December 16, 2024 • 38 mins
The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Pete Buttigieg And He Addresses Mysterious Drone Sightings, Travel Inflation, Future Career Moves. Listen For More!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Everybody is DJ Envy, Jess, Larry Charlamagne, the guy we
are to Breakfast Club. Angela Riet of course is checking
in with us as always, and we got a special
guest in the building. Secretary of Transportation Pete Booey Judge,
welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Thanks, good to be back.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
How are you man same to you? Dump right in.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Right in?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Secretary Pete, you are the Secretary of Transportation. What do
you know about these manned SUV side drones flying over
New Jersey? John John kirbyed the National Security Communications Byers, said.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
They were manned yep, yesterday. What do you think it is?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So?
Speaker 5 (00:38):
I mean, we're helping law enforcement work through it all
mainly a homeland security issue. Our job is to make
sure that any restricted airspace nothing comes in there that
shouldn't be there. That includes airspace over an airport. Sometimes
another area could be restricted because it's sensitive. For example
that's close to the Trump Golf Club, there's temporary flight
restrictions there. Bigger picture is we're going to have more
(01:00):
and more drones. Obviously, if it's man that's different. But
we're gonna have more and more things entering the airspace.
We got to work to make sure that's safe. This
is not a world where anything flying is either an
airplane or a helicopter. The drones are getting bigger. That look,
it can be a good thing to have these resources
to deliver, for example, in a really hard to reach area,
(01:22):
you make deliveries. But we're talking about potentially millions of
these coming into the airspace. And what we're trying to do,
especially on the FAA side, is coordinate all that make
sure it's safe.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Is that they're manned, Like who's man's is this?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Like?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Who are these people like? And why is it okay?
And why wouldn't they inform the public beforehand?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yeah, so they know more than I do on the
law enforcement side about the identity of the aircraft.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
But it is true.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Sometimes you look up at something you think it's one thing,
turns out it's another. I think that's what they've been
working through on the law enforcement side.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Donald Trump was on with Joe Rogan. They had a
whole conversation about aliens, not the kind you want to
deport ax. Then Cliff High said, thirty nine days after
that interview, we were going to start having an alien
invasion around December third, that's when all of these sub
side drones which I've even seen started getting seen over Jersey.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Is it an alien invasion?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I mean no disrespect to New Jersey when I say that.
I think it's very unlikely that an alien invasion would begin.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Watch him out. We lived it, I know, but nobody.
I love New Jersey.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
I'm just saying I don't think that's the kind of
main point of entry that an extra terrest.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Unless there's something we don't know, Jersey Shore or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Winter time, right, American dreaming might go with skiing because interview,
I would think I would I would.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Go for someplace in the Pacific where there's no inhabited
space for a couple one hundred miles, so that I
could kind of get my bearings before I go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Anyone's going to see.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Me right in their intelligent life.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Well, you still want to take your time. I'm kind
of set up set up shop a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
What have they've been watching us for you already?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
You know, anxiety making my anxiety.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Secretary people know something you want to take the secretary
transportation just sub sized anything flying in the sky.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
You know about there's like millions of things in the
national air space, right, So I do actually, we do
have a we do have a big board at the
USDOT which has the dots kind of show you the
tracking of of commercial aircraft.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
But no, I don't necessarily know all that.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, well, how are you feeling. I'm sorry to started
like that. How are you feeling? How was everything?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know?
Speaker 5 (03:34):
It's an interesting time. I mean, work wise, what we're
focused on is we have more grants. We're working to
get out the door, make sure we take the funding
that's in the President's Infrastructure package and assign it to
projects that are going to make a difference. So we
have more announcements coming on that, and then the things
we've already announced. It can take years to go from
(03:56):
a press release saying, you know, congratulations, we're going to
work on the let's say, the Hudson River Tunnel and
it actually happening. So we're trying to move that along.
We're trying to finalize a lot of policies we set
into motion we just didn't want a few days ago.
On airlines again, how airlines treat people and what kind
of compensation you ought to get that was launching a policy.
(04:16):
We're also finalizing some policies that we launched a while ago.
So we're busy. We're going to stay busy for the
next thirty eight days that we have in these jobs.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And we got to talk about the election. How do
you feel after the election? What do you think could
have been done to make sure that we, the Democrats,
would have got a win.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Look, it's tough, and I gotta be careful how I
talk about it because I'm here as a federal official,
so I can't totally get into campaigns and parties.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
But I'll say this. I think all politics and all.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Policy is about everyday life. And if people don't feel
that that's what we're talking about, then they lose touch
with what we have to say. And I think we
have a responsibility. I tried to do all of our
policy making in terms of everyday life. Whether we're doing
a billion dollar project, how's it going to make your
commute better? Or whether we're doing a regular how's it
(05:00):
going to make your life safer? We have to communicate
about that too, and that gets harder and harder with
the noise machine and the culture wars, and I think
a lot of folks aren't following kind of mainstream media
to get their news anyway. It's just getting tougher and
tough to have that conversation. I still believe, at risk
of sounding naive, I still believe that if you do
(05:21):
the right thing in time, you get credit for it.
I saw that happen with Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act,
where the first time I was running for office in
twenty ten, we got destroyed over that issue. By twenty eighteen,
it was a winning issue, and even Donald Trump and
a Republican Congress couldn't tear it down because the American
(05:41):
people wanted to understood that it was helping them. I
think there's a lot of things like that that we're
doing right now. But the simple truth is most of
the stuff with infrastructure, most of the stuff we launched
in the first half of this decade, is going to
deliver most of its benefits in the second half of
this day. That's when they cut the ribbon on the
(06:02):
bridge that we fixed, or open the airport terminal that
we funded, or people realize that something like the refund
policy we're doing on airlines is working for them. All
these ev factories I've toured, many of which, by the way,
are in Red States, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas. Most of those
when I've toured them, they've been construction sites, and they're
going to be. They're already creating all these jobs in
(06:23):
the building trades to build them, but the manufacturing jobs
in them they're coming online in like twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven. So we're in this
stage where you're not always getting credit for good work.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I want to ask one question before you jump at Angelo,
what is your thoughts on electric costs. A lot of
people feel that electric vehicles are just as bad as
the gas vehicles, with the batteries, with the things that
you know to get rid of them, dispose of them.
A lot of people are not sold on them, and
a lot of manufacturers people are not necessarily wanted to
buy them. They're on lots, can't sell them. There's huge discounts,
(06:58):
and I mean New Jersey now have taxes on them.
At first, at first that was a good thing that
you didn't if you bought an electric vehicle, you wouldn't
be taxed. But now they're starting to tax it. So
what are your thoughts on electric vehicles and the public's
view on them.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So I still think it's the future.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
And I would point out, even with ups and downs
in the market, every year more people in America choose
to buy them than the year before, so.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It is growing.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
But look, it's not for everybody, and we never said
it would be for everybody right away. Our goal is
by the end of the decade, it's about half and
a half. If everybody got an electric vehicle tomorrow, America
wouldn't be ready. We don't have the chargers but on
the grid instruct and which is why we're trying to
build it. Another thing that we launched in the first
half of this decade that will be coming online in
the out years is all these chargers were supporting. The
(07:38):
first couple hundred are up now, but eventually thousands and
thousands to join the to get to that goal of
half a million. Right now nationally we're two hundred thousand.
We're adding a bunch anyway, It's just not true environmentally
that it's the same.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, Does people feel like it's just the same or
it's worse.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
The thing that's screwing us up day by day in
this country is climate change and that is happening because
of carbon pollution, and EV's are one of the ways
that we can cut that because they don't spit out
carbon pollution. Are there issues with the materials that go
in the batteries, absolutely, But one really important thing to
remember is that material can be reused. You can recycle
the batteries, which will become more and more relevant as
(08:18):
you have more old cars. Right now, there's not a
lot of end of life evs right but there will be,
and then the next generation of vv's those batteries can
be made with them. There's I mean, any manufactured product,
there's environmental issues associated with manufacturing them. I don't mean
to wave that away, but handling that compared to handling
a climate situation that is almost certainly part of why
(08:41):
things like Hurricane Helene and Milton are worse than before.
Why are getting heat waves in the Pacific Northwest that
aren't even supposed to be statistically possible. Why one of
our big projects is dealing with the damage of her
Superstorm Sandy here.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That is happening now.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
That is not theoretical, that is real, And EV's aren't
the answer to all of it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But they're helping.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
And the thing I care about just as much as
that is the job growth. I was back in South Bend,
where I grew up, where I served as mayor, about
a week ago. When I was mayor, they were telling
us that manufacturing was done. We're gonna make things in
this country anymore. Definitely, if you were in a union
like the electrical workers, they told you, you know, you
(09:22):
might as well give up few people a year get
into an apprenticeship program.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I was there.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Now they're gonna have five hundred people working on an
EV battery factory that is multi billion dollars in Saint
Joe County. That is bigger than anything that happened in
the auto industry, any investment in the auto industry since
the Kennedy.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Years, like since before I was born.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
It's happening right now.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
So the other exciting thing was like, let's make sure
these EV's are made in America. And I gotta say,
I'm not gonna guess what the next administration will do,
but I wonder when they're really confronted with the decision
of whether to make through on their threats and wreck
this e the industry that is employing people in places
like where I grew up, whether we're talking about auto
(10:05):
workers or whether we're talking about electrical workers a lot
of other people, are they really going to pull the
rug out from under those workers, many of whom are
in red states. I guess we're about to find out.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
You know, I'm not going to have you violate the
Hatch Act. But I think one of the things that
has been up for discussion is what's going to happen
with the Democratic Party. You're, of course a part of
the Democratic administration, and recently I was asked who would
be a good DNC chair And you might not like this,
but I thought of you. There are a lot of
(10:37):
people who are jocking for this position, who the country's
never heard of. But you had a really phenomenal moment
during this campaign cycle debating undecided voters. The video went viral.
You're able to communicate in tough places. You come here,
you go on Fox. You're able to communicate the message
(11:00):
in ways that I think a lot of the Democratic
Party avoids. Can you talk about whether or not that's
something that you would be interested in it?
Speaker 6 (11:07):
If not, who you think would be.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
Good, not in your official capacity, in your personal capacity,
who you think would be the type of chair they
need to see to preserve frankly, whatever they've built in
that pay.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So well it's not going to be me. I care
about that a lot, but it's just not It's not
what I'm going to be doing right now.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I'm following it a lot.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
I can't get into party stuff too much this time,
but what I'll say is, you know, whether you're talking
about what goes on the party campaigns or the policy side.
And even though we're about to be out of the administration,
we've got leaders in obviously communities, we've got governors, and
we've got people on Capitol Hill who are going to
(11:48):
I think, show what leadership from my side of the
aisle looks like, and I think a lot of it
will be you know, you're mentioning an experience I did
on a channel called Jubilee, which I got a ton
of feedback about. That was great because there's different people
than the folks who were watching what I might have
to say on Ciena and or Fox News or MSNBC.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
How many people who.
Speaker 7 (12:11):
Like a point It was a lot like millions.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
Oh the experience, Yeah, it was like twenty was like
in a room with twenty five people, and what it
reminded me of was what it was like being mayor
where you know, I didn't somebody stops at you in
the parking lot at the grocery store because they want
to know why you you changed the trash pick up
from the front of the house to the back of
the house, and they're mad at you. You got to
explain it, and you can't go to talking points, right
(12:38):
And I think a lot of the best voices we
have are people who are.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Having to have those kinds of conversations.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
In their communities, absolutely, and.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Not the stuff that's that's dominating the attention of a
place like Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
You know, I.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Back when I was running, I talked a lot about,
you know, needing to have perspectives from outside of Washington.
When I got to Washington, I noticed two things. One
in all humility, like that town is full of a
lot of really good people, public servants who come to
work every day trying to do the right thing and
who care about this country. But also it is a
very self absorbed place, like even more than any other
(13:18):
kind of scene that I've seen, more than any city,
more than Hollywood, like it is a place where like
everybody wants to talk about what this senator had for breakfast.
You know what, I chasten I got there, we start
reading like write ups the next day online about like
you know, where we're having dinner and stuff like.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It's just very like.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Inward looking. Sometimes we've got to get out of that.
And that's part of why I will be out of Washington. Well,
not that I'm invited for the next four years, but
I think it will be helpful to be out of Washington.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
For the next few years for me. Well, you know,
you're a very cerebral person.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Everybody knows that, Secretary Pege, So I know that you've
thought about your future.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Check what is the future for Secretary Peace?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
That's just like, no, no, it's true. I mean, obviously
there's a lot of different things I might do. People
are putting all kinds of ideas in my head. But
you know, I got thirty eight days to do this job,
and I got to stay really focused on that. And
then I'm not going to just jump into something just
so I can do it, or just try to have
an office.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Just so I can have it. I know what I
care about.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
I care about how places like where I grew up
in Indiana and where I live now in northern Michigan,
how places like that can grow, how we can replicate
the story of the city that I served in that
started out that decade being told we were dying and
ended like growing and creating jobs, and now it's happening
in a whole new way, largely because of what happened
(14:40):
in to the Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I care about that.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
I care about big picture of democratic reforms and how
we change all of the things that make us not
that democratic. And I'm not just talking about the whole
kind of question of authoritarianism that I think all all
of us are rightly worried about. I'm talking about stuff
that happens out in the open, in terms of how
our districts are drawn and how our campaigns are paid for,
(15:06):
and the electric stuff I.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Talk about a lot.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
I care about that. I care about making sure that
our generation comes out ahead. Because if you were born
when my parents were born, there's a ninety percent chance
you were going to come out economically ahead of your parents.
If you were born when I was born in the eighties,
it's a coin flip. So you know, I care about
stuff like that. I care about the information environment, kind
of what Angela and I were just talking about about
(15:30):
the different spaces we go into. But how I do that,
whether that's as an elected official or something more political
or something a little more out of that space, that's
something I will have time to figure out after January twenty.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Is it about the money of the service, because you know,
you can get to the bag, like you know, your
secretary Pete now, so you can write a book, you can,
it's on a podcast. There's a lot of things you
can do to actually get money. You got kids, man,
you're married with kids.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean I need a paycheck, That's right. I
didn't you know.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
It's not like I'm a millionaire and you know, but
I'll figure that out that like that'll be okay. Chasing
has also reminded me that.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
You know, we will get money.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
We need to, you know obviously, you know, have a
living and take care of our kids. And also, you know, Chasin,
you know, we're like any working couple like he you know,
I talked to him on the way to the studio here,
like he is solo wrangling two three year olds getting
them to school. In the middle of a snowstorm. And
I just have some catching up to do there in
(16:28):
terms of doing my well. Yeah, which is totally fair, right,
and and he's been great, but so I'm gonna be
a little more focused on that. Plus, our kids are twins,
a boy and girl are twins. They're three. They're old
enough to not just to notice, but like to care
when I'm gone. So I'm I'm looking forward to some
period of time when I'm posting at home able to think.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
But before we do any of that, like, we got.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Thirty eight days of real work, because every day we're here,
we're gonna wish we had it back later on to
get more done, to get more dollars out the door,
to give Morgan policies done.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So we're pushing hard.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I do have to ask about congestion price. And I mean,
you talked about New York and the tunnel that they're building,
but they're saying this congestion price in New York City
could be the guinea pig for the country for different
cities of people driving in. A lot of people are
against it, right, It's what grocries expensive, gas expensive, everything expensive, right,
everything is high. This is just going to be another
thing that you know, citizens Americans have to pay. What's
(17:26):
your thoughts on that, because it's going to hurt a
lot of people.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
So the bottom line is, I've got to This sounds
like a cop out, but it's only because federally, it's
very important to respect that this is a local decision.
So from a federal perspective, they've done everything they need
to do. We went through a process of I think
more than twenty thousand pages of verification to evaluate whether
(17:50):
it's met its legal requirements, and it has. Now it's
still up to the city, the state, the region to
decide if they want to do something. But like from
a Department of Transportation perspective, they've demonstrated that to the
satisfaction of our department. I know that sounds like a
bureaucratic answer, but part of why I'm answering that ways
because I respect the fact that that's a local decision.
What I will say is there's a handful of places
(18:12):
that have done it, but mostly in other places around
the world, London, Singapore, Stockholm. The usual pattern has been
that people there's a lot of controversy about it beforehand.
People in the end have have preferred to have it
after the fact once they're.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Used to it.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
But every city is different.
Speaker 7 (18:34):
I had some questions around you're just thinking of legacy
and how things are being left. There's a lot of
folks who have come in as Secretary Department of Transportation,
and one thing that has remained pretty stagnant is the
utilization of dB so the disadvantage business enterprise. I'm from
Washington State and there was a disparity study done this
(18:56):
year looking at all of these numbers. And I think
the one time you met my dad, like he ran
up on you, was like, hey, Secretary Pete, and he
had questions about this. He's dedicated his life to this,
so it's something that we're really passionate about. But when
you look at how the Federal Highway Administration funds contracts,
only one percent of those contracts are going to black
(19:16):
owned firms, the Federal Transit Authority it's one point zero
and then state funded contracts zero point two percent. And
this is it doesn't matter if it's a Democratic governor
or a Republican governor. This is something that's remained pretty stagnant.
I'm eager to know you know what you all have
done what you all planned to do. I know that
(19:37):
there's a civil rights lead on this, but this has
not changed much and it's tragic. I'm terrified about what's
going to happen because as soon as Donald Trump was elected, Walmart, Starbucks,
everybody's saying, you know, to hell with DEI we can't
afford to do that or be in those positions as
black folks.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah. Right, So this is really important.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
If you look at, for example, the black middle class
in Atlanta, part of how that was built was because
the mayor at the time that the airport was going
up insisted that black owned businesses had a shot at
the work that was going on, and they did, and
whole companies grew out of that. I've been there, talked
to second generation people who are now leading those construction
companies and working on new work at the airport where
(20:18):
their parents had worked on the original rounds. So I've
seen the opportunity to can create. Here's what we've done.
We've boosted our goal for the dollars that directly or
contracted by our department. We had a over twenty percent
goal on SDB Small Disadvantaged Businesses and we beat it.
So we've been able to generate I think we're now
in the billions in terms of doing better than before.
(20:41):
But a lot of those statistics that you've found show
how when the federal dollars go out to the states
or they go out to the communities, those states and
communities may not have the same level of commitment to
making sure that there's that dB participation. We have been
able to do a lot of things to encourage that,
including updating the entire rule, the whole regulatory framework for dbes.
(21:04):
We immediately got sued and right now there's an injunction
that's affecting in certain jurisdictions how much we can pursue
that work. By the way, they've done this for other
departments too. They went after the Small Business Administration's program,
they went after the NBDA, which is part of commerce.
We think that we know that we're on good legal ground,
(21:26):
but we're gonna have to fight for it, and we're
gonna stay committed. But to some of the numbers you're mentioning,
a lot of this does happen closer to home, and
so we've got to set a tone that says, wait
a minute, it's important to create these opportunities locally. By
the way, there's the business side, but also the labor side.
I've seen a lot of I've seen some labor unions
and locals that are doing it right. And you see
(21:48):
people who just would not have had a chance to
get these good paying jobs in the building trades, and
there are things that can be done to help make
sure they get a shot, making sure there's more apprenticesh
so you can earn while you learn, so you don't
have to have money to take time off to be
in the apprenticeship program. For a lot of working women,
I mean working parents in general, but definitely for working women,
(22:09):
it's important to.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Have childcare set up.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
In Pittsburgh, they set up a childcare center at the
construction site of the airport terminal that they're doing, and
it means that more people who just would never have
had a chance to be part of that are part
of that.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So we're being intentional about it.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
But look, the next administration has not shown any signs
of being enthusiastic about this. We're still defending what we've
done in court and I would say we've done a lot,
but we got a long way to go. And what
that means, what that says to me, is there is
going to have to be a lot at the state
and local level to keep the momentum up.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
You know, somebody in the upcoming administration is going to
take credit for something you implemented.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
So what is it we will see from them that's
actually you.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
So there's sixty six thousand projects we got started. If
I went to three projects a day for the rest
of my life, I would not live long enough.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
To see them.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
A thousands of them are complete, but most of them
aren't it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
These things take years.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
So you know when you look at I mean there's
these big signature projects. You know, the Hudson River Tunnel
that might be the biggest project east of the Mississippi
in our lifetimes. There's album is that going to take
very long time. We're sixteen billion into Jesus.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
So it won't even be just you won't even see
that in this administration.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
But some things are will be underway, are underway now,
will be done sooner. The Portal North Bridge, which is
another key key bridge.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It all comes back to New Jersey.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
See, yeah, let's spiral them again.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
I think you know, you can go on down the list.
Big thing that the the High speed rail. You know,
I cut I broke ground on a high speed rail
project from Las Vegas to southern California. They're aiming to
be done by twenty twenty eight. That's an aggressive timeline,
but that's what they think they can do. So all
of that, Yeah, somebody else is going to cut the
ribbon on that. But look, we've already seen people who
(24:05):
voted against the Biden infrastructure package show up and try
to take credit at these things. We're about to see
that at.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
A whole new level.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
And I'm going to be there to remind folks that
some people were with us, even some Republicans were with us,
and a lot of people were against us, and we
were trying to get this money out the door.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Is that trans Atlantic tunnel shit real?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
The New York, the London that can get you between
the cities in an hour anything, it's gonna cost a
nineteen trillion to build.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
I call that more of a concept of a plan. Okay, okay,
it'd be pretty amazing. But yeah, some of those hyper
I mean, it's very exciting to think about. But the
things you have to do, the pressurization, the tunneling, I mean,
you know, kind of hard to hard on today's technology.
Hard to see how that happens.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
Well, speaking of concept of the plan, you are saying
that's what you have for your future. But you did
move to Michigan in twenty twenty. There is a term
limited governor, Big Rich, yes, Gretchen Whitmer, who is of
course not running. And then there is a mayor of
Detroit who's declared his gubernatory run but as an independent.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
So Democrats want you to run for governor of Michigan.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
But have you thought about running for a governor?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I mean, you needn't say anything.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
The first time, he was lost to the.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Word I'm not here to make news on my future.
I honestly haven't you ruled anything. So taken that as
a maybe you, Like I said, people are I've.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Never They say you met about it this week? You
met with people Democrats in Michigan.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
About I meet democrats? All, I'm a Democrat and I
live in Michigan. Like you know, Look, we moved there
because of family. We moved there, We bought a place
there four years ago. Are having our kids closer. Grandparents
has been here. But yeah, look I really care about
this date. I just can't I can't get into campaign
stuff or anything like that.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Is it something you're even interested in You're just gonna
keep it, But have it crossed your mind, like, Hey,
being governor of Michigan.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Would be cool.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Look, I care about the place a lot, and I
told you earlier some of the other things I care about.
There's a lot of ways to work on that. You
can work on that in office, you can work on
that out of office. It's I'm not trying to be cagy.
I just I don't know, and I want to know.
I want to have a lot more of my mind
made up before I go around talking about stuff like
that on the radio.
Speaker 7 (26:35):
If you thought about it, and I think I think
the most important thing is if you just in case
you missed it, you're a very public servant ish and
so even though you're like, oh, I could do this
thing politically and other things, you're you're good at this,
Like this is something that you're good at our well.
My friend Garland is also thinking about a run Gil Chris,
who's fantastic. But there's the one that I think strikes
(26:59):
a course for me is Mike Dugan saying he's going
to run as an independent. There are a lot of
folks who are upset about that because that could throw
the race potentially, which we've seen in larger elections than
just goobernatorials in the past.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Yeah, and look, he's also a phenomenal mayor. We've worked
a lot on a lot of things benefiting Detroit where
we've teamed up. But I just you got to keep
me out of hashtag jail here.
Speaker 7 (27:23):
I can all right, Okay, we don't want to be
in Hatchack jail, even though it's in the state.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
But when leave that alone, I'll let you let that
fly op portund like.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
I'm not a lawyer for that one, Secretary Pete, but
I will ask you.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
So you talked about thirty eight days left.
Speaker 7 (27:38):
It's not just thirty eight days left for you, there's
also thirty eight days left for President Biden. Are there
things that you have before the president that you really
want to have happen for transportation? Are there other things
that you think this administration really needs to get done
before armageddon?
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Yeah? You know, he just asked me for an update.
We've we've been writing up some of the latest on
what we think we can get out the door. There
are a number of grant programs and projects we think
we can make happen. Potentially, still hundreds of projects we
can announce before January twentieth, and anything we can do,
we have to do it right. We can't do it
half asked just to get out the door, so we
have to make sure we're picking the right projects or
(28:15):
being responsible with the money. But yeah, I think we
can do a lot more. And again there's some policies
we can still finalize, just as we have been doing
on everything from you know, worker protection, and it's amazing
how long it takes to get a federal regulation finalized.
And I understand why. A lot of it is that
everybody has to have their say. There's procedural requirements that
(28:37):
you have to go through, and you know, a human
being as to read every comment, even when there's thousands
of comments. So we have to do it right. But
we're working on things to keep up the record we've
had of protecting consumers, protecting workers. But what I already know,
even though we're not done, we will leave America's transportation
(28:58):
systems better than we found them. Fewer people are dying
on our roads. Long way to go, but fewer people
are dying on our roads. I think we've made a
lot of important advances on aviation safety. We've made major
advances on passenger protection, your ability to get a refund
or get your hotel covered or something else if you
get stuck. Airlines are suing over that, by the way, too,
(29:18):
we have to play some defense here, but we've done
that rail workers, and we came in something like less
than ten percent of railroad workers could even get sick leave,
and now that guarantee is available over ninety percent of
railroad workers.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Supply chains.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
You remember the first year they said Christmas was canceled,
all the ships were backed up. You know, we came
in and encountered the biggest set of transportation problems to
hit the country at once since nine to eleven, from
the airlines about to go out of business, to supply
chain you couldn't get toilet paper, all that stuff. Trains,
and every one of those has got better. I can't
(29:55):
say any one of them is one hundred percent fixed,
but every one of them is better, and just as important,
the trajectory is better used to be. When we talked
about our roads, our bridges, the condition of our infrastructure,
every we knew that every year, it was going to
get worse because the backlog was growing faster than we
could do the projects. That was the whole idea of
the infrastructure I call it the Big Deal. That was
(30:15):
the whole idea of the Big Deal was We're not
just gonna keep playing catch up. We're actually going to
change the trajectory. But the nature of my I mean,
the satisfying part about our work is that for the
next few years, I'll be able to look at things
still being built and improved because of what we didn't
because of what President Biden did. But the unsatisfying part
about it is the same the other side of the
same coin, that's it's going to take a while.
Speaker 7 (30:36):
Well, I have one since you used to your talking
generics around the grants. Is there any way that we
can talk to the airlines about these ticket prices because
they're surging and that's.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Crazy, They're crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, Atlanta used to be two hundred, three hundred dollars
now six seven hundred dollars to fly to Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
I'm gonna throw one out that might get John Trump.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
I don't know of their sponsor, American, Like the American Airlines,
tickets are like a thousand dollars more than everybody else's
right now.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Where you're trying to what route you're talking about, because
I'm wist saying, because it does depend like as a category,
it's actually one of the few areas where prices went
down a little bit instead of up with all the inflation.
But that's an average, right, if you're talking about a
certain airline or a certain route, and the biggest thing
that we can do about that is competition, right, I mean,
just that's how it's supposed to work. And the truth is,
(31:25):
even though the airline industry lobby will say, you know,
there's lots of there's all these flights, there's all these airlines,
all these routes, a lot of times for a particular route,
there's maybe two airlines actually serving those particular that particular combination, right,
so it turns into a duopoly. And you know, one
of the big problems we've had in the aviation sector
(31:46):
is we've gone from dozens of airlines to a dozen
airlines to now basically a big four and the low
cost airlines, which everybody's mad at because of the passenger experience,
but also it's really hard for them to compete it's
why we intervened on the merger that was proposed. Was
(32:06):
that blue because having even fewer airlines means you have
even fewer choices, and it means it's less likely you're
going to get a good airfare.
Speaker 7 (32:13):
Well, the one that I'm thinking about, I'm based in Seattle.
The one that I'm thinking about mostly is Seattle to JFK,
and American has a partnership with Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines,
that same flight will be one thousand dollars less than American.
I don't understand that interesting. It's very weird, so something
to look at days. But it's to your point. It's
(32:36):
New York to Atlanta. It's LA to Atlanta very expensive. Yeah,
well Florida flights the almost three thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, I saw you.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Say Trump can't get rid of the new airline refint
rules though you said it's the law Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Yeah, it got put into the FAA bill, So it
would take an Act of Congress to get ready to
try to get.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Rid of the automatic refunds.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
And I would love to be there if anybody in
Congress tries to get rid of that, because that's really important,
and the whole idea there was that not just that
you can get a refund, but you can get a
refund without having to ask, because what was happening was
it was on the books that you could get a
refund and cancelation or some of these situations we had
to ask for. You had to fight for it.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Sometimes an airline.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
Would say, well, we'll give you five thousand miles, and
that sounds pretty good, but if you actually do the math,
that's worth like maybe fifty bucks and you're entitled to
you know, hundreds. So just saying okay, if you want
something different, like if you tell the airline, don't give
me the money back, I'd rather take a rebooking or
don't give me the money back.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I'd rather take your miles.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Fine, great, but you have to choose. It's opt out
rather than opt in, and if you don't say anything,
you just get your money. I think it's common sense.
I think it's a good policy, and I'm really glad
that Congress packed us up on that and that some
of the other things they could undo, but that they
couldn't undo unless Congress went along with it.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
I know you to h yeah, ea questions I got
one more question, because you know, one thing I always
give you credit for is you are not afraid to
show up to speak to people who.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You may not agree with.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
And you always come speak to people you know, regardless
of whether it's campaigns either or not. So we always
appreciate that. But to me, that's something you can't teach
like that has to be in you. So where did
that come from? Why aren't you afraid to show up
in spaces A lot of Democrats don't.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
I think it comes from growing up in a place
where lots of people, including people I really like, don't
agree with me, but we're friends and we just talk
about it. And I think you get advised and counseled
not to take any risks when you get into a
job like mine, for very understandable reasons, right because anything
(34:35):
you say gets picked apart. But if you pay too
much attention to that, nothing you say, you don't say
anything interesting. You're not talking like you're talking to somebody
you actually know, and people feel that, they smell that,
and I think younger people especially feel that and smell that,
And so I think it's probably just because of how
it came up.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Any last ones you're good.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
I'm good. I asked about my plane take.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
I'm like, if I can't give anything else one hundred
thirty eighties, I mean, I want to parton for Marylynd
most be as well. We'd love to have your sport
on that. But yeah, I just would like for things
to feel fair, especially now since Donald Trump said always
going to.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
Be hard to increase the price of groceries.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
You let's find out you did say something. Plan is
safe as oh, I think for politicians, do you think that?
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:21):
I mean it doesn't mean you jump on a political
land mine every time you see one.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Do those exist anymore?
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:28):
I think so you still get in big trouble for
saying this or that or I don't know. But to me,
it's okay as long as you're if you're in a
controversy because it's something you actually did or said or believed,
and it's controversial versus like you put a foot wrong,
or you phrase something the wrong way, or somebody twisted
what you had to say. You know, I always wanted
(35:49):
to be held accountable based on results. This is part
of why I got especially fired up during Helene about
the hurricane Helen about the misinformation that was going on,
because it's one thing to to have it back and
forth over something that's actually happening, and it's another if
people aren't even looking at the same reality. So in
terms of what risks people take in politics, look, you
(36:14):
you also tend to take more risks when you're out
of power, and so I think you might see more
creativity from the team that just got beat. That's just
kind of the nature of things. But yeah, I mean,
for my time, it's always better to just say what
you think, explain yourself, and then if people don't like it,
at least they're mad at you over something real instead
(36:34):
of some misunderstanding.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Do you feel like Democrats, Well, we know they are,
But when did the Democrats get so out of touch
with the needs of the American people?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
That'd be a whole other hour. I think.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I think it's I think that's only half fair. So
I think it's I think we are still the ones
who are more connected. If I just think about the
policies of our administration, like they have been all about
making people lives better, everything down to make it easier
to get a hearing aid two thousand dollars cap on
Medicare insulin thirty five dollars insulin. We did that for seniors.
We could done that for everybody if Congressional Republicans hadn't
(37:11):
blocked us. I think we were right on the things
that affect everyday life. But the half way I do
agree with you is I think we got sucked into this,
this kind of vocabulary and this like swirl over what
matters online and what matters in Washington. That meant a
lot of the folks that we get up in the
morning trying to help can't even hear us. Can't even
(37:33):
make sense of what we're saying sometimes. And if if
we can't, if we can't fix that, then it won't
matter what our policies are because nobody will even know
that's right.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
I always say the language of politics is dad.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
That's why there's only a few people, I feel in
the Democratic Party who are able to message what you're
talking about. Like, yes, y'all might have better policies, but
you know how a methage them. You know not how
to promote them, you know how to market them. I
think you want to working on it. Shute is Bright,
Secretary of Pete.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Thanks, well, we have the Secretary of Transportation. We appreciate
you for joining us. We're gonna call you in a
couple of weeks. Off them drones. Keep going, man, we
need it, We need answers.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
It's people to judge.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Wake that ass up Earth in the morning.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
The Breakfast Club.
Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Everybody is DJ Envy, Jess, Larry Charlamagne, the guy we
are to Breakfast Club. Angela Riet of course is checking
in with us as always, and we got a special
guest in the building. Secretary of Transportation Pete Booey Judge,
welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Thanks, good to be back.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
How are you man same to you? Dump right in.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Right in?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Secretary Pete, you are the Secretary of Transportation. What do
you know about these manned SUV side drones flying over
New Jersey? John John kirbyed the National Security Communications Byers, said.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
They were manned yep, yesterday. What do you think it is?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So?
Speaker 5 (00:38):
I mean, we're helping law enforcement work through it all
mainly a homeland security issue. Our job is to make
sure that any restricted airspace nothing comes in there that
shouldn't be there. That includes airspace over an airport. Sometimes
another area could be restricted because it's sensitive. For example
that's close to the Trump Golf Club, there's temporary flight
restrictions there. Bigger picture is we're going to have more
(01:00):
and more drones. Obviously, if it's man that's different. But
we're gonna have more and more things entering the airspace.
We got to work to make sure that's safe. This
is not a world where anything flying is either an
airplane or a helicopter. The drones are getting bigger. That look,
it can be a good thing to have these resources
to deliver, for example, in a really hard to reach area,
(01:22):
you make deliveries. But we're talking about potentially millions of
these coming into the airspace. And what we're trying to do,
especially on the FAA side, is coordinate all that make
sure it's safe.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Is that they're manned, Like who's man's is this?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Like?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Who are these people like? And why is it okay?
And why wouldn't they inform the public beforehand?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yeah, so they know more than I do on the
law enforcement side about the identity of the aircraft.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
But it is true.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Sometimes you look up at something you think it's one thing,
turns out it's another. I think that's what they've been
working through on the law enforcement side.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Donald Trump was on with Joe Rogan. They had a
whole conversation about aliens, not the kind you want to
deport ax. Then Cliff High said, thirty nine days after
that interview, we were going to start having an alien
invasion around December third, that's when all of these sub
side drones which I've even seen started getting seen over Jersey.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Is it an alien invasion?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I mean no disrespect to New Jersey when I say that.
I think it's very unlikely that an alien invasion would begin.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Watch him out. We lived it, I know, but nobody.
I love New Jersey.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
I'm just saying I don't think that's the kind of
main point of entry that an extra terrest.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Unless there's something we don't know, Jersey Shore or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Winter time, right, American dreaming might go with skiing because interview,
I would think I would I would.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Go for someplace in the Pacific where there's no inhabited
space for a couple one hundred miles, so that I
could kind of get my bearings before I go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Anyone's going to see.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Me right in their intelligent life.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Well, you still want to take your time. I'm kind
of set up set up shop a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
What have they've been watching us for you already?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
You know, anxiety making my anxiety.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Secretary people know something you want to take the secretary
transportation just sub sized anything flying in the sky.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
You know about there's like millions of things in the
national air space, right, So I do actually, we do
have a we do have a big board at the
USDOT which has the dots kind of show you the
tracking of of commercial aircraft.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
But no, I don't necessarily know all that.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, well, how are you feeling. I'm sorry to started
like that. How are you feeling? How was everything?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know?
Speaker 5 (03:34):
It's an interesting time. I mean, work wise, what we're
focused on is we have more grants. We're working to
get out the door, make sure we take the funding
that's in the President's Infrastructure package and assign it to
projects that are going to make a difference. So we
have more announcements coming on that, and then the things
we've already announced. It can take years to go from
(03:56):
a press release saying, you know, congratulations, we're going to
work on the let's say, the Hudson River Tunnel and
it actually happening. So we're trying to move that along.
We're trying to finalize a lot of policies we set
into motion we just didn't want a few days ago.
On airlines again, how airlines treat people and what kind
of compensation you ought to get that was launching a policy.
(04:16):
We're also finalizing some policies that we launched a while ago.
So we're busy. We're going to stay busy for the
next thirty eight days that we have in these jobs.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And we got to talk about the election. How do
you feel after the election? What do you think could
have been done to make sure that we, the Democrats,
would have got a win.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Look, it's tough, and I gotta be careful how I
talk about it because I'm here as a federal official,
so I can't totally get into campaigns and parties.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
But I'll say this. I think all politics and all.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Policy is about everyday life. And if people don't feel
that that's what we're talking about, then they lose touch
with what we have to say. And I think we
have a responsibility. I tried to do all of our
policy making in terms of everyday life. Whether we're doing
a billion dollar project, how's it going to make your
commute better? Or whether we're doing a regular how's it
(05:00):
going to make your life safer? We have to communicate
about that too, and that gets harder and harder with
the noise machine and the culture wars, and I think
a lot of folks aren't following kind of mainstream media
to get their news anyway. It's just getting tougher and
tough to have that conversation. I still believe, at risk
of sounding naive, I still believe that if you do
(05:21):
the right thing in time, you get credit for it.
I saw that happen with Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act,
where the first time I was running for office in
twenty ten, we got destroyed over that issue. By twenty eighteen,
it was a winning issue, and even Donald Trump and
a Republican Congress couldn't tear it down because the American
(05:41):
people wanted to understood that it was helping them. I
think there's a lot of things like that that we're
doing right now. But the simple truth is most of
the stuff with infrastructure, most of the stuff we launched
in the first half of this decade, is going to
deliver most of its benefits in the second half of
this day. That's when they cut the ribbon on the
(06:02):
bridge that we fixed, or open the airport terminal that
we funded, or people realize that something like the refund
policy we're doing on airlines is working for them. All
these ev factories I've toured, many of which, by the way,
are in Red States, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas. Most of those
when I've toured them, they've been construction sites, and they're
going to be. They're already creating all these jobs in
(06:23):
the building trades to build them, but the manufacturing jobs
in them they're coming online in like twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven. So we're in this
stage where you're not always getting credit for good work.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I want to ask one question before you jump at Angelo,
what is your thoughts on electric costs. A lot of
people feel that electric vehicles are just as bad as
the gas vehicles, with the batteries, with the things that
you know to get rid of them, dispose of them.
A lot of people are not sold on them, and
a lot of manufacturers people are not necessarily wanted to
buy them. They're on lots, can't sell them. There's huge discounts,
(06:58):
and I mean New Jersey now have taxes on them.
At first, at first that was a good thing that
you didn't if you bought an electric vehicle, you wouldn't
be taxed. But now they're starting to tax it. So
what are your thoughts on electric vehicles and the public's
view on them.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So I still think it's the future.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
And I would point out, even with ups and downs
in the market, every year more people in America choose
to buy them than the year before, so.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It is growing.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
But look, it's not for everybody, and we never said
it would be for everybody right away. Our goal is
by the end of the decade, it's about half and
a half. If everybody got an electric vehicle tomorrow, America
wouldn't be ready. We don't have the chargers but on
the grid instruct and which is why we're trying to
build it. Another thing that we launched in the first
half of this decade that will be coming online in
the out years is all these chargers were supporting. The
(07:38):
first couple hundred are up now, but eventually thousands and
thousands to join the to get to that goal of
half a million. Right now nationally we're two hundred thousand.
We're adding a bunch anyway, It's just not true environmentally
that it's the same.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, Does people feel like it's just the same or
it's worse.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
The thing that's screwing us up day by day in
this country is climate change and that is happening because
of carbon pollution, and EV's are one of the ways
that we can cut that because they don't spit out
carbon pollution. Are there issues with the materials that go
in the batteries, absolutely, But one really important thing to
remember is that material can be reused. You can recycle
the batteries, which will become more and more relevant as
(08:18):
you have more old cars. Right now, there's not a
lot of end of life evs right but there will be,
and then the next generation of vv's those batteries can
be made with them. There's I mean, any manufactured product,
there's environmental issues associated with manufacturing them. I don't mean
to wave that away, but handling that compared to handling
a climate situation that is almost certainly part of why
(08:41):
things like Hurricane Helene and Milton are worse than before.
Why are getting heat waves in the Pacific Northwest that
aren't even supposed to be statistically possible. Why one of
our big projects is dealing with the damage of her
Superstorm Sandy here.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That is happening now.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
That is not theoretical, that is real, And EV's aren't
the answer to all of it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
But they're helping.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
And the thing I care about just as much as
that is the job growth. I was back in South Bend,
where I grew up, where I served as mayor, about
a week ago. When I was mayor, they were telling
us that manufacturing was done. We're gonna make things in
this country anymore. Definitely, if you were in a union
like the electrical workers, they told you, you know, you
(09:22):
might as well give up few people a year get
into an apprenticeship program.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I was there.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Now they're gonna have five hundred people working on an
EV battery factory that is multi billion dollars in Saint
Joe County. That is bigger than anything that happened in
the auto industry, any investment in the auto industry since
the Kennedy.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Years, like since before I was born.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
It's happening right now.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
So the other exciting thing was like, let's make sure
these EV's are made in America. And I gotta say,
I'm not gonna guess what the next administration will do,
but I wonder when they're really confronted with the decision
of whether to make through on their threats and wreck
this e the industry that is employing people in places
like where I grew up, whether we're talking about auto
(10:05):
workers or whether we're talking about electrical workers a lot
of other people, are they really going to pull the
rug out from under those workers, many of whom are
in red states. I guess we're about to find out.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
You know, I'm not going to have you violate the
Hatch Act. But I think one of the things that
has been up for discussion is what's going to happen
with the Democratic Party. You're, of course a part of
the Democratic administration, and recently I was asked who would
be a good DNC chair And you might not like this,
but I thought of you. There are a lot of
(10:37):
people who are jocking for this position, who the country's
never heard of. But you had a really phenomenal moment
during this campaign cycle debating undecided voters. The video went viral.
You're able to communicate in tough places. You come here,
you go on Fox. You're able to communicate the message
(11:00):
in ways that I think a lot of the Democratic
Party avoids. Can you talk about whether or not that's
something that you would be interested in it?
Speaker 6 (11:07):
If not, who you think would be.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
Good, not in your official capacity, in your personal capacity,
who you think would be the type of chair they
need to see to preserve frankly, whatever they've built in
that pay.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So well it's not going to be me. I care
about that a lot, but it's just not It's not
what I'm going to be doing right now.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I'm following it a lot.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
I can't get into party stuff too much this time,
but what I'll say is, you know, whether you're talking
about what goes on the party campaigns or the policy side.
And even though we're about to be out of the administration,
we've got leaders in obviously communities, we've got governors, and
we've got people on Capitol Hill who are going to
(11:48):
I think, show what leadership from my side of the
aisle looks like, and I think a lot of it
will be you know, you're mentioning an experience I did
on a channel called Jubilee, which I got a ton
of feedback about. That was great because there's different people
than the folks who were watching what I might have
to say on Ciena and or Fox News or MSNBC.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
How many people who.
Speaker 7 (12:11):
Like a point It was a lot like millions.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
Oh the experience, Yeah, it was like twenty was like
in a room with twenty five people, and what it
reminded me of was what it was like being mayor
where you know, I didn't somebody stops at you in
the parking lot at the grocery store because they want
to know why you you changed the trash pick up
from the front of the house to the back of
the house, and they're mad at you. You got to
explain it, and you can't go to talking points, right
(12:38):
And I think a lot of the best voices we
have are people who are.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Having to have those kinds of conversations.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
In their communities, absolutely, and.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Not the stuff that's that's dominating the attention of a
place like Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
You know, I.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Back when I was running, I talked a lot about,
you know, needing to have perspectives from outside of Washington.
When I got to Washington, I noticed two things. One
in all humility, like that town is full of a
lot of really good people, public servants who come to
work every day trying to do the right thing and
who care about this country. But also it is a
very self absorbed place, like even more than any other
(13:18):
kind of scene that I've seen, more than any city,
more than Hollywood, like it is a place where like
everybody wants to talk about what this senator had for breakfast.
You know what, I chasten I got there, we start
reading like write ups the next day online about like
you know, where we're having dinner and stuff like.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It's just very like.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Inward looking. Sometimes we've got to get out of that.
And that's part of why I will be out of Washington. Well,
not that I'm invited for the next four years, but
I think it will be helpful to be out of Washington.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
For the next few years for me. Well, you know,
you're a very cerebral person.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Everybody knows that, Secretary Pege, So I know that you've
thought about your future.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Check what is the future for Secretary Peace?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
That's just like, no, no, it's true. I mean, obviously
there's a lot of different things I might do. People
are putting all kinds of ideas in my head. But
you know, I got thirty eight days to do this job,
and I got to stay really focused on that. And
then I'm not going to just jump into something just
so I can do it, or just try to have
an office.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Just so I can have it. I know what I
care about.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
I care about how places like where I grew up
in Indiana and where I live now in northern Michigan,
how places like that can grow, how we can replicate
the story of the city that I served in that
started out that decade being told we were dying and
ended like growing and creating jobs, and now it's happening
in a whole new way, largely because of what happened
(14:40):
in to the Biden administration.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I care about that.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
I care about big picture of democratic reforms and how
we change all of the things that make us not
that democratic. And I'm not just talking about the whole
kind of question of authoritarianism that I think all all
of us are rightly worried about. I'm talking about stuff
that happens out in the open, in terms of how
our districts are drawn and how our campaigns are paid for,
(15:06):
and the electric stuff I.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Talk about a lot.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
I care about that. I care about making sure that
our generation comes out ahead. Because if you were born
when my parents were born, there's a ninety percent chance
you were going to come out economically ahead of your parents.
If you were born when I was born in the eighties,
it's a coin flip. So you know, I care about
stuff like that. I care about the information environment, kind
of what Angela and I were just talking about about
(15:30):
the different spaces we go into. But how I do that,
whether that's as an elected official or something more political
or something a little more out of that space, that's
something I will have time to figure out after January twenty.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Is it about the money of the service, because you know,
you can get to the bag, like you know, your
secretary Pete now, so you can write a book, you can,
it's on a podcast. There's a lot of things you
can do to actually get money. You got kids, man,
you're married with kids.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean I need a paycheck, That's right. I
didn't you know.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
It's not like I'm a millionaire and you know, but
I'll figure that out that like that'll be okay. Chasing
has also reminded me that.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
You know, we will get money.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
We need to, you know obviously, you know, have a
living and take care of our kids. And also, you know, Chasin,
you know, we're like any working couple like he you know,
I talked to him on the way to the studio here,
like he is solo wrangling two three year olds getting
them to school. In the middle of a snowstorm. And
I just have some catching up to do there in
(16:28):
terms of doing my well. Yeah, which is totally fair, right,
and and he's been great, but so I'm gonna be
a little more focused on that. Plus, our kids are twins,
a boy and girl are twins. They're three. They're old
enough to not just to notice, but like to care
when I'm gone. So I'm I'm looking forward to some
period of time when I'm posting at home able to think.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
But before we do any of that, like, we got.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Thirty eight days of real work, because every day we're here,
we're gonna wish we had it back later on to
get more done, to get more dollars out the door,
to give Morgan policies done.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So we're pushing hard.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I do have to ask about congestion price. And I mean,
you talked about New York and the tunnel that they're building,
but they're saying this congestion price in New York City
could be the guinea pig for the country for different
cities of people driving in. A lot of people are
against it, right, It's what grocries expensive, gas expensive, everything expensive, right,
everything is high. This is just going to be another
thing that you know, citizens Americans have to pay. What's
(17:26):
your thoughts on that, because it's going to hurt a
lot of people.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
So the bottom line is, I've got to This sounds
like a cop out, but it's only because federally, it's
very important to respect that this is a local decision.
So from a federal perspective, they've done everything they need
to do. We went through a process of I think
more than twenty thousand pages of verification to evaluate whether
(17:50):
it's met its legal requirements, and it has. Now it's
still up to the city, the state, the region to
decide if they want to do something. But like from
a Department of Transportation perspective, they've demonstrated that to the
satisfaction of our department. I know that sounds like a
bureaucratic answer, but part of why I'm answering that ways
because I respect the fact that that's a local decision.
What I will say is there's a handful of places
(18:12):
that have done it, but mostly in other places around
the world, London, Singapore, Stockholm. The usual pattern has been
that people there's a lot of controversy about it beforehand.
People in the end have have preferred to have it
after the fact once they're.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Used to it.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
But every city is different.
Speaker 7 (18:34):
I had some questions around you're just thinking of legacy
and how things are being left. There's a lot of
folks who have come in as Secretary Department of Transportation,
and one thing that has remained pretty stagnant is the
utilization of dB so the disadvantage business enterprise. I'm from
Washington State and there was a disparity study done this
(18:56):
year looking at all of these numbers. And I think
the one time you met my dad, like he ran
up on you, was like, hey, Secretary Pete, and he
had questions about this. He's dedicated his life to this,
so it's something that we're really passionate about. But when
you look at how the Federal Highway Administration funds contracts,
only one percent of those contracts are going to black
(19:16):
owned firms, the Federal Transit Authority it's one point zero
and then state funded contracts zero point two percent. And
this is it doesn't matter if it's a Democratic governor
or a Republican governor. This is something that's remained pretty stagnant.
I'm eager to know you know what you all have
done what you all planned to do. I know that
(19:37):
there's a civil rights lead on this, but this has
not changed much and it's tragic. I'm terrified about what's
going to happen because as soon as Donald Trump was elected, Walmart, Starbucks,
everybody's saying, you know, to hell with DEI we can't
afford to do that or be in those positions as
black folks.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah. Right, So this is really important.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
If you look at, for example, the black middle class
in Atlanta, part of how that was built was because
the mayor at the time that the airport was going
up insisted that black owned businesses had a shot at
the work that was going on, and they did, and
whole companies grew out of that. I've been there, talked
to second generation people who are now leading those construction
companies and working on new work at the airport where
(20:18):
their parents had worked on the original rounds. So I've
seen the opportunity to can create. Here's what we've done.
We've boosted our goal for the dollars that directly or
contracted by our department. We had a over twenty percent
goal on SDB Small Disadvantaged Businesses and we beat it.
So we've been able to generate I think we're now
in the billions in terms of doing better than before.
(20:41):
But a lot of those statistics that you've found show
how when the federal dollars go out to the states
or they go out to the communities, those states and
communities may not have the same level of commitment to
making sure that there's that dB participation. We have been
able to do a lot of things to encourage that,
including updating the entire rule, the whole regulatory framework for dbes.
(21:04):
We immediately got sued and right now there's an injunction
that's affecting in certain jurisdictions how much we can pursue
that work. By the way, they've done this for other
departments too. They went after the Small Business Administration's program,
they went after the NBDA, which is part of commerce.
We think that we know that we're on good legal ground,
(21:26):
but we're gonna have to fight for it, and we're
gonna stay committed. But to some of the numbers you're mentioning,
a lot of this does happen closer to home, and
so we've got to set a tone that says, wait
a minute, it's important to create these opportunities locally. By
the way, there's the business side, but also the labor side.
I've seen a lot of I've seen some labor unions
and locals that are doing it right. And you see
(21:48):
people who just would not have had a chance to
get these good paying jobs in the building trades, and
there are things that can be done to help make
sure they get a shot, making sure there's more apprenticesh
so you can earn while you learn, so you don't
have to have money to take time off to be
in the apprenticeship program. For a lot of working women,
I mean working parents in general, but definitely for working women,
(22:09):
it's important to.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Have childcare set up.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
In Pittsburgh, they set up a childcare center at the
construction site of the airport terminal that they're doing, and
it means that more people who just would never have
had a chance to be part of that are part
of that.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So we're being intentional about it.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
But look, the next administration has not shown any signs
of being enthusiastic about this. We're still defending what we've
done in court and I would say we've done a lot,
but we got a long way to go. And what
that means, what that says to me, is there is
going to have to be a lot at the state
and local level to keep the momentum up.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
You know, somebody in the upcoming administration is going to
take credit for something you implemented.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
So what is it we will see from them that's
actually you.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
So there's sixty six thousand projects we got started. If
I went to three projects a day for the rest
of my life, I would not live long enough.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
To see them.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
A thousands of them are complete, but most of them
aren't it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
These things take years.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
So you know when you look at I mean there's
these big signature projects. You know, the Hudson River Tunnel
that might be the biggest project east of the Mississippi
in our lifetimes. There's album is that going to take
very long time. We're sixteen billion into Jesus.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
So it won't even be just you won't even see
that in this administration.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
But some things are will be underway, are underway now,
will be done sooner. The Portal North Bridge, which is
another key key bridge.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It all comes back to New Jersey.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
See, yeah, let's spiral them again.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
I think you know, you can go on down the list.
Big thing that the the High speed rail. You know,
I cut I broke ground on a high speed rail
project from Las Vegas to southern California. They're aiming to
be done by twenty twenty eight. That's an aggressive timeline,
but that's what they think they can do. So all
of that, Yeah, somebody else is going to cut the
ribbon on that. But look, we've already seen people who
(24:05):
voted against the Biden infrastructure package show up and try
to take credit at these things. We're about to see
that at.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
A whole new level.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
And I'm going to be there to remind folks that
some people were with us, even some Republicans were with us,
and a lot of people were against us, and we
were trying to get this money out the door.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Is that trans Atlantic tunnel shit real?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
The New York, the London that can get you between
the cities in an hour anything, it's gonna cost a
nineteen trillion to build.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
I call that more of a concept of a plan. Okay, okay,
it'd be pretty amazing. But yeah, some of those hyper
I mean, it's very exciting to think about. But the
things you have to do, the pressurization, the tunneling, I mean,
you know, kind of hard to hard on today's technology.
Hard to see how that happens.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
Well, speaking of concept of the plan, you are saying
that's what you have for your future. But you did
move to Michigan in twenty twenty. There is a term
limited governor, Big Rich, yes, Gretchen Whitmer, who is of
course not running. And then there is a mayor of
Detroit who's declared his gubernatory run but as an independent.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
So Democrats want you to run for governor of Michigan.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
But have you thought about running for a governor?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I mean, you needn't say anything.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
The first time, he was lost to the.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Word I'm not here to make news on my future.
I honestly haven't you ruled anything. So taken that as
a maybe you, Like I said, people are I've.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Never They say you met about it this week? You
met with people Democrats in Michigan.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
About I meet democrats? All, I'm a Democrat and I
live in Michigan. Like you know, Look, we moved there
because of family. We moved there, We bought a place
there four years ago. Are having our kids closer. Grandparents
has been here. But yeah, look I really care about
this date. I just can't I can't get into campaign
stuff or anything like that.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Is it something you're even interested in You're just gonna
keep it, But have it crossed your mind, like, Hey,
being governor of Michigan.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Would be cool.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Look, I care about the place a lot, and I
told you earlier some of the other things I care about.
There's a lot of ways to work on that. You
can work on that in office, you can work on
that out of office. It's I'm not trying to be cagy.
I just I don't know, and I want to know.
I want to have a lot more of my mind
made up before I go around talking about stuff like
that on the radio.
Speaker 7 (26:35):
If you thought about it, and I think I think
the most important thing is if you just in case
you missed it, you're a very public servant ish and
so even though you're like, oh, I could do this
thing politically and other things, you're you're good at this,
Like this is something that you're good at our well.
My friend Garland is also thinking about a run Gil Chris,
who's fantastic. But there's the one that I think strikes
(26:59):
a course for me is Mike Dugan saying he's going
to run as an independent. There are a lot of
folks who are upset about that because that could throw
the race potentially, which we've seen in larger elections than
just goobernatorials in the past.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Yeah, and look, he's also a phenomenal mayor. We've worked
a lot on a lot of things benefiting Detroit where
we've teamed up. But I just you got to keep
me out of hashtag jail here.
Speaker 7 (27:23):
I can all right, Okay, we don't want to be
in Hatchack jail, even though it's in the state.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
But when leave that alone, I'll let you let that
fly op portund like.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
I'm not a lawyer for that one, Secretary Pete, but
I will ask you.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
So you talked about thirty eight days left.
Speaker 7 (27:38):
It's not just thirty eight days left for you, there's
also thirty eight days left for President Biden. Are there
things that you have before the president that you really
want to have happen for transportation? Are there other things
that you think this administration really needs to get done
before armageddon?
Speaker 5 (27:55):
Yeah? You know, he just asked me for an update.
We've we've been writing up some of the latest on
what we think we can get out the door. There
are a number of grant programs and projects we think
we can make happen. Potentially, still hundreds of projects we
can announce before January twentieth, and anything we can do,
we have to do it right. We can't do it
half asked just to get out the door, so we
have to make sure we're picking the right projects or
(28:15):
being responsible with the money. But yeah, I think we
can do a lot more. And again there's some policies
we can still finalize, just as we have been doing
on everything from you know, worker protection, and it's amazing
how long it takes to get a federal regulation finalized.
And I understand why. A lot of it is that
everybody has to have their say. There's procedural requirements that
(28:37):
you have to go through, and you know, a human
being as to read every comment, even when there's thousands
of comments. So we have to do it right. But
we're working on things to keep up the record we've
had of protecting consumers, protecting workers. But what I already know,
even though we're not done, we will leave America's transportation
(28:58):
systems better than we found them. Fewer people are dying
on our roads. Long way to go, but fewer people
are dying on our roads. I think we've made a
lot of important advances on aviation safety. We've made major
advances on passenger protection, your ability to get a refund
or get your hotel covered or something else if you
get stuck. Airlines are suing over that, by the way, too,
(29:18):
we have to play some defense here, but we've done
that rail workers, and we came in something like less
than ten percent of railroad workers could even get sick leave,
and now that guarantee is available over ninety percent of
railroad workers.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Supply chains.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
You remember the first year they said Christmas was canceled,
all the ships were backed up. You know, we came
in and encountered the biggest set of transportation problems to
hit the country at once since nine to eleven, from
the airlines about to go out of business, to supply
chain you couldn't get toilet paper, all that stuff. Trains,
and every one of those has got better. I can't
(29:55):
say any one of them is one hundred percent fixed,
but every one of them is better, and just as important,
the trajectory is better used to be. When we talked
about our roads, our bridges, the condition of our infrastructure,
every we knew that every year, it was going to
get worse because the backlog was growing faster than we
could do the projects. That was the whole idea of
the infrastructure I call it the Big Deal. That was
(30:15):
the whole idea of the Big Deal was We're not
just gonna keep playing catch up. We're actually going to
change the trajectory. But the nature of my I mean,
the satisfying part about our work is that for the
next few years, I'll be able to look at things
still being built and improved because of what we didn't
because of what President Biden did. But the unsatisfying part
about it is the same the other side of the
same coin, that's it's going to take a while.
Speaker 7 (30:36):
Well, I have one since you used to your talking
generics around the grants. Is there any way that we
can talk to the airlines about these ticket prices because
they're surging and that's.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Crazy, They're crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, Atlanta used to be two hundred, three hundred dollars
now six seven hundred dollars to fly to Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
I'm gonna throw one out that might get John Trump.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
I don't know of their sponsor, American, Like the American Airlines,
tickets are like a thousand dollars more than everybody else's
right now.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Where you're trying to what route you're talking about, because
I'm wist saying, because it does depend like as a category,
it's actually one of the few areas where prices went
down a little bit instead of up with all the inflation.
But that's an average, right, if you're talking about a
certain airline or a certain route, and the biggest thing
that we can do about that is competition, right, I mean,
just that's how it's supposed to work. And the truth is,
(31:25):
even though the airline industry lobby will say, you know,
there's lots of there's all these flights, there's all these airlines,
all these routes, a lot of times for a particular route,
there's maybe two airlines actually serving those particular that particular combination, right,
so it turns into a duopoly. And you know, one
of the big problems we've had in the aviation sector
(31:46):
is we've gone from dozens of airlines to a dozen
airlines to now basically a big four and the low
cost airlines, which everybody's mad at because of the passenger experience,
but also it's really hard for them to compete it's
why we intervened on the merger that was proposed. Was
(32:06):
that blue because having even fewer airlines means you have
even fewer choices, and it means it's less likely you're
going to get a good airfare.
Speaker 7 (32:13):
Well, the one that I'm thinking about, I'm based in Seattle.
The one that I'm thinking about mostly is Seattle to JFK,
and American has a partnership with Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines,
that same flight will be one thousand dollars less than American.
I don't understand that interesting. It's very weird, so something
to look at days. But it's to your point. It's
(32:36):
New York to Atlanta. It's LA to Atlanta very expensive. Yeah,
well Florida flights the almost three thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, I saw you.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Say Trump can't get rid of the new airline refint
rules though you said it's the law Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Yeah, it got put into the FAA bill, So it
would take an Act of Congress to get ready to
try to get.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Rid of the automatic refunds.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
And I would love to be there if anybody in
Congress tries to get rid of that, because that's really important,
and the whole idea there was that not just that
you can get a refund, but you can get a
refund without having to ask, because what was happening was
it was on the books that you could get a
refund and cancelation or some of these situations we had
to ask for. You had to fight for it.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Sometimes an airline.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
Would say, well, we'll give you five thousand miles, and
that sounds pretty good, but if you actually do the math,
that's worth like maybe fifty bucks and you're entitled to
you know, hundreds. So just saying okay, if you want
something different, like if you tell the airline, don't give
me the money back, I'd rather take a rebooking or
don't give me the money back.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
I'd rather take your miles.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Fine, great, but you have to choose. It's opt out
rather than opt in, and if you don't say anything,
you just get your money. I think it's common sense.
I think it's a good policy, and I'm really glad
that Congress packed us up on that and that some
of the other things they could undo, but that they
couldn't undo unless Congress went along with it.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
I know you to h yeah, ea questions I got
one more question, because you know, one thing I always
give you credit for is you are not afraid to
show up to speak to people who.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
You may not agree with.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
And you always come speak to people you know, regardless
of whether it's campaigns either or not. So we always
appreciate that. But to me, that's something you can't teach
like that has to be in you. So where did
that come from? Why aren't you afraid to show up
in spaces A lot of Democrats don't.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
I think it comes from growing up in a place
where lots of people, including people I really like, don't
agree with me, but we're friends and we just talk
about it. And I think you get advised and counseled
not to take any risks when you get into a
job like mine, for very understandable reasons, right because anything
(34:35):
you say gets picked apart. But if you pay too
much attention to that, nothing you say, you don't say
anything interesting. You're not talking like you're talking to somebody
you actually know, and people feel that, they smell that,
and I think younger people especially feel that and smell that,
And so I think it's probably just because of how
it came up.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Any last ones you're good.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
I'm good. I asked about my plane take.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
I'm like, if I can't give anything else one hundred
thirty eighties, I mean, I want to parton for Marylynd
most be as well. We'd love to have your sport
on that. But yeah, I just would like for things
to feel fair, especially now since Donald Trump said always
going to.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
Be hard to increase the price of groceries.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
You let's find out you did say something. Plan is
safe as oh, I think for politicians, do you think that?
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:21):
I mean it doesn't mean you jump on a political
land mine every time you see one.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Do those exist anymore?
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:28):
I think so you still get in big trouble for
saying this or that or I don't know. But to me,
it's okay as long as you're if you're in a
controversy because it's something you actually did or said or believed,
and it's controversial versus like you put a foot wrong,
or you phrase something the wrong way, or somebody twisted
what you had to say. You know, I always wanted
(35:49):
to be held accountable based on results. This is part
of why I got especially fired up during Helene about
the hurricane Helen about the misinformation that was going on,
because it's one thing to to have it back and
forth over something that's actually happening, and it's another if
people aren't even looking at the same reality. So in
terms of what risks people take in politics, look, you
(36:14):
you also tend to take more risks when you're out
of power, and so I think you might see more
creativity from the team that just got beat. That's just
kind of the nature of things. But yeah, I mean,
for my time, it's always better to just say what
you think, explain yourself, and then if people don't like it,
at least they're mad at you over something real instead
(36:34):
of some misunderstanding.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Do you feel like Democrats, Well, we know they are,
But when did the Democrats get so out of touch
with the needs of the American people?
Speaker 1 (36:44):
That'd be a whole other hour. I think.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I think it's I think that's only half fair. So
I think it's I think we are still the ones
who are more connected. If I just think about the
policies of our administration, like they have been all about
making people lives better, everything down to make it easier
to get a hearing aid two thousand dollars cap on
Medicare insulin thirty five dollars insulin. We did that for seniors.
We could done that for everybody if Congressional Republicans hadn't
(37:11):
blocked us. I think we were right on the things
that affect everyday life. But the half way I do
agree with you is I think we got sucked into this,
this kind of vocabulary and this like swirl over what
matters online and what matters in Washington. That meant a
lot of the folks that we get up in the
morning trying to help can't even hear us. Can't even
(37:33):
make sense of what we're saying sometimes. And if if
we can't, if we can't fix that, then it won't
matter what our policies are because nobody will even know
that's right.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
I always say the language of politics is dad.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
That's why there's only a few people, I feel in
the Democratic Party who are able to message what you're
talking about. Like, yes, y'all might have better policies, but
you know how a methage them. You know not how
to promote them, you know how to market them. I
think you want to working on it. Shute is Bright,
Secretary of Pete.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Thanks, well, we have the Secretary of Transportation. We appreciate
you for joining us. We're gonna call you in a
couple of weeks. Off them drones. Keep going, man, we
need it, We need answers.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
It's people to judge.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Wake that ass up Earth in the morning.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
The Breakfast Club.
The Breakfast Club News
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Charlamagne Tha God
DJ Envy
Jess Hilarious
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