Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Jade Vance says the January sixth
Speaker 1: rioters who committed violence should not be pardoned. And I
Speaker 1: hate to agree with the Jade Vance, but he is correct.
Speaker 1: We have such a great show for you today. Senator
Speaker 1: Ron Wide and stops by to talk about.
Speaker 2: His book It Takes Hotspa.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk to newly minded Governor of Delaware Matt
Speaker 1: Meyer about going from a teacher to a governor in
Speaker 1: under a decade.
Speaker 2: But first the news.
Speaker 3: Somali, California and then Los Angeles in particular is still
Speaker 3: under these fires. It's very, very sad to watch. And
Speaker 3: of course Republicans are playing politics with aid because it's
Speaker 3: a democratic state and that's when they play politics with it.
Speaker 2: What do you see?
Speaker 1: So I live in New York, but I feel very
Speaker 1: connected to Los Angeles because my brother lives there, my
Speaker 1: father lives in California, and my other brother lives in California.
Speaker 1: So I'm very connected there and I go a lot
Speaker 1: and I was just there and you know these fires.
Speaker 1: There are multiple fires all around the area of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: They are catastrophic and they are you know, supercharged because
Speaker 1: of climate change. So there's really good Jon Denny an
Speaker 1: essay about the Almina wind and what the sort of
Speaker 1: historic significance of it and how it burned during the
Speaker 1: Watts riots. It's a real phenomenon in California that is
Speaker 1: not connected to climate change, but because it's so dry
Speaker 1: in the winter months, that is connected to climate change.
Speaker 1: So it's something made worse by climate change, but would
Speaker 1: not necessarily be only because of it, which I think
Speaker 1: is an important nuance. The other thing I want to
Speaker 1: say about the California fires is that the reservoirs were filled,
Speaker 1: but the water pressure was bad because calvinu is not
Speaker 1: ready for these kind of fid you know, they're ready
Speaker 1: for some fires, but they're not ready for these supercharged fires.
Speaker 1: And a lot of America is having this experience where
Speaker 1: we are ready for some hurricanes, but we're not ready
Speaker 1: for these supercharged hurricanes. And that's what we saw with
Speaker 1: Hurricane Sandy here in New York, and that's what we're
Speaker 1: seeing in North Carolina as we're ready for some weather,
Speaker 1: but not weather like this. And so even though Republicans
Speaker 1: are spending all their time talking smack about Gavin Newsom
Speaker 1: and Karen Bass. And look, definitely, Karen Bass, there's a
Speaker 1: lot going on here, and for sure Gavin Newsom too.
Speaker 1: I mean there's definitely there were for you cannot have
Speaker 1: a response.
Speaker 2: Like this and not have mistakes being made.
Speaker 1: That said, this is a moment to talk about building
Speaker 1: more resilient cities, about how we're going to address climate change.
Speaker 2: I think of New York, like after.
Speaker 1: Sandy, we built a lot of things to mitigate our
Speaker 1: flooding problem. Right We're building a green zone around the
Speaker 1: city which will hopefully mitigate some of the flooding. But again,
Speaker 1: this is a question of like, are we going to
Speaker 1: spend our time blaming each other or are we going
Speaker 1: to move on and try to create more resilient America.
Speaker 2: Now two things are happening right here.
Speaker 1: Republicans are mad that a blue state is getting disaster aid.
Speaker 1: So Representative Warren Davidson from Ohio, which has never had
Speaker 1: an environmental crisis, I'm kidding, because they have had many.
Speaker 1: He sounded off about the problem with California's policies as
Speaker 1: a threat to withhold disaster relief aid from the devastated
Speaker 1: Los Angeles wildfires. This is super disgusting. It's also stupid
Speaker 1: because you know what California is. It's the fifth largest
Speaker 1: economy in.
Speaker 2: The world, about to be the fourth, right, And when.
Speaker 1: You start taking playing chicken with federal aid with the
Speaker 1: state that paid that raises almost all your taxes, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: And what I think Republicans can't to read the needle
Speaker 1: on is that there's a world in which these states say, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're not going to pay federal taxes if we're not
Speaker 1: going to get federal funds, and we're not so far
Speaker 1: from that, and that world will be catastrophic for those
Speaker 1: red states.
Speaker 2: I mean, it'll be catatrophic for all of us.
Speaker 1: It'll be like Brexit will ruin our economy, It'll make
Speaker 1: everything just a fiasco. But it will also be ultimately
Speaker 1: the states like Alabama that don't have the kind of
Speaker 1: federal money, that don't pay in the way California does,
Speaker 1: will be completely screwed. So I do think it's worth
Speaker 1: these people, if they could look at a map and
Speaker 1: understand what states they want, that they should just give
Speaker 1: California to the money they want.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's almost like when you have a more
Speaker 3: progressive tax system that taxes people at the top, and
Speaker 3: they don't hoard their wealth. You have money to do
Speaker 3: things like this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's not what this is.
Speaker 1: These Blues states just there's more business, there's more I mean,
Speaker 1: I also think it's interesting too. Davidson told Maria Bartaroma, honey,
Speaker 1: who used to be normal but is now Barry maga.
Speaker 1: If they want the money, there should be consequences where
Speaker 1: they have to change their policies. Davidson wants Hollywood to
Speaker 1: change its policies, right, I mean, by the way, like
Speaker 1: this is so stupid, Like California could just be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you don't want our money, we won't pay in. And
Speaker 1: I think that's really a really stupid plan that Davidson
Speaker 1: wants to make California, you know who wants to make
Speaker 1: them anti choice or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's stupid.
Speaker 3: So in other not so fun news, Jack Smith has
Speaker 3: resigned from the Justice Department.
Speaker 1: What do you see here, Molly, It turns out that
Speaker 1: Mary Garland is just as disappointing as you thought he
Speaker 1: might be. I think, look, the thing I think about
Speaker 1: this when I think about Merrick Garland is I think
Speaker 1: there was a sense in which there was a belief
Speaker 1: among a lot of us that Trump could be held
Speaker 1: accountable for doing crimes by these guys. What I think
Speaker 1: was a mistake on the part of the mainstream media,
Speaker 1: and I include myself in this is the idea that
Speaker 1: somehow these guys would be able to hold a very powerful,
Speaker 1: very wealthy man accountable. And we've seen through you know,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Enron. I'm thinking about all of these
Speaker 1: times when powerful people, even Jeffrey Epstein to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: where powerful people just continually got away with it.
Speaker 2: The idea that Donald Trump was so.
Speaker 1: Powerful and so good at politicizing things would somehow be
Speaker 1: held responsible was I think really a pipe dream.
Speaker 2: And also, but beyond that.
Speaker 1: Really the worst person for this job was Merret fucking Garland.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a long line of people who have
Speaker 1: managed to completely not do anything, And I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: You'll remember Robert Muller, who did nothing, Merret Garland, who
Speaker 1: did nothing, Jack Smith, who now has resigned. And by
Speaker 1: the way, Jack Smith doesn't have to resign. He could stay.
Speaker 1: He could make Trump fire him. He could do that,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't want to do that because he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to have to fight with Trump. And I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: when you criticize these Republican senators like you remember Joany
Speaker 1: Arns said she didn't want them, but johny Arns didn't
Speaker 1: want to confirm Pete Hegsath.
Speaker 2: She got a lot of pushback.
Speaker 1: Maybe she was bullied into going along with Mega. We'll
Speaker 1: see during the hearings. We don't really know, but either way,
Speaker 1: so that's Jony Arns. Here's Jack Smith, a person who
Speaker 1: is also terrified of Trump right, who was also who
Speaker 1: could have stayed and made.
Speaker 2: Him fire him and was like no.
Speaker 1: At every point, we've seen elected and government officials be
Speaker 1: cowardly and it doesn't matter their party affiliation. They've all
Speaker 1: just been wildly cowardly. And it's really it's so depressing,
Speaker 1: I am to say. And we shouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 3: Well, another thing we shouldn't be surprised about is when
Speaker 3: authoritarians rise to power that the people amongst them below
Speaker 3: them start fighting like dogs all the time. And now
Speaker 3: we have a fight between Steve Bennon and the tech pros.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is actually kind of fun.
Speaker 3: I'm popping the popcorn.
Speaker 1: This is sort of the best the best news of
Speaker 1: this whole cycle. So this is not the first time
Speaker 1: that Bannon has gone after Elon.
Speaker 2: It's not I know, yeah he was.
Speaker 3: He was no fan of him until he gave Trump
Speaker 3: a lot of money.
Speaker 1: And even now he's still not a fan. So here's
Speaker 1: what's interesting about this. There are two things going on here.
Speaker 1: One is tech bros want H one B one visas.
Speaker 1: These are these visas for skilled workers. Tesla uses them,
Speaker 1: all the tech companies use them. It's a way to
Speaker 1: get really smart programmers and scientists into this country.
Speaker 3: But Mark Zuckerberg Joe Rogan basically said, yeah, I don't
Speaker 3: care because we're going to get rid of those for AI.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, who knows. But these people are a
Speaker 1: lot of them are not white. Steve Bennon, you know,
Speaker 1: is very maga. He's very much very maga. Now I
Speaker 1: want to point.
Speaker 3: Out, would you make the distinction though, that he's a
Speaker 3: very America first. It's now all these people fall under maga.
Speaker 3: Is that the distinction though, is it's like the America
Speaker 3: first versus the tech pros.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, I mean I want to
Speaker 1: reach you two things. This is the translated version. So
Speaker 1: it has been translated and now retranslated, so there may
Speaker 1: be some foibles and piccadillos with this translation. But two
Speaker 1: things here that we saw Bannon say about Elon okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to read them to you because they're
Speaker 1: kind of sort of mind blowing. This is a direct quote.
Speaker 1: So this is for Corierra dela Sera, the Italian newspaper.
Speaker 1: I will have Elon Musk run out of here by
Speaker 1: inauguration day. He will not have a blue pass the
Speaker 1: White House. He will not have full access to the
Speaker 1: White House. He will be like any other person.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy.
Speaker 1: I made it my personal thing to take this guy down.
Speaker 1: He is the richest guy in the world. So this
Speaker 1: is not just. I mean, this may not be as
Speaker 1: easy as Steve thinks before because he put mone I
Speaker 1: was prepared to tolerate it, but I'm not prepared to
Speaker 1: tolerate it anymore. Now I'm going to read another part
Speaker 1: of this interview, which I think is even more interesting
Speaker 1: and strange.
Speaker 3: This is where the popcorn gets nice and buttery.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Peter Theiel, David Sachs, Elon Musk are all white
Speaker 1: South Africans, A right, you're ready, You're ready.
Speaker 2: He should go back to South Africa.
Speaker 1: Why do we have South Africans the most racist people
Speaker 1: on earth, White South Africans. We have them making any
Speaker 1: comment at all on what goes on in the United States. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's stop here for a minute. Does this mean that
Speaker 1: Steve Bannon doesn't like racism? Like discuss and also let
Speaker 1: us pause for another minute here. These are the guys
Speaker 1: who are fighting for the H one B one visas.
Speaker 1: Mega doesn't want H one B one visas because it's
Speaker 1: bringing in people who are not white, right, A lot
Speaker 1: of Indian people, a lot of European people, a lot
Speaker 1: of Muslim people.
Speaker 2: You're right.
Speaker 1: So does he not like them because he thinks they're racist,
Speaker 1: or does he not like them because he doesn't want
Speaker 1: these H.
Speaker 2: One b right? I mean, there's a real interesting.
Speaker 1: Lack of consistency here, which I find fascinating.
Speaker 2: You know, he's the richest guy in the world.
Speaker 1: Steve is very very I mean, I again, appalling, but smart.
Speaker 2: So we'll see where this goes.
Speaker 1: But this is a really interesting tension that I think
Speaker 1: is going to define the Trump years unless Trump is
Speaker 1: somehow able to get rid of Elon, which is hard
Speaker 1: for me to magic.
Speaker 3: Agreed. Sobody, let's talk about a Senator John Fetterman, who's
Speaker 3: caused a lot of controversy on the left of MO.
Speaker 3: We're talking about infighting on their side. I think a
Speaker 3: lot of people are weighing in a lot about Fetterman's
Speaker 3: recent actions. What are you seeing here?
Speaker 2: So this is if Fetterman's an interesting case.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about him, not because of some
Speaker 1: of the other controversies he's been involved in, but because
Speaker 1: of something else. So Fetterman says he's going to go
Speaker 1: down tomorrow Lago to visit Trump. A lot of people
Speaker 1: are mad about this. A lot of people feel that
Speaker 1: if you go to mar A Lago to visit Trump,
Speaker 1: you are obeying in advance. Now I agree that it's
Speaker 1: very bad to obey in advance, and I agree that
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg and Bezos and all of these people going back
Speaker 1: and forth to kiss the ring, giving millions of dollars
Speaker 1: to the inaugural Fund.
Speaker 2: They're trying to curry favor.
Speaker 1: They think they can manipulate him into getting what they want.
Speaker 1: They've forgotten the truism that everything Trump touches dies. But
Speaker 1: I want to point out that a Democratic senator going
Speaker 1: down tomorrow a lago to talk to Trump, well, he
Speaker 1: may not get what he wants. And who even Fetterman
Speaker 1: is wild, so it's hard to even know ideologically what
Speaker 1: he wants. But I have to ask myself, like, do
Speaker 1: I think that Fetterman going down tomorrow lago to talk
Speaker 1: to Trump is obeying in advance?
Speaker 2: Now I think he's trying to go and talk to Trump.
Speaker 2: Do I think it's going to work? No?
Speaker 1: Do I think that ultimately Trump will have some ridiculous
Speaker 1: picture of Fetterman, you know, with the thumbs up, and
Speaker 1: he'll use it to try to troll Fetterman one hundred.
Speaker 2: That's always what happens.
Speaker 3: Well, we basically have a repeat of Mitt Romney in
Speaker 3: a New York steakhouse with Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Yes we will, Yeah, we definitely will.
Speaker 1: But I don't think that trying to talk to Trump
Speaker 1: before he's in office. And again this is the whole idea, like,
Speaker 1: should Democrats be cursing Trump when he hasn't.
Speaker 2: Done anything yet? I think no.
Speaker 1: I think that it's much more important to push back
Speaker 1: on the policies when they happen versus when you think
Speaker 1: they are going to happen. So I think that just
Speaker 1: getting hysterical about everything is not going to serve us,
Speaker 1: and I think that it's much more important. Will all
Speaker 1: of this offends my sensibilities, Well, all of this is
Speaker 1: not what I believe. While all of this is not
Speaker 1: who I am, I do think that it's important to
Speaker 1: distinguish between what is distasteful and what is really absolutely
Speaker 1: an ending block for American democracy. What are the things
Speaker 1: that are our red lines? And so I really do
Speaker 1: think that getting mad There are plenty of reasons to
Speaker 1: be mad at John Fetterman, let me tell you, but
Speaker 1: him going to mar A Lago, in my mind, is
Speaker 1: not one of them.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this. I think a lot of
Speaker 3: people also are forgetting that around twenty sixteen, one of
Speaker 3: the things that tactics just for Democrats to see reasonable
Speaker 3: to independent voters is they kind of did this thing
Speaker 3: of like, okay, we'll see what happens. We have an
Speaker 3: open mind here about some of these policies. It seems
Speaker 3: like that is what some of the Democrats. I don't
Speaker 3: know necessarily Fetterman is doing here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so just think it's okay to try to
Speaker 1: strike a deal with him. It has never worked before,
Speaker 1: but you know, he's not in office yet. And something
Speaker 1: that happens every four years or sometimes eight years when
Speaker 1: incumbents are able to stay, though who knows that that
Speaker 1: will ever happen again, is that people sort of come
Speaker 1: to the new administration with all of their fantasy and
Speaker 1: hopes about what this new administration will do, even if
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily their party. You know, there's a fantasy
Speaker 1: out there. I do not engage with it because I
Speaker 1: have a memory that somehow Donald Trump will cut through
Speaker 1: some of the government red tape and you know, fix
Speaker 1: some of the problems in the federal government. Now, I
Speaker 1: happen to know that for a fact, that these people
Speaker 1: want to make the government fail so that they can
Speaker 1: make even bigger tax cuts for billionaires.
Speaker 2: And that was what they were installed to do.
Speaker 1: But it's okay to be hopeful, and it should end
Speaker 1: by January twenty first. Senator Ron Wyden is the senior
Speaker 1: Senator from the great state of Oregon.
Speaker 2: I Senator Wyden, welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 1: So tell me why you decided to write this.
Speaker 4: Book, Mollie. I decided for a couple of reasons, the
Speaker 4: first of which most political books are sort of canned
Speaker 4: and very predictable. Somebody in Congress starts out and they
Speaker 4: talk about all the wonderful things they did for the
Speaker 4: American people. They passed this bill, they passed that bill,
Speaker 4: they did this, they did that. And after the kind
Speaker 4: of bragging is over with, they usually say, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm being asked frequently to think about running for president.
Speaker 4: And then they feign interest and they said, well, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe I'll think about it some data. Right now, I'm
Speaker 4: thinking about my family. And then the next and third
Speaker 4: point is usually well, here's my presidential Exploratory Committee, and
Speaker 4: you can contribute to the following twenty two sites to
Speaker 4: support my exploratory Committee. And I said that I'm doing
Speaker 4: public service for a very different reason, and I believe
Speaker 4: that HUTSPA in particular is the indispensable instrument for doing
Speaker 4: well and doing good in America. And that's what I
Speaker 4: wanted to right about. Then, this book is for somebody
Speaker 4: who might be interested in public service. It might be
Speaker 4: for a person who's thinking about trying to ask their
Speaker 4: boss for a promotion, and it's going to take a
Speaker 4: little bit of hoodspeed to work up the nerve, and
Speaker 4: it might be somebody who's a small business person or
Speaker 4: a teacher or a firefighter who's looking for a chance
Speaker 4: to make their world a better place, and they've got
Speaker 4: to have some nerve and speak up and out.
Speaker 1: So talk to me about what it is like right
Speaker 1: now in the Senate. Democrats have turned over the Senate
Speaker 1: to the Republicans. There is a majority the new leader.
Speaker 1: I think of you as a Democrat who's famous for
Speaker 1: working really well with Republicans and doing a lot of
Speaker 1: bipartisan stuff. Have you worked with John Dune and what
Speaker 1: are your feelings about him becoming majority leader.
Speaker 4: First of all, he's been a member of the Finance
Speaker 4: Committee and I have worked with him on a number
Speaker 4: of occasions. The central issue, though, is there is a
Speaker 4: very clear difference of opinion on some of the central
Speaker 4: issues of our time. And let's just take taxes. I mean,
Speaker 4: what the Republicans want to do is supersize the twenty
Speaker 4: seventeen tax break and just look at all the billionaires
Speaker 4: in the cabinet. You know what a surprise. And I'm
Speaker 4: very concerned that we got two tax codes in America.
Speaker 4: One is for a teacher and a firefighter. They pay
Speaker 4: taxes with every paycheck, and the other is for the
Speaker 4: billionaires who can sort of heay what they want when
Speaker 4: they want to. So there's no question that the differences
Speaker 4: are very stark. And I will tell you Donald Trump
Speaker 4: always campaigns as a populist who's going to be for
Speaker 4: the working person. And he said I'm going to help
Speaker 4: waiters and waitresses and all kinds of people you know
Speaker 4: who are serving in restaurants. And then when he's out
Speaker 4: of the campaign, then he automatically gaws off and gives
Speaker 4: the goodies out to the billionaires, forgets what he said
Speaker 4: for the typical working people. And in this case, I
Speaker 4: mean he did that in his first campaign, but in
Speaker 4: this case he didn't even wait a month to walk
Speaker 4: away from his effort to take on the big food
Speaker 4: monopolies and throw in the towel on trying to hold
Speaker 4: grocery prices down.
Speaker 2: My question is more like, will soon be a traditionalist?
Speaker 1: Like we have of these confirmation hearings coming there is
Speaker 1: some of these people are really scary. I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: cash but now adding the FCI, I mean, do you
Speaker 1: think that the Senate will do its Article two job
Speaker 1: or do you think that soon is gonna give Trump's
Speaker 1: people a pass. I mean, remember Trump had used about
Speaker 1: Reci's appointments. I mean, do you what's your sense you
Speaker 1: are on the ground there, Mike.
Speaker 4: My sense is a lot of Senate Republicans, and we've
Speaker 4: seen this now for several years, are frightened of Trump.
Speaker 4: You know, he always plays the same card. He says, well,
Speaker 4: we got a primary, so and so they didn't stand
Speaker 4: for MAGA or whatever.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I think that one of the reasons John Thune was
Speaker 4: elected the Republican leader is that a number of these
Speaker 4: Senate Republicans who really are, in my view, frightened of Trump.
Speaker 4: We're sort of hoping that somebody who'd been a little
Speaker 4: bit more independent would be the leader.
Speaker 1: But isn't he more independent than the other choices? I mean,
Speaker 1: the other choices were Rick Scott, who was Trump's s guy,
Speaker 1: and also John Cornan, who I mean, isn't doing the
Speaker 1: most sort of independent of those of that group.
Speaker 4: Fine and large, I think that's right. But the bottom
Speaker 4: line is that the Republican Senate Caucus is very much
Speaker 4: tethered to Trump in terms of their political well being.
Speaker 4: And the big thing is is whether or not they're
Speaker 4: going to give John Thune the ability to be independent
Speaker 4: and speak up. And I think you saw already in
Speaker 4: the House that a lot of those members were kind
Speaker 4: of reluctant because they weren't supportive of what Trump was
Speaker 4: talking about and didn't want to put their political careers
Speaker 4: on the line. They were far right.
Speaker 1: Right now, there's like a lot of discussion in DC
Speaker 1: of whether it should be so Trump has two things
Speaker 1: he wants to do, right or he says he wants
Speaker 1: to do. Who even knows what he really wants to do,
Speaker 1: but he is advertising wants to fix immigration whatever that
Speaker 1: looks like, probably nothing like what he's saying, and then
Speaker 1: wants to make sure the taxes stay low for the very,
Speaker 1: very wealthy. There's a lot of talk about whether there
Speaker 1: should be two bills or one. Do you think the
Speaker 1: Democrats should be pushing for it to be two bills.
Speaker 1: She's sort of making the case that if Donald Trump
Speaker 1: really cares about immigration, he would do an immigration bill
Speaker 1: right now, and as a way to sort of force
Speaker 1: his hand to delay the tax cuts, or do you
Speaker 1: think it's not even worth trying.
Speaker 4: I'm for making sure that the American people have the
Speaker 4: kind of transparency and openness to know what's going on
Speaker 4: in American government. Let's take immigration, for Republicans and Democrats
Speaker 4: tried to pass a bipartisan immigration bill last year, but
Speaker 4: then Donald Trump barked and the Republicans went back on
Speaker 4: the deal. So Trump is now responsible for that mess.
Speaker 4: And I want to see what the details are of
Speaker 4: his immigration you know plan is he focusing, for example,
Speaker 4: on law binding and Americans and folks who came here
Speaker 4: as kids just because they're easy to grab up, or
Speaker 4: is he talking about people who might actually be a
Speaker 4: danger to our communities. I mean, what we have seen
Speaker 4: in the in the past is Donald Trump takes a
Speaker 4: lot of detours when it becomes getting into details, and
Speaker 4: we're not going to let him get away with it.
Speaker 1: So do you think that that bill that he refused
Speaker 1: to let Republicans pass earlier could still pass.
Speaker 4: He's not interested in that anymore. I mean, what we
Speaker 4: wanted to do, we had a big bipartisan group, Amali.
Speaker 4: We wanted to get it on the floor, and we wanted,
Speaker 4: you know, for example, to get a fair shake for
Speaker 4: the doctor kid, the kids you who wanted a brighter
Speaker 4: future in the country. And you know, I think when
Speaker 4: you talk about these topics. You have to say, is
Speaker 4: Trump even beginning to keep his promises? And on taxes?
Speaker 4: You know, I mentioned the fact that he made all
Speaker 4: these promises. We don't see any sign that, you know,
Speaker 4: he's doing it. On immigration, I mean, he put the
Speaker 4: Congress in this mess of a position here in the
Speaker 4: last few months when we could have started to buy
Speaker 4: partisan bill.
Speaker 1: Andy walk yesterday Matt I decided they're not going to
Speaker 1: fact check anymore. We've really seen tech companies have refused
Speaker 1: to provide any kind of regulation.
Speaker 2: Of themselves at all.
Speaker 1: They're mad at Democrats for even trying to hold them account,
Speaker 1: but to some amount of account. Do you think there's
Speaker 1: any world in which you could get Republicans to work
Speaker 1: on a bipartisan kind of regulation of some of these
Speaker 1: tech companies or do you think that door has just
Speaker 1: closed right now?
Speaker 4: You know, big tech has been dumping money in the
Speaker 4: Trump coffers for just about everything in sight. I mean,
Speaker 4: there is no question, for example, on privacy, that elected
Speaker 4: officials are going to have to step up and say
Speaker 4: whose side are you on? You know, we have seen
Speaker 4: these data brokers, for example, Molly and you and I
Speaker 4: have talked about this, you know, running wild with people's
Speaker 4: personal information. Folks at six hundred planned parenthood sites saw
Speaker 4: their information, their geolocation information gobbled up. Of course, Republicans
Speaker 4: ought to be supportive of efforts to do it, but
Speaker 4: they're not even using the example I just cited. They're
Speaker 4: not even for planned parenthood in the first place, let
Speaker 4: alone then privacy for folks.
Speaker 1: You think it's unlikely that any kind of tech regulation
Speaker 1: is going to.
Speaker 4: Get passed, well, I think that when you have these
Speaker 4: really outrageous examples. And I'll give your listeners one. I'm
Speaker 4: sult Typhoon this question of the Chinese. You know hacks,
Speaker 4: I mean our phone records, and some very conservative senators
Speaker 4: have recently said that's been the biggest hack in American history.
Speaker 4: They were supposed to be protected twenty years ago, and
Speaker 4: they weren't. And I'm pushing right now and I hope
Speaker 4: I'll get some Republicans to fill those gaps. And I'm
Speaker 4: going to introduce a peace of legislation that says the
Speaker 4: Congress is now going to do what it was under
Speaker 4: legal requirements to do twenty years ago and protect people's
Speaker 4: phone records. Because salt Typhoon has basically been one of
Speaker 4: the biggest hacks in American history, if not the biggest,
Speaker 4: and there have been cybersecurity problems with people's healthcare records.
Speaker 4: These are the kinds of scandals that people are going
Speaker 4: to pay attention to, and I hope the Republicans, when
Speaker 4: I put them out there these proposals will sign on.
Speaker 1: We spend a lot of time talking about what it
Speaker 1: would look like to resist trump Ism in this second
Speaker 1: Trump term, and to be sort of thoughtful about pushing back.
Speaker 1: There are certain things he's going to try to do
Speaker 1: we think that will crush norms and institutions and certain
Speaker 1: things that are just a bostic language with the hopes
Speaker 1: of sort of getting maybe some trade negotiation. How are
Speaker 1: you personal dealing with this with Trump two point zero
Speaker 1: and the new challenges opposes.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, we're trying to get ready for basic
Speaker 4: rule of law, you know questions. I mean, for example,
Speaker 4: if he tries to invoke, you know, rules that don't
Speaker 4: respect posse comatatis statutes and decide to walk all over
Speaker 4: the rights of the American people, you know, we're going
Speaker 4: to We're gonna step in. And I think that that's
Speaker 4: part of what has concerned a number of citizens in
Speaker 4: the last couple of days, looking at all these you know, pronouncements,
Speaker 4: I mean, Trump's trampling on even relations with with allies
Speaker 4: and no evidence that there's going to be any kind
Speaker 4: of legal framework for it.
Speaker 1: It does seem like all of this like he's going
Speaker 1: to take over Canada, He's gonna, you know whatever, take
Speaker 1: over Greenland. I mean, this stuff seems like a pretty
Speaker 1: clear distraction from the you know, not being able to
Speaker 1: make egg prices cheaper. And do you think that's what
Speaker 1: it is or do you think he really thinks that
Speaker 1: America could somehow buy or take over Greenland from I
Speaker 1: hope you're right.
Speaker 4: I mean, to me, he'll change his mind every ten
Speaker 4: to fifteen minutes if he thinks he's got some hypothetical
Speaker 4: to kind of distract people. But what we're focused on.
Speaker 4: I tell people, Molly, I've had eleven hundred town hall
Speaker 4: meetings at home, and people say, what do you do
Speaker 4: at the meetings? And so we talk about issues where
Speaker 4: the second word is almost always bill. It might be
Speaker 4: medical bill, it might be housing bill, it might be
Speaker 4: food bill, it might be insurance bill. Trump said he
Speaker 4: was going to work on those things in this campaign.
Speaker 4: What I talk about in this book is having the
Speaker 4: nerve and the guts to take him on and do
Speaker 4: it regardless of political party.
Speaker 1: Do you think that there are possible things that you
Speaker 1: can do with Trump that could actually be productive or.
Speaker 4: Now I've had people, you know, talking about Oregon. You know,
Speaker 4: the federal government owns most of our land. We've got
Speaker 4: a place, the awahis that are called Oregon's you know,
Speaker 4: version of the Grand Canyon. And we've got environmental folks
Speaker 4: who care about wilderness, We've got farmers who care about agriculture.
Speaker 4: I'm talking to those who are going to be in
Speaker 4: key positions about the possibility of advancing those kinds of issues.
Speaker 4: The question of states rights is going to be really huge,
Speaker 4: because what I'm concerned about is if the state is
Speaker 4: really doing the right thing in terms of curtailing emissions,
Speaker 4: whether here in Washington, d C. Trump is going to
Speaker 4: leave them alone and let them continue to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you can talk about you know, we
Speaker 1: spent so much of the last couple of months talking
Speaker 1: about what happened and what Democrats can do to win.
Speaker 1: I can what do you think Democrats need to do
Speaker 1: to win.
Speaker 4: I think Democrats really need to laser in on those
Speaker 4: kinds of issues that give people a sense that they're
Speaker 4: going to have a better future. For example, I'm working
Speaker 4: on a housing package molley young people today. We saw
Speaker 4: some of them over New Year's They are having trouble
Speaker 4: paying the rent right now, let alone being able to
Speaker 4: get a starter home. So I've got several tax proposals
Speaker 4: as a senior Democrat on the Finance Committee that deals
Speaker 4: with taxes, something called like TCH low Income Housing tax credits,
Speaker 4: but in particular, a lot of those families care about
Speaker 4: something called MIKECH middle income Housing tax credits. So what
Speaker 4: people are looking for is are you going to respond
Speaker 4: to things that they talk about in their kitchens and
Speaker 4: living rooms. And they felt in this campaign that Trump
Speaker 4: would just break the door down to do things for him,
Speaker 4: that he was all kind of loud and pushy, and
Speaker 4: maybe they didn't agree with them in terms of some
Speaker 4: of the things he said in the light, but they
Speaker 4: thought he was tough and he thought it was strong,
Speaker 4: and they felt, for a variety of different reasons that
Speaker 4: Democrats didn't bring that kind of strength to the game.
Speaker 4: And we're going to change that. Healthcare housing, and an
Speaker 4: economy that works for all Americans, not just billionaires, would
Speaker 4: be the three things that I'd say really get you
Speaker 4: in the direction of a winning agenda for Democrats.
Speaker 2: Do you think Democrats should be more forward facing?
Speaker 4: There's no question you know about it. I mean, you
Speaker 4: pay healthcare, something I've been working on for some time
Speaker 4: since I was director of the Great Panthers. I think,
Speaker 4: talking about forward thinking, I think Democrats ought to be
Speaker 4: thinking about getting rid of the for profit insurance department
Speaker 4: and having nonprofits who will have no incentive but to
Speaker 4: keep your prices down and make sure you and your
Speaker 4: family are as healthy as your doctor in hospital can
Speaker 4: make you. That's the kind of priority approach I'm hearing about,
Speaker 4: and you know looking you know, particularly at get getting
Speaker 4: rid of the for profit insurance sector and having a
Speaker 4: different approach where you replace nonprofits so there's no incentive
Speaker 4: to rip people off.
Speaker 5: It's the way to go.
Speaker 2: That's really smart.
Speaker 1: Tell us one thing that people will be surprised about
Speaker 1: in this book, well.
Speaker 4: I will tell you. I had some discussions over the
Speaker 4: last couple of days with young people, and they said,
Speaker 4: we've never seen a political book that basically wasn't just
Speaker 4: some congress critter, somebody with an election certificate bragging about themselves.
Speaker 4: You were giving us ideas that we could use to
Speaker 4: help build a better and stronger future. And I finally
Speaker 4: said to one of the young people was asking me
Speaker 4: a question about it. I said, you know, when you
Speaker 4: look at it, so much of what has happened in
Speaker 4: America since our very birth has been people showing hutzpa.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: That was what the founding fathers did. That's what Abe
Speaker 4: Lincoln did, That's what doctor Martin Luther King did. People
Speaker 4: who are willing to show nerves and take risks and
Speaker 4: say we're going to not necessarily march to where the
Speaker 4: odds makers were going, but do the right thing.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, Thank you, Senator Widen, thank you.
Speaker 4: To be continued, Mollie, thank you.
Speaker 2: Matt Meyer is the governor of Delaware.
Speaker 1: Welcome to fast politics. I'm not going to call you
Speaker 1: governor or Matt because that's bad, but governor Meyer. But
Speaker 1: it feels like governor Matt is like a pretty good.
Speaker 5: Name means the name to matth here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I'm so excited to have you. You are
Speaker 1: the governor elect of Delaware, a tiny but super important
Speaker 1: state that many of us have spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time in recently. Talk to me about you have a
Speaker 1: I think a bold vision for your state.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, it's an exciting time. It's a new time
Speaker 5: for Delaware. As of when we're recording right now, the
Speaker 5: only delaware enever to serve as President of the United
Speaker 5: States is still the president. There are also a lot
Speaker 5: of great new leaders coming up with a new vision
Speaker 5: for what we think a blue state can be, and
Speaker 5: we're excited about it. We have the for you know,
Speaker 5: for every day that Delaware has been a state for
Speaker 5: I should know two hundred and fifty seven years. I
Speaker 5: think it is there's been a white man representing us
Speaker 5: in the US Senate. That changed earlier this month with
Speaker 5: least the Rochester is the I think the fifth or
Speaker 5: sixth black woman ever to serve in the US Senate,
Speaker 5: along with Angela Also Brooks was sworn in. And it's
Speaker 5: not just she's an incredible individual with a vision for
Speaker 5: our state. Sarah McBride, of course, is our congress woman,
Speaker 5: the first individual identifies as transgender ever elected to the
Speaker 5: United States Congress, and I in a few days and
Speaker 5: we sworn in as governor I in ten years have
Speaker 5: gone from me in the sixth and seventh grade math
Speaker 5: teacher to one of the fifty governors in the US. Obviously,
Speaker 5: I'm being sworn in at the dawn of the Trump
Speaker 5: err Trump two point zero. I'm trying to find silver
Speaker 5: linings or We're going to make sure that Delaware ins
Speaker 5: are protected. We're going to make sure we have a
Speaker 5: bold vision to move things forward. We're going to show
Speaker 5: that a lot of core democratic principles, when put into
Speaker 5: practice in a small state like Delaware, can make a
Speaker 5: world of difference and produce the kind of society and
Speaker 5: communities that we want.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about what Trump two point zero looks like.
Speaker 1: One of the things I love about your story is
Speaker 1: that you were a middle school math teacher and then
Speaker 1: you decided to get into politics. And were you spurred
Speaker 1: on into politics because of Trump?
Speaker 5: I was spurred on because I was a pissed off
Speaker 5: math teacher. I was initially in a program called Teaper America.
Speaker 5: Oh I know it well, yes, in DC public schools
Speaker 5: in Anacostia. Ended up going to law school and was
Speaker 5: a diplomat in Iraq for a year fourteen years ago,
Speaker 5: embedded with on a US Army base and most Iraq
Speaker 5: as a diplomat. I came home and decided what I
Speaker 5: really wanted to do was go back to teaching, and
Speaker 5: so I taught in one of the highest poverty middle
Speaker 5: schools in our state. And I was just pissed off
Speaker 5: that it was shocking to me that things really hadn't
Speaker 5: changed that much here since my childhood, that there was
Speaker 5: no sense of urgency, and there certainly was a sense
Speaker 5: that our public education system was deteriorating. And I felt
Speaker 5: like that was no way to build a community or
Speaker 5: a country. And so I eight years ago, in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 5: I was fully expecting it was the last year of
Speaker 5: the Obama administration. I was inspired in part by Obama
Speaker 5: and his vice president Joe, and thought we could do
Speaker 5: things differently here in Newcastle County, which is the largest
Speaker 5: county of Delaware. I ran for a position called County Executive.
Speaker 5: I was the outsider. I was this kid with no
Speaker 5: political experience, and I won, and we've had a good
Speaker 5: run for eight years. As of last week, I'm no
Speaker 5: longer than County Executive, and we have a Bowld vision
Speaker 5: for lean ar State forward. Now at the heart of
Speaker 5: my political service is making sure that our schools are
Speaker 5: the best in the world, and so I think Delaware
Speaker 5: is a great laboratory to do that. It's a small place.
Speaker 5: We have just over a million people. It's urban, suburban, rural, coastal.
Speaker 5: We have a diverse mix that somewhat mirrors the diversity
Speaker 5: across our country, and we think if we can make
Speaker 5: it work here in Delaware, it's a great model for
Speaker 5: the country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's talk about I'm married to an ed
Speaker 1: tech VC, so we spend a lot of our personal time.
Speaker 1: Our hobby is talking about how to make American education better.
Speaker 2: I do feel I have a horse in this race.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you could talk to us about sort
Speaker 1: of what it looks like in Delaware is really small,
Speaker 1: so you have an opportunity there to really get into it.
Speaker 1: And also it's a pretty wealthy state, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is. Delaware has a few unique attributes. One
Speaker 5: is because of DuPont, we were kind of we're not
Speaker 5: as much anymore, but we were basically we call it
Speaker 5: Daddy DuPont here. We're basically our whole state was kind
Speaker 5: of a company town for a century, and because of
Speaker 5: that legacy, of advanced chemistry. We, depending on how you
Speaker 5: measure it, have among the highest rate of PhDs per
Speaker 5: capita in the country. It's a well educated community. We also,
Speaker 5: based on recent testing scores, OURK twelve public schools are
Speaker 5: rated forty fifth forty six in the country.
Speaker 2: The fifth or sixth that's not good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's sort of a case study of how public
Speaker 5: education has been deteriorating even in a community that does
Speaker 5: value education, but just the attention and the thought and
Speaker 5: the appropriate investments have not been made. Our platform is
Speaker 5: mostly about nuts and bolts. It's probably, to be honest, Molly,
Speaker 5: not a whole lot. But an ed tech VS there's
Speaker 5: some stuff in there, but not a whole lot that
Speaker 5: an ed tech VC will get terribly excited about. It's
Speaker 5: about making sure that more money than ever gets directly
Speaker 5: to classrooms, cutting some of the fat out of that
Speaker 5: education budget. Not cutting the budget, but making sure that
Speaker 5: there are less people sitting in offices and more people
Speaker 5: in classrooms. Making sure the data we take is really
Speaker 5: good to understand where the shortcomings and how do we
Speaker 5: make sure we have quick responses to reallocate monies to
Speaker 5: address the needs that children are truly facing and also
Speaker 5: making sure that our curriculum continues to stay relevant in
Speaker 5: a workforce and in a world where if you teach
Speaker 5: in the same curriculum that you had twenty thirty forty
Speaker 5: years ago, you're probably not preparing kids for the workforce
Speaker 5: the communities of tomorrow.
Speaker 1: So there's a layer of people in education who are
Speaker 1: not who make a lot of money. Are you in
Speaker 1: a position to be able to cut that layer down
Speaker 1: or are those people protected?
Speaker 5: You mean protected by merit rules and various government rules.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I'm meeting with every state legislator, hopefully before I'm sworn
Speaker 5: in in a few days. There are sixty two of
Speaker 5: them here in Delaware, and what I tell them is
Speaker 5: everything's on the table. If there are rules that are
Speaker 5: a barrier, the state legislature and working being concert with
Speaker 5: the governor can change those rules. But what we're doing,
Speaker 5: I don't take a machete to existing budgets. I take scalpels,
Speaker 5: so we it's sort of like not cutting out entire layers.
Speaker 5: I think that to some extent, it seems like that's
Speaker 5: what they're trying to do at the federal government. And
Speaker 5: what you find is there are all sorts of unintentional
Speaker 5: sometimes intentional hazards that you end up having kids who
Speaker 5: are literally starving on the street or don't get lunch
Speaker 5: or breakfast. We're not going to do it like that,
Speaker 5: but we're going to be smart about reducing the people
Speaker 5: in offices, get getting resources to teachers, and also making
Speaker 5: sure our teachers are paid really well. As somebody who
Speaker 5: was in Teach for America who taught in three different
Speaker 5: high needs, elementary and middle public schools, it was always
Speaker 5: shocking to me that teachers in the highest needs schools
Speaker 5: with some of the hardest jobs in public education in
Speaker 5: the country, trying to educate some of the most challenging
Speaker 5: students really in environments where all sorts of data indicates
Speaker 5: that it's very challenging to ever get kids into college,
Speaker 5: ever to get them appropriate job training, ever to get
Speaker 5: them out of a cycle of violence and cycle poverty.
Speaker 5: The people who are on the front lines of that
Speaker 5: battle are often made the least in communities. That doesn't
Speaker 5: make sense to me. It's in our platform to try
Speaker 5: and create one hundred thousand dollars for high quality, experienced
Speaker 5: teachers who are willing to go to the highest needs environments,
Speaker 5: making sure that we're sort of paying people to be
Speaker 5: on the front lines and to address our most urgent needs.
Speaker 5: We think there are some basic things we can do,
Speaker 5: probably not that different than what vcs do, and looking,
Speaker 5: how do you allocate resources to where it's needed most,
Speaker 5: and how do you incentivize people properly to address the
Speaker 5: most pressing concerns. And we think that will at least
Speaker 5: start to bend the curve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct. So I'm curious.
Speaker 1: Trump and a lot of Republicans have for a long
Speaker 1: time wanted to get rid of the Department of Education,
Speaker 1: which of course came up this week because of the
Speaker 1: Carter funeral. Carter was the person who created the Department
Speaker 1: of Education. Explain to our listeners why the Department of
Speaker 1: Education is good and why Trump should not get rid
Speaker 1: of it. I'm sorry to ask you such an incredibly
Speaker 1: stupid question.
Speaker 5: But I just reflect for a minute and say, I
Speaker 5: hope we don't spend four years playing defense. I understand
Speaker 5: you have to ask the question. We need to be
Speaker 5: ready as a state. What I see is in our
Speaker 5: communities here in Delaware, there are real problems across the world.
Speaker 5: There are real problems. We need American leadership, and I hope,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe pray is a better word, but I
Speaker 5: hope that we find a way to move things forward.
Speaker 5: The Department of Education is about a lot of things,
Speaker 5: like Department of Education. My guess is most Americans, I
Speaker 5: haven't seen a poll, but if you ask them what
Speaker 5: they think of this department or that department, that sort
Speaker 5: of bureaucratic speak, that doesn't mean much. The Department of
Speaker 5: Education is about making sure that poor kids, that disabled kids,
Speaker 5: that kids who are treated wrong in a school environment
Speaker 5: are treated equitably and have real opportunity. And so when
Speaker 5: you get rid of the Department of Education, when you
Speaker 5: say get rid, are you saying we're going to get
Speaker 5: rid of the Title I program and replace it, hopefully
Speaker 5: replace it with blocker.
Speaker 2: Explain to our listeners what Title one is.
Speaker 5: It enables kids in poor communities to get to get educated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it also does pelgrants that's right.
Speaker 5: For kids to go to college. And so if you
Speaker 5: look across our society and think that working class Red states, yeah,
Speaker 5: red states, blue states, urban suburban world, you think that
Speaker 5: working class people aren't getting the shot that they deserve,
Speaker 5: you get rid of the Department of Education. That problem
Speaker 5: is going to get ten, fifteen, twenty five times worse,
Speaker 5: not better. Right, And that you see when you see
Speaker 5: these big billionaires who are taking all the resources, that
Speaker 5: problem is going to get worse, not better. And you say,
Speaker 5: a workforce that you know is having difficulty competing, so
Speaker 5: all these the large corporations want to import foreign workers.
Speaker 5: That problem is going to get worse and not better.
Speaker 5: And that's what the elimination of the Department of Education
Speaker 5: is going to the federal Department of Education is going
Speaker 5: to mean the Delawareans and across the country.
Speaker 1: So here we've hit this really important moment in this interview.
Speaker 1: We're talking about all these things that you and I
Speaker 1: both know are real democratic values. Right, Department of Education
Speaker 1: started by Carter, FEMA started by Carter. Right, government should
Speaker 1: be there a disaster. Government will need to be there
Speaker 1: because we're about to have many more climate disasters because
Speaker 1: of climate change. Right, Like, all these things are nuts
Speaker 1: and bolts of democratic politics. Right, Republicans want to cut
Speaker 1: the federal government because they want tax cuts, they want
Speaker 1: unfettered capitalism.
Speaker 2: We have already seen huge.
Speaker 1: Wealth inequalities, and like we're already seeing the results of
Speaker 1: unfettered capitalism. So explain to me why Democrats, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: can't explain to voters that they just elected a guy
Speaker 1: who is basically committed to making his rich friends richer.
Speaker 5: I think that there are a number of key points
Speaker 5: in recent history you can point to that led us
Speaker 5: to this moment, and one of the most important for
Speaker 5: me and what I've learned. I heard people say it
Speaker 5: before I ran for office, but I really understand it
Speaker 5: now and especially watching the national election, is citizens united.
Speaker 5: Is that you can have a couple billionaires who come
Speaker 5: together and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on media
Speaker 5: that can convince people of almost anything. And so when
Speaker 5: you have that dynamic, I think people who are making
Speaker 5: trying to make informed decisions to vote are making them
Speaker 5: based on the information they get, which is from these
Speaker 5: commercials which are almost entirely supporting a specific political agenda,
Speaker 5: and that the conservative crowd is playing that game better
Speaker 5: than the Democratic crowd. I think if you look at
Speaker 5: the Biden actual accomplishments like turn off the commercials and
Speaker 5: get in and like read what's on websites and information
Speaker 5: is being put out about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, about
Speaker 5: the American Rescue Plan Act, about expenditures in the Cares Act,
Speaker 5: and you look at who supported those things and who didn't,
Speaker 5: as Biden says, you didn't vote for it, but you're
Speaker 5: showing up at the ribbon cut. We are desperate in Delaware.
Speaker 5: We are desperate for infrastructure investment right, for investment in roads,
Speaker 5: for investment of transitioning to a green economy, for infrastructure
Speaker 5: that's fair in communities that historically have been underserved and
Speaker 5: not treated equitably in today's America. And the reality is
Speaker 5: that the Biden administration did that. If you don't look
Speaker 5: at the shows, look at what actually happened. Those investments
Speaker 5: are being made today. But we just haven't done a
Speaker 5: good enough job branding that. It's challenging. People don't want
Speaker 5: to get into the details of stuff. They're looking for
Speaker 5: people who can give, I guess, the most entertaining speech
Speaker 5: or you can get the you know, one hundred million
Speaker 5: dollar donations to make the best commercials. That's that's one
Speaker 5: aspect of it that I think really really hurts us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just horrible to watch.
Speaker 1: So you said this thing about not playing defense earlier.
Speaker 1: Can you explain to us what you think Democrats should
Speaker 1: be doing.
Speaker 5: On Tuesday a few days ago, I end in my
Speaker 5: eighth year running Delaware's largest local government, Newcastle County Executive.
Speaker 5: Rob was in charge of parks and libraries. I was
Speaker 5: in charge of a police department, a nine one one
Speaker 5: system of paramedic service. My job for the last eight
Speaker 5: years has been to answered nine to one one calls
Speaker 5: as quickly as we can humanly answer them and get
Speaker 5: a quality paramedic police officer well trained to your door
Speaker 5: to save you grandma, your sister, your brother, your spouse,
Speaker 5: your child. I like to say that if we do
Speaker 5: that and do that well, whoever we're serving, it doesn't
Speaker 5: matter if they voted for Trump or Kamala Harris or Biden.
Speaker 5: If we do it well, they're going to support me,
Speaker 5: and if we don't do it well, they're not going
Speaker 5: to support. My job is sewards, keep in the sewage
Speaker 5: out of your basement. Right. If we do that and
Speaker 5: keep your sewer fees low, people are going to support
Speaker 5: And so I think what my advice to my governor colleagues,
Speaker 5: and particularly my Democratic governor of Couse is let's be
Speaker 5: a shining example during this very challenging time for our
Speaker 5: country and when, quite frankly, a lot of Delawares and
Speaker 5: a lot of Americans wake up in fear because of
Speaker 5: who they love or how they love, or their gender identity,
Speaker 5: or sometimes their race or nationality. Let's be a shining
Speaker 5: example of what government can be, of what American can be,
Speaker 5: and that starts with delivering, with delivering, making sure we're
Speaker 5: delivering the highest quality services. It's hard for me to
Speaker 5: stand up and talk credibly as a governor who's leading
Speaker 5: the way when our schools are the fifth, sixth, seventh
Speaker 5: worst in the country. Right to make sure we're showing
Speaker 5: that by making strategic and smart and efficient public investments.
Speaker 5: While the Republicans are out there saying cut everything and
Speaker 5: privatize everything, we're saying no, if you make smart public
Speaker 5: investments that bring people together, this country can work. And
Speaker 5: it starts in my community and in my state.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope
Speaker 2: you'll come back.
Speaker 5: Definitely, Thanks so much. Thanks for your work. It's a
Speaker 5: lot of us out of here are following you and
Speaker 5: learning from you.
Speaker 2: No moment.
Speaker 3: Jesse Can Somali, this is a pet subject of mine
Speaker 3: that I have often. I was just saying to you,
Speaker 3: and you were calming me down on Friday that I
Speaker 3: was worried about people moving out of LA and what
Speaker 3: that could do for our electoral prospects. But what we've
Speaker 3: actually seen in data rather than just my antidotal feelings, yes,
Speaker 3: which is abundant, is that young people are getting out
Speaker 3: of and plan to get out of states that are
Speaker 3: enacting these crazed abortion laws and these red states, and
Speaker 3: they're going to move to states that do not have them.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that was a weird anxiety you had on
Speaker 1: Friday where you were like, everyone's going to move out
Speaker 1: to California. I thought it was very good about explaining
Speaker 1: to you why.
Speaker 3: Well, you and I have for nearly five years had
Speaker 3: a mutually beneficial anxiety comic relationship of a two way
Speaker 3: street of it. And you definitely padded my head very
Speaker 3: well the other day, and.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad to hear it.
Speaker 1: So basically, these abortion bands and I would say, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: this is a really important paper we should put in that,
Speaker 1: you know, if we're going to go through scientific pates,
Speaker 1: we should also talk about that was the hottest Twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four was the hottest year on record. YEP, that
Speaker 1: was another bit of you know, hottest year on record.
Speaker 2: Wait, I'll just read it to you.
Speaker 1: Ocean temperatures reach record highs, ocean temperatures crossed into an
Speaker 1: average sixty six point five to grease fahrenheit, almost a
Speaker 1: half a degree higher, and then last year that will
Speaker 1: mean more hurricanes, less fish and published in a magazine
Speaker 1: that many of us read, Advances in Atmospheric Studies.
Speaker 2: Did you even know that was a magazine?
Speaker 1: The study revealed that the global mean temperature in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four reach nearly sixty six point five de grease fahrenheit,
Speaker 1: could have devastating effects on the ocean ecosystem, ocean heat
Speaker 1: continent changes for the upper So anyway, the point is
Speaker 1: we are just cooking ourselves. But let's get back to
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of young people, single people in particular,
Speaker 1: have left states with total abortion bands. This is a
Speaker 1: paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Speaker 2: Another one that you and I both have.
Speaker 1: We get the apps, Yeah, I actually just subscribe to
Speaker 1: it so I can play the spelling game. A nonprofit
Speaker 1: economic research organization estimated population changes by analyzing address change
Speaker 1: data collected by the United States Postal Service. By the
Speaker 1: way you want to hear the worst fucking thing. You
Speaker 1: know who's still the head of the post office?
Speaker 3: I know Lewis to joy Lewis to joy.
Speaker 1: That fucking guy, and that since the fall the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two fall of Roby Wade, the states with near
Speaker 1: total abortion bands thirteen at the time of the analysis,
Speaker 1: appears to have lost thirty six thousand people per quarter.
Speaker 1: Single person households would typically skew younger. We're more likely
Speaker 1: to move out of the states with bands. Our results
Speaker 1: show that reproductive rights policies can significantly alter where.
Speaker 2: People choose to live.
Speaker 1: Researchers wrote, and I don't think any of us should
Speaker 1: be surprised about this. The loss of young people has
Speaker 1: particular implications for states economic trajectory. States with abortion bands
Speaker 1: may be used challenges and attracting and retaining worker, especially
Speaker 1: young workers who represent future economic potential. These population flows
Speaker 1: in demographic shifts could affect a wide range of economic factors,
Speaker 1: from tax spaces to housing markets to the availability of
Speaker 1: workers in key industries. You did it to yourself, Republicans.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
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