August 20, 2025 • 50 mins
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett breaks down Donald Trump’s systematic dismantling of our democracy — from Texas’ redistricting and California’s response, to Trump's latest attack on the ballot box, and the dystopian National Guard presence in Washington, D.C.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is Gavin Newsom. She's been called a rising star.
Donald Trump referred to her as the future of the
Democratic Party. Couldn't think of someone better to talk about
what's going on in Texas and the jerry mandering, what's
going on in Washington, DC with the National Guard than
the one and only Congressman Jasmine Crockett. Thank you for
(00:32):
doing this. I appreciate Eily at this remarkable time. So
we'll just we'll jump right in because I you know,
I can't even imagine you spent time in the Texas Legislature.
I was watching last night a brief interview one of
the members of the legislature, Nicole Collier, was in the chambers.
She's not walking out because she doesn't want to be
(00:53):
assigned a member of law enforcement to watch every move.
And I just I couldn't even imagine what that experience
is like. But I couldn't imagine a better person to
talk about it than you. Watching all of this from afar,
the impacts indirect to democracy, the direct impacts to you
(01:16):
as a representative watching your own district lines changing, give
us a sense of what you're feeling right now, what
this moment means to you.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So I'm feeling overwhelmed, and if you are paying attention,
you should also feel that way. This isn't about me
as an individual. This is about our collective democracy. It's
one of the reasons that I think the country has
galvanized behind what California has decided to do, because this
isn't just about Texas. It's not just about the representatives
(01:48):
in Texas. It's about the people. And so when you
look at the lengths that they will go to decimate
our democracy, that is when people should really have their
hair on fire. And I don't care what kind of
you live in and I personally don't care what your
political affiliation is, because we are setting a dangerous precedence,
one that could forever dismantle our democracy. So here we are,
(02:12):
as a black woman's civil rights attorney, and I'm looking
at a state that is taking state actions against a
duly elected black woman to basically incarcerate her against her
constitutional rights, and everybody is just kind of like, ah,
you know, Texas gets to do whatever they want to
do because we have a minion for a governor instead
(02:34):
of a governor for the people of Texas. And so
now because he wants to do everything that he can
to kiss the raggedy.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Feet of Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
This is where we stand to the extent that he
is disrespecting Texans over and over and over, whether we're
talking about the map, or whether we're talking about the
threats that were waged against these members and their family members,
or whether we're talking about a woman, a black woman,
that decided that she wanted to be free in the
year of twenty twenty five, and basically she had someone
(03:08):
who decided that he wanted to act like she is
on a plantation, and so therefore she had to sign
documents if it was that she was to have some
semblance of freedom.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And look, I appreciate how you you just laid that
out and with vivid and clear lines. I mean, a
black woman being told she has to have someone from
a white governor. I mean, you can't. The racial components
of this cannot be overstated. And as you say, people
are kind of rolling there, I mean, shugging their shoulders,
(03:43):
rolling their eyes. I mean the fact that not everything
is stopped in real time to sort of measure this moment,
the fact that so much is being normalized in this
country as we're watching democracy slip through our hands. I mean,
what do we need to do to create the proverbial
pattern interrupt? What do we need to do to wake
people up to understand what's really at stake, what the
(04:05):
hell is really going on, not just in Texas, increasingly
across this country.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think we all have to collectively fight back, and
I think that we have to take it back to
elementary school, where everything legitimately was black or white, it
was right versus wrong. We right now are having a
moral catastrophic, you know, combustion, right like it is insane
(04:29):
to see the lack of morality like this really isn't
about whether or not you believe in, you know, the
democratic platform or the Republican platform. This is truly about
whether or not we believe that as Americans, that freedom
should be real, that we should treat everyone as equals,
(04:52):
that we should not diminish our democracy, because that is
why we stand out and why we have been a
beacon of hope around this entire world, not just in
this country for people that are here. The reason that
we've had so many immigrants that have always decided that
they want us to come to the United States is
because historically we have been the Land of the free
(05:12):
and the land of opportunity. We are slowly just losing
our standing on the national stage, whether we're looking at
a president that is rolling out a red carpet for
a war criminal, or whether or not we are looking
at a governor that has decided that a woman would
be stuck and could not leave because she had the
(05:33):
audacity to think that her colleagues would engage in real
debate and they would come back and they would fight
for fair maps. Not fair maps for her, but fair
maps for the thirty million Texans whose voices deserve to
be heard. Considering the fact that we are a majority
minority state, we're sixty percent of the people that are
(05:54):
there are people of color, Yet every single day they
are so happy to take in people of color, day
after day, to the extent that we ended up gaining
two new seats in the last time that we did
the census. We took those seats from other states that
were growing, and those seats were taken because there were
black and brown bodies that came into the state of Texas.
(06:16):
Yet they then minimize their voices. So, yes, they want
their bodies, but they absolutely do not want to hear
from them, and that is wrong. And again it is
why we applaud California and your leadership because you.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Said not on our watch. Two can play this game. Now.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Should we be playing a game when it comes to
something like democracy, Absolutely not. But can we afford to
take the high road as they continue to take away
more and more rights and we start to look more
like a government that is run by Vladimir Putin than
a government that is run by a respected and honorable
President of the United States. No, we shouldn't stand ida we.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Buy, and so you don't buy the argument two wrongs
don't make a right.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Two bongs are about to make your right in two seconds,
that is for sure. And I appreciate the level of
thoughtfulness that went into this because I think at the
core of who we are as Democrats, regardless of what
others may say about us, we really want to do
what's right. The question is usually whether or not we
have the courage to push forward, even in the face
(07:24):
of adversity, to get it done. And this is ugly,
this is messy, that is for sure, but it is
the right thing. If you're going to take away five
voices in a state in which I have been engaged
in litigation since twenty twenty one over the current lines,
because we have argued that these lines were terrible and illegal,
(07:47):
and the state consistently argued for the last four years
that they were racially neutral, that they were perfect and
beautiful lines. And then all of a sudden they get
a letter from the Attorney General of the United States.
Imagine that the Attorney General of the United States decides
that instead of say, building up the Civil Rights Division,
that she decided to tear down. The Attorney General of
(08:11):
the United States that is under pressure to release the
Epstein files that are within her control, she decides to
prioritize going after Texas and telling Texas that they actually
have not been race neutral, and they decide to act
based upon her instruction. And we know that her instruction
came directly from him. And so now we're looking at
(08:35):
a situation in which, no.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Matter what happens, I can tell you that these maps
are illegal.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
The question is, will we have these branches of government
continue to fail us, Will we have a court that
will strike this down in time and say never mind.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We're going to have to draw the maps.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Because historically, when we've had all three branches working. That's
what happens when one of the states does wrong, and
there's no way to say that the State of Sexes
is doing right.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You bring up twenty twenty one in your efforts in
relation to the maps, but you also for those that
may not be familiar. You really made a name for
yourself nationally the last time when you were in the
legislature I think it was twenty twenty one when you
guys did a similar quorum break, and that was on
different issues, but related to voting access and the like.
(09:27):
I mean, how do you paint? What do you paint
as a contrast or the paint the picture? Is this
part of the same narrative? Is this sort of the
extended narrative from twenty twenty one? Is this represents something
that's more dramatic from your perspective? Or is this the
same thread that's being pulled.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
No, we absolutely try to ring the alarms, and unfortunately
we collectively did not rain those alarms loud enough.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
When we left we went to d C.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
When we went to DC, we asked a democratically controlled house,
a democratically can trolled Senate that had a Democrat and
the White House to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights
Advancement Act. That particular bill would have replaced the current
Voting Rights Act. It would have short up everything that
we lost in Shelby the Holder, and we wouldn't be
sitting on the edge of our seats wondering whether or
(10:16):
not we would lose Section two. So, for anybody that's listening,
Section two just says, basically, we want to go ahead
and further codify what is in the Constitution as it
relates to people of color being able to have representation.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
And so I have a Section two seat.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
What we know came out of Louisiana and Alabama for
this last election was two Section two seats because they
looked at a state like Louisiana and said, hey, thirty
percent of the population is African American, and y'all only
gave them an opportunity to elect one lawmaker to the
federal level, so they had to add one. Same thing
(10:54):
happened in Alabama, so they had to add one. So
both states now have two seats where African Americans are
allowed to choose their representation. Well, what they are doing
right now, they got rid of all of the issues
around preclearance, which means that when states go through all
of this craziness and they've had, say, a history of
being racially discriminatory, such as Texas. Texas has been found
(11:16):
to be racially intentionally discriminatory every since the Voting Rights
Act was passed, which is so wild for me to
think of, considering the fact that it was a Texan
that signed their Voting Rights Act into laws sixty years ago.
So to see that, we basically were like, hey, we're
ringing the alarms past the jungle was Voting Rights Advancement Act,
(11:37):
and we wouldn't have to deal with this fight over redistricting,
past the Freedom to Vote Act, and we wouldn't have
had to deal with Elon must being able to actually
buy an election. We were trying to throw up our
democracy and screen to the top of our lungs at
that point, and unfortunately, at that time, the House did
their part. A democratically led House does their part. Unfortunately
(12:00):
it was in the Senate where we did not have
the support to go ahead and move past the filibuster
for the purpose of voting rice. And I think that
if we don't have voting rice, we get no other
rights whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
And so I think if there's ever a need.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
For a carve out, it is on behalf of making
sure that we can expand access to the ballot box
for those that are eligible to vote.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
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Speaker 1 (13:04):
It begs the question of your reaction to what President
Trump said yesterday as it relates to mail in ballot
ballot where he now is asserting that he's got his
lawyers drafting and executive order and he's going after mail
in ballots, something that he is very well known for
having used himself in Florida. He was an absentee ballot,
(13:27):
meaning he was someone who went and got an absentee
mailed that in like millions and millions of Americans. By
the way, eighty percent in the last big election in California,
folks used mail in ballots overwhelming number. What do you
make of this latest effort by the president.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, so, first of all, I think that California, number
one is a direct target. We know that California has
expanded access to the ballot box in ways in which
some of us get frustrated to the extent that you
do of so many mail in ballots, and you definitely
had some nail bier congressional races that came down to,
(14:08):
you know, the last batches being counted.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
And we know that this.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Postal service isn't necessarily the best run under the current leadership, and.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So yeah, it is. It is.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
It can be frustrating because it can make it to where,
if there's tight races, it's going to take us a
little time, but I think that that is what democracy
looks like. It makes sure that you hear from everybody,
no matter whether or not you're home at the time,
no matter whether or not you are encumbered because if
you leave your job, you have fear of retaliation, even
(14:43):
though legally they're not supposed to. Whether or not you
are a caretaker for your children or you're ailing parents.
It allows you an opportunity to participate. And what they
have decided is that participating any elections should just be
reserved for the privileged few. They don't want it to
be something that allows the masses to participate in We
(15:05):
talked about twenty twenty one, but ultimately what it was
is they were passing new voting law standards in the
state of Texas because for the first time they weren't
going to have to deal with preclearance whatsoever and get
the authority, and so they decided to decimate access to
ballot boxes, especially after COVID nineteen, which in the midst
(15:25):
of COVID you had even in states like Texas, you
had very creative secretaries that were going out and they
were saying, hey, we need to make sure that people
can vote and be safe. You should not have to
risk your life to cast your vote. And so they
decided that they were going to expand hours in Harris
County where they had twenty four hour voting, they had
drive through voting, They did all these things to make
(15:48):
sure that it was easier. They had multiple drop boxes
so that you didn't have to worry about putting it
into the mail itself. You could drop it at a
drop box throughout the country, throughout the county. Well, they
didn't like that because the number showed that working class.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Folk were absolutely able to participate.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
And if you look at the platform or if you
just look at the actions of the Republicans, they don't
have anything good number one for people of color, and
definitely they don't have.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Anything good for working class people.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So the things that they are trying to do is like, yeah,
if you've got the luxury where you don't have to
worry about losing your job, you don't have to worry
about taking care of that kid, you don't have to
worry about taking care of your mom.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
No, you can just go to the ballot box and
just vote.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And they feel like those are the only people that
they want to participate, and so it is very intentional.
It is disgusting, and it is one of the reasons
that people are so disenchanted, in my opinion, with politics,
because they'll say one thing and do another. And I
just want people to know that there is a difference
between Democrats and Republicans. Regardless of what it seems like.
(16:55):
Republicans will say whatever it is to convince you to vote.
They won't go out there and campaign say oh, yeah,
we're going to lower the taxes on the super rich,
the super wealthy. At the same time, we're going to
go ahead and take away your health care. We're gonna
go ahead and take away your access to education, which
is your pathway to upward mobility. They're not going to
(17:16):
tell you, like the real story, that they're going to
take food off the tables of people that are hungry
in this country while at the same time complaining about
unhoused people and trying to stuffle them off their streets.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
They're not going to.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Tell you that they're going to decimate the economy as
they always do and then we have to wait on
a Democrat to come in and clean it up. They're
not going to tell you the truth, but they will
go after the things that they really want to go after.
Now that is now, that is real. But Democrats, we
will tell you, and we can give you a dissertation
of all the great things that we want to do.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But we also have.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
This inclination to do things and be like, well we
want to be by partners. No, at the end of
the day, if we've got the numbers and they don't
want to get on board for not only taking care
of our constituents, but frankly, a lot of times we're
doing the hard work to take care of their constituents,
a lot more work and heavy lifting than they're doing.
And so what people want to see nowadays, and I
(18:11):
get it, is they want to see Democrats be just
as aggressive as Republicans are when they are trying to
introduce regression into this country. They want us to be
as aggressive trying to make sure that we can actually
uplift this country.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Well, there's so much unpacked there in the word regression.
I mean, it's about rights regression. It's about rolling, putting
America back reverse, bringing us back to a pre nineteen
sixties world. As it relates to voting rights, women's rights,
LGBTQ rights across the spectrum. I don't think that's exaggeration
nor what you said about jobs. And for folks listening,
since nineteen eighty nine, the end of the Cold War,
(18:48):
it's important to be reminded of this. Bill Clinton made
this point at the DNC in his speech. Fifty two
million American jobs have been created since the end of
the Cold War, three Republican administrations, three Democratic administrations. Ninety
six percent. Ninety six percent have been created under Democratic administrations.
The last three Republican administrations have one thing in common,
(19:10):
recessions one point nine million jobs creating the last three
Republican administrations over sixteen million in the Biden administration. Just
as another proof point to the extent you needed it.
But Congressman, I want to talk about another proof point
on democracy. We talk about jerry mandering. We talk about
what you guys did in terms of voting, that John
Lewis Act, which was about an independent National Redistricting Commission,
(19:34):
which the Democratic Party Republicans were nowhere to be found.
The Democratic Party has supported and they're on record supporting.
We talked about what he's trying to do on mail
in ballots, and I referenced the last election was twenty twenty,
and you reminded me of that where we were at
eighty percent coming out of COVID in terms of the
vote by mail, in the convenience and the opportunity and
(19:54):
the security that exists bar codes, requirements on signatures, there
is a process where you actually can track where your
mail in ballot is. And once one ballot is cast,
there is no other ballot that can be cast. All
the bs Trump is suggesting is a lie. Otherwise as
it relates though to the National Guard, it seems to
(20:16):
me all this stuff is connected. It's none of this
is in isolation. Everyone has to pay attention. These dots
need to be connected. You've got the National Guard being
sent now, and you talk about what Republicans don't tell you.
Those governors didn't tell you they were going to send
them from Tennessee, South Carolina, send them from all of
these other states into Washington, d C. You work there,
(20:41):
You spend your dating, a lot of your time there.
Tell me what it's like in d C. Tell me
what you think this is really all about, And tell
me if you think this is a preview of things
to come, particularly dare I say around election in the
mid terms, and beyond.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, is very dystopian to see. It's funny because I
used to watch like The Handmaid's Tail and I can't right,
I never finished and I can't watch it because it
is too close to reality. And so what we're seeing
is this militarization. And obviously it started in your state.
(21:23):
That was kind of the testing grounds, going to your state,
going to a black woman mayor's city first, and now
we are in yet another black woman led city and
taking over. And to me, it goes again to the
level of racism and hate that is constantly spewed out
(21:45):
of this administration.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Now they hate for you to call them.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
What they are, but listen, I mean, if it walked
like a duck, quack like a duck, then I guess
it is a duck. So like racism is racism, and
you are specifically targeting these black lead areas. But more importantly,
when you start to connect the dots. One of the
things that we didn't talk about as much when we
(22:08):
were trying to push forward against the draconian legislation that
was coming out of the state of Texas at the
time back in twenty twenty one, was there was this
provision about having basically people be able to monitor you
while you were voting. And there was like recordings that
came out where these groups had gotten together and they're like,
(22:31):
we're going to go down there, and they were talking
about going into the areas that were predominantly people of
color and monitoring them while they were voting. And they
were limiting the ability of the election judges and the
election workers to actually remove those people even if they
(22:51):
were interfering with someone's ability to vote. So it was like, nope,
you got to give them one pass so they could
break one law for free, and then you could only
get them out when they committed the second violation. And
at the same time, they were changing access to firearms
and so essentially in these locations you could have all
(23:13):
these rogue actors that are armed as people of color
are trying to go in and cast their votes. If
nothing looks like pre civil war in this country, that
does like that imagery, right, So now you have someone
who believes in this type of philosophy who now has
(23:33):
control of our National Guard.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
And so, you know, the idea that we.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Thought January sixth was a problem and we thought, oh man,
that's bad, and you know, His army then was.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
A bunch of white nationalists races.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Whether we're talking about the Proud Boys or the Neo
Nazis or whomever, those guys were the ones that made
up his army on that day to try to pull
a coup. Now you're talking about a guy that every
time he disagrees with something, he uses the power that
he has because no one around him is checking him,
whether we're talking about those in his administration, or whether
(24:11):
we're talking about the courts, or if we're talking about
the Congress. That is one of the reasons he is
so desperate to make sure that he can win in
the midterms is because he knows that Democrats is not
even about partisanship. It's about doing what's right. It's about
doing the American thing. And to be clear, you can
wave all the flags you want to, but I am
(24:33):
telling you right now that the most unpatriotic people that
we have in this country are Maga and this president.
We are the real patriots, and it is time for
us to take our flag back and show people what
America is about.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You can't say that you.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Love the Constitution while decimating it with every single stroke
of a pen. For an executive order while decimating it,
while you are disrespecting our troops that have signed up
to protect our freedoms not just here but abroad, and
then you're taking people's freedoms away using those exact same troops.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Like, I just don't understand.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
You know, It's funny as people have been talking about
what's happening with Revnical Collier, and I've been watching some
of the influencers online and people are asking, what is
the red line for you?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Like what will be a.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Bridge too far? Like why is it that people are
still confused about.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
What is happening?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And why is it that no Republican will publicly come
out and just say, you know what, I'm gonna do
what's right. When it came down to Senator Tom Tillis instead,
he said, well, listen, I'm gonna just.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Go ahead and not run for reelection and I'm going
to vote against your ugly bill.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
But why is it that those that know that this
is wrong, Why is it that they won't just say
that I never swore an oath to any wanna be king.
I swore my oath to the Constitution, and I'm gonna
honor that. Why is it that we don't have that
happening right now amongst the Republicans in the House and
in the Senate, Color.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Soman, do you hear privately things differently? I mean, do
you have casual conversations where people have at least there's
some courage of their convictions and a little bit of
character and say, hey, you know, you know, I just
you know, I gotta do this. You know, he were
just it's temporary. We just you know, we can't what
I mean, what are they saying?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I remember right before he won because one of the
things he did campaign on was tarriffs.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Now, most people didn't understand it. Of course he lied
about who would.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Be paying the taxes, but he did actually campaign on tariffs.
And I remember walking into oversight of all places, and
I remember a member saying, just so you know, if
y'all end up taking the House, because they were nervous
that they were going to lose the House, if y'all
end up taking the House, we'll stand with you against
(26:56):
the tariffs. Like this is what a member said, because
that member remembers what happened to our soybeing farmers, our
soybeing farmers who never recovered and ultimately they ended up
giving them a subsidy for all that they lost. But
once you lose your ability to participate in a certain market,
it is gone, like and we can't continue to just
subsidize you to say in existence. They actually want to
(27:18):
be able to sell their products and be able to
profit in that way.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And so I'm like, this is so interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
You absolutely were against the tariffs and when given an
opportunity to do what's right because you know that this
is going to directly impact it impacts all of us.
But when you're talking about rural America that is already
bleeding population so badly, when we know that we're losing
farms consistently, and these are the people that have directly
elected you, and then you're not going out front on
(27:49):
that issue.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That's been one of the issues.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
They for sure were struggling with the big Ugly bill.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
That is why we ended up.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
You know, they finally decided they wanted to try to
pass it in the middle of the night. They were struggling,
and I was like, listen, you guys have put out
a memo saying no more town halls, because you know
that when you walk in your constituents are mad at
YOUO ours aren't mad at us, like it's bad legislation.
But they were afraid about being primary. They were afraid
(28:20):
about money being spent against them. And it is one
of the worst parts of having such scary mandered districts
because ultimately they are having to go as far right
as possible to end up making it out of their primary,
and ultimately they don't have to worry about the general
election because it is drawn to be such a far right,
(28:41):
deep red district. That is yet another bad by product
of doing jerrymandering.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'm going to get to you in a second because
I'm fascinated by your approach to politics and how you
come on the scene in such sort of vivid ways.
And I say vivid, very complimentary, meaning your person of conviction.
You share your passion with action, You call people out,
(29:14):
and I think this conversation only underscores as well your
willingness to call balls and strikes too. Is it relates
not being about democrat, not being about republic and you
talk in terms of patriotism. I love Democrats. How the
hell did we lose this battle on patriotes just because
you put a flag on your lapel of a sudden,
you're patriotic, Our party is not. So I want to
(29:36):
get back to all that in a second, but I
do want to get just you know, there's three legs
of the stool as it relates to what's happening in
the National Guard, what's happening with jerry mandry, what's happening
vote by mail. But there's also something that, speaking of vivid,
came to us in very vivid ways last week where
we were at the Democracy Center in California and we
launched our campaign to try to neuter what's happening to
(29:56):
you individually, what's happening to all of your former colleagues collectively,
and what's happened here a country on jerrymandery in Texas.
But we are there at the site where people were
being bussed in the nineteen forties to Japanese internment camps,
and at that exact side, at the exact moment of
our press conference, Donald Trump sent what is increasingly being
(30:18):
referred to as a private army funded unprecedented ways by
the big beautiful betrayal, big beautiful Bill, big beautiful, ugly Bill,
whatever it's referred to by those same colleagues. You were
referencing that allows him to further resource border Patrol in Ice,
and they showed up with the Regional director of the
(30:38):
Border Patrol as their pr flack at the exact same
site that people were being bussed to interment camps in
this country. It was to me chilling in this respect
that for me it was obvious this is also a
preview of things to come. We said it about the
National Guard when they were federalized four thousand or mind
(31:00):
people listening watching four thousand National Guard were federalized. It
was the first time the President of the United States,
Donald Trump didn't do us in his first term since
seven hundred active military marines, not overseas, but to a
city in the United States of America. The city. Yes,
you're right, and I think it is absolutely jit run
(31:21):
by an African American woman. You start to find those
dots and they have a lot in common with what
you're referring to and what he's doing across this country
as well. But I see a future where ICE shows
up to those lines that you were referencing to those
voting boosts, not just the National Guard being called out
(31:42):
under a quote unquote declaration of emergency AM I overstating
that concern or do you see tenants of that? Are
you concerned about that as well?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I think that there are no limits that Ice will
not go. I do feel like this is definitely his
personal army. We know that we've seen reports about January
six ers that have somehow been offered jobs within the
Department of Justice and within various kind of spaces. I
think that there may have even been some reports as
(32:13):
relates to Ice.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
One of the reasons that.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I argue that they are hiding their faces is because
these are people that should not be law enforcement at all.
In fact, I recently dropped one of my bills that
was an amendment as we were going through the process
of the Big Ugly Bill, where I was trying to
get an amendment in judiciary as it relates to Homeland
(32:39):
and what was going on as they were trying to
increase the dollars going to Homeland, and obviously ultimately when
the budget came out or when we got through reconciliation,
they did increase the amount of moneys going there.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
But I basically did an amendment that said, hey, if
you end.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Up covering yourself, then no, you don't get the moneies, like,
you can't be out there, You've got to be clearly identified,
and frankly, it is for the safety not only of
the officers but also of the general public, as we've
seen so many reports of people that are costplaying as
ICE and they are then kidnapping people, they are then
(33:17):
vandalizing homes and cars, and so it is emboldening the
bad actors to continue acting bad. But the question is
how many of the bad actors are actually on the
inside right now, And they don't because they're not, in
my opinion, real law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
So many of them, Like we're not talking about the people.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
That have been there for a very long time and
understand how ICE works, because I'm like, honestly, the stuff
that y'all are doing is crazy. Anyway, Like people look
at law enforcement or people with guns and badges and
they think they're all the same.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
They are not trying the same.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Whether we're talking about our marines, whether we're talking about
our army, whether we're talking about our navy like whoever
we're talking about right or what that we're talking about,
like our air force, and whether we're talking about our
local law enforcement versus ICE. They're not trained the same.
Local law enforcement is always going to be your investigative group.
These are the guys that go out and find the criminals.
(34:14):
And I got news for you. If you're a criminal,
They don't first determine your status and whether or not
it's legal, or whether or not there's some issues as
relates to your documentation, and then decide, well, you know what,
we only go after the citizens.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
We don't go after the non citizens. ICE does that.
That is wrong.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Investigative bodies. They do this work all the time. If
there is evidence of a murder, if there is evidence
of a rape, a robbery, a DWI, whatever it is,
they look at the evidence, they follow the facts, and
then they get to a perpetrator and it's only once
that perpetrator is then in custody. ICE for the most part,
is nothing but a ride. That's all they were supposed
(34:54):
to do for the most part. Right It's like, you
know what, this person is undocumented, or this person re
there's a country illegally, all the things, and then they
have an ICE hold and then ICE gets them so
that they've min sent them out. That's all ICE is
supposed to do. Look at them as a fancy uber
driver for immigrants.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
That's all they're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And now they're running into places and doing raids and
they're falling all over each other injuring each other like
we are a joke, but it is a bad nightmare
of a joke. And so I don't think that this
president has any limits.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
That he won't go to.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
So I agree with you ultimately, if there's something that
he wants to accomplish, he has you know, I don't
even want to say her name, but he's got our
leading the Department of Homeland Security. And again, you know,
this is where our text and balances failed us again
because these senators allowed for these persons to go through
(35:50):
the confirmation process and they're not qualified, like there should
have been more senators.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
And you know, I will give love to the few.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Republican senators they refused to sign off on the confirmation
of some of these appointees within this cabinet.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
But this is yet another reason that we are.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Being failed right now because we don't have someone that
is currently over homeland And we'll tell the President this
is a violation of people's constitutional rights, like the whole
idea of due process. You don't even know what it means,
and you are leading like Homeland like this doesn't make sense.
So we've got a series of failures, and frankly, it
feels like it was the perfect storm for him to
(36:32):
come in at this time because people are just too
afraid of him and they are bending the knees. So
I absolutely can see a scenario where I does too much.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well, if you were referring to Christinome you may have been,
I would suggest you should and I hope you were.
This is the same Christinome governor home that just last September,
less than a year ago, was on Fox with Hannity,
outraged by the rumor that then President Joe Biden was
(37:06):
going to federalize her National Guard, and she was waxing
on about the Constitution and the tenth Amendment in federalism,
and Sean Hannity was sitting there shaking his head as
a puppy dog, saying, boy, Governor, isn't that true? Fast
forward to today. It is a remarkable moment, but I
want to just pour a brief moment talk again about
(37:28):
you talk about one doing your job. I imagine a
lot of people said, you're new into Congress, your job
is just to get along, sit back, be quiet, Get
to know folks, take your time, because time's really the
currency in DC. Eventually, maybe twenty thirty years from now,
you'll be chair of a committee. I don't see that
(37:50):
with you at all. You didn't take any time to
sort of just come out, just say like it is.
Call out people is motivation, nature, nurture. Was this mom
and dad? Was this who you were as a kid?
Or is this who you know? Life is sort of
you know, is the world sort of creating your I mean,
(38:12):
are you sort of meeting this moment because you're so,
You're just you need to be held to a higher
level accountability because you need to call out what the
hell's going on.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, well, Governor, you've been involved in politics for a
very long time, and with that you have seen a
lot of different types of politicians.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
People enter this arena with different goals.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
And I can tell you that I was not born
into a family that was super involved in politics. My
parents voted, for sure, but they never aspired to be politicians.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
They never pushed me to be a politician.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I never took one policide class when I was in college.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I was not interested whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
And so I think every once in a while you
do run across some of them that have literally said,
this moment calls for me to step up, and who
knows what will happen, And ultimately, like that's the story
of me being involved in politics. Even by the time
I got to the state House, and I was so
(39:16):
happy to be there. It was the closest state house race.
I was the barely state representative in the state of Sexes.
I always tell people I was a thank you Lottie
into this state House. I won my election by a
mere ninety votes. I think that was the ultimate number.
And so I won by ninety votes, and I was
(39:37):
an underdog. I was outspent five to one, but I
was not outworked, and I was able to convince about
three hundred volunteers to get involved in a state house race,
which was unprecedented. But people believed in my vision and
they believed in my grit and grind. And it was
only after one term in the state House that I
(40:01):
was called up to the federal level, which I had
no intention whatsoever of going to.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
That was not my aspiration. Even though so many people use.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
These positions as stepping stones to get somewhere else, that
they're trying to get to. In fact, I remember people
telling me like, oh, you can't be a state rep.
You've got to go be like city council first.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
And I was like why.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
I was like, I don't want to do city stuff,
like I want to do the safe stuff, So why
would I do that? And to me, it does a
disservice for the people that you're serving if you're literally
just there trying to get somewhere else. And so when
I got called by my predecessor, along with a former
ambassador under Clinton, and so many other people were calling,
and I tell people all the time that God has
(40:42):
to yell at me to get.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Me to move. But they were like, you you should,
you should go to Congress. And I was like no.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
I was like, I just, you know, barely got out
of this election. I don't want to sign up for
another hard one. And I knew it was going to
be difficult because my predecessor is the only person that
ever served the district.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
She was actually in.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
The Texas Senate and she was on the Redistrict and
Committee when the seat was created, and so she then
ran for the seat and she served for thirty years
on the federal level, and so there have been people
waiting for decades to run for this seat, and so
there ended up being ten of us. But I believed
(41:25):
that for whatever reason, God was really saying, no, you've got.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
To do it, even though you don't really want to
do it.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
And never did I imagine a scenario where I would
be one of four hundred and thirty five and a freshman.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Where anyone would know my name.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
When you talk to the average person and you ask
them name, you know, five named ten members of the House.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
They can't do it.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
So why would I think that somehow I would end
up in this situation? And as I told the story
at the DNC about my encounter, my first in person
encounter with the Vice President, I was really struggling with
whether or not I really had done the right thing.
I mean, I had gone through a lot, I won,
(42:13):
I didn't really know that I was really fitting and
I just didn't know. And I still struggle. I'll be honest,
I still struggle. I don't struggle like I initially did
because when I go home, or even when I go
other places, whether it is kids that have no ability
whatsoever to vote but love me and are telling me
(42:34):
that they're watching me, and I'm like, what is wrong
with your parents? Because I sometimes say things that I shouldn't,
you know, but like them being inspired or whether it
is how everything unfolded with the Marjorie Taylor Green scenario
and having like black women executives that are sitting in
these rooms and these tables where the micro and sometimes
(42:56):
macro aggressions are so real with their colleagues, but feeling
like like, you know, what if the congresswoman could stand
in her power, I can stand in mind. Now you know,
the advice is not to call anybody a butch body
or a big back or nothing, but but nevertheless, like
letting them know that you won't power because you know
that you had to work so hard to get in
(43:16):
those rooms, and so like understanding my impact on the
outside gives me my fuel to stay on the inside.
But it's tough because as you know, how these systems work,
it is a matter of well, you got to be
here forever, and that's how you'll get something done.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
And I'm like, I'm not here to be here forever, Like.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I didn't know i'd be here at all, right, So
I need to make the best of this moment and
I think that it does a disservice to my constituents
to say, well, unfortunately, since I just got here, nothing's.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Going to happen. Like that's not full representation whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
So you know, I think if enough people push a
push against the system, then you can start to reshape
the system.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
But we still got a lot of pushing to do.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
We love your clarity, your conviction, love your authenticity, and
Republicans have been watching and that's why they have your
I mean, let's and we'll end on this. They're trying
to end your political career in Texas. One of the
five maps that they've put forward excludes your current district.
(44:24):
Right you would no longer be quote unquote living in
the district that they're redrying.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So what they did is they drew me out of
my districts. But since it's federal, I can run anywhere
in the state, So so long as there is a seat,
I could most likely run anywhere in the state. But
right now, the seat that they drew me into is
also a Democratic seat, and then my old seat is
still a Democratic seat. So I feel confident that if
(44:52):
I decide that I'm going back to the House, that
I'll be able to go back to the House. The
thing is, we have three Democrats that that served the
Dallas area, the Dallas Fort Worth area, and now there's
only two seats for Democrats to really kind of be
able to run in. And so I've got to have
a conversation with my colleagues to figure.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Out, you know, what are we doing and where.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Yeah, but I'm probably in to be honest, I'm probably
in the best situation of the three of us because
both seats are easy enough for me to win, and
at least I live in one and I used to
represent the other. The other two colleagues that I have
are both in Republican drawing seats now, so they would
have to run from outside of their districts or move
(45:42):
to make people feel comfortable with like them representing their.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Areas and tell the truth, you know, I'd be remiss
a lot of rumors about the United States Senate, And
I mean just you've had to have some conversations about it.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Right, I have.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
And I will tell you that there are always people
that are, you know, yelling and screaming for me to
go higher. I will tell you, ever since I got
to the House, they were yelling in screaming for me
to go higher. And I can tell you that even
when I was a freshman, they did not want me
to seek re election but instead go after Ted Cruz.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
And I was like, I just got here. I'm not
going to do that.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
And so obviously Colin Alred went after Ted Cruz, and
Colin Alred is now going again after most likely Paxson
and Paxton.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Makes the seat vulnerable, but it would have to be.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I will tell you that if I were to run
for Senate, it would be because I am convinced of
the data that my team, not external data, but the
data that my team is able to pull together.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
That shows that I can do it.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
And I think that anyone who believes that they can
win the Texas seat without expanding the electorate, they already
have lost because when we look at the electorate, it
always goes one way, and so you have to have
the ability to expand. And I also agree with Beto
O'Rourke who believes that we need an actual ticket we
(47:17):
typically run and whoever's at the top of the ticket
is like it instead of really having like a very
strong ticket where different people can bring together different constituencies.
So there would be a lot that would go into it.
It is not impossible to do in Texas. It is
definitely a difficult hill to climb. But I just don't
(47:41):
really know where we're going in this country when you know,
we've got a thirty four account convicted felon in the
White House, and we've got, you know, a guy who
was impeached by his own party that is leading the way,
who was under felony indictment for almost.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
A decade, and who had.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Been under federal investigation forever, and he's their leading candidate
to be the next senator from the state of Texas.
It just seems like there is no low that some
of these people just won't go just to say that
they have a Republican versus looking at people's policies and
(48:22):
figuring out who will do best by me, regardless of
the label that is on them. And I want people
going forward. One of the things that I said during
the last campaign is I want people to be selfish.
I want you to be selfish and decide that you're
going to look at what somebody is going to do
for you, and if they don't have an answer about.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Why you don't have healthcare and rule America.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
They may not be your candidate if they don't have
an answer about where you are going to get new
markets as they are cutting out government funding for things
such as US AID. With these contracts where we were
getting farmers to actually farm and then sell the items
and then send them over where we know that our
free school lunches are about to be decimated as well,
(49:07):
and so many farmers had contracts with so many schools
or I mean, the list goes on and on and on,
and so it is time for people to be selfish
and decide that they first of all understand what government is.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Which government isn't supposed to take you to church. If
you need to go to church, go find your pastor.
And I'm down for it because I love my pastor.
I ride with my pastor when my pastor shows up
for me. I am not saying there's anything wrong with it.
But if you are seeking a good church and a
good spiritual leader, go to church. If you are seeking
this thing that we refer to as separation of government
(49:46):
and church, or church and state, then you probably need
to go find you an actual statesman who absolutely understands
what it is to take care of us in this
country and make sure that we've got a stronger economy
and that we are investing in our future so that
we can remain that becon of hope for the entire world.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
I love it well, it's faith and works, as they say,
as you pray, move your feet. And we've been watching
you and it's remarkable to see your success. And I
think everybody listening knows why you are quote unquote one
of the rising stars as most observers have acknowledged in
the Democratic Party, and why Donald Trump himself dogress woman, yes,
(50:29):
get over it, called you the future of the Democratic Party.
Thank you for joining us today.
This is Gavin Newsom. She's been called a rising star.
Donald Trump referred to her as the future of the
Democratic Party. Couldn't think of someone better to talk about
what's going on in Texas and the jerry mandering, what's
going on in Washington, DC with the National Guard than
the one and only Congressman Jasmine Crockett. Thank you for
(00:32):
doing this. I appreciate Eily at this remarkable time. So
we'll just we'll jump right in because I you know,
I can't even imagine you spent time in the Texas Legislature.
I was watching last night a brief interview one of
the members of the legislature, Nicole Collier, was in the chambers.
She's not walking out because she doesn't want to be
(00:53):
assigned a member of law enforcement to watch every move.
And I just I couldn't even imagine what that experience
is like. But I couldn't imagine a better person to
talk about it than you. Watching all of this from afar,
the impacts indirect to democracy, the direct impacts to you
(01:16):
as a representative watching your own district lines changing, give
us a sense of what you're feeling right now, what
this moment means to you.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So I'm feeling overwhelmed, and if you are paying attention,
you should also feel that way. This isn't about me
as an individual. This is about our collective democracy. It's
one of the reasons that I think the country has
galvanized behind what California has decided to do, because this
isn't just about Texas. It's not just about the representatives
(01:48):
in Texas. It's about the people. And so when you
look at the lengths that they will go to decimate
our democracy, that is when people should really have their
hair on fire. And I don't care what kind of
you live in and I personally don't care what your
political affiliation is, because we are setting a dangerous precedence,
one that could forever dismantle our democracy. So here we are,
(02:12):
as a black woman's civil rights attorney, and I'm looking
at a state that is taking state actions against a
duly elected black woman to basically incarcerate her against her
constitutional rights, and everybody is just kind of like, ah,
you know, Texas gets to do whatever they want to
do because we have a minion for a governor instead
(02:34):
of a governor for the people of Texas. And so
now because he wants to do everything that he can
to kiss the raggedy.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Feet of Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
This is where we stand to the extent that he
is disrespecting Texans over and over and over, whether we're
talking about the map, or whether we're talking about the
threats that were waged against these members and their family members,
or whether we're talking about a woman, a black woman,
that decided that she wanted to be free in the
year of twenty twenty five, and basically she had someone
(03:08):
who decided that he wanted to act like she is
on a plantation, and so therefore she had to sign
documents if it was that she was to have some
semblance of freedom.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And look, I appreciate how you you just laid that
out and with vivid and clear lines. I mean, a
black woman being told she has to have someone from
a white governor. I mean, you can't. The racial components
of this cannot be overstated. And as you say, people
are kind of rolling there, I mean, shugging their shoulders,
(03:43):
rolling their eyes. I mean the fact that not everything
is stopped in real time to sort of measure this moment,
the fact that so much is being normalized in this
country as we're watching democracy slip through our hands. I mean,
what do we need to do to create the proverbial
pattern interrupt? What do we need to do to wake
people up to understand what's really at stake, what the
(04:05):
hell is really going on, not just in Texas, increasingly
across this country.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think we all have to collectively fight back, and
I think that we have to take it back to
elementary school, where everything legitimately was black or white, it
was right versus wrong. We right now are having a
moral catastrophic, you know, combustion, right like it is insane
(04:29):
to see the lack of morality like this really isn't
about whether or not you believe in, you know, the
democratic platform or the Republican platform. This is truly about
whether or not we believe that as Americans, that freedom
should be real, that we should treat everyone as equals,
(04:52):
that we should not diminish our democracy, because that is
why we stand out and why we have been a
beacon of hope around this entire world, not just in
this country for people that are here. The reason that
we've had so many immigrants that have always decided that
they want us to come to the United States is
because historically we have been the Land of the free
(05:12):
and the land of opportunity. We are slowly just losing
our standing on the national stage, whether we're looking at
a president that is rolling out a red carpet for
a war criminal, or whether or not we are looking
at a governor that has decided that a woman would
be stuck and could not leave because she had the
(05:33):
audacity to think that her colleagues would engage in real
debate and they would come back and they would fight
for fair maps. Not fair maps for her, but fair
maps for the thirty million Texans whose voices deserve to
be heard. Considering the fact that we are a majority
minority state, we're sixty percent of the people that are
(05:54):
there are people of color, Yet every single day they
are so happy to take in people of color, day
after day, to the extent that we ended up gaining
two new seats in the last time that we did
the census. We took those seats from other states that
were growing, and those seats were taken because there were
black and brown bodies that came into the state of Texas.
(06:16):
Yet they then minimize their voices. So, yes, they want
their bodies, but they absolutely do not want to hear
from them, and that is wrong. And again it is
why we applaud California and your leadership because you.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Said not on our watch. Two can play this game. Now.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Should we be playing a game when it comes to
something like democracy, Absolutely not. But can we afford to
take the high road as they continue to take away
more and more rights and we start to look more
like a government that is run by Vladimir Putin than
a government that is run by a respected and honorable
President of the United States. No, we shouldn't stand ida we.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Buy, and so you don't buy the argument two wrongs
don't make a right.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Two bongs are about to make your right in two seconds,
that is for sure. And I appreciate the level of
thoughtfulness that went into this because I think at the
core of who we are as Democrats, regardless of what
others may say about us, we really want to do
what's right. The question is usually whether or not we
have the courage to push forward, even in the face
(07:24):
of adversity, to get it done. And this is ugly,
this is messy, that is for sure, but it is
the right thing. If you're going to take away five
voices in a state in which I have been engaged
in litigation since twenty twenty one over the current lines,
because we have argued that these lines were terrible and illegal,
(07:47):
and the state consistently argued for the last four years
that they were racially neutral, that they were perfect and
beautiful lines. And then all of a sudden they get
a letter from the Attorney General of the United States.
Imagine that the Attorney General of the United States decides
that instead of say, building up the Civil Rights Division,
that she decided to tear down. The Attorney General of
(08:11):
the United States that is under pressure to release the
Epstein files that are within her control, she decides to
prioritize going after Texas and telling Texas that they actually
have not been race neutral, and they decide to act
based upon her instruction. And we know that her instruction
came directly from him. And so now we're looking at
(08:35):
a situation in which, no.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Matter what happens, I can tell you that these maps
are illegal.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
The question is, will we have these branches of government
continue to fail us, Will we have a court that
will strike this down in time and say never mind.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We're going to have to draw the maps.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Because historically, when we've had all three branches working. That's
what happens when one of the states does wrong, and
there's no way to say that the State of Sexes
is doing right.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You bring up twenty twenty one in your efforts in
relation to the maps, but you also for those that
may not be familiar. You really made a name for
yourself nationally the last time when you were in the
legislature I think it was twenty twenty one when you
guys did a similar quorum break, and that was on
different issues, but related to voting access and the like.
(09:27):
I mean, how do you paint? What do you paint
as a contrast or the paint the picture? Is this
part of the same narrative? Is this sort of the
extended narrative from twenty twenty one? Is this represents something
that's more dramatic from your perspective? Or is this the
same thread that's being pulled.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
No, we absolutely try to ring the alarms, and unfortunately
we collectively did not rain those alarms loud enough.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
When we left we went to d C.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
When we went to DC, we asked a democratically controlled house,
a democratically can trolled Senate that had a Democrat and
the White House to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights
Advancement Act. That particular bill would have replaced the current
Voting Rights Act. It would have short up everything that
we lost in Shelby the Holder, and we wouldn't be
sitting on the edge of our seats wondering whether or
(10:16):
not we would lose Section two. So, for anybody that's listening,
Section two just says, basically, we want to go ahead
and further codify what is in the Constitution as it
relates to people of color being able to have representation.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
And so I have a Section two seat.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
What we know came out of Louisiana and Alabama for
this last election was two Section two seats because they
looked at a state like Louisiana and said, hey, thirty
percent of the population is African American, and y'all only
gave them an opportunity to elect one lawmaker to the
federal level, so they had to add one. Same thing
(10:54):
happened in Alabama, so they had to add one. So
both states now have two seats where African Americans are
allowed to choose their representation. Well, what they are doing
right now, they got rid of all of the issues
around preclearance, which means that when states go through all
of this craziness and they've had, say, a history of
being racially discriminatory, such as Texas. Texas has been found
(11:16):
to be racially intentionally discriminatory every since the Voting Rights
Act was passed, which is so wild for me to
think of, considering the fact that it was a Texan
that signed their Voting Rights Act into laws sixty years ago.
So to see that, we basically were like, hey, we're
ringing the alarms past the jungle was Voting Rights Advancement Act,
(11:37):
and we wouldn't have to deal with this fight over redistricting,
past the Freedom to Vote Act, and we wouldn't have
had to deal with Elon must being able to actually
buy an election. We were trying to throw up our
democracy and screen to the top of our lungs at
that point, and unfortunately, at that time, the House did
their part. A democratically led House does their part. Unfortunately
(12:00):
it was in the Senate where we did not have
the support to go ahead and move past the filibuster
for the purpose of voting rice. And I think that
if we don't have voting rice, we get no other
rights whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
And so I think if there's ever a need.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
For a carve out, it is on behalf of making
sure that we can expand access to the ballot box
for those that are eligible to vote.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
The headlines never stop, and it's harder than ever to
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where pot Save America comes in. I'm Tommy Vietor, and
every week I'm joined by fellow former Obama aids John Favreau,
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(12:48):
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Speaker 1 (13:04):
It begs the question of your reaction to what President
Trump said yesterday as it relates to mail in ballot
ballot where he now is asserting that he's got his
lawyers drafting and executive order and he's going after mail
in ballots, something that he is very well known for
having used himself in Florida. He was an absentee ballot,
(13:27):
meaning he was someone who went and got an absentee
mailed that in like millions and millions of Americans. By
the way, eighty percent in the last big election in California,
folks used mail in ballots overwhelming number. What do you
make of this latest effort by the president.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, so, first of all, I think that California, number
one is a direct target. We know that California has
expanded access to the ballot box in ways in which
some of us get frustrated to the extent that you
do of so many mail in ballots, and you definitely
had some nail bier congressional races that came down to,
(14:08):
you know, the last batches being counted.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
And we know that this.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Postal service isn't necessarily the best run under the current leadership, and.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So yeah, it is. It is.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
It can be frustrating because it can make it to where,
if there's tight races, it's going to take us a
little time, but I think that that is what democracy
looks like. It makes sure that you hear from everybody,
no matter whether or not you're home at the time,
no matter whether or not you are encumbered because if
you leave your job, you have fear of retaliation, even
(14:43):
though legally they're not supposed to. Whether or not you
are a caretaker for your children or you're ailing parents.
It allows you an opportunity to participate. And what they
have decided is that participating any elections should just be
reserved for the privileged few. They don't want it to
be something that allows the masses to participate in We
(15:05):
talked about twenty twenty one, but ultimately what it was
is they were passing new voting law standards in the
state of Texas because for the first time they weren't
going to have to deal with preclearance whatsoever and get
the authority, and so they decided to decimate access to
ballot boxes, especially after COVID nineteen, which in the midst
(15:25):
of COVID you had even in states like Texas, you
had very creative secretaries that were going out and they
were saying, hey, we need to make sure that people
can vote and be safe. You should not have to
risk your life to cast your vote. And so they
decided that they were going to expand hours in Harris
County where they had twenty four hour voting, they had
drive through voting, They did all these things to make
(15:48):
sure that it was easier. They had multiple drop boxes
so that you didn't have to worry about putting it
into the mail itself. You could drop it at a
drop box throughout the country, throughout the county. Well, they
didn't like that because the number showed that working class.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Folk were absolutely able to participate.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
And if you look at the platform or if you
just look at the actions of the Republicans, they don't
have anything good number one for people of color, and
definitely they don't have.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Anything good for working class people.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So the things that they are trying to do is like, yeah,
if you've got the luxury where you don't have to
worry about losing your job, you don't have to worry
about taking care of that kid, you don't have to
worry about taking care of your mom.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
No, you can just go to the ballot box and
just vote.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And they feel like those are the only people that
they want to participate, and so it is very intentional.
It is disgusting, and it is one of the reasons
that people are so disenchanted, in my opinion, with politics,
because they'll say one thing and do another. And I
just want people to know that there is a difference
between Democrats and Republicans. Regardless of what it seems like.
(16:55):
Republicans will say whatever it is to convince you to vote.
They won't go out there and campaign say oh, yeah,
we're going to lower the taxes on the super rich,
the super wealthy. At the same time, we're going to
go ahead and take away your health care. We're gonna
go ahead and take away your access to education, which
is your pathway to upward mobility. They're not going to
(17:16):
tell you, like the real story, that they're going to
take food off the tables of people that are hungry
in this country while at the same time complaining about
unhoused people and trying to stuffle them off their streets.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
They're not going to.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Tell you that they're going to decimate the economy as
they always do and then we have to wait on
a Democrat to come in and clean it up. They're
not going to tell you the truth, but they will
go after the things that they really want to go after.
Now that is now, that is real. But Democrats, we
will tell you, and we can give you a dissertation
of all the great things that we want to do.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But we also have.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
This inclination to do things and be like, well we
want to be by partners. No, at the end of
the day, if we've got the numbers and they don't
want to get on board for not only taking care
of our constituents, but frankly, a lot of times we're
doing the hard work to take care of their constituents,
a lot more work and heavy lifting than they're doing.
And so what people want to see nowadays, and I
(18:11):
get it, is they want to see Democrats be just
as aggressive as Republicans are when they are trying to
introduce regression into this country. They want us to be
as aggressive trying to make sure that we can actually
uplift this country.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Well, there's so much unpacked there in the word regression.
I mean, it's about rights regression. It's about rolling, putting
America back reverse, bringing us back to a pre nineteen
sixties world. As it relates to voting rights, women's rights,
LGBTQ rights across the spectrum. I don't think that's exaggeration
nor what you said about jobs. And for folks listening,
since nineteen eighty nine, the end of the Cold War,
(18:48):
it's important to be reminded of this. Bill Clinton made
this point at the DNC in his speech. Fifty two
million American jobs have been created since the end of
the Cold War, three Republican administrations, three Democratic administrations. Ninety
six percent. Ninety six percent have been created under Democratic administrations.
The last three Republican administrations have one thing in common,
(19:10):
recessions one point nine million jobs creating the last three
Republican administrations over sixteen million in the Biden administration. Just
as another proof point to the extent you needed it.
But Congressman, I want to talk about another proof point
on democracy. We talk about jerry mandering. We talk about
what you guys did in terms of voting, that John
Lewis Act, which was about an independent National Redistricting Commission,
(19:34):
which the Democratic Party Republicans were nowhere to be found.
The Democratic Party has supported and they're on record supporting.
We talked about what he's trying to do on mail
in ballots, and I referenced the last election was twenty twenty,
and you reminded me of that where we were at
eighty percent coming out of COVID in terms of the
vote by mail, in the convenience and the opportunity and
(19:54):
the security that exists bar codes, requirements on signatures, there
is a process where you actually can track where your
mail in ballot is. And once one ballot is cast,
there is no other ballot that can be cast. All
the bs Trump is suggesting is a lie. Otherwise as
it relates though to the National Guard, it seems to
(20:16):
me all this stuff is connected. It's none of this
is in isolation. Everyone has to pay attention. These dots
need to be connected. You've got the National Guard being
sent now, and you talk about what Republicans don't tell you.
Those governors didn't tell you they were going to send
them from Tennessee, South Carolina, send them from all of
these other states into Washington, d C. You work there,
(20:41):
You spend your dating, a lot of your time there.
Tell me what it's like in d C. Tell me
what you think this is really all about, And tell
me if you think this is a preview of things
to come, particularly dare I say around election in the
mid terms, and beyond.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, is very dystopian to see. It's funny because I
used to watch like The Handmaid's Tail and I can't right,
I never finished and I can't watch it because it
is too close to reality. And so what we're seeing
is this militarization. And obviously it started in your state.
(21:23):
That was kind of the testing grounds, going to your state,
going to a black woman mayor's city first, and now
we are in yet another black woman led city and
taking over. And to me, it goes again to the
level of racism and hate that is constantly spewed out
(21:45):
of this administration.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Now they hate for you to call them.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
What they are, but listen, I mean, if it walked
like a duck, quack like a duck, then I guess
it is a duck. So like racism is racism, and
you are specifically targeting these black lead areas. But more importantly,
when you start to connect the dots. One of the
things that we didn't talk about as much when we
(22:08):
were trying to push forward against the draconian legislation that
was coming out of the state of Texas at the
time back in twenty twenty one, was there was this
provision about having basically people be able to monitor you
while you were voting. And there was like recordings that
came out where these groups had gotten together and they're like,
(22:31):
we're going to go down there, and they were talking
about going into the areas that were predominantly people of
color and monitoring them while they were voting. And they
were limiting the ability of the election judges and the
election workers to actually remove those people even if they
(22:51):
were interfering with someone's ability to vote. So it was like, nope,
you got to give them one pass so they could
break one law for free, and then you could only
get them out when they committed the second violation. And
at the same time, they were changing access to firearms
and so essentially in these locations you could have all
(23:13):
these rogue actors that are armed as people of color
are trying to go in and cast their votes. If
nothing looks like pre civil war in this country, that
does like that imagery, right, So now you have someone
who believes in this type of philosophy who now has
(23:33):
control of our National Guard.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
And so, you know, the idea that we.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Thought January sixth was a problem and we thought, oh man,
that's bad, and you know, His army then was.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
A bunch of white nationalists races.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Whether we're talking about the Proud Boys or the Neo
Nazis or whomever, those guys were the ones that made
up his army on that day to try to pull
a coup. Now you're talking about a guy that every
time he disagrees with something, he uses the power that
he has because no one around him is checking him,
whether we're talking about those in his administration, or whether
(24:11):
we're talking about the courts, or if we're talking about
the Congress. That is one of the reasons he is
so desperate to make sure that he can win in
the midterms is because he knows that Democrats is not
even about partisanship. It's about doing what's right. It's about
doing the American thing. And to be clear, you can
wave all the flags you want to, but I am
(24:33):
telling you right now that the most unpatriotic people that
we have in this country are Maga and this president.
We are the real patriots, and it is time for
us to take our flag back and show people what
America is about.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You can't say that you.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Love the Constitution while decimating it with every single stroke
of a pen. For an executive order while decimating it,
while you are disrespecting our troops that have signed up
to protect our freedoms not just here but abroad, and
then you're taking people's freedoms away using those exact same troops.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Like, I just don't understand.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
You know, It's funny as people have been talking about
what's happening with Revnical Collier, and I've been watching some
of the influencers online and people are asking, what is
the red line for you?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Like what will be a.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Bridge too far? Like why is it that people are
still confused about.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
What is happening?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And why is it that no Republican will publicly come
out and just say, you know what, I'm gonna do
what's right. When it came down to Senator Tom Tillis instead,
he said, well, listen, I'm gonna just.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Go ahead and not run for reelection and I'm going
to vote against your ugly bill.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
But why is it that those that know that this
is wrong, Why is it that they won't just say
that I never swore an oath to any wanna be king.
I swore my oath to the Constitution, and I'm gonna
honor that. Why is it that we don't have that
happening right now amongst the Republicans in the House and
in the Senate, Color.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Soman, do you hear privately things differently? I mean, do
you have casual conversations where people have at least there's
some courage of their convictions and a little bit of
character and say, hey, you know, you know, I just
you know, I gotta do this. You know, he were
just it's temporary. We just you know, we can't what
I mean, what are they saying?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I remember right before he won because one of the
things he did campaign on was tarriffs.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Now, most people didn't understand it. Of course he lied
about who would.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Be paying the taxes, but he did actually campaign on tariffs.
And I remember walking into oversight of all places, and
I remember a member saying, just so you know, if
y'all end up taking the House, because they were nervous
that they were going to lose the House, if y'all
end up taking the House, we'll stand with you against
(26:56):
the tariffs. Like this is what a member said, because
that member remembers what happened to our soybeing farmers, our
soybeing farmers who never recovered and ultimately they ended up
giving them a subsidy for all that they lost. But
once you lose your ability to participate in a certain market,
it is gone, like and we can't continue to just
subsidize you to say in existence. They actually want to
(27:18):
be able to sell their products and be able to
profit in that way.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And so I'm like, this is so interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
You absolutely were against the tariffs and when given an
opportunity to do what's right because you know that this
is going to directly impact it impacts all of us.
But when you're talking about rural America that is already
bleeding population so badly, when we know that we're losing
farms consistently, and these are the people that have directly
elected you, and then you're not going out front on
(27:49):
that issue.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That's been one of the issues.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
They for sure were struggling with the big Ugly bill.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
That is why we ended up.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
You know, they finally decided they wanted to try to
pass it in the middle of the night. They were struggling,
and I was like, listen, you guys have put out
a memo saying no more town halls, because you know
that when you walk in your constituents are mad at
YOUO ours aren't mad at us, like it's bad legislation.
But they were afraid about being primary. They were afraid
(28:20):
about money being spent against them. And it is one
of the worst parts of having such scary mandered districts
because ultimately they are having to go as far right
as possible to end up making it out of their primary,
and ultimately they don't have to worry about the general
election because it is drawn to be such a far right,
(28:41):
deep red district. That is yet another bad by product
of doing jerrymandering.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'm going to get to you in a second because
I'm fascinated by your approach to politics and how you
come on the scene in such sort of vivid ways.
And I say vivid, very complimentary, meaning your person of conviction.
You share your passion with action, You call people out,
(29:14):
and I think this conversation only underscores as well your
willingness to call balls and strikes too. Is it relates
not being about democrat, not being about republic and you
talk in terms of patriotism. I love Democrats. How the
hell did we lose this battle on patriotes just because
you put a flag on your lapel of a sudden,
you're patriotic, Our party is not. So I want to
(29:36):
get back to all that in a second, but I
do want to get just you know, there's three legs
of the stool as it relates to what's happening in
the National Guard, what's happening with jerry mandry, what's happening
vote by mail. But there's also something that, speaking of vivid,
came to us in very vivid ways last week where
we were at the Democracy Center in California and we
launched our campaign to try to neuter what's happening to
(29:56):
you individually, what's happening to all of your former colleagues collectively,
and what's happened here a country on jerrymandery in Texas.
But we are there at the site where people were
being bussed in the nineteen forties to Japanese internment camps,
and at that exact side, at the exact moment of
our press conference, Donald Trump sent what is increasingly being
(30:18):
referred to as a private army funded unprecedented ways by
the big beautiful betrayal, big beautiful Bill, big beautiful, ugly Bill,
whatever it's referred to by those same colleagues. You were
referencing that allows him to further resource border Patrol in Ice,
and they showed up with the Regional director of the
(30:38):
Border Patrol as their pr flack at the exact same
site that people were being bussed to interment camps in
this country. It was to me chilling in this respect
that for me it was obvious this is also a
preview of things to come. We said it about the
National Guard when they were federalized four thousand or mind
(31:00):
people listening watching four thousand National Guard were federalized. It
was the first time the President of the United States,
Donald Trump didn't do us in his first term since
seven hundred active military marines, not overseas, but to a
city in the United States of America. The city. Yes,
you're right, and I think it is absolutely jit run
(31:21):
by an African American woman. You start to find those
dots and they have a lot in common with what
you're referring to and what he's doing across this country
as well. But I see a future where ICE shows
up to those lines that you were referencing to those
voting boosts, not just the National Guard being called out
(31:42):
under a quote unquote declaration of emergency AM I overstating
that concern or do you see tenants of that? Are
you concerned about that as well?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I think that there are no limits that Ice will
not go. I do feel like this is definitely his
personal army. We know that we've seen reports about January
six ers that have somehow been offered jobs within the
Department of Justice and within various kind of spaces. I
think that there may have even been some reports as
(32:13):
relates to Ice.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
One of the reasons that.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I argue that they are hiding their faces is because
these are people that should not be law enforcement at all.
In fact, I recently dropped one of my bills that
was an amendment as we were going through the process
of the Big Ugly Bill, where I was trying to
get an amendment in judiciary as it relates to Homeland
(32:39):
and what was going on as they were trying to
increase the dollars going to Homeland, and obviously ultimately when
the budget came out or when we got through reconciliation,
they did increase the amount of moneys going there.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
But I basically did an amendment that said, hey, if
you end.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Up covering yourself, then no, you don't get the moneies, like,
you can't be out there, You've got to be clearly identified,
and frankly, it is for the safety not only of
the officers but also of the general public, as we've
seen so many reports of people that are costplaying as
ICE and they are then kidnapping people, they are then
(33:17):
vandalizing homes and cars, and so it is emboldening the
bad actors to continue acting bad. But the question is
how many of the bad actors are actually on the
inside right now, And they don't because they're not, in
my opinion, real law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
So many of them, Like we're not talking about the people.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
That have been there for a very long time and
understand how ICE works, because I'm like, honestly, the stuff
that y'all are doing is crazy. Anyway, Like people look
at law enforcement or people with guns and badges and
they think they're all the same.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
They are not trying the same.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Whether we're talking about our marines, whether we're talking about
our army, whether we're talking about our navy like whoever
we're talking about right or what that we're talking about,
like our air force, and whether we're talking about our
local law enforcement versus ICE. They're not trained the same.
Local law enforcement is always going to be your investigative group.
These are the guys that go out and find the criminals.
(34:14):
And I got news for you. If you're a criminal,
They don't first determine your status and whether or not
it's legal, or whether or not there's some issues as
relates to your documentation, and then decide, well, you know what,
we only go after the citizens.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
We don't go after the non citizens. ICE does that.
That is wrong.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Investigative bodies. They do this work all the time. If
there is evidence of a murder, if there is evidence
of a rape, a robbery, a DWI, whatever it is,
they look at the evidence, they follow the facts, and
then they get to a perpetrator and it's only once
that perpetrator is then in custody. ICE for the most part,
is nothing but a ride. That's all they were supposed
(34:54):
to do for the most part. Right It's like, you
know what, this person is undocumented, or this person re
there's a country illegally, all the things, and then they
have an ICE hold and then ICE gets them so
that they've min sent them out. That's all ICE is
supposed to do. Look at them as a fancy uber
driver for immigrants.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
That's all they're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And now they're running into places and doing raids and
they're falling all over each other injuring each other like
we are a joke, but it is a bad nightmare
of a joke. And so I don't think that this
president has any limits.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
That he won't go to.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
So I agree with you ultimately, if there's something that
he wants to accomplish, he has you know, I don't
even want to say her name, but he's got our
leading the Department of Homeland Security. And again, you know,
this is where our text and balances failed us again
because these senators allowed for these persons to go through
(35:50):
the confirmation process and they're not qualified, like there should
have been more senators.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
And you know, I will give love to the few.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Republican senators they refused to sign off on the confirmation
of some of these appointees within this cabinet.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
But this is yet another reason that we are.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Being failed right now because we don't have someone that
is currently over homeland And we'll tell the President this
is a violation of people's constitutional rights, like the whole
idea of due process. You don't even know what it means,
and you are leading like Homeland like this doesn't make sense.
So we've got a series of failures, and frankly, it
feels like it was the perfect storm for him to
(36:32):
come in at this time because people are just too
afraid of him and they are bending the knees. So
I absolutely can see a scenario where I does too much.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Well, if you were referring to Christinome you may have been,
I would suggest you should and I hope you were.
This is the same Christinome governor home that just last September,
less than a year ago, was on Fox with Hannity,
outraged by the rumor that then President Joe Biden was
(37:06):
going to federalize her National Guard, and she was waxing
on about the Constitution and the tenth Amendment in federalism,
and Sean Hannity was sitting there shaking his head as
a puppy dog, saying, boy, Governor, isn't that true? Fast
forward to today. It is a remarkable moment, but I
want to just pour a brief moment talk again about
(37:28):
you talk about one doing your job. I imagine a
lot of people said, you're new into Congress, your job
is just to get along, sit back, be quiet, Get
to know folks, take your time, because time's really the
currency in DC. Eventually, maybe twenty thirty years from now,
you'll be chair of a committee. I don't see that
(37:50):
with you at all. You didn't take any time to
sort of just come out, just say like it is.
Call out people is motivation, nature, nurture. Was this mom
and dad? Was this who you were as a kid?
Or is this who you know? Life is sort of
you know, is the world sort of creating your I mean,
(38:12):
are you sort of meeting this moment because you're so,
You're just you need to be held to a higher
level accountability because you need to call out what the
hell's going on.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, well, Governor, you've been involved in politics for a
very long time, and with that you have seen a
lot of different types of politicians.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
People enter this arena with different goals.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
And I can tell you that I was not born
into a family that was super involved in politics. My
parents voted, for sure, but they never aspired to be politicians.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
They never pushed me to be a politician.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I never took one policide class when I was in college.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I was not interested whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
And so I think every once in a while you
do run across some of them that have literally said,
this moment calls for me to step up, and who
knows what will happen, And ultimately, like that's the story
of me being involved in politics. Even by the time
I got to the state House, and I was so
(39:16):
happy to be there. It was the closest state house race.
I was the barely state representative in the state of Sexes.
I always tell people I was a thank you Lottie
into this state House. I won my election by a
mere ninety votes. I think that was the ultimate number.
And so I won by ninety votes, and I was
(39:37):
an underdog. I was outspent five to one, but I
was not outworked, and I was able to convince about
three hundred volunteers to get involved in a state house race,
which was unprecedented. But people believed in my vision and
they believed in my grit and grind. And it was
only after one term in the state House that I
(40:01):
was called up to the federal level, which I had
no intention whatsoever of going to.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
That was not my aspiration. Even though so many people use.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
These positions as stepping stones to get somewhere else, that
they're trying to get to. In fact, I remember people
telling me like, oh, you can't be a state rep.
You've got to go be like city council first.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
And I was like why.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
I was like, I don't want to do city stuff,
like I want to do the safe stuff, So why
would I do that? And to me, it does a
disservice for the people that you're serving if you're literally
just there trying to get somewhere else. And so when
I got called by my predecessor, along with a former
ambassador under Clinton, and so many other people were calling,
and I tell people all the time that God has
(40:42):
to yell at me to get.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Me to move. But they were like, you you should,
you should go to Congress. And I was like no.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
I was like, I just, you know, barely got out
of this election. I don't want to sign up for
another hard one. And I knew it was going to
be difficult because my predecessor is the only person that
ever served the district.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
She was actually in.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
The Texas Senate and she was on the Redistrict and
Committee when the seat was created, and so she then
ran for the seat and she served for thirty years
on the federal level, and so there have been people
waiting for decades to run for this seat, and so
there ended up being ten of us. But I believed
(41:25):
that for whatever reason, God was really saying, no, you've got.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
To do it, even though you don't really want to
do it.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
And never did I imagine a scenario where I would
be one of four hundred and thirty five and a freshman.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Where anyone would know my name.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
When you talk to the average person and you ask
them name, you know, five named ten members of the House.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
They can't do it.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
So why would I think that somehow I would end
up in this situation? And as I told the story
at the DNC about my encounter, my first in person
encounter with the Vice President, I was really struggling with
whether or not I really had done the right thing.
I mean, I had gone through a lot, I won,
(42:13):
I didn't really know that I was really fitting and
I just didn't know. And I still struggle. I'll be honest,
I still struggle. I don't struggle like I initially did
because when I go home, or even when I go
other places, whether it is kids that have no ability
whatsoever to vote but love me and are telling me
(42:34):
that they're watching me, and I'm like, what is wrong
with your parents? Because I sometimes say things that I shouldn't,
you know, but like them being inspired or whether it
is how everything unfolded with the Marjorie Taylor Green scenario
and having like black women executives that are sitting in
these rooms and these tables where the micro and sometimes
(42:56):
macro aggressions are so real with their colleagues, but feeling
like like, you know, what if the congresswoman could stand
in her power, I can stand in mind. Now you know,
the advice is not to call anybody a butch body
or a big back or nothing, but but nevertheless, like
letting them know that you won't power because you know
that you had to work so hard to get in
(43:16):
those rooms, and so like understanding my impact on the
outside gives me my fuel to stay on the inside.
But it's tough because as you know, how these systems work,
it is a matter of well, you got to be
here forever, and that's how you'll get something done.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
And I'm like, I'm not here to be here forever, Like.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I didn't know i'd be here at all, right, So
I need to make the best of this moment and
I think that it does a disservice to my constituents
to say, well, unfortunately, since I just got here, nothing's.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Going to happen. Like that's not full representation whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
So you know, I think if enough people push a
push against the system, then you can start to reshape
the system.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
But we still got a lot of pushing to do.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
We love your clarity, your conviction, love your authenticity, and
Republicans have been watching and that's why they have your
I mean, let's and we'll end on this. They're trying
to end your political career in Texas. One of the
five maps that they've put forward excludes your current district.
(44:24):
Right you would no longer be quote unquote living in
the district that they're redrying.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So what they did is they drew me out of
my districts. But since it's federal, I can run anywhere
in the state, So so long as there is a seat,
I could most likely run anywhere in the state. But
right now, the seat that they drew me into is
also a Democratic seat, and then my old seat is
still a Democratic seat. So I feel confident that if
(44:52):
I decide that I'm going back to the House, that
I'll be able to go back to the House. The
thing is, we have three Democrats that that served the
Dallas area, the Dallas Fort Worth area, and now there's
only two seats for Democrats to really kind of be
able to run in. And so I've got to have
a conversation with my colleagues to figure.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Out, you know, what are we doing and where.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Yeah, but I'm probably in to be honest, I'm probably
in the best situation of the three of us because
both seats are easy enough for me to win, and
at least I live in one and I used to
represent the other. The other two colleagues that I have
are both in Republican drawing seats now, so they would
have to run from outside of their districts or move
(45:42):
to make people feel comfortable with like them representing their.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Areas and tell the truth, you know, I'd be remiss
a lot of rumors about the United States Senate, And
I mean just you've had to have some conversations about it.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Right, I have.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
And I will tell you that there are always people
that are, you know, yelling and screaming for me to
go higher. I will tell you, ever since I got
to the House, they were yelling in screaming for me
to go higher. And I can tell you that even
when I was a freshman, they did not want me
to seek re election but instead go after Ted Cruz.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
And I was like, I just got here. I'm not
going to do that.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
And so obviously Colin Alred went after Ted Cruz, and
Colin Alred is now going again after most likely Paxson
and Paxton.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Makes the seat vulnerable, but it would have to be.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I will tell you that if I were to run
for Senate, it would be because I am convinced of
the data that my team, not external data, but the
data that my team is able to pull together.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
That shows that I can do it.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
And I think that anyone who believes that they can
win the Texas seat without expanding the electorate, they already
have lost because when we look at the electorate, it
always goes one way, and so you have to have
the ability to expand. And I also agree with Beto
O'Rourke who believes that we need an actual ticket we
(47:17):
typically run and whoever's at the top of the ticket
is like it instead of really having like a very
strong ticket where different people can bring together different constituencies.
So there would be a lot that would go into it.
It is not impossible to do in Texas. It is
definitely a difficult hill to climb. But I just don't
(47:41):
really know where we're going in this country when you know,
we've got a thirty four account convicted felon in the
White House, and we've got, you know, a guy who
was impeached by his own party that is leading the way,
who was under felony indictment for almost.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
A decade, and who had.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Been under federal investigation forever, and he's their leading candidate
to be the next senator from the state of Texas.
It just seems like there is no low that some
of these people just won't go just to say that
they have a Republican versus looking at people's policies and
(48:22):
figuring out who will do best by me, regardless of
the label that is on them. And I want people
going forward. One of the things that I said during
the last campaign is I want people to be selfish.
I want you to be selfish and decide that you're
going to look at what somebody is going to do
for you, and if they don't have an answer about.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Why you don't have healthcare and rule America.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
They may not be your candidate if they don't have
an answer about where you are going to get new
markets as they are cutting out government funding for things
such as US AID. With these contracts where we were
getting farmers to actually farm and then sell the items
and then send them over where we know that our
free school lunches are about to be decimated as well,
(49:07):
and so many farmers had contracts with so many schools
or I mean, the list goes on and on and on,
and so it is time for people to be selfish
and decide that they first of all understand what government is.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Which government isn't supposed to take you to church. If
you need to go to church, go find your pastor.
And I'm down for it because I love my pastor.
I ride with my pastor when my pastor shows up
for me. I am not saying there's anything wrong with it.
But if you are seeking a good church and a
good spiritual leader, go to church. If you are seeking
this thing that we refer to as separation of government
(49:46):
and church, or church and state, then you probably need
to go find you an actual statesman who absolutely understands
what it is to take care of us in this
country and make sure that we've got a stronger economy
and that we are investing in our future so that
we can remain that becon of hope for the entire world.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
I love it well, it's faith and works, as they say,
as you pray, move your feet. And we've been watching
you and it's remarkable to see your success. And I
think everybody listening knows why you are quote unquote one
of the rising stars as most observers have acknowledged in
the Democratic Party, and why Donald Trump himself dogress woman, yes,
(50:29):
get over it, called you the future of the Democratic Party.
Thank you for joining us today.
Host
Gavin Newsom
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