Neil Chatterjee - Former Trump Administration official Joins Houston Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Politics seems to think. So they have an article about
it where how Democrats dominated mail in voting back in
twenty twenty. This is no longer the case, and Republicans
are going to be neck and neck with Democrats when
it comes to mail in voting, and that would mean
probably a better chance of having a whole different result
of this election. Neil Chatter. Jane, former Trump administration official,

(00:21):
joins us, what do you make of this story? Do
you think there's truth to this, Neil, or do you
think this is wishful thinking on the haalf of Republicans.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
No. Look, I think despite the fact that former President
Trump continues to have concerns about early voting and mail
in voting and ballot harvesting in the light, the reality
is his campaign has really focused on not feeding this
advantage to Democrats. And so despite the former president's rhetoric,

(00:50):
the campaign's out there effectively delivering this message and getting
folks in a position to get that vote banked, that
vote out. And I think, look, it's these are the
rules of the game, and so you got to play it.
And I think Republicans made a mistake in twenty twenty

(01:12):
in seeding some of this ground to Democrats and they
are definitely curing for it. In twenty twenty four, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
We're looking at this damage from this Hurricane Helene, and
you know, you don't want to make it political because
so many people have lost their lives, But those states
are just crippled now, and how in the world are
they going to hold elections? How are they going to
get mail in ballots? Even down I mean the interstate
highways are totally closed.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, I think we are just now parsing through the
devastating impacts of this. Nearly one hundred people have lost
their lives, billions of dollars in property damage, just to
truly truly devastating effect. And again I agree with you,
I'm loath to bring politics into this, but you have

(02:01):
two swing states in Georgia and North Carolina that were
both signiphicantly impacted by this. The priority needs to be
in in saving lives and restoring property damage. And it'll
be very interesting to see, you know, how the Biden
administration responds to this. The President was in Delaware at

(02:22):
the beach this weekend. The Vice President was in California
doing fundraisers with movie stars. It'll be very interesting to
see how the current administration deals with a real tragedy.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Well, they haven't done much dealing with any of the
previous tragedies. Why would this one be any different.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, you know, we'll see.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, you know, we were very close to Katrina, so
we saw this this picture show before and this is
just devastating. What has happened to these guys. So we
got another storm maybe brewing again.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, Look, I mean this is one of the realities
that we have to contend with, and that is, you know,
extreme weather events and our preparation for them. And so
in my previous role at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
I focused on the reliability and the resilience of the
grid that when the power goes out, how quickly can

(03:27):
we get it back up? And sadly, this weekend's hurricane
reminds us again that life is fragile, and you know,
infrastructure can be vulnerable in these types of events, and
we have to have smart preparedness strategies to stay ahead
of them.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Except the entire country is affected by this, it does.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I mean, it's one region that was hit. But make
no mistake, we're all in this together as Americans, and
you are exactly. It affects the whole country when when
something like this happens.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
All right, Neil, thanks for Johnny, appreciate it. Former Trump
administration official Neil Chatterjee. It is six twenty six