Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
Speaker 2: It's Steve Schmidt with the Warning, pleased again to be
Speaker 2: hosted by the Save American Movement, and we're joined this
Speaker 2: afternoon by.
Speaker 1: The eighth term member of Congress.
Speaker 2: The three term governor of the great State of Washington,
Speaker 2: Jay Insley. And one of the things I like about
Speaker 2: these conversations is when you talk to somebody who served
Speaker 2: for eight terms in Congress, who served for three terms
Speaker 2: as governor of a state, and could have gotten elected
Speaker 2: to a fourth term, and that is no small feat.
Speaker 2: In today's day and age, there's a lot of things happening,
Speaker 2: and it's great to talk about some of the eminences
Speaker 2: to some of the eminences of the party who don't
Speaker 2: have any thing to run for anymore. And we'll tell
Speaker 2: you like it is one hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 3: Governor, welcome, Thanks for having Steve. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: There's a terrible tragedy unfolding in the state of Washington.
Speaker 2: It's really an extraordinarily magnificent state. The beauty of it
Speaker 2: beyond my ability to put into words. But one of
Speaker 2: the really special regions of it Eastern Washington. It's the
Speaker 2: part of the state that gets less press attention than
Speaker 2: the West, the big city Seattle. These are the rolling
Speaker 2: hills of the Polue and the city of Spokane has
Speaker 2: suffered terrible, terrible damage. Can you tell the warning audience
Speaker 2: to Save America Movement audience what's going on in eastern
Speaker 2: Washington and where people can go to help, and we'll
Speaker 2: put that up here by the time we get to
Speaker 2: the to the end of the program.
Speaker 3: So Spokane, Washington, home of again Zaga Bulldog's birthplace of
Speaker 3: bing Crosby, beautiful dynamic community is really we've lost six
Speaker 3: hundred or seven hundred homes in this catastrophic fire. There
Speaker 3: are actually three fires burning that have threatened the city.
Speaker 3: These are fires that burn in grass and bush and
Speaker 3: to some degree some pine trees. And Spokane now is
Speaker 3: joining the list, unfortunately, of the rolling catastrophe that is
Speaker 3: climate changes in the Western United States of Lehina, Hawaii, Altadena, California, Paradise, California.
Speaker 3: It's just now joining that list and it's devastating. We're
Speaker 3: just talking about Steve before we started. You know, when
Speaker 3: you have tragedy, individual tragedy is enough when a person
Speaker 3: gets ill or you lose them, but these are whole
Speaker 3: communities that have been eliminated to some degree of huge
Speaker 3: neighborhoods and centers of communities. And it's not alone. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: just down the road three years ago, a little town
Speaker 3: called Molden was wiped out. Eighty percent of all the
Speaker 3: homes were burned down in Malden, Washington, totally eliminated the
Speaker 3: core of the whole city. So Spokane is experiencing that
Speaker 3: type of catastrophe. We appreciate everybody's help to the extent
Speaker 3: they can. We hope we get some federal help, which
Speaker 3: unfortunately we have not got from the federal government recently.
Speaker 3: We hope that the federal government is going to do
Speaker 3: its job and help these homeowners rebuild and community rebuild.
Speaker 3: That remains to be seen. We don't know if there's
Speaker 3: been a loss of life yet, so to that degree,
Speaker 3: we hope that we've had some luck. But it is
Speaker 3: an unfortunately exhibit a of what we face in the
Speaker 3: Western United States now. Given the aridity and temperature that
Speaker 3: is unprecedented, these fires are it's hard for us to
Speaker 3: understand if you've never fought a fire, I've actually fought one.
Speaker 3: The intense heat and rolling flamethrower effect. The firefighters will
Speaker 3: tell you that what used to be a fire that
Speaker 3: you could manage, you could slow down with aircraft and personnel.
Speaker 3: Digging trenches doesn't cut it anymore. These are unmanageable fires
Speaker 3: because they're like flamethrowers and there's no human intervention. And
Speaker 3: that's what we're facing, unfortunately in the Western United States
Speaker 3: and in Spain and France and other places right now.
Speaker 3: So that's what we face at the moment. And I'm
Speaker 3: going to be doing all I can to help this
Speaker 3: community rebuild, which it will, but it's slow.
Speaker 2: Governor, has this not been declared a federal disaster?
Speaker 3: I believe it has, at least in the first instance.
Speaker 3: The first stage of this is where you actually allow
Speaker 3: to actually be a coordinating agency. So that first step
Speaker 3: in the recovery process has been accomplished, and that's good,
Speaker 3: but there are many morning more steps where we'll need
Speaker 3: federal government to step in. And to be honest with
Speaker 3: you that you know, this is called the warning and
Speaker 3: there is a warning here that unfortunately the current administration
Speaker 3: has willfully denied aid to these families in many places
Speaker 3: in the United States because they happen to be represented
Speaker 3: by folks in the blue side of the team, and
Speaker 3: I experienced this in Malden when this town burned down
Speaker 3: just you know, fifty sixty miles south. This spookan. The
Speaker 3: whole town was eliminated, but the President refused to give
Speaker 3: us any aid. And the tragedy of this was so
Speaker 3: disturbing because more than you know, sixty seventy percent of
Speaker 3: the people this little town voted for Donald Trump, and
Speaker 3: then he turned around and refused to help him. And
Speaker 3: we hope that is not the situation Spokane. We hope
Speaker 3: that there will be voices that are loud enough to
Speaker 3: shame the administration into helping. And so that's what our
Speaker 3: hopes are.
Speaker 2: As a political leader who has been elected as many
Speaker 2: as up we're testing alarms here today. Excuse me, as
Speaker 2: a person who has won a lot of elections, what
Speaker 2: is it that you would say if you were walking
Speaker 2: into a room full of people eighty percent of whom
Speaker 2: voted for Donald Trump, who were just thoroughly betrayed by him.
Speaker 2: And I say that, and we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: some other issues. I grew up in New Jersey and
Speaker 2: so I am not surprised by that, because there's been
Speaker 2: no working class guy, no small businessman, ever that Donald
Speaker 2: Trump hasn't screwed over in the building of anything that
Speaker 2: he's ever been involved in. But what would you go
Speaker 2: in tone temperament?
Speaker 1: How do you.
Speaker 2: Persuade these people? I mean, calling them stupid is not
Speaker 2: a smart strategy. Judging them doesn't seem to work, though
Speaker 2: a lot of Democrats have become expert at that. What
Speaker 2: is it that you say to.
Speaker 3: Well, first off, I really appreciate your first comments that
Speaker 3: neither judgment or works in any discussion like this, you know,
Speaker 3: in to some degree, I suppose maybe some Democrats have
Speaker 3: fallen victim of that because you know, we saw it
Speaker 3: coming and others did not, unfortunately. But what I would
Speaker 3: say is to try to be future focused and try
Speaker 3: to help people get to a place where they look
Speaker 3: to the future, namely like, you know, we had this
Speaker 3: past and he did terrible things to you, unfortunately, and
Speaker 3: at the moment continues to do that. But to help
Speaker 3: people discover their agency about what we do about this now?
Speaker 3: And I think one of the things the leadership is
Speaker 3: to help people recognize their ability to influence their future,
Speaker 3: to get them to at least consider how are you
Speaker 3: going to solve this problem now? Well, Frankly, the most
Speaker 3: obvious one is you're going to vote for candidates who
Speaker 3: will not be subservient to him, who will not jump
Speaker 3: when he says jump, who will call a spade a spade,
Speaker 3: and will call him to account when he violates the
Speaker 3: law and the constitution, and to look for candidates who
Speaker 3: will do that. And that could be on either side
Speaker 3: of the agenda. If you know, if you can find
Speaker 3: a Republican who will do that, look for a candidate
Speaker 3: who will do that. It's rare or non existent unfortunately
Speaker 3: at the moment, but you got another party candidates too
Speaker 3: that are available to do that. So I guess what
Speaker 3: I would say is to try to help people look
Speaker 3: to the future and to find their agency and their
Speaker 3: voice and their power and empower them and actually get
Speaker 3: people to understand their power. I actually this is one
Speaker 3: of the things that certainly I've experienced, that people feel
Speaker 3: they can't influence the dialogue or the events or an
Speaker 3: election when they actually can. And I tell stories about how,
Speaker 3: you know, one guy stood up and took a position
Speaker 3: and eventually got Congress to pass the law. That happened
Speaker 3: to me when I was young. Congress from one guy
Speaker 3: wrote a letter about how the banks were stealing our
Speaker 3: private information one guy. It ended up a federal law
Speaker 3: that we could stop banks from doing that. So I
Speaker 3: just try to empower people.
Speaker 2: When you talk about empowering people, you look out at
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party right now, less than one hundred days
Speaker 2: out from a midterm election, where really the only question
Speaker 2: I think matters is putting a check on Donald Trump's
Speaker 2: power in this moment. But come back to that in
Speaker 2: a second. You have both the Senate leader right now.
Speaker 2: I don't think he'll be the Senate leader for very long,
Speaker 2: but for now, he's the Senate leader and the House leader.
Speaker 2: In a giant country. I think it's hard if you
Speaker 2: live in Brooklyn to conceptualize how big Washington State alone is.
Speaker 2: But in a giant country, both congressional leaders live within
Speaker 2: eight blocks of each other in Brooklyn, and every person
Speaker 2: ninety five percent of them that we see on television
Speaker 2: talking about politics, they all live within twenty blocks of
Speaker 2: each other in Manhattan or in Washington, DC. And I
Speaker 2: would argue, and have argued, the Democratic Party is a
Speaker 2: great national party that no longer functionally is a national party,
Speaker 2: doesn't really exist in the Mountain West, and it doesn't
Speaker 2: function in the Deep South. You have two fantastic candidates,
Speaker 2: Jamie Davis in Louisiana running for the Senate, Scott Column,
Speaker 2: a black prosecutor in Mississippi. And I think when you
Speaker 2: think about Fanny new Hammer, you think about MegaR Evers,
Speaker 2: I think there's a moral obligation for the Democratic Party
Speaker 2: to raise the banner there and say we're here to
Speaker 2: the last dog dies. As Bill Clinton used to say,
Speaker 2: We're gonna We're gonna be here until we till we win.
Speaker 1: So many of these issues that.
Speaker 2: We're talking about, the concept of there's drought across the West,
Speaker 2: forest management, these are not issues that exist in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: These are not issues that exist in in large measure
Speaker 2: in our urban areas on the on.
Speaker 1: The east coast.
Speaker 2: What does the Democratic Party need to do to put
Speaker 2: a Western face on it to be able to communicate
Speaker 2: to people in the Inner Mountain West again, in the
Speaker 2: in the deep Deep South? What how do how do
Speaker 2: you think about that? Is governor of Washington, you represented
Speaker 2: two distinct sections of the As a congressman, you represented
Speaker 2: two distinct areas of the state. We were talking about
Speaker 2: that before the show. But Washington State is not Seattle.
Speaker 2: This is a agricultural state, this is a timber state.
Speaker 2: There is a natural resources state. There's an agricultural state.
Speaker 2: It's a technology state, of course. But but but talk
Speaker 2: about when you when you hear people saying we're gonna
Speaker 2: build data centers in a corner of Utah twice the
Speaker 2: size of Manhattan, where there's no water in the west,
Speaker 2: where the Colorado River states are drawing down their compact flows,
Speaker 2: and all of this is tied in together with what
Speaker 2: we're with, what we're talking about. What do you counsel
Speaker 2: democrats on that question?
Speaker 3: Well, first off, I would say that there's some really
Speaker 3: positive things happening on this score that you've identified. You
Speaker 3: look at some of the candidates that are rising to
Speaker 3: the top right now that have found a way to
Speaker 3: do this. You look at Rob sand who's running for
Speaker 3: governor of Iowa, who is a fantastic, just individual who
Speaker 3: connects with people, who focuses on his hunting and fishing
Speaker 3: to connect with Iowa voters, who has a tremendous theme
Speaker 3: that he talks about. How he says, you know, in Iowa,
Speaker 3: we found what works is you need to rotate the crops. Well,
Speaker 3: we need to rotate the crops of the people. Who
Speaker 3: are you know, leading Iowa. And so some individual talent
Speaker 3: a Rico in Texas, which is you know, maybe leading
Speaker 3: right now in Texas, who is a found to connect
Speaker 3: with people kind of culturally in a surprising way because
Speaker 3: of his faith based, you know, value system that he is.
Speaker 3: He's found a way to connect with Texas voters like that.
Speaker 3: You look at Kelly in Kansas who really understood so
Speaker 3: many down home issues, Grisham, you know in New Mexico,
Speaker 3: who understands the power of clean energy. And right now
Speaker 3: there is a fantastic opportunity for the state all over
Speaker 3: or for the Democratic Party all over the country on
Speaker 3: these data centers as a challenge to these communities, because
Speaker 3: people are very angry at the sort of rolling failure
Speaker 3: to listen to local communities and the development of data
Speaker 3: centers on three respects. Number one to still threaten their
Speaker 3: ability to get electricity off the grid with not having
Speaker 3: adequate protections to insist that the data centers do not
Speaker 3: end up causing rate increases of consumer users in the grid,
Speaker 3: and there are inadequate protections against that. Second, there are
Speaker 3: there are health issues that people are very concerned about
Speaker 3: on pollution. And this is a really sad fact right
Speaker 3: now that I think there's like eighty data centers right
Speaker 3: now that are that are in the process of building
Speaker 3: gas turbine powered plants, which cause massive pollution, and unfortunately
Speaker 3: Trump has loosened the protection against air pollution. And these
Speaker 3: people are now living in suburban neighborhoods breathing nitrogen oxygen
Speaker 3: and nitrosoctions and particulate matter, not to mention the climate
Speaker 3: gases that are coming off these FEISO fuel places. In third,
Speaker 3: there is an emerging concern about the AI dominance of
Speaker 3: what it's doing to some of our businesses and employment
Speaker 3: opportunities in privacy that so all those things are tremendous
Speaker 3: opper tunity for Democrats. And I'm pleased to say that
Speaker 3: the Democrats are the most health oriented and I think
Speaker 3: most strategic and responding to those concerns, and I think
Speaker 3: you're going to see Democrats win on this issue of
Speaker 3: data center protection against this. You saw it in Virginia
Speaker 3: and New Jersey where our two governors really did talk
Speaker 3: about providing protection in this score that were so successful,
Speaker 3: you know, and you see what's happening in Georgia with
Speaker 3: our two great senators. So I think that we are
Speaker 3: seeing the emergence of new leadership in some of these areas.
Speaker 2: When you look ahead now to twenty twenty eight, I
Speaker 2: think this is going to be a very fast starting
Speaker 2: presidential election cycle.
Speaker 1: It's going to come right out of the gate.
Speaker 2: After the mid terms, we'll start to see that democratic
Speaker 2: field take shape. I've said at I think you know
Speaker 2: you it's tough if you if you're a baseball fan,
Speaker 2: you have to you have to give everything a number.
Speaker 2: Every everything has its rank. So an Aaron Judge is
Speaker 2: a number two right behind show he Otani is as
Speaker 2: great as he is. And so I I tend to
Speaker 2: look at these Democratic candidates or prospective ones on in
Speaker 2: terms of who I hope will run, who I think
Speaker 2: can do it?
Speaker 1: Uh, that that has the skill level.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty impressed right now with John Ossoff and and
Speaker 2: and I think I was amongst the first to start
Speaker 2: saying about a year ago, uh, this is somebody who
Speaker 2: has a lot of talent, you know, publicly in that
Speaker 2: space as a presidential candidate. I think Andy Basheer, the governor,
Speaker 2: the governor of Kentucky, and and I think if you
Speaker 2: have to, if you have to start ranking governor versus senator,
Speaker 2: I think advantage goes to the governor, the Washington outsider.
Speaker 1: The more the more clear one. Uh.
Speaker 2: I think Pritzker has been impressive over the last two years.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: I think that Gavin Newsom, you know, certainly is somebody
Speaker 2: who has a lot of lot of political uh, a
Speaker 2: lot of political skill has been has been in the fight.
Speaker 2: Who are who are some of the other people that
Speaker 2: when when you look out and and you you see
Speaker 2: his prospective candidates not not looking for an endorsement, you
Speaker 2: know that that share. You know, what I would say
Speaker 2: is Carbal's position, my position, which is run. I hope
Speaker 2: Ramammanuel will run. I think that's an important voice in
Speaker 2: the in the in the party. I hope Jason Crowe uh,
Speaker 2: the Colorado congressman uh will run.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: I'd like to see a really a really big field
Speaker 2: anybody else out there that that you look at and say,
Speaker 2: I'd like to see them as a candidate, see what
Speaker 2: they got.
Speaker 3: Well. I would encourage anybody who has a and credibility
Speaker 3: to run this year because it's an open field to run, right,
Speaker 3: So if you're an open field runner. There's a lot
Speaker 3: to run on, and I think that that you have
Speaker 3: candidates that who may be you know, in the two
Speaker 3: or three percent polling right now, It could end up
Speaker 3: being very credible candidates. You know that happened with Pete
Speaker 3: Budachez when I ran for president twenty twenty, who caught
Speaker 3: fire and became a top tier candidate. You got Senator Kelly,
Speaker 3: you know, who is an incredible talent and has a
Speaker 3: story to tell. It's incredibly unique of his personal story.
Speaker 3: You have Wes Moore, who's just a really young talent.
Speaker 3: Andy Basher has such a unique story to tell from
Speaker 3: his both biography and how he's done in his state.
Speaker 3: So I would say there's multiple other candidates, and I
Speaker 3: think it is an entirely open field. I will say this,
Speaker 3: and I know that this sounds like, you know, just
Speaker 3: one political hack talking about his friends. I there is
Speaker 3: a lot of talent in this field. You know, I
Speaker 3: was governor for twelve years. I've been around the block.
Speaker 3: I was in Congress in fourteen. There's like a half
Speaker 3: a dozen of these candidates who I think could be
Speaker 3: very very successful presidents in the United States. And I
Speaker 3: know that might be maybe people won't give a lot
Speaker 3: of credibility to that. But I've actually never been as
Speaker 3: impressed with the field as this perspective one. And I was,
Speaker 3: it's just a very strong field and it's unpredictable. I
Speaker 3: like the fact that our first primary is now in
Speaker 3: South Carolina. I think that helps the party identify someone
Speaker 3: who can appeal to the broad demographics of the country
Speaker 3: earlier will be productive or could be productive. We've got Nevada,
Speaker 3: so we've got a Western voice. I think the current
Speaker 3: primary setup is going to help us really find the
Speaker 3: right person.
Speaker 2: When when you look out of the field and you
Speaker 2: see some of these can that it's asoff in AOC
Speaker 2: who have a lot of attention I was. I was
Speaker 2: quite outspoken about Biden's broken promise. I predicted the catastrophe,
Speaker 2: what it would do to his legacy.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: I think it's a I think it's a tragedy for him,
Speaker 2: for the for the country. Uh. But eighty two was
Speaker 2: too old. Eighty six is absurd, Uh for for an
Speaker 2: age for the president of the United States. Let me
Speaker 2: let me ask you this. It's forty two young.
Speaker 3: No, you know, I grew up in the age of
Speaker 3: John F.
Speaker 2: Kennedy and I forty three, not forty in a in
Speaker 2: a in a combat veteran who was a well traveled journalist,
Speaker 2: a old soul. I see aspects of that character which
Speaker 2: you could attribute to Kennedy in as off who's connected
Speaker 2: through his through his service to John Lewis, there's a
Speaker 2: there's a heaviness about him and I and I just
Speaker 2: you have kids. I got kids, right, I'm fifty five.
Speaker 2: I've grown a lot between forty and fifty five. I
Speaker 2: just but Teddy Roosevelt was forty one. That's the that's
Speaker 2: the youngest. I mean I would certainly not be for
Speaker 2: somebody who is thirty five, right. I can't imagine a
Speaker 2: scenario where where I would where I would be for
Speaker 2: that or comfortable with it, like forty is my is
Speaker 2: my youngest line. I just I just throw it out there,
Speaker 2: like you know, just to started discussion. It's going to
Speaker 2: be talked about to y'all.
Speaker 3: I think I think your comment is is well taken.
Speaker 3: That it depends on the individual whether you've been battle
Speaker 3: tested somehow in life and have overcome challenges. Have you
Speaker 3: had experiences that have given you some depth, But you know,
Speaker 3: you look at any Burgsure, I don't know how only
Speaker 3: and he is actually but to see his success an
Speaker 3: executive position, I consider him young. But I would not
Speaker 3: have any problem of a person in their you know,
Speaker 3: mid forties being our candidate at all, as long as
Speaker 3: they experienced a depth. That's why I like governors, frankly,
Speaker 3: who have been really tested at the firing line, because
Speaker 3: when you are an executive, you go through a fire
Speaker 3: that is very different than a legislator. And I've experienced
Speaker 3: both because I was in the Congress for so long
Speaker 3: and as a governor, it's a very different experience. That's
Speaker 3: why I sort of lean towards governors to start with.
Speaker 3: But you point out if John F. Kennedy, who you know,
Speaker 3: swam two miles to save his PT crew and came
Speaker 3: back with the grace to write Pulitzer Prize winning books
Speaker 3: and the best inaugural speech of all time with help
Speaker 3: from a sourceen. But so I don't. I'm not afraid
Speaker 3: of people of that age scale. And I share your
Speaker 3: view about the tragedy of what happened last time. I
Speaker 3: think it was a very sad combination. Some of us
Speaker 3: were concerned. We thought that the next person in line
Speaker 3: was not going to be successful either, And so frankly
Speaker 3: that's the concern that I had. It turned out to
Speaker 3: be the case. So huge tragedy. But now I tell
Speaker 3: you the country is ready for an enormous potential wave
Speaker 3: to regin in this madness, and I'm giving you some
Speaker 3: good news about that. It is incredibly strong. You look
Speaker 3: at the election results last night in my state, which
Speaker 3: portend a wave of election. There's no guarantees here, right,
Speaker 3: so you know, maybe who knows, But at the moment,
Speaker 3: it looks to me like we're going to have a
Speaker 3: mechanism of constraining Donald Trump to some degree. I believe
Speaker 3: that as highly likely, and we will I hope will
Speaker 3: be effective in that regard.
Speaker 2: I will lay something out and have an honest conversation
Speaker 2: about it. I was a Republican. I was a member
Speaker 2: of the party for twenty nine years. I worked in
Speaker 2: politics at the highest level that you could you could
Speaker 2: you could work out American politics, and I founded an
Speaker 2: organization that I think played a decisive role in defeating
Speaker 2: Donald Trump in twenty twenty, of the Lincoln Project. I
Speaker 2: think that to this day it is the most effective
Speaker 2: group that went head to head with him in that
Speaker 2: in that in that cycle, I appreciate that I'm part
Speaker 2: of a broad coalition of defiance in opposition to this,
Speaker 2: and you have to be tolerant inside a coalition. The
Speaker 2: Democratic Party sees a resurgent Left or a surgeon resurgent
Speaker 2: insurgent Left in his party. You saw one of those
Speaker 2: candidates when he's talented, Abdul l sayed in Michigan, the
Speaker 2: Senate seats are important. A day before the election, he's
Speaker 2: hanging out with a guy named Tussan Piker, and one
Speaker 2: of the things that Hassan Piker said was that America
Speaker 2: deserved nine to eleven. In fairness, he's backtracked by it,
Speaker 2: but he is by every measure. I think it's fair
Speaker 2: to say anti American in that he views the problems
Speaker 2: of the world as entirely America's fault. Chairman Mao, in
Speaker 2: his views a great leader. But back to nine to eleven.
Speaker 2: We're coming up on the twenty fifth anniversary of my
Speaker 2: dad worked on the ground zero pile. He's now disabled
Speaker 2: with severe neuropathy. Is it linked to the poisons he
Speaker 2: experienced on that pile? Maybe? Maybe not, who knows, but
Speaker 2: I think it is. His doctor suspects it strongly too
Speaker 2: much pride, you know, to ever claim what he's entitled
Speaker 2: to from some of these funds. Just one of those
Speaker 2: guys of your generation. But I look at my dad
Speaker 2: and I just I don't think, you know, with all
Speaker 2: specta sat piker, I don't think he deserved it. And
Speaker 2: that gives me a problem with abdulah Sayad. And so
Speaker 2: there's a there's a demand in politics in this moment
Speaker 2: that I meet abdull Sayed where he is as opposed
Speaker 2: to Abdelsayed meeting me where I am in the Grand
Speaker 2: in the Grand Coalition. There's a tug in pull in that.
Speaker 2: And this is a big country, and I think that
Speaker 2: there are over and over again these enthrallments that come
Speaker 2: out of I don't know where the ether right and
Speaker 2: Democrats must repeat them or else defund the police, defund
Speaker 2: this whatever the slogan de jort may be, lest you
Speaker 2: be judged and punished. And I think it played a
Speaker 2: big role in the defeat in twenty four. But where
Speaker 2: are the boundary lines of the coalition. And with regard
Speaker 2: to his friend who he's hanging out with, what what
Speaker 2: what is the what is the what do I got
Speaker 2: to get over with here, right, you know, for the
Speaker 2: for the for the greater cause.
Speaker 1: Let me yeah, you know what how would what would
Speaker 1: you advise him to say? And what what would you
Speaker 1: advise me on this.
Speaker 2: In this in this moment, because my my position on
Speaker 2: this is kind of hard. And I say that is
Speaker 2: I'm not a Michigan voter, right, so I don't have
Speaker 2: to choose, you know, between Rogers and and l S
Speaker 2: I ed and I and of course I can't support
Speaker 2: the guy who's been endorsed by Trump. So so you
Speaker 2: look at the two parties, and you look at the
Speaker 2: national catastrophe here.
Speaker 1: Talk to me.
Speaker 3: Well, first off, thanks, thanks for your father's work. You know,
Speaker 3: just small aside. You know, when I went up for
Speaker 3: maybe the week after, four or five days after, and
Speaker 3: saw the pile and the smoke and the debris, and
Speaker 3: I remember asking our federal partners, well, this error seems
Speaker 3: extremely contaminated. Should we be wearing masks? And they said,
Speaker 3: oh no, no, there's no problem with the air qualities here.
Speaker 3: And I'm going, like there was thousands of tons of asbestos.
Speaker 3: Of course there's a problem. And we we were lied
Speaker 3: to by that administration and your father and many others
Speaker 3: were victimized by that because you had an administration that
Speaker 3: was not facing up to a public health problem. And
Speaker 3: when you have an administration doesn't doesn't face a public
Speaker 3: health problem and tell the truth, bad things happen. And
Speaker 3: that's happening today. It's our current administration as well. Anyway,
Speaker 3: I hope your father does better. I guess what I
Speaker 3: would say is, I think it's productive to try to
Speaker 3: focus on how you project actual decision making as opposed
Speaker 3: to unfortunate rhetoric. That's what I would encourage us to
Speaker 3: do with all of these candidates. So I was a
Speaker 3: huge opponent of the Iraq war, and there was disagreement
Speaker 3: about that to some degree, but I was a huge
Speaker 3: opponent of that military.
Speaker 2: Action, and you were right, you were well, I think
Speaker 2: it's I think it's important to say, and you were.
Speaker 3: Right in retrospective us.
Speaker 2: You were right about a really important issue in real time,
Speaker 2: and we are now losing a war that will have
Speaker 2: much deeper consequences than that lost war. And we'll talk
Speaker 2: about oil and gas here in a second. I don't
Speaker 2: mean to interrupt you, but I but you were right
Speaker 2: about the pre eminent foreign policy issue up until this
Speaker 2: moment in time over the first quarter century that made
Speaker 2: possible to Trump. So don't be humble on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I have a hard time being humbled, probably
Speaker 3: as you can respect. So no, I guess what I'm
Speaker 3: saying is I think it's more important when you make
Speaker 3: a decision who you're going to vote for, to try
Speaker 3: to project the real decision making that they actually will affect,
Speaker 3: rather than some of their rhetoric, either because they're extremely
Speaker 3: eloquent or because they've said some bonehead dead things like
Speaker 3: defund the police. And so if I had to choose
Speaker 3: a candidate who is going to make the right decision
Speaker 3: on whether to go to war or not, even though
Speaker 3: they might have had some rhetoric that was absurd, I'd
Speaker 3: picked the person who's going to make the right, real
Speaker 3: decision on a substantive issue. And I think it's easy
Speaker 3: in politics to get distracted by the shiny object, either
Speaker 3: pro or Khan. I'm looking for the person who's going
Speaker 3: to have the judgment to make real voting decisions, and
Speaker 3: that's what I would say. And you know you mentioned
Speaker 3: the defund the police. This is one of the greatest
Speaker 3: self inflicted wounds of all time by some of my
Speaker 3: fellow Democrats, which was just nuts and unfortunate. But now,
Speaker 3: who's going to go forward to have good immigration policies
Speaker 3: that will be effective rather than just disturbing, You know,
Speaker 3: that's more important. So I've I try to focus on
Speaker 3: the practical and real, substantive decisions. That's what I would.
Speaker 2: Say when you look right now at the price of
Speaker 2: gas and the state of the Iran war. Is somebody
Speaker 2: who has been an expert and outspoken on energy policy
Speaker 2: for a very, very long time. We have water shortages
Speaker 2: around the country. We have extreme fires burning around the country,
Speaker 2: getting worse every year. We have landish fantastical plans being
Speaker 2: called for that require building things that need water around
Speaker 2: which there is none. Energy policy in my lifetime has
Speaker 2: gone from at some level being dysfunctional to being fantastical
Speaker 2: and delusional in this era, and Trump is out there
Speaker 2: telling people it's never been better, We've never been more
Speaker 2: more self sufficient. Enormous geopolitical implications for the Iranians having
Speaker 2: control of the Straits of Hormaz and the ability to
Speaker 2: toll it with the government of Oman. Talk about energy
Speaker 2: and how Democrats should should frame this as an issue
Speaker 2: going into twenty twenty eight, and you talk about Tela Rigo.
Speaker 2: The one thing that I think if you work in
Speaker 2: the Permian Basin in Texas, if you if you work
Speaker 2: in oil and natural gas industry, the one thing that
Speaker 2: that's really reached those people from Democrats is the Democratic
Speaker 2: Party wants to take their job away, right And I
Speaker 2: and I can point to one hundred examples by loose
Speaker 2: quotes by Democratic politicians. How did Democrats talk about this
Speaker 2: without alienating people who work in the energy industry? For example,
Speaker 2: our clean energy future, I think is going to be
Speaker 2: built by a lot of people who are current day
Speaker 2: engineers at Exxon and Shell, not necessarily by liberal arts
Speaker 2: majors with seven sisters degrees from one of the one
Speaker 2: of the Northeast colleges. How should Democrats talk to people
Speaker 2: about the issue?
Speaker 3: So I would suggest every Democrat and every race in
Speaker 3: the country should have a four point way to talk
Speaker 3: about energy, and that is number one. Costs. Everyone is
Speaker 3: experiencing these costs. Doesn't matter what job you're in or
Speaker 3: where you live. Everyone in America is being victimized by
Speaker 3: the cost inflation that has been intentionally inflicted by this
Speaker 3: president and the folks who are as minions in the
Speaker 3: US Congress. This is an intentional act of driving up
Speaker 3: the cost of every single family that maybe to the
Speaker 3: extent it's like four hundred and fifty dollars a year
Speaker 3: just for gas prices. And this was not an accident.
Speaker 3: It's almost intentional. You know. Trump at one point actually
Speaker 3: said when people were asking about gas prices, he said,
Speaker 3: I love gas. The fact that gas prices are high,
Speaker 3: we make more money. Well, the we, what he says
Speaker 3: we is the shareholders of which he is one apparently,
Speaker 3: or some company are making bank while people are suffering.
Speaker 3: So every single discussion about energy, I believe, should start
Speaker 3: with costs and a full throated indictment of this guy
Speaker 3: who hasn't raised costs sort of accidentally but intentionally to
Speaker 3: some degree, So including.
Speaker 2: With why can't anybody make that point governor in the
Speaker 2: whole of the in the party in washing Ken it's intentional,
Speaker 2: It is the policy.
Speaker 1: Right the way you just said it.
Speaker 3: Right. Well, I think that some are with, you know,
Speaker 3: variety degrees of passion, but everyone should, even if you're
Speaker 3: running for the school board and Muskegee, you should make
Speaker 3: this point about what's going on in this country and
Speaker 3: The reason is it is a totally unifying message. You know,
Speaker 3: Butcher's makers, candlesticks makers, everybody's the victim of this guy's policies.
Speaker 3: And that's the first point. Second, it's based on corruption.
Speaker 3: I call the mugging at mari Alago where he brought
Speaker 3: in the oil executive is he says, if you guys
Speaker 3: are willing to put a billion dollars in my campaign,
Speaker 3: I'll give you whatever you want. And what he gave
Speaker 3: him is three hundred percent increases in the profit of
Speaker 3: Chevron and two hundred percent increases and I think it
Speaker 3: was Exxon and the cost of something like twenty six
Speaker 3: billion dollars of additional cost for Americans. So they got
Speaker 3: what they bargained for. So this is based on corruption.
Speaker 3: And I think that you know, we're all human, we
Speaker 3: can all make mistakes of judgment and otherwise, but this
Speaker 3: is based on venality of a corrupt, stinky bargain. I
Speaker 3: call it the mugging of Mara Alago. Third, we should
Speaker 3: talk about the chaos that he's creating in our economy,
Speaker 3: his whiplash of just absurd things like striking to deal
Speaker 3: with Saudi Arabia, pulling the rug out from her in
Speaker 3: the next day of you know, just the chaos that
Speaker 3: he's created is very difficult for business planning. And the
Speaker 3: fourth is we have the capability, we have agency of
Speaker 3: doing something about this. We're not powerless because we've got
Speaker 3: the options for cleaner energy. Right now, ninety percent of
Speaker 3: all the new energy that's come on their grid last
Speaker 3: year was clean, less expensive energy that costs less than cold.
Speaker 3: We have these technologies at hand if we simply put
Speaker 3: him to use. But unfortunately Trump has you know, he
Speaker 3: has a blockade on Iranian oil, but he's also got
Speaker 3: a blockade on the ability of Americans to get access
Speaker 3: to cheaper energy. So we're trying to get wind, solar,
Speaker 3: and battery, which is cheaper than coal energy. He's actually
Speaker 3: strangled us and tried to kill every single thing project
Speaker 3: he can get his hands on and preventing Americans from
Speaker 3: actually getting access to this energy. It's it's a blockade
Speaker 3: of cheaper energy. And why because he's got this corrupt
Speaker 3: bargain with the fossil fuel guys who don't want to
Speaker 3: be undercut by the cheaper energy and cleaner energy, which
Speaker 3: are these new technologies. So you wrap these things up
Speaker 3: of cost chaos, corruption, and cleaner energy. That's cheaper energy,
Speaker 3: and it's a winning message, and I do believe there's
Speaker 3: going to be racist one on this. Now. The cherry
Speaker 3: on the top of this is these cheaper sources of
Speaker 3: energy are cleaner. You get less pollution, you get less
Speaker 3: asthma for your kids, you get less smoke. So last night,
Speaker 3: I'm just looking out over a Puget Sound right now,
Speaker 3: the sun was this orange ball and this thick brown
Speaker 3: cloud of burning grass and trees that burn up on
Speaker 3: my state, and we're now all breathing that. So what
Speaker 3: we're getting for Trump's policy is higher gas prices, corruption,
Speaker 3: and a difficulty breathing. So those are pretty powerful unifying message.
Speaker 2: Is I think one of the things you said about
Speaker 2: all these Democrats they're going to running for president, the
Speaker 2: immense amount of talent that's on the bench for the
Speaker 2: first time in my lifetime, there will definitely be a
Speaker 2: multiplicity of candidates. There will be multiple candidates that I
Speaker 2: wish I could vote for. I think right to be president,
Speaker 2: but I'm only going to vote be able to vote
Speaker 2: for one. So I hope that some of them right
Speaker 2: will have tested their metal on the national stage, will
Speaker 2: become Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, secretary of Energy,
Speaker 2: because we're going to need an incredible turnaround team to
Speaker 2: do really an extraordinary amount of work, very very quickly
Speaker 2: and get the country, get the country behind them, and
Speaker 2: to start rebuilding trust. Do you have any thoughts on
Speaker 2: that from the from the second a new president takes
Speaker 2: you out of office?
Speaker 1: What what those what those.
Speaker 2: Requirements are in those first days bye by tone and
Speaker 2: tenor of what has to be done to set off
Speaker 2: a season of American renewal and reform.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting. I really haven't thought deeply about this,
Speaker 3: except to say that Number one, we need plans that
Speaker 3: are ready well before inauguration day, and I believe we're
Speaker 3: going to have them. I'm working with several groups now
Speaker 3: that are designing policies to help move forward after inauguration dates,
Speaker 3: So those plans are going to be available. By the way,
Speaker 3: Before I forget this, I want to say this, though,
Speaker 3: this is endemic of a problem. We have organizations in
Speaker 3: the United States who can move the needle dramatically on
Speaker 3: these issues of energy, which are our states, and we
Speaker 3: should not wait for inauguration day. We shouldn't even wait
Speaker 3: for this November, we have twenty three governors who are
Speaker 3: all committed to clean energy futures, all of whom have
Speaker 3: major ways for states to move these policies forward. I'm
Speaker 3: involved in what I call the State Power Project, working
Speaker 3: with governors to enable them to empower them to do
Speaker 3: some of their state based actions to increase the Americans'
Speaker 3: access to cheaper and cleaner energy. And we represent sixty
Speaker 3: percent of the economy of the United States. It's not
Speaker 3: just the federal government here, it's the United States of America,
Speaker 3: and we got to look at our governors and our
Speaker 3: state legislators. Perhaps is the first place to really adopt
Speaker 3: pro consumer policies on this very very important I just
Speaker 3: want to make sure to get my or in on that.
Speaker 3: But the second thing, as far as people who you'll want,
Speaker 3: there's going to be such a backlog of ideas ready
Speaker 3: to go, certainly on the clean energies front, that you
Speaker 3: probably want people who are adept at making decisions quickly
Speaker 3: with robustness, and who are good leaders who can really
Speaker 3: move an organization quickly. Organizations usually are like a big
Speaker 3: ship and it takes a long time to turn around.
Speaker 3: We're going to need leaders at these agencies who have
Speaker 3: demonstrated an ability to make fast decisions and fast culture
Speaker 3: change in an organization. So I guess that's what I'd
Speaker 3: be looking for, Governor.
Speaker 2: When you think about all of the threats that Trump
Speaker 2: has made towards the elections, is it important for the
Speaker 2: twenty three Democratic governors to convene, to gather and to
Speaker 2: make a statement to the country together and to put
Speaker 2: considerable effort into how they're going to communicate that statement
Speaker 2: so that it reaches the country at a tactical level.
Speaker 1: Is this something that has to be done.
Speaker 3: Well, Yes, and it is done. I mean the Democratic
Speaker 3: Governor Association. I shared this at one time when we
Speaker 3: picked up more seats we ever had before in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: So it has been a very effective organization. And those
Speaker 3: conversations do take place, you know, as far as the
Speaker 3: exact land.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you all need to go sit together,
Speaker 2: all of the Democratic governors? Should they all be sitting
Speaker 2: together on a television set on the Today Show on
Speaker 2: Good Morning America? Should they be holding a joint news
Speaker 2: conference talking to the American people about the elections that
Speaker 2: are administered by the states and drawing some very bright
Speaker 2: white lines about.
Speaker 1: What will and what will not.
Speaker 2: Be tolerated with regard to this insanity that has gone
Speaker 2: on for eleven years. The notion that it's only a
Speaker 2: fair our election of Trump wins, and any effort to
Speaker 2: intimidate voters in the state, which is against every state
Speaker 2: law and federal law as well.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that could be helpful if they get the airtime.
Speaker 3: Now half of those people on that forum are going
Speaker 3: to be running for president, so each of them houses
Speaker 3: a certain flavor of this. By the way, you bring
Speaker 3: up this election concern, I am very concerned. I tried
Speaker 3: to get Congress and the Appropriations to put a provision
Speaker 3: that Trump could not send uniform camouflage tactical wearing people
Speaker 3: to suppress votes in Democratic precincts. I was 'enable to
Speaker 3: get them to do it. I'm very concerned about this.
Speaker 3: So yes, anything democratic governors can do to blow the
Speaker 3: whistle and the warning about this is very, very important
Speaker 3: to try to create political heat for that not to happen.
Speaker 3: They obviously also have to have plans in place to
Speaker 3: be in as many courtrooms as possible than minutes if
Speaker 3: in fact this can happen, and we'll have to have
Speaker 3: people at the courthouse door with their cell phones ready
Speaker 3: to walk in to ask for injunctions if Trump starts
Speaker 3: to play this stuff, and that's certainly what we got
Speaker 3: to do, and to the extent that we can do
Speaker 3: that before election day. And I've I've talked to a
Speaker 3: few attorneys about this. Can we get injunctions even before
Speaker 3: election day if we can find some evidence of what
Speaker 3: he's trying to do? Is there a way to get
Speaker 3: injunctive relief to prevent him from doing it before election day?
Speaker 3: We certainly should explore that if that's at all possible.
Speaker 2: I was watching the July fourth coverage and they had
Speaker 2: William Shatner came on did an interview on CNN and
Speaker 2: Shatner is ninety four years old, and he was great
Speaker 2: and he says, listen, I've been around for a long time,
Speaker 2: and so I've seen America go through ups and downs
Speaker 2: and real bad periods, and it's always come out, It's
Speaker 2: always come out stronger on the other side. And I
Speaker 2: just don't have a doubt in my mind. And he
Speaker 2: was saying it through the eyes of a Canadian as
Speaker 2: as as well. Talk about your optimism for the for
Speaker 2: the future. Uh, the precepts of of of stoicism require
Speaker 2: you to face the situation that you are currently in
Speaker 2: with a lot of clarity while never losing faith that
Speaker 2: you can overcome it, that you can persevere over it.
Speaker 2: How do you how do you see all of this
Speaker 2: through an optimistic lens?
Speaker 3: Well, there there's a lot of cause. First off, optimism
Speaker 3: is a healthy approach, right, It's just it's healthy. That's
Speaker 3: number one. Number two, it's innate. Maybe the way I
Speaker 3: was born, I've lost I lost two successive races and
Speaker 3: then came back and was a three term governor and
Speaker 3: you know, eight term congressman after you know, losing two
Speaker 3: consecutive races. So maybe if you've had that experience, I
Speaker 3: got cut from little league. I'm the only American ever
Speaker 3: cut from a little league but ended up MVP of
Speaker 3: a congressional baseball game. So you know, I've had some
Speaker 3: experiences that indicate that one can come back from hardship.
Speaker 3: But the cause for optimism, the case for it is,
Speaker 3: let's just start with energy. We have the capability of
Speaker 3: getting Americans cleaner, cheaper energy. We have that capability today.
Speaker 3: It is in our hands. It is only a lack
Speaker 3: of willpower and political strength at the moment to implement
Speaker 3: these things that are so productive that Americans love. I
Speaker 3: talked to somebody yesterday that just you know, love's going
Speaker 3: out to mail mailbox, get the utility bill because it's zero,
Speaker 3: because they got solar panels on the roof. And you know,
Speaker 3: they love electric school buses where kids don't have to
Speaker 3: you know, burn diesel, and you know, and so breed
Speaker 3: diesel smoke. So number one, there's technological progress on the
Speaker 3: energy front that is so productive. On the democracy front,
Speaker 3: there's obvious concern. You know this, since the Civil War,
Speaker 3: there's only been two coup attempts in American history. When
Speaker 3: was the Civil War and the second was January sixth,
Speaker 3: So that certainly has me concerned. But to date, the
Speaker 3: will to date has been able to be strong enough
Speaker 3: to stop that another coup. I believe we will succeed
Speaker 3: on that, but it will take people listening to the warning,
Speaker 3: acting and being very very vocal on it and insistent
Speaker 3: and making voting decisions that value democracy. And that is
Speaker 3: our job to make to make sure. So I believe
Speaker 3: that we're going to succeed on this, in part because
Speaker 3: of people like yourself. We've been so stalwart in this regard,
Speaker 3: so I believe we'll get through this. Ultimately, it's been slower.
Speaker 3: We've lost, you know, eight years of progress under this guy,
Speaker 3: so certainly it's been slower. But good things are going
Speaker 3: to happen.
Speaker 1: Governor, I'll give you the last word.
Speaker 2: Anything you want to want to say out to to
Speaker 2: save American movement audience, anything you're thinking, ah, we'd love
Speaker 2: to hear it.
Speaker 3: One thing I didn't touch on is that one of
Speaker 3: the things that we should be concerned about is people's
Speaker 3: efforts to game the system to prevent fire victims from
Speaker 3: being able to rebuild. Right now, Americans have the ability
Speaker 3: to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for their
Speaker 3: failures or utilities failures if they cause these fires, and
Speaker 3: their efforts now to take away that American right to
Speaker 3: bar them and to put themselves above the law. Nobody
Speaker 3: should be above the law in America, right but there's
Speaker 3: an active effort to get immunity for the only gas
Speaker 3: industry for the losses that they've caused for these people
Speaker 3: whose homes have burned down. Just one more thing we
Speaker 3: got to work on. Since this is the warning, I'm
Speaker 3: just alerting people to that one. We've got to defeat
Speaker 3: that effort. And I want to thank you personally for
Speaker 3: your work. It has been very successful and it's meant
Speaker 3: a lot. I was a fan of John McCain's. I
Speaker 3: stood shoulder to shoulder with Senata McCain when we introduced
Speaker 3: the first meaningful energy legislation in Congress back in two
Speaker 3: thousand and six or two thousand and seven, and and
Speaker 3: you continuing the integrity bringing this to discussion has been
Speaker 3: really valuable. So thank you for what you're doing.
Speaker 2: That means a lot of Governor. You know what I
Speaker 2: would say, I'd love to have you back and continue
Speaker 2: on the conversation. I think one of the most unifying
Speaker 2: threads in American life that can grow a coalition is
Speaker 2: what you just talked about. The truth of the matter
Speaker 2: is the America that I grew up in, nobody was
Speaker 2: above or below the law, at least on paper.
Speaker 1: Not true anymore. On paper.
Speaker 2: The presidents above the law. Tech companies are above the law.
Speaker 2: There are new categories of companies against the law. And
Speaker 2: I think the Democratic Party is a winning party when
Speaker 2: it's the party that is fighting for the ordinary American,
Speaker 2: the American workingman, and woman, the American family farmer. And
Speaker 2: there is an accumulation of power in too few hands,
Speaker 2: in too few places that is perfectly encapsulated by FDR's
Speaker 2: famous speech denouncing the new Economic Royalists at the nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty six Democratic Convention. And that's what has to be
Speaker 2: broken up or the concentrations of power, the concentrations of
Speaker 2: wealth that have become very aggressive, have become understrained, and
Speaker 2: have imposed on the American people the deteriorating quality.
Speaker 1: Of life that has to be.
Speaker 2: Interrupted by the power of government, by the power of
Speaker 2: the people.
Speaker 3: Here here I'll look forward to when you're right, maybe
Speaker 3: the next inaugural speech, and look for some good language.
Speaker 2: Governor Jay Insley, everybody, the Save American Movement, thank you.
Speaker 2: As always. I'm Steve Schmidt with the warning. And it
Speaker 2: is August the fifth of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Have a good day, well,