Lessons Not Learned? Lanhee Chen Talks to Armstrong & Getty.

Current candidate for the office of California State Controller, Lanhee Chen, takes a break from his campaign to talk about Biden's Build Back Better Bill and Tuesday's big election win in Virginia and how it could impact next years elections.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
See Armstrong and Jetty show little stugg Because what we
must understand in the city, state, and country is that
practical is progressive. That's what that's the progressive is. If
you were just talking about closing only the building of
Riker's Island, that's not progressive. Close the pipeline at eads

(00:23):
Riker's Island. I am practical and I am progressive. We've
allowed that turn to be hijacked. And I'm not going
to allow anyone to tell me that my policies are
not progressive to deal with housing, to deal with coach
tail and these important issues that we are facing. But
that's what I say to my colleges across this country.
We need real issues to solve, real problems to everyday

(00:45):
people in this country. Sit Arriic Adams, who is going
to be the mayor of New York City, and he
ran on law and order and cracking down and adding
to the police, not defunding the police, and uh he
could be a template for Democrats in the same way
that Yo them could be a template for Republicans. Perhaps,
if you're gonna try to extrapolate, maybe we'll talk about

(01:05):
that with long eachamp. But we have breaking news that
I think is important, breaking breaking news, and the breaking news. Donkey,
this is breaking news. Nancy Pelosi has officially announced that
four weeks have paid family and medical leave are being
added back in to the social spending bill, so making

(01:26):
it more progressive. So is this the old switcher rule?
Is she trying to kill it? I have been saying
all day long. I only care about these results last night.
If they kill these trillion dollar turn us into France bills.
If they don't, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really

(01:46):
matter if if the if the if the, if the
grow the government crowd always wins on policy. I don't
care about the individual elections. If only we had someone
we could talk about who's an expert in domestic police
see well, Lan hea Chan is the candidate for California
State Controller of these days. He's on leave from the
Hoover Institution, Director of Domestic Policy Studies at Stanford University.

(02:09):
It's been too long on he how are you hey?
Great to be with you guys again. Thank you. Almost
almost expired from COVID last Friday. I'm I'm vaccinated. I
got the COVID. Was sickest I ever been a moment well,
I'm glad to hear you're on the men, and I
was sorry to here, but I'm glad you're fighting your
way through it. So let's go to that breaking news.

(02:30):
Lon he What do you think Nancy's up to? What
are the prospects of the semi legitimate infrastructure Bill and
the gigantic Build Back Better Bill in your mind? Well,
you know, I think last night, with what happened in
Virginia and what we're seeing, you know, play out in
New Jersey, I think there's a lot of people who
are panicked right now and they're trying to figure out

(02:52):
what does it mean for next year, and in particular
in Congress. You know, the the supposition was always that
Republicans would have an advantage, you know Itdem's first mid
term next year was going to be a good cycle
for Republicans they pick up seats in the House and Senate.
But I think last night really punctuated that and and
part of I think the effort here is I think

(03:12):
Democrats need to figure out what direction their party is
going to go in. Are they going to go toward
increased progressivism, increased wokeism and double down on you know,
in my view, the kinds of things that failed last night,
or are they going to try and turn in the direction.
It seems like the announcement from Pelosi suggests that maybe
they haven't learned those lessons, and they believe that they
need to to to continue to move in in that

(03:35):
progressive direction. But to your guys point, who knows is
this an act of sabotage? Is this something something else?
I really don't know. It's too early to tell. But
last night a lot of lessons to be learned, I
think by both parties. Well, here's here's what bothers me
with that kind of analysis. When I hear and you're
a policy guy, so I know you care about policy.
You've advised campaigns on this sort of stuff. I hear

(03:56):
regularly about how Obama overreached with a bomb Acare and
he was punished in the mid terms. They lost sixties
some seats in the House. Who freaking cares. The Democrats
got what they wanted, put using on, putting us on
the road to universal healthcare, and the same here if
Nancy Polosi gets the turn us into France bills through
who cares? If they get punished next year? They won,

(04:20):
They got all these policies that I hate through. So
isn't it about the policies and not the whether they
get punished afterwards? Yeah, it is about the policies. Except
what I would say in this regard is what will
prevent them from passing those policies over the next several
weeks is the fear of what happens next year. So yes,

(04:41):
in retrospect, you're right. If they get the policy and
they continue to move us in this big government direction,
that is, you know, that's not a good outcome. But
we are still at a point in time now where
things can change, and we're still at a point in
time now where the election results from last night, which
I think we're pretty significant, can still have a pretty

(05:02):
substantial impact on what happens with the policy going forward.
So I think that's the sort of silver lining. But
I agree with you. Look, if if we've already had
six trillion dollars at fiscal stimulus, I don't think people
even realize how much six trillion dollars did. People don't
now now we're talking about adding whatever it is, a
trillion and a half. I mean, at this point, the

(05:23):
fact that we are even sort of saying, oh, only
a trillion and a half. That is mind boggling to me. So,
you know, I think people just need to understand that
what what the best thing that can come out of
last night would be a recognition from a policy perspective
that there will be serious costs for moderate Democrats who
vote for massive additional expansions in government. And I think

(05:46):
that is something that certainly could be a lesson learned
last night, And if it is, I think that'd be
good news. Well you read my mind. I was just
going to bring up the prospects of the dozens and
dozens of moderate Democratic congress people who are up for
election every two years. They have to have take Can
a lesson. They've had to have taken note of what
happened last night in Virginia. But having said that, let's

(06:07):
let's focus for a minute on what happened in Virginia.
Glenn Young Can, the Republican came from a way down
to to beat Terry mccauliffe, longtime fixture in Democrat politics.
I also think he's a soulless piece of garbage. But
that's a that's a little editorializing on. My parents have
no business telling schools out of teacher kids. So you

(06:28):
had him lose having said that, which is one of
the all time great exposures. Uh, you can call it
a gaff, but he exposed himself, uh, and what he
really believes. But you had Republicans also win lieutenant governor
an attorney general in a state which is increasingly solidly blue. Lani,
Why what happened? Well, I mean there's a lot of things.

(06:48):
So first of all, you guys have set the scenes
very well. Virginia is a state that pundits have been saying,
you know, Republicans have no shot in right. This is
a state that went from being a toss up state
into thousand four or even two thousand eight to having uh,
you know, pretty solid democratic majorities as we moved into
the more recent era. And then what you saw last

(07:09):
night was a complete see change. I mean, you saw
a fifteen point flip, for example, amongst suburban women in
their support for Joe Biden in and then just one
year later, guys, it's not even talking about several years.
This is one year later, those voters went dramatically in
favor of Glenn Yunkin and the ability of Yuncan to
compete in the suburbs, the ability to compete with populations.

(07:32):
Uh that that frankly, we have not been competitive within
Virginia for a couple of cycles. I think that is
that that's the biggest point that we need to take
coming out of this, which is a lot of debate
will happen over how much of Virginia is replicable, how
much of what happened last night we could see in
other states. But fundamentally, what young can showed is if
you've got a candidate who's focused on state issues, he

(07:53):
was running for governor, he wasn't talking about national politics.
He was focused on what can he do to make
the lives of Virginia's better. That focus is appealing to
people in the suburbs. It's appealing to women, it's appealing
to constituencies that Republicans have struggled with in recent years.
So in that sense, I think a lot can be
learned because you've got a lot of these states, Colorado,

(08:14):
even California where the suburban slide has been a big
problem for Republicans, and I think young and and Republicans
showed in Virginia that they can win, and that's a
very important message. So many Democrats think Twitter is the
real world, and I hope they continue to think that
because they will lose a lot if they continue to
think twitters were real world. That's what doomed Kamala Harris's campaign,

(08:35):
That's what it is going to doom a lot of people.
But I would say you can replicate it if you
can convince your opponent to say parents should have no
role in the school's teaching of the kids. If you
can get your opponent to say that, it will help
a lot. Although Lane, let me let me give you
the other point of view, which I believe, which is
if you can communicate that the left is so down

(08:58):
with the teachers union and so not down with parents
and kids, you can take that juice and maybe run
with it a bit. Yeah. I mean, look, I think
that the position that Terry mccaulliffe articulated is not that
far from where you know a lot of Democrats, particularly
in blue states, are particularly those running for office, because

(09:19):
the pressures that those candidates face, they believe they have
to bow to those constituencies, even if they're doing so
to the point of absurdity. The notion that parents shouldn't
have any say in what their kids are learning is ludicrous.
It's ludicrous in Virginia, it's ludicrous in California. But that's
the point of view that a lot of these guys

(09:41):
have to take because that's where the modern Democratic Party is.
The point is that the progressive, the far left progressive movement,
a lot of this woke ism we're seeing has co
opted a lot of mainstream quote unquote mainstream Democrats. And
so what TERR McCall have said is not some crazy,

(10:03):
kind of like out of left field thing. It's the
position of the modern day Democratic Party. I think we
have to acknowledge that. And that's why the Democratic Party
is going to have problems in two whether it's in
states like Virginia or Colorado or yeah, even California. I
think they're going to have issues even here too. So
you know, again, we just have to recognize it for

(10:24):
what it is. It is not a position that is
a a a deviant position within the Democratic Party. It
is a mainstream position now within the Democratic Party. Yeah,
like I've said earlier, it only matters to me if
it's if it's enough of a wake up call for
modern Democrats to not allow these bills to pass pass.
I'd like it if neither one of these bills passed.

(10:45):
But you know, Nancy Pelosi is a salty old bag,
my words, not yours. Um what I wonder what she's
up to. What do you think, Joe? What the whole
we're gonna put the the paid leave back in. Joe
Mention has specifically said, no, that's a that's a line
I won't cross. He specifically said that's a red line
for him. And she's putting it back in. I've got

(11:06):
to admit to being mystified. My assumption would be that
she would feel like her true arch nemesis, which is
the far lefties, the squad at all, that they would
have the wind taken out of their sales, and she
was gonna absolutely yank the party moderate towards the moderate
and and get that infrastructure. When I'm mystified by this move, Lona,
he do you have any thoughts? Well? You look in.

(11:28):
Part of it also is while Pelosi may have instincts
to move things back towards the middle of what, she
also realizes that she's stuck between a rock and a
hard place because she needs she needs that far left
progressive base to turn out, and so she's got a
turnout problem as well. We'll have to see what happened.
By the way, the Virginia data is still coming in.
Obviously on turnout, we know Republicans turned out last night.

(11:50):
The question is did Democrats turn out and did the
Democrats that that that mccauliffe needed to win. They clearly
the part of this. Maybe it's now play. I'm not
the directive domestic policy studies anywhere except maybe on this show. Um,
but it just occurred to me. Okay, so the build
back better things gonna go down in flames. I believe that,

(12:12):
and I pray I'm right. But to help future turn out,
it's now all about virtue signaling. So she's adding back
everything that pulls reasonably decently, and it's gonna haul herself
up on the cross. She's gonna scream and yell for
it and demand it and make it clear that the
Democratic Party is trying to get this for you, knowing
it won't pass. Yes, stranger things that happened, Stranger things

(12:36):
have happened. Well, I was expecting, Joe, you're a genius,
but I'll take that right now. You're just flattering me. Lanten,
candidate for California State Controller, Director of Public Policy Studies
at Stanford University. Lannie, we could talk to you all day, Jack,
you got one more. No, appreciate your time, Lani appreciated,

(12:58):
always enjoyed so much. Thanks. Great to be with you guys.
Thank you, you got it. I hadn't gotten to this
quote yet from another Blue check mark. Lefty Republicans are
able to feed their base misinformation directly through their news outlets.
The Democratic Party needs to figure out ways two more
actively court it's base voters on a regular basis. You

(13:21):
are blanking kidding me. Other than all of the legacy media, elementary, middle,
high schools, and colleges, yeah, all of the schooling, all
of the legacy media, Hollywood and pop culture. Other than that, yeah,

(13:42):
Other than that, you've got nothing. It's weird. Probably how
to just just be quiet now, they're so delusional and
so off base. The best thing we can do is
just be quiet. I think you're right. That's the only
thing that makes sense to me. She realizes it's gonna
die now anyway. So let's put the good stuff in

(14:02):
there that the real Wolke loved, you know, so so
that they I'm on board with that. It's no longer
about passing it. It's about signaling to the base. Put
the candy back in. Yeah there interesting, You have any
thoughts text line four five two nine five k f
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