Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts Congressman, it's great to
Speaker 2: see it, Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and radio. Spent
Speaker 2: a lot more time talking about Jeffrey Epstein than any
Speaker 2: particular policy this hour, and I'm wondering what you're hearing,
Speaker 2: what's going on here. I thought Republicans wanted to expose
Speaker 2: these files, and it looks like everybody's going home.
Speaker 3: Americans perceived that there's one set of rules for the
Speaker 3: powerful and one set of rules for the average American.
Speaker 3: And that's confirmed when they look at Donald Trump protecting
Speaker 3: Jeffrey Epstein. And it's also confirmed when they see Secretary
Speaker 3: Kennedy who pledges radical transparency and then refuses to require
Speaker 3: his top aid CALLI Means, to issue conflict of interest reports,
Speaker 3: despite the fact that calli Means is running his own
Speaker 3: business on the side that's benefit from Health and Human
Speaker 3: services policy. Same thing with Howard Lutnik, Secretary of Congress,
Speaker 3: who's shilling his own cryptocurrencies in the Middle East while
Speaker 3: administration policy benefits his tether empire. So Americans are tired
Speaker 3: of the corruption and grift they're seeing in Washington, DC,
Speaker 3: and they want a forceful response from Democrats to address
Speaker 3: the corruption in corporate capture.
Speaker 4: Well, Congressman, we mentioned earlier on the program that the
Speaker 4: House Oversight Committee is looking to get a subpoena to
Speaker 4: get some testimony from Galaine Maxwell. I'm wondering if you're
Speaker 4: in support of that, and what sort of additional information
Speaker 4: that you're looking for that you would want to hear
Speaker 4: from her potential testimony.
Speaker 3: I'm in support of a transparent, impartial investigation, including the
Speaker 3: resolution from Representative Kana to require the disclosure of the
Speaker 3: investigation files. And then I'm also in favor of Congress
Speaker 3: addressing this issue and then moving on to issues that
Speaker 3: affect cost of living financial freedom for Americans. We have
Speaker 3: legislation bipartisan that lowers the cost of prescription drugs for
Speaker 3: Americans that should have passed the House in December, but
Speaker 3: Elon Musk killed it. We should pass it right now
Speaker 3: before we go on recess. We've got bipartisan legislation that
Speaker 3: I have helped to draft that would.
Speaker 1: Take on.
Speaker 3: Fentanyl importing from China, bipartisan. We should pass that now
Speaker 3: before we go on recess. And these are issues that
Speaker 3: I think affect Americans in their daily lives and that
Speaker 3: we need to address right now.
Speaker 2: Well, we've been talking with a lot of upset Democrats.
Speaker 2: Congressman since the Recisions Package passed. Ralph Norman just told
Speaker 2: us there's another Recisions package coming. The White House has
Speaker 2: promised this as well, following the passage of the President's
Speaker 2: Big Beautiful Bill that of course Democrats did not support.
Speaker 2: Are you prepared to part ways with Republicans and allow
Speaker 2: the government to shut down or will you in fact
Speaker 2: sit down at the table and consider a deal. A
Speaker 2: deal when a budget is written with a Republican majority
Speaker 2: in the House.
Speaker 3: Well, let's look at the impact of the last Recisions package.
Speaker 3: Elon Musk came in with those pledged a trillion dollars
Speaker 3: in savings. He was going to mail checks to the
Speaker 3: American people. They were going to make government more efficient.
Speaker 3: What they've done, they've cost American taxpayers more than one
Speaker 3: hundred billion dollars. And then the Recisions Package had nine
Speaker 3: billion dollars in savings that gutted public broadcasting and polio vaccines. So,
Speaker 3: thanks to Doze, we have taken on polio vaccines.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 3: So this next recisions package, I'm sure is going to
Speaker 3: be as incompetent and cruel. And Democrats stand by a
Speaker 3: bipartisan appropriations process. But if the Republican's are going to
Speaker 3: go through the back door and negate those deals through
Speaker 3: partisan recisions packages, then it's very hard to negotiate in
Speaker 3: good faith.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what they're pledging to do.
Speaker 4: But Congressman, so just for clarity, do you think that
Speaker 4: Democrats should be risking a shutdown here in order to
Speaker 4: get through a negotiating leverage at this point? Is this inevitable?
Speaker 3: Of course, I want to fund the government, and I
Speaker 3: want to fund the government through a bipartisan appropriations process
Speaker 3: that gives Congress more power over the executive and allow
Speaker 3: us to set funding levels that are appropriate to the
Speaker 3: needs of the American people. The challenge that Democrats have
Speaker 3: right now, just to be very clear, is we can
Speaker 3: work in a bipartisan way to pass a funding deal,
Speaker 3: but then Republicans, in a partisan way can do a
Speaker 3: recisions package that negates the funding that had hitherto been agreed.
Speaker 3: So you can see the catch twenty two the Democrats
Speaker 3: are in. It's like, okay, we shake hands on a
Speaker 3: Tuesday and estab us in the back on a Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We're getting a little tired of that game.
Speaker 2: Well, it's been an interesting game listening to the conversations
Speaker 2: around Jeffrey Epstein. Not that I'm going back to that Congressman,
Speaker 2: but the President has been talking about a lot of things,
Speaker 2: likely in an effort we keep hearing to change the subject.
Speaker 2: And today he went back to the Russia investigation and
Speaker 2: involving interference of the twenty sixteen and twenty twenty elections,
Speaker 2: calling out former President Obama. He called him a trader.
Speaker 2: He also talked about James Comby, Hillary Clinton, and some
Speaker 2: other members of the former administration. Speaker Johnson says he
Speaker 2: has no concern when it comes to compelling testimony from
Speaker 2: President Obama regarding what the President of the United States
Speaker 2: now calls the Russia hoax allegations. What's your response to
Speaker 2: that kind of language and the potential for a subpoena
Speaker 2: for former President Obama?
Speaker 3: Grossly inappropriate, of course, and in pattern with President Trump's
Speaker 3: knee jerk reflex to every issue, which is to blame
Speaker 3: somebody else. It's always somebody else's fault with Donald Trump, right,
Speaker 3: It's just this one long litany of grievances.
Speaker 1: It's pathetic when it comes to Russia.
Speaker 3: What I hope Donald Trump would do is stop looking
Speaker 3: at twenty sixteen and start looking at twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: when Russia is bombing Ukraine and is trying to open
Speaker 3: up a second front against NATO in the Western Balkans.
Speaker 3: He needs to get strong against Vladimir PuO, and that
Speaker 3: means seizing the three hundred billion euros and frozen assets
Speaker 3: held in Brussels and appropriating that towards Ukrainian defense. That
Speaker 3: means authorizing long range strikes against Russian oil refineries. That
Speaker 3: means tightening sanctions and price caps against Russian oil exports,
Speaker 3: which funds their war machine. It's time to demonstrate some
Speaker 3: strength as opposed to supplication of Vladimir Putin. Because frankly,
Speaker 3: the Kremlin right now is looking at the US national
Speaker 3: security team and that looks like a junior varsity squad.
Speaker 4: Well, let's actually build on that. Because President Trump has
Speaker 4: threatened that there could be a so called secondary sanction
Speaker 4: on those countries that buy or import Russian oil, we're
Speaker 4: looking at how that could potentially impact China and India,
Speaker 4: for example. Is that the sort of escalation that you
Speaker 4: would be.
Speaker 1: In support of.
Speaker 3: It's hard to take the president seriously. So I mean,
Speaker 3: the short answer is yes, I am glad that the
Speaker 3: President the United States recognizes that NATO is our ally
Speaker 3: and Russia is our enemy. It is promising that he
Speaker 3: is talking about secondary sanctions and getting tough their oil exports.
Speaker 3: But the problem is when he changes his mind every
Speaker 3: twenty four hours based on what he sees on Fox
Speaker 3: and Friends or whatever Vladimir Putin texts him, he doesn't
Speaker 3: actually signal strength. The Kremlin needs to understand that they
Speaker 3: are facing an enemy in Ukraine that is going to
Speaker 3: be armed for the long haul, and it's going to
Speaker 3: have the support of NATO to create a military industrial
Speaker 3: complex in Eastern Europe.
Speaker 1: And right now they don't see that with Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: They see somebody who vacillates and supplicates himself.
Speaker 2: When you head home to Newtonville on your August recess, Congressman,
Speaker 2: will you be able to look voters in the eyes
Speaker 2: tell them that Democrats can help avoid a government shutdown.
Speaker 3: Yes, Democrats have been negotiating on appropriations in good faith
Speaker 3: over the last two administrations. In fact, and we're the
Speaker 3: ones who want to see responsible funding levels for programs
Speaker 3: and services and American Americans rely upon. Republicans are the
Speaker 3: ones who just cut Medicaid for ten million Americans. That's
Speaker 3: going to raise health insurance premiums on tens of millions
Speaker 3: of more Americans who get their insurance through their employers.
Speaker 3: So when it comes to supporting the programs that Americans
Speaker 3: rely on for stable government, Democrats are the ones they
Speaker 3: should count on.
Speaker 4: All right. Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, we thank
Speaker 4: you so much for joining Bloomberg