Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: As we consider how they vote, in the actual mechanisms
Speaker 2: through which people can vote, what they would need to
Speaker 2: provide to be able to exercise that key element of democracy.
Speaker 2: That is something that is the subject of debate right
Speaker 2: now on Capitol Hill, as Republican lawmakers are pushing various
Speaker 2: pieces of legislation intended, as they say, to improve the
Speaker 2: integrity of elections in America. One such effort is being
Speaker 2: spearheaded by Congressman Brian Style of Wisconsin, the chair of
Speaker 2: the House Administration Committee, who introduced the Mega Act, and
Speaker 2: talk to us about what it's intended to achieve earlier
Speaker 2: at this hour.
Speaker 3: I think it's common sense that we should require, for example,
Speaker 3: photo identification when an individual goes to the polls, I
Speaker 3: have to do that. If you want a board an airplane,
Speaker 3: you want to open a bank accounter, heck, you want
Speaker 3: to buy a six pack of beer, you need to
Speaker 3: show photo identification. So it's common sense, it's popular. This
Speaker 3: is far from the takeover argument that some are attempting
Speaker 3: to make. It's putting in baseline standards so that all
Speaker 3: Americans have confidence our elections are being run accurately and fairly.
Speaker 2: That's the chair of the House Administration Committee. We now
Speaker 2: turn to its ranking member, Congressman Joe Morelli, the Democrat
Speaker 2: from New York is here with us now on Bloomberg
Speaker 2: TV and radio. So you just heard your colleagues argument there, Congressman,
Speaker 2: and we appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 4: What is your response, Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5: Well, it would be one thing if there was any
Speaker 5: degree of lack of confidence by Americans or there was
Speaker 5: evidence of fraud in America.
Speaker 4: None of that is true.
Speaker 5: Actually, elections come off very well. Local and state election
Speaker 5: officials do elections incredibly well. What this is really is
Speaker 5: the chaos and recklessness of the Trump administration. Who the
Speaker 5: president knows the American people are very, very frustrated and
Speaker 5: angry at what's happening with the Department of Homeland Security
Speaker 5: and ice on our city streets. They're very concerned about
Speaker 5: the lack of affordability and how badly this economy is going.
Speaker 5: Seventy percent of Americans think the economy is worse direction
Speaker 5: than it was when Donald Trump became president.
Speaker 4: This is really a misdirection.
Speaker 5: It's a way, as the President has said, he says,
Speaker 5: the quiet part out loud, a way to seize American elections,
Speaker 5: to nationalize them, take that power away from the states,
Speaker 5: and give voter data to the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker 5: I don't know if anybody in America who thinks it's
Speaker 5: a good idea to give Secretary Nome access to private
Speaker 5: information that you supply when you register to vote. So
Speaker 5: I understand what my colleagues are saying, but this is
Speaker 5: really a misdirection play, and it's very, very frightening because
Speaker 5: Americans don't want their election and their midterms taken away
Speaker 5: from them.
Speaker 1: Well, Democrats are not on board here, right, so I'm
Speaker 1: assuming this would have trouble passing the Senate when it
Speaker 1: comes to getting sixty votes. But how would you respond
Speaker 1: to what else? President Trump would say that Democrats want
Speaker 1: illegal aliens to vote because they vote Democratic.
Speaker 4: Well, look, the President has said this for hears.
Speaker 5: He even said that Minnesota, which is very much in
Speaker 5: the news these day, and they tried to blackmail Minnesota
Speaker 5: into giving them the voter file for the Department of
Speaker 5: Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. But the President
Speaker 5: famously said I won Minnesota three times. I never get
Speaker 5: credit for it.
Speaker 4: The truth is the president denies election results.
Speaker 5: He's done it around the twenty twenty elections, so far
Speaker 5: as having his head of National Intelligence go at the
Speaker 5: direction of the Department of Justice to seize ballots from
Speaker 5: the twenty twenty election five years ago. It's like, get
Speaker 5: over it, mister president. Illegal are people who are not
Speaker 5: registered to vote or are non American citizens don't vote
Speaker 5: in American elections against the law, and it's a felony
Speaker 5: if you try to vote. So whenever you ask Republicans,
Speaker 5: could you provide evidence that non citizens are voting?
Speaker 4: No, we just have a feel.
Speaker 5: Can you provide evidence that there's widespread voter fraud. No,
Speaker 5: it's just a feeling we have. So you know, look,
Speaker 5: these are solutions in search of problems. American elections are secure.
Speaker 5: Trying to suggest they're not is only shaking the confidence,
Speaker 5: trying to shake the confidence of American voters. We're not
Speaker 5: going to tolerate it, and we're certainly not going to
Speaker 5: let Donald Trump try to national line elections and take
Speaker 5: them for his own. In twenty twenty six, in advance
Speaker 5: of the midterm elections.
Speaker 2: Well, Congressman, you point at Minnesota as an example of
Speaker 2: where we're seeing this election debate obviously very heated, but Minnesota,
Speaker 2: of course, has captured our attention for other reasons, including,
Speaker 2: of course, the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti
Speaker 2: at the hands of ICE officers. That is why Democrats
Speaker 2: are now demanding reforms to ICE. Ten is what your
Speaker 2: leadership was seeking, ten changes that they would like to
Speaker 2: see in order to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker 2: We understand the White House issued. Republicans issued a response.
Speaker 2: Your leader Hockeing Jeffries has described that counter as woefully inadequate.
Speaker 2: What is the minimum bar for user as to what
Speaker 2: reforms would be adequate where compromise could be found.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think it's just Democrats.
Speaker 5: I think the American public has real concerns, and they've
Speaker 5: seen this unfold in videos in front of their eyes,
Speaker 5: and they can see what's happening in minnesot They also
Speaker 5: see that the Department of Homeland Security and the President
Speaker 5: continue to misrepresent what's in those videos, calling people domestic
Speaker 5: terrorists who are peacefully protesting as is their right under
Speaker 5: the Constitution. I think the very minimum ICE agents ought
Speaker 5: to act the same way that law enforcement does all
Speaker 5: around this country.
Speaker 4: No masks.
Speaker 5: You can see a police officer. They should have a badge,
Speaker 5: they should have body cameras. They should have to get
Speaker 5: if they're going to search your home, they need to
Speaker 5: get a judicial warrant that's embodied in the United States Constitution.
Speaker 5: These are fundamental rights which ICE is trying to take
Speaker 5: away in violation of the Constitution. We simply want to
Speaker 5: have the same kind of rules for ICE that you
Speaker 5: would have for any member of a local police force
Speaker 5: anywhere in the United States.
Speaker 1: We've talked to a number of Republican lawmakers about this
Speaker 1: demasking issue and the identification issue. Congressman, and they are
Speaker 1: dug in on this. This is a deal breaker and
Speaker 1: a non starter, and they point to the dosing and
Speaker 1: identifying an harassment of these ICE agents and their families.
Speaker 1: How do we continue the conversation from there, because that's
Speaker 1: where the breakdown happens. What do you tell your Republican
Speaker 1: colleagues when you're not on camera and you're talking about
Speaker 1: issues in the cloak room or at dinner.
Speaker 5: Well, look at every police officer in America goes unmasked in.
Speaker 4: Communities where they live. So if there was people are going.
Speaker 5: To be targeted it would be your local law enforcement
Speaker 5: who lives in the.
Speaker 4: Same community that they do.
Speaker 5: Public safety in truth is this is just a way
Speaker 5: to intimidate people.
Speaker 4: It's a way to hide your identity.
Speaker 5: Frankly, I think it's dangerous for ICE officials and ICE
Speaker 5: agents as well as certainly and most importantly dangerous for residents.
Speaker 4: Of our community.
Speaker 5: So it's a basic fundamental thing that we've had since
Speaker 5: the birth of this republic two hundred and fifty years ago.
Speaker 5: These basic rules need to be followed. And we don't
Speaker 5: do it for FBI officials. We don't do it for
Speaker 5: local law enforcement officials, we don't do it for anyone
Speaker 5: in law enforcement. Why would we do it for ICE
Speaker 5: agents who are now swarming our streets all over this country.
Speaker 2: Well, of course, as we consider the funding that backs
Speaker 2: those agents, Congressman, that was provided a great deal of
Speaker 2: it in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which already passed.
Speaker 2: It isn't necessary for DHS funding to be passed on
Speaker 2: Friday for that to continue. What it is necessary to
Speaker 2: continue FEMA TSA does rely on DHS not shutting down.
Speaker 2: That is an argument your Republican colleagues are making. Why
Speaker 2: is it worth it to shut down DHS if it
Speaker 2: isn't necessarily going to impact ICE directly.
Speaker 5: Well, what I would say is, if that's the case,
Speaker 5: then I think you're right it is. ICE doesn't need
Speaker 5: the money, So why not fund the Coast Guard? Why
Speaker 5: not fund TSA, why not fund FEMA? We could do
Speaker 5: all of that and not fund ICE as we continue
Speaker 5: to negotiate, because, as you point out, ICE already has
Speaker 5: the money they need, so why would they use ICE,
Speaker 5: which doesn't need the funding to hold hostage the folks
Speaker 5: that do transit agents at TSS or TSA or the
Speaker 5: Coast Guard, for God's sake, the Coast Guard to defund
Speaker 5: the Coastguard. So let's fund these other things. It's entirely
Speaker 5: appropriate while we continue to work towards trying to find
Speaker 5: common ground about the way ICE agents act out in
Speaker 5: when they're engaging in the American public, and be certain
Speaker 5: of this. Americans are very unhappy with ICE. It's very
Speaker 5: unpopular because they've.
Speaker 4: Seen two American citizens.
Speaker 5: These weren't so called non documented people. Two American citizens
Speaker 5: are dead within the last three weeks at the hands
Speaker 5: of federal agents. That's why Americans are so angry, and
Speaker 5: that's why they're with us on the question of how
Speaker 5: to reform ICE so that it represents the values of
Speaker 5: the American people.
Speaker 1: Well, you're not just ranking member on the Admin Committee, Congressman,
Speaker 1: your vice ranking member on the Appropriations Committee. How would
Speaker 1: that happen? I hate to warn you, we only have
Speaker 1: a little more than a minute left. Can you actually
Speaker 1: take ICE funding from the rest of that bill and
Speaker 1: essentially siphon that off from the rest? Would you have
Speaker 1: to create a whole new funding bill just for that
Speaker 1: department or how.
Speaker 4: Would it work? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Maybe just put it in the Propriation bill that's from
Speaker 5: front of the House, strip out the ICE funding and
Speaker 5: zero it out because it has funding under the other bills.
Speaker 4: So you can do this.
Speaker 5: It would take no Amende to get that done by
Speaker 5: Fred Activity.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure, so.
Speaker 1: Then we don't shut down. Does HOCKEYM Jeffrey support that, Well.
Speaker 5: You'd have to ask him, but I'm pretty sure he'd
Speaker 5: be very happy if we did that.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm just listening to you talk to Kaylee. I
Speaker 1: think we might have just figured this out four days
Speaker 1: in advance.
Speaker 2: That kind of a deadline in Washington, I don't know, Joe, So.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with US, Yeah, exactly right, Joe
Speaker 1: Morelli from New York twenty fourth district. That's up around
Speaker 1: Rochester where I bet it's off the cold today, and
Speaker 1: we appreciate the insights Congressman