into the fold unless they're kind of 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.680 like Lindsey Grant, right, who were just desperate for it. 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.800 Yeah. No, I mean, it's like it's a certain type 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.120 of person I was. I was a CEO for sixteen 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.480 years in the energy industry before I came to Congress. 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.320 And there is a certain type of person who is 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:13.760 who is transactional and always wants to make sure they 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:15.360 get the best end of the deal. And you never 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.120 do a deal with that person twice, right, the people 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:18.440 who So. 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.520 That's been the view of that's basically Donald Trump in 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:23.880 his life. Nobody's ever done a second deal with him. 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.640 Yeah, yeah, the parable of Giuliani. Right. 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:35.080 Let me ask you about why you're in Congress. Congress. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.520 You know, when you look at our problems today, it 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:41.400 is ultimately Congress's fault. Like this is, and I go 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.800 back forty years. Congress's inability to do things is put 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.400 pressure on the courts. Congress's inability to do things is 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:51.960 put pressure on the presidency's. Congress's decisions to to not 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.480 make tough decisions, to let the executive branch do it. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.400 And it's been sort of a slow thing, right, It's 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.520 it's an emergency here, trade authority there. You know, it's 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:07.000 been it's been over time. But here you are running. 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:13.680 You're a CEO. Here you are and I so I'm 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.640 glad somebody who's had a real career, meta pay role 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:23.480 wants to come to Congress. But it is not a functional, 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.359 small d democratic institution these days, particularly when you join 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.440 starting in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.600 What keeps you there? Well, so let me let me 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.239 give you what I take a lot of inspiration from. 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.960 There's a lot of beauty in the story. So I 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.200 twenty eighteen. We sold our company in twenty sixteen. I 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.439 was trying to figure out what to do next. I 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.399 had a one year non compete, so I couldn't work 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:48.920 in the industry that I was in for a year. 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.639 And I started going around because I was frustrated that 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.840 my representative wasn't standing up to Trump, and I felt 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:57.080 like what we needed in this era, so someone was 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.639 standing up to Trump. And my my big issue for 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:01.120 my whole life has been trying to do something about 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.920 climate change. That the businesses I ran and most of 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:08.480 what the legislating I've done. And a good friend of mine, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:10.960 Katie McGuinty, who had been the head of the Council 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.920 of Environmental Quality and the Clinton White House, she said, 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.879 I'm not going to encourage you to run, but I 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.600 will tell you that this is if you know what 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.320 you wanted, I want to have written on your tombstone 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.400 about what you contributed to the Earth during your time 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.360 on it. There's no better job than being a member 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.400 of Congress. And if you don't know what you want 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.320 written on your tombstone, there's no worst job, because you 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.520 have such enormous levers that you can pull on. And 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:38.840 so you know, in my private sector life, we deployed 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:42.040 a couple hundred million dollars I'm worth the capital projects, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.159 made some money for various investors. It looks good in 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:46.760 a resume. My first year in Congress cut a billion 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:51.040 dollars of legislation passed specifically to deploy clean energy technologies. 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.480 Not that not that things are measured in dollars, but 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:55.440 this was a fresh number of Congress and movement in 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.640 different ways. And the part of it that I think 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.360 is sort of beautiful and inspired hiring is that the 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:07.040 I flipped seat. They'd been Republican for fifty years. There 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.320 were forty of us in that class of eighteen who 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:14.640 flipped seats. Of the forty of us, Jennifer Wexton, Ben mccadams, 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:20.040 and Anthony Brindisi had held prior elected office. The other 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.240 thirty seven had never held any elected office before coming in. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.000 No, it's what made it a really good class. 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:26.600 And you know, and it was you know, me and 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.520 Dean Phillips had been CEOs. Lauren Underwood with a nurse. 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:34.320 Alissa and Abigail were spies. Tom Melanowski and Andy Kim 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.240 were in the State Department. JOHNA. Hayes was a teacher. 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:42.080 You had all these people who you know, the single 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.280 greatest thing that Donald Trump has ever done is he 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:50.280 made people feel like they wanted to contribute to society. Right. 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.879 And yes, you know the I think everything that you 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.000 say to criticize Congress is fair. I think it goes 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.160 back way more than twenty years. I went forty founders. 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.040 Our founders created a Congress that was the article one branch. 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:06.600 It was where all the people were, it was where 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:10.440 all the budget was. Congress is now less than one 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.560 half of one percent of the total federal budget, because 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.280 every time we identify a problem, we basically create an 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:20.240 executive branch agency to fix it, and we gradually, you know, 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:25.480 make ourselves weaker and weaker. And I, you know, I 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:29.920 think other than other than the War Powers Act, I'm 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:32.160 hard pressed to think of a time where Congress took 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.320 power back from the other agencies or the other branches. 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:37.600 But I can think of lots of time, starting with 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.840 Marbori versus Madison, where the judicial branch took power from 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.040 the legislative branch. Lots of times where the executive has 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.680 taken power from legislative And I think we're vastly overdue. 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.480 You know, if we still believe that it's important to 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.440 have a government with three co equal branches, we got 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:55.560 to be a little more equal. And I think we 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.520 need to sort of push for some structural reforms. And 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:03.639 the while I'm not naive about a loan that's going 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.840 to take, what other job could I possibly get where 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:08.320 I could actually have a role in fixing that. 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:15.960 This episode of the Chuck Toddcast is brought to you 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.240 by American Financing. So if you looked at your credit 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.760 card statement lately, you're working forty fifty hours a week 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.359 just to buy groceries and gas, things that used to 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.600 be able to afford. Right, and the credit card companies 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.720 are charging you over twenty percent interest for the privilege. 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:30.560 Think about that. 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:32.600 It's a lot of extra money out the door. It's 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.119 designed to keep you under water. 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