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 Hunter Biden is now suing over
Speaker 1: his stolen laptop. We have an all star lineup today.
Speaker 1: Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: tells us what she makes of this congressional class. Then
Speaker 1: we'll talk to Senator Patty Murray about her unique position
Speaker 1: in the Senate. But first we will talk to former
Speaker 1: Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Fast Politics, Howard Dean, Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1: Very excited to have you. I wanted to talk to
Speaker 1: you about the continual decline of the Republican Party. I mean,
Speaker 1: what is happening. Well, I don't think it's a decline.
Speaker 1: I think they've simply become an authoritarian party modeled after
Speaker 1: what the Russians are doing, or what the Hungarians are doing,
Speaker 1: or the polls are doing. What it is is a
Speaker 1: decline of one of the two major parties in the
Speaker 1: United States of America. It's a decline in the interests
Speaker 1: of democracy. But I think they remain very dangerous for
Speaker 1: the country and for the future of America. What you're
Speaker 1: saying is interesting and something I have not heard quite
Speaker 1: articulated this way. Can you you think this was sort
Speaker 1: of nut Gagridge to Donald Trump or do you think
Speaker 1: this started before that? I think New started it. There's
Speaker 1: always been, you know, right wing crack pots in the
Speaker 1: Republican Party. You know that the John Birch Society and
Speaker 1: all these kinds of stuff that's been going on since
Speaker 1: the forties and fifties. But this is the first time
Speaker 1: that the crack pots have taken over par and it's
Speaker 1: very scary. I mean, the santist is pretending to run
Speaker 1: for president is an out and out racist, I mean
Speaker 1: to attach, I mean, it was bad enough for Glen
Speaker 1: Glenn Yuncan to run around Virginia with his nice fleece
Speaker 1: on Talking Night and then talking about CRT in the
Speaker 1: public schools, which of course doesn't exist in any public
Speaker 1: school in America. That was racist. But to say it
Speaker 1: just makes no bones about it. You know, if you
Speaker 1: teach black or you're denigrating white people. Well, it's pretty
Speaker 1: clear who was appealing to. And he's one of the
Speaker 1: front runners of the for the nomination in in two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty four. So we're really at a crossroads here.
Speaker 1: There are people of principle in the Republican Party. The
Speaker 1: problem is most of them black courage. Yeah, and as
Speaker 1: a disaster for the United States, that does sound like
Speaker 1: a very accurate assessment. I want to just like drill
Speaker 1: down on this for a second. Do you think this
Speaker 1: happened because the party, the Republican Party is so profoundly
Speaker 1: weak and they just couldn't stand up to Trump or
Speaker 1: do you think they just decided to make this deal
Speaker 1: with the devil. I think it's a combination. They are weak,
Speaker 1: they have lost their connection with average Americans, so they
Speaker 1: rely on what fascists rely on, which is grievance politics.
Speaker 1: It really does sound like Hitler when they when he
Speaker 1: starts talking, except instead of about Jews, it's about acts
Speaker 1: and women, take away women's rights, take away black rights.
Speaker 1: They shouldn't have had him in the first place, or
Speaker 1: the Mexican rapists and all that kind of stuff that
Speaker 1: Trump was talking about. Although it did sort of start
Speaker 1: with ging Rich when he decided the way to take
Speaker 1: power was to blow up your opposition and to to
Speaker 1: demonize them. And of course, you know you fight fire
Speaker 1: with fire. So that's what's really split the country apart.
Speaker 1: That didn't start with Trump, but he English laid the
Speaker 1: groundwork for Trump to emerge twenty years later. One of
Speaker 1: the things you've been really involved in is trying to
Speaker 1: help Democrats win, right, like win every state. Do you
Speaker 1: think there's an opportunity here for Democrats to pick up
Speaker 1: these non zalodous, more normal voters. Well, yes, because there's
Speaker 1: only so much market in a true democracy for racism
Speaker 1: and bigotry. You will get a significant number of people,
Speaker 1: but you won't get the majority unless there's real hardship. Word.
Speaker 1: It appears that the Democrats are out of touch. I
Speaker 1: think Biden. One of Biden's much overlooked qualities is that
Speaker 1: he is sort of everyman. He is a working class
Speaker 1: guy and relates to that. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: he is old and all that stuff, but people recognize
Speaker 1: in the working class enough, people recognize that he is
Speaker 1: a decent human being. Warnock and ass Off would not
Speaker 1: be in the Senate today if it hadn't been for
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. I think that just there were enough Republicans,
Speaker 1: particularly Republican women, that just couldn't stomach the bigotry and
Speaker 1: the nastiness, and that's of course now percolating down to
Speaker 1: Santis is about to run a candidacy based on bigotry
Speaker 1: and nasty noess he has. I can't think of a
Speaker 1: single positive thing that he's talked about or done. But
Speaker 1: he was reelected by a huge margin, although against a
Speaker 1: very weak candidate. Yeah, a weak candidate, but also a
Speaker 1: weak party structure. And you have been very involved in
Speaker 1: party structure. Part of your career has been at the
Speaker 1: d n C. So explain to us how you fix that. Well.
Speaker 1: Florida has been a particu gular disaster for as long
Speaker 1: as I can remember when I was at the NC.
Speaker 1: It is it is, it's very borganized, it's very it's
Speaker 1: all about the donors. There are even state laws that
Speaker 1: make it difficult for both parties in terms of how
Speaker 1: officers get appointed. Uh, it is a disaster. And it's
Speaker 1: also an old people's state. And my generation sadly has
Speaker 1: gone from the generation that fought for civil rights and
Speaker 1: against the Vietnam War to Trumpist or some horrible number
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, boomers are now have given up
Speaker 1: any idealism that we grew up with. And that, and
Speaker 1: of course, what what state has more boomers than anybody else?
Speaker 1: So Florida is going to be really hard to to reorganize.
Speaker 1: We didn't do it. We didn't organize it very well.
Speaker 1: Obama that one of the greatest feats that Obama did
Speaker 1: when he won the election was to win Florida. He
Speaker 1: had to put his entire organization in there. And the
Speaker 1: guy that ran it was the guy that ran the
Speaker 1: d n C for him, Uh, you know, after he
Speaker 1: won the nomination and um and he was and he
Speaker 1: went down to Florida and won the one Florida for Obama.
Speaker 1: But they had a set up their entire and entire
Speaker 1: organization that was parallel. Who was it who ran for
Speaker 1: I can't think of his last name. His first name
Speaker 1: was Paul, and I can't remember his last name. But
Speaker 1: he was also the guy that engineered Obama's win in
Speaker 1: Iowa in the primary, which set him on it on
Speaker 1: the way road to the presidency. Right, Florida is a
Speaker 1: special case. But then we opened ourselves up to also
Speaker 1: New York State, which had had become a out of
Speaker 1: nowhere disaster. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 1: That was just the usual New York self absorption. I
Speaker 1: mean they're always you know, New Yorkers are always about themselves.
Speaker 1: And then we had particularly awful chairman who was I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, the DP Triple C is not distinguished itself
Speaker 1: for a long time, even though Nancy was probably the
Speaker 1: greatest speaker that in the history of the United States House,
Speaker 1: you know, and New York. So they had a chairman
Speaker 1: from New York who J. Jacobs, who sucks. Oh yeah, no, yes,
Speaker 1: but the deep triple C was from charity d J.
Speaker 1: Jacobs shouldn't be there. But yes Maloney son Patrick Maloney,
Speaker 1: who jumped out of his race into somebody else's district
Speaker 1: because he got redistricted, and then lots of money, and
Speaker 1: then he focused all on his own race and and
Speaker 1: then you know, New York just can't get out of
Speaker 1: their own way because they're so democratic that they all
Speaker 1: fight among themselves. I mean a perfect example is the
Speaker 1: example of Dan Golden. So Dan, as you know, he's
Speaker 1: going to be a good congress person. He got elected
Speaker 1: with about twenty six percent of the vote because there
Speaker 1: were five Progressives that fought among each other and all
Speaker 1: ran in the primary. I mean, this is the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff that kills the Democratic Party. You know, the
Speaker 1: idea is to sit together and actually work something out
Speaker 1: instead of going on your own trip. I always say
Speaker 1: that Congress is like or Washington in general is like
Speaker 1: middle school on steroids. They're smart, they're hard working, and
Speaker 1: they're thirteen years old. It's all about them all the time.
Speaker 1: And sort of New York politics is like that too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no question. I mean, do you think that new Workers
Speaker 1: can get it together for twenty four I hope so,
Speaker 1: because Kirsten Gillibrand's gonna run again and I think she's
Speaker 1: a terrific senator and she probably will run against Zelden
Speaker 1: or somebody like that, so it won't be an easy race. Right,
Speaker 1: It does seem to me like there's a chance if
Speaker 1: Democrats get their shipped together that they could win back
Speaker 1: the House through New York. Absolutely right. And we what
Speaker 1: we need is, I don't know who the new d
Speaker 1: trip chair is. We need really somebody who's strong with
Speaker 1: a national picture instead of somebody who's focused on their
Speaker 1: own race. The thing that John Patrick Maloney did which
Speaker 1: was like baffling, was the day before his vote, he
Speaker 1: went on meet the press. Well, he should never have
Speaker 1: been appointed to that job in the first place. That
Speaker 1: was just really bad judgment. Yeah, the New York Assembly
Speaker 1: has some blame here because they kept spitting back the
Speaker 1: same redistressing plan that the court told him they couldn't have,
Speaker 1: So what a surprise the Court did something else, and
Speaker 1: that was the you know, I mean, they could have
Speaker 1: made some compromises. This is look for all New York's faults.
Speaker 1: It's not in North Carolina where the court is just
Speaker 1: does whatever, you know, or Wisconsin where you have a
Speaker 1: you know, right wing court and they are basically just politicians,
Speaker 1: just like the Supreme Court. New York has a functioning government,
Speaker 1: and so to lose the seats there was just an
Speaker 1: excusable But part of it was the Assembly's fault because
Speaker 1: they kept stuffing the list back and thought they were
Speaker 1: going to run over the judiciary. Well, you just don't
Speaker 1: run over the judiciary, and you're not supposed to run
Speaker 1: over the judiciary and democracy. Yeah, I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: like Democrats sort of got too overconfident with the redistrict
Speaker 1: doing and it bit them. You mean in New York, Yeah,
Speaker 1: in New York, Yeah, absolutely right. I don't know what
Speaker 1: they were thinking, but they weren't clearly thinking. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you about the national picture for
Speaker 1: a minute. Um, the House belongs to Republicans. If Democrats
Speaker 1: get their ship together, they could because there are a
Speaker 1: lot of districts that are Biden districts that that Democrats
Speaker 1: could win back. But then there is this very fa
Speaker 1: cocta that's the medical term, uh Senate map. Can we
Speaker 1: talk about that? Yeah, that'll be very hard for us.
Speaker 1: Hanging onto the Senate will be hard. I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna do it, but it's gonna be very difficult. We're
Speaker 1: gonna need to replace people like Stabin. Oh, I think
Speaker 1: we can do that in a Democratic side. Tester is
Speaker 1: gonna be hard if he if he runs again, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a hard seat to hold, although he's
Speaker 1: the best person for that job. He gets Montana. The
Speaker 1: one thing that we have in our on our in
Speaker 1: our favor this Montana is not a state of crackpots.
Speaker 1: And that's most of what they have in the legislature
Speaker 1: and the Congress, I mean as crackpots. So at some point,
Speaker 1: if we run a very moderate, thoughtful person like John Tester,
Speaker 1: if he doesn't, if he chooses not to run, I
Speaker 1: think we have a shot at that seat. People get
Speaker 1: sick of this right wing nuts stuff, the ones that
Speaker 1: aren't sucked into it, and you know, with the way
Speaker 1: the Germans were in so you know, and I think
Speaker 1: the economy is getting better. Yeah, has done what he
Speaker 1: said he's gonna do, so I think that's gonna be
Speaker 1: helpful to us. But you're right, is a tough map.
Speaker 1: One of the spots that is going to be particularly
Speaker 1: complicated is Arizona. It looks like the trumpy candidates are
Speaker 1: gonna get in there, so that's good, but you really
Speaker 1: could be looking at a three way race there. There
Speaker 1: will be a three way race. I mean, Diego is
Speaker 1: a good candidate, he's not going to get to And
Speaker 1: the question is who was Cinema going to take votes
Speaker 1: for from moderate Republicans or Democrats? And I don't know
Speaker 1: the answer to that, And there's probably there will shortly,
Speaker 1: I'm sure be some polling. I expect Carrie Lake to
Speaker 1: run for the Senate, and you know that will be
Speaker 1: a very hard one for us. Yeah, carry Lake has
Speaker 1: only gotten crazier since she lost, that's true, but she
Speaker 1: did get about of the vote, so yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it tells you something about the state of Arizona. But
Speaker 1: they have a great senator in Mark Kelly, you know,
Speaker 1: somebody who was not a great campaigner but turned. I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be a terrific governor and that's
Speaker 1: going to be very helpful. Yeah, so we'll see what
Speaker 1: Arizona is going to be on hard times because water
Speaker 1: and when people get on hard times, they sometimes do
Speaker 1: irrational things. Of the polls, So I'm concerned about Arizona. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is a good point, And I mean, I do
Speaker 1: think we are really seeing climate stuff happening right in
Speaker 1: front of our eyes in a way that I mean,
Speaker 1: I think twenty four climate will take center stage on
Speaker 1: a lot of things. I do too, and I think
Speaker 1: that's going to be very helpful to the Democrats because
Speaker 1: the Republican there's still pretty much climate deniers. Eventually, do
Speaker 1: you think this fever dream breaks and Republicans, I mean
Speaker 1: decide that they're gonna pivot back to pretending not to
Speaker 1: be insane. The only way for that to happen is
Speaker 1: for them to lose. And that's the scary thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: the country is really at a crossroads. We could tip
Speaker 1: over into an authoritarian state. We have a court that's corrupt,
Speaker 1: that was put there by billionaires through the Federal Federalist
Speaker 1: Society that are essentially doing the bidding of the right wing.
Speaker 1: We have a party that doesn't respect democracy and democrat
Speaker 1: democratic institutions and is making excuse for people who stormed
Speaker 1: the Capitol and killed some police officers. When you get
Speaker 1: people like that as to one of the two major
Speaker 1: parties in America, America is at a crossroads, and there's
Speaker 1: no guarantee we're going to recover. That's what everybody's working
Speaker 1: really hard for, particularly the seventeen to twenty five year
Speaker 1: old who are doing a terrific job except for their
Speaker 1: voting percentages. They need to get up quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Weren't you heartened by these mid terms? Yes, very much so.
Speaker 1: It seemed like a country that was coming to its census. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you we're talking about the Senate. Biden runs again.
Speaker 1: I believe he's gonna win if his health stay is good,
Speaker 1: even against the Santis, who's not a very attractive candidate
Speaker 1: in his views. Of course, they're just antediluvian. He's already
Speaker 1: catering to the worst elements of the Republican Party. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be hard for him to come back from that.
Speaker 1: I'm an optimist, but this is very very serious and
Speaker 1: we could tip over into what would end the end
Speaker 1: the United States as we know it. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's really important to keep that in the focus. What
Speaker 1: are you watching just now? I mean there's a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff happening that sort of off the radar but important,
Speaker 1: Like what's happening in Wisconsin, you know, the sort of
Speaker 1: off year election stuff. What are you watching? I'm watching
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court in Wisconsin. That's very very important. I'm
Speaker 1: watching some court decisions that are getting made around the
Speaker 1: country about some of the election fraud that's going on
Speaker 1: on the Republican side, or the attempted election fraud. So far,
Speaker 1: the course have mostly resisted it. I'm watching some of
Speaker 1: the corruption in places like the Georgia Legislature UM where
Speaker 1: they have already passed Jim Crow laws and essentially the
Speaker 1: new disguised Jim Crow. And I've sort of given up
Speaker 1: on Florida. I think Florida is just going to have
Speaker 1: to you know, they just seem to want to collect
Speaker 1: people that aren't going to be with the where the
Speaker 1: majority of Americans are. I mean, they did also I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of those people did move there to
Speaker 1: be together, right, so maybe they should all be sequestered
Speaker 1: in Florida. I don't know. I mean it's just it
Speaker 1: is like, I mean, they have definitely they're making each
Speaker 1: other more right way, and let's not for Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is not confined to De Santis. They have a senior
Speaker 1: senator who are think he's a senior senator now, Rick Scott,
Speaker 1: who was indicted his company was indicted and eventually found
Speaker 1: guilty of cheating the government medicare of one point five
Speaker 1: billion dollars. I mean, the people that are being elected
Speaker 1: by the people of Florida to serve them. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't blame the politicians there. There's something the matter
Speaker 1: with going on in Florida. There. It's very hot and
Speaker 1: very huge. It's got to be the weather. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this is all really important. I just I'm curious one
Speaker 1: last thing, which is in speaking Florida, there is this
Speaker 1: college board thing where De Santis is targeting African American
Speaker 1: ap history. The college board is going along with it.
Speaker 1: I mean, what is the recourse here? I mean it
Speaker 1: just seems unconscionably. I mean it's a ridiculous but do
Speaker 1: you think there's any sort of recourse for the Biden
Speaker 1: administration here, I have no idea. That's a legal question.
Speaker 1: You know. The carbon College Board has always been pretty craven.
Speaker 1: I mean, those people are in that, and the and
Speaker 1: the people who do the testing and all that. Then
Speaker 1: it's all about the money for them. So um. In fact,
Speaker 1: I think it's great that a lot of these universities
Speaker 1: are not bothering to take those tests anymore. I think
Speaker 1: the African American history in high schools is very worthwhile.
Speaker 1: It's an important part of our country's history that's never
Speaker 1: been taught properly, and it is beginning to be now.
Speaker 1: I think what the college Board is doing watering down
Speaker 1: the course is not critical. I don't think we should
Speaker 1: have getting a big fight about that, because the truth is,
Speaker 1: the teachers are going to teach that course the way
Speaker 1: they want to teach the course, the way the AP
Speaker 1: people tell them they have to. So although obviously isn't
Speaker 1: gonna get taught in Florida, I'm sort of almost ready
Speaker 1: to give up on Florida. I mean, you know, firing
Speaker 1: the school board members, firing the superintendents who are very
Speaker 1: popular among the parents, if the Florida people don't get
Speaker 1: their act together and get rid of these nutcases. I mean,
Speaker 1: Florida has now become one of the most corrupt legislatures
Speaker 1: in the in the United States. It's a disaster, and
Speaker 1: it's a big state, it's an important state. But I
Speaker 1: just scratched my head and think, what the hell is
Speaker 1: going on down there? We're going on with this voting. Um,
Speaker 1: I have one last question for you. You are a doctor.
Speaker 1: We are coming true hopefully again, you know, with bearing
Speaker 1: some other mutation this pandemic. Are you disappointed that Republicans
Speaker 1: used this as a way to divide people and that
Speaker 1: there wasn't more coming together? Yeah, of course I am.
Speaker 1: I mean they look but those were the Republicans that
Speaker 1: you know would be happier in Hungary or Poland. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are not Democrats and they're barely Americans. It's the
Speaker 1: same technique they use on race, the same technique they
Speaker 1: use on gay people. You isolate people, You make them
Speaker 1: feel aggrieved, you make them feel like violence is okay,
Speaker 1: even though you supposedly don't condone it. Very fine people
Speaker 1: on both sides. When you're talking the Nazis protesting against
Speaker 1: the march in uh In, anti racist march in in Charlottesville.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what parties who are in authoritarian lye
Speaker 1: inclined do. This is an authoritarian party and they're they're
Speaker 1: in a battle for the soul of their own party.
Speaker 1: They're not going to win that battle internally. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have the way to do it is what I call
Speaker 1: reductive reduction of cognitive dissidence. You show them that this
Speaker 1: is a losing proposition for them, and as a losing
Speaker 1: proposition for their voters. And when the voters get wise
Speaker 1: and the Republicans get wise, they'll come back. But as
Speaker 1: we saw in Germany in the thirties and the forties,
Speaker 1: there's no guarantee that they're going to come back without
Speaker 1: self destructing or destroying the whole country. Yeah, Howard Dean,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Nancy
Speaker 1: Pelosi is the former Speaker of the House and represents
Speaker 1: California's eleventh district. Welcome too Fast Politics. Representative Nancy Pelosi,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Molly. I'm very excited to be with you.
Speaker 1: I've heard wonderful things and um both very much looking
Speaker 1: forward to being on Well, we're delayed to have you
Speaker 1: so I wanted to ask you. One of the many
Speaker 1: times I wanted to have you on this podcast was
Speaker 1: one I was watching the c SPAN coverage and you
Speaker 1: had written down all of the numbers, and you had
Speaker 1: calculated that Kevin McCarthy did not have the votes. He
Speaker 1: didn't until he did. But the fact is that was
Speaker 1: the mystery to all of us as to why all
Speaker 1: of that wasn't done, shall we say, b ours, so
Speaker 1: that his eventual election as Speaker would be clear to
Speaker 1: the public. What we were talking about with the numbers, say,
Speaker 1: if you have X number of presents, then you need
Speaker 1: fewer number of yeses. But you guys have too many
Speaker 1: presents because the demographs more yes. So again it's complicated
Speaker 1: what actually happened at the end, because I would be
Speaker 1: there when the Republicans said they wanted to adjourn, and
Speaker 1: we've ended up because we thought that the public should,
Speaker 1: we should have a Congress that was functioning, that our
Speaker 1: member should get sworn in, that we could engage staff,
Speaker 1: and that we could be a Congress of the United States.
Speaker 1: So just get your act together and get this done.
Speaker 1: They said they were saying, yes, they wanted to adjourn
Speaker 1: and hold it over until the next week, and we said, no,
Speaker 1: get it done now. But what happened then one of
Speaker 1: there are no votes came forward and said it's okay.
Speaker 1: On the next vote, I'll be with you. I'll be
Speaker 1: present or whatever. I'll be an okay vote on the
Speaker 1: next vote, I'll be okay. Then immediately Kevin said okay,
Speaker 1: everybody vote no on adjourned it. So that's what happened.
Speaker 1: They didn't They would have gone into the weekend with
Speaker 1: nothing except and if theirs then said I'll be with
Speaker 1: you anyway, it wouldn't be inevitable that there would be
Speaker 1: a Republican Speaker of the House. So it was just
Speaker 1: a question of time. Get it done. I was hoping
Speaker 1: Kevin could get it done on the first ballot. What
Speaker 1: is it they need? What do you have to do?
Speaker 1: Just get it done. But anyway, I was showing the
Speaker 1: members how you can't keep getting presents, people voting present
Speaker 1: and no and have it add up to a majority
Speaker 1: of the members of Congress. I read a story once
Speaker 1: about it, the kind of vote whipper you were when
Speaker 1: you were speaker, and how you would double, triple, quadruple
Speaker 1: check to make sure that you had the votes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels like I mean McCarthy has brought a bunch
Speaker 1: of things to the floor, many a few of which
Speaker 1: have not passed, which he had tried to. You know,
Speaker 1: he got ilhan Omar kicked off a committee that was
Speaker 1: I guess he was very pleased with that. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you just watch it and so sort of like,
Speaker 1: how is he doing it this way? And why is
Speaker 1: he not more careful with the vote whipping. Well, I
Speaker 1: think he's getting the majority vote on the floor, but
Speaker 1: it's not something that's going to pass in the Congress
Speaker 1: of the United States. It's just not going to pass
Speaker 1: in the Congress. It's not going to become the law
Speaker 1: of the land. And again, what is the what is
Speaker 1: the important use of time there in order to move
Speaker 1: us forward? We have important work to do. I don't
Speaker 1: think that at this point he will fail to get
Speaker 1: the Republican votes he needs or some when he gets
Speaker 1: serious about the legislation, we'll see. But on some of
Speaker 1: these uh so he's say messages that he's putting out there,
Speaker 1: he probably will continue to have the votes, but who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, he only has a five vote margin. One
Speaker 1: person sadly is um not well, so there's a four
Speaker 1: vote margin, and that's tough. If you had Santos, If
Speaker 1: Santos had been a Democrat, it never would have been.
Speaker 1: But if he had been, would you have pushed him
Speaker 1: to resign? I mean, McCarthy thinks this vote helps him,
Speaker 1: but has continually been such an embarrassment. Well, he's an embarrassments.
Speaker 1: Question is are these people embarrassed? I mean, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: he may be an embarrassment, but some of their members
Speaker 1: are a danger to the American people. To watch what
Speaker 1: is happening on the Republican side is really sad. This
Speaker 1: is the Grand Old Party. I keep telling Republicans, take
Speaker 1: back your party. This isn't who you are. You've done
Speaker 1: great things for America, You've had great presidents of the
Speaker 1: United States, and now you look like a punch line. Okay,
Speaker 1: good joke. But again, his behavior is such that it
Speaker 1: does not bring dignity and respect to the Congress, to
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives, and that is a rule of
Speaker 1: the House that your behavior should not being disrespect to
Speaker 1: the House. So he's already violated that. Whether he has
Speaker 1: violated law in terms of campaign contributions, whether he has
Speaker 1: I think two things all the things they talk about,
Speaker 1: enhancing his resume, all that stuff, but terrible. But what
Speaker 1: really matters is did he break the law, he violate
Speaker 1: the rules of the House, and did he commit hubris
Speaker 1: by associating himself in a way that wasn't true with
Speaker 1: the Holocaust? We hold that in a very special place,
Speaker 1: and clearly he did not. I don't spend a whole
Speaker 1: lot of time on him, because again, he's not a
Speaker 1: legislative danger at the moment. I think it's a shame
Speaker 1: that he is in Congress. I think it's a shame
Speaker 1: on the Republicans that he's there. But again, they have
Speaker 1: a good deal of shame going on on their side
Speaker 1: of the aisle in New York State. I'm in New
Speaker 1: York City. Actually, we've had a really not great run
Speaker 1: in these mid terms, despite the fact that Democrats had
Speaker 1: an amazing run everywhere else. I mean, you know a
Speaker 1: lot about sort of the party and how to get
Speaker 1: it done. What are your thoughts about New York City. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just say about the election writ large, I
Speaker 1: kept telling people all along, all over the country, with
Speaker 1: campaigning for candidates or making speeches to a broader audience,
Speaker 1: or raising money whatever, that we were going to win.
Speaker 1: I said, do not pay attention to any of these
Speaker 1: pundits or sitting someplace in d C deciding they know
Speaker 1: what's going on in the rest of the country. Our
Speaker 1: candidates came forth after January six. They came forth with patriotism,
Speaker 1: with courage, and with confidence that they could win. They
Speaker 1: knew why they were running and they were determined to win.
Speaker 1: So I felt very confident that we could hold the House.
Speaker 1: The others said, oh, no, you have the wrong message,
Speaker 1: and un us and that, and I said, no, we
Speaker 1: don't have the wrong message. Oh, your message is in
Speaker 1: the rear view mirror. No it isn't. We know our districts.
Speaker 1: Our candidates know their districts. We had a clear distinction
Speaker 1: between Democrats and republican in terms of the contrast about
Speaker 1: who was for lowering the cost of prescription drugs and
Speaker 1: who was there with pharma, to use one example, who
Speaker 1: was there for women's right to choose and who was
Speaker 1: there to criminalize women's right to choose in the country.
Speaker 1: And so people knew in their districts the importance of democracy,
Speaker 1: the importance of our freedoms, the importance of kitchen table issues,
Speaker 1: like the cost of prescription drugs, and they were doing
Speaker 1: very well in their districts. Even though the punditry, even
Speaker 1: the Democratic counttry was saying, oh, you don't have it wrong.
Speaker 1: We were saying to them, police, don't talk about something
Speaker 1: you don't know about. So we felt pretty good about
Speaker 1: our race. Ten days before, two weeks before New York
Speaker 1: started to show weakness at the statewide level, and all
Speaker 1: the focus was then to win the governorship, which was
Speaker 1: very very important to do, but it did come at
Speaker 1: the expense of our races a long and in the
Speaker 1: Hudson River Valley, Hudson Valley, and that was most unfortunate
Speaker 1: to how came you could be speaker in this term.
Speaker 1: You never know, you don't know with all the things
Speaker 1: that are going on, but we certainly have the capacity
Speaker 1: to win it in four I hope it's a lesson
Speaker 1: learned for some who think they know what's going on
Speaker 1: in races that they have no knowledge of, that they
Speaker 1: are second guessing. How we have chosen messages for the district,
Speaker 1: not us, the candidates who believe they can win, who
Speaker 1: know what works, and all of these are consistent with
Speaker 1: our values and our priorities. And not consistent with hearsay
Speaker 1: rumor and coundentry and Washington d C. So New York
Speaker 1: was a disappointment. I was told, actually that New York
Speaker 1: could pick up seats. I said, I don't count it
Speaker 1: that way, and I do not count it that But no,
Speaker 1: we did not expect to lose four seats. There three
Speaker 1: seats that were actually Democratic seats that went bad, and
Speaker 1: one that was was Jean Patrick Maloney. He lost by
Speaker 1: a half a percentage point. When the governor lost by
Speaker 1: like ten points in his district. Other statewide office holders
Speaker 1: went down in their percentage in those particular districts as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was mind blowing. So but you think the governorship
Speaker 1: ended up distracting from the congressional seats. The fact that
Speaker 1: they did not address the political concern that was clear
Speaker 1: early enough had an impact on the House seats. Let
Speaker 1: me say this, I'm a former cheer of the California
Speaker 1: Democratic Party years ago. If I want to win statewide,
Speaker 1: I know what I have to do. If I want
Speaker 1: to win congressional or legislative seats, I know what I
Speaker 1: have to do. If I have to want to do both,
Speaker 1: I want to do both. Then you have to do both. So,
Speaker 1: for example, one win statewide, what do you do you
Speaker 1: do Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose like that.
Speaker 1: But if you want to win seats in those democratic areas,
Speaker 1: those seats are one right, So what choice had to
Speaker 1: be made? So in New York, the representation was that
Speaker 1: they were doing both, but the downside of the governor's
Speaker 1: race was too. I mean, Sean Patford is winning, is
Speaker 1: losing by half a point, and the governor is losing
Speaker 1: by ten points in his district. You see what the
Speaker 1: challenge this challenges. And again I I fully support winning
Speaker 1: the governor's race, but I did not think it had
Speaker 1: to be at the expense of the control of the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives in California. You have made a statement
Speaker 1: on that senatorial seat that is everybody wants it. Yes,
Speaker 1: Can you just tell our listeners what that endorsement was.
Speaker 1: My statement was that if Senator Feinstein decides to seek
Speaker 1: real leftction, she has my wholehearted support. If she chooses
Speaker 1: not to run, I'm supporting Adam Schiff for Senate. California
Speaker 1: is a huge, wonderful state, probably the fourth largest economy
Speaker 1: in the world. Forty million people, our balance of trade
Speaker 1: because of agriculture, and not so many things are meaning
Speaker 1: the US balance of trades meant much of its springs
Speaker 1: from California, whether it's movies or produce, and so we
Speaker 1: need a strong leader in the Senate. Senator Feinstein, in
Speaker 1: my statement, I spend most of my time singing her praises,
Speaker 1: that she has one of the finest legislative records in
Speaker 1: and Senate history, that she has been a champion on
Speaker 1: the public safety in terms whether you're talking about what's
Speaker 1: about safety and security, whether you're talking about assault weapon ban,
Speaker 1: or you're talking about Intelligence Committee, where she is such
Speaker 1: a champion as a chair, we want a Senator who
Speaker 1: will continue that strength. Adam Schiff as a person who
Speaker 1: is the chair of the until just now, and the
Speaker 1: Speaker took him off the committee because he was too
Speaker 1: effective in his he Adam was too effective in his
Speaker 1: opposition to Donald Trump, and Kevin was so catering to
Speaker 1: mar Lago. But until then he was chair of the
Speaker 1: Intelligence Committee. And so from the standpoint of our national
Speaker 1: security to the season nexus between national security and the
Speaker 1: fact that our security is also measured in the health, education,
Speaker 1: well being of the American people. So he sees that
Speaker 1: connection between security and economy and kitchen table issues for
Speaker 1: the American people. I'm very, very excited about supporting him.
Speaker 1: Should Diane decide not to run again. She has been remarkable,
Speaker 1: an icon a woman and government and politics, just iconic
Speaker 1: figure my love and respect. But if she decides not
Speaker 1: to go, I think we need a strong senator, both
Speaker 1: in terms of the security of our country, the strength
Speaker 1: of our economy, and the fairness of it all in
Speaker 1: terms of addressing disparities and the rest. Adam Schiff has
Speaker 1: done this again and again. And when you ongoing basis,
Speaker 1: people like Tucker Carlson have spread horrible rumors about you.
Speaker 1: You have been demonized, as many successful women have. This
Speaker 1: leads to an actual concrete attack on your family in
Speaker 1: your home. Are you furious? I mean, I'm furious for you,
Speaker 1: and I'm not. You know, first of all, they if
Speaker 1: they demonized me because I was effective and biggest fundraiser
Speaker 1: pass legislation always. But I also give credit to my members.
Speaker 1: I'm not their unifier. Were unified by our values and
Speaker 1: our members are very courageous to do what is needed
Speaker 1: to be done. So But because I have an effective
Speaker 1: record politically has been more importantly policy wise. They decided
Speaker 1: they had to try to take me down, which is
Speaker 1: sad because that's not what politics should be about. But
Speaker 1: it is what it has been about, and that was
Speaker 1: a plan on the part of the Republican National Committee
Speaker 1: to do just that. But what's sad for me is
Speaker 1: that while I'm at the target, uh, they went after
Speaker 1: my husband, and that is really a horrible thing. Take
Speaker 1: it to a larger place. What I'm concerned about, and
Speaker 1: have been for a number of years, is that when
Speaker 1: I've encouraged women to run for when I came to Congress,
Speaker 1: or twelve Democratic women eleven Republican women three out of
Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty five terrible. So I said, I
Speaker 1: can't you know, I'm a former chair of the party.
Speaker 1: I'm political. So we have to change that. And for
Speaker 1: box Or and others, we mismade a decision to do that,
Speaker 1: and now we have ninety nine nine d Democratic women.
Speaker 1: We certainly want more. The Republicans have gone to maybe
Speaker 1: thirty or something like that, so they have grown their
Speaker 1: number two not what we have, but they have more,
Speaker 1: and we certainly want more women on both sides of
Speaker 1: the aisle. But the fact is, when you talk to
Speaker 1: women and say that our country needs you, there's nothing
Speaker 1: more wholesome for our government and our political system than
Speaker 1: the fuller participation of women in the process. That you
Speaker 1: will make a tremendous difference. They say back to me,
Speaker 1: I could never subject my family because many of them
Speaker 1: are much younger than I now. But you know, when
Speaker 1: they start off, I can't subject my family to the
Speaker 1: negative attitude. I can't have my children coming home from
Speaker 1: school crying because somebody said saw something on TV that
Speaker 1: wasn't true about me, And so that's what concerns me more.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm most concerned about what happened to my
Speaker 1: husband and the threats to me and my family, but
Speaker 1: again to what it means in the larger sense, two
Speaker 1: women saying, I just I just don't know that I
Speaker 1: can subject my family to this. Now many have and uh,
Speaker 1: they are courageous and and you know, there's much been
Speaker 1: written and said about threats to members of congressmen and women,
Speaker 1: and that's most unfortunate. But I resent the impact of
Speaker 1: that their negative attitude towards me has had on other
Speaker 1: women taking the stand up. Had women tell me that
Speaker 1: after some of the negative ads that have been played
Speaker 1: against them. People they know well cross the street when
Speaker 1: they see them coming and and their children will come
Speaker 1: home crying, as I said, and that's just not what
Speaker 1: politics should be about. So I've always said, if we
Speaker 1: want more women in politics, we have to raise the
Speaker 1: civility and lower the role of money, and we'll get
Speaker 1: more women to run. And that when women succeed, America succeeds.
Speaker 1: And I feel very I believe, very strongly, and that
Speaker 1: is your husband doing better. Only you're kind to ask. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's about a halfway there. The doctor told him about
Speaker 1: six months to be sort of normal. We just went
Speaker 1: past three months. Has three more months and we hoped
Speaker 1: that by then he'll be close to normal. I do
Speaker 1: uh enjoy taking him some places because the doctor also
Speaker 1: said he has to have some things to look forward to.
Speaker 1: So we went to Kenny Center Honors and oh, he
Speaker 1: came to the unveiling of my portrait. And there are
Speaker 1: different things. But I appreciate your asking. People are always
Speaker 1: asking and praying for him, and I'm very very grateful
Speaker 1: for that. Thank you so much for all your time.
Speaker 1: This was so great. I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I have to see you sometime soon. I know you.
Speaker 1: Our dear listeners are very busy and you don't have
Speaker 1: time to sort through the hundreds of pieces of pundentry
Speaker 1: each week. This is why every week I put together
Speaker 1: a newsletter of my five favorite articles on politics. If
Speaker 1: you enjoy the podcast, you will love having this in
Speaker 1: your inbox every Friday. So sign up at Fast Politics
Speaker 1: pod dot com and click the tab to join our
Speaker 1: mailing list. That's Fast politics pod dot com. Senator Patty
Speaker 1: Murray is the senior senator from Washington State. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Fast Politics, Senator Patty Murray. Well, nice to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Very excited to have you here. You are the President
Speaker 1: pro temp of the United States Senate. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: We call it president pro tim. I think there's a
Speaker 1: longer way to pronounce temperary or something that I go
Speaker 1: with President pro tim. Very exciting and what does it
Speaker 1: mean exactly? The President pro tim is actually the person
Speaker 1: that presides when the Vice president is not here to
Speaker 1: do it. There are ministerial duties to it. I opened
Speaker 1: the Senate this morning, um as part of it, part
Speaker 1: of my job, uh and importantly, third in line to
Speaker 1: the president. So I have to stay abreast of absolutely
Speaker 1: everything happening domestically and internationally in case something horrible happens,
Speaker 1: which we all presume will not, but I have to
Speaker 1: be ready for that ship. How do you get this job?
Speaker 1: But I've been around a long time. To be seniority
Speaker 1: and my colleagues vote for me to do that is
Speaker 1: it's quite cool. So I want to talk to you.
Speaker 1: You came in, you were elected in which was this
Speaker 1: year the woman? You came in on? You know, in
Speaker 1: a group of women, you have you have made women's
Speaker 1: house a big issue. We have just seen the fall
Speaker 1: of Row. Explained to me what that has meant to you.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know what it's meant to me and
Speaker 1: my mother. It's just heartbreaking. I did come in before
Speaker 1: I was elected, they were all of two women in
Speaker 1: the Senate out of a hundred. We've made progress. Actually,
Speaker 1: when I was elected, we got to be six and
Speaker 1: they called it the Year of the Woman, which seems
Speaker 1: just kind of crazy, but uh, and you know, women
Speaker 1: have become more and more part of the political process
Speaker 1: of serving and positions, being a voice for their constituents,
Speaker 1: and obviously making sure that women have a place in
Speaker 1: our country economically and be able to have their voice
Speaker 1: be heard and have issues solved in a way that
Speaker 1: works for them. So in my career, in my lifetime,
Speaker 1: to see the courts overturned Row and specifically say to
Speaker 1: women you no longer have a choice about your life
Speaker 1: and your health is going to be made by a
Speaker 1: politician is just devastating. But I'm not one who just
Speaker 1: you know, Carls in a corner. I'm fighting back, and
Speaker 1: so are women and men across this country. And that
Speaker 1: gives me hope, um, that we will be able to
Speaker 1: when we get the votes and everybody works hard past
Speaker 1: the protections back into law at the federal level. So
Speaker 1: marriage was codified by the Congress. I mean it seems
Speaker 1: like Row, it seems like Row should be but clearly,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a much heavier left it is right now.
Speaker 1: But I think what I saw happen since Rowe fell
Speaker 1: is that people who just had that attitude of well
Speaker 1: politics doesn't affect me, that somebody else all of a
Speaker 1: sudden realized it's them, and it's that understanding gross and
Speaker 1: people see what is at risk. Um, I think they
Speaker 1: will become more actively involved and we will at some
Speaker 1: point see ROW codified into law at the federal level.
Speaker 1: But nobody should think that's easy. That means electing people
Speaker 1: across the country. It means pushing. It means keeping it
Speaker 1: front and center, fighting for it day after day, and
Speaker 1: you know, we all have to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: You had this very interesting reelection where Republicans got very
Speaker 1: excited and thought somehow they were going to dispose see you,
Speaker 1: and they were brutally put in their place. I mean,
Speaker 1: were you worried at all? You know, I don't take
Speaker 1: any election for granted. I believe it's a time where
Speaker 1: you really have to go out and talk to your
Speaker 1: constituents millions of people, tell them what you're fighting for,
Speaker 1: what you believe in, what you can do as their
Speaker 1: voice here in Congress. And I did that and put
Speaker 1: that to work, and of course the result was that
Speaker 1: I won in a very big way. I'm being I
Speaker 1: remember hearing that and thinking, because you know, Republicans, I mean,
Speaker 1: they really were like, we're going to do this, and
Speaker 1: I was like, no, you're not. But who is still?
Speaker 1: I know? So I want to ask you, you really
Speaker 1: know how the Senate works. Um Democrats don't hold the
Speaker 1: Congress don't hold the House anymore, but I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a tremendous appetite for bipartisanship, you know, Molly, I
Speaker 1: think that's absolutely right, because I really do think at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, will understand we have differences
Speaker 1: of opinion, but they don't want chaos. They actually want
Speaker 1: their country to be okay. They want to get up
Speaker 1: every morning, take care of themselves, their families, do their
Speaker 1: jobs without worrying what the heck is going on in Washington,
Speaker 1: d c. And whether it's going to impact them in
Speaker 1: their lives. So I think people want stability, and the
Speaker 1: way we do that is to do our jobs here
Speaker 1: making sure that we pass our government funding bills in
Speaker 1: a regular way so people don't have to worry at
Speaker 1: the end of the year that the government's going to
Speaker 1: shut down and all that bugaboo uh, and that they
Speaker 1: really want us to be here doing our jobs. And
Speaker 1: I'm kind of excited that the four people that are
Speaker 1: at the top of the most important committee to do that,
Speaker 1: the appropriations bills, UH, the Republican and Democrat in both
Speaker 1: the House and Senate, our women, and we come to
Speaker 1: work every day to get things done. We don't want chaos.
Speaker 1: We want to do our jobs. We know it's hard work.
Speaker 1: We don't skip over pieces of it. We don't pretend
Speaker 1: to sies. We go to work. And that gives me
Speaker 1: a lot of hope that we can show this country
Speaker 1: that we can operate and function within a political climate that, yeah,
Speaker 1: is sometimes very hard. Tell us who the people are
Speaker 1: on Appropriations in the Senate, it's you. You're the chair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I chair the Senate Appropriations Committee. My vice chair Republican
Speaker 1: counterpart is Susan Collins. In the House, k Granger is
Speaker 1: the chair, Republican chair, and Rosa Dolora is her counterpart,
Speaker 1: the Democratic leader in that side. We know Rosa de
Speaker 1: Laura wow, because she is New Haven's congresswoman and has
Speaker 1: purple hair. More importantly, will you just tell our listeners
Speaker 1: for the people who are like my dad, not that
Speaker 1: I don't love my dad, what Appropriations does. Absolutely. The
Speaker 1: Appropriations is the committee that decides where and how all
Speaker 1: the funding in our government goes. Covers everything from defense
Speaker 1: non defense, things from education to NIH research, to aggregate
Speaker 1: cultural spending to foreign operations, the whole gamut. It's like
Speaker 1: your family budget is in front of you. You know,
Speaker 1: you've got to pay your rent or your mortgage. You
Speaker 1: gotta pay for food, You got to send your kids
Speaker 1: to college. You gotta make sure that you got money
Speaker 1: for whatever sports equipment your kids need. Um, we look
Speaker 1: at everything within our quote country family budget and decide
Speaker 1: what's going to be the priorities and how we make
Speaker 1: sure it is funded in a way that works for us.
Speaker 1: And I always say, our budget and spending really is
Speaker 1: a reflection of our values. What do we want in
Speaker 1: this country, the values that we want to make sure
Speaker 1: we're investing in for our families and our communities. You
Speaker 1: have this trauma with what's happening right now with McCarthy
Speaker 1: trying to default, Republicans trying to hold the American budget
Speaker 1: hostage by threatening to default on our debt. What do
Speaker 1: you think about that? I think that's horrendous. Look if
Speaker 1: if you decide you are going to buy a house,
Speaker 1: and you go through all the process and you say
Speaker 1: this is what it's gonna cost me, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pay my bill. Um, when it comes to I'm going
Speaker 1: to go forward with this, you sign it all and
Speaker 1: then the first month you get your mortgage bill, you go, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to pay this, and it just didn't
Speaker 1: work that way. When we as Congress decide this is
Speaker 1: where our money is going to go, and we sign
Speaker 1: contracts to make sure that we're paying for what we
Speaker 1: um decided to have, we can't turn around a few
Speaker 1: months later and say to our two people we owe
Speaker 1: money to that we're not going to pay the bill.
Speaker 1: That that is crazy, and to use that to hold
Speaker 1: us hostage our job to get our appropriations, bills, our
Speaker 1: budget done, the work we need to do is just
Speaker 1: playing politics with the nation's credit. That is dangerous and
Speaker 1: we can't allow it. So what happens now? I mean,
Speaker 1: is there anything that Democrats can do, or even that
Speaker 1: Biden can do? I mean, I feel like Biden has
Speaker 1: learned a lesson from Obama's experience with dealing with the
Speaker 1: House Republicans on this, and he's just said he's not
Speaker 1: going to do it. But I mean, this still could
Speaker 1: play out very close to the deadline, right. I would
Speaker 1: say to anybody who is gonna have to who's bought something,
Speaker 1: pay your bill. I would said to my country, hey,
Speaker 1: you don't get to the time you pay that bill,
Speaker 1: and then say, well, I'm not gonna pay this bill
Speaker 1: unless you whatever. We just can't do that. So I
Speaker 1: say to McCarthy to Republicans in the House, into our country,
Speaker 1: pay our bills, and then yeah, if you want to
Speaker 1: have a debate about where that money should be spent
Speaker 1: for the following year, what our priorities are, what our
Speaker 1: budget should be, put it in the place where it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be. But don't play with our nation's credit.
Speaker 1: That is dangerous and costly. So I think McCarthy loses
Speaker 1: in the end if he tries to pay politics with this.
Speaker 1: Our country does not want to default on our debt.
Speaker 1: It would be devastating, and I think he has set
Speaker 1: himself up to have to say a face by saying, oh,
Speaker 1: never mind, which you know, nobody wants to put him
Speaker 1: in that position. He's put himself in that position. But
Speaker 1: just let's do our job under Trump. Three times the
Speaker 1: Republicans voted to pay our bills to raise the death ceiling.
Speaker 1: This is playing politics now, and it's wrong. Do you
Speaker 1: feel that having been a preschool teacher has helped you
Speaker 1: deal with Washington DCA? Oftentimes I feel like I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the face of preschoolers. Um you know you have
Speaker 1: to be tough. You have to say it's my turn
Speaker 1: to talk. You have to say, you know it's time
Speaker 1: to put your maths away. Um, you have to say,
Speaker 1: we've got work to do. And then there's times where you,
Speaker 1: you know, really come together and sing a song. But
Speaker 1: oftentimes within your class, you always have the bully, you
Speaker 1: always love, the person who speaks too much, the child.
Speaker 1: That's my world. You've been in the state for I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't think of such a long time ago, but
Speaker 1: it is. I mean, you've seen a real chain in
Speaker 1: American politics. Can you just talk about that for a minute.
Speaker 1: I do see change in that. It's much more hyper politically,
Speaker 1: I think than when I first got here. But there
Speaker 1: was politics when I came in n There was disagreements,
Speaker 1: but there was also a consensus among Republicans that when
Speaker 1: you fight for something, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you have to find a compromise. That is how our
Speaker 1: country works. And finding those people who still understand that
Speaker 1: that's the job we came here to do is getting
Speaker 1: very difficult. But I will say to everyone, there are
Speaker 1: people who understand that though we're elected to fight for
Speaker 1: what our beliefs is, if we want our country to work.
Speaker 1: We have to listen to our counterparts, find common ground,
Speaker 1: and move the ball forward. That's what I try to
Speaker 1: do every day. Are you happy that Susan Collins got
Speaker 1: re elected? You know, I'm delighted to have Susan asked
Speaker 1: my counterpart on the Appropriations Committee, because she shares the
Speaker 1: value I just talked about when it comes to getting
Speaker 1: things done. She came here to get things done. She
Speaker 1: knows that if we don't pay our bills, if we
Speaker 1: don't put together appropriations bills and we don't decide where
Speaker 1: our spending is going to go first, we haven't done
Speaker 1: our job, and be we're doing a disservice to all
Speaker 1: of our country because we're not investing in where we
Speaker 1: need to invest. We've not done our job. She has
Speaker 1: committed to doing that with me. We've had great conversations.
Speaker 1: We're working well together. We do disagree on some issues
Speaker 1: and that's fine. We know where those are, but we
Speaker 1: find out where we agree and right now we agree
Speaker 1: it's our job to get our job done. There are
Speaker 1: some Red state senators who have come in basically on
Speaker 1: very much sort of maga, more like congressional campaigns. Are
Speaker 1: you anxious about working with those people. Well, I find
Speaker 1: people who I can work with. There are people who
Speaker 1: are elected to office today who feel their only job
Speaker 1: here is to come and say no, no, no no. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, how do you pass a budget here in
Speaker 1: the majority party? If every one of your members in
Speaker 1: the Republican caucus in the House, I think that the
Speaker 1: only vote they can take is no. They're in the majority,
Speaker 1: they have got to work to pass bills. You can't
Speaker 1: come here and just say I'm not doing anything because
Speaker 1: your country stops moving. We have a job to do,
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping we continue to find people who are
Speaker 1: willing to do it. Thank you so much, Senator Patty Murray.
Speaker 1: Nice to talk to you. Jesse Cannon, Molly jung Fast,
Speaker 1: that cookie cookie woman from Georgia that we know as
Speaker 1: Marjorie Jewish Space Laser's Taylor Green. Nothing cookie about the
Speaker 1: slow sliding into fascism, but yes, she does absolutely, unequivocally suck. Listen,
Speaker 1: don't you talk like you know things, because she knows
Speaker 1: more than you, buddy, because she's going to tell you, oh,
Speaker 1: no question about what CRT really is. Oh please do
Speaker 1: let me let me let her in like you real Festo,
Speaker 1: can you tell me how much how much COVID cash
Speaker 1: went to CRTRT critical race theory and education. It's it's
Speaker 1: a racist, uh curriculum used to teach children, uh that
Speaker 1: somehow their white skin is not equal to black skin
Speaker 1: and other things in education. No, I do not know that,
Speaker 1: but I do know that there's provisions that the federal
Speaker 1: funds generally are not used. They're supposed to be used
Speaker 1: for curriculum. It's a state, Mr Didero. I have to
Speaker 1: tell you in Illinois that they received five point one
Speaker 1: billion um at at an elementary school there that that
Speaker 1: used it for equity and diversity. Um, so it's it's
Speaker 1: being used for these things. Mr Didero. Can you do
Speaker 1: five point one billion dollars to one elementary school? You know?
Speaker 1: I went to her to get covered where she got
Speaker 1: that statistic. It turns out was the Gateway pund did
Speaker 1: thick tech tour. Yeah, just just to be clear for
Speaker 1: for the Libel suit. That's a joke. People, they're so
Speaker 1: Gateway Pundon institute. It is, it's its own think tank.
Speaker 1: We're all gonna die. Marjorie Taylor Green is going to
Speaker 1: end up as a Republican Speaker of the House, and
Speaker 1: uh the end. There you go, Ladies and gentlemen. That's
Speaker 1: it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and Friday to her the best minds in politics, makes
Speaker 1: sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard,
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Speaker 1: And again, thanks for listening.