Episode 121 | "New New Jersey" Ft. Rob Menendez

@THEKIDMERO

@REPMENENDEZ

 

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yeah right, you've seen the frustration overlaps with the Chronics station.
He is now into the gangster mode, you.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Know, like.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Lictorly, like.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
M hm.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hm lictorly like this gentleman.

Speaker 5 (00:31):
You know what I'm saying. This is victory.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Like we are here at.

Speaker 6 (00:34):
Dallas b b Q's, you know, one of our home base,
our satellites, but we are in Secaucus today.

Speaker 5 (00:38):
This is New Jersey. This is the new Bbq's.

Speaker 6 (00:42):
Okay, they have opened up, they have expanded, and uh,
we have a special New Jersey resident today.

Speaker 5 (00:47):
No, it's not Joe Buddy. It is Rob Menandez Junior
aka Roman.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Thank god.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
You know what I'm saying, Hello meo doing my brother
were here?

Speaker 7 (00:56):
You know what I'm saying, ripping the eighth district of
Dirty Church, see that.

Speaker 5 (01:02):
Great great Jersey, the Garden State.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (01:05):
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:06):
That's what it says about this play even before I
lived here.

Speaker 5 (01:10):
Damn, I shouldn't have said that.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
Is that a churn? Friend?

Speaker 5 (01:14):
Allegedly allegedly I didn't do anoe of that. I didn't
do none of that. It's not cutting out were quick show.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Insurance.

Speaker 5 (01:26):
I can't help you there.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Outside.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
You gotta hear an attorney. I at least you canna
help me get a ticket thrown away in white call.
You know what I'm saying. You can make that happen. Listen.

Speaker 6 (01:40):
This is important though, because I'm a former educator, right,
and I.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
Remember once a year, every year, we had to.

Speaker 6 (01:48):
Do faculty photos, right, So that made me think of, like, yo,
I remember this as.

Speaker 5 (01:55):
Being a very whack experience, and I never liked my photo.
You're a congressional for though. It's kind of wild, you
know what I'm saying. It's kind of aggressive, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Like you want to do the interview? When you saw
that photo, they like, is that why there's so many
people here? Because he's gonna come in.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
He's gonna you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
But not.

Speaker 7 (02:13):
But you know what, it gave me confidence because I
was just like, yo, that's the type of phace I
will make, you know what I'm saying, And every faculty
photo like yo, I tell you to say something again. Yeah, yeah, listen,
I'm mister Martinez, not just mister Okay, but I'm doing.

Speaker 5 (02:30):
Like this and you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (02:31):
So, but so talk me about talk a little bit
about that day for you, because I know it.

Speaker 5 (02:37):
Couldn't have been as whack as for me because you're in.

Speaker 6 (02:39):
There with your kid, with your colleagues and people that
you like, people.

Speaker 5 (02:42):
That you might not like.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
So so do they make you pose. So there's a
thing called congressional orientation, right, so you get elected, right,
and you have a sure amount of time before you
got to get everything up and run it. So they
have just like college, right, they have orientation where you
go down to Washington. You're like, yeah, well, you're like
main tag. You're like all right, They're like you can
a ton of materials. You're like, you know, like all

(03:04):
this stuff. And they say before you leave, you got
to take a picture, right, and you can replace it
as soon as you get here, right, But we need
a picture, so Capitol Police knows who you are, right.
So I'm like, let's get it done right, Just let's
do it fun right, done right. And they were like,
you can replace it, right. So I'm like fine, Like
it's gonna be on an ID somewhere, it's gonna be

(03:25):
in a book somewhere. They know what I look like.
Done right. I don't need to pose. I don't need
to take a second. Guy was like, this is good
as it's fine, right, it's temporary, not so temporary, right,
not so temporary, right. So then I'm living with it, right,
and now like every day I'm like, oh god, it's
like on a website, right, it's on like Wikipedia and stuff. Right.
And then I'm like I'm saying, people are like, why
you look so bad in the picture. I was like,

(03:46):
I thought I was going to replace it, right, So
then you start working and the last thing on your
mind is taking a new picture. So that's the picture
I've had for so long and I look like I
look crazy.

Speaker 6 (03:57):
Should make it like Twitter, bro, where you could just
like replace it with anything in your camera roll, you
know what I mean, Like just you holding a big
ass like bass or something like fishment, you know what
I'm saying, Like just hanging out on the beach.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Yeah, you feel me like just just toes out, so
you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (04:12):
What's what's your Wiki feet score?

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Do you know what?

Speaker 5 (04:15):
Five and a half out of five? You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (04:19):
It's not out of ten, you know what I'm saying,
cause mine is like a nine point five. Yeah, you
know I mean I've shown feet a lot on the internet.
You have not saying try to keep everything below the news.
So I've bet people be like, no one wants.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
To see you in shorts, right, yeah, it's bad really Yeah.

Speaker 6 (04:35):
As a politicians, do you have to always be like yo,
I gotta look.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
A certain way, like do you ever yo?

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Right, like when I'm home with the kids, right, like
I go out or had t shirt right casual, But
I genuinely believe no one needs to see them in shorts.
Like I was in Puerto Rico, I was wearing pants,
didn't matter how it was like wearing pants? Are you
being Puerto Rico? Sure was things and at least these

(05:01):
things people I would lose. I always lose about six
percent of the vote. Bro my boat margin every year
that people see the sea below.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Then you go, we.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Gotta do we gotta hit legs.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
It's a tree store and it's not only finished right there,
like right after this have to be like a month
of leg Dad. You're like like some people go to
Turkey for like hairing it because I've thought about it, right,
I have to go to Calfine plans just have like
just bruisers, right, like just looks like that. I would
only wear shorts. I'd be in congress with like look
like the full back, yeah, look like say quad right,

(05:32):
they're like where those come from. This guy's got these
like little gumby arms, but his calves are just capsu crazy.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
We just call him Johnny Provo. Yeah on the hill.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
We're not there though, So I don't got the walking
around money for calfin planing. So this is what I got. Listen,
I got pants.

Speaker 5 (05:49):
You got pants?

Speaker 6 (05:50):
And pants in Puerto Rico is a choice, you know
what I'm saying. I'm committed, bro, Listen, I'm gonna do
something right now because I wore jeans and dr for
like forty eight outs crazy, and I was making sauce
in my ass cheeks.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
Mom, I know you was out there making some Cuban
mohito in between those cheeks.

Speaker 6 (06:10):
Bro, if you're wearing pants and pent rica, were you
at the beach though, or was it just like you
know inside inside walking around around all star wine, just.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Up tucking right, not no, no in need right just
and there's like one of those things where like it's
so bad, like you don't you don't even think about
reaching the towels.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
Right.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
You know, they're like, let's be like environmentally friendly, reuse
the towels, hang them up. We won't replace It was
like you got to replace these from the shower.

Speaker 5 (06:39):
It's just from.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Drying off from walking outside.

Speaker 9 (06:41):
Right, Like when you see on the floor right, like
put the towel on the balcony. They're like they're like
we can't even like throwers in there, like the washing
machine like ru it right, Like I remember like the
towels in Puerto Rico, right, like there's a surge and
like towel imports into Puerto Rico because we're wearing fans
around little stand.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Way there you go.

Speaker 10 (07:00):
No doctors, it will you know what I'm saying, Rob,
You are a Jersey guy through and through.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
You know what I'm saying. Like a lot of people
don't know this off camera.

Speaker 6 (07:11):
You almost refuse to do this interview if I did
not say on camera that the port role is superior
to a big and egg and cheese.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
You know what I'm saying. He made me say that
they're both great. That's very political. That's man political.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
That's got you have no one who they're on a
roller bagel, right, and you can't go crazy with the bagel,
right was running for like governor, may or something. She
was like, I'd have wocks on a cinnamon raising bagel
and people were like, whoa wait with capers. Andy was
like Crammy, Like, so you can do some bake egg
and cheese, respectable, respectful man saandwich.

Speaker 8 (07:46):
Taylor Ham thoughy cheers it is it is.

Speaker 10 (07:53):
Listen, uh New Jersey. If we were talking off camera
about our families, right father for two. Yeah, part of
the reason I moved here was, you know, a of
the space.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
I need a space. I need a room for a
large family. And the educational system.

Speaker 6 (08:09):
Right, talk to me about your educational growing up, your
education public school, going to private school, differences between the two.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
Yeah, so I grew up in Union City.

Speaker 5 (08:18):
My mom was a public Union City.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yeah, it's Burger Linear.

Speaker 11 (08:24):
Well, if you need Chinese slippers, if you need some
dual rags, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (08:30):
If you need regano, like that real of regano, that's
like ground up for.

Speaker 5 (08:34):
Real, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
Much you can get any type of food you want anything,
most affordable food in the in the world, like three
three courses, right, and you're not even looking at eighteen
dollars and a.

Speaker 6 (08:43):
Little aluminum ten yeah, and a two lead pepsi for
fine ninety nine.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah. So I grew up, So I grew up in
Union City. Loved it, right. So my mom was in
the public school system as an educator, and you know,
we always went to public school through eighth grade. I
loved it, Like Union City is a great place. The
thing I loved about was that when my grandparents got
there right from Cuba, it had the second highest population
of Cubans outside of Miami. Right at that point, right

(09:10):
like fifty years later, there was few Cubans and it
was Dominicans, Mexicans, Guatemala's Al Salvadorans. Right you walk down
Bergen Line, it used to be all Latin American restaurants, Cuban,
Puerto Rican. Right now, it's like you can get anything there.
It's the whole next generation, right of people that are
coming to the same place to start their story. And
that's what I always loved about. And the school system
reflected that we had great, great educators, great schools, and

(09:33):
all the people we went to school with where I
had that immigrant mentality, right like this is this is
why we're here, right this is your opportunity, right, make
the most of it. Right, And so it was like
it was competitive, right.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
I didn't here. It was I listened to me, this
is and keep me out of father. Let me tell
you some thing, Robert.

Speaker 6 (09:50):
I didn't go here for you fucking around being standing outside.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
No, you know I didn't.

Speaker 6 (09:59):
This is opportunity for you buy And I was just like, yo, yes,
that's ingreened than you as like moving shot.

Speaker 5 (10:04):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
And you saw that all around people just hustled. They extracurriculars, right,
even now, like with what I do now with the
Youth Youth Advisory Council, right, all high school students from
the same thing. Right, they sign up for it's an opportunity.
They make the most of it, right. And my favorite
thing is kids afterwards will be like, yo, can you
help me with an internship? Can help me with a job.
I was like, I respect that, right. They're like they
had an opportunity, they made the most of it. And

(10:26):
where they gonna do with this opportunity. They're gonna create
another opportunity for themselves, right, I respect that hustle, right,
Like that's just straight up Jersey. That Toudson County.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Sead Dudson County, Jersey. We here, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (10:38):
I was gonna this is funny because it's not the
Crestina who was off camera.

Speaker 5 (10:41):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
I'm I'm a name drop, shade it out.

Speaker 6 (10:49):
She was like, yo, She's like, I was gonna rob
and he didn't know whether or not he was gonna
wear NIX Jersey.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
He didn't wanted he wanted to seem like he was pandering.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
Meanwhile, I want you to see the hat that I
was about to wear.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (11:00):
And I was thinking the same exact thing, bro, And
I was just like, yo, am I gonna do this.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
I was the office almost like you're wearing TIMS, right.
I was like, come on, god, guys, I can't do that, Like,
come on, marky Mark, what do.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
You want me to do?

Speaker 5 (11:12):
Right? Come on?

Speaker 4 (11:13):
Like I'm looking authentic?

Speaker 5 (11:15):
Yeah, God damn yeah. I was about nice. It's fire fire.
I was gonna wear this.

Speaker 11 (11:21):
I was gonna come kid it out with this with
the PK Supa jersey, with the him pads and ice skates,
the whole nine.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
Bro, I was gonna. I was gonna. I was gonna
go crazy with it.

Speaker 6 (11:33):
So with your kids, right, like, having that experience with
public school and New Jersey, uh, the system, the school system,
are you like committed to putting them in public school?
Its something that you're seeing that you're like, I'm saying,
maybe I was something to say, you.

Speaker 5 (11:47):
Know what I mean, burning Catholic.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
Yeah, we're gonna do whatever. You know. I'm away right
four days a week, So there's one boss in the household, right,
it's not me, right like in the household, like I'm
the bottom of the total pole, right base. My wife
and I have always talked about it, right, we'd love
to have our kids in public school. We'll do whatever
makes the most sense for them at any point in
their education, right, and I think just keep it open, right,

(12:12):
But I love public school education. We fight for it.
It's one of the things that's critically important, and it's
it's the foundation for every individual.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
Right.

Speaker 6 (12:20):
Luckily for you, if you put your kids in public school,
they'll blend right in because their last name is Menendez,
you know what I'm saying. So they'll be in there
with Ramirez and Santiago and Menandez and Rovaldo and Jenkis.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
And you know what I'm saying, It'll be a whole mixed.
They won't even know that's right, you know what I'm saying.
They'll be like, oh, who's your dad? Well, yeah, he's
just a guy. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
He's got that Z on the end.

Speaker 9 (12:40):
Right.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah, you know you got the easy bro, You're good.
You got the easier of good. You know what I'm saying.
Unless the current administration gets ahold of you. You know what
I'm saying. Then, you know, and speaking of that, you know.

Speaker 12 (12:50):
Uh, my kids, all right, I gotta get out.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
We got to get them. This ship on the seacout
right now, it's going crazy. Uh so, let's let's stay
on education. You got your BA from U n C.

Speaker 6 (13:03):
Right, j D from Ruggers, you know what I mean,
which my wife officially calls sluggers.

Speaker 5 (13:09):
I don't know why, don't know why, don't know why
she just put it out there.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
I was there for law school.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
There for law school.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
It was in Newark.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
You speak to that, it was he's a different library time.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
I don't know anything else.

Speaker 10 (13:28):
So as a Rutgers guy, you know what I mean,
As Scarlet Knight, as a Jersey dude, NBA draft is
coming up.

Speaker 6 (13:37):
We got two studs in a draft coming out of Rutgers,
Aast Bailey and Dylan Harper. So now my question to
you is as a guy, as a Ruggers guy, what
team are you going to? Bandwagon? Are you going to
bandwagon aces team? Or are you going to Bandwagon Dylan
Harper's team.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
I don't do any of that, right, Listen, I'm a
straight up Nicks, right, Yankees.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
Let's go, let's go.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
I'm not a I was the gotcha question intern like
listen like like, And also I went to UNC right
because I think this is important, right, because I know
people that had like three degrees right, and they would
always front run the team they got like a master's
or like an online degree, and they'd be like, oh,
that's my team. Oh you can't do that, right, And
then they'd be like a different sport. I know kids
that went to Notre Dame in duke right football, they

(14:21):
were like, oh yeah, Notre Dame fan right basketball season,
guess what Duke fan. I was like, you can't be
doing that. Oh no, I got two degrees. I was like,
I got two degrees right, But I went to UNC first, Right,
Those four years. Is that when you have that dedication
right to your to your alma mater. Right, So I'm
consistent in that, right, I don't. I don't switch back
and forth.

Speaker 5 (14:39):
There you go, see consistency one.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
You know what the worst thing was when I was
doing this, right, it was when Saint Peter's had the
Sweet sixteen.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
I was like, it's in Jersey City, right, I'm like, oh,
Saint Peter's peacock up right. I was feeling it, and
then all of a sudden, you know what happened to
UNC play Saint Peter's. I was like, oh it is.
I was like, I gotta go, would you like? Literally?

Speaker 5 (15:01):
I literally I got it?

Speaker 4 (15:02):
I went, I got I got out.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
I can't get the celebrity that Rob Menendez do you
and see alum? And it's just like, yo, yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
I'm like sit next to someone for Saint Peters and
I'm like, just just like this, associate me with that person.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Hey, yeah, you gotta peak. I keep it.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
I try to keep it. I always say this. You
gotta say the same thing in every room. Right, So
like easy to be like all Rutgers play that up
right when you're in the Rutgers room. I went to Rutgers.
That got my JD. There. But if there's a game on, right,
it's you and see you.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
Une all day.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (15:28):
Well this is why I say, look on my car,
I had the top three picks, right, and I look
who I rubbed out.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
I rubbed out Cooper flag. You know what I'm saying,
because he reps your mortal enemy.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
You don't want you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
Hey yo, hey, hey, hey yo. Hold on, I crossed
out Cooper flag on the car. I did not rub
out Cooper flag. That's crazy work. Okay, he's eighteen, right,
that's like your degree at Rutgers. Yeah right, hold on, like,
hold on, now, this is not how I got things done. Okay,
I'm diplomatic like rob.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Okay, literally like literity.

Speaker 6 (16:04):
So transportation, I mean New York, New Jersey, there's always
a lot of like.

Speaker 5 (16:10):
Bridge and tunnel talk.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Right.

Speaker 6 (16:13):
One of your first gigs was running the healthscape known
as the Port Authority.

Speaker 5 (16:19):
What the fuck was that?

Speaker 6 (16:20):
Like, bro, Because I'll tell you my experience Port Authority one.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
Just one anecdotal story. You know, you know the.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
Little Jimmy busses that pick you up and take you
over the bridge for like a couple of dollars.

Speaker 5 (16:30):
Was waiting for one of those, and I was like, hmm.
I was like, I gotta go peepee.

Speaker 6 (16:34):
So I ran to the bathroom and there was a
man in there with a full academics vilowsuit taking a
dump in a.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
Year at all, and he was looking.

Speaker 6 (16:41):
At me and we made solid eye contact for like
twenty seconds, and I was just like, that's crazy because
that's a new sweatsuit.

Speaker 11 (16:49):
So this is not an unhoused This is not an
unhoused person. This is just a dude who wants a
dukie in a urinal.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
You know what I'm saying. Have you ever had to
deal with stuff like that? Or were you just in
the office being like, Yo, there's duke in a urinal.
Did you not take care of that?

Speaker 4 (17:03):
Imagine what was happening in the stall? You feel what
he went in there? He was like, I'd rather take
a ship on a that's way better than going into
the system.

Speaker 5 (17:11):
I had to bring a canary into the soul. They
got a red light bulb in his stall.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
It's crazy, I should add, right, So no, So I
didn't do any of that. So I was there right
on the Border Commissioners.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
And you know it's thirties.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
I was, I was, it was fortunate, it was a
great experience, right. But the funny thing was was that
when you say porthority, people assume it's the Midtown bus terminal. Right.
So I tell my oh, I saw this year you're
gonna be working at the poor Threat. Yeah, gonna be there.
They're be like, shoot, the bus terminal. I was like, no,
I'm not at the bus terminal. What else? Where else
are you going to be? Right? Where else is the porthority? Right?
So you know it's every bridge and tunnel, right, So

(17:47):
from the GW down to the Outer Bridge in Middlesex,
it's all three airports plus Teeterborough. Right, Many, your man, Many,
your statue knows Teterborough.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
I was gonna act like I know, but I do.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
But you got the Path, which you know is it's
in the subway and you have World Trade Center campus, right,
So like all that stuff and a bunch of other
things going.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
On, I'm very familiar.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
I used to take the Path train into Journal Square
when I worked for uh Levan Brothers, which used to
be a solving financial institution.

Speaker 5 (18:18):
You know what I'm saying, which is no longer. All right, brothers,
you know what I'm saying, both of them.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
I don't know how many windbreaker from there. I got
this stuffid ass polo like the mail room driver.

Speaker 5 (18:28):
I got the in the I T one. I'm a
widows one day. You know it's a throwback.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
Yeah, it's a good time to wear right, Like everything's good.
He's worth a leaving Brothers thing. He must be forecasting
what's happening.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
I got a bear Sterns windbreaker, all.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
Good and run. Anybody got it. We got a big
market mover. I got it and we got we were
moving merch. Okay, I got thar noose eenie if you
want it like it's all bad like whatever, it's it's
all good.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Yeah, oh good, Okay.

Speaker 6 (19:03):
So the Port Authority was a learning experience obviously, right
going from there to getting right into Yo. I'm running
for this seat, you know what I'm saying, eighth District.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
I'm going for it.

Speaker 6 (19:19):
Got some heavy endorsements, you know, Corey Booker, Ross Baraka.
We're gonna get to Ross later on. But I want
to go back to the dad thing, right because as
a father of four, you know what I'm saying, and
as a Latino dad. You know what I'm saying, There's
something that you know, It's very important to us. We

(19:40):
are very fiercely Lloyd to our children. We will protect
them at any costs.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
You know what I'm saying. I will fight a band
for my kids.

Speaker 6 (19:45):
I know you will fight a bit for your kids,
you know, small bear, small bear, you know what I'm saying,
Go back to my legs. You're part of the Dad Caultures,
which when I heard about it, Priscina told me about it.
When I heard about it, I was like, Elon Musk
is gonna get rid of this ship? I was like,
what are they doing here? You know what I'm saying
because it sounds like something like I made up in sims,

(20:05):
but it's actually it's actually kind of really important.

Speaker 5 (20:08):
Yeah, can you like break it down?

Speaker 4 (20:10):
So we started last Congress Jimmy Gomez from California. Right,
So you may remember last Congress, Right, Kevin McCarthy was
supposed to become the speaker. Right, the Republicans were in
the House, and it took like twenty something votes. He
was mad ass bro right like he was it was
all right, like and so everybody, this is the worst thing.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
Right.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
No one tells you not to do this.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
But it's like.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
Bringing your kids to your first day of work. Right,
So I got my two little kids. Other people bring
their kids because you think you're gonna go in. They're
going to vote for McCarthy you get sworn in, because
you can't get sworn in until they elect a speaker. Right,
So they start messing with him. The Republicans do, right,
and they're saying, we're not going to vote for him.
So it goes on and on, vote after vote, and
everybody's got their kid on the floor. Right. So Jimmy

(20:49):
Gomez has like the baby Bjorn, his little son strapped in. Right.
I got a burke cloth for my son. Right, I'm
like giving my daughter whatever she wants, like my phone
and stuff to hang out. And people saw these pictures, right,
and they were like, who are these dads? Right? Try
like as members of Congress because usually it's all butt
and duff. Right, you take the photo you come in

(21:09):
on a card, right, Like that's what people see as
members of Congress. Who are parents?

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Right?

Speaker 4 (21:14):
And the reality is when you've got a young family, like,
it's a grind, it's a hustle, right, And things go
off track, right, and you got to adjust, Like you
do anything right, your kid has a meltdown at Dallas Barbecue, right,
you adjust. And that's what we were all doing. We
were all adjusted.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
I think, like I just bothered in another drink a
triple shot, and.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Like it was just so people saw this in real time,
and it put attention on the fact that they're young
dads in Congress, right, And so Jimmy, myself and others said, like,
let's put together this caucus of all these young dads
and some who are older dads, right, but like and
make sure that we're talking about the things that we
know impact families across the country. Right, So, like, let's
be a voice for childcare, right, let's be a voice

(21:57):
about early childhood education. Right. And so that way, instead
of us doing it one off, we have a collective
group that steps into this void where generally men haven't been. Right, Like, yeah,
men have been parents and dads and all that stuff.
But like, but it's leaning in on it, right, and
not making an issue that you let women carry. But
you say, no, this is our issue too, and we

(22:17):
care about it, and we're involved back home, and we're
gonna be involved here in Congress.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
How to get myself pregnant? Robert like.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Hello, because I think sometimes when dads step up right,
people are like oh wow, yo, right, and like that's
not what it's about, right, Like, listen, we have to
do more right. It's not about getting recognition for it, right.
It's about recognizing that there's been a disparity and who's
fighting for these issues, right. So it's not to say like, oh,
we should all get like recognition for it, but more like, no,

(22:46):
we recognize that there's that gap. We want to step
into it right and make sure that we're all in
this together. Families are in this together. Whatever families look like, right,
single parent, mixed status and all that stuff. We're all
in this together. We're fighting for the same things.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Bang her, God, damn.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
I'll drop this lying down a fair point. I would
have got home and my wife like this. See you're
on podcast talking about being a dad, thinking that you
do it all on your own, don't you big guys?
I be like, no, I didn't mean that.

Speaker 9 (23:17):
You're like, let's actually see what Let's go to the tape, right, Yeah, yeah,
just go to the tape.

Speaker 5 (23:21):
Do you got like the nest cameras in your crib.

Speaker 6 (23:23):
Yeah, for sure I need those because my wife be
lying on me.

Speaker 5 (23:26):
Bro, I've been doing a lot.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
I don't just do like the quote unquote the man
work like the gender role stuff, right, Like, Yo, take
out the trash, bro.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
Yo, you got to chop some wood for the fireplace
or whatever in.

Speaker 4 (23:37):
The first he gets with the job.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
You know what I'm saying, Like, I'm listen, dog, I'm
suburban now.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Dog.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
It's not about I'm not standing in front of the
building anymore. Forget.

Speaker 6 (23:45):
And that's a good thing. Yeah, I'm saying because it
keeps me out of trouble. Okay, I'm coaching youth sports
and I'm in the I'm in the house, can to
the fish.

Speaker 5 (23:53):
I'm not leaving. I just hang out, you guys, anybody here.
I do not go outside. I just staying the outside
of mind my business. I want to up around a
little bit.

Speaker 6 (24:01):
Going from the port authority thing, you know, and being
in charge of all those bridge and tunnels and crossings
and vehicles and things of that nature. Something was happening
in New Jersey or a little while ago that was
transport related, and everybody just stopped talking about it out
of absolutely nowhere, and it was it was these drones,
the drones in New Jersey.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
And we have a segment here on the show. It's
called the tinfoil fitted. Okay, when you it's where you
put out a.

Speaker 6 (24:30):
Tinfoil fitted on that to protect your brain from the
five G rays that are out there.

Speaker 5 (24:34):
In the world corrupting in out.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
And you could give a straight explanation about these drones
what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (24:42):
So you got the ten four fitted. Now you know
what I'm saying. Talk to me about these druns. What
is what? Why did we just stop talking about them
out of nowhere?

Speaker 4 (24:51):
What were they?

Speaker 5 (24:52):
What were they? What was their purpose? What were they doing?
Were they just like.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
It was what Listen, the thing that's crazy, right is
the distrusting government. Right. The government said this is what
they are, Right, it's combo of amateur like drone flyers
and places out west, right, fixed aircraft which you don't
have like the lights at the end of it. Right.
It was a series of things like that, right, And
that's what the government said, right, And everybody was like, oh,

(25:15):
I don't trust the government. It's like it's a rany
and battleship sending drones in right, And seriously, there was
a member of Congress from South Jersey who's not a Democrat, right,
who is peddling crazy like that, right, And it was
in the newspaper, right, like Jeff v Andrew says that
there was like an a radiant battleship off the coast
and Joe Biden's a sleep at the wheel, right, And

(25:36):
people were like, oh shit, like this is happening, right,
this is like end of war world, right, Like this
is happening. It was what the government said it was, right.
And then when people like like lost attention, people done, yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
Playing too much call of duty? Man, Yeah, gotta kind
of it.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
I was like, No, it was like people just like
that's the crazy thing about the times that we're in. Right.
It was like mass hysteria, right, and no one believed
the government. Right. Then people lose of it, right and
they move on, and no one who said crazy shit
like was accountable for, right, Like, and then you just
throw things out there and people are like, oh wow,
there was supposed to be like a drone commission, right,

(26:11):
Like we're gonna like we're gonna have like you know,
zero Day, the new neuro movie. Right, We have zero
day for drones, right. Never happened, right, Like because I
was sitting there and people were like, you need to
talk about the drones. I was like, I'm not talking
about the drones, but the federal government, the state government
had said this is what's happening, right, that's what's happening.
And we had all these zoom calls where people were like,
we need answers, right, and the governor's office was like,

(26:33):
these are the answers, and people are like, those are
not the answers that we want to have because they're
not exciting, right, Like people are scared and be like, well,
don't scare the bullshit, right, like just tell people this
is what's happening, and that people don't believe you, right,
that's their choice, right, But you gotta be honest with people.

Speaker 6 (26:49):
You got to do a TikTok for everything that days
rob you know that, you gotta be like what shull
on me?

Speaker 5 (26:54):
I avoid?

Speaker 4 (26:55):
I avoid to the TikTok band, So I gotta I
gotta I gotta be cool on.

Speaker 5 (26:59):
That, yeah, saying it can be Instagram.

Speaker 13 (27:02):
Real, follow us on Facebook? Yeah yeah Facebook, and you
and my mom will be there. It'll be sweet yo,
I got I'm in a DP Facebook group. I got
the best recipes out of there. Use measurements.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
That's the truth of it, right, Like what happened happened.
The government was saying it at the time, and no
one wanted to believe it.

Speaker 5 (27:21):
Right, Why do you think that is though? That distrust?

Speaker 4 (27:24):
I think listen, that's a great question, right, because it's
not just the drone thing, right, It's it's a lot
of things. It's like on healthcare, right, and like and
what should we be doing with vaccines? Right?

Speaker 5 (27:32):
Could I be doing this thing in two weeks? In
the next two weeks, We're gonna do a thing. It's
gonna be a big, beautiful case just crazy. It's crazy,
my big beautiful BBC.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
BBB.

Speaker 5 (27:45):
I mean, I mean BBB, let's make bang last premise.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
But it's like, people, listen, That's that's the work that
I think is really important right now is people have
a distrusting government. I understand why, right, Like, and how
do we get it back to a place where we
can at least agree on some core things? Right? Like, Listen,
if you're a new parent, this is what we say.
These are our recommendations for vaccines, right, you get to
make your individual decision, but they'll keep not just your child,

(28:10):
but other children wealthy.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Right, Well, what if I tell you something, Robert, Yeah,
that the case is what I've been reading is that
vaccines make your ear shrink and then you can't hear
people talking. That's what I've heard, and I'm gonna make
that in the constitutional event that.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Was the case, my ears would be a lot smaller.
Got these things hanging off the side of my head,
like it's like Cliffhanger over here. I like, so that
would be a good thing for me. But like, listen,
I think that's the challenge, right, And because I think
our politics has been so much right that we can't
even have a conversation with each other. Right. And it
used to mean we had political differences, but government was

(28:50):
a little flatter, right, the disagreements didn't impact how we govern. Right. Unfortunately,
what I think you're seeing now is the politics is
making government ben right, where no matter what happens, we say,
all right, here's an equation two plus two. Were probably
gonna say five, Democrats say three. Right, No one's right,
but we're gonna say I'm right, you're wrong, right, And

(29:12):
I think that's saying we have to figure out because
people should look at government say I can disagree with this,
I can disagree with this administration or this elected right,
but I for this set of information trust them, right,
and that we just don't see happening right now, and
that listen, it's a way of addressing what happened with
the drone thing. Government was saying, this is what's happening.
It's been proven that that's what happened. The Trump administration

(29:35):
I think looked at they were gonna, you know, unleash everything.
It was the same thing that they had been saying. Right,
But people, people just there's no trust factor, and then
you you allow sort of other voices in that you
trust more than the government. Right now, I'm not saying
people have to have one hundred percent trust in government
like that's unhealthy, healthy, right, and you should be alway
should be you should you should push right like that's

(29:57):
healthy And I'm with that, right, But it's some point,
after you've done your own sort of thinking about it
and asking questions to people like me, you have to
you hope that people say, all right, that's good, I
trust that that that like, what is the truth, right,
like not to be like crazy, but like I think
people struggle with that, right because they hear so many
different things like what's the truth. It's like we need

(30:18):
to work and sure build a consensus where people are
saying the same thing and they agree on what the
truth is. And that's one of the things that we're
struggling with as a country right now is it's hard
for people to to come to that consensus.

Speaker 14 (30:31):
Literity like like like literity, like like like we.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
Can get this hat out of here because we've got
the we've got the drawn situation figured out. You find Rob,
you know what I mean? Because people needed clarity on that.
By people, I mean.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Me what people haven't even been thinking about it, right,
It's like that's things just cycle through.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
I was just sitting in a shout the other day
and they came in my head and I was just like,
I'm talking to Rob the other tomorrow, So let me
you know what I mean putting it in there. Fam
Like I said before, are you are? You are very popular?
You know what I'm saying in your district? You are listen,
you can do yeah, go ahad do it?

Speaker 5 (31:08):
Do the political you know, I mean, y'all shucks.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yeah out here trying to get every single vote we can.
You know, work hard at.

Speaker 6 (31:14):
It, Bro, You fry everybody so bad, Bro that you
are able.

Speaker 5 (31:21):
To raise funds yourself and then like yo yo, I've
got a little extra hundred bands left over.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
Yo yo yo, you like Mino Brown handing out Turkey
selling other Democrats in the hood.

Speaker 5 (31:31):
Like yo, yo, here yo, you need to help with
your campaign. I got you, bro his twenty bands. You'll
hold it down.

Speaker 6 (31:36):
You know what I'm saying, Uh what I mean obviously
when reelection in twenty twenty four, Dog, that's why we're here.
Why do you think that you're so popping in your district?

Speaker 4 (31:53):
Listen, there's there's there's electoral success, right, which is a
combination of things, right, and then how you are perceived
in your district. Right. And I view elective office and
government as a service.

Speaker 5 (32:06):
Right.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
So I was a lawyer right before I did this,
and it was all like how you provide a service
to a client, And I think about the same way,
but instead of clients, the constituent. Right, So everyone that
lives in the district I provide a service to our
office does right? And I am fanatical about that like,
I want you to have the best, whether you're like
if I owned a restaurant, I would be fanatical about
the service that you have, right, and the experience that

(32:27):
you have. And to the earlier point about how we
get people to trust government, right is government has to
be focused on the people and providing a service to
the people. Right. So we go out and we do outreach, right,
and we come to places across the community, places of worship,
community centers, libraries and say this is what we can
do for you. Right. We do it in an X

(32:48):
amount of languages. Right. We have people that speak about
three four different languages in our office, right because it's
a diverse district. And we advertise in places like on
YouTube because we know a young demographic is on YouTube
right to get their information. So we pop up there
and be like call our office. Right. Yesterday I did
like a merchant walk in India Square and Jersey City. Right.

(33:09):
Because people always get assume that you're running if you
show up, right, like, oh, yeah, what do you need?

Speaker 9 (33:15):
Right?

Speaker 4 (33:15):
When's your election? Like, No, I just say I'm not
running this year. I just want to talk to you
and make sure that you know we're here for you.
And so I think because we've been so focused on
how do we create the service for our constituents any
way that we can and put them first, they've responded
to that, right, And I think people want government to work, right,
even though they're frustrated with it, they want to work

(33:37):
and they want to work for them. And my view
is like one of the models that we have in
our office, right is you know, federal government. Most of
the things that we deal with our immigration, Social Security IRS, Medicaid, medicare, Right,
those are the VA benefits, those are the big federal buckets.
If someone calls and says, I got a parking ticket
in West New York, right, we don't say no, Right,

(33:57):
that's a municipal issue. Right. We can't we can't directly
help with it. But we'll never tell a person no, right,
because government too often is a bunch of door shutting
on you. You call and you say, hey, like I
have this issue, door shut right, No, call three other
people and you're in the middle of two jobs, these
eight forms. You got to pick your kids up, right,
you got to cook dinner, right, and you got to

(34:19):
get something from the government. Right. You don't have time
to make twenty calls, right, you have time to make
one call. If they call our office. The thing that
we need to do is help them get to where
they need to go. If we can provide it directly
home run easy. If we can't, we have to figure
out how to help them because that may be the
only call that they make. And so that's how we've
approached it. And because that's how I think it's like,

(34:40):
there's we think we're in church bulletins. You'll see if
you go to a certain church, you'll see, like, you know,
call this office if you need help with this. That's
where on the on the Jitney buses we're trying to
figure out how we've advertise there.

Speaker 6 (34:52):
Bro That's that's smart because those are people that largely
like are not really involved in politics.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
You know what I mean, Like you shouldn't have to
be right, Like you shouldn't have to be involved, right,
because like there's two worlds that I live in, right,
the government world right, which is separate and apart from
the political world right, And my mind's always racing on both.
I live in a very political place New Jersey, right,
Hudson County, very political government is separate apart, right, so
most of the casework that's you know, when we help

(35:21):
a constituent casework, most of it's immigration related.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
Right.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
And the reason I tell it to people is because
because more often than not, those people can't vote for us, right, right,
And that's not the point when you.

Speaker 6 (35:32):
Say the difference between government and politics, Yeah, like to me,
that's those are synonymous.

Speaker 5 (35:37):
Right.

Speaker 4 (35:38):
So it's an important thing, right, because politics is are
your elections right, your candidates right, people that are running
for a particular office. And that's when people are out
there trying to convey their message to you why you
should elect them. Right. And then if elected, right, then
you have the government component, right, whether it's municipal, county, state, federal,
which is what I do. And the government component is

(36:00):
separate apart from it, right, So it doesn't matter who
supported you, It doesn't matter whether someone can or cannot
vote for you, if they live in your district, you
provide a service to them. And that's what we call
the government official side of it. Right. So you roll
into our office, we don't ask you like, oh, are
you a registered Democrat or Republican? That's political right, party affiliation,
all that stuff that sits there. The fundraising. All that

(36:22):
stuff sits there. The political organizations, the state party, the
national organizations. That sits in the political government is no
matter who you are, whether if you live in our district,
we will help you, right, and we'll provide a service
to you. And that's what the government component is for
the federal For what I do in the House of Representatives,
it's both here in the district, right. So the district

(36:43):
is thirteen municipalities, our district offices in Jersey City, right,
that's largely where we help constituents directly. Then when I
go to Washington, that's where we do the legislative component,
vote on bills, have committee hearings. All of that stuff
is happens in Washington.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
So I do.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
Government in two places, right here in the district, which
is directly constituent facing, and then in Washington, which is
more how you take what you experience here. Right, Like
right before this, I was doing something with an autism group, right,
And one of the things that the leader of this
group was saying is that she gets so many calls
from parents of kids who are autistic, and not a

(37:21):
lot of people talk about the stress that puts on
a parent, right, And a lot of parents they struggle
with it. Right, You think about the guilt you may
feel with just being a parent to a child that
doesn't have that challenge. Right. And she was saying, you know,
like I get so many calls about from parents who
are in a really bad place, and I worked, I
walked through them. She was like, but I'm one person, right, Like,

(37:43):
how do you expand this service so people can have access? Right?
So that was something I heard about in the district.
So when I go back to Washington, I'm going to
talk with my team and say which services currently exist? Right,
Like hotlines for parents, right, you know, because there's mental
health wants, you know, suicide hotlines, et cetera. But like,
are there is there anything that we can tap into
or direct people to that for in this situation? Right,

(38:07):
very you know subset of people, but an important one
that I feel a common stress is there a place
that we can direct them to? So I take what
happens in the district office, right, and when I hear
in the community and bring that with me to Washington
and try to create solutions legislatively or through committee or
with you know, the executive branch to create solutions for
what we're dealing with back here. That's the government side, right,

(38:31):
then there's the political side, and these are these. My
view about it is, once you're elected, if you do
good government, people will want to vote for you, right,
Because you hear all the time all people that you
don't vote, These people don't vote. Right, It's like, well,
what are you doing for them? What are you doing
for them?

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Right?

Speaker 4 (38:45):
Because why are you asking every two years for us
every four years?

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Right?

Speaker 4 (38:49):
Why are you asking for their vote and not showing up? Right.
I think that's where when you see the shrinking participation
in the political side of registering to vote, voting in elections, right,
people say, look at the trends, right, and they say, oh,
like this universe isn't engage, this universe doesn't register to vote.
It's like, go talk to them, go provide a service
to them, right. And you can't coordinate it, right because

(39:12):
there's like a wall between government and political Right. Like
when I'm at when I'm doing when I'm at the
government office, if I have to do something on the politicals,
I leave, like physically leave, right to get to somewhere
else where I can do the political stuff. So there's
a wall right. So whatever we whatever services we provide,
separating apart. Right. But my view is, if you're going

(39:32):
to ask for someone to make time out of their
day to go vote for you, right, you need to
be able to give them a why, right, And it
can't be you should vote for me because I'll do this. Right.
It's let me show you what I'll do for you, right,
and if you like it, you have the opportunity to
vote for me, and if you don't, you either cannot
vote vote for someone else. Right. But I'm going to
work every single day to give you a reason to

(39:53):
vote for me, because if I do the government right,
I think the politics will follow in a action.

Speaker 5 (39:59):
You know what I'm saying, show them the people what
you do. Yeah, you was my man. You were up
in Newark. Yeah, slap boxing with ice.

Speaker 6 (40:10):
You know what I'm saying. Like, you know what I mean,
protecting your people. You know what I mean, as a
as a strong I thing man it's supposed to do.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (40:17):
Chatta Monica mc ivor, you know what I mean. You
held her down.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
Also, Rasmaraka freed the homie. Uh talk about that day?

Speaker 6 (40:27):
You know what I'm saying, like going there the experience,
like you know, what was the pre you know, we
do pre production, Like what was like the pre Like, Yo,
We're about to go out there and see what's up?

Speaker 5 (40:38):
Or was it just like a spur of the moment.
Let's go check it out.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
So, So, before so Deliney Hall is in Newark, right,
and before that opened up, there was only one private
detention center in New Jersey and Elizabeth, the Elizabeth Detention Center.
And so under law, federal law, a member of Congress
can go unannounced to any of these ice detention centers
and doing what we call it overset I visit. Right,
So you go and you ask questions, they show you around,

(41:02):
you can talk to the tainees, et cetera.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
I've done the govern bolls.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
Yeah, except except you got to provide identification rights, like
I'm not let.

Speaker 5 (41:11):
You in, right, Like no, no, I'm Kevin right Melendez?

Speaker 4 (41:19):
Right, So like so you know, but you're going that
you have to tell them who you are, right spoiler alert.
And I had done that twice this year already at
Elizabeth Detention Center. Right, And you go, and you you
know they have to accommodate, right, So I was like, yeah,
oversight and it's a legal right that we have, right,
and so we go. We decide that Delaney Hall had

(41:41):
just opened right the beginning of this month in Newark,
and uh, congress Woman Watson Coleman and Congress Wim mcgiver,
the three of us had done the Elizabeth Detention Center.

Speaker 5 (41:51):
We're going to go to.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
Newark, right, So we go and every time you go, right, like,
you get someone who's like, what are you talking about?
Oversight visit? So they make a bunch of calls and
they say oh so much. So say yeah, you have
to let them in. So we go and we're waiting
there for ice from their new work office to come.
And we're sitting there and they're making us wait, right,
three members of Congress, right, they're making us wait over

(42:14):
an hour, right, and we're sitting there asking questions, when
where are they getting here? Right to do this tour?

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Right?

Speaker 4 (42:19):
Oh, sorry, we're waiting traffic, right whatever.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
Two weeks, two weeks, you can do this tour. It's fine.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
Sit tight there.

Speaker 5 (42:27):
There's a weak stop across.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
The street.

Speaker 5 (42:30):
That ha man earrows kick it.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
So you know, So we're waiting there and all of
a Suddens. We're waiting there like all of these ice
HSI officers, right, the people you see on the community right,
like with the bulletproof vests, the guns, the masks, no identification.
They started like rolling through right like five kidnappers. Well,
let'll be real, five at a time, right, And all
of a sudden, the people that we're supposed to meet

(42:54):
get there, right and they're like, hey, we'll be right back. Well,
we've been waiting for over an hour, right, what's going on?
And they had all gathered outside where we were, and
that's when we realized Mayor Baraka was there.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
Right now.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
The important thing is for people to know, because this
is important, is there's two large private attention center operators right,
cour Civic, which operates the Elizabeth Center Center, and the
Geo Group right, which operates Delaney Hall. All right, forget
this right, guess who. Yeah, it's a billion dollar contract
over fifteen years. Billion dollars over fifteen years, right now,

(43:29):
you got it. You know who used to lobby for them,
The Attorney General of the United States, Pambody. Now you
know used to be in them. Tom Oman, Oh oh shit,
that's crazy.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
I would have never guessed.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
That and guess what they didn't like. They didn't like
the mayor in Newark showing up because he had been there.

Speaker 5 (43:50):
Given me showing up every They didn't like him because
his name is Ross Baraka.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
For sure.

Speaker 5 (43:54):
If his name was John Smith, it'd be like, all right,
he's black, but fucking let him in. I don't know
about this barakas if I've seen that immortal combat, I
don't know. He has blades in his hands, That's what
I heard.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
But like, like you got the mayor knew it there.
Why do you need twenty armed people to show up
to tell him his trustpassing?

Speaker 5 (44:11):
Not as an escort, as a like, yo, forgot it?

Speaker 4 (44:15):
In my opinion, right, the intimidation was like stop coming here, right,
you think you're gonna get in? Because the mayor was
there separately, right, The mayor was there to say, our
inspectors need to go win to the building to check
everything out, give you a new CEO, et cetera. Right,
and kept showing up because they're taking people there, right,
however you feel about immigration. Right, they're taking people there, right,

(44:36):
and the federal government is paying for them to do it, right,
so I believe they should be safe, right, Listen, this
administration is gonna do what it's gonna do. I disagree
with it, right, but we should all be able to agree.
You should not have people right in unsafe conditions. Right,
that's just a baseline thing. And you're paying these people
with billion dollars. That's the least that they can do.
So the mayor's showing up every day to say, let

(44:57):
my inspectors in, right. I think it was happened. I
think it was a coincidence that the day they decide
that they're gonna have a show of force, we were
there as well. Because remember we didn't tell them we
were coming. This is an unannounced visit. And that's when
everything went sideways, right. And you know, I never thought

(45:18):
I would see anything like that in my life. Right,
it's the mayor of the largest city in New Jersey.
You got three members of Congress, Right, you don't need
twenty people armed masks for us. Right.

Speaker 5 (45:31):
I saw a corongressional photo. So maybe that's why they
had twenty guards there, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
They showed up. They were like hang back. They're like,
hang back, We're good, We're good, We're good. Yeah, They're like,
how many we need like one maybe on half a person.
We got anybody on the short yea.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
She's like, yeah, what's that? Oh you want to get
a ham? Good luck?

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Right?

Speaker 5 (45:55):
I would We're gonna have to get past me.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
I would have been like, no, ma'am, no, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry for being here.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
That's right, asked the way stop across the street and
bring me back at three piece lemon pepper wag.

Speaker 14 (46:08):
Li li.

Speaker 6 (46:14):
All that being said, like you put your body on
the line, Champ. You know what I'm saying, Like you
listen again. You could do the politician thing and be.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
Like, oh it was listen, it wasn't that serious.

Speaker 6 (46:25):
You were Josh Hart diving for a loose ball, like yeah,
the morning like.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
We're in the playoffs. I think it's I think when
you see something wrong, right, like it wasn't right, like
Bonnie's Bonnie's in the middle of their Bonnie watching Coleman,
right like it wasn't right. It wasn't right what they
did to Braka. Yeah, and I said that to them,
right because there was a period where they were telling
the mayor he was trespassing, right like I'm saying, like

(46:55):
he walked. There's video now they dropped the case right
against him. Right, he walks three feet onto the property.
They opened the gate for him.

Speaker 5 (47:01):
Right.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
He wasn't trespassing, he was giving permission to be there.
And they go and they bring all these all this
weight right to confront the mayor and they say this
is your last warning or something like that. He walks
out right, and they decide to go re engage with him, right.
And you know, seeing that and seeing how they decided,

(47:22):
they could have had a cordial conversation, I feel like, listen, mayor,
we respect you. Let's have a conversation. Right now, we
have to bring these three in to do the tour.
We'll we'll come, we'll come back in forty five minutes. Right,
Like they could have de escalated it. And my view
is that like they wanted to show the force they
want it. They don't want people to stand up to them,
especially when you got a billion dollar industry and you

(47:44):
got a handful of the people in the Trump administration
making money off of it. Right, Like they you know,
they didn't want people to ask questions. They didn't want
us to do our job, which is to conduct oversight. Right,
but after all that crazy stuff, happened, Like we went
inside and did the old site tour, right, so, you know,
we went there to do our job. We we ultimately

(48:06):
were able to do our job. But what I saw
on the interim was, you know, something you never expect
to see, especially in a place like Newark, right, like
in New Jersey, Like, that's not who we are, right
like and and that to me was such a sign
of where we are right now with this administration, with
this country, that it shouldn't be acceptable to people, right,
like going back to the earlier thing that we were

(48:26):
talking about, like we should be able to agree on
some things right now, we can have disagreements on a
number of policy issues. Right, you should never ever, not
just members of Congress, you should not think that's appropriate
to treat people that way, right, to put your hands
right on two women like that, Right, And that's just
it's just that we should all be able to say
that was inappropriate. Right. You know what this administration tries

(48:48):
to do, They try to spin it like it's our fault.

Speaker 6 (48:51):
Right, they came in there aggressively, so and it was
two latinos and what man.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
So they got so and so you we were barely
in our cars, right when their DHS puts out a
press release. Right, this is how this is the spin factor, right,
how crazy it is and how quickly things become truths. Right,
we roll out and someone in the cars, like DHS
already has a statement out, says two members of Congress,

(49:16):
Me and Bonnie Watson Coleman, who's a g she's old school,
she's eight years old. Right, the two of us storm,
this is the words they use, storm the ice facility.
You know what the crazy thing is. They didn't even
mention Lamonica mcgiver was there, and now she's the one
getting charged. Right, So in their haste to put out
a narrative about this, they got the facts completely wrong, right,

(49:39):
objectively wrong. And then Fox News picks it up. Right,
the woke left is here trying to infiltrate an ice facility.
They literally said to free dangerous criminal illegals. Right, I'm
gonna pray.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
Joe Bregon bro I wouldn't even do that, and I'm.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Wild, right, I like so so Keem Jefferies was like
in Washington, you go to something, you know, he's We
had three of our colleagues down at Delaney Hall. We
had Bonnie's, as you all know, a legend.

Speaker 5 (50:14):
It's a great person.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
We had Lamonica, he's smoking right now, Who's dynamite former councilwoman,
Council presidency in New York. Then we have Rob Menendez
like that just he goes, Rob Menendez, that's our stormtrooper.

(50:36):
You know what. My feelings weren't even hurt.

Speaker 12 (50:38):
I was like, exactly, that's my point, right, Like I
wear pants in Puerto Rico. Right, It's like I'm gonna
like knock down a door with these things, right, I
would ricochet off like out of your mind.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
You think I was trying to storm a facility, right,
Like that's crazy.

Speaker 6 (50:52):
That's like Karl Anthony Townsend the Post bro, Like, hey,
don't go. He doesn't have the capacity to pull somebody.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
Off the block. Like you know, but.

Speaker 6 (51:01):
Ice being doing what they do, hoping media is running wild. Wise, Bro,
they're going crazy out here. They're doing whatever the hell
they want there. Like you said, there's no identifying nothing.
They just look like Tim.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Waltz called them the Gestapo. They're just jumping out of
the job.

Speaker 6 (51:15):
Back in the day, we used to call undercovers the
jump out boys because they would just jump out of
a white van and just snatch you up.

Speaker 5 (51:21):
The ice is the new jump out boys. They're just
pulling up.

Speaker 6 (51:23):
Yo, sir, you bought them ala, Yeah, keep them a
fucking car, you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah, I'll
snatch you up, black mag You're throwing the back of
the car.

Speaker 5 (51:31):
That's crazy.

Speaker 6 (51:33):
So that being said, bro, like, I'm coming from the
Dominican Republic, where if shit like this happens, everybody's like.

Speaker 5 (51:39):
No, hey, ain't no, I see no Poppy, no, no, no, no,
We're gonna burning dires in the three everybody. Hey, I
think they said burning ties in the street. Rioting't going crazy,
you know what I'm saying. So, you know, there's a
little different situation here in the United States.

Speaker 6 (51:54):
So what is the best diplomatic approach to deal with
shit like this?

Speaker 5 (51:59):
Is there one?

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Well, one is I go back to the election, right,
and you saw it in the Hispanic community, right, there
are people the way Trump said frame the conversation right
was it was he creates wedges between people and in communities, right,
And in the Hispanic community, he drove a wedge and
saying I'm only interested in the dangerous right, the people

(52:21):
who are criminals, right, who are here on documented basis, Right,
That's that's all I care about. Let's get those criminals
out of here. And people in the Hispanic community said,
that's not me. That's not me, right, like no, no, Like, yeah,
I'm in a mixeddatus household. I go to church every Sunday,
I work two jobs. I've never jaywalked, Right, that's not me.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
Also, Latino's are very churchy overall.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
And they're like they are like rule abiding people, right,
they want to have their success here, right, They're not
going to break the law. Right. And most of them,
right have been here fifteen years or more, right, like,
and and there was but they we democrats, I'm gonna
be democrats allowed this narrative right to go unchallenged. Right.

(53:04):
I knew what was gonna happen, right, not to this degree,
and how it was all gonna work out. But I
knew was the idea shit? Right, Like, there's not millions
of hardened criminals here, right, like, and how that number
distion doesn't So he's lying somewhere, right, And when you
when I'm in Washington, I hear Republicans talk, right, anyone
that came here on an undocumented basis, they're an illegal, right,

(53:27):
well why use that word? Right, They're like, well, and
I announced riots illegal alien, you know, all right, But
when they say that, that means that if you came
here right on an undocumented basis, you are illegal. That
means you did what you broke the law. That means
you are a what if you broke the law, you're
a criminal. And so you may think they're only going
after gang members et cetera like that, but they're going

(53:49):
to tell you that you're a criminal now or your
cousin's a criminal, right because you came here an undocumented
and we never corrected that. We thought, oh, people will
see you right through it, and that was that was
a mistake that now we're paying in in a huge
consequence for and communities are seeing like, oh, like this
isn't what we signed up for. And and listen, I'm
not a I'm not a oh I told you, like no, no, no,

(54:11):
I'm a forward looking person. Right, It's like no, no, listen,
doesn't matter if you believed it, It doesn't matter if
you voted for them, It doesn't matter. Right, what matters
how we move forward, right, because let's agree again, like
what can we agree on Let's agree this isn't right, right,
Let's agree that, like, yeah, if there's dangerous criminals, let's
deal with them. Right, That's what ICE was originally created for.
But we can't be separated mixed status families. We can't

(54:34):
be at schools and at churches, like, we can't be
doing that because we're tearing this fabric of our communities apart.
And we have to figure out how we address the situation.
So you asked, right, we're doing everything policy Chair of
the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Right, we are thinking about this.

Speaker 5 (54:53):
A couple of years. I'll take another one.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
Here da time you want. But we're like, this is
every day we're like talking about this, working on this.

Speaker 5 (55:02):
Right.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
The best course of action that we have right now
is litigation. Right, So we're litigating every day. Attorney generals
are litigating across the country, and they're and they're trying
to keep the guardrails on. Right. But this is what
I tell people, This is true in a democracy, right,
people are the red line. Right when people say this
is wrong, right, this isn't this is you can say

(55:25):
I would for Trump. You said, I agree with nine
out of ten things that he does. But people are
always the red line in a democracy. And when they
say and they use their voice and say this isn't right,
and they do that in places that are more Republican leaning, right, say, listen,
this isn't right. Like I thought you were coming for criminals.
Why are you taking my uh.

Speaker 5 (55:41):
A cousin who's a barber's been here for twenty years.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Yeah, yeah, okause he had a tattoo, right like that.
And that's where we need people to say, let's let's
let's break this apart. Right. Let's say we have policy disagreements,
but there are things that are fundamentally wrong, not giving
people due process, right, sending people to all savagor right parents,
right of us children right, Like that should be something

(56:05):
that people say is wrong. What happened at de Laney Hall, Right,
We're something that people should say is wrong. Right, And
it's not gonna be overnight, right, But how we grow
that and make people feel like they have the ability
to resist what's happening that because that belongs to every
one of us, right, And listen, I'm happy to be
at the front lines, right, I'm happy to get fucking

(56:25):
shoved around at Delaney Hall. Right, Like, I'm happy to
hustle every day in Washington, right and take all the
shit that comes with it. That's what I signed up for,
and I'll do it every single day so long as
the people want me to, and I'll be at the
front lines and I'll take as much of it as
I can.

Speaker 5 (56:38):
Right.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
But ultimately everyone else, right, they have the power. They
have the power. They have a power. Who chooses who's
at the front line. They have the power to collectively
overpower anything that is a country we are dealing with.
And if people realize that, no matter where they are
in life, what they have going on, they have that power.
We can't lose, right. We can course correct, we can
push back, we can say together this is wrong. Let's

(57:01):
go back to a policy disagreement. But we're drawing lines
of what's unacceptable and we're going to do it together,
and we're going to go back towards disagreements. But in
this moment, we need to come together and say there's
things that we just can't accept.

Speaker 6 (57:13):
And to that point, there's certain things that you know
on the other side of the aisle are.

Speaker 5 (57:20):
Just like, yeah, we could, we'll do that. That's fine.

Speaker 6 (57:23):
And on the on the DEM side of the aisle.
It's just like, oh no, well, we can't do that.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
How Like.

Speaker 6 (57:29):
And I had a conversation with like local Dems in
Jersey like a devil's game, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (57:35):
I'm a politically active Maryland and I just told them
straight up.

Speaker 6 (57:39):
I was like, Yo, y'all, messaging fucking sucks, you know
what I mean, Like, the messaging sucks.

Speaker 5 (57:43):
Guys.

Speaker 6 (57:43):
You can't just bring out a celebrity, having them to
work on stage and think that that's going to bring
in votes. You got to, like you said, you got
to be out there doing shit, you know what I mean.
You got to be out there doing things. You gotta
be active. You got to show people. Yo, listen, this
is what I'm trying to do for your family, you
know what I mean, Like, this is what I'm trying
to do for your community.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
This is what I'm trying to do for y'all.

Speaker 6 (58:03):
As a people, you know what I mean, as my constituents,
as my as the nation.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
And the only thing I would just put spin on
that is we gotta go. We gotta listen again, right,
we gotta listen to people like we gotta show up
in space is like and the other thing that Demo
listens I'm a proud Democrat is I think our policies
right work for more people, right, Like I think like
the challenges I hear people talk about. I know that
Democrats are thinking about, and then we have policies for right.

(58:29):
Democrats do a number of things wrong. Not gonna lie
right because like there's no sense in lying right. They're like, no,
everything's perfect, lie Like, well what just happens? Right? Like,
Democrats do two things wrong. One is we like when
I'm at the barbershop, right and they're all these guys
are all hustling. Right, they're doing as much as they can. Right.
They got kids, some of them don't, right, but they're
all hustling. They're thinking about what can I do on

(58:50):
the side right when I go. When they're talking about
what car they would own, right, they're not talking about
like two thousand and two Honda, right, that may be
what they drive, right, But they have aspirations, they have
big dreams. I mean, you're out here hustling right in
a place like Hudson County, and you got to do
everything right to make ends meet, Right, you got big dreams, right,

(59:11):
We need to talk to the big dreams and the
big dreamers. Right. You think about you're carrying your child
right from Guatemala through the Dairien Gap to the southern border.
You sell everything you have, and you think about this
as a parent, Right, you sell everything that you have
right to give your family a shot. You can't do
that if you're thinking like I want my kids to

(59:31):
have everything that I didn't have, Right, that's what you're thinking.
You have big dreams in this country. Democrats need to
talk to people about their big dreams. Say listen, it
starts with fairness, right, it starts with opportunity. Right. But
we've got to stop talking to people like isn't it
great that you have shitty healthcare? Right? It's like no, Like,
well it's not great. Like I gotta call like thirteen

(59:52):
people to get my insurance to come, right, Like, I know,
it's not great that I live in the greatest city
in the world, Jersey City, and I can afford I can't.
I snuck that in Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:00:02):
Yeah, I was like what And I can't jump scare.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Form can't I can't and I can't afford it right, Like,
and people are saying.

Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
Like I mean that's why I left New York to
be honest.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
We we got to get people like people want to
own a home, people want to be like I think
why Democrats suck with men, right, it's because men want
to be proud.

Speaker 5 (01:00:20):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
They want to be proud that they can provide for
their family. They want to be proud of the work
that they do. They want to be proud of their hustle. Right.
And if you talk to them in a way where
it's like like make them feel small, right, that's not
gonna fly because they're doing everything like and that's what
I say. It's like I see it every day. People
are just out there hustling. Right. People are working as
hard as they can, and they're living responsible lives. Right.

(01:00:43):
They're putting there, they're living in an apartment that they
can afford, right, them and their partner, let's say, Right,
they're sending their kids to public school.

Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
They don't own a car, right, they do public transportation. Rights.
As at the end of the day, at the end
of the month, when they put all those costs together
with how much they're making, they're not getting ahead, right,
And they're saying why, like what else? Like I'm doing everything, Right,
What else do I need to do to break this
wheel that I'm on? And that's where government needs to
be like, not like oh, here's an extra twenty dollars,

(01:01:10):
which is helpful, right, but need to be like, these
are the tools that we're giving you. Right, we're gonna
give you We're gonna give everyone early pre K education. Right,
We're gonna make it such that everyone that's pregnant has
access to good healthcare, good postpartum healthcare. Right. We're gonna
try to level the playing field as best as we
can so you can do what you can with your

(01:01:32):
full potential. Right, that's what people want to hear. Just
give me a fair shot, right, And I just want
to have my opportunity right. And Democrats need to talk
to people like that. Right. They need to stop with
these big buy and this guy things right, like, no,
talk to people with where they're at, like their struggles
are today. Right. I want do big things. I want
to build big things. Those take years to do, right,

(01:01:53):
This new gateway project, the new rail right, things that
we saw at the poor Authority, new airports, everything takes
years to do, right, that's rate and we need to
have that in our mind of what we want to do.
But today people are struggling, and you can never lose
sight of the fact that people today are hustling. They're struggling,
and their story, their struggles are what's your matter more
to you than anything else, And if you don't wake

(01:02:15):
up thinking about that, right, you're doing them a disservice, right,
because you may have big, bold plans for five years
from now, ten years from now, right, but today people
are in the struggle and you need to struggle with
them because if you're not struggling with them, you're not
representing them. Well, we need to start thinking about the
collective good again right now, there's no perfect definition of it,
and each person's view of what the collective good should

(01:02:37):
be differs. Right, But if we commit ourselves to doing
something for the greater good, right, we'll focus more on
the things that we have in common then we have
disagreements on and I think that's a much healthier place for.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Us to be.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Right, like this, like this combatant mentality, right this, we've
created teams for politics, right, Democrats are Republicans this issue,
this issue, right, it's like it's like, how about what
you start thinking about ourselves as Americans again, right, like,
and what's good Like, listen, what's good in Nebraska's different
than what's good in New Jersey. Right, But like, let's
just start thinking about the things that we have in

(01:03:12):
common and focus on that. Right.

Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
We'll see ya next time. You know what I'm saying,
Robert Bennet and Jr. Dies BBC's Inc. Caucus. You know
what I'm saying. Because we are planting our flag in
New Jersey. Ladies and gentlemen, let's.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Go lictory like like like litertity like like like like