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SPEAKER_00 0:00

I I think we've all been trying to make sense of what's just happened here and what I think is fair to say a lurch towards a more progressive left. And I'm curious given where you think you sit among the Democrats, what you think's happened and what you think it means.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Well, good morning. Great to be with you. You know, I think it's important to remember, of course, that the two incumbent Democratic members of Congress who lost, Adriano Espayat and Dan Goldman, were both members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. These are progressive-leaning districts. And listen, my view has always been with respect to primaries, is that it's a way of life in the United States House of Representatives, and it's part of representative democracy. In the House, we stand for re-election every two years. That's it. And we have a two-year employment contract, and the voters have an opportunity to change direction. And often what we've seen in the House of Representatives, every cycle, uh, is that a handful of incumbents have been defeated. It happened in New York City two days ago. I, of course, stood behind my colleagues, Representative Espaillant and Representative Goldman. And I know they're going to finish strong over the next six months.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

But but what does it say about the party? What is by the way, what does it say about New York? We always talk about this as a capitalism of a capital of capitalism. I I would always argue that there was sort of a a tacit agreement within the city that, you know, people might vote for socially liberal policies on the social side, but relatively tri fiscally at least capitalistic on the other. The folks that won are vocal and out there uh about what they think of capitalism and of corporations and of business.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Listen, Richie Torres also won re-election decisively. Grace Meng won re-election decisively. Yvette Clark won re-election decisively. In New York's 17th Congressional District, Kate Conley emerged. She's a patriotic war veteran who served this country ably, and she's gonna go on to defeat Mike Lawler in November. That perhaps is the most important outcome relative to the general election, clearly, that came out of the results in New York. And Michael Lasher, you know, won a competitive four-way race to serve the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side. He, of course, is someone who's close to Jerry Nadler and worked for Michael Bloomberg along with Kathy Hokel.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Look, I I get the argument. Both parties like to say they have a big tent, and maybe there's the extremes on on either side. My question is how are you going to work with some of these folks? I want to just read you. This is from the Wall Street Journal. This is Chavalier, who, as you know, just won, uh, was the leader of the anti-Israel protest at Columbia University after the 2023 Hamas massacre. She was for Hamas, they write. She would called for abolishing police, prisons, and borders. She called Joe Biden, she called Joe Biden a rapist and a war criminal, and said that the U.S. is occupied Native American land and called the country a effing disgrace, and also favors seizing private property. What do you make of that?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Her views are clearly not my views, and that should be obvious to everyone. In terms of what brings Democrats together, listen, we believe that we've got to drive down the high cost of living, we've got to solve this affordability crisis. It's not a hoax. There are far too many people in this country who are working hard, they're playing by the rules, and they can't thrive. In fact, they can barely survive. That's not acceptable in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We think we have a broken health care system that we need to fix. And we certainly have to clean up corruption. The smash and grab program that Donald Trump has been running, the largest pay-to-play scheme in the history of the country, is completely and totally unacceptable. Let me also make clear, I think that the Democratic Party, at its best, the country at its best, believes in a strong floor and no ceiling. In other words, you work hard, you play by the rules in this country, you should be able to live an affordable life, a comfortable life, at minimum, a middle class life. There should be no ceiling, in fact, to the success that you're able to achieve. But at the same period of time, uh there should be a strong floor. That's what the best of America has always been. And that's Social Security, that's Medicare, that's Medicaid, that's the Affordable Care Act, that's veterans' benefits, that's nutritional assistance. The very thing that Republicans are trying to destroy right now.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

I remember last time you were on, and and you said almost the same thing that you just said, and and we all nod. And and I know it takes time from the interview and everything, but but it doesn't really answer the the question that Andrew was at. We all agree with what you just said, but it totally shifted from what we're talking about is whether when the Democratic Party includes someone in that tent that believes these things, I don't think any of those things are going to solve what you just talked about or an answer to any of our problems that you delineate so eloquently. They were saying you're next to about Hakeem Jeffries. You're next, you're next, you're next. You can't you can't think this is this is a positive development in in New York politics, can you? And all they'll just, you know, dems will be dems or something like that. I don't I don't see how you can say that. You need to be able to do that. You need to reject, you need to reject those things, I think.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

First of all, first of all, I've clearly rejected those things. That's number one. Number two, and my record speaks for itself. This is not a dems will be dems situation. Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America right now. Are you kidding me? He just actually detonated a bipartisan housing bill that would help build housing in this country that is affordable for everyday Americans who are drowning and suffocating in Donald Trump and the Republicans' failed economy. He's the president right now. And so I'm happy to talk about primary elections in one of the bluest cities in the country. At the end of the day, listen, our focus is going to be on ending this national nightmare in this country that America is suffering a reckless and costly war of choice that skyrocketed gas prices, the failure to lower costs was dominant. And a whole host of other challenges. Of course not. But there are members, you know, who are just or are on their way, you know, into the Congress right now, who, you know, I have a long track record of having worked with, including people like Brad Lander. And I was on the other side of that race, but who's a hard-working public servant. He served his community in the city council ably. He served the city as the controller of the city of New York. And the community decided to elect Brad Lander. And no, we looked together.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

We've been talking to Brad for years in multiple roles that he's had in these in as a as his civil civil servant for the for the for the city and the state now. My question to you is slightly different. I want to just talk about Iran for a second. You mentioned oil prices, and I think it's actually surprised people, at least some, depending on what political side you're on and other things, uh, just how quickly uh we've seen prices come down. WTI crude this morning is $69.79. And and by the way, I'll raise my hand and say, you know, there was a time when I would talk to different analysts and others that would say, you know what, the price of oil is not going to come down for months before you actually have, or until you have uh not just a ceasefire, but a real deal. What do you think of whatever you think the deal is on the table? What do you think of the fact, I mean, this is the these prices have come down at a level very similar to what the president said they would.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Well, first of all, the price of oil should have never skyrocketed it to begin with. That's number one. Number two, perhaps even more importantly, prior to this reckless and costly war of choice being launched by Donald Trump, the price of gasoline was two dollars and ninety-eight cents. Right now, it is four dollars and twenty cents. That's the average price. Right now, as of today. Everyday Americans are feeling that pain in a way that perhaps doesn't have to be a good thing. There's the national average I came from.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

It's 393 today, the national average. So it's not not 420. We got it up to the 400.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

The national average was 420 as of yesterday. This morning is 393. That's still much higher than the $2.98. And that has an impact on working class Americans, middle class Americans. But that's only part of the puzzle. Housing costs are too high, grocery bills are too high, utility bills are too high, health care costs are too high, child care costs are too high, people are clearly struggling. And that's what public sentiment shows unequivocally. And Donald Trump has failed to solve that challenge, and we are going to address it decisively.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Leader, let me throw uh throw one other ball. Maybe this is a curveball or not, but there's been a uh increasing discussion, especially among Democrats, about taxing the AI universe. And and I'm curious where how you think about that, uh, whether you agree with that. I mean, look, even people like Sam Altman at times have talked about this. There's a whole other bunch of people who are are worried that the taxing artificial intelligence, data centers, and the like tokens uh will slow down uh development and and the sort of the the race we're having with China. Where do you sit on that issue?

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Well, listen, I believe that we've got to be successful in terms of American leadership in the context of the continued development of artificial intelligence. We've got to make sure that we are able to leverage the benefits of this transformational technology for the public good. And we know that there are areas where we can clearly do that. Medical breakthroughs as an example, being able to expand the ability of people to get a high quality education. That's another example, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow their businesses beyond perhaps what they may have thought was possible. That's another example. Those are all areas we should be in.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

What do you think about taking a stake? What do you think about taking a stake in an open AI or an anthropic or a Google? I mean, that that's another one that's been thrown out there recently.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Yeah, I mean, there's been a lot of interesting things that have been thrown out there. Haven't taken a position. We have launched a House Democratic Commission on Artificial Intelligence and the Innovation Economy. It's led by Josh Gottheimer, Val Fushi, and Ted Lu, who himself is an engineer by track practice and a very highly thought-of member of Congress, very thoughtful member of Congress. They're leading an effort to talk to stakeholders, community members, advocacy groups, in order to actually come up with a thoughtful approach to AI policy as we transition from being in the minority to being in the majority, which is where we believe we will be after the November midterm elections. And we'll sort through all of these issues. But fundamentally, the most important thing is making sure that artificial intelligence as a technology changes lives for the better of everyday Americans, working class Americans, middle class Americans, and those who aspire to be part of the middle class. And we are going to have to deal with the job implications as it relates to workforce displacement. That will be a core issue that will be on the agenda for us.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Leader Jeffries, Nixon Five, go Nick's, go New York. Thank you. Always good to see you. We appreciate you engaging with us on so many different topics.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Thank you so much.