Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And the information comes from all over the place, including Washington,
(00:03):
d C. Where Senator deb Fisher is and she is
now joining us on our phone line. Senator Fisher, thank
you so much for being on our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you, Emory. Always good to visit with you.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I wanted to start first of all with the Joint
Session of Congress on Tuesday, and before we talk about
kind of what was said, I'm just kind of curious
about what the vibe in what that environment is like.
You know, you've been a part of a lot of
those joint sessions, especially high profile ones where the president
from either party is speaking on things that are happening
(00:34):
in the country, and you have the two divided sides
and the cheering and the jeering and all that stuff.
What's the vibe kind of in general when you have
a big event like that where everybody's kind of congregating together,
knowing that a lot of America is watching.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well. In the past, it's always been informative. It's, of
course a somewhat partisan event, but it's a time when
the president can gainst his policies that he wants to
work on, get them out in public, have them presented
to the public, on it. But this one started out differently.
(01:12):
You know, when the President was introduced and he entered
into the House, the House members on the Democrats side
did not stand and did not clap. I was happy
to see Democrats senators who stood. Angus King was the
only one I saw that applauded, but at least the
(01:34):
Democrats senators stood. So it started out just pretty disrespectful
of the office of the Presidency of the United States,
and that set the tone for the rest of the
time that the President spoke. You didn't see the folks
on the other side of the aisle applaud at all
(01:57):
at all. I guess I wasn't surprised that they weren't
going to applaud President Trump, but to witness them having
such hate for Donald Trump that they would not applaud
a child with cancer, or parents who had their child murdered,
(02:20):
or our military members who were killed in Afghanistan, or
our police or our firefighters. I mean, that has always
been at least a bipartisan time in a state of
the Union, when all members would stand when a president
would introduce his guests, which are usually like police or firefighters.
(02:48):
We had border patrol there, but as I said it
began early when the Democrats didn't stand for the first Lady,
they didn't stand for the President when he entered and
continued throughout the speech, so that that is really really
not just dis pointing, but it was it was disgusting
(03:10):
to watch that they should be ashamed of themselves for
not standing for those for those people who were being honored.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
We're speaking with Senator deb Fisher. You know, I wonder
what's next because I listened to Gavin Newsom's new podcast
where he had Charlie Kirk, who's a very conservative, you know,
kind of influencer podcaster, and I couldn't help but feel
like hearing him talk about this, that he at least
(03:37):
notices some of the cringey or disrespectful things. You had
John Fetterman, who's you work with in the Senate, who's
a Democrat, but he's straight up said, this is petulant,
childish stuff that is going on here. From your perspective,
what needs to change there? Or do you think it's
just going to need to be a generational overhaul. Because
(03:58):
I also watched the in the House of Representatives when
Al Green was censured. They were singing, we shall overcome
on the floor of the House, right, I mean, just
super performative stuff that doesn't seem to be really representative
of the constituents of where these people come from.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, you know, I agree. I think Sunder Fetterman is
a very blunt man with common sense. He's got a
good sense of humor. He came out right away and
just said this, this was not a good thing that happened.
I think Gavin Newsom is doing it for political points there.
(04:39):
All of a sudden, now he realizes, as many of
the other Democrats are realizing, they made a huge mistake
and people of this country saw who they are when
they sat there on their hands and wouldn't applaud these
guests that were there, these people that we were trying
(05:00):
to honor, that we were offering our sympathy to that
they would not the Democrats would not do that, and
it backfired on him. You know, the polling came out
close to what seventy percent of the people in this
country thought. It was horrible, and now we're seeing them
trying to backpedal, and that's what Gavin Newsom's trying to do.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, and it's a good point, and he certainly has
a lot to gain considering what he may be you
trying to do in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, even though.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
We're a little farther away from that, I want to
talk about what the vibe is for you and the
people that you're working with on these tariffs, because I
know that they were both postponed, both the Canadian and
Mexico tariffs were postponed to April the second, and that's
the second time now that they've been pushed back basically
a month. What is you know, what are your thoughts
(05:46):
on it, because I know that there are some concerns
for people who I think just don't know exactly what
these would look like if they do stick and they
do end up being here for a while at twenty
five percent.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Right, Well, we all know that the producers manufactures in Nebraska,
they rely on good trade, strong trade partnerships. That's how
they sell their products. Last year, Nebraska exported over eight
billion dollars worth of goods to the world. So of
course I'm concerned about the impact that tariffs are going
(06:19):
to have on our state. But let's remember President Biden
didn't have any trade agenda whatsoever, and that hurt Nebraskas
take Brazilian ethanol. Under the previous administration, Brazil they imported
ethanol into the United States duty free. Well, guess what
(06:40):
American ethanol that was exported to Brazil. It had an
eighteen percent tariff. So President Trump, he's responding to unfair
trade practices like that when he's talking about, you know,
trying to have this fair trade. Now, I'm going to
(07:03):
encourage him to pursue good trade agreements, but we always
have to monitor that. We have to remember how important
trade is to the state of Nebraska, how important it
is to our egg producers. But I know that we
have good communication between the White House and my office.
(07:27):
In fact, you know, I just met with Secretary Egg
and the head of the EPA last week, got to
visit with them about some issues that we're trying to
push forward that will help the state. And just to
have that open door, be able to have discussions is
extremely important. But yeah, let's give this time to work out,
(07:49):
see what's going to happen, and just be aware of
the importance trade to the state and be able to
negotiate through that or.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Debth Fisher joining us on a phone line today, that's
one thing. I wanted to also mention another thing in
foreign policy, federal government foreign policies is the most important
thing that they can do that the States really don't
have a lot of say over. So Washington, d c.
Plays a huge pivotal role in what the United States does.
And it was kind of stunning to see what we
saw in the White House a week ago between Ukrainian
(08:22):
President Vladimir Zlensky and our administration Donald Trump and Jadvance specifically,
it does sound like things or at least getting to
a more positive place in Vladimir Lensky said that he
has been on the phone with the Americans and is
planning next week to meet in Saudi Arabia with an
American delegation. Is trying to work towards peace. But I
want to ask first about your thoughts on what you
(08:43):
saw in the Oval Office between Zelensky and Donald Trump
and JD. Vance and that taking place basically with the
entire world getting a chance to watch it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, it was unusual. You know, when we have meetings
when we travel on Codell's we welcome dignitaries from other
countries to the Senate and have a chance to have
conversations with him. You know, behind closed doors, it's cordial,
(09:13):
but put you know, honest, blunt. But I'd never seen
anything like that come out in public. I think it
was an interesting lesson, you know, for all of us.
First of all, in the past, I've supported USA through Ukraine.
I was optimistic about the meeting, but then when I
(09:35):
heard and saw the tenor of Zelenski's comments to President Trump,
I just felt that was inappropriate. It was disrespectful because
President Trump has been clear that his job, his goal
here is to end the war. He doesn't want to
see anymore people die. He is very sincere in that
(10:00):
he has always been clear about that. I think, you know,
my recommendation to Nebraskans is, if you can, you know,
get online and see some of the interviews that Marco
Rubio as Secretary of State has given, you know, after
that happened, and he explained how these negotiations had it
had gone on for like ten days, they'd been agreed to,
(10:23):
they'd been signed. Zelenski wanted to fly over and be
here in the United States at the White House for it,
so his actions didn't didn't coincide, did not reflect what
had happened for the previous ten days. I think it
(10:45):
could have been he wanted to make a point to
his American audience or whatever. But whoever advised him, or
if he went off on his own, he made a
huge miss. And you saw that when the ambassador to
the United States from Ukraine put her head in her
(11:06):
hands at one point, she knew that he was going
off the rails. And this is not the way you
have a public discussion of the negotiations with another country,
and especially with the United States of America while you
are in the White House.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, it is certainly video that's going to last forever.
But we'll see, if you know, things can be a
little bit more positive non Monday.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I hope, you know, I hope they will. The President
talked about sanctions on Russia again. You know, he wants
to bring Russia to the table. As I said, he
wants the killing to stop.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, for sure, And we'll keep you posted on that
next week. Is we hear exactly what comes out of
Saudi Arabia in those meetings. I'm running out of time
here with you, Senator Fisher, But the last thing I
wanted to mention is something that you're working on with
paid family medical leave and that tax credit kind of
where is that and how can you best describe what
that would do for people of Nebraska and Iowa.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Well, this is in law now to paid family Medical
lead tax credit. It helps small businesses to be able
to offer paid leave to their employees. And it's really
geared for small businesses. It's geared for hourly workers, so
they can take off time, not just maternity leave and
(12:29):
paternity leave, but also to be caregivers, to take care
of their elderly parents, take them to a doctor appointment,
and help their kids at school, that type of thing.
We want to make that permanent. It was in the
twenty seventeen tax reform that passed with all Republican votes.
We're hoping to get it done by reconciliation and make
(12:51):
that tax credit permanent. So that's my top priority is
we're going through this whole budget reconciliation. I feel good
about being able to get it in. It benefits Nebraska families,
It helps our Nebraska's small businesses offer that lead to
(13:12):
their employees.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, and it's definitely a positive for I think a
lot of people when they see that. People in Washington
do care about people who are running small businesses or
Middle America. Anything like that is certainly a positive, Senator
dev Fisher, I wish we could talk for even longer
because there's so much that we can discuss. But thank
you so much for being a part of our show,
and I'm sure we will talk here in the next
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Sounds good, Emory. Thanks
And the information comes from all over the place, including Washington,
(00:03):
d C. Where Senator deb Fisher is and she is
now joining us on our phone line. Senator Fisher, thank
you so much for being on our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you, Emory. Always good to visit with you.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I wanted to start first of all with the Joint
Session of Congress on Tuesday, and before we talk about
kind of what was said, I'm just kind of curious
about what the vibe in what that environment is like.
You know, you've been a part of a lot of
those joint sessions, especially high profile ones where the president
from either party is speaking on things that are happening
(00:34):
in the country, and you have the two divided sides
and the cheering and the jeering and all that stuff.
What's the vibe kind of in general when you have
a big event like that where everybody's kind of congregating together,
knowing that a lot of America is watching.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well. In the past, it's always been informative. It's, of
course a somewhat partisan event, but it's a time when
the president can gainst his policies that he wants to
work on, get them out in public, have them presented
to the public, on it. But this one started out differently.
(01:12):
You know, when the President was introduced and he entered
into the House, the House members on the Democrats side
did not stand and did not clap. I was happy
to see Democrats senators who stood. Angus King was the
only one I saw that applauded, but at least the
(01:34):
Democrats senators stood. So it started out just pretty disrespectful
of the office of the Presidency of the United States,
and that set the tone for the rest of the
time that the President spoke. You didn't see the folks
on the other side of the aisle applaud at all
(01:57):
at all. I guess I wasn't surprised that they weren't
going to applaud President Trump, but to witness them having
such hate for Donald Trump that they would not applaud
a child with cancer, or parents who had their child murdered,
(02:20):
or our military members who were killed in Afghanistan, or
our police or our firefighters. I mean, that has always
been at least a bipartisan time in a state of
the Union, when all members would stand when a president
would introduce his guests, which are usually like police or firefighters.
(02:48):
We had border patrol there, but as I said it
began early when the Democrats didn't stand for the first Lady,
they didn't stand for the President when he entered and
continued throughout the speech, so that that is really really
not just dis pointing, but it was it was disgusting
(03:10):
to watch that they should be ashamed of themselves for
not standing for those for those people who were being honored.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
We're speaking with Senator deb Fisher. You know, I wonder
what's next because I listened to Gavin Newsom's new podcast
where he had Charlie Kirk, who's a very conservative, you know,
kind of influencer podcaster, and I couldn't help but feel
like hearing him talk about this, that he at least
(03:37):
notices some of the cringey or disrespectful things. You had
John Fetterman, who's you work with in the Senate, who's
a Democrat, but he's straight up said, this is petulant,
childish stuff that is going on here. From your perspective,
what needs to change there? Or do you think it's
just going to need to be a generational overhaul. Because
(03:58):
I also watched the in the House of Representatives when
Al Green was censured. They were singing, we shall overcome
on the floor of the House, right, I mean, just
super performative stuff that doesn't seem to be really representative
of the constituents of where these people come from.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, you know, I agree. I think Sunder Fetterman is
a very blunt man with common sense. He's got a
good sense of humor. He came out right away and
just said this, this was not a good thing that happened.
I think Gavin Newsom is doing it for political points there.
(04:39):
All of a sudden, now he realizes, as many of
the other Democrats are realizing, they made a huge mistake
and people of this country saw who they are when
they sat there on their hands and wouldn't applaud these
guests that were there, these people that we were trying
(05:00):
to honor, that we were offering our sympathy to that
they would not the Democrats would not do that, and
it backfired on him. You know, the polling came out
close to what seventy percent of the people in this
country thought. It was horrible, and now we're seeing them
trying to backpedal, and that's what Gavin Newsom's trying to do.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, and it's a good point, and he certainly has
a lot to gain considering what he may be you
trying to do in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, even though.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
We're a little farther away from that, I want to
talk about what the vibe is for you and the
people that you're working with on these tariffs, because I
know that they were both postponed, both the Canadian and
Mexico tariffs were postponed to April the second, and that's
the second time now that they've been pushed back basically
a month. What is you know, what are your thoughts
(05:46):
on it, because I know that there are some concerns
for people who I think just don't know exactly what
these would look like if they do stick and they
do end up being here for a while at twenty
five percent.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Right, Well, we all know that the producers manufactures in Nebraska,
they rely on good trade, strong trade partnerships. That's how
they sell their products. Last year, Nebraska exported over eight
billion dollars worth of goods to the world. So of
course I'm concerned about the impact that tariffs are going
(06:19):
to have on our state. But let's remember President Biden
didn't have any trade agenda whatsoever, and that hurt Nebraskas
take Brazilian ethanol. Under the previous administration, Brazil they imported
ethanol into the United States duty free. Well, guess what
(06:40):
American ethanol that was exported to Brazil. It had an
eighteen percent tariff. So President Trump, he's responding to unfair
trade practices like that when he's talking about, you know,
trying to have this fair trade. Now, I'm going to
(07:03):
encourage him to pursue good trade agreements, but we always
have to monitor that. We have to remember how important
trade is to the state of Nebraska, how important it
is to our egg producers. But I know that we
have good communication between the White House and my office.
(07:27):
In fact, you know, I just met with Secretary Egg
and the head of the EPA last week, got to
visit with them about some issues that we're trying to
push forward that will help the state. And just to
have that open door, be able to have discussions is
extremely important. But yeah, let's give this time to work out,
(07:49):
see what's going to happen, and just be aware of
the importance trade to the state and be able to
negotiate through that or.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Debth Fisher joining us on a phone line today, that's
one thing. I wanted to also mention another thing in
foreign policy, federal government foreign policies is the most important
thing that they can do that the States really don't
have a lot of say over. So Washington, d c.
Plays a huge pivotal role in what the United States does.
And it was kind of stunning to see what we
saw in the White House a week ago between Ukrainian
(08:22):
President Vladimir Zlensky and our administration Donald Trump and Jadvance specifically,
it does sound like things or at least getting to
a more positive place in Vladimir Lensky said that he
has been on the phone with the Americans and is
planning next week to meet in Saudi Arabia with an
American delegation. Is trying to work towards peace. But I
want to ask first about your thoughts on what you
(08:43):
saw in the Oval Office between Zelensky and Donald Trump
and JD. Vance and that taking place basically with the
entire world getting a chance to watch it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, it was unusual. You know, when we have meetings
when we travel on Codell's we welcome dignitaries from other
countries to the Senate and have a chance to have
conversations with him. You know, behind closed doors, it's cordial,
(09:13):
but put you know, honest, blunt. But I'd never seen
anything like that come out in public. I think it
was an interesting lesson, you know, for all of us.
First of all, in the past, I've supported USA through Ukraine.
I was optimistic about the meeting, but then when I
(09:35):
heard and saw the tenor of Zelenski's comments to President Trump,
I just felt that was inappropriate. It was disrespectful because
President Trump has been clear that his job, his goal
here is to end the war. He doesn't want to
see anymore people die. He is very sincere in that
(10:00):
he has always been clear about that. I think, you know,
my recommendation to Nebraskans is, if you can, you know,
get online and see some of the interviews that Marco
Rubio as Secretary of State has given, you know, after
that happened, and he explained how these negotiations had it
had gone on for like ten days, they'd been agreed to,
(10:23):
they'd been signed. Zelenski wanted to fly over and be
here in the United States at the White House for it,
so his actions didn't didn't coincide, did not reflect what
had happened for the previous ten days. I think it
(10:45):
could have been he wanted to make a point to
his American audience or whatever. But whoever advised him, or
if he went off on his own, he made a
huge miss. And you saw that when the ambassador to
the United States from Ukraine put her head in her
(11:06):
hands at one point, she knew that he was going
off the rails. And this is not the way you
have a public discussion of the negotiations with another country,
and especially with the United States of America while you
are in the White House.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, it is certainly video that's going to last forever.
But we'll see, if you know, things can be a
little bit more positive non Monday.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I hope, you know, I hope they will. The President
talked about sanctions on Russia again. You know, he wants
to bring Russia to the table. As I said, he
wants the killing to stop.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, for sure, And we'll keep you posted on that
next week. Is we hear exactly what comes out of
Saudi Arabia in those meetings. I'm running out of time
here with you, Senator Fisher, But the last thing I
wanted to mention is something that you're working on with
paid family medical leave and that tax credit kind of
where is that and how can you best describe what
that would do for people of Nebraska and Iowa.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Well, this is in law now to paid family Medical
lead tax credit. It helps small businesses to be able
to offer paid leave to their employees. And it's really
geared for small businesses. It's geared for hourly workers, so
they can take off time, not just maternity leave and
(12:29):
paternity leave, but also to be caregivers, to take care
of their elderly parents, take them to a doctor appointment,
and help their kids at school, that type of thing.
We want to make that permanent. It was in the
twenty seventeen tax reform that passed with all Republican votes.
We're hoping to get it done by reconciliation and make
(12:51):
that tax credit permanent. So that's my top priority is
we're going through this whole budget reconciliation. I feel good
about being able to get it in. It benefits Nebraska families,
It helps our Nebraska's small businesses offer that lead to
(13:12):
their employees.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, and it's definitely a positive for I think a
lot of people when they see that. People in Washington
do care about people who are running small businesses or
Middle America. Anything like that is certainly a positive, Senator
dev Fisher, I wish we could talk for even longer
because there's so much that we can discuss. But thank
you so much for being a part of our show,
and I'm sure we will talk here in the next
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Sounds good, Emory. Thanks
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