Ro Khanna
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Honored to be back on. You made it big time, huh? You're now like in D.C., inauguration. Jason's a Republican now. Did you know that? No, I remain a moderate. Jason, I'm holding onto you as the Democrat in Silicon Valley. I'm a moderate.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I think crises are times for reform and renewal. And the reality is that this was a huge blow to the establishment of the party. People wanted a more competitive process. They want new voices. They want a new generation of leadership. And now that's going to emerge. And so you're seeing it happening in California with Dan Lurie winning in San Francisco for mayor, Matt Mahan winning in San Jose.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
You're seeing new people in Congress emerging, new governors emerging. And so I think that there's going to be a lot of reflection. One of the things I've said is the Democrats need to spend as much time understanding why many Americans voted for Donald Trump as we do criticizing Donald Trump. And I think you're starting to see that happen.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I think the whole thing has to be about prioritizing the economy, the economic independence of Americans. How are we going to have economic renewal, economic growth in a stagnant working and middle classes? And then let's argue our different visions.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Donald Trump says that the way he's going to turn around Johnstown and Youngstown and Downriver, Michigan is just with a large tax cuts and deregulation. Our view has gotta be that it has to involve technology leaders, business leaders, but also strategic government investments to be able to build new industry there, to be able to credential new folks there, to be able to build a workforce.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
But we have to offer a compelling economic vision. And then an economic vision so people aren't dependent on the denials of private health insurance and so that they have child care. But I think whoever wins the argument that there's going to lead America in the 21st century on the economy and on economic independence is going to win.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I think it has to be government investment that's market sustainable. But you look at Hamilton, you look at Lincoln, and you look at FDR. That is, in my view, what built America.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Well, it's infrastructure, but it's also manufacturing. I mean, I have a bill to build new steel plants in Johnstown, in Ohio. Now, you need the private sector. You need Cleveland Cliffs. You need a private steel company. But if we're going to finance that, the scaling of that, the federal government has to have some role.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And what we ended up having in free market economics is China last week, $1 trillion trade surplus. Now we are at almost a trillion dollar trade deficit. You know the economics well. So that's financed with a capital account surplus. That means all that money is coming into the Wall Street. Wall Street's doing really well.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
The finance sector is doing really well, but it's hollowed out our manufacturing base. It's hollowed out our industrial base. That is free market economics gone too far.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And I'd agree with some of the strategic tariffs. I just don't think that's going to be enough for us to have pill factories here, have the steel factories, aluminum factories to revitalize these areas and to look at what is the investment.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I think we need government partnering with the private sector and on the reg.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I think you need effective government. I think execution matters. And I think there's fair criticisms to say that the execution of the Chips and Science Act, which I helped write, or the IRA wasn't enough. I mean, the money didn't get out fast enough. The bureaucracy in permitting was slow. And if there are ways to make government procurement more competitive, That is good.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I mean, why is it that five primes are dominating the defense procurement system? So Michael Bloomberg had a plan, which I think seems pretty reasonable, have 15 percent of Department of Defense spending for startups and innovative technology as opposed to just going for the five primes. That's regulatory reform. But we also have to look at the fundamental, why is Intel not succeeding?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
We asked Pat Gelsinger, who was asked to leave in Intel, and I said, was it the permitting reform? And he said, no, it's that the capital expenditures to make Wall Street's numbers was very high and there was no procurement.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I'm for nuclear energy. I'm for smart, modular nuclear energy. I'm for looking at how we build nuclear energy here in the United States in a safe way, but in one that I agree that my party has been opposed to largely.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Well, I've gotten criticized because I put out an innocent tweet and I've said that if Musk and Ramaswamy have a good idea, then I want to look at that. And, you know, Musk disrupted the entire Pentagon with SpaceX. I mean, he worked with Ash Carter to do that. The track record's there. The track record is there.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
So if he's going to, and you have all of the progressives like me saying the defense budget is bloated, 56% of spending. We need to figure out how to have more competition. We need to look at the waste that is there. I mean, spending $150,000 on soap dispensers. And so now if Musk is, it really is Boeing, $150,000, 60 minutes, $1,400 for breast pumps. I mean, I think it's outrageous. Yeah.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And so now because Musk is saying, let's look at the Defense Department, you don't want to do it, even though you've been saying to do that for the past five, six years. That's the stuff that drives people crazy. Or I floated, you know, that Bob Iger would be a good person to run next time for mayor of L.A. He's considering it. Did he tell you that when you talked to him?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Yeah, I don't want to talk about what we've talked about privately. I just think he'd be great. But you did ask him. I did ask him. And so now I'm getting attacked for, well, am I for an oligarch? That's literally my Twitter stream. Bob Iger's an oligarch? I said, I want someone who's going to rebuild this place. It would actually be a public service for him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
$18 for popcorn. FDR was one of the wealthiest people, John F. Kennedy. So I think there's got to be common sense. How do we actually help people? That has to be the metric and willingness to work across the aisle on things.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I do. I mean, first of all, it's just horrific. And I'm sure you know people who- I have a couple of friends who lost their homes.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
They lost everything. And I mean, the place is just burned down. It's devastating. And I think it's just a culmination in California of something that's been creeping up, which is governance matters, execution matters, keeping places safe matters, making sure that we're pragmatic matters. And that's why you saw Dan Lori win. That's why you saw Matt Mahan win.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
That's why you've seen sort of reasonable people in district attorneys win. I think that's and you're going to see that in L.A. I think you're going to see that in the governor's race. I do think California is saying regardless of your ideology on issues, we need to be able to govern well. So you have the economy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I think it's reasonable to ask why the brush wasn't cleared outside LA. I got in trouble for asking that. I said, these are legitimate questions. That's not going after people. And I supported Karen Bass in full disclosure against Rich Caruso. I was proud to do it. But if Caruso asked reasonable questions, the whole point of being in governance is you say, OK, the guy had a good point.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
You're disappointed in her performance, the fact that she's out of the country.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I don't know if I would have endorsed him, but I certainly think it's fair to say that people are disappointed in what's what's happened. And I did. I did endorse someone like Iger or others. I think there's I certainly think there needs to be a new mayor.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
She says that she went on the president's... The inauguration of the president. The inauguration.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
If there were actual warnings before, I think she would probably say she should have stayed.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
On vacation, I suppose. No, look, that's a common thing where the president of both parties ask people, mayors, governors, I haven't been asked this in Congress, to represent them at a foreign inauguration. Oh, is that right? Yeah, that's a common thing. And if there weren't the warnings, I don't think that's a big issue. Or she's going to Paris because LA is hosting the Olympics.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
The question is, though, your first priority. And if there were warnings, she should explain why- why she didn't go. And I like her. I think she's a good person. But the question is, what is it going to take going forward?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
But the big point about one of the points about what we need to do differently other than the economics is we've got to also go around the country and say, my party is not going to look down on people who we have different cultural or social viewpoints with.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I think there was this sense of condescension and that if you disagree with someone, somehow our party is morally superior and that's got to stop.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I still think and I will support most likely the Democrat. I mean, whoever the good Democrat is, there are a lot of good Democrats that can run. But, you know, I mean, Arne Schwarzenegger was a Republican. And can a Republican who is a pro-choice and take some of the social issues off the table be competitive? Yeah, I think the Democratic Party would be naive. to take that for granted.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And we need to have thoughtful, strong people on our side run and run, understanding people care about public safety. They want effective government. They want reform. I mean, people like Matt Mahan, who now have had a couple of years and have been effective, are the type of Democrats I think that can win statewide.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
It's terrible. I've been vocal. We had 1.3 million people sign a petition. We've never had that in orders of magnitude saying keep TikTok. Because they like the product or they make a living on it? Yeah. First of all, it's the stories about people who make a living. There was one person, a content creator, her husband cheated on her, abusive marriage. She leaves. She's got four kids.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
two toddlers, and two kids around five, and she's broke, she's in a hotel, she's staying in her best friend's living room for four months, and then she starts telling her story, and now she's making $60,000, $70,000 as a content creator. I could tell you 50 stories like this of people who are actually relying on this for their livelihood. Some people are using it to make rent.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And then you have the issue of free speech and just being able to express it. Now people say, what about China? Well, why don't you pass a broad, broader law that says any interference by a foreign government in algorithms is going to be illegal and criminal?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Yes.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I do. One, I think the United States has a much, much more robust tradition of free speech than in India. And so I think our considerations are different. I also think we have far more capability in making sure that we protect our data and protect any foreign interference in algorithms. Now, President Trump has floated this idea that you have 50 percent U.S. ownership.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
My understanding is 60 percent of the investors already are U.S. investors. I will work with him and Mike Waltz, I know very well. We were co-chairs of the India caucus together in Congress. I will work with him in a bipartisan way to figure out how do we have this app operational.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Well, certainly they would. But the question is, are they can we protect the American people from that happening on this app? We can as long as we have two clear laws, one that the data stays here. By the way, a lot of the data that's going to the China Communist Party is through data brokers. There's no law against that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
So pass a law that all data of Americans, if it goes to the hands of... Which, by the way, there's U.S.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And the irony of it is, going back to the trade deficit, China has got to... The same week China announces a $1 trillion trade deficit, surplus. They're building more drones than us, more ships than us, more steel than us. We're talking about banning this TikTok app. More electricity.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I would be in favor of us pushing for our social media networks to be there just because of free speech. But I would not allow the Chinese Communist Party to be controlling any social media app or having any influence, whether it's on TikTok or whether it's on any other app. I don't want to name another app because I don't want to malign other apps' influence.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
But pass a law that says it's a criminal offense if an executive in this country is found collaborating or overseeing any app that has any influence in the algorithms by the Chinese Communist Party or if our data goes in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. You could have a law while still keeping TikTok operational.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
The scale of TikTok is extraordinary. I'll tell you where we got the politics wrong. I mean, so Donald Trump comes in there and he says, you know what? The Chinese took your jobs. They took your steel jobs. They took your auto jobs. And we're going to have tariffs. And by the way, this TikTok thing, pretty popular app for young people. We're going to keep it. What do we do?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
We do the exact opposite. We have running ads. We don't want tariffs. So we're telling all these folks in the Midwest that we're opposed to the policies that could save some of their jobs. And then we're telling all these young people that we want to ban TikTok.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
At some point, I think one of the things the Democrats need to do is stop listening to the foreign policy blob and the beltway pundits who've got fancy titles and fancy think tanks. And every time we get these letters, 500 groups, 200 groups, I said, who are these groups? These are 200 groups with 130 people. It's like every person has three groups.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And we're listening to them as opposed to listening to the people.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And I think part of what Trump was doing, I mean, and I obviously totally oppose him. I voted for his impeachment twice, but it was sort of like in our world, A-B testing or fast iterations. He put out ideas, he'd get feedback, he iterates it. He may not call it that, but he's just kind of gauging where people are at. Let's talk about one of those ideas.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And do you think it should happen? It shouldn't happen. Whether it's actually going to happen or not, I don't know is the answer. Whether they're going to try. What do you think should happen? I think you should have people who are convicted. First of all, we need a secure border. We need to encourage people to come here through the legal process like my parents did or like so many did.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
When you say encourage, do you say encourage or require? But to do that, we've got to have reform to make that more possible because right now that's a very hard thing to do. And it wasn't as hard, by the way, when my father came in the 1960s, studied engineering, had a green card within months of graduating. So how do we do that?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
But of course, require people to come through the legal process and secure the border. I don't deny that there's been a problem on the border. But and then for those who are criminals here who are convicted, convicted of crimes, fine. Deport, deport people. We all agree on that. Those all seem logical and obvious.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
But but in terms of so let me tell you someone in my district without telling your name and you you tell me what what should happen with this person. She's a she's been in the country. She's undocumented. She came to to see me with a group of people. She's a dental hygienist. Her daughter is going to med school. She's undocumented. She's undocumented.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I am supposed to represent everyone in the district.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Citizenship. We don't ask in terms of their citizenship, in terms of just being a representative of the area. No, I won't.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I don't think that I need to represent their political views. But if they're being abused in terms of the process in some way, and they came to us within the law, we would figure out how they got due process.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Yeah, I mean, that's a more eloquent way of putting it. But let me just tell you about this person. So her daughter is in med school in Southern California. She drives down once a month and drives back because she can't afford a hotel down there. And the reason she can't afford a hotel is she's being underpaid as a dental hygienist for 20 years. Now, do you really think we need to deport her?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And what is that going to do to her daughter? Or can we find a path? Sounds like a great potential American to me.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
So there are two things. One, I agree that if someone who is in a position that is undocumented or even on an H-1B and they are being underpaid, that's wrong. That's why we need reform so that people are being paid appropriately and aren't being employers aren't abusing the process to drive down market wages. But the argument that they're taking American jobs misses a central point.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And that is when you have a immigrant as a worker, yes, you're increasing the labor supply. And if you increase supply, that drives down price or wages. But you're also increasing demand because they're spending a lot of money on things.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Well, I'd say two things. I think my view of why we have lost jobs and stagnation has been the offshoring of so much of our industry and the hollowing out of towns and communities where we just watched as wealth piled up in districts like ours. Not because people in our district stole the wealth from Youngstown or Down River.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
It's just that the wealth was piling up, industry was being offshored, and there was kind of indifference towards it. And if we want real solutions, we need to have economic revitalization instead of blaming the dental hygienist in my district. why, you know, Johnstown or Warren, Ohio are suffering.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
The broader point, though, is that we have a number on green cards and legal immigrants around 1.4 million a year. And then we should debate how do we where which categories do you want to increase it? Why and how do you get people out of the status where they're being underpaid?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I do think that's what's hurting is this is whether you're on an H1 and you're there for years and you're being underpaid. or whether you're undocumented and being underpaid, that's hurts the American worker far more than when- That's such an important point.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
What do you think of that? I think that type of a solution is reasonable and have them be paid well. I mean, this idea that they're being abused, you know, put a floor or have it be prioritized based on the highest wages, because that's a reflective of talent coming in. But, you know, you don't want a situation like now where you're on a H1 for three years, then you get it extended.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
because you apply for a green card to six years. And then while your green card application is in process, it keeps getting extended. So these folks are here 10, 12 years and the abuse of it. And my view is, you know, I think the American people are pretty decent and fair. I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was 95, 98% white. It was a few Indian American families.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
And I grew up with a belief that you could do anything in America. Look at you. And the country trusted me to represent a district with $12 trillion of value of the most economically prosperous place perhaps in the history of humanity. Perhaps. What a meritocracy. Right. And I just think that that is America. And people are upset at the extremes. They're upset at the abuses.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
They're upset that there wasn't a process of the border. But deep down, this country has always been one that embraces democracy. immigration and most immigrants tend to be very patriotic.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I'd say, what does he mean by Americans? You know what I want to do? I'd love to have lunch with him, actually. Me too. You know, maybe have him on All In. It'd be great.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
I'd love to. And, you know, we should all, instead of just reading every tweet, you know, read Lincoln's.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
So what I would ask him about is, without being too pedantic about history, is Lincoln has this speech in 1858 on Independence Day. And the challenge for Lincoln is to say, how is a German-American or a French-American American? Because back then, to be American, you literally had to trace one great-grandparent who fought the Revolutionary War.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
How could you be American if no one in your family fought the Revolutionary War? And Lincoln has this brilliant formulation that he says, you're flesh of the flesh, blood of the blood of the founders if you believe in the Constitution, if you believe in the Declaration of Independence. And so I'd say to Stephen, do you still believe that? How are you defining American?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
No, that's Jimmy Panetta.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
What are we trying to solve? First of all, I'm a person that believes that we need to respect the self-determination of other countries. That's what makes us different than Britain. That makes us different than Rome, America.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Well, nobody's perfect. There you go. There you go. I got to get this guy. He's got my tongue.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
No, but the question is, what interest does Greenland have? They have critical minerals. They have a lot of important resources. And basically, they want to partner economically with us. They're letting us invest. They're letting us develop it. So what do we gain?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
What about Puerto Rico? It's the 51st state. By the way, do you really want... Here's my cautionary tale. I think this could be the dispositive argument. Every time Bernie Sanders ran, you know what he talked about? The politics of Denmark. You really want Greenland as your state? No, I know. We're gonna get to Denmark. They call it getting to Denmark.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Greenland is gonna, that's gonna, those two senators are gonna be Democratic senators. We're gonna have two years of paternity.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Well, there are two. Like, look, every Democrat is like, oh, we want Puerto Rico. Why? Because you're going to get two Democratic senators and congresspeople. But my view is it should be a Puerto Rico self-referendum. If 80, 90 percent want to do it, you'd be down? Yes. If they want to join the United States, because that's a different thing. You know, we basically took that as a territory.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Now let's see what they want to do. I'm all for it. Let's go straight to 60 states.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
No, are you? Why not? You've done such a great job. Well, I've thought about it, Jason. No, not you, Roe. Talk to your family. I love being in Congress. I love representing Silicon Valley. And I have been focused on how do we get innovation, technology, partnering with communities to have economic revitalization. If you were asked, would you consider?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
Am I wrong? I think someone may have floated a rumor.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna
That's just a consider. I'd consider anything. Okay, great. There you go. All right, he'd consider it. Your campaign manager might... I mean, he's good. He's got his moments.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
We have. I mean, I haven't had it one on one, but I've had it with her in a group with the California delegation and with other members of Congress where we said, let's pass this. It was in 2022 when she was still speaker of the House and we didn't get it onto the House floor. Now it hasn't. Look, it's a bipartisan issue that the Republicans haven't brought it.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Democrats haven't brought it. There are about 60 of us on this bill to ban it. And and we we need more people on it.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I think the average person thinks that because people have such a low respect for Congress and they think we're all engaged in some kind of unethical, corrupt conduct.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
But I don't look. Do I think that she's giving Paul Pelosi some inside tip that DeepSeek is going to come out? No, I don't think Nancy Pelosi knows that the Chinese are going to be releasing DeepSeek and that this is why NVIDIA stock is going to fall. And by the way, I think NVIDIA is actually going to do fine because there's also going to be increased demand now with DeepSeek for AI.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And we can get into that. But what I think is that Paul Pelosi is very, very plugged in to the tech network, and he has a lot of insights about technology. He's a tech venture capitalist.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
That is my view. But I will say this, that a lot of people, most people will look at this and say, I don't believe, bro. I think something shady is going on, and that's why we should ban the stock trading.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Of course, who would have thought that ChatGPT would be the first to lose its job to AI, right? So people losing their jobs to ChatGPT. I mean, look, I think DeepSeek is... Not quite where ChatGPT 01 or 03 are or where Google are, but we've got a slight edge. But it should be very concerning that they're being able to do it much cheaper, as President Trump said.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Whether it's as cheap as they say, who knows? You can't ever trust them. I agree with you there. But it is cheaper. So the question is, what do we need to do to win the AI race? And I know David Sachs well. Here's what I'm going to try to propose to him. Two basic things. One, you have Stargate that Trump has announced, which is $500 billion of investment on this compute power.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Why don't we make sure that that compute power that's being built, that we give access to startup companies here for that compute power so that you don't just have open AI and Google and Anthropic looking at assembling talented teams to build new models. You get more startups doing that so that the next great invention doesn't happen in China, but happens here.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Second thing, why not have a Manhattan-like project for the uses of AI in the United States? So set two goals. We want to make sure by the end of Trump's first term, AI will cure five diseases, and we're going to recruit the best talented people to come up with an AI that does that. Or we want to make sure it's going to have better battery technology use of AI.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And those are two things I think that could be bipartisan that could be done so that America wins the AI race.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Well, I think if the president is convening these folks and if we're going to have any federal involvement in Stargate, right, because if it was just all private, we don't need President Trump, then there should be some licensing arrangement for startups who want to use the compute power. They have to compensate OpenAI or whoever else is putting money in for the compute.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
But let's have more companies have access to compute.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I'm not saying the government, but obviously Trump has some role, right? If he doesn't have any role, then what do we need him for? If it was the private sector just coming up with the money on his own. So if he's giving it the imprimatur of the U.S. government, if he's saying this is a good project, if he's going to help with permitting to make sure that these things get built.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
then I think it's reasonable to say this amount of compute power, you've got to make sure that you license it to startups because otherwise you're going to have these monopolies or these big companies having all of the AI, none of it, by the way, open source, and China is going to continue to compete. And I want our competition, the ecosystem, to work here.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
No. Very hard to get sufficient compute power. That's the barrier to entry for a lot of these startups.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I'm saying that the market is working for Google. It's working for OpenAI and Microsoft. But if you're Mark Andreessen and you're saying, look, I want to have startups that also build AI models and some of those models should be open source, you're going to have a very hard time getting the compute power. And open AI and Google may not want to just give it to you voluntarily.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
So my point is let them have some of the compute power, but let there be some compute power that these startups can license so that there can be more models that emerge.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Yeah, they should have some license to some part of the compute power.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
The World War II example is exactly what worked, right? It was the government basically saying, we're going to do this. We're going to partner with the private sector to get it done. But I think there are two different points. One is you can disagree with me on the licensing part. And that, I think, is an open debate.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Should there be some compute power in this country that startups should be able to access or not? My view is there should be. Others could say, no, let it just be all private sector. But there's a second debate, which is, should the government be, as the Biden administration was, as scared of open source models?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Because their concern was, if you have open source models, other countries are going to steal them. And look, it turns out that Maybe other countries, if open source, they're going to build them faster and we may need some open source models here. So we're competing and staying ahead of China. And that, I think, is a debate in Silicon Valley.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
On the one hand, you got the Marc Andreessen's Facebooks and others saying, let's have more open source. On the other hand, you have people saying, no, it's a national security risk. I definitely think there's got to be a space for open source models.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
So Meta, Facebook's got open source by choice. Andreessen's saying let these startups have open source or we can't compete with these models.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Well, I think you're absolutely right to not trust the deep sake AI as a model for the United States or the world. And this is why the AI race matters.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
If China wins the AI race because they're putting out apps that Europe, Latin America, India, Africa are adopting because they just think it's going to tell me in a better, faster way where I should go for vacation or what clothes I should get for my kids, and I don't really care whether it's telling me the truth about global politics, then America has got a real problem.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I rather the apps that people use around the world be American apps. And that's why I'm all for, whether that's OpenAI, whether it's Elon's Grok, whether it's Anthropic or new startups, or if it's open source developed by America, we've got to win.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
That's a different question. We can get into that. No, I don't think we should be banning TikTok. I've been opposed to it, along with Rand Paul, for a couple of reasons. One, I'm just a free speech absolutist. Look, I was one of the people in the Twitter files. My email leaked. to Vijaya at Twitter, who was the general counsel, because Twitter took down Hunter Biden's story on the New York Post.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I had a private email that I said, this was wrong. This is a violation of the First Amendment.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
It was before the election. It was before the election. Before the election. And when Elon bought Twitter, he ordered a release of all the emails, and my email became public that I had spoken out to Twitter.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
That is public. Yeah, if you look at, reach out to Twitter. Can you find the email wrap?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I don't, and I also am campaigning for Joe Biden, and I think he's going to be president, and here I'm saying don't suppress the story about his son to Twitter.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
To Vijaya Gadi. She was the general counsel at Twitter.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
It was leaked. You know how when someone says they're going to leak your emails, you usually dread it?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
He put it out. He said Ro Khanna is great, and he put it out with my personal email. So for two days, I got like 5,000 emails to my account.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
So I'd love for him to try to do that. I don't think there's a chance in hell that China agrees to it because it would mean, in part, the end of communism. I think they would so fear free speech and people expressing their opinions that Xi Jinping would be in real trouble.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
No, we... Let's push for it. I'm saying, though, what could we realistically get? Here's one thing I think Trump could realistically get in in the exchange. And I'm all for him trying to push to get social media in. But how about, you know, while we're talking about banning TikTok, you know, the same week when news came out, China's got a one trillion dollar trade surplus with the United States.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And as you know, because you know business well, that's made up with a capital account surplus. So basically our manufacturers get hit. All our shipbuilding, steel, et cetera, goes to China. They put in the money to Wall Street. Wall Street does fine. But the working and middle class have been suffering.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Donald Trump should say, I want to, by the end of my term, try to get that trade surplus down to zero. Let's have a trade balance. And he should say, if I'm going to allow TikTok, you got to start buying our steel or buying our products or stop selling us the amount you are so that we actually get that trade balance down.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Chatting.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Yeah, I mean, I think it's... Let's see. It's horrible. There are certainly questions. But I was there.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I was just pointing... At the time, I said I didn't think he did anything wrong, but I think that was... Besides the point, I mean, it's a lot of legalese there because they're writing to a lawyer. But basically, I was saying you can't take a New York Post story down about a presidential candidate.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
First of all, I think you'd agree. I don't think Putin should be the arbiter of what constitute legitimate elections. I don't think he's had a legitimate election in his entire life. But I think, look, he's doing what a lot of world leaders are doing, and that is trying to curry favor with the American president. The American president is the most powerful person in the world.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And it seems to me he wants to try to curry favor with Trump to get the terms of Ukraine on his side.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, do I think the election was stolen? No, I think people voted. Do I think that politics is a rough business on both sides where we can go through all of the tricks that the Trump team did, targeting digital ads to tell people not to vote in certain communities? It's a rough business. But I don't believe that the election fundamentally was a stolen election.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Now, going forward, do we want to have clear transparency so these tech companies vote? aren't interfering in elections on either side? Absolutely.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Well, look, in the primary, and this is why I call myself a progressive capitalist, I was a co-chair of Bernie's campaign. And the reason I voted and worked so hard for Bernie against Biden is I thought what the country wanted is a change of the status quo. I don't think we wanted 40-year politicians in the office.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I do think that the Democrats would have been better off had we had— How long is a Sanders politician?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Yeah, but he's a change agent. He's been a change agent his whole time. There's a difference. Sanders has been critiquing the establishment his entire career. I don't disagree. So if you say to me, did the Democratic Party make a mistake? Our mistake was that we did not – understand how upset the American people were at the system.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
We've had people as status quo politicians in our leadership, in our party, and we've got to have more change ages. The one thing that Donald Trump has done is he didn't just break the establishment of the Republican Party. I think he's broken the establishment of the Democratic Party.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And if new leaders emerge from both sides, some of them progressive, some conservative, that's going to be good for the country. Get a new group of people out there with new ideas and independence and mixing it up. I mean, it's ridiculous to me that the Vice President Harris didn't come on shows like this or have a conversation.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I mean, we've got to figure out how we get beyond our talking points and try to be real.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Well, I think the President Obama and Michelle Obama's marriage is perfectly fine. As any politician will tell you, at a certain point, unless your spouse really, really wants to be in the political life, they can be done with showing up to every political event. Here's what I would say. I think Obama himself would say he's desperate to have a new generation of leaders step up.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And my view is the first thing that the first criteria for a Democratic politician should be to say the status quo is not working. The political system is not working. You've got too many people who have been left out in the economy. You've got too much political corruption. And then we've got to have a message on how we're going to take on the political corruption.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And we've got to have a message on the economy. And we've got to say we're going to be better for building wealth for your families.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Let me give you two things.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
One is getting money, big money out of politics. I mean, if he comes on the side saying that he wants to overturn Citizens United, that he wants to get rid of PAC money and lobbyist money. And by the way, I don't have a holier than thou attitude on this. Kamala Harris had more billionaires supporting her than Donald Trump did.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
So I'm not saying that, oh, somehow the Democratic Party was holier than the Republican Party. But I think that whoever is going to actually fight to get this big money out of politics, that is going to be something that will resonate with people. We'll see if he does it. And the second thing is on the economy. Look, he's out there saying that he wants to bring manufacturing back.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
He wants to bring high-paying jobs back. He wants to bring these jobs back to places like Galesburg, Illinois, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And if he can do it, great. My view is that simply deregulation and tariffs is not going to be enough, that he's going to have to have investment in scaling these factories in these communities. And that's the difference.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
But I don't think the Democratic Party should be afraid to say we want to be the party of reform. We want to be the party of building America. We're the party of innovators. And you know what the great news is? There's no Donald Trump in 2028. I mean, Donald Trump is a unique, phenomenal candidate. And on my side, people who think that he is easily beatable are just are delusional.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
He is a very charismatic candidate. And so what we should do is see, well, what what about the American people? Why did they respond to him? OK, they responded to him because of reform. They respond because they like his aspirational vision. We're going to fill in the details in a better way. And we're going to take that to be the party in 26 and 28.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Yes. OK.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And remember, when I say Democratic Party and you- Where do you see our biggest mess up in the last four years? I'm not disagreeing with you that we made mistakes.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
That's a lot. Let me first say this, that I'm not going to say the Democratic Party is perfect. I'm part of the people calling for reform of the party. Let's start with the cultural issues. I think we have to assure families that they're going to have a say in their kids' education. that it's going to be common sense. And even where I take positions where I may disagree with people.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, we may have a different view on transgender rights, LGBTQ rights. I don't know your positions. We've got to stop coming off like we're better than people or condescending or that we can't have a disagreement with people on social and cultural issues and respect that. And that is something that the Democratic Party needs to change. We've got to become a bigger 10 party.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I think there's going to be a new generation that does that on the economy. Look, I will defend two points of what Biden achieved. He got insulin to thirty five dollars. And that was a huge win with the drug companies. And he had manufacturing investment increase over compared to Trump. Now, Trump's going to get four years of the economy. He's got the House. He's got the Senate.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
He's got the Supreme Court. And the American people are going to get to see. Is he really going to have a manufacturing renaissance in places across America? I wish him luck. Let's see. Is he going to raise the minimum wage? Is he going to do something so health insurance companies aren't denying people for prescription coverage?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Is he going to negotiate to bring down the costs of prescription drugs? Is he going to have a solution to child care? He said he wants to do something. He's going to have two years before the midterms to have his record and four years.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And if the economy is humming, if he's gotten all this manufacturing back and wages are up and income inequality is coming down, he's going to be hard to beat or his successor is going to be hard to beat.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
But if he doesn't deliver that, and I think it's going to be hard for him to deliver that just with tax breaks and tariffs, then there's going to be an opening for the Democrats to say, we've got to raise wages. We've got to make more investments in these communities.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
We've got to have health insurers not denying your coverage and have a populist economic message with a respect on some of the cultural issues and an acknowledgment that we've been too judgmental as a party. The final point. California has new leaders coming up. Matt Mahan, San Jose, common sense, public safety. Dan Lurie in San Francisco, common sense, public safety.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
New district attorneys being elected. I think that we've got a problem when you've got a governance in California that has not been effective on a number of issues. There's no denying that. But these new generation leaders, Rod Solwan and Fremont, are going to help bring California to a place of governance where people are going to say, OK, they get they heard the voters. They heard the voters.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I think you're absolutely right, first of all, that we have lost men, young men. I mean, the data shows it anecdotally. I was with a 27-year-old in my district today who said he liked me, he liked Fetterman, he liked Bernie, but he just thought that...
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
He couldn't vote for the Democratic Party in the way it was because it's not speaking to a lot of young guys who, by the way, these were college graduates who are struggling to get a job right now and feel like we don't see them. One of the things I said when we had the whole Democratic convention.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I said, if you're a steel worker in Pennsylvania, if you're an auto worker in Michigan in your 40s or 50s, if you're a manufacturer in Ohio, do you see yourself at the DNC? Do you see anyone out there who's really fighting for you?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Now, I'll tell you what we can't do and what's not going to do it, having people go and pretend to hunt, having people, you know, go play Madden football, having people be like, oh, yeah, you know, here's what the – just talk about the Eagles. As if men are that dumb. Yeah, fine, you can talk about the Eagles. They don't need you to be fake. What will work? What works for me?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I say I represent the wealthiest place in the world. I know how to build wealth for the future. You want to talk about drilling for royal or manifest destiny and try to be Alexander the Great, you know, That's not how you build wealth in the 21st century. You know who knows how to build wealth? Elon knows how to build wealth. Technology leaders want to know how to build wealth.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I want to see the Democratic Party figure out how we're going to have that technology and wealth generation work for you. And if we can become the party that says we understand the future of wealth generation and we're going to give young people, men and women, but men also want to build wealth, the opportunity to do that, that's our best shot of coming back.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
But if we can't win on the economy and being better for the future of young men, then we're not going to win.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
First of all, let me thank you for what you're doing for California. I just got to say that as a Californian for the fires. I appreciate that. Anytime. Look, the Democratic Party stands for reform. Part of the problem was in the election, we became the party of the status quo. But we are the party that says we're going to ban stock trading. AOC has put out a bill. I put out a platform on it.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Let me give my broader take and then answer the specifics on the bill. There's no dispute that someone who is a criminal on sex offenses, rape, murder, violent robbery should be deported if they're convicted of a crime. I voted on H.R. 30 where the recently this week it was a Nancy Mace bill which said if someone is convicted of sexual offenses, they should be deported. I voted yes on that.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Mike, at the same time, and this is where we may disagree, you know, look, in my district, I was just back home, there are people who are afraid, who are undocumented, and their kids are going to school. There's someone who is a Vietnamese-American woman. She has a business that provides food for services, employs 10 people. She's afraid that she may get deported.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
There was a guy from Guatemala who's a handyman. at a apartment building. He's actually legal. He's concerned about what's going to happen to his papers. So there's a fear.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
My view is that most Americans want the criminals out, but they do not want the mass deportation of people who've been here for many years, even if they came here undocumented, if they're law abiding and if they're paying taxes.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
So on the Lake and Raleigh Act, the issue was that it wasn't conviction. If you had just changed it on conviction, I would have voted for it. I still would if they introduced something that says conviction.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
My concern on Lake and Raleigh is it said if you have an arrest, if you have a suspicion that someone has done something wrong, and we have a history in this country going all the way back to Sacco and Vincente of people who are immigrants being wrongly accused, the 14th Amendment says in the Constitution – It says no person, it doesn't say no citizen, it doesn't say no legal American.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Come on, bro. It says no person should be denied life, liberty, or the due process. Oh, my God. You're going to do that? The Constitution.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Now, that's bipartisan. There are also people like Chip Roy and Matt Gaetz and others who have worked on it. We stand for no PAC money, no lobbyist money. At least that's what our party should stand for in politics. We should be for term limits for members of Congress.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, I love your story. It's a patriotic story. It's similar to my parents. My parents didn't flee the kind of Iranian revolution, but my grandfather spent four years in jail alongside Gandhi and India's independence movement. My parents came here legally. My dad has a student visa in Michigan to study engineering. They got a green card that became citizens.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I was born in Philadelphia in 1976, our bicentenary, and an Indian American of Hindu faith goes to be elected to Silicon Valley, arguably the most economically prosperous place in the world. That's an American story. I get that this is the greatest country. I get that coming to America as an immigrant is a huge privilege. It's like winning the lottery.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Being born an American is like winning a lottery. And most immigrants, in my view, are very patriotic. You know, my parents, they said, go work hard, go make good grades, go learn about this country's history. And they want to contribute to this nation.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Now, what I'm saying is that if there are criminals and you you the fact, by the way, is that immigrants don't commit as much crime statistically as people like me were born in the United States. So let's not paint them with a bad broad brush. If there are immigrants who are committing criminal acts and are convicted, deport them. Deport them without question. But why not just give them a trial?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
That's what makes America exceptional. We do that and we can do that without compromising it. I'll give you this point. I think because... There was such a sense in this country that we were too lax on the border, that too many people, 8 million people came in, that there have been all these horrendous, horrific crimes like Lake and Raleigh. People have lost patience.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
They've lost the sense of the grace that they probably had even 10, 15 years ago. And the pendulum has swung in a direction. My hope is that pendulum will swing back to where it was around when George W. Bush was president.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Well, I think the establishment needs to go. I think we got to get a new generation in there. This was a clear rejection of the establishment. We ran as the status quo party. We said everything in America is fine. Donald Trump said, no, it's not. People are hurting. People don't have a fair shake. Their jobs have been offshored. Your industries have been hollowed out.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
That's a fair point. Let me say that in Nancy Pelosi's case, she endorsed against me three times. So I ran against an incumbent in my own party twice. And so I certainly don't owe her a thing. President Obama, I have great respect and admiration for. I don't owe him anything because he's already been a two-term president, but I do respect and admire him. But here's the point.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I think on the economy, I have a new independent vision. On reforming the political process, I do. I'm a son of immigrants, legal immigrants, but I'm a son of immigrants. I have a district where I've got a lot of people who are immigrants as well.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I think fundamentally we can have a secure border, be a country that deports criminals and still have a humanity that says that immigrants can enrich America. That's you know, I it's not that I'm dumb politically. I know that on this position that I may it's probably a 30, 70 or 40, 60 position. But you know what? The American people will respect, you know, that I can come on this show.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
and say where I stand, and I'm going to say the same thing if I go to a progressive show, and they're going to know where I stand on issues. And ultimately, I think one of the reasons Trump won is that people knew where he stood. And it's too many politicians, they'll go, they'll try to bend their message one way or the other. In my case, I'm an open book.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
There are places that I have a 37th position.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
He's a hell of a debater, huh?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And what we have to do as a party is say we're the party that's going to take on political corruption. And we've got a real economic message. Now, I think on the economy and we can get into it. We believe that the fundamental one of the fundamental issues is the massive income inequality in America. You look at my district. You mentioned some of the guys.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Twelve trillion dollars of market value in my district. Twelve trillion dollars. While this country has gone from 50... Just in your district, $12 trillion. You got Apple, Google, Nvidia, Tesla, and a lot of other companies, $12 trillion. Now, you're living in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We're in Ohio, downriver Michigan. Steel left this country. Aluminums left this country.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Well, I agree with you that people want independent voices and they want people who are going to be willing to call out their party. I have done it in certain cases, right? On free speech, I obviously went against my party. When Doge happened, I got criticized because I said – Well, if there's a smart idea for Doge to cut Pentagon spending, then I'm going to work with that.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Or if there's a smart idea to have competition, I'm going to work on that. I've had Trump in this first term signed five of my bills. So I'm going to work on figuring out how to get legislation if it's good for the American people. But I'm not, in my view, going to compromise some of the values, not because of the politics, because that's who I am.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I think the one thing people can smell is a phony. And if you start to say stuff that you don't believe, that's not good. But look, I think it's good for the country to have two strong parties. I'll tell you, one of the problems in California, frankly, is it's become a one party state. And I don't think that's healthy anywhere, Republican or Democrat. I agree.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And so when I say the Democrats, I think the biggest thing we need to do is to have more courage to have just an independent view of what you want. Now, I would add to the risk takers. You may disagree ideologically, but Bernie Sanders had a lot of guts when he went up against the in 2016 and 2020, the establishment of the party. And he was calling for reform within the party.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Shipbuildings left this country. And you see $12 trillion in Ro Khanna's district, and you say, where am I fitting in? So the Democratic Party has a vision of how we're going to actually reindustrialize this country, how we're going to create jobs in places that have been hollowed out, how we're going to make sure people have child care and health care can have the American dream.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Obama, when he ran in 08, I mean, he was he's not a risk taker. You didn't think when he ran against Hillary?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I think where he connected with people is two places on health care. People said this health care system of ours is broken. We're paying all this money. Premiums are going up and there is a better way to be able to do it in terms of covering people and lowering costs. And also he was a huge voice against wars. I mean, he was a huge voice against all of the overseas wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Once a Democratic position. Once a Democratic position can be a Democratic position, yeah. But I think for us, the biggest issue for the Democrats to come back is still going to be on the economy and convincing people that we're the party of building. You know, the thing about Trump's speech that I thought where he was...
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
very effective in the inaugural was when he was talking about the American frontier and the Americans build things and we're going to go to Mars and we're going to unleash the American spirit. That was Kennedy. That was Clinton in some ways that we as Democrats have to be the party that says we're going to go build the economic future in this country.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And in my view, we've got a great opportunity because Silicon Valley still is hugely democratic. We just don't keep upsetting. We're losing them one by one by one. But that's where we can start to build why we can have an economic revitalization.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
You said you're losing who in Silicon Valley? It's gone from probably 90-10 Democratic to now 70-30. Why are they getting so much common sense out there in California?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Where I was born or where I'm from? Where you born? Thailand. Thailand.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, we got to first, I'm not going to defend the administration, previous administration's border policy. I mean, it's obviously the New York Times came out with a report that said eight million people came across without any paperwork. Yeah. Obviously, we made mistakes. I mean, the administration made mistakes and there needed to be more secure border.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Now, they had a tough hand because with Title 42 during covid, it was a total blanket ban on immigration. And the courts said that you can't have Title 42 after covid, but they should have been prepared and there should have been more security in terms of the border. And my view is the Democratic Party going forward is is going to do that.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I think that's how you and if we're going to deport sex offenders and criminals, I'm all for that. My fear is and maybe maybe I'll be proven wrong, but there are genuinely people in this country who are not criminals.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
who are not sex offenders, who did come here illegally in terms of they... It was a crime when they crossed, but they did that 15 years ago, 10 years ago, and they're now paying taxes, and they're part of the community, and they've got kids in school. Some of them are dreamers.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I hope that there can be humanity and compassion for them, not because, oh, we need them to pick the crops, just because we're a humane country. And if people are here for... and where kids are in school. In my view, that there can be a humanity there, but there first has to have the border be secure and get the criminals deported.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I don't know the details on this, but look, the facts as you're presenting them don't look good. But I think we need to know. I think it's perfectly appropriate for Mayorkas to come before Congress and explain why he couldn't get it done. Maybe there is an explanation. But he certainly owes people an explanation on what explains that.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, he had that tweet. You know the tweet I'm talking about? Of course, H-1B visa. The problem was, and I think the H-1B program has been abused, needs reform, though I support it. But the problem was he said something about how immigrant kids come here and work hard. kids who are born here are just watching movies and sports.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And I was thinking about, like, in India, they have Bollywood and cricket. I mean, you know, the criticisms just seemed off-base. Actually, American students compete very, very well in math and science internationally. Our top students do. So I think that tweet really rubbed people the wrong way and, in my view, is probably part of the reason he's being...
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Yeah, I don't know if it's Musk. I think he got a lot of backlash from a lot of people in the MAGA base. But Musk, you know, Musk also, I don't know how many things he's co-led in his life, so it doesn't surprise me that he wants to call the shots. But is it...
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
It would have been Trump, right? At the end of the day, the buck stops with Trump. My sense is that tweet, really. I mean, it got like 80 million views. A lot of the people... And it was wrong. I mean, I think he should have just said, I misspoke about that tweet. Because, look, this is the greatest country... Imagine if you have lived in this country, you've got your parents, grandparents...
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
scaled the cliffs of Normandy, fought Nazism, fought the Cold War, built the coal, built the steel. And then you have someone who is a son of immigrants saying, you know what? The immigrants really know how to do everything. And everyone who was born here, they're quite they're just doing music and athletics. And you say that's kind of ignorant. You know, I mean, look at all the people who
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
sacrifice blood to build America. I mean, who came up with all of the inventions of getting someone to the moon and inventing the drones and inventing GPS?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, I'm a Democrat, so I would have voted for Kamala, but I like Vivek.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I like Vivek. We debated each other in New Hampshire when he was running, and I think he ran a great race. I admire that he's proud of his faith while running and stood up for that. I think he's a very talented guy. We don't agree on things, but... I agree with you that he's probably the front runner into the Ohio race and he's going to have a future. He's not going away.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Ro. Look, I, Trump understands one thing about American politics that the worst, uh, thing you could do is be boring. Now, if you look at FDR, he was on the stage from 1932 to about 1945, 13 years. And Trump has basically been on the American political stage from 2015 till now.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And a lot of his campaign before Elon and others got there was like the 80s reruns, Hulk Hogan and, you know, WWE wrestling. And we're going to drill for oil. And I think he gets that having someone who sends rockets to space gives him a new act. It gives him the sense of the future. And so he knows that he likes hanging around with these folks. And so.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Yeah, Susie Walz is very talented, but I don't think she's going to convince Trump that he doesn't need some of these tech leaders around him. Adam.
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Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
No, I think he is more effective, which is not a good thing for people like me who disagree with a lot of his agenda. And that's why he's formidable. But I've always thought the Democrats have underestimated Trump. I mean, he's obviously unparalleled as a marketer.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, I'm not for stock trading in Congress, and I think you need to ban it. And I have a political reform bill to do that. I've co-sponsored AOC's bill, co-sponsored the bill that Chip Roy introduced, which says, look, you come with money. It's fine to have money and go to Congress. I mean, a lot of people have wealth, but you've got to put it in a trust and not be engaging in trading.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Now, here's... I think what's going on with Pelosi, I mean, you may disagree with me. She has a husband who is a tech investor and a tech venture capitalist, and he's a very, very savvy investor. He makes investments. I don't think he's making investments based on what Congress is doing because I don't think Congress has a clue about technology.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
If Congress was that savvy about technology, we'd actually have smart AI and privacy policy. impropriety, and that's why it should be banned. Tom, what do you think about this?
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Look, I agree that our party needs to change. We got to laugh a little bit more. There are some things that Trump's doing that are very, very serious and dangerous that need to be opposed. But when you go after every single time he's joking or making a comment that gets laughs, then it just looks like you're the Debbie Downers.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
That's where there's an unhealthy obsession, especially because the guy isn't going to run again. I do think it's funny they excluded Barack Obama. I mean, that would have been a heavyweight match if it's Trump versus Obama. And I do think Obama actually would have had a much, much better chance of. beating Trump than Kamala Harris. But I'll say this about the Republican bench.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
I'm not discounting it. But Donald Trump had a unique ability that none of these folks have. And in the connections he had with the African-American community, with the Latino community, in his ability to be comedic, in his charisma, in having been on TV for 15 years. Yeah.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And so what the Democratic Party should be focused on is paying attention to what what drew people to Trump, opposing it where we have to, but actually thinking about the future. If everything is a basic obsession about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump will be the candidate of the past. We got an opportunity to to build for the future. And that's.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
The three places quickly, and we probably don't have the time to disagree with all of them. But I was fine with pardons for some of the people on misdemeanors on January 6th who just roamed into the Capitol, took recordings, left. But there should not have been a pardon for anyone who hit a police officer or who committed property destruction of the Capitol. Two, the pause on federal funding.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
He's paused all federal funding, including cancer research, diabetes research, money to different communities. That's Congress that has the power whether to spend money or not. And in my view, the courts will strike it down. He's fired all the inspector generals. There are a number of areas where I think he's gone – Way too far. But let me end with from my perspective of this one.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
We've got to have more conversations in this country like this where people come on, where you don't agree on everything. But there's got to be some way after a very, very polarized country that we have been since Obama and then Trump, Biden. If after Trump's four years, if we're just going to continue to polarize, that's going to be the biggest advantage for China.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And my thing that I, I hope that, and I appreciate you're having me on is, you know, even if people who listen to me is like, I'm never going to vote for that kind of guy. At least we can figure out how do we treat each other with respect, with patriotism, uh, and figure out how we, uh, start to bring this country together, uh, in, in a way that, uh, It hasn't been.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
And that to me is the biggest challenge actually for the nation.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
Well, that's why I think we should ban the trading. But the bigger corruption issue, I'm not saying there shouldn't be trading, but the bigger corruption issue is the money that these companies are often giving members of Congress in campaign contributions and super PACs. Look at Meta, for example.
PBD Podcast
Selena Gomez Cries, DeepSeek AI, AOC Insider Trading, Trump Tariffs Colombia w/ Ro Khanna | PBD Podast | Ep. 540
and the amount of money they have sunk in to members of Congress and lobbying to kill the Kids Online Safety Act. The Kids Online Safety Act says let's not have kids exposed to eating disorders and suicidal thoughts, and that can't pass. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, can't pass the House, not because of the stock trading, because of the money they're pouring into Congress.
PBD Podcast
Trump Gaza, USAID Waste EXPOSED, FCC Investigates George Soros w/ Chris Cuomo | PBD Podcast | Ep. 545
ABC News is reporting that President Trump plans to eliminate the Department of Education with an executive order. This is an assault on every young American who went to public school like me. This is an assault on every American family who has someone who is disabled and needs the IDEA program to provide education.
PBD Podcast
Trump Gaza, USAID Waste EXPOSED, FCC Investigates George Soros w/ Chris Cuomo | PBD Podcast | Ep. 545
In some capacity, yeah.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I don't know if I'll be successful in breaking through. I often get criticized when I do reach across. But I'll tell you where the approach comes from, the two, my guiding principles. One is substantive. Right. So I think you need a whole of society approach to actually tackle change. economic inequality or the deindustrialization of places.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
You need, of course, people who are gonna be activists and talk about the role of government. You need, in my view, community leaders, you need labor, you need business leaders, you need venture capitalists, you need technology leaders. And that's the only way you're gonna be able to build the new industry, the only way you're gonna be able to have economic revitalization.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And so that approach is not novel. It comes from a view that that's what FDR did in the New Deal. It's what Hamilton did. And so partly what some see as a contradiction, how is it that I'm advocating for a higher minimum wage and Medicare for all and yet want business leaders and technologists, I see as a coalition that is going to actually help achieve the goals of economic revitalization.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
The second thing in Prince William and I is humility. I don't think that I have all the right answers. I think, again, this idea of democratic experimentalism, that you try things, but you know that there are people who may push back. Sometimes I tweet things out. People say, oh, you tweeted it out and you were wrong. I was like, okay, I'm thinking out loud.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I probably shouldn't think out loud as much online, but not every idea I have is the truth. And I have a humility to say, you know, when you test your ideas out, maybe they'll get better.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Well, some of those statements are totally indefensible and atrocious. And he knows I think that. I think I've been quoted as saying sometimes his tweets were like a seventh grader and someone said that's being charitable to seventh graders.
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Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
So I have no problem with people who are criticizing Elon Musk legitimately, criticizing either the things he said, criticize the idea that he spent $200 billion on on an election, and they see that as a symbol of how broken the process is. I mean, I've said we shouldn't have super PACs, and he's kind of been the symbol of that.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Criticized him saying that he should have financial disclosure and transparency. I think that's legitimate. But the biggest criticism, which I've had arguments with Musk about, is my view is that the two biggest successes he had was made possible by the Obama administration. Not just because I worked there, but literally the... President Obama, the Treasury gave him a loan that saved Tesla.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I mean, that was a Treasury loan. And Ash Carter, working for President Obama, allowed him to bid on Lockheed and Boeing's ULA project. It was the Obama administration that disrupted all of that and that allowed it to happen. And he never gives them credit. argued with him that you really were the beneficiary of a lot of government investment.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And why it matters is not for Elon to say it just for Elon, but it has this view that, oh, you can just be an entrepreneur and that's what's fueling America. No, what's fueled America is the combination of very strong, smart, effective government combined with entrepreneurship and unions and labor. And I think he misses that story. of that part. So there are a lot of places I disagree.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
My only point was that I think sometimes our party doesn't realize that there is a role also for entrepreneurs and technologists to play a part in economic revitalization. Now, I don't think that's Doge, it wouldn't be in my top five. If Kamala Harris had won, I would have said, have Elon Musk figure out how Intel can build factories here. But there is a role for business leaders.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
We have. I wrote an op-ed, and we're going to convene a number of Democrats probably in January to talk about what some of those cuts could look like. Let's start with the big buckets in government. The big bucket is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, which I don't think there should be a dime cut. And Trump says there shouldn't be a dime cut, OK?
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
So then you look at the domestic spending that's not mandatory. 56% of that is discretionary defense spending. It's defense that really, if you want to look at making a dent in the federal budget, it should be And there are plenty of places there that we can have reasonable cuts. The F-35 with Lockheed that's gone $200 billion over.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
The sole source contracts that lead to cost overruns by Boeing or others playing $150,000 for soap dispensers. The lack of competitive bidding. And you just have to watch 60 minutes in one of these documentaries or segments to realize what we can cut. And my hope is that we can start there. Now, people who say, well, you're legitimizing Doge.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I mean, Doge is going to exist whether Democrats participate or not. You know, what legitimized Doge was Donald Trump winning the election. And I rather that we focus the attention on places like defense rather than have Elon go try to cut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And if he tries to do that, I'll be the first person to blast him for that.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And, you know, that's one other thing, I guess, with... with Mosk or others. I mean, sometimes just because you're working with someone doesn't mean that you can't criticize them. Just because you're going on their podcast doesn't mean you can't say, you know, that's a really dumb idea. I think we can do both. We don't have to kiss up to someone to engage them.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I think they will welcome our ideas genuinely on the Department of Defense. And there is an opportunity to get competitive bidding. There's an opportunity to disrupt the five primes. There's an opportunity to go after wasteful spending.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
What I'm not confident about is are they gonna listen to me why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is actually saving Americans money on credit card fees and mortgage fees, or are they just gonna say, oh, that's something that Elizabeth Warren put up and so we wanna cut it.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I mean, obviously I'm gonna push back, but I don't think I have more ability to convince Elon Musk that that's a bad idea than any other member of Congress or person in the public. The one thing, John, if I could say that I think that they're wrong about, I had breakfast with Pat Gelsinger, who just was asked to leave as Intel CEO.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And without revealing anything confidential, I said to him, Pat, if you were to rank what... in terms of re-industrialization in America, economic growth, overburdensome regulation had, where would you put it? He said, of course we need to streamline it, but it wouldn't be in my top three or four. I would talk about the need for capital formation.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I would talk about the need for having procurement, buying of the things we make. I would talk about having a talented workforce. I would talk about immigration. And what they have done with Doge is to somehow say that if we could just streamline permitting in America, streamline regulation, that suddenly we were going to have job growth across America. And that's just not true.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
It does worry me because under the Congressional Impoundment Act, if you do not fill a position that Congress has authorized, then you have to give Congress notice. And after 45 days, you have to basically fill that position. So repealing that would allow the executive branch to not spend money that Congress is appropriating. So- Let's just say, why does this matter to people?
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Let's say they decide not to fund Department of Education folks who are giving Title I grants. So if you live in a school district where you have low-income, middle-income, working-class kids, you're not going to get money for the schools. Or you may not get money for your IEP program if your kid has special needs or a disability. You may not be able to get loans like I did to go to college.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
So yes, it worries me. And that shouldn't be the president's power. It should be Congress's power.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I say the Republicans have made the entire Federalist Papers theory not work because the whole Federalist Papers were like, yeah, the Congress is going to look out for their own power. They would never give up power to the president. Why would they do that? And they weren't counting on the modern Republican Party. uh, in, in alliance to Trump. No, I can't say anything for, for sure.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I wish I could tell you that you're going to have enough members of Congress who wouldn't do that. But this is where I do think, uh, the agency of people watching your show matters when, when people mobilize, when they speak out and when they say that why this matters to their lives, uh, then members of Congress, uh, and senators do pay attention. And we blocked a lot of
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
overreach by Trump in the first administration, when he was trying to separate kids from their families, when he was trying to have a blanket Muslim ban, when he was trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And so if people start to say, look, we don't want our kids to lose education or whatever the issue is, and it's not just impoundment as an abstract, then that's our best chance of stopping it.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
That they would put Jamie Raskin in jail or were absent that that they would have investigations of people like Raskin, that they will intimidate dissent in this country, that they would make people fearful of. criticizing the president. Can American democracy survive that? Absolutely. Can Democrats win in 2026 and 2028? Yes.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
But will we have significantly degraded American democracy if that happens? Yes. And the cost is enormous.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I like to have faith that it would prevent the worst cases of miscarriage of justice. But you can do, as you know, John, a lot of harm to people in the process short of someone actually going to jail. You start an investigation, you make someone's life hard, you have them hire lawyers, you have them dragged in front of committees.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And then it's not just destroying a person's life or reputation, the chilling effect that that has to other people to pull punches. And you start to do that to the media. And you start to, you know, now they're thinking of suing Ann Seltzer for a mistake in a poll. I mean, come on, you know, it's so but you do that. And now are people going to say, well, maybe we shouldn't show Trump's
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
approval ratings to be negative. If you start to sue journalists like they did with ABC, well, maybe now we've got to be cautious in the words we use. And that, to me, is the irony for a party that believes in free speech. to be doing that is what's most chilling.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And then on a human level in my district, when I think of the undocumented, I think of someone in my district, without mentioning her name, who's been there 21 years. She's got a daughter who is going to medical school in Southern California. She's a dental hygienist in Northern California.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And she drives every morning once a month down to see her daughter and then drives back up at night because she can't afford a hotel. And the reason she can't afford this is because she's been underpaid because we haven't been able to have a legalized status. But to me, her life is the American dream. And now you're going to come and start to raid folks and deport folks like her.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
That's not the America my parents came to. That's not the America that I grew up in. And I don't think that's America. Is there a concern on the borders? Absolutely. Do we have to keep them secure? Yes. Do we want... Criminals not to be in this country? Yes. But people need to understand the sweeping way they're talking about going after the most vulnerable. And I don't care what the polls say.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Well, John, I actually saw a clip of yours on this that I thought was spot on. I mean, one can have the thought that murder is bad, that there doesn't have to be a but after that, that you can say that there's no justification for taking the life of a father of two people.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And you can also say that for 20 years, people in this country have been talking about a health care system that's broken and that we need to make progress on giving people real health care. And so to me, a lot of the commentary is sort of, is trying to pit one against the other and I don't understand why. Why can't you have both of those thoughts?
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Now you expressed it more succinctly than I did, but that is, I feel like that can be a consensus of Democrats across the spectrum in Congress and the Senate and our governors. And my view is that ultimately, the reason I support Medicare for all is because you're going to lower the administrative costs in the system. You have 2% administrative costs instead of 18%.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Today, you have 1.4 million people who deny claims or accept claims and only 1 million doctors. So a lot of those folks could be now working in other ways in health care to actually deliver health care services instead of denying or not denying claims. And you can negotiate the prices down if you had Medicare, as President Biden started to do with insulin. But you could do it on hospital fees.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
You could do it with drugs. So that's the North Star. Now, how do you get there? I think you get there first by saying, in my view, that private insurance would cover what Medicare would cover if the doctor is prescribing it. Maybe we could get a consensus on that. Maybe we can get some consensus on capping out-of-pocket costs. Maybe we get some consensus on the rate of premium hikes.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
But I think you can have a North Star and then work incrementally for progress towards it.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Well, yes, there's pain and anger, but I think you can say that pain and anger has to be channeled constructively. You know, my politics come from my grandfather. He spent four years in jail as part of Gandhi's independence movement.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
He had this view called Satyagraha, and it was basically that you organize in peaceful protest action that matters, but one that thinks the best of humanity, and that's how you make progress. And that influenced, in part, the Civil Rights Movement. And I think of the Civil Rights, the first Civil Rights Act that was introduced by Senator Humphrey
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And Paul Douglas, a great senator from Illinois in 1950. And you know, when it passes in 1964, it took years of organizing. And that fight, in my view, was a much harder fight than even getting health care for everyone. And that was a fight against vicious racism and segregation. And yet John Lewis wasn't out there saying, celebrating killings.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
In fact, when there would be someone who would be killed in the civil rights movement, the civil rights leaders were the first to say that is antithetical to who we are, because we just don't want to win. We want something better. We want a better civilization. And so my view, and maybe some will say it's naive, is it's fine for the left to be asymmetrically better.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
We're trying to build a better civilization. We're trying to build a better society. We don't have to get in the mud. When they curse, we don't have to curse back. When they are negative, we can say, no, we believe in a better vision for humanity. And we organize and we make progress. And ultimately, I think we're going to get there.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I think you're absolutely right. I mean, look, the people feel that The political class allowed jobs to be offshored. They allowed wealth to pile up in districts like mine, that $12 trillion in Silicon Valley. Their wages have stagnated. Their kids aren't being able to buy a car or a house. Then they see politicians. They say, look at this kind of guy and other ones.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
They're spending so much of their time fundraising. They're part of a system where if you're a lobbyist or someone, you're going to have more access. You've got these billionaires like Elon Musk, and we've got billionaires on our side too that are flooding people's screens. And we really don't matter. The system is broken. The economy is broken. We need real change.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And then I would say there are two There are two different ways you can go.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
You can either go the Donald Trump way, which is just to express all of that grievance and provide what I believe are sloganeering that not only appeal to the worst of us, blame immigrants, blame the trans community, and aren't going to actually reform the political system or actually help create jobs in Galesburg or help someone get health care or help someone get a raise.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
And by the way, they can also appeal to the worst. When has it become fashionable for politicians to curse? Now it's like, oh, to prove our authenticity, you got to curse. You know why politicians didn't curse? It's not like previous presidents didn't curse. It's that they said that in public, they wanted to represent the best, that they wanted to appeal to the highest aspirations.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
So they weren't going to go and talk in public like they would talk at a sports bar. And there was something to that. And I believe that that still should be the Democratic vision, to appeal to something better in America, and only by doing that.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
This is, I think, the Democratic magic, that we can bring together labor and community organizers and business and technologists and actually provide real solutions. I guess that's who I am as a person. So for me, that is authentic. But I think that's also true of a lot of us in the Democratic Party. And we shouldn't force ourselves to be doing things that are mimicking in style the Republicans.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Sherrod was, other than losing the presidency, I was, I mean, saddest with Sherrod losing. Me too, me too. And what the crypto PACs, I mean, we had arguments with them because I've been relatively supportive of Bitcoin and crypto. But what they did in that state was awful, $40 million of spending. And I do think that that made the difference.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
You know, we had great candidates with Alyssa Slotkin and Tammy Bowler and Ruben Gallego. I don't think there's one magic formula, but I think what they would tell you is they really went into the communities. They listened. They showed up. They built trust. built a connection in those communities. And we need to do that in a 50-state strategy for the DNC.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
But I think that our best bet is economic. It's to say in Ohio, OK, look, your jobs have kept going offshore. There's no manufacturing in many of these places. Wages haven't gone up. You don't have health care. We have what I would say is a new economic deal, a real economic revitalization vision that is actually going to give economic opportunity to your kids. And this is you've tried the rest.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
Here's our real solution. And that that to me is our best bet going forward with candidates who are going to be grounded in their communities.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
I don't. I like Ken Martin. I like Ben Wickler. There may be others that emerge. I doubt I'm going to endorse in the process. I think they should play out. But what I'd like to see is their plans on how we're going to increase registration. I mean, the Republicans were out registering us in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Pod Save America
Is Biden Quiet Quitting?
in some of these other states, how they're going to make sure that they're discouraging super PAC money, at least in Democratic primaries, not in a general election, but in the Democratic primaries, and how we're going to get rid of corporate money coming into the DNC, because I don't think we need it. I think we can build without it.