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Speaker 3: Our guest tonight is the third term congressman from New
Speaker 3: Jersey who's running for US Senate. Please welcome Representative Andy Kim.
Speaker 4: Thank you, it's nice is Asian Representative?
Speaker 5: Thank you, Andy Kim.
Speaker 4: House representatives you're currently running to replace. Are you ready
Speaker 4: for Senate?
Speaker 5: That's right?
Speaker 4: To replace the previous guy in New Jersey who got
Speaker 4: caught with gold Baz in his house.
Speaker 5: That's right?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: So yeah, I guess.
Speaker 6: That's a big no no in politics, right.
Speaker 4: What do you have against gold Baz?
Speaker 5: Yeah, apparently I'm anti gold ours.
Speaker 1: Anti Federal Reserve guys.
Speaker 6: Your platform, which okay, this is getting a heated into
Speaker 6: interviewing right out of the gate here.
Speaker 4: But what you're right for Senate?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Look, I mean it's not something I planned to do.
Speaker 6: You know, I'm a three term member of the House
Speaker 6: of Representatives. I got a six year old and eight
Speaker 6: year old, two little boys at home, So I would not,
Speaker 6: you know, planning to take on a statewide election. But look,
Speaker 6: I mean right now, I mean, I'm sure that the
Speaker 6: audience feels it too. I mean, we live in the
Speaker 6: time in the greatest amount of distrust in government in
Speaker 6: modern American history, and eighty four percent of people in
Speaker 6: New Jersey believe that their politicians are crup Like eighty
Speaker 6: four percent like, how can.
Speaker 4: Well they were kind of validated, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4: so you're wondering what's wrong with the other sixteen percent?
Speaker 5: Right, yeah, They're just not that educated.
Speaker 6: Now, look, I mean we have to I believe that
Speaker 6: the opposite of democracies is apathy. It's if people give
Speaker 6: up on this, it feel like they're elected officials are
Speaker 6: not in it for the right reasons. So I just
Speaker 6: I feel at this critical moment, we have to restore
Speaker 6: a sense of integrity back into our politics and try
Speaker 6: to do our best to give the people New Jersey
Speaker 6: a choice.
Speaker 4: Sure, and yeah, yeah, I mean you you're running in
Speaker 4: a district that I'm not wrong. Voted for Donal Trump twice.
Speaker 5: Well my congressional district.
Speaker 6: Yeah, in twenty eighteen, I was part of the class
Speaker 6: of twenty eighteen that flipped the House of Representatives, tried,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 5: Take that away from Donald Trump.
Speaker 6: And I won a district that Trump won, And in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty, I was one of only seven Democrats in
Speaker 6: the entire country that won a district Trump one.
Speaker 5: So yeah, and you're like, so it's you want.
Speaker 4: In a district a Trump won, and your I'm assuming
Speaker 4: a minority in that district both in race.
Speaker 6: And yeah, my district is eighty five percent white, less
Speaker 6: than three percent Asian. When I was first elected, there
Speaker 6: were zero Korean Americans in Congress, and I had a
Speaker 6: lot of people tell me there's no way that Asian
Speaker 6: American can win a district the vast, vast majority of.
Speaker 5: Holly, How did you win it?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: Serious? Did you win?
Speaker 1: You want it? Then?
Speaker 5: Well, look what I'll say is no offense.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, Look, I think what I learned is that, like,
Speaker 6: I'm not going to let other people determine what I
Speaker 6: am or am not capable of accomplishing simply because of
Speaker 6: the color of my skin.
Speaker 5: In my last name, you know.
Speaker 1: This was.
Speaker 5: This was this is the district where I you know,
Speaker 5: I grew up.
Speaker 6: I did my entire kindergarten through twelve in the public
Speaker 6: school systems of my congressional district. I'm raising, you know,
Speaker 6: two little boys in that school system. Like, I have
Speaker 6: every bit as much right to represent that district as
Speaker 6: anybody else, and I have every bit as much right
Speaker 6: to represent my state as anybody else.
Speaker 3: I will say that is that is both inspiring to
Speaker 3: hear and a little gross.
Speaker 5: That's a lot of time in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: I just I guess that's wow.
Speaker 5: That you're really New Jersey. Yeah, God, bless well.
Speaker 3: I think you talk about this feeling in America right now,
Speaker 3: we feel very divided. Yeah, but in the House, you guys,
Speaker 3: you just passed this bipartisan bill funding for Ukraine Taiwan.
Speaker 3: We had the TikTok bill in there as well. Mike
Speaker 3: Johnson seemed to want across the aisle and work with
Speaker 3: you guys.
Speaker 5: What is this?
Speaker 3: Is this the beginning of some sort of bipartisan coalition
Speaker 3: or is this a one time spring fling.
Speaker 6: Now, look, I think what he realized is he has
Speaker 6: no other choice. He can either be a speaker that
Speaker 6: gets zero things done for the entire time that he
Speaker 6: has speak. Everything that he has done, whether it's passing
Speaker 6: our government's funding or anything else. It's required us on
Speaker 6: the Democrats side to be there with it. I'm basically,
Speaker 6: you know, he and Jakiem Jeffries are co Speakers of
Speaker 6: the House right now. There's nothing that the Speaker of
Speaker 6: the House Johnson can get done without Kim Jeffries and
Speaker 6: the Democrats. And so look, it's out of necessity in
Speaker 6: that way. I mean, you know, I hope that there
Speaker 6: are some places where we can find some agreement. But
Speaker 6: I'll be honest with you, like I'm not holding my breath.
Speaker 6: We'll see where things go. But I mean, you guys,
Speaker 6: you know, you all see it. I mean, I basically
Speaker 6: work in the world's worst reality TV show.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: It's just like, well, speaking of that, I mean, you
Speaker 4: are you are on the ground there, you know you
Speaker 4: presumably you talk with these people every day, if not
Speaker 4: all the time, you know. So I guess my question is, like,
Speaker 4: how is it different to what we're seeing on TV
Speaker 4: you'll vibe on the ground in Congress. Is it as
Speaker 4: divisive as what we think it looks like on Instagram?
Speaker 4: Or is it when you guys are in the same room,
Speaker 4: is it more like may you know, like finger guns,
Speaker 4: tell us, how did you know?
Speaker 5: That's no?
Speaker 6: I mean, look, it's it's very frustrated. I'm not gonna
Speaker 6: you know, and I say that as someone who's never
Speaker 6: thought that i'd be in politics. I don't enjoy that
Speaker 6: aspect of it so much. But I mean, look, you
Speaker 6: know one of my one of my colleagues, I guess
Speaker 6: I call him that, Matt Gates for instance. You know,
Speaker 6: he has this line where he says, you know, if
Speaker 6: you're not making news, you're not governing. And I just
Speaker 6: think that that is so indicative what's wrong with our
Speaker 6: politics right now. You know, it's this idea. You know,
Speaker 6: it's this idea that you're equating attention with governance. You
Speaker 6: know that that's absolutely the wrong thing. You can see
Speaker 6: how someone who has that kind of mindset is then
Speaker 6: incentivized to just say crazy things. You know, so like
Speaker 6: I always think about it if you gamify Congress, you know,
Speaker 6: Congress is a game, and you think of what is
Speaker 6: the points system?
Speaker 5: You know, it's like people are.
Speaker 6: Chasing you know, the lights online, the followers on social media,
Speaker 6: you know, the money into their fundraising, how many cable
Speaker 6: news hits they've done. You know, things like that, and like,
Speaker 6: you know, I have colleagues of mine who are more
Speaker 6: interested in being social influencers rather than lawmakers.
Speaker 5: And that's really crazy, you know.
Speaker 6: Like I get to work, like I get to work
Speaker 6: a job whose job description is in the Constitution of
Speaker 6: the United States, like me as a son of and
Speaker 6: we're getting a public school kid gets to do that
Speaker 6: kind of work. Like that should be a deeply humbling experiences,
Speaker 6: not some platform for you to just go chase your
Speaker 6: ego and your ambition.
Speaker 5: That being said, all I said just Ender Kim ticked
Speaker 5: every single one of them cons from Jersey.
Speaker 3: You never chase attention, but we do appreciate you coming
Speaker 3: on our television show.
Speaker 6: It's not about no no, this is I'm a humble man,
Speaker 6: a Comedy Central appreciation.
Speaker 1: I am curious.
Speaker 3: Democratic Party is an interesting place right now. And I
Speaker 3: think this last bill that just got pasted had funding
Speaker 3: for Israel with very few conditions put upon it. The
Speaker 3: more progressive wing the Democratic Party wants there to be
Speaker 3: more conditions with Israel funding. How do you balance that?
Speaker 1: Right now? It seems as if the.
Speaker 3: Progressive side of the Democratic wing is wants more from
Speaker 3: a Democratic Party that's not willing to give it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: No, Look, I mean I think what we need is
Speaker 6: to be able to move forward and have as much
Speaker 6: leverage as possible. What we see is that, you know,
Speaker 6: Nettan Yahoo is taking a path forward that I think
Speaker 6: is very dangerous, you know, dangerous for Israel, dangerous for
Speaker 6: our world, and we need to make sure that we're
Speaker 6: stepping up to be able to have as much strength
Speaker 6: as possible, to be able to end this violence as
Speaker 6: soon as possible. And I'll be honest with you, a
Speaker 6: lot of Democrats feel that same way.
Speaker 5: A lot of my colleagues feel that same way.
Speaker 6: We're just trying to figure out how we can have
Speaker 6: you know, that kind of approach going forward while addressing
Speaker 6: you know, the humanitarian crisis. I mean, there's a famine
Speaker 6: that's imminent right now in northern Gaza. You know, that's devastating.
Speaker 6: We got to make sure that we're providing the kind
Speaker 6: of aid and support to that while also making sure
Speaker 6: we're tackling all these other issues around the world. Ukraine,
Speaker 6: we have you know, we were trying to pass humanitarian
Speaker 6: assistance for the catastrophe in Sudan, which is something that
Speaker 6: doesn't get enough attention so yes, you know, we got
Speaker 6: to make sure that we're pushing forward in all those directions.
Speaker 3: I'll say, also, your some of your colleagues made news
Speaker 3: talking about in regards to this Ukraine funding bill that
Speaker 3: they're seeing Russian propaganda being echoed and talked about on
Speaker 3: the House floor. Are you seeing colleagues, colleagues echo this
Speaker 3: Russian propaganda in terms of whether or not we should
Speaker 3: be funding Ukraine?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I mean, you know, it's it's scary.
Speaker 6: It's scary to see how you know, what we're seeing
Speaker 6: right now is basically a new movement of neo isolationism,
Speaker 6: you know, something that's really about weakening America's position in
Speaker 6: the world and just turning not even just turning a
Speaker 6: blind eye to Vladimir Putin, but actually enabling him. And
Speaker 6: you know, when I think about leaders in other countries,
Speaker 6: when they talk to me about what's happening, first they ask,
Speaker 6: you know, what is happening in America. And the second
Speaker 6: thing they ask is they say, is America a reliable partner?
Speaker 6: That's what they ask themselves and they and the answer
Speaker 6: to that right now is no. You know, we are
Speaker 6: not a reliable partner in the way that we can
Speaker 6: and should be, you know, and you see that with
Speaker 6: three cards to Ukraine and hopefully we're going to be
Speaker 6: able to.
Speaker 5: Provide some support.
Speaker 6: But that has a lot of impact in terms of
Speaker 6: how we're perceived all over the world with all sorts
Speaker 6: of other crises that are out there. So you know,
Speaker 6: this is one of the biggest questions that we have
Speaker 6: of just what is America's role in the twenty first century.
Speaker 6: What is the value of the American handshake right now?
Speaker 6: And that's very much under question right now in the.
Speaker 4: World right and what you know, just on that note,
Speaker 4: like to solve a lot of problems that you know, facing.
Speaker 5: The point to me point crossing, like I can't help
Speaker 5: that Asian.
Speaker 4: Dog, you know, making it.
Speaker 5: Happen, can I?
Speaker 4: But like a lot of compromise is required. So when
Speaker 4: you're talking to like your best friend Matt Gates, for example,
Speaker 4: like when you did say that your good friend Matt Gates,
Speaker 4: he like when when when you are talking to is
Speaker 4: there some kind of like, look we put the cameras
Speaker 4: off right now, let's just talk or is it always
Speaker 4: just you know, this guy's always on. You know, everyone's
Speaker 4: always on, even in private meetings. Everyone's still, you know,
Speaker 4: yelling about Jewish space lasers.
Speaker 1: And you know, like.
Speaker 6: When I came into Congress and a lot of people
Speaker 6: ask me, like do they really believe what they say?
Speaker 6: And when I first came in, I kind of came
Speaker 6: up with category three categories. You know, there are sort
Speaker 6: of the traditional conservatives, of which there are very few
Speaker 6: of them left. There are the crazies and you can
Speaker 6: you know, mad libs, fill in the blank, whatever name
Speaker 6: you want.
Speaker 5: And then they're the cowards, you know, the people.
Speaker 6: Who know better, but just you know, for their own
Speaker 6: purposes of staying in their jobs, they continue on. I'll
Speaker 6: be honest with you, just in the five and a
Speaker 6: half years that I've been in Congress now, there are
Speaker 6: a lot more crazies than that even when I started.
Speaker 6: And it's it's really alarming. I mean, like they some
Speaker 6: of them really do believe this. And I you know,
Speaker 6: I remember it, you know, on the night of January sixth,
Speaker 6: when we came back into the House of Representatives after
Speaker 6: the insurrection, you know, hearing their speeches, like watching them
Speaker 6: like only a few feet from them, and I could tell,
Speaker 6: like some of them really do believe the big lie
Speaker 6: they have bought into this.
Speaker 5: They're they're feeding it.
Speaker 6: And and that's what I find so scary right now.
Speaker 6: You know, my first boss in government, he had this line,
Speaker 6: he said, you don't have good government unless you have
Speaker 6: good people working in government. Right now, you know, if
Speaker 6: you have a government that's filled with you know, egotistical narcissistic,
Speaker 6: power hungry people, you will have an egotistical, narcissistic, power
Speaker 6: hungry government.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: So we have to try to find a way to
Speaker 6: be able to stop it. But part of their plan
Speaker 6: is to try to make government so toxic, politics so
Speaker 6: toxic that reasonable decent. You know, people don't want to participate,
Speaker 6: and that just leaves it for them.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, good luck, thank you Premier, your time.
Speaker 4: And as far as from what I'm hearing from you,
Speaker 4: I just think that we just need more Asian people
Speaker 4: to be running into.
Speaker 5: Representative and you Kim, everybody.
Speaker 7: My guests to I represented Texas's thirty second district and
Speaker 7: is running for the Senate against America's Sweethearts head Cruise.
Speaker 7: Please welcome Representative Colin Alred.
Speaker 5: How you doing doing well?
Speaker 7: How are you I'm doing great, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is great. Different I usually do so.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're fun right now, you guys are.
Speaker 1: It's a little better than.
Speaker 7: The house right now, just slightly.
Speaker 5: That's I mean, that's not saying a lot.
Speaker 1: That's keeping the bar.
Speaker 7: It's pretty low. You have such an interesting resume. You're
Speaker 7: a former NFL player, civil rights yeah, civil rights attorney, congressman,
Speaker 7: and now currently running against Ted.
Speaker 5: Cruise for the.
Speaker 7: Yeah in Texas as a Democrat, which is a bit
Speaker 7: of an uphill battle. Right right now, you're currently pulling
Speaker 7: at six points behind. Does it make it worse that
Speaker 7: you're lagging behind Ted Cruz of all?
Speaker 1: Now, listen, I'm confident that on the November fifth that
Speaker 1: Texans are going to come out and show who we
Speaker 1: really are. I think we've had enough of twelve years
Speaker 1: of having, you know, an embarrassment. One of the most
Speaker 1: divisive centers in the country is somebody who I think
Speaker 1: fundamentally doesn't appreciate who we really are as Texans. I'm
Speaker 1: a four generation Texan. You know, he was raised by
Speaker 1: a single mom in Dallas. You know, you mentioned what
Speaker 1: I've been able to do, But I was able to
Speaker 1: do that because I had a lot of help from
Speaker 1: my community. For my state. I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that we can have someone who actually cares about us
Speaker 1: in the Senate.
Speaker 7: You have said before that you don't Texas doesn't have
Speaker 7: to be embarrassed by their senator.
Speaker 5: What is the most.
Speaker 7: Embarrassing thing about Ted Cruz? Is it that he fled
Speaker 7: to Cancun while Texans were in the dark and cold,
Speaker 7: or that time that he didn't feel the booger on
Speaker 7: his lip for so long burned in my memory.
Speaker 1: You know, I think there's the antics, right, there's like
Speaker 1: the you know, reading Green, Inks and Ham on the
Speaker 1: Senate floor while you're trying to take health care away
Speaker 1: from forty million people, and stuff like that. The fact
Speaker 1: that he podcasts three times a week, which is a
Speaker 1: lot hard. Yeah, that's a lot when I say senator.
Speaker 1: But you know when you had that little ROLLI bag
Speaker 1: when he's coming back from Kancun. Oh, yes, you know,
Speaker 1: it's frustrating going through those little rope lines at any
Speaker 1: time when you're going through it alone to explain why
Speaker 1: you abandoned your stake during a statewide crisis, that was
Speaker 1: really embarrassing.
Speaker 7: That's the toper.
Speaker 5: That was the tapper.
Speaker 7: You're a father of two and you were one of
Speaker 7: the first members of Congress to take paternity leave. First
Speaker 7: of all, thank you for your service, And secondly, why
Speaker 7: is that so rare among your colleagues.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I didn't know that I was going to
Speaker 1: be the first one I did it. I thought that
Speaker 1: it was just a normal thing to do. You know.
Speaker 1: I grew up and not knowing my father, and so
Speaker 1: for me, I knew that when we had kids that
Speaker 1: I was going to do it right. And that starts
Speaker 1: at the beginning. And there's so much we've learned a lot.
Speaker 1: There are so many benefits for when men take leave
Speaker 1: in those early days. It's better for the men themselves,
Speaker 1: for their spouses, for their kids. And you know, this
Speaker 1: is not available to every American, and I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that it is. And that's one of the
Speaker 1: things I've been working on. You and I both know
Speaker 1: that those early days are tough. Oh yeah, And when
Speaker 1: you're welcoming, you know your bundle of joy is also
Speaker 1: coming with a whole lot of other things that are
Speaker 1: changing your life. And you know, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: right that we're the only major developed country in the
Speaker 1: world that doesn't have a national paid lead policy.
Speaker 7: But do not agree more Texas was one of the
Speaker 7: first states to criminalize abortion. What would be your plans
Speaker 7: to protect and restore women's reproductive rights?
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, my wife and I we've had two
Speaker 1: boys in Dallas and life five years and I went
Speaker 1: to every ultra sound appointment, every genetic testing, and you
Speaker 1: know those rooms when you're having those conversations with your doctor,
Speaker 1: they're too small to have somebody like Ted Cruz in
Speaker 1: there with you. You know what's happening in Texas is
Speaker 1: really it's a tragedy. We've had twenty six thousand women
Speaker 1: who had to get birth to their rapist child since
Speaker 1: these laws went into place. We've had stories like ky Cox,
Speaker 1: So it was a mother of two who had a
Speaker 1: much wanted third pregnancy. She'd go to the emergency room
Speaker 1: four times. Her doctor said she needed a medically necessary abortion,
Speaker 1: and she asked her state, can I have it close
Speaker 1: to home because I have a one and a three
Speaker 1: year old at home. They said no, And they didn't
Speaker 1: just say no, it's if you do this, we're going
Speaker 1: to prosecute you, your doctor, your hospital. We have counties
Speaker 1: saying you can't drive to the county if you're to
Speaker 1: use the roads to access an abortion. I mean, that
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like freedom to me. And I know one
Speaker 1: thing about us is Texans, so we believe in freedom,
Speaker 1: and so for me, the only way that we can
Speaker 1: restore this right to Texas women and families is at
Speaker 1: the federal level by codifying Roe v. Wade. And I'm at.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Voter turnout is going to be critical for you
Speaker 7: to flip the seat. It's been estimated that nine point
Speaker 7: five million registered voters didn't vote in the last election.
Speaker 7: How will you encourage Texans to get out and vote
Speaker 7: and does it rhyme with mush Morshin?
Speaker 1: Well, as you mentioned, I was a civil rights lawyer,
Speaker 1: but I was a voting rights lawyer, specifically before I
Speaker 1: ran for Congress. You know, to me, there's nothing more
Speaker 1: important than getting Texans and our fellow Americans engaged in
Speaker 1: our democracy and in Texas, we make it way too
Speaker 1: difficult to vote. But I want folks to know there's
Speaker 1: a reason why they're trying to make it harder for
Speaker 1: you to vote. Why are they trying to take your
Speaker 1: voice away? Why are they trying so hard to make
Speaker 1: it difficult for you to be engaged? Don't let them
Speaker 1: do it right? And to our young people. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like one of the things where wouldn't let you
Speaker 1: grandparents pick your playlist for the next six years. I
Speaker 1: don't want to pick your center, right, you know?
Speaker 4: So you know, yeah, so.
Speaker 1: I think it's also true that we have to talk
Speaker 1: about what's at steak. You know. To me, in Texas,
Speaker 1: what's at steak is our fundamental freedoms. If taken away
Speaker 1: a woman's right to choose, the ability to make your
Speaker 1: own decisions about your body. They're banning books, They're kicking
Speaker 1: kids out of school because of their hairstyle. I mean
Speaker 1: to me, this is fundamentally about who we are as
Speaker 1: Texans and as Americans, and we have to restore freedom
Speaker 1: in Texas and across this country. And I think folks
Speaker 1: are going to come out and stand up for that.
Speaker 7: You serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee. We just recently
Speaker 7: found out that seven aid workers were killed in Gaza
Speaker 7: due to Israel air strikes. Does that give you any
Speaker 7: hesitation to providing Israel with bombs?
Speaker 1: Listen, this is a horrible tragedy. And these folks were
Speaker 1: there to feed folks who are suffering from famine, extreme conditions.
Speaker 1: They've done it around the world, and to me, it's
Speaker 1: an incredibly noble venture that they're engaged in to try
Speaker 1: and make sure that we can combat these conditions. And
Speaker 1: you know, as I see it, October seventh was a
Speaker 1: tragedy and the response in many ways has been incredibly
Speaker 1: difficult to deal with. Our role, I think has to
Speaker 1: be to try and ensure that we as we're negotiating
Speaker 1: for an extended cease fire, that we have these hostages
Speaker 1: come home, and that we find a way forward in
Speaker 1: which there's two states existing peacefully next to each other.
Speaker 1: And that has to be all in gold. And we've
Speaker 1: had you know, this has been our policy for some time,
Speaker 1: but in some ways I think it had drifted away
Speaker 1: in a strange way. I think this is a highlight
Speaker 1: of the need that we come back to this, that
Speaker 1: we make sure that we have a peaceful and independent
Speaker 1: Palacitian state next to a stable, democratic and Jewish Israeli
Speaker 1: state and these folks and COXIT, because we honestly cannot
Speaker 1: continue down this road.
Speaker 7: I so appreciate the work that you do, and I
Speaker 7: so appreciate you being on the show tonight. I wish
Speaker 7: you the best of luck. Representative Colin Alred.
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